Chapter 701: Changes (IV)

The Inspectorate.

They were indeed holding a meeting at the moment and were short on two deputies. One was Yellow Dragon, the other was Yao Si. Yao Si had pled health too poor to attend.

The inspector general scrutinized a document from beginning to end. It was full of words, but they all boiled down to the same thing—Li Hao would start killing if he wasn’t promoted! It wasn’t the young man who’d written it, Yao Si had sent it over.

The inspector general mulled over it before saying, “Yao Si recommends promoting Li Hao to deputy director at the Night Watchers and vice minister here. He would be replacing Yellow Dragon’s position. What do you guys think?”

No one responded. Their superior looked at them for a long moment before repeating, “I said, what do you guys think?”

“We leave it up to the inspector general!” the group hastily responded. Some wanted to refuse the request, but gave up when they thought of Li Hao. Forget it, they were all afraid of death. If they refused and Li Hao learned of it, what was the point of offending him when even the nine ministries couldn’t take him down?

A bunch of ministers and vice ministers had died yesterday! This was just the position of vice minister on the table. If he wanted even the position of principal minister... So long as the inspector general was willing to step down, the rest of them wouldn’t have any opinions otherwise.

The inspector general could discern what his subordinates were thinking. A wave of weariness washed over him.

The fuck you guys mean by all this!

The nine ministries had lost the battle with Li Hao yesterday and ultimately chose to back down. Sometimes, backing down once meant that future salvaging of the circumstances would be difficult.

“He’s too young...” murmured the inspector general.

“He is indeed young, sir, but he’s the Skystar Marquis and Skystar Governor General. Most importantly, he’s very strong as an Arcanus. It’s not good to refuse him, is it?”

The inspector general blinked.

I haven’t said anything about turning him down, but you bastards are in such a hurry to curry favor! Have you forgotten that the Inspectorate belongs to my Chen family?!

“So, you all think that he should be promoted?” The inspector general swept a wordless glance over the assembly.

No one responded—a sign of tacit acceptance. This was one of the very few occasions in which no one protested. One reason was that they didn’t dare, the second was that they couldn’t.

“He’s well known now, but he also represents the Inspectorate,” explained one of the deputies. “Being vice minister means that he’ll raise our profile with anything he does.”

Raise their infamy, more like! The inspector general cursed to himself before nodding. “Very well, then let’s do it like this!” He suddenly laughed, “Isn’t he Hou Xiaochen’s old subordinate? Hou Xiaochen isn’t a vice minister, isn’t he?”

No one made a sound as they didn’t understand what the inspector general meant.

“Then this is good!” The man stroked his chin. “This is perfect! Send the document to the Ministry of Administration. Don’t they like to make the decisions? Have them approve it!”

The appointment of vice ministers needed to follow procedure; both the Ministry of Administration and Examinations were required to verify the gesture. The inspector general wanted to see what those two thought at the moment.

Would they refuse? It’d be so interesting if they refused! Those who watched a show wanted nothing more than for the show to grow bigger. Since the inspector general hadn’t been able to render timely instance in Li Hao’s hour of need, then he would add flowers to the young man’s glory. As for how he would offer additional splendor, that remained to be seen.

“Right, notify Li Hao that the Ministry of Finance relinquished a second rank ruin. It’s the site of a martial university. Ask him if he’s interested in exploring it. But it’s very dangerous,” laughed the inspector general. “Just go tell him!”

As he left, someone’s whisper followed him out. “Inspector General, do we uhh... notify him of future meetings?”

“......” The inspector general paused. “No!”

He left in a hurry. Notify Li Hao of their meetings? How about no! What if the kid continued to take the opposite stance of him? Was he supposed to fight the kid? Or behead him? What if the kid beheaded him instead? Who knew what would be the outcome of everything?

......

Skystar City was very animated on this day. Li Hao spent the entire day inside. A bunch of Silver Moon martial masters conversed with each other as they recovered from wounds and cultivated. This was a rare opportunity, so regardless of whether or not they shared grudges or other feuds, all of the martial masters took advantage of a temporary lull in fighting to exchange martial reflections.

Tyrant Blade had the floor in the middle of a large house. The domineering bladesman was denouncing with a cold expression, “Yuan Shuo, don’t go thinking that your Five Styles is the only way! Your path of refining the spirit and strengthening the five organs may not be the right path!”

“So you’re saying that mine is a deviant, illegitimate way?” Yuan Shuo harrumphed with irritation. “Martial masters should focus on mind intent! When the mind is strong, everything is strong. I am a firm believer that when mind intent is strong enough, the effects are fed back to the body. The five organs being weak won’t be a problem!

“A strong mind intent means a strong body, we’re just in a period of weakness at the moment. When our mind intent transforms, it will naturally strengthen the body! We would even be able to discard the physical body then if we wanted to.”

“Bullshit!” He Yong grumped. “Blood qi is the key... All is strong when the physical body is strong. Have you never heard of the saying that through the body is corroborated dao?”

