CHAPTER 887: A List

Quincy and Chrison, the two strongest Godhunter factions in Ronson Canyon, had been destroyed. Their deaths meant that the remaining members of their faction would soon disband. The faction leaders who had left earlier would surely try to recruit them.

After this battle, no Godhunter in Ronson Canyon would ever pick a fight with the House of Han!

The mountain peak that pierced through the clouds was littered with corpses. The House of Han guards, their faces cold, disembarked from the airship and stood still, ready for orders.

At that moment, Phoebe and Emily turned their attention to Khitan and Scarlett. Emily approached them smiling and said, "Thank you for your kind assistance. Without your reminder and warning, we would have perished on that mountain!"

"You're welcome. I'm just doing what I have to do," Scarlett replied politely.

"It is my duty. I'm just following my chief's orders," Khitan replied very humbly. It was very different from the way he had spoken to Quincy and the others. He even seemed a little overcautious.

"Is it true that Han Hao has become your chief?" asked Emily with a raised eyebrow.

Khitan was rather puzzled as he couldn't understand why Emily would ask such a question. He stared blankly for a moment before telling her the truth as it was: "Yes, ever since the Chief arrived in Ronson Canyon decades ago, he has led us on countless expeditions throughout this land. After a few decades, under his leadership, we had become the most powerful faction in Ronson Canyon. All those who blocked your path had lost to our Chief. If the Chief were still in the Canyon, Quincy and Chrison wouldn't have even tried to attack you.

Emily made a face of astonishment. She understood that a creature feared by so many Godhunter factions must be an extraordinarily powerful expert. She had not expected the strange little skeleton warrior she once knew to have evolved to such a level.

"This is unbelievable," Lisa remarked. Back when she was studying at the Babylonian Academy of Magic and Force on the Profound Continent, she had been attacked by Little Skeleton. She remembered the bizarre necromancy creature better than anyone.

"It's not surprising. That guy got very strong a long time ago, you just didn't know it," Gilbert said proudly. Then he grinned mischievously and said, "You weren't around Master much, so you didn't know how treacherous that little guy is. Back in the Dark Forest, he would loot and plunder with Master every day!"

Gilbert had served Han Shuo for a long time. Han Shuo was not ashamed of the fact that Gilbert was bound to him by a slave contract. Therefore, he understood Han Hao's true strength and intelligence better than anyone.

"Um, so where is he right now?" asked Phoebe, who wanted to know more about Han Hao.

"My chief is currently at the Fringe," Khitan replied immediately.

"If that little fellow is at the edge, then Master must be there too," Gilbert said, smiling.

"We must leave Ronson Canyon now. Other things can wait," Stratholme interjected suddenly. He knew that the House of Han was still in danger, and he was constantly worried that Hofs and Larikson might catch up with them.

At Stratholme's reminder, Phoebe and Emily immediately realised that they did not have time to talk. They nodded at Stratholme and Phoebe thanked Khitan and Scarlett again. "The House of Han will always remember the favour you have done us today. We are in a hurry and cannot stop at Ronson Canyon. Until we meet again."

"Until we meet again," Scarlett replied with a faint smile. She nodded to Khitan and left.

Khitan also said goodbye and wished her good luck. He left after Scarlett to attend to certain matters that would arise after the death of Quincy and Chrison.

With the destruction of the two major Godhunter factions and Han Hao's fearsome reputation, the House of Han encountered no obstacles on the rest of their journey. After ten days, they had finally passed through Ronson Canyon and entered the territory of the Death Dominion.

Soon after the airship carrying the House of Han entered the Death Dominion, their pursuers caught up with them.

However, Hofs and Larikson could only watch as the divine guards of several major family clans in the Death Dominion were present to escort the House of Han.

Hofs and Larikson were so angry that their blood was boiling. It did not matter if they had the strength to defeat the divine guards escorting them or not. If they tried to harm a citizen of the Death Dominion, they would be in direct violation of the rule set by the Overgod of Darkness and would be insulting two Overgods.

Even though Hofs was the City Lord of Hushveil City, even though Larikson was the second most powerful man in the City of Gorging Clouds, they dared not disobey the orders of the Overgods. They could only stare in anger as the House of Han left with the divine guards of the Death Dominion.

After entering the Death Dominion and being greeted by their harbourers, the House of Han was finally out of danger and could breathe a sigh of relief.

*** The City of Shadows, the Sainte Residence.

Wallace the City Lord's face grew darker and darker as he listened to Ralph's mission report. When Ralph finished, Wallace shouted, "Rubbish! What a useless load of rubbish!"

