Great Demon King

The voice came abruptly and Han Shuo did not detect anything out of place beforehand. In fact, Han Shuo couldn’t detect the person’s location even as he spoke.

Han Shuo was greatly alarmed. He remembered where he heard that voice -- back at the Shine of Ice.

Not long ago, while Han Shuo was bathing the Shrine of Ice with blood, the pious prayers of several thousands of Shrine of Ice disciples caused a midgod from an alien material plane to manifest through Snow Celestial Tiana’s body. Han Shuo then fought with that midgod in the snowfield. Han Shuo had to use all his strength in fighting that expert who couldn’t even make use of one-tenth of his actual strength. He ultimately injured the expert’s divine soul.

The icy voice was that of the midgod of water whose divine soul previously took over Tiana’s body!

“Not bad at all, you actually managed to break through this barrier. But I have now reinforced it with my divine energy. Let’s see how you’re going to escape this time. ‘Bird in a cage’ - that should best describe a situation like this,“ that contemptuous voice sneered.

Although Han Shuo had always had confidence in himself, he was no fool. He knew that against a midgod who descended with both his divine body and divine soul, he didn’t have the slightest odds of prevailing.

Without the slightest hesitation, his two avatars returned to his main body the instant that the voice sounded. Han Shuo hastily transmitted to earth elite zombie, commanding him to exit from the skull of the Primordius Dragon.

“Father, there is still a bit of energy left to absorb!” earth elite zombie grumbled rather reluctantly. He hadn’t a clue just how nightmarish this enemy was.

“If you don’t get out now, the two of us will die here in no time!” Han Shuo knew that the situation wouldn’t allow a second of stalling and he rapidly transmitted.

Earth elite zombie was shocked at Han Shuo’s words. He did not waste time asking why and gave up on absorbing the little remaining bit of divine energy in the Primordius Dragon’s body and rushed out from the wide open bloody mouth of the Primordius Dragon.

Han Shuo’s consciousness was locked on earth elite zombie. Han Shuo discovered that he had taken over Primordius Dragon’s divine soul that was without awareness as well as the Earthsoul Pearl. He knew that at least eighty percent of the profound understanding and energy that the Primordius Dragon gained over tens of thousands of years had been absorbed by earth elite zombie.

The instance earth elite zombie emerged from the Primordius Dragon’s bloody mouth, Han Shuo successfully deployed necromancy magic. After a bright flash of light, earth elite zombie disappeared without a trace.

As soon as earth elite zombie returned to the netherworld, Han Shuo sensed a terrifying energy entering the boundary. Spacetime seemed to have frozen still. The pressure was so immense that Han Shuo felt stifled and suffocated.

It was at this moment that Han Shuo realized that the person talking had been outside the barrier all that time. It was only now that he actually crossed into the barrier.

The opponent was a midgod. As he had reinforced the barrier with his divine energy, Han Shuo reckoned that it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to break through the barrier even with the Demonslayer Edge. He scanned through his brain for a countermeasure.

“When we exchanged blows at the snowland before, you were very, very arrogant. I have traversed across worlds to get here. My main objective is to cut you up piece by piece until you finally die a slow and painful death. I hope you don’t disappoint me!” that midgod expert who just entered the boundary seemed rather unhurried. He had reinforced the boundary with his own divine energy. He believed it was absolutely impossible for Han Shuo to break through the barrier given the realm that Han Shuo was currently on. He intended to slowly torture Han Shuo to death.

Even during moments like this where it was possible he could die at any second, Han Shuo did not lose his head but remained perfectly calm. After rapidly weighing in his mind, he came to a resolute decision.

Before that midgod got close to him, frightening bloody radiances suddenly erupted from Han Shuo’s body. Bang Bang Bang! All the meridians in Han Shuo’s body ruptured. His bones creaked and shattered.

A canopy of splendid light enveloped Han Shuo from head to toe. His body was pushed to its fullest potential, causing an incomparably massive energy field to erupt in an instant.

A bright, resplendent flash of light was produced. When the light completely diminished, there was nothing.

Han Shuo had disappeared into thin air!

A streak of icy radiance flashed and a gloomy and cold middle-age man suddenly occupied the space where Han Shuo had disappeared.

“How, how could this be?!” His mouth was wide open and his face was frozen with disbelief. His icy-cold eyes were glistening with light. He appeared astonished.

“How is this possible? How could he escape? He’s just a lowgod, there’s no way he could break through my barrier. What, what is actually going on?” the man mumbled to himself. He repeatedly examined the area where Han Shuo just stood, trying to find a clue as to what was going on.

