Chapter 353
Chapter 353: Place of extreme metal
The caverns of the mines were dark and humid. Yet Han Shuo, someone who should’ve been unfamiliar with the mine, was rushing forward as if very familiar with the area.
At first, Delia had even expected him to take the rearmost position. Who would’ve thought that Han Shuo would just advance without even taking one step backward from beginning to end? What was even more surprising that Han Shuo led the way like he was the guide. There was no mistakes made as he went straight into the depths of the mine.
After a while, Delia couldn’t hold in her curiosity, as the miners began to doubt their guide. She quickly walked up to Han Shuo, bright eyes staring at him as she inquired, “My Lord, you’ve been to Mount Silk before, haven’t you?”
Shaking his head, Han Shuo replied, “No, I haven’t. This is the my first time at Mount Silk. Why?”
“Really? Then how come you are so familiar with the terrain inside the mine? You haven’t stopped to consider any path but one and yet you haven’t taken a single incorrect turn. If you haven’t been to Mount Silk before, how are you so familiar with the twists and turns here?” Delia was becoming more and more doubtful and chased after the leisurely striding Han Shuo with a bunch of questions.
In Han Shuo’s eyes, this group of people, including Delia, wasn’t very strong at all. Since the stone men deep inside the cave had no fear of magic and possessed rock solid bodies, Han Shuo had released the yin demon to scout ahead so that they wouldn’t be suddenly slaughtered. This, coupled with some of the miners’ description, let him proceed with naturally no hesitation at all. But who knew that it would rouse Delia’s doubts?
Han Shuo laughed softly and said, “Didn’t I already hear you guys describe the situation before we entered? My intuition towards cave terrain is highly sensitive. From your description, I can instantly and accurately determine the terrain of this area. Do you believe me or not?”
Hearing Han Shuo’s explanation, Delia was stunned before asking with a half doubtful expression, “Really?”
“Of course!” Han Shuo laughed out loud, “I’ve never been to Mount Silk before, let alone have the chance to explore this mine. How would I be this familiar with the way if I don’t have a keen sense for cave terrain?”
Except for the three tunnels in this area, there was only the passage that they had just come through. If the stone men didn’t come from the three tunnels, could it be that they came from the passage as well?
Han Shuo’s heart was full of doubts. He didn’t continue observing the surrounding anymore, and sat still to think instead. He suddenly whistled in a low tone. The whistle started out faint and low, gradually became louder and high pitched, then ending in an echo like a dragon roar.
“Alright, if the stone men are close by, they will definitely hear it and come over. We only have to wait and see.” Han Shuo turned to tell the nervous looking miners.
End of part one of the chapter.
To Han Shuo’s left, Delia was bending down to survey the surroundings, revealing her breathtaking curves of her waist. She only wore a soft leather miniskirt on her lower body, accentuating the curve of her hips and her tantalizing bare legs. When Han Shuo caught sight of her when he turned to give orders to the miners, he couldn’t help but spend a little time savoring her round buttocks.
Most of the nervous miners didn’t notice, except for the three who accidentally saw this beautiful scene as well. The three young men all swallowed hard, and suddenly developed a slight hunch to their posture, trying to conceal a newly rising bulge..
Looking around, Delia abruptly turned around quickly, her bright eyes looking straight at Han Shuo, whose stare was fixed on her hips. Caught red handed, Han Shuo awkwardly coughed dryly and conscientiously turned his head away.
Delia was flushing red. She glared ferociously at the awkward Han Shuo and snorted lightly. She then angrily turned to the three miners and shouted, “What are you rascals looking at? Could it be you guys already want to seek death after I leave Mount SIlk for a few days?”
Finishing speaking, Delia lowered her voice to mutter, “Men really are no good!” It was unknown whether or not this sentence was deliberately said only for Han Shuo’s ears, but he’d heard it indeed. He secretly thought, ‘Aren’t women meant to be looked at by men? How did you know we were peeping at you? You bent over to expose that wonderfully beautiful curved butt. Wasn’t that intentional?’
As Han Shuo mused, several almost intangible wisps floated in from the three narrow tunnels. Han Shuo looked around but didn’t find anything that would’ve provoked them. However, as a necromancer and a demonic cultivator, he could immediately sense that these breaths was similar to the existence of the wraiths.
He quietly cast a soul exploration magic, observing the eight murky mists, which were hidden from human eyes, slowly moving to a few dark corners. They slowly spread out, each coiling on top of a large block of rock. They then imbued each rock with a strange power.
The originally solid rocks slowly became malleable after being suffused with these pulses of power. Afterwards, it was like someone was molding these rocks, as they split into eight stone men that the miners had faced before. Han Shuo, who was adept at both demonic magic and necromancy magic, saw this stone shaping process clearly.
