Chapter 925: Li Hao’s Tyranny (V)

At the same time.

𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

“Behave. We need to work together, understood?” the redwood tree warned the little jujube tree next to it. “You see it too, even that great one has come to join Commander Li. There will be good things in store for both of us if this succeeds. You know the consequences if it fails!”

“I don’t need you to warn me,” the jujube tree sneered through mental ripples. “It’s always been you targeting me. Go for that imperial guard if you’re so brave!”

Targeting you?!

The redwood cursed.

Have you forgotten what your replica did to me? I didn’t say a word about not working for Li Hao, yet you tried to steal a march on me and have Li Hao bring your primary body out to kill plant spirits. You tried to cast me in a loathsome light! This is just an eye for an eye, a tree heart for a tree heart. I am completely justified!

As for the imperial guard... why don’t you go rot in a swamp somewhere!

Setting aside the fact that the imperial guard was the leader of the plant spirits that Li Hao had personally raised to such heights, the key was that the guard possessed the projection of the imperial palace. The redwood tree was well aware of this key detail. Not to mention, the imperial guard’s identity was so lofty that everyone should show it respect!

Didn’t the jujube tree see how dismissive Director General Wang was towards them, but so polite toward the imperial guard?

Even though New Martial was no more, all related parties were remnants of that age and as such, still observed the requirements of status and position. The imperial guard’s position was higher than the redwood tree since the latter was only a communication tower guard. It was also naturally much superior to the jujube tree.

The Wind and Cloud Pavilion had occupied a high status in the past, but it was no longer so now. It was a captive of war and so any of its plant spirits possessed a lower status than the little jujube tree. Such was reality.

The more the redwood mused, the more the jujube tree irked it. It had to team up with the jujube tree to eliminate a plant spirit! Meanwhile, the imperial guard had taken the two puppets and eight weak plant spirits to move against the final enemy plant spirit.

From how the situation looked, it was the redwood and jujube tree that was the weakest combination. The redwood didn’t dare promise success. But if it failed... that would be the start of real trouble.

A figure appeared on the scene, startling the redwood out of its thoughts. Li Hao had come in person.

Indeed, the young man was here because he wasn’t at ease about this site either. The little tree had the corner of the imperial palace to fall back on and multiple plant spirits under its command. There was a strong chance of it prevailing. On the other hand, the redwood tree was a slippery character afraid of death. The little jujube tree wasn’t that strong yet. It was difficult to say if this duo would be able to eliminate their target.

If anything untoward developed, it would expose his strength of his side and goals.

By now, temporary arrangements were in place for everything outside. The young man had come with Panther, hoping that the plan would proceed smoothly. The black dog was quite strong when it gathered the strength of its bloodline.

“This is... Internal Affairs territory.” Li Hao quickly identified the area based on information previously received from Chen Zhongtian. This used to be Skystar Town’s Energy Department—one of the core institutions. The plant spirit in residence was a sunflower that used to be an initial Immortal.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs had supplied it with mysterious power stones, so it was difficult to determine how much it’d recovered by. It was also hard to confirm if the ministry had arranged for large numbers of powerhouses to be in residence in its ruins.

Their current and old ministers were all aboveground. It was not that straightforward to identify the powerhouses below ground. Various thoughts floated into Li Hao’s mind as he looked at the black fog, then at Panther.

“Eat the black fog in a bit. After you do, both of us will strike and quickly wrap up the conflict. No one is to be left alive!”

The two plant spirits snapped to solemn attention and indicated their understanding of their orders. Li Hao waited for a bit, manifesting his tattered armor to facilitate communication. There was no problem on Director General Wang or the Black Armor’s side. The young man had given the little tree a transmission pendant, so it should be able to receive the news as well.

“Begin!” he issued through the armor.

BOOM!

A massive boom rang out in the distance as a barrier outright shattered—that was where the Black Armor was. Li Hao’s group also made their moves. Panther immediately turned into the golden dog and devoured the black fog in one swallow.

“Who is it!?” A sunflower waved in the breeze on the other side of the black fog. It was highly alert—who was disrupting the disordered core origin?

The black fog dissipated with a rumble, revealing several figures flashing out of it.

“Who... are you guys?” The sunflower jerked with alarm. It wasn’t the bramble rose or any plant spirit it was familiar with. There were two unfamiliar plant spirits and a dog, as well as a human. Where had these people come from?

Several people manifested near the sunflower. “Li Hao...” they identified with consternation.

BOOM!

A ray of sword light illuminated the premises, obliterating those people. Li Hao showed absolutely no mercy. It would be the greatest of losses if these people ruined his plans.

“KILL!”

His shout sent the redwood into full speed. Massive quantities of branches appeared and penetrated heaven and earth, sealing off the area. The little jujube tree fired off thousands of jujube fruit!

