Chapter 995 - Ten Years
GDK 995: Ten Years
Translator: Ryogawa
TLC: Hedonist
Ten years passed in a flash. Han Shuo, with the Five Elite Zombies’ help, managed to finally construct a Ninth Realm Mystical Yin Harvester in Elysium. The day the fruits of their labor were ready to harvest, all the negative energies and Yuan energy gathered around the clouds above Pandemonium as if they were being sucked in by the formation.
The Pandemonium had now grown to ten times its size before the war. One look across and one would be able to see huge mountains piercing into the skies like swords. The few palaces standing in their midst seemed to be filled with traces of energy that almost seemed visible under the moonlight.
Thanks to the energy gathered by the formation, cultivators within Pandemonium could feel how much denser the various energies were. It almost felt like they were leaning back pleasantly in a sea of various energies.
There was an amber-colored room in the center of the Ninth Realm Mystical Yin Harvester that looked like the purest of crystals that continued to give off a magnificent radiance. Within it, Han Shuo remained quietly seated and unmoving as a haze of smoke circled his body.
When the Ninth Realm Mystical Yin Harvester began to work, it would start gathering the negative energies in the surroundings without stopping, which could be converted into demonic yuan that Han Shuo could absorb at a rate hundreds or thousands of times faster. Without the formation, Han Shuo would take thousands or tens of thousands of years to bring his body’s demonic yuan to the Diablo Realm.
But now, he could shorten that time up to a thousand times. As the continent with the densest Yuan energy, Elysium had a huge concentration of energy that could be funneled by the formation into Pandemonium. Thanks to this sudden influx of power, Han Shuo’s body strengthened at a staggering rate as it converted the negative energies. Demonic yuan seep through each and every cell in his body, changing it as it flowed through his veins.
Han Shuo’s main body had been absorbing energy like that nonstop using the Cauldron of Myriad Demons as the focal point of the formation, helping him advance through leaps and bounds.
A decade soon passed and conflict was now present all across Elysium. Ever since Yarus and Talbot attacked the guardians of the Dominions of Life and Light once they left the Fringe, the battle between the Dominions of Light, Life, Water, Destruction, Darkness and Death had begun for good and lasted ten whole years.
While that time was quite long from the point of view of a normal man, it was but a blink of an eye for the nigh-ageless gods. There had only been small skirmishes during the past decade without any real grand battles. It was as if the conflict was building up towards something even bigger.
The other divine dominions didn’t participate in the battles like before and chose instead to observe and perhaps secretly influence the situation to turn the situation to their benefit. The Fringe had changed a lot during that time. The Hexopolis had long been rebuilt, and under the House of Han, Wasir and Salas’s management, it grew prosperous again. No matter what gods come to the city, they wouldn’t be charged a single black crystal coin to be allowed to remain.
Though, it still wasn’t enough time for the city to recover completely from the previous conflict. Even so, it was still a good omen for the future to come. The battles that had been ongoing also caused a lot of rogue gods to flee to the Fringe as refugees.
With the situation of Elysium in near constant flux, tensions were high. Han Shou ordered those in the Fringe to not interfere with external affairs and take care of their own turf. With his help, the members of the House of Han improved by leaps and bounds. Many of them managed to break through a realm. Fanny, Emily and a few others who received overgod souls improved at an even crazier pace with Han Shuo’s divine elixir. Now, they were currently at the mid-stage highgod realm and at this trend, they would break through to become overgods soon.
Nowadays, the power of the House of Han greatly outstripped that of all other great clans in Elysium. If they were to get into a fight with any capital city of any of the divine dominions, they would surely win.
After word of Han Shuo killing Gyál a decade ago spread throughout, the various gods in Elysium were made aware that another being as powerful as a Quintessence Overgod existed. Han Shuo had been elevated to their level as a result.
As Han Hao, who became the leader of the Godhunter Alliance, he had been nowhere to be seen in the past decade. It was as if he had vanished. Nobody knew his whereabouts at all, though godhunters in general did still pop up from time to time to plague the divine dominions.
Apart from the three Quintessence Overgods who had met Han Hao in person, few actually knew that he had developed his own Quintessence to become the thirteenth Quintessence Overgod.
All that coupled together showed a sign that a storm was brewing in Elysium.
That day, a sole figure stepped into the Dominion of Death. The moment he took a step in, he felt an odd energy pulse. But instead of immediately taking defensive measures, he halted. It was as if he was standing there, waiting for something to happen.
Moments later, a head appeared in mid air formed from the purest death energy into Nestor’s visage. He looked down on the young man who had stepped into his domain emotionlessly and said, “You’ve come, Bryan.”
That was Han Shuo indeed, but not his main body, but rather the amalgamate of his thirteen avatars. There was a fine line across the middle of his head that looked like a long scar. It was as if it had been split into two; the skin on the left half was white as jade and looked saintly and benevolent, while the skin on the right was dark and venomous.
The whole time, Han Shuo had been trying to unite the six-fusion and seven-fusion avatars together, but simply couldn’t find a way. After ten years of arduous effort, the best he could do to reduce the rejection between two polar opposite avatars was to use the power of space to split them in the middle before fusing them.
This forcefully smushed together body was still actually considered two parts. When he wasn’t paying attention, bursts of energy from the mutual rejection would cause the two halves to conflict once more. However, that was exactly the way he wanted it. He hoped that he would be able to find a way to unite them by observing these rejection reactions.
“Nestor, why did you send word to get me to come here?” he calmly asked.
A year ago, someone came from the Dominion of Death to Pandemonium to hand Han Shuo the seal of Nestor. Once he unsealed it, he found that it was an invitation to talk in the Dominion of Death. As his main body was still absorbing energy nonstop in the middle of the formation, he couldn’t come ‘in person’, so he sent his fusion avatar instead.
“This isn’t your body, is it?” Nestor asked after some observation.
Han Shuo furrowed his brow and chuckled. “Nestor, you can’t have asked me to come to do me ill, can you?”
Now that he considered himself Nestor’s equal, he spoke casually without caring about formalities. Back in Pandemonium, Nestor had intended to harm Han Hao. Had it not been for the fact that he grew powerful all of a sudden and Han Hao got his own Quintessence, Nestor might have really killed him. That left quite a bad taste in Han Shuo’s mouth, hence the lack of respect.
“If I wanted to deal with you, I wouldn’t have bothered waiting till now,” Nestor calmly replied, “Back when you captured Hill’s soul, I knew you were in the Dominion of Death. I could’ve killed you ten years ago instead of letting you grow for the past ten years.”
Hearing that, Han Shuo could finally be certain that the Gods of Death and Darkness were definitely aware of Han Shuo’s presence in their territories. The reason they didn’t act against him was perhaps they needed part of his power to aid them open Aethernia or something.
“Alright. Then why did you seek me out?” Han Shuo said, now relaxed.
“You killed Gyál, so the God of Light will no longer make an effort to make peace with you, given his personality. The battle of the gods this time around will involve every divine dominion. Even the Dominions of Space and Destiny will be enveloped in furious battle. While the Fringe is a little smaller, it can still be considered one. What are your plans?”
Han Shuo found the question rather weird. “Are you saying you want me to join you?”
“Back then, you cultivated the energies of death and destruction. That is your true nature and you don’t get along well with the God of Light, so why not stand with us? But don’t be in a hurry to agree or decline. Come to the Dominion of Darkness. The three of us will meet you in person soon to talk to you about it and some other matters. Worry not, you definitely stand to gain from this.”
After some thought, Han Shuo said, “Alright. I’ll wait for the other two to come and we’ll talk.” Naturally, they were referring to the Gods of Destruction and Darkness.