CHAPTER 865: Bait

The toxins in the Demonic Miasmic Cloud were extremely deadly. Some of the invaders began to bleed from their orifices. The experts who were closest to the Pandemonium had their skin and flesh liquefied and were reduced to skeletons.

The colourful miasmic gases were mixed with all kinds of extremely noxious substances. As a cultivator of the Demonic Arts, Han Shuo was well-versed in the use of such sinister substances. With the help of the Wood Elite Zombie and the Cauldron of the Myriad Demon , Han Shuo was able to brew the extremely deadly Toxic Cloud. Never before had anything so poisonous been created in this universe.

Those who possessed Highgod powers were able to withstand the onslaught of the Miasmic Cloud. They had resilient divine bodies and had reacted quickly enough, spreading their divine energies to every part of their bodies and moving out of the way at Highgod speed. The others weren't so lucky. All of the Midgods caught in the miasmic cloud perished.

In the blink of an eye, the poisonous miasmic cloud had killed fifty or sixty of Salas' Midgods. The invading forces retreated in desperation. The few Highgods that escaped the miasmic cloud were unharmed, but their minds were filled with fear, for the toxic clouds had consumed much of their divine energy in such a short time.

Beneath the pandemonium, the Five Elite Zombies laughed mischievously.

"Well done, Little Wood! Haha, if those idiots hadn't used their stupid wind energy, the toxic Miasmic cloud wouldn't have swallowed them up so quickly," Han Huo said with a laugh. He seemed very excited.

"Hehe, Father had long anticipated that the enemy would try to disperse the Toxin Miasma Cloud with wind energy. That's why he built this special function for me to activate and use the enemy's wind energy against them," Han Mu said. Instead of taking credit, he pointed out that this vicious strategy was Han Shuo's idea.

The Five Elite Zombies casually discussed the wonderful uses of the Demonic Miasmic Cloud. Their confidence grew after emerging victorious from the first battle.

Rose, Zovic and the others were astonished to see that a large number of the invaders had been killed and injured, even though they had not even defeated the first layer of Pandemonium's defences.

It was only now that they began to feel some confidence in the defensive power of the array of formations within the Pandemonium. They had a vague feeling that the invaders would pay an unimaginable price.

Rose suddenly relaxed. She admired Han Shuo even more. His devices 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. At that moment, Rose knew that Han Shuo would become a legend in the fringe!

***

On top of a steep mountain wall outside the valley stood a man. He had been watching the Pandemonium closely, carefully monitoring the situation. He was none other than Sovereign Ossora, who had rushed here from his underground palace.

Ossora wore a startled expression at that moment. With a wave of his hand, a whiff of the poisonous miasmic floated to him and hovered over his palm.

Ossora was even more astonished when he carefully analysed the cloud of miasma. He discovered new toxins he had never seen before. Each toxin in the colourful miasma had its own unique function. All sorts of rare, bizarre, yet poisonous toxins were mixed together in an unfathomable way to form this extraordinary cloud.

He also sensed how formidable and deadly the Miasmic Cloud was. Even with his Overgod Realm Energy, he could not completely isolate himself from the toxins and had to use a small amount of his Divine Energy to neutralise the toxins.

Ossora looked 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, the old man with the long, dishevelled hair went to Salas and asked, pathetically and helplessly, "My Sovereign, what shall we do?"

Salas had seen his generals fail. Not only were the miasmic clouds extremely poisonous, but they couldn't be blown away by the power of the wind. Salas' generals had no idea what they could do to break through the pandemonium.

"Pile of rubbish!" Salas was furious. He thought that the huge group of experts should have easily captured the Pandemonium and killed everyone inside. Who knew that many dozens of them would have died before they could even break through the outermost layer of defence.

If the outside world were to learn of this humiliating news, Salas' reputation would plummet and he would be laughed at by every Fringedweller in existence.

The old man and the other generals shrank their necks and put on helpless faces, trying to look pitiful. They knew that Salas would kill his own people when he was in a bad mood. So when Salas was angry, their wisest choice was to keep their mouths shut as much as possible.

Salas growled and swept his cold eyes over his subordinates. In normal times, Salas would have killed a few of them to vent his anger. But this time he swallowed it. He knew things had changed. His reputation in the Fringe had hit rock bottom and, at least temporarily, there wouldn't be any new experts begging to serve his sovereignty.

