Star Gate

“All of the loot is mine!” His voice traveled back on the wind. “I’m going to look in on my student. Send everything to the Yuan residence at the Veteris Institute unless you want to eat one of my blows too, Huang Yun!”

A series of changes flickered rapidly through the Night Watcher’s expression. He had nothing to say. What a terrifying fellow! It’s frightening when martial artists reach this realm!

“What… what level are you?” he couldn’t help but ask.

Dominator of Thousands? Could a Dominator kill Divine Brokensky? The professor had cut down the son of Ying Hongyue like he was slicing through a head of cabbage. It was all too shocking!

“Just peak Dominator of Thousands!” Yuan Shuo’s distant reply stunned everyone.

Peak Dominator of Thousands!

……

Yuan Shuo’s next stop was the warehouse—it was wrecked to pieces. He glanced at his bleeding student and promptly grabbed Li Hao, sprinting into the darkness. Along the way, the professor flushed and spat out blood, vaporizing the liquid as soon as it exited his mouth.

“I can’t hold on, but why are you… like this right now…” He could sense that Li Hao’s sword was transferring energy, so it wasn’t the right time to take it. He could only glean what he could from the side and repair his ruptured organs. He’d put on too much of a show—he wasn’t a peak Dominator!

Granted, he wasn’t too far off. The key issue was that he was too heavily injured. If he had been any slower to leave the scene of battle, he might not have been able to retain his lofty image. Vomiting blood would have been a foregone conclusion.

“Cough cough cough…” Harsh coughs sounded—real coughs. Yuan Shuo’s face was no longer a mixture of white and gray; it was just stark white. He ran as fast as he could with Li Hao—running was the best course of action at the moment! There was nothing left in his tank if another opponent appeared on the scene, or if that idiot Huang Yun decided to test or kill him.

Run and hide first… We can come out when the coast is clear! An odd look brewed in his eyes as he thought of what’d occurred when his supernatural locks opened. My supernatural dream is broken. What supernatural locks?! They’re not a pathway to accessing the supernatural, they’re a person’s defensive system. Damn it, what is the supernatural?

To relinquish painstakingly accumulated internal force in favor of mysterious power… that was to drink poison in search of quenching thirst! It appeared strong, but was completely hollow on the inside.

There might be something nefarious behind the awakening of the supernatural!

“Cough cough cough…” Yuan Shuo wanted to vaporize his newest mouthful of blood, but suddenly discovered that it was gone. A… dog next to him had swallowed it.

He recognized it, it was the little black dog that followed Li Hao. The professor frowned.

“Are you turning into a dog spirit? You’ve swallowed my blood and Li Hao’s blood… A dog that has tasted human blood becomes great trouble if it seeks more!” It needed to die for developing a taste for blood!

Panther threw up the mouthful of blood with disgust when Yuan Shuo raised his hand. Disdain crossed its face and it regarded Yuan Shuo with a trace of the same distaste. This blood… is so gross!

Yuan Shuo started and took another look at the little black dog. “So you’re doing it for the energy… You’ve got a helluva sharp nose!”

Li Hao’s blood contained a special energy. The dog hadn’t developed a bloodlust, it just wanted that power.

“Forget it!” He couldn’t be bothered with Li Hao’s dog; Yuan Shuo quickly vanished into the darkness. Never mind all this, they needed to run away as far as possible and hide out for a few days. It was good that the dog was with them. If they had to remain in hiding after the few days and ran out of food, they could kill the dog for sustenance. How nice that a food source moved with them and saved him future effort!

Panther had no idea what was running through the old human’s mind and happily followed the two.

……

Yuan Shuo’s departure raised a massive disturbance through all channels and locales. A bloody battle had taken place in Silver City!

Divine Brokensky had fallen, the son of Red Moon’s leader was dead, ten Darkmoon had perished, as well as a group of martial masters that included Sunderers. All of it stemmed from Yuan Shuo, the old demon that dominated Silver Moon twenty years ago!

The old demon had ascended to peak Dominator and defied all odds to strike down Divine Brokensky. The news even started making its way to other territories. This was the first time that someone beyond Sunflare had died in the province. An uproar grew on all sides—the world was changing!

……

“Pfft!” A mouthful of blood. Li Hao blearily opened his eyes while the Breathing Method of the Five Styles continued operating. The rampaging within his body had slowly calmed down, yet red energy continuously surged into him. All of his meridians felt stoppered, even solidified by the energy. There was no pain, just numbness, as if his body wasn’t his!

“You’re awake?” came his teacher’s voice. Li Hao wearily focused on his teacher walking a dog—Panther.

“Teacher!” The young man coughed up another mouthful of blood, blood that contained some black.

