Chapter 85: Earning a profit without working for it
Ellis’ sudden death also completely revealed Han Shuo’s existence. As the weapon returned to his hand, Han Shuo also jumped down from the tree as well.
At this moment, there was also an arrow sticking out of the side of the thunder journeyman mage of the Battlefire mercenary band. It looked like he’d been hit by the archer from “Shadow Ghost” on the far roof at some point.
The other senior swordsman was also spitting out blood. His body seemed to have been injured by the windblades as fresh blood dripped out of his wounds onto the floor.
“Leave this place!” Han Shuo jumped down adroitly, took in the situation, and understood that even with Ellis dying in the ambush, they were still at a disadvantage. He immediately made the decision to retreat.
Only a few moments had actually elapsed since the arrival of these killers until those several rounds of attacks just now. Before the change of the city guard had completed, the killers from “Shadow Ghost” would have more than enough time to slowly kill his companions, particularly when the original demons that Han Shuo had set up further away sensed that the others, who had been setting up traps, were also rushing this way. He naturally understood that their arrival would mean their chances of living had further decreased.
Phoebe and Candice’s beautiful eyes were already sparkling when Han Shuo’s command to retreat sounded out, seemingly already considering how to retreat.
Before the two had decided, a thought struck Han Shuo as he suddenly remembered a place and a crafty smile spread across his face. He suddenly said, “Follow me!”
Han Shuo’s body suddenly dashed towards one of the fallen walls of the house, the Demonslayer Edge flying out of his palm like a poisonous dragon. A large hole suddenly opened, accompanied by violent explosions. Han Shuo caught the Demonslayer Edge as he arrived, charging out from the hole.
Phoebe and Candice were close already to Han Shuo and were also the closest to the opened hole. When Han Shuo’s body moved, the two beauties didn’t hesitate and also flew over, escaping through the hole in the blink of an eye.
The remaining two Battlefire mercenaries looked at each other after seeing Candice and Phoebe leave, and also started escaping in two different directions.
“Don’t chase after them? After the two girls!” The black robed archmage suddenly opened his mouth at this moment. His voice was exceedingly sharp and unpleasant to the ears.
Thus, all the killers gave up on the remaining two Battlefire members and quickly squirmed through the hole, under the archmage’s instructions, and started chasing Han Shuo and the others.
Having trained in magic, Han Shuo was extremely speedy as he furiously dashed. As warriors, the two beauties Phoebe and Candice didn’t lag behind either. The two of them paid attention to nothing else, setting their sights on Han Shuo, and chased after him.
One of the original demons was one step ahead and had concealed itself in Han Shuo’s path. With an additional set of eyes up ahead, Han Shuo would especially pick isolated areas to flee to as he threaded through various yards and alleyways. With the existence of the original demons, Han Shuo could map everything into his heart and wouldn’t take a single wrong path.
Gradually, Han Shuo’s band of three slowly widened the gap between them and their pursuers by leveraging the terrain. A fork in the road suddenly appeared, one led in one direction in a more twisting and turning fashion, whereas the other was wider and didn’t offer that many areas of concealment in the middle of the road.
Following behind Han Shuo, Phoebe and Candice were incredibly astounded by Han Shuo’s familiarity with this region. They watched as Han Shuo used his knowledge of the land to leave their pursuers far behind them.
When the fork in the road appeared, the two of them naturally thought that Han Shuo would dash into the more twisty and turning road and use that opportunity to completely shake off their pursuers. They hadn’t thought that Han Shuo would suddenly stop and take out a black mask and cover his face, throwing another two at Phoebe and Candice, hurriedly urging them, “Wear it!”
While Candice was still hesitating, Phoebe had already pulled the mask on without another word, covering her beautiful face entirely. Seeing that the pursuers had already appeared in the corner of the street, Phoebe rushed Candice, “Hurry!”
Candice no longer hesitated after Phoebe spoke up. She frantically put on the mask and then took out another set of black nightwalker clothes from her space ring, seemingly planning on wearing them as well.
“Don’t put on the black clothes! Let’s move!” Han Shuo suddenly said as he looked at their pursuers behind them. Having paused briefly for a few seconds, his body moved again, running past the quiet, windy path and making for the other broad street without any concealment.
Even Phoebe was startled as she didn’t understand why Han Shuo did so, but this wasn’t the time to ask extraneous questions. Based on her trust in Han Shuo, Phoebe lightly tugged Candice and ran after Han Shuo decisively.
“Don’t run full out, make sure that those who are following us can follow our tracks!” Han Shuo briefly dropped his speed and pulled up side by side with Candice, whispering to the two girls.
“What the heck are you doing? If we didn’t slow down and went on the other path, I think we would’ve escaped by now. Why are we going to such lengths, like using masks to cover our faces? They know what we’re wearing, there’s no point in doing so and rather makes us appear like idiots!” Candice complained.
“Heh heh, I’m using a mask to cover my face, not to deceive them, but in order not to reveal our faces to another group of people. When I came through here yesterday, I discovered a set of shady, surreptitious people in the house ahead. These people are also very strong and must not be up to anyone good. If the people of ‘Shadow Ghost’ met with them, I think some trouble can be caused. Perhaps we can use this to resolve our ‘Shadow Ghost’ troubles in one go.” Han Shuo explained simply with a sinister tone.