“No no no, I think the key lies with the aura...”

No one among the group of martial masters was willing to concede their points. Yuan Shuo sat comfortably, his leg crossed like he was out for a day of fishing. “Right right, all of you are right. Therefore, don’t strengthen the five organs. Whoever dares to secretly strengthen them is a pig!”

“......” The premises were quiet for a second before even louder curses broke out!

“Everyone, isn’t it good to have a balanced development?” someone asked carefully. “I can tell that there’s only so many paths ahead of us, and they all have to do with the supernatural locks. My master places a high importance on the circulation of the five organs, but that’s not a major circulation either. If we combine all of our knowledge, wouldn’t that create a major circulation of the entire body?”

Yuan Shuo rolled his eyes and couldn’t be bothered to say anything.

“It’s easy to say so,” Hou Xiaochen said softly. “Judging from our current knowledge, there are at least twelve locks in the human body. Yuan Shuo has completed a circulation of the five organs—that is already a peak accomplishment. It’s not hard for us four to complete the circulation of our limbs, that’s a foundation. If your master can organize it all, then he’ll complete the circulatory system of nine supernatural locks. In that case, that will be some clues for the road ahead...”

“That’s the theory and we all know that it will strengthen us as a comprehensive whole,” Sky Sword added faintly. “The key thing is, it isn’t easy to cultivate and hard to organize into one system. Keep in mind how difficult it is to blend two breathing methods together, not to mention breaking twelve supernatural locks.”

Li Hao nodded. He was a junior here, whether in terms of strength or martial dao understanding. After he raised the question, the general consensus was that just speaking of the theory was no use, he needed to actually put it to use and put everything together.

Who didn’t know that it was better to develop as one comprehensive whole? As strong as Yuan Shuo’s potential was, he’d only completed making a circulatory loop of the five organs to this day.

“Can the supernatural locks directly enter the circulation system of the five organs?” Li Hao asked after some thought.

“Cut the nonsense!” Yuan Shuo lapped him down verbally. “That’s just playing house! Haphazardly connecting parts of the body will lead to death! Detonation of the body would be the easy outcome then! What are you thinking, or are you not thinking at all? Do you really think my Five Styles is the forced amalgamation of any random five styles? Don’t go around telling people you’re my disciple!”

Yuan Shuo found Hong Yitang nodding in accordance with his words and cursed to himself. “Forget it, even if you say that you’re my disciple, you’re not allowed to say anything else!”

“......” Hong Yitang looked innocently back at the old man.

What are you glaring at me for? I was just agreeing with your words and not nodding randomly. You’re the one who wanted to draw feet for a snake and add to what you said.

“We have a general picture of what everything thinks.” Sky Sword stood up. “I have things to take care of back at Sky Sword Mountain and am in no mood to argue with you. I take my leave!”

“Senior Sky Sword, you...” Li Hao hastily rose to his feet as well.

“There’s no need to say anything!” Sky Sword’s voice came back elegantly on the wind. “Whether it is martial masters or supernaturals, all should resolutely follow their own paths. There is no road ahead since this is a new era, so we can just make our own explorations! Study the supernatural when you have time to. Since the wind and thunder attributes have their locks, then what of the dark, light, life, space, and other special attributes? Don’t be like your master and shut yourself in with your own thoughts, thinking that the supernatural is a shallow field. The supernatural has its unique characteristics!”

The man was long gone. Northern Fist was the next to rise. “I should be going too! Send me out, Little He. Big brother hasn’t chatted with you in a long time...”

He Yong snorted.

Who’s the big brother here? There might be a question of who’s stronger now!

“Where are your manners?” Northern Fist smiled at He Yong. The latter cursed to himself and rose as well.

That old fart bullied me quite a bit back in the day. I’m going to find a place to fight him!

The Northern and Southern Fists left without saying a word to anyone. Tyrant Blade continued his aloof manner and vanished when he stood up.

“Mind intent lies with the brain,” he transmitted to Li Hao. “The aura and mind intent are not the same concept. If mind intent is a type of strength, then the aura is a kind of faith. You can call upon them again when you are familiar with their fundamental differences!”

“I should be getting back to Silver Moon.” Huang Yu got to his feet. “Xiaochen should be careful in staying behind. If Li Hao doesn’t wish to leave yet, stay. Let us know if you need help. Skystar City is a place of much trouble and you shouldn’t linger here for long!”

He left on foot. Each of these martial masters had come with decisive resolution and left with dashing grace. All good things must come to an end and everyone had their own thoughts. It was well enough for old friends to be gathered for two or three days. Any longer might lead to in-fighting.

Li Hao sent them off one by one. Martial masters were hot-blooded, emotional eccentrics. It wasn’t good to force them together in tight quarters. None of them were weak since they’d all made it to their current heights by themselves.

As for the dangers of traveling alone, these martial world old hats were more aware of the potential concerns than Li Hao. Since they dared leave, they were also confident that they wouldn’t be surrounded or hunted down.