An unfriendly voice of mischief sounded as Han Shuo chuckled happily, "That may not necessarily be the case. I'm afraid you're a bit late. We arrived two days ago and we've only been out looking for you! But who knew that you would turn up here before we found you? Little friend, do you remember my voice?
The voice came abruptly and Han Shuo did not notice anything out of the ordinary. In fact, Han Shuo couldn't even make out the location of the person speaking.
Han Shuo was greatly alarmed. He remembered where he had heard this voice - back at the Shrine of Ice.
Not long ago, while Han Shuo was bathing the Ice Shrine in blood, the pious prayers of several thousand Ice Shrine disciples caused a midgod from a foreign material plane to manifest through the body of Snow Celestial Tiana. Han Shuo then fought with this midgod in the snowfield. Han Shuo had to use all his strength to fight this expert who couldn't even use a tenth of his actual strength. He ended up hurting the expert's divine soul.
The icy voice was that of the Water God whose divine soul had previously taken over Tiana's body!
"Not bad, you actually managed to break through that barrier. But now I have strengthened it with my divine energy. Let's see how you escape this time. 'Bird in a cage' is the best way to describe a situation like this," the scornful voice sneered.
Although Han Shuo had always had confidence in himself, he was no fool. He knew that he didn't stand a chance against a midgod who had descended with both his divine body and his divine soul.
Without the slightest hesitation, his two avatars returned to his main body the moment the voice sounded. Han Shuo hastily transmitted to the Earth Elite Zombie, commanding him to leave the skull of the Primordius Dragon.
"Father, there is still some energy left to absorb," Earth Elite Zombie grumbled rather reluctantly. He had no idea how nightmarish this enemy was.
"If you don't get out now, both of us will die here in no time!" Han Shuo knew that the situation wouldn't allow for a second's delay and he quickly transmitted.
The Earth Elite Zombie was shocked by Han Shuo's words. He wasted no time in asking why, giving up on absorbing the little bit of divine energy left in the Primordius Dragon's body, and rushed out of the Primordius Dragon's wide open, bloody mouth.
Han Shuo's consciousness was locked onto the Earth Elite Zombie. Han Shuo discovered that he had taken over the Primordius Dragon's unconscious divine soul as well as the Earth Soul Pearl. He knew that at least eighty percent of the deep understanding and energy that the Primordius Dragon had gained over tens of thousands of years had been absorbed by the Earth Elite Zombie.
As the instance Earth Elite Zombie emerged from the Primordius Dragon's bloody mouth, Han Shuo successfully used necromancy magic. After a bright flash of light, Earth Elite Zombie disappeared without a trace.
As soon as the Earth Elite Zombie returned to the netherworld, Han Shuo sensed a terrifying energy entering the boundary. Spacetime seemed to have frozen. The pressure was so immense that Han Shuo felt crushed and suffocated.
It was at this moment that Han Shuo realised that the person speaking had been outside the barrier all along. Only now did he actually enter the barrier.
The opponent was a Midgod. Since he had strengthened 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's Edge. He scanned his mind for a countermeasure.
"When we exchanged blows in the Snowland before, you were very, very arrogant. I have crossed worlds to get here. My main goal is to dismember you piece by piece until you die a slow and painful death. I hope you won't disappoint me," the midgod expert who had just entered the Boundary seemed rather unhurried. He had strengthened the boundary with his own divine energy. He believed that it was absolutely impossible for Han Shuo to break through the barrier given the realm Han Shuo was currently in. He intended to slowly torture Han Shuo to death.
Even at moments like this, when it was possible that he could die at any moment, Han Shuo did not lose his head, but remained completely calm. After quickly weighing the options in his mind, he came to a firm decision.
Before the Midgod got close to him, a terrifying bloody radiance suddenly erupted from Han Shuo's body. Bang Bang Bang! All the meridians in Han Shuo's body shattered. His bones creaked and shattered.
A canopy of glorious light enveloped Han Shuo from head to toe. His body was pushed to its full potential, causing an incomparably massive energy field to erupt in an instant.
A bright, dazzling flash of light was produced. When the light faded completely, there was nothing.
Han Shuo had vanished into thin air!
A streak of icy light flashed, and a dark and cold middle-aged man suddenly occupied the space where Han Shuo had disappeared.
