Chapter 433: Secrets (IV)

Li Hao was much more composed than the deputy thought. The young man never held the opinion that there was a need for anyone to go to any trouble on his behalf. Even when he encountered the scarlet shadow, he only hoped that his teacher would help him after he first helped Yuan Shuo progress to Dominator. Before that, he’d rather take everything in his own hands.

Favors were the hardest debt to discharge in the world! Some could never be paid off. They were too troublesome.

......

Li Hao escorted Deputy Zhou back to the military camp after they left the tent. Yuan Xingwu sent off the deputy, his thoughts a mystery.

“Wang Ming’s information isn’t complete,” Deputy Zhou said when they walked a long distance away. “I have a complete copy that’s more or less correct, unless someone’s hidden themselves very deep. Have a look.”

He fished out a small pamphlet from his pockets. “This is all the information that we’ve collected so far. Also, what you see and hear may not be true. None of your teacher’s disciples are simple characters. It was already quite complicated when Hou Xiaochen asked Hu Dingfang to lead the last expedition. Hu Dingfang is Chen Yuhua’s husband, while Yuan Xingwu is Chen Yuhua’s senior brother. Therefore, the Skystar Troops say they’re at odds... but reality is difficult to gauge.”

Li Hao pretended to not hear any of it.

Don’t talk to me about this nonsense! There’s no use! My goal in the ruins is very simple—get stronger.

He wanted to comprehend the water and wood auras, as well as collect mysterious power stones and origin weapons for the little sword. As for other matters... he’d promised Hou Xiaochen that he would help the man obtain the origin weapon, so he would. Who cared about a second eruption of the supernatural or disaster developing when the city was unsealed?

Why think so much? What does it have to do with me? Is the world ending relevant to me? If we’re going to die, we can all die together!

Deputy Zhou suddenly felt that he was preaching to deaf ears and was quite disheartened by the situation. The young man kept himself in check very well! Nothing he said was getting through! He’d said so much, but it was like Li Hao hadn’t heard a word he said. He didn’t offer anything in response and didn’t seem interested in learning more about Yuan Xingwu.

“Li Hao,” the deputy finally voiced what he was most curious about when they were almost back at camp. “Why don’t you ask about how many secrets we know? I might tell you.”

The young man remained silent, baring his teeth in a grin when the deputy remained looking at him. “When it comes to secrets... there are no more secrets when the enemy is all dead. Secrets can be buried!”

“......” Deputy Zhou furrowed his brows and looked sharply at Li Hao. This answer was wholly unexpected. What did the young man mean by it? Were his bloodthirsty tendencies that strong, or was he saying this on purpose to elicit a reaction?

Li Hao couldn’t be bothered to share more of his thoughts. It wasn't that he was bloodthirsty or not curious, just that he was thinking back to what that murderous fiend had said in the illusory realm.

Surrender if you know what’s good for you. I’ll kill all those who don’t!

Everytime Li Hao thought of these words, he felt that there was no point in interrogating enemies for secrets, showing mercy, or forcing them to capitulate.

I have the strength to kill you all, and I will if you don’t commit suicide!

Mmhmm, things were just that simple! That free and easy mindset was what he should look up to!

Therefore, Li Hao was truly not interested in the secrets that these people kept. Perhaps they considered those little pieces of information near and dear to their heart and were deathly afraid of others knowing. Whatever it was, it was all jokes.

When he possessed sufficient strength, he would kill them all with one stroke no matter what the secret was.

Just hang onto your precious little bits. You have nowhere to share them in death!

One’s greatest regret might be having unvoiced secrets at the moment of death. What a pity that would be!

Deputy Zhou gave up the notion of holding a conversation. He walked forward, sighing to himself. This was exceedingly bizarre. Yuan Shuo hadn’t taught Li Hao how to kill, so was the young man truly too bloodthirsty in his very nature, or had some unexpected occurrences taken place along the way?

Li Hao watched Deputy Zhou return safely and thought back to everything he’d heard and seen today. He suppressed it all in the depths of his heart. So there was civil discord in Silver Moon. How interesting. But was it real or a sham? Regardless, whoever survived to present day in Silver Moon was no kind soul.

He walked forward instead of leaving the camp. Wang Ming was still waiting for him. The handsome supernatural suspected the oncoming armored soldier as Li Hao, but he wasn’t certain.

“You were looking for me, brother? Answer me this first, what kind of animal is Panther?”

“......” Li Hao jerked to a halt. This kid exercised caution when he shouldn’t and was completely blind when he should! “A dog!”

Wang Ming beamed. “You’re finally here! Where were you earlier?”

I waited a long time for you!

“Come out!”

“I’m grounded.”

“Come out, it’s fine.”

