Star Gate

Chapter 962: The Last Rainy Season (III)

All of Skystar City was in an uproar on this day. Large numbers of citizens first signed up for school, then put their names down to repair houses. Various refugee centers opened throughout the city to provide food for those who did not have enough to eat.

......

The Skystar Commander Office.

Hou Xiaochen was a bit jealous. Indeed, jealous!

“The situation in the north is much worse than here. Skystar City is a prosperous locale to begin with and not that many die of starvation within its boundaries. And yet, starvation is a common plight in the north. You give a vast quantity of grain, benefits, and preferential treatment to the capital. All of this withheld from Silver Moon...” He wanted to ask if the little bastard still viewed himself as a Silver Moon citizen!

“We have to proceed one step at a time,” Li Hao laughed. “Skystar City is more at peace compared to other locations, so we can experiment here first. We can consult the ancient records if we accidentally make a mistake. Otherwise, brashly rolling out policy across the land can be very troublesome!

“We should fortify the dynasty capital, train a batch of people, then send them to other places. This isn’t something that can be accomplished overnight. The sky canopy system isn’t complete yet and neither is the road system finished. Our infrastructure is still under construction, so let’s just take it one step at a time!”

Quite a few heads nodded in agreement in the great hall. The young man made sense, even though they all felt that Silver Moon needed all of these reforms as well.

“We have a lot to do.” Li Hao rubbed his temples. “We need to ensure greater peace through the central region—that’s one of the easier tasks at hand. The north... might have to be low on the priority list.”

Frowns crossed faces.

“There’s too many old fossils in the ruins,” Li Hao explained. “It’s not a good time to clash against them! We should consolidate the other three continents first to ensure that we have sufficient vigor to handle the north!

“Additionally, our army is looking a bit too sparse —I mean of soldiers loyal to us. Everyone should have discovered by now that no matter how strong one person is, that singular person cannot suppress a province by themselves. We require supplemental coordination from the military!

“We don’t have that many powerhouses either. It’s very dangerous when we’re scattered, but we can’t get anything done when we’re gathered together...” the young man sighed. It wasn’t until now that he understood how inconvenient it was to administer a dynasty—no, just a central region. No, just Skystar City!

If it wasn’t for the fact that the nine ministries had completed a peaceful transition of power and that order had not fully collapsed, Li Hao felt that he might want to run away. Was it not nice being a traveling hero who dispensed justice? He was completely trapped here!

The young man couldn’t understand why anyone would want to be emperor.

“I’ll be able to make my time available for other matters only after Lin Hongyu arrives in a few days.” Li Hao looked at the group. “Everyone must commit to memory that strength is still most important at present! You will rotate in shifts starting the first of the new year and enter the ruins to cultivate with me. We will restrain ourselves as much as possible in our spars...”

Heads nodded. Li Hao took out an item that looked like a ruler. Yao Si’s eyes widened at it and he glanced sharply at the young man.

“Is that... Heavens Dictate?” Yao Si frowned. Dao Sword and the others disappeared after following Li Hao to the City of Supernaturals. Where had they gone? What was Heavens Dictate doing in the young man’s hand?

Had Li Hao killed Dao Sword?

“Yes, this is Heavens Dictate,” Li Hao smiled. “The infamous treasure of the central region! I’ve studied it and asked around—this was an origin weapon used to judge geniuses during New Martial. Only premier martial universities possessed one.

“I want to use it in the central region to recruit new troops. I’d like to disband the old armies and kill whoever needs to be killed, exile whoever deserves it, and settle down the rest. There are millions of soldiers in the dynasty, but less than one tenth of them can actually serve!

“We can defeat strong opponents on our own, but large-scale war against those such as the four surrounding nations will require armies. The advantage of this treasure is that it can determine everyone’s constitution, whether you are suited to be a supernatural or a martial master...

“We will see twice the results with half the effort if we use this! The dynasty is overflowing with people at present and geniuses are hidden within the population, awaiting discovery. If we can quickly build an army of deep potential and train them well, they’ll swiftly become an elite troop!”

The group nodded. New recruits shaped up after a few months of training. In times of war, if recruits could be accurately identified for their proper path of cultivation, the time required before they could be sent to the battlefield would be further shortened with targeted training.

“In addition, I wish for the new army to be literate. I will also educate them when it comes to certain concepts of the world. I hope they become soldiers of the new era and not resemble the wily old foxes currently in service!

“Why do I wish to disband our current armies? It is precisely because they lack honor, responsibility, and an ability to determine right from wrong. Keeping these people around will only destroy military discipline.

“Of course, we’re not disbanding all of them on the spot. The sudden removal of millions of soldiers will affect the world. We can slowly undertake this conversion. No matter how readily the various armies take orders, they are to engage in basic infrastructure maintenance for now. They will repair roads, build bridges, and construct new cities. Whatever it is they do, they will not sit idle!”

