CHAPTER 474: A cruel Decision

Since they were both in the Dark Forest, the distance between the forest trolls' village and the place of extreme fire wasn't too far. Han Shuo immediately took action to implement the Fire Elite Zombie's suggestion.

"Gilbert, transform into dragon form!" Han Shuo instructed the anxious dark dragon.

Without the slightest hesitation, Gilbert let out a roar and soared into the sky. His body stretched and expanded rapidly. In the blink of an eye, his humanoid body transformed into a gigantic thirty metre long dark dragon.

With Elizabeth's two hands clinging to the Jade Frost Cage, Han Shuo grabbed Elizabeth's shoulders and soared into the sky with the Jade Frost Cage. Gilbert's meandering body dove down just in time to catch Han Shuo on his back.

"Wooo....Cold! So cold!" As the Jade Frost Cage then made contact with Gilbert's back, the freezing cold energy automatically flowed into his body, causing his dragon body to shiver slightly.

Han Shuo furrowed his brows. Then he flexed his muscles and lifted Elizabeth into the air along with the Jadefrost Cage. Although this meant that Han Shuo would have to spend some more Demonic Yuan, he could make sure that the Jadefrost Cage wouldn't be in direct contact with Gilbert's body.

"Fly low and let the Fire Elite Zombie on . Then immediately fly to the area where we encountered the Lord of Flames!" Han Shuo instructed Gilbert as he held Elizabeth and the Jadefrost Cage high in the air.

"Understood!" The dark dragon made a loop and shot down, causing a swirl of cold wind and snowflakes that covered the ground.

The Fire Elite Zombie, who had been on standby, sprinted into the air and landed firmly on the back of Gilbert the Dark Dragon. He took two more steps towards the jadefrost cage and continued to shoot flames into the cage, warming the dark dragons as their bodies began to freeze again.

With everything in place, the dark dragon Gilbert recognised the directions and flew as fast as he could towards the place of extreme fire.

Standing on Gilbert, Han Shuo watched the ground below him as the forest troll village filled with an arctic atmosphere. The small ponds that were their source of water froze to ice before their eyes. All the forest trolls were terrified, trembling as they fled this world of ice and snow with all their might.

Many of the forest troll warriors carried their frozen children with them, weeping and mourning. Some of the older forest trolls lay sprawled on the ground, their frail bodies now like ice cubes, without a trace of life. They had left the world for the rest of eternity before the Fire Elite Zombie could come to their aid.

Looking at the hundreds of dead forest trolls, Han Shuo's heart was filled with remorse. He realised that the disaster that had befallen the forest trolls was his fault. Of those loyal, true forest trolls who had served him over the years, a tragic proportion of the old, the young, the sick, and the handicapped lost their lives to the icy cold.

Shrine of Ice! There will be no reconciliation between us!

Han Shuo roared in his mind. The demonic yuan in his body flowed incessantly towards Elizabeth's arm, transforming into heat energy to resist the onslaught of the cold.

Although the distance from the forest troll village to the place of extreme fire wasn't too far, Han Shuo and the Fire Elite Zombie felt like the journey was endless. Since Han Shuo had huge reserves of demonic yuan, he was still able to keep fighting.

However, the Fire Elite Zombie was beginning to show obvious symptoms of fatigue and exhaustion. Han Shuo could tell by the flickering red light of the Fire Lotus.

The Fire Lotus, a treasure of the fire attribute that was cultivated in the place of extreme fire, contained an incomparably huge amount of fire energy. As long as the Fire Elite Zombie could support it with his strength, he could theoretically use the energy stored in the Fire Lotus at any time. However, it hadn't been long since the Fire Elite Zombie had been born. It was already difficult for him to maintain his current strength until then.

Most importantly, it was the energy of extreme cold that the Fire Elite Zombie was resisting this time! As the saying goes, fire and ice don't mix. Therefore, the Fire Elite Zombie had to use more energy than usual to resist the Ice Energy, the opposite of fire. On top of that, some of the experts from the Ice Shrine had joined forces to bombard the Jade Frost Cage with cold air so that the Fire Elite Zombie would show signs of fatigue more quickly.

Thousands of miles away at the Ice Shrine...

