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Chapter 731: Return to Skystar (II)

“We are!” Huang Taiming shouted loudly.

“Do you feel any resentment in leaving your homes?”

“No, this is a soldier’s lot in life. But... as a soldier, we hope to set foot on the battlefield and not...” Huang Taiming hesitated before yelling, “And not become decoration! Although we are weak, although we cannot stand up to a single hit, we still do not wish to become Skystar City embellishment that carries around heavy loads. We’ve been in the army for many years to kill enemies!”

His words were filled with reluctance. He didn’t want to stand around like trophies after arriving in Skystar City.

“Isn’t that nonsense?” Li Hao smiled. “Am I bringing you along for fun? Do I look like I have that much time on my hands, or that much money to feed one thousand of you for free? I can barely feed myself! Your Commander Yu might not pay your salaries anymore, so I’ll have to pay them!

“Therefore, he might’ve said before you guys departed that joining up with me means dying nine times out of ten. Such are your odds of survival. You aren’t qualified enough to be decoration!”

Huang Taiming was rather surprised. Is he really letting us kill the enemy? But... who... can we kill?

That was a big question and a sad question. They would either kill enemies or become decoration. The key thing was, any enemy that Li Hao provoked would be invincible to the soldiers. They’d be going to their deaths all the same on the battlefield.

“That’s enough, cut the blather and change into your uniforms!”

“What?”

“Change!” Li Hao barked. “Don’t make me repeat myself twice!” Set upon set of armor materialized. “Leader Liu, help them into their new equipment. This is standard issue and you will keep it on at all times. The age of hot weapons is about to be over and the era of supernaturals and superhumans is about to fully descend! Even a city annihilation missile will find it difficult to inflict damage on a powerhouse. Novas will be able to avoid the missiles entirely...”

Huang Tailing’s expression shifted when he looked at the rows of armor. “Leader, this is...”

“Call me general or sir!” Li Hao responded faintly. “You guys should know a bit about this as well. This is armor from the ancient civilization with exceedingly strong defenses...”

Huang Taiming had indeed seen it before and even knew that this was from Battle Heaven. All the same, he was hard pressed to conceal his shock.

“This is too wasteful, general!” he couldn’t help but say. “According to what I know, this armor is utilized to the best effect when equipped by a Sunderer or even Dominator. We, we are too weak for all this armor!”

He felt too inferior!

“You’ll grow stronger sooner or later. Do you think you’ll continue to be this weak when you follow me?” Li Hao said quietly. “Enough, change into your new equipment. You guys don’t match when you’re wearing different clothing. Step out of the cars and into the armor!”

He waved the Vast Kun Ship from the Demon Hunters into existence and rapidly expanded it. He planned on flying the ship instead of taking the cars back. When magnified, the ship could fit five thousand, much less one thousand. It just required some mysterious power stones.

One thousand people quietly changed into their new gear. The Demon Hunters stepped forward to help them acclimate to their equipment. No sounds were produced during the process. Although this troop of soldiers was weaker than the Demon Hunters, their discipline was much stronger and they showed no signs of disarray.

This was good. They were veteran soldiers, some having previously participated in campaigns and killed people. Troops like these were easy to consolidate and wouldn’t give rise to troublemakers or those who refused to fall in line. Huang Yu’s men adhered to regulation more, not to mention that Li Hao was a premier powerhouse. Everyone knew that, so no one dared raise a fuss.

One thousand armored troops quickly appeared on the scene. They immediately looked like a forbidding army and looked particularly magnificent.

“Do you all know how to use cold weapons?”

“Yes!” Huang Taiming marveled at his new armor. “Commander Yu started training us in cold weapons five years ago. Us White Moon Guards are skilled with the spear and blade. We are not familiar with swords, but can also fill in as cavalry. It’s just that we’re traveling a long way this time, so we did not bring our battlesteeds!”

Huang Yu had certainly gone to a great deal of effort if he started training the provincial army with cold weapons five years ago. Plainly, he was ready to conduct wars with cold weapons. As strong as hot weapons were, almost everyone could avoid them once they reached Sunderer. Firearms were useless at the Dominator level and missiles even more so. They were too slow to hit the target.

This made Li Hao’s job easier!

“You guys can take some time getting used to the black armor. The armor comes with its own weapon that’s one with the armor. There are a lot of modes—you can choose between blade, spear, sword, and halberd. Regular Darkmoons will have difficulty breaking through your defenses when you’re equipped with the black armor. Only the recoil from their attacks might kill you...”

When mundanes wore the armor, they reached a Sunderer or Darkmoon level of defense. It instantly increased their strength. Of course, that was far from enough!

“Board the ship and leave the cars behind for Silver Moon to collect!”

The ship landed on the ground, equipped with much more functionality than before since it’d expanded. No one said anything as they quietly boarded the ship in an orderly fashion. Liu Long looked at Li Hao, stunned. Where had the young man obtained so much armor from? He didn’t ask anything and boarded the ship with the rest.

