Star Gate

Chapter 583: Bluffing Too Much (III)

However, there was nothing Xu Xing could say in response. He could only reply, “All of our mysterious power stones are like these ones. We do have some higher quality ones, but they’re all with my father. We don’t have many of the higher quality ones either, just enough to satisfy our own cultivation needs.”

“Hmph.” Li Hao didn’t seem to care and looked around. The first floor was spacious enough to hold other items apart from racks of storage rings. He directed Panther in another direction and swept a glance at the contents before saying with derision, “Are you guys scrap collectors to save even these things?”

There were boxes upon boxes against the wall apart from the racks. Each of them held a suit of armor. There were a lot of them!

“They’re not scraps,” Xu Xing had to protest given that his family was being looked down upon again. “You may not be aware, envoy, but this is the equipment of an army called the Voidbreakers. We found the armor in a ruin, but haven’t been able to find a way to reactivate it. The armor from Battle Heaven and the Black Armaturas are all equipment from powerful armies of the ancient civilization...”

Li Hao raised an eyebrow, but continued in a similar vein. “This king is naturally aware! But those were scraps of metal back in the day as well. There are a ton of higher level ones in the imperial palace. Only lowly minions wear these ones. What are they, if not trash?”

“Is there such an army in the imperial palace, honored envoy?” Xu Xing asked with surprise.

“Of course!” Li Hao sneered. “The imperial palace houses a most eminent one, so of course he has his personal guards! Each of them were selected from thousands of strong contenders. I've heard the ancestor talk about the Battle Heaven Army that you mentioned. That city’s strong enough, but it’s just an ancient city that received their name thanks to the whim of an emperor. It cannot compare to the imperial palace and its army does not compare to the imperial guards...”

Xu Xing learned something new today! So this was the truth of the world! Not only him, but so did the eavesdropping Xu Qing felt that he’d gained new knowledge.

As it turned out, Battle Heaven was an ancient city personally named by an emperor in the ancient civilization! Even though it wasn’t the strongest, it was terrifying enough already. Its Golden Armors were said to retain domineering strength.

Xu Xing picked up his transmission pendant for a look when it vibrated. “Does the envoy know much about Battle Heaven city?”

“The city itself?” Li Hao thought for a bit. “Not much, just that there were a lot of people living in it back in the day. There were tens of millions, while its army numbered millions strong...”

“Then does the envoy know of warriors wearing golden armor?”

“Oh, you mean the officers who are the equivalent of first rank commanders?”

Xu Xing beamed. This monster spirit knew everything! Such was the advantage of an ancient heritage—those of that bloodline were all-knowing. So many people had failed to grasp the city’s full background, but the monster spirit easily spoke of it.

“One commander oversees ten thousand people, right?” Li Hao seemed to be recalling something. “I don’t remember, I heard this a long time ago. Battle Heaven seems to have only one or two hundred commanders. There’s more ranking officers above that, and their leaders above that too. The commanders... are just small fry!”

Xu Xing sucked in a sharp breath. How was that possible?

“Envoy, it’s said that the city lord is just a Golden Armor as well...”

“Bullshit!” Li Hao cursed loudly. “How is that possible? Whoever said that was blind! Not to mention, since when does the city lord wear armor? I remember the ancestor saying that the city lord... is... related to an emperor or something like that? His surname... was Wang? He was a raggedy old man who was very strong...”

The more Xu Xing heard, the more shocked he was. It meant that all of the information they held was fake! There was so much more to Battle Heaven! He wanted to ask more, but Li Hao cut him off with irritation.

“What’s the point of talking about all this? Who remembers any of that? Is there no real treasure here apart from this garbage?”

Xu Xing was quite resigned, was this really all garbage? There was a large sum of mysterious power stones, countless cubes of mysterious power, and a thousand sets of ancient armor on the first floor. If it wasn’t for the fact that they weren’t activated, the armor would be priceless anywhere in the outside world.

Well, this reaction made sense given the monster spirit’s background.

“There are some more treasures on the second floor that the envoy might be interested in. They’re a bunch of origin weapons—but granted, their level isn’t too high.”

A bunch! Li Hao clucked his tongue. What did a bunch mean? He headed to the second floor without another word.

The second floor was arrayed differently. Individual cabinets filled the floor. There were many cabinets, but most of them were empty. Only some of them held items—roughly twenty or thirty of them. Some exuded faint energy that was a sign of their uncommon qualities.

There was a long blade the color of fire, a broadsword the color of dirt, and a bow rimmed with frost...

Xu Xing looked cautiously at Panther, worried that the monster spirit would label it all as trash again. “These are all origin weapons...”

