Chapter 154: Why bother so much?
Within the span of a few short months, of Bob Ascher’s two sons one had mysteriously gone missing and the other was killed oin the streets. This was simply too great of a shock to him, particularly because Clark had been the son that he’d valued more and placed the most hope in. To have him be killed by others in Valen City made him go utterly crazy.
This night in Valen City was destined to be a chaotic time. All of the Gryphon Legion had been summoned and were conducting a carpet style search for all suspicious personnels. Because of their chief’s explosive rage, all the ordinary soldiers within the Legion all held equally poor tempers. Any unfamiliar faces or merchants would be beaten viciously if they gave the slightest hint of not cooperating.
Metal hooves galloped over the streets as citizens, sleeping soundly in the middle of the night, were rudely awakened. Even the symbol of the Gryphon Legion, a troop of gryphons, soared through the night skies of Valen City on patrol. Everyone was as if they were confronting a great enemy, and all thought that the Kasi Empire had invaded in the night.
The gryphons in the sky were black dots as their strange cries reverberated through people’s eardrums. They flew from the west side of the city to the south. Then flew from the south to the north. They would land and search with the soldiers on the ground whenever they saw something out of the ordinary.
“So these are gryphons. They’re truly big alright.” Han Shuo stood behind a large tree near Bob Ascher’s slave trading house and murmured to himself as he inspected the gryphons.
“That’s right, the gryphons are a very fierce flying species. A single gryphon by itself can rip apart ordinary magical creatures. The king values old Bob so much and doesn’t dare make a move even though he knows that he wants to rebel in large part because of this Gryphon Legion.” Emily huffed lightly and shivered a bit as she spoke.
The water that had accumulated on the streets had already frozen into thick sheets of ice in this harsh winter night. Icicles from the edge of the roofs, glinting with cold as the severe cold wind came howling over. As a mage, it made sense that Emily would find herself cold.
Sucking a breath in, Han Shuo’s right hand clasped Emily’s smooth, small hand as he circulated his magical yuan. Han Shuo’s right hand was like a small furnace as he brought warmth to Emily.
“You’re a necromancer and also have an uncommon martial arts technique, but why can you also use fire magic, and deploy it so adeptly? It’s like you can adjust the temperature according to your wishes. How are you doing it?” Emily’s charming eyes sparkled as she fixed them on Han Shuo, pouting as she admonished him.
“This is actually one of the techniques I’m training in, you don’t need to be that surprised.” Han Shuo shrugged his shoulders and responded honestly to Emily.
It was a pity that Emily was obviously not having any of Han Shuo’s explanations. She didn’t keep asking however, but just spoke with a smile, “Alright, alright. I’ll discover all your secrets one day. Um, your mysteriousness is like a poison to me. The more I want to know about you, the more mysterious that I find you are.”
“Heh, don’t be boy crazy. Let’s go, let’s go.” Han Shuo stretched out his hand with a smile and patted Emily’s round butt, urging her to move along.
The two hadn’t brought Chester along with them this time. When they approached the slave trading house where Lisa had been auctioned off last time, Han Shuo released a dark mist magic and surrounded the structure, enveloping it with darkness.
“Heh heh, your grasp of necromancy magic isn’t bad at all now.” Emily chuckled lowly. She deployed the archmage levitation spell and her body slowly flew through the air, landing on top of the five meter tall wall. She opened her mouth again, “I entangled the rope inside, you can climb over using it.”
“Why go to so much trouble!” Han Shuo smiled and suddenly leapt upwards, his speed much faster than Emily’s levitation spell as he suddenly found his footing next to Emily.
Emily’s body stiffened as she looked at Han Shuo like she’d seen a ghost in broad daylight. A strange light danced in her beautiful eyes as she threw herself into Han Shuo’s arms, using all the strength in her body to pummel Han Shuo’s chest. She yelled at him, seemingly angry and happy. “You villain! You reached the archmage realm a long time ago, but still kept lying to me. I’m going to beat you to death! You jerk, jerk!”
Han Shuo heard some noises traveling from the distance and didn’t dare remain at a high vantage point for fear of attracting attention. He suddenly grabbed Emily and flew down, hiding in a corner of the slave trading house, clasping her small hand afterwards, explaining with a wry smile, “I didn’t lie to you, this is a method that’s similar to the levitation spell and is one of the techniques that I’m training in. It has nothing to do with magic. Think carefully, did you sense any magic pulses from me earlier?”
