GDK 684: The Godhunter Alliance
“Hm.” Han Shuo looked at the shop assistant in a rather intrigued manner. Rather puzzled about her intentions, he asked with a charming smile, “What makes you think that I will be interested in something like this?”
“You have enough crystal coins and care a lot about the energy of destruction. You seem like you would surely spare a large sum of money on scrolls with real content. I dare assure you that that scroll of mine is more useful than any other scroll here!” The young lady was composed and answered with a wide grin.
“What’s the price? I should tell you in advance that if it’s not worth what I pay for, I’m going to ask for a refund!”
“No problem. If you think that it’s not worth it, I will refund you all the crystal coins!” the young lady said with confidence. She looked left and right, made sure that no one else was watching her, and carefully withdrew a yellowish divine scroll. This scroll seemed to have been repeatedly used.
“Forty purple crystal coins. Not a piece short!” the young lady swayed the scroll in front of Han Shuo and said unflinchingly.
“Here, forty purple crystal coins. Take it,” Han Shuo withdrew forty purple crystal coins and handed it to her. He thought that the price of the scroll was really high. One could buy a lot more with forty purple crystal coins.
“Here’s your scroll. You will not be disappointed. I can assure you that!” the young lady handed the yellowish scroll into Han Shuo’s hand with great confidence.
Han Shuo found it intriguing that the young lady would be so confident and so he unfurled the scroll and had a look. He hastily committed the contents on the scroll to memory and immediately after that, the yellowish divine scroll abruptly ignited and turned into ashes.
“There will be no refunds now!” the young lady hastily voiced as Han Shuo burned the divine scroll to ashes before her very eyes.
“Those forty purple crystal coins are yours,” Han Shuo said in a deep voice.
“Would you like to read more scrolls?” the young lady asked, pointing at the other scrolls under the boundary.
“No, thanks,” Han Shuo shook his head. After muttering to himself irresolutely, he asked, “This scroll you sold me, how did you obtain it?”
“My apologies, I have no comment about this.” The young lady seemed to grow anxious. She then continued, “It matters not the scroll’s origins. I have no idea what is specifically written on it. There’s no point asking me any questions!”
Han Shuo nodded, sized her up for a moment, and said goodbye.
The scroll that the young lady sold him had in fact recorded the method of absorbing divine energy from another godly cultivator of the edict of destruction. Han Shuo could not understand why she would sell such a scroll.
For those who cultivated in the elemental energies, the method of engulfing another god’s divine energy was very easy to grasp even without any guidance. But when it came to the four edictal forces, this was not as straightforward.
The methods of engulfing edictal divine energies were only possessed by the godhunters. In most places on Elysium, this type of people was hunted and cracked down on. The average being usually had no way of coming into contact with them.
Shockingly, however, that divine scroll that the young lady sold Han Shuo actually recorded the method of engulfing other’s divine energy of destruction in detail. Han Shuo reduced it to ashes immediately after reading it through as these things were very illegal and prohibited.
Han Shuo couldn’t tell if the young lady actually knew anything about the contents of the scroll. She cultivated in the energy of darkness and her strength was puny. Logically speaking, she should not have been able to understand what was described on the scroll. However, when she sold the scroll to Han Shuo, she appeared to be full of confidence, as though she knew exactly what was written in there. Han Shuo grew suspicious.
Though Han Shuo had left the divine scroll store, he also left behind a mystical demon to spy on her.
Han Shuo learned that in the short span of half a day, the young lady had sold the same scroll to others by repeating the same modus operandi. The purchasers were all cultivators of the edict of destruction. From the reconnaissance of the mystical demon, Han Shuo saw that those scrolls she sold were exactly the same as the one he purchased with forty purple crystal coins. She seemed to have an unlimited copy of the scroll about how to engulf the divine energy of destruction.
Feeling that something shady was going on, Han Shuo continued to closely observe the young lady using a mystical demon. Finally, when the sky got dark, she met with a sinister old man in the back room of the store. The old man was sitting on a rocking chair that swayed back and forth atempo. He was a mid-stage midgod of darkness. His smiling eyes were glued to the young lady.
This young lady who had a big smile when facing Han Shuo wore a frightened face when she faced the old man. She respectfully reported, “Lord Rahman, I have sold seven copies today.”
That old man called Rahman smiled sinisterly and said, “Not bad. Hehe, make a guess, of the seven, how many of them will fall to temptation and turn into new members of our Godhunter Alliance?”
“Your humble servant has no idea,” the young lady shook her head.
“Haha, neither do I. But I’m very much looking forward to finding out the answer! If it wasn’t for the fact that it’s rather hard to grasp the method of engulfing the energy of destruction, we wouldn’t need to come to this. There are too few members in the Alliance who cultivate in the energy of destruction. We have no choice but to recruit new members this way. Those who are oppressed in their daily lives have abided by the rules and conventions only because they do not know the method of engulfing divine energy. Once they learn how to engulf the divine energy of other destruction edict cultivators, that temptation will slowly nibble away their willpower. They will fall to our side inch by inch.”