Not only that, but the two plant spirits summoned the avenues of their great daos without hesitation and brought them down on the four corners. In a previous fight, the redwood had been unwilling and not daring to utilize its core origin. It learned its lesson after a scathing lecture from Li Hao and struck with everything in its arsenal at the first opportunity. The massive dao of core origin materialized in the sky to suppress the void!

Panther’s blood disengaged from its body to become a golden shadow with a single horn. The power of thunder and lightning gathered around the horn; the shadow whipped its head around to smite the sunflower!

“The Monster Spirit Envoy...” gasped the sunflower. It hadn’t anticipated that its visitors would appear with the intent to fight to the death. Utilizing core origin dao wasn’t of much use in this age, but its mobilization represented one thing—the opponent wanted to sever its target’s great dao. Not even one’s core origin would be spared. It was an indication of a duel to the death!

As dismayed as the sunflower was, it instantly leapt to action. No matter how surprised or shocked it was, it had to set all that aside for the sake of survival.

“Wind!” A gale wind picked up with Li Hao’s utterance; thunder and lightning erupted. A cage of the five elements appeared and slammed down over the sunflower.

The plant spirit attacked the domain of the elements with a barrage of sunflower seeds. Despite the ripples that shifted over the domain, it didn’t break. The seal complete, it severed the connection between the sunflower and the rest of the world.

Rumble!

Stellaris appeared to cut down its target. A mirror manifested at the same time, making the sunflower look around blearily. There were sword shadows everywhere it looked. This kind of momentary distraction was sufficient to be fatal in a clash of heavyweights.

The redwood was highly anxious. It sent countless branches piercing through the air and even took human form, punching the sunflower. It could not leave a bad impression in Li Hao’s mind! The redwood had previously thought that the young man needed it. But when Director General Wang appeared, it felt that its position decreased in importance. Once the Black Armor showed itself, the redwood felt that it was rendered completely irrelevant. Hence, it had to tightly latch onto the young man’s thigh or else face elimination from the world!

Boom!

Numerous heavyweights had struck at the same time. Panther’s thunder and lightning was the first to arrive. It charred the sunflower’s golden leaves with a loud crack, prompting an agonized scream. When a sword hit its main stalk, blood quickly welled out of the mark it left behind and dripped onto the ground.

The redwood’s punch landed squarely on the target as its branches had locked onto the other. A loud crack echoed upon collision and something similar to a heart appeared over the branches.

The redwood beamed with delight!

The greatest credit goes to me this time!

This was the sunflower’s heart of life. Punching it here had been a gamble that the redwood had taken, but it’d paid off.

It was about to shatter the heart when the jujube tree appeared in a rush of core origin. Its indestructible matter burst open as a ray of sword intent erupted from the tree!

Crack!

The heart of life shattered; the redwood flew into a rage.

You pathetic pile of kindling, you stole my credit!

This was no time to take the jujube tree to task for its impudence. Core origin dao fluctuated wildly in the air as it began collapsing. “Why did you guys kill me...” the sunflower howled with despair and reluctance.

Its primary body was shattered at the first engagement and its heart of life broken. It was beside itself with fury and hopelessness. It’d thought at first that the bramble rose had come to visit it!

The sunflower wanted to warn its nearby brethren with its shouts; perhaps someone would come to rescue it. Preparing to howl with indignation, it suddenly paused.

A shadow fragment manifested in the distance as a core origin dao trembled. A fist landed on the ground without a sound and shattered the great dao.

Dead! Another plant spirit was dead before the sunflower!

His mission complete, the Black Armor looked in Li Hao’s direction. Although they were very far away, he was able to assess the situation here. He couldn’t be bothered to look further upon seeing there was only the shadow of a great dao left and promptly vanished on the spot.

He had another mission to complete—as the strongest personage present in the ruins, he was to kill all of the humans in the territories of the plant spirits that’d left to join the bramble rose. There might be personnel from Armed Forces and Administration active below ground. Although Li Hao had isolated their headquarters aboveground and made it difficult for these people to emerge, the young man had still decided to kill them.

Li Hao didn’t pay attention to the Black Armor’s side. The dean of education was strong; it was to be expected that he was the first to finish. The young man grunted, slashing a domineering burst of sword intent at the core origin in the void. The sunflower’s great dao shook violently from the impact.

The other two plant spirits put everything they had in fixing the sunflower’s great dao in the air. As Stellaris was much more fortified compared to before, the great dao shattered after the sword swung down!

The sunflower knew that this was the end of the road for it. “None of you... will meet with good ends! That we survived these years was a purposeful decision by them. The powerhouses of an entire city might have all revived a long time ago... Do you think you can win?”

Li Hao raised a brow and wanted to ask questions, but the sunflower smiled ghastly and completely faded away. The young man put the matter out of his mind with a frown. Dead was dead! As for the city it spoke of and why they’d spared these plant spirits... he would know, sooner or later.