GDK 667: Not a trace left
Finally, the Ninth Realm Mystical Yin Harvester had completely turned into ruins right before the silently gazing crowd.
After the dust settled, no noteworthy features were to be seen on the site. Han Shuo stood tall on the horizon and continued to observe the environment ahead.
“Go over and have a look at the situation in there. Given that it has turned into ruins, I doubt that there would be any dangers to be found!” Han Shuo suddenly suggested to his teammates.
After having experienced the trials and hardships, Donna and her experts were very trusting towards Han Shuo. After hearing Han Shuo’s suggestion, they thought it through for a moment and started moving towards the wreckage of the Ninth Realm Mystical Yin Harvester.
After taking a few steps, Li Wei stopped to find Han Shuo motionless. She turned around and asked confusedly, “Aren’t you coming?”
“I don’t think there will be anything interesting left to be examined. Besides, with all of you probing the place, it’s not necessary for me to be there,” Han Shuo smiled and calmly replied.
Li Wei creased her brows and thought for a moment before she softly giggled and said, “Oh, that makes sense. Well, since sister Donna is going to probe the place, I guess it’s redundant for me to do the same.”
After finishing those words, Li Wei walked back and stood still beside Han Shuo. She was looking at Han Shuo up and down with eyes that were glowing with interest and captivation.
Han Shuo however, ignored Li Wei and cast his gazes on Olde instead. Olde put on a brilliant smile and said in a candid manner, “Many thanks for your help just then. Otherwise, perhaps I would have lost my life to them by now!”
During the period of time they spent watching the collapse, Olde managed to recover some divine energy. His pale cheeks were yet again tinged with a healthy shade of red. Olde must have regained his confidence, Han Shuo figured.
Previously, using the energy absorbed from the Tree of Life, wood elite zombie managed to increase the rejuvenation speed of Han Shuo’s heavily injured body ten times over. From this experience, it became apparent to him that those who cultivated in the edict of life could rejuvenate much faster compared to a cultivator of other energies. For Olde to be able to restore some of his divine energy within such a short period of time was all within Han Shuo’s anticipation.
“You’re welcome. I believe that had they launched an attack earlier, everyone would be done for by now!” Han Shuo replied with a smirk.
Olde stared into his eyes for a moment and nodded. He praised in a deep voice, “You, young man, are an excellent lad.” Olde seemed to admire Han Shuo.
“I’m flattered,” Han Shuo replied while smiling mischievously. At this point in time, having possessed the Cauldron of Myriad Demon, Han Shuo was no longer afraid of Olde as a potential threat. After his confidence swelled, he too became much more relaxed in his speech.
Olde suddenly pointed at Kelly and asked Han Shuo for a favor, “Do you mind looking after Kelly for me for a moment? I heard that you have been friendly in the past.”
Han Shuo was astounded. He couldn’t understand why would Olde be so at ease to place Kelly under his care as Li Wei was still hanging around him. The fact stood that he was still on the same front with Donna and her experts, and they surely did not have any friendly relations with Olde. In that case, what was the purpose behind him doing so? Was Olde trying to test him?
A series of thoughts rapidly flashed through Han Shuo’s mind. Then, under Olde’s gaze, Han Shuo put on a bright smile. “No problem!”
Kelly was merely a demigod. That kind of strength was nothing in Han Shuo’s eyes, let alone to Li Wei and the others. For them, Kelly was merely a puny little character. His fate would have no influence on the overall situation. Han Shuo did not think that Li Wei and the others would even be interested in harming Kelly.
“I owe you one!” Olde smiled, nodded at Kelly, and took off into the air towards the destroyed Ninth Realm Mystical Yin Harvester.
Donna and her experts were interested in the region and so was Olde. He was certainly not about to give up until he fully understood the situation there.
After Olde flew off into the distance, Li Wei, who was standing beside Han Shuo, put on a pensive expression. Her eyes glanced back and forth between Han Shuo and Kelly but she did not utter a word or do anything harmful towards Kelly.
“It’s been a while!” Han Shuo tried to initiate a conversation with Kelly. His voice was soft and amiable as though he was oblivious to the situation.
Kelly, however, did not share the same feeling. Ever since he discovered that Han Shuo was a gang with this bunch from the Calamity Church, he felt somewhat uncomfortable whenever he saw Han Shuo. He had an awkward expression and did not know how to reply.
