At this moment, in the basement of the classroom building.
In front of the library.
Puppets crowded in front of the doors, hanging their heads like they were children whoâd committed wrongdoing. They didnât dare look at the Black Armor.
âDo not brashly agitate your lingering wills.â The Black Armor solemnly turned to them. âYou are all already dead, you are just the living dead! Do you really want to fly apart into dust?â
âTeacher!â A puppet stepped forward with heightened emotions. âWe... wish to return to the main world and join the Human Kingâs Demon Guards! We want to follow the Demon King and march through the worlds. We wish to illuminate the firmament with the glories of humanity!â
Theyâd enrolled at Evenround Martial back in the day for this goal, to join the Human Kingâs personal guard. Ninety-nine percent of those who graduated from the university could join that guard because this place was different. This was an institution of learning created by one closest to the Human King. The descendants of countless powerhouses vied for a spot in its classrooms.
Those who successfully matriculated were selected from tens of thousands. Whoâd ever fathomed that they wouldnât even have a chance to graduate and would sink into oblivion instead?
Frustration, excitement, and fervor rose in their hearts when the Black Armor mentioned the Human King. We can probably never go back, but our blood still runs hot! The Human King cannot possibly have fallen, he was a truly invincible powerhouse. Therefore, maybe heâs only lost!
Thatâs right, that has to be the case. It must be that heâs marched so far on his campaign that heâs forgotten the way home and this place. No one else gets lost, but he does. Thatâs definitely what has happened.
âThe Human King has gotten lost again, hasnât he?â someone murmured. âHe got lost after he killed the Heavenly Emperor and made everyone wait for a lot of years. This mustâve happened again!â
â......â The Black Armor was silent, then smiled after a long moment. âThatâs right, he must be lost! He was my senior at school and has always been thus. Weâll... wait for him to return and take us with him when he next sets foot into Silver Moon Territory...â
âWe leave and return home!â
âReturn home!â Their shouts shook the building! We want to go home!
The Black Armor looked on and laughed silently, but was inwardly filled with resignation and self-recrimination. Sorry, I really am sorry. Iâve just lied to you guys again. It's been too long! He wouldnât be lost for so long. You bunch of sillies, weâre very close to the main world. They can get here in a split second or travel through the waters of the Forbidden Sea. They can even project from the main world if they wanted to. They would long be arrived if they could come here.
Something mightâve happened to the main world!
The Black Armor looked outside, seeming to have Li Hao in his line of sight. He laughed silently at the interesting fellow. Perhaps the young man would be the standout of this era. Maybe he could even open the Star Gate. But... so what?
The second he opened it might be the second of his destruction. The Star Gate mightâve become the final barrier.
âTeacher! We of New Martial do not despair!â a puppet suddenly hollered. âYouâve gotten old and are frequently distracted these days! Youâre not fit to be a teacher anymore! Weâre still enthusiastic about things, so we should be the teacher!â
â......â The Black Armor didnât know what to say. Have I gotten old?
Perhaps. He was indeed more sentimental lately. As for the studentâs declaration of wanting to be the teacher, that was a commonly heard claim. That was how the Human King had conducted himself back in the day, and he was their idol. All of these brats wanted to surpass their teacher and be the teacher themselves. They wanted to lord it over their teachers and turn the latter into students!
What a bunch of unruly brats! The Black Armor smacked the offending puppet down to the ground and heavily patted its head. He didnât stop until the puppet was completely dazed.
âYou can be my teacher when you can defeat me. Otherwise... go back to sweeping! Those guys broke some more things, so go fix them. Also, tell Li Hao that heâs being fined 4.5 million energy stones for the damages. Adding on to his previous damages makes for ten million!â
âAlright then!â Resigned puppets disappeared from the scene; theyâd been thrashed again.
......
Li Hao finally wore a smile on his face. His ferocious tiger aura slowly disappeared with the âfireâ character. There was one less element weighing down on him; the wind and thunder elements were likewise locked into Stellaris. His wood character gradually took shape.
The others watched raptly, particularly Chen Zhongtian! His mouth hung wide open as he felt like heâd spent the entire day in a dream. Heâd seen with his own eyes the disappearance of fire mysterious power. Li Hao had completely caused it to disappear! Heâd watched as Li Hao summoned various written characters and melded the supernatural lock within them. Heâd also observed the young man incorporate the wood aura into one of the characters, then the supernatural lock, and ultimately an eruption of wood mysterious power and the manifestation of supernatural abilities!
Chen Zhongtian was utterly dazed by everything heâd seen today. Everyone present seemed to possess the same capabilities. What was this? A new dao?
By now, Li Hao had fully repaired his body with Water of Life. His organs were back to prime condition, with his heart holding the tiger aura. It was the easiest aura for him to control and influence, whereas the others might not understand him. His auras were slightly weak, but they were sufficient for his purposes.
Just like before, he was a six element Arcanus again. So long as the tiger aura remained hidden, the strain exerted on his body was nominal as in the past. Only Li Hao himself knew that he would be a seven element Arcanus as soon as the tiger aura appeared!
