Star Gate

Chapter 647: Ambush (I)

Darkness blanketed the sky. Sea winds howled over the water surface. The island was alive with song and dance. Lights blazed, women giggled, men shouted, gamblers catcalled, and rapt audiences cheered on the fighting rings.

The island guests displayed a certain degree of reservation while inside the city. Skystar City was the royal capital, after all. Although certain soundproofing measures were in place, people didn’t dare raise too much of a fuss even at Skystar Colosseum.

Here, however, yells and hoots rose to the heavens.

What did their noise matter? They were roughly thirty kilometers from shore and the sound of the waves drowned out anything they emitted. No one would keep them in check, which made the island the best place for these prissy, sanctimonious noble young masters and misses to fully vent all of their desires and energies with abandon.

One was a god here if they had enough money! Even the domineering pirates were thrown out if they didn’t have enough money. With sufficiently deep pockets, one could do whatever they wanted.

Strength?

Strength was useless here. As strong as one was, would one be stronger than the Four Seas Company? Than the Ministry of Finance?

With regards to Li Hao and Hou Xiaochen, many guests here didn’t even know about those happenings. They hadn’t emerged from their comfortable zones in several days. Who had time for that nonsense?

Who dared provoke the nine ministries? No one! Such were the thoughts of many.

Unbeknownst to all, a faint layer of fog slowly crept in and enveloped the entire island.

......

Li Hao was burning through money. One hundred mysterious power stones, five hundred, one thousand...

The bronze mirror fragment continuously emitted a faint fog and released a special defensive barrier, just like it had at the Xu treasury. This time, it was directed at confining the occupants instead of protecting them. It’d held off a metamorphosis expert last time. On this occasion, Li Hao simply wished for it to fend off everyone below Solar.

He continuously expanded his effective area, swallowing the island that wasn’t the biggest. Up in the sky, the bird monster spirits sensed something, as did the monster spirits in the sea. The sixth sense of monster spirits was more sensitive than humans. They vaguely detected the arrival of danger.

Just as one of the bird spirits blinked and wanted to call out a warning, it mantled with alarm! A deep-rooted fear from its bloodline emanated from its bones and spread throughout its body. A king!

This was an innate fear etched in the depths of its being, present from birth. The difference in hierarchy and bloodline caused the little bird spirit to even forget to cry out or move.

Splat!

It fell down from the sky—and it wasn’t the only one. Hundreds of minor bird spirits plummeted out of the sky.

On the island.

A massive bird abruptly mantled and flung its wings out straight... The human serving it was confused by the monster spirit’s sudden change and asked carefully, “Bird King... are you alright?”

The bird froze after prostrating itself on the ground. Fear wafted from its bones. A major monster spirit was here! One that was exceedingly high level and of supremely noble bloodline! An ancient monster spirit!

It wasn’t just an ancient monster spirit—the bird king wouldn’t react thus if it was a descendant of a typical monster spirit. The bird king’s bloodline was uncommon as well, but the more uncommon the monster spirit was, the more fearful it would be.

A phrase echoed in his mind—the Monster Spirit Envoy! One who held sway over all monster spirits beneath the heavens! It was a mark left in the bloodline that notified descendants that ancient monster spirits had their king as well.

The big bird shivered and trembled. The ancient past was no more!

It wasn’t the only one cowering on the ground—many monster spirits crawled within the island and quite a few outright lost control.

Within the beast fighting rings.

Two monster spirits suddenly went berserk and charged at the crowds. The powerhouses in charge of security immediately beat them back, shouting. “Damn it, have you gone crazy?! They’re guests, what are you doing??”

The monster spirits had agreements with the Four Seas Company. They and the company both worked together to earn money. The agreement in place was that audience members could not be harmed. But at the moment, a Solar monster spirit was raging out of control!

“Roar!” Eyes bloodshot, a massive lion spirit snarled and bristled like it’d been triggered by something. There was an innate dread and fear, but it didn’t know where these feelings came from. It could only go berserk and attack in all directions. It bit the powerhouse coming to quell it, not responding to the frantic questions. It ripped and tore at everything around it. This place was so dangerous, it wanted to flee!

......

