There were eight elemental energies - Light, Darkness, Earth, Fire, Wind, Water, Lightning, Death - and four edict forces - Space, Fate, Life, Destruction. The vast majority of Elysians cultivated these twelve basic powers.
The Edict Forces were considered more mysterious than the Elemental Energies, while the Edicts of Space and Fate were the most abstruse of the Edictal Forces.
Throughout his life, Han Shuo had rarely fought cultivators of these two Edict Energies. He wasn't particularly familiar with their attack methods. It was when he fought Baum that Han Shuo finally discovered that fighting a cultivator of Space Edict would be very difficult.
The space around Baum would constantly twist and distort. Even though he seemed to be standing right in front of Han Shuo, Han Shuo couldn't be sure if it was an illusion because he felt like Baum was in a different material plane. This made it very difficult to attack Baum as Han Shuo could not lock on to his target.
Han Shuo's flying swords would often accidentally fall into the rifts of space-time created by Baum. If Han Shuo had not reacted quickly enough and his connection to his flying swords had not been strong enough, he would have lost all seventeen flying swords forever in the first few seconds of the battle.
The distorted space-time had also severely hindered the sensing power of his consciousness. Under normal circumstances, as long as Han Shuo's consciousness was locked onto a person, no matter where or how that person hid their aura, that person would not be able to escape Han Shuo's senses. But Baum was an exception. Even if Han Shuo's consciousness managed to lock onto Baum, the constantly twisting and distorting space-time would quickly cause Han Shuo to lose track of Baum.
And sometimes, even though Han Shuo saw Baum standing right in front of him, his consciousness could not detect his presence. It was as if the person standing in front of him was just an illusion.
Since Han Shuo was unable to lock onto Baum, the firepower of the seventeen flying swords was significantly reduced. The layers of Space Edict Barriers that Baum had deployed were also a great impediment to the flying swords, meaning that Han Shuo had to expend more Demonic Yuan than usual, even though he couldn't do any real damage to Baum.
It was a very frustrating situation for Han Shuo. Although he was filled with a tremendous amount of power, he could neither use it nor convert it into threatening attacks that would land on Baum.
The energy of the Cauldron Spirit swirled wildly in Han Shuo's body as his consciousness spread out into countless strands trying to locate Baum. The whooshing seventeen flying swords were obstructed by the space-time rifts and prevented from orbiting in their correct trajectories. Han Shuo and his flying swords seemed to be lost in the boundless space.
Han Shuo felt frustrated as hell, but City Lord Baum of the Ethereal City didn't feel any better.
The seventeen swords were wreaking havoc in the distorted space-time he had created. Wherever they whizzed, they spread their intense corrosive power and chilling aura. Baum had no choice but to use his own divine energy to keep the Edict of Space under his control. He violently ripped more cracks in space-time to defend himself against the seventeen flying swords.
Normally, after Baum had created a distorted space-time and used his divine energy to tear rifts in space-time, anything that fell into the rifts would be lost forever at the edge of the Infinite Universe. Return to Elysium, or any material plane, will be impossible.
But the seventeen flying swords did not obey this law of nature!
Every time a Flying Sword fell into a space-time rift, it miraculously managed to find its way back. This was inconceivable to Baum. Even a mighty god who fell into the rift wouldn't be able to escape easily, and a lifeless divine weapon would be gone forever.
Yet somehow the seventeen flying swords controlled by Han Shuo managed to do so again and again!
Each time the flying swords entered a space-time rift, they would quickly turn around, escape the rift, and continue to fire at Baum with no less ferocity. This forced Baum to use his divine energy to distort and rip space-time to keep the flying swords from getting closer.
He didn't have it any easier than Han Shuo!
What made Baum even more afraid was that it seemed as if Han Shuo could sense his location in the complex and confusing space-time discontinuity area that Baum formed. The seventeen flying swords would always manage to find him somehow. It forced Baum to travel back and forth through the rifts in space-time to avoid the attacks.
Baum had linked ten dimensional tunnels in this spacetime-discontinuum created, allowing him to travel to various corners of the universe within a short time. Although he appeared to still be standing in the same place, he had, in fact, traveled to places unfathomably far away from Elysium through the spacetime fissures. He could have traveled across different material planes countless lightyears away before returning to Elysium while appearing stationary. And yet, somehow, Han Shuo could still lock onto him almost immediately. This was simply inconceivable to Baum!
Baum was becoming more and more afraid of Han Shuo!
While Han Shuo and Baum were causing each other immense headaches, Rose, following Han Shuo's order, had gone off to finish Verón. The two had had a battle earlier and it was clear to Verón that Rose's strength was greater than his. When he saw that Han Shuo wasn't defeated by Baum in an instant, he immediately turned on his heels and tried to escape.
