Han Shuo's magical prowess had increased in recent times due to his advancement to the true demon realm, and his mental strength had also advanced by leaps and bounds due to the strengthening of his brain. He'd already fully grasped all the magics that a journeyman necromancer should know.
Having received all of Clarendon's memories, Han Shuo's understanding of necromancy magics had taken a giant leap forward. He'd received knowledge of many difficult to grasp concepts thanks to Clarendon's decades of experience, so his magic was brought to new heights.
Han Shuo now felt that his mental strength was much greater than before, and since he'd fully grasped all of the journeyman magics, he planned on taking the next step forward. He'd made a promise to Fanny to officially be in a relationship with her when he reached adept status. This proved to be a great impetus for Han Shuo.
Since he had some free time now, Han Shuo remained within the secret room and made use of the time to meditate and to sort through Clarendon's reflections.
As Han Shuo continued to practice the advanced magic, "Acid Bog", Han Shuo felt that he was expending too much mental strength and temporarily halted his practice.
His eyes flicked around at this moment and rested on Belinda, who sat in a drug induced coma. A thought struck him as he walked over to Belinda's side, placing a hand on her back and slowly circulated his magical yuan, extending one tendril into her body.
It was precisely because of the harsh reforging his body had undergone that Han Shuo was incredibly familiar with the construction of the human body. As the magical yuan flowed into Belinda's body, Han Shuo concentrated and could feel the trail of the magical yuan as it traveled through her body.
As Han Shuo focused his attention in this matter, he quickly discovered that there was a numbing medicine within Belinda's body. It was like an anaesthetic that could stimulate the nerves to make one spontaneously faint, making it difficult for them to be awoken.
When Han Shuo detected the effects of this medicine, he smoothed out his breathing and used a bit of magical yuan to slowly circulate through Belinda's body. He used the power of the magical yuan to absorb this medicine and collect it into the palm of his hand.
As he did so, Han Shuo unintentionally looked at the black birthmark on Belinda's left cheek. A thought struck him as he directed the magical yuan into that birthmark.
When the magical yuan entered it, Han Shuo could clearly feel that another strange element was present within the birthmark, but it had thoroughly melded with Belinda's face and so there would be some difficulty if he wanted to remove the mark.
After all, this black birthmark would've been present at her birth and not been present in her body for only a short amount of time like this medicine.
Although he still had methods to deal with it, Belinda's beauty had nothing to do with him. It would also expend a lot of his magical yuan to do so for her, so Han Shuo naturally wouldn't help beautify Belinda.
When he'd absorbed the entirety of the medicine agent from Belinda's body, Han Shuo knew she would wake soon. His mind thought furiously as to how he would interrogate the awakened Belinda. A notion suddenly floated to the top of his mind as he chuckled coldly. A purple flame jumped into existence from his left finger tip, and he used the Demonslayer Edge to slightly cut open his index finger, forcing a drop of blood into the flame.
When this little bit of Han Shuo's essence landed on the purple flame, the flame suddenly brightened painful and then collapsed into the size of a pinky fingernail.
Under Han Shuo manipulations, the little ball of purple flame suddenly sank into the back of Belinda's neck and formed into a small, black mole.
Since reaching the true demon realm, Han Shuo could use his magical yuan to form a wondrous connection with the blood in his body. Using a secret art, he could seal a bud of frosty air into that drop of essence, and use the infant demon within him to control the level of cold within that essence.
Whenever he wanted to, the infant demon could activate that drop of essence and invade Belinda's body with frosty air, immediately deciding her life or death. In addition, he'd also be able to sense her proximity through that drop of essence as well.
Because of the loss of a drop of essence, Han Shuo made use of this time to sit down and meditate not too far from the soon to awaken Belinda, silently circulating his magical yuan to recover himself.
His blood essence resided near the infant demon and was nutrition for the demon infant. Each drop of essence contained arduously trained magical yuan.
Certain special arts would require this blood essence as a catalyst. Each drop was just as important as the demon infant. Using too much of it could make his magical yuan decrease in training at the least, or move him into cultivation deviation at the worst.
However, using only one drop wouldn't lead to any serious problems. He'd be able to fully recover after a day or so if he meditated carefully.
A soft sound suddenly sounded from beside him after a while. Deep in meditation, Han Shuo could feel that Belinda was about to awaken, even with his eyes closed.
Her long lashes fluttered as Belinda's bright eyes began to look around her surroundings. Several torches burned in this secret room, so she could clearly see everything as she looked around.
Apart from being spacious, there was nothing particularly noteworthy in this secret chamber. Han Shuo sat coolly in one corner, immediately drawing all of Belinda's attention. He presented a stern and grave face at the moment, the angles on his handsome face quite apparent. He looked quite masculine as he sat there aloofly, cross legged and back straight.
Curling her lip, Belinda breathed out softly and tugged at the ropes on her body. She discovered that it was indeed tough to struggle free from them. Her lively eyes darted to and fro, seeming to be weighing up something.
"You better not make any careless moves. Otherwise, if I discover something's wrong, I'll immediately kill you." Han Shuo spoke coldly when he heard the friction of the ropes.
His sudden remarks startled Belinda and she stared angrily at Han Shuo. Belinda said, "Just who are you and what grudges do our Calamity Church have with you for you to capture me and not let me go?"
Taking a deep breath in, Han Shuo opened his deep eyes and flicked a glance at Belinda, taking out Clarendon's white bone staff and saying faintly, "The seventh work of the Calamity Church's alchemist Belinda. You personally refined this staff. I obtained it when I killed Clarendon. It's very useful, so I should rather thank you!"
"So you're the one who killed Clarendon. You must be one of Bob Ascher's men!" Belinda's gaze focused on the white bone staff before shifting to Han Shuo a while later.
Shaking his head, Han Shuo responded. "I'm not of the Gryphon Legion. On the contrary, I actually have a bone to settle with them. If it hadn't been for my help when Clarendon came to assassinate Clark, Clark might not have died, but Clarendon was killing whoever he saw. I happened to see him summon the three eyed demon god Ansidesi, and was forced to defend myself when he wanted to kill me."
"You're really not one of Bob Ascher's men?" Belinda was very surprised when he heard Han Shuo's words and urgently asked for confirmation.
"Of course, you're now my prisoner and I have no reason to lie to you." Han Shuo nodded his head in confirmation.
"You said just now that you also tried to kill Clark. This means you're enemies with Bob Ascher?" Appearing a bit excited, Belinda's soft voice charged with emotion as she asked urgently.
Nodding his head again, Han Shuo responded with a smile. "That's right, to be more accurate, Clark died by my hands and not Clarendon's. My goal in coming to Valen City this time is also to move against Bob Ascher."
"That's wonderful! Since our goals are the same, I don't think we should be enemies with each other. The Gryphon Legion has enormous influence in Valen City. I think it'll be easier for us to reach our goals if we work together." Surprise appeared on Belinda's face as she looked at Han Shuo with great interest.
"However, I killed Clarendon and your three mage swordsmen as well. What should we do about that?" Although Han Shuo had long since planned to do so, he was still rather surprised to hear Belinda voice these words so straightforwardly.
"Sacrifice is unavoidable in order to attain any goal. There's no big deal in a couple people dying. I promise we can let everything be history as long as we cooperate against the Gryphon Legion!" Belinda spoke carelessly, not caring about the life and death of her men.
Han Shuo was a bit surprised by this cavalier attitude, but still chuckled when he saw that his goal had been met, "Since this is the case, that's wonderful!"