Chapter 730: Return to Skystar (I)

Silver Moon, White Moon City.

A long convoy of cars snaked through the streets early in the morning. A black flag with a ferocious tiger and a Li character emblazoned on it hung high over the cars, rippling in the wind like a snarling tiger loftily looking down from a mountain.

People were gathered in the surroundings, looking at the convoy with bafflement. Was it the provincial army? But they’d never seen this flag before. How curious.

There were roughly twenty large cars and multiple smaller cars in the convoy. Such an array had occurred before in early October, when Director Hou Xiaochen of the Night Watchers had traveled to the central region. Which heavyweight was it this time?

“Is a major general heading out on a campaign?” A person in the crowd couldn’t hold in their curiosity anymore.

Someone’s ears twitched in one of the big cars and they called out, “Skystar Governor General, Skystar Vice Commander, and Silver Moon Night Watcher Director Li Hao leads the army to Skystar City today. He will suppress the unrest in the dynastic capital and the Demon Hunters follow in his wake!”

The announcement drew some attention. Wasn’t Commander Li in Skystar City? When had he come back?

Granted, this wasn’t the important part as the crowd exploded with the ramifications of what they’d heard.

𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

“Are they going to war? Director Hou just took thousands of martial masters not long ago and now Director Li is taking so many with him... Are they bringing all of the Silver Moon martial masters to Skystar to turn over the world there?”

“Silver Moon men are the toughest! Didn’t you hear? They’re leading the army to suppress disturbances in Skystar! Heh, we’ll let those southern fellows see how strong us northern men are!”

“......” A flurry of discussion sprang up in all directions.

Contrary to the low profile of his last journey, Li Hao had no choice but to raise this degree of fuss because he was traveling with too many people. He’d wanted to quietly sneak back to Skystar City, but Silver Moon recommended that he travel openly like Hou Xiaochen had. He could adopt the same car convoy that the director had employed to return to Skystar.

The Silver Moon provincial army was sending one thousand people and there were several dozen Demon Hunters as well. That made for more people than when the Silver Moon Guard left the province. However, there weren’t as many powerhouses as that delegation.

The strongest among the Demon Hunters was Liu Long—he’d just set foot in Summoner of Spirit. The other was the Solar level Wang Ming and peak Solar Hao Lianchuan—the latter wouldn’t leave no matter what Li Hao said.

According to Hao Lianchuan’s words, there was no use for a peak Solar within Silver Moon these days. No major matters were forthcoming on the horizon, so Solars were wasted in provincial territory.

Discourse buzzed in the surroundings as soldiers stood with their heads held high and chests thrust out. It was quite a thrilling feeling to be standing on one of the trucks. The Demon Hunters were in two cars, followed by the one thousand soldiers from the provincial army. A young officer stood in one of the cars leading the soldiers. He wore a military uniform and looked around in all directions. His deputy murmured in a low voice, “Sir, there is no sign of Demon Sword to be found.”

The young man nodded without a word. Commander Yu had told him to lead his men and follow Li Hao to Skystar City. He didn’t know what he felt about that. Battles were hard to come by in Silver Moon these days, but Skystar City was a lion’s nest. Arcanus were a common sight and one battle rendered a dozen of them dead. Novas were completely worthless.

The thousand troops that he led counted as strong troops in Silver Moon—they were almost all martial masters and one step away from Slayer of Tens. Meanwhile, the young man himself was a true martial master, a half step Sunderer. But... what good did that count for?

In an era of the supernatural, it didn’t matter if a martial master broke through to Dominator. This troop wouldn’t be able to defeat a Solar even if they were equipped with weapons. Perhaps they’d be able to force the Solar into retreat, but any Nova that came along could annihilate them all.

The young man didn’t understand, why did Commander Yu want to send such an army to Skystar City? He also didn’t understand why someone like Demon Sword needed them. To do errands? Or to enhance his reputation?

Wang Ming’s declaration of suppressing Skystar unrest was a complete joke in his eyes. That was just making themselves to be more important than they actually were! They were so much less than the Silver Moon Guards that’d left with Director Hou. One had to know, of the nearly one thousand Silver Moon Guards, almost all of them were Sunderers. They also possessed multiple Dominators and a group of powerhouses like Golden Spear.

What were these soldiers worth?

The young man turned back to look at the cars holding provincial army soldiers. Some people were excited, others apprehensive. Some felt self-conscious, and others felt uneasy. Plainly, they also felt that they themselves were too weak.

