GDK 674: Godhunter
“Oi! Oi! What do you think you’re doing?!” Akley was being dragged by his collar, struggling in midair. He seemed to be mortified.
“Those foes of yours have arrived. I’m taking you away from them. If we remain here, we will be discovered!” Han Shuo reasoned.
“So soon? Damn it, they actually chased all the way to Elysium!” Akley cursed. He stopped struggling when he heard that his enemies had come.
Han Shuo’s flying speed increased substantially after Akley calmed himself down. He traveled towards remote regions where an unbroken chain of uninhibited mountains was found. There wasn’t another soul they could run into.
After flying several hundred miles, Han Shuo casually threw Akley onto the top of a barren hill and said, “We should have shaken them off. You continue to rest!”
Akley had not put his recovery on hold while being dragged in the air by Han Shuo. Thanks to the efficacy of the pellet of rejuvenation, the wounds on his body had started to form scabs. Even his face regained a slight bit of a healthy shade of red.
The pellet of rejuvenation was very beneficial for healing injuries. Akley, as a god cultivating in the edict of destruction, possessed a divine body that could soak up the benefits of a pellet of rejuvenation to the fullest. Hence, his condition had vastly improved within a short period of time.
“You be careful as well and make use of this opportunity to regain some energy – keep yourself at your most optimal state. Although this is the first time I’ve come to Elysium, I believe that this world isn’t all that peaceful either. If we were to run into anything unexpected, we would have the best chance of survival if we are at our bests!” Akley suggested to Han Shuo as he sat down of the barren hill.
After having experienced countless great battles where the difference between life and death was only a hair’s breadth apart, Han Shuo had long formed this good habit. The moment that he touched down, his avatar of death flew into the Cauldron of Myriad Demon and immediately started to rest.
With the Cauldron of Myriad Demon, Han Shuo’s two avatars could sink into cultivation at any time. At present, both of his avatars were placed inside the Cauldron of Myriad Demon and they would be sent to Han Shuo’s demonic infant when Han Shuo needed to use their energies.
After giving that advice, Akley immediately resumed his recovery and paid no attention to Han Shuo. While Han Shuo’s avatars cultivated inside the Cauldron of Myriad Demon, he stared blankly into the distance, pondering about his future.
Compared to Profound Continent, Elysium wasn’t just bigger, but the relationships and politics were even more tangled and complicated. The twelve Overgods had divided the infinitely wide Elysium into twelve dominions, one for each Overgod.
Naturally, no Overgod would let opposing forces into their dominions. Any trespasser discovered would be mercilessly executed.
Gods who cultivated in the energy of death, destruction, and darkness were strictly prohibited from entering the dominions under the Overgods of Life and Light, and vice versa.
The Dominions of Earth, Fire, Wind, Water, and Thunder belonged in rather unstable neutrality. There would often be a mixture of gods cultivating in various energies, along with a minority of godly cultivators of the energy of death, destruction and darkness found in the dominions. Those gods would usually reside around regions with special characteristics. For example, if a region had particularly intense elements of death and darkness, it would attract gods that cultivated in those energies to live there.
The dominions under the Overgod of Destiny and Space allowed entry to all gods. The two Overgods were basically permanently neutral. They had never participated or took sides in any of the fierce conflicts on Elysium.
The twelve Overgods were divided into several factions. The Overgod of Light and Life were a gang. The Overgods of Earth, Fire, Wind, Water, and Thunder could be said as being in one band, but they were the least cohesive faction and the most unstable. For example, in recent years, the Overgod of Water had been growing closer to the Overgod of Light and was slowing drifting away from that band.
The Overgods of Death, Destruction, and Darkness too had formed an alliance, the product of which was the Calamity Church. The Overgod of Darkness had only ganged up with the Overgods of Death and Destruction in recent years. Those in the camp had severely threatened the interests of the Overgods of Life and Light for advancing on their own. It was practically impossible for the two camps to interact peacefully. Most wars on Elysium involved these two camps.
The Overgod of Space, as well as most cultivators of the edict of space, wandered all about the universe. They were the most dispersed gods around Elysium and were almost always neutral towards belligerents. As they were the only people who could deploy interplanar transportation matrices, practically no forces would give them any kind of trouble.
The Overgod of Destiny was the most mysterious and usually paid no heed to worldly affairs. No matter if the powerhouses were clashing with each other, or if the whole material plane was on fire, the Overgod of Destiny wouldn’t show concern by the slightest.
However, when the fight escalated to the point where one faction would not stop until the other perished, the Overgod of Destiny would emerge as the conflict resolver. More often than not, those factions would comply with the opinion of the Overgod of Destiny and reconcile, reaching a truce and perhaps even cease the conflict altogether.
The reason that all the forces would listen to the Overgod of Destiny was – it was said that the Overgod of Destiny was the spokesperson for The Creator. Its words reflected the wishes of The Creator.