Yuan Shuo was exhausted after standing guard over his student for a day. He couldn’t be bothered with saying anything after seeing Li Hao was awake and conscious. The professor grabbed the jade sword like a robber after loot.

“Gimme some!”

The young man didn’t know what to say. His teacher… hardly seemed a notable literary expert!

“Teacher, I…”

“I know, I’ve assessed your condition. There’s too much energy in your body, but it’s reached an equilibrium. You won’t die for the time being, but I will if you don’t let your teacher absorb some energy!” Yuan Shuo joked, belying his dire straits. If he hadn’t been concerned that his final disciple might die to the onslaught of energy, he would’ve taken the sword a long time ago. The lad had himself to thank for being Yuan Shuo’s student. The old man wouldn’t have been so considerate of anyone else!

Everything was a mess inside his body—he was in much more disarray compared to Li Hao. It was only energy that assaulted the young man, but Yuan Shuo had exhausted his stores, depleted his internal force, and suffered considerable damage to his consciousness. It was a level of injury that reached the mind.

The Incantation of the Blade of Blood was indeed a forbidden art; it was Yuan Shuo’s first time experiencing the might of such a method. At the same time, it was completely out of Li Hao’s reach.

Any technique that involved mental employment of energy was reserved for Dominators. As strong as this forbidden method was, it wasn’t available to ordinary people. Those who utilized it weren’t able to pay the price.

It felt that Yuan Shuo’s injuries spontaneously healed when he absorbed a little bit of energy. He couldn’t help but groan. Damn good!

It feels so damn good!

It was as comfortable as rain in a drought. Hot damn, if he’d had the sword with him before, he might’ve been able to use the Incantation twice. The weapons of the eight families were beyond the imagination. Take the stone blade, for example, it was crucial to him breaking his late opponent’s defenses. Both stone blade and Incantation were critical to a Dominator defeating Divine Brokensky.

It was also his good luck.

“Teacher!” Li Hao looked at Yuan Shuo. His teacher’s bedraggled state didn’t seem to be an act. There was no one around them, so there was no point in keeping up the pretense. “Did we win?”

“We won!” Yuan Shuo cursed as he absorbed more energy. “There’s some ruthless bastards over at Red Moon! They sent a Solar against a mundane! Damn, they were really willing to expend some resources! Thankfully I ended that son of a bitch!”

Solar? Li Hao leaned against a grubby wall as he didn’t have the strength to move. “Is Solar… above Sunflare?”

“Yep!” Yuan Shuo’s spirits lifted as he felt his wounds continue to close. “Those above Sunflare gather the energy of the three suns and obtain their one true meaning. This means that Solars have nearly three times the amount of mysterious power compared to a Sunflare!

“I’d thought that even if those behind the scenes have some brains to them, it’s only been twenty years since the supernatural domain appeared. There are exceedingly few Solars in Silver Moon—more in the central region. But they sent one here, so they really think something of you! Damn, a Solar!”

The situation truly had been perilous. If not for the stone blade, if Yuan Shuo hadn’t broken through and could reference countless ancient tomes, one Solar could have easily exterminated them all. He could butcher everyone in Silver City while he was at it.

Li Hao sighed. Seriously, they do think something of me! The more the situation’s like this, the more likely that trouble isn’t over yet! They sent out someone like that for me, a mundane! Teacher killed the first one, but what about next time?

“How did you kill him, teacher? Did you break through?”

“No!” Yuan Shuo shook his head with a frown. “It’s not that simple. If we set aside the supernatural, there is no way forward for martial masters beyond Dominator!”

No way forward!

“Then make the crossover, teacher.” Li Hao blinked. “Is there not enough energy in the blade?”

“That’s not it, but I won’t tell you yet. Focus on breaking through to Sunderer, the road ahead is long.” Yuan Shuo didn’t want to say more for the moment—revealing too much might interfere with Li Hao’s development. “And… I don’t know what to make of your current situation. What did you absorb to nearly solidify your blood? Your meridians are full of energy, but it’s not mysterious power.”

“It’s the mental entity I spoke of before,” Li Hao explained after some thought. “It entered my body, but I hurt it with the sword. A large sum of energy surged into my body afterward and combined with the sword to become a unique power. I once absorbed some on a previous occasion, but very little. That taste strengthened my blood, but this time I took in too much and have digestion issues.”

“You bet!” Yuan Shuo nodded. “I’m aware of your physical constitution—you’re not a weak Slayer. The energy you’ve absorbed, however, is probably beyond Dominator! There’s too much and it’s thanks to the sword that you haven’t exploded. It neutralized the energy, but also landed you in these circumstances.”