Star Gate

Chapter 132: The Commonalities of Martial Masters (IV)

Li Hao never suspected his teacher’s intentions and Yuan Shuo treated the young man as his own son. Such was the meaning of a direct lineal disciple and the final disciple. Meanwhile, Liu Long valued relationships more.

This meant that Yuan Shuo seemed more benevolent and congenial on the surface while Yuan Shuo was more coldly aloof. Thus, most people’s first impressions were that Liu Long was harder to approach and more eccentric.

Li Hao suddenly grinned. Sometimes, it was quite interesting to see through to the true nature of things. Liu Yan wasn’t as ardent as she seemed, Liu Long wasn’t as remote, his teacher wasn’t as pleasant, and he wasn’t as naive and simple.

Ah, humans!

“Then... I congratulate us in advance, chief!” Li Hao left with a smile. Everyone was different, but one thing they were similar in was that they were all extremely decisive and acted without hesitation. If they said they would kill someone, then they would kill someone!

Liu Long couldn’t even be bothered to conduct an investigation. There was no point to that. The confirmation of such powerhouses existing was the best evidence. Kill first, then talk!

That was their commonality.

As Li Hao walked out of the office, he mused over one question—what else should I do for this operation?

He wasn’t strong enough to join the fight against the Solar or Sunflares. He would just add to the team’s troubles instead! Sniping a target out in the wild was doable, but he lacked the qualifications to kill these people.

However, Li Hao wished—or craved—to do something.

“What can I do?” The young man thought of something after a while. He pinched the jade sword around his neck; this was his greatest source of confidence in the days to come. He could heal his teacher or Liu Long in a timely manner if they were hurt. If he stabbed his heart at a critical moment, would it explode with greater power now that he was a Sunderer?

Would it be stronger after it was unsealed?

All of this was unknown, but perhaps it could be tried!

He could try to unseal the sword ahead of time—it might bring him greater aid. If he was stronger and surprised the enemy with a blow at a crucial moment, that might result in unexpected positive effects!

An innocent smile blossomed on Li Hao’s face. The smile persisted when he ran into Li Meng and Hu Hao along the way—a very simple and pure smile!

The two supernaturals were too embarrassed to greet the young man, but they smiled at him when they thought of how he was their little junior brother. They’d originally felt that Li Hao lacked sufficient qualification to be their superior, but they felt better after seeing such a sincere smile directed at them. Perhaps this was better, they were all part of the same big family. That made Li Hao better than that Liu Yan.

......

Silver City continued to be quiet and peaceful. No one fathomed that three people had so decisively and resolutely made the decision to start a slaughter. Qiao Feilong was even more unaware that the Li Hao who’d shown him a friendly face that afternoon and accepted a hefty present would be discussing how to kill him by the end of the day.

......

In an even further direction.

White Moon City.

Hao Lianchuan met several people in secret to issue severe warnings.

“No one shall instigate trouble in Silver City before the excavation! I’m sure that everyone understands how important these ruins are. The Night Watchers are willing to share them with you because we wish to peacefully resolve these problems! But if anyone dares create problems in Silver City or Silver Moon during this time, we will show them no mercy!”

Various powerhouses standing in the surroundings expressed their standing on the matter, including troublemaker Red Moon from a while back.

“Don’t worry! Everything can wait until the end of the excavation!” declared their representative with cold arrogance. Their organization would not brashly take action now, for fear of missing out on the expedition to the ruins.

As for the Night Watchers... no one felt that they would be an instigator. Silver City lacked the requisite strength; it was the same case for the Night Watchers here. The agency’s mission as a whole was to uphold order. Many times, the decrepit Night Watchers only passively responded to events.

“That would be for the best!” Hao Lianchuan furrowed his brows. “Whether it’s the war in the central region or its negotiations, none of it affects our partnership here! Silver Moon does not rank high among the list of provinces and it does not hold any advantages. We hope to raise our overall profile through this cooperation!”

“Of course!” assented a powerhouse with a hellish laugh. “Don’t worry, Director Hao, we won’t cause trouble without reason. Not to mention, Red Moon’s behind Silver City, not us Yama. Director Hao has nothing to worry about from us!”

“Hah!” sneered the Red Moon delegation.

“I don’t care what you guys get up to,” Director Hao couldn’t be bothered with their bickering. “This is a warning. The Night Watchers may not be able to overturn you, but no one will be sleeping through the night if we truly bring out our full force!”

