CHAPTER 864: The Power Of Pandemonium

"Hail Sovereign Salas!" a group of experts kowtowed to Salas. Even though the Empyrean Peak had been destroyed and Han Shuo had escaped, Salas was still the most formidable being in the Fringe to these people.

These experts, who were used to bullying other Fringedwellers in Salas' name, knew that their interests were closely intertwined with Salas'. As long as their Sovereign stood tall, their place in the Fringe remained unchallenged. But once they stepped out of Salas' shadow, they would undoubtedly be hunted down and murdered by their former enemies. And now the veil behind Salas was rapidly thinning.

"What information have you gathered so far?" asked Salas with a dark face. His meetings with Wasir and Logie had not been as fruitful as he had hoped. The two Sovereigns could not, or perhaps did not, hide their great joy when they heard that Salas' Empyrean Peak had been destroyed. Although they had verbally agreed to Salas' request, it was anyone's guess whether they would actually keep their promises.

Sovereign Salas had become the laughing stock of the Fringe, unable to defend his base even against a naked madman. He knew the only way to wash away the humiliation was to destroy Han Shuo and all his people.

"The valley ahead, known as Pandemonium, is enveloped in colourful miasmic gases. We have been observing it for a long time, but we have not seen a single person leave the valley," one of Salas' followers replied respectfully.

"So they are all within the valley. Excellent. We can kill them all in one go!" Salas looked at his nearly thousand followers with eyes that sparkled with electricity. He gave a short speech, "The power of the Empyrean Peak has been challenged. Today we will show everyone the consequences of such recklessness!"

Salas then gestured as he ordered, "Charge into the valley. Kill everyone you find. Show no mercy!"

Immediately, those kneeling before Salas went to their troops and began shouting their orders. A great swarm of shadows took to the air and shot towards the pandemonium.

As the mighty Sovereign, Salas would naturally not be at the forefront of the battle. As far as he was concerned, his only job was to finish off Han Shuo. Everything else could be handled by his followers. Therefore, instead of leading his army into battle, he simply watched from his vantage point.

***

Inside the Pandemonium, Rose, Romon, Zovic, Goron, the Five Elite Zombies and the others watched the situation outside through a giant spatial refraction mirror.

Over the past few years, McKinley of Ethereal City had supplied Pandemonium with all kinds of miraculous space divine devices. The giant spatial refraction mirror was one of them. It was connected to the Space Edict Matrices placed on the mountains surrounding the Pandemonium. Instead of showing a reflection of the users, the mirror would show them everything in the Valley.

With the gigantic mirror, those in the underground palace of Pandemonium could see almost everything that was happening on the surface.

Through the spatial refraction mirror, the group saw a dark storm approaching rapidly from the horizon. It was made up of fierce gods flying in a tight formation. They were led by several notorious generals of Salas, most of them Late-stage Highgods.

Following them, watching from above, was a huge figure covered in lightning bolts. He was none other than the Sovereign Salas.

Without the miraculous demonic formations in the Pandemonium, Salas could easily slaughter everyone in the valley with just a few of his experts. Aside from the other four Sovereigns, perhaps no other powerhouse in the Fringe could come close to matching Salas' power.

Everyone watching from the spatial magic mirror looked particularly serious, except for the Five Elite Zombies. They wondered how long the Pandemonium could hold out against the invaders.

"Calm down. Not even Salas can easily break into the valley," Han Huo said with a proud smile before smilingly asking Han Mu, "Little Wood, guess. How many formations can the first wave break through?"

Han Mu had his eyes glued to the spatial mirror at that moment, zooming in on those sultry female guards of Salas. He had a lewd smile on his face, probably imagining something dirty. Han Mu was annoyed to be disturbed from his fantasy and replied, "Who cares about those little fries?"

Rose, Zovic and the others were quite astonished. They couldn't understand why the Five Elite Zombies were so calm and confident. To them, no matter how amazing the Pandemonium was, it could not possibly resist the onslaught of more than a thousand gods. Once the attackers broke through the defences, it was unlikely that any of them would be left alive.

"Oh, don't worry. Even if they break through the defences, I can easily evacuate everyone with underground tunnels. Salas cultivates the energy of lightning and cannot go hundreds of metres underground to follow us. Seriously, I don't understand what you guys are so worried about," Han Tu said after looking at the nervous experts.

