GDK 673: Divine Essence Mine
“Not interested!” Han Shuo declined without wasting another moment. That wretched appearance of Akley’s had made Han Shuo very skeptical that Akley could show him a path to riches. Besides, unlike Akley, Han Shuo was in no shortage of money.
“I’m dead serious. You do know that it’s very difficult to get by on Elysium without an abundance of crystal coins, right?” Akley tried to persuade Han Shuo.
“I recommend that you put it off until you have recuperated from your injuries. About that matter you propose, thanks but I really am not interested,” Han Shuo shrugged and smiled.
As Akley had just woken from a brief coma, he wasn’t in a stable state of mind. Jeff, who was in charge of handling their divine tablets was unwelcoming towards Akley and hasted him on leaving the premise, lest that the wounds on Akley sully his place.
Akley didn’t bother staying and dragged himself out while cursing and swearing. He did not seem to mind that his body was in a terrible state and did not immediately seek a safe location to heal from his injuries. Instead, he waited outside at the front door.
“I truly couldn’t figure, how could a person be as obnoxious as he is!” Jeff remarked scornfully while shaking his head. He then turned to Han Shuo. “Bryan, I would advise you to cease contact with him. Otherwise, given his temper, he will encumber you sooner or later!”
“I’ll take note of that. Alright, thank you. Goodbye!” Although Han Shuo did not hold a favorable impression towards Jeff, he did not hold much hostility either. A character like Jeff could be found almost everywhere in the universe. Besides, as Jeff did not truly jeopardize Han Shuo’s interest and he had given his humble apology, Han Shuo was not motivated to bicker with him.
“You are most welcome. I’ve merely been doing my duty of carrying out Lord Dolores’ orders!” Jeff did not forget to flatter Dolores in front of Han Shuo.
Han Shuo did not engage in any further conversation with Jeff and walked out from the premise with the intention of leaving the valley right away for the City of Shadows. He smilingly nodded at Akley when he walked past him at the front door.
“Wait!” Akley shouted with his weak voice when he saw that Han Shuo was leaving.
Han Shuo creased his brows as he really was getting somewhat annoyed. “I have said that I’m not interested. Besides, the injuries to your body are very severe. It will affect your development in the future if you do not treat them soon. From how I see it, you better forget about your mega-project for the time being and properly treat your injuries.”
“Let me show you something. If you remain uninterested after seeing it, I will not bother you anymore. What say you?” Akley took a few effortful deep breaths before saying to Han Shuo in a solemn manner.
After thinking for a moment, Han Shuo nodded and said, “Fine. Let’s have a look at it. I hope it will be as convincing as you expect.”
“Can we go to somewhere with more privacy?” Akley glanced all around and felt that it wasn’t quite safe to reveal his secret object at the location.
Han Shuo expanded his consciousness and immediately found a rather secluded spot near a waterfall some distance away.
“Please carry me along. I really can’t move!” Akley put on an awkward smile and asked.
Han Shuo wasted not a word. He walked over to Akley, picked him up, rose him into the air with a levitation spell, and flew to that waterfall.
This journey took Han Shuo half an hour. He had taken so much time because of the very high gravitational acceleration on Elysium, having to fly using the energy of his avatar of death, and having to carry Akley on his back.
When they finally arrived at the waterfall, Han Shuo put Akley down. He vigilantly observed all around him before he carefully took out an ancient scroll from his chest. He handed the scroll to Han Shuo and explained, “I obtained this from a place on my homeworld. Because I’m in possession of it, I was hunted for a long time until I escaped here using an interplanar transportation matrix. Be very gentle with it!”
After hearing those words, Han Shuo got a little intrigued. It was obvious from the excessive yellowing that the scroll was exceedingly ancient. The characters inscribed on them resembled earthworms. There were also several fuzzy drawings on it. However, Han Shuo couldn’t understand a thing.
“So? Piqued your interest, have I?” Akley asked excitedly in a big smile.
“Err… What language is this? I have never seen anything like this,” Han Shuo said while looking at Akley. He was thinking, You aren’t trying to scam me, are you?
