CHAPTER 450: Twelve Round Spheres

Without the burden of Cecilia and her gang, Han Shuo strode into the depths of Tarrag Canyon. Along the way, he traipsed through swarms of mid-level and high-level magical beasts.

But when Han Shuo arrived where his mystical demons had come to a halt, he saw not a single magical creature. A pungent scent wafted through the air, but Han Shuo sensed no magical elements. Something was very, very wrong.

Surveying the scene around him, all Han Shuo could see were the endless tracks left by magical creatures into the infinite distance, millions or billions of footprints. Apart from that, there wasn't much useful information. The few powerful presences he had sensed with his consciousness earlier had given Han Shuo a sense of his own mortality.

On the plus side, Han Shuo only had himself to worry about, and with his current strength, he believed that even if he was unable to defeat the forces within, escaping unharmed would not be too difficult as long as he was not surrounded. It was self-confidence that allowed Han Shuo to venture in alone.

Not wanting to linger too long, he entered the area. The strange energy that had thwarted the mystic demons did not have the same effect on an expert like Han Shuo. With a sway of his body, Han Shuo effortlessly passed through the liquid-like defence and continued his descent with the help of his consciousness' sensing abilities.

Not a moment later, the State Preceptor of the former Verdun Dynasty, Stratholme, arrived at the region where Han Shuo had just stood. On his way, the old monster Stratholme muttered what sounded like gibberish to himself, only stopping when he stopped outside the region. He let out a soft gasp. The old monster had obviously discovered the energy field that was supposed to hinder any normal person. He waved his hand, and his left hand pressed gracefully against the empty air, as if pushing open a disembodied door. His body then floated through the air like a ghost, disappearing in the blink of an eye.

Not long after Stratholme entered, another person arrived. The lightly built old man had bushy, snowy eyebrows so long that they flowed down to his neck. From the outside of the area, a flash of lightning sliced through the invisible defences like a sword, allowing him to enter.

Then another person, a delicate and dignified Madame whose body was shrouded in layers of mist, passed seamlessly through the defence.

Soon after, several other teams of adventurers, who considered themselves to be of decent strength, arrived. Their curiosity compelled them to delve into the area, but they were violently stopped by the shield. Try as they might, they could not break through the defence. All they could do was stare into the air and lament their inadequacy.

Han Shuo, the first person to intrude, carefully concealed his presence and his massive consciousness went from overflowing to restrained. Instead of rushing all the way forward as he had done before, he first wrapped himself in his own body and hid in the shadows of some colossal trees, pacing himself as he moved forward.

Not only was there no elemental energy in this region, but even the oxygen in the atmosphere was extremely thin. Utilising his exquisite ability to control his body, Han Shuo closed all the pores on his skin, stopped his breathing and heartbeat, and let his Demonic Yuan slowly rotate around the demon infant. As a result, if one did not see Han Shuo with their own eyes, even someone with the most outstanding strength would not be able to detect Han Shuo's presence through their perception.

Along the way, severed limbs of magical beasts littered the ground, which was also stained with various assortments of fresh, colourful blood from the magical creatures. It seemed that the mangled bodies lying around were all of high-ranking magical creatures of level two and above. Severed limbs of super-ranked creatures like the dragon could be seen everywhere.

Without much thought, Han Shuo understood that it was the tragic deaths of these high-level magical creatures that had caused all the other magical creatures in Tarrag Canyon to flee. Indeed, without the countless dead high-level creatures, the other magical beasts that had lived in the depths of Tarrag Canyon all their lives would never have left their home so suddenly.

What was going on in there? Han Shuo became even more curious.

Doing his best to blend in with the towering trees and dense bushes around him, Han Shuo walked at a moderate pace for another ten minutes, finally reaching the deepest part of Tarrag Canyon. Once inside, the scene of an endless, crystalline lake caught Han Shuo's eyes.

The water was so calm and pure that it looked like a giant mirror over the land, with not even the slightest ripple to be seen. However, this view of the vast blue water was simply not enough to distract from the surrounding landscape of countless carcasses of super-ranked magical creatures, all of which seemed to have died under the most inexplicably gruesome circumstances, and not a single one of which was not severely dismembered.

