Star Gate
Chapter 1226: Open and Aboveboard (I)

Chapter 1226: Open and Aboveboard (I)

Li Hao strolled along the shifting sands of the desert, looking into the distance. “The chaos is the image of the world at its birth. Since this place can retain the chaos, that means departure from Silver Moon world might be possible through this area. We do not necessarily have to go through the Star Gate.

“Of course, this might turn out to be a tiny crack that regular people are unable to travel through...” murmured the young man. “Those of New Martial know this place is of the chaos, and that chaos is a product of the universe. It is not from a world. Since the chaos is able to spread, that means there is very likely an opening in the world from the Barren wastelands. The world has cracked open!”

But no one raised the suggestion of departing Silver Moon from the wasteland—why was that?

There must be a reason. Either it was too dangerous, or there was no way to leave at all. But one could absolutely draw on the chaos strength outside of Silver Moon world from this location.

Li Hao didn’t have anyone to talk to, so he addressed the dog. “I’ll have to enclose the wasteland with my domain if I wish to expel chaos presence from this territory. Barren is too large. Although I’ve only seen it on maps before, it’s at least the size of five Skystar provinces. Added to that thousands of kilometers of desert—that makes it about ten provinces in total. It’s on par with one of the four continents...”

This was a very vast territory to consider. Li Hao’s domain utilized eleven supernatural characters. Its largest range was several hundred kilometers. The more supernatural characters there were, the stronger it would be, and a greater range it would expand to.

However, it would take approximately fifty supernatural characters to complete the enclosure of the wasteland. It didn’t require hundreds or even a thousand because fifty would entail that Li Hao comprehended fifty different auras. That would be a qualitative improvement in his cultivation.

Currently, he only had eleven characters. It would be exceedingly difficult for him to enclose the Barren wasteland, capture heavenly intent, and devour Barren world. There was no possibility of accomplishing it.

The enemy had plotted and schemed for so many years, how was he to ruin their plans if he lacked the capability to do so?

“Supernatural characters... the aura...” Li Hao frowned slightly. The five elements, wind, and thunder were easy to speak of. They were basic building blocks of the elements. He’d nearly fully comprehended all of them. If he wished to grasp some other auras, he would have to try his hand elsewhere.

There were a lot of likely candidates to consider.

He could study auras of the weapons from Silver Moon martial masters. Those of the blade, spear, sword, halberd, and fists were auras as well. Except, the difficulty level was high if he truly wished to fully master them.

Hong Yitang once said that auras were formless, intangible, and unattributed. They were not innately created. That meant to say that the sword aura that Li Hao had comprehended was universally adaptable. The sword aura could be converted to the blade aura, which could be converted to the spear aura...

All sorts of ideas popped into his head.

As Li Hao continued forward and crossed the desert, he came across inhabitants of the wasteland. Barren citizens.

There was a city in the distance, but it didn’t possess a tall skyline. In fact, all of their buildings were extremely low and half of the city proper was situated beneath the ground. Sandstorms often blew over Barren territory and sand regularly filled the air.

There were a lot of people riding horses and herding sheep outside the city. This particular area was an oasis in the desert. Barren’s citizens were mostly nomadic, but had mostly settled in their respective territories after so many years and developed in the direction of a people with defined enclaves.

The Barren king had led one million elites to the central plains and was yet to return. The border cities were beginning to stir with unrest.

They were worried that he would not return after this departure. If the powerhouses did not return, then it wouldn’t be many years afterward before the sand buried the cities.

“Barren...”

If the world was reformed after the chaos dissipated, then perhaps the scenes of a new world’s creation would play out in the wasteland. The hundreds of millions of Barren citizens might die if they stayed here.

After last time’s experience, Li Hao had a lot more ideas come to mind. He soon transmitted, “Notify the Barren king to begin preparations for migrating his people! We will fill in the sea to create another continent. There are a lot of people in Barren—their customs and habits are different from those of the central plains. They cannot be stuffed together and must live separately.

“There are too many of them... When it comes to population, Watercloud is at least similar to the central plains.”

Li Hao wanted to split Barren up. Their people were skilled at combat and their culture fierce and unyielding. When it came to the Barren citizens, they had to be separated throughout Skystar and gradually assimilated into the dynasty.

The one with the greatest headache of all after receiving the message was Lin Hongyu. Her head threatened to spontaneously split open. There was never an end to all the tasks she needed to do!

More missions came as soon as she finished the one before it. She needed to handle the migration of an entire nation at the drop of a hat. If they didn’t live in an age of the supernatural, she’d love to smack Li Hao to death for how ludicrous his demands were.

Granted, these were just complaints that she kept to herself.

“We’ll need some time for that, Your Lordship,” she swiftly responded. “But this is good timing to do so. The entire world is relocating to create the Hao Cosmos Continent. The unrest created by migrating Barren citizens will go unnoticed in the general confusion.

