As Gilbert shouted and commanded, he joined the divine guards in flushing crystal coins down the toilet – refilling the energy crystals in those energy towers. He said to himself, “Fucking hell, each piece of these is worth three thousand black crystal coins. How fucking extravagant!”
The House of Han was using energy crystals of the highest concentration and purity. These energy crystals could provide a tremendous amount of power for the Energy Crystal Cannons and energy barrier.
Although the defenders had managed to kill more than a hundred of the invaders in just minutes, the former had spent energy crystals worth at least a million black crystal coins. To most small family clans, a million black crystal coins was an astronomical amount of wealth. Their revenues accumulated over a decade might not even come close to that number.
Gilbert had been shouting and cursing, motivating the divine guards of the House of Han to continue replenishing the towers with fresh energy crystals. With that, the energy towers may continue to shine while powering the barrier that protected Fort Lasberg as well as the Energy Crystal Cannons that had not stopped bombarding the invaders.
All these divine guards of the House of Han had gone through thorough interviews and interrogations before they were admitted. They had all passed background checks and were unusually talented. Most of them possessed midgod strengths before they were recruited.
On the first day they joined the House of Han, they were given the best divine weapons and divine armors that black crystal coins could buy. Then, they would be sent into the Eight Desolation and Torment Formation for a round of tempering. After emerging from the Formation, they would be personally trained by Bollands and the others.
These divine guards who had been trained and tempered possessed staunch minds and could remain calm under pressure, never dropping the ball during critical times. These people were much more efficient in refilling the energy crystals and operating the Energy Crystal Cannons than the average divine guards in the City of Shadows.
Those Energy Crystal Cannons in Fort Lasberg did not just boast extreme firepower, but they also had a great firing range. Facing the bombardment of the Energy Crystal Cannons, those divine guards of Hofs were thrown into chaos. Many more were struck by the destructive beams and killed.
Every blast launched from an Energy Crystal Cannon would destroy a good fortune. Although there were just around thirty people in the Fort refilling the energy crystals in the energy towers, they had managed to keep the hundreds of invaders led by Hofs and Larikson from breaching the Fort.
“Scatter! Godamnit! Don’t you idiots know that those Energy Crystal Cannons have great projectile range?” Hofs couldn’t help but swear when more of his divine guards died. He instructed them to disperse even more.
Larikson and his highgods from the House of Broadhurst, meanwhile, used their divine energies to form barriers to protect themselves.
Larikson and his highgods were all ‘prestigious’ characters in the City of Gorging Clouds and they wouldn’t evade from the annihilative beams like Hofs and his followers. They deemed themselves too ‘reputable’ and ‘distinguished’ to do so. This left them with the only option of using the divine energy in their body to resist the energetic beams.
The situation had entered a temporary stalemate. One party had lots of divine energies while the other had tons of black crystal coins. But the former proved to be more enduring. The fierce attacks and strong defense meant that Fort Lasberg had to consume energy crystal rapidly. Despite having piled up a great number of energy crystals, in the end, they still ran out.
“Lord Gilbert, we are almost out of energy crystals. What should we do?” asked one of the divine guards who was almost as irascible as Gilbert.
“What can we do but retreat? Don’t tell me what you want to charge at them and throw your lives away?” replied Gilbert before he shouted at everyone, “Brothers, it’s time. Let’s leave this place while there is still some energy left in the energy towers!”
“Let’s retreat to the Han Residence!” the divine guards said to each other. They filled the remaining energy crystals into the energy towers and rapidly withdrew to the Han Residence. It was done smoothly and perfectly as though they had practiced it before.
With all the energy crystals stuffed into the energy towers, it appeared like there was nothing valuable left on the Fort. Gilbert and the divine guards vanished in an instant.
Although they had left the energy towers, there was still energy left in the towers. The Energy Crystal Cannons continued to shoot out destructive beams at those invaders.
During that time, Hofs lost yet another couple dozens of divine guards while Larikson and his experts exhausted a good amount of divine energy as they formed barriers to resist the destructive beams head-on instead of evading them.
Gradually, the energy in those energy towers was depleted and the Energy Crystal Cannons stopped firing. The invaders carefully listened and discovered that Fort Lasberg was pin-drop silent.
