Chapter 828: Faux Seven Elements (II)

At this moment, in the basement of the classroom building.

In front of the library.

Puppets crowded in front of the doors, hanging their heads like they were children who’d committed wrongdoing. They didn’t dare look at the Black Armor.

“Do not brashly agitate your lingering wills.” The Black Armor solemnly turned to them. “You are all already dead, you are just the living dead! Do you really want to fly apart into dust?”

“Teacher!” A puppet stepped forward with heightened emotions. “We... wish to return to the main world and join the Human King’s Demon Guards! We want to follow the Demon King and march through the worlds. We wish to illuminate the firmament with the glories of humanity!”

They’d enrolled at Evenround Martial back in the day for this goal, to join the Human King’s personal guard. Ninety-nine percent of those who graduated from the university could join that guard because this place was different. This was an institution of learning created by one closest to the Human King. The descendants of countless powerhouses vied for a spot in its classrooms.

Those who successfully matriculated were selected from tens of thousands. Who’d ever fathomed that they wouldn’t even have a chance to graduate and would sink into oblivion instead?

Frustration, excitement, and fervor rose in their hearts when the Black Armor mentioned the Human King.

We can probably never go back, but our blood still runs hot! The Human King cannot possibly have fallen, he was a truly invincible powerhouse. Therefore, maybe he’s only lost!

That’s right, that has to be the case. It must be that he’s marched so far on his campaign that he’s forgotten the way home and this place. No one else gets lost, but he does. That’s definitely what has happened.

“The Human King has gotten lost again, hasn’t he?” someone murmured. “He got lost after he killed the Heavenly Emperor and made everyone wait for a lot of years. This must’ve happened again!”

“......” The Black Armor was silent, then smiled after a long moment. “That’s right, he must be lost! He was my senior at school and has always been thus. We’ll... wait for him to return and take us with him when he next sets foot into Silver Moon Territory...”

“We leave and return home!”

“Return home!” Their shouts shook the building!

We want to go home!

The Black Armor looked on and laughed silently, but was inwardly filled with resignation and self-recrimination.

Sorry, I really am sorry. I’ve just lied to you guys again. It's been too long! He wouldn’t be lost for so long. You bunch of sillies, we’re very close to the main world. They can get here in a split second or travel through the waters of the Forbidden Sea. They can even project from the main world if they wanted to. They would long be arrived if they could come here.

Something might’ve happened to the main world!

The Black Armor looked outside, seeming to have Li Hao in his line of sight. He laughed silently at the interesting fellow. Perhaps the young man would be the standout of this era. Maybe he could even open the Star Gate. But... so what?

The second he opened it might be the second of his destruction. The Star Gate might’ve become the final barrier.

“Teacher! We of New Martial do not despair!” a puppet suddenly hollered. “You’ve gotten old and are frequently distracted these days! You’re not fit to be a teacher anymore! We’re still enthusiastic about things, so we should be the teacher!”

“......” The Black Armor didn’t know what to say.

Have I gotten old?

Perhaps. He was indeed more sentimental lately. As for the student’s declaration of wanting to be the teacher, that was a commonly heard claim. That was how the Human King had conducted himself back in the day, and he was their idol. All of these brats wanted to surpass their teacher and be the teacher themselves. They wanted to lord it over their teachers and turn the latter into students!

What a bunch of unruly brats!

The Black Armor smacked the offending puppet down to the ground and heavily patted its head. He didn’t stop until the puppet was completely dazed.

“You can be my teacher when you can defeat me. Otherwise... go back to sweeping! Those guys broke some more things, so go fix them. Also, tell Li Hao that he’s being fined 4.5 million energy stones for the damages. Adding on to his previous damages makes for ten million!”

“Alright then!” Resigned puppets disappeared from the scene; they’d been thrashed again.

......

Li Hao finally wore a smile on his face. His ferocious tiger aura slowly disappeared with the ‘fire’ character. There was one less element weighing down on him; the wind and thunder elements were likewise locked into Stellaris. His wood character gradually took shape.

The others watched raptly, particularly Chen Zhongtian! His mouth hung wide open as he felt like he’d spent the entire day in a dream. He’d seen with his own eyes the disappearance of fire mysterious power. Li Hao had completely caused it to disappear! He’d watched as Li Hao summoned various written characters and melded the supernatural lock within them. He’d also observed the young man incorporate the wood aura into one of the characters, then the supernatural lock, and ultimately an eruption of wood mysterious power and the manifestation of supernatural abilities!

Chen Zhongtian was utterly dazed by everything he’d seen today. Everyone present seemed to possess the same capabilities. What was this? A new dao?

By now, Li Hao had fully repaired his body with Water of Life. His organs were back to prime condition, with his heart holding the tiger aura. It was the easiest aura for him to control and influence, whereas the others might not understand him. His auras were slightly weak, but they were sufficient for his purposes.

Just like before, he was a six element Arcanus again. So long as the tiger aura remained hidden, the strain exerted on his body was nominal as in the past. Only Li Hao himself knew that he would be a seven element Arcanus as soon as the tiger aura appeared!

