Chapter 206: Transformation
Once things were settled, the hotly fired up young folk with money started to move very rapidly.
Florida’s injuries were quite severe, and news from the Cairo mercenary band indicated that he was still in a coma. Edwin’s every move and gesture was under close surveillance after entering the valley. He stayed within the hotel, seeming to want to take care of the wound in his back first.
Trunks left the Valley of Sunshine after he’d had settled matters with Han Shuo, saying that he wanted to discuss future plans and the good news of Florida’s injuries with his brothers.
Phoebe moved about the Valley of Sunshine the next couple of days after receiving Han Shuo’s enormous wealth. She called upon her connections to talk to several merchants and also helped Han Shuo collect materials to refine the wood and water elite zombies.
Emily stayed within Dark Mantle and seemed to be communicating with the executives. The senior levels of the Dark Mantle seemed to want a large operation this time to take down Bob Ascher.
As someone in the know, Trunks was the one busying about forming a mercenary band. There wasn’t much for Han Shuo to do after the issue of funding had been taken care of. He used the two days of downtime to return to the cemetery of death.
Han Shuo wasn’t actually too worried about Edwin’s threats. After all, he had a dark dragon in the cemetery of death as backup. Through some communication, Han Shuo understood that if Gilbert wanted to recover quickly, he’d need to absorb some creature cores.
It was because he understood this, and that he did indeed need Gilbert’s strength, that he’d brought Gilbert along with him over the past two days into the Dark Forest to hunt down some high level magical creatures.
The two killed seven wind blade wolves, four frost eagles, and one medusa in two short days. With Han Shuo’s current strength and Gilbert’s help, the high level creature medusa was defeated after the two joined forces.
Gilbert mostly recovered from his injuries after absorbing these creature cores as well as the medusa’s valuable blood, and his strength was no longer affected by his injuries.
Gilbert had absorbed all the cores but had left behind the teeth, skin, and flesh. Han Shuo took all those and threw them into one of the warehouses in the cemetery of death.
On the eve of the second night, Gilbert stayed within the cemetery of death to digest the cores. As for Han Shuo, he left to visit the broad and swift moving waterfall near the cemetery.
The waterfall dived down like the universe emptying itself, bringing with it a ferocious strength that swept away all obstacles in its path. It seemed to be falling directly from the heavens. Han Shuo sat down cross legged underneath the falls, positioning himself close to an enormous boulder near the center and enduring the crushing force of the waterfall.
The parts of his body exposed to the waterfall had all turned a bright red. Han Shuo had seemed to become part of the boulder as he sat there without moving an inch. He seemed to be a lifeless sculpture.
However, the magical yuan was circulating with the speed of ten thousand horses galloping ahead. All muscles, tendons, and bones in which the magical yuan circulated past were refined over and over again. The demon infant started bouncing slightly in his abdomen as a small figure exactly the same as Han Shuo emanated vigorous life force.
Han Shuo had continuously achieved new heights during this time. He’d finally completely absorbed all of Johnny’s soul. Bits of information floated randomly through Han Shuo’s mind. All sorts of disordered memories were in the mix as well, appearing as clouds of mist that no one could see clearly.
Han Shuo understood that these scattered bits of information were the memories that Chu Cang Lan had left in his mind. Han Shuo had been only able to obtain small parts of this information before reaching the true demon realm and having his brain fully developed. The majority of the information had been locked in his mind.
Now that he had reached the true demon realm and his mind developed, Han Shuo had seen great increases in his memory, comprehension, and thinking abilities. Those previously hazy, indistinct, and scattered memories were swiftly casting off their veil and becoming clearer beneath Han Shuo’s full examination.
All sorts of bizarre secret magical arts, parts of profound incantations, refinement methods to create magical treasure, demon generals, and formations were running through Han Shuo’s mind at high speed. They were becoming part of Han Shuo’s memories that would never be destroyed.
He suddenly awoke after who knew how long. There was hard to conceal excitement, pride, and confidence in that pair of eyes beneath the rush of the waterfall. It was as if he’d been reborn as he was filled with a heretofore unseen confidence.
The solid realm, open passages realm, molded spirit realm, true demon realm, bloodlust realm, separate demon realm, carnal realm, nine changes realm, and omen realm were the nine levels of cultivation that would enable a mortal to ascend to a level of existence that was as omnipresent as the gods. A frightening strength that could cleave open the heavens and earth, would grow to being able to move mountains and oceans, as well as grant the holder immortality in the end drew a magnificent and mysterious blueprint in front of Han Shuo.
