Star Gate

“Milord, we need to make a decision as soon as possible!” Lin Hongyu asserted as the redwood tree deliberated. “Otherwise, the City of Supernaturals might become Li Hao’s first target once he frees himself from the tasks at hand. The Lins will be an even bigger target!

“I’ve been wondering how strong the rest of his people are when Li Hao is so strong. Can he alone stand against seven element Arcanus?

“The twelve families of City of Supernaturals wanted to imitate Skystar Town and build a new cultivation sacred land of the new era. I thought I could do it, but then later realized that there are too many powerhouses from Silver Moon. It’s impossible for us to become a sacred land…”

Skystar Town, the sacred land of New Martial. It was said that countless powerhouses walked out of it and more than one exalted emperor. Some of them even took the ultimate step and were domineering among exalted emperors. Any of them could easily erase Silver Moon.

But now… Lin Hongyu had already felt pressure from Li Hao’s swift rise. Her emotions grew even more complicated after accidentally encountering him. There was no way to fight him in the outside world, and possibly still no way to fight him inside the ruins.

“The other eleven families of the City of Supernaturals want to replace me,” Lin Hongyu continued. “They speak of partnership, but ultimately wish to interfere with the city’s operations. It’s not only them, but my own family that doesn’t fully listen to me either…”

The swift rise of a woman was a hard pill to swallow for an ancient martial aristocracy like the Lins. Her absolute show of strength quieted the internal voices, but the other eleven families also possessed their own powerhouses. One person alone might not be a match for her, but she was unable to stand against their combined forces. Almost all of them were backed by ancient plant or beast spirits.

The support of beast spirits was less valuable than that of plant spirits as they could not supply Water of Life. At the same time, beast spirits themselves were incredibly powerful existences.

Lin Hongyu found herself rather dejected. She’d been confident before since she’d already contacted the Jade Flute and Sunset Mountains. An alliance of these three main factions would give her strength to fight those who’d entered seven elements.

But with Li Hao also part of these ranks… she was terrified. Ying Hongyue and the others had their own schemes in mind, so they weren’t that impulsive or unpredictable. Li Hao was much crazier than the three great organizations and had only one thought in mind when it came to those that didn’t get along with him—kill!

He didn’t give his enemies any time!

The three great organizations might not have attacked her if she’d run into them. They might speak of partnership or offer some casual conversation. They wouldn’t have attacked without another word.

With Li Hao, however, he attacked without offering a single word of greeting! He didn’t care about one’s background or backing. Their enmity was not that great as it’d always been the City of Supernaturals coming off worse for the wear after their clashes. The young man had suffered no damage.

The redwood tree debated for a long period of time before heaving a long exhale. “You can give it a try.”

It acquiesced as it’d guessed that the plant spirit supporting the Hus was dead. It knew that it was in a very precarious position. Unless the second awakening began right now, there was no way to confine Li Hao.

“He wants the City of Supernaturals, but the city does not belong to my family alone,” Lin Hongyu said slowly. “There are one million supernaturals in the city and they are a melting pot of good and bad. It is not up to my say whether or not he can have the city.

“He probably wants a whole and intact City of Supernaturals, not one million supernaturals fleeing through the land and causing havoc in their wake. If anything untoward happens to the city, it will easily spook our denizens to flight…

“We stand a chance of placating the supernaturals in the city only if we instantly suppress the other eleven families, including some of our own fossils. Only through that course of action can we preserve the complete City of Supernaturals…”

The redwood tree was rather surprised.

“You… want to… provide a token of loyalty?”

“What else?” Lin Hongyu sighed. “Does Li Hao care about a peak six elements? Does he want only one of them? He isn’t even willing to talk partnership, he just wants submission. Otherwise, it’s all the same to the Hu plant spirit who it associates with. Why did Li Hao just kill it instead of striking up a new collaboration?”

The redwood tree stilled when it heard these words. It hadn’t considered the matter from this angle! So this was the case! That one just wanted complete submission.

“Powerhouses abounded in New Martial and we willingly bowed our heads to the era. How dare a kid fresh behind the ears want us to serve him…” Anger bubbled up in the tree. These were likely the thoughts of all ancient heavyweights.

Submit?! What cultivation level was Li Hao at? Did he have the right to accept their capitulation?!

“Milord, this is no longer New Martial!” Lin Hongyu said calmly. It was the calendar of the Star Era now.

You guys are just struggling for life. While Li Hao wasn’t that strong and in fact, any of the surviving ancient plant and beast spirits could kill him, what did that matter?

Lin Hongyu had fully awoken to the true nature of the situation. She looked at the redwood tree flying into a frenzy and said slowly, “Unless milord is confident of immediately starting the second awakening now, this world might belong to the Lis!”

The Lis!