"How, how could that be?" His mouth was wide open and his face was frozen in disbelief. His icy cold eyes glittered with light. He seemed 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 going on here?" the man muttered to himself. He kept examining the area where Han Shuo was standing, trying to find some clue as to what was going on.
After some time, a wave of distortion rippled through the Water Elemental Boundary. A group of five entered the boundary. A sunny young man leading the group, dressed as a white Church of Light priest, raised his voice and laughed, "Eriksson, what is taking you so long? What are you doing?" After a short pause, he raised his eyebrows and exclaimed, "He killed the dragon!"
"The interplanar transportation matrix has been destroyed!" an even louder, astonished exclamation came from a woman who looked like a young married woman. She looked extremely shocked.
"Damn it, that boy was so brave to come here. He even broke the interplanar transportation matrix. Things are going to be quite difficult now. We did not bring anyone who cultivates in the Edict of Space!" The sunny young man furrowed his brow and pondered for a moment before he hastily asked the midgod of the Ice Shrine, who was muttering to himself, "Eriksson, where is the child's body? Have you searched it? The interplanar transportation matrix is destroyed here. We must use it to find his Cemetery. Otherwise, it won't be easy for us to return when the matter is closed!"
"Impossible, absolutely impossible!" Eriksson was still muttering in disbelief.
"Eriksson, what on earth is wrong with you? The interplanar transportation matrix here is broken. Unless you want to walk back home, hurry up and search his body!" the sunny young man shouted softly.
Erikson was startled and suddenly came to his senses. With a stern expression on his face, he explained, "Emperor, I couldn't kill the boy. He escaped."
"What?! What did you say?" Emperor was not the only one in disbelief, all the experts from the foreign 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 against ten Lowgods, not only should a Midgod have no trouble winning, it would be worthless for the Lowgods to think of escaping.
But Eriksson says his quarry did escape?
"I don't know how he got out, but he did! Until now I have not been able to find out how he did it! Eriksson said with a grim, cold look on his face and in a deep voice, while every single one of his colleagues was stunned.
It was at this point that they realised that Eriksson wasn't joking with them. They seemed as incredulous as Eriksson had been a moment earlier. They were all muttering, "Impossible, absolutely impossible!"
"Is he in possession of a space-time-ripping divine weapon?" Emperor asked in a low voice after the initial surprise reaction.
"He doesn't! I'm sure of it!" Eriksson said firmly, "I watched every single move he made after entering the barrier. I did not sense him using any of the twelve basic energies. I saw none of the anomalies that a space-time ripping divine weapon would produce. There was no anomaly in space-time. He just vanished into thin air!"
"How... how is that possible?" Emperor was shocked again. He thought in silence.
Eriksson remembered the scene and explained: "Before he disappeared, something happened to his body. His arteries and veins were ruptured and his skeleton shattered. It was as if he had been badly injured. I have no idea what happened!"
Whatever happened, we need to find him as soon as possible. This person is too important. He is in possession of the only interplanar transportation matrix on this world, and he knew in advance that we were coming here. It won't be long before they get here. If we can't locate the boy and seize the other interplanar transportation matrix before they arrive, then this mission will be very delicate again! Kaiser said in a deep voice after thinking in silence for a while.
The other five heads, including Eriksson's, nodded darkly at the same time.
"We will split up and search the whole continent. We mustn't miss a single spot, especially the places where he's most likely to be hiding. Remember, when you find him, don't rush to kill him. Change the settings of his interplanar transportation matrix first. We must not let those guys get here!" Kaiser instructed.
"If any of you find him, please do me a favour: capture him alive if possible. I want to skin him alive!" Eriksson said in a merciless voice.
The group of six said no more. Before leaving, emperor raised his great hand. A streak of blazing light enveloped the Primordial Dragon's carcass. Its body gradually dissolved in the bright light until it disappeared completely.
***On a barren hill. The bloodied Han Shuo hung miserably from a dried tree. He was in a most embarrassing position!
By using 'Demonic Blood Disassembly', Han Shuo had activated the full hidden potential of his body. The moment his skeleton and meridians shattered, he escaped thousands of miles away from Eriksson's vicious trap.
Demonic Blood Disassembly was a demonic escape technique. Once used, the caster would expend a great deal of energy and suffer severe injuries to his body.
With his meridians and bones shattered, Han Shuo did not have an ounce of strength left in his body. As luck would have it, he happened to fall onto a large tree and was left hanging. Han Shuo felt very unlucky indeed.
