Star Gate

Chapter 318: A Fierce Battle! (I)

Time passed, minute by minute. Everyone went about their normal day. Li Hao went through his usual schedule—training martial dao, practicing his boxing method, and running through sword techniques.

Manager Yu was speechless at the continued disturbance next door. It was her first time seeing such a quiet, completely boring fellow. It wasn’t that the Night Watchers didn’t have these kinds of members, but that they were usually elderly.

Was the young man unused to his new environment, or was he always like this? Apparently, this was how he operated in Silver City as well. This kind of person was very uninteresting. While Hou Xiaochen was also a man of few words, that was his noble bearing to Manager Yu. When Li Hao was the same way, it was utterly boring.

......

The eastern quadrant of the city.

A hotel.

The five supernaturals from the central region weren’t all at the hotel. Hu Qingfeng had gone to the provincial government again and someone else was visiting the Silver Moon Division of the local military.

There were only two left in the enormous suite. There was Yu Xiao and there was a blonde man in his thirties. The two were drinking wine and chatting.

Yu Xiao glanced at the clock on the wall. 5:50 pm. There were ten minutes until Li Hao left work. The kid was a typical office worker who didn’t stay a single minute past 6 pm.

“Ole Huang, this wine isn’t good enough. I smelled something extremely fragrant when I left the hotel yesterday. I’ll go buy some so we can continue drinking. This blasted place is so damn boring that I can’t sleep at night if I don’t drink.”

The blonde named Ole Huang laughed. “Have someone else run the errand. Is there a need for you to go in person?” That was such a trivial task!

“I’ll go. I forgot what the store was called, but I remember where it was. It’s not too far. Wait for me here, I’ll be right back.” Yu Xiao got up to leave.

“Why don’t I go with you,” Ole Huang chuckled. “I have nothing else better to do.”

Absolutely not! The last thing Yu Xiao wanted was to be tied to this guy. As a peak Solar, Ole Huang was stronger than him. Hu Qingfeng was the strongest out of the five, two were peak Solars, there was a woman at late Solar, and Yu Xiao brought up the rear.

Would anything be left for him if Ole Huang came along?

“It’s fine!” Yu Xiao waved him off. “Wait here, maybe Boss Hu and the others will be back soon. They’ll be annoyed to see that both of us are absent.”

“That’s true.” Ole Huang didn’t continue to press. “Just buy the wine, don’t stir up any trouble!”

“How can I?” Yu Xiao roared with laughter.

“I mean it,” Ole Huang emphasized. “Don’t think that no one’s aware of your little habits. If you really want that, just spend some money to have women throw themselves at you. Don’t go dipping into unsavory nonsense. This isn’t a region in disarray, there’s a big one holding down the fort here!”

Yu Xiao had certain unpalatable habits, such as sneaking into a woman’s house and being up to... no good. He had a track record, but at the same time, neither were the Night Watchers quite so distasteful. Yu Xiao didn’t dare indulge in front of others; he only did so in areas torn apart by war. He’d done so more than once, and Ole Huang was aware of his past deeds.

But Yu Xiao was strong enough and close enough with Ole Huang that the latter let things slide. He didn’t report it to his supervisor as there was no future in these disorderly regions. Supernatural energy was an absolute mess there and no one would ever know who was behind the deeds.

“How would I ever, Ole Huang?” Yu Xiao quickly said. “Do you think I’m an idiot? This is Silver Moon, not a war zone!”

“Mmhmm, so long as you’re aware!” Ole Huang said nothing further. Yu Xiao smiled and left without a word.

Old Huang furrowed his brows when the man left. This guy was in a hurry today—he’d looked at the clock more than once. This was White Moon City, the capital of Silver Moon. He wasn’t thinking with his small head, was he?

Not completely at ease, Ole Huang rubbed his temples. A matter like this could be a severe one, it could also be a slight one. But once it was exposed, the Night Watchers were on the side of order and justice. Someone would be along to take care of Yu Xiao if his deeds were known!

The perverts at headquarters wouldn’t mind casually killing or castrating him, to say nothing of anything else.

He can’t be that dumb, can he? Old Huang stared out the window, deep in thought.

......

It was 6 pm in the blink of an eye. The day was over.

Manager Yu heard a slight commotion from the office next door. The door closed, then locked. She listened silently from her desk, at a loss for words. How punctual! The kid was more accurate than an alarm clock.

