Chapter 151: One thing after another
Han Shuo only got to experience the old assassin Lucky’s skill after the two flew to Calvert’s house. A decent assassin would maintain his position before he made a move on his target. He would only allow his target to feel his presence in the moment that he made his move.
Lucky was quite professional in this regard. He first crouched on the roof after entering Calvert’s home, looking out over the entire building, then pointing out the use of each room to Han Shuo. He clearly explained which was the living room, which was the master bedroom, as well as the bathrooms.
It looked like Lucky was very well versed in all architectural styles, and must have given quite a bit of thought to this. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to obtain so much information after just glancing at the layout shortly after arriving here.
Lucky changed into a grey robe that matched the color of the walls. When he slowly walked along the wall, no one detected any disturbance, even as the bright rays of the moon rained down.
Han Shuo took out a similar robe beneath Lucky’s gaze and followed behind Lucky, moving towards the roof of the brightly lit living room.
Han Shuo’s breathing became measured and steady as they neared the living room, and the rate of his heartbeat also suddenly became quite slow, matching the pace of his breaths. Even the heat emanating from his body began to decrease as they drew near the living room. When they got close enough, he could, at the stage, be mistaken for a shingle on the roof when he wasn’t moving.
Lucky was unable to conceal his body as well as Han Shuo had done even after taking a pill. When he finally reached the top of the roof, Lucky looked at Han Shuo with disbelief as he was incredibly surprised by Han Shuo’s control over his body.
Since reaching the true demon stage, Han Shuo could feel that his body was indeed more agile and deft than before. He could adjust his body condition to all sorts of situations by making his own adjustments, making it very easy for him to do something like concealing his presence.
Because Clark would possibly be in the living room, the two didn’t dare lift the tiles of the roof to look inside. They placed their cheeks on top of the roof and attempted to listen in on the conversation inside.
“Alright, let’s do it like this. Keep your wits about you lately, Lawrence seems to have been spotted in Valen City, so he may try to make trouble or you.” Clark’s voice rang out as he reminded Calvert to be careful.
“Lawrence is just the son of the finance minister. Isn’t he courting death if he comes to find me in Valen City?” Calvert didn’t mind at all as his hearty laughter rang out like a bell.
“Uncle Calvert, Lawrence’s identity isn’t that simple. Anyways, you must always be on guard. My father will send people over to protect you in two days.” Clark reminded Calvert.
“I’ve caused the chief to worry. Heh, it’s getting late, why don’t you rest here tonight? I’ve prepared special entertainment for you.” Calvert chuckled.
“That’s alright, thank you uncle. However, some strangers have appeared in Valen City lately and I have a lot of things to take care of. I won’t be staying here tonight.” Clark made his excuses and seemed ready to leave.
His ear lifting away from the roof tiles, Han Shuo stood up and threw a glance at Lucky. The two left with a sound and quickly moved away from the manor.
Lucky had decided to change the plan since Clark was going to leave and wanted to get rid of him while he was traveling. He would have to pass through a certain street after leaving Calvert’s house. There were all sorts of buildings and several leafy trees on that street, making for a good place to make a move no matter what direction they came from.
“You hide and wait in a tree, pick the best timing after I make my move to attack Clark.” Lucky instructed and then crouched on top of a nearby wall, as if he was a gecko, melding into the night.
Lucky had no way of being able to cue when was good time to make a move. Lucky could only let Han Shuo attempt to grasp that critical moment himself.
A horse carriage left Calvert’s house after a while, the clopping sound of the horse’s hooves appeared quite ear piercing. The groom was a muscular guard and he waved the whip in his hand to spur on the horse. When the carriage passed by where Lucky was concealed, a figure flashed out of the corner of concealment so quickly, that it was as if it had no weight, and stuck itself to the bottom of the carriage.
Han Shuo clearly saw all of this from his vantage point in the distance. He took in a deep breath when he saw the carriage approaching the big tree he was hidden in. Holding it in and watching things closely, he tightening his grasp on the Demonslayer Edge.
