Chapter 944: The World Changes Master (I)

Zhang An was silent for a long while before finally saying, “I’m tired. Wang Ye of Battle Heaven can decide how to handle the rest of you. I’m just the dean of education at a martial university, not your ranking officer!”

He vanished on the spot, possibly to muse over certain things.

Director General Wang looked at the group, then at Li Hao. After brainstorming for the proper sentencing, he said, “Although you did not wallow in the mire with Sun Xin, it is an incontrovertible fact that your incompetence led to misconduct and neglect of your duties! You aided and abetted the tyrants so that Sun Xin could recover and even advance further in his cultivation!

“In accordance with military regulations, all of you are hereby demoted three ranks, sentenced to five hundred lashes each, and assigned to the vanguard...” Although the vanguard no longer existed, such was Wang Ye’s determination. “Whenever we encounter the traitors, you are to charge at the front of the army! Not a single step can be taken backward and you will fight unto the death!”

Boom!

Several hundred soldiers pounded their chests and lowered their heads. That indicated that they accepted their sentencing. Once war broke out again, they would be the vanguard. They would never rest and never give up. These soldiers were now deathsworn who would not return home until they vanquished the enemy.

Wang Ye cast another complicated look over the group and waved his hand. “Dismissed. Cleanse the town of all danger and fortify the defenses. The enemy might come back for you.”

“Understood, sir!” The soldiers shouted in unison and withdrew, reappearing among dilapidated structures to repair the ancient town.

Director General Wang walked back and plopped down next to Li Hao. He rubbed his head, despondent. Wang Ye was quite lost after all of the recent revelations.

“Do you know, Li Hao? I’m not afraid of any enemy, no matter how strong they are! Those of New Martial feel no fear. But once your old comrades turn into the enemy.... Li Hao, do you know the feeling? I feel nothing but despair!”

The typically merry ancient powerhouse was very emotionally fragile at this moment. Perhaps Zhang An was in a similar mood.

“It’s alright.” Li Hao thought for a moment and nodded. “If you can’t bring yourself to kill them, I’ll kill them for you. I’ll kill them all and prevent you from being irritated by any of them!”

Director General Wang started and looked at the young man.

“I mean it, be at ease!” Li Hao grinned broadly. “If you can’t bear to harm them and I don’t know them, I’ll kill them for you. You guys can be in charge of killing those you aren’t mentally burdened by.”

His comfort was particularly sincere, but it sent cold chills down Director General Wang’s back. He seemed to read mountains of corpses and seas of blood in the young man’s eyes.

“Li Hao, we’ve only heard from Sun Xin when it comes to certain matters...”

“I understand!” Li Hao nodded.

Who the hell cares! I’ll kill anyone who doesn’t listen! I learned this from your Human King!

Of course, it was all just talk for the moment.

We’re running into Empyrean Kings and Saints for our enemies, it’s not like I can kill them. When I can... I’ll just off them all and call it a day!

With that, Li Hao ambled off to collect the bodies. There wasn’t one to collect for the bramble rose, but there were four other plant spirits on the scene. Corpses were very valuable! He’d struck it rich!

As for the grudges and web of relationships from the last days of New Martial, Li Hao couldn’t be bothered with any of that. It was none of his business even if the elder brother of the Ninth Division leader had turned traitor. That wasn’t his brother.

Director General Wang sighed tragically to himself when he saw how excited the young man was. Forget it, he was just wasting his breath telling Li Hao any of this. He would just sit and sigh by himself!

......

The four dead plant spirits were all Immortals and held fifteen thousand drops of Water of Life in their bodies. Much of it had been expended in the previous battles; there would’ve been more otherwise.

What was further left were their bodies and some fruit. There was one fruit bearing tree among the four—an apple tree. But since they were plant spirits, there were always mutations from their mundane forms. Li Hao didn’t know if those were apples or not.

He collected twelve apples and a few sunflower seeds. Combined with the coconut seeds he’d obtained last time, that made for some growing reserves in his storage ring. More importantly was this mine and this town!

Indeed, Skystar Town itself was a treasure. There were all sorts of facilities, techniques, and equipment here that were enormously valuable. There must be a weapon forge around somewhere as well.

Although Skystar Town couldn’t take to the air and conduct aerial battle like Battle Heaven, its defenses were strong and its facilities complete. With all ten of its guardian spirits dead, Li Hao felt that it should be easy to claim the town for himself. Although some troop leaders remained in its army, they were preoccupied with redeeming themselves. They took their orders from Director General Wang.

Although two-thirds of the mine was gone, Li Hao had never seen so many energy stones in his life. He’d find it a staggering amount even if only one-tenth was left. This was the most amount of energy stones he’d ever seen at any given time.

