Star Gate

Chapter 875: Audacious in the Extreme (I)

Chapter 875: Audacious in the Extreme (I)

“My strength is very weak and I’ve recovered very little. My core origin might outright disperse once I sever an Apex replica. This is no joking matter... I only barely managed to set foot into Immortal back in the day. I would not have survived to present day otherwise...”

Any being still alive in the world was at least an Immortal. Li Hao had yet to encounter an Apex survivor—the little tree was a unique case because its father had sheltered it. There would be no little tree if not.

“Don’t worry, senior, it will be very safe this time,” Li Hao chuckled. “We’ll bring your replica back. If any accidents occur, we’ll kill an Immortal plant spirit to nourish you with.”

The power of seven elements circulated his body as the others released their presences as well. Even Panther borrowed the group’s influence and emanated a peculiar presence.

“Then we’re heading in, senior...”

The jujube tree was quite resigned by the situation outside its front door. It wouldn’t necessarily lose in a fight, but where had all these people come from? All of them seemed to have quite the background, would a bigger development occur if they really engaged in a battle?

And didn’t modern society say that there were few powerhouses in the outside world, that their strongest was Arcanus? Why had the world changed in this way in the blink of an eye?

“I’ll cooperate...” It sighed deeply with helplessness after a long moment. “It’s just... you’re too heartless, Sky Sword!”

Sky Sword was an utter bastard!

The man remained calm. What was there to be heartless about? It wasn’t like they were that familiar with each other! It wasn’t like he didn’t pay anything when trading with the ancient pant spirit. All it did was supply some Water of Life—he’d paid a great sum of mysterious power stones!

His partnership with the plant spirit didn’t run that deep, unlike the nine ministries that’d almost become one with theirs. He’d simply exchanged a few words from beginning to end.

A ghastly scream rang out from the cave before long. The mental strength behind the door immediately weakened and a storage ring floated out. Li Hao frowned when he inspected it and saw a little tree standing in the object.

“This is an Apex replica? It’s at most peak six elements!”

The jujube tree looked wordlessly at the world beyond the door. Weak ripples came after another long pause, “I will... die... if I sever more.”

Li Hao sent his consciousness into the ring without asking permission and took stock of the replica. “It’s seriously weak and doesn’t even feel as strong as the little tree. If I’d known ahead of time, I would’ve said to just outright kill it!”

“......” The jujube tree didn’t make a sound. If I’m weak, it’s all Sky Sword’s fault. I’ve never met a less motivated fellow.

“Forget it, it’s better than nothing. Don’t worry, senior. With this level of strength, you may not have a chance to fight. I’ll bring it right back to you!”

The mental strength disappeared from outside the mountain cave and the tree fell silent. Having half of its core origin forcefully taken and being called weak... was too humiliating.

“Senior Sky Sword gave it too little,” sighed Li Hao. “It hasn’t recovered much.”

“I thought it would recover on its own without need for my help,” Sky Sword answered awkwardly.

“......” Alright then, Sky Sword’s train of thought was unusual. Li Hao could only treat this as an unexpected surprise. It was nice to have a peak six elements plant spirit replica, but it was too weak. Thank goodness he’d located some puppets to help him, or it would actually be difficult to handle any Immortal plant spirits that he encountered.

“Perhaps!” Li Hao nodded. “Without superhuman strength, the army would still be the army and the Inspectorate would still be the Inspectorate. You don’t need to explain yourself, just admit that you’ve committed certain acts.

“The Inspectorate is corrupt now as well. I’ve seen its people take thousands of refugees for the mines. I’ve seen local inspectors collude with robbers. I’ve seen soldiers pretend to be pirates. I’ve seen a director general be the chief of a pirate faction and a duke that is the patron of pirates...

“The officials are not the officials and the robbers are not the robbers. The nine ministries are plainly very strong, but say that they’re constantly on guard against the royal family. Excuses are just excuses at times. If you can divert so many personnel to kill me, can’t you divert some to cleaning house?”

Those were just excuses. Look at all those Arcanus that’d appeared to kill Li Hao! With all those Arcanus, any group of pirates would face nothing but death!

Chen Zhongtian inclined his head and didn’t defend himself. Next to himself, the two puppets looked around for a while.

“This is boring, I want to go back to school!” Jiang Yingli suddenly said.

“......” Li Hao blinked.

“Me too, I want to go back!” agreed Li Shengzhang. “I thought there was just less energy in the world, but now I see how messy, how poor, and how pathetic it is. Silver Moon was very prosperous in our time. Although we focused on military matters, the people were very prosperous. It was completely different from the sight presented now.”

They didn’t want to stay anymore, or perhaps they felt that this place was no longer the era of their memories. It was New Martial no more, but an ignorant, blighted, chaotic time period that’d fallen behind. It neither felt like home nor seemed familiar. It was just a foreign place to them.

Li Hao didn’t say a word. Perhaps they could dismiss the world as a messy place they couldn’t stand, but could he?

Probably not, I was born in this era. Everything I do now is to make it better, isn’t it? Hong Yitang says that our period will only become worse if no one does anything. Only when someone takes action will light gradually shine on this time period, right?

Li Hao smiled, not finding fault with what the puppets had said. This world deserved scorn from the ancients. It was just a backward and dark era. But aren’t I taking action? It will not continue to be like this very soon.

“Li Hao, do you want to be the emperor of this age?” Li Shengzhang suddenly asked.

“I don’t know.” Li Hao smiled.

“Don’t know?”

“I don’t care if I’m emperor or not, people just have to listen to me.”

Isn’t that the same? Chen Zhongtian looked at the young man with surprise. “Commander Li, do you think imperialism is better when world peace is achieved, or a democracy?”

“I don’t know, so long as people listen to me.” Li Hao smiled.

Chen Zhongtian started. What kind of answer was that?

“I don’t know what kind of system is good, I just know that I like to pick out the thorns. Any system will work if I don’t see a problem, and it has nothing to do with the system if I do see a problem. It has to do with the person!”

So an authoritarian rule? Chen Zhongtian didn’t think that was a good idea either. But he simply thought about it and then set the matter aside. The group continued forging onward amid the snow.