Star Gate

Chapter 237: Quietly Causing Trouble (I)

Hu Dingfang snorted and ignored those around him. He swept the surroundings again out of the corner of his eye. There was still no sign of Li Hao and the others. He couldn’t help but glance at the structures that seemed like a small town in the distance—the outer city.

Had Li Hao, Liu Long, and Liu Yan blundered into the outer city? That would be very troublesome!

He wouldn’t mind heading inside for a look right now if he was here alone. But he’d pledged his support to Hou Xiaochen and there was a band of Night Watchers following him. If he left, Hao Lianchuan wouldn’t be able to hold off Red Moon and Yama if the organizations decided to attack the agency.

Frustrated, there was nothing Hu Dingfang could do. Thus, he showed an ever more unfriendly face to Violet Moon and Revolution. If it wasn’t for the fact that he was indeed a bit weaker than them... Well, perhaps not, since he was very confident in himself. He was a supernatural who’d crossed over from being a martial master and was well versed in the Five Styles.

The Five Styles weren’t a secret art. But under normal circumstances, it was useless without its breathing method. He knew the breathing method, which made the Five Styles highly effective. Thus, he wouldn’t be the slightest bit timid if facing any one of them. But both of them together... was likely too much for him.

A figure as fast as the wind darted out of the city at this time. It sped out through the plaza and took to the air without fear when it was clear. Although the figure was a wind Solar, it still didn’t dare fly inside the city.

The person quickly landed by the Revolution King and whispered a few words in the man’s ear. His lips moved, but no sound emitted.

Everyone looked at Yao Cheng. Nothing flickered across the Revolution King’s face, but he cursed inwardly—trash! They were just scouting ahead and knew the soldiers’ weaknesses. How were they not trash to still lose a Sunflare?

He flicked a glance at Hong Yitang in the distance, somewhat confused. Hong Yitang used to be a martial master and he still had many martial disciples. They were mostly Slayers or Sunderers, so none of them could possibly be behind Hu Po’s death.

Who had done it? Was it really the soldiers?

“Yao Cheng has made a thorough investigation,” he announced. “There are nine streets in the outer city. Each is patrolled by Black Armors to either ten a team or one individual. There are roughly one hundred Black Armors in the outer city and they mobilize swiftly when supernatural ripples flare or a disturbance breaks out. This is just the outer city. The parts closer to the inner city are filled with even more soldiers! Yao Cheng glanced at it from afar. The ones we killed before might come from that area.”

He gave a brief overview of the situation to pull the other organizations to his side. Since the Night Watchers won’t tell us this, I will. The secrets that he spoke of were easily obtainable if he was willing to expend the people necessary to plumb their depths.

“My thoughts are to first cleanse the outer city of Black Armors and use it as our base of operations. We can then slowly eliminate the soldiers in the inner city. Only then do we have a chance of accessing it.

“Also, I want to ask the Night Watchers why we can’t enter the houses in the outer city? What’s inside? Some of our supernaturals entered and they all vanished without a trace!”

“You’re asking us?” Hao Lianchuan snorted with laughter. “How would we know? Whoever goes inside the houses dies. Figure it out yourself if you’re so capable!”

The Revolution King glowered darkly. Off to the side, Hong Yitang asked a question in the interest of playing peacemaker. “Director Hao, I have a question. Are those soldiers unable to leave the outer city?”

“Correct!” Hao Lianchuan didn’t keep anything from them. “I’m sure you’ve also discovered that the source of their strength is the ground. Their ground is laid to the plaza on the fringes of the outer city. The soldiers lose their source of strength upon exiting the plaza. They go to their deaths then!”

“Then is it possible to lure them to the plaza so we can barrage them from the air? Can we eliminate them bit by bit?” asked Hong Yitang. This was potentially feasible. Being not martial masters, supernaturals could attack from a distance.

Many looked at Hao Lianchuan after this suggestion was raised. Perhaps the Night Watchers had attempted this before. If it was feasible, it could be tried.

Hao Lianchuan thought for a bit when the crowd regarded him. “They won’t respond so long as we don’t enter the outer city. As for attacking from a distance... you’ll have to break their armor. There’s not much use to these actions otherwise! And, they can also retreat! too”

They wouldn’t stand there forever and take a beating like fools.

Frowns spread through the crowd again.

“So this means that they’ll redeploy soldiers from the inner city if we enter the outer city?”

“Not exactly,” Hao Lianchuan laughed. “The soldiers won’t pay attention to us if we don’t make a sound, stay on the ground, or refrain from supernatural abilities. Based on Night Watcher observation, the soldiers only attack those who don’t listen or break their rules. What are the rules? There is a taboo against fighting in both the inner and outer city!”

Muttered curses could be heard through the crowd. A taboo against fighting? None of these supernaturals were here to be tourists. They even wanted to break into the inner city. What was the point of this expedition if fighting wasn’t allowed?