At this point, he didn’t really care about the treasures that the dead ministers or the old Skystar King owned. He even wanted to feed the Saint-level weapons to Stellaris and be rid of them.

When he recalled that other people might need those weapons, he chose to save the weapons. Recently, the sword ate with gusto everything it was fed; there was no point in feeding it these particular weapons.

The Black Armor Zhang An seemed to be sorting through some thoughts. He remained in the depths of the mine and refused to emerge.

Director General Wang entered the town to see if there was a way to fully activate it. The remaining plant spirits dispersed, off to absorb whatever energy they could get their roots on.

There was no time to waste. Li Hao returned to the surface as there was much for him to do there.

......

The ruins at the Skystar Commander Office.

When Li Hao arrived at the entrance, he left the ruins with the eight plant spirits separately blocking the other eight entrances. There were ten entrances total to the town. The remaining two were given over to the redwood and little jujube tree.

As for the imperial guard, Li Hao set it to watching the great mine. Energy was densest there; this counted as a token of appreciation toward the little tree.

The eleven plant spirits tightly sealed off the various entrances. If anyone wanted to enter from the outside world, they would have to pass through the gauntlet of plant spirits.

Li Hao and Yuan Shuo emerged from the ruins together. Yuan Shuo sighed the moment they walked out.

“Does teacher think that the ancients are too strong, or that we are... too weak?” Li Hao said softly, seeming to read Yuan Shuo’s mind.

The old man shook his head, surprising his student.

“I was reflecting on the fact that no matter how strong an era is, curtains eventually fall on it!” Yuan Shuo sighed again. “Skystar Dynasty was the strongest in our age—it conquered the central plains! The world was a chaotic mess prior to the dynasty’s formation.

“And here we see the even older age of New Martial. They were so strong and possessed countless powerhouses. Their Saints were as innumerable as drops of water in rainfall and their Empyrean Kings as common as clouds in the sky. They had exalted emperors, the Human King, their supreme, great emperors... Yet they are gone just the same.

“I suddenly feel that this is all there is to life at the end of the day. The world repeats itself over and over again. I... just don’t know what to say.”

He’d known before that the ancient civilization was strong, but it was his first time understanding how terrifyingly strong it was. This was just a minor world and one set of ruins—yet there’d been several Saints and large numbers of Immortals populating it. And this was when core origin had fallen silent! How mighty it must have been during New Martial proper!

It was incredibly hard to fathom that curtains had fallen on such an age as well.

“What’s gotten into you, teacher?” Somehow, Li Hao was laughing. “Isn’t this great? Don’t you like to pursue a stronger future? We have more opportunities when there is an unlimited future above us. Even if we can’t surpass it, chasing it is a great source of enjoyment, is it not?”

So his teacher was feeling emotional about this! How fascinating! He’d never thought that his teacher would be afraid of anything, that Yuan Shuo would only endlessly pursue and surpass his goals.

The old man smiled without a response. What his student said was true, but... he was feeling a bit empty after killing some of the powerhouses of the older generation. Those had been some of the strongest characters of this age!

They were just small fry in the great battle, as were he and his student. The true combatants had been the Saints. They’d determined the entire outcome while the rest of them could only clean up the remains of the battlefield.

These ancients were polite enough to Li Hao for now, but at the end of the day, they were the ones who’d guaranteed victory at the mine! Would Li Hao be able to say anything if they decided to keep the mine for themselves?

Of course, Li Hao was useful as a transporter of ancient personnel. That was his greatest function at the moment. These ancients wouldn’t be able to enter the ruins otherwise and their range of movement would be greatly curtailed without the young man.

There were limits to both sides, but it was ultimately Li Hao who needed the other side more. The young man didn’t care about any of this.

“We have a very solid opportunity to develop this time, teacher. If we also down take the nine ministries and royal family, I’d like to enter closed door cultivation and summon all Silver Moon martial masters to study the martial dao system. I’d like to reorganize it and perfect a new martial dao!

“I have an outline floating around my mind, but I still need everyone’s contributions. The system right now is incoherent and martial dao a mess. Although this promotes freeform development of all possibilities, most of them don’t have much of a future.

“I think that the Hao Cosmos is where the greatest potential of our future can be found!”

Yuan Shuo nodded, he quite agreed with his disciple.

Manager Yu arrived as they conversed; she was overjoyed to see the two of them emerge from the ruins. It’d been almost a day since Li Hao brought people into the ruins. Although their people were still standing firm at their respective posts, the longer this dragged on, the more dangerous their situation would be.

There was a limit to each ministry’s patience. Immensely undesirable happenings might result if they erupted with dissatisfaction.