The blueprint had been unfurled now and Han Shuo was the brush, able to trace his unbounded future according to his desires. This power that could reforge, fly through the heavens and earth, be indestructible, and surpass the wheel of rebirth truly did exist!
A thought struck him as all the pores of his body expelled gouts of dark grey, murky air out of his body. This murky air had been the dredges from Johnny’s soul, and had remained in Han Shuo body after the demon infant had absorbed the strength from the former’s soul.
Han Shuo’s body wavered as he took off, shooting across the sky. He landed solidly atop an enormous tree, put on a warrior’s dark green outfit and flew towards the cemetery of death.
“Eh? Master, you seem a bit different from normal!” Gilbert looked askance at Han Shuo as soon as the latter had returned to the cemetery of death and couldn’t help but speak out.
“Oh? What’s different about me?” Han Shuo looked at Gilbert and smiled faintly.
Shaking his head, Gilbert said, “I can’t express it. Your eyes seem a bit more mysterious and your aura as well. Mm, you seem more confident, the confidence of having grasped the situation and being assured of victory!”
Han Shuo understood. After obtaining all of Chu Cang Lan’s memories, he now knew many magical arts like the back of his hand. He’d be able to take on Edwin even without Gilbert’s help now. But because he lacked sufficient strength, it’d be a bit troublesome for him to do so.
“Since your injuries have healed, leave with me!”
“Wonderful! Are you taking me to do some sneaky and underhanded things again this time?”
“Shut up, do what I tell you!”
“Master, I seemed to have see that patch of dirt shift slightly after you left today!” Gilbert first pouted and then suddenly remembered something as he pointed at the area where the earth elite zombie was being refined.
Han Shuo started and turned back to look at the place of extreme earth. He suddenly discovered that the center had indeed sunk in. The earth qi that had been circulating the area had all vanished without a trace. Overjoyed, Han Shuo laughed heartily, “Very good, it looks like he’s thoroughly absorbed all of the earth qi. He’ll be able to emerge from the dirt after a few more days!”
“Humph, just a zombie, what’s so good about it!” Gilbert flicked a dismissive glance over and grumbled.
Just as Gilbert finished speaking, the place he was standing on suddenly collapsed as an enormous crack appeared out of nowhere after a series of earth shattering rumbles. It caught Gilbert unawares and closed on him. The crack seemed to be alive as it kept closing, squeezing Gilbert’s body and making him curse loudly.
Original and most updated translations are on volare. If you’re reading this anywhere else, you’re supporting a thief. 🙁
“Alright alright, let him go!” Han Shuo could feel the earth elite zombie’s dissatisfaction from deep within the ground and knew that he must be behind all this.
The originally retracting crack suddenly sprang open like a spring. When the immobile Gilbert discovered that the earthquakes and shifting of the ground was due to the earth elite zombie below the ground, he couldn’t help but wear an expression of extreme shock on his face. He hastily climbed out when the crack loosened.
“He was formed here and has been absorbing the earth qi here. This place is his territory. He’s able deploy strength several times his own as long as he’s here. He can move the earth and mountains, crack the ground, form the earth into a cage to trap you, or coalesce an earth dragon to attack you. This is all incredibly easy for him.”
“Remember, don’t fight him in his territory. He’s basically invincible deep in the ground. He may not be able to manipulate everything according to his will when he leaves, but any bit of land here can be transformed into his weapon!” Han Shuo looked at the scrambling Gilbert with a supercilious smile as he explained faintly.
The elite zombies would be able to greatly increase their strength in the area that they were formed. Whoever irritated them in their own territory was committing a foolish action.
Gilbert had offended him with a word and the earth elite zombie had immediately struck back tit for tat, allowing Han Shuo to understand that the earth elite zombie wasn’t a low level zombie that could only listen to his commands. It looked like it was the same as the little skeleton, having gained his own sentience.
When he saw that Gilbert was behaving himself after clambering out of the crack, Han Shuo spoke in the earth elite zombie’s general direction, “Refine the earth qi well and emerge sooner rather than later!”
A beam of thought was sent into Han Shuo’s mind. The earth elite zombie had obviously heard his words and sent over “understood!”.
