Star Gate

Chapter 650: Ambush (IV)

The young man struggled for a bit before saying, “I’m one of the more favored grandsons. This one... is my guard!”

He pointed at the muscular Nova kneeling on the ground, the late Nova. His guard sighed with resignation. The grandson of the North Sea King... There was a grudge between Li Hao and the North Sea pirates. One of the dukes of the pirates had even attacked Li Hao before, but he was the one dead after the attempt.

The guard himself wasn’t one of the dukes, just a powerhouse deeply trusted by the North Sea King. Hence, he was given the task of protecting this young man.

Li Hao nodded with a smile and looked at the kneeling woman. She was a mid Nova. “And what’s your identity?”

“She’s quite a character,” He Yong responded before the woman had a chance to. “You’d see her name on the Divine Masters Ranking if you looked at it. She’s Mu Xiaorong, the youngest daughter of the minister of Internal Affairs. She’s connected to the royal family.”

“The minister’s daughter?” Li Hao was surprised.

“Yes!” He Yong affirmed. “And her potential is wonderful to be someone listed on the ranking.”

“The Ministry of Internal Affairs represents the royal family,” Li Hao laughed. “The Four Seas Company is of the Ministry of Finance. What are you doing here? Is a woman also here to gamble and while her days away in the whorehouses?”

He seemed to have caught an even bigger fish!

The kneeling woman with delicate features didn’t appear to be greater than thirty years old. She transmitted to Li Hao, “Commander Li, it’s not a good course of action to publicize my identity here. This has to do with matters between the nine ministries and royal family...”

Wham!

Li Hao punched outward, eliciting a drastic change in expression from Mu Xiaorong. She wanted to defend herself, but sank into the ground from the force of the blow. Blood sprayed from her wounds and she coughed up more blood with shock.

“Don’t threaten me and I don’t care what you guys have agreed upon!” Li Hao laughed. “There will be people along to investigate! I only know that you’re a prisoner right now, a criminal, do you understand?”

“I am your prisoner...” Mu Xiaorong still spat out blood. “But I am not a criminal!”

“No no no!” Li Hao shook his head. “Remember that everything having to do with superhumans falls under the purview of the Night Watchers. You are a superhuman and just transmitted a threat to the Skystar vice commander of the Night Watchers! That is a crime! Do you understand now?”

Mu Xiaorong fell silent.

“Hand over your storage ring!” Li Hao suddenly looked at her with a cold look. “What are you trying to take out?”

“Nothing...” She ducked her head with a spasm of fear.

“Are you thinking of bringing out something that will kill premier martial masters like me and Southern Fist?” Li Hao demanded frostily. “Why don’t you give it a try?”

Ashen-faced, Mu Xiaorong threw out a storage ring without a word. Li Hao’s expression shifted when he caught it—he took out a translucent, crystalline item that brimmed with energy. It seemed very unstable, as if it would explode at any time.

“An energy bomb!” He Yong sucked in a sharp breath, then released it. “It probably won’t kill me!”

Just one wasn’t sufficient for the task.

Li Hao stared sternly at it. He was familiar with this since Fan Cheng had used it last time and forced even Hong Yitang to back away with light wounds. She came from a spendthrift background, alright, for a mid Nova to have this kind of treasure!

“And you?” He looked merrily at the grandson of the North Sea King.

“I don’t have that...” the young man hastily said.

“Are you going to offer up your storage ring by yourself, or do you want me to cut into you to fetch it?”

The young man’s eyes widened.

“This applies to all of you!” Li Hao mentioned faintly. “Storage rings can be detected even if they’re embedded in the flesh. I’m well familiar with the habit of using one in the open and keeping another one in reserve! You can try me if you want to bet that I won’t cut into you one by one...”

People were already trembling in the crowd. Muffled grunts soon rang out as someone dug out a storage ring hidden in their body. This was a contingency in case of robbery or danger. The rings held treasures to kill enemies or to facilitate escape...

The young man sighed and spat out a storage ring. He didn’t need to dig into himself. Li Hao was quite a difficult character to handle! His storage ring hidden within his organs had been discovered!

Li Hao grinned at the development. Had he located the hidden storage ring? That he hadn’t. It wasn’t that easy to do so. He’d just recalled that when he concealed mysterious power stones with Liu Long and the others, they’d swallowed the stones into their stomachs. Surely this was an act feasible by others!