“Will the Black Armors attack us if we draw near them without taking action?” someone asked. “We won’t use supernatural abilities either. Is simply being close to them enough to raise the alarm?”

New possibilities ran through people’s minds. If the soldiers didn’t mind people simply approaching them, then things would be much easier. Whether it was an ambush, sneak attack, or setting up traps—they were all more convenient than killing soldiers outright.

“And if supernaturals can’t conceal themselves, what about martial masters?” the person added.

Hao Lianchuan looked at the speaker—they were from Celestial. The quiet organization had finally raised their voice.

“Supernaturals give off ripples from their mysterious power even when they don’t utilize their abilities. The ripples are very noticeable and the soldiers will treat it as provocation if a supernatural is nearby. They’ll go on the attack!

“Meanwhile, martial masters don’t usually elicit a response. They are attacked only when martial masters proactively attack a soldier. Martial masters excel in close combat, but the black armor provides a highly effective defense. Therefore, we don’t recommend martial masters to approach the soldiers either.”

That’s true, thought the crowd. Martial masters couldn’t seal away the soldiers. Even if one could send a soldier flying with a punch, such a sizable disturbance would raise other attention. The obvious ripples from a supernatural was one of their biggest drawbacks.

“We need to form a plan!” said Revolution. “Surely the Night Watchers didn’t investigate so many times only for the Black Armors. You probably want to make it to the inner city this time since you called for a joint expedition. Are you confident in your chances of success if our losses are too heavy?

“Hao Lianchuan, have the Night Watchers truly not made any preparations for the goal of successfully traversing the outer city and eliminating the soldiers?” Revolution finally asked a key question.

That the Night Watchers had gone to a great deal of effort and even opened up the ruins to other factions was naturally because they wished to enter the inner city. But if the expedition’s losses were too great beforehand, who knew how the unknown dangers in the inner city might be overcome?

Now wasn’t the time to consider the grudges between the various organizations. Everyone wanted to reap some gains after witnessing the durability of the armor. If nothing else, leaving with a hundred sets of armor would make this trip well worth it!

Whether it was supernaturals or martial masters, they were both pragmatic groups of people. If they focused on killing each other right now, that would only benefit those from the central region. In that case, it was better to take what they could for the moment.

Hu Dingfang wouldn’t interfere in this. He was just responsible for protecting the Night Watchers. It was up to the agency itself to decide how matters should be undertaken. He’d known from the second that Hao Lianchuan revealed his knowledge that the Night Watchers wished to enter the inner city.

As expected, Hao Lianchuan chuckled, “The best plan is a war of attrition. Wearing away at the Black Armors is the easiest! As for how many there are...

“There’s about a thousand if we include the ones near the inner city gates. It might be a cohort of one thousand! Well, there’s probably eight hundred left since you captured a hundred.”

No one asked about the other one hundred. Those were most likely in Night Watcher vaults. But eight hundred... was still a massive headache!

That was too many soldiers—it was the equivalent of eight hundred peak Darkmoons. not to mention, there were centurions per one hundred soldiers, so that made for at least eight Sunflares. What if there was another officer that commanded one thousand soldiers? Did that mean there was an undying Solar out there?

Solars weren’t intimidating, there were plenty on the scene. But one supplied with unlimited energy and invincible defenses...

“Are there any soldiers above Bronze Armors?” asked Violet Moon.

“We’ve never seen one!” Hao Lianchuan shook his head. “To be honest, if there’s such an existence, our entire delegation would die if the director isn’t with us. We wouldn’t dare provoke such a being either. But based on this logic, there might be one such personage.”

He ended his response on a cautionary note since logically speaking, such a soldier could exist.

“Eight hundred...” murmured a concerned crowd.

“How intelligent are the Black Armors?” Hong Yitang asked. “Will they act together or will individual teams come separately like before?”

“More observation and deduction needs to take place before we have an answer for that!” Hao Lianchuan gave it some thought. “ An equivalent number of Black Armors appears each time we enter the city. If we send one or two hundred, that’s how many they send. Perhaps that’s a sufficient number of soldiers to eliminate the enemy according to their directives!

“There’s one exception, and that’s if we’re still here after all of the Black and Bronze Armors are dead. They’ll send more Black Armors then...

“We once defeated a dozen of them and stayed in the city. Thirty some Black Armors appeared after a while, and a Bronze Armor. A lot of people died on that expedition!”

“Then what about hunting the soldiers alone?” Hong Yitang continued to ask. “Will it result in their retaliation if we kill Black Armors by ourselves?”

“It depends on the situation. What retaliation is there to be had if you hide your tracks well and evade their pursuit? The soldiers have limited methods to track people down. They might not be able to find you so long as you swiftly make a getaway after you kill a Black Armor!”

The response tempted many in the crowd. Didn’t this mean that they could hunt in the outer city and slowly eliminate the Black Armors? This operation was beyond Darkmoons, but Sunflares and Solars stood a chance.

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