Chapter 711 - Mysterious little girl
It was also at this time that the little girl drenched in blood cast her ice-cold purple eyes at the lush tree he was hiding in.
The little girl’s cute dress appeared as beautiful as red roses after being stained by fresh blood. That, however, was overshadowed by the chilling aura that she emanated. Instead of adorable, she appeared extremely terrifying.
Han Shuo, who had been silently observing the situation beneath him couldn’t make out exactly what energy that little girl used but was certain that the energy did not belong to any of the twelve fundamental forces. Han Shuo found the girl to be extremely unique when he saw her shred two midgods into bits in an instant and even appeared to enjoy it.
“Mister, you do know that there are caterpillars crawling on the tree, right?” the little girl said in a teasing voice. Her purple eyes shone as though she could see through all the obstacles before them.
Han Shuo’s heart sank. He knew that his location was fully exposed to the little girl. Han Shuo turned over in his mind for a moment before he forced a smile and flew down from the tree. Maintaining a distance from her, he immediately explained, “I’m not with them, please don’t misunderstand!”
“Not with them? Hmm... but that doesn’t make much of a difference, you have witnessed me commit murder!” she looked at Han Shuo with an innocent pout but her voice was colder than liquid nitrogen.
“You... intend to kill me?” Han Shuo stared blankly for a moment before he asked with a slight grin.
“Well, yes. Terribly sorry about this!” the little girl apologized and bowed at Han Shuo slightly. Next, she started to float in his direction. A most bizarre energy field suddenly shrouded the space around him. This energy field was completely different from a domain of divinity. It doesn’t alter the distribution or amount of elemental energy in the space but fills it with countless vortexes that were hardly visible to the naked eye. Those vortexes contained strange energies that seemed to be able to twist and shred all that entered.
Han Shuo’s acute consciousness immediately detected the changes to the surrounding space when the energy field took shape. The numerous and densely packed vortexes may have been hardly visible to the naked eye, but Han Shuo could clearly detect their precise locations as well as their motions by using his wonderfully sensitive consciousness.
The little girl was not affected by the vortexes in any way. Her body had passed through many of those vortexes unharmed as she glided towards Han Shuo. However, Han Shuo knew that those vortexes contained terrifying energy, which was evident by how brutally the two midgods were killed.
The vortexes in the energy field started to move and revolve as they constricted towards Han Shuo...
Han Shuo calmly stared at the little girl slowly approaching him. As the area he could move about became smaller and smaller, Han Shuo suddenly turned into a shadow. He escaped from a small open region at high speed while elongating and shrinking his body. By deploying ‘Body Change’ to the ultimate, Han Shuo managed to bore out from the constantly constricting swarm of vortexes.
Han Shuo took a gentle breath and adjusted his mind to the most optimal stand. He landed in the blood pool where the little girl previously stood and casually took the two yet-to-dissipate midgod souls into the Cauldron of Myriad Demon. He then turned to look at the rather astonished little girl and said coldly, “We have no quarrel with each other. But if you attack again, I will fight you until one of us die!”
That little girl did not anticipate that Han Shuo could easily escape from the energy field she created and she seemed to see a mysterious veil draped over Han Shuo. She gently bunched her brows as though considering if she should attack again. A moment later, she gently nodded her head, and said in a cold voice, “There is an unknown type of energy on you, one that I have never seen before. We indeed have no quarrel with each other. You may leave!”
Han Shuo was even more shocked to hear those words as he did not expect that this little girl could make out the demonic arts that he had been concealing. With that, Han Shuo grew even more cautious about her.
“Master, leave this little girl. She is much more terrifying than the one who attacked you the last time!” Cauldron Spirit warned in Han Shuo’s consciousness.
Although Han Shuo wore the same expression on his face, his heart was as tumultuous as the sea during a storm after hearing Cauldron Spirit’s words. He looked deep into the girl’s eyes, nodded, and disappeared from the place without saying a word.
“That little girl, are you sure she is more formidable than Avery?” Han Shuo asked Cauldron Spirit. He remained astonished about the fact even after leaving the place.
“Yes, I have deduced that from her life force. In addition to that, she has something strange inside her. It should be a so-called divine weapon in this universe. That divine weapon contains strange energy but it is pretty decent,” Cauldron Spirit explained to Han Shuo.
The Cauldron of Myriad Demon, as the ultimate weapon of demonic arts, even as it had exhausted the millions of demon generals it used to possess during its glory days, was not one to be easily impressed. If it said that the divine weapon the little girl possessed was decent, then the divine weapon would be truly extraordinary.
Han Shuo became even more resolved not to provoke the little girl. An expert with strength beyond fathom and a divine weapon beyond terrifying wasn’t someone that he should meddle with at this point in time. Especially as they were not enemies, Han Shuo thought that there was no point in making trouble for himself.