Seeing that Kelly couldn’t open up his heart, Han Shuo sighed softly. He shook his head and ceased his attempts at trying to talk to Kelly. He understood that it would be very difficult for them to interact as they had been in the past.
Han Shuo stopped talking and stared blankly ahead. His avatar of destruction within the Cauldron of Myriad Demon was digesting the catastrophic scene which his main body witnessed. The scene of total annihilation gave his avatar deeper insight into the edict of destruction and caused him to sink into contemplation.
Gu Tian Xie the Exalted Demonlord who had deployed everything in this place made this site self-destruct in a way that was in conformance with a certain natural law.
This avatar that was recently shed of all impurities was connected with Han Shuo’s consciousness who witnessed the destruction. He seemed to have comprehended a certain true essence of destruction from the apocalyptic scene. While constantly replaying the terrifying scene in his mind, he attempted to imitate the condition when those mountains were destroyed using the divine energy in his body.
Han Shuo’s consciousness possessed countless miraculous uses. Although he could not share most of its wonderful uses with his other two souls, his two other souls could still benefit from his consciousness as they were connected with each other.
By using the mighty ability of his consciousness to recall, Han Shuo slowed down the playback of the destructive scene down to each frame, clearly resolved every crack in the mountains and every piece of falling rock down to the finest detail before transmitting it to his avatar that cultivated in the edict of destruction.
Those images would then be projected into the divine soul of his destruction avatar. The divine energy of destruction in his body would then slowly circulate in a certain trajectory that was harmonious with the scene of destruction. By doing so, he gradually came to realize a certain essence of the edict of destruction.
Han Shuo possessed three souls and they did not interfere with each other. While his avatar contemplated on the edict of destruction inside the Cauldron of Myriad Demon, Han Shuo’s main body could still converse with Olde and function as usual.
As the avatar continued with its contemplation, Han Shuo gazed ahead at the Ninth Realm Mystical Yin Harvester in the distance that was now in complete ruin while conversing with Li Wei.
Li Wei’s attitude towards him which was contemptuous at the beginning had now transformed into admiration – a change that caught Han Shuo well off guard.
Han Shuo was not willing to answer or share most of the questions that Li Wei had for him. Therefore, Han Shuo had unenthusiastically replied to her questions with gibberish and nonsense. As Li Wei hailed Han Shuo as a genius, she considered all his unintelligible explanations as profound words. She would spend a great deal of time pondering Han Shuo’s mumbo jumbo each time he answered, leaving Han Shuo between laughter and tears.
Meanwhile, Kelly shut his eyes and kept silent as though he was half-asleep. He seemed to be doing do to keep a suitable distance from Han Shuo.
The situation continued that way for some time before Olde, who was the last to leave, returned to them.
Han Shuo, in his half-hearted chatter with Li Wei, immediately turned his attention to Olde. With just one look, Han Shuo could tell that Olde was very disappointed. He definitely did not find anything valuable in that place.
Olde nodded at Han Shuo, thanked him, and said to Kelly, “Let’s go.”
Kelly was feeling very awkward around Han Shuo. He scurried back to Olde. The two then made their way towards the exit.
“They left? Just like that?” Li Wei was astonished and puzzled.
“What else could he do? He went inside to probe the place but did not discover anything. There is nothing else for him to do here,” Han Shuo said calmly. He understood that this self-destruct mechanism left by Gu Tian Xie the Exalted Demonlord must have destroyed all evidence in this place. Even if there were more who came to examine, they would not discover a single unusual thing about this site.
From that point onwards, everything that took place there would forever remain an unresolved mystery to those people. With the passage of time, those gods from high-level material planes who could no longer find anything extraordinary about this place would gradually forget or even misinterpret what happened there. They might think of everything that once happened here as some exaggerated tales.
“We all know just how extraordinary this place is. How could he give up so willingly?” Li Wei still couldn’t understand and had a puzzled face.
Han Shuo smiled and did not reply. He was convinced that no one would ever again find anything unique about this site. With that, everyone would forget about this place very quickly.
Soon enough, Donna, Bolten, and the others returned with disappointed looks on their faces.
“This is so strange! Besides the collapsed mountains and the torn earth, there wasn’t a single astonishing thing that could be found. What is actually going on here?!” Bolten muttered while scratching his head. He had racked his brain hard and yet was no closer to having a clue.