As he expected, there was more than one person with a hidden storage ring. Li Hao was collecting a tremendous amount of rings today! He’d captured another two Novas alive, one of which was a guard of the North Sea King and the other the daughter of the minister of Internal Affairs. Both of their identities were uncommon.

Meanwhile, many were those in the crowd were also related to the nine ministries and royal family. There were plenty of grandchildren of deputy ministers. When it came to the direct lineage of the nine ministers, this woman seemed to be the only one. There were also numerous descendants of royal dukes and princes. It was a pity that there were no children of the emperor. What a pity!

Li Hao swept a glance across the crowd—there were at least three thousand present. That was a lot!

Many of them were attendants working for the Four Seas Company. Li Hao had only sent his people against the island’s guards, not these people. These people were usually here for business or supplied a special service. The young man wasn’t interested in killing them either.

Adding the number of people dead to the total figure meant that the tiny island had held four thousand people. It was a decent amount of people and the key thing was that many of their identities were surprising.

Everyone looked carefully at Li Hao; a foul smell filled the air. The young man checked the time—it’d been twenty minutes since the start of his attack. Perhaps someone on the other end had already discovered something. Maybe some communications were proving impossible—that would raise suspicion.

The young man seemed to consider something as he looked at the crowd.

“What do we do?” He Yong transmitted. “Do we kill them all or what?”

Li Hao looked at him and transmitted back, “Martial uncle can kill them all!”

“......” He Yong was speechless. I’m not doing that! Will there be a place for me in this world after I do that? It was one thing to offend the Ministry of Finance—Hou Xiaochen stood in front of him for that. But if he killed everyone here, he may as well flee to Great Li.

Li Hao didn’t say anything; he collected all of the confessionals. “You write one too.” He looked at Mu Xiaorong. “Write... that the Ministry of Internal Affairs...”

“Then you might as well kill me,” she responded lowly. “I can’t write anything like that. I’m different from them. Whatever I write represents the attitude of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.”

Wham!

Li Hao slammed his fist down, prompting horror out of the woman. Killing intent!

“I’ll write it!” she shrieked, no sign of her previous composure to be found.

Bam!

She was still sent flying, coughing and spewing up blood. “You asked for it!” Li Hao chuckled.

The surroundings were eerily quiet as everyone was beyond horrified. Was this Demon Sword? That was the daughter of the minister of Internal Affairs! He wanted to kill her at the drop of a hat all the same. Any thoughts of rising up were spontaneously snuffed out in their minds. All they hoped for now was for Li Hao to show mercy. As for resistance... that did not exist.

“And you, write all about the collusion between the North Sea pirates and Four Seas Company!” Li Hao turned to the North Sea King’s grandson. “Don’t tell me that you don’t know.”

“I... just want to ask,” sighed the young man. “Is there a chance for my survival?”

It was a difficult call for the others, but he was the grandson of the North Sea King. Li Hao may not show him mercy. This was a demon he faced!

“There is, I won’t kill you.” Li Hao laughed. “It’s good that you’re alive. However, you might be held in the Inspectorate or Night Watcher headquarters. Of course, if your grandfather has the ability to bribe the senior executives, you’ll make it back alive! But so long as I’m here, all you need to do is point out witnesses for me!”

Point out witnesses!

The young man understood. His heart chilled. In that case... there was nothing ahead for him but death even if he escaped. Li Hao’s intentions were clear—Demon Sword wanted to kill a group of people and he was the best evidence for their deaths.

“Be happy, everyone!” Li Hao chuckled. “I’m a good person who upholds justice! I’ll take everyone back to Skystar City in a bit and have even prepared your transportation! You will be fine so long as you are innocent. Liven up! The world might think that I eat people otherwise!”

The crowd sagged with relief at his words, but also cursed loudly to themselves. You don’t eat people? You’re scarier than demonic cannibals!

Li Hao threw out an origin weapon that swiftly enlarged into a flying ship. It was quite spacious as it used to belong to the Steadfast Duke. He breathed out and looked at He Yong. “We might encounter trouble on the way back, so please be careful, martial uncle.”

He Yong nodded.

Li Hao took out a transmission pendant and dismantled the bronze mirror’s shroud after some thought. He entered a message, “A sudden fog came over Four Seas Island and hampered communication. We suspect that major monster spirits are behind it...”

He set everything aside after keying in the message, then transmitted some more instructions to He Yong. The man was surprised, but nodded without a word.