“It’s Voyniscript, one of the earliest languages. Ancient gods commonly use this in speaking and writing. Don’t you recognize it?” Akley put on an expression as though he had suffered a major blow. While looking at Han Shuo with rather strange gazes, he asked, “How could you not be familiar with Voyniscript? Have you come from an even lower level material plane?”
“That’s correct. I hail from a very low-level material plane and know nothing about whatever ancient language this is,” Han Shuo calmly admitted. After thinking for a bit, he continued, “Alright, why don’t you tell me about what is written on this thing?”
“It describes a divine essence mine! In case you don’t know what divine essence is, they are crystals containing energy that can be directly absorbed to form divine energy. They are extremely valuable in every material plane and they can only be found in very few places. This scroll suggests there exists a small divine essence mine!” Akley reported excitedly.
Han Shuo’s eyes opened wide. He was instantly tempted. Back then, Han Shuo had discovered three pieces of those miraculous crystals back at the Void of the Abyss realm. Those divine essences of death allowed Han Shuo’s avatar of death to greatly advance in divine energy. His speedy advancement to the mid-stage lowgod realm was mostly thanks to the boost from those three pieces of divine essences.
Han Shuo had long been aware of the fact that divine essences were a rare commodity. In any material plane where gods were commonly found, there were items that everyone would vigorously seek to procure. Many of the big family clans would spare none of their financial resources to acquire divine essences as to allow members of their family clan to rapidly improve in strength. Discovery of high-purity divine essences mines would more often than not lead to bloody battles between large family clans.
“Are you certain that it’s a divine essence mine?” Han Shuo asked in a deep voice.
“I’m sure that the words written on the scroll cannot be wrong. The original owner of the scroll discovered that divine essence mine but he was dispatched to my Blue Ocean Continent before he could take possession of it. He had unfortunately suffered serious injuries while carrying out his mission at my homeworld and wrote this scroll right before his death, describing the location of the divine essence mine,” Akley explained.
“It must have been ages ago. Perhaps that divine essence mine was long discovered by others and all of its crystals have been extracted!” It was obvious from the scroll that it was ancient. Anything could have happened during the long years that had passed.
“That is indeed possible!” Akley nodded in agreement before he continued, “But based on what is described on the scroll, that place is very remote. The one who wrote this had only stumbled upon the mine by mere chance and mentioned that it was very possible that it may have otherwise remained undiscovered. Therefore I think that it’s worth surveying it. Who knows, it could thus far remain unexplored!”
A divine essence mine could induce a carnage of blood on the Plane of Gods. They were valuable beyond measure.
As Han Shuo was fresh off the boat and did not have any particularly urgent matters to attend to, seeing that Akley appeared serious and rather confident about the matter, he said, “Fine then. I will go there with you. I don’t have anything of importance to do anyway,”
“About that divine essence mine, let me remind you that only I alone know of the way of entering the place. If you decide to kill me halfway through the journey, you will have no way of finding it!” Akley hastily cautioned Han Shuo.
“Thanks for the reminder. I reckon that when we are at the divine essence mine, your injuries will be mostly healed. And by then you will not need to worry about any potential backstabbing from my end?” Han Shuo asked, giggling. He surmised that this was Akley’s intention.
“That’s correct. If there is no divine essence mine, then we will say goodbye. If there really is one, I’ll take sixty percent and you will have the rest. What say you?” Akley put forward his terms as soon as Han Shuo agreed to join him. He seemed to have thought about this long ago and was very quick with his words.
Akley was the one who discovered the scroll and therefore the divine essence mine. His method of dividing the prize could be considered generous. Therefore, Han Shuo nodded and said, “Let’s do it.”
“Good. But first, I must stabilize my injuries. Please look after me during this period. When I have stabilized my condition, we will set off immediately!” Akley suddenly became relaxed when Han Shuo agreed to it.
“I’m not good at taking care of others. You look after yourself,” Han Shuo creased his brows and said.
“I’m not asking you to serve me, you just need to ensure my safety. I’m afraid that my foes from Blue Ocean Continent will have chased me all the way here,” Akley forced a smiled and said.
“I’ll try my best,” Han Shuo thought for a moment before he replied. He didn’t know how formidable Akley’s enemies were. Akley ought to have come from a material plane where gods were commonplace. If those godly experts that pursued Akley were too much for Han Shuo to handle, he was willing to abandon Akley. He would always choose to preserve his life over a divine essence mine.
