GDK 727: Open for business
After ages of preparation, the Celestial Pearl Pharmacy finally opened for business.
On that day, representatives from the five major family clans went to congratulate Han Shuo. From the House of Sainte were Andre and Erebus; from the House of Kinson, Jiya and her uncle; from the House of Kisa, none other than Rugersey; and from the House of Buller was Tuxi who took the place of Tuyas. Even the House of Lavers that wasn’t in good relations with Han Shuo had Diwei attend the opening. He presented Han Shuo with a silk banner.
All the gentry and elites were at the Celestial Pearl Pharmacy on that day. As to establish good relations with Han Shuo, the large family clans spared no effort to rally around his business. Thanks to their efforts, the opening ceremony of the Celestial Pearl Pharmacy was a grand occasion.
Before opening to customers, the pharmacists recruited by Han Shuo had produced medicines commonly used by Elysians and filled the empty shelves with medicine bottles.
Han Shuo was very busy the whole day. He had to receive and welcome guests from daybreak till nightfall.
As Han Shuo had not personally refined more pelleted medicines, those that were sold that day were simply ordinary medicines. Although this proved to be somewhat of a disappointment to those representatives from large family clans, they had nonetheless purchased more than four hundred bottles of medicines to boost his sales. The Celestial Pearl Pharmacy gained more than twenty thousand black crystal coins in profit that day.
Given this good omen, on top of his outstanding reputation in the City of Shadows, Han Shuo believed that the Celestial Pearl would have a prosperous, profitable future and make him crystal coins by the truckload.
With everything about the Celestial Pearl moving in perfect orbit, Han Shuo handed Gu Li full responsibility of the production of medicines. Gu Li, who had once despised Han Shuo, was wholly admiring of Han Shuo at this point in time. She was Han Shuo’s most loyal and devoted employee.
After having delegated the task, Han Shuo had more time to cultivate. He stayed inside the gymnasium and practiced borrowing and using Cauldron Spirit’s energy.
Han Shuo could abruptly amplify his strength by an enormous magnitude and possess immense power by imbuing his body with Cauldron Spirit’s demon general energy, so much so that it would allow him to go up against a highgod. However, as tough and robust as his body was, it couldn’t withstand the energy for extended periods. He had attempted it a dozen times and the longest he could last was only around three minutes. His demonic infant would start to fail beyond that limit.
It didn’t take long before Han Shuo realized that borrowing Cauldron Spirit’s energy was not the correct path of cultivation. It was only by forging his demonic body, making it even tougher, and making a breakthrough in realm state that he could truly become stronger.
Although Han Shuo had seen no signs of any imminent breakthrough from the Omen Realm all that while, Han Shuo never slacked in his cultivation. After all, he had not spent that much time on it. It was unlikely that he could advance and make progress without spending tens, if not hundreds of years in secluded cultivation.
The Omen Realm was not the ultimate realm in demonic arts. There were three realms after it – Skybreak Realm, Diablo Realm, and Exalted Demonlord. Gu Tian Xie, at this pinnacle realm called Exalted Demonlord, was able to tear through the fabric of space-time and traverse across universes. Just from some brief description from Cauldron Spirit, Han Shuo could imagine just how mighty the Exalted Demonlord must be.
Not only did every small advancement require a lengthy amount of cultivation time, Han Shuo also had to endure tremendous risks in each attempt. In fact, when breaking from Omen realm to Skybreak realm, Han Shuo would be faced with a calamity. It was a process that he had no choice but to go through. By then, if he failed to resolve the calamity, not only would his strength never increase any further, his consciousness could be annihilated. Han Shuo realized that every step along his cultivation would be accompanied by great danger.
Time flew by rapidly. Han Shuo had secluded himself in the gymnasium for ten years.
After having gone through so many challenges and crises on Elysium, Han Shuo had made improvements in all aspects of himself to a certain degree. Ten years of meditation allowed him to digest and comprehend his experiences. His mind grew calmer and his Omen realm state had become more stabilized.
Ten years on Elysium was like a snap of the fingers. For the gods living there whose lifespans were in the order of thousands, if not tens of thousands of years, ten years’ time wasn’t all that long.