After Han Shuo’s first targets were slaughtered by that little girl, Han Shuo had no choice but to look for another target.
After two days, Han Shuo found a godhunter cultivating in the energy of death with early-stage midgod strength. This time, Han Shuo’s hunting went without a hitch. Given the current strength of Han Shuo’s demonic arts and the enormous coverage area of his demon generals, there was no way that the godhunter could resist Han Shuo’s sneak attack. Han Shuo again had the chance of experiencing the wonderful sensation of having another’s divine energy flowing into his body.
Although it was possible to consume the divine energy of another person cultivating in the same energy, the beneficiary could not obtain all the divine energy that the benefactor possessed. In reality, the beneficiary would only inherit approximately ten percent of the benefactor’s divine energy, if not less.
The divine energy that others had gained through arduous cultivation, after all, belonged to themselves. A portion of their divine energy would always remain in the cultivator’s skin, flesh, organs, and bones. Those could not be taken.
On top of that, the process of consuming another’s divine energy was very inefficient. It didn’t matter how skilled the godhunter was at devouring divine energy. When the prey was being devoured, he would not be able to control the divine energy in his body. Although this allowed the predator to absorb and take the prey’s divine energy, a greater portion of the prey’s divine energy would be lost to heaven and earth through his eyes, ears, nostrils, mouth, hair, and every pore on his body. This loss wasn’t something that could be prevented.
And finally, after soaking in all of his prey’s divine energy, the predator would have to purify it before he could fully assimilate it with his own divine energy. This process meant further losses of divine energy. After accounting for all the inefficiencies, the effective divine energy that a predator could gain from a prey was one-tenth of the prey’s divine energy.
Therefore, Han Shuo had merely obtained effectively one-tenth of the divine energy of that early-stage midgod.
However, as his prey was a midgod, just one-tenth of the divine energy was enough for Han Shuo’s lowgod avatar to make a breakthrough!
When the divine energy that Han Shuo’s avatar of death possessed was intense to the stage that a transformation was imminent, it immediately entered the Cauldron of Myriad Demon and sank into a meditative state.
Meanwhile, Han Shuo, using his main body, started searching for his next target – godhunters cultivating in the edict of destruction!
For seven days straight, Han Shuo traveled around the Greenfire Swamp in search of suitable prey for his avatar of destruction to deepen its destruction divine energy. However, his findings were rather unexpected – he came across not a single godhunter!
Unresigned, Han Shuo went searching around the Greenfire Swamp for another three days. By chance, one of his demon generals saw that mysterious little girl slaughter a godhunter cultivating in the energy of darkness and uttered: “Should be clean now.” Immediately, Han Shuo understood why he couldn’t find anymore godhunters.
As that little girl had finished off all the godhunters, Han Shuo had no reason left to stay in Greenfire Swamp. Besides, Han Shuo couldn’t betray his conscience to slaughter those gods who came to this place for the energy stones and medicinal ingredients.
Should I return to the City of Shadows? Han Shuo pondered.
It hadn’t been long since the deaths of Cage and Eve. If Han Shuo was to return to the City of Shadows during this sensitive period, he would likely become a target of Avery’s. The likelihood of getting assassinated by him was just too high to risk.
Before coming to Elysium, Han Shuo had promised his girlfriends back on Profound Continent that once he gained a foothold on Elysium, he would bring them over. In the City of Shadows, Han Shuo had befriended Carmelita, associated himself with the House of Sainte, and even established the Celestial Pearl Pharmacy which had become very popular. The City of Shadows was the place where he could establish himself in the shortest amount of time. But due to his animosity with Avery Lavers, he would be in great danger if he were to live in the city. Han Shuo was troubled with this dilemma.
After turning over in his mind again and again, Han Shuo still could not come to a decision. However, he was already on the way out of Greenfire Swamp while thinking.
Han Shuo exited the Greenfire Swamp after half a day. He slowly traveled in the direction towards the City of Shadows. He decided to stay outside the City of Shadows and enter the city after the incident died down.
Whoosh... Han Shuo suddenly heard something from behind him.
Han Shuo was shocked and immediately turned around to discover a small white dot rapidly approaching. Just a few seconds later, the small white dot revealed itself to be none other than that mysterious little girl. She was clenching her teeth and charging in Han Shuo’s direction. There was a rather sinister expression on her face. Han Shuo grew wary.
The little girl possessed extremely acute senses. Given their current distance, Han Shuo believe that she had discovered him and might be trying to kill him. Having witnessed her wrath, Han Shuo hastily turned to face her and got ready for an all-out fight.
But the situation wasn’t as Han Shuo had anticipated. That little girl suddenly became unstable in her flight and she revealed an expression of pain. Suddenly, she let out a cry and started plummeting from the sky.