Li Hao continued to wait on the ground. Moments later, a small car stopped by the city gates. Deputy Zhou walked out and jogged over, panting, “Sorry I’m late! I set off a long time ago, but Ole Zhao insisted on keeping me and talking to me. Sorry sorry...”

“It’s normal that Director General Zhao can’t bear to see Deputy Zhou go,” Li Hao laughed. “You’ve worked together for forty years, after all. How many forty years do we have in one life?”

“Ai, isn’t that so!” Deputy Zhou laughed as well and looked at the flying ship in front of him. “Are we taking this to Skystar City?”

“Mmhmm, it’s more convenient.”

“That’s good! It just costs a bit more.” Deputy Zhou took another glance and raised an eyebrow at all the black armor he saw. He wasn’t surprised, though, as Li Hao had said that he was a division leader. It was normal that he could bring forth a few thousand sets of armor to spare.

“Then, let’s board the ship?”

“Let’s!” Deputy Zhou smiled. “After you, commander!”

Li Hao laughed and boarded the ship. Behind him, the deputy looked around and asked, “Where’s Panther?”

“Off on some business, it’ll be back soon!”

Deputy Zhou didn’t ask further. He was greeted with the view of one thousand people standing still at attention when he entered the hold. They did not make a sound and were surprised to see Deputy Zhou. Everyone was familiar with the deputy director general of the administrative government. He lived in White Moon City, what was he doing here?

“I have extended an invitation to Deputy Zhou to join the Demon Hunters,” Li Hao announced. “Starting from today, he will be our strategist!”

The declaration surprised the crowd! Changing positions from the deputy director general of a province to the strategist of a thousand people strong troop... Even if the troop was the Demon Hunters led by Demon Sword, wasn’t this difference too great?

Hao Lianchuan stuck out his chest, wanting to tell Li Hao that I’m still the acting director of the Night Watchers! If old fart Zhou is a strategist, then what about me?

“I am grateful for the commander’s favor,” chuckled the deputy. “We will be colleagues from now on, please look after me well.”

“We wouldn’t dare!” several powerhouses chorused. This was a major official standing in front of them, after all! How had Li Hao managed to steal even him? Wasn’t Director General Zhao on the verge of tears then?

No one had much of an opinion when it came to their strategist. He’d once overseen one hundred million people, to say nothing of anything else. He was quite adept at support and finance; the troop also needed someone like that.

As for his actual strategizing abilities, no one knew much about them.

“Please choose your cabins according to your designated numbers,” said Li Hao. “There’s no need to stay here. There’s places to rest on the ship. Huang Taiming, you and a few others can stay!”

“Understood!”

“Don’t just say understood, remember to add sir to the end!”

“Understood, sir!” the group immediately amended. This was what was the benefit of soldiers, they obeyed whatever their superior officer said.

Off to the side, Deputy Zhou stroked his mustache and smiled at Li Hao. Did the lad want to revitalize the traditions of the Battle Heaven Army? That would be quite the ambition. That army had been among the elites in the ancient civilization.

......

There weren’t many left in the hold after most left to choose their cabins. Li Hao didn’t say much; he walked up to the ship’s bow and commanded the vessel to rise. The massive ship took the air and flew into the distance.

“The newly joined White Moon Guards are too weak, they need to be strengthened! All of them need to become Slayers first. They won’t have much of an issue to keep breaking through to late Sunderer,” the young man began. “Half step Dominator is a threshold, so if they cannot break through, I recommend breaking their supernatural locks and becoming supernatural!

“Supernaturals don’t have a high requirement of dao comprehension, all they need to do is to break their supernatural locks. Ascending as a Sunderer will bring them to Sunflare. This course of action will ensure swift improvement. It’s true that the aura of a martial master isn’t easy to grasp.”

Wang Taiming simply nodded. Whether it was supernatural or martial master, just growing stronger was enough for them. The details didn’t matter. They were different from Hong Qing in that Hong Qing had been a martial master since young. She’d always been a martial master and knew a great deal of the path. She’d had a chance to comprehend the aura.

These soldiers knew very little of what it meant to be a martial master. It was too hard for them to aspire to sensing the aura! Therefore, it was much easier to ascend as a supernatural.

Deputy Zhou wanted to give a good showing of himself and beamed, “Leave these small matters to me! I can oversee everything from compensation, benefits, and calculation of military merits.” His smile widened when Li Hao looked at him. “It’s just one thousand people, I won’t have much of a problem with that. But I might need some helpers once the number of people grows later on.”

Just one person alone for all that! Li Hao nodded, the old man sure didn’t just sit around. Of course, he’d spent two hundred drops of Water of Life to recruit the deputy. The central region would pay twenty million mysterious power stones for that amount. That could buy Li Hao a large army! Here, it only brought him one old man. Hence, these trifling matters really didn’t matter much.