"Forgive me, City Lord. We tried our best!" Ralph crouched in fear, trying to find an excuse, "I did not expect Hofs and Larikson to have caused the House of Han no casualties. Nor did I know that their experts, Sanguis and Bollands, were Highgods..."

"Shut up!" Wallace ordered. He took a deep breath and gradually calmed down. Then he said, "It seems the House of Han knows my role in this attack. With all of them now in the Death Dominion, there is nothing I can do to them.

"My, my lord, this Bryan... he has been gone for many years... perhaps he is dead already... and perhaps we have nothing to worry about..." Ralph said haltingly as he took a few quick glances at Wallace.

"You think I'm worried about Bryan?" Wallace scoffed and said, "Bryan is indeed a talented young man. Exceptional for his young age. But I've seen a lot of young men like him. The brighter they shine, the sooner they die. Even if he returns to the City of Shadows, so what? What can he do to me anyway?"

"Then...?" asked Ralph cautiously with a confused look on his face.

Wallace sighed softly and rubbed his head as if he had a headache. "Although I'm not worried about the boy himself, he is close to the daughter of the Goddess of Destiny. At that time, the Dark Overlord had instructed me to treat Bryan well. It's these two important characters that I'm worried about..."

Ralph was taken aback. To him, the Goddess of Destiny and the Overgod of Darkness were beings way beyond his reach. He had been unaware of the relationship between Han Shuo and the daughter of the Goddess of Destiny and learning this had shocked him deeply.

"Schedule an appointment with Larikson and Hofs for me. It's time for us to have a good conversation," instructed Wallace after thinking for a moment.

Ralph respectfully dismissed himself to immediately schedule the secret meeting for Wallace.

A few days later, Larikson, Hofs, and Wallace gathered in Fort Lasberg. They had a meeting at the former Han Residence.

When Larikson and Hofs heard the revelation from Wallace, they had a tremendous headache. They cursed Wallace in their minds, <i >How could you keep such an important detail from us until now?! Fuck you!

It was at the former Han Residence that they started scheming against Han Shuo. But unfortunately for them, as none of the three were aware of Han Shuo's current condition, the discussion did not result in anything meaningful. The three agreed that they would join forces to kill Han Shuo and the House of Han if they ever returned to the Darkness Dominion.

With the discussion over, Larikson and Hofs left Fort Lasberg. Wallace, however, did not leave immediately. After hearing Larikson and Hofs' account of their attack on the Han residence, Wallace became very interested in the bizarre but deadly demonic formations in the Han residence.

Wallace stayed at Fort Lasberg for over a month, attempting to study how these seemingly ordinary trees and stone pillars could have such miraculous uses. Unfortunately for Wallace, he had absolutely no understanding of the profound demonic arts. It was like a caveman trying to decipher the workings of a rocket engine without any understanding of thermodynamics. Needless to say, his attempt was completely fruitless.

After more than a month, Wallace had no choice but to abandon his attempts to study the demonic formations. He had his men destroy every bit of the Han residence and the demonic formations. He had also regained control of Fort Lasberg and it no longer belonged to the House of Han.

Wallace told the public that Hushveil City was entirely responsible for the attack on Fort Lasberg. He publicly announced that he strongly condemned their actions and would hold the attackers to account. However, it appeared that this was all talk and that Wallace had taken no action against Hushveil City.

Some of the citizens of the City of Shadows, who knew the truth, denounced Wallace and the House of Sainte for their actions. They let it be known that Wallace was conspiring to drive the House of Han out of the City of Shadows, thereby reducing the overall strength of the city.

Upon returning to the City of Shadows, Aobashi and Erebus were disheartened to learn what had happened to the House of Han. It was clear to both of them that Wallace had a hand in it. But as subordinates of Wallace, there wasn't much they could do. They could only complain to each other about their despair.

Andre and Carmelita, however, were not so calm after learning the truth. They had a long argument with Wallace at the Sainte Residence that lasted for days.

Even to his own family members, Wallace denied having any role in the attack and placed all the responsibility on Hofs and Larikson, claiming his own innocence. But Andre and Carmelita were no fools. As core members of the House of Sainte, it was easy for them to deduce Wallace's role in the attack by pulling a few strings.

But no matter how momentous an event, it would eventually fade from memory as time passed. Gradually, the citizens of the City of Shadows stopped talking about it. Apart from the disappearance of the Celestial Pearl, everything seemed to have returned to normal.

But Wallace knew that there was now another invisible barrier between him and Andre, Carmelita, Aobashi and Erebus because of Han Shuo and the House of Han. He knew that this barrier would not fade with time.

