Star Gate

A blood pearl floated in the air. Hao Lianchuan stared nervously at it. He tended to be an even-keeled person, but it was hard to keep his composure when the matter had to do with his future.

Li Hao ignored him. The young man released his internal force and placed both of his hands on Hao Lianchuan’s hands. Internal force traveled through their linkage and began wandering through the deputy director’s arms.

It immediately ran into a surge of fire mysterious power that pushed back against it.

“Director, suppress your energy!”

“Okay okay!” Hao Lianchuan bobbed his head and swiftly tamped his energy down. Although supernaturals could not control their internal energy as easily as martial masters could internal force, his control was decent as a veteran Solar.

Li Hao’s internal force roved through the man’s body with some difficulty. The young man furrowed his brows after a while. The meridians are strong enough, the body is fortified, the bones are nicely dense... but he has a lot of latent injuries.

Indeed, latent injuries.

A variety of large and small cracks covered Hao Lianchuan’s meridians throughout his entire body. Such was the drawback for supernaturals. They improved so quickly and mysterious power was so powerfully offensive that, apart from a handful of powerhouses whose energy had a nurturing effect, most mysterious power attacked both enemy and self.

It was as if one furiously poured water into a wooden barrel that could only hold ten liters of water. If it couldn’t overflow, it would burst the sealed barrel.

The supernatural domain was very dangerous!

This was Li Hao’s first time investigating a supernatural’s physical body. His brows were furrowed tight. These were not good findings. Once supernaturals set foot beyond a certain boundary, they might explode of their own accord.

The supernatural domain... is a dead end, isn’t it? Li Hao sank into deep thought.

Well, that might not necessarily be the case. The Silver Armor of Battle Heaven had said that supernaturals did not have a wide path to walk on. This meant that this field also existed in the ancient civilization.

The ancient civilization possessed innumerable heavyweights that were all terrifyingly powerful. If supernaturals reached a dead-end after arriving at the Solar or Nova level, then this domain’s limits were too low. Silver Armor wouldn’t have mentioned this system in that case. That the soldier knew of it meant that supernaturals ought to have been somewhat famous in the ancient civilization. While the field wasn’t up to par with martial dao, it wouldn’t be too inferior.

Li Hao continued to investigate after noting the numerous hidden injuries. He sent his internal force around the five organs again. Avoiding the red-hot heart that he dared not touch, the young man quickly investigated the other four.

His frown deepened with the second go-around. The other four visceral organs also bore latent injuries. Since Hao Lianchuan was a fire supernatural, he must have first opened the lock of his heart. That would levy immense strain on the organ and summon incredible fire energy out of it. Although the heart had been strengthened, there were... also some injuries lurking within it.

How was this a powerhouse??

Li Hao found himself at a loss for words. These injuries were severe! It was only because none of them acted up that Hao Lianchuan was still a Solar. Once they did, there was nothing but death in store for him.

Are Director Hou and the others martial masters then? Li Hao once more sank into deep thought. If so, the director and the others must have crossed over to the supernatural domain as Dominators and swiftly grown stronger. Then they returned to being martial masters—did that create large numbers of injuries hidden within their body?

Hou Xiaochen’s coughs might not be an act.

There was also that group of feeble men in the conference room. One person coughing was an act, were all of them acting?

No... it might not be!

Li Hao hadn’t had the chance to inspect a supernatural’s body before and didn’t know that there could be so many hidden injuries in one. But if Hou Xiaochen and the others knew how to convert back to martial dao and had already undergone the process, would that explain why they were so strong and at the same time, also constantly plagued with injuries?

Since Southern Fist had said so, that meant he possibly knew the conversion method. There might even be those already attempting the process in the central region! Hou Xiaochen and the others were possibly the vanguard. That would diffuse some of the young man’s confusion. The group of invalids in the conference room was real!

If the five organs and particularly the lungs are damaged, that makes coughing very normal. I might be in the same situation if I was nurturing an aura in my lungs and the organ wasn’t strong enough... Teacher would as well...

Various thoughts popped into his mind. The young man continued his observations. The balance between the five organs had been shattered and the heart was too strong. The heart might explode if this continued, or the other four organs might be crushed by an overly strong heart.

“Li Hao?” Discomfort was creeping in for Hao Lianchuan. “Are you done yet?” It was uncomfortable having internal force travel through his body.

“Take the blood pearl.” Li Hao snapped back to present. “Retract your fire energy and concentrate the blood pearl on your kidneys!”

“What? Why?”

“The kidneys are of water and the heart of fire. Your fire attribute is too strong, let’s see if this can suppress it a bit!”

It was hardly what Hao Lianchuan expected, but he dismissed his skepticism. It wasn’t like he understood any of this, so he could only follow Li Hao’s instructions. The man swiftly swallowed a blood pearl; the power of a scarlet shadow exploded in his body.

