Han Shuo only needed half an hour of honeyed words and gentle caresses to make Fanny, who'd come to incriminate him, beam with joy. With a smile on her lips, Fanny left Han Shuo's mansion satisfied after listening to his sweet words.
Han Shuo then travelled as fast as he could to the Boozt Merchant Guild to find Phoebe. As soon as he found her, he asked, "I need a ton of explosives, the ones with the maximum lethality. The amount should be enough to destroy a small mountain!"
"Gosh! What do you need it for?" As a normal girl, Phoebe was shocked to hear that Han Shuo urgently needed a huge amount of deadly explosives, the stronger the better. She only had to use her toes to figure out what he was going to do.
"Don't ask so much. Hurry up and help me get my hands on them. Also, don't let anyone know about this." Han Shuo had already made up his mind. Time waited for no one, so the sooner the better.
Once a woman entered into a physical relationship with a man, she would change because of him, even if that woman was the cold and arrogant Phoebe. Besides, she knew that Han Shuo was very clearheaded, so he wouldn't do anything stupid. Therefore, despite her doubts, she didn't ask any more questions. When Han Shuo pushed her again, she nodded and said, "Give me some time, I'll collect them by all means."
"Good! I'll come for the explosives the day after tomorrow. You should temporarily avoid going out for the next two days." Han Shuo instructed before he hurriedly left the Boozt Merchant Guild.
After quietly returning to the secret chamber in his mansion, Han Shuo used the transportation matrix to return to the Cemetery of Death. He then used the art of the Demonic Ninth Heaven and flew to the mountain valley with the mithril mine. There, he summoned the Earth Elite Zombie.
Three Yin Demons slowly drifted towards the centre of the mountain valley, rapidly transmitting images and scenes into Han Shuo's mind. The alliance of the Rainbow Sickle mercenaries, the House of Menlo and the Katar Orc tribe was here. Over a thousand of their members were stationed near the valley, surrounding it in layers and layers of encirclement.
The mithril mine was still working as usual. However, the steep and narrow terrain made it difficult to harvest, especially as the mithril was mixed in with the silver ore and was located in the deepest part of the mine. The three powers were still not satisfied with their progress, even after increasing the amount of overtime over the past few days.
The three Yin Demons searched every corner of the valley. The earth elite zombie lurked underground, shooting back and forth as the child of the earth. Under Han Shuo's orders, he dug an undetectable hole deep under the mountain valley. This hole would be the container for the explosives he would receive from Phoebe.
Han Shuo knew from Laureton and Edwin's conversation that there would be a bloody battle in this mountain valley. Most of the fighting forces of the four great powers would be participating in this war, including Laureton's Cairo mercenary band. Laureton had recently used various incentives to lure over ten smaller forces to his side.
The other three major powers had also poured large numbers of troops into the valley due to the existence of the mithril mine. Once the fighting broke out, this mountain valley would become the largest battlefield in the entire history of the Valley of Sunshine. All Han Shuo had to do was place enough explosives underneath this battlefield to destroy all the enemy forces and subdue them all in one fell swoop.
This had to be done carefully. Only the Earth Elite Zombie's miraculous ability to drill silently underground allowed him to accomplish this task. The three yin demons hadn't registered any powerful earth mages at that time, so he boldly allowed the earth elite zombie to drill according to his instructions.
Even with his miraculous ability, the Earth Elite Zombie still took quite a long time to make the preparations for the explosives in the mountain valley. Han Shuo kept a constant eye on the experts present through his three Yin Demons. He was afraid that they would sense the movements underground and discover his plan.
Fortunately, everything went quite smoothly. Han Shuo left the mountain valley as soon as the Earth Elite Zombie had finished his preparations. He returned to the Cemetery of Death and stayed there, carefully studying the Archmage rank spell, Soul Tremor. This spell was extremely obscure and difficult to understand.
"Soul Tremor directly attacked an opponent's soul with one's own mental power. You had to have a certain amount of knowledge about the soul before you could master this spell. On the other hand, they also had to master the method of using their mental power to attack. This step alone, shaping the mental power into an attack, was already very difficult to execute.
Han Shuo was constantly practising in the cemetery of death, frowning as he thought about how to use his mental power as an attack.
He could clearly sense this invisible mental power when he concentrated his mind. However, Han Shuo couldn't materialise it into an attack no matter what method he tried.