“Bryan, do you know what’s going on inside? Why is it that everything has changed and there are no longer any unusual marks?”
Han Shuo shook his head and put on a perplexed appearance before he sighed and said, “I’m not sure either. I personally think that that strangeness was formed by nature, and now these spectacular sights are being destroyed by nature. That’s why everything strange about this place no longer exists!”
“That’s impossible!” Li Wei shouted, “There are obvious traces that this place was artificially made. There’s nothing natural about it!”
If even Li Wei could tell that, surely Donna wouldn’t buy his attempt at distorting the truth. However, with everything here destroyed, Han Shuo didn’t feel worried about that suspicion at all. He shrugged, shook his head again and said, “Well, I have no idea!”
“Forget about it, I highly doubt that we will discover any more over here. Let’s go. We’ll return to the surface and then decide what to do next,” Donna said. She was having a headache, not knowing what to report back to her superiors.
Donna and her experts who had discovered basically nothing in the underground world, with Han Shuo’s guidance, returned to the surface with puzzled minds.
“Sister Donna, what do we do now?” Li Wei asked as soon as they exited the underground world.
Donna let out a sigh and scoffed helplessly, “What else? Report back the situation here to our higher ups, of course!”
“Do we return directly or use an altar?” Bolten asked.
Donna bunched her brows and thought for a moment before she answered, “Let’s go to the Calamity Church establishment here to submit our mission reports. Kaiser and Eriksson have yet to come out of there even now. They are probably all dead. I guess that can be counted as a small achievement. To add to the fact that the opponent’s interplanar transportation matrix is destroyed, I suppose we are the victor of this muddled battle.”
“Although the matter was rather muddled, one thing was clear – without Bryan, the few of us wouldn’t have left the underground world alive!” Bolten suddenly said smilingly.
Upon hearing those words, the party simultaneously nodded their heads. Donna turned to look at that smiling but silent Han Shuo and sternly promised, “Don’t worry, I will make sure to include your contributions in my report. In all likelihood, they are going to hand this material plane over to you!”
“Those from the Church of Light and Shrine of Ice, are they going to come back?” Han Shuo was most concerned about this potential threat.
“Before those in the higher ups hand the material plane to you, they will definitely negotiate with those powerhouses. Actually, you are worrying too much. If the circumstances were anything but ordinary, they wouldn’t have done such a thing. Now that the place is destroyed, those powerhouses will not take interest in such a low-level material plane,” Donna said Han Shuo in an attempt to reassure him.
Han Shuo regained his composure. The population of Profound Continent was small and the power of faith they could provide was limited. Material planes as low-level as this were plenty in the boundless universe. Material planes that were much more expansive and valuable than Profound Continent could be found in excess. There was simply no reason those powerhouses would waste their time and effort on such a low-level material plane.
“That’d be wonderful!” Han Shuo could finally be at ease. “Well, I won’t be going to the Calamity Church with the rest of you. The matters in this material plane that require my attention are too abundant!”
“Bryan, there’s something I need to tell you but I don’t know if it’s appropriate!” Donna suddenly said in a serious tone.
Han Shuo stared blankly for a second before asking, “What’s the matter?”
“Profound Continent is just a low-level material plane, it’s too small for you. Someone as talented as you ought to live on material planes of a much higher level. It is only in those material planes that you can grow more powerful and gain more energy much more rapidly. I personally feel that it’s not suitable for you to stay in this world for extended periods!” Donna said in a deadly earnest manner.
“Thank you for your reminder. I know what you mean. My view has definitely broadened after coming into contact with you all. I can’t say for sure but perhaps after I have completed my matters over here, I might leave for your homeworld, Elysium. I’m counting on you to prop me up by then!”
“Hehe, no problem! It’s rare to find people who are calm, steady, and decisive like yourself on Elysium. I believe that after you come to the Plane of Gods, you will soar and come to gain a piece of the sky!” Donna gladly promised.
“Bryan, when you arrive at Elysium, remember to come to our family where you’ll find yourself most welcomed by us Brook brothers!” Bolten reminded Han Shuo about his invitation.
“Don’t forget me, I also invited you. Don’t forget me when you come to Elysium!” Li Wei said smilingly.
“Don’t worry, I will remember!” Han Shuo promised.
Soon after, Donna and her experts left Han Shuo and began their journey to the Calamity Church. After thinking for a moment, Han Shuo flew in the direction of Sunshine Valley.