A cracking sound erupted from the bottom of the carriage at that moment as the carriage exploded into pieces. Wood shards, sand, and dust flew everywhere as milky-white sword aura shot up two meters into the air, flaring out over the now destroyed carriage. The exploding sword aura was like a bristling porcupine, and Lucky had the body of the porcupine within the spikes of the sword aura.
At this time, Han Shuo discovered that Lucky was an assassin who also happened to be a sword master. The milky-white sword aura flashed by and vanished like it had never appeared. The pieces of the carriage were shattered and lay all over the ground. One person within the carriage was full of bloody holes and had died instantly, whereas the groom at the front of the carriage was running for his life.
Han Shuo had felt extraordinarily surprised in the beginning, thinking that Lucky had succeeded so quickly. However, he realized that the person in the carriage was completely foreign to him when he looked at the corpse. It wasn’t Clark at all. The scattered footsteps swiftly approaching from all directions immediately made Han Shuo realize the severity of the situation.
“We got played, retreat!” Han Shuo immediately called out from the treetop and leapt down from the thick growth.
Lucky’s expression remained calm as he scanned the surroundings, calling back softly, “We’ll split up and go through the surrounding houses.”
Han Shuo nodded and didn’t say much, leaping into the air and landing on a roof. When he looked back, he saw that Lucky had already disappeared miraculously.
Han Shuo’s heart became even calmer at this time as he coolly looked around and noticed that several soldiers had appeared on the streets to the front and back. These men were charging down on the back of horses, and several had drawn back on their bows to send arrows shooting towards him.
Clark, with an easy expression on his face, walked out from the direction of Calvert’s house with another middle-aged knight that was well built. Their gazes landed on Han Shuo as they spurred on the battlesteeds beneath them to come charging over.
There were many houses in the surroundings, but when Han Shuo concentrated and listened, he noticed that there didn’t seem to be anyone living in them. He didn’t know if they’d been moved beforehand. It was only now that he was a bit regretful that he hadn’t used his extremely sensitive senses to investigate his surroundings. He’d been too focused on killing Clark and hadn’t thoroughly probed the details.
Han Shuo dodged nimbly when the arrows came shooting over, he noticed many more soldiers were approaching. He weighed things up and cast the “Art of the Demonic Ninth Heaven”, sending himself shooting into the air and away like a hawk.
The numerous arrows whistled over and were batted away by the Demonslayer Edge. He’d flown out of the encirclement in the blink of an eye and alighted on a large tree in the distance.
Although Han Shuo wasn’t that well versed in the Art yet, he had no problem simply flying through the air. It was because of this Art that he could break free from the soldiers.
In addition, Han Shuo discovered that compared to the levitation spells that archmages could cast in this world, the “Art of the Demonic Ninth Heavens” was much more advanced. None of the levitation spells that the archmages could cast even came close to his Art’s speed and maneuverability.
He took a deep breath in and took stock of his surroundings, discovering that Clark had almost a hundred soldiers with him. These people were conducting a carpet style search, going through each room looking for Lucky. They gave up hunting down Han Shuo after he left and was focused on finding Lucky.
Just as Han Shuo started worrying for Lucky, a figure, using a levitation spell, quickly approached from the distance. The moon was covered by a cloud of dark mist in a second and the already dim sky immediately darkened. When the figure drew close, it took out a mage staff, made of white bone from its spacious sleeves and chanted out a spell in a low voice.
Suddenly, numerous skeletal, zombie, and ghoul warriors, as well as gargoyles and hate warriors appeared, charging towards the soldiers.
Another low chant rang out as bone arrows flew wildly through the air and crashed into the soldiers, making them cry out in agony.
“Oh my gosh, it’s an archmage level necromancer!” Calvert suddenly cried out with shock.
Han Shuo was also greatly surprised as he fixed an ardent gaze on the necromancer that had appeared in the air, absolutely taken aback by the destructiveness of the necromancy magic.