He was neither one minute early nor late leaving from work. Li Hao lived like he was a preprogrammed puppet!

“The day’s over, see you tomorrow!” A beaming Li Hao greeted people he crossed paths with. Another day over and another day down. He’d spent the day tending to his own business at work and getting paid for it. What a lovely time!

Hao Lianchuan happened to be coming down the stairs at the same time, he nodded at the young man when they met at the staircase. Li Hao nodded back at him and continued down to the first floor.

......

The young man exhaled noisily and beamed brightly when he walked out of the Night Watcher headquarters. What a beautiful day!

Across the way.

Someone had been keeping watch from this side recently—not secretly, but out in the open. Instead of Li Hao, they waited for Hou Xiaochen to emerge from seclusion. News would be delivered to various factions the moment the man showed himself.

When they saw the young man...

Someone drinking tea couldn’t decide if he wanted to laugh or cry. “That kid—Yuan Shuo’s disciple? I’ve been keeping watch for two days. He gets to work exactly on time and leaves precisely on time everyday. Not a minute late and not a minute early. He’s more accurate than a clock! I only need to see him to know that it’s 6 pm.”

“This must be the self discipline of martial masters!” laughed another person at his table.

“Hahaha, probably. It’s interesting, isn’t it?”

“That’s true, it’s too boring over at the Night Watchers.” A merry conversation circulated as they walked Li Hao leave. Everyone shook their heads. Where did this weird kid come from?

......

Li Hao ignored the teahouse across from him. It was all small fry—balls of light so small they were nearly invisible. The Night Watchers knew of supernaturals on the lookout there, but no one cared. Various organizations had placed them there as scouts. They were permitted to remain out in the open.

Li Hao advanced, following the street. There was no danger for the moment as he was too close to headquarters. He’d have to walk at least ten minutes before running into anything.

He’d been scoping out the perimeter over the past two days and identified three spots where he was most likely to meet with danger on the way home. Given Hou Xiaochen’s influence, the first spot was too close to headquarters. The second and third spots were more likely to see action.

The second spot was a small alleyway that saw infrequent passersby. It was roughly one hundred meters long and overlooked by tall buildings on both sides. They blocked the light, making it suitable for ambush.

The third spot was roughly five hundred meters in front of the family accommodations building. It was a parking lot that wasn’t often used as there weren’t many White Moon inhabitants with cars.

It didn’t matter either way to the young man. Supernaturals were such a prominent ball of light that he would see them so long as he wasn’t blind.

Li Hao passed by a stall of buns after a while; he decided against buying buns today. They might go to waste later. When he was more than three thousand meters away from headquarters, he saw several balls of light hovering around him.

There was one beneath the ground and one aboveground. These guys haunted him like ghosts that refused to depart the world. It’d been several days—who knew what was so fascinating about him?

Li Hao continued like he hadn’t seen anything. The small alleyway was coming up in one thousand meters. Ordinary balls of light were impossible to make out from such a far distance, unless they were huge!

A smile crossed the young man’s face. Yu Xiao sure knew how to pick his places! This was where the man had chosen for his ambush. It looked like he wasn’t so arrogant as to think he could strike in a brazen way. Indeed, Li Hao identified a ball of light that belonged to Yu Xiao waiting in the alley.

Balls of light differed from each other; some were strong, some were weak. Given the different attributes, some took different shapes and forms. If he looked at them closely, he was able to determine which ones he’d seen before. However...

The young man frowned slightly. He knew that Yu Xiao was mid Solar, but there was another massive ball of light off to the side, less than five hundred meters from Yu Xiao. It was bigger than the man’s—Li Hao regarded it warily.

There was another one? Who? Li Hao looked intently at the ball of light—it was stronger than Sun Yifei. Peak Solar? It wasn’t as strong as Violet Moon or the Revolution King, but it was slightly stronger than late Solar.

To think that there’d be a peak Solar in the premises today!

It wasn’t in the alleyway, but was a concerning development all the same. Five hundred meters was a distance that could be crossed in a few seconds by powerhouses. The unexpected development was perplexing and a bit annoying. Why were there two Solars present?

Fine, maybe what he’d said had drawn the attention of other powerhouses. Li Hao was quite resigned! A plan could never keep pace with changes in reality. He’d wanted to give the fight a shot himself even though he was alone. Could he battle a mid Solar? He was much stronger than before, so he ardently wished to give it a try.

But with an additional peak Solar... that was troublesome.