While endless thoughts rose in his mind, the young man still grunted, “Be on guard and conduct reconnaissance in the surroundings! The vanguard will take point when we leave the city...”

“We won’t have to do any of this, sir,” sighed his deputy. “Didn’t you see the Demon Hunters alight earlier to scout ahead?”

“That’s them, we are we.” The young man frowned. “Just because they’re doing it doesn’t mean that we won’t do it!”

What his deputy wanted to say was that it was a futile effort. If someone wanted to attack Li Hao, then small fry such as them wouldn’t be able to do anything no matter how they scouted. But it didn’t seem like a good time to say anything.

The convoy of cars quickly drove into the city outskirts.

......

At the same time, scouts quickly spread word.

......

Skystar City, the Inspectorate.

The inspector general looked at his transmission pendant and smirked. He shook his head, not bothering with words. The boy just wanted to give himself some more confidence and build up his reputation!

One thousand provincial soldiers and approximately fifty of his old troops—a group that Li Hao called the Demon Hunters. Their strongest was a Dominator and Solar... And of the one thousand soldiers, most of them were mundanes! There weren’t that many martial masters...

What use was an army like this if they were one hundred thousand, much less one thousand? Hell, even one million was completely useless!

“Returning in style to his hometown... Does he actually think that he’s in Skystar City to spend the rest of his days in honor and glory?” The inspector general didn’t know what to make of the young man. Since when had he developed a taste for ostentation and extravagance? That was not promising.

As inspector general, he’d seen too many geniuses and knew too much. Those who settled into a life of enjoyment after they accomplished something major usually did not last long. Li Hao had plainly let his previous victory go to his head and was treating Skystar City as his home. He was coming back with one thousand people to pave his road of wealth and riches in the central region.

He’d lost sight of who he was! Thank goodness the Inspectorate hadn’t invested too much in him. He was too young and couldn’t withstand temptation.

......

The inspector general wasn’t the only one to think so. At least the Silver Moon Guards had had some strength to them. What good was one thousand mundanes for, if not putting on a show? Even the Silver Moon soldiers themselves thought so.

We’re just here to run some errands and make him look good. Why else does Demon Sword want us? To kill enemies for him? Solars? Novas? Or Arcanus?

Outside the city.

Dressed in silver armor, Li Hao waited at the city gate for the convoy to arrive. He’d turned his gold armor into silver, keeping his usual low profile. He’d wanted to leave first, but then worried that something might happen to these people because they were too weak. Thus, he chose to travel together in case they were all killed by third parties. He wouldn’t even know who their murderers were!

The convoy gradually slowed down.

“Halt!”

The cars stopped and people jumped out.

“There are fifty-four in the Demon Hunters, fifty-five have reported to duty. All are accounted for!” Liu Long roared.

There was one extra because of Hao Lianchuan. With Liu Long in the mix, there were fifty martial masters. Yun Yao, Li Meng, Hu Hao, and Wang Ming made for four supernatural members.

Li Hao looked at Hao Lianchuan with a slight furrow of his forehead. “Are you sure you want to go with me, Vice Director Hao?” he muttered. “The Silver Moon Night Watchers lack a director already, and if their acting director leaves...”

Hao Lianchuan wasn’t his typical irreverent self. He looked at Li Hao for a while before saying, “I don’t want to stay. If I stay, I’ll continue to get weaker!” He didn’t want to stay!

Li Hao didn’t say anything. The young man jogged over from the rear to salute. The military ceremonies of the Silver Moon provincial army differed from the Battle Heaven Army. Lacking a certain gravitas, it was just a simple raising of the hand.

“Commander Li, the White Moon Guards of Silver Moon number 1,020. 1,020 have reported for duty. All are accounted for and we await the commander’s orders!”

Li Hao nodded. “What is your name?”

“This subordinate is Huang Taiming!”

“What is Commander Yu’s relationship with you?”

“Commander Yu is the Silver Moon commander-in-chief!”

“I mean personal relationship.”

Huang Taiming frowned, but answered, “Commander Yu is my grandfather twice removed. My great-grandfather and Commander Yu’s father were cousins...”

This was a close familial tie, but could also be a far tie. This meant to say that Huang Yu’s great-grandfather and the young man’s great great-grandfather were one and the same, but that was an uncountable number of generations ago.

So his post wasn’t a result of nepotism.