Chapter 712: I will protect you! (1/2)
GDK 712: I will protect you!
“Do… Do you have more?” It only took a few minutes for the sack of five thousand black crystal coins to disappear into Andrina’s stomach. After consuming the coins, she asked for more.
Han Shuo’s appearance started to grow unsightly. He handed yet another big sack of black crystal coins. His heart was shedding tears, grieving for those black crystal coins that were being consumed…
“Do you have more?”
“... Do you have more?”
“... More?”
Han Shuo's face turned ashen. Finally, he looked at Andrina fiercely and exclaimed, “You have eaten ninety thousand black crystal coins already. Hasn’t that filled your stomach yet? Han Shuo started to show signs of anger.
Han Shuo had earned a total of ninety-six thousand black crystal coins by selling the medicines he worked hard to produce. These crystal coins were more than enough for Han Shuo to spend years if not decades in comfort. However, Andrina managed to finish all the black crystal coins for him in just half an hour. It would be a wonder if he didn’t feel angry.
Andrina appeared somewhat ashamed after hearing Han Shuo’s bellow. She did not have the courage to look at Han Shuo and kept her head low as she softly replied, “It’s far from filling my stomach but my injuries have gotten better. Oh, I feel a little sleepy. I shall take a nap…” Upon finishing those words, ignoring Han Shuo’s murderous stares, Andrina grabbed onto Han Shuo’s arm and fell asleep on it. She even started snoring heavily.
“My crystal coins!!!” Han Shuo cried. He looked at Andrina who was fast asleep and yelled furiously, “What kind of a monster are you?! How could you eat ninety thousand black crystal coins just like that?!” Unfortunately, Andrina could no longer hear Han Shuo’s complaining.
Han Shuo discovered that after Andrina swallowed the crystal coins, her originally severe injuries was rapidly improving in a most miraculous manner. Although she appeared inactive on the outside, the internals of her body were hard at work - it was like a complex machine that broke down the energy within those black crystal coins before distributing them to every injured spot on her body.
Crystal coins, used as currency on Elysium, was itself a type of energy stone. Black crystal coin was one of the energy stones that contained the most energy. But to Han Shuo’s current knowledge, although the energy inside crystal coins had a variety of uses, it was usually limited to powering interplanar transportation matrices, energy towers, boundary towers, refinement of divine weapons, and other similar devices. Han Shuo had never heard that it could be directly used or consumed by living things as Andrina had done.
What is her origin? Han Shuo doubted.
Andrina had fallen dead-asleep, completely unconcerned with the dangers around her. She had completely entrusted her safety to Han Shuo. Knowing that the godhunters from Greenfire Swamp were still pursuing her, Han Shuo dared not remain in this region for too long. Han Shuo was determined to take Andrina along after she ate ninety thousand of his black crystal coins so that he could get his money back after she eventually woke up.
After half a month, Han Shuo arrived at a mountain range near the City of Shadows. He was very familiar with this region. Without much effort, he located the underground cave where he had previously stayed for a few months and burrowed into the cave with Andrina.
During the half a month Andrina spent in hibernation, her body had been extremely busy with energies flowing all around. A healthy tinge of redness began to return to her pale face and her heavily injured body appeared to have healed significantly.
However, Han Shuo was rather annoyed that Andrina showed no sign of waking up even after sleeping for half a month. The City of Shadows was right before them but it didn’t seem appropriate for Han Shuo to enter the city with a little girl who was deep asleep and unconscious. However, if Han Shuo was to leave her alone in this place and if someone else was to discover her, her fate would be grim. Besides, Andrina still owed Han Shuo ninety thousand black crystal coins and Han Shuo wasn’t going to leave her before she reimbursed this enormous sum.
For the lack of a better option, Han Shuo stayed in the underground cave with Andrina. All three of his bodies would cultivate while waiting for Andrina to awaken.
During this time, Han Shuo had been monitoring things happening above the ground using his demon generals. From the chatter of those divine guards who patrolled the mountain range, Han Shuo learned a little about the current climate in the City of Shadows.
Avery who lost his only son and daughter used the influence and power of his Fifth Corps and the House of Lavers to the fullest. He started investigating every person with the remotest possibility of murdering his children. During this period of time, there wasn’t a night that those who had animosity with the House of Lavers and Avery himself could sleep soundly. They had to live in constant fear.
A few of those who used to have grudges with Avery and were coincidentally in the vicinity of Fort Hassell during the days Cage and Eve were murdered, abruptly disappeared without a trace…
The patriarchs of all big family clans in the City of Shadows understood that Avery was growing somewhat psychotic during this period of time. They would warn members of their family clan not to provoke Avery, who had lost all rationality. Those family clans that held grudges with Avery heightened the defenses of their family residences.
After learning about Avery’s recent wild acts, Han Shuo inferred that Avery probably did not consider him as a suspect. After all, his strength was all too weak in their eyes and logically speaking, there was no way that he could successfully assassinate Cage and Eve.
With that, Han Shuo became slightly more at ease. He knew that even if he returned to the City of Shadows right then, Avery’s crosshair likely wouldn’t aim at him.
***
Inside a secret chamber, Steiss crouched on the ground and reported in a deep voice, “Master, Avery is now investigating Carmelita. It appears that Avery is suspicious of her.”
The elderly man with white hair but a face as translucent as jade smiled gently and said, “Avery is distrustful and paranoid in character. In addition to the fact that the incident was indeed very strange, he wouldn’t just be suspicious of Carmelita, but every one of his enemies. But naturally, we have to make him think that Carmelita did it so that the two sides will fight each other. Hehe…”
“Master, about that youngster, he completely disappeared and I still can’t find a trail of him,” Steiss reported in a low voice.
The white-haired elderly man subconsciously tapped on his chair with his index finger. Wearing a somewhat puzzled face, he said, “That youngster is really quite astonishing. It’s really hard to believe that even Avery failed to kill him. Forget about it, at least he is no longer in the City of Shadows. You can stop looking for him. So many big family clans have tried but they have all failed. It is to be expected that you won’t find him either. But still, it's quite a pity that we did not get his medicine formulas.”
“Master, how do we proceed?” Steiss asked respectfully.
After spending a moment in contemplation, the elderly man answered, “Utilize our pawn in the House of Sainte. Get him to divulge a message, one that will make Avery certain that Carmelita sent men to Fort Hassell!”
“Understood!” Steiss smirked sinisterly and dismissed himself.
***