There were only two swordsmen left, a senior and a journeyman. Phoebe herself was enough to prevent them from escaping death. Han Shuo's retreat only hastened their deaths.
With a flash of his space ring, Han Shuo held a crossbow in his hand and inserted a crossbow bolt into the string. He had already aimed at one of them, firing at the senior swordsman's back as they abruptly began to retreat, trying to get out of the fight.
The senior swordsman had to turn back in resignation and block the bolt, but by the time he'd destroyed it, Phoebe was already standing in front of him.
The small skeleton that had stabbed the fire mage, holding a bag in its left hand, leapt down from the roof with a whoosh. After wobbling a bit, the skeleton was already standing in front of the other journeyman swordsman, dagger in hand.
As Han Shuo walked over with a cold smile, one of the swordsmen suddenly drew his long sword across his neck and fell.
"These are people from the 'Shadow Ghost'. If they know there's no way out for them, they'll choose to end their own lives!" Phoebe shook her head, put the long sword in her hand back into a space ring and said with a frown.
The small skeleton had arrived in front of the two corpses and began to search them with practised movements. When two more bags were hanging from its left hand, it happily walked over to Han Shuo with the bone dagger in its hand and offered the three bags to Han Shuo.
Caressing the small skeleton's skull with a faint smile, Han Shuo took the three bags and cursed after a glance. "Damn, three poor bastards. They only had ten or so gold coins!"
Rolling her eyes at him in a bad mood, Phoebe didn't search the bodies and said directly to Han Shuo. "I've never seen anyone as greedy as you. Don't bother searching the bodies, you won't find anything. The people of the 'Shadow Ghost' never bring anything important with them when they go out on missions, so forget it, they won't bring you any riches."
Han Shuo cursed again when he heard Phoebe's words and chanted an incantation to send the little skeleton back. Then he grinned and asked quietly, "Didn't you leave with Andrew? Why have you suddenly returned?"
"Are you hurt?" Phoebe was shocked and immediately rushed over to Han Shuo. When she saw the gashes of blood left on Han Shuo's body by the Wind Blades, she immediately showed a worried expression. The space ring on her finger lit up and some gauze and medicine appeared in her hands. She didn't shy away as she softly said, "Don't move!"
It was rare for Han Shuo to see Phoebe with such an expression and he felt vaguely touched inside. He stood there dumbly, not moving at all, watching as Phoebe carefully applied the medicine to his injury and then used gauze to wrap it all up for him.
When Phoebe was finished, she tugged at Han Shuo and exhaled lightly. " You sure know how to pick a spot. There are two mansions on either side of this alley, and both families are outside. No one has come out, even after such a violent fight, so it looks like the house hasn't been sold yet. We can't stay here for long, though. Although security isn't too tight here, the guards will be patrolling the area after a while. It would be better if we left sooner."
"Let's go." Han Shuo agreed and left with Phoebe, hurrying to the northern part of the city. On the way, he asked, "Oh right, you still haven't told me, why did you come back all of a sudden?"
Seeing that no one was around, Phoebe frowned and said in a low voice, "Grandpa Andrew told me in the carriage that Grover has been doing business with the barbarian orcs and has actually been selling the Empire's weapons to them. The implications of this are huge, and if the Empire knew, they wouldn't let him go so easily."
"Grover must know that with me in charge of the Guild, he won't be able to cover this up. So he must kill me before I take control of the Guild. Otherwise, once this matter is exposed, Grover, as strong as he is, will have a hard time escaping the Empire's punishment. As soon as I found out about this, I knew he would try to kill you first. I was worried about you, so I left Grandpa Andrew in the middle of the road to find you."
Nodding, Han Shuo said, "So that's why. No wonder Grover wanted to kill us so quickly. It looks like as soon as you have evidence in hand, Grover will undoubtedly be finished."
"Exactly!" Phoebe laughed coldly, but then sighed as she thought. "But Ellis has found out about my strength this time. I think Grover will come up with a plan and even I will have a hard time dealing with his next assassination attempt."
Han Shuo knew that his power was limited, if even Phoebe couldn't handle things, then he wouldn't have much effect either. The only thing he could do to help Phoebe was to use his senses to detect assassins. He thought for a moment and said, "I'm going out for a while. I'll find you when my injuries have healed. Grover is our common enemy now, I know what I have to do."
"All right, but don't go back to the academy, no matter what you do. Since Grover knows your identity, you'll be in great danger if you stay there for the next few days!"
Phoebe thought and said to Han Shuo.
Nodding his head in understanding, Han Shuo told Phoebe to be careful and left. The three original demons accompanied him, but didn't discover any other disturbances until Han Shuo arrived at the graveyards behind the academy.
After returning to the Cemetery , Han Shuo practiced his magic for a while. A cool sensation surrounded his injuries as he circulated his magical yuan, and the feeling of pain was greatly reduced.
After sleeping for a while, it was already noon the next day. With all the materials now gathered, Han Shuo eagerly left the cemetery and headed towards the dwarven village. He planned to ask the dwarf chief, Calvin, to forge the Demonslayer Edge for him.
The dwarven village lay in a small mountain valley. There were huge trees hiding the entrance to the village. If it weren't for the fact that Han Shuo had once taken a trip here with the dwarves, he would have had a hard time finding their home.
Han Shuo was now quite familiar with the route and arrived at the dwarf village after a while. As he passed the towering trees, a dwarf standing guard in front of the village with a sharp axe in his hand immediately called out in a friendly voice, "Oh! Good friend, you have come to visit us again!
