The underground base consisted of many square rooms stacked on top of each other. Some of them were for storage, others for cultivation and living room. The yellowish crystals embedded in the walls glowed in the faint, warm evening light. It was just bright enough to see things.
Around the base, there were several unique defensive barriers, powered by energy crystals. Kage and his gang survived mainly by raiding the merchant caravans that travelled through the Fringe. They stored the goods they looted in the storage section of their underground base, keeping the items safe while they searched for buyers.
The base was well defended. There were two Highgods guarding each wing of the base. Most of the inhabitants of the Fringe did not dare to raid Kage's base or even mess with his gang. Not all of them were afraid of Kage, but they were all afraid of Salas.
Kage and his gang had become bossy and unrestrained because they had this huge figure called Salas to lean on. They were not afraid of any of the gods living in the Fringe, except for the followers of other Sovereigns. Most of the gods were afraid to mess with Kage because of Salas.
One by one, demon generals silently flew out from Han Shuo and spread throughout the underground base. They covered every region and every chamber of the base, giving Han Shuo a complete view of the entire base. It was better than using wall hacks in a video game.
After a while, Han Shuo smiled and instructed Han Tu, "Seal off every path to the surface.
Han Tu smiled mischievously before stepping back, leaning against the wall and merging with the ground.
After a moment of careful sensing, Han Shuo said to Han Hao and Rose, "Kage isn't in the base, but that doesn't matter. We will kill everyone inside and take everything they have." Then he turned to Han Jin and said, "The ores they stole from you aren't in here. They're probably with Kage."
"It's no big deal," Han Jin put on a smile and said, "Let's go get those bastards."
Han Shuo nodded and calmly instructed, "Fire at will. Leave no one alive."
Han Hao and Rose stormed into the base as soon as Han Shuo finished these words. They began killing in two different ways. Wherever they went, pitiful screams could be heard.
Han Jin, Han Mu, Han Shui and Han Huo also started to raid the base together. They could kill any Midgod in a fraction of a second just by using the bizarre energies on them and their telepathic teamwork. They did not even need to merge their energies.
Han Shuo, however, stood where he was like a rock. He commanded the demon generals he had placed in every corner of the base to transform into their material form of sinister dark shadows and begin to wreak havoc. By this time, there were nearly a thousand demon generals in the Cauldron of the Myriad Demon . He even had a few dozen demon generals of the highest level refined with Highgod souls. Han Shuo could easily cleanse the underground base with just his swarm of demon generals.
Even if there were twice as many gods defending the underground base, even if Kage was at home, they would still not stand a chance against Han Shuo and his group. One by one, these followers of Kage screamed in pain and collapsed.
Normally, they would have been the aggressors, looting and murdering the merchant caravans. But now that they were getting a taste of their own medicine, seeing their accomplices quickly fall to the enemy, they were terrified. They rushed to the tunnel leading to the surface and tried to flee for their lives.
Unfortunately for them, their only way out had been sealed tightly by Han Tu. Soon after entering the tunnel, they found that it was a dead end, and that earth spikes suddenly sprouted from the walls around them, causing the tunnel to collapse. Most of them were instantly impaled and crushed to death.
When they were underground, Han Tu's strength would be multiplied many times over!
In this situation, even if he was facing a Highgod, Han Tu would have the confidence to kill the expert by using his environment, attacking and defending with the earth energy around him. No one could use Earth energy better than him.
Han Tu excitedly harnessed the earth's energy, causing the underground chambers to shrink and collapse. Many of Kage's henchmen were unable to react in time and were crushed alive. The few who managed to escape found themselves trapped by earthen walls that blocked their way.
Before they could escape, an earth dragon appeared out of nowhere and crushed the few Midgods to death. Han Tu laughed heartily as he manoeuvred the earth dragon around. It slithered around the base, massacring Kage's followers who were trapped in their own base.
It took Han Shuo and his group only a few minutes to kill the fifty or so gods in the underground base. Han Shuo had also unleashed his Cauldron of Myriad Demon to collect the divine souls from the dead bodies.
"We are the followers of Lord Kage. His lordship is under the hegemony of Sovereign Salas. What you are doing now is tantamount to challenging the sovereignty of Lord Salas. You are courting death!" a Highgod Strength expert shouted angrily as Han Hao pointed his bone spear at him. However, his heart trembled with fear.