“Come, let’s leave!” Han Shuo walked towards the center of the cemetery of death as he looked as Gilbert. When he passed by the yin demon cave, he noticed that there were only five wraiths left. It seemed like the three yin demons would be formed soon as well.
“Just what’s with that zombie, why is he so strong?” Gilbert couldn’t hold back the questions in his heart when they’d left the earth elite zombie and arrived at the transportation matrix.
“You wouldn’t understand even if I explained to you. He’s just different from any other zombie warrior you know. His existence began to change the moment he started absorbing the earth qi. Remember, you should try to avoid provoking him in the cemetery of death. He’s much stronger than you can imagine in here!” Han Shuo smiled faintly and instructed Gilbert.
Han Shuo pushed Gilbert into the middle of the transportation matrix as he spoke and then activated it, returning to the Dark Mantle’s stronghold in the Valley of Sunshine.
Han Shuo put the six magical sticks away when he walked out of the secret room and lifted a piece of wooden floor above him. A hallway leading upstairs appeared and the two walked up.
“Bryan, you’re back!” Emily suddenly called out when she saw them emerge.
“Hi, beautiful woman, we meet again!” Gilbert smiled at Emily in greeting when he walked up and was greeted with an enormous eyeroll from Emily.
“What’s wrong?” After receiving all of Chu Yang Lan’s memories, Han Shuo was now full of confidence about the future. He believed that if he worked hard enough and advanced his magical cultivation, he’d be able to obtain strength that would make everyone respect him. It was because of this that he hadn’t terribly minded some of the difficulties and setbacks that he was encountering and asked Emily rather carelessly.
“The Cairo mercenary band just sent word that Florida has awoken, and that he called for a meeting as soon as he woke up. He plans on moving against us with no thought of anything whatsoever, and wants us to be on our guard. In addition, Edwin and Belinda seems to have made a trip to the Cairo mercenary band these days. This is information we gained ourselves. No one from the Cairo mercenary band told us about this.” Emily responded quickly.
Nodding his head in understanding, Han Shuo thought with a furrowed brow and then smiled slightly, “We’ll deal with things as they come up. If Florida dare comes to his death, then I’ll make sure he doesn’t get off easily. Don’t worry about Edwin for now. I think Laureton won’t be so silly as to create trouble for us now. We’re something he can leverage now. He’ll wait until Florida is dead before creating trouble for us.”
“In my estimations, Edwin went to meet with the Cairo mercenary band possibly to obtain some information about Florida, but Laureton may not have necessarily agreed to help him against us. He also won’t choose to cooperate with Edwin against us. Don’t be too bothered by it. What we need to do now is to defend our current stronghold.”
Emily was stunned momentarily by Han Shuo’s words, and then looked at him oddly. This was when she discovered that Han Shuo had worn a remote expression on his face all along, as if no danger would shake his confidence. His eyes were even more profound and mysterious, and his entire demeanor had changed. He was full of an unexplainable feeling, making Emily feel a bit surprised.
“What, why are you looking at me so oddly?” Han Shuo rubbed his nose and laughed when he saw Emily stare at him unblinkingly with her beautiful eyes.
“Bryan, has something happened to you these past two days? Why do I feel like you’re different from before?” Emily didn’t conceal the thoughts on her mind and asked directly.
“Indeed, master is a bit different from usual. I’ve discovered it as well!” Gilbert also couldn’t help but murmur loudly at this point. His eyes kept looking over Han Shuo, trying to figure out what was different about him from usual.
“Heh heh, nothing much, just that I’ve received a large amount of memories over these past couple of days. They’ve helped me understand a lot of things.” Han Shuo wore a mysterious expression on his face as he explained to Emily.
Emily still felt Han Shuo was mysterious beyond belief, and that the things that happened to him were marvelous and illogical. He had a little skeleton that wasn’t afraid of dark magic, could fly without making use of magic and fighting aura, and had an amazing weapon that moved according to his thoughts. These were all out of Emily’s range of comprehension.
“Forget it, I wouldn’t understand if you explained either. I just need to know that you’re alright!” Emily shook her head and gave up further questioning. She suddenly remembered what Han SHuo had said last and asked, “Oh right, you said you wanted to defend our current location. How are you going to?”
Han Shuo paused silently with a bit with a mysterious expression, then voiced a word that Emily was completely unfamiliar with, “Formation!”