It would take Han Shuo at least a 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 no way of summoning necromancy creatures to protect him. All he could do was dangle.
Being in recovery meant that Han Shuo would not be able to move an inch for some 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 with him.
But fortunately, Han Shuo had found a direction when he escaped using ' Demonic Blood Disassembly' and landed on this desolate and uninhabited barren mountain. Had he instead fallen into an orc settlement and been discovered by those barbaric orcs, well, let's just say it would not have been a pleasant experience.
Han Shuo remained in this miserable position of hanging from the large tree. From dusk to dawn, not a single living creature approached him.
Han Shuo felt nothing but happiness. He was glad that the Orc Empire was barren, and he was glad that there were no ferocious magical beasts in the area, allowing him to recover his body without any interference.
But Han Shuo's lucky streak did not last long. Not long after the sun rose in the sky, Han Shuo could hear the sound of footsteps slowly approaching. It made him quite nervous.
This was the moment when Han Shuo was at his weakest. Even a child with a sharp stone could seriously injure Han Shuo in this state.
The newcomer was an orc in his early youth. He wore a skin wrapped around his body, carried a large basket on his back, and walked around barefoot. It seemed that he had come to this barren mountain to cut firewood.
At first, he hadn't noticed Han Shuo hanging high above him. He had been cutting down dry trees with his head down. But when a drop of Han Shuo's blood fell from the tree on them, the young orc was surprised, as he thought the sky would soon be pouring. He automatically raised his head to look at the sky.
He immediately noticed Han Shuo and pointed at him while yelling in surprise.
After killing so many orcs and absorbing so many orc souls, it wouldn't be surprising if Han Shuo couldn't understand the orc language. So when Han Shuo concentrated, he quickly understood what the young orc was saying.
"Ah! A dead body! And it's a human! What an unlucky day. Why do I have to encounter something like this first thing in the morning?"
Han Shuo was torn between laughter and tears. His shattered tongue and vocal cords were still healing at the moment and he was unable to speak for the time being. All he could do was stare helplessly at the boy below.
"I haven't even had breakfast yet!" the young orc muttered.
Han Shuo's heart pounded. He had rarely come into contact with orcs, but he had heard rumours that the barbaric orcs seemed to enjoy eating human flesh. When he heard this young orc say that he hadn't had breakfast, Han Shuo's heart, which hadn't been used to being thrown into disarray for many years, immediately went into panic mode.
Since Han Shuo's physical body was in the realm of the Nine Changes, even if this young orc were to grind him to a pulp with a mortar and pestle, Han Shuo would still be able to recover in time. But if this young orc were to eat his flesh, the experience that Han Shuo would have to endure would be all too disgusting!
"To see such a disgusting scene first thing in the morning, how am I supposed to have breakfast later?" the young orc groaned and cursed as Han Shuo feared that he was about to be eaten alive.
The excited Han Shuo was very pleased to hear those words. So he wasn't thinking about eating my flesh after all. It seems that all the hearsay out there about orcs isn't entirely true!
"Mum said that the dead should go underground. This guy is really unlucky to die on a tree. Sigh, I feel sad just looking at him. Maybe I should help him," the young Orc muttered to himself. Then he began to cut down the tree that Han Shuo was hanging from, using an axe that was not particularly sharp. It was not long before the large tree collapsed with a crash. Han Shuo fell, leaving a small crater in the ground.
"Wow! This human is really heavy!" the young orc shouted in surprise. He ran towards Han Shuo out of curiosity. He seemed somewhat agitated.
Han Shuo's body was indeed much heavier than an ordinary human. He broke many branches when he first fell onto the tree, but he was stopped and hung from the largest trunk.
The young orc walked towards Han Shuo with quick steps. When he arrived, he just looked at Han Shuo in amazement. This young orc did not seem to be as evil as Han Shuo had imagined. He did not think about looting corpses. All he did was look up and down at Han Shuo curiously.
"Ah! The heart is still beating!" the young orc suddenly shouted in surprise. He took a few steps backwards in shock.
In the healing process of the physical body, the most important organs were always repaired first. The heart was a vital organ in the human body. At this point, Han Shuo's heart had been completely healed. It was normal for it to be beating by now.
However, for this young orc, it was truly bizarre that a body soaked in blood, with wounds on every inch of his skin that should have left him as dead as any rotting corpse, still had a beating heart.