Chapter 858: Luxurious Equipment (II)

The key to Li Hao’s decision lay in the fact that he also needed the weapon forge more. He couldn’t just rely on the Battle Heaven Army for all of his armor needs. If he could study it and replicate his own equipment, that would be for the best. The key to a division was exercising control over a weapons factory.

“Then I’ll take the weapon forge!”

“I thought that the commander would choose this one!” Zhang Liang wasn’t surprised. This was a very useful item. “I’ll fetch the items right away. Don’t forget about me, commander...”

Li Hao rolled his eyes. This guy was seriously a bureaucracy fanatic.

“I won’t!”

Zhang Liang entered the warehouse and spent a lot of time before emerging. He handed multiple storage rings to Li Hao. They were crammed full of armor and a variety of armaments and supplies. Li Hao swallowed hard, he was rich! So these were the benefits enjoyed by true division leaders!

His troop leader position before had been too fake. It came with nothing! There wasn’t even a salary, just a set of armor. Li Hao had been thinking that the old tree was just giving him a nominal honor, but now it looked quite worthwhile. This was so much better than hundreds or even one thousand drops of Water of Life!

This was a treasure that couldn’t be purchased with money!

Li Hao was overjoyed and didn’t stay long. He exchanged a few more words with Zhang Liang and promised again that he would raise the request before leaving.

......

It would take three days for the big tree to finish converting all of the Water of Life. Li Hao wasn’t planning on remaining in Battle Heaven during this time. Time was of the essence for him these days.

He left without bidding farewell to Director General Wang and the others. Upon seeing the crystalline tree at work when he exited the city, Li Hao asked, “General, Deputy Commissioner Zhang of Military Supplies has been acting commissioner all this time. The army commander and city lord are absent and there is no one to officially install him in that position. I hope that the general can do so.”

“......” The old man projection manifested from the tree trunk and stared at Li Hao. Had the kid gotten addicted to requesting favors to the point of asking for promotions for others?

Regular guardians would not be involved in matters like these unless it was an emergency situation. Zhang Liang’s condition was not an emergency. The general wanted to refuse outright, but Li Hao coughed.

“General, I hear that there are still thirty-six auxiliary plant spirits that are yet to revitalize in the city. They need large sums of energy as well. Although the general is awake again, that was barely managed. I will seek out more treasures to help the general recover...”

The general swallowed his original response.

This kid is getting interesting!

“I’ll bring it up with the old turtle, this is but a small matter.” He nodded with a smile.

𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

“Thank you, general!” Li Hao beamed brightly.

See, I took care of it for you!

“But why... haven’t I seen the thirty-six auxiliary plant spirits yet?”

“They’re almost dead,” sighed General Pagoda. “They gave up absorbing their own energy in order to save mine. I brought them into my core origin sea at the last possible second. They are still alive so long as my core origin remains. However... they will all die if I fall silent.”

Li Hao snapped to attention with profound respect. These thirty-six plant spirits had given up their chance of survival in order to let this one survive. This was very worthy of respect.

“Then I will revitalize them as best I can!” Li Hao promised. “Ah... what level of strength is the general and those auxiliary generals?”

“Me?” laughed the old tree. “Not worthy of mention. All of the guardian plant spirits of the eight main cities are of the Saint level. The auxiliary plant spirits have varying degrees of strength. The weakest is only Apex and the stronger is Immortal.”

“Then the ten of Skystar Town are all Immortals...” Li Hao frowned. Were the plant spirits of the main cities weaker? There were even Apex level ones! As for the old tree being a Saint, that was to be expected.

“It’s normal, there’s more energy there, so they improve faster,” laughed the general. “The... plant spirits there... are also... wilder...”

Li Hao didn’t understand.

“They were recruited from the wilderness,” General Pagoda had to be frank. “So they are indeed strong, but they lack certain things. Our side comes from a right and proper heritage, we’re even from the same clan. The thirty-six auxiliary generals, for example, are all of the pagoda tree bloodline.

“Our coordination is naturally stronger when it comes to synchronized action, joint defenses, and setting up restrictions. But since our origins are simple, that makes for varying levels of strength. One clan will not produce that many powerhouses...”

Plant spirits have clans too?!

Li Hao started.

“Beast spirits have families and bloodline heritage, so why not plant spirits?” The pagoda tree smiled as it seemed to know Li Hao’s thoughts. “The origins of my family are respectable as well. There are several major clans among the monster spirits, ones such as the Monster Spirit Envoy and the Sea Pacification Envoy.

“First among us is the one at the imperial palace. That the imperial palace guard could gain sentience and take up its position has much to do with the august personage at the imperial palace.”