Meanwhile, a group of Shrine of Ice experts, led by Ice Celestial Corey, appeared calm and collected. In particular, Ice Celestial Corey even showed a cold smile, as if victory was within his grasp. He seemed to be completely satisfied with his operation this time.

Huh! Just a puny city lord. How dare he challenge us, the Shrine of Ice! Corey sneered in his heart as he froze in ice. He had already discovered Han Shuo's identity. Soon after, he said with extreme confidence, "In a short while, we will freeze them all to death. Keep it up, everyone!"

"Rest assured, Lord Corey. With our help, they are surely doomed!" said a sacred rank magus.

"Lord Corey is truly understanding. This time, this Bryan won't be able to escape the disaster. If he dies as an ice sculpture, I'm sure the Church of Light will be very grateful for our help! Another sacred rank Magus also found time to speak, and took the opportunity to praise Ice Celestial Corey.

"We don't want the gratitude of the Church of Light. We, the Shrine of Ice, want to be the number one religion on the continent! By killing this Bryan, who they couldn't do anything about, we can prove it by the way! Corey announced.

"Lord Corey is right. We, the Shrine of Ice, as the messengers of the Goddess of Ice on the Profound Continent, should not be suppressed by the Church of Light forever!" the magus immediately corrected his previous remark.

"Very well. Let us push harder and freeze them all in one burst of energy!" Corey shouted quietly, not uttering any more superfluous words.

The few others who were not speaking at the same time responded in unison. Soon after, cold air permeated their bodies. Strands of extremely cold aura passed through a mysterious magical field, which was then transmitted to the Dark Forest thousands of miles away.

"Father, I can't hold on much longer!" the Fire Elite Zombie that had been continuously emitting flames from the Fire Lotus suddenly transmitted to Han Shuo.

Han Shuo could feel the sudden rush of cold air emanating from the Jade Frost Cage. He also felt that it was getting harder and harder to resist as he continuously injected Demonic Yuan into Elizabeth's two hands.

At that moment, the flames in the Fire Lotus were no longer bright and radiant. As the fire yuan energy in the Fire Elite Zombie was consumed bit by bit, over time, it was depleted to the brink of total exhaustion. Elizabeth's two hands turned purple from the cold. Her Divine Favour Body couldn't withstand the onslaught of such an enormous amount of cold energy. The few cyclones in her body gradually stopped converting energy.

At this point, however, they were only halfway to their goal. At Dark Dragon Gilbert's speed, they still needed over ten minutes to reach the place of extreme fire. If the circumstances remained the same, Han Shuo reckoned that before they reached the Place of Extreme Fire, the Fire Elite Zombie would succumb and be seriously injured, while Elizabeth and all the dark dragons in the cage would be frozen to death.

Han Shuo became extremely worried. It was a pity that he himself was already finding it extremely difficult to continue as a soldier and had absolutely no extra hand to assist in any way. Had Han Shuo been able to fully utilise the Demonic Ninth Heaven Art, he could have been much faster than the Dark Dragon Gilbert. Unfortunately, at the moment, he had to hold the Jadefrost Cage aloft while constantly withstanding the onslaught of cold air with Demonic Yuan, so his hands were tied.

The innermost part of his heart was filled with a discouraging emotion. Han Shuo raked every inch of his brain but couldn't find a way out.

"Gilbert, speed up! If you don't get us to the place of extreme fire in five minutes, your grandfather and all your clansmen will die because of you!" Han Shuo was at his wit's end and could only tell Gilbert the circumstances as they were.

.

Han Shuo had secretly decided that if all else failed, he would cut off both of Elizabeth's hands and abandon the race of dark dragons. Although he didn't want to abandon them, he really couldn't find a better alternative.

As Han Shuo finished these words, Gilbert let out a pitiful howl. As his miserable howl sounded, the veins and arteries on his dragon body suddenly burst, causing fresh blood to gush from his body, falling like fine rain drops.

At the same time, Gilbert's already lightning speed suddenly doubled. Like black lightning streaking across the sky, he flew directly towards the place of extreme fire.

"Nooooo!" the patriarch of the dark dragons, Gilges, roared hoarsely. He struggled to move his shivering body, both hands clutching the arctic columns, and shouted, "Little rascal, stop it now! Stop it! We are already hopeless. You are the only hope of the dark dragons, you must not die!"

