GDK 688: Cruel Competition
The crossbow in Lager’s hand was decorated with an intricate design. Two gemstones, one red and one blue, were embedded in the two ends of its prods. When the crossbow’s string was fully pulled into locking position, multiple dark threads that seemed to be made of light flowed from Lager’s two hands and into the crossbow. The pair of red and blue gemstones seemed to have the ability to amplify divine energy as the aura of destruction emanating from the crossbow grew more and more intense.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Yet another three successions of arrows were launched. After leaving the bowstring, the little arrows seemed to turn into three slender black snakes that slithered towards Han Shuo to viciously bite him.
Although Han Shuo couldn’t reveal his practice of demonic arts, his sensitive consciousness and acute senses remained extremely useful. Although the three small arrows traveled in rather elusive trajectories, they were easily tracked and discerned by Han Shuo’s consciousness.
Han Shuo altered his posture immediately after the three small arrows were launched at him. He dodged the arrows by suddenly flying close to the ground and managed close his distance with Lager.
Lager let out a soft and brief chuckle as though he wasn’t afraid of Han Shuo’s proximity to him. As soon as he saw that the three arrows failed to hit Han Shuo, he rapidly put away his crossbow and flung his right hand, revealing a double-edged battle-ax in his hand. The entire battle-ax was deep red in color and emanated an intense reeking of blood. Clearly, it was no ordinary weapon either.
Both of them cultivated in the energy of destruction and both were in the same realm. Lager did not unfurl his domain of divinity. He laughed loudly as he tightly grasped the battle-ax with both hands, imbuing it with his divine energy, and swinging it at Han Shuo’s skull. If the ax were to strike Han Shuo, his brain would surely crack and split.
Han Shuo’s eyes squinted slightly and again accelerated while charging at Lager. His avatar of destruction transformed back into Demonslayer Edge form and was tightly held in his hand. The Demonslayer Edge filled with the energy of destruction was sent straight for Lager.
Han Shuo’s avatar of destruction was formed using the Demonslayer Edge. All the destruction divine energy and energy of destruction was stored inside the Demonslayer Edge. With Han Shuo’s main body still able to draw the destruction divine energy in the Demonslayer Edge for use, everything appeared absolutely normal for an outside observer.
Han Shuo secretly introduced a few strands of demonic yuan into the Demonslayer Edge and kept it deactivated until the instant that it came into contact with Lager. Han Shuo believed that with that, no one but himself could tell that he had utilized demonic arts; not even Lager would be able to detect the small amount of demonic yuan mixed among the energy of destruction.
You are dead! Lager sneered in his heart. The battle-ax which he tightly grasped with his two hands, imbued with destruction divine energy, suddenly burst with red radiance. In an instant, an aura of complete and utter devastation burst out from Lager.
Han Shuo, in contrast, had a calm and undisturbed expression. The Demonslayer Edge in his hand did not glow but was faintly giving off an aura of destruction. From this, the observing crowd understood that Han Shuo must have concentrated his energy.
Clang! a sharp, metallic sound resonated throughout the valley. A shockwave of destruction spread from where the two clashed. It caused the enormous scroll suspended in the sky to gently sway and the mixture of cloud and mist floating overhead to drift slightly.
The mixture of demonic yuan and destruction divine energy violently gushed into Lager’s battle-ax through the Demonslayer Edge. As there wasn’t too much discrepancy between the two in terms of strength, after Han Shuo secretly added the energy of demonic arts into his attack, he overpowered Lager!
Han Shuo felt a slight numbing sensation in his right hand wielding the Demonslayer Edge. Lager, however, had to take multiple steps backwards as though being pushed by an unstoppable force. Even his steps seemed to become unsteady.
Not giving Lager the opportunity to recover and make a comeback, Han Shuo moved even closer towards Lager and launched several hundred attacks using the Demonslayer Edge within the blink of an eye. They were all aiming for Lager’s head, chest, heart, and all his vital organs. Lager had no choice but to keep withdrawing and exert himself swaying his battle-ax back and forth to resist Han Shuo’s torrential attacks with great difficulty.
The battle-ax was known for being heavy and for its ability to carry enormous momentum. Clearly, however, it was rather lacking in terms of maneuverability. Although Lager could use his double-edged battle-ax as an effective main assault weapon, it was clearly unsuitable as a defensive weapon. Han Shuo’s sword attacks filled with the energy of destruction were like dark raindrops pouring down on Lager, giving him immense pain. He had to strain every nerve to defend himself.
