Star Gate

The Earthturner Sword technique was certainly not weak! But even the same sword method produced varying results when different people practiced it. After a few minutes of stalemate, Li Heng stabbed his opponent’s wrist with his sword and disarmed the man. He was the first mid Sunderer to triumph over his opponent.

Li Heng panted heavily, but smiled brilliantly. His fight had ended; Wu Chao and the Inspectorate martial master were still busy running circles. Li Hao raised an eyebrow at them, finding a fast speed irritating for the first time. All of the other fights were complete—had these two exchanged a single blow?

Wu Chao’s tongue lolled as he panted; he really could run. The late Sunderer chasing him could barely catch his breath and certainly couldn’t catch his opponent. Whenever he stopped to rest, Wu Chao jabbed at him in a sneak attack. It was too tiring to deal with.

After a while, the martial master roared with irritation, “That’s enough!”

“Are you conceding?”

“I’m not, but I’m not fighting you anymore either. There’s still six people if you make it, Wu. One more needs to be eliminated. As fast as you run, there’s going to be someone faster than you!” complained the Inspectorate martial master as he gave up the fight. He was much slower than Wu Chao and would never catch the man. It was impossible to have a fair fight.

Delighted, Wu Chao was ready to be challenged. He’d just continue running. Being fast was nothing to be ashamed of.

The six victors stood in a line; the six vanquished stared at Li Heng and Wu Chao. These two were the weakest. What a pity they only had one chance to issue a challenge, and that only one person could fight either of the two. Conflicted, the six debated what to do. What if all of them chose those two?

No one wanted to consider Hong Qing, Liu Yan, or Hong Hao. Wang Henggang’s nephew Wang Chao was skilled at the Iron Shirt method, making his defenses hard to break. No one thought they could claim an easy victory, which made the two mid Sunderers easy targets.

“It looks like everyone only wants to challenge Wu Chao and Li Heng.” Li Hao smiled at the six. “The other four are assured of their victory then. The two who lost to Wu Chao and Li Heng can step to the side. If you can’t fight even a mid Sunderer, there’s no point in further mounting a challenge. The remaining four of you can battle it out among yourselves. The victor can choose any opponent you want. Having to fight an extra battle is also fair since you lost your first one!”

No one had an opposing opinion; the remaining four hadn’t fought each other yet. The ones who lost to Hong Qing and Liu Yan quickly stepped forward and picked an opponent, commencing their next battle.

Li Hao watched for a while before looking away. These martial masters didn’t possess an aura. Those without an aura simply called upon stronger fist or leg techniques. There wasn’t anything too special about them. That two mid Sunderers could defeat their late Sunderer opponent spoke of their abilities.

After another ten minutes, a profusely sweating Li Heng utilized the Weeping Willow Sword to defeat his opponent. He’d fought two battles in a row against opponents of a higher cultivation level. Exhausted, the taciturn martial master couldn’t say a single word.

Drops of Wu Chao’s sweat hit the ground as he ran and evaded his Sword Sect opponent. The latter was rather incensed as he hacked and slashed his sword around, each stroke more cutting than the last. Regardless of what he tried, he was unable to defeat Wu Chao.

“Brother Chao is pretty fast.” Li Hao hadn’t paid this much attention before, but was now a bit confused. “Did he learn from a famous teacher as well?”

Chen Jian’s Iron Shirt could be found in a lot of practitioners. But famous teachers who commanded body methods were few and far in between. Li Hao had known before that Wu Chao was very fast. He’d run away with Panther and Yun Yao when facing Red Moon supernaturals and still managed to shake them off. Now as the young man took a closer look, he felt that Wu Chao was much faster than regular late Sunderers.

“I didn’t want to mention certain things before,” murmured Liu Long after thinking it over. “But I said that everyone on the team carries some secrets and they’re willing to stay in Silver City for their own reasons. Wu Chao... Wu Chao is Wu Xinghong’s grandson...”

Wu Xinghong?

Li Hao turned over the name, drawing a blank. He looked at Liu Long, who smiled. “You might not know his name. He had the moniker of Flies Over Grass.”

“Oh!” Li Hao understood. “That one! He was well known back in the day. He’s not in the Record of Thirty-Six Heroes only because he wasn’t strong enough. He was number one when it came to body methods, so many people said that he should be named in the record!”

Someone not of the thirty-six, yet hailed as the greatest practitioner of body methods in Silver Moon was certainly a force to contend with. Wu Chao was his grandson?

“What’s Brother Chao doing in the team then?”

“Someone killed Wu Xinghong and the entire Wu family. Rumors say Celestial might’ve done it, that one of their supernaturals wanted the family method. No one knows the details, but the Wus were indeed eliminated.”

“Celestial?” A headache brewed for Li Hao. The team was certainly an interesting gathering. His enemy was Red Moon, Liu Yan’s enemy was Yama, and now Wu Chao’s enemy was Celestial. They’d collected all three great organizations!

