Star Gate

The Seven Moons of the Red Moon organization were almost all dead. The current Violet Moon was the third generation of her position, not the first generation. She was the daughter of Ying Hongyue and the Black Widow. Many in the three great organizations had died in Silver Moon province, but this one remained alive in captivity.

According to Ying Hongyue, she'd died in Great Li.

"Where is Violet Moon?" Li Hao laughed softly and repeated his question.

"Dead." Ying Hongyue frowned. "Ask Gan Wuliang if you don't believe me, or ask the Great Li king. Li Hao, just come at me if you want. You're a liege lord in your own right, why be like this?"

"You protected the Celestial Sword Immortal and Yonder mountain lord when you were constantly on the run, would you let Violet Moon die?" Li Hao smirked.

"That's different, those two were useful to me!"

"Fine fine, you want to keep a stiff upper lip. Are you not afraid of me exposing you?" Li Hao burst out laughing.

"What are you talking about?" Ying Hongyue frowned slightly at the young man. "Li Hao... I admit that I am less than you at the moment. Why must you try to act mysterious?"

"You seem to have had a lot of children, both male and female," Li Hao sighed. "You've also had a lot of grandchildren, but you value Violet Moon over them all..."

"I am a man of much love, I am not heartless!" Ying Hongyue declared dashingly. "My women and progeny are very important to me!"

"You gross me out," Li Hao chortled. "You're a heartless bastard, but you love playing the role of some sort of suave lover. I didn't understand you before or fully read you, but I have a good memory and I'm very petty. I remember everything about Violet Moon!

"She's just a minor character, but minor characters can have great uses! You carry Red Moon power and bear the bloodlines of eight families... Can someone like you even have children? Whose intelligence are you trying to insult?

"It'd be some sort of unholy miracle if you really can sire children. Do you love proclaiming so loudly that you've been cuckolded? Your children... are experiments, aren't they? Some of them failed, some of them succeeded. Violet Moon looks to have been a successful one..."

"What are you talking about?" There was no change in Ying Hongyue's expression.

"I don't know." Li Hao shook his head. "Violet Moon is either made of pure Red Moon power or the bloodlines of the eight families. There's no third possibility! Well, there is, and that's a product of a complete integration. But that's not very likely since you wouldn't be in this condition if she was!

"You don't have any progeny, don't try that with me," Li Hao snorted. "Someone like you is destined to die without any descendants. You're the end of your bloodline! A bunch of your so-called children have died, but Violet Moon's stayed with you to the last. She won't die that easily.

"So c'mon, out with it. Did you sneak her into the seal or have you left her in the Tranquil Star ruins? Or... is the surviving Celestial Sword Immortal a fake and actually Violet Moon? You left her in Galewind... are you setting a trap for Zheng Yu?"

"......" Ying Hongyue didn't say a word. He simply looked at Li Hao, inwardly quaking from shock.

"Li Hao, you think too much!" he said slowly after a long moment.

"No no, I never think too much!" Li Hao shook his head. "Violet Moon is skilled at the dao of thunder and lightning, isn't she? According to what I know, the Hong city is called Thunderblast. It's never shown itself, even till today!

"You must also possess a bloodline of the eight families yourself. The first weapon you threw at me was the mallet of the Hongs! I broke it and have never found a clue of the Hong family ever since. It's hard to look for them without their weapon. There's almost no echo of them in the eight threads of the seal as well.

"Should I call you Hong Hongyue? Or Hong Yingyue? Or Hong what?" Li Hao laughed. "Violet Moon must bear the Hong bloodline. Therefore, she may very likely be a collection of the eight bloodlines! Although there are supernaturals that wield thunder and lightning, I've explored almost all of the powerful dao stars of that attribute since becoming master of the great dao. I've yet to discover that unique purple lightning!

"Come to speak of it, you and my martial uncle Hong Yitang are from the same family!" the young man continued laughing. "So tell me, where is Thunderblast? What are you planning? Or do the Hongs that rose during late New Martial wish to share the spoils as well?"

"You say I'm from the Hongs just because Violet Moon walks the path of thunder and lightning?" Ying Hongyue was still coolly composed. "Perhaps I'm from the Lis? Do you know what my moniker was back in the day? I'm actually skilled at the sword?"

"I know, you were the Lover Swordsman Ying Hongyue. Who cares?" Li Hao grinned. "Ying Hongyue, we know each other very well. Zheng Yu and the rest don't know you, but I do. We complement each other.

"It looks like we share a death feud—I killed your wives, you killed my whole family. But we've actually supported each other until our current heights today, haven't we?

"I won't expose you and will actually applaud you if you can get rid of Zheng Yu or the one in the sky. I like fighting those of Silver Moon and don't like those people becoming the stars of this age. I won't ask where Violet Moon's gone and won't expose you, but you need to give me something else apart from Red Moon power."

"What?!" Ying Hongyue nearly growled.

"A portion of the seal's control!" Li Hao chuckled softly. "To put it simply, I want the way and method in which you leech power from the seal. It should have something to do with the Hongs as well. Only the eight main cities had this ability back then. How else could you have connected yourself to the seal?

"The stone door of the Hongs is in Silver City. If my guess is right... the Hong city might be beneath Silver City as well, but buried very deeply..."

"How is that possible?" It was Ying Hongyue's turn to burst out laughing.