*** In the centre of the Land of Chaos, the Omphalos.

Han Shuo had no idea what was happening in the City of Shadows billions of miles away. He was focused on solving a great challenge posed by Sovereign Tyre, Logue and Wasir.

Tyre, Logue and Wasir declared that they would accept Han Shuo into their ranks as one of the managers of the Omphalos. However, the three sovereigns also stated that they had to consider the views of the hundreds of thousands of merchants. As long as most of the merchants would accept Han Shuo as one of the owners of the Omphalos, they would immediately hand over those Sovereign Shops that had formerly belonged to Salas to Han Shuo.

Han Shuo knew what these Sovereigns were up to. The three Sovereigns were notorious in the Fringe. Few, if any, merchants in Omphalos would dare to offend the three. With the three pulling the strings behind the scenes, most of the merchants bowed to their orders and voted against installing Han Shuo as one of the owners of Omphalos.

Han Shuo had his men conduct a survey. He discovered that only twenty percent of the merchants were in favour of him joining the board, and all of those people were influenced by Ossora. Twenty percent support was far below the standards of Tyre, Logue and Wasir, and Ossora could only do so much. Han Shuo would still have to solve the problem himself.

Han Shuo then realised that Tyre, Logue and Wasir were not called sovereigns in the Fringe for nothing. The vast majority of the merchants feared Tyre, Logue, and Wasir more than they feared Han Shuo, and they dared not disobey the secret orders of the three Sovereigns to oppose Han Shuo.

Han Shuo spent a few days in the Omphalos thinking of a solution. Then he went to a rock face outside the Omphalos and left some messages.

A day later, a callous-looking man came to the same spot as Han Shuo. After reading the message Han Shuo had left, the man silently left.

Seven days later, in a huge cave thousands of miles away from the Omphalos, Han Hao received the message from the man.

After reading the message, Han Hao thought silently for a moment before calmly instructing one of his followers, "Assemble all my captains.

"As you wish, Chief." The follower respectfully excused himself and brought the company leaders from each region to Han Hao.

A few days later, all of Han Hao's captains were gathered in the cave. Han Hao took out a scroll and pinned it to the wall before instructing, "This is a list of Omphalos merchants. Intercept all goods from those on this list before they can send their supplies to the Omphalos. But remember, you are not to kill them. If you must, kill one or two to intimidate them.

Polo looked astonished and asked, "Just loot? Why not kill them?"

Han Hao looked at Polo and replied in an indifferent voice, "If they're all dead, it won't end well. Han Hao did not explain much before he gestured impatiently at his captains and said, "Go ahead and do as I say.

Polo asked no more questions. He nodded and left with his group. The other Godhunter captains also took the names from the list and left.

Afterwards, the Godhunters, who had been scattered throughout the Fringe, suddenly gathered near the Omphalos and secretly surrounded it.

Since Omphalos was only a valley, many of the goods sold there had to be imported. Even poisons required enough magical beast organs and other raw materials to be made. Tons of goods were delivered to Omphalos every day.

Outside the Omphalos, merchants had their own ways of protecting their goods. They would spend an exorbitant amount of resources to hire a large number of guards, or perhaps they would seek out the experts close to the Sovereigns to protect their caravans.

Even with all these security measures, their caravans were still not one hundred percent safe, and looting still happened from time to time. However, the looting was usually not too rampant, as the Fringedwellers also needed to buy goods from the merchants in the Omphalos. They knew that if they crossed the line and caused a shortage in the Omphalos, the Sovereigns might intervene.

But things seemed to have changed!

For an entire month, a large number of merchant caravans delivering goods to Omphalos were raided by an unknown force. Almost no merchants were able to get their goods to Omphalos. Moreover, the looters seemed to be extremely determined. No matter how many guards they hired, or if they were protected by the Sovereign's experts, they would still loot the caravans!

The bandits were neither rude nor cruel. As long as the victims didn't try to resist, the bandits wouldn't be too violent. But if they tried to resist, the bandits would show no mercy.

After two merchant caravans were destroyed, the merchants had all learned to behave. Whenever they encountered these fierce bandits, they would consider themselves unlucky and hand over all their goods without resistance.

The merchants thought that the unknown power must have gone mad because they were too poor, and the rampant looting wouldn't last long. Without sufficient supplies to the Omphalos, it would simply be catastrophic for the Fringe.

But they soon discovered they were wrong!

A month passed, then two, then three... Yet the unknown force was still present in every region that the merchant caravans had to pass through to reach the Omphalos, disrupting the order of the Fringe.

After a while, they noticed a commonality - none of the merchants who supported Han Shuo's installation in the Omphalos had their caravans raided!