Chkk! Chuck! Lager’s body was being audibly stabbed and punctured. Fresh blood flowed from around his stomach and wrists. He was clearly losing the battle and only had enough strength left to resist the attacks.
“How, how is it that he had so much energy in his first strike?!” Lager was frightened to the core. He knew that the reason his situation had degraded to such a state was the first strike, an enormous force had breached into his body via his battle-ax, throwing his divine energy to chaos. With that, he was unable to organize an effective divine energy attack.
“It seems that I don’t need to do it to Anli. I will just absorb your energy instead!“ Han Shuo said as he stared fixedly at Lager. His appearance was frighteningly calm.
Lager, who was flustered and discomposed, could feel that the number of wounds on his body was rapidly increasing. The more movements he made in defending himself, the faster he would lose blood. He even felt a little dizzy from losing too much blood. He appeared even more terrified when Han Shuo’s voice that seemed to carry strange energy constantly revolved around his divine soul.
Han Shuo raised the Demonslayer Edge that gave off a glimmer of dark radiance. He had overwhelmed Lager and was prepared to deal him the last strike that would take his life.
Suddenly, in the windless valley, that enormous scroll moved by itself and landed between Han Shuo and Lager, blocking Han Shuo from giving Lager the fatal blow. The piercing strike of the Demonslayer Edge hit the enormous scroll that recorded the method of stealing destruction energy. The mighty barrier overhead gushed to cover the surface of the scroll like water. Blocked by the barrier, Han Shuo’s Demonslayer Edge failed to deliver the final blow to Lager who had lost his head out of fear.
“That’s enough. You two will be on the same ship in the future, don’t fight to your death!” Brovst’s deep voice suddenly emerged from the pitch-black cave. As soon as he finished his words, the enormous scroll swayed and rose back into the sky.
Lager took the opportunity to retreat far away while being shielded by the scroll and made a large distance from Han Shuo. He looked at Han Shuo with an overt grin, bowed courteously, and asked, “Thank you, my friend. What is your name?”
Han Shuo could sense that bone-deep hatred behind Lager’s smile. However, Han Shuo did not feel the slightest bit of fear. He shrugged and replied smilingly, “For me, it is an insult for a bastard who could strike his savior treacherously to know my name!” Han Shuo lost interest in feigning civility with this kind of scheming, heartless brute without any sense of shame and cursed him unrestrainedly.
Despite being called a bastard before the crowd, for some reason, Lager did not tumble into a fit of rage. He merely let out a few hollow laughs and kept silent.
Han Shuo was greatly disappointed that Lager did not lose his rationality and recklessly charge at him. Han Shuo knew that with Brovst’s presence, if Lager did not actively attack him, he would have no reasonable excuse to finish Lager off.
“I will give you all one hour to prove to me your devotion. Don’t waste the chance!” Brovst’s voice again sounded from that dark cave.
After hearing those words, the crowd who had recently witnessed the drama started to show indecision in their eyes. Han Shuo secretly observed the people around him as he walked to Anli, collapsed on the ground, step by step. Anli was obviously at his last gasp and when Han Shuo was about to place his hand on Anli, he had exhausted all of his vitality and was utterly dead.
The remaining divine energy in Anli’s body was completely exhausted and therefore, Han Shuo could not absorb any divine energy in his body. Han Shuo pressed his hand on Anli and using the energy of Cauldron Spirit inside his body, he sucked Anli’s divine soul into the Cauldron so that Cauldron Spirit could turn him into a demon general. Even if Han Shuo didn’t take his divine soul into the Cauldron of Myriad Demon, it would just gradually dissipate between heaven and earth over time.
Han Shuo placed one hand on Anli and put on the appearance of sucking in his divine energy.
Ahh!!! A loud cry of pain sounded from the distance. Han Shuo turned to the source of the sound.
In just a short few moments, the entire valley turned into a cruel scene. Everyone seemed to have gone mad to attack the people beside them. Those who had secretly practiced the method of engulfing divine energy wanted to kill a person to prove their determination. Meanwhile, Eunice and others who would never resign to performing such a heinous act had no choice but to do their utmost in defending themselves.
Han Shuo sighed. He knew that under the threat of death and the temptation of having their strength rapidly soar, not many would remain unmoved. It was within Han Shuo’s expectations that those in the valley would turn into a bloody battle for survival.