“My Lord, some of them have became suspicious of me after reading the scroll. If they were to report this to the House of Croton, we could be in trouble!” the young lady hesitated for a moment before she said worriedly.
“Don’t worry, I have taken care of those people. There won’t be an issue. Besides, there aren’t many true experts in this small little Fort Verka. Even if we are actually discovered, we could easily escape,” Rahman was unruffled. After finishing those words, he let out a soft, lascivious laugh. In one swoop, he grabbed the young lady in his embrace and completely stripped her down in no time. He then had the young lady open her legs wide and saddled her on his crotch. The rocking chair rocked vigorously.
Having understood the ins and outs of the scheme, Han Shuo withdrew his mystical demon.
He was somewhat surprised – even the godhunters had formed an alliance of their own. What Rahman did was to secretly recruit new members for the Godhunter Alliance. It was rather straightforward to consume another’s divine energy for cultivators of the eight elemental energies. This, however, wasn’t as straightforward for cultivators of the four edictal forces. For the purpose of recruiting more cultivators of the edict of destruction, Rahman revealed the method of engulfing another’s divine energy to gods who cultivated in the edict of destruction. Then, when some of them succumbed to the temptation, they would voluntarily join as new members of the Godhunter Alliance.
This was the first time Han Shuo learned about the Godhunter Alliance. Even Donna did not mention this to him. Godhunters could be said as the public enemy of the Elysium. This bunch of unique lunatics was heavily hunted in every single Overgod Dominion. If one of them were to make the slightest blunder in a major city, they would suffer a catastrophic blow.
Every city had sufficient divine guards and formidable leaders. These godhunters surely wouldn’t be so bold to recruit new members in big cities. They would only do so in fortresses like Fort Verka where defenses and surveillance were inadequate. Even if they were exposed, they could easily leave and escape without much harm.
Rahman was clearly one of the members of the Godhunter Alliance but Han Shuo had no idea about his position level in the organization. As Rahman cultivated in the elemental energy of darkness, he wasn’t all that interested in him.
Although the Godhunter Alliance was extremely repulsive and vile, they had not truly harmed Han Shuo. Therefore, even though he was aware of the scheme, he decided to ignore the matter.
That mystical demon crossed through Rahman’s boundary of darkness noiselessly and returned to Han Shuo. Instead of immediately proceeding to the City of Shadows, Han Shuo went to a gym and planned to stay there for some time. He intended to spend time researching and mastering the Orb of Destruction.
There was an abundance of gyms and training fields available for use in Fort Verka, as long as one had sufficient crystal coins. With three purple crystal coins, Han Shuo rented a training field of several million square feet that came with an isolation barrier for half a year.
By following the method of condensing an Orb of Destruction recorded in the scroll, in two months, Han Shuo had successfully compressed his destruction divine energy into an orb that emanated an intense aura of destruction. The orb was dark in color and approximately the size of a palm. Divine energy seemed to be whirling in the orb like liquid.
When an Orb of Destruction took shape, one-fifth of Han Shuo’s destruction divine energy was diverted and gathered on the Orb. To proceed, Han Shuo tried to manipulate the Orb of Destruction in a trajectory recorded on the scroll. However, he was unable to get the knack of it. He knew that the author of the scroll had deliberately distorted or left out certain information so that the readers could not truly unleash the full power of the Orb of Destruction.
However, Han Shuo had a mighty consciousness and a great deal of patience. He believed that if he would continue to experiment perfecting the Orb of Destruction with the help of his miraculous consciousness, he would be able to truly master the attack method.
One day, while Han Shuo was still attempting to figure out the correct way of manipulating the Orb of Destruction in his training field, jingling bells suddenly rang at his front door.
Immediately, Han Shuo returned his avatar of destruction into the Cauldron of Myriad Demon. Puzzled, he walked to the front door of his training field and asked, “Zoya, did I not mention that I do not wish to be disturbed by anyone?”
“I’m sorry but there are officers that wish to see you,” Zoya replied in a helpless voice. He was the person in charge of the training field. According to the rules, as long as the patron had paid sufficient fees for their duration of use, the patron should not be disturbed.
“Are you Bryan? An energy of destruction cultivator?” a young woman with a graceful physique and scattered red hair that looked like a waterfall sized Han Shuo up before she asked.
“That’s right. How can I help you?” Han Shuo asked confusedly. He could tell that this woman also cultivated in the energy of destruction and attained late-stage lowgod strength. She was in a slightly higher realm compared to Han Shuo’s avatar of destruction.
“During the recent days, many cultivators of the edict of destruction have been found dead in Fort Verka with their divine energies drained. They must have fallen prey to other cultivators of the same energy. I’m acting under orders to interrogate every suspicious person. Come take a walk with us!” the young woman gave a short explanation before turning around and walking away. She gestured at Han Shuo and the divine guards behind her, indicating them to keep pace with her.