"Uh uh uh, don't say anything." Li Hao shook his head. "Now I have the urge to check it out. The first stone door I saw was the one of the Hongs! I was too inexperienced then and didn't dwell on it. Also, you had the eight families in your sights a long time ago with all of your schemes in Silver City. You even offered yourself up as a pawn for others—for the Red Moon exalted emperor, Zheng Yu, and Li Daoheng.

"You're really something! My master may have better potential than you, but he's truly less than you in other areas. Of the Thirty-Six, you're the most devious!

"We can still learn a thing or two when we add up all of the clues. It's not like I haven't studied you before. Other people may underestimate you, but would I? Would I not study the guy who slaughtered my whole family?

"Ah, can it be that Violet Moon is your primary body instead? Is Ying Hongyue just a smokescreen? If that's the case, man you really are something! Of course, it doesn't matter! Do what I want you to do first—we can discuss everything later. Otherwise, you won't be leaving today no matter if this is your real or fake body!"

Ying Hongyue raised an eyebrow and said after a while, "I can give you Red Moon power, but how am I supposed to share the seal's authorization with you? I am connected to the seal, do you want to do the same? I don't mind if that's the case, but you might find yourself so deeply caught within that you can't get yourself out of it!"

"Don't try that on me!" Li Hao sniffed. "You have ten seconds to consider. Either you give me authorization, or I dig out the Hong city! Maybe it's not under Silver City and is in the seal instead. Now wouldn't that be even more interesting!"

Ying Hongyue cursed to himself as he studied Li Hao. This guy was so uncanny! How had he thought of Violet Moon? How had he focused on the very ordinary energy of thunder and lightning? How did he recall that the Hong city was named Thunderblast? The Hongs had kept a very low profile!

Among the eight cities, everyone thought the Hongs had been exterminated!

The Hong family had not emerged when the world shook. The old turtle and others felt that they might have all died and their city buried. Why else would they have not shown themselves in all this time?

As to be expected from someone who is my arch nemesis...

A light danced in Ying Hongyue's eyes. He was about to speak when Li Hao cut in, "Don't bother saying anything. We'll be done here after you tell me how to crack open the seal with the heritage weapons!"

"......" Ying Hongyue took a deep breath. "It has nothing to do with the heritage weapons..."

"No, that's not right," Li Hao ignored him and continued talking to himself. "You can just tell me how to utilize the bloodlines to move my primary body into the seal. Do I need to wrap the heritage weapon around my body?

"I tried using mental strength before, but I could only do so through the eight lines. Those eight lines also required an extension of a heritage weapon or bloodline. But that also meant only mental strength could enter, not my physical body! I didn't want to create an overly large disturbance that would raise attention."

Ying Hongyue was completely speechless and said after a moment, "Just hide the heritage weapon within your body!"

"That easy?"

"And it's best if you do so through a main city." Ying Hongyue nodded. "The seal is actually tied to the main cities. Zhang An could enter it so smoothly not because of how strong he is, but because he was piloting Star River! If you don't want to drive a main city straight in, then you can utilize the city lord seal and combine it with one of the heritage weapons. From there, you can follow the thread of blood to enter the seal!

"Also, while that exalted emperor is sealed away... he might be able to meld with a heritage weapon with his replica if he seizes one of them. Don't do anything brash..."

It wasn't that he was afraid of Li Hao dying, but that he was afraid of Li Hao being the death of them all! At the moment, Ying Hongyue felt that the young man was much more difficult to handle than Zheng Yu or anyone else.

He knows me too well! Who pays so much attention to a minor character?

Almost all of the eight heritage weapons were broken, devoured by Li Hao's Stellaris. Although Stellaris had also shattered, it had mostly recovered. That was the only heritage weapon still existing.

No, there is also the turtle of the Wangs.

Just as Ying Hongyue rummaged through his thoughts, Li Hao suddenly said, "Does Violet Moon have the mallet of the Hongs?"

"......" Ying Hongyue frowned. "Didn't you break that a while ago?"

"Bullshit!" Li Hao laughed. "Apart from the weapon of the Wangs, none of the eight treasures have a consciousness. The shield of the Wangs has a consciousness because it came to exist a long time ago. The mallet of the Hongs was forged later, so it couldn't have been made from the soul of a monster spirit.

"But when I devoured the mallet of the Hongs, there was a weapon soul in it. Where did you get that fake from? It looked like the real thing! Even the line of blood dimmed somewhat. Did you make it out of your own bloodline power?"

"......" Ying Hongyue's head threatened to split open! He exhaled after a long moment. "Why don't you just try killing me?"

"You're full of lies, it's a really sucky feeling!" Li Hao thrust a sword through the sword! Ninety-nine meridians melded into one as the sword flashed out. The world threatened to break apart, but the young man attacked the Forbidden Sea instead of Ying Hongyue!

BAM!

A loud collision echoed through the land as the Forbidden Sea was even momentarily cut into two. Ying Hongyue vomited a large mouthful of blood. He threw out an endless stream of Red Moon power in the next second, then a city lord seal.

"Take this..." he coughed up blood. "This is the city lord seal of the Hongs... The key to the main city is this... without it..."

"It's fake!" Li Hao unceremoniously smashed through it with his sword as well! Another earsplitting explosion rang out!