Chapter 453: Icebound
Before Han Shuo could even react, he felt his consciousness being violently stung by five mysterious energy forces. The five rays of energy felt like sharp awls, dealing an enormous stabbing pain onto Han Shuo.
His consciousness seemed to be thumped!
The whirling motion Han Shuo was making with his two hands while wielding Demonic Blades abruptly halted. The seven four-horned aliens which had surrounded Han Shuo continued to close in on him, and the horns on their heads similarly shone with dark green radiance. Shortly after, twenty-eight mysterious energy forces came pouring into Han Shuo’s consciousness, and with that followed another twenty-eight weaker attacks on his soul.
What a splitting headache!
That was the most direct string of blows he had ever perceived. The acute pain even caused Han Shuo momentary vertigo and hallucination. Although an attack on the soul was a rather straightforward technique, it could give one an immense pain as though his brain was being rummaged with knife blades.
Countless years of cultivation in the demonic arts had caused Han Shuo to develop his ability to endure pain to an extraordinary stage. Not only did the demonic arts allow Han Shuo’s soul to evolve into a high-level consciousness, it also made his consciousness more tenacious and miraculous than a normal human being could ever imagine.
In all those days of the constant, perverted tempering of his body, he had endured pain and agony that no ordinary person could endure. Thus, when the stinging pain suddenly burst forth in his mind, the dizziness only lasted for two seconds!
After those two seconds, the blood essence within Han Shuo’s demonic infant flared up, and instantaneously, his consciousness gained an inexhaustible energy.
Unexpectedly, the lump of consciousness in his brain broke into millions of strands. The energy forces attacking Han Shuo’s consciousness suddenly lost their target!
A moment later, Han Shuo’s scattered consciousness regrouped at the site of his demonic infant.
The altogether thirty-three soul-attacking energy forces reacted as they sensed the reappearance of Han Shuo’s consciousness. However, before they could attack again, Han Shuo’s consciousness, which was fused with the demonic infant, suddenly released an absorption force of utmost ferocity!
The ‘Demonic Art of Assimilation’, which represented the inherent attribute of demonic cultivators to devour everything, was deployed with the demonic infant as the root. A violent vortex formed.
Of the mysterious energy forces aimed at attacking Han Shuo’s consciousness, twenty-eight were trapped by the absorption force before they could pull out from Han Shuo’s body!
Han Shuo tightened his consciousness. Like a giant whale inhaling, twenty-eight soul-attacking energy forces entered the tiny mouth of the demonic infant.
The five mysterious energy forces that originated from the alien leader, however, seemed to be a step ahead. When Han Shuo’s consciousness regathered in the demonic infant to form the ‘Demonic Art of Assimilation’, the five mysterious energies seemed to have sensed danger and escaped from Han Shuo’s body in advance.
“ROAR!” Han Shuo shouted loudly after having sensed his demonic infant breaking down and absorbing the mysterious energy. The Demonic Blades in his two hands thawed and resumed their rapid whirling.
When the five horns on the alien leader shone brightly it was already charging rapidly towards the seven quadrahorned alien experts. The green pupils that locked coldly on Han Shuo suddenly seemed to contain an extra trace of fear. The blueish-green lustered horns on their heads turned a bleak shade.
Only the alien leader that descended from the top of the altar retained the tint of its five horns. It looked as if the five mysterious energy forces that left Han Shuo’s body in advance had been recalled to its source, so as to not suffer further damage.
Before reaching the Carnal Realm, Han Shuo already understood that the demonic arts, which benefits one to the detriment of others, possesses the miraculous ability to engulf energy. With Han Shuo’s leveling up in demonic realm, the demonic infant’s ability to engulf energy for its own use became increasingly prominent.
However, perhaps it was because demonic cultivators belonged to an extremely wicked faction, the demon infant’s engulfment seemed to reject all positive energy, including holy energy and fighting aura. It was as though the demon infant refused to absorb this energy in order to preserve the pure wickedness of the energy in Han Shuo’s body.
When it came to chaotic, negative energy that caused violence and corruption, no matter how strange or mysterious the origin, once it fell deep into Han Shuo’s body, the demonic infant would always magically absorb it, and convert it into the purest, most suitable energy for the demon infant to continue growing and evolving.
It was such with the wicked energy in Elizabeth’s body, and with the energy contained in the bodies of these overtly unkind aliens.
Subconsciously, Han Shuo realized that he himself was the big heretic of the evil faction. All kinds of evil energy was his to use!
I am, indeed, a bad guy! Not only that, I’m the also the bad guy that punishes other bad guys!