“Go inside. There isn’t a single soul in there,” Larikson calmly informed Hofs after sensing for a moment.
Hofs too was able to detect the abnormality in the Fort. But this time, he was much more cautious. He randomly pointed at one of his followers and instructed, “Head inside and report back the situation.”
That divine guard secretly felt reluctant but did not reveal it at all. He nodded and flew towards Fort Lasberg. And when he got close, he flew over the defensive wall and cautiously descended into the Fort. When he noticed that the invisible barrier had gone, he loudly cried, “The barrier has been depleted of energy. The energy towers are not shining and nobody is here!”
“Move!” Hofs commanded his divine guards fiercely for he knew that there wouldn’t be any more danger temporarily.
The invaders transformed into streaks of shadows and descended on Fort Lasberg. Upon landing, Hofs and Larikson immediately looked all around with glistening eyes as though they were looking for something valuable.
After scanning all around, Hofs cursed, “What in the world?! There’s nothing left! That fucking House of Han couldn’t leave a single crystal for us!”
Larikson too wore a dark face as he wasn’t happy to have breached the Fort. He groaned. “We have entered the Fort. Now comes the easy part. Hehe, don’t you worry, Hofs. I’m certain that the Han Residence at the center of the Fort will have what you want!”
“Let’s get on with it. I can wait no longer,” Hofs coldly commanded his troops. “Move to the center of the Fort and destroy the House of Han!”
Meanwhile, in the Han Residence at the center of Fort Lasberg, a thick dark cloud came out of nowhere and lingered above the Han Residence. The entire Fort Lasberg saw clear blue skies but not the Han Residence.
After the dark cloud blanketed the Han Residence, chilling winds started blowing while a mist slowly filled the Residence and shrouded it from the view of outsiders.
“Bollands, Sanguis, have the demonic formations been activated?” asked Phoebe in a grave face. The Han Family had gathered in a large meeting room on the highest floor of the largest building in the Han Residence.
“Yes, we have just double-checked it. They have all been activated,” said Sanguis after nodding. His red eyes suddenly turned away and he took a deep breath. “Gilbert has returned. They should have completed their mission. It seems that Hofs and his troops will be here soon!”
“Mister Stratholme, are there any civilians left in the Fort?” Emily asked Stratholme beside her, who had his brows bunched.
Stratholme replied with a smile, “They left long ago. There is no one in the Fort other than the members of our family clan. I hope Wallace doesn’t do anything to those civilians.”
“They are going to spread the truth to the public. Wallace will soon be condemned by everyone!” interrupted Ayermike. “I finally understand why the City of Shadows ranks just a place above Hushveil City. Hofs doesn’t know how to hold his temper and Wallace can’t tolerate having a competitor. They may be extraordinarily strong, but they aren’t going to achieve shit with that attitude!”
“Who cares about Wallace? As long as we survive this, we will leave the City of Shadows and look for Bryan. I’m sure that Bryan can lead our House of Han to a bright future!” said Stratholme with a relaxed smile. “Although I do not know Bryan that much, I do know that he possesses infinite potential. In the near future, our House of Han will surely become stronger than the House of Sainte. By then, we can come back here for revenge!”
Stratholme had still underestimated Han Shuo’s capability. By now, Han Shuo did not even need to get into action himself. Just the forces commanded by Han Hao would have easily crushed the House of Sainte.
“I’m back. Huhu, we have burned so many energy crystals. How my heart aches!” it was at this moment that Gilbert returned with an expression of agony as though something tragic happened.
“It’s alright. As long as we can get the results that we want, we are not afraid of using up some crystal coins.” Emily put on a faint smile and asked, “So how did it go, Dark Dragon?”
“We have blasted down more than two hundreds of their divine guards!” reported Gilbert with a sinister smile. “Many of those alive are wounded. Even Larikson and his gang must have exhausted a good amount of divine energy!”
“Hahaha, brilliant job, Dark Dragon!” said Sanguis. His eyes lit up with a red light as he claimed, “But I’m going to score even higher! Just wait and watch me slaughter the shit out of them!”