After some time, a wave of distortions rippled the water element boundary. A group of five entered the boundary. A sunny young man who led the party, wearing the outfit of a Church of Light white priest, raised his voice and laughed, “Eriksson, what is taking you so long? What are you fooling about?” After a short pause, he raised his brows and exclaimed, “He killed the dragon!”

“The interplanar transportation matrix was destroyed!” an even louder astonished exclamation sounded from a female who looked like a young married woman. She appeared extremely shocked.

“Damnit, that kid was so daring coming here. He even destroyed the interplanar transportation matrix. Things are going to be rather troublesome now. We did not bring anyone who cultivates in the edict of space with us!” That sunny young man furrowed his brows and pondered for a moment before he hastily asked that midgod from the Shrine of Ice who was mumbling to himself, “Eriksson, where is that kid’s dead body? Have you searched it? The interplanar transportation matrix here is destroyed. We need to find his Cemetery of Death through him. Otherwise, when the matter concludes, it won’t be easy for us to return!”

“Impossible, absolutely impossible!” Eriksson was still mumbling to himself in disbelief.

“Eriksson, what in the world is wrong with you? The interplanar transportation matrix here is wrecked. If you don’t want to return home on foot, hurry up and search his body!” the sunny young man softly shouted.

Erikson was jolted and suddenly came to his senses. He put on a stern expression and explained, “Kaiser, I didn’t get to kill that kid. He escaped.”

“What?! What did you say?” Kaiser was not the only one in disbelief, all those experts from the alien material planes cried out at the same time.

Eriksson was a midgod. He had reinforced the barrier beforehand. It should have been a turkey shoot. Even if pitted against ten lowgods, not only should a midgod have no difficulty prevailing, it would be worthless for the lowgods to think of escaping.

But Eriksson says his prey actually escaped?

“I don’t know how he got out but he did! Till now I have not been able to figure out how he managed to do that!” Eriksson put on a gloomy, cold face and said in a deep voice when each and every one of his colleagues was dumbstruck.

At this point in time, those people understood that Eriksson definitely wasn’t playing a joke with them. They appeared to be in disbelief just as Erikson was just a moment ago. They were all mumbling, “Impossible, absolutely impossible!”

“Is he in possession of a spacetime-ripping divine weapon?” after the initial surprised reaction, Kaiser quickly calmed down himself and asked in a deep voice.

“He doesn’t! I’m certain of it!” Eriksson said resolutely, “I have been observing each and every movement he made after entering the barrier. I did not sense him using any single energy of the twelve fundamental forces. I did not detect any abnormality that a spacetime-ripping divine weapon would produce. There was no abnormality with the spacetime. He vanished into thin air just like that!”

“How... How is this possible?” Kaiser was again shocked. He pondered in silence.

Eriksson recalled of the scene and further explained, “Before he disappeared, something happened to his body. His arteries and veins ruptured and his skeleton shattered. It was as though he was severely injured. I have no idea what actually happened there!”

“Whatever happened, we must locate him as soon as possible. This person is too important. He is in possession of the only interplanar transportation matrix in this world and he knew that we have come here in advance. It won’t be long before those fellas arrive here. If we can’t locate that kid and seize the other interplanar transportation matrix before they arrive, then this mission will again be very thorny!” Kaiser said in a deep voice after thinking in silence for a while.

The other five heads, including Eriksson’s, nodded gloomily at the same time.

“We’ll split up and go all out in searching the entire continent. We mustn’t overlook any one spot, especially those places where he will most likely hide. Remember, if you find him, don’t rush in killing him. Change the settings of his interplanar transportation matrix first. We must not let those fellas get here!” Kaiser instructed.

“If any of you find him, please do me a favor: capture him alive if possible. I want to skin him alive!” Eriksson said in a ruthless voice.

The group of six said not another word. Before leaving, Kaiser raised his big hand. A streak of blazing radiance enveloped the Primordius Dragon’s carcass. His body gradually dissolved in the bright light until it completely vanished.

***On a barren hill. The bloodstained Han Shuo was miserably hanging on a dried tree. He was in a most awkward predicament!

By using ‘Demonic Blood Disassembly’, Han Shuo activated the full hidden potential of his body. The moment his skeleton and meridians shattered, he escaped thousands of miles away, away from Eriksson’s vicious entrapment.

‘Demonic Blood Disassembly’ was a demonic art technique for escaping. Once deployed, the caster would exhaust a great amount of energy as well as sustain serious injuries to their body.

With the meridians and bones shattered, Han Shuo did not have one ounce of strength left in his body. As luck would have it, he just so happened to fall on a big tree and was stuck hanging. Han Shuo felt very unfortunate indeed.

