Chapter 165: An abnormal situation within the hotel
A faint fragrance drifted into Han Shuo’s nose and mouth. A strong woozy feeling suddenly assaulted him and he almost fainted.
It was a good thing that the tenacity of his body was much stronger than an ordinary person’s after the demonic magic had reforged his body. The magical yuan had an even more wondrous effect. His body started automatically circulating it the moment he became dazed after taking in a breath of the faint scent.
The demon infant in his abdomen instantly expelled the fragrance from his body. The dizzy feeling in his head also disappeared as well.
At this moment, Han Shuo held his breath and started circulating magical yuan first before taking in another breath of the fragrance. When he took the breath in, his immensely strong nerves were fully mentally prepared and in the instant the dizzying feeling appeared, the feeling of wanting to faint turned from strong to faint until he was no longer affected by it.
Now that he was in the true demon realm, his physical body had been reforged to a depth beyond normal imagination and even this strong, cloying fragrance wasn’t enough to affect him.
Oh no! I wonder what’s happened to Emily! After his perverted body grew used to the fragrance, Han Shuo suddenly recalled that Emily had been in the room and hastily pushed open the closet door.
Emily had been within the room, but was now nowhere to be found. He didn’t know where she’d gone. There were traces that the room had been turned over, and judging from the level of mess that had been made, someone had been by.
Han Shuo’s transportation matrix was set up inside closet and clothes were covering the magic sticks. Therefore, even if someone opened the closet doors, they wouldn’t be able to discern anything out of the ordinary if they didn’t inspect closely.
When he saw that someone had gone through the room and that Emily had vanished without a trace, Han Shuo immediately started worrying. Now that he planned on walking out of the room in search of his Dark Mantle colleague, he suddenly discovered that everything about the hotel was a bit out of sorts.
He lifted a corner of the window to discover that it was already night. However, as he gazed into the distance, he could see that the rooms in the distance were lit up. This meant that it wasn’t too late at night yet, but all the rooms within this hotel were shrouded in darkness. There was faint light emitting from only Belinda’s room as very low voices engaged in discussion came from it.
As Han Shuo held his breath and concentrated, he discovered that there were small fly-like bugs swarming the hotel courtyard. There were dozens of them, and they spread out to fly into all of the various rooms of the hotel. A gray mist emitted from their tails, emitting the fragrance that had almost caused Han Shuo to faint.
Creasing his brow, Han Shuo was almost certain that the abnormal events within the room had to do with Belinda. He soundlessly opened the door and took out the black robe that Dark Mantle members wore during missions. He made it to the top of the roof in the darkness and slowly slunk towards Belinda’s room.
As he did so, Han Shuo deftly used the magical yuan to completely cover traces of his presence, adjusting his heartbeat and breathing to a very hard to detect frequency.
“Master Belinda, all of the guests within this hotel have been gathered into the living room of the suite.” Han Shuo heard a low voice speak as soon as he laid his ear to the roof of Belinda’s room.
“Mm.” Belinda responded faintly and seemed to walk towards the lobby.
Han Shuo carefully moved his body towards the lobby. When he arrived, he lightly reached out a finger and circulated the “Mystical Glacial Spellfire”. A small flame appeared on his fingertip, burrowing through dense wood material on top and allowed him look below.
There were more than ten people in a dead faint placed in a lobby that was very similar to the room that Han Shuo was staying in. Emily was amongst them, as well as Chester, having returned from his mission of taking Lisa to Lawrence. Hotel owner Helene was amongst these people, and even Candice and the other members of the Battlefire mercenary band as well.
Apart from the people whom Han Shuo was well acquainted with, there was also the great druid Caspian and female elf Angelica. Han Shuo had bumped into both of them in the Dark Forest, but had met them separately. He only knew that the two of them were traveling together when he saw both of them here now.
There was no one of particular interest within the rest of the hotel guests. They were likely here to conduct business in Valen City and didn’t raise Han Shuo’s interest.
The three people who had been following Belinda were all standing there respectfully, as if subordinates waiting for Belinda’s orders. This rather surprised Han Shuo as he hadn’t thought the three following her would be her men.
Belinda’s slender brows knit together tightly when she arrived in the lobby and she swept a gaze over those below her. She said softly, “I felt vibrations from white bone staff number 17 when I arrived at the hotel. I personally refined that white bone staff and awarded it to Clarendon.”
“However, the presence from the staff suddenly vanished without a trace when I arrived at the end of the hallway. It looks like someone suddenly returned it to their space ring. No one’s left the hotel since I’ve arrived, so the white bone staff must be within one of their space rings.”
“Master, then how should we do this?” The one who looked to be the oldest out of the three brothers asked in inquiry.
Belinda’s blue eyes looked shrewdly at the people on the ground and pointed at Emily. “The white bone staff should be on her. She’s the only one with a space ring.” Out of Emily, Candice, Caspian, and Angelica, Candice had always been with them, so was naturally ruled out. It looked like Caspian and Angelica had arrived later, therefore, in Belinda’s eyes, Emily was the one with the staff.
The person who’d asked the question walked over to Emily after Belinda’s words and took off her space ring, handing it respectfully to Belinda.
When Belinda took Emily’s space ring, she touched it with closed eyes for a while and said, “She set up a magical boundary inside. Tie her up and then wake her.”
“Master, what about the others?” It was still the oldest of the three asking the questions.
Waving her hand, Belinda said carelessly, “Same old, kill those who have no value.”
Han Shuo immediately became nervous when he heard these words. Apart from Emily, Candice, Angelica, and Caspian were also in the lobby below. Although Caspian had no relationship with Han Shuo, he was friends with Candice and Angelica to varying degrees. He couldn’t watch them be killed in front of him.
“Don’t you think that you’re going overboard with your actions?” Caspian, supposedly in a dead faint, suddenly spoke up before Han Shuo took action.
Caspian stood up as he spoke and protected the little elf Angelica behind him.
When Han Shuo noticed this abnormality, he immediately stopped and continued crouching on the roof, observing what was happening below.
“Eh? You can still remain conscious beneath the strong effects of my fragrance. It seems that the great druid Caspian does indeed have some magical abilities.” Belinda exclaimed softly but spoke calmly.
“I don’t care who you are, but your methods are greatly distasteful to me. I will ignore the fact that you harmed us earlier if you let all those here go, and I will allow you to leave as well.” Caspian looked at Belinda with disfavor and snorted.
“Fereeca, you three brothers can take advantage of this to see what kind of magical abilities a great druid of the nature divinity possess. Kill him!” Belinda didn’t waste any blather and immediately waved her hand, indicating for the three brothers to kill Caspian.
Fereeca and his brothers suddenly displayed a ruthless look of killing intent after Belinda’s instructions and unsheathed three longswords, surrounding the druid.
“Don’t blame me for what happens next since you won’t listen to me!” Caspian glared at the three of them and took out an odd staff shaped like an old root from his space ring, planning on fighting the three.
At this moment, all of the scattered flying bugs in the small hotel seemed to be summoned by some power and converged on Belinda’s room.
At the same time, the thick branches of a large tree by the side of the room suddenly seemed to be summoned as well, sending its gnarled branches into the room like pliable snakes.
