Han Shuo understood that Erick must have increased his speed and was rushing towards him to kill him, just like Erick had killed Dylan, because he could feel the killing intent gradually approaching from behind.
At this time, Han Shuo concentrated his focus for the first time in his life. Maybe it was because he had been training, but Han Shuo, now, not only had an extremely agile body, but was also much more bold than before. There would have been nothing but fear left in his heart right now if he was still his old self.
The magical yuan within Han Shuo's body was swirling much faster than normal at this very moment. As he was running, he felt that his body had inexhaustible energy. Add to the fact that he was exceedingly familiar with the terrain, he actually widened the gap between him and Erick as he darted left and right while running.
"Eh!" Erick was surprised as he hadn't counted on Han Shuo being able to run so fast. Not only was he a fast runner, but his direction kept changing without warning. Erick's face grew hard as Han Shuo was about to disappear from sight, and the longsword in his hand began to glow with a dark green sheen. He forcefully plucked up some large rocks that were nearby.
As Han Shuo ran further away, he felt that he was sprinting smoothly and in fine shape. When he realized that he was leaving Erick's aura behind him, the joy of surviving a cataclysm rose in his heart.
It was at that moment that two sound waves boomed in the air. Han Shuo only knew that his two legs were heavily hit a few times. He immediately sank to his knees and fell flat on his face while he was running away. His face became intimately associated with the dirt, and his entire body fell to the floor.
"Little fella, sorry about this!"
Erick lightly called apologetically as he flicked the longsword in his hand. A ball of dark green light materialized and swiftly flew towards Han Shuo.
His mind clearer than ever before, Han Shuo felt the magical yuan within his body churning madly. His legs, that had been sore beyond belief moments ago, no longer ached as badly. As he faced the lethal blow, Han Shuo pushed off from the ground with both hands and feet and rolled to the left.
Clang!
The ball of dark green light from Erick's longsword landed where Han Shuo had been laying on the ground. Multiple fractures crisscrossed over the hard ground like a chessboard. Each crack was several meters deep. If Han Shuo had still been there, he would have likely been torn to pieces.
"I really didn't see anything, don't kill me!" Han Shuo was scared witless after he dodged that blow and took in the ground's condition. He spoke with twisted expression as he hurriedly scrambled up, preparing to run for his life again.
"Little fella, you're quite nimble for someone so skinny, but you saw something today that you shouldn't have seen. My apologies, I have to kill you!" Erick shrugged his shoulder and smiled with resignation.
A few rocks, the size of a person's head, flew up as he flicked his sword, and came hurtling towards Han Shuo. Han Shuo freaked out a bit, and anxiously dodged from side to side. As he was dodging, Erick soundlessly appeared behind Han Shuo, and a ball of dark green light sank into his body with a flick of Erick's longsword.
All of a sudden, Han Shuo flew out and once again kissed the ground, with all his limbs flung out. The pain from his spine was intensely bone deep, and the magical yuan within his body furiously congregated in his back, firmly enclosing the dark green aura that had landed in Han Shuo's body.
"Hoo… why do I feel like I've lost a bit of fighting aura? This is a bit strange. Have I overexerted myself? Hmm. Yes, that must be it. This kid runs fast, good thing it's finally taken care of!"
Han Shuo had been ready to run again when he heard Erick mutter to himself. Han Shuo's current body condition was the same as the time when Claude's fighting aura had attacked his body, but the only difference was, Erick's dark green aura was even stronger. The magical yuan couldn't fully enclose it, so Han Shuo's back was a mess of blood and flesh, and looked quite terrifying.
Han Shuo held his breath as a thought struck him, and lay there, afraid to move a single muscle. But at this time, the little skeleton seemed to sense Han Shuo's danger and seemed to be on its way to defend its master. Maybe due to the extraordinary amount of pain he was in, Han Shuo's mental strength seemed to be more concentrated than it had ever been, and so he gave an order in the nick of time for the little skeleton to remain where it was.
The tomb that the little skeleton was in was a bit far from Duke. But if it crawled out of the tomb to hurry here, Duke would definitely discover it. Although he didn't know Duke's rank, Han Shuo could tell from previous events that he was extremely powerful, and didn't want the little skeleton to come rushing to its death.
