Star Gate

Chapter 1093: Making Every Minute and Second Count (IV)

A trace of anxiety lingered in the depths of Li Hao’s eyes. The death of his replica meant a lot of things. Hopefully, it was Ying Hongyue’s doing and not a powerhouse’s actions. Any formidable replica that walked out of a ruin now would be none other than the one in the traitorous city.

Him emerging in the world meant that the five sides would very quickly reach an accord. As for Li Hao’s verbal agreement with the Great Li king and Watercloud empress dowager, that was easily broken. If the ancients offered enough benefits, ripping up a simple verbal agreement would not matter in the slightest.

......

At the same time.

Gan Wuliang walked out of the Liu city with a group of people. He turned back for a look and frowned slightly; his forehead quickly smoothed over. When he looked at Yuan Shuo, the man gently shook his head.

This wasn’t the city of traitors!

Gan Wuliang heaved a sigh of relief, that was good. His transmission pendant vibrated and he looked back at Yuan Shuo again after viewing the message. “They’ve located... the city of the Zhengs.”

That brought a change to Yuan Shuo’s expression—this was most likely to be the complete city of traitors out of the three remaining main cities. They would be descending into the lion’s den with this next visit! So they’d found the city of the Zhengs before the city of the Hongs...

“Let’s go take a look!” Yuan Shuo nodded after a long moment of contemplation.

“Then we shall.” Gan Wuliang nodded as well after taking in a long breath. “Professor Yuan... can wait for us to enter first before...”

“That’s alright!” Yuan Shuo sniffed. “Do you think I’m afraid? I’ve excavated more ruins than you’ve eaten grains of salt! What dangers have I not experienced before?”

Gan Wuliang shut his mouth. It was easier to negotiate when Yuan Shuo was also inside the ruins. If not, there was a far greater degree of danger that would befall the former.

The group quickly rushed in another direction. It wasn’t long before Yuan Shuo checked his own transmission pendant. He crushed it after reading the message. “If we still can’t find the city of the Hongs... we’ll pick one out of these two!”

Gan Wuliang’s heart shook. Were they in that much of a rush? Plainly, the last message had come from Li Hao. He nodded without further word and turned back for a look. “This one... can be a prime candidate!”

“Mmhmm.” Yuan Shuo didn’t say anything else. The Lius hadn’t signed the agreement; the two sides had simply exchanged a few words. The Lius said that they would not involve themselves in the upcoming disputes. As for the agreement, they could not sign it since the city lord’s seal was unusable after their city lord had left.

As polite as they were, this was not the result that Li Hao’s side wanted. If the city of the Zhengs proved too dangerous, then the city of the Lius was the first choice for the ancient city to be razed!

The group ceased talking and traveled swiftly. Li Hao had purposefully sent a message to inquire about their status. The young man was plainly eager and found it hard to wait. Yuan Shuo knew his disciple well—if the young man could stall for time, he would drag things out as much as possible.

But if he wasn’t willing to wait, that would mean that more changes had developed.

Yuan Shuo cursed himself—would we be in this situation if we had more time? The ancient cities were difficult to handle. He’d sensed even in the Lius that their guardian plant spirit had awakened, and it was absolutely a Saint level existence!

There might be more than one such existence in the city. Over at Battle Heaven, both General Pagoda and the old turtle were Saints. What if there were two at the Lius as well?

If that was the case, the city of the Lius would be a tough nut to crack indeed. If Zhang An didn’t participate in the battle, Yuan Shuo would have no idea what Li Hao intended. But that seemed to be just the young man’s intentions.

Li Hao hadn’t mentioned the matter again after being asked about it once. Clearly, he intended for Silver Moon to take down an ancient city through their own efforts.

Damn it... in that case, we might as well destroy the four nations first and let the second awakening start. Let the old farts come out—they might spend some time killing each other before paying attention to us.

As much as Yuan Shuo thought that, he was concerned that this would make Li Hao a public enemy. Otherwise, he was of the mind to just let the second awakening take place. When it did, these ancients might not have the energy to spare for Skystar locals.

Yuan Shuo looked up at the sky. Li Hao was unlikely to be able to handle two Saints, not unless he entered the Hao Cosmos and devoured some strength of the five elements, then utilized the five to nurture the other thirty-six daos. Perhaps... he could force thirty-six dao meridians open!

It was just... this was a highly risky move.

None of Yuan Shuo’s thoughts showed on his face. He continued to follow Gan Wuliang and the others as they sped toward the city of the Zhengs. This wasn’t the time to think too much. If the Zhengs were the traitors, putting on a good show next was the key.

......

Meanwhile, the various nations that were agitating with irritation quickly received a message. They were to meet at the wastelands of Barren Dynasty in three days to convene a parley of five sides!

......

The ninth base station.

Another plant spirit refused negotiation and cooperation. This time, Li Hao thrust his shimmering sword through the void and stabbed it through the tree’s heart of life, then snapped its trunk with a single blow.

