Star Gate

It took the group about a day of walking to reach the City of Supernaturals. The metropolis sprawled amid the biting harsh wind and blizzard. A hubbub of voices rose from it and supernatural ripples undulated. Mysterious power exuded from the city walls to expel the bitter cold and snow from its vicinity.

The city towered like a miracle of the age. Its vast walls reached one hundred meters! One could sense supernatural ripples from the top. City annihilation cannons mounted the ramparts and powerhouses manned them. Troops of soldiers stood atop the walls, clad in a variety of armor as they patrolled in all directions. More troops stood on the city gates. They were all supernaturals!

The people coming to and fro were almost all supernaturals down to the last. They were rarely seen in other areas, but everywhere to be found here.

This seemed more like a city of hope and the playground of supernaturals. Another group of supernaturals arrived while Li Hao and his group took in the sights. Some flew overhead with their weapons and others traveled on foot. Some drove on the roads; everyone was in a hurry.

Blood stained the body of one of them—he was naked from the waist up in the dead of winter.

“That wench tasted good!” he boasted to his comrades. “I told you guys to have a taste too, but you guys weren’t willing…”

The two puppets understood the man’s words. Anger stirred in them and they wanted to take action, but Li Hao sent his voice reverberating in their minds with a soft grunt.

“Stay quiet! You listen to me here. Don’t move without my command!”

The two puppets were furious and didn’t want to listen to Li Hao. They were out in the world just to take a look around, why did they have to listen to him? But upon seeing him glare coldly at them with a chilly look in his eyes, he seemed completely different from before. The two puppets quieted down, slightly afraid like they’d bumped into a family elder despite the young man being very weak.

Li Hao said nothing and continued on his way with Panther after he was certain that the two would remain quiet. The guards wanted to stop him at the gate. He whipped one of them into tumbling over the ground. “Are you blind to stop just anyone you see??”

Although the soldiers didn’t recognize Li Hao, fear spasmed their hearts. Someone who looked like a leader hurriedly walked forward. Wreathed in smiles, he apologized, “Please forgive us, milord. These guys are blind and you are so right to beat them. I’ll teach them a proper lesson, so there’s no need to waste your time with the likes of them…”

“Get out of here!”

“Yes, of course, at once…” The fawning man quickly backed away.

As Li Hao’s group sauntered past, they could hear the leader lecturing his men. “Are you guys idiots?! Didn’t you see the two guards following the young man? It’s obvious to see that he’s no ordinary person, how dare you stop him?? A lot of great people have been coming to City of Supernaturals, so sharpen your wits! I’ll hack you all to pieces if you keep stirring up trouble!”

“Yes yes yes, don’t waste your time with us, sir…”

“……” The voices gradually faded into the background.

People and vehicles abounded within the city; it was the heights of prosperity.

Jiang Yingli couldn’t help herself and asked, “Why did you hit people?”

“I’m stronger than them, so I can hit them,” Li Hao chuckled. “Is that wrong?”

“Very wrong!” she raged. “How can you be so bad? The strong are supposed to protect the weak, not bully the weak! Is there any sense of accomplishment in bullying the weak? They are just loyally carrying out their duties. Should they not look into those entering the city? Why did you not follow the rules and hit them instead??”

“What would happen in New Martial?” Li Hao asked instead of growing impatient with them.

“Your head would swing by the city gates tomorrow!”

The young man inclined his head with a smile. “But this is not New Martial.”

The two angry robot cats didn’t want to talk to him anymore.

“I was just seeing how the twelve families manage the city,” Li Hao explained slowly. “It looks like their management skills are mediocre. These guards are nothing good either. Take a closer look. They raise all sorts of difficulties when weaker supernaturals enter the city. But when powerful supernaturals enter, they bow and scrape before them. It’s said that mundanes are killed outright when they wander into the area…

“So, do you still think that these guards are innocent?” The young man smiled.

The two blinked and didn’t say anything.

“Therefore, what you see may not be real. It looks like you guys never suffered back in the day, so you are unaware of the evils of the world,” Li Hao laughed. “Your temper is explosive and you’re too quick to lose it. Although you are of the Immortal level, your temperament… is run-of-the-mill. You’re still too young.”

The two puppets wanted to erupt with temper anew at his words, but ultimately snorted and ignored Li Hao. The group was walking down a main avenue, surrounded by crowds of supernaturals. Storefronts lined the side of the street, some dealing with mysterious power stones, some in weaponry, others in mysterious power stones, and a variety of other items to be found as well.

There was food, drink, and entertainment galore. Heavyweights roamed the streets, with some supernaturals preferring to be beggars in this city than a millionaire outside. After all, mundanes were not permitted entry here. Li Hao even saw a brothel. It was… quite the eye-opener.

The topic on everyone’s mind was the formation of the government cabinet tomorrow. Who would be a cabinet minister? So-and-so was very powerful; the Skystar Commander Office was a hot topic of discussion as well.

“What shitty Skystar Commander Office? Didn’t they say they want to regulate all of the supernaturals in the world as well as City of Supernaturals? Bullshit! Once the cabinet is formed, we’ll march with the two divine mountains and exterminate the Skystar Commander Office! Let’s capture that Li Hao, chop his head off, and hang it on the city gates!”

