GDK 670: Aquarius Jade
***On a remote island in the Boundless Sea.
Han Shuo was sitting cross-legged atop a bald hill. The ground all around him was marked with gulches as well as seemingly bottomless pits. Several enormous stone pillars were circling around him in the air.
Han Shuo sat as still as a boulder with his eyes closed while the sound of explosions constantly erupted from all around him.
After a long while, Han Shuo suddenly opened his eyes, revealing his pupils that seemed to contain the darkness of the night.
The explosions that constantly rang around him stopped the instant that he opened his eyes. Those gigantic stone pillars suspended in mid-air also ceased to revolve.
Seemingly appearing out of thin air, a giant net above the stone pillars flew downwards and floated into Han Shuo’s palm.
The giant net was called Toxic Dragon Net, and the main ingredients used in refining this weapon were the dragon veins he collected from those Greater Dragons he killed at Dragon Valley, the most poisonous miasmic gas he gathered at the Southern Border, soft silks harvested from the depths of the Boundless Sea, as well as nine other rare materials. Han Shuo managed to collect them with difficulty with the Cauldron Spirit’s guidance.
Upon deployment of the Toxic Dragon Net, poisonous miasmic gas would gush out from the dragon veins to form a cloud of poisonous gas. Similar to the miasmic ga.s.ses inside the Pentacloud Miasma, the cloud of poisonous gas possessed intense corrosive power.
Once someone was entangled in the Toxic Dragon Net, the miasmic gas would be activated. The gigantic net that Han Shuo had personally crafted using dragon veins as the base material was extremely tough and durable. Without outstanding divine weapons or strength that far exceeded Han Shuo’s, it would be basically impossible for one to break free from the net. This a.s.sured that the victim was constantly subjected to the corrosion of the poisonous gas.
Half-a-year had unwittingly pa.s.sed since Donna and her experts departed Profound Continent. During the six-month period, Han Shuo had been stabilizing his current Omen realm and, with Cauldron Spirit’s guidance, refined several demonic weapons using some valuable materials in his possession.
Other than the Toxic Dragon Net, Han Shuo also refined Green Hypergolic Dust and Banner of Hallucination. The Green Hypergolic Dust was made by gathering ghosefire from thousands of corpses and mixing them with a few types of rare blood. Once one came into contact with the Green Hypergolic Dust, they would spontaneously combust with flames that are extremely difficult to distinguish. The Banner of Hallucination was made by imprinting an intricate hallucination-inducing formation on a large banner. Those covered by the banner would be trapped and, unless they understood the miraculousness of the formation, they wouldn’t be able to get out easily.
Han Shuo, with the Cauldron Spirit’s help, had exhausted many of his precious materials and around three months’ time to craft the three demonic weapons.
Other than having successfully crafted the three demonic weapons, during the six month, Han Shuo’s avatar of destruction that had been trying to comprehend new insights into the edict of destruction had attained mid-stage lowG.o.d realm – the same realm as his avatar of death.
His avatar of destruction could make use of the power of faith of his believers on Profound Continent. In addition to having absorbed the energy of destruction from the slaughtering of hundreds of thousands of orc warriors, he wasn’t lacking in divine energy. The reason that he couldn’t make improvements in his cultivation for such a long time was that his body contained too many impurities which prevented him from comprehending the edict of destruction.
From peeking at the Brook brothers as they restored their divine energy, and thanks to Cauldron Spirit purging the impurities from his avatar, Han Shuo managed to grasp some new understanding on how to utilize the edict of destruction. On top of the new insights gained from watching the Ninth Realm Mystical Yin Harvester being destroyed, his avatar finally made a breakthrough.
Perhaps the only thing that Han Shuo felt disappointed about was that he had yet to truly comprehend the Omen realm. According to the Cauldron Spirit’s explanation, demonic cultivators grew by going through bloodshed. It wouldn’t be easy to advance by relying purely on secluded cultivation. Besides, half a year’s time was nothing but a heartbeat for demonic art cultivators. It came as no surprise to him that he wouldn’t be able to gain much progress within that time.
During this period of time, using the Calamity Church as his eyes and ears, Han Shuo became aware of the paradigm s.h.i.+ft that happened to Profound Continent.
Those from the Church of Light and Shrine of Ice had abruptly become well-behaved. They withdrew themselves from the politics and affairs of Profound Continent and relocated to remote and desolate lands.
Without the backing of the Church of Light and the Shrine of Ice, Oden Empire and Kasi Empire, against the unstoppable forces of Lancelot Empire, Angela Empire, and Brut Merchant Alliance, could only retreat further and further. It was only a matter of time before they surrendered or were completely defeated.
The situation on Profound Continent was moving in an ideal path for Han Shuo. That big fat Pope of the Calamity Church who recognized the new situation served Han Shuo with all his heart. He did an excellent job helping Han Shuo manage everything about this continent, and for this Han Shuo was very grateful.
Han Shuo’s women, perhaps long accustomed to him mysteriously going missing, or maybe because Han Shuo had made them promises in advance, although they missed Han Shuo very much, they remained in a rather stable state of mind.
Seeing that the Profound Continent was on the right track, Han Shuo could finally feel at ease about this world. After refining the three demonic weapons, he headed to the extreme depths of the Boundless Sea.
Following the Cauldron Spirit’s instructions, Han Shuo sank to the extreme depths of the sea and located a region where sharks circled back and forth constantly. After crossing through multiple water vortexes, he arrived at a place of extreme water with incomparably intense yuan energy of water.
