Star Gate

“Our thanks for the commander’s mercy!” The old man kowtowed with gratitude.

It was a common outcome for an entire clan to be exterminated when their struggle for power ended in failure. With only Hu Xiao and his son dead, as well as a few others that’d made mistakes to be exploited dying as well, this was much better than the anticipated downfall of the entire family.

“Men, take them away!”

Demon Hunters quickly swarmed the rear residence and escorted the Hu men away. The Hu patriarch was the last to leave; he hesitated when he passed by Li Hao before saying, “Commander, there is a passage in the rear garden that leads to the family ruins. All of the families overseeing the nine ministries have such a ruin. My brother and his son maintained exclusive access to the ruins, the others were not permitted entry. I don’t know if there is a key or anything like that. My brother is dead and no one else in the family may enter…”

Li Hao inclined his head without further word.

The various families of the nine ministries all owned crucial ruins. Some controlled more than one, but the others they grasped might not be nearby. There was an entrance to a ruin inside each of the nine ministries—this was also why the nine ministries had been built at their respective locations.

In actuality, the royal family had built this layout when they ruled the dynasty. The nine princes protectively encircled the royal family!

As for why the nine princes had built such a layout… perhaps it had something to do with the ruins. It was Li Hao’s guess that the ruins around Skystar City were part of a larger whole during the ancient civilization!

This area might have been a sprawling metropolis back in the day. Although Battle Heaven said this land was known as Skystar Town, just their defenders alone numbered one hundred thousand. It was clear to see that this had been no ordinary town.

Ruins might be found everywhere beneath Skystar City. Evenround Martial University was one further away since it was on the outskirts. As for why they were located so close to each other… Li Hao had his speculations. They shouldn’t have been that close back in their day, but the terrain shifted with the times and the ruins themselves could expand or shrink in size. At the very least, Battle Heaven could do so. These ruins had gradually shifted near each other after these long years.

The rear yard quieted down when everyone from the Hus was escorted out. The place was free for the Demon Hunters to conduct their search. Li Hao looked at the depths of the rear garden. If there was a ruin here, then there would be a plant spirit.

The Hus…

Li Hao’s thoughts turned to the plant spirit replica that Hu Mingfa had brought to Evenround. His had been a… coconut tree, right? At least, the young man thought so. It looked like a massive coconut tree.

Deputy Zhou soundlessly drew near and said softly, “The ruins of the nine ministries are not ordinary ones. Out of the major ruins, their plant spirits awoke earlier than their brethren, despite their higher strength. It might have something to do with the royal family’s ruins.”

“Doesn’t that mean they’re weaker if they awoke faster?” Li Hao raised a brow. Only the weak revived faster since they needed less energy.

Deputy Zhou laughed softly, “That’s Silver Moon… This is Skystar City. It’s a bit different.”

“Why is that?”

“Silver Moon…” The deputy thought for a while before responding, “There are too many heavyweights in the province that require energy. There’s not enough to go around, which leaves sufficient energy only for those weaker because they require less. Hence, the stronger recover slower. At Skystar City, there is enough energy to go around. The stronger one is, the more easily one absorbs energy. Hence, they recover faster.”

It had to do with the energy mines!

Li Hao understood now. Then this meant to say that the plant spirits of the nine ministries might have awoken eighty years ago? That early? So… how strong were they? Nothing could be determined about their strength from replicas. Based on the cultivation system of the ancient civilization, Immortal came after Apex, and Saint after Immortal.

Could the plant spirits measure up to the Black Armors? Director General Wang and the rest seemed to only be Apexes. So… did that mean that the plant spirits were stronger than Battle Heaven’s officials?

Li Hao rather doubted that. It was too difficult to say without actually seeing a plant spirit, neither was this a good time to venture into a ruin. If there were Hu powerhouses hiding within, alongside the primary body of a plant spirit, the young man would be in for a world of trouble.

This couldn’t be all the experts that the Hu family possessed. How could it just be the Hu patriarch and his son keeping the world in order for eighty years? Did they rely on the Judgment Guard alone?

Under normal circumstances, most of these factions possessed a troop of elites specializing in ruin exploration. Most of these members were martial masters. The Xus that held the Steadfast Duke title possessed such a troop as well. It was said that their ruin was that of Tranquil Star City—the sacred land of ancient civilization. It was unknown if that rumor was true or false. Xu Qing had invited Li Hao to explore it with him before he died.

“Each of the nine ministries has a divine weapon holding down the fort.” Li Hao looked around the area. “However, none of the ministers that we killed carried one on them. The one from the Ministry of Commerce pawned his Hover Sword for his debts. The others only took out regular weapons and didn’t even bring out the kind that could fight on their own…”

The Hus hadn’t either! Hu Mingfa hadn’t brought the divine weapon of the Judiciary. Only the old minister Qian Wanhao had brought the Hover Sword with him. It was said to have been forged by Lu Zhen, but Li Hao didn’t know if that was the ministry’s divine weapon either.

The nine ministries had utilized multiple divine weapons on the day he killed Hu Xiao. They were so formidable that Stellaris had been provoked into responding. But he hadn’t caught a glimpse of a similar weapon when he killed Hu Mingfa.

Li Hao actually lacked key knowledge regarding the nine ministries. The royal family had given him some material regarding the institutions, but left out everything having to do with their divine weapons. There was only basic information furnished for subjects like these. And now, it was even less likely that they would supply any confidential information.

