The toxins contained in the Demonic Miasma Cloud were extremely deadly. A portion of the invading forces started oozing blood from their orifices. Those experts who stood closest to the Pandemonium had their skin and flesh liquefied and were reduced to skeletons.
The colorful miasmic gasses were concocted with all kinds of extremely noxious substances. Han Shuo, as a cultivator of demonic arts, was very knowledgeable in the use of such sinister substances. With the help of Wood Elite Zombie and the Cauldron of Myriad Demon, Han Shuo managed to brew the extremely deadly toxic cloud. Never had anything so toxic been created in this universe.
Those who possessed highgod strengths managed to resist the onslaught of the miasmic cloud. They had resilient divine bodies and had reacted quickly enough, extending their divine energies to every part of their bodies and moving out of the way at highgod speeds. The rest, however, weren’t so lucky. All the midgods that were engulfed by the miasmic cloud perished.
In the blink of an eye, the toxic miasmic cloud had killed fifty or sixty of Salas’ midgods. The invading forces frantically retreated to a great distance. The few highgods who flew out from the miasmic cloud, although unscathed, had their minds filled with dread for the toxic clouds had exhausted plenty of their divine energy in such little time.
Under the Pandemonium, the Five Elite Zombies were laughing mischievously.
“Nice one, Little Wood! Haha, had those idiots not used their stupid wind energy, the toxic miasma cloud couldn’t have engulfed them at such great speed,” said the laughing Han Huo. He seemed very excited.
“Hehe, father had long anticipated that the enemy would try to disperse the toxic miasma cloud with wind energy. That’s why he built this special function that I can activate and use the enemy’s wind energy against them,” said Han Mu. Instead of claiming credit for himself, he pointed out that this malicious strategy was Han Shuo’s idea.
The Five Elite Zombies casually discussed the wonderful uses of the Demonic Miasma Cloud. Their confidence grew after emerging victorious in the first engagement of the battle.
Rose, Zovic, and the others were astonished to see that a great number of the invaders were killed and injured although they had not even defeated the Pandemonium’s first layer of defense.
It was only now that they started to feel some trust in the defensive power of the array of formations inside the Pandemonium. They got a vague feeling that the invaders would pay an unimaginable price.
Rose suddenly grew relaxed. She came to admire Han Shuo even more. His contraptions had managed to stop a thousand or more formidable experts outside the Valley even in his absence. Such an extraordinary feat could not be achieved by an ordinary man. It was at that moment that Rose knew Han Shuo would rise to be a legend in the Fringe!
***
Over a steep mountain wall outside the Valley stood a man. He had been keeping a close eye on the Pandemonium, attentively overseeing the situation. He was none other than Sovereign Ossora who had rushed here from his underground palace.
Ossora at this moment was wearing a startled expression. With a wave of his hand, a whiff of the toxic miasma floated to him and hovered over his palm.
Ossora became even more astounded after he carefully analyzed the miasma cloud. He discovered new toxins that he had never previously seen. Every toxin in the colorful miasma had its own unique function. All kinds of rare, bizarre yet noxious toxins were mixed in an unfathomable way to form this extraordinary cloud.
He also sensed just how formidable and deadly the miasma cloud was. Even with his overgod realm energy, he could not completely isolate himself from the toxins and had to consume a small amount of his divine energy to neutralize the toxins.
Ossora gazed at the Pandemonium. His eyes were filled with a complex array of emotions as he muttered to himself, “Bryan, Bryan, what in the world are you?”
***
After retreating from the Pandemonium, that old man with long messy hair went to Salas and asked, pathetic and helpless, “My Sovereign, what should we do?”
Salas had witnessed their generals’ failure. The miasma clouds were not just extremely toxic, but they also couldn’t be blown away with wind energy. Salas’ generals had no idea what they could do to break into the Pandemonium.
“Pile of trash!” Salas was furious. He thought that the enormous group of experts should have easily captured the Pandemonium and killed everyone in it. Who knew that many dozens of them would have died before they could even break through the outermost layer of defense.
If the outside world were to learn of this humiliating news, Salas’ reputation would fall below the abyss and he would be laughed at by every Fringedweller in existence.
That old man and the other generals shrank their necks and put on helpless faces, trying to look pitiful. They knew that Salas would kill even his own people when he was in a bad mood. Therefore, when Salas was enraged, their wisest choice was to keep their mouths shut as much as possible.
Salas snarled and swept his chilling eyes on his subordinates. In the usual days, Salas would have killed a few of them to vent his anger. But this time, Salas swallowed it. He knew that things had changed. His reputation in the Fringe had hit rock bottom and, at least temporarily, there wouldn’t be new experts begging to serve his Sovereignty.
