Chapter 952: Without Striking a Blow (I)

There weren’t many supernaturals in the Demon Hunter Army; they were almost all martial masters. The few supernaturals were special personnel—they were either Li Hao’s old acquaintances, or junior brothers and sisters that Yuan Shuo had selected for him.

And now, they were all gathered here.

The geniuses present were almost all supernaturals—there were no martial masters in the crowd. The strongest of them, Dao Sword, was already an Arcanus. He hadn’t done so from a martial master background, but from a supernatural one.

Hao Lianchuan knew how busy Li Hao was at present. Did he gather everyone now because they were all supernaturals? The crowd wasn’t familiar with each other as there were plenty of representatives from different factions.

Not much conversation occurred; everyone was uneasy. Some had reported to their ministry before coming. After all, the Skystar Commander Office was a different system from theirs and there was some bad blood between the two sides. However, no ministers were forthcoming from any of the ministries. At most, a vice minister showed themselves with a distracted response of, “Go then.”

There was nothing else after that. Tension ratcheted in quite a few people.

They were geniuses of their ministries and some held official positions. Some had even seen Li Hao arrive with a group of people in their ministry, then quickly depart. After he was gone, certain senior executives were called away on business and seemed different when they returned.

The blockade of the nine ministries had been lifted, but those as quick-witted as Qi Gang noticed certain different details. Although the nine ministries were no longer sealed off by the Night Watchers and Demon Hunters, there was the new addition of some Silver Moon martial masters in their midst.

The martial masters stayed out of sight. Whenever they were discovered, they gave the excuse of covertly investigating members of the three great organizations. Hence, their presence could not be revealed.

Another person joined the crowd as everyone turned over various thoughts in their mind. It was a woman, her face was pale and she seemed to be in a daze.

“Miss Mu?” someone muttered with a start. Wasn’t that Mu Xiaorong?

It was then that the crowd recalled that she’d been held in custody for a prolonged period of time. There’d been so little word of her all this time that they thought she’d been executed. It looked like Li Hao hadn’t killed her, but why was he releasing her now?

Someone had stepped forward to exchange a few words with her when a hush draped over the crowd.

Li Hao strode into the hall, flanked by two Arcanus guards. His guards were Yang Shan and Qin Lian. They were also Arcanus that’d ascended from a purely supernatural background.

The young man’s expression was composed and he inclined his head at Hao Lianchuan and a few others when he entered the hall. He walked forward and took a seat in front of the group.

“Greetings to Commander Li!” The group offered a variety of bows and cupped fist salutes.

Li Hao waved them off and scanned the crowd. It was sizable at almost fifty people and representatives from all nine ministries. They were all supernaturals.

“Are you guys confused why I’ve summoned you?”

No one responded. When the silence dragged on, Hao Lianchuan quickly offered, “The commander naturally has his purposes.”

Li Hao didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Hao Lianchuan was such a flatterer.

“I’ll be direct with you since you’re all here. First, the nine ministries are no more,” Li Hao began calmly. “The royal family is no more too!”

Boom!

Many people lost their composure while a select few stayed in control, as if they’d expected these results. Li Hao looked at Qi Gang from Administration. He’d met this person before; they’d explored Battle Heaven together.

“Qi Gang, you don’t seem surprised by this.”

A handsome young man with very masculine features, Qi Gang sighed softly and bent at the waist. “The minister did not reemerge after the commander visited the Ministry of Administration yesterday. Fearful looks could be seen on the faces of the vice ministers today and Deputy Zhou Chuan took up residence to peruse material available only to our own personnel.

“From these details... Qi Gang understands that a new master is in place at Administration!”

“You have keen powers of observation.” Li Hao smiled.

“The commander praises me too highly. It’s just that the commander hasn’t bothered to conceal his actions from the rest of the ministry.” Qi Gang fell silent. It was a complicated notion for him that there was a new master in place at Administration, so he didn’t say much after receiving Li Hao’s summons. He simply answered it.

As for going down with the Zhao family ship, that didn’t occur to him.

There weren’t that many supernaturals loyal to a fault in this day and age. Supernaturals improved too quickly and some were Heaven Favored. They were born to be heavyweights and merely tempted by the promises and benefits that the various ministries had made. There wasn’t much loyalty to be found there.

Someone in the crowd swayed with horror—Mu Xiaorong.

She’d been delighted at being released, thinking that a beacon of hope shone upon her. Li Hao must have bowed to pressure from Internal Affairs and the rest of the nine ministries! But now... she learned... that the Ministry of Internal Affairs... was no more!

The nine ministries and royal family were done!

Mu Xiaorong tragically looked around. In that case, why had Li Hao summoned so many geniuses from the various ministries? Did he want to kill everyone?

