GDK 770: Come out and fight me, you coward!
Tiny and fine strings suddenly appeared in the amalgamated domain of divinity. Although not visible through the naked eye, Han Shuo could clearly perceive the fine strings through his soul. After taking a moment to carefully sense them, Han Shuo discovered that these fine strings seem to be the power of faith originating from the Profound Continent and the Abyss Realm.
The power of faith could increase the power of a god’s domain of divinity as well as providing a minute but constant stream of divine energy. Divine energy from the power of faith may be minute but if accumulated over many years, it would become a considerable amount of divine energy.
For all these while, Han Shuo could sense the constant stream of minuscule divine energy that came from the power of faith his believers offered. He had never observed the power of faith causing any effects on his domain of divinity. But now, for the first time, Han Shuo clearly sensed it.
The string-like power of faith emerged within the amalgamated domains of divinity and traveled in trajectories conforming to the edict of destruction. The fine strings constantly twisted, vibrated, and revolved around Han Shuo. The strings would interact and twist together to form thicker strings.
This was perceivable only through Han Shuo’s divine soul and cannot be observed visually.
The element of death converged towards the domain of divinity even more wildly. Suddenly, the Boundaries of Aging, Fear, and Weakness spontaneously formed in the domain of divinity even though Han Shuo made no effort of doing so. The Boundaries were filled with fine strings. It appeared as though the fine strings could absorb the constant stream of the element of death gushing to the domain and use them to alter the structure of the three Boundaries.
Suddenly, the power of the three Boundaries began rising exponentially. The area of effect rapidly expanded and overlapped with the entire domain of divinity in no time.
The power of faith strings bound with the element of death gushing into the domain while twisting and warping around Han Shuo in a manner conforming to the edict of destruction. They constantly modified and altered the Boundaries and caused their power to grow stronger and stronger.
“Huh?!” exclaimed Rose. She suddenly discovered an abnormal flux of energy from Han Shuo’s location and softly cried, “What’s going on?”
Han Shuo was suddenly awoken from the trance. He immediately realized that now was not the time to slowly savor his new domain of divinity. By now, Anker and the midgod of destruction were dead and their divine energies had been completely devoured. Han Shuo maneuvered his flying swords to stab at their bodies, causing them to melt away.
Rose’s long silvery hair was stained with blood. As she stood coldly on the land covered with bodies, she stared at Han Shuo with her bright eyes that were filled with astonishment and puzzlement.
The group of several dozen divine guards led by Anker was all butchered by Rose and Han Shuo. There were no survivors. Through his demon generals, Han Shuo sensed that numerous House of Simon experts were rapidly converging towards the area. He instructed, “Move!” and retreated with Rose.
Shortly after the duo left, Westin and Chandler, along with a few hundred elite divine guards of their family clan arrived at the scene.
It was a devastating and dreadful scene with incomplete bodies covering every inch of the ground. Anker’s partially melted body was quickly liquifying.
It was plain and obvious from Anker’s melting body to tell who was responsible for the horrendous crime. Westin had never felt so enraged. The strength of his House of Simon had steeply declined. And now, as though it could not get worse, his family clan lost another highgod. On top of all that, Anker was a sibling of his wife. Westin started wondering how to justify the losses to his wife and his family clan.
“Patriarch, what should we do?” asked Chandler, “The two not only possess terrifying strength, but they are also very stealthy. What can we do to find and kill them?”
Unlike Anker, Chandler had personally witnessed how deadly Han Shuo and Rose were. As a member of the House of Simon, Chandler hated Han Shuo and Rose to the bones. However, other than hatred, Chandler also felt fear. He knew that in a one-on-one battle, even he was no match against that callous-looking and handsome youngster. He had been very careful and kept his divine guards close to him as he was afraid of losing his life.
It was precisely because of his cautiousness that Han Shuo did not look for him but went for the naive Anker instead. Anker’s death was greatly disturbing for Chandler. He was worried that he would become Han Shuo’s next target.
Westin suddenly shouted after keeping silent in a dark face, “Release signals and tell them that the murderers are near this area!” Then, after taking a short pause, he continued, “We must all stick close together, no one will split from the group. Our understanding of the attacker was wrong; he was not severely injured. Otherwise, they surely will not take such risk in making an assault.”
Chandler was stunned. He quickly scanned around before asking in a low voice, “Patriarch, are you implying that the City Lord lied?”
Westin shook his head, let out a soft sigh, and explained, “The City Lord wouldn’t make that kind of joke during moments like this. Besides, from my understanding of his character, he wasn’t one who would tell lies.” Westin turned to Chandler, looked at him with his deep eyes, and continued, “The City Lord’s account is not false. The fact that the injured murderer did not try to escape but is preying on us could only mean one thing – he is stronger than the City Lord!”
