Star Gate

Chapter 163: Secrets of the Eight Trigrams (II)

Chen Jian nervously tightened his grip on the rocket launcher and prepared to fire. As he fretted over a decision, the two on the ground suddenly shot up like birds and glided through the air.

The martial master blinked.

“It’s the Five Styles!”

Indeed, it was the Five Styles. Then the two must be related to Yuan Shuo. One of them might be the professor, but who was the other?

Stepping on air, gliding through the void, landing, then leaping upward again...

As a supernatural who didn’t practice martial dao, Hu Hao suddenly found the sight quite aesthetically pleasing. It was so natural, comfortable, and lacking in the slightest sense of ugliness. There was only the beauty of melding into nature.

The two relaxed slightly when they realized it was the Five Styles, but were both confused as to who the second person was. If one of them was Yuan Shuo, was that another disciple?

The professor had more students prior to Li Hao—they were older as they were from earlier on. Li Hao was the only disciple in Silver City at the moment. Had another disciple returned?

As the two in the air brainstormed, the two on the ground pushed up off their feet and jumped ten meters into the air. That put them level with Hu Hao, giving the supernatural a clear view at their faces. The newcomers wore only a black outfit and didn’t obscure their faces.

Hu Hao focused his gaze and... nearly fell out of the sky!

It wasn’t that his mentality and focus were so poor, but that he was incredibly surprised to find that the other person was Li Hao!

Chen Jian’s jaw dropped as well and he nearly lost his grip on the rocket launcher. Li Hao! And here he was wondering which of Yuan Shuo’s disciples the other person was! It was the Slayer of Tens, Li Hao!

How was this possible?

“Li Hao...” Chen Jian murmured incredulously. Was that really Li Hao?

So was Hu Hao completely taken aback. Li Hao was a Slayer, wasn’t he? Didn’t they say that it hadn’t been long since he became familiar with martial dao? How was this a Slayer?? Ordinary Sunderers wouldn’t be able to catch up to him!

Rounding his jump through the air, Li Hao came back to his senses when he saw shocked gazes cross the two faces in front of him. He’d been too conspicuous.

His earlier state had been so smooth and so comfortable that he couldn’t resist the temptation to utilize the Five Styles the entire way. He’d completely forgotten to return to being a Slayer when he reached the mines. How could a Slayer run so fast and jump so high?

He immediately fell down from the sky, somersaulting like a monkey in the air before landing on his feet. He created a small hole in the ground, landing on solid footing without falling over. But... wasn’t this a bit inappropriate? Since he’d fallen from such an incredible height, shouldn’t he stumble or something like that?

At the same time, they were at the mines. The ground was so dirty, so was it a bad idea to fall over?

Hu Hao landed with Chen Jian as the young man hesitated. The portly man was the first to ask, “Li Hao, how... how can you jump so tall?”

“I broke through to Sunderer tonight!” The young man grinned.

“Huh?” Chen Jian paused, stupefied. He’d yet to reach Sunderer, but Li Hao had managed the deed! Meanwhile, a knowing expression appeared on Hu Hao’s face. It was only logical that Li Hao had advanced as he wouldn’t be so fast otherwise. Not only had he progressed down his path, but he adeptly employed the Five Styles. It was astounding!

“Teacher gave me a lot of mysterious power and walked me through the process step by step. Thankfully, I managed it in the end,” chuckled Li Hao.

“Congratulations...” Chen Jian didn’t know what else to say.

A smiling Yuan Shuo walked over. “You guys are almost there as well. You’ll all have your chance. It’s normal that he improves a bit faster seeing as he’s with me.”

Alright then, they could only accept this given Yuan Shuo’s presence.

“We’ll go inside for a look. You guys stand guard outside,” the professor continued.

Chen Jian quickly bobbed his head while Hu Hao nodded his minutely. The latter couldn’t help another glance at Li Hao. A Sunderer!

His little senior brother in name was apparently only a mundane last month. Now here he was, a Sunderer in the blink of an eye while Hu Hao remained a Darkmoon—and a peak Crescent at that. He wasn’t even a Halfmoon!

Granted, reaching Halfmoon shouldn’t be a problem given all of the mysterious power he’d received from their last mission, but strictly speaking... he and Li Hao were the same level at the moment.

Inadequacy suddenly struck Hu Hao.

“I’m going in then, Brother Hu, Brother Chen.” Li Hao smiled innocently. “If there’s anything nice that all of us can use, I’ll share it with everyone...”

Chen Jian gave an honest chuckle without saying a word, whereas Hu Hao sighed softly.

“No worries, it was yours to begin with. We’ve already received a lot of rewards. Not to mention, you and I are from the same discipline...”

Li Hao blinked. What same discipline? The young man hadn’t been present for Yuan Shuo’s earlier speech.

“I’ve taken Wang Ming, Hu Hao, and Li Meng as three honorary disciples,” Yuan Shuo explained calmly.

“Eh?” It was Li Hao’s turn to be surprised. So this had taken place at some point?

“We can discuss this later!” The professor pressed on before his student could ask further.

Li Hao could only flash an apologetic grin and whisper, “Let’s chat about this when I get back!”

