Star Gate

Chapter 624: Arriving at Skystar City (I)

As he continued forward, Li Hao mentally referred to a map that he’d once seen. The conditions here changed once more. There were more cars on the roads, which meant more people. The roads were wide and voices rose and fell. The sides of the roads thronged with pedestrians and supernaturals were no longer a rare sight. They could be seen everywhere.

Li Hao drove a shabby car and listened to the voices that filtered into his ears. Their words carried a hint of central pride and official terminology. Here, even mundanes spoke with more confidence. It was unlike other regions in which conversation was conducted with some lack of assurance.

“There are more cars headed to Skystar City lately!”

“It’s an increase in supernaturals! This is normal since the Academy of the Nine Ministries and the Royal Academy will be recruiting new students at the end of the year. The new students will be phoenixes and dragons as soon as they matriculate!”

“I hear that the Night Watchers have a new deputy director too—a savage from the north. He’s vicious as hell and says that he’s going to lead the academy students against the three great organizations. Is that true? Will I have to join that force if I sign up for the academy now?”

“It’s hard to say, but no matter how ruthless he is, he’s just a deputy director of the Night Watchers. Apparently, he’s even been demoted to high rank chief commissioner. He’s not a peacemaker commissioner anymore. I bet you he ends up in the dungeons sooner or later!”

Groups of people chatted idly along the road. Living in the heart of the central region, these mundanes had swift sources of information and dared speak their mind more. They even dared give their opinion of high ranking officials.

It looked like Hou Xiaochen had made a small name for himself a month after arriving in Skystar City. Since Li Hao didn’t possess a transmission pendant, it was only now that he learned Hou Xiaochen had been demoted. Those pendants belonged to the various factions and had tracking devices on them. He didn’t want anyone to know his location, so he naturally didn’t travel with one.

So Hou Xiaochen was the same grade as him now! Li Hao smiled faintly. He hadn’t been in a good mood the past couple of days, but couldn’t help a smile now. The young man was suddenly in a better mood.

Ole Hou had done so well for himself that he was the same rank as Li Hao! The young man’s thoughts turned to the academies. When He Yong invited him to Skystar City, he’d mentioned that there were a few famous supernatural academies in the capital. One of them was the Royal Academy, another was an academy founded by the nine ministries.

Only supernaturals were accepted and large sums of Heaven Favored gathered in them. They were imitations of the martial universities to be found in the ancient civilization. There were also high numbers of supernaturals and Heaven Favored to be found in those. So the Skystar academies were open for matriculation at the end of the year?

Li Hao suddenly felt very far removed from that scene. Students... he was a student himself a year ago. The ancient civilization had possessed many academies—they were called martial universities then.

He stopped at an intersection and waited for his side’s turn to drive when suddenly, the cars on both sides started shifting to the shoulder of the road. Li Hao turned back for a look and saw a convoy of cars coming down the street. A driver next to him called out when he saw the young man remain unmoved.

“Oi! Are you not from here? Get out of the way! That’s the convoy of a Nova family! No one will be responsible for your death if you don’t move soon!”

Li Hao raised an eyebrow and swiftly drove his car off to the side. Moments later, the convoy of a dozen cars threaded through the center of the road. The other side had a green light, but no one moved. They were all waiting for the convoy to pass.

There was a luxury car that Li Hao didn’t recognize in their midst. It looked very opulent, at least. The window was down, revealing a driver and a young man and woman. The young man wore an aloof expression on his face, while the girl peered around with curiosity. She didn’t seem to know much of the world as she rapidly looked around to take in the sights. They were too far away for the crowd to make out what they were saying, but Li Hao could catch a few words.

“Brother, brother, look, someone’s driving such a battered car...”

Li Hao ignored the comment at first, then suddenly realized that the other seemed to be looking at him. He blinked and subconsciously looked at his car. Alright... the car that he’d taken from the fatty and accountant was in pretty poor shape. He’d kept it in his storage ring before and only taken it out because there were more people around. it’d been changed beyond recognition.

In order to avoid detection that it was the same car, Li Hao had snapped the license plate in half and caused some other damage to the vehicle. No one could match it to its former appearance.

The young man in the luxury car took an indifferent glance and saw that the car’s driver happened to be looking their way as well. He didn’t mind and said calmly, “Such is the life of the poor! Remember, if you and I don’t work hard to maintain the family’s honor, the two of us may be someone like this in the future.”

“No way!” The girl trembled. “That’s too scary! Brother, how are there poor people like that in the central region? We’re very rich here. It’d be more common to see someone like this in the north.”

“There are poor people everywhere, you just don’t see them. Now you do, right?”

“Mmhmm!” The girl nodded. “So we have to make sure we join the Skystar Academy this time!”