Soon enough, a splash sounded from the sea below Han Shuo’s feet. A pair of small hands were constantly paddling and flapping. She seemed to be trying to say something.
“That little girl is heavily injured, I can sense it!” Cauldron Spirit transmitted to Han Shuo.
Han Shuo looked all around suspiciously and released a few demon generals.
If that little girl was already ridiculously powerful, then just how frightening did the person who harmed her have to be?
Having come to that realization, Han Shuo immediately thought of leaving. That little girl under the sea wasn’t adorable at all. Han Shuo had seen her murder effortlessly and happily. He did not feel any sympathy for her. All he wanted was to leave this trouble as soon as he could.
“Save... Save me...” The girl managed to barely lift her head above the water and shouted at Han Shuo as he looked on coldly. She gazed at him with pitiable eyes. At this moment, all that was on her face was weakness and powerlessness. The fury she displayed during her rampage was nowhere to be seen.
Han Shuo, as compassionate and tenderhearted as he was, let out a gentle sigh. He flew into the sea, grabbed the little girl, and rapidly flew away.
Rumbles... Suddenly, an enormous explosion came from the direction of Greenfire Swamp. Han Shuo could hear it even though it was a great distance away.
That little girl who was at her last gasp was jolted. She said hastily, “Hurry up, hurry! They have broken through the boundary!”
Han Shuo did not know who was after her but he did not waste time in wondering. Immediately, he started flying away from this dangerous place at his fastest speed. He passed through the ‘Poseidon’s Tears’ of Fort Hassell and a village before stopping inside a mountain range.
“I think... I think we are safe for now...” The little girl was holding Han Shuo by the corner of his shirt and could barely manage to speak in short breaths.
“Who’s after you?” Han Shuo creased his brows and asked the powerless girl. “And what is your name?”
After a moment of hesitation, she softly answered, “Andrina.” She revealed nothing about who was pursuing her.
“Are you feeling any better? Can you leave by yourself?” The little girl was just too dangerous. Han Shuo didn’t want to be around such a person with unidentified origin and could threaten his life.
“Are you going to abandon me?” Andrina asked as she blinked her big, purple eyes.
“Your powers are just too terrifying and I know nothing about your origin or identity. If I were to stay beside you, I might turn into a pile of bones before I know it. Either way, you have already escaped from the pursuit of your enemy. I believe now is the time for us to go on our ways. No need to thank me. Farewell.”
“If you abandon me now, I will surely die in less than three days!” Andrina then looked at Han Shuo calmly and continued, “If you continue to help me escape, after I have healed from my injuries, I swear not only that I won’t harm you, I will repay the favor!”
Han Shuo kept silent for a moment before he suddenly asked, “Who was actually after you?”
“Godhunters, the mightiest few!” Andrina was somewhat hesitant to answer but seeing that cautious expression on Han Shuo’s face, she knew that Han Shuo would immediately dump her and leave if she didn’t give an answer.
“Oh? Haven’t you killed all the godhunters in Greenfire Swamp? How could there be more?” Han Shuo asked.
“They arrived recently specifically to get me. They are the leaders of the godhunters!” Andrina seemed somewhat astonished that Han Shuo was actually aware of her deeds back at Greenfire Swamp.
“Are they on the level of Brovst?” Han Shuo asked with a deep voice.
“How do you know Brovst?” Andrina cried out in surprise.
“That guy nearly got me killed, of course I would know his name,” Han Shuo answered.
“Do you have crystal coins on you?” Andrina did not continue to talk about godhunters and suddenly changed the topic.
Han Shuo, however, wanted to stay on the topic, “You have not answered my question.”
“I will tell you after I have healed from my injuries. I’m now a critically injured and ill person!” Andrina replied with a weak voice as she looked at Han Shuo, begging for his pity.
Han Shuo casually took out a medicinal bottle and handed a Pill of Rejuvenation to Andrina, “Eat this, it will help your injuries.”
Andrina shook her head and said, “It won’t. My body is unique. No medicine can have an effect on me. That, erm, do you have crystal coins?”
Han Shuo stared blankly for a moment before he casually took out a dozen or so black crystal coins to Andrina, “Look at your injuries, what would you need crystal coins for? E... what... what the...”
Before Han Shuo could finish talking, he saw Andrina quickly receive the black crystal coins, put them into her mouth, and start munching them. Han Shuo discovered that her ill complexion seemed to have improved slightly after eating those crystal coins.
“Do you... have more?” Andrina wiped the corner of her mouth and asked in a low voice.
“E... yes... Yes!” Han Shuo was startled for a moment before he hastily pulled out a bag of black crystal coin from his space ring and handed it to her. Han Shuo was astonished. He did not expect that Andrina asked for crystal coins not to spend them but to consume them!