Chapter 598: The Winds Surge on All Sides (III)

Chapter 598: The Winds Surge on All Sides (III)

The cracks on the silver armor were slowly closing, but they also indicated that the blast from the city annihilation missiles were beyond the current capabilities of the equipment.

A large mouthful of blood spewed out of Li Hao’s mouth when he opened it. He grabbed the bald dog and glanced backward. Xu Qing continued to back away, putting nearly ten thousand meters between them!

The duke opened his eyes to see the young man break out of a cloud of dust and flee for his life again.

“You won’t be getting away!” he said coolly. “That was just a warning, Li Hao! Your position is consistently known since I’m tracking you. That was just three missiles. Do you want to suffer a spread of ten or full coverage of thirty next?”

Keeping his eyes pointed forward, Li Hao continued to flee!

Thirty missiles? Right, he wouldn’t be able to escape that, but would Xu Qing dare fire so many? Thirty was definitely out of his range of tolerance, but Li Hao didn’t believe that these things could be infinitely fired.

He was caught off guard the first time, so he only sensed impending danger and not its source. Now that he had a sense for what he faced, he recalled there was an energy ripple a split second before the missiles arrived.

They were a massive ball of combined energy—possibly an energy bomb similar to what Fan Chang had thrown down to make his getaway. These were just bigger and more powerful, but likely harder to fire.

Behind him, the duke frowned. Li Hao sure could run. He was obviously injured as there were cracks and charred marks on his silvery-white armor. The descendant of the ancient monster spirit was even more noticeably injured, yet Li Hao did not give up.

“Li Hao, there will be no room for survival if you keep this up. Partner with me...”

“Partner my ass!” Li Hao shouted him down and rose into the air. “Keep chasing me if you dare! I’m going to where there’s more people, so bomb them all if you want. It’s not my territory!”

BOOM!

Li Hao swiftly vanished, dragging a whining Panther behind him. A coolly composed Xu Qing gave further orders to his army through the transmission pendant.

Running for his life, Li Hao’s eyes abruptly widened and he suddenly infused all of his internal force into the Windchaser Boots. The missiles were descending upon him again!

KABOOM!

A massive energy discharge leveled a small mountain in front of him. Li Hao’s stumbling figure once more disappeared.

......

“That was close... Pfft!” Li Hao spat out another mouthful of blood. There must be a camp nearby for the duke’s army. The missiles wouldn’t arrive so swiftly otherwise! They were too fast! It took time to fire missiles, they weren’t instantly teleported to their target.

He raised his head up at the sky and once more shot forward. A military camp came into view with less than a minute of swift travel! A loud eruption roared as soon as the young man appeared. Countless bombs fired at him. Guns emptied their magazines at the sky and numerous Solars flew out of the encampment. There was even a Nova that floated out to watch their attacker solemnly.

Demon Sword! He was as thorny as stories made him out to be!

Li Hao roared with fury and slashed out with his sword, breaking through the firmament. His sword crashed down and pulverized countless soldiers with his sword qi. Even supernatural powerhouses died by the droves.

He could sense the displacement of air from the duke’s movement and waved his sword around in response. He killed one hundred people in the blink of an eye and thrust his sword toward the center of the camp in one final stroke!

“And kill all of their civilians?” Director General Zhao looked at Kong Jie. The man didn’t respond.

The North Sea was one matter since it was populated by pirates. All they needed to do was avoid merchant vessels. But if fired into Near River... then there would be too many dead.

“Xu Qing’s keeping nothing in mind apart from his desire to kill Li Hao!” Kong Jie snapped. “He won’t care about some intimidation. The east is his territory, after all. What good is a threat from a distance?”

Huang Yu’s actions may have some effect, but it was more likely that Xu Qing was censured after the fact. Whether it was the nine ministries or the royal family, neither side would care too much about the current developments.

Did anyone expect them to send out troops to pacify the east? That was pure daydream! Silver Moon’s actions would only result in the various sides to keep a tighter grip on their missiles, but it wouldn’t forestall total usage. Once they heard that it was possible for a human to survive a missile strike, then the missiles would no longer ensure balance between the various factions of the world either.

“Have Light Sword and Earthturner Sword set out yet?” asked Director General Zhao.

“They should’ve. I have no way of tracking their movement.”

The director general nodded. Indeed, they were too far away and it would take a while to reach the eastern continent. Li Hao could only count on himself for the time being.

Kong Jie sighed as well, finding the young man to have been too brash. Granted, Li Hao probably hadn’t expected that Xu Qing would utilize city annihilation missiles. Attacks were hard to evade with a powerhouse dogging his footsteps.

“Li Hao is a deputy director of the Silver Moon Night Watchers, after all. Have the Inspectorate send word to Skystar City to condemn Xu Qing. Request that Skystar City step forward to intervene and stop this conflict...”

Kong Jie rolled his eyes. Was there something wrong with Ole Zhao’s brains? How was that possible?

“Go!” Director General Zhao frowned. “At least it gives us the moral high ground, which makes it convenient for what we do next. Otherwise, everything we do is inappropriate! Don’t say a word about the grudge between Li Hao and the Xus. Don’t admit to anything and have people come to the Night Watchers if they have proof! The Xus are not a law enforcement agency and Xu Qing is neither the Night Watchers nor Inspectorate!

“Ah yes, remember to say that Silver Moon sent Li Hao to exterminate the Red Beard pirates. As for the deaths of Xu Xing and the others... did anyone see it have anything to do with Li Hao? People only saw him kill Red Beard, but Xu Qing’s been chasing the young man ever since. Does the duke want to avenge the pirates?”

“So you want to use principles of righteousness to force Xu Qing to stop?” Kong Jie mused. “He still cares about his reputation since he wants to conquer the world.”

“It won’t work that way!” Director General Zhao shook his head. “He won’t give up so easily. This just makes it so that he won’t dare utilize his army!

“Go on then.” The director general waved the inspector general off. “Hurry and spread the word. Don’t forget to apply for a commendation for Li Hao. Shouldn’t upstairs be rewarded for killing a major East Sea pirate? Li Hao loves promotions, so promote him! We lack a peacemaker commissioner after Hou Xiaochen’s departure, so let’s get one for him!”

“Um... Very well!” Kong Jie wasn’t certain what the old man wanted to do, but this was better than doing nothing. He soon left as well.

Director General Zhao paused for a moment before picking up a red communicator on his desk. He dialed a number and intoned, “Mobilize the hidden guards in Calm Borders and the closest three provinces. Have them help Li Hao and obstruct Xu Qing. Buy the young man some time...”

“Milord...”

“Just do it!”

“Understood!

The communicator cut off.