Erick panted a few times, muttered to himself a bit more, then picked Han Shuo up by the collar and brought him to a crumbling tomb nearby. He didn't bother to check Han Shuo's condition as he confidently threw his body down into the tomb, behaving as if Han Shuo had naturally died already.
That was understandable, given that Han Shuo was just an ordinary errand boy. He would naturally be dead after taking a hit from a senior knight, how could there be any exceptions?
Erick did not tarry after he threw Han Shuo into the tomb, and immediately followed his original route back. There was no more movement in this area after a while.
Han Shuo's back hurt like hell and he was busy mentally cursing all of Erick and Duke's families. He didn't dare climb out of the tomb until an hour later, when he gritted his teeth against the pain from his back and slowly, arduously crawled out of the tomb.
He expended some effort in touching his back and felt that it was a bit sticky. When he saw the blood on his hand, he silently noted this incident. If there was a chance in the future, he would pay it all back with interest. Grimacing against the pain, he cautiously walked towards the previous clearing. He crept surreptitiously the whole way, deeply afraid that the two would still be there.
Han Shuo discovered that even Dylan's corpse had disappeared when he finally made it back. Looks like they've randomly thrown it into one of the tombs nearby. He summoned the little skeleton out from its hiding place and left, cursing loudly as he did. He kept thinking damn I'm unlucky. Looks like I should avoid practicing here for the next few days.
He suddenly stopped upon reaching a certain place, and glanced at the dirt beneath his feet. Han Shuo remembered that Dylan had fallen here when he was running for his life, and buried a grey bag beneath his feet. Duke and Erick seemed to have discussed searching Dylan for something, could it be the bag that Dylan had just buried?
He clenched his teeth with pain and bent down, carefully pawing away the soft dirt on the ground and picked up the grey handbag. It weighed heavily in the hand, and clinked when shook. The material and style of this bag was so much better than the one he was using. He yanked at the drawstrings, shoved his hand inside and brought out a few silver coins.
"I'm rich, I'm rich!" Han Shuo knew that silver coins were the currency of this world. Bryan had never even held a single silver coin in his years as an errand slave. Now looking at the coins in his hand, Han Shuo couldn't hold back his laughter. Even the pain from his back wasn't as severe as before.
Swoosh!
He dumped out the contents of the bag onto the ground, revealing a dark green jade box the size of a palm. It was quite heavy and cool to the touch. There was a depression that seemed to be a keyhole, and actually a green key next to the box as well.
However, this wasn't the center of Han Shuo's attention. His eyes were glued to the coins in front of him and he smiled dumbly and repeated, "I'm rich, rich!"
Three gold coins, 12 silver coins and 56 bronze coins. That was the money contents of the bag. One gold coin could be exchanged for 100 silver coins, and one silver coin for 100 bronze coins. Even with Han Shuo's improved rations, a day's worth of bread, milk and fried eggs were less than ten silvers. If this money was exchanged for food, it would be enough for two years of his rations.
Bryan had originally been sold for five golds to the Babylon Academy of Magic and Force. The money here was enough for half of his life.
After a bout of extreme joy, Han Shuo was all smiles as he put the money back into the bag. His eyes then landed on the dark green jade box and green key. He frowned as he recalled Duke and Erick's clothing. It was apparent that the two were persons of some stature, Duke's robes and staff were in particular priceless items.
Although these coins were a great fortune to him, they would be nothing to Duke. They wouldn't have hunted Dylan for this money, and to kill even Han Shuo over it.
Were they after the contents of this jade box?
Han Shuo's gaze focused on the dark green jade box sitting still on the ground as his thoughts traveled down this path. Under the moonbeams, the jade box sparkled with a faint green glow indiscernible to a careless eye. The hazy green glow was extremely faint, and had an unearthly beauty to it.
As Han Shuo was silently gazing upon the jade box, concentrating his mental strength with unusual clarity, he suddenly felt a sinisterly cold presence emanate from the box. The box flowed up Han Shuo's mental strength and almost traveled right into his bones. Han Shuo shuddered uncontrollably and closed his eyes tightly.
This box was a bit strange!
He took a deep breath in, calmed himself, and then looked around in paranoia. He swiftly stashed the jade box and key back into the grey handbag, and staggered back to the warehouse.
Back in the warehouse, Han Shuo did not study the jade box further, and even temporarily left the money alone. He hide the handbag underneath the bed with a bit of a fear, commanded the little skeleton to wash and dress his back, then sank into a deep sleep.