“However, we’ll need a large amount of supernaturals in new infrastructure construction. There are already roughly one million supernaturals participating in construction, but that’s not enough.”

Almost all of the supernaturals from the City of Supernaturals had been assigned to infrastructure task forces. This created a unique sight that might never be seen again in the future. These were all supernaturals of connate dao bodies and the first batch of supernaturals to awaken to their powers.

And now, they were building roads, waterworks, energy lines, and others.

Li Hao’s Demon Hunter Army was almost all soldiers or martial masters. There weren't that many supernaturals within its ranks. The young man’s eyes widened with astonishment when he heard that one million supernaturals weren’t enough.

One supernatural should be the equivalent of anywhere from twenty to thirty laborers, no? At the very least? That meant there were tens of millions building infrastructure, but that still wasn’t enough...

“Then add more people!”

“But...” Lin Hongyu sighed. “My lord, we need to pay them. You’re not conscripting them, but hiring them! We need to pay them with energy stones, and not just them. The Demon Hunter Army and Skystar bureaucrats all need to be paid.

“We would’ve reached the end of our coffers long ago if the marquis hadn’t reduced our armies! But even so, Skystar’s big mine has almost been depleted. Your Lordship, we’re almost out of funds.”

Li Hao blinked; he’d never considered this before. Ever since seizing Skystar’s mine, he’d thought that he’d be able to use it until he conquered the world. How long had it been? What a pitifully short amount of time! That was a massive mine!

Although he knew that they’d excavated a lot of it, this was too soon for it to run out! Surely not!

“My lord... Battle Heaven has consumed a lot of its reserves, as do each of Boundless’ mobilizations. In addition, we’ve funded the awakening of the Battle Heaven Army, Saints, and Immortals...

“Added to that the layout of the sky canopy system, the construction of the martial academies, numerous plant spirits raising sacred grain... Of course the Skystar mine is almost empty now!

“Of course. Your Lordship can also refuse to pay. As the king who rules over the world, these weaklings will have to work regardless since peace is not yet at hand...”

They were in the early days of a nation’s founding; Li Hao was blazing the trail in beaten rags. So what if he didn’t pay his workers? It was an age of the weak being food for the strong. They would have to work if he only paid them with a mouthful of food!

No one compared to Li Hao’s reputation. He was so strong that he dominated the world. Who dared resist?

“We don’t need to go that far!” Li Hao laughed softly. “Don’t they work so hard in hopes of earning something? If we’re out of energy stones...”

He thought for a moment. Energy stones were actually hard to procure these days. There were no more mines. Although the world was awakening, energy was not yet dense enough to form mines. Not to mention, there were so many people cultivating. How would any energy be given the chance to settle down into mines?

Zheng Yu might be the only person with a rich store of ore on hand. The other was Li Daoheng, but they were both exceedingly tricky to deal with.

Li Hao had had such a grand time splashing energy stones around that... it didn’t seem so grand now. If the chaos dispersed from the Barren wasteland and became part of the world, heavenly will would gather and energy flow throughout the wasteland. If no one absorbed it, it might become new mines.

“Let’s use what we have for now. It’s enough for a while, right?”

“Correct.”

“Then we’ll continue to use it...”

“My lord, should we keep some in reserve?” Lin Hongyu asked with trepidation. If they used all of the energy, they would abruptly be catapulted back to the situation one hundred thousand years ago if anything happened to the world and energy suddenly disappeared.

“No need!” Li Hao responded firmly. “We’ll pay out salaries when we should. The thing I hate most in life is when salaries aren’t paid on time! When I worked in the Inspectorate, they were once late paying my salary for three days! I wanted to take my blade and chop off the Inspector General’s head for that!”

“......” Lin Hongyu had nothing to say.

“Therefore, don’t be late on paying wages,” Li Hao smiled. “Supernaturals wholeheartedly work for us because they want to earn some money. Otherwise, they’d be able to support themselves no matter where they went in the world. In addition, have the Barren king come walk around with me. You can go back to your duties. Administering the world is also a kind of cultivation...”

Lin Hongyu had no more to say. Since Li Hao had spoken, she would proceed according to the young man’s thoughts.

......

The Barren king was also a powerhouse; he swiftly presented himself for an audience with the young man. He wasn’t alone.

The immensely mighty Director General Zhao was by his side. Clearly, those of Skystar didn’t trust the king coming alone. Although he’d agreed to cooperate and join Skystar, everyone was still highly on guard against this king of a foreign nation.

The same went for the Watercloud empress dowager. Although Li Hao had bequeathed her a high degree of self-autonomy, there was someone keeping an eye on her all the same.

A similar situation was repeated with Great Li.