Chapter 362: Sinking into depravity

"You...who are you?! Don't hurt us, we'll give you anything you want!" Kekaru implored Han Shuo, trying to ignore the excruciating pain from his left hand.

"Heh heh, nope. You don't have the means of giving me what I want!" Han Shuo casually responded, his hand forcing Kesega down on the floor. Kesega was in so much pain, he had long forgotten his delusional fantasies with Helen. Looking at Han Shuo's hand pressing down, he felt a great force pushing down on him, leaving him incapable of moving a single step.

"Don't.... Don't kill me!" Kesega was paralyzed, and could only beg for forgiveness.

Pfft! Han Shuo's hand grazed Kesega's head. Magical yuan emitted from his hand burrowed into Kesega's head, turning it into paste. His body slumped to the ground, now just a boneless mass of flesh.

Han Shuo walked to Kekaru 's side. Ignoring his screaming, he smiled, "Apart from you, your entire clan is dead. Although, you're pretty lucky. I won't kill you."

"Fiend! You fiend, what grudge do you have against me!? Why are you doing this to me?" Kekaru blanched when he heard of his clan member's deaths. He ignored the pain in his left hand and tore it free of the wall, charging at Han Shuo. He was consumed by the urge to at least land a couple of blows on Han Shuo.

Han Shuo focused his mental strength and cast a Soul Tremor spell. A stabbing pain exploded in Kekaru's head before he could do more than take a few steps in Han Shuo's direction. Dizzy from the pain, he stumbled forward a few steps before succumbing to the agony and passing out.

The Demonslayer Edge, still stuck in Kekaru 's left hand, flew into Han Shuo's hand of its own volition. Scooping up the unconscious Kekaru, he dived back into the gaping hole in the ground, once again entering the depths of the earth.

If someone excavated the ground right now, they'd discover numerous tunnels meeting and separating across the city. Each of the tunnels opened up next to the various relatives of Marquis Kekaru living in the castle. Not a single relative was spared.

This intricate tunnel network extended several meters down into the ground. Even with several hundred people working on it, it would still require around 10 days to complete. The castle contained many of Kekaru's personal guard, as well as a number of mages. Under normal circumstances, the tunnels would immediately be discovered as soon as anyone heard suspicious sounds from beneath the earth. Obviously, some of these things could not be explained using common sense. As Han Shuo made his way through the tunnels, the tunnels collapses under the pressure of the earth. Once Han Shuo left, there were no traces in the ground beneath the castle that a tunnel had ever existed, let alone that intricate network.

The dark night was lit by moonlight, streaming down like mercury. Under the light caress of the evening breeze, Han Shuo easily slipped into Helen's mansion. He released a black fog magic as he did so, shrouding himself in a black mantle. Even the moonlight had been completely obscured.

Helen was alone in the residence, not knowing why she was starting to worry about Han Shuo. This kind of feeling bothered Helen. She had never been worried about the safety of a man before, especially a man that should have been the target of her hate. However, she had no way of controlling her internal emotions. Knowing what Han Shuo was attempting, she became more agitated every minute and every second that Han Shuo was gone, fearing that Han Shuo wouldn't be able to return safely.

"Please don't run into any trouble!" Helen muttered, with her eyebrows furrowed and a worried expression on her face. The room lights had long been extinguished. Helen stood near the window, staring off in the direction Han Shuo left. The moonlight played across Helen's white skin, seeming cold and desolate. It was a moving sight, and birthed pity in the heart of anyone who was watching.

When the black fog magic neared the mansion, Helen first felt the moonlight disappear. Looking around, the corners of Helen's lips lifted. Giving a soft laugh of joy, she opened the window wider, and took a few steps back. When Helen opened the window, the breeze blew in a cloud of gray dust. The window silently closed, and a gray figure gradually materialized.

"Are you alright?" Helen didn't ask Han Shuo whether Kekaru had been killed, but first inquired about Han Shuo's condition. It seemed that, in the depths of Helen's heart, Han Shuo's safety was more important than whether Kekaru lived or died.

When he heard these words, Han Shuo noticed the change in attitude she had towards him. His heart unconsciously growing warm, he smiled and gently said, "Thank you for your concern. I'm alright."

The upper portion of his left hand that was carrying Kekaru was already frozen by the cold air currents. Not a single drop of blood had been spilled, nor would the smell of blood permeate the room. Not even a hair of evidence would be left behind.