After Han Shuo exited from the gymnasium, he got updated with the present-day situation from Gu Li and the others. During the ten years he was in cultivation, the Celestial Pearl Pharmacy had made Han Shuo more than a million black crystal coins. Of the sixteen chain stores he owned, five were open for business. The Celestial Pearl Pharmacy had become the biggest pharmacy business in the City of Shadows.
During this time, the members of the House of Lavers withdrew from the City of Shadows one after another. The House of Sainte turned a blind eye to their actions. The House of Lavers had, after all, made some contribution to the City of Shadows. Even though Wallace detested the Lavers Family, it was in his best interest not to be too cruel, especially when they had not rebelled against his reign.
Felder obviously understood Wallace’s thoughts. He had been keeping watch at the Lavers Residence and maintaining a low-profile while arranging for Donna, Diwei and the others to leave the city with the excuse that they were assigned tasks in remote places to gain experiences and temper themselves. After having lost the trust of the House of Sainte, the House of Lavers rapidly declined. Within ten short years, the Lavers Family lost their prestige and reputation as one of the five major family clans in the City of Shadows. Even some members of smaller family clans dared confront the House of Lavers head-on.
However, Felder did not mind any of this. He most patiently endured all the pain and insults while sending members of his Lavers Family away using all sorts of methods.
This action of Felder’s seemed to be in line with Wallace’s intentions. He never stopped or obstructed these measures as though he had tacitly approved of it. The emergence of a small crack between two large family clans could easily destroy the friendship they had taken decades of exhausting work to build. Wallace simply could not forgive them for Avery had nearly taken Carmelita’s life.
After Avery went missing, the position of the Chief of Fifth Corps was left vacant. The remaining three major family clans all showed immense interest in taking that post. Even the smaller family clans, considering it as an opportunity for them to soar towards success, had tried various means to obtain this position from the House of Sainte.
To be fair towards all family clans, Wallace named a single condition – whoever wished to take that position had to exchange it with Avery’s head!
Avery had disappeared for many years. No one knew where he went. After hearing this condition set by Wallace, all the family clans in the City of Shadows had taken painstaking efforts to locate Avery but none had made any progress in all those years. Therefore, the position as the Chief of the Fifth Corps, even though coveted by many, remained vacant.
After learning of the recent happenings in the City of Shadows, seeing that his Celestial Pearl was functioning properly, with the fact that he had properly established himself in the City of Shadows, in addition to the fact that he had spent ages on Elysium, Han Shuo decided that it was time for him to return to Profound Continent and bring those ladies he could not part with to live on Elysium with him.
For the time being, Han Shuo had no enemies in the City of Shadows. By relying on the financial power of the Celestial Pearl Pharmacy and his relations with the House of Sainte, Han Shuo was confident that the safety of his lovers would be assured. Given just how intensely the elemental energies could be found on Elysium, with all so many sources of reference about advancing to godhood, with all the resources available on this material plane, cultivating on Elysium would be hundreds of times faster compared to cultivating on Profound Continent.
Emily, Phoebe, and the others were relatively powerful on Profound Continent. Han Shuo believed that after they arrived in the City of Shadows, they would be able to make rapid progress in this superior environment. Having come to this decision, Han Shuo made preparations to head to that interplanar transportation facility he arrived using to return to Profound Continent.
Before departing, Han Shuo took a trip to the Sainte Residence specifically to visit Carmelita as she had completely recovered from her injuries.
Han Shuo had a shock when he met Carmelita again. After ten years’ time, her skin had turned fair and she lost that sinister, ferocious appearance. There were still some speckles visible on her skin but they had almost completely faded. Although Carmelita was still nowhere near a beauty, the word ugly was no longer fitting to describe her looks.
Carmelita was very happy to see Han Shuo. She patted on Han Shuo’s shoulder excitedly and said casually, “You rascal, I have gone to the Celestial Pearl Pharmacy to look for you multiple times, but who knew that you would be cultivating all this time. Look at me, can you see any difference?”
“You have become prettier!” Han Shuo said sincerely.
“Haha, that’s what everybody said! Bryan, thank you. You haven’t just saved me twice, you’ve fixed my damn face. I can be normal now. I don’t know how I could ever repay you,” Carmelita said laughingly.