Han Shuo had to spend at least one full day to reconnect his bones and meridians to the point where he could move his hands and legs. On top of that, under such circumstances, Han Shuo had no way of gathering the energy in his body and therefore couldn’t summon necromancy creatures to protect him. All he could do was dangle there.

Being in the recovery process meant that Han Shuo wouldn’t be able to move an inch for at least a period of time. If an enemy were to find him, Han Shuo would be as powerless as a sitting duck. His enemy would be able to do whatever they wanted to him.

But fortunately, Han Shuo identified a direction when he escaped using ‘Demonic Blood Disassembly’ and landed himself on this desolate and uninhabited barren mountain. Had he fallen into an orc settlement instead, to be discovered by those barbarous orcs, well, let’s just say it wasn’t going to be a pleasant experience.

Han Shuo maintained that miserable posture of hanging from that big tree. From dusk till dawn, not a single living being approached him.

Han Shuo felt nothing but glad. He was glad that the Empire of Orcs was infertile, and glad that there were no ferocious magical beasts living near the area, thereby allowing him to recover his body without any disturbance.

But Han Shuo’s lucky streak did not last for long. Not long after the sun rose into the sky, Han Shuo could hear sounds of footsteps slowly approaching. It made him rather nervous.

This was the moment when Han Shuo was at his weakest. Even a child with a sharp stone could severely injure Han Shuo in this state.

The comer was an orc early in his youth. He wore a hide wrapped around him, and carried a big basket on his back, wandering around barefoot. It appeared that he came to this barren mountain to cut firewood.

At first, he hadn’t notice Han Shuo hanging from high above. He had been cutting down dried up trees in a depressed manner with his head down. But when a drop of Han Shuo’s blood fell off the three, the young orc was surprised as he thought that the sky would soon pour. Automatically, he raised his head to look at the sky.

He immediately noticed Han Shuo and pointed at him while crying out in surprise.

Having killed so many orcs and absorbed so many orc souls, it wouldn’t be surprising that Han Shuo could understand the orc language. Therefore, when Han Shuo concentrated, he quickly came to understand what the young orc was saying.

“Ah! A dead body! And it’s a human! What an unlucky day. Why do I have to come across something like this the first thing in the morning?!”

Han Shuo was left between laughter and tears. His shattered tongues and vocal cord were still being healed at this moment and he wasn’t able to speak for the time being. He could only stare at that youngster below helplessly.

“I haven’t even had breakfast!” the young orc muttered.

Han Shuo’s heart pounded. He had rarely come into contact with orcs but had heard from rumors that the barbarous orcs seemed to be fond of eating human flesh. When he heard this young orc say that he hadn’t had breakfast, Han Shuo’s heart, which had not been used to being thrown into disorder for many years, leapt straight into panic mode.

As Han Shuo’s physical body was on the Nine Changes realm, even if this young orc were to pound him into mush using a mortar and pestle, with time, Han Shuo would still be able to recover. But if this young orc were to eat his flesh, the experience that Han Shuo would have to endure would be all too nasty!

“To see such a nauseating scene first thing in the morning, how am I going to have breakfast later!” the young orc groaned and cursed while Han Shuo was worried that he would be eaten alive.

The flustered Han Shuo greatly rejoiced to hear those words. So he wasn’t thinking about eating my flesh after all. It seems that all that hearsay out there about orcs aren’t entirely true!

“Mom said that dead people should go under the ground. This fella is really unlucky to die on top of a tree. Sigh, I feel sad just looking at it. Maybe I should help it!” the young orc muttered to himself. He then started chopping down the tree where Han Shuo was suspended using an axe that was not particularly incisive. It did not take long before the big tree collapsed with a rumble. Han Shuo crashed and made a small crater in the ground.

“Gee! This human sure is heavy!” the young orc cried out in surprise. He ran towards Han Shuo out of curiosity. He appeared somewhat excited.

Han Shuo’s body was indeed much heavier than an ordinary person. He broke off many of the branches when he first fell on the tree but was stopped and suspended on the largest trunk.

The little orc walked to Han Shuo in quick steps. When he arrived, he merely looked at Han Shuo in amazement. This young orc didn’t seem to be as evil as Han Shuo had imagined. He did not think of plundering from corpses. All he did was to look up and down at Han Shuo curiously.

“Ah! The heart is still beating!” the young orc suddenly loudly cried out in surprise. He took a few steps backward in shock.

In the healing process of the physical body, the most important organs were always the first to be repaired. The heart was a vital organ in the human body. At this point in time, Han Shuo’s heart was fully repaired. It was normal for it to be beating by now.

However, for this young orc, it truly was freakish that a blood-soaked body with wounds on every inch of its skin that should have left him as dead as any rotten corpse to still have a beating heart.