He whirled around to deliver another blow that shattered the void and severed its great dao. There wasn’t even a chance for the plant spirit to beg for mercy!

Prior to this, Li Hao would spend some time trying to convince the plant spirit to work with them. Of the nine base stations, three of them chose a partnership. There were also others that chose to surrender after a battle. The young man accepted them all the same.

But he didn’t give the ninth plant spirit a chance to think. The crowd exchanged wide-eyed glances. They could sense a hint of urgency in the young man’s actions. He was in a greater rush than before and didn’t wish to waste too much time on other matters.

Therefore, he outright cut down the ninth plant spirit.

The redwood didn’t say anything. The other three surrendered plant spirits had sent replicas with the group and had wanted to persuade their old friend to see the light. Seeing their friend die in an instant... they remained glumly silent, possibly out of fear or grief for their own kind caught in similar circumstances as them.

“We have all nine base stations!” Li Hao ignored the others, stowed the plant spirit body, and turned to the vice head. “Senior, can we try aligning them?”

Vice Head Qi walked forward. A high tower in the distance was dim and inert. He inspected it and nodded, “The base station is intact and usable. All we need to do is to release the rest. The ruins are enshrouding the signals of the base stations.

“Once we shatter the ruins of all nine base stations, the rest of their unsealing will follow. The ruins formed because of the world sealing itself off many years ago. All we need to do to restore the base stations in the world is to unseal them.”

“Alright!” Li Hao nodded. It was good that the base station remained in complete condition. He looked at the rest of his people. “Send word that guards are to be stationed in the other locations. They are to break the seal and release all of the base stations!”

“Understood, sir!” Someone quickly ran off to carry out his orders.

The nine base stations weren’t all in the central region. There were four in the central region; the others were scattered elsewhere. One was even located in the sea. Li Hao had broken the one situated in the northern continent.

When everyone left the ruins, the young man sank into deep thought while contemplating the base station. Unsealing the stations would once more complete the communication system of the land and facilitate clear transmissions throughout Silver Moon continent. It would also mask the communication attempts of all other factions, preventing them from contacting each other.

“Vice Head Qi, can I cut off all of the communication systems between the suits of armor?” Li Hao suddenly asked.

The vice head frowned at the question. “You can cut off their external communications, but internal... is more like a local area network. They’ll still be able to contact each other within a certain area.”

“How big is that area?”

“Around fifty kilometers.”

Li Hao nodded. That wasn’t large. The suits of armor had also operated within a local area network before, but their range of communication was much larger and extended to five hundred kilometers. That was further expanded to several thousand kilometers with the golden armor.

Once that signal booster was obscured, the suits of armor would only be able to maintain a range of fifty kilometers. This meant that the various factions would have to make their powerhouses scream messages to each other if they wished to communicate across the land in the future.

If a powerhouse yelled, they could sometimes exceed fifty kilometers.

Having grasped the sky canopy system and completed basic reforms of the base station, Li Hao could now block all non-official communication channels. In this way, the four nations would have to coordinate their moves based on gut feeling, and that was even assuming a partnership was viable.

“Vice Head Qi, can we alter the message contents if we don’t mask the signals?” Li Hao suddenly said.

The vice head blinked and looked at the young man. Alter the message contents?

“Or can we surveil their communications if we do not alter the contents?” the young man continued. “It would be nice to monitor all internal communications, including the army...”

“We cannot!” The vice head shook his head after frowning in thought. “At least, not right now. The nine base stations do not have this ability. If they did, their defenses would be more than this! They would be much stronger!

“If a communication station could listen in on army messages at will or even alter their contents, then there would be at least a Saint in residence. There might even be more than one Saint.”

If the base stations could accomplish such functions, how would they have such flimsy defenses? Incursions by enemies would be of primary concern!

Li Hao inclined his head. That was a bit regretful, but he didn’t view this lacking with too much dissatisfaction. Being able to temporarily block all signals was just as nice.

He walked over to the massive tower in front of him and assessed it for a while. He suddenly rose into the air and ripped through the void with one sword stroke. The originally sealed ruin had lost its guardian plant spirit. The firmament overhead split open with the young man’s blow.

Rumble!

The earth trembled as the base station situated in the north fully emerged from the ground. A tower materialized out of nowhere, dim and inert. After many years of inactivity, it once more hovered over the northern continent.

The same sight took place in many other locations; base station upon base station emerged from the ground. They were all dark with lack of energy.

“Use Stellaris to obtain authorization over the base station,” transmitted Vice Head Qi. “After you input sufficient energy and follow the prompts to set a particular frequency, we will only be able to communicate on that frequency.”

Li Hao followed the man’s words and brandished Stellaris to obtain first level clearance in the base stations. The sword proved as eminent as ever.

The young man soon exercised control over all nine base stations.