Star Gate

Chapter 834: Harvest, Ranking (I)

Li Hao had said that this battle would smash their internal demons and the gods that they looked up to in their minds. They had done so. Every member of the group lay quietly on the ground, permitting blood to dye their clothes as their thoughts ran wild. Various auras billowed with might and the fractured supernatural characters reformed.

Auras bloomed over the blade, spear, sword, and halberd as the aura reflected the heart. It grew stronger when the wielder grew stronger.

Li Hao quietly perceived the changes in his body—the five auras were rapidly developing within. The immensely strengthened auras had the same effect on the supernatural characters. He also attained some new insights throughout the process.

The tiny dot hovering over the golden character in the lungs turned into a golden sun. The willow tree formed out of the wood aura grew vibrantly and the mountain peak of earth turned into a mountain range. The sound of waves lapped against the kidneys.

All of the auras seemed to be celebrating; Li Hao glimpsed a new world in sight. He smiled as the power of the five elements overburdening his organs began receding.

Following their auras, the other four supernatural characters slowly sank into the depths of their organs and completely vanished from existence. Indeed, they disappeared just like the fire aura had. They’d entered the secondary dimension, as Li Hao called it, and would not appear unless they were called upon like the supernatural locks.

Li Hao’s presence swiftly declined, leaving only the elements of wind and thunder, compared to the motley array it was before. The strengthening of his auras was a greater gain than anything else, in the young man’s opinion. His mind seemed to be elsewhere at the moment; he made out a patch of the cosmos. The stars glittered radiantly amid the backdrop of the night sky. Chains criss-crossed his view like they were giant dragons. Some of them were oddly shaped—a ferocious tiger, a mountain peak, a wave, a willow tree...

Li Hao looked around in a bleary haze, regarding the cosmos with stunned shock. Was this... the secondary dimension? What were those countless dragons? ...the supernatural locks?

He found it hard to believe and couldn’t believe it. The explorations of the five auras had brought his mental strength into another area. He was actually observing the mysterious secondary dimension!

The Silver Moon martial masters in the surroundings looked sharply at the young man the moment he entered the mysterious dimension. There was a layer of light enveloping him. Upon taking a closer look, Li Hao seemed to be part of the boundless universe, the cosmos.

The group thought they were seeing things and sat up for another look, ignoring the state of their injuries. Li Hao was indeed shrouded by starlight. Not only that, he was also faintly emanating the power of the stars. It was similar to sword energy but not quite.

Everyone held their breaths and watched incredulously. What was going on here? Had the young man broken through? But it didn’t look like it!

After an indeterminate period of time, Li Hao abruptly opened his eyes. Stars swam in them and he stared dumbly upward. After a very, very long period of time, he murmured to himself, “Do you guys know how many supernatural locks are in the human body?”

People shook their heads. How would they know?

“I know, fourteen of them,” He Yong chuckled. “The four limbs, five organs, wind, thunder, light, and dark, as well as the head!”

That was such an easy question!

“Fourteen?” laughed Li Hao. “If it was only fourteen, wouldn’t that mean that both supernaturals and martial masters, or us, can only make it to ten element Arcanus?”

Since the locks of the four limbs were unattributed, they had to be subtracted from the count. Seven elements were on par with Apex; ten elements might be the same if a second metamorphosis stage didn’t appear. Wouldn’t that limit modern humans to Apex at their very strongest?

That wouldn’t hold true!

“It might... be far more than people think!” Li Hao laughed.

Everyone looked at him, but he didn’t explain himself further. I’ve simply seen a few things, but that doesn’t mean they’re real. All the same, he was filled with motivation again! It would be quite interesting if each of the dragons represented a supernatural lock. Could he locate them all?

“Um... I really am about to explode, and I’m not joking,” someone said at this time.

The group cast their gazes at a certain corner, where a pathetic figure crouched on the ground. Although Water of Life rained down on it, blood continuously flowed from its wounds and its body showed signs of detonating.

How could it not? Chen Zhongtian had broken all of his origin weapons and supernatural locks at the same time. The only reason why he was still intact was because the little tree was keeping his condition under control. One had to say, sometimes the little tree was much more reliable than the rest of them.

No one cared about him. It was only through the little tree’s ministrations that he was still alive.

“The old thug has quite the pretty scheme in mind!” He Yong snorted with laughter. Everyone knew what Chen Zhongtian was planning. Had there been a need to snap all of his supernatural looks right at the very end?

Well, there had been, but the action hadn’t been that imperative. The old man had put his life on the line with the trick he was playing. As expected of someone who’d gone from a martial world thug to one of the nine founding ministers eighty years ago—Chen Zhongtian possessed a certain degree of resolution and boldness.

“Minister Chen... is an interesting one!” Li Hao laughed as he looked at the old man.