However, his wind and thunder elements were too weak. Li Hao sighed to himself, he wasnât a true seven element Arcanus in his own eyes. The key lay with his wind and thunder elements lacking their own aura. As such, their strength was mediocre. Ordinary people might think of themselves as a seven element Arcanus, but to Li Hao, he was just a poor little worm of five elements.
Water of Life disappeared rapidly like water emptying through a drain. The little tree expended much of its personal reserves. Li Hao had given it a total of ten million stones in their dealings with each other; it had supplied approximately one thousand drops to the young man. The little tree had expended only three million stones for Water of Life and used almost five million on its own recovery.
Itâd spent the remaining two million on its own Water of Life reserves, making roughly five hundred drops. Such was the instinct of plant spirits, much like how squirrels hoarded food for the winter. They banked Water of Life for future use even if they were yet to fully recover. However, the little treeâs stores were completely empty at the moment. The group of humans in front of it absorbed every drop with gusto as they would split apart the second they ran out.
The little tree winced at the consumption! Its pain was somewhat assuaged when it thought of all of the core origin power itâd absorbed. One would not trap a wolf if they werenât willing to risk the child. Other than itself, only Deputy Zhou could absorb core origin power.
How am I supposed to reap benefits if I do not make an investment? These people are working for me when they fight and kill targets!
Thatâs right, such was the little treeâs line of thinking. These were worker bees who put in a lot of effort to help it recover, so it had to fortify their bodies well. Its reserves slowly dwindled away until there was almost no Water of Life left in it anymore. The little tree wanted to cry, but comforted itself that it could just make more.
The only person sitting on pins and needles in the group was Chen Zhongtian. Seeing that Li Hao was about to conclude his cultivation, he couldnât contain himself anymore.
âCommander Li...â He approached cautiously. âWhat is... what is your condition?â
Heâd thought that heâd be the strongest of them all, but he found that he was not by far. Setting aside the little tree, Deputy Zhou was also exceedingly strong as a pure ancient cultivator. Li Hao was so strong that it made him shake. The rest seemed to be peak five elements at most, but there were so many of them!
Yao Si and Hong Yitang seemed to have reached that level, Hong Yitang looked to be close. There were some weaklings that pulled down the average level of strength, such as Manager Yu at almost three element Arcanus or the rather weak three element Light Sword...
Ah, Kong Jie could count as only three elements as well, but his fist was quite hard. This gathering of strength would stun the world, but this group of lunatics were cultivating again. Who knew if theyâd erupt one after another and advance to higher levels?
It was terrifying!
âThereâs nothing much to my condition,â Li Hao smiled. âWeâre just cultivating. Donât leak this to other people, Minister Chen!â
âOf course I wonât...â Chen Zhongtian smiled awkwardly. âItâs just that... those characters are similar to Tranquil Starâs ultimate art. I know them too. Is there... something special about them, commander?â
âGuess! Or do you want to give them a try?â
Chen Zhongtian didnât know what to say. I have to be bold enough to try them first. Cultivation sometimes looked simple, but setting one foot wrong might lead to oneâs doom. This was no joking matter. Heâd been observing the group closely and made some conclusions, but he wouldnât dare try them of his own accord without pointers from someone. It really would be his death!
If he broke all of his supernatural locks and failed to finish the characters, wouldnât that lead to him exploding on the spot?
âThen... Commander Li, what is the secondary dimension in the human body?â
âHow would I know?â Li Hao laughed. âIâm not the one who discovered it.â
Chen Zhongtian was completely at a loss. Fine then! Donât speak of it if you donât want to!
Li Hao truly didnât know, so he was unable to talk of anything. He knew that it existed, but he couldnât locate it. He might be able to when his auras were even stronger, but he couldnât for now. Only the tiger aura could barely manage to understand him and trace the supernatural lockâs trajectory to the depths of the heart. The rest... were still a little ways off from that.
Li Hao looked at the restâeveryone was cultivating, the little tree and Deputy Zhou were devouring core origin strength, as well as one other being... The young man frowned at Panther. The dog was barely doing anything lately and just put in a showing when things developed, but it ate quite a lot. And now, it was absorbing core origin power!
This kind of energy is very precious! What are you eating it for?
âPanth!â
Panther immediately opened its eyes. A sheepish look entered them when it saw that Li Hao was glaring in its direction. I can eat it too! Iâm the descendant of an ancient monster spirit and Iâm really good at eating things. Eating stuff is good for me. As for why Iâm not doing anything... am I needed to? It was just a replica and we could obviously win, so I couldnât be bothered to stick my nose where itâs not needed.
The dog was confused when Li Hao remained glaring at it, then suddenly opened its mouth and swallowed the nearby He Yong. It looked fawningly at Li Hao. See, Iâm useful! What can I do? Eat people!
I can put people in my stomach and make them undetectable! Youâll need to bring in a bunch of people to kill the big treeâtheyâre not an idiot, why would they let you in like that? You just need to bring me in! I can eat people and everything under the sun!