Chapter 340
Chapter 340: The upside down Gourd Mountain
“No wonder, Celt has captured and killed three of our members during this time. He must have heard from Kassel that it was you who saved us last time. Celt should already know your identity by now.”
The traitor druid, Kassel, had been pursuing Cecilia and her group when Han Shuo had suddenly rushed out to block him. After returning to the Redbud Knights, Kassel must have reported the situation to Celt. As many members of the Dark Mantle knew of Han Shuo, the three captured must have revealed the truth under Celt’s torture.
“If that’s the case, I’d also like to use this opportunity to kill Celt. I’m sure he has yet to recover from his injury. Now is the best time to go for it.” Han Shuo’s voice was as cold as the tundra wind;he was determined to destroy his enemy at the roots.
“You’re right, Celt indeed hasn’t recovered, but because of this he is now heavily protected by the guards. The Redbud Knights are one of the top ten knight troops on the Continent, and Celt and Kassel aren’t its only experts. This time, I heard that the fire grand magus Marceau had also come along. That old woman’s too powerful, and extremely difficult to deal with.” Fearing that he had taken this matter too lightly, Emily hurriedly told Han Shuo everything about the Redbud Knights.
Han Shou’s lips curved into a disdainful smile as he replied, “That fire grand magus is already dead, so she won’t be posing a threat anymore. No worries there!”
Emily was once again stunned when she heard these words. She stared blankly at the confident Han Shuo, trying to feel him out, “You killed her too?”
Nodding his head, Han Shuo said, “Yup, still me!”
Emily was speechless.
Pulling Emily into his embrace, Han Shuo whispered with a grin, “I haven’t seen you in a long time, and I’ve really missed you too much. Bringing me to this remote corner, is it that you want me to… heh heh……”
Han Shuo could immediately sense the powerful presence within the bald mountain. He quickly assessed the situation and concluded that this was a powerful creature comparable to the Lord of the Flames. The earth elite zombie was still far from the mountain, so Han Shuo hastily ordered him to retreat.
The earth elite zombie retreated nimbly, like a little eel, to Han Shuo’s feet. He jumped out of the earth to Han Shuo’s side without waiting for that strange energy to draw near.
Han Shuo waved the white bone staff in his left hand. A mass of black mist appeared, wrapping around the emerging earth elite zombie, and the white bone staff issued a light breeze. As the breeze gradually dispersed the black mist, the earth elite zombie had also disappeared without a trace.
Upon reaching Han Shuo’s feet, the strange energy suddenly lost its target, and returned to the bald mountain’s depths. After the mountain-shaking howl, hundreds of lizardmen sprang out from the various caves with weapons in hands, cautiously prepared and ready for any incoming attack.
“No wonder Celt failed multiple times. With such a powerful creature guarding the magic crystal mine, this would certainly give him a headache.” Han Shuo muttered to himself, slowly retreating to a darker, more remote corner. He watched the now alert lizardmen from afar, knowing that they had received news of his invasion with the help of that strange creature.
With such a powerful creature entrenched in the upside down gourd mountain, it would be somewhat difficult if Han Shuo wanted to advance into the mine. This creature had a terrifying spiritual presence, it had even discovered the earth elite zombie sneaking in from beneath the earth. As such, Han Shuo couldn’t guarantee if he himself could enter the mine by suppressing his presence.
Han Shuo naturally wouldn’t risk it as long as there was a single shred of uncertainty. Not to mention the powerful creature, just the hundreds of lizardmen endlessly appearing from within the mine would leave him hard pressed.
After hesitating for a bit, Han Shuo temporarily dispelled the idea of sneaking in. He’d wait for the Redbud Knights’ to arrive to aid Celt, and then decide his next course of action accordingly.
Be it Celt or any other person, as long as their final goal was the magic crystal mine, they would appear again. Han Shuo fully understood this, so he wasn’t in a hurry to leave. Instead, he remained hiding beneath the rocks, silently meditating while awaiting the arrival of those people.
Upon reaching the separate demon realm of demonic magic, one would reach a bottleneck, and future progress would become increasingly harder. However, with each realm’s breakthrough, the cultivator’s power would immediately increase ten, a hundred fold compared to before. Chu Cang Lan was able to fly to the moon at the mere peak of the nine changes realm. Reaching that realm in this world could be comparable to the gods.