“Hahaha, that’d be letting him off lightly! Apparently he looks good, so why not… heh heh heh.”

“Damn your tastes run heavy!”

“Hahaha, won’t it be such a sense of accomplishment to screw someone as highly placed as him?”

“That’s right, hahaha!”

“Damn it, it’s all that bastard’s fault. The Night Watchers seem to be sticking their noses in more things now. I accidentally killed a few people a few days ago—those assholes actually issued a warrant for my arrest! They’re being all cocky because of who they have backing them. None of these dogs dared fart in front of us when they saw us before!”

“It’s the City of Supernaturals that’s the best, what does Li Hao know? We have superhuman strength and should be rulers of the world. Are we supposed to obey the rules and laws like those mortals? Why are we to be arrested if we kill a mortal? There’s billions of them and just a few supernaturals!”

“He doesn’t know diddly squat, he just wants to glorify himself and have the whole world know of Li Hao the Mighty. He ain’t shit!”

“Hahaha, that’s right! Our City of Supernaturals is truly growing stronger this time! I’ve called all my friends here—the world will be ours soon!”

“Isn’t that right!”

“……” Such was the conversation on every street and alley. Everyone had somewhat dreaded the formation of the Skystar Commander Office, but as the days went on and neither the Night Watchers nor Li Hao came by the City of Supernaturals, people forgot about him. The city was rapidly growing stronger!

Transformed into the shape of a horse beneath Li Hao, Panther wanted to bite people! Chen Zhongtian looked at Li Hao, but the young man’s expression was calm and he wasn’t mad. He just found the conversation laughable.

“Tell me, Minister Chen,” he sighed as he rode Panther. “Have these people forgotten that many of their relatives, their friends, and their elders are ordinary people? Why have they lost themselves after gaining a little bit of power? Why do they think they are the sons and daughters of heaven and the center of the world, that mundane people are the tools by which they can murder and loot?”

“Their power came too easily for them,” Chen Zhongtian responded after some thought. “As did their wealth. With strength and wealth, but a lack of supervision… They can kill for whatever they want and no one can keep them in check. Of course they strike back when someone wants to curtail their activities…”

“That’s not right either,” Jiang Yingli suddenly said. “Suddenly obtaining power is not bad, but what’s wrong is that there is only consideration of strength in their minds. They have no concrete goals or faith, so it is a lack of proper education!”

“What do you mean?” Li Hao asked curiously.

“If they were educated from young and possessed basic critical thinking, morals and ethics, they would identify right from wrong. They would not lose control with power!” Jiang Yingli said seriously. “Many people suddenly come into power, but so long as you aren’t ignorant, you won’t lose control like they have!”

“So you mean that it comes down to education again?” Li Hao asked thoughtfully.

“That’s right!” Jiang Yingli tilted her big head. “If you were properly educated since young, your first thought upon receiving great power wouldn’t be to destroy something. You’d help yourself live a more comfortable life at most. You wouldn’t run around savagely and be at a loss of what to do. Therefore, I think it’s a lack of education that’s caused this.”

Li Hao nodded. That made sense. He’d also suddenly come into power, but had he spontaneously turned into a despot when he did so?

No, because he had a basic rationality and logic to his thoughts. He also possessed a fundamental set of morals that denoted bullying the weak as wrong. He had been educated in this manner, but these people felt that they could do anything they wanted when they grew strong because that made them a god!

Chen Zhongtian also quietly turned over the puppet’s words in his mind, debating something.

An enormous inner city rose in the city center, occupying nearly half of the City of Supernaturals. They could hear from the crowds around them that this was territory belonging to the twelve families. They were the dragons and phoenixes of the City of Supernaturals, their people lived inside the inner city.

Stronger wandering cultivators could also enter the inner city. There were storefronts and residences there, but regular supernaturals could not patronize the establishments. They would have to be at least a Solar to pass through. Solar was quite strong amid wandering cultivators.

There was also a plethora of supernatural academies within the inner city. The three great organizations, nine ministries, and seven divine mountains except the Sky Sword Manor had local branches as well. Sky Sword didn’t like to get involved in these matters and hadn’t sent a representative.

A red light sparkled in Li Hao’s eyes as he looked at the inner city. He raised a brow to find significant numbers of powerhouses. At his level of strength, he could read quite a lot from a scan with his eyes.

There were many supernaturals inside the city, ones that were universally stronger than the ones in the outer city. Dense clusters of balls of Solar light moved around inside. There had to be at least one thousand of them! Li Hao had never seen so many gathered in one place before.

There looked to be one hundred Novas and quite a few Arcanus as well. They centered on a few spots, likely the residential complexes of each family. Every family had a few; they’d likely all come back for the cabinet meeting.

Li Hao didn’t look closely at the group of them. Just scanning them once was enough. Keeping his eyes trained on them would raise Arcanus attention.

etvolare’s Thoughts

Tbh I’m a little surprised at how naive the robot cats are. They’re twenty, not twelve.