GDK 608: I dare not!
“You, you, what in the world are you?!” The man’s cold voice was trembling slightly as he looked at Han Shuo, who had abruptly turned into a longsword.
Having fought alongside the Ice Goddess on various material planes for many years, he had seen and met all kinds of characters and races. However, never before had anything he witnessed caused him as much shock as this one. The scene before him was completely beyond his understanding of the natural world. A feeling of utter absurdity rose from the bottom of his heart.
Man was not the only species that was afraid of the unknown, gods were just the same. The envoy, who had not felt any nervousness since he descended to this plane, was rather fearful watching Han Shuo transform into a longsword.
Creak… Creak… The Demonslayer Edge made a few swings and caused the solid ice around him to start cracking. The envoy grew even more terrified.
“I’m a nobody. Oh, you think you can trap me with merely this ice of yours?” Han Shuo’s avatar, in his Demonslayer Edge form, ridiculed and sneered from within the ice. Bloody red radiances repeatedly flashed from the edges of the sword before the ice that had frozen him in place shattered.
The Demonslayer Edge was forged by Han Shuo to be sharper than anything in existence. It was also extremely difficult to trap it thanks to its usual composition. As it glistened, the Demonslayer Edge shot towards Han Shuo’s main body still frozen in place. The ice that trapped Han Shuo’s main body completely shattered with a crisp. Han Shuo cracked a grin and looked the envoy up and down. He opened his palm and the Demonslayer Edge flew into his grasp. Then, he pointed at his avatar of death a distance away and smilingly said, “Look at that body. Isn’t it very strange as well?”
The man turned to look and suddenly discovered that the third Han Shuo had turned into a skeletal staff. He was yet again shocked and his heart trembled. He really had no idea what kind of a monster he was up against.
“What, what race do you belong to?” the envoy who was in a frightened state shouted as he pointed at Han Shuo.
Han Shuo could tell that the envoy was terrified after experiencing the series of surprises. The envoy, deeply affected by the fear towards the unknown, in addition to having yet to regather his divine energy for the time being, immediately had the idea of retreating.
Han Shuo who was observing the envoy saw that the divine light in his eyes was gradually routing. He coldly groaned, raised the Demonslayer Edge and stabbed at him. Plop! The Demonslayer Edge pierced through his skull.
The negative energy from millions of souls and the divine energy from the edict of destruction contained in the Demonslayer Edge erupted simultaneously. While the envoy’s soul had yet to completely vacate, through the thread of connection left, Han Shuo dealt the envoy a ferocious blow.
“I don’t care who you are – I will find you, and I will kill you!” a short chunk of thought was repeatedly transmitted from the envoy.
Splat! Tiana’s body burst into bits after a bright flash of light. Her body was drained of any divine energy after the midgod’s divine soul escaped.
“He runs fast!” Han Shuo groaned. With a twist of his wrist, the Demonslayer Edge flung towards his other avatar, still trapped in ice and annihilated the divine energy contained in the ice.
Han Shuo, hovering in midair, looked down beneath him. He discovered the bodies of these pious disciples frozen into ice sculptures. The element of water that had momentarily disappeared returned to fill this place once more, causing the suddenly defrosted region to be arctic cold again.
The midgod, in order to manifest himself, had taken away several thousand lives of pious disciples and occupied Tiana’s body. After the round of great battle, all three bodies of Han Shuo’s had sustained injuries. Meanwhile, the midgod had his soul severely damaged by Han Shuo. The injuries to the midgod’s soul were much more severe compared to the injuries on Han Shuo’s physical body.
Even after having paid such a steep price, not only had the envoy still failed to kill Han Shuo, he had to escape with his tail between his legs. There was no doubt that Han Shuo was the victor of this battle. Although the victory didn’t come easy and he too had paid a huge price, when Han Shuo recalled the fact that his opponent was a midgod, he was filled with an intense sense of satisfaction.
His three bodies recombined. After taking a deep breath, Han Shuo suddenly gave a loud whistle. The sound spread far into the distance and towards the three basegods who had retreated prior to the battle.
Han Shuo sat cross-legged on the ground to carefully examine the injuries to his three bodies. The puncture wound on the chest of Han Shuo’s main body had completely healed by now. Most of the frigid aura had also been purged from his body.
His two avatars, however, as their divine bodies were uniquely formed using special objects, couldn’t recover from the blows in that short period and had to slowly nurse their injuries.
As Han Shuo’s two avatars were formed using unique materials, after transformation, not a scratch could be seen on its surface. Although they appeared alright from the outside, the internal was done. Recovery would require an enormous amount of elemental and edictal energy over a period of time.
On the contrary, when it came to Han Shuo’s main body that cultivated in demonic arts, although the injuries appeared severe, thanks to his extraordinary build that had the ability to rejuvenate, the wound was mostly healed before long with just some demonic yuan.