"Where is Kage?" asked Han Hao as he calmly looked at the Highgod. He did not kill him right away.
"Who are you? Why are you attacking us?" the Highgod continued to shout.
Han Hao's eyebrows furrowed and he suddenly stabbed the Highgod. It easily overcame his defences, piercing through his stomach and pinning him to the wall. Then Han Hao repeated the question, "Where is Kage?"
As the bone spear pierced his stomach, a sinister energy began to gnaw at his divine body like thousands of ants. He was overwhelmed with fear and could no longer hide it. He became even more frightened when he saw that Han Hao's eyes were devoid of emotion. He hastily asked, "Will you spare me if I answer your question?"
Han Hao did not answer. Instead, he gave the bone spear in his hand a slight twist. The sinister energy that had been wreaking havoc in the Highgod's body suddenly swarmed into his brain, filling his mind with inhuman pain. He immediately began to scream in pain and had forgotten to negotiate with Han Hao. He tearfully replied, "He went to Lord Salas with a load of ores!"
The bone spear was pulled out of his body and then thrust into his stomach at a steep angle. It passed through his lungs and throat and exited through the back of his skull. Blood spurted from every hole in his body.
The light-dark Cauldron of the Myriad Demon floated towards them like a ghost, quickly covering the man's head, devouring his divine soul that had not yet dissipated, and continuing to fly around the base. The Cauldron would arrive immediately after someone was killed to collect their souls.
Ten minutes later, the entire underground base was cleansed of blood. All of Kage's followers had been murdered.
The demon generals, who were in every corner of the base, gradually flew back into the Cauldron of the Myriad Demon . Han Hao, Rose and the Five Elite Zombies began to sift through the goods in every storeroom.
Kage's underground base was piled high with all kinds of goods, including some divine weapons of ordinary value. Most of these things were either useless to Han Shuo or too cheap for him. He selected only a few rare medicinal ingredients, precious stones, and certain special skins and skeletons of magical beasts that were useful for making divine armour.
After some time, the group reassembled in front of Han Shuo. They all had satisfied smiles on their faces.
Han Hao, the five elite zombies and Rose were all close to Han Shuo, so he would let them take whatever they needed instead of keeping everything for himself. In fact, all Han Shuo wanted was a short list of items that Han Shuo wanted them to collect for him.
"Oh? Why did you collect so many items?" Han Shuo noticed that the Five Elite Zombies and Rose had only taken a few items for themselves, but Little Skeleton had filled two space rings for himself. Most of the items were not that valuable to Han Shuo. Han Shuo was rather surprised that Little Skeleton would want those items.
"Father, even though I don't need them, my disciples could really use them," Little Skeleton explained.
Han Shuo stared blankly for a moment. It was only then that he remembered that Little Skeleton had his gang of Godhunters It turned out that Little Skeleton had gone to great lengths to collect all those divine armours and divine weapons to increase the power of his godhunters. No wonder he went to the trouble of collecting these 'cheap' things.
"Oh, I see," Han Shuo nodded before instructing Han Tu, "Use your earth energy to move the rest of the items deeper into the ground so that we can get them out in the future if we want to. Hehe, you might be the only person in the world who could dig them up without much effort."
Han Shuo noticed that Han Tu's strength was much greater in underground than on the surface. After Han Shuo, the person who had the most kills in the underground base wasn't Han Hao or Rose, but Han Tu.
Han Shuo suddenly realised that the Five Elite Zombies could help him more than just with their strength. Their special ability to use the Five Yuan Energies would benefit him more than he could ever imagine.
"Right away!" Han Tu said with an innocent smile.
Then, without him making any special movement, the entire underground base, except for the area where Han Shuo and the party were, began to sink. To the party, it looked as if they were floating upwards. It wasn't long before all the goods were buried much deeper underground and out of their sight.
"If Kage returned, he would have to dig a new hole to get back to his underground base. He'd probably think he came to the wrong place," Han Shui remarked with a laugh.
If Kage returned to Buckthorn Valley, he would surely be very confused if he could not find the entrance to his underground base. And if he bothered to dig the tunnel to his base again, he would find it empty. It seemed likely that he would think he had made a mistake with the location.
"Haha, I wish I could see the look on Kage's face when he returns.
Now let's visit the Omphalos," Han Shuo said smiling. They left the underground after Han Tu opened a tunnel to the surface.