After the eight stone men slowly emerged from the corners, Han Shuo finally understood how they’d suddenly appeared in this place last time. So it’s actually like this, hmm! Evidently, only the souls came out of those three narrow passages, which then used the rocks here to reform their bodies.
“Eight of them, with fully formed bodies. Are they getting ready to attack?” Han Shuo took out the skeletal staff to summon dozens of skeletal warriors as well as zombie warriors. Some of them surrounded Delia and the miners as Han Shuo looked at the eight stone men slowly coming out of the dark corners.
The rock ceiling of this area was too low, higher rank undead creatures like the hate warriors and evil knights would be hard pressed to display their full power. Only the short and small skeletal and zombie warriors could easily move about in this place.
Delia was scared out of her wits at suddenly being surrounded by a crowd of skeletal and zombie warriors. These undead creatures naturally didn’t look very pleasing to the eye, and the morass of deathly aura that enveloped them sent a shiver of fear through her.
However, upon hearing Han Shuo’s words and seeing that they only surrounded her without any intention to attack, Delia knew that these were the guards that Han Shuo had summoned for her. She then immediately felt reassured in her heart.
“My Lord, have the stone men appeared?” Delia calmed down and finally reacted to Han Shuo’s words, raising her dagger.
The light here was too dim. The eight stone men were also forming in the shadows, so Delia’s group simply couldn’t see their movement. Nodding his head, Han Shuo smiled and said, “That’s right, eight stone men.”
The eight scattered stone men suddenly began to attack Han Shuo as they spoke, charging in from the eight dark corners. Their bodies were formed from the iron ore of this mine, and thus ordinary magic attacks wouldn’t be very effective. Even standard weapons weren’t much of a threat to these stone men. No wonder so many miners had died here last time.
However, Han Shuo’s current body was much more solid than iron and rocks. He didn’t even need to take out the Demonslayer Edge to deal with these stone men; he just crouched and smashed directly into them.
“Interesting, just what kind of creature are you guys?” Han Shuo still had the leisure to ask questions even when wrestling with eight stone men.
Surrounded by the undead creatures, Delia watched Han Shuo face the attacks from the stone men without fear. Even though some fists and kicks connected, he didn’t respond at all. It was as if Han Shuo’s body was even more solid than the stone men made of iron ore.
Han Shuo slammed his bare fists on the eight stone men’s bodies. This time, it was them who was forced to retreat. Sounds of metal rang out as Han Shuo’s fists connected with their iron bodies, rendering Delia’s group speechless as they watched with eyes and mouths wide open.
In the Profound Continent, the only ones who counted as experts at close combat were swordsmen and knights. But they too had to use fighting aura to enhance the defensive abilities of their physical bodies. No one had ever heard of a physical body strong enough to not require the supplementation of fighting aura.
And indeed, Han Shuo wasn’t using the defensive power of magical yuan. He was simply using the durability of his body to forcefully block the stone men’s attacks. When his magical cultivation reached the separate demon realm, Han Shuo’s body was far sturdier than iron. Ordinary swords wouldn’t even leave a mark on him anymore
After fighting for a while and discovering that these eight stone men didn’t show any signs of communicating amongst themselves, Han Shuo became impatient. He began to gather a bit of magical yuan on his hands as he attacked. The stone men were already reeling from the physical blows, they couldn’t withstand these newly reinforced blows. Han Shuo grabbed their necks in his hand, ignoring the blows they were raining on his chests and beheading them with one crush.
The speed of Han Shuo’s movements suddenly increased. His fists, now packed with magical yuan, smashed the stone men’s bodies into fragments. In the blink of an eye, the eight stone men were completely pulverized into stone chips. Not a single whole block of stone remained.
“His Lordship is truly so strong!” A miner couldn’t stop mumbling, a look of worship on his face.
Delia’s pretty eyes glinted with a strange light as she stared at Han Shuo. She’d just watched him smash the stone men to shards using nothing but his bare hands. In the eyes of a woman who worshipped wild and strong men, this was far too irresistible. Delia couldn’t stop her heart from pounding.
“Want to run? Heh heh, won’t be that easy!” After Han Shuo destroyed the bodies of the eight stone men, the eight murky wisps from the three tunnels seemed to know that Han Shuo wasn’t someone they could deal with. They began to slowly gather, planning to return the way they’d come.
Be it his identity as a demonic cultivator or a necromancer, Han Shuo had methods aplenty to deal with this kind of weird soul. His left hand stretching out, a surge of murderous intent flooded out from his palm like a miniature vortex. This murderous intent was harmless to physical bodies, but those eight wisps were unable to resist its suction.