"This is indeed somewhat difficult!" Han Shuo muttered. He was unable to gather the necessary mental power and turn it into a tangible attack.
"The mind is formless, but its power is boundless. The heart is the foundation of the attack. If the heart moves, the soul will also move..."
Han Shuo suddenly remembered an incantation about the consciousness described in demon magic. Upon reaching the separate demon realm, cultivators could clearly sense their consciousness. The consciousness was actually a strengthening of the soul. Cultivators in the separated demon realm could transform their soul into their consciousness. As long as that consciousness wasn't completely destroyed, they could live forever.
Since the consciousness was a formless existence, once the soul was transformed, the cultivator would gain many miraculous abilities. The most basic benefit would be the ability to use their consciousness to sense movements in the environment. The sensitivity and range depended on the strength of the cultivator's consciousness. In battle, the consciousness could form all kinds of exotic attacks as long as it was strong enough. For example, a mirage or a tangible attack could manipulate the opponent's mind, turning him into a puppet or producing other amazing effects.
The consciousness could also attack the opponent's soul like a mental force, with much more varied and mysterious ways to attack than a simple mental force. According to demonic magic's teachings on using consciousness to attack, Han Shuo vaguely felt that consciousness and mental power were similar in their use.
The main difference was that consciousness was the transformed soul of demonic cultivators and was an important part of the foundation, like the demon infant. In fact, the consciousness was even more important. The demon infant was the source of their magical yuan. Once it was destroyed, a demonic practitioner would lose all of his power. They'd become an ordinary person once their body was devoid of Magical yuan.
The consciousness was the soul of a demonic cultivator. They could still use their past experiences and take the time to build another demon infant if theirs was destroyed, as long as the consciousness was preserved. However, once the consciousness was destroyed, the soul of the cultivator would disperse into nothingness, leaving no trace in this world. Spirit power was similar to the concept of the demon infant. Once completely lost, a mage would at most lose the ability to collect magic elements and cast spells. They would simply become an ordinary person instead of losing their life.
In the cemetery of death, Han Shuo was constantly thinking, especially about attacking with his consciousness. He carefully sifted through his understanding and seemed to gradually grasp a clue. As he completely focused all of his mental power in a calm state of mind, a thought flashed through his mind. The mental power churned violently, giving birth to a wondrous resonance.
Han Shuo quickly chanted an incantation at that moment. A strange power appeared from who knew where and quickly merged with his mental power. A kind of wave spread out like ripples in the water.
Mmm, that's an improvement. Just a little bit more!" Han Shuo let out a whisper. Just now, he'd felt his mental power form a tangible attack. However, since there was no soul in front of him, his attack had no target, so he was unable to truly test its effectiveness.
"Looks like I need to find a live test subject!" Han Shuo muttered as he thought for a moment. He left the Cemetery Of Death when he noticed that it was getting late.
Han Shuo went straight to the Boozt Merchant Guild without warning. He found Phoebe in her room and asked, "How's it going?"
"I managed to collect a few. However, due to the short time frame and the fact that explosives are dangerous, prohibited goods in the Empire, the amount I collected wasn't enough to destroy a small mountain. Mm, if you can give me a little more time, I can look in some of the more distant towns." Phoebe looked helplessly at Han Shuo and spoke somewhat apologetically.
"There's not enough time. Then gather as many as you can. Mm, this matter would best be kept secret, otherwise there might be trouble." Han Shuo said with a frown.
"Rest assured, I have used some small companies and acquired them in great secrecy through batches. I think there should be no problems." Phoebe replied.
Phoebe's space ring glowed incessantly. A carefully wrapped bundle of explosives appeared in Phoebe's hand and was placed in Han Shuo's space ring. When Phoebe had finished handing them over, she finally asked, "Bryan, what are you going to do? You don't want to destroy Brettel City, do you?"
"This has nothing to do with Brettel City. I haven't even been there yet." Han Shuo answered casually. He hugged Phoebe and gave her a kiss before saying with a smile, "Alright, don't worry about me, I know what my limits are."
Han Shuo hurriedly left the Boozt Merchant Guild under Phoebe's surprised gaze. He returned to the cemetery of death through the transportation matrix and quickly flew to the mountain valley with the mithril mine.