Star Gate

Li Hao paged through the books in his memory. Ancient army formations were not limited by numbers and some were decentralized. He knew of one array that was five people to a formation, making for twenty small formations that combined to a larger one of a hundred people.

A formation like this held the advantage of easy coordination and adjustment. If one hundred people were to participate in one large-scale formation, that required all one hundred to practice at the same time. Synchronized coordination and adjustment would be much more difficult.

A decentralized formation also held the advantage that, even if ninety-five people were dead, the remaining five would be unaffected and could assemble their formation all the same.

It looked like Hou Xiaochen did not possess such a formation, so he could only set up the smallest version of one hundred to a formation. In that case, supernaturals were indeed not suited for the Silver Moon Guards. Li Hao, however, happened to know several decentralized formations. He said nothing after thinking about it further.

Let’s wait and see.

......

The car continued driving, dropping Li Hao off at his accommodations when the sky was dark.

Downstairs.

Manager Yu left with the driver after depositing the young man at the foot of the building. She politely declined Li Hao’s invitation to dinner; she just wanted to curse out the boy. Li Hao had invited her to the cafeteria at the Inspectorate’s family accommodations!

Did he even know what he was saying??

Li Hao spoke about the Flaming Phoenix Spear at length again. Manager Yu promised to bring it to him in the morning.

......

Upstairs.

Li Hao had just opened his front door when the one across the way also opened. Hao Lianchuan had returned before him tonight. He looked around furtively and apprehensively addressed the young man, “Li Hao, when I cultivated tonight... I felt... I felt what could be a supernatural lock on my kidneys!”

“That’s good, that means the blood pearls do work,” Li Hao chuckled.

Hao Lianchuan hastily bobbed his head. His eyes reddened and he clenched his jaw, muttering, “I’m prepared to exterminate Red Moon!”

He was about to engage in a wholesale slaughter!

“Wasn’t that what was said all along?”

“That’s different, we were just paying lip service to it before. We wouldn’t have fought them elsewhere if they didn’t come to White Moon City. A place like Flare City shows signs of Red Moon activity as well, we just never made up our minds to completely eliminate them.

“This time, I want the Guards to coordinate with us and I’ll be inviting the Inspectorate and army too. We’ll get rid of Red Moon once and for all!”

He’d well and truly made up his mind. Scarlet shadows! Since blood pearls were so effective, killing Red Moon members meant strengthening himself.

“Do as you see fit, director.” Li Hao didn’t say anything else. The various parties involved had long come to a decision; Hao Lianchuan’s resolve was just being affirmed today.

“Have you visited the Guards?”

“Mmhmm.” Li Hao opened the door and waved Hao Lianchuan in.

“I know a thing or two about them,” Hao Lianchuan said after some thought. “What do you think about the Guards?”

“They’re strong!” Li Hao smiled. “In terms of individual strength, though, likely only two are stronger than you, deputy director. But if you went alone... you’d die ten times over!”

“......” These words weren’t pleasant to the ear, but Hao Lianchuan didn’t seem to mind. He nodded upon further thought. “That’s to be expected. The Guards’ foundations are very likely the ones that belonged to the Skystar Guards. They were already formidable martial masters then, but they might not all be after so many years. A portion of them should still be.”

“Were the Skystar Guards all stationed in Silver Moon?” asked Li Hao.

“Just the majority.” Hao Lianchuan shook his head. “Another portion was in Skystar City. Their three commanders were active in Silver Moon, but the commander-in-chief of the Guards was based in Skystar City.”

“The commander-in-chief?”

“Did you think that the three commanders were the only senior officers in the Skystar Guards? It’d make for an organizational mess as they wouldn’t take orders from each other. The royal family established the Guards, so they naturally had their people supervising. When the Skystar Guards were founded, the three commanders’ identities were shrouded in mystery as they were the actual executors of plans. The commander-in-chief was known by name—a duke of the royal family.

“Current Skystar royalty,” Hao Lianchuan further explained for Li Hao, “has an abundance of royal children and grandchildren apart from the emperor. There are also numerous royal relatives, but they’re all leeches that you don’t need to pay attention to. The nine princes and thirty-six dukes that the royal family conferred titles onto are more worthy of a second look. Some of them guard territories beyond the capital—several of the ninety-nine provinces are under royal control. Otherwise, the nine ministries would’ve wanted to eliminate the royal family altogether.”

Li Hao nodded. Nine princes, thirty-six dukes... He’d heard about this before, but hadn’t known that there’d be so many of them.

Skystar royalty had ruled the world for one hundred and twenty years. Although they’d abdicated eighty years ago, a starving camel was still bigger than a horse. Their foundations were immense. The young man didn’t care—the duke in residence of the Guards had just been a formality. Li Hao didn’t say anything.

Hao Lianchuan hadn’t been able to help himself and ran over to chat up Li Hao. When he was done, he ran off again without mentioning treating Li Hao to dinner. The young man inwardly cursed the deputy director for being so cheap!

......

The second day.

Li Hao reported to work on time, as usual.

The Night Watcher headquarters.

Li Hao glanced upstairs; Hou Xiaochen was gone. Who knew where he’d gone to? The young man couldn’t be bothered. It was normal for these powerhouses to be mysterious and away from their posts day and night.

