Star Gate

Chapter 170: The Entire Team Breaks Through (II)

Outside the office.

Wang Ming’s ears were perked up when he happened to casually pass by Liu Yan’s office. Moments later, Hu Hao and Li Meng came down the hallway, deep in discussion with document folders in their hands. They seemed to be working as they passed by.

Seconds after that, Wu Chao and Chen Jian loitered outside the offices as if they had reports to make. After a while, even Yun Yao walked over wearing her special glasses.

Liu Long in a trench coat rounded out the crew. He joined the group and growled, “Do none of you have work to do?”

Wu Chao winked and waggled his eyebrows, tilting his head at the office. “Chief, your girl’s being stolen! Vice Captain Liu and Li Hao are too much, doing this in broad daylight!”

“Get outta here!” Liu Long cursed. Your girl’s being stolen! But he has a point, this is broad daylight... and Li Hao... is really...

He was too embarrassed to extend his senses into the office. Can’t you two consider the impact of this? Doing it right in the office with everyone listening outside... Liu Long was mortified on their behalf!

How shameless!

When Wang Ming passed by again, a gossipy look couldn’t help but dawn in his eyes.

“Director Liu, is office romance allowed in our department? Does this count as Li Hao abusing his power for personal gain?” he asked with a hint of glee.

Liu Long didn’t know what to say. Are even supernaturals this interested in gossip? All of you have too much spare time on your hands! He suddenly tensed and sprang away.

The office door opened. Liu Long immediately turned like he’d just arrived and roared, “What are all of you doing here? Do you have nothing to do?”

Li Hao looked wordlessly at the scene. Do you think I didn’t sense that you were also here earlier, chief? Who would’ve thought that the coldly arrogant Captain Liu would know to put on this act as well?

Still wearing her cropped vest, a flushed Liu Yan poked her head out to look at everyone. She smiled radiantly. “You’re all here, huh?”

“......” Ringing silence answered her.

“Shameless!” Yun Yao couldn’t help herself.

Li Hao was going to give himself a seizure from all his eye rolls. He didn’t bother explaining. “Brother Chen, Brother Wu, come in!”

“Us?” The two looked at each other with a slightly guilty conscience. What? We didn’t say nothing.

Wu Chao was the more guilty of the two as he’d said that Li Hao was stealing the chief's girl. The lad wouldn’t take his anger out on him, would he?

“Come in! Does the word of a deputy director hold no weight?”

The two hemmed and hawed, highly reluctant to enter the office. They looked pleadingly at Liu Long a few times, but the man remained noncommittal like he didn’t see them. He wasn’t going to get involved at all.

Despair crept into their hearts and the two resigned men entered the office. The door shut with a bang, leaving Wang Ming and the others looking at each other. What was going on?

Moments later...

“Ah!” The groaning started again. It was Chen Jian’s voice.

Wang Ming’s eyes shot wide open and he couldn’t help but look at Liu Long, then at Yun Yao. This was astounding! What the heck was this?? Had the Demon Hunters always been this lewd? First Li Hao and Liu Yan, now Chen Jian... Wu Chao was inside as well, would he be moaning later too?

The look in Liu Long’s eyes changed and he uttered, “They’re training!”

“Oh, okay!” Wang Ming quickly nodded. Who the heck would believe that? He’d never groaned like this when he trained, and with that kind of tone! He’d never seen anyone moan like that, who was Liu Long kidding?

Screaming with agony was more like it!

Cultivating with mysterious power was a very painful affair; it sometimes felt like endless knives scraping through flesh. Wang Ming often heard anguished wails as mysterious power rampaged through the body, but that was plainly not coming from the office. It was obviously cries of pleasure!

Oh heavens!

What an affront and complete decimation of his values!

The three supernaturals from White Moon looked at each other. Was this the key to why the Demon Hunters were so united? They subconsciously took a step away from Liu Long and Yun Yao.

The latter two were quite resigned by this reaction, but they could more or less determine that those inside really were training. Something else might be afoot when it was just Liu Yan and Li Hao, but after Chen Jian and Wu Chao also entered, they were obviously involved in legitimate affairs.

Expectation shone out of Liu Long’s eyes when his thoughts turned to the blood pearls... Could Li Hao, or rather, Yuan Shuo, have a way to make it easier to absorb the blood pearls? The ones inside all possessed one, and they were all martial masters!

Wang Ming’s scalp turned numb at the look in Liu Long’s eyes. Li Meng also sidled up to him and breathed, “Brother Wang, does it look like Director Liu wants to be inside as well?”

Wang Ming nodded his head imperceptibly. It was obvious to see and truly terrifying!

Liu Long’s ears twitched. Do those two think I can’t hear them? Forget it, I can’t be bothered with them. He continued to wait, highly anticipatory of the results.

If Wu Chao and Chen Jian broke through as well, then the entire team might be Sunderers after today. They’d only had one a few days ago—him, and he was now a Dominator!

As small as the team may be, one Dominator and eight Sunderers or Darkmoons were a formidable force no matter where they went. Silver City’s defensive capabilities would reach a new peak!

The time spent waiting was quite a torment; Wang Ming and his comrades didn’t leave. They first stayed out of an overabundance to learn more gossip, but they gradually knew that something was amiss as well.