Having finished speaking, Han Shuo fully reformed, carrying Kekaru. Helen immediately saw the unconscious Kekaru. Helen's eyes, so warm when looking at Han Shuo, gradually filled with an unfathomable hate when looking at Kekaru. She said, "I've finally gotten my hands on you, old dog!"

Giving Helen a meaningful look, Han Shuo carried Kekaru to a room further inside the mansion. Casually throwing him into the room, Han Shuo cast a silencing spell around the area. Having cast the spell, he said to the murderously cold Helen "Alright, you can wake him now. Kill him slowly, I'll stand guard outside."

Perhaps it was because Helen had been suppressing her hate for so long, having waited for several years, that she didn't say a word to Han Shuo with her nemesis at her fingertips. Wearing an icy expression on her face, Helen entered the room that once served as a storage room. When the door slammed shut, Han Shuo didn't spare energy on eavesdropping. He casually walked over to where Helen was sitting before, and took out another cup of wine. Pouring himself a full glass, he sipped the fine wine as he pulled out a thick necromancy book, immersing himself in study.

Apart from the spell "Plague", Han Shuo had already mastered all of the spells that an arch needed to know. His mental strength was already at the level of a grand magus, and he spent all his time studying the art of summoning creatures from the underworld.

Old fey zombies, mummy lords, and bone demons. These three creatures could all be controlled by archmages, though their more advanced summoning techniques differed slightly. When Han Shuo was summoning, a contact was often made with immediately after summoning. As a result, Han Shuo could easily summon them into this world.

When summoned, these kinds of low-level creatures didn't have the ability to resist, arriving at Han Shuo's whim, not knowing to think whether to go or not. Starting from evil knights, the summoning techniques became vastly different. Even if Han Shuo could feel the presence of the evil knights, he would have to expend a large amount of energy to crush their resistance. Only then would he be able to control their actions, using the power of a contract to summon them to this world.

Summoned creatures at the grand magus level all had their own consciousness. Their power was far greater than creatures of other levels. Even in the underworld, creatures of this level acted as ambitious overlords. At the very least, they would be loners that most inferior creatures did not dare disturb.

Not only did these creatures have their own will, but they were also haughty and arrogant. A simple contract wouldn't be able to bind them. It was exactly because of this that the summoning techniques for them were much more complicated and mysterious, including deep probes for spiritual power, in order to understand the temperament of the underworld's creatures.

Apart from this, when a contract was formed between a necromancer and an undead creature, the necromancer required sufficient strength in order to make the creature pledge its allegiance, otherwise they would have to deal with that creature's resistance.

During the process of resistance, the summoner had to use their energy to suppress the creature being summoned, as well as maintain the accuracy of the summoning ritual. Any mispronounced syllable or hand gesture was unacceptable. The interconnected energy patterns would fail and the backlash from the failed summoning would hit the summoner. It was highly likely that the summoned creature would then be trapped between two planes, forever unable to return.

Han Shuo was currently studying the details of each of the high-ranked undead creatures. The old fey zombie's claws and teeth were razor sharp, with nimble movements. Their body structure was similar to those of silver apes, though they were obviously smaller. However, the old fey zombie had the silver apes' sharp claws and teeth, and were just as fast.

The mummy lords were as strong as the stoutest rock. Laying in a coffin all day, their speed was poor, but they were strong. In addition, they were corrosive, capable of mixing a death aura with streamers in their bodies. As such, they were equally hard to fight against.

Bone demons were comprised entirely of large bones that were held together. Out of the three undead creatures, bone demons were the most unique of them all. Since their entire body were formed from bone, if the bones that formed them were strong and filled with death energy, then the power of the bone demon would be even more terrifying. In addition, they had excellent defensive properties against both physical and magical attacks.

If needed, the bone demon could also fire out the bones on its body. The force of these bone projectiles was terrifyingly high; a single projectile was enough to deal a fatal blow. After firing the projectiles, the bone demon could reattach the projectiles to its body. However, if the bones that made up the bone demon's body didn't contain a large amount of death energy, then the bone demon would be both slow and weak, and would be severely injured by both physical and magical attacks. Bone demons could be big and strong, or they could be small and weak. As such, bone demons were the most variable amongst the three magical creatures.

However, Han Shuo knew that the bone demon modified with wings by the little skeleton would certainly be strong. It'd been rebuilt by the little skeleton with bones from the high ranking creature in the forbidden land, and contained a portion of the high-ranking magical creature's energy. Forged from these bones, the bone demon would absorb death energy at a faster pace in the other dimension. The creature could fly, which meant that it possessed sufficient intelligence to control gravity. Otherwise, that bit of rotting flesh on its bones wouldn't have allowed it to fly with such agility.