“I know!” Li Hao cut him off brusquely. “They’re all trash too, and very unfriendly to monster spirits! What you call origin weapons were forged out of the corpses of monster spirits. The practice was abolished many years ago. It was in use only in the initial New Martial era, we used new designs in the late era. These origin weapons... are the discarded ones that were made available to wandering cultivators or rear personnel.”

Xu Xing felt that he’d learned something new again! So this was the background of origin weapons!

“Then the Windchaser Boots mentioned before with the core origin of a monster spirit...” he couldn’t help but ask. Based on what you’re saying, the Windchaser Boots are trash too?

Li Hao blinked, then quickly cursed, “What do you know?! If the boots really are from the eight clans, then that’s different! If they are an origin weapon, they would be forged from an incredibly domineering monster spirit! It’s nothing that this pile of trash can measure up to!”

Fine then.

Xu Xing deflated as he looked at the treasury that was the pride of the family. Our treasures are precious items that other powerhouses drool over, but now they’re all trash! There were possibly one million mysterious power stones and several dozen origin weapons here!

While the most important batch of treasures was with Xu Qing, the treasury was also the core of the entire Xu family. This was the basis of the family’s rise and the foundation with which they dominated the east, and how they would conquer the dynasty! It was all trash to their visitor!

Li Hao didn’t care about what the man was thinking. He was almost drooling in Panther’s stomach. These guys are so rich!

Although he obtained plenty of origin weapons and even given the little tree almost a dozen a while back, he was still highly envious when he saw so many at once. The only thing he wanted to do now was to take them all!

But that was just an impulse that he curbed. He couldn’t do that! A little impatience spoils great plans, he’d yet to catch a glimpse of the Windchaser Boots!

“If the second floor is all trash like this, will the third floor be the same?” Li Hao groused with irritation. “The Steadfast Duke is known throughout the east and hailed as the overlord of the region, but this is all the trash that you have? If this is the case, I need to reassess the duke’s strength! Strength is one aspect, riches are another. All the powerhouses in the world are useless if you don’t have enough riches, you’ll lack the strength to keep going!”

Xu Xing was quite embarrassed as well, but there was nothing he could say. What, was he supposed to protest that these were treasures that those outside would attack each other to claim?

There was no point in discussing this with the descendant of an ancient monster spirit. Their visitor had seen so much more than him, and sights that were much stronger. Xu Xing had been very confident about the items on the third floor before, but was now feeling uncertain.

“The items on the third floor are even better,” he said ambiguously. “You can take a look, envoy...”

He didn’t dare go into specifics. What if the other didn’t find that to be the case again? He wasn’t used to suffering blow after blow of mortification. It was always him slapping faces. But today, he was being repeatedly humiliated by something that somewhat resembled a dog, and he couldn’t flare his temper for it! He had to admit to all of the assessments given since their visitor had a very privileged view of the world. What else could he say?

One man and one dog ascended the stairs to the third floor. There were even fewer items here and the layout was once more different. There were several crystal covers encasing certain items; energy wafted out of them, protecting the contents inside.

“There are six treasures on the third floor, they’re all rare curiosities!” Xu Xing doggedly continued his introduction of the treasury contents. “Three of them are earth rank origin weapons, far superior to the gold and arcane levels below. The other three are very precious items indeed. One of them—”

“Oh, a Goldensky Lotus?” Li Hao identified before the man could. “And an entire flower at that, where did you get it from? This is a treasure from the Forbidden Sea in the New Martial era. It’s ineffective for powerhouses, but good for those weaker. You guys have a whole flower, not bad!”

Xu Xing started. Damn, you know even this! You really know a lot!

“We also obtained this in a ruin, but... this item... has some drawbacks. We discovered more than one flower at first and realized that it’s very useful when it comes to strengthening martial master mind intent. But after the mind intent is fortified, the body cannot withstand it and collapses more easily instead.

“Given the trove we found, numerous Xu family members ingested it and many died as a result. Their bodies fell apart, leaving only this flower left. We’d planned to let my nephew use it after he ascended... but my poor nephew died in the hands of a villain.”

Li Hao cursed to himself. Fucking hell! My Goldensky Lotus! There hadn’t been just one flower, but many! These Xu bastards had wasted it all! Judging from Xu Xing’s words, they’d randomly used the treasure after finding it and strengthened mind intent beyond the capacity of the body. Their minds had crushed their bodies to death!

They deserved that death!

That was a foregone conclusion. This was a treasure with fabulous effects and immensely useful to the current Li Hao, not to mention other martial masters. But if too much was ingested by someone with weak organs, it would undoubtedly blow them up!