Star Gate

“What are you standing around for?? Kill, kill them all! Hurry up!” Li Hao’s decisive killing of the Sunflares vanquished the battle intent in the other Red Moon supernaturals. They focused their efforts on fleeing.

“How dare you ambush Red Moon, Hong Yitang!” one of them yelled. “The Sword Sect will be ended for this!”

Plainly, the Red Moon members had mistaken Li Hao for Hong Yitang!

The young man couldn’t be bothered to respond and stabbed the ground with his sword. Sword aura pulverized supernaturals fleeing through the earth. Up ahead, Hong Qing and the others erupted with full fury. Sword qi criss-crossed through the scene and killed every supernatural seeking to run.

The flight supernaturals in the sky wanted to soar away, but a person landed from above before they had a chance to launch themselves in motion. Liu Long hacked a supernatural to death with one ax stroke and swiftly twirled his weapon across the void, eliminating all of the Darkmoons in the blink of an eye!

Liu Yan and the others also made their moves. The scene was quiet in the quick span of a breath. Heavy panting abounded. Liu Yan cut through the restraints with a casual slash and freed the martial masters that’d been immobilized. More than a dozen people bounded to their feet, their faces beet red with embarrassment. Their expressions were impossible to make out through the armor, but it was no mark of honor to be captured in battle.

“Clean up the battlefield, collect the mysterious power, and send someone to sweep through their base,” Liu Yan instructed calmly. “You have ten minutes before we move out!”

No one said a word, but some folks quickly walked down the passageways in the ground. Others made sure the enemy was dead while more began collecting mysterious power. Everyone was very quiet. If it wasn’t for their armor and impressive leader, they might’ve all been lost.

Li Hao grabbed the metal peak Sunflare and utilized his energy ring to store roughly three hundred cubes of metal mysterious power.

“This goes to our bait, make sure that’s recorded.” He looked at Liu Long.

“Understood!” Liu Long nodded, neither envious nor finding it inappropriate. Although the bait hadn’t done anything, they’d assumed extreme danger. Any slight misstep might’ve resulted in all of their deaths.

......

Not too far away.

Wang Ming and the others stared with dropped jaws. They’d rushed over when they heard the disturbance and were in time to see the battle between the two sides. They witnessed large numbers of supernaturals dying and Sunflares being run through with one sword stroke. Four Sunflares weren’t able to stand against one stroke! Other than Wang Ming, the rest had their hearts in their throat!

“Ole Wang, your... your senior brother is crazy strong!”

“Seriously, he killed those Sunflares with one move! That’s insane!”

“And is the other one Liu Long? Dominators are definitely incredible, he hacked so many flight supernaturals to death...”

“......” They were highly flushed and excited. Almost none of them had seen such a massive battle scene before—more than one hundred combined martial masters and supernaturals had clashed with each other, but it was the supernaturals that were routed.

This kind of incident was very hard to come across in Silver Moon. This trip was well worth it. Being able to watch this battle alone made everything worth it.

A figure flashed in front of their eyes; Li Hao threw an energy ring to Wang Ming. “This is for you, there’s three hundred cubes of metal mysterious power in it. You guys can divide it yourselves among yourselves, it’s your payment for this operation! Keep going. The more powerhouses you attract, the greater the gains, the more you earn! Of course, the more danger associated with the operation. I won’t be able to come so quickly each time and may not make it in time for every encounter. It’s up to you guys if you want to back out!”

The young man vanished after those words.

Three hundred cubes... It wasn’t much to these rich second generations, but they were keyed up all the same. Although each of them wouldn’t receive that much after the distribution was made—just a couple dozen that their families could easily afford—they’d earned this by themselves!

“I... Ole Wang, I’ve earned mysterious power!” Zhou Qin said excitedly.

They’d been highly nervous as they would be partially participating in battle. It was both a thrilling and nerve-wracking idea that there would be so many supernatural powerhouses around. They would’ve been done for if Li Hao and the others had come a bit later.

But now, none of them wanted to leave. There was only excitement and exhilaration in their eyes. It felt so different to earn their own riches!

“This is nothing!” Wang Ming snorted. “Let me tell you guys something, I’ve killed a Solar before!”

“What??”

“It’s true, my senior brother and I did it together. Obviously, don’t tell anyone about this. Remember when someone ambushed my senior brother in an alley? It was that time!” He didn’t speak of Zhang Ting’s matter, but the events of the alley were no secret.

Wang Ming preened with pride. He could finally boast about this! No one would believe him if they hadn’t just seen what’d happened with their own eyes.