All five of the elite zombies had unflappable expressions. None of them seemed to be stressed about being under siege by the formidable force. They were also often mocking and joking with each other, as if there weren't a thousand Fringedwellers out there ready to slaughter them.

Slowly but surely, even Rose and the others were affected by their spirit, and they were no longer so worried. The reassurance Han Tu had given them had also calmed them somewhat. However, their eyes remained glued to the magic mirror as they watched the invading forces.

The first wave of enemies soon arrived. Those generals of Salas who had been throwing their weight around the Fringe for decades weren't complete idiots. They knew to test the waters before venturing into unknown dangers themselves.

Therefore, the first to attack the Pandemonium were not Salas' most powerful subordinates, but weak, mediocre, nameless characters. In most cases, these experts were simply sacrificed to determine the situation at hand, so that the truly powerful experts wouldn't be harmed.

Back in the Omphalos, a group of rich but good-for-nothing teenagers had surrendered all their wealth to Han Hao and bowed to his command. These teenagers had not enlisted in the Sovereign's troops because they knew they would be treated as cannon fodder at critical moments, just as Salas was now.

There was a price for everything, even submission to Salas. Those cannon fodder in the junior ranks who did not possess extraordinary strength knew that their time had come. Following the orders of their leaders, the dozen or so men descended from the sky and charged into the pandemonium without defiance or hesitation.

Thick, vibrant miasmic gases hovered over the Pandemonium, each of them extremely toxic. These cannon fodder had applied expensive medical lotions to neutralise the toxins and had covered themselves with all sorts of defensive divine armour. They knew that the colourful miasmic gases wouldn't be as pleasant as they seemed.

However, the miasmic gases brewed by Han Shuo and the Five Elite Zombies were nothing that an average god could defend against. With the help of the Wood Elite Zombie, Han Shuo was able to obtain all sorts of extremely powerful corrosive poisons from exotic plants and introduce them into the miasmic gases. The miasmic gases were not only able to block others from peering into the valley, they were also the first line of defence against intruders.

These cannon fodder did everything they could to protect themselves from the miasmic gases, but they could not escape their fate.

Soon after falling into the miasmic gases, they realised that the poisons they were facing were on a whole other level. Even the most poisonous gases they had encountered deep in the mountains were nothing compared to this. The medicine and armour they were wearing seemed to be completely ineffective. They immediately felt numb, dizzy and weak.

Before long, their bodies began to rot and melt. Some of them had dark liquid oozing from their orifices as they died.

There were pitiful screams for a few seconds before they fell silent. The first batch of cannon fodder had vanished without a trace.

"Nothing easy," remarked a burly expert. He showed not the slightest sign of grief or anger at the loss of his subordinates. It seemed as if he did not even value the lives of these men.

"I want all the wind energy experts to join forces and blow away the miasmic gas!" an old man with long, dishevelled hair commanded.

Immediately, all the gods who had cultivated wind energy began to use the divine energy in their bodies to gather the wind element. Fierce winds began to howl and many great tornadoes were formed. They began to wreak havoc on the colourful miasmic gases.

Under Salas, there were several dozen experts who cultivated the element of wind, including five or six Highgods. Working together, they were able to envelop the entire Pandemonium in wild winds, tornadoes, hurricanes and cyclones.

However, much of the thick miasmic gas enveloping the Pandemonium somehow managed to stay in place. Although they moved with the wind, they always ended up above the Valley, as if held by some sort of magnet.

Some of the miasmic gases were dispersed by the hurricanes and tornadoes. But after the winds had passed, the miasmic gases would simply gather again above the valley, like liquid flowing down a slope.

"Father spent two months collecting the miasmic gases from different regions and meticulously placing them using the 'Variable Anchor'. If their measly little wind can disperse the Demonic Miasma Cloud, I'll eat my hat!" said Han Huo complacently.

"Hehehe, maybe it's time we showed them what we've got. Don't you think so, Little Wood?" Han Tu said to Han Mu with an evil grin.

"Of course! It's about time!"

Suddenly, the giant trees in the Pandemonium began to tremble. Moments later, the miasmic gases gathered above the valley began to spread violently in all directions.

Not only were Salas' wind cultivators unable to control the movement and direction of the miasmic gases, but their hurricanes and tornadoes had somehow accelerated their flow and made matters worse.

"Shit. Everyone retreat. Retreat!" the old man with the long, messy hair shouted hastily. But the miasmic gases were simply too fast. No sooner had he uttered these words than many of Salas' followers were engulfed in the roaring gases.