Following the dwarf, Han Shuo travelled through a small path with shrubs on either side and finally made it to the dwarf village. Calvin, Bennett and the others had heard the news and were all waiting happily to greet Han Shuo. Fine wine was quickly served.
The dwarves lived in log cabins they had built themselves, with some living in hollowed out trees. There were only about a hundred dwarves in the village. Women and children made up a good half of them, and the warriors who could actually fight were few and far between.
Han Shuo had won the true friendship of the dwarves during this time. They were very generous to Han Shuo. Whenever he passed by, he was always greeted with fine wine and meat, which made him feel quite touched.
"Han, how come you have time to drop by?" Calvin said happily to Han Shuo.
Taking out the materials Phoebe had prepared from the space ring, Han Shuo handed them to Calvin and said, "Elder, these were the materials you requested. There's also enough black metal ore. Will you be able to forge a weapon for me?"
Calvin took the materials from Han Shuo, looked at them carefully, and said in surprise, "Of course, absolutely. With enough materials to forge a great weapon, this is a fortunate matter for us. Don't worry Han, we'll start working on it tomorrow. We'll be able to forge a weapon for you in about a week, and I'm sure you'll be satisfied with it."
Han Shuo breathed a sigh of relief at this assurance and immediately expressed his sincere thanks to Calvin. The faint complaints of some of the female dwarves came from afar. Han Shuo's ears were sharp and he involuntarily listened closely.
"Ai, it will soon be winter. We're never guaranteed food in the big snow, and the chief has already taken from the stores several times to treat the guest. At this rate, how will we survive the winter?"
"Yes, I've also heard that those damned man-eating monsters have been around lately. It looks like they've come out to pillage and raid to get through the winter. If they find our village, we'll have to move again. When will these days end?"
The conversations of the female dwarves were completely absorbed by Han Shuo. He was a little touched. It looks like they've come to pillage and raid to get through the winter. If they find our village, we'll have to move again. When will these days end?"
The conversations of the female dwarves were all completely absorbed by Han Shuo. He was a little touched. It looked like the dwarves' lives weren't as good as he thought, but they had still brought out the best food to treat him. It made him feel quite guilty.
He thought for a moment, sighed slightly and said to Calvin, "Elder, are you not treating me like a friend?"
"Han, why do you say such things? Have we treated you unkindly in any way?" Bennett, who had been very kind to Han Shuo, was the first to exclaim in surprise and looked at him in dismay before Calvin had a chance to open his mouth.
Shaking his head, Han Shuo sighed, "Why do you have to worry about food and man-eating monsters, but refuse to tell me, your friend, about such things?"
"That's not good enough, since the elder is willing to bring out the winter rations to treat me as your friend, I have to do something. Don't worry, Elder, I'll go to the human society and help you solve the matter of the winter rations. What else do you need? I can bring it all to you."
"How can we allow this? Even though we are friends, we can't bother you. We'd also like to buy these things in human society, but there's a long stretch of Dark Forest between here and human society. Not only are we likely to be attacked by magical creatures along the way, but we may also encounter adventurers with ill intentions. That's why we're forced to stay here."
"Han, I know that if you're going to buy these things for us, you're going to spend a lot of money. We can't bother you like that. I think we'll work a little harder and still make it through this winter." Calvin said.
"That's settled then. I will help you think of ways to deal with the matter of winter rations and the threat of the man-eating monsters. Just concentrate on forging weapons and leave the rest to me."
Han Shuo did some internal calculations. There were about a hundred in the entire dwarf village. He would probably have to make a few trips to bring the amount of food they needed to the Cemetery of death, depending on how much food the space ring could hold. If he bought the food from Phoebe, he probably wouldn't have to spend so many gold coins. It was just a convenient favour, and Han Shuo was naturally happy to do it for the dwarves.
"Thank you very much. I thank you on behalf of my child and the mothers in the village!" A female dwarf suddenly heard Han Shuo's assurance as she brought over the fruit and was so moved that she immediately thanked Han Shuo with the greatest courtesy of the dwarves.
"You are dismissed." Calvin admonished, and then said gratefully, "Han, we only make fine wines and forge weapons. Since we have very little contact with humans, we don't have many gold coins. We are willing to make some fine wine and forge some weapons for you in exchange, otherwise I cannot accept your good intentions!"
Although Han Shuo did not desire their wine and weapons, he understood that with the dwarves' stubborn temperament, they would not be willing to accept his help for no reason. After some thought, he finally accepted.
With the promise of winter rations from Han Shuo, all the dwarves were beyond excited. Even Calvin drank heartily with Han Shuo, a rare occasion indeed. He had to say that the wine the dwarves had made was indeed quite sweet. Even the fine wine Han Shuo had drunk at the Boozt Merchant Guild banquet last night couldn't compare.
Han Shuo was in a great mood after securing his Demonslayer Edge, and he drank the night away with the dwarves. However, due to his magic practice, he had already sobered up thoroughly by the time he left the dwarven village. He remained on high alert as he travelled back to the cemetery.
Before meditating, Han Shuo thought for a moment and decided to explore the boundary that had prevented Han Shuo from descending to the lower levels of the Cemetery of Death once again. He wanted to see if he could break through that barrier with his current level of mental strength.
After using the round green ball to open the passage, Han Shuo focused his mental power and abruptly buried it. A piercing pain immediately filled his mind, but as he was used to the pain caused by the round green ball during training, Han Shuo withstood the onslaught. He circulated his magical yuan to its highest level and dug in.