Han Shou had grasped the characteristics of the three creatures, but the power of their souls were different. He was currently focused on the old fey zombies. He knew that he needed to find the right method of deploying his mental strength to ensure a response from an old fey zombie, in order to successfully use the contract to summon the creature.

Just as Han Shuo was studying the thick tome with furrowed brows, he suddenly heard a devastating scream that tore its way out of the room. The magical boundary suppressed it so that the guards couldn't hear, but Han Shuo caught every hint of it. He knew that this was the final agonizing wail that Kekaru had uttered before he died.

This was indeed the case, as Helen walked out a short while after with her hands covered in blood. She ran towards Han Shuo, sobs wracking her body as she held him tightly before he could prepare himself.

The sharp stench of blood and Helen's own fragrance wafted into his nostrils. He wasn't opposed to the smell, but didn't want the guards outside to detect it. He lifted up his left hand slightly and shut the open door. A vortex churned in his hand as it carefully sucked away the scent of blood. After a round of weeping, Helen finally calmed down, and the vortex had coalesced the stench of blood into a slowly rolling bloody pearl. It was still vibrating slightly as it sucked in all the scent of blood from Helen, not letting the slightest bit drift outside.

"I'm all better now. I'm sorry for getting you dirty!" Helen slowly pushed Han Shuo away and saw that she'd dirtied him all over with fresh blood. She apologized, as translucent tears still hung from her eyelashes.

"Don't worry about it. Why isn't Firewind by your side? She should be with you at this time!" Han Shuo had only just discovered that the usual omnipresent Firewind wasn't there, and asked in bafflement.

"Sister Firewind doesn't like it when there are too many humans around her. Unless there's something special, she won't appear when too many people are around. She's made her camp in the forests of the valley. I usually just call telepathically if I need her. Since you're with me, there's no danger to my being, so I didn't summon her." Helen explained.

"I see!" Han Shuo responded, then said, "I also have a super rank magical pet, but he's a dark dragon. That guy seems to love hanging out in crowds all day. In any case, the more the merrier! It seems that not all super rank magical creatures are the same."

"You even have a dark dragon!" Helen was astonished.

"Mm hmm, he's evolving into his second stage at the moment, so I put him somewhere safe." Han Shuo replied.

Helen looked at him, stunned and was about to express how amazing he was. She immediately thought of all the magical parts to him and felt that she didn't need to make a big deal of this bit. She suddenly saw that his chest was covered with blood, but was quickly distracted by the rotating, bloody pearl in his left hand. "What's this?"

"I don't want the scent of blood to spread beyond this room. I've coalesced them into a drop of blood." Han Shuo explained.

"You're an amazing person!" Helen still couldn't help but sigh with amazement, then pulled him by the hand to the bathroom. Her face reddened for some reason as she said lowly, "Why don't you wash the blood off yourself first? You're surely uncomfortable."

Han Shuo's heart lurched when Helen spoke thus, and when her smooth, boneless small hand tugged on his wrist, Han Shuo could feel the sensuous beauty of her hand. Light started gleaming in his eyes as he looked at Helen with some more anticipation.

Kekaru's mansion for guests was exceedingly opulent. Helen's rooms alone were filled with more than ten room of various sizes. The powder room, bathroom, living room, bedroom, storage room, and laundry room were all present and decked out lavishly. Han Shuo's Brettel City castle was like a country farm when compared to this.

There was a wide, oval shaped bathing pool in the center of the bathroom. There was a small magic formation beneath it, with one Firespark Stone providing the heat. The water within the pool was maintained at a comfortable temperature, and Helen's face became redder and redder within the haziness of the water mist. She actually tenderly helped Han Shuo out of his clothes.

When Han Shuo's clothes had been taken off, his 190 centimeter tall body was the epitome of a perfect male body as it was fully revealed in front of Helen. Ever inch of his skin and muscles were filled with explosive power, and he seemed to be a poised, vicious hunting beast even when standing at ease. His naked body gave others an overwhelmingly dominating ferocity.

Han Shuo's buff body encompassed a wild power and was reflected from Helen's eyes. When she took off the clothes on his lower body, she raised her head to look worshipfully at the towering man. She seemed to sink into a bottomless inescapable abyss.

"Is this demon-god like person to be my man in the future?" Helen murmured deeply in her heart, looking at Han Shuo with mesmerized eyes as she speechlessly stared at the spectacle before her.