With that, Hao Lianchuan disappeared on the spot, a little more at ease. Silver City should be fine in the short term after this warning. Everyone still wanted Yuan Shuo to lead the expedition. Therefore, Li Hao should be safe during this period of time.

I’ve done my best... Li Hao should come to White Moon after the excavation is over. We can guarantee his safety here. Hao Lianchuan smiled. As for the possibility of Li Hao and the others stirring up trouble, the possibility never occurred to him.

......

Silver City.

Peace reigned over the land.

The rainy season was over and consecutive days of rain finally abated. It was hot again.

Joyous Heaven Residences.

This was where Li Hao’s current residence was located. The neighborhood was small and home to affluent citizens. There were only so many denizens and a fantastic coverage of greenery. It made for much purer air in the morning.

Li Hao ran through a boxing technique early in the morning. The experience was entirely different and so very comfortable in a spacious environment. His closest neighbor was several hundred meters away. No one would hear him if the disturbance wasn’t great.

The New Book of Five Styles!

These days, Li Hao practiced the Five Styles on the outside and the Nine Forged Force inside. The Five Styles were techniques, the Nine Forged Force was an internal method—the layering of internal force. The Breathing Method of the Five Styles was the foundation from which internal force was born.

Currently, Li Hao experimented with the transition between breathing methods. Martial masters seemed less than supernaturals in this regard. Due to their late development, there was only one absorption method for supernaturals—the Energy Induction Method. There were certain variations to it, but they didn’t need different breathing methods.

One method was also sufficient for all supernaturals.

Meanwhile, internal force required a different breathing method for each technique. It was much more complicated!

Li Hao was attempting to switch between the breathing methods for the Five Styles and Nine Forged Force, preventing being limited to only one in critical moments. Being able to use only the Nine Forged Force to layer his internal force and unable to use the Five Styles for his techniques was a detriment to his battle strength.

“Is there really no fundamental method to them all?” Li Hao contemplated as he ran through a boxing routine.

His punches layered upon each other like the waves. His legs tensed and he pushed off, but stumbled on his way to leaping into the sky. The fowl style operated sluggishly—a problem resulting from different breathing methods.

Li Hao swiftly switched to the appropriate breathing style and deployed Black Tiger Heart Gouge. However, the layered internal force in his body began drifting apart. With the cessation of the Nine Forged breathing method, the layers could not gather.

The young man continued without discouragement. He’d asked his teacher about his idea’s feasibility and received the answer that it would be very difficult to consider both sides, but one could try merging them.

Take the Breathing Method of the Five Styles! Given that the method employed five different animal styles, there ought to be five different breathing methods. However, Yuan Shuo managed to consolidate one singular breathing method to encompass all five.

If Li Hao was of a mind to incorporate a sixth style and reconsolidate the five so that the breathing method could be used for both methods, then he would be a grandmaster of martial dao for the new generation. Yuan Shuo had done so before!

Of course, this required a vast sum of knowledge, not simply imagination. The Nine Forged Force may not be a suitable match for the Five Styles, but methods were created by people. Yuan Shuo’s brain had held so much information that he’d employed a portion of ancient tomes to synthesize the New Book of Five Styles that he was so proud of. It was also why he treated it as strictly confidential.

“Although I’ve memorized a lot of the ancient books and received personal tutelage, I’ve just gulped it all down without thought. I haven’t digested it and turned it into my own knowledge, so there’s no way I can create the New Book of Six Styles as things stand!”

Li Hao was well aware that he couldn’t. Perhaps his teacher could, but Liu Long wasn’t willing to teach the Nine Forged Force to Yuan Shuo. Li Hao could not exceed his authority and rashly impart the method. This was a grave taboo in the path of martial dao.

He ran through the boxing routine primarily to digest some of the scarlet shadow’s power within his body. He felt that he could soon project internal force from every inch of his limbs. While his rate of progress was fast, he still found it too slow.

This was his breakout period—energy from the scarlet shadow, jade sword, and mysterious power were accumulated in his body. He was just digesting them. Once he concluded this stage and no longer had the sword and scarlet shadow to pull from, his rate of improvement would sadly decrease.

Silver City was a very dangerous place for him. Reaching Sunderer was not enough to set him at ease.