The brilliant hue that filled this great lake at the heart of the canyon resembled that of a sapphire crystal, refracting a brilliant blue under the soft illumination of the sunlight. The surrounding sea of the remnants of super-ranked magical creatures left an extremely unsettling atmosphere.

Han Shuo hid behind the lush leaves of a large tree. His eyes narrowed slightly as he looked over at the lake in the distance.

At the centre of the huge mass of water was an island of flat land. There were dozens of humanoids that Han Shuo did not recognise. They were densely clustered on the island, all with the same solemn look on their faces as they worshipped in the direction of a tall, pointed building that resembled an altar in the centre of the island.

If it weren't for their pale green skin, their python-like tail, and the pointed horns that protruded from their foreheads to their necks, Han Shuo might have considered them human.

However, with those three distinctive features, Han Shuo would never, ever consider them human. The mouths of these humanoids made strange buzzing sounds similar to cicadas as they kowtowed to worship the altar.

This altar was similar to the magic towers often used by a magus. At the top of the pointy altar lay the hearts of countless magical beasts, reeking of rotting fish next to bright, clean magical cores. Four humanoids, probably the leaders of this group, each with a row of five pointed horns growing from their foreheads to their collarbones, stood at the four corners of the altar. They spoke in a mysterious language resembling the drone of insects as they threw hundreds upon hundreds of these hearts and cores into a huge, grotesque, mucus-filled mouth at the centre of the altar.

The four figures were the powerful presences Han Shuo had sensed earlier. As they stood in close proximity, even without his consciousness expanding and actively probing, Han Shuo could sense the formidable aura emanating from them. Han Shuo reckoned that he could handle one of these creatures alone. But if all four of them attacked together, all Han Shuo could do was try to escape.

After observing for a while, Han Shuo quickly discovered that the strengths of these creatures could all be distinguished by the pointy horns on the top of their heads. Of all the creatures on the island, the four in each corner had the most terrifying power. Around the altar and beneath their feet were a dozen or more creatures with four horns on their heads, and they stood closest to the altar.

There were fewer and fewer pointed horns on the submissive creatures as one looked around the altar. The creatures at the outermost edge had only a single horn.

Suddenly, something familiar to Han Shuo caught his attention.

At the top of the pointed altar, a wave of tentacles suddenly slowly lifted twelve round spheres the size of fists. One of these spheres emitted a pure aura of death that made Han Shuo's skin crawl. It had never occurred to him that an aura of death could be so pure.

On any plane where life existed, there would naturally be events such as birth, aging, illness, and death. As long as life continued to end, the element of death would be present in that plane of existence. However, most creatures also exhibited a terrible jumble of emotions such as fear, anger, stubbornness, and resentment just before they met their end.

It was precisely because of the presence of these emotions that the Death Element could not be pure at any level of existence. Even in the Netherworld where Little Skeleton resided, the Element of Death was always tainted with chaotic impurities in abundance.

However, within the orb, Han Shuo could only sense the Element of Death in its purest form, no impurities whatsoever. Moreover, it contained an overwhelming amount of the Element of Death, making it an irresistible temptation for a necromancer like Han Shuo.

Instinctively, Han Shuo believed that the orb could bring him immense benefits. If it weren't for the fact that he had exclusive control over his physical body, Han Shuo's heart might have begun to beat faster with excitement.

Han Shuo was excited. As he focused his attention on the Death Sphere, he began to study the other eleven spheres with his c

mind.

After much study, Han Shuo was once again shocked to the core. Of the other eleven spheres, seven contained elemental energy as pure as the one containing Death. These were Light, Darkness, Wind, Fire, Water, Lightning and Earth.

As for the remaining four spheres, although they did not contain pure elemental energy, they did contain some bizarre energy, one of which was the extremely rare energy of destruction. Another seemed to be a condensed form of combat aura, constantly emitting different shades of combat aura from dark blue to golden. The last two were even more mysterious. Their insides flowed like the revolution of celestial bodies, which, after much contemplation, Han Shuo felt was similar to the unusual aura found on certain space mages and summoners.

Twelve round spheres in all. Generally dim and dull, brownish in colour. From a distance, they looked rather unremarkable. Perhaps only a figure of Han Shuo's level could understand how mysterious, strange and diverse the energies contained within these spheres were.

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