In Brovst’s presence, Han Shuo had no way of preventing or stopping the cruel competition ahead of him. He could only watch on indifferently, putting his own safety before matters of principle. There was nothing that he could do about it.
It was fortunate that Han Shuo had chosen to act on Lager, a most thorny opponent, and demonstrated his strength and ferocity to the crowd. Therefore, at this point in time that Han Shuo, who had his hand pressed on Anli was as relaxed and leisurely as Lager who was fiddling with his crossbow. No one in the valley would come to provoke them.
Wretched shrieks repeatedly reverberated through the valley. Han Shuo maintained the posture of crouching on Anli while he secretly observed the bloody battle around him.
Those who were unwilling to join the godhunters had to face enemies that seemed to have become deranged in trying to devour their divine energy. Gradually, even they themselves showed signs of madness. Some of those lightly wounded, unexpectedly, cast their gazes on the enormous scroll while escaping.
In the entire valley, there were merely a dozen or so who truly remained unmoved until now. Eunice, of late-stage lowgod strength, was one of those headstrong ones. Her uncle, Barnett, facing the attacks of several divine guards that cultivated in the energy of death who previously worked for him, seemed to be infuriated and looked as though he could go mad at any moment.
The valley was in utter violence and chaos! Everyone seemed to have gone insane. As things developed, even those who wanted to be godhunters were clashing and fighting each other. They had all lost their rationality!
Brovst who was observing the situation silently from within his cave had to repeatedly use his enormous scroll to separate and stop fights between those who wanted to be godhunters as to avoid those who would become his followers being killed.
“Lord Brovst, could you bestow Miss Eunice to me? In any case, he will not be one of us. When I’m done playing with her, I will hand her to your subordinates. By then I wouldn’t care less if they wanted to toy with her or kill her!” Rahman, who had been giggling as he watched the situation from aside, asked as he bowed at the cave where Brovst was.
“You have done me a huge service. If you are interested in that woman, go ahead and do whatever you want!” Brovst did not hesitate at all in approving Rahman’s request. Having observed every action of everyone in the valley, he had long realized that Eunice would not succumb to his command. Letting Rahman toy with someone who would die sooner or later was merely reusing waste material. On top of wanting Rahman to continue to serve him in the future, it was only natural that Brovst would approve the request.
“Thank you, Lord Brovst!” Rahman cheered and walked towards Eunice excitedly. He had an expression of sheer depravity on his face.
Rahman was a midgod cultivating in the element of darkness and practically no one in the valley could pose a threat to him. On top of being Brovst’s spokesman, those who wished to survive by becoming a godhunter automatically moved aside and gave him an unimpeded path to Eunice.
At this point in time, Eunice, who was forced to withdraw further and further by the deranged crowd, no longer had that bigwig, distinguished demeanor she always had. Her hair was messy and specks of dust stained her face. She appeared to be in a miserable state. Her heart was filled with despair when she heard Rahman’s request and seeing him walk towards her. However, she was determined to fight Rahman till her death.
“How dare you!” Barnett who was on the verge of losing his sanity roared when he saw Rahman approach Eunice with a lascivious smile. He sent out death rays in all directions and came charging at Rahman. Those who were jointly attacking him were thrown unsteady by enormous bone flowers when he unfurled his domain of divinity.
“Lord Brovst, please give me a hand!” Rahman had the same expression on his face as he raised his voice and asked.
The enormous scroll hanging in midair came descending yet again. But this time, it did not merely block an attack like how it prevented Han Shuo from killing Lager. Instead, it came crashing down on Barnett. Terrifying energy of destruction then erupted from the scroll. Barnett fell to the ground at once and started twitching violently from head to toe.
“Miss Eunice, who is going to save you now? Hahah, all this time I’ve been in Fort Verka, you are the only person I have fancied. But what a pity, you have always been so cold towards me and made me long for you every day. Finally, finally now, I will get to taste your sweet, juicy body. Are you feeling just as excited as I? Hehehe…“ Rahman laughed as he approached Eunice. His body turned into multiple dark shadows and no one could distinguish which one was actually him.
Eunice who originally thought of ferociously fighting and injuring Rahman with her death, suddenly discovered that she did not even have a target to attack. Grief rose from her heart as she sighed and thought to herself, Forget about it. I will just kill myself so I don’t have to bear being defiled by such a disgusting being.