Alright then. Wang Ming looked at the soldiers guarding the entrance and took a step forward. Much to his surprise, they didn’t react. They wouldn’t let him leave before. Therefore, Wang Ming set this aside and quickly walked toward Li Hao.

The young man turned and left, leaving Wang Ming to catch up to him. They put some space between themselves and the military camp before Li Hao addressed Wang Ming.

“Who told you to ask Classified Affairs for information?” he asked wearily.

“Huh?” Wang Ming blinked. “I... didn’t? What would I do with them? I just asked some friends to poke around for me.”

“......” Li Hao didn’t know what to say.

Ooookay.... so Deputy Zhou didn’t say a single true word just now, did he?

Well, granted, the man hadn’t known who he was at first. So he’d said that on purpose?

I have absolutely fuck all to say about what I just endured then.

These people lied at the drop of a hat after being officials for so long. They felt absolutely no cognitive dissonance about it. It was impossible to say which of the deputy’s words had been true and which had been false. Neither did Li Hao want to dwell further on this.

“Where’s the information?” Although he’d gotten a copy from Deputy Zhou, Li Hao trusted Wang Ming more. Besides, a quick comparison would reveal truth from falsehood.

“Right here...” Wang Ming took out a large notebook from the inside of his jacket. Li Hao casually tossed a ring at him.

“Storage ring. Don’t shove everything into your clothes next time, that looks pitiful!” He didn’t lack storage rings for the moment as he’d collected a great deal. The six Solars possessed storage rings, as did the seventeen Solars and two Novas that’d died later. Yu Xiao and Huang Jie also had one each, which meant that Li Hao had twenty-five of them. He’d given one to Liu Long and kept the rest for himself.

Wang Ming was overjoyed! This was an expensive object.

“You’re the best, senior brother!” He fawned over his senior brother as best he could, but Li Hao couldn’t be bothered to listen. He took a look at the handsome supernatural and thought for a bit. “Breakthroughs are easy for supernaturals, all you guys need to do is to break your locks. You see five of yours, right?”

“Yes!” Wang Ming affirmed excitedly. “I’m a genius!”

Five supernatural locks meant that he could make it to Nova. The caveat was that he possessed sufficient capital to do so. Otherwise, seeing even nine locks would be useless. However, five locks did make him a genius. Hao Lianchuan could see only four and thus stopped as a Solar. He would have to pay an incredible price to manifest his next supernatural lock.

“Will you be able to ascend to Solar if I give you enough metal mysterious power?” Li Hao considered the problem.

“I can’t.” Wang Ming shook his head after mulling it over. “It’s not just a matter of mysterious power at that stage and it’s rather dangerous for us to ascend as well. There seems to be another test to go from Solar to Nova. I’m not sure of the details, but it might have to do with some stuff on a mental level. Solar is not a problem with sufficient energy, but it needs to be absorbed bit by bit.”

He couldn’t digest so much at once.

“What if there was sufficient power of the kind that helped you break through to Sunflare?”

Wang Ming’s eyes lit up! He’d advanced to Sunflare because of special metal energy that Li Hao had sent him. He couldn’t forget it even now. It lacked the violence of mysterious power and was very gentle. It was quite comfortable to absorb and he’d almost moaned in pleasure.

Most importantly, the effects were amazing! It didn’t tax his body as much after he broke through. Thus, he looked at Li Hao with a burning gaze. Was his senior brother going to give him more valuables?

Li Hao looked back at him and said after a moment, “I know many supernaturals, but not that many are close to me. Those willing to help me at crucial moments are even less. You guys count as my junior brothers and sisters at the very least. Would you be willing to take a stand for me if I run into danger?”

“Of course!” Wang Ming quickly said. “Is there any doubt? But... you... can’t go against my family. I won’t stand for that.”

“Why would I ever do that?” Li Hao grinned. “Take this batch of mysterious power to Hu Hao, Li Meng, and Yun Yao. I won’t be visiting them. As for you, let’s wait until I exit the ruins.”

He knew many supernaturals, but these were the first that he’d met and his teacher had accepted them as honorary disciples. Although that’d been a random impulse, it meant there was still a tie between them.

Supernaturals found it easy to ascend, martial masters found it hard. If the amount of energy that’d gone to Liu Long’s organs had been gifted to Wang Ming instead, the latter would’ve become a Solar a long time ago. It wasn’t exaggeration, just the truth. He would be far down the Solar path.

There were many drawbacks to the supernatural domain and their truly powerful wanted to convert to martial masters. It could be seen from this that their people knew of their path’s inherent problems. Thus, their next step at the Nova level was to consider how to convert to martial dao.

However, Li Hao didn’t think that the supernatural was all bad. Some of their methods were very formidable. He tossed another storage ring to Wang Ming. “There are some items for cultivation inside.”

“You really are the best, senior brother!” Wang Ming fawned. Too bad he wasn’t a girl, it would be much more comfortable that way.