“......” Li Hao listened quietly. A poor person’s car... Of this brother and sister duo, the younger sister was completely ignorant and the older brother just as ignorant, despite pretending otherwise.

How could someone poor afford to drive a car?! Anyone who could was not poor. On the other hand, the more inward that one delved in the central region, the more prosperous the environment became!

When everything that one came in contact with and saw was ostentatiously sumptuous, and everyone belonged to the same social circles, that created a certain blind spot in one’s worldview.

Was the brother and sister duo wrong?

Li Hao didn’t think so. He just found them... ignorant. It wasn’t an ignorance limited to one or two people, but that of the entire upper echelon of society. Some were truly ignorant, some pretended ignorance, and others viewed everything with indifference. They’d never been educated otherwise. Whether it was a long standing family or an aristocracy, perhaps none of them would instill this kind of knowledge in their children.

The convoy of cars slowly drove off and bystanders started speaking again. “Which Nova family was that? Are they going to Skystar City?”

In the twenty years since the appearance of the supernatural domain, Novas were the patriarchs of their families. They were indeed powerhouses no matter where one went. With a Nova in residence, great wealth and fortune were not a problem. It gave one solid footing and enabled the family to dominate wherever it was.

The crowd gave way to these heavyweights in such a matter-of-fact way that it plainly wasn’t the first time they’d done so.

“They look to be from the East Peak Developers, I think.”

“Oh, that family. Then that makes sense. No wonder it was all luxury cars. These are regular cars for that family.”

“Apparently their patriarch’s grandson and granddaughter have reached the age to matriculate at the academies. They’re probably going to sign-up at Skystar City.”

“Those two Heaven Favored?”

“Yeah! One of them is a connate Darkmoon and the other a connate Sunflare. I envy them so much!”

“Who doesn’t? How do the rich do it? They’ve even got a higher proportion of Heaven Favored compared to us...” The crowd quickly dispersed. Li Hao continued forward in his small car.

Heaven Favored.

The two had both been Sunflares. One was a peak Sunflare, the other an initial Sunflare. He could tell that much, but hadn’t thought that they were Heaven Favored. Both of them weren’t old as the academies only accepted those beneath twenty-two years old. The Sunflare cultivation realm that Wang Ming had been so proud of... Well, he was an initial Solar now. But the Sunflare that he had been was a cabbage by the side of the road here.

Incredibly young Sunflares could be met everywhere! To think that Wang Ming had once been so proud to be the youngest Sunflare in the province! A random two Sunflares that Li Hao had bumped into were stronger than him, and they even looked younger than him.

The convoy proceeded at a slow pace; Li Hao saw it again after a while since he was also heading to Skystar City. He wasn’t the only one, almost everyone on this road was headed that way. This wasn’t the only convoy, however. Another one came along before long, the second or third generations of yet another family.

It quickly convened with the convoy ahead as the latter proceeded at a snail’s pace. Everyone behind them could only follow suit. Some cursed beneath their breaths, but everyone had to watch and wait. No one dared overtake them!

Those ahead didn’t put on cocky airs, but no one dared go past them. This seemed to be a grave taboo in the central region as the hierarchy of power was more clearly defined. If there was a car blocking the way ahead in Silver Moon... No one would care whose car it was. They would just pass the offender.

“That’s a convoy from the Four Cardinals Bloc... and now they’re chatting! If they keep this up, we won’t reach Skystar City even by nightfall!” Complaints abounded.

They were out of East Peak, but had to cross Jade Sea before reaching Skystar City. It was morning at the moment, but night would descend before they reached Skystar City if their speed didn’t pick up.

“What are you in a hurry for? How long can they chit chat? They’ll be gone in the blink of an eye once we reach the highways because their cars can travel fast. You won’t be able to catch up to them even if you wanted to,” someone laughed in a car.

“Just wait it out, there will be a lot of convoys like this along the way. The various academies are open for recruitment on November 15 and the selection will continue into December. They’ll take a break, then prepare for the new year, and then the new students will begin their studies afterward. Skystar City will be full of people during this time with supernaturals and aspiring students everywhere...”

“What are they going to Skystar City for? Go to the City of Supernaturals! There are more academies there and I hear that some schools are even secretly supported by the three great organizations.”

“Don’t spout nonsense!”

“What nonsense? The city has Arcanus in residence, what are you afraid of? Not to mention, this is no secret. The nine ministries probably know all about it, much less us, but they don’t say a thing.”

“That’s true.”

“And don’t be fooled by the fact that the three great organizations are wanted criminals now. In a few years... heh, they’ll be legitimate overlords of their territory. Maybe they’ll be made princes or something.”

“That’s the business of big characters. It’s none of ours.”

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