Although Chen Zhongtian’s face was cracking, he smiled as well. “This is what we gotta do if we’re to survive in this world. I’m just doing this to put food on the table.”

Li Hao had said he was interesting, he responded that he was just putting food on the table.

“Martial Uncle Hong... teach Minister Chen how to trace the characters!”

Hong Yitang laughed and didn’t say anything to the contrary. He regarded the old minister, finding the man to be quite interesting. Chen Zhongtian was a gambler, but he’d made the right bet this time.

He explained the procedure without hesitation. Chen Zhongtian listened raptly and soaked in the new information. Having witnessed the method before, he quickly grasped how to operate it. He only needed to understand the key points of characters.

Li Hao remained unmoving, taking a while longer to recover. He rose only when his injuries were mostly healed. He looked at where the little tree had enveloped the petrified coconut tree. The immense body was in tattered condition and its heart of life fractured. Water of Life slowly flowed from it, also enveloped by the little tree. Part of it had been used to save the group.

The young man walked up for a close look; the tree was completely dead, yet it remained durable without comparison. Water of Life trickled within its trunk—not in drops, but as a small river. It’d wanted to use Water of Life to heal its heart of life in its last moments, but Li Hao had stopped it.

“I think I can fulfill my dream of taking a bath with Water of Life!” laughed the young man before he looked at the little tree. “Senior Tree, it’s hard for me to tell how many drops are here.”

“About five thousand!” answered the little tree.

Was that a lot?

Not that much. Based on the little tree’s rates, it was fifteen million mysterious power stones since each drop cost three thousand stones. The group had consumed much more than that for this occasion since a large quantity of Water of Life had been depleted during and after the battle. All of it had been hastily produced, so the resource consumption had been greater than usual.

Five thousand drops was just earning back their capital. Granted, their accounts couldn’t be calculated thus since Water of Life strengthened the physical body and recovered life force. Everyone present had received tangible benefits; their strength had not stagnated.

“That’s a bit too little...” Li Hao shook his head. Was this all the mysterious power stones that the Ministry of the Judiciary had supplied to the coconut tree these years?

If at fifty thousand stones per drop, and apparently this one had a price of sixty thousand stones, there were plenty of Arcanus in the Ministry of the Judiciary that’d had to trade for Water of Life. Hu Mingfa was nearly four elements, which meant he needed more than two hundred drops himself, much less other people.

Trading for more than five hundred drops was a normal figure—that was thirty million stones. There was also more energy in the central region, resulting in the plant spirits recovering on their own, albeit at a slower pace. Five thousand drops after twenty years was a bit too little.

Of course, it was also acceptable.

Li Hao breathed in the core origin force wafting around the scene. “Senior Tree, Deputy Zhou, and... Panther, you guys should absorb this power!”

The lifeless Panther immediately sprang to life. It hurtled into the little tree’s defensive shield and gulped down energy. There was always a seat at the dinner table for the dog, and it’d truly accomplished a deed of great merit this time. Almost all of the blood in its body had evaporated and the Monster Spirit Envoy projection that it’d coalesced had dealt a grave blow to the coconut tree.

Deputy Zhou smiled and followed suit. He’d expended a great deal of energy in battle. Given the absence of core origin dao in the modern world, there was no energy source with which he could replenish from. It was very hard for his golden body to improve any further, and he’d depleted a great deal of his golden body’s indestructible matter to fortify Li Hao’s physical body. That could only be replenished through Water of Life and core origin strength. Devouring energy could also save the same purpose, but the rate of recovery then would be so slow that it would cause one to despair.

The others present could also absorb and derive comprehension of core origin dao from the energy, just as Li Hao had once done so from the little tree. However, the improvement wasn’t noticeable from this course of action and it easily led one to a cultivation tangent.

Reserving the energy for these three was the best way to maximize the effects.

“Its body will be of great use to you!” came the little tree’s mental ripples. “It’s an Immortal level existence and contains a great deal of indestructible matter within its body. This was a key ingredient of golden bodies in the ancient civilization!

“Although it is dead, it might revive again countless years later if given enough time. It can resurrect if there is enough energy for it to pull from. But a new consciousness will be born then, so it will no longer be its same self.”

“Are you saying that... the physical body will live on so long as the golden body is not destroyed?” Li Hao was surprised.

“Yes!” The little tree quickly educated him. “Almost all ancient powerhouses were undying and immortal, but the precursor was that there was sufficient energy to support them. Otherwise, they would slowly fade away. That is why almost all ancient human powerhouses lack a physical body these days—their energy slowly dispersed until they ultimately fell apart!

“Plant spirits survive partially because we have a habit of storing Water of Life, partially because we are rooted in the void and can absorb some free-floating energy. Even so, our consumption is great. My father fell apart because he was unable to remain to the last. He passed the last vestiges of his power to me. I am weak, so I consume less energy...”n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om