According to the Cauldron Spirit, back then, in order to maximize the wonderful functions of the Ninth Realm Mystical Yin Harvester, Gu Tian Xie the Exalted Demonlord, using his supernatural power that could alter the heaven’s and earth’s law, deployed the five largest places of extremes on Profound Continent.
Those five places of extremes formed a giant circle around the Ninth Realm Mystical Yin Harvester previously located at the bottom-most layer of the underground world. Their presences were meant to allow the Harvester to gather mystical yin aura more rapidly.
The five places of extremes deployed using his terrifying energy a.s.sembled the yuan energies of five attributes on Profound Continent at an astonis.h.i.+ng rate and even formed the extreme treasures of five attributes. Among the five, the Fire Lotus from the place of extreme fire, the Golden Cudgel from the place of extreme metal, the Earthsoul Pearl from the place of extreme earth, and the Viride Leaf from the place of extreme wood had been obtained by Han Shuo.
The only remaining treasure that Han Shuo had yet to obtain was the Aquarius Jade of the place of extreme water.
The Penta-elemental Undead Formation could only unleash its fullest destructive power when all five of the elite zombies were in possession of extreme treasures of their respective attributes. Perhaps on the whole of the Profound Continent, only the Cauldron Spirit knew of the precise location of the final extreme treasure. With its guidance, Han Shuo easily found the place of extreme water.
Of the five elite zombies, except for metal elite zombie, all of them had absorbed the energy of G.o.dly experts and a.s.similated divine souls. Based on his observations, Han Shuo reckoned that the four were on the verge of becoming G.o.ds and they could make a breakthrough at any moment.
Cauldron Spirit was very impressed and found Han Shuo’s innovative thinking to be admirable when it learned that Han Shuo had amalgamated two energies of the two universes and produced the five elite zombies. It was also curious how the elite zombies would turn out after absorbing the energy of G.o.ds in this universe and becoming G.o.ds themselves.
“This is the place of extreme water that nurtures an Aquarius Jade. When the Exalted Demonlord deployed these places of extremes, he surely did not antic.i.p.ate that the whole thing would take such a long time that these places would have nurtured the extreme treasures of five attributes!” the Cauldron Spirit sighed with sorrow after leading Han Shuo to this place.
When Han Shuo looked all around him, he thought that he was inside a palace made of sparkling and translucent crystals. All that he saw were water beads whirling and spinning about. These water beads did not mix with the seawater but rolled about disorderly.
Han Shuo could sense the intense yuan energy of water within the water beads. He also detected water vortexes that formed layers of boundaries in the perimeter that seemed to completely seal off the place. Without Cauldron Spirit showing the way, it was very unlikely that Han Shuo would have discovered this place of extreme water in the depths of the Boundless Sea.
“Where is the Aquarius Jade?” Han Shuo asked Cauldron Spirit in astonishment after looking all around, unable to sense the Aquarius Jade.
“It’s in one of those disorderly whirling water beads. You can’t detect its location because you don’t cultivate in this energy!” Cauldron Spirit answered.
Han Shuo stared blankly for a moment and nodded his head. Immediately, he summoned water elite zombie.
“Father, what is this place? It’s wonderful, comfortable!” water elite zombie cried out in surprise as soon as he emerged.
“There is something hidden here that will be very significant to you. Try to find it! Hehe, if you want your own toy just like your brothers, then you better make sure to seize this opportunity well!” Han Shuo said smilingly.
“You might have no way of locating the Aquarius Jade, but for him, it’s as easy as pie!” the Cauldron Spirit suddenly transmitted.
And the fact proved the Cauldron Spirit’s words true. Han Shuo thought that it would take water elite zombie some effort before he could locate the extreme treasure but he didn’t foresee that soon after he arrived from the Netherworld, all except for one of those water beads whirling about would suddenly stand stationary. At the next moment, that water bead started rolling towards water elite zombie.
“This is great! Thank you, father! Thank you!” Water elite zombie was elated. He merely stood still on the same ground while that water bead shot rapidly towards him. Then, before Han Shuo’s attentive eyes, it disappeared inside water elite zombie’s body.
After the Aquarius Jade flew into his body, water elite zombie seemed to grow into a giant whirlpool in an instant, producing an intense suction power upon all those stationary water beads that contained intense yuan energy of water. They all started rolling and flowing into water elite zombie.
“After taking over the Aquarius Jade, he could make use of the treasure to collect these water beads that contained the most yuan energy of water,” the Cauldron Spirit explained.
“Thank you, father! What wonderful and pure energy!” water elite zombie constantly cheered.
After some time, when there were no longer any water beads to be found, the whirlpool on water elite zombie vanished.
By now, Han Shuo had collected all five extreme treasures on Profound Continent. All five of his elite zombies had weapons of their own attributes. This would lay a strong foundation for the strength of the Penta-elemental Undead Formation in the future.
“Go back and properly learn your new weapon!” Han Shuo smilingly transmitted to water elite zombie and sent him back to Netherworld. Han Shuo then proceeded by flying straight back to the gourd island. After entering the Cemetery of Death, he walked to the enormous interplanar transportation matrix and inserted a sufficient amount of magical crystal ores. He then stood on the matrix, fed in the coordinates given by Donna, and energized the interplanar transportation matrix.
Elysium, the Plane of G.o.ds, here I come!