“Don’t worry, none of those who pursue me could take our lives. Hmph, if I weren’t outnumbered, I would have killed them all!” Akley assured Han Shuo.
Han Shuo nodded calmly but he wasn’t completely convinced of those words. Akley was a mid-stage lowgod who cultivated in the edict of destruction and yet, he received such enormous injuries and had to flee to Elysium from the Blue Ocean Continent. This had amply demonstrated that those who were hunting him could not be taken as lightly as he described.
“This place is reasonably quiet. I will attend to my injuries and stabilize my conditions right here!” Akley jumped into the pond under the waterfall to wash off the bloodstains on him.
“Here, swallow this. It will help stabilize your injuries!” Han Shuo casually threw Akley a pellet of rejuvenation. Before making his way to Elysium, Han Shuo had refined some medicinal pellets for personal use during a time of need. He had a ton of these pellet of rejuvenation for stabilizing injuries.
“What is this stuff? Smells pretty good!” Akley, whose body was half submerged into the pool, asked puzzlingly while pinching the medicinal pellet Han Shuo passed to him.
“It’s a medicine. Happens to be suitable for your condition. Swallow it and you will feel its effect!” Han Shuo answered casually.
Akley wasn’t afraid that Han Shuo would cause him harm and swallowed the pellet right after hearing Han Shuo’s reply. He proceeded to wash the wounds on his body.
He did not notice anything at first but a short moment later, Akley let out a soft cry of surprise. He looked at Han Shuo in astonishment and asked, “What is this medicine that you fed me? It’s taken effect almost immediately! The bleeding has completely stopped and I feel much better already! Seriously, what medicine is this and where can I buy it? If I had this earlier, perhaps I wouldn’t be in such a horrible state!” Akley was obviously astonished by the effectiveness of the pellet of rejuvenation as he clicked his tongue in wonder.
“It’s not for sale. An old pharmacist friend of mine specially made it for me!” Han Shuo replied. It was he himself who had personally refined the pellet of rejuvenation and he knew the effects it had. It was in fact within his expectations to see Akley react with such amazement.
“Alright, alright. You better stop talking and stabilize your injuries. Now is the best opportunity for you to recover your divine energy. Don’t waste my medicine!” Han Shuo said impatiently when Akley again opened his mouth to speak.
After hearing Han Shuo’s beratement, Akley finally turned quiet. He wasted not another word and quieted down in the pool. Multiple small vortices formed around Akley. Those small vortices rotated around him in rhythmic trajectories.
Han Shuo stood above the pond and carefully observed the anomaly surrounding Akley. He could tell that Akle was using a trajectory of the edict of destruction to stabilize his injuries. There were all kind of different methods of using the edict of destruction. This method that Akley utilized was obviously different from the method used by the Brook brothers.
After looking for a long while, while secretly probing Akley using his consciousness and analyzing it using his powerful consciousness, he tried to circulate the divine energy of his avatar inside his body.
His avatar of destruction was sitting inside the Cauldron of Myriad Demon. With one thought, several vortices formed around his avatar and revolved rhythmically. They were moving in trajectories identical to the water vortices around Akley. Han Shuo was trying to comprehend the brilliance of this method of using the edict of destruction.
However, before Han Shuo could learn anything, he suddenly sensed several people flying from which valley they came.
“Akley is here – I can sense him. Truly did not expect that he would dare run to Elysium. We must hurry. Otherwise, if this information was to be known to experts on Elysium, none of us will need to think about getting the rewards!” an unsophisticated voice sounded from the direction. Although the being had lowered his voice, by utilizing Cauldron Spirit’s energy, it nonetheless remained audible to Han Shuo.
Ugh, this guy is trouble. There are people catching up to him already! It appears that this divine essence mine will not come to us easily! Han Shuo sensed that the enemy party comprised of a late-stage lowgod of destruction and two mid-stage lowgods of darkness.
Although Han Shuo could obstruct them though Dolores, doing so might expose the information about that divine essence mine. After thinking for a while, ignoring that Akley was in the midst of recovery, Han Shuo grabbed him and started flying away from the valley.