However, his wind and thunder elements were too weak. Li Hao sighed to himself, he wasn’t a true seven element Arcanus in his own eyes. The key lay with his wind and thunder elements lacking their own aura. As such, their strength was mediocre. Ordinary people might think of themselves as a seven element Arcanus, but to Li Hao, he was just a poor little worm of five elements.

Water of Life disappeared rapidly like water emptying through a drain. The little tree expended much of its personal reserves. Li Hao had given it a total of ten million stones in their dealings with each other; it had supplied approximately one thousand drops to the young man. The little tree had expended only three million stones for Water of Life and used almost five million on its own recovery.

It’d spent the remaining two million on its own Water of Life reserves, making roughly five hundred drops. Such was the instinct of plant spirits, much like how squirrels hoarded food for the winter. They banked Water of Life for future use even if they were yet to fully recover. However, the little tree’s stores were completely empty at the moment. The group of humans in front of it absorbed every drop with gusto as they would split apart the second they ran out.

The little tree winced at the consumption! Its pain was somewhat assuaged when it thought of all of the core origin power it’d absorbed. One would not trap a wolf if they weren’t willing to risk the child. Other than itself, only Deputy Zhou could absorb core origin power.

How am I supposed to reap benefits if I do not make an investment? These people are working for me when they fight and kill targets!

That’s right, such was the little tree’s line of thinking. These were worker bees who put in a lot of effort to help it recover, so it had to fortify their bodies well. Its reserves slowly dwindled away until there was almost no Water of Life left in it anymore. The little tree wanted to cry, but comforted itself that it could just make more.

The only person sitting on pins and needles in the group was Chen Zhongtian. Seeing that Li Hao was about to conclude his cultivation, he couldn’t contain himself anymore.

“Commander Li...” He approached cautiously. “What is... what is your condition?”

He’d thought that he’d be the strongest of them all, but he found that he was not by far. Setting aside the little tree, Deputy Zhou was also exceedingly strong as a pure ancient cultivator. Li Hao was so strong that it made him shake. The rest seemed to be peak five elements at most, but there were so many of them!

Yao Si and Hong Yitang seemed to have reached that level, Hong Yitang looked to be close. There were some weaklings that pulled down the average level of strength, such as Manager Yu at almost three element Arcanus or the rather weak three element Light Sword...

Ah, Kong Jie could count as only three elements as well, but his fist was quite hard. This gathering of strength would stun the world, but this group of lunatics were cultivating again. Who knew if they’d erupt one after another and advance to higher levels?

It was terrifying!

“There’s nothing much to my condition,” Li Hao smiled. “We’re just cultivating. Don’t leak this to other people, Minister Chen!”

“Of course I won’t...” Chen Zhongtian smiled awkwardly. “It’s just that... those characters are similar to Tranquil Star’s ultimate art. I know them too. Is there... something special about them, commander?”

“Guess! Or do you want to give them a try?”

Chen Zhongtian didn’t know what to say.

I have to be bold enough to try them first.

Cultivation sometimes looked simple, but setting one foot wrong might lead to one’s doom. This was no joking matter. He’d been observing the group closely and made some conclusions, but he wouldn’t dare try them of his own accord without pointers from someone. It really would be his death!

If he broke all of his supernatural locks and failed to finish the characters, wouldn’t that lead to him exploding on the spot?

“Then... Commander Li, what is the secondary dimension in the human body?”

“How would I know?” Li Hao laughed. “I’m not the one who discovered it.”

Chen Zhongtian was completely at a loss.

Fine then! Don’t speak of it if you don’t want to!

Li Hao truly didn’t know, so he was unable to talk of anything. He knew that it existed, but he couldn’t locate it. He might be able to when his auras were even stronger, but he couldn’t for now. Only the tiger aura could barely manage to understand him and trace the supernatural lock’s trajectory to the depths of the heart. The rest... were still a little ways off from that.

Li Hao looked at the rest—everyone was cultivating, the little tree and Deputy Zhou were devouring core origin strength, as well as one other being... The young man frowned at Panther. The dog was barely doing anything lately and just put in a showing when things developed, but it ate quite a lot. And now, it was absorbing core origin power!

This kind of energy is very precious! What are you eating it for?

“Panth!”

Panther immediately opened its eyes. A sheepish look entered them when it saw that Li Hao was glaring in its direction.

I can eat it too! I’m the descendant of an ancient monster spirit and I’m really good at eating things. Eating stuff is good for me. As for why I’m not doing anything... am I needed to? It was just a replica and we could obviously win, so I couldn’t be bothered to stick my nose where it’s not needed.

The dog was confused when Li Hao remained glaring at it, then suddenly opened its mouth and swallowed the nearby He Yong. It looked fawningly at Li Hao.

See, I’m useful! What can I do? Eat people!

I can put people in my stomach and make them undetectable! You’ll need to bring in a bunch of people to kill the big tree—they’re not an idiot, why would they let you in like that? You just need to bring me in! I can eat people and everything under the sun!