GDK 652: Man-made Features
Han Shuo and his party made their way in the complete darkness for about half an hour before Donna, who was guiding the way, suddenly said, “Alright, we have made it past the light element boundary. Everyone can take out their illumination devices now!”
Upon hearing those words, the few youngsters who were battered by Han Shuo’s mischief immediately withdrew gemstones that glowed brightly in the dark. Darkness was dispelled and the setting became clearly visible.
After traveling for some time, Donna suddenly halted her footsteps when she saw that there were multiple branches of paths up ahead. She turned to cast an inquisitive gaze at Han Shuo.
This was the critical point to the secret that the dark dragons had been guarding for so long. As soon as Han Shuo saw the forks, he immediately stepped forward and explained in a grave manner, “From this point onwards, there will be many more branches. Make one misstep and you will end up anywhere but the third layer of the underground world, so you all better follow closely behind me.”
At this critical moment, those who had been fooling around along the way turned solemn and expressed their approval.
Han Shuo again took the lead of the party. Starting from the first fork, they were confronted with countless choices. There were countless narrow and wide paths for them to choose from. Han Shuo silently advanced forward according to Gilbert’s directions.
After much twisting and turning through those complicated tunnels, finally, Han Shuo led them to an enormous, dark hole.
That dark hole ahead of them which appeared bottomless was connected directly to the final layer of the underground world. “Alright. Descend from here. This will take some time. Everyone be careful and good luck!” Han Shuo said in a calm voice. He turned around to give a look at Donna before taking the lead and leap into the hole.
“There probably won’t be any danger, but it’s always good to be cautious,” Donna smilingly said to the party and jumped in after Han Shuo.
After entering the deep hole, Han Shuo again found himself in pitch-black darkness. He wasn’t at all disorientated or nervous. The surroundings were visible to him after he unfolded his consciousness.
As he looked around, he suddenly recalled that back in the Abyss realm, he had a similar experience when entering the Void. But unlike when he was descending into the Void, Han Shuo did not encounter countless dangers in this place. It was a smooth and uninteresting fall.
Although he was descending rapidly, nonetheless, Han Shuo was able to take in the surrounding scene. All he saw were common rocks; nothing to catch Han Shuo’s interest.
After the rest of them jumped into the hole, using his consciousness, Han Shuo could clearly perceive the location of Donna and the others falling from over his head.
The process of descending took yet another half an hour. When Han Shuo finally landed on the ground, before he even observed the scene around him with his eyes, a shiver ran down his spine.
A wicked and sinister aura filled every corner, giving Han Shuo an extremely familiar, fuzzy feeling.
After carefully sensing for a moment, Han Shuo suddenly discovered a faint presence of mystical yin aura in the air. This filled Han Shuo with both doubts and delight.
The mystical yin aura was some of the purest energy left behind by deceased souls. Under normal circumstances, the energy would, over time, gradually dissipate between heaven and earth. It was only in some unique natural environment or in a mystical yin formation deployed by a demonic arts practitioner that the energy would assemble.
Han Shuo was delighted at the discovery because the mystical yin aura could be converted into demonic yuan. It had an unimaginably beneficial effect on his cultivation.
The mystical yin aura was as useful to Han Shuo as the yuan energies of five attributes were to the five elite zombies. It was a most wonderful energy that could accelerate the speed at which Han Shuo generated demonic yuan by more than ten fold.
Therefore, Han Shuo was very pleasantly surprised to discover that the mysterious yin aura filled every inch of the air right after he landed.
Without needing much thought, Han Shuo became absolutely certain that there was a naturally-formed place of mystical yin that gathered mystical yin aura. His heart was filled with unrestrainable excitement.
After reaching the Nine Changes realm, Han Shuo needed to cultivate for a long period of time to slowly accumulate and deepen his demonic yuan. He didn’t even know how much more time he would have to sacrifice to reach the Omen realm. Although Han Shuo had the memories left behind by Chu Cang Lan as guidance, there was still no way to avoid the slow accumulation of demonic yuan that required a lengthy period of time.
However, by cultivating in this place of mysterious yin accumulator and utilizing the mysterious yin aura that accumulated here, Han Shuo could shorten that time by at least ten fold!
Han Shuo was so wild with joy that he nearly couldn’t restrain himself and cried out in surprise. But when he detected that the rest of the party was about to land, he suppressed his excitement as best he could.