“That’s what friends are for!” Han Shuo replied smilingly. After conversing for some time and catching up with each other, Han Shuo finally revealed, “I’m going to leave Elysium and it might be a while before I return.”
“Huh?” Carmelita cried out in surprise. “Where are you going?”
“My homeworld, to bring some people here! Hehe, Elysium is the most suitable place to cultivate. I have been living well here and it’s not right for me to neglect my friends back in that world! I may have been powerless to defend myself on Elysium before, but now that I have finally gained a small footing, it’s time to help those friends of mine!” Han Shuo could not restrain the longing in his heart when he recalled Emily, Phoebe, and the others.
“You are quite a sentimental person, aren’t you? Well, unfortunately, my father has recently been rather pressing on me to cultivate, or else I would head there with you, just for fun. But I know that the little girl has some serious strength. You should be fine with her around you,” Carmelita said smilingly.
“Oh, that reminds me, why is it that the interplanar transportation matrices are built so far away from the city?” asked Han Shuo.
“For us Elysians, those in other material planes are merely slaves for providing us the power of faith and on a normal day, we rarely travel to other material planes and therefore do not use interplanar transportation facilities often. In addition, we believe that those who arrive on Elysium should overcome some challenges to come to big cities. Therefore, interplanar transportation facilities tend to be located in remote and desolate valleys far from the city,” Carmelita explained.
Han Shuo grimaced after hearing the reasoning. He understood that to the Elysians, those from low-level material planes were only worthy of being their servants. They were born with a sense of superiority.
Under most circumstances, those leaving the Plane of Gods would be trying to conquer other material planes to acquire the power of faith. Although Elysium was vast, the Elysians were willing to waste time traveling. They considered it a part of steeling themselves and were fine with placing the interplanar transportation matrices far from the cities. This would also allow outsiders who first arrived on Elysium to learn not to expect the royal treatment they would get in the lower level material planes they originated from.
After conversing with Carmelita, Han Shuo left the Sainte Residence, returned to the Celestial Pearl Pharmacy, spent two days preparing for the journey, and set off with Andrina.
Andrina’s strength was overwhelmingly powerful. Han Shuo believed that most problems he would face throughout the journey could be resolved with Andrina alone. Even if he were to come across godhunters the level of Brovst, Andrina could easily take Han Shuo to safety.
In addition, Han Shuo would be returning to Elysium with his friends and girlfriends. With Andrina’s protection, their journey to the City of Shadows would be much safer.
Han Shuo and Andrina exited the City of Shadows and headed towards the valley where that interplanar transportation facility was located. Andrina was very curious about Profound Continent and all throughout the journey, she had been asking Han Shuo everything about that material plane. It was rather annoying to Han Shuo.
They came across several godhunters scattered across the mountain ranges. Under Andrina’s unforgiving hands, not a single one of those godhunters managed to escape. They all died to Andrina.
“You seem unsympathetic when attacking godhunters. Do you have animosity with them?” Han Shuo asked Andrina puzzlingly after they traversed across a mountain range.
For all that time that Han Shuo had been in contact with Andrina, he had never seen her kill anyone so viciously. She declined to kill even when Han Shuo tempted her with crystal coins. However, when Han Shuo first met Andrina in the Greenfire Swamp, he had seen her hunt and kill godhunters. From the fact that Andrina was hunted by the leaders of the godhunters, Han Shuo deduced that she must be especially hated and feared by the godhunters. And from Andrina’s performance, Han Shuo could tell that Andrina felt a deeply ingrained resentment towards the godhunters.
“They deserve death!” Andrina’s face immediately turned ice-cold after hearing Han Shuo mention godhunters.
“You have grudges with them?” Han Shuo asked.
Andrina nodded. But when she saw that Han Shuo was going to ask more questions, she hastily said, “This has nothing to do with you, so don’t ask so many questions!” She took a short pause before she continued softly, “Besides, I have not asked you much about your secrets!”
Han Shuo forced a smile, nodded, and kept his mouth shut.
They hastened on with their journey. As the two could travel at extraordinary speeds, they had spent just a little more than two months to arrive at that interplanar transportation facility Han Shuo had previously used.
