Chapter 1024: Setting Up Army Formations (II)

One stroke from Li Hao returned clear weather and blue skies to the overcast Silver City. But when the young man once more raised his head, it appeared that thunderclouds wished to gather again.

𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

A light glinted in his eyes. There seemed to be a threshold in the upper reaches of the sky, but it wasn’t that distinct. Li Hao didn’t follow the thread of his bloodline; there was grave danger each time he did so.

The rest of the group looked into the sky with him, not seeing anything. Director General Zhao, on the other hand, felt his bloodline stir vaguely.

“I bumped into Ying Hongyue here once before,” he said slowly with a glance at Li Hao. “He said that there is a formation in this area that can extract the bloodline power of the eight families. It also diminishes the strength of our bloodlines, making unsealing inevitable.”

A seal.

Li Hao pondered his words thoughtfully.

“The Star Gate should be nearby,” Director General Wang interjected. “It’s just sealed away and its presence dissipated. That’s why we can’t see or sense it. It was crafted by the greatest forger of New Martial, the Divine Forge Emperor!”

They wouldn’t have dared mention an exalted emperor’s title before, but now they had much fewer reservations about it. It would actually be nice if he could sense their usage and come to them.

Of course, their previous restraint was also born out of respect. Now... it didn’t matter. It was best if these exalted beings heard their name being used and came to investigate.

The Divine Forge Emperor...

Li Hao had heard this moniker before. Many powerful weapons had come from his hand, including Stellaris. The sword was said to be a joint endeavor between the Human King and Divine Forge Emperor.

“The Star Gate is the entrance to this world,” said Director General Wang. “The world was whole and complete to begin with, there were no gaps or holes. Hence, the Star Gate was created to be a passageway between the two worlds.

“It’s located where the bright moon is in the sky. Granted, there’s a limit to Silver Moon’s sky—we can’t fly out of it. We can’t directly reach the Star Gate either. It hovers at the end of the world.”

“Why can’t we fly out of this world?” asked a curious Li Hao. He’d tried to do so before, but found that he could not advance further after reaching a certain height. It was like he’d hit an invisible wall.

“The world barrier of a minor world is the equivalent of a crack,” explained Director General Wang. “The Star Gate is in that crack, we are below that crack, and the universe is outside of the crack. Therefore, anyone flying to a certain height will encounter the world barrier.

“No one is able to break it! Well, if you’re an exalted emperor, then you might have a chance to.”

Forget I said anything. The world barrier!

Li Hao understood now. The Star Gate existed inside the world barrier and connected the minor world to the rest of the universe. No wonder the door he saw seemed to be situated amidst boundless stars.

He lifted his head again and didn’t say much else. Instead, he smiled at the others. “Let’s not talk about the old times yet. We need to hold a military meeting so we can come up with a strategy against Great Li.”

Li Hao turned to the rear, where a vast army was surging their way. There were a lot of people! So many that the wilderness around Silver City could barely hold them. Panting and heaving for air could be heard on the wind.

“Make camp here!” Li Hao’s voice traveled out. “No one is to move from camp without my order!”

“Understood, sir!” bellowed the Battle Heaven Army and Demon Hunter Army. The rest of the army looked around blankly, then shouted back a mishmash of assent.

It was a disorganized sight that brought a deep frown to Director General Zhao’s face. This was... a disorderly rabble!

They really were a motley array that only looked intimidating with their number of two million, but most of them were ordinary citizens. That was why everything was so chaotic and disorganized. Once the fighting started, these people wouldn’t even be useful as cannon fodder. They would just be in the way.

The people that Li Hao had brought with him were almost completely useless. The only positive aspect about them was that corralling them here would prevent them from making mischief elsewhere. That would plunge the northern continent into chaos.

The key was that the upkeep for an army millions strong was a significant burden. Since they were here, they had to eat and drink, no? People could do anything when they were on the brink of starvation.

Li Hao didn’t say much apart from passing on orders for all powerhouses to attend a meeting at the Inspectorate.

Indeed, the Inspectorate. That was where the young man was most familiar with as he’d worked there for a year.

......

The front doors of the Inspectorate.

Fatty Mu Lin was still there. He smiled beatifically when he saw Li Hao and the rest. His older brother Mu Sen twisted his lips with distaste from far away.

What are you beaming so happily for? Is there something good happening? Don’t you see that Great Li is coming for us from the other side of Ash Mountain?

There were also some supernaturals present—they’d been sent from Silver Moon’s Night Watcher headquarters after Li Hao left. They were here to ensure smooth operations and some were old acquaintances with the young man. One of them was Elder Huang who’d been the acting Night Watcher director in Silver City.

The elder’s strength had been very impressive and far out of reach back then. Now he was a Solar who’d cleared a few acupoints—a level that no longer merited a second glance from the others.

“Commander!” Mu Lin’s smile broadened. “Welcome home!”

