Chapter 284: A big gamble
Though Yoland had been about to attack Emily, his heart suddenly spasmed when he heard Han Shuo reveal his most closely guarded secret. Just as he intended to turn around and run back into the room to destroy the blueprint, several bolts whizzed at him with whooshing sounds. Emily waved the magic staff in her hand and a sharp Grim Reaper’s Blade sliced across Yoland’s body with a deathly glint.
“Stop him! Don’t let him take the blueprint!” Yoland’s voice was shrill. He hastily raised his broadsword to block the Grim Reaper’s Blade.
The assassins of the Angel Empire were originally about to break through the encirclement, but abandoned the idea upon hearing Yoland’s shout. They swiftly turned back, one by one, and rushed straight at Han Shuo.
Unfortunately, their power was a far cry from Han Shuo’s. The difference in speed was like heaven and earth. Han Shuo utilized the Art of the Demonic Ninth Heavens and flew into the room like lightning. The assassins only caught up with him after he’d pulled the blueprint from a hollow corner on the wall.
“Die!” Han Shuo coldly shouted before landing with the Demonslayer Edge. He walked towards the furiously sprinting assassins of the Angel Empire.
When Han Shuo released the Mystical Glacial Spellfire, the Demonslayer Edge exploded with brilliant purple-red light. The light sparked like a rainbow on the tip of the blade, and rapidly formed one willowy flame after another. The beautiful light from the flashing purple red flames danced on the blade of the Demonslayer Edge. They gathered into twisting threads of fire that entangled each other, creating two magic nets of flame—one purple, one red.
The madly charging Angel Empire assassins only had one obsession in their heart, to destroy Han Shuo. Faced with the two blazing hot and icy cold magical nets, they all released their strongest level of fighting aura, trying to tear the nets apart.
However, Han Shuo had firmly grasped a whole new level of the Mystical Glacial Spellfire at his current strength. The two nets of magic twisted and swayed about in the air as if two fishing nets thrown into the sea. The lights from the swords simply landed on empty holes and wasn’t able to penetrate the beautiful flames.
“Not good! Fall back!” The distant Yoland, who’d desperately dodged the Grim Reaper’s Blade, also rushed towards Han Shuo. Upon seeing his subordinates’ swords unable to rip apart the magic nets, he immediately understood that these nets of unknown material couldn’t be torn by just the sword. That was why he couldn’t help but shout a reminder to his subordinates.
However, the two strangely swaying magic nets in the air actually possessed an extremely fast speed. The nets didn’t wait for the assassins to react before they spread out and shrouded the whole group.
When the red net fell down, the flame threads touched three assassins like scorching hot iron. A thick smoke erupted as their skin and flesh was burned to a crisp. Every one of them was paralyzed and fell to the ground amidst their own tragic screams. The purple net blanketed the remaining four assassins. Their limbs instantly stiffened, and their bodies shivered as if they had been trapped in an ice block. The cold air maintained their previous dodging or attacking postures.
“I’ll end my life with yours!” Yoland had finally reached Han Shuo. Upon seeing his brothers shrouded in the nets, each either burned to ashes or frozen solid like ice, he roared and raised his sword, rushing at Han Shuo without a care for his life.
“Heh heh! I’m afraid you won’t have that chance!” Han Shuo released the Demonslayer Edge with an indifferent smile on his face, and charged towards Yoland.
Yoland’s expression turned hideous as he raised his broadsword to receive Han Shuo’s attack. Yoland kept laughing maniacally when he saw Han Shuo quickly close in. He was about to disregard everything to risk his life to fight Han Shuo, when a pair of arms suddenly emerged from the ground where he stood and tightly grabbed his ankles.
“Shoot him dead!” Han Shuo had been rushing towards Yoland when he suddenly screeched to a halt in body mid-air. He shouted to the dozen Northern Guard soldiers who were holding bows and approaching in the distance.
Yoland couldn’t budge his feet. He stared dumbly at Han Shuo, floating in the air. The latter was only about five meters away, right in front of him, but Yoland had no way to move. When Yoland slashed downwards on the pair of big arms with his sword, the arms holding his legs retreated back into the underground. His two feet suddenly felt a soul-shaking pain as two bone spikes shot out from the ground and pierced deeply from his feet to his knees.
While he was wailing like a pig being butchered, several arrows quickly shot towards Yoland, whistling through the air until they penetrated his body. Before he died, his killing intent, filled with resentment, transformed into an air barely visible to the naked eye and was absorbed by Han Shuo.
