Chapter 782 - Nobody will speak a word of it
The two highgod assassins revealed desperation in their eyes. They knew that they will not escape death and so they tried to cause the greatest harm with their deaths. They used all the remaining energy in their bodies to push forward and get close to the divine guards as though they were planning to severely injure the divine guards.
The divine guards, knowing that the two assassins were highgods, dared not be in close proximity to them. The divine guards would immediately launch ranged attacks at the two to push them back when they tried to close the distance. The assassins’ patience and divine energy were being worn down. Over time, under the bombardment of almost a hundred divine guards, the two highgods were close to exhausting their divine energy.
Other than Han Shuo and Rose, Bollands too did not participate in the fight. He was guiding the divine guards on how to most effectively besiege a powerful expert as a team. The divine guards who had practiced the art of fighting as a team in the Eight Desolation and Torment Formation launched densely gathered attacks that does not miss a single spot of the highgods’ defenses, exerting the maximum amount of pressure on the two highgods.
For the two highgods, that was the most humiliating moment they had ever experienced in their whole lives. They had tried to assemble their energy to escape at the cost of severely injuring themselves or causing their realms to regress. But every time they attempted so, it would be disrupted and ceased by the demon generals. After repeating the process several times, the two finally realized that their deaths were certain.
With Han Shuo and Rose deploying barriers, the two assassins could not even get close enough to the divine guards and injure them through self-implosion. Two proud highgods were reduced into puny living targets for Han Shuo’s little combat training exercise. With all hope for survival lost, the two assassins finally could not bear the humiliation any longer.
The two assassins dropped every defense and allowed the divine energy and divine weapons of the divine guards to land on their bodies. The energies and weapons wrecked their bodies that were nearly exhausted of divine energies without much resistance. They collapsed into a pool of blood and perished.
Cauldron Spirit quickly flew out and happily collected the two divine souls. As the number of demon generals in the Cauldron of Myriad Demon increased, as more high-quality souls were added to the collection, the Cauldron became more powerful. Han Shuo could sense it clearly every time he borrowed Cauldron Spirit’s energy.
To Han Shuo, the Cauldron becoming stronger is tantamount to him getting more powerful. Therefore, Han Shuo would always do his best to help Cauldron Spirit collect as many divine souls as possible.
“What? They died just like that!” shouted Barnard in an annoyed voice. It seemed that the fun ended too soon for him.
Barnard’s comrades also felt the same. They did not expect that the two assassins would just give up their lives right when they were enjoying it the most. They thought the fun would last much longer.
After the Cauldron of Myriad Demon collected the two highgod souls, Bollands stepped forward and went to the bodies. He lifted their masks and carefully looked at their faces. A moment later, Bollands got up, turned to Han Shuo and shook his head gravely. “Senior, I do not know these faces!”
Bollands had served in Erebus’ Third Corps for many years and was very familiar with members of all large family clans in the City of Shadows. Through various covert and non-covert methods, Bollands had met and seen characters that even Han Shuo had not met. Highgods were the rarest and smallest class of people in every City. If the two assassins originated from the City of Shadows, it would be impossible for Bollands to not recognize them.
Therefore, hearing Bollands’ words, Han Shuo was certain that the assassins originated from another city. Han Shuo carefully thought about it. Other than Hushveil City, Han Shuo had offended Portlem who was outside of the Darkness Dominion. He wondered if either one of them could be behind the attack.
Han Shuo bunched his brows as he thought about it deeply After a while, he looked all around and instructed his divine guards, “Speak of this incident to no one until I get to the bottom of it.” After a short pause, Han Shuo added, “This includes those from the House of Sainte!”
Five highgods had come to assassinate him and could afford three deaths. This likely meant that Han Shuo had offended a very formidable powerhouse.
Han Shuo was currently a high-ranking official in the City of Shadows. If Wallace and Andre were to learn of the incident, the two will surely start their own investigation which meant that he would be asked about all the details. They might inadvertently reveal Han Shuo’s astonishing strength to others. Other concerns aside, Han Shuo did not want the public to learn of his true strength until the competition between the Divine Guard Chiefs begins.
After fighting off the highgod assassins, all the divine guards in the Fifth Corps became fully convinced of Han Shuo. Not a single one of them had any doubt about Han Shuo’s capability. Their gazes towards Han Shuo were filled only with reverence and respect.
Therefore, after Han Shuo finished those words, the less than one hundred divine guards respectfully replied affirmatively in unison. None of them had another opinion.
On Elysium, cultivation and strength were all that mattered. A great majority of its inhabitants made improving their strength their top priority. This was also why everyone on Elysium worshipped the strong. They had nothing but admiration for true experts. After Han Shuo demonstrated his formidable might by killing a highgod effortlessly, these unbridled divine guards of the Fifth Corps turned extremely compliant to Han Shuo. They genuinely approved of Han Shuo as their new Divine Guard Chief.