Emily started after listening to Han Shuo’s words and her long eyebrows fluttered in confusion. She looked at Han Shuo in shock afterwards and asked with incredulity, “Just what kind of martial art technique are you training in? According to my knowledge, even the strongest swordsman or paladin can only fly for short periods of time using fighting aura. That technique wasn’t flying at all, so how could you do it?”
“I told you before that the technique I’m training in is rather incredible and I’m not at liberty to discuss so much to you.” Han Shuo truly couldn’t explain much regarding demonic magic, so he could only say so much to Emily.
“Alright, alright. I knew that I wouldn’t get much out of you anyways. Let’s go. Let’s see if we can get anything useful from the slave trading house while it’s still a chaotic mess within Valen City.” Emily pouted and rolled her eyes at Han Shuo, tugging him towards the trading house proper that she was now familiar with.
Emily must have thoroughly investigated the trading house beforehand. She was very familiar with the buildings and floating through the air along the way, not making a single sound. A thin, dark magic shroud surrounded her, completely concealing her movements.
Han Shuo was quite familiar with covert operations like these. Not only did he not make a single sound, but he used his extraordinary senses to continuously point out the way to Emily, helping the two evade many patrolling guards along the way.
The two had made their way past two large auction buildings after a short while and was headed for the three houses located towards the back.
“This trading house usually has part of the Gryphon Legion stationed here. It will be very difficult for us to escape once they discover traces of us. Today however, the soldiers inside would’ve been deployed due to Clark’s death and will be searching the entire Valen City. This is perfect timing for us.” Emily explained to Han Shuo as they walked.
Han Shuo became quite serious once they started talking business. He listened to Emily as he silently observed the surroundings. A very strange smell suddenly wafted into his nostrils. The smell of blood was mixed in with the smell. Han Shuo felt that it was slightly pungent as he slowly took in the smell.
He wrinkled his nose, reached out a hand and grabbed Emily, saying lowly, “There’s the smell of blood here, something’s wrong.”
“I don’t smell it.” Emily took in a deep sniff and said in surprise. She then thought for a bit and seemed to recall Han Shuo’s miraculousness, “See if you can find the source of the smell of blood.”
Nodding, Han Shuo said quietly, “Follow me.”
Grabbing Emily’s small hand, Han Shuo followed his nose in search of the origin of the blood smell. He passed by two houses and came by the side of a pond. There was an artificial mountain next to it, with several deep and slightly creepy caves within it. Han Shuo’s ears proved their worth as he walked inside one of the caves with Emily.
A creak suddenly sounded as the originally solid stone wall suddenly split apart as a guard dashed out from inside, covered in blood and wearing a frightened expression. A bone spear appeared out of thin air after he took only a few steps, running the guard through from behind. Two zombie warriors then walked out and dragged the guard’s body inside.
Han Shuo and Emily received a good eyeful of the scene that had just taken place. Han Shuo was taken aback, and then spoke, “Perhaps the necromancer I saw earlier today is inside that cave.”
“There’s a high possibility for that, but the owner of the slave trading house is Bob Ascher, and the necromancer is one of Clark’s killers, so what would he be doing here?” Emily was still a bit perplexed as she conversed lowly with Han Shuo.
“The most dangerous place is also the safest. There’s an enemy behind every bush and tree now. The trading house is Bob Ascher’s place of business and actually sent out the most number of soldiers. Who would’ve thought the necromancer would appear here? The fact that a soldier was killed just now is enough to prove that this necromancer isn’t a guest either. This means it’s highly likely that he has the desire to hide here.” Han Shuo contemplated and then spoke slowly.
“Mm, you make a lot of sense. Shall we go see what’s going on?” Emily complimented and then asked Han Shuo’s opinions.
“Of course, I’m rather curious about this necromancer as well. I would likely only be able to run the other way if I faced against him alone, but with you by my side, we have nothing to fear.” Han Shuo said and then paused, paying attention to the disturbances inside. He spoke again after a while, “Alright, the zombie warrior’s footsteps have gone into the distance. We can go inside and take a look.”