“I’ve called you here not to punish you,” Li Hao explained as thoughts ran wild. “There’s no need for that. It would be an easy task if I wanted to kill you. You are geniuses of your various ministries. I have some understanding of martial dao, but don’t know much about the supernatural domain.

“Most of you have reached your current heights because you are Heaven Favored. I’ve met even fewer of you. Whether it is the nine ministries or the three great organizations, most of their supernaturals have crossed over from previous identities of being martial masters. True Arcanus from a pure supernatural background are few and far in between.”

Modern day powerhouses such as Qi Pingjiang and the rest were martial masters who’d fully saturated their supernatural locks, then broken through to Arcanus. There were almost none who’d started off as Starlight among the opponents that Li Hao had taken down.

“I have some matters coming up that require your participation. Of course, I need you to do a few things with me before that. Skystar City is mine, but Silver Moon martial masters have important missions to complete in the capital. They cannot leave for the moment.

“There is another important locale in the central region that must be conquered, and that is the City of Supernaturals!” Li Hao smiled. “According to their announced schedule, their cabinet meeting should end in two days. In order to eliminate this great source of disaster, I will lead everyone to campaign against the city...”

Hearts skipped a beat at his words.

“Congratulations to the commander for conquering the world!” Hu Qingfeng beamed unctuously. “But... if this subordinate may be so bold. When the commander speaks of campaigning against the City of Supernaturals... do you intend to do so... with just us?”

“Correct.” Li Hao smiled.

Hu Qingfeng’s heart pounded.

Holy fucking shit, really?? You’re crazy!

Everyone found it incredulous that the young man had taken down the nine ministries and royal family. But when he said he wanted to lead this group against the City of Supernaturals, wasn’t he completely mad?

“Commander.” Hu Qingfeng swallowed hard and said carefully, “The City of Supernaturals possesses nearly one hundred Arcanus and it’s said that Lin Hongyu is a peak six elements or seven elements...”

Stop joking!

Even if they were to fight, they needed to bring those Silver Moon martial masters with them! There were another million supernaturals in that city! If it came down to a pitched melee, just one mouthful of spit from each of them could drown this attacking force!

“This is a test for you guys,” laughed Li Hao. “If you do not die in this operation, you will naturally be placed in important positions afterward. But you will accomplish nothing if you die!”

Everyone remained as unmoving as a mountain; no one said a word. A general air of despair and helplessness spread throughout the crowd.

You’re sending us to our deaths! There’s only a couple dozen of us and not that many Arcanus. Even if you’re at seven elements, even if you can fight one hundred Arcanus by yourself, the other Novas and supernaturals will be able to overrun us all!

This was a farce!

“Of course, it’s not like I’m leaving you without a choice. You have another path ahead of you. Those unwilling to go to the City of Supernaturals can do service for three years. You will be free after that.”

“Does the commander mean... prison when you say service?” someone muttered.

“No,” Li Hao explained. “Service is to help people with affairs they cannot accomplish. For example, earth supernaturals will help with building houses and paving roads or other architectural tasks. It will be matters that you are up to the task for. It’s not exactly prison, but you won’t be able to leave at will. Once you are, you can treat it as a job.”

Some were tempted by the notion. Three years was not a long period of time for some hard labor that could be converted to a job...

That was nice as well. They might actually die if they fought the City of Supernaturals.

“Commander, then... if everyone goes into service...” Hu Qingfeng couldn’t help but ask. “Then the City of Supernaturals...”

“No worries, I’ll gather a team of volunteers!” laughed Li Hao. “It’s just as good to try. No matter how strong Lin Hongyu is, she won’t be able to keep me there.”

Yes, she won’t be able to keep you, but she’ll be able to keep everyone else there!

Some worried about the outcome of battle wanted to choose three years of service, but were also worried about Li Hao holding a grudge for their actions.

“I repeat, this decision is up to you,” Li Hao emphasized. “It’s easy enough to kill you. There’s no point in tricking you into service first, then killing you. It’d be less trouble to outright kill you!”

𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

His worst made sense. The crowd also understood that being willing to march on the City of Supernaturals might be a massive opportunity for them, but the caveat was that they stayed alive to enjoy whatever gains might come after.

Therefore, someone set their jaw and was the first to step forward. “Commander, I choose to serve for three years!”

“Sounds good.” Li Hao nodded, “Yang Shan, those who want to serve will go with you in a bit. They have one mission—complete the construction of Skystar Martial Academy as soon as possible. These guys are all strong, so they’ll build a school very quickly.”

“Understood, sir!” Yang Shan assented.

With one came two, and then more. Soon enough, eight people had stepped forward. Those remaining, however, didn’t move—including Hu Qingfeng!