The fourth floor.

Li Hao made straight for Manager Yu’s office. The woman didn’t seem to want to talk to him after he entered. She waved a flaming red spear into the air; the little sword hidden in Li Hao’s army boots seemed to stir in response.

The young man knew that the little sword possibly wanted to eat the origin weapon! The Flaming Phoenix Spear was very powerful—the Shadow Snake Sword that the little sword had eaten last time was just a gold level weapon. It was said that the spear was a sky rank, or was it an earth rank origin weapon?

Who knew?

Manager Yu’s brows furrowed when she sensed the spear vibrate in her hand. She quickly put it out of her mind and introduced, “This is the Flaming Phoenix Spear! It has recognized a master, so it is the director’s origin weapon. It is durable and quite beyond the reach of ordinary people.

“Hao Lianchuan was able to use it before because of the director’s command and the fact that some consciousness has blossomed in the spear. The director is now lending you the weapon, but hasn’t bestowed upon you the right to use it. Therefore, you’re unable to deploy it. Even if you try, you can only use it as a particularly durable weapon.”

In other words, one wasn’t able to summon the weapon’s spirit if they lacked the special ability to. Li Hao understood, but wasn’t familiar with origin weapons overall.

“Manager Yu, I hear that origin weapons can create supernaturals and produce mysterious power? How do they do that?”

It wasn’t a major secret, so the manager said coldly, “Once an origin weapon’s soul revitalizes, it can absorb energy from the world. Mysterious power exuded from origin weapons lacks a bit of the violent impact that it normally would. It’s most suited for rookies to ascend.

“Mysterious power that is not purposefully produced in an object permeates the world. Regular people are unable to discover or extract it. You’ve seen mysterious power dissipate into nothing once it spreads in the air—it hasn’t vanished from existence, just spread out so much that you cannot detect it. Origin weapons can.”

“Then don’t you have access to limitless energy if you own an origin weapon?” Li Hao asked curiously.

“There’s an efficiency part to this equation,” Manager Yu continued. “Gold level weapons can produce half a cube at most in a day. that’s an insignificant amount! The Flaming Phoenix Spear is much stronger and can produce roughly ten cubes a day, but that’s still not worth mentioning! Do you think three thousand cubes a year is a lot?”

Not at all! A disappointed Li Hao shook his head. That was all there was to it? That was too little! Then the Night Watchers couldn’t rely on the mysterious power from origin weapons to cultivate. Li Hao’s salary alone was one cube a month as a low level commissioner inspector. There were plenty of supernaturals in the Night Watchers. The agency would’ve closed up shop long ago if they relied on just three thousand cubes a year from a single origin weapon.

“This is what applies to an offensive sort of origin weapon,” Manager Yu continued. “Some origin weapons specialize in converting mysterious power—those can produce vast quantities of energy. The three great organizations and central headquarters might possess some of that kind, but we only have the Flaming Phoenix Spear.

“The mysterious power we use now was either gathered in our missions, produced by the Flaming Phoenix Spear, or from the ruins!

“Origin weapons have another function in that they can devour some items in ancient ruins and turn them into mysterious power. Some objects in the ruins contain energy, but we’re unable to use them. This is when origin weapons should devour them...”

“Doesn’t upstairs give us any funds?” wondered Li Hao. Even if Hou Xiaochen wanted to declare independence, he hadn’t so yet. Was the central region really preemptively cutting them off?

“Self-sufficiency! The entire border region and the other four regions are thus. Neither do we need to offer up anything to the central region, though.”

Li Hao nodded. I see. But in that case... the central region’s control over the four will decrease. Why should I listen to you when you don’t give me anything? I wonder what the central region is thinking.

The young man looked at the Flaming Phoenix Spear. It was very quiet with no sign of its soul to be seen. It seemed to be asleep.

“Can we activate it?” Li Hao thought for a bit.

“You’d better not try it, accidents will easily occur!” Manager Yu frowned slightly. The director is out and didn’t give you the right to use it. Once it’s activated, it can easily turn into a weapon attacking you.

“Although you’re not weak, the spear is very strong. It can bring forth the power of a Solar even without someone wielding it.”

So that meant it could be activated.

“How is it activated? Through swallowing mysterious power stones?” Li Hao asked curiously.

“......” Is this guy listening to me or not? Thankfully, he doesn’t seem to have any stones. Manager Yu nodded. “Yes, you can activate the origin weapon if you have fire mysterious power stones, but there’s no need for that, so don’t try to. I recommend you just look at the Flaming Phoenix Spear. The director has used it for many years, so you might be able to comprehend certain things from it and gain something. Don’t try anything else!”

“Understood!” Li Hao chuckled and reached for the weapon. It trembled before he could touch it, as if not wanting to come near the young man.

Manager Yu started. This was the first time the weapon was acting like this! She looked at the young man with a frown. “You...”

“I what?” Li Hao looked blankly back at her, knowing full well that perhaps the spear was sensing Stellaris. Although the little sword was still sealed, the seal seemed to have loosened. That snake from last time had been terrified.

The Flaming Phoenix Spear was asleep, but its spirit had revitalized. Perhaps it could sense what stood in front of it.

Manager Yu couldn’t understand it, why was the weapon acting like this?

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