Chandler’s face jolted. After taking a moment to carefully consider Westin’s words, his expression turned even more appalled. Somehow, Chandler started thinking about overgods without the Quintessence. The fear in his heart grew even stronger. In a slightly flustered manner, he asked, “Then what should we do?”
“We have to give up on trying to kill them. Our family clan has taken too many casualties. What we must do now is to take our men safely out from the mountain range,” said Westin in a helpless and humiliated face. He paused for a moment before he continued, “If other family clans want to try to get them, let them try. It is time they suffer some losses as well. Otherwise, after the ordeal is over, our House of Simon’s place in Hushveil City would likely be threatened,”
As the patriarch of the House of Simon, Westin sometimes had to make unpopular and difficult decisions for the benefit of his family clan. The great insight and wisdom Westin gained from his countless years spent in battle allowed him to correctly judged that Han Shuo will reappear at the city gate. And now, it allowed him to make the right decision – to give up.
Thanks to the Omen Invincible Body, Westin had overestimated Han Shuo’s strength. Although Westin and his forces had given up on hunting him, Han Shuo now had a new problem.
During the assault on Anker and his forces, although Rose did not see Han Shuo devoured Anker’s divine energy as they were covered inside the seventeen flying swords, Rose saw him devour the divine energy of a midgod of destruction. She could not be more astonished by Han Shuo’s actions.
On Elysium, the godhunters were universally hated characters. Her heart was filled with horror when she saw Han Shuo devour the divine energy of the midgod who cultivated in the edict of destruction. Han Shuo being an abominable godhunter was the last thing that Rose had expected.
Ever since they successfully escaped from the crime scene, Rose gazed at him with questioning and judgemental eyes non-stop, which made Han Shuo uncomfortable. Han Shuo finally stopped moving after arriving on a tree and hiding among its lush leaves. He summoned his courage and asked, “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Are you a godhunter?” asked Rose as she looked deeply at Han Shuo.
“I’m not!” denied Han Shuo resolutely. He then explained to Rose in a poker face, “Godhunters are those who could not control the cravings in their hearts. Their minds have been corroded by greed. Their only wish and desire are to devour other people’s divine energy to improve their own strength. They have an alliance made of people of their kind. As long as they are alive, they will always attempt to hunt and kill others for divine energy!”
“I don’t need you to tell me this. I have been living on Elysium longer than you have and I know plenty of things about the godhunters,” after a short pause, Rose calmly continued, “Don’t tell me that you are different from them?”
“Of course I’m different!” Han Shuo put on a faint smile and explained, “I have overcome that greed. My mind is free from the insatiable desire to devour divine energy. Even if you put a helpless man before me, I can choose not to devour his divine energy. The godhunters cannot act against their insatiable greed. I’m different in that I’m in full control of my mind and rationality. My mind is not corrupted.”
“I don’t believe that. I have never known or heard of anyone who could overcome that addiction. Once you started, you will never stop!” Rose’s slender brows bunched tightly. She let out a soft sigh and said, “Why are you that kind of people?”
Han Shuo put on a faint smile and answered, “I’m not. You should know that best! If I’m a godhunter, all that I do would be to consume other people’s divine energy. For all this time you are with me, is my only goal and purpose to devour other’s divine energy?”
Rose stared blankly for a moment after hearing Han Shuo’s answer. She carefully thought about it for a moment and realized that his words did make sense. Rose had been following Han Shuo around for quite some time. She knew that a godhunter would feel uneasy if they had not devoured divine energy for a while and will always seek for a chance to strike.
It’s been a while since Rose became Han Shuo’s servant and she was always around Han Shuo. During the time she spent with Han Shuo, she did not observe any signs of divine energy addiction from Han Shuo. Not only that he seemed perfectly normal, he even appeared to possess an extremely tenacious mind and strong willpower, a man who has full control of his mind and body.
It was clear from his performance and behavior that he was different from godhunters. After spending a long time thinking, Rose asked skeptically, “No one had ever overcome that addiction, but you can?”
“I’m sure that there are others who also managed to overcome the addiction, it’s just that most people do not know them,” Han Shuo then smiled and said, “You will see the truth in time, for we will be spending a lot more time together.”
“I will trust your words for now!” replied Rose. Suddenly, as though having recalled something, she exclaimed, “Right, I remember that when you were devouring the midgod’s divine energy, you were also fighting divine guards somewhere else. Did you use that strange lifeform to devour divine energy for you? If that’s the case, you won’t be affected by addiction!”