“Oh? This place is peculiar indeed. There is a strange type of energy that doesn’t seem to belong to any of the eight elemental energies!” Donna immediately sensed the strange energy that was all around her and cried out in surprise.
Whoosh Whoosh Whoosh! Several figures landed beside Han Shuo. They were all greatly astonished and looked all around in curiosity.
After concealing his delight, Han Shuo placed his attention on other aspects. He discovered that there weren’t too many differences between this layer and the last two layers of the underground world. As there were rocks high above their heads that gave off lights, this layer did not appear all that dark.
Han Shuo cast his gaze into the distance. The landscape seemed mostly identical to the last two layers. The only difference he could make out was that when he unfolded his consciousness in all directions, he could not detect a trace of life – not even a small bug. It was so desolate and empty that it might agitate some.
Donna closed her eyes and sensed for a moment before she suddenly asked Han Shuo, “How do we proceed?”
Han Shuo shook his head and explained, “I have no idea. This is as far as the dark dragons know. They know how to get to the third layer but have no idea how to navigate through here!”
Donna furrowed her brows. She seemed to be considering what path to take next.
“Sister Donna, I have my grandpa’s notebook. Let me take a look at it,” it was at this moment that Li Wei suddenly spoke. She immediately took out an old notebook and flipped through it.
The moment that Li Wei took out the notebook, Han Shuo turned his attention to her. With one thought, an invisible and formless spirit demon gently flew out from his body. Han Shuo secretly observed Donna’s expression and noticed that there weren’t any unusual changes on her face. Han Shuo was greatly relieved and directed the spirit demon slowly to Li Wei’s side.
Compared to other demon generals, spirit demons, being the highest grade of them, had an even more extraordinary way of concealing its aura. They could alter their own form to blend in with their surroundings. It was extremely hard to be detected. Although Han Shuo had great confidence in the spirit demon that he personally refined, he was still rather worried as Donna possessed extraordinary strength. But seeing that Donna did not react to the emergence of his spirit demon, Han Shuo believed that she did not discover its presence.
Observing through his spirit demon, Han Shuo discovered that there was a crude sketch on the notebook in Li Wei’s hand. There were also some symbols etched into it. After carefully reading the drawing for a moment, Li Wei suddenly pointed with her hand and said, “Go in that direction!”
Donna and the others were very trusting in Li Wei and no one raised any objection. They walked in the direction that Li Wei pointed.
Han Shuo was stunned. The direction in which Li Wei was pointing was precisely where the mystical yin aura was most intense. Although the others couldn’t sense it, Han Shuo, as a demonic art cultivator, could with great sensitivity.
What was for sure was that the direction Li Wei pointed had to be the center of the naturally formed environment that gathered the mysterious yin aura, where the mysterious yin aura was the strongest.
Han Shuo did not show any kind of abnormal behavior. When the party made their way in that direction, he silently followed along.
“Look! It’s Kaiser, Eriksson, and their party!” Li Wei cried softly.
Han Shuo abruptly raised his speed and approached Li Wei in a streak of faint dark radiance. When he carefully observed, he discovered that Eriksson, whom he had met at the Primordius Dragon’s interplanar transportation matrix, was indeed straight ahead. Other than Eriksson, all those gods Gilges saw in his last moments were all present.
“They seem to have met some trouble!” Donna gasped.
Surrounding Eriksson and his party were a dozen or so grayish shadows rapidly streaking about. They seemed to be attacking the party. Those mighty gods seemed to be resisting attacks from the shadowy figures and actually appeared to be overwhelmed by them!
Han Shuo’s consciousness pulsated. He noticed that the shadowy figures felt very familiar. After carefully sensing for a moment, Han Shuo was startled!
Mystical demons! They were mystical demons!
Han Shuo was extremely astonished and he rapidly turned over in his mind. Immediately, he realized that the dozen or so mystical demons must have been mighty beings that lost their lives in this place of mystical yin. After their deaths, affected by the energy, their souls transformed into mystical demons.
Demon generals were divided into original demon, yin demon, mystical demon, and spirit demon. Although mystical demons could not further evolve, nor were they the most remarkable, it was more than enough to cause these mighty gods from distant material planes immense agony. The dozens of mystical demons flashing about with faint shadows were many times mightier than those previously refined by Han Shuo.