“Long time no see, Inspector General Mu!” Li Hao smiled in return. He’d come back once after leaving Silver City, but that had been a very short visit. There’d been no time to meet with his old colleagues, so it was quite a happy sight to see them today.

“This way, commander!” Mu Lin quickly gestured. The young man followed him without a second word.

Some of Silver City’s inspectors were watching from the surroundings. Many of them had worked with Li Hao before and were utterly astonished. He was still the shy young man of old in their eyes, the honest hard worker who kept his head down. Who would’ve thought that he’d soar to such heights in just half a year?

No one thought he’d return in this fashion when he left Silver City.

......

To be honest, a mixture of emotions assailed Li Hao as well. Silver City was his home. A lot of secrets were buried here. He wasn’t here this time to investigate hidden knowledge, but to meet a formidable foe in battle. Great Li was still a threat after all these years.

He entered the conference room, quickly joined by all manner of powerhouses. The four guardians of Silver Moon were present, apart from Kong Jie holding down the fort in Skystar City. Many of those in the Record of Thirty-Six were also in attendance, as well as the Ninth Division leader of Battle Heaven, the newly triumphant Gan Wuliang, Liu Long of Silver City, and two more commanders of the provincial army. The long absent Hu Dingfang was one of them.

There were a couple more that Li Hao did not recognize. They came in with Director General Zhao and were quite strong. There were both young and old members among them.

In addition, Chen Zhongtian, the old minister of Internal Affairs—Mu Qingsong, and Yao Si of the Night Watcher headquarters in Skystar City were also present.

Li Hao’s side brimmed with heavyweights. Although Earthturner Sword and Yuan Shuo were in the central region, they’d already received orders to rush to Silver Moon as soon as possible. Deputy Zhou and Lin Hongyu had to stay at their posts in the central region, coordinating with Chen Yao and a few others to ensure that territory remained stable.

It was quite a gathering in the conference room and everyone took stock of each other’s presences with wide eyes. Golden Spear and his companions felt quite a complicated mix of emotions. They’d thought that their strength put them among the cream of the crop, but after they met their counterparts and took stock of the situation...

Fucking hell.

They were the weakest in the room!

“Sit down, everyone.” Li Hao wasted no time. “We can greet each other later. Let’s jump right in. Director General Zhao, give us an overview of the situation.”

“Great Li started sending their troops into Ash Mountain roughly three days ago,” the director general responded swiftly. “They number roughly one million—we’re not certain of the specifics yet. I don’t have more concrete information about their particulars.

“Great Li is divided into two systems, one of the divine temple and one of the royal dynasty. Their view is that power is granted by the gods, so the nation has two leaders. The Great Li king is one and their divine priest is another.

“Great Li cultivates the Initial Martial cultivation system...”

Director General Wang raised a hand to interrupt. Li Hao looked at him to give him the floor. “We can’t really say that it’s the Initial Martial cultivation system because that disappeared toward the end. Initial Martial had each person focusing on one dao and developing all daos together! Initial Martial descendants now train a cultivation system almost the same as ours. There is one difference—they do not cultivate core origin! They focus on elements and body tempering.

“Hence, that makes them very similar to modern martial masters! Strictly speaking, this era is Silver Moon’s Initial Martial if we go off what the commander has said. That’s why there are a lot of similarities.”

Li Hao understood and looked back to Director General Zhao.

“Great Li developed differently from us and revolves around tribes. They are very fierce and valiant because they have many mountains populated by monster spirits. The tribes also fight each other, so this means they may be more experienced than us in battle.

“Of course, I mean the regular soldiers with that. I reached an accord with some ancient experts a while back and summoned nearly one hundred ancient heavyweights from the ruins. They sent out core origin replicas that were almost all at five or six elements.

“And yet... not a single one has returned,” the director general said gravely. “I conversed with the heavyweights and they say that some replicas were killed in a split second. They weren’t congregated together, so that means it wasn’t one person who killed them, but many!”

A veteran martial master that Li Hao did not recognize interrupted at this point. Instead of raising his hand, he broke in, “I know a bit about this...”

“Please go ahead, senior.” Li Hao smiled.

The martial master was unused to seeing everyone look at him.

What? Do we have to raise our hands first?

Being used to doing things as he wished, he was unused to this manner of gesture.

“Great Li is as Zhao says, organized into tribes. Their army of one million is almost all martial masters! It should be the collective mobilization of all of their tribal experts.

“However, the tribes themselves don’t look at each other with friendly eyes. Only their king can command them all—and their divine priest, of course.

“Great Li judges its people via battle strength, and they place a heavier emphasis on it than we do. Their centurions are definitely Dominators, and officers beyond that rival our Dominators! It’s hard for me to compare it to our new martial dao, but based on the previous categorization of supernaturals... Let me put it this way. Those who command contingents of one thousand troops are the equivalent of Sunflare to Solar. Those who command ten thousand troops are definitely Nova.”