Chapter 367: Burying the hatchet in each other's flesh
"Body-on-body combat in bed......" Adele suddenly smiled enchantingly, her delicate beautiful body trembling as she gazed at Han Shuo with limpid eyes. Her eyes were like a pool of spring water, as if wanting to draw Han Shuo deep into its depths with its beautiful scenery.
The dark elves were a race that were naturally lascivious in nature, just like the dark dragons. This was especially the case for female dark elves, where seven out of ten of them were harlots.
Adele, flirtatious and charming to no end, was evidently a well-known figure. The few dark elf elders by her side ought to have also taken their turn as her bed-warmer. She was unabashed whilst speaking of such matters in front of so many subordinates. Instead, she was actively engaged, seemingly willing to put aside the dignity of her position to immediately engage Han Shuo in carefree, uninhibited grinding.
"Heh heh, the madame's outstanding beauty enchants everyone. If you are truly interested in this aspect, I will definitely do my utmost to accompany you." Han Shuo also felt his heart itch when he saw Adele's enchanting smile. Adele was obviously a ravenous, wanton woman, seemingly born seductive. On the other hand, Han Shuo had never been a sanctimonious knight, barely concealing the desire that existed in his heart.
Adele couldn't help but give Han Shuo another once over after his response. The tall and imposing Han Shuo was like a javelin as he stood there, giving off an overbearing might. His handsome yet dispassionate looks, his imposing height and a body covered in violent and explosive muscles weren't things the beautiful but thin dark elves by her side could compare to.
The more Adele looked at Han Shuo, the faster her heart beat. Her rosy small tongue subconsciously licked her brilliant red lips, her delicate peach colored face flushing red as if she were intoxicated, flirtingly enticing.
There were gulping sounds from the dark elves who watched Adele from the side, including a few female dark elves who had special urges. They really would have directly rushed to embrace Adele, if not for the misgivings that rose from her strength and prestige.
"Little fellow, you are truly an interesting human. Although the humans I've seen all contained naked lust in their hearts, all of them acted as decently as they could on the surface, but transformed into savage beasts once they got into bed. Hehe, you are different from them. Even in front of so many people, you actually don't bother concealing your desire at all. This is truly unexpected." Adele softly and slowly mused out loud as she smiled and gazed at Han Shuo.
Han Shuo bowed courteously in response to Adele's praise before looking at her with a smile. Although he didn't reply, an imposing manner that didn't fear any threats naturally radiated outward.
"Hehe. If you have it in you to make me acknowledge your strength, I'll certainly accompany you in a battle in bed." Adele slowly walked toward Han Shuo as she finished her sentence, smiling seductively as she said, "It is now time for you to prove your strength."
Han Shuo remained silent, before retrieving the skeleton staff from his space ring. He then said to Adele, "I hope I can satisfy you. Heh heh. Honestly speaking, I'm certainly very interested in you!"
Adele was just about to answer when she noticed the skeleton staff in Han Shuo's hands. Her expression changed as she carefully looked at Han Shuo's staff a few more times. Only then did she ask, a hint of horror in her voice, "The skeleton staff! You're from the Calamity Church?"
Han Shuo was shocked as he looked at the skeleton staff that was tightly grasped in his hand. He thought quickly, why do all the older fellows in this world seem to recognize the skeleton staff? Since Adele immediately thought of Calamity Church when she saw the skeleton staff, it seemed that she had not lived for that long, at least not as long as Ancient Lizard King Dagassi.
"When did the Calamity Church's influence reach the underground world? What is your relationship with the lizardmen? Could it be that you want to protect these stupid lizardmen?" Adele chattered on without waiting for Han Shuo to reply. Seeing Han Shuo remain silent, Adele furiously continued, "Forget it. If you insist on protecting these lizardmen, I will show you some face. However, the underground world is our territory. If you're thinking of conquering the underground world, the dark elves will definitely resist to our deaths."
Hearing Adele's impassioned speech, Han Shuo, who'd originally ready to fight a round with Adele, suddenly froze. Han Shuo understood from Adele's tone that she did not fear him, but clearly feared the Calamity Church. She did not dare to make a move against the lizardmen due to Han Shuo being someone from the Calamity Church.
The Calamity Church was a sinister existence throughout the whole Profound Continent that incited terror just by their name. The dark elves, who were similarly considered evil, naturally knew of Calamity Church's formidable prowess.
Among the sinister powers and evil races in the Profound Continent, the Calamity Church was without question the number one most evil power. Even for someone like Adele, once she saw Han Shuo holding the skeleton staff, she immediately admitted defeat and renounced enslaving the lizardmen without Han Shuo even saying a word.
There was a period of time in which the skeleton staff was synonymous with the Calamity Church. The one who wielded the skeleton staff was absolutely one of the top figures in the Calamity Church. When Adele saw the skeleton staff appear in Han Shuo's hand, she did not have any doubts, treating Han Shuo as a high ranking figure of the Calamity Church. She immediately extinguished any intention of becoming enemies with Han Shuo.