But what a pity, Rose just wouldn't give him the chance. She started attacking Verón the instant Han Shuo attacked Baum.
Verón was distracted for only a split second. But by the time he came to his senses, Rose had already got to him. He was again trapped in absolute darkness before he could react. Rose's ferocious attacks also started bombarding him.
Verón could not feel more regretful at this time. He thought, Why didn't I run just then instead of staying and watch? Now I'm fucked! This terrifying bitch has got me again!
Verón was no match against Rose. And this time around, Rose used her full strength against Verón. She even allowed herself to suffer light injuries in exchange for causing Verón severe injuries. With that, the situation turned even grimmer for Verón. He received plenty of new wounds all over his body in no time.
After fighting Baum for what seemed to be ages, Han Shuo, who still could not effectively destruct Baum's defenses, was feeling distressed and thwarted. Even though he had fought countless formidable experts, never before had Han Shuo feel this way – to be filled with power but unable to use it. Even fighting Hofs, who was also a Late-stage Highgod, Han Shuo could fight unrestrainedly and use Cauldron Spirit's energy to his advantage.
However, against this Cultivator of Space Edict, Han Shuo could not form the Ceaseless Pain Sword Formation with his seventeen flying swords throughout the entire battle. If he lost focus for even a moment, he would immediately lose track of Baum and his presence would be undetectable. This made Han Shuo feel very helpless and annoyed.
Just as Han Shuo was about to curse, he received a message from the Cauldron Spirit, "Master, let me help you!"
"You can destroy that annoying space-time barrier?"
"He has merged ten small dimensional tunnels in this area. Through the dimensional tunnels, he could repeatedly travel to places light years away from Elysium and return in a flash. That's why your consciousness would suddenly lose track of him.
The Cauldron Spirit continued, "Master, don't forget that the interior of the Cauldron is made up of an independent dimension. I have even created many smaller dimensions within it for my demon generals. My understanding of the Edict of Space cannot be worse than his! Even when the Exalted Demon Lord created a tunnel between the two universes, he relied on my understanding of space-time. Breaking this space-time barrier will be no problem!"
"Alright then, go ahead and try!" the excited Han Shuo hastily transmitted.
"I have to take the energy back from you, otherwise I might not have enough energy to do it," Cauldron Spirit explained before Han Shuo immediately felt the energy in his body quickly return to Cauldron Spirit.
Just as Han Shuo felt the energy drain from his body, Cauldron Spirit abruptly flew out of Han Shuo's body and turned into a dark aura that shot straight at the space edictal barrier made by Baum.
Suddenly, hundreds of bright dark shadows shot out from the Cauldron of the Myriad Demon , spreading out in all directions towards the space-time barrier. Even the seventeen flying swords were manoeuvred by the Cauldron Spirit. They swooped in seventeen different directions.
Baum, who was feeling just as horrible as Han Shuo, immediately felt that an intense fluctuation traveling across the spacetime discontinuum he created. The waves miraculously concentrated at the dimensional tunnels he made using his divine energy and induced resonances at the weak points of his dimensional tunnels.
Baum who was in the middle of traversing through one of those tunnels was greatly alarmed. He knew that only a cultivator of edict of space with similar or greater strength than his could locate the weak points of his dimensional tunnels. However, Han Shuo clearly did not cultivate in the edict of space. How is this even possible?! thought the appalled Baum.
It was at this point that Baum really started to panic. A person who could precisely locate the weak points of his dimensional tunnels could also easily do the same thing if he were to attempt escaping by ripping apart spacetime. In other words, Baum could be stopped from escaping.
That is to say, if Han Shuo were to gain the upper hand in this battle, Baum might not end up with just slight injuries – he could lose his life!
Baum started to regret it. He regretted that he had put himself in such a terrible situation for such a trivial matter!
Shortly afterwards, Baum realised that all the weak points of his dimensional tunnels had been hit by a burst of energy. Before he regained his senses, a violent rumbling sounded from all directions. His dimensional tunnels were rapidly collapsing. Baum panicked and hurried out of the dimensional tunnel, lest he be dragged to the edge of the universe. After all, he wasn't the Overgod of Space who could travel to any dimension with a thought!
Just as his space-time discontinuity completely collapsed, a pitiful scream reached Baum's ears. In a hurry, Baum lowered his head to look. He saw that Verón had been slain!
When Baum saw the slaughtered Verón lying lifeless on the ground, he knew that all his struggles had been in vain. However, he was secretly glad to see Verón dead, as Han Shuo would no longer have a reason to fight him.