To have a foothold in the Fringe, one had to have enough power. Salas was running out of followers, and he could no longer just throw their lives away.

"Stand back! I will destroy this poisonous cloud barrier!" Salas had just decided to take matters into his own hands.

He unleashed his domain of divinity. The element of lightning rushed into the domain from all directions. Salas was quickly surrounded by blinding lightning and deafening thunder.

"Salas' strength has not decreased at all. Bryan must have some skills to escape from Salas!" Ossora's face turned grave as he carefully sensed the element of lightning that flooded the area. Rumour had it that Salas had suffered a setback in his cultivation and his strength had diminished, giving Han Shuo the opportunity to escape. However, from the element of lightning in the area, Ossora was able to gauge Salas' strength and realised that the rumours were false.

After making this discovery, Ossora held Han Shuo in even high esteem.

Ossora knew that if Han Shuo could easily escape from Salas, it meant that Han Shuo could also escape from him or any other Sovereigns during a battle. This in turn meant that if any of them became enemies of Han Shuo, they would not be able to eliminate him and the threat of Han Shuo would always be there.

Ossora then remembered the information about Han Shuo that had come from the City of Shadows. After a moment's thought, he came to a wise decision - 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, began to bombard the Pandemonium with his doomsday thunderbolts.

Salas' plan was very simple - blindly bombard any matrices or boundaries in the Pandemonium with his fiercest thunderbolts, hitting them with overwhelming brute force. Though the approach was simple, it was the most effective. The sky grew brighter than the sun as it was lit by countless thunderbolts. Every second, world-shaking explosions rumbled across the valley.

As the Sovereign of the Fringe, Salas resented having to intervene at the very beginning of an invasion. If it hadn't been for the toxic cloud of miasmic covering the valley, Salas wouldn't have had to act so quickly. The presence of the toxic cloud had frightened his troops. As long as the toxic cloud was there, they would be too afraid to continue the invasion.

"Damn, it's too soon! I haven't had enough fun yet! There are still tons of demonic formations they haven't touched yet. What is he so excited about?" cursed Han Huo. He had the feeling that Salas wasn't playing by the rules.

Zovic smiled bitterly as he explained, "The toxic miasmic cloud is just too strong. They couldn't overcome it and they're not willing to just throw their lives away."

"Old man, you should have told us earlier!" said Han Mu rudely. "This won't be enough. We need to kill more of his followers... Yes! We will make it look like Pandemonium has been partially destroyed and lure them into the demonic formations!"

"Hahaha, fantastic idea! You really are a sinister one, Han Mu!" cackled Han Huo.

Han Mu smiled wickedly as he connected his soul to the ancient trees that were the cruxes of the demonic formations. The ancient trees began to twist their branches and shake their lush leaves as if dancing.

Sala's thunderbolts had been bombarding the Pandemonium for some time. They had caused countless world-shattering explosions, but the toxic miasma cloud remained over the Pandemonium. Salas grew angrier as time went on. He gathered more lightning energy with more power.

Suddenly, the toxic cloud of miasmic that was flooding the space above the Pandemonium seemed to be pulled in by an enormous suction. They disappeared into the countless tiny holes around the valley.

Salas stared blankly for a second before laughing viciously and shouting, "Whatever energy tower or boundary was powering the toxic clouds has been destroyed by my lightning energy. Charge into the valley and slaughter everyone! This time, the boy called Bryan will have nowhere to run!"

Salas was completely confident in his strength. From his point of view, the Pandemonium's defences were very limited. He assumed that no boundary or barrier could withstand the full force of his Overgod power. Believing that the defences were down, he had ordered his troops to attack immediately.

Salas' followers trusted him as much as he trusted himself. Salas had been on the rampage throughout the Fringe for many years. No Fringedweller or barrier could withstand his lightning. The sudden disappearance of the poisonous cloud of miasmic seemed to prove Salas' judgement correct.

The Highods who had suffered in the toxic cloud had been waiting for this moment. Without hesitation, they ordered all their subordinates to charge into the Pandemonium behind their leader. The entirety of Salas' forces descended into the valley from every direction.