Han Shuo came to a conclusion: those mystical demons must have possessed extremely powerful souls before their deaths. Otherwise, there was no way they would have transformed into such formidable mystical demons. Perhaps those souls had previously fought here and were gods from distant high-level material planes.
That was the only possibility!
Han Shuo was even more shocked when he arrived at that conclusion. His eyes glistened and were fixed on those fluttering shadows. After carefully sensing with his consciousness, Han Shuo was finally certain of his conclusion.
“Those grayish shadows, what the hell are they? How could Kaiser and his group have such difficulty resisting them?” Li Wei cried out in shock.
“Don’t do anything for the moment. Let’s just see what happens!” Donna instructed in a soft, yet abrupt tone.
“It’s too late. Get ready to defend!” cried Han Shuo.
“What? What do you mean?” Donna was alarmed and looked at Han Shuo puzzled.
Those mystical demons were extremely sensitive. They could detect the aura of any living being from several miles away. Han Shuo knew this better than any of them but he did not provide any explanation.
In fact, Han Shuo didn’t have to explain. As soon as he finished those words, a portion of the dozen mystical demons several thousand meters away rapidly shot towards Han Shuo and his party. Those faintly discernible shadows arrived in the blink of an eye and pounced on them.
In just an instant, Donna and her party sank into a flustered state. The mystical demons were unique lifeforms that did not possess physical bodies. Most physical attacks against them were totally ineffective. As Donna and her people did not yet understand the properties of the mystical demons, they had great difficulty resisting them. Some of those mystical demons immediately entered their bodies and attacked their flesh while some attacked their souls.
“Ah! What is this thing!” When a mystical demon entered Li Wei’s body, she lost her head out of fear and loudly shrieked. She couldn’t be more terrified.
Even Donna, who had thus far remained unperturbed, appeared incredibly flustered. She tried using her energy in all possible ways to resist the invasion of the mystical demons.
Han Shuo had the calmest mind among the crowd. No one better understood the characteristics of mystical demons than he did. He was very clear about the strengths and weaknesses of mystical demons. In fact, by using a certain demonic art technique, Han Shuo could even deploy a formation to capture these mystical demons and allow the spirit demons that he had refined to assimilate their energies.
However, Han Shuo could not do so at this moment. Still, he was having a much better time facing the mystical demons compared to the rest of them.
Mystical demons could not further evolve as spirit demons could. They were afraid of high temperatures and could suffer fatal blows when subjected to certain attacks using the soul.
Although Han Shuo wasn’t as strong as Donna and the others, by relying on his understanding of the properties of mystical demons, Han Shuo secretly utilized Mystical Glacial Spellfire to raise his body temperature while using his consciousness to form unique attacks, beating back a mystical demon with the undulation of his soul. It was almost effortless to him.
Han Shuo did not explain anything about the strengths and weaknesses of mystical demons to these allies of his because he didn’t know if these people would turn into his enemies in the future. On top of that, the spirit demons he refined shared certain characteristics with mystical demons. Hence, it was in his best interest not to reveal the slightest bit of information about mystical demons.
Han Shuo was indifferent to see Li Wei in fear and helplessness against the mystical demons. In fact, he was secretly elated.
If Li Wei had put her necromancy magic to good use and fought the mystical demons using soul attack methods, she would have no difficulty in defending herself. But what a pity it was that she was completely ignorant of the characteristics of these mystical demons that were mutated by this place of mystical yin. All her attack methods produced no results. All she could do was use her divine energy in painfully resisting the onslaught.
“Ah… Ah… “ Han Shuo pretend to cry out in pain while stealthily directing one of his spirit demons towards where the mystical yin aura was most intense.
Although the spirit demon was of a superior class, not having sufficient energy, it wasn’t as mighty as those mystical demons. However, as spirit demons were similar to mystical demons in terms of life form, although those mystical demons could sense Han Shuo’s spirit demon, they considered it as one of their own and did not pay any attention to it.
While continuing to put on an act, Han Shuo continued to maneuver his spirit demon.
After a while, Han Shuo’s eyes suddenly blossomed with a radiance of disbelief. As he was so astonished that his body jolted uncontrollably. Even his soul was nearly injured by that mystical demon.
Han Shuo was overwhelmed with shock because he had discovered through his spirit demon that the so-called place of mystical yin was not naturally formed after all; rather, it was a super-sized Ninth Realm Mystical Yin Harvester!