An evil power like the dark elves did not fear any country in the continent. These countries normally would not set foot in the underground world. In addition, a country's strength was limited. Hence, Adele did not fear them even if they really set foot in the underground world. However, the infamous Calamity Church's viciousness and persistence toward their enemies would cause any party to be terrified. Even if someone was in the underground world when they provoked the Calamity Church, they would also be faced with a never-ending, fearsome retaliation.
Adele had just returned from the layer below. She definitely did not want to immediately offend the number one most evil power in the world. Hence, she voluntarily conceded in front Han Shuo.
A flurry of ideas passed through Han Shuo's mind. The Calamity Church's identity was indeed worth of being the Profound Continent's most feared evil power, if just mentioning its name unexpectedly led to experts like Adele admitting defeat. He reacted quickly to Adele's words.
"Since you recognize the skeleton staff, you obviously know my identity. Heh heh. The lizardmen's true god Dagassi has close ties with the Calamity Church. Perhaps you do not know that Dagassi has already left this place and would not threaten the dark elves. However, Dagassi had requested that the Calamity Church would take care of the lizardmen when he left. Therefore, we will not let the lizardmen be enslaved by the dark elves.
"The Calamity Church does not have unfriendly intentions toward the underground world's dark elves. In fact, we have all been invaded by the light side, and should not be fighting internally. If you could give the Calamity Church face and not cause trouble for the lizardmen, I believe this will end as a very pleasant encounter." Han Shuo portrayed the image of a high-ranking figure in the Calamity Church, speaking proudly yet respectfully to the dark elves' ancestor Adele.
"Of course, since the lizardmen are under your protection, the dark elves will not attack them from now on." Adele didn't hesitate, giggling as she replied, "Distinguished friend, since you have come to the underground world, you definitely must come be our guest in our dark elf territory."
As expected, Adele immediately agreed to Han Shuo's request. She then giggled as she sincerely proposed an invitation. Adele even cast a soul-wrenching coquettish glance Han Shuo's way as she made the proposal. Han Shuo felt an unbearable itch from the blatant seduction.
End of Part 1 of the chapter.
Even war was avoided at this point. Simply due to the skeleton staff in his hand, Han Shuo had extinguished Adele's ideas for enslaving the lizardmen, and even had her sincerely invite Han Shuo in an attempt to build a favorable relationship.
Han Shuo did not expect this, and the outcome was obviously more ideal than he could have imagined. Han Shuo turned around to look at the lizardmen's leader, grinning as he said, "I'll be making a trip. I believe the dark elves will leave you alone in the future."
Within the underground world, the slow-witted lizardmen were not as well-informed as the dark elves. The lizardmen leader had never heard of the existence of the Calamity Church. However, he understood from Adele's words that Han Shuo hailed from an outstanding power and this power was dreaded by even the dark elves touted as the strongest in this layer.
The dark elves were already this layer's strongest race to begin with. Now that they had renounced their internal conflicts and gathered together, this strength had reached extraordinary levels. In addition, they now even had a mysterious group of experts. The lizardmen's leader understood that if they were to fight to the end against the dark elves, it would only lead to their deaths.
Now that he saw Adele had taken the initiative to let them go, the lizardmen leader naturally did not foolishly say anything and only bowed respectfully toward Han Shuo, saying, "Thank you, Sir Envoy!"
Han Shuo nodded as he left with Adele, who had been smiling enchantingly by the side. They began to make their way to dark elf territory. The territory occupied by the dark elves was the most vast and fertile in this layer of the underground world. Han Shuo continued to make light conversation with Adele as they travelled
Evidently, Adele was extremely curious about Han Shuo's identity. Along the way, she continuously probed for clues about Han Shuo's true status in the Calamity Church. However, Han Shuo constantly evaded her probing, not revealing the slightest bit of information. Truthfully, Han Shuo was unable to divulge any secrets even if he wanted to, as he wasn't familiar with the Calamity Church or their internal structure.
However, Adele had closely examined the skeleton staff once Han Shuo had brought it out, and had felt the bizarre strength it contained. Hence, she didn't suspect Han Shuo's identity at all. The more ambiguously Han Shuo spoke, the more Adele felt that Han Shuo possessed an extremely high-ranking position in the Calamity Church. For Han Shuo to already be wielding the skeleton staff at such a young age, it already sufficiently illustrated that he wasn't a simple character.
The merrily beaming Adele didn't forget to try and seduce Han Shuo on the way back. She didn't sit in the purple light veil tent, but instead walked alongside Han Shuo, swaying her hips and sashaying her butt enticingly with every step. From time to time, Adele would inadvertently brush up against Han Shuo, the sides of her beautiful legs coming into contact with him again and again. This caused Han Shuo to be unceasingly aroused throughout the whole journey, his "lust" rising rapidly.