The two on guard watched Li Hao and Yuan Shuo enter the mine. Hu Hao remained quiet, but Chen Jian couldn’t help himself.

“Ole brother Hu, do you think martial masters are better or supernaturals are better?”

The supernatural domain that he’d dreamed about didn’t seem all that impressive anymore.

Hu Hao suppressed an eye roll. I’m a supernatural and you’re a martial master, yet you’re asking me this?

“I thought that martial masters advance really slowly, but... look at Li Hao.”

“Is he the norm?” Hu Hao laughed. “It’s your choice. I’m not familiar with martial dao, so I can’t make a comparison.”

Alright then. Chen Jian suddenly wondered if he shouldn’t be so wholeheartedly devoted to the supernatural as he was. Should he take the blood pearl and ascend to Sunderer instead?

......

At the same time.

Li Hao followed Yuan Shuo through various twists and turns around the mine. They passed by an iron door before long, one with what seemed to be ice crystal shards around it.

“Is this the door?”

Was it special? His teacher had mentioned there was a door here.

“You need to get your eyes checked. This is plainly a door they crafted to keep others out. It was embedded with ice crystals before to prevent supernatural presence from leaking.” Yuan Shuo pushed the door open on a spacious karst cave. It was rather large and illuminated by several crystal lamps.

A karst cave inside a mine? Now this was a special scene.

Some daily necessities were scattered around, but many rocks had fallen from overhead. Some more shards resolved themselves as ice crystal shards. Plainly, the Night Watcher barrage from earlier had shaken this area.

Li Hao sensed a faint energy as soon as he set foot inside. Just as his teacher said, it seemed to be a mix of sword and blade energy.

“There’s nothing good here, someone’s taken all of it. Any treasures here were long consumed by Qiao Feilong and his people.” Yuan Shuo was familiar with the area since he’d visited once before. He brought Li Hao further inside.

The cave was large and deep, but it wasn’t rugged or rough. Plainly, the Qiaos had developed this location for a while. Everything that should be here could be found. Li Hao even saw some toiletries and cutlery. It appeared that the three Sunflares would cook here in normal times. They certainly tried hard to make themselves comfortable. Li Hao had no idea how to cook.

Some reliefs appeared on the walls as they followed the cave in. Li Hao took a look at them, but didn’t identify anything special. They were just simple reliefs that may have been carved by the ancients since they were hard to make out.

The young man stopped before long. Yuan Shuo sensed his movement and looked back at his student. “It’s up ahead!”

“No, I mean... Teacher, come look at this!” Li Hao called out.

Yuan Shuo walked over with a frown and followed his student’s gaze, locating a blurry stone carving. It was one of an indistinct person wielding a sword. The image was too unclear to make out, but the item should be a sword as it was very thin and long.

The person seemed to be standing in front of a door. They were about to enter it and had twisted their head to look backward.

Yuan Shuo studied it for a bit, but didn’t learn too much.

“It’s a person entering a door with a sword. What of it?” He looked at his student. “Do you think it has to do with your sword?”

Li Hao nodded slightly. “Yes, that’s what I’m getting.”

“It’s just an ordinary relief that is no longer clear. Come on, let’s continue forward. Perhaps we can find more things up ahead.”

Li Hao said nothing else and walked forward with his teacher.

......

They seemed to be in another area after walking a bit more—a vast, underground hall. The hall was completely empty; the Qiaos had likely made off with every single treasure. Thus, the first thing they saw was a stone door.

Or, the structure seemed like a stone door. It stood to the fore of the great hall. The energy that teacher and disciple sensed most likely came from behind the stone door.

“Be careful!” Yuan Shuo reminded. “They were camped here most likely to open that door. It’s probably why Qiao Feilong’s wife turned into that state.”

They could vaguely make out scorch marks stemming from explosives and fire. The Qiaos had obviously been trying to open this door all along.

Yuan Shuo walked over and carefully observed it. “Come here!”

Li Hao quickly approached and immediately saw what was different about it. There was a tiny indentation in the door.

“A mechanism?” The young man regarded it curiously. “Will I be able to open the door if I put my family’s sword in it?”

“I’m not sure.” Yuan Shuo looked at it a bit longer. “We can try... but absorb some sword energy first and restore your body. You and I will then take our blood pearls, just in case something unexpected happens and I don’t react in time.”

He was worried of trouble descending if they placed an item inside. They would be done for then. The stone blade in his hand stirred upon sensing the energy. Li Hao’s sword was doing the same, so they might as well heal their injuries first.

“Alright!” Li Hao imitated his teacher and stepped away from the stone door. He sat down cross-legged only when they were a slight distance away. Even here, the sword in his hands seemed quite lively.

The young man brightened after a quick iteration of the Breathing Method of the Five Styles. He didn’t need the jade sword—he could absorb a rush of energy all the same. It was, however, a little different from what was contained inside the sword.

“Teacher, this seems to be a mixture of several types of energy. It’s not just sword energy.”

“Mmhmm.” Yuan Shuo nodded. “I sense it too. There’s blade energy within too. It might be a combination of all eight families. What we should focus on right now is absorbing sword energy to recover from our injuries...”