The redwood tree deflated and said dejectedly, “Belong to the Lis… Then… that’s not unacceptable. It belonged to the Lis then and it belongs to the Lis now…”

That was acceptable for no reason other than identity. The heir of the Lis. Silver Moon had belonged to the Lis back in the day. New Martial belonged to the Fang clan, but Silver Moon was the domain of the Li clan. Of that, not even the Human King would deny. This place had nearly been the Lis feudal estate, but that naturally wasn’t spoken of to outsiders.

This state of affairs was also a sort of compensation to the Sword Sovereign. As for why compensation was needed, no one knew.

There was a saying back in the day that the Sword Sovereign’s cultivation path was convoluted. The Human King wished for the Sword Sovereign to take another step forward and truly become invincible. Hence, he gifted this minor world to the Sword Sovereign in hopes that the latter could create his inner world and supplement some internal flaws that way.

That was all that the lower levels knew. The details were beyond their grasp. The Sword Sovereign had disappeared and the Star Gate was closed. It didn’t seem unfathomable for an heir of the Lis to once more oversee the world.

“What do you want to do, Hongyu?”

“The world is in chaos and unease is creeping into the City of Supernaturals,” said Lin Hongyu after some thought. “I’m thinking… of holding a conference of the twelve families! Not only that, but the wandering cultivators of certain strength within the city can also attend! I’d like to rebuild the cabinet of governing!

“All those who are strong enough can participate. We will rule through superior force. Twenty powerhouses will be accepted for the cabinet. Does milord think that the twelve families and heavyweights of the city will participate?”

“So you… really do want to capture them in one fell swoop. Can you suppress them, however?”

“We… can go to Li Hao!” Lin Hongyu paled again when she thought of their earlier clash. She’d almost died to just one sword stroke! She’d never felt so much terror before in her life—his cold aloofness was a complete disregard of everything. The look in his eyes was terrifying.

“Perhaps he doesn’t care about me, but the haphazard fleeing of one million supernaturals is enormous trouble. No matter how strong he is, he doesn’t have a thousand copies of himself to keep order in all directions. The world will truly be thrown into chaos then.

“Therefore, there is use for the City of Supernaturals at present. At the very least, we stabilize one million supernaturals in one locale as opposed to randomly starting fires throughout the land. Whether he wishes to be king or emperor, an intact Skystar Dynasty is what he wants.”

Otherwise, the Silver Moon martial masters were so strong that they could outright occupy any of the nine ministries. And yet, that wasn’t one of Li Hao’s courses of action. He’d simply passively struck back on a few occasions.

The redwood tree didn’t say anything upon seeing that Lin Hongyu had come to a decision. She possessed a very high potential and a variety of governing methods. How else would she be able to bring the other eleven families to heel and become lord of the City of Supernaturals at thirty years old?

Unfortunately, the redwood tree hadn’t foreseen that Lin Hongyu would be so decisive. Just one setback was enough to cause the genius who’d wanted to establish a sacred land to abandon her dreams and join Li Hao’s camp. This was beyond its imagination.

There were many powerhouses in the City of Supernaturals and the twelve families. It had been difficult to create such foundations and, strictly speaking, they stood more of a chance to reign supreme than the nine ministries or royal family.

Of course, that came with their share of internal problems, but it was surprising all the same that she chose to give up so easily.

……

Li Hao was naturally unaware of the conversation taking place in the Lin family secret location. He never imagined that a major faction would decide to join his side. Even the Inspectorate wasn’t a necessity to him.

Although there was an agreement in place that the Inspectorate would choose to join Li Hao’s banner after killing the Hu plant spirit—Chen Zhongtian had blatantly expressed that—the young man still didn’t care. He was too affected by the Human King and could not forget the scene he’d witnessed that day.

“I told you guys to commit suicide, but you wouldn’t do so. You force me to waste my energy instead. In that case, I’ll kill you all…”

Indeed, this was an unforgettable declaration for Li Hao. What recruitment or suppression count for? The Human King wanted his enemies to commit suicide—if they didn’t, he would slaughter everyone on their side. This kind of domination and killing intent was unparalleled!

Therefore, Li Hao was inspired in his actions against the City of Supernaturals. He would kill all of the leaders and send the rest of the supernaturals to the fields. It was a good idea that Hong Yitang had proposed. Any who resisted would be killed. As for surrender… that was an off the cuff remark.

The City of Supernaturals was very strong. One million supernaturals, twelve aristocracies, multiple plant spirits… they plainly wanted to take over the world or make a play for the throne. It was a joke that he wanted Lin Hongyu to surrender in ten days. The other families wouldn’t agree even if she did. It was because of their high numbers that he’d yet to take action against them or even delineate rules for the city.

Currently, his target was the Wind and Cloud Pavilion. They had a treasure that could measure strength—that was what he urgently needed.