Chapter 294: Cultivation, Temporary Leave (III)

The deputy director glowered and didn’t want to belabor his unfair treatment. “Right, I forgot to mention that Li Hao wants us to fulfill our side of the bargain as soon as possible! We promised him five thousand cubes of mysterious power.”

“The director did mention that. We’re out of mysterious power and he’s spending the next couple of days compressing the blood pearl. That is sufficient to pay off our debt. A Nova-level blood pearl is worth much more than simply five thousand cubes of mysterious power! Countless powerhouses are purchasing blood pearls these days, so Li Hao shouldn’t find this unsatisfactory.”

Very well then!

Hao Lianchuan could only tip his hat at his superior—Old Hou was definitely a wily old fox. He’d planned on outright giving the blood pearl to Li Hao before, but was now using it as their payment. Despite the bait and switch, Li Hao would have no grounds to lodge a complaint.

As for how the young man would choose...

Hao Lianchuan put himself in Li Hao’s shoes for a moment and decided that he would probably choose the Nova-level blood pearl. Those things were expensive and impossible to purchase. There might not be more than a handful Nova blood pearls in all of Red Moon. Mysterious power was comparatively much easier to obtain. There might not be another chance for a crack at a Nova blood pearl if the young man passed up this opportunity.

“Is there still no one from central headquarters?” Hao Lianchuan asked after explaining his reasoning.

Faint derision appeared on the secretary’s face, an emotion that also pulled a vanishing act. “Aren’t you aware of whether or not they’re here? They won’t appear today, however. Perhaps tomorrow, or the latest the day after. You’ll be in charge of receiving them!”

Me, again?

Hao Lianchuan wanted to cry. He didn’t want this lousy task!

Manager Yu was more or less finished with what she’d come to say. She was about to leave when another thought occurred to her. “The director says that the carrot and stick should be used in conjunction. The three great organizations, other supernatural organizations, nine ministries, and even the royal family can participate in future expeditions!

“But there is a limit to the number of representatives they can send and they need to pay the price of one mysterious power stone. You can just release this information!”

Damn, that’s good!

Hao Lianchuan clucked his tongue. The director was going to run a business with the ruins! If attendance was as if before, then a two hundred person team would mean revenues of two hundred stones!

The ruins were not a safe locale. What if the Gold Armor turned out like the Silver Armor and regained its memories at a critical moment? Would it be a... Nova?

Perhaps not just a Nova!

Of course, many had seen the Silver Armor awaken. The three great organizations knew about the possibility, but others didn’t. They would suffer enormous losses if they weren’t prepared.

“I see!” sighed Hao Lianchuan. There was so much random shit to get to.

The most pressing matter was the meeting between the four provincial bodies—that was the key. They needed to sort their internal matters first before turning to face the outside world. Everything would gradually dissolve into a mess otherwise.

There wouldn’t be much trouble with the military or Inspectorate; Old Zhao at the provincial government was the obstinate goat. He was harder to deal with, and perhaps the difficulty would be even higher this time if he’d already been in contact with those upstairs.

Hao Lianchuan knocked on the table as he contemplated. He suddenly smiled when a thought struck him. Picking up a communicator, he made a phone call.

“Tell Silver City to have Li Hao come as soon as possible.”

Li Hao!

He’d thought of Li Hao.

The young man’s strength, status, and reputation were mediocre, but he had a strong teacher. His teacher was a Summoner among martial masters. The faster the kid came to White Moon, the faster he could help Hao Lianchuan with a task.

If he’d known of all this developing beforehand, he would’ve brought the kid back instead of letting him go home.

......

Silver City.

Li Hao began feeling uncomfortable as he continued to absorb mysterious power. Was something going wrong with his cultivation? Surely not!

He put it out of his mind as it was just a small aberration. It’d been twenty-four hours since he entered seclusion. Nonstop digestion had filled him to the point of bursting. His organs were being swiftly fortified and had finally reached an equilibrium of roughly eight hundred cubes each. However, his sword aura wasn’t much stronger.

Auras were hard to enhance through simple energy absorption. Battle was key as well as the strength of one’s enemies. Killing those weaker wouldn’t result in noticeable improvement. Battling powerhouses would lead to a chance of development.

The energy in the sword was much depleted, it felt feeble once more. Li Hao sighed and crushed another mysterious power stone. What a waste. This sword had already eaten three stones! He wouldn’t be able to keep supporting it if this continued—there was just too much mysterious power that he needed to convert at the moment. Thus, there was no choice but to be this wasteful.

The little sword sifted through a flood of energy and picked at the little bit it was willing to transmute to sword energy. Li Hao absorbed the rest, so as to not waste it.

As the spleen strengthened, so did the other organs by virtue of their equilibrium. The earth sword was very stable in his spleen. The organ didn’t rupture at its agitation anymore, a sign that the five organs were sufficient to support a flare up by the earth sword.

