Star Gate

Chapter 429: Returning to Rift Canyon (III)

Qi Gang laughed dryly without saying a word. What was the deputy blathering on about? Hou Xiaochen was a Night Watcher, not of the provincial government. Qi Gang wouldn’t be able to join the agency even if he stayed. It’d make more sense for the Night Watcher central headquarters to send new people to replace Hou Xiaochen.

Deputy Zhou continued in a curious vein when Qi Gang remained quiet. “Those guys at the central Night Watcher headquarters cause trouble day in and day out. How come they haven’t come to Silver Moon this time to watch the show?”

“Them?” Qi Gang considered his response before responding, “They’ve... probably gone to watch a bigger show, or to cause greater trouble!” He shook his head. “Those youngsters want nothing more than for chaos to seize the world! I have no idea what the Night Watchers are thinking to let them roam around freely like this. I hear that they went to one of the Seven Divine Mountains a few days ago—Sky Roc Mountain.

“They pestered the roc that’s about to advance to the next stage and said they wanted to capture its young to train as their steeds. When I left, I heard there was a major monster spirit of Sky Roc Mountain chasing them. I don’t know where they are now.”

Deputy Zhou also shook his head with a sigh. He didn’t ask further. It looked like those people wouldn’t be able to make it to the ruins. Ah well.

......

Rift Canyon was noisy and boisterous these days as everyone waited for the ruins to open again. They wanted to see the Gold Armor with their own eyes and set foot in the inner city. There were apparently mysterious power stones littered on the ground in the inner city!

A large truck stopped at the small town closest to Rift Canyon on September 26. The ruins would open the day after tomorrow. The town was only fifty kilometers away from the canyon—the team could make that in an hour at a forced march. They made faster time when walking through the barren plains.

However, Li Hao still called for a rest. He’d avoided everyone on their way back, particularly any balls of light he saw. There should be no one aware that he’d returned.

Naturally, he did not conceal their movement to ambush a target. He just wanted to understand the current situation. After checking in at an inn, he dialed a number. It rang—as he thought, that guy was close by.

The communicators were ineffective beyond five hundred kilometers out of White Moon City. That was barely the distance to Rift Canyon, but the other needed to be close by for the communicator to work.

“Are you... here?” Wang Ming asked excitedly on the other side.

“Mmhmm.”

“Where?”

“Where are you?”

“I’m at the military camp... My grandfather has come and will be entering the ruins. He’s grounded me and won’t let me walk out of the camp!” Wang Ming grumbled with resignation. “I only went for a lark around the wilderness near White Moon City with my friends, what did anything about disappearing evil supernaturals have to do with me? What’s the point of grounding me?

“Hey, lemme tell you something, I’m mid Sunflare! I think I’m close to late Sunflare too, hahaha!!”

“Oh, congrats,” Li Hao mumbled. “Collect information for me, I want to know all of the powerhouses in the canyon! It’s best if there’s a picture of them too. Additionally, help me find out whether the leader of the Sword Sect has emerged from closed door cultivation yet. Is Southern Fist at Rift Canyon? So much has happened lately, give me a comprehensive report on everything.”

“I... need to write it out?” Wang Ming’s jaw dropped. You might as well take my life! I’ll tell everything if you’d come in person.

“Cut the crap,” Li Hao interrupted. “I’ll pay you one hundred cubes of mysterious power. Will you do it or not?”

“Eh, um...”

“And another mysterious power stone of the metal attribute.”

“No problem!” Wang Ming was overjoyed. “I’ll have it done overnight. When do you want it?”

“Walk out of camp when you’re done, I’ll come get it from you.”

“Alright!”

Li Hao shoved the communicator into his storage ring once he hung up, severing its connection to the outside world. He thought over his next steps and walked through the door of the neighboring room.

“Chief,” he transmitted. “We go to Rift Canyon tonight. The others can stay here for now. Battle Heaven is too dangerous.”

Liu Long nodded. It was indeed dangerous. He’d gone inside before and knew full well how terrifying the Golden Armor was.

“Are you going to convene with the rest of the Guards or Night Watchers?”

“Not for now,” Li Hao responded. “We’ll put on our armor and try to blend in with the other Guards entering, if there are any. We’ll keep a low profile if there aren’t, so we don’t become a public enemy before we’re even inside the ruins! It’s best to avoid showing our faces before people know we’re back. Otherwise, the status of Half Mountain and the others will be easily exposed as well.

“It’d be best if we can fool even Director Hou. If not, we’ll just tell them the truth.”

Liu Long glanced at the young man and said nothing. He nodded; he didn’t have an opinion on the matter. After some thought, he transmitted, “You should go through the second passageway this time. Although I didn’t gain anything from it, I vaguely sensed that there really was treasure inside. I couldn’t discover it, but you might with your sharp eyes.”

Befuddled, Li Hao still nodded in acknowledgement. Very well. The second passageway wasn’t dangerous to martial masters. No martial master had died in there.

After some conversation, the two settled in to wait for nightfall.

