CHAPTER 732: The Hunt

Seven bodies lay lifeless before them, but they had not even seen the shadows of their enemy. This was most disturbing to the Godhunters.

"Andrina! If we don't kill her this time, many more of our people will die!" Gallas said, gritting his teeth. Of the seven who were silently slaughtered, four were his subordinates. It was only natural for him to be angry.

"Something's not right. Andrina is taking a group of encumbrances with her. How could she be so bold to strike under such conditions?" the sinister old woman remarked with a puzzled look on her face. She began to suspect that something was wrong.

"Taylin, I also sense that something isn't quite right. How is it possible that every one of them has escaped from under our noses? She shouldn't be able to hide all these burdens so well, so perfectly, even if it is Andrina. Isn't it strange that the tracks stopped just as we were about to catch up with them? Brovst also became suspicious. After a moment's hesitation, Brovst knitted his brows and continued, "Could it be that the information provided is not accurate?"

After a moment's silence, the old woman named Taylin took a deep breath and suggested, "Let's try to scout the area again. This time, go in groups of three. Don't stray too far from the other groups, or someone will get killed again!"

Gallas and Brovst nodded in agreement. The Godhunters continued their search, but since they had to keep a close distance, the effort was slowed down considerably.

It would no longer be possible for Han Shuo to take out the Godhunters silently. He would be easily spotted and quickly surrounded. In order to avoid this most disadvantageous situation, Han Shuo decided not to attack recklessly. Instead, he went back into hiding and watched their movements with his demon generals.

The Godhunters had to constantly readjust their positions and stay close to each other. So not only was their speed much slower, their search couldn't cover much ground. They had only scanned a dozen or more miles and of course their search had turned up nothing.

Han Shuo watched the Godhunters while he racked his brain for a way to hurt them further. Finally, after a long period of pondering, the corners of his lips curled into a sinister smile.

With a thought from Han Shuo, the hidden demon generals materialised and took the forms of Andrina, Phoebe and the others. They appeared all around the perimeter and ran in every direction.

"Someone is trying to escape here!"

"Over here too!"

"Andrina's over there!"

Anxious cries rang out from different directions in the mountain range that had been silent for so long. Brovst, Gallas and Taylin hurried towards the false image of Andrina after hastily instructing their minions, "They are trying to escape by scattering. Capture these mortals alive so we can use them as hostages against Andrina. Go get them!"

In the minds of these Godhunters, the hunted, only Andrina posed a significant threat. They assumed that the rest of the humans, including Han Shuo, were nothing more than insignificant people who could be easily captured.

The plan that Han Shuo had devised worked by taking advantage of their misconception. The truly powerful experts, including the three Godhunter leaders, had all gone after Andrina, while the meagre ones had scattered in all directions, happily pursuing what they thought was heavy baggage to Andrina. Never had they expected that these so-called 'burdens' would lead them to their demise.

These Godhunters would see their targets suddenly disappear in the midst of their pursuit. Then, before they could even come to their senses, they would be hit by a sneak attack. A few seconds later, their divine soul would be stored in Han Shuo's Cauldron of Myriad Demon .

Since the Godhunters had been successfully lured far away from each other, this gave Han Shuo more than enough time to consumed their divine energies. Three Mid-stage Death Gods and one Early-stage Destruction Midgod died from losing all their divine energy to Han Shuo.

"I've got them!" Brovst shouted loudly. Gallas and Taylin quickly caught up.

A thread of light smoke suddenly appeared and enveloped Andrina's figure. The trio of Brovst, Gallas and Taylin quickly rushed to surround Andrina. They gestured for their minions to come closer.

"Andrina, you may have managed to escape last time, but where are you going to run this time? I suspect you are still recovering from the injuries you sustained that day. Hehe, you should know that this fate of yours is inevitable because you have chosen to go against us Godhunters!" Gallas said with a dark smile. He then nodded to Brovst and Taylin and they approached the cloud of smoke step by step.