As Gilbert's master, Han Shuo could clearly feel Gilbert's life force slowly draining away. At Gilbert's grandfather's cry, he realised what Gilbert was doing - activating his full potential in exchange for his life force to save the race of dark dragons!

"Gilbert! Stop it!" Han Shuo suddenly shouted.

Elizabeth and the race of dark dragons weren't nearly as close to Han Shuo as Gilbert was. Han Shuo could watch the dozen or so dark dragons freeze to death, or cut off Elizabeth's hands without the slightest hesitation, but he couldn't watch Gilbert die from overdrawing his vitality!

However, the dark dragon Gilbert turned a deaf ear to Gilges and Han Shuo's screams and flew with all his might towards the place of extreme fire. In Gilbert's lantern sized pupils, one could only see the determination to save his kind that even death couldn't stop.

"Gilbert, if you don't stop, I will step aside immediately!" Han Shuo shouted sadly, stomping angrily on Gilbert's back with his feet. He could feel Gilbert's life force being washed away.

Gilbert's huge body trembled. "Master, I beg you, please grant me this!" Sensing Han Shuo's anger, Gilbert finally spoke. His simple, honest voice no longer contained a trace of his sloppy attitude, but was solemn and serious.

After a short pause, he continued in a deep voice, "Master, I am honoured to have had the privilege of following you. For so many years, during my days with you, I was very happy! It's true! Goodbye Master. Even in death, I will never forget all the joys and fun I had with you!"

As Gilbert was flying fast, his vitality was also dwindling fast.

Han Shuo understood that Gilbert was offering his life in exchange for saving the race of dark dragons.

Even though Han Shuo felt indescribable sorrow in his heart as he felt Gilbert losing his life force and wishing to cut off Elizabeth's hands immediately and leave the dark dragons, Gilbert's plea was incomparably firm and determined, leaving no room for Han Shuo to refuse.

He knew that he could not refuse Gilbert's wish. So he did not stop Gilbert any longer.

As Gilbert's dejected farewell sounded in his ears, scene after scene played in Han Shuo's mind...

"Don't hesitate, think about it. If I become your servant, I can help you kill people, burn things, fly you everywhere, and take out your enemies. As my master, all you have to do is give me treasures and beauties to enjoy. What a good deal that is.

"I can compromise if you don't have treasure, but I must have beauties to sleep with, or I won't do it!"

When he first met Gilbert, before he became Han Shuo's magical pet, Gilbert had some funny requests...

"Uh... my mighty, handsome, amazing, noble master, what... what do you want to do? Are you planning to beat your sweetest, most loyal, most honest and most humble Gilbert? Um..."

"No! Absolutely not! I can't fight my master with you! Not even if I die!"

At the forbidden land, facing Han Shuo who had fallen into demonic stupor, Gilbert stood foolishly, not knowing what to do, and stared blankly at Han Shuo, waiting for Han Shuo's hundred-metre sword radiance to smash down on him like a fool...

As these dripping scenes of his past interactions with Gilbert played over and over again in the back of his mind, tears accidentally began to spill from the corners of Han Shuo's eyes.

"Nooo!!" Gilges let out a long scream and collapsed from grief.

Beside Gilges, each and every one of the remaining dark dragons stared down at Gilbert in disbelief. They remembered that naughty little dragon who never stopped making trouble in the valley, always disturbing the peace, always nagging about leaving home. When they saw this Gilbert again, offering his life in exchange for theirs, they couldn't put the two together, no matter how they tried.

Finally, at the cost of Gilbert's own life, and before the Fire Elite Zombie had completely exhausted all its energy, Gilbert's huge body, drenched in blood, plunged into the gorge where the place of extreme fire was located.

It was at this moment that Han Shuo understood that Gilbert's condition had passed the point of no return. All of his life force had been drained away.

"Grandpa, take care of yourself! Master, thank you. I will always remember you!" These were Gilbert's last words as he fell into the ravine. His massive dragon head fell down. Not a trace of life could be felt in his body.

Han Shuo's eyes were filled with hot tears. Standing on his dragon body, Gilbert's last words echoed in his ears. His mind was filled with all the memories he had with Gilbert....

""Father, keep his soul!" At that moment, from the distant netherworld , Little Skeleton's anxious message suddenly arrived.