Li Hao hadn’t thought that Panther activating its bloodline so brazenly would cause such consequences. There happened to be a lot of monster spirits on the island; it was engulfed in disturbances in a split second.

“We need to head to the beast fighting rings! The monster spirits are rioting!”

“Damn it, I said long ago that they’re too hard to keep under control and that we shouldn’t let them in...”

“Oh shut up!”

“Someone come here! The monster spirits on Monster Spirit Street are also out of control!”

“Damn it, why is there rioting there too? What’s going on?”

“......” The entire island was thrown into chaos. Large sums of powerhouses swiftly flew out and enforcers in uniform rushed to their assigned spots. With the disarray caused by the monster spirits, the scent of blood began filling the air as well.

No one paid attention to the imperceptible white fog in the air. Fog sometimes rose in the sea as well. They would consider it more carefully in ordinary times, but the commotion caused by the monster spirits completely distracted everyone.

......

In the center of the island stood a building six stories tall. This was a tall building on the island. Some Novas swiftly materialized.

“What’s going on?”

“Milord, the monster spirits are rioting!”

“Bastards!” A muscular blond man walked over with gravity. “Why are they rioting? We have an agreement with them and supply them what they need. It’s a win-win situation, what in the blazes is this? What does the Bird King say?”

“Milord.” Someone hastily ran over. “The Bird King has suffered a sudden shock and is not in the right frame of mind. It ignores us no matter how we address it...”

The blond man frowned and wanted to go take a look himself when a faint fog wreathed the air. He directed his frown up at the sky, finding it untoward. Why was there fog?

“Is there fog at sea today?”

“We don’t know, it wasn’t forecasted.”

“The monster spirits are rioting and there’s suddenly fog...” Blondie mused gravely. “The president told us to be careful when he left. Is someone behind this?”

After thinking about it, he took out a transmission pendant to send a message. Something was wrong! As for what exactly was wrong, he couldn’t say. However, the island was in a messy disarray and the monster spirits were rampaging. Perhaps he could request for the president to come back... Although the president was at the Colosseum defending against strong enemies, hadn’t that Li Hao run off?

“Be at ease, everyone! Some mishaps have developed on the island, but they will be under control soon!” he called out as he sent a message. “Please enjoy yourselves as you normally would, it will not affect you!”

His voice carried to the four corners of the island; some people weren’t taking the disturbances seriously in the first place. A man leaned on a window in an opulent hotel and hooted with laughter at the mess below.

“So fun! This is how it should be and what we’ll do next time. We’ll send some berserk monster spirits against mundanes... No, supernaturals! We can bet on who survives to the end and who dies first. Hahaha, that’s fun and makes it the game of real men!”

“That’s right! The fighting rings show us fake fights everyday, they think we’re fools! I don’t even go there anymore. They fight all day but can’t kill each other. It’s so damn boring!”

“Precisely!” Many agreed with the man’s words and roared with laughter as they looked down over the chaos. This was so much fun!

The island guards were swiftly responding to the unrest as disruption flooded the island. Many were running away from the berserk monster spirits, but many also believed that the Four Seas Company could suppress the confusion. Not only did they not run away, but they drew closer to watch the show and laugh and point fingers.

This was so much better than watching monster spirits put on a show and supernaturals attack each other! It was a better thrill than toying with women!

A group of people roared with laughter regardless of gender. They watched with rapt attention as monster spirits ripped through the guards.

“Well done!” they shrieked with approval. “I knew that the lion king is greatest at ripping and tearing! Damn it, they were just putting on an act everyday before. They couldn’t tear apart Sunflares, but now they rip through Sunflares in the blink of an eye!”

“Attaboy, that’s it, kill them all! Hahaha, go lion king! Kill them all!” A bunch of nobles hollered and catcalled with abandon.

“Get out of the way!” a guard roared.

The monster spirits were rioting and all these idiots knew was to yell their heads off. The more they did so, the more that excited the monster spirits!

“Who do you think you’re talking to?” one of the nobles raged. “Get Wu Yong out here! He wouldn’t dare talk to this young master in that tone! Do you know who I am?!”

The guard had to shut his mouth; this was someone he couldn’t afford to offend. However, the fires of anger blazed in his heart. What a bunch of assholes!