"Andrina, please don't think we're being cruel, you're just too much trouble," Taylin said. Every element of death within a ten mile radius gathered wildly around them.

A light breeze blew over them, and the cloud of smoke at the centre of the three Highgods dissipated with the wind.

"Wha... What the..." Taylin was startled and completely stunned.

"Impossible! How could she vanish into thin air?" shouted Gallas.

Brovst didn't say a word, but he didn't look well. To have Andrina suddenly and somehow slip through their fingers when they thought they had her was a terrible experience, to say the least.

The trio looked at each other in silence. Their faces grew dark.

"Oh no! She's killed more of our men!"

"Over here too! Wait, all his divine energy has been drained! What's going on?"

"We found the same thing. This is obviously the work of a Godhunter. Could it be that we have an enemy in our own ranks?"

Piercing gasps of surprise came from all directions.

Soon eight more bodies were placed in front of the three Highgods. Four of the corpses bore obvious injuries, indicating that their divine energies had been drained. This was clearly the work of a Godhunter.

As Brovst, Gallas and Taylin looked at the four bodies, the expressions on their faces were uglier than the others. The Godhunters standing around them were filled with fear. They had unconsciously moved away from each other, as if the killer was standing among them!

"Everyone, gather here!" Taylin ordered as she gestured with her hand.

The Godhunters, who were all afraid and on guard against each other, though feeling rather uncomfortable, gathered at Taylin's command.

"The three of us will check each and every one of them. The attacker wouldn't have finished digesting the divine energy in such a short time! Taylin suggested in a deep voice.

Brovst and Gallas immediately nodded and proceeded to inspect their respective minions, checking for any chaotic and impure divine energy in their bodies.

Of course there wasn't.

"It wasn't one of us!" Brovst exclaimed quietly. He suddenly asked, "Don't you think the situation was rather bizarre?"

"Yes. For some reason it feels like we're the prey instead of the predator!" at this point even Gallas felt that something was wrong. After a short pause, he continued, "Even though Andrina's strength is remarkable, she couldn't have just disappeared in front of the three of us. We may have been chasing an illusion!"

"Someone is trying to catch us!" Taylin said in a deep voice, "And it could probably be high-rank Godhunters. I can't say for sure, but maybe there are people trying to take our positions. This could be a trap!"

The faces of the Godhunters jerked at the same time as they heard these words. Brovst and Gallas looked each other in the eye. Their faces were grim. Brovst said in a deep voice, "We can be sure that the attacker isn't from Andrina. She bitterly despises people of our kind. She would never ally herself with a godhunter."

"The enemy has obviously set traps in this mountain range. We have been led by our noses the whole time. Obviously, they prepared this long ago to finish us off. Brovst, could Godswamp Pharmacy be a co-conspirator?"

"Godswamp Pharmacy has cooperated with us for many years and logically wouldn't have stabbed us in the back, although I can't say that for sure. But what is certain is that we'll have to investigate this thoroughly when the matter is over," Brovst took a moment to think before answering Gallas.

"We will abandon our current mission to kill Andrina. Gather everyone, stay together and leave this mountain range immediately. Otherwise, since the enemy has planned everything in detail, we might not leave this mountain range alive. Since they dared to attack us, their strength shouldn't be too far from ours," Taylin said.

Those Godhunters of Midgod strength had lost their courage long ago. An enemy who always hides is the most terrifying. They were afraid of becoming the next victims of this invisible hunter. Therefore, all the Midgods nodded hastily after hearing Taylin's words.

"Alright then, we will stay close together and leave this mountain range. Everyone be extra careful. I doubt that our enemy will let us leave so easily. If we are to leave this place alive, we must work as a team," Brovst declared.

And so the mighty group of Godhunters began to retreat in paranoia. They were all very cautious and had lost the confidence they had come with.