The group was starting to look at the young man with curiosity. Li Hao was saying a lot today. How did he suddenly understand so much?

Some things were difficult to comprehend without personally experiencing it for themselves.

Li Hao smiled at their quizzical looks. “You don’t need to look at me, I learned a lot of this from other people. I’ve gathered new knowledge from the puppets at Evenround Martial and Director General Wang. There’s still much about New Martial that’s worthy of reference!

“We don’t need to copy them entirely, but their advanced theories and technologies are worth learning. There’s not much we can be proud of compared to New Martial, but we do have our advantages.”

“What are they?” asked the straightforward Sky Sword. What... advantages did they have? He really couldn’t put his finger on anything.

“Our advantage is that... we’re young! That’s enough!” Li Hao laughed. “In our young era and at our young age, the oldest of us is at most one hundred years old. And yet, we’ve encountered New Martial powerhouses with sophisticated technology. We just need to empty out their knowledge banks to save ourselves at least one hundred years of hard work!

“Therefore, be polite toward these seniors. They know a lot and are esteemed elders for us to learn from so long as they don’t interfere with our lives!

“Director General Wang and the others cannot easily walk around in the world yet. However, the students of Evenround Martial have seen and know a lot. Not only does their knowledge of martial dao run deep, but even more crucial is that some of them are descendants of key personnel at various New Martial institutions. They’re familiar with that advanced management system, so I need to help as many of them emerge from the ruins as possible. They’ve been influenced by a lifetime of knowledge and experience—we can develop Silver Moon Territory together!”

The group nodded again, but Hong Yitang furrowed his brows. “Have they agreed to do that? And... has that one agreed?”

“Why would they not?” Li Hao grinned. “I can give them energy and resources. While I may not be able to revive them, I can help them regain freedom of movement. Is that not enough?”

“But they’re very strong, if a lot of them appear at the same time..”

“I know, but our strength will have improved after the new year and the gap between us and them will be smaller,” Li Hao countered. “Since we’ve taken the mine, we should utilize it well. There are a lot of places that require energy! However, we don’t need to miserly hoard our gains. Not using our resources will only serve to benefit the enemy.

“Our first priority is to finish conquering the central region. Once winter has passed, we’ll take down the Prince of Southern Conciliation and Prince of Western Conciliation. Everything can wait until after we forge the central region into one whole and settle the internal issues here.

“There’s no rush, we will proceed methodically and aim to complete the unification of the central region in three months!

“We can then consider attacking the four continents in the middle of next year and finish the unification of Skystar Dynasty in one year.”

“I’m afraid we won’t have enough time to do so!” Hou Xiaochen remarked. “Although the second awakening seems to have been stopped because we’ve seized the mine, based on what I know, energy is starting to percolate through Silver Moon province. Reviving more powerhouses might automatically set the second awakening in motion!”

“It’s fine.” Li Hao knew about this as well. “We can drag it out a bit longer because there are too many ancients in Silver Moon. There might be an abundance of energy, but they’ll absorb it very quickly as well. All I can say is that there will be more powerhouses awakening in the near future. No matter how much energy bubbles up in Silver Moon, the newcomers will take it all!

“There’s also starving plant spirits in the central region. These plant and beast spirits are helping to delay the awakening as well. A strong enemy has taken two-thirds of the mine, but they need to revitalize as well and maintain their battle strength.

“Apart from this, the enemy will also need endless energy to start the second awakening ahead of time. Not only will it deplete countless resources, but it might interfere with their own timeline.”

The young man made a great deal of sense. Leaving one-third of the mine behind was already a significant concession to the enemy. Although they left with two-thirds, they’d likely consumed a lot of it. If their reserves were invested into the second awakening... they would need to consider if this was a wise course of action.

Of course, there was nothing anyone could do if they decided it was fine.

“I’ve said and done everything I should,” Li Hao said. “I will have to lean on everyone for a bit as I am going to enter closed door cultivation. Teacher, Sky Sword, Tyrant Blade, Northern Fist, and a few other seniors will come with me!”

“Now is when we need people out in the field...” Sky Sword raised, echoing the surprise of those whose names were called.

“It’s fine, the seniors can focus on martial dao. Being one person less will not affect everyone’s respective assignments,” Li Hao smiled. He was essentially saying that they weren’t useful even if they stayed, they weren’t assigned to anything critical!

Since they were all martial fanatics, they should follow him into seclusion and study the martial dao system. He had immediate, other use for Hou Xiaochen, Yao Si, Deputy Zhou and the like. Even Hong Yitang needed to stay in the outside world to execute his education policies. Otherwise, it would be nice to have everyone join the young man in seclusion.

Yuan Shuo didn’t know if Sky Sword had understood, but he did. The old man looked at his disciple and wanted to poke the lad. I am your teacher, I can do everything and anything! I can run a country perfectly well if you place it in my hands! But you think we’re useless, eh?

Granted, it was nice to just go off and study martial dao.