Fire energy also surged and began expelling, or even destroying, the energy from the scarlet shadow. Li Hao stared sharply at it. As he expected, the power of the scarlet shadows did not mix with mysterious power. They were even opposed to each other.

Not only that, but energy from the scarlet shadows had elicited a combined reaction from the eight families at the stone door. Just what was this energy? Li Hao wasn’t able to delve more into the topic as he knew too little about it.

“Suppress your fire energy!”

“I can’t...” Hao Lianchuan was resigned. “The power from the blood pearl doesn’t seem to be combining with my mysterious power. It’s being expelled as soon as it enters my body...”

“Give this a try then—withdraw all of your fire energy into the heart!”

Fine then! Hao Lianchuan had no choice but to give it a try. Fire energy originated from the heart. Moments later, he barely succeeded in keeping his energy under control. Meanwhile, Li Hao’s internal force began guiding the energy from the blood pearl into the man’s kidneys.

The energy did not reject becoming part of the body and was quickly absorbed into the kidneys. Li Hao’s internal force couldn’t sense anything beyond that, so he focused his mind in that area. However, that made the hairs rise on the back of Hao Lianchuan’s neck. The young man suddenly seemed savage!

Mind intent!

Indeed, since internal force couldn’t sense anything, Li Hao brought out his mind intent. A ferocious surge of sword intent also exploded, but was quickly retracted in the next moment. He was utilizing the earth sword aura instead of the fire tiger aura.

The earth sword aura enveloped Hao Lianchuan. The deputy director’s scalp crawled with numbness and he opened his mouth to speak a few times, but held it in in the end. Damn, this kid’s terrifying! Once a martial master’s aura formed at Dominator of Thousands, it usually exerted some pressure on a supernatural.

Li Hao’s mind intent probed Hao Lianchuan’s body. Fire energy raged within the man’s heart, as if under threat. Sweat beaded his forehead. “I... You... Don’t do anything rash! I can sense that my fire energy is about to go berserk!”

“Hold on a second!” Li Hao swiftly sent the earth sword aura further in and probed the kidneys. Hao Lianchuan paled as it felt like his waist was about to explode. The young man finally saw something different!

The kidneys were absorbing the blood-colored energy, causing a tiny lock to shimmer in and out of sight within the organ. It was very weak and growing stronger as it took in the energy. Plainly, Hao Lianchuan wasn't able to discover his fifth lock because it was too weak. The fire energy of his heart was also so strong that it suppressed the other organs.

The deputy director’s fifth lock was finally located through Li Hao’s mind intent. The young man quickly retracted his mental energy and internal force. Hao Lianchuan’s fire energy ignited with a roar and set his office on fire in an expulsion of flames. The deputy director ignored the risk of backlash and hurriedly extinguished the flames. He yanked fire energy out of the air and cleared out his office.

“I told you not to do anything brash,” he complained. “Your aura almost killed me!” The kid was too scary!

Li Hao, however, remained quietly looking at Hao Lianchuan. “Take a look inside, Director Hao. Are your kidneys stronger than before?”

“I can’t sense them.” Hao Lianchuan shook his head. “Fire energy cannot be carelessly unleashed within the body. That easily damages the five organs. I am not a martial master and lack your kind of aura. I do not have an internal force that can easily travel throughout myself.”

Supernaturals advanced swiftly, but their mysterious power did not possess nurturing properties. Martial masters progressed slowly, but their internal force fortified their entire body.

“The supernatural path may not be suited for training.” Li Hao thought for a bit. “It’s not that it’s not good, but I feel that if we train in this domain, we should have extremely strong organs to the point where they’re energy incarnate.”

“What?” Hao Lianchuan blinked.

“Supernaturals of a single attribute will see an effect of one very strong organ and four very weak ones. The best way to resolve this issue is to prevent energy from seeping out and turn your organs into a comprehensive whole of energy...”

The young man shook his head at this point. Would that supernatural even be human then?

“The blood pearl did have an effect on you, but there was too little energy within it. It only strengthened the lock in your kidneys by a very little, the lock’s not viable yet.”

“So it really is effective?” That was all that an agitated Hao Lianchuan cared about. “You saw it?”

“Mmhmm.”

“The supernatural lock?”

“Yep. They exist, it’s just a matter of being strong or weak,” Li Hao laughed. “I took a look, you can strengthen yours—it doesn’t necessarily have to be the kidneys. Director Hao has broken the lock of the heart and three of the limbs. You’ve yet to find one more, right?”

“Correct, I haven’t located the one on my left leg even till today.”

“Then strengthen your left leg first.” Li Hao nodded. “Don’t do the five organs yet or you’ll cause a problem. An imbalance in your organs will easily rupture them.

“Novas are those that’ve broken five locks,” the young man suddenly said. “Most of them start with the heart and the four of the limbs, so it’s not hard to reach Nova. What’s hard is what comes after!”

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