Han Shuo, as the person behind the mischief, could not help but laugh after seeing their reactions with the demon generals. He had not expected the Godhunters to be such cowards and assume the worst when the situation did not go exactly as planned. They were like ants startled by the slightest breeze. The only thing on their minds was to escape from this precarious area.

Han Shuo did not know the fear of being a godhunter. As the public enemy of the entire material plane, these people had plenty of experience being hunted. All sorts of dangers followed them wherever they went. In every Divine Domain there would be constant streams of people seeking them out to eliminate them.

Living in such conditions for so long had made the Godhunters overly cautious. Even the slightest anomaly would cause them to assume the worst. The discovery of the mysterious deaths of their comrades was particularly terrifying to these Godhunters. Even more terrifying was the fact that they couldn't find any trace of their attacker. In the end, they could no longer contain their fear and collapsed.

These so-called Godhunters are nothing but a bunch of cowards," Han Shuo thought.

The Godhunters were very skilled at escaping when being pursued. They would place all sorts of obstacles and barriers behind them. Wherever they went, there would be confusing boundaries to be found.

The Godhunter party had left Confounding Boundaries in trees, on the ground, and in rivers. They would also leave people behind, hiding to make sure no one followed them.

Indeed, they were used to being hunted and pursued. After all, as the public enemy of all of Elysium, they must have unique skills in escaping and avoiding pursuit. Otherwise, should the location of their base be discovered, it could mean their own demise.

Unfortunately for the Godhunters, they were messing with the wrong person. Han Shuo's demon generals were not only invisible and disembodied, but they could also cover an incredibly large area when used for surveillance. When Han Shuo saw where they had placed the boundaries, he could easily avoid stepping into them.

If Han Shuo was able to discover the base of the Godhunters and lead to their destruction, it would be an enormous contribution. With that, he should have no trouble establishing his own family clan in the City of Shadows, with his own territory and his own emblem. He decided to secretly follow the Godhunters to their base, as this could potentially lead to great rewards in the future.

Han Shuo followed the Godhunters for five days. They had left the mountain range.

They came to a plain. Since there were no trees in the flat terrain for the demon generals to hide in, it had become much more likely for the three Highgods to discover the demon generals.

When they were still inside the mountain range, Han Shuo first had the demon generals take a detour around the three Highgods, get ahead of them, hide in the trees, and remain completely motionless. This was a method to prevent his demon generals from being detected by the Highgods that Han Shuo had recently discovered. As long as the demon generals were kept at a great distance and remained motionless, their presence would not be detected even by a Highgod.

Whenever a Demon General flew around, even in a disembodied state, it would create ripples in the air. Midgods might not be able to detect these very small waves, but Highgods could often sense them. This could lead to the discovery of a demon general.

It was extremely difficult to get the demon generals to take detours and remain stationary in the flat terrain they were in. This was because there was absolutely nowhere to hide. Therefore, Han Shuo only used one Demon General to follow far behind the group of Godhunters, while he would follow even further behind the Demon General.

However, even though Han Shuo had taken precautions, three Highgods had noticed an anomaly.

"It feels like something is following us!" Brovst exclaimed quietly. The other two Highgods nodded in agreement. It seemed they had noticed it as well.

"You two may continue. I will stay behind to check!" Brovst told them after thinking for a moment.

At times like this, it was to be expected that Gallas and Taylin would readily agree to such a proposal. They could not ask for anything more than to have someone stay behind to make sure they had a safe retreat. They told Brovst to be careful and then moved on with the rest of the Godhunters. Brovst stayed behind all alone.

Soon the demon general spotted a blurred figure standing still in the distance. The Demon General immediately stopped in its path, not moving an inch forward.

Han Shuo, who was far behind the demon general, also stood still. It was a battle of patience with Brovs.

An hour later, having found no abnormality, Brovst finally resumed his journey. Han Shuo became even more cautious after this standoff. He waited until Brovst had travelled even further into the distance and all the demon general could see was a faint black dot before he continued to follow him.