......

Two figures traveled swiftly as soon as it was dark, rushing toward Rift Canyon.

Approximately one hour later.

Li Hao sucked in a sharp breath, his teeth aching at what he saw. Holy fuck! There were balls of light on all sides. The canyon was filled with supernaturals! An area of several thousand meters was as bright as day to him. Light was everywhere, so brilliant that his eyes watered.

Just how many supernaturals had come to this place??

There were too many Sunflares to be counted, a few dozen Solars, and an occasional Nova that sparkled so fiercely that he was about to go blind. How many were this, thousands of supernaturals?? Li Hao was highly taken aback that the ruins of Battle Heaven had drawn so many. Weren’t they afraid of death?

Battle Heaven was not safe. He strongly suspected that the city’s greatest danger came not from the army in residence, but a creature with a consciousness!

When he left, he’d sensed someone observing him. He would not be mistaken in that. Although he didn’t see any big ball of light, it only indicated that the other wasn’t a supernatural. They might be a martial master.

All of you guys are here to die! Li Hao thoroughly sneered at them, suspecting that Hou Xiaochen might have another goal in mind with purposefully leaking the existence of Battle Heaven.

Otherwise, with the director’s strength and the abilities of Silver Moon’s wily old foxes, there wouldn’t have been a joint expedition last month. How would Violet Moon and her ilk be worthy of being enemies with Hou Xiaochen and the rest?

But this was just as good. Li Hao actually needed to thank the man. If it wasn’t for the director’s actions, supernaturals would not visit Silver Moon. The young man wouldn’t have a chance to do everything he’d done.

Li Hao led Liu Long away from some heavyweights and probed further in, also taking stock of each faction’s strength as he did so.

Inside Rift Canyon.

Li Hao walked around the place with Liu Long in tow. Almost no one discovered them when they concealed their presences. So long as they didn’t purposefully approach the powerhouses or display enmity, martial masters were unparalleled when it came to hiding. Even Li Hao wasn’t able to discover martial masters around him.

However, the young man quickly found something amiss. A grave look entered his eyes. He motioned for Liu Long to quietly climb a cliff face.

“Chief, have you also noticed something off?” he transmitted.

A stern Liu Long nodded. “There seems... to be some martial masters among the crowd!”

Indeed, there were quite a few more martial masters among the delegation this time. It would seem that some secrets had leaked from the last expedition. Whether it was the three great organizations or other factions, all of them had brought some martial masters. It was difficult to gauge the strength of the new additions, but many of them had a layer of internal force around them. That meant they were at least peak Sunderer.

Martial masters could fly inside the city and easily take the second passageway. They could also conceal their presence to evade attack by Black Armors. Although there were no more Black Armors, it could also mean that the Gold Armor wouldn’t be able to discover them. Therefore, all sides had brought martial masters for this excavation.

Some were renowned veteran martial masters, others were valiant talents that the organization had secretly trained. They were certainly all powerhouses. While none of them would be stronger than Solar, there should be Dominators. And for greater than Dominator... there might be, if sufficient mysterious power stones and other treasures were poured into them. That was a difficult conclusion to draw.

Apart from that, some of the Novas immensely surprised Li Hao. He saw a very young fellow being waited on, like he was a noble scion. There were people acting like servants in a barren place like the canyon, fetching water, preparing a bath, and even warming the bed...

Li Hao heard this through instructions being given by an old man. He couldn’t determine the old man’s level of strength either. The latter should be a martial master; one that wasn’t that weak.

The youngster was a Nova, and judging from his ball of light, stronger than Half Mountain and the others! This was crazy. Li Hao had never seen a martial master live such a pampered life, supernaturals had it good!

It wasn’t that martial masters didn’t like a comfortable life, but that strong martial masters wouldn’t think of bringing servants under such circumstances. It was such a boring proposition.

Li Hao was completely stunned after a walk through the area. The camps of the three great organizations were the only places that he didn’t investigate. Just the small patch he’d wandered through showed him three Novas and eleven Solars!

Since when did Novas and Solars become so commonplace? Didn’t they say that Novas were rare even in the central region?

Perturbed, Li Hao frowned deeply. His forehead quickly relaxed when he understood. Plainly, Battle Heaven had raised a great deal of attention. The Gold Armor that’d destroyed an origin weapon with one punch was a hot topic of discussion, as was the powerful Black Tortoise Seal origin weapon.

Is it the turtle of the Wangs? Li Hao wondered. It was feted on all sides, whereas no one seemed to be paying attention to the sword of the Lis. Did they all believe that the Night Watchers possessed the sword, or were they just pretending to not know that he had one too? Were they waiting for the right timing and purposefully not mentioning it at the moment?

He held both the sword of the Lis and blade of the Zhangs, but he’d given the blade to his teacher. I wonder if teacher has discovered anything else special about it, other than its powerful offensive capabilities? It’s terrifying that so many powerhouses have come... I can’t even fight an initial Nova.

Li Hao sighed inwardly, quite resigned by the situation.