Adele was clearly very apprehensive of the Calamity Church and was full of reverence toward Han Shuo. When she discovered that Han Shuo wasn't willing to reveal his identity, Adele didn't continue to probe further, and instead introduced the scenery along the way to him.
The underground world wasn't as dank and wet as rumored. Although it was truly in eternal night, the ceiling thousands of meters above the underground world sparkled with strange light. Furthermore, plants that glistened grew everywhere, causing many places in the underground world to be as fully light as a brightly lit day outside.
Similar to the world above, the underground world had its own mountains and streams, so much so that the beautiful scenery in those places was even more magnificent than those above ground. The coquettish Adele was someone who also indulged in beautiful landscapes. She wasn't at all in a hurry to return and had simply ordered a portion of the group to return first. She then personally led a few hundreds experts on a detour with Han Shuo, showing him various exotic landscapes.
The dark elves were the overlords of this layer of the underground world. Adele had absolute confidence in her own strength, and believed that there weren't many living creatures that could threaten her in this layer. The batmen and earth goblins they ran into along the way all went into hiding when they saw Adele's group, as though hiding from a demon. They seemed extremely afraid of Adele.
Adele finally brought Han Shuo to her dark elf territory after visiting twelve spectacular scenic locations in the underground world.
The dark elf territory was a vast patch of forest where all kinds of bizarre plants grew. Dozens of towering trees grew tall, vibrant with life. The abundant, enchanting emerald presence of life nourished a forest that seemed to be brimming with vitality.
The way forward was filled with all kinds of verdant and thick plants, with just a hint of evil in their presence. There were many beautiful demonic spider webs that stretched across the trees that seemed to reach for the sky. Within these spiderwebs were crystals of various colors that seemed to be using the network of webs to absorb the forest's energy. There were also many small red, purple and black spiders that actively moved about the forest. They had friendly dealings with the dark elves, and served as their defensive scouts. When the spiders saw Adele appear, they danced elegantly on top of the ancient trees, appearing to be narrating something to Adele.
The evil goddess Rose worshipped by the dark elves was rumored to have the head of a human but the body of a spider. Han Shuo did not know the truth of this matter, but based on the situation he saw, there may be some truth to the rumors. Adele could obviously communicate with the small spiders, ordering them to work for her.
The further in they went, the more lush and tall the various ancient trees were. There were many wooden houses located in the center of the forest brimming with natural energy. Some of the houses were formed from woven branches while many tall houses were previously ancient trees that reached the skies, but had since died and withered. These ancient trees formed a simple yet gorgeous palace when they were hollowed out, appearing extremely exotic.
The dark elves had an innate fondness toward fine objects. Their palace buildings boasted delicate patterns carefully carved into the outside trunk. These patterns served no other purpose and were purely for aesthetics. Many dark elves were very accomplished in the arts, and every magic weapon they made were incomparably refined. Although the dark elves' magic weapons might not be the best in the continent, they were definitely the most beautiful and refined.
Along the way, Han Shuo recognized the dark elves' pursuit of artistic excellence above everything else. From the buildings, armor, clothes to even food and religious offerings, every object or activity had to be artistically beautiful.
"This is the dark elves' most important territory in the underground world. As the matriarch of the dark elves, I am honored to have brought you here." Adele smiled sweetly as she directly brought Han Shuo toward the interior.
All the dark elves in the area respectfully bowed in greeting when they saw Adele approach. Adele possessed an extremely prestigious position among the dark elves. As she was able to communicate with the evil goddess Rose, her status was similar to Han Shuo's position among the lizardmen, both appearing as their respective god's messenger.
However, as Adele was also a dark elf, her position among the dark elves was even higher. That the constantly warring dark elves could unite together after her appearance was testament to her vaunted position.
"Madame is too kind. I instead should be honored to be able to be here." Han Shuo grinned as he answered.
Adele led Han Shuo to a wooden palace that had previously been an enormous ancient tree. After entering, Han Shuo discovered that the floor was covered with carpets embroidered with complicated patterns, and the surrounding wooden walls had the strange image of the evil goddess Rose portrayed as a half-human, half spider. Many suspended crystal chandeliers glittered with bright, gorgeous radiance, imparting the place with a natural splendor.
At this moment, Adele clapped her hands and five alluring female dark elves, all with different skin colors but equally beautiful, suddenly walked out. These five dark elves wore thin yarn skirts, their expressions were either shy, provocative or pure, with all their gazes focused on Han Shuo by Adele's side.
"Properly attend to our distinguished guest!" Adele smiled faintly, giving her orders to the five beautiful and seductive dark elves.
The five young female dark elves walked together towards Han Shuo, all of them carrying fruit plates and wine glasses, lightly smiling with unique expressions as they headed over.