The lineup of the twenty-odd assassins from the Angel Empire had no survivors left, including Yoland. None of their resentful killing intent had escaped Han Shuo’s absorption, enabling his demonic magic to grow increasingly perfect. The feeling of breaking through was becoming increasingly stronger.
Han Shuo walked to the four frozen assassins and shot out four pitch black lights into their bodies. Four cracking sounds echoed as the originally frozen stiff assassins fell limply down. Han Shuo turned to speak to the leader of the Northern Guard army, “These four aren’t dead yet. Guard them strictly, and don’t let them commit suicide. This will be our answer to His Majesty as well.”
“Rest assured, Master Bryan, we know what to do!” The leader readily agreed and ordered the soldiers behind him, “Men, tied up these four assassins and gag them. Don’t give them the chance to bite their tongues and kill themselves!”
Following the orders of their leader, the dozen soldiers quickly walked forward and took out special binding tools from the bags that they always carried. From their practiced actions and plentiful equipment, Han Shuo could instantly confirm that it would even harder for these four assassins to seek death.
When they were brought to the Northern Guard’s prison, they would be anesthetized, and their spirits drained of strength. They would be too weak to even bite their tongues. It might actually be possible to torture something out of them.
Han Shuo stopped paying attention to these four. He walked to Emily’s side, took out the blueprint and gave it to her, saying, “Take this. This mission can now be considered completed. I will give you the blueprint so you can hand them in to the Northern Guard. As you have the blueprint that the Northern Guard’s been desperately seeking, you can report in to His Majesty now!”
Emily naturally wouldn’t stand on ceremony with Han Shuo. As she couldn’t reveal her identity, she didn’t say anything to him and only nodded before turning around. She swiftly walked to Chester’s carriage and got in. They left together and quickly disappeared out of sight.
“Master Bryan, we could successfully capture the assassins of the Angel Empire and recover the blueprint they’d hidden this time only thanks to you. If Count Boris can say a few good words in front of His Majesty, this deed is enough to grant you a title.” Lightning archmage Killua walked over to Han Shuo and offered his sincere congratulations. He seemed even more excited than Han Shuo.
“Hehe, it’s everyone’s credit. I wouldn’t have been able to catch them all by myself, without everyone’s combined efforts. Mm, you all get back to work. I still have something to deal with, I’ll need to leave for a moment!” Han Shuo looked at Killua and said with a smile.
“Alright then master Bryan, please leave first. We can take care of the aftermath!” Killua respectfully replied.
Nodding his head, Han Shuo didn’t linger. He chose another direction and quickly disappeared from sight in a dirty, chaotically slum of the city’s west end.
When night fell and everyone was resting, Han Shuo soundlessly appeared at the Boozt Merchant Guild. He followed the familiar path to Phoebe’s room.
“No need to consider anymore. I believe that Bryan will definitely win. Our crisis may even be completely over with this gamble. Let’s take out all of our active funds and fight it out with Cameron and his group!” Phoebe stood in the middle of the living room, voicing her resolution in a competent and astute manner.
“Little Phoebe, this needs reconsideration. I know of the relationship between you and Bryan. His strength is good, but Leah Cain has been famous for too long and is also very powerful. Everyone agrees that he has a better winning chance. This bet is no trivial matter. If we lose, I’m afraid that our Boozt Merchant Guild will also go down with it!” Boozt Guild veteran elder Andrew leaned on his walking stick and spoke, somewhat worried.
Andrew was an original elder of the Boozt Merchant Guild. Before Phoebe had taken over, he had wholeheartedly cared for her, so she was very much concerned about his viewpoints. However, Phoebe had gained majority control of the guild after becoming the owner. During this period, the Guild had actually made great progress under her hand. Andrew was satisfied, understanding that Phoebe wasn’t one to work based on her emotions. He might not have been so worried if it wasn’t for Leah Cain’s widespread fame.
“Rest assured grandpa Andrew, Bryan’s strength is much more formidable than you can imagine. Moreover, Cameron has forced us to this state already. The merchant alliance he has lead is intensely suppressing us, and it’s difficult for us to do anything now. Even without this gamble, they will still pressure us bit by bit until we’re exhausted. If we can win this time, we can reverse the situation. Those merchant guilds cooperating with Cameron won’t give him face if he faces a heavy loss. Only when we hold a huge amount of gold coins, can we truly control the situation.” Phoebe calmly explained her analysis to Andrew.
“Aii, since you’ve said so, let’s do it like that. I hope Bryan won’t disappoint us, otherwise our Boozt Merchant Guild can be considered finished!” Andrew thought for a while before finally nodding in agreement to Phoebe’s proposal. This showed the immense crisis the guild was facing. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have chosen such a gamble to save the situation.