Han Shuo had learned of this information through all sorts of channels before coming to Elysium. In this world where all kinds of powerhouses could be found and all sorts of family clans dominated the expansive land, without understanding the disputes and the bigger picture, standing with the wrong faction could mean one’s doom.
Due to the enmity he had with the Church of Light and Shrine of Ice, it was basically impossible for Han Shuo to remain neutral. He was a nobody with no authority and no influence on Elysium, wanting to ensure his own safety, so he chose to stand in the Calamity Church camp. That was the only sensible act.
Although Han Shuo had long wished of visiting this material plane, now when he truly stood on the soil of Elysium, he felt rather lost about his future. He had no idea where he would stand on this high-level material plane where mighty godly experts could be found at every turn or where he would go.
“You must constantly fight and continue to grow stronger. A demonic arts cultivator is never afraid of challenges – they look forward to them. When you become just as mighty as the Exalted Demonlord, you may go anywhere you want. You could even return to your homeworld!” as though it sensed Han Shuo’s insecurities about the future, Cauldron Spirit suddenly started communicating with Han Shuo’s consciousness.
“When I truly reach that stage, everything at my homeworld will have completely changed. Everyone I knew would have died of old age,” when Han Shuo thought of Earth, he was reminded of his parents. His heart suddenly ached with sorrow.
The Cauldron Spirit turned silent.
After a long while, when Han Shuo was still immersed in heartache, the Cauldron Spirit suddenly transmitted, “There are people approaching. Decent strength. Do you wish to flee?”
Han Shuo immediately came to his senses. After casting all the jumbled thoughts off his mind, he instructed, “Dispatch a mystical demon. I will decide after determining the situation!”
“Alright!” The Cauldron Spirit sent a formless, incorporeal mystical demon flying towards the approaching party.
The mystical demons refined by the Cauldron Spirit were made from lowgod or midgod souls. Han Shuo had long experienced the might of the mystical demons and knew that the ones Cauldron Spirit refined were much more valiant than the spirit demons he meticulously refined. The incorporeal mystical demons had practically no life signature when they weren’t attacking. Without extremely mighty strength, it would be nearly impossible to detect the presences of the mystical demons.
A mystical demon rapidly flew towards its destination. Being immaterial, the mystical demon wasn’t affected by gravity and could fly at high speed. The mystical demon took just a few moments to reach its target.
It saw an eerie-looking old woman with gray hair and a body that appeared no different from a dried corpse. She was laughing sinisterly in a low voice while weaving death rays and launching them in all directions.
Ahead of the old woman was a group of five. They looked terrified and were fleeing in five different directions.
The old woman cultivated in the elemental energy of death. She appeared to be a midgod. All five of those fleeing in disarray were lowgods. There were three males and two females. Two of them cultivated in the element of death, another two in the element of darkness, while one more in the edict of destruction.
“Run towards the valley. There is an interplanar transportation facility over there with proper divine guards. As long as we reach the valley, this godhunter will surely retreat!” a woman that cultivated in the element of darkness shouted to the two middle-aged men who cultivated in the element of death.
A godhunter! Han Shuo was shocked. He did not expect to run into a notorious godhunter so soon after he arrived at the Elysium.
A so-called godhunter was a god who would hunt and kill other gods cultivating in the same energy in order to raise their own divine energy.
A god could absorb the divine energy of another god as long as both of them cultivated in the same elemental energy or edictal force. Those who were tired of long and endless cultivation or too lazy to travel to lower-level material planes to gather the power of faith would usually sneak up in some remote countryside to hunt for other gods of weaker strengths cultivating in the same energy and absorb their divine energy to rapidly raise their own.
No matter in any Overgod domains, godhunters were despised and heavily cracked down upon. There would be a department of divine guards specially tasked with hunting the godhunters in each of the twelve dominions. Once caught, they would be killed on the spot without trial! In most circumstances, godhunters did not hunt in cities or towns where powerful gods were present. They would usually choose to strike in sparsely populated regions where divine guards would have difficulty attending to. They preferred to set their hands on weaker gods traveling alone.
These types of existences were willing to take enormous risks to quench their greed and thirst for divine energy. Many of those who were new to Elysium might be finished off by a godhunter before they could truly experience the wonders of this world.
Although there would be divine guards tasked with cracking down on this bunch of lunatics, the divine guards were limited in strength and number. They could never completely put an end to the existence of godhunters.
Before coming to Elysium, Donna had repeatedly stressed and cautioned Han Shuo about the godhunters. She once mentioned that some of those godhunters possessed extremely valiant power. There were even godhunters that were high-level members of some influential family clans. They would remain to be well-regarded by the public as long as they did not get caught.
The greed and thirst for divine energy, in the right circumstances, could turn a normal person into a deranged godhunter. Even one’s closest friend could become the next godhunter if one were severely injured.
While these pieces of information flew through Han Shuo’s brain, before he could carefully ponder about it, his face froze – he discovered that for whatever reason, one of the cultivators of the element of death was fleeing towards him while that eerie and sinister old woman pursued.