Wang Ming’s eyes darted around before he looked at Liu Long and lowered his voice, “Director Liu, what are they doing inside?”

“It’s our team’s unique training method,” Liu Long answered without skipping a beat. “We cultivate in the most comfortable way possible. It’s a secret, exclusive method that will usually help one through a bottleneck! I dare say that both Wu Chao and Chen Jian will become Sunderers this time.”

“How is that possible?” Wang Ming started. His thoughts turned to the blood pearl. Although he’d taken one before to good effect, Wu Chao and the others had received similar ones to him. The effects weren’t so swift!

Not to mention, he hadn’t moaned like this when he digested the blood pearl!

A blood pearl without the supplement of sword energy wasn’t that agreeable to the cultivator. The effects were middling and one had to endure the eruption of scarlet shadow energy. To be frank, it wasn’t a pleasant experience. Thus, Wang Ming highly suspected Liu Long of lying to him!

After roughly another hour, the door to the office swung open again. Wu Chao and Chen Jian were both flushed and exceedingly animated. Chen Jian ignored the fact that he was dripping with sweat and excitedly swung his fist. Faint internal force emanated from it.

“Chief!” Chen Jian hollered energetically. “I’m a Sunderer!”

It used to be that people were dejected when they broke through, not sure if they should be happy or regretful. But after Liu Long set foot into Dominator, the team’s craving for the supernatural was greatly extinguished. Breaking through to Sunderer was massive progress!

Wu Chao laughed spookily. “Me too!”

Behind them, Liu Yan had thrown on an inspector’s uniform that hid her curves. “I’ve also improved slightly.” She smiled faintly. “I can project internal force from my four limbs. I’m not yet mid Sunderer, but I’m almost there.”

Wu Chao and Chen Jian could only just begin to project their internal force whereas she’d taken a step forward. Liu Yan was a hair away from mid Sunderer.

Wang Ming and the others gaped with shock! This was real! All of them had advanced!

“Does this mean...” Hu Hao raised. “That every single Silver City Night Watcher is either a Darkmoon or Sunderer?”

“Li Hao...” Wang Ming wanted to say that Li Hao wasn’t when the young man interrupted him bashfully.

“Ole Wang, I advanced last night too.”

“......” Silence.

Wang Ming’s eyes shot wide open and he looked at Liu Long and the others, too flabbergasted for words. “The entire team... has broken through!”

One Dominator, eight Darkmoons or Sunderers. This level of strength outstripped the other Night Watcher branches and placed Silver City second to only White Moon and Flare City! Flare City was the second largest city of the province. It had several Sunflares and more than a dozen Darkmoon in residence, making it stronger than Silver City.

Other cities that boasted of Night Watcher branches typically had one Sunflare, a few Darkmoons, and several Starlight. Some weaker ones didn’t even have a Sunflare.

Silver City had been the weakest as it was newly established, but it’d vaulted to number three within the province in the blink of an eye. If they counted Yuan Shuo who was out of the system... that gave them a fighting chance with headquarters!

“I need a moment...” Wang Ming found it difficult to accept what he saw. “But this is impossible! I know about blood pearls and that they’re very useful for martial masters to advance to Slayer or for Slayers to continue improving. Their effects shouldn’t be this good, should they?”

These effects were too good!

“Of course not, but don’t forget who my teacher is,” chuckled Li Hao. “A master of martial dao, he naturally brings about different results with the addition of some unique methods. Not only that, but if we can get our hands on more blood pearls, these items may not be as useless to supernaturals either...”

“What?!” Wang Ming gasped. “They work for supernaturals too?”

“Yes!” Li Hao grinned. “Supernaturals absorb mysterious power to strengthen themselves. But if blood pearls are combined with mysterious power and my teacher’s exclusive method, they are effective for supernaturals as well! Brother Wang, for example, is adept with the metal attribute and abilities. If equipped with a blood pearl and a few other things, you’ll absorb metal energy at a faster rate and grow stronger. I think you’ll soon set foot into the Plenilune stage or even Sunflare!”

Wang Ming lit up! Did he mean that?

Li Meng and Hu Hao were also slightly tempted. Hu Hao couldn’t help himself and asked, “Um, I’m... I’m a flight...”

“That has to do with the wind element. You normally absorb wind energy, right?”

Hu Hao nodded. Flight did indeed have to do with the wind; it was a kind of mutation. Not all wind supernaturals could fly.

“What about me?” Li Meng asked urgently. “It’s so hard for my third eye to improve. If I could absorb energy whenever I wished to, I would’ve advanced a long time ago. I can only absorb some unattributed power to strengthen myself, but it’s not a good match for me...”

None of the three supernaturals from White Moon could sit still, not when they watched the martial masters in front of them improve at such a rapid pace. They remained rooted in the same position while the rest of the team advanced. People said that it was hard for martial masters to improve—much harder than supernaturals—but why did they suddenly feel that it was the supernatural that was hard and martial masters had it quite easy?

“Alright, don’t think so much for now since we’re out of blood pearls,” Liu Long brought up. “Both Wu Chao and Chen Jian have made progress today... oh, and Li Hao.”