Li Hao nodded, this he knew. He’d once seen a wretched old man in the little tree’s memories who fed a fruit to the little tree’s father.

“Second among us was the first tree since the dawn of time. If the first did not benefit from the imperial majesty... then that tree would’ve been ranked behind this one.”

The first tree to ever exist! Okay that was pretty awesome.

“Third is our bloodline. Our ancestor was partnered with a supreme powerhouse. They brought order out of chaos in New Martial and turned to the light from the darkness, swearing loyalty to the Human King. Therefore, we were the first plant spirit to serve the Human King in the New Martial era.”

Li Hao understood. That was quite an impressive background, no wonder the pagoda tree was so proud!

“Then are there plant spirits at my family’s ancient city?” He couldn’t help but ask. Where

was

his clan’s city, anyhow? He had no inkling of a clue even now. Where was the Li family city out of the eight main cities?

General Pagoda paused before responding, “There should be some... but I don’t know if they’re still there.”

What did that mean? Were they dead?

The general coughed gently. It was only now that Li Hao realized they were communicating via speech and not mental strength. This was different from the other plant spirits.

“The Li clan... is the Sword Sovereign’s territory. We didn’t visit there in regular times, but did know that there was a sword tree there before. It didn’t talk much to us. The Sword Sovereign is a... a bit ah... um...”

Um ah what?

“A sword tree?” Li Hao asked curiously.

“Yes, a sword tree. It was a bit eccentric and didn’t like to come in contact with us. Therefore, I don’t know either if it left with the Sword Sovereign in the final critical moments or stayed. Or maybe it’s already dead.”

Alright then, a cranky and unsociable tree.

Sounds difficult to get along with.

“Then can I go look for my family’s city?”

“That would be difficult,” General Pagoda answered outright. “It isn’t that we’re keeping it a secret from you for you to supply more resources to Battle Heaven, but that the Li city was the heart of the eight cities back in the day. After the world changed around us, it might’ve moved to the Star Gate. In that case, it would be almost impossible to find now. You might be able to after the second awakening, because the city might’ve entered the broken space...”

“Do you mean the void that is created when an Apex rips through space?”

“Yes.”

Alright then! Li Hao sighed. That was impressive and entirely out of reach. Of course, this might not be the truth. It was a conjecture. Meanwhile, the young man daydreamed that he might be able to outright become the city lord after entering the city.

The pagoda coughed gently as his thoughts ran wild. “Ah, you should refrain from seeking out the ancient city.”

“Why?”

“If there is anyone alive in the Li city, you might be locked up when you go there and beaten everyday!” sighed the general.

“......” Li Hao paused. What the hell?

“You’re too weak and you cultivate a motley array of mismatched methods. The Lis focus on the sword. They’ll see you as forgetting your origins and force you to train exhaustively with the sword. Dying from too much training is a very normal occurrence.”

That crazy?

Li Hao was speechless. Although he didn’t fully believe what he heard, it still sounded terrifying. On second thought, he wouldn’t look for his family’s city for a while.

“Ah yes, General Pagoda, I have the mallet of the Hongs. I might know where their land of heritage is. Can I go with the mallet to access it?”

“You better not for now!” the general hastily responded. It hadn’t known about this beforehand. “The opening of each one of these places causes a certain change in the world. These lands furiously absorb energy and might cause an explosion at the Skystar mine. That would immediately cause the second awakening!

“I’ve only just awoken and if the second awakening occurs ahead of time, Silver Moon will be hard pressed to resist the traitorous soldiers or plant spirits from all sides...”

“Is that so?” Li Hao’s eyes shot wide open. “I have an enemy who also has weapons of the eight families. Will he cause the same effect if he accesses a land of heritage?”

Ying Hongyue!

“Correct! Of course, the caveat is that he is able to use the weapon and find its corresponding location. He will be able to accomplish that then.”

Ying Hongyue could use the weapons, but it remained to be seen if he knew where to use them. Li Hao was familiar with the Hong family location and he had their mallet. Had Ying Hongyue not discovered that stone door before? Or did he know of it and feel that there was nothing in it for him to bring about the second awakening?

After all, setting that into motion ahead of time didn’t mean any benefits for modern humans. They were too weak and wouldn’t improve that swiftly after the second awakening. It was only now that everyone was stuck at the same bottleneck was a second awakening a good idea.

The possibilities ran through Li Hao’s mind—he didn’t want the second awakening to take place now, so he had to stop Ying Hongyue. Since he’d asked everything he wanted, there was no time to waste.

“Then please take your time, General Pagoda. I will return in two days.” Li Hao swiftly left after bidding the general farewell.

The tree relaxed only after the young man left. The little fellow was difficult to send on his way!