Deputy Zhou was about to respond when Li Hao suddenly whipped his head around and looked at where the offices were located in the front. There was a furtive figure there, skulking through the shadows.

Several other figures surrounded it in the blink of an eye. Hong Yitang smiled faintly, Hou Xiaochen crossed his arms. Sky Sword was a bit slow, and Southern Fist and Light Sword even slower.

The unknown figure moved like a wraith; a hint of wariness marked its gestures. These guys… had such strong perception!

“You’re one of the overlords of the age, why scurry around in the shadows, Minister Chen?” Li Hao said calmly.

“Impressive!” Chen Yao smiled. “This place is indeed a dragon’s pool and a tiger’s den. I just wanted to probe the environment and see how the defenses of the Skystar Commander Office are. It seems that they are very capable!”

Inwardly, he took a sharp breath. He was strong, he really was. After Li Hao fought them in the capital, all sides had furiously enhanced themselves. He’d fortified himself to three element Arcanus, but was still instantly discovered when he snuck into the complex.

And he wasn’t detected by Li Hao! That was terrifying. Had Sky Sword and the rest all become three element Arcanus? Chen Yao wanted to snort at them—were they that rich? Even when it came to advancing himself to three elements, it’d been a slightly painful affair for his finances. He’d required drops of Water of Life to the tune of several hundred million mysterious power stones to stabilize his cultivation level.

Breaking through was possible for Arcanus, but each breakthrough first relied on mysterious power stones, second on plant spirits. The third came down to whether one’s mysterious power, internal force, blood qi, and body itself was of sufficient caliber for the advancement. Otherwise, simply relying on Water of Life wouldn’t prove to be effective.

Each progression consumed a significant amount of resources. How could the poor beggars of Silver Moon improve so quickly? That was rather unexpected. Even if Li Hao had so many treasures on him, he couldn’t turn it all to strength so quickly, could he?

“Li Hao, I’m thinking that there might be some things that you don’t understand with the institution that you’re about to establish,” Chen Yao replied without a flicker of change in his expression.

Li Hao smiled. The Chen father and son… were an interesting duo. They were classic fairweather allies. If he was to say that they were corrupt, well, they weren’t fully corrupt. But neither was the Inspectorate all that good. In terms of good, the father and son had helped him last time. When it came to mundane cases, it was only the Inspectorate that did a passable job.

Father and son were the typical sort of not expending one iota more effort than needed, but also not committing one bit less than was required. Their deaths seemed imminent if anyone ever asked anything from them.”

When it came to the Inspectorate, it could only be described as mediocre! That ministry was as mediocre as Chen Yao and his father. It was neither here nor there, neither good nor bad. There were two old ministers ranked ahead of them; there were plenty of other ministers ranked behind them. Their authority wasn’t the greatest, but neither was it the smallest. Their strength wasn’t the greatest, but neither were they the weakest.

One had to say, sometimes it was people like this who seemed the most disagreeable and irritating. Exemplary in nothing, yet refusing to fall to the rear. They were a sight that offended the eyes.

“You’re too polite, Minister Chen!” Li Hao also found it wordless that the inspector general had snuck in like he was up to no good. The young man didn’t mind conversing with their visitor, however. He’d never had a proper conversation with this one. He was curious what the other was here for.

“Let’s just find a random place to sit. It’s my first time here as well, so I’m none too familiar with it.” Li Hao walked to a pavilion in the middle of a lake. This was quite a large backyard as it held an artificial lake and had space for a pavilion in its center. With the wintry gusts howling around them, it would be quite an outing if there was a grill in the pavilion. They could cook skewers and enjoy some wine.

“Folks… give us some space?” Chen Yao looked at the others still surrounding him. What are you still in my face for?

They laughed and vanished without a trace, just as they’d come. They were so strong that it put pressure on Chen Yao. These Silver Moon people improved too quickly.

……

Within the lake pavilion.

There were no cozy fireside chats, steaming mugs of tea, or grilling meat. There were only wintry gusts howling around the two. As the wind wrapped around Li Hao, it gradually began to calm. It was like the wind itself avoided the young man.

Li Hao took a seat; Chen Yao took a seat across from him. It was only now that Li Hao truly saw the inspector general clearly. He wasn’t old—forty years old at most. At the same time, looks didn’t mean much. The man was on the skinny side, not too tall, and a bit flippant. He seemed more like a hooligan on the streets.

Chen Yao suppressed the urge to shift uncomfortably, he wasn’t at ease here. Since the two weren’t drinking tea or wine, they were stuck staring awkwardly at each other.

etvolare’s Thoughts

And folks, the wonderful Tsunami has put togther a Gdocs submission form for typos, so if that’s more up your alley, please feel free to utilize them! You’ll also see what typos I’ve corrected out of the ones submitted, so if one really irked you before, it might be gone now!

As y’all know, I had a wonderful proofreader Bel who unfortunately went MIA at the beginning of the year. There was already a backlog of chapters for him to go through, so things were definitely a bit rocky for a while. I had a pretty tough summer mentally speaking and then we had that Nova tier fiasco with the new site in October, so there’s definitely been some silly (and sometimes funny lol) typos. I’ve really tried to tighten the ship up lately, so things should be looking a lot better! I appreciate everyone who’s been putting them through on Discord (thank you Augusto) and for folks’ patience in general.