From this aspect, the main body cultivating in demonic arts was indeed remarkable. It had absolutely no fear of tremendous trauma to the physical body.
This battle had taught Han Shuo a lot of valuable lessons. While silently examining his injuries, Han Shuo carefully replayed the battle in his head. Han Shuo learned that as the envoy possessed a Domain of Divinity that was a realm greater, he was in a practically invincible position. While inside that envoy’s Domain of Divinity, Han Shuo appeared to be constrained and his strength was greatly affected.
The envoy, however, was calm and unruffled. He had drawn out all the elemental energy in his Domain of Divinity and concentrated it in his fist in just an instant. The power dispelled in this punch was enough to send any mere mortal flying halfway across the planet. Had Han Shuo not utilized Speed Change to escape, he would have likely been completely battered at the envoy’s very first strike.
As the envoy couldn’t have his divine body descend along with his divine soul, the amount of divine energy he could use wasn’t that much greater than that of Han Shuo’s. But even so, by relying on the superiority of his Domain of Divinity and his more skilled manipulation of elemental energy, he did not perish from being encircled by three Han Shuos. If it weren’t for Han Shuo’s stealthy use of the Pearls of Annihilation that caught the envoy off guard, followed by his tactic of constant mockery, he probably wouldn’t have emerged as the victor in the end.
On that note, the promotion of a god to a higher realm wasn’t merely a matter of gaining divine energy. This battle opened Han Shuo’s eyes to just how dangerous a battle between gods was, and even shone some light on certain situations he had not previously understood.
A loud whooshing blew over the horizon. Han Shuo raised his head and glanced into the distance. He immediately realized that the three basegods had heard his whistle and were heading his way.
“How are things?” Ayermike Cotton hastily asked after arriving before Han Shuo.
“I’m injured. Figures sent by the Shrine of Ice are indeed hard to deal with. But luckily, he escaped,” Han Shuo forced a smile as he explained to Ayermike Cotton.
“Is it severe? Do you need to rest immediately?”
“It’s pretty severe. Damn, these age-old religions are such a chore to deal with!”
The moment Han Shuo began to divulge the severity of his injuries, light bulbs flashed in Pegasus’ and Graeae’s eyes.
Han Shuo immediately knew what was going on. He grinned at the two and stood right up. Han Shuo flashed before Pegasus with his big hand covering Pegasus’ head. He asked in an eerie tone, “What is it? Thinking about getting rid of me while I’m severely injured?”
“I wouldn’t dare! Your humble servant would never dare!” Pegasus was horrified. He immediately knelt at Han Shuo’s feet and was too scared to move a muscle.
“Even if my injuries were far harsher, killing you would still be as easy as snapping a finger. Before you even have the remotest idea of overpowering me, you’d better conceal your clever thoughts in front of me,” Han Shuo said slowly with a mischievous grin.
“Your humble servant will never do it again!” Pegasus entreated piteously for Han Shuo’s forgiveness. When he saw the ground covered in bodies, he thought that all of them had been killed by Han Shuo and was terrified of ending up the same way.
“It appears that there is a lack of discipline amongst your kind. I believe some binding would be in order – I doubt you’ll behave yourselves otherwise,” Han Shuo revealed an evil grin. A drop of blood squirted from his index finger. He mixed some divine energy into it and sealed it within Pegasus’ brain.
“Before you gain enough strength, you better not have any thoughts of rebelling. Otherwise, with one thought of mine, your head will tear apart like a firecracker!” Han Shuo cackled, beaming ear to ear as Pegasus shivered in fear.
“Graeae, if you think that you can escape, go ahead and try,” Han Shuo removed his big hand from Pegasus’ head and shot a cold glance at the timid Graeae thinking about escaping.
“Your Lordship has misunderstood me. I would have no such thoughts,” Graeae explained with an awkward smile.
“You are a smart one and should know what you ought to do. Get over here,” Han Shuo said calmly as he smiled at Graeae.
“Yes, Master!” Graeae sighed and thought to herself, How could I be so unfortunate to run into this demon? Now I’m really done for.
Graeae obediently walked to Han Shuo with a smile forced onto her face. When she arrived, she lowered her head and said, “My Lord, please bestow me the seal.”
“Mmm, good girl,” Han Shuo said with an extremely wicked smile and repeated his actions to Graeae.
“Bryan, what about me?” Ayermike Cotton walked to Han Shuo and smilingly asked.
“What on earth are you talking about? How could I treat you so?” Han Shuo feigned anger and glared at Ayermike Cotton before saying cordially, “You are not like them. I can distinguish the sincere from the insincere ones.”
Pegasus and Graeae both wore the same sour expression on their faces. They exchanged glances and sighed inwardly. They thought, How did I get so unlucky? Now I don’t even have a chance to escape.