“Rest assured, my Lord! Nobody will speak a word of it!” pledged Barnard with veneration that came from the bottom of his heart and admiration shining in his eyes.
Han Shuo nodded and said, “Excellent. As long as you do exactly as I commanded, none of us will land in trouble.” Han Shuo then looked around and smilingly said, “Alright. I reckon that those two who escaped won’t be returning. We will continue our march towards Soaring Cloud Mountain Range.”
“Senior, I think we are no longer in any danger. Can they resume practicing stalking and tracking?” asked Bollands respectfully after bowing at Han Shuo.
“Yep, go ahead,” Han Shuo too did not think that the two escaped assassins will threaten them anymore and therefore straightforwardly agreed.
After Bollands led the divine guards away to continue with all sorts of training and exercises, Han Shuo turned to Rose and instructed, “Let no one disturb me.”
Rose was puzzled. She had no idea why would Han Shuo give her such a command in all of a sudden. However, Rose did not ask any questions but nodded. Although the relationship between Han Shuo and Rose had long improved, Rose was still as quiet as always. She normally does not speak unless Han Shuo asked her a question. She rarely starts a conversation with Han Shuo.
After giving the instruction, Han Shuo sat cross-legged on the spot and closed his eyes. With one thought of his consciousness, a demon general refined from highgod soul flew away from Han Shuo at extreme speed. It headed north.
Han Shuo had applied some demonic yuan on the demon general of the highest grade. Therefore, when Han Shuo concentrated his attention and commanded it to fly, the demon general in immaterial state flew much faster than usual. In fact, it was traveling at a speed faster than Han Shuo’s Art of the Demonic Ninth Heavens boosted with Cauldron Spirit’s energy.
Demon generals were immaterial and gravity has no effect on them and they could therefore travel ridiculously fast. This demon general, having received a boost of Han Shuo’s demonic yuan, could travel at an even higher speed.
Moments ago, when fighting off the assassins, Han Shuo had left a drop of his blood essence on the shortie’s armor. Han Shuo had a miraculous connection with his blood essences. Even though the shortie had managed rip a tunnel to another dimension using a miraculous space edict divine weapon and escaped, as the shortie carried a drop of Han Shuo’s blood essence with him, Han Shuo could get a rough approximation of his location when he completely focused his mind to sense it.
Han Shuo could sense that the two escaped assassins were extremely far away and were still moving away at high speed. Han Shuo did not pursue them because he reckoned that he might not be able to overtake the two even if he went after them with all his strength. But more importantly, he had a responsibility to keep his company of divine guards safe. He was worried that the divine guards might run into another danger and couldn’t handle it by themselves.
Therefore, Han Shuo stayed with his divine guards and sent the most demon general he had, a spirit demon, to probe the situation for him. He wasn’t hoping that the spirit demon could harm the two assassins but he wanted the spirit demon to reveal the identities of this anonymous enemy of his. Once Han Shuo knew who he was up against, he would have a general idea of how to get ready for them or even eliminate the threat when the opportunity comes.
To the spirit demon that had pushed its speed to the maximum, time seemed to have slowed down. Its immaterial body made minute and faint waves in the atmosphere as it streaked through the sky and towards the region Han Shuo instructed.
About half an hour later, Han Shuo gave a command with his consciousness and the ultra-fast moving spirit demon slowed down. It started approaching the region ahead cautiously.
Han Shuo saw two figures that were flying at high speed. One of the figures was short and small and wore gloves dotted with starlight speckles. Without thinking, Han Shuo knew that they were the two assassins who escaped. The two were rushing ahead and had absolutely no clue that an invisible pair of eyes was following and watching them from some distance behind.
The spirit demon followed them for around ten minutes before the two assassins suddenly slowed down. They suddenly swerved and stopped before a cave mouth covered with crushed stones and branches of leaves. The shortie made a light cough.
Several dark figures slowed appeared from the cave. As they walked out of the cave, their faces grew clearer. One of them was Dolores who had disappeared for a long time. He put on an elated expression after exiting the cave and asked, “Patriarch, is it a success?”
The assassins finally removed their masks. The taller one was revealed to the Felder, the patriarch of the House of Lavers. He wore a gloomy face as he replied, “We failed. We are the only survivors.” Felder then turned to Lakrisen who had also removed his mask and said in a heavy voice, “Lord Lakrisen, I’m sorry for losing three capable helpers of yours.”
Lakrisen was wearing a bitter and resentful face. He coldly said, “Three highgods have perished. How am I going to justify the losses to my elder brother?!”
Lakrisen at this moment was as though a volcano on the brink of eruption. Felder did not know how to answer him. He merely let out a helpless sigh and kept silent.
Lakrisen gave a glance at Felder with cold eyes before he let out a cold groan and said, “We will return to the City of Gorging Clouds and settle things there!” and immediately departed. Felder let out another soft sigh before taking Dolores and the others to follow behind Lakrisen.