Han Shuo knew that as they will spend at least the next hundred years together, Rose will learn about the existence of his avatars sooner or later. But Han Shuo did not want to explain too much now as it was rather complicated. After a moment of hesitation, Han Shuo answered, “Something like that.”
Rose could tell that Han Shuo had no interest in explaining it in detail. Although she was very curious about Han Shuo, she did not question him any further.
After escaping from the crime scene, Han Shuo spent time surveilling his prey using his demon generals. He saw that the House of Simon divine guards were all gathered in one group. He knew that Westin was now on guard and it would not be easy to strike his forces again.
Other family clans of Hushveil City, having received Westin’s signal, were hurrying towards the area. Seeing that more and more divine guards will be there, Han Shuo and Rose quickly evacuated from the area.
By the time Hofs the City Lord and others reached there, Han Shuo and Rose were long gone. They again searched around thoroughly. Naturally, the search yielded no result.
Soon enough, the search party again split up by family clans to continue searching the mountain range. The Divine Guard Chiefs from Hushveil City also joined the manhunt. Some would be in a team with their family clan members while some went searching with their men.
For the next half a month, whenever Han Shuo had a chance, he would strike at the forces of Hushveil City and quickly withdraw before reinforcement could arrive. Nearly a hundred divine guards and two highgods from the Hofley Family and Granro Family lost their lives during that time.
No matter how cautious Hofs and the others were, inevitably, some of their men would perish to Han Shuo and Rose. As soon as the search party had dispersed to a certain degree, horrific deaths will befall to some of them. And no matter how fast they rushed to the scene and how much they searched, they would always fail to locate Han Shuo and Rose. In this vast mountain range, Han Shuo and Rose were as though two invisible predators, butchering the helpless Hushveil City divine guards left and right.
All the average divine guards were shrouded by fear. Even some of the highgods felt frightened. The search party no longer dared to spread out and would always be in close proximity to each other. They dared not belittle the dangers of the two stealthy assassins.
“Stop hiding and running like a coward! Come out and fight me alone if you have the guts! I will not bring a single divine guard with me! Come at me!!” roared Hofs. His voice traveled far and wide.
Hofs was out of character and seemed to have been driven mad. His behavior at this moment was unbefitting of a City Lord. All his calmness and composure had been exhausted during the draining and frustrating half a month.
As he loudly shouted, he would fly away from his party by himself. When any divine guards tried following Hofs, he would immediately glower and yell at them, “Back the fuck off! Stay away from me!”
He was serious about dueling with Han Shuo!
The divine guards were very afraid of Hofs at this moment. They were more than willing to comply with his orders and stay far away from him. The experts from the House of Hofley originally wanted to go with Hofs. But after thinking for a bit, recalling the strength that Hofs possessed, they felt that there was no need to be concerned for his safety.
Hofs in this extremely irascible state was a torment to everyone around him. The divine guards of the House of Hofley even secretly rejoiced in his departure.
“Show yourself, fucker! Come at me!” screamed Hofs as he moved further and further from the search party.
Hofs’ scream in fury was extremely loud. Han Shuo and Rose who were several hundred miles from him could clearly hear his words. Rose giggled lovably before she softly said to Han Shuo, “Listen to that guy, you have almost driven him insane!”
During the half a month time, Han Shuo had amply demonstrated to Rose that he had full control over his own mind, untainted by an uncontrolled desire for divine energy. If Rose said no, Han Shuo could always cease devouring the divine energy of those divine guards. After having repeatedly shown that he had no trouble controlling his actions, Rose was finally convinced that Han Shuo was different from the godhunters.
Rose was astonished by the fact. She no longer stopped Han Shuo from devouring divine energy. Rose understood that although Han Shuo was doing the same thing as the godhunters, he was not a godhunter, but rather something above their caste.
“He has gone insane!” Han Shuo nodded and agreed. After half a month of devouring divine energies, both his avatars had accumulated a critical amount of them and must spend time digesting the energies. After completing the digestion, breakthroughs would all be up to the avatars’ own ability to comprehend the energies they cultivated in.
“I think it’s about time we leave. The divine guards are all sticking together and wouldn’t give us an opportunity to strike,” suggested Rose.
Han Shuo put on a smile and shook his head. He replied, “That’s not entirely true.” When Rose put on a puzzled expression, Han Shuo continued, “The divine guards are definitely all sticking close together. But didn’t a guy just left the group all by himself?”
Rose stared blankly for a moment before she exclaimed, “You want to fight the City Lord of Hushveil City? He is a late-stage highgod! He has lost his mind. Don’t tell me that you have lost your mind too?”
Han Shuo nodded and smilingly replied, “He has amply demonstrated his sincerity. How could I disappoint him?”