Han Shuo only needed to make a breakthrough from the realm of “separate demon” to “carnal”, and then take one more step to reach the “nine changes” realm. Unfortunately, starting from the “separate demon” realm, each realm would composed of many obstacles. Without fortuitous encounters during their cultivation, demonic practitioners would have to spend year after year in hard training before they could take another step forward.
According to the memory of Chu Cang Lan, Han Shuo knew that without fortuitous encounters, it’d take at least a hundred years to advance from the realm of “separate demon” to the “carnal” realm. Even five hundred years wouldn’t necessarily be enough to go from “carnal” to “nine changes”. No one could say if the cultivator wouldn’t go mad with obsession midway through their practice either. As for breaking through from the “nine changes” to the “omen” realm, even Chu Cang Lan had no clue. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have kidnapped t Han Shuo, taken him to the moon and fought the three strong experts to seek a chance of breaking through in the decisive battle.
“One hundred years is really too long. I need to find other ways to do this.” Han Shuo murmured, silently imprinting the information regarding “fortuitous encounters” from Chu Cang Lan’s memory in his heart. He would be ready for any opportunity in the future.
The so-called “fortuitous encounter” was simply a place with an enormous amount of demonic qi suitable for his magical cultivation or swallowing a treasure nurtured by heaven and earth for hundreds of millions of years. It could also mean refining magical treasures and then using those to nourish the demon infant. There was also the method of devouring fellow demonic cultivators.
Sitting cross-legged behind a rock, Han Shuo considered the feasibility of these “fortuitous encounters” as well as some other things, such as the way to cultivate both magic and demonic magic together. After a few days passed unknowingly, Han Shuo’s mind brightened as he suddenly thought of a new idea.
The last time he fought Kosse, the latter had destroyed much of Han Shuo’s necromancy magic with his divine artifact “Revelation”. The undead creatures and Acid Bog had all dissipated after being purified under the holy light. To a necromancer like Han Shuo, this was simply a fatal blow.
Had it not been for Han Shuo’s practice of demonic magic that allowed him to use mysterious methods to create five divine elemental zombies, he would have lost the fight against Kosse and the knights.
The reason why the Church of Light and the Calamity Church were so afraid of Han Shuo was that his little skeleton and creatures didn’t fear light magic. Han Shuo was planning on honing in precisely on this point.
High-ranked undead creatures such as the evil knight possessed frightening lethality and attacking abilities, so they weren’t too afraid of normal light magic. However, if Kosse used “Revelation” to release the holy light, Han Shuo knew that even evil knights would be hard pressed to avoid serious injury.
Necromancers and the Calamity Church actually possessed a long and illustrious history, but due to the effect of holy light on undead creatures, they’d always been at a disadvantage against the Church of Light. Once this rule was broken, Han Shuo believed the Church of Light wouldn’t be able to hold onto their absolute advantage forever.
The Church of Light fears this the most, so I really should leverage this. I have the high-ranked evil knight and soon I will be able to summon bone demons and old fey zombies. I don’t expect them to have the same ability as little skeleton or the earth elite zombie. However, if I refine them again with the demonic magic secret bone method, then they shouldn’t fear the corrosion of light magic anymore right?
High-ranked undead creatures such as the evil knight, the bone demon and the old fey zombie would be frighteningly lethal without the weakness of holy light. When the Church of Light has to face a never ending stream of undead creatures fearless in the face of their light magic, won’t they be scared to death then?
The more Han Shuo pondered, the more he understood that this was the fastest way to improve his strength. As long as he successfully created anti-light creatures, Han Shuo believed Kosse would meet his maker no matter how many knights he had backing him up.
“It looks like I need to start experimenting with how to rid the undead of their weakness to holy light upon my return to the Cemetery of Death this time.” Han Shuo thought to himself as he made up his mind.
At that moment, the yin demon around Han Shuo sensed a big group of living creatures coming near. It looked toward their direction and saw some familiar dark elves, in addition to the brightly armored Redbud Knights. Even dark elf Dana, with whom Han Shuo had dealings with before, had brought her tribe to follow Celt.
“Interesting, all of my enemies have gathered!” Han Shuo muttered, standing up from his cross-legged posture. He was ready to see how this group would deal with the powerful creature residing inside the mountain.