“Mmhmm, Celestial possesses many assassins that come and go without a trace. Although they may not have a use for martial body methods, would Celestial not be interested in the foremost body secret art of Silver Moon?” Liu Long shook his head with a sigh. “Wu Chao survived because he wasn’t at home at the time. He came to Silver City after that because we’re a remote location. Your teacher was here then, Wu Chao knew that the Night Watchers were protecting your teacher, so he came for shelter.”

Li Hao understood. He now knew Liu Yan and Wu Chao’s story, leaving only Chen Jian and Yun Yao’s untold. They plainly had their own reasons too, but Li Hao didn’t particularly care. All three great organizations were complete. Having one more or less additional enemy didn’t make a difference.

Wu Chao continued running and jumping as the two conversed. The Sword Sect martial master decided to give up in the end. He couldn’t hit his enemy and Wu Chao was an old colleague of Li Hao and Liu Long. After thinking it over, the man elected to forfeit.

With that, battle was over. Looking at the exhausted Wu Chao and Li Heng, then at the other four, Li Hao announced, “The other four don’t need to be further tested and can be directly made team captains. Do you agree with that, Wu Chao and Li Heng?”

What could they not agree with? The latter two barely had a thought in their heads. Any person who fought them now would easily defeat them. They did feel a bit of reluctance and resignation, however. This meant that one of them would be eliminated.

Li Heng was very nervous because he knew that Wu Chao had come with Liu Long and was Li Hao’s former teammate. If it was up to the leader to choose, he wouldn’t stand much of a chance.

“Leader...” Li Heng quickly said. “I know Ole Wu from before—he runs fast, but I’m not that slow either. Why don’t the two of us form a team? He can be in charge of reconnaissance and I’ll take point in killing enemies. We can be team captain and vice captain. We’ll both share part of the profits from the other eight members of the team...

“We’re a little weaker than the other team captains, but the two of us together don’t make us that weak!”

What a self-righteous spiel when he was just concerned about being eliminated!

Li Hao laughed—you said it all before I had a chance to! Wu Chao huffed and puffed, agreeing after some thought. “Leader, I think it’s a good idea. Although Li Heng possesses only surface level knowledge of the Weeping Willow Sword, his technique is fine enough...”

Li Heng flicked a glance at the man and cursed inwardly. I didn’t get along with this guy when we were both at Silver City. Do you think I want to work with you now?

“Then that’s settled!” Li Hao didn’t want to go through further hassle. “These are our team captains, you can choose your own team members! It’s best if they’re willing to be part of your team. If not, you guys can take turns choosing who’s left!

“It’s better to form a team with some distinguishing characteristics. Either you can attack just as well as you defend, or you focus solely on defense or offense. Don’t try to be everything at the same time or completely overlook a certain capacity. Look at Wu Chao, for instance. What will the others do if your team has all the runners and is always the first out of sight?”

The Demon Hunters roared with amusement.

“Let’s stop here for today and regroup. Complete your teams tonight, we’ll be setting out first thing in the morning!”

Liu Long repressed an eye roll. Wasn’t that too fast? But he knew what Li Hao had in mind—the young man wanted to accomplish something big. He didn’t want to be mired in scuffles and back alley fights.

He caught up to the quickly departing young man and muttered, “The group’s just formed and they’re not familiar with each other. In fact, most of them are strangers to one another. Won’t it be too abrupt to set out first thing tomorrow morning?”

“We need to make best use of time!” Li Hao responded in transmission. “I’m not afraid of danger. Our defenses increase greatly when we wear the black armor. We can iron out the kinks along the way. I’ll pick a few weaklings for them to hone themselves first, I won’t go for someone strong straight off the bat. You trust my judgment, don’t you chief?”

Liu Long nodded, that he did, in this area.

“Then if we run into a strong existence...”

“I’m not afraid of anyone below Nova! If we do run into one, lead the team away from the scene and I’ll hold them off!”

Nova!

This once profound and mysterious cultivation level was run-of-the-mill when Li Hao spoke of it. The young man would stop the enemy if a Nova appeared.

Liu Long didn’t say anything. As strong as the young man was, were they really going to let him stand against a Nova?

“I see,” Liu Long answered in a muffled voice.

Li Hao headed for Golden Spear’s office. He wanted to borrow some mysterious power stones—yes, borrow. He’d return them when he came back. Injuries were inevitable and if he didn’t want to lose people, he needed to ensure ample sword energy. He’d borrow a couple dozen or a hundred for now. When he returned, he’d have the funds to repay his debt.

As for the possibility of exposing sword energy, that didn’t matter either. He could offer another explanation when that happened.

Li Hao nursed certain ambitions at the moment. If he could build up this iteration of the Demon Hunters, he would have ample helpers at his beck and call to come. As convenient as fighting alone was, it was sometimes very time consuming.

He walked out of the office before long. Golden Spear had greeted his request wordlessly, offering thirty stones for fifty suits of armor. If Li Hao couldn’t return the stones, the remaining fifty would also belong to the Guards.

Fifty suits of armor were plainly more valuable than thirty stones. The stones were consumables, the armor was not. Li Hao didn’t think about haggling. He was confident that he would be able to return the riches.

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