Not only were the eight souls unable to take a single step away from Han Shuo, they were slowly absorbed by the force of the small vortex on his palm. When the eight of them fell into his palm, they were tightly held down by the murderous intent, unable to break free.
“Speak! What kind of thing are you?” This time, Han Shuo didn’t speak audibly, but used his consciousness to transmit the message.
The murkiness of the eight souls whirling in the high speed of the vortex on his palm slowly dispersed, and they became eight sparkling green light dots. Just like eight beautiful shining stars, the tiny tornado in Han Shuo’s hand had become a facsimile of the deep and profound Milky Way.
What should have been a dark and scary scene had turned into an intoxicatingly beautiful picture in Delia’s eyes. It was as if Han Shuo’s hand was an endless starry sky, sparkling with the twinkling of the night stars. If, at this moment, someone asked her which man could pluck the stars from the night sky for her, she’d instantly answer without hesitation: it was definitely the man right in front of her. There was a sky full of stars in his grasp.
After using his consciousness to transmit the message, Han Shuo felt a weak response. The consciousness of these eight souls was too small compared to his powerful consciousness. Therefore, the message they transmitted was also very faint, “Mercy please. We are the miners who died to the mine collapse before. Our souls didn’t disperse, but drifted to a strange place and absorbed a strange energy, becoming what you see here.”
Han Shuo stilled his mind to listen carefully. When he gradually understood the message, he was stunned, “What was that strange place?”
“We don’t know either. Strange energy filled that area. We don’t know why our souls slowly became powerful when we absorbed some of that energy. We can even have the power to manipulate stone and form bodies of stone for ourselves. We couldn’t let the miners harvest that area and destroy that place of miraculous energy, so we attacked the miners. We beg you, please let us go. We won’t dare to do that from now on.” The eight souls on Han Shuo’s palm had joined together, clearing up the message they transmitted.
Han Shuo first frowned in doubt when he started listening, before inspiration struck. He suddenly yelled out in delight, “Haha, I know now. So that’s how it is!”
This joyous loud scream wasn’t a silent communication, but a loud cheer that broke through the air. This made Delia’s group jump in shock. They stared inexplicably at him, not knowing why he’d suddenly became so high spirited.
“My Lord, what is it?” When she looked at Han Shuo this time, Delia didn’t know why she suddenly felt that he was the most tempting of men. Her voice had unknowingly turned soft and tender.
“Nothing much.” Han Shuo took out the skeletal staff to send all of the undead creatures around Delia’s group back to the strange dimension. He then thought for a bit before responding, “You guys should stop mining from this area from now, or you’ll meet with danger. You can just come pick up harvested ore once a month. Mm, rest assured the stone men won’t attack you anymore. Alright, you guys leave first, leave this matter for me to handle.”
Delia’s crew was full of doubt at Han Shuo’s words. They only saw him easily annihilate the stone men, but didn’t know why he would say what he had.
“My Lord, can you tell us what’s going on here?” Delia thought for a moment before asking Han Shuo.
“Oh, the stone men have submitted to me. From now on, they will have to mine a portion of ore every month, at rates surely more productive than you. You only need to come here once a month to collect it. I have agreed to let them have the area around these three tunnels as their living place in return for helping you with the mining.” Han Shuo smiled and explained to Delia.
“But, didn’t the stone men die already?” Delia asked, puzzled.
“They didn’t. Their souls are still in my hand. You guys can be at ease and leave. From now on, you only have to come here once a month to collect the ore. This is the best of both worlds.” Han Shuo explained to Delia.
Delia had originally come looking for the stone men to settle their debt. Now that Han Shuo had destroyed their bodies, captured their souls, and offered such favorable conditions, she readily agreed to Han Shuo’s words without asking too much about it.
“Alright. I’ll leave with them first. I’ll wait for you at the entrance.” Delia didn’t ask why Han Shuo wanted to remain here. She spoke a few words to the miners before leading them back the way they’d come.
After Delia’s group left, Han Shuo followed the guidance of the stone men’s souls to crawl into a narrow tunnel on his belly. Proceeding forward for seven, eight hundred meters, he suddenly emerged into a vast area.
Every part of this area was covered by stones of various colors. The rock wall over his head was a light silver color, sparkling with a silvery sheen. A variety red, purple and white ores were present, some of which Han Shuo knew and some he’d never heard of before. They were scattered everywhere in this wondrous area.
A dense sense of metal element filled the area. There was an enormous rock pillar in the center exuding a concentrated force of metal.
The place of extreme metal – the last of the five places of extreme elements, had finally revealed itself in front of Han Shuo!