“Isn’t my senior brother something?” Wang Ming chuckled. “How long would it take for us to earn three hundred cubes in the Night Watchers? C’mon, let’s go to the next location. It’s dangerous, but if we keep our heads on straight, we can all make it rich tonight and witness even stronger battles!”

Excited beyond belief, the group quickly dismantled their camp and set course for the next location, as loud and proud as they could be along the way.

......

“What are you all depressed about?” Li Hao smiled at the swiftly regathering Demon Hunters. “Didn’t we win? C’mon, let’s find a place to rest for the night and think about the events of the day. Should you reform your teams? This was just a small skirmish. If you’re dejected about what happened today, how will you do greater things later on?”

Hearts shook at his words—Li Hao wasn’t blaming them!

“Let’s go, I’m a rookie too. We can slowly get to know each other. We gained a fair bit tonight, so I hope that we’re all Sunderers by tomorrow!”

They’d reaped a fair deal after killing more than forty supernaturals. Only now did the team experience the thrills of victory. We... killed a lot of Red Moon supernaturals tonight!

The group now had full faith in Li Hao. The young man was so strong, very mysterious, possessed numerous methods up his sleeve, and had found a base in the blink of an eye. As martial masters, they knew how hard it was to locate the three great organizations.

Liu Long watched them silently and glanced at Li Hao, smiling at what he saw. This team wasn’t fully fleshed out yet, but it’d grow stronger through more battles. They would be more coordinated with each other and Li Hao... would gain more prestige. Did the kid really not know any of this, or did he just have unusual methods? How else could one have become part of this team in a more natural way?

Their first battle had come with a lot of war spoils, yet Liu Long knew that this was only the beginning. If Red Moon was unable to swiftly deter them or identify where the Demon Hunters were heading, the organization would only suffer increasing losses.

......

In the wilderness.

A group of martial masters sat on the ground in a valley between two mountains. Everyone was silent. Some meditated cross-legged, others contemplated the battle that’d taken place earlier.

All forty-nine were present and accounted for. Some were injured, however. There were those who’d bore the brunt of mysterious power reverberating through them and those who’d been attacked by Sunflares. Although they hadn’t died, they’d suffered internal injuries all the same. But even so, no one dared complain.

They were all thinking back to the battle and reflecting on various actions. A lot had gone wrong during that skirmish.

Li Hao came back at this time with several red pills in his hand. “These are blood pearls. Only origin weapons can extract them. You might’ve sensed something before—they’re formless and intangible, but you can still sense a little of their presence.

“Our most pressing task isn’t to properly divvy up the spoils, but to use our gains to help everyone swiftly grow stronger. Therefore, the loot will be divided according to need for the moment. We can consider other factors when we are all stronger.”

Twenty-nine pills shot toward certain martial masters in the crowd, landing in front of their recipients. They were all Slayers!

“Swallow these, absorb, and digest them! Tell me if you’re unable to do so fully, I’ll use the Breathing Method of the Five Styles to help you digest them. They’re almost all Darkmoon level blood pearls, which is precisely what you guys need.”

Some were tempted among the twenty-nine, but others were too embarrassed to take the gift.

“Leader, we... did not accomplish anything in this battle,” muttered one of the Slayers. “We were swiftly captured by the enemy when we fought and would be long dead if it wasn’t for the armor.”

“From shame springs valor.” Li Hao nodded. “You did indeed drag us down because you’re too weak! Therefore, I hope you guys can be stronger in the future. It’s a success if you can become Sunderer after devouring one blood pearl, otherwise... you’ll hold us back in even worse ways.”

The group said nothing more. Someone picked up their blood pearl and placed it by their mouth. The visor parted to let the blood pearl pass through. After this precedent was set, everyone else followed suit. The Sunderers watched them silently.

“You can reform your teams tonight,” Li Hao continued. “Don’t change them anymore after finalizing them. I’ll teach you an army formation after you reconvene. I trust that we all understand now that there isn’t necessarily always strength in numbers. Coordination is vital.

“If we wish for the combined whole to be stronger, for one plus one to be greater than two, then we might throw ourselves forward as a mob. That, however, is the tactic of street thugs. We are not street thugs.”

“Leader, can the smaller teams use army formations as well?” asked Hong Qing.

“Of course!”

Hong Qing was skeptical, but didn’t say anything. There were only ten people in each small team. A formation for ten... She’d spoken with some martial masters over the past two days. The Guards did not have any formations staffed by only ten people. The lowest number required was one hundred.

While the Sword Sect possessed some formations, they were just for support purposes. True army formations went far beyond support. Were those the type that Li Hao meant?

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