Prior to this, Li Hao’s organs were damaged each time it erupted. If that continued, he would become like Hou Xiaochen and cough up blood every time he used his power.

The young man sank into deep thought when his thoughts traveled here.

Eruption... cough... blood...

It was a sign of damage to the organs. Were the director’s organs damaged?

This was highly likely, if it wasn’t an act. Internal damage was always the most tricky to treat. If Li Hao didn’t enjoy the benefit of sword energy, he would be stymied with how to treat his organs when they were hurt.

White Moon City... may be the heart of the storm! I need to keep a low profile when I’m there.

Li Hao once more felt that he wasn’t strong enough for the task, despite having taken in one thousand cubes per organ. He was at most an initial Solar if he deployed his earth sword. He might be a little stronger if his aura emerged from his organ and could bring even more power to bear if he utilized the Incantation of the Blade of Blood, but that still wasn’t enough!

Summoner of Spirit!

Summoning just one spirit was too weak. His most pressing priority was to consider summoning a second spirit after he’d strengthened all five organs. He was going to treat the sword aura as a general outline, so the sword auras of the five elements could be the major topics explored underneath.

I already have the earth sword, so I’m missing the metal, wood, water, and fire swords!

No matter what aura he grasped, it was enough to have a general attribute assigned to it. He could hone it later and incorporate the sword aura into it.

He’d come across the earth aura through a fortuitous occurrence and wasn’t familiar with other auras. While he’d melded two auras together, he treated them as one. It was also harder to comprehend other auras after becoming a Dominator because mind intent had already formed. His original aura would hinder the process of understanding more.

𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

I do have some thoughts regarding the water aura... When the Nine Forged Force reaches its peak, I should be trying to comprehend it through the waves. That’s the water aura. Perhaps I’ll sense another type of sword aura when I perfect the Ghost Shadow Sword...

Secret arts were often relevant to sensing aura. It was very hard to grasp an aura without fully mastering its secret art.

I’ve practiced the Five Styles the most—it’s my foundation. The ape style is my most versed style and the fire heart ape is a kind of fire aura...

Of course, if he were to summon a fire heart ape, it would be a sword instead of an ape!

Li Hao ran through various thoughts as he trained, finalizing his concepts as he mused over them. The path beyond Dominator was up to a martial master’s own thinking. Southern Fists had mentioned that he’d refreshed his blood three times and enhanced his bones and meridians. That was also a way to improve oneself.

Perhaps he could ask the old martial master for tips.

Every veteran martial master shared some commonalities as a Dominator, even if they didn’t locate the path to the next step. Improve blood and qi, strengthen the body, enhance the organs. Everyone was enhancing their organs, they just didn’t dare brashly meld auras, lock auras, and nurture their auras without experience as a guide.

......

The night of September 2nd.

It was the second day after they’d returned to Silver City. Li Hao had broken six mysterious power stones to convert them to sword energy. He finally reached his goal at midnight! All of his organs had absorbed one thousand cubes each, making for a total of five thousand cubes!

It was an astronomical number, but a sum that the young man felt was put to good use. He’d consumed seven stones in addition to the one he’d tried in the car. He had eighteen left—more like twelve, as some were larger than the others and measured beyond one stone.

Li Hao had digested most of his gains from the ruins. He didn’t know how much his strength had improved—who had a handle on that unless they fought in battle?

......

Morning of September 3.

Li Hao walked out of the lounge. He was much refreshed after a shower and a change of clothes. There was a new pendant around his neck—the chain that’d once held Stellaris now held a bronze mirror. It wasn’t too big and came from Qiao Feilong. The mirror had the effect of concealing the presence.

Martial masters weren’t typically exposed that easily. But once they entered Dominator of Thousands, they could easily sense the other’s aura! It was noticeable to martial masters alone as ordinary people couldn’t sense the aura. Meanwhile, no one detected Li Hao’s auras because of this item.

He hadn’t given it much thought at first, but didn’t dare let the mirror stray out of sight as he came across more and more Dominators. Otherwise, those such as the Southern Fists could easily notice some difference in him. Even veteran martial masters turned supernatural like Hong Yitang had vaguely sensed something different.

Li Hao suspected that the bronze mirror had come from the stone door. It looked ordinary, but its function was anything but. It excelled at obscuring presences and might not be fully activated yet. It could be another origin weapon that was sealed.

The possibility occurred to him after seeing Zhang Ting’s Shadow Snake Sword. The sword served a similar function to the bronze mirror, but the mirror could easily conceal presences without needing to recognize an owner.

Therefore, in Li Hao’s eyes, the bronze mirror might be better than the Shadow Snake Sword!

The mirror swung on his chest and the Earthturner Sword was stuck at his waist. He’d tied Stellaris inside his boots with special wrappings. The storage ring from Celestial was placed on his fingers and completely devoid of energy.