As Han Shuo thought to himself and laughed, the Demonic Blades in his two hands revolved rapidly, producing flashes nearly invisible to the naked eye.
As for the four-horned aliens nearest to Han Shuo that were unable to retreat in time; before, Han Shuo’s Demonic Blades could leave only blood trails on their bodies. But now, after a round of Demonic Blades flashes, Han Shuo discovered that the new wounds on the seven alien experts around him were deep to the bone!
The trace of fear in the green pupils of the seven alien experts turned into shear dread. All of a sudden, the seven aliens that surrounded him stepped away from Han Shuo uniformly. Fresh, reeking green blood gushed uncontrollably from the new cuts on their bodies!
Han Shuo, too, was dazed. He inspected the meter-long Demonic Blades, almost flabbergasted, not understanding why his Demonic Blades could suddenly deal such extensive injury to the seven aliens.
After some careful thinking, Han Shuo noticed that the only difference between this attack and previous attacks was that the demonic infant had now absorbed the mysterious energy that attacked his soul from the seven aliens. Could the reason have been his demon infant’s absorption of the twenty-eight strands of mysterious energy from the aliens?
“Hey! Elder Sister Tiana, could you hurry up a little?” Stratholme’s yell sounded a short distance away from Han Shuo as he was pondering.
When Han Shuo turned his head, he discovered that Stratholme was swimming around a group of aliens. Wielding a longsword, his lily-embroidered robe was daubed with fresh green blood. Stratholme gave the impression that he was some sort of germaphobe as he appeared to be extremely uncomfortable with the green blood splattered on his robe.
He attacked with his longsword, swerving around the group of aliens, and would slash off the corners of his bloodstained robe from time to time. Even at such a moment of life and death, he was concerned with the cleanliness of his robe. This simply left Han Shuo between laughter and tears.
Stratholme seemed slightly flustered. Han Shuo couldn’t help but sigh at just how mighty and experienced Stratholme the old monster was. All throughout, he did not allow the five-horned alien leader a chance to get near to him, and rather moved around the four-horned aliens that surrounded him in a wonderful pattern. Again and again he would strike with his sword, and there would be another blood hole on an alien’s body.
Ginger gets spicier with age. This old monster is a cunning and seasoned adversary, Han Shuo thought as he formed an impression of Stratholme.
“Done!” yelled upper-class woman Tiana from her distant hiding place.
Soon after, the temperature in the region plunged. Gusts of bone-chilling wind converged in an instant and slithered around like a giant anaconda. Even the four-horned aliens, once swept by the cold air, froze into ice sculptures. Among those formed were four columns of cold air of the greatest thickness, and they fiercely enveloped each and every one of the four alien leaders.
The two on top at the altar and another two under the altar were shrouded by dense, frigid air, specifically prepared for them by Tiana. The four alien leaders, who were nearly a head taller than the rest of their species, did not immediately turn into ice even through the cold air, so cold it could freeze space-time itself.
But still, they suffered some effects. Their bodies were visibly freezing. Crackling noises could be heard from the alien leader pursuing Stratholme, as its speed decreased gradually. And finally it was as slow as a snail, its bodily functions largely compromised by the cold air.
After that one magical spell was deployed by Tiana, the space between the heaven and earth became a frozen realm. The entire lake was frozen over. The cold air, the atmosphere, human shadows; everything seemed to have paused. Besides Stratholme the old monster, Han Shuo, and Tiana, nothing could leap or frisk about.
Han Shuo, too, quivered and silently cursed about the crippling coldness! After a few glances at the five-horned alien moving sluggish, yet mechanically, Han Shuo was finally certain that Tiana was a water divine magus. Otherwise, her bone-chilling air would never have been able to freeze the demi-godlike aliens.
“Now is the time, go grab the things!” commanded Tiana. A trace of unquestionable excitement could be heard in her voice.
The Origin Crystal of Water!
Despite having lived as long as she had, hiding in the shadows of the continent for however many years she had, it still proved an unrestrainable temptation for the water divine magus!
“Move!” yelled Stratholme the old monster suddenly. A new set of silvery-grey, lily-embroidered robes replaced his previous frayed robe. His gaze was fervent as he watched the round sphere radiating lights of fighting aura. His body shot out like lightning.
Of course, Han Shuo didn’t want to fall behind. For the first time ever, he deployed ‘Art of the Demonic Ninth Heavens’ to its fullest. Reynold and Tiana were blind to his flight path. By the time he had reached the top of the altar, his own shadow under the altar where he had just stood had yet to vanish.
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