To have a footing in the Fringe, one had to be in command of adequately strong power. Salas was falling short of followers and he could no longer just throw their lives away.
“Back off! I will destroy this toxic cloud barrier!” Salas had just then decided to handle things himself.
He unfurled his domain of divinity. The element of lightning surged into the domain from everywhere. Salas was quickly surrounded by blinding lightning and deafening thunder.
“Salas’ strength has not retrograded at all. Bryan sure has some skills to be able to escape from Salas!” Ossora’s face turned grave after he carefully sensed the element of lightning that flooded the area. Rumors had it that Salas suffered a setback in his cultivation and his strength diminished, thereby giving Han Shuo the opportunity to escape. But from the element of lightning in the environment, Ossora was able to estimate Salas’ strength and he realized the rumors were incorrect.
After making the discovery, Ossora regarded Han Shuo even more highly.
Ossora knew that if Han Shuo could easily escape from Salas, that meant Han Shuo could also escape from him or another Sovereign during a battle. That, in turn, meant that if any of them became enemies with Han Shuo, they would be unable to eliminate him and the threat of Han Shuo would always be there.
Ossora then recalled the information that originated in the City of Shadows about Han Shuo. After a moment of consideration, he came to a wise decision – that he must never make an enemy of Han Shuo!
While Ossora made a decision for which he would be eternally grateful in the future, Salas, who had gathered and filled the sky with the energy of lightning, started bombarding the Pandemonium with his doomsday thunderbolts.
Salas’ plan was very straightforward – blindly bombard whatever matrices or boundaries in the Pandemonium with his most ferocious thunderbolts, hitting them with overwhelming brute power. Although the approach was simple, it was the most effective. The sky became brighter than the sun as it was lit up by countless thunderbolts. World-shaking explosions rumbled all around the Valley at every second.
As a Sovereign of the Fringe, Salas was very annoyed that he needed to step in right from the start of an invasion. If it wasn’t for the toxic miasma cloud covering the Valley, Salas wouldn’t have gotten into action so soon. The presence of the toxic miasma cloud had frightened his troops. As long as the toxic cloud was present, they would be too afraid to proceed with the invasion.
“The fuck, that’s too soon! I haven’t had enough fun yet! There are still tons of demonic formations that they haven’t touched. What is he so excited for?!” cursed Han Huo. He felt as though Salas wasn’t playing by the rules.
Zovic had a bitter smile as he explained, “The toxic miasma cloud is just too strong. They couldn’t overcome it and are not willing to just throw their lives away.”
“Old man, you should have told us earlier!” said Han Mu impolitely. “This won’t do. We need to kill more of his followers… Yes! We will make it look like the Pandemonium has been partially destroyed and bait them into the demonic formations!”
“Hahaha, fantastic idea! You sure are a sinister one, Han Mu!” cackled Han Huo.
Han Mu put on an evil smirk as he connected his soul with the ancient trees that acted as the cruxes of demonic formations. The ancient trees started twisting their branches and shaking their lush leaves as though they were dancing.
Salas’ thunderbolts had been bombarding the Pandemonium for a while. They had made countless world-shaking explosions but the toxic miasma cloud remained above the Pandemonium. Salas grew more angered as time passed. He gathered even more lightning energy with even more power.
Suddenly, the toxic miasma cloud that flooded the space above the Pandemonium seemed as though it was somehow being pulled by enormous suction power. They disappeared into the countless tiny holes all around the Valley.
Salas stared blankly for a second before he laughed nastily and shouted, “Whatever energy tower or boundary that powered the toxic clouds have been destroyed by my lightning energy. Charge into the valley and slaughter everyone! This time, that kid called Bryan will have nowhere to run!”
Salas had absolute confidence in his strength. From his point of view, the defensive power of the Pandemonium was very limited. He assumed that no boundary or barrier could withstand the full blast of his overgod power. Thinking that the defenses were down, he had commanded his troops to go all-in right away.
Salas’ followers trusted him as much as he trusted himself. Salas had gone on rampages all around the Fringe for many years. No Fringedwellers nor barriers could withstand his lightning. The sudden disappearance of the toxic miasma cloud seemed to prove that Salas’ judgment was correct.
Those highgods who had suffered in the toxic miasma cloud had been waiting for this moment. Without any hesitation, they commanded all their subordinates to charge into the Pandemonium behind their lead. The entirety of Salas’ troops descended into the Valley from every direction.