In order to use the interplanar transportation facility, he had to pay sufficient crystal coins.
After arriving in the valley, Han Shuo soon met Jeff who had helped him with obtaining a divine tablet. However, compared to his cordial attitude before, Jeff now had obviously become much colder.
When Jeff heard Han Shuo say that he wanted to use the interplanar transportation facility, he replied in a snide manner, “I hear you have been doing very well in the City of Shadows recently. But you seem to have forgotten who it was that helped you with everything when you first arrived on Elysium. This place may be far from the city, but we still hear most of the news from there. We pay a lot of attention to the ingratitude of a certain person…” After a short pause, Jeff put on a derisive smile and said, “My apologies, for now, the transportation matrix only accepts arrivals and doesn’t take departures. You will have to wait.”
Han Shuo’s face turned cold and he asked, “When is it going to take departures?”
“Can’t say for sure. That’s up to Lord Dolores,” Jeff said lazily.
Dolores was Doloxes’ older brother. Han Shuo had nearly killed Doloxes on the first day he arrived at the Lavers Residence. Obviously, people in the valley were aware of the events that occurred in the City of Shadows. Unfortunately for Han Shuo, the story they knew of was one-sided. They had no idea about Doloxes’ despicable actions and had no idea that Avery had tried to assassinate him twice.
From these people’s point of view, the House of Lavers had been very considerate and had organized things for him before he arrived on Elysium. But who knew that after Han Shuo arrived in the City of Shadows, not only would he not make any contribution to the House of Lavers, he stood against them. Therefore, they considered Han Shuo as an ungrateful little parasite who kicked his benefactor in the teeth.
“Take me to Dolores. I want to talk to him!” Han Shuo shouted coldly while forcefully repressing the fury in his heart.
“Hehe, Lord Dolores is busy and hasn’t got time for you. Besides, I have better things to do than to chauffeur you around. Beat it,” Jeff was obviously trying to make things difficult for Han Shuo and said mockingly.
Jeff used to make things difficult for Han Shuo when he first arrived on Elysium and Han Shuo had put up with him. But unexpectedly, he had yet again posed an obstacle when Han Shuo tried to return to Profound Continent. This made Han Shuo furious.
Pa! Han Shuo gave Jeff a big smack in the face. A trail of blood flowed from the corner of Jeff’s mouth after the loud slap. He stumbled and fell to the floor.
“How, how dare you strike me!” Jeff immediately ran and shrieked, “Help! Someone is trying to kill me!”
Han Shuo sneered and went after him. Pow! Han Shuo threw a kick at the shouting Jeff and sent him flying. He broke multiple bones when he finally crashed on the ground.
Soon enough, a group of divine guards, with Dolores taking the lead, rushed to the scene. He wore a chilling and murderous face when he said, “No matter how influential you are in the City of Shadows, if you attack my people at my place, I have the right to arrest you!”
Han Shuo knew that after the incident at the Lavers Residence, Dolores would not be kind towards Han Shuo like he was before. Han Shuo also knew that Jeff would only be so daring and obnoxious to him because of Dolores.
“I want to use the interplanar transportation matrix but he impeded me on purpose. He was asking for it,” with a grin on his face, Han Shuo took out the emblem of the House of Sainte from his space ring and flashed it at the divine guards. He said, “I believe you all should recognize that this is the emblem of the House of Sainte. Please switch on the interplanar transportation matrix and let me leave. Otherwise, you will be going against the House of Sainte. You should know the consequences of doing so.”
Given that it was no longer possible to befriend Dolores and that Jeff had fired the first shot, Han Shuo decided not to be polite.
Dolores glared at Han Shuo intensely for a moment before taking a deep breath. He raised a hand, and shouted in a deep voice, “Let him pass!”
Under the gazes of the divine guards, Han Shuo swaggeringly left using the interplanar transportation matrix. After Han Shuo disappeared, Dolores cracked a grin and instructed, “Jeff, grab a few of those prisoners on death row and transmit them to that coordinate.”
“Wise move, my Lord!” Jeff was elated and he eagerly went with a few men to execute Dolores’ instructions.