“You’re so depraved!” Candice blurted after a moment of stunned silence.
“Bryan, we can’t bring danger to innocent people! Are you sure they’re not good people?” Phoebe started and asked Han Shuo.
“Don’t worry, I’m sure they’re not good people. I even saw them creeping around the Academy grounds yesterday to steal things. How could they possibly be good people when committing such crimes!” Han Shuo promised to Phoebe and then suddenly said lowly, “Be careful, it’s that yard up ahead. I’ll attack from the distance in a moment and then we’ll immediately flash behind that yard. Be careful not to reveal yourself at all costs.”
His speed suddenly picking up, Han Shuo, Phoebe, and Candice rushed towards the yard that lay before them. Han Shuo suddenly took out a crossbow when he arrived at the front of the door and fired off a crossbow bolt without aiming. He then took out a metal needle and randomly flung it into the yard as well.
After doing all this, Han Shuo grabbed Phoebe and Candice once again and found a hiding place that an original demon had already scouted out — a square, stone box that was a trash dump behind the house that didn’t have a lid.
“Ew… it stinks!” Candice immediately covered her nose and cried out lowly. Phoebe also covered her nose, a morass of disdain and discomfort surfacing in her eyes.
This place was very narrow and there were also a few trash bags present. Han Shuo crouched down in the middle, with Phoebe and Candice crouching down on either side of him. The three of their bodies all pressed tightly together. Han Shuo naturally couldn’t avoid the stink that Candice and Phoebe were smelling, and could only use the mask on his face to cover his nose.
Han Shuo didn’t say anything and used his hand to make a shushing noise, indicating for the two to talk less and closely observe their surroundings.
“Enemies!” A low call came from inside the yard and slight footsteps sounded from inside, seeming to search for traces of the invaders.
At this moment, the crouching Han Shuo, Phoebe, and Candice saw that the archmage, that had been floating in midair, had caught up with a few killers from “Shadow Ghost”.
“They went inside this yard!” A swordsman immediately reported to the archmage when they arrived.
The archmage nodded and waved the magic staff covered by his long sleeve. A strong magic pulse once again appeared suddenly, and the earthquake spell that had been used on Phoebe’s house once again showed itself in this yard. All the structures and buildings collapsed one by one as the archmage cast his earthquake spell.
A noisy din of curses and yells suddenly sounded out from inside. Duke and Erick, as well as some of the other people in the yard, flared out their fighting aura and magic without a second warning, attacking the black robed archmage.
Duke also floated in mid air, he was an archmage as well. An ornate magic staff accompanied the conclusion of his wind magic incantation as hundreds of wind blades formed a tornado, churning towards the black robed archmage and the other. The tornado, made of windblades, possessed a frightening force. The sand, little rocks, and small trees in its path were swept up and crushed to dust.
“Damn it, why is there another archmage present?! Grover didn’t tell us about this!” A shrill exclamation came from the black-robed archmage’s mouth as he raised an earthen wall in front of him and hastily retreated.
The swordsman from Grover’s side and an archer from “Shadow Ghost” didn’t react in time and were dragged in by the tornado. Endless rounds of ghastly screams rang out as the two were ripped apart in a mass of blood and flesh. They were transformed into a mist of blood and signs of life ceased to exist.
“After them!” Duke snorted coldly and dashed out of the shambles of the yard with Erick and a few others, chased after the other members of “Shadow Ghost” who had already started fleeing in the distance. Magics crashed against each other along the way as endless pilipala sounds of explosion were emitted.
“Eh, where are these people from? They’re so strong!” Candice murmured with a face of shock after they’d left.
“This yard is in ruins and there’s no one inside. We don’t have to stay here anymore.” Phoebe hastily jumped out and stayed far away from the stone box that had been used to store trash.
Candice and Han Shuo walked out from inside as Han Shuo laughed lightly, “At this moment, the city guard should have finished changing shifts. I wonder if these two groups of people will alert the guard.”
“You’re sinister indeed. What should we do next?” At this moment, Candice had started treating Han Shuo as the leader at some unknown time. Now that the danger had been resolved and he had brought “Shadow Ghost” and Grover’s people a huge amount of trouble, she opened her mouth and asked Han Shuo.
“Miss Phoebe, I think I may know where Grover’s mistress is…” At this moment, Han Shuo suddenly opened his mouth.
Her face showed an overjoyed expression, Phoebe looked at Han Shuo with a look of excitement and asked hurriedly, “Where is she?”
“Follow me. It looks like we won’t be resting much tonight.” Han Shuo shrugged his shoulders with resignation, took his bearings and led them to traverse the wide road, walking towards a dark and narrow path.
Grover had revealed himself at the very beginning. When Ellis and those of “Shadow Ghost” had rushed into Phoebe’s house, Grover had stayed in a house a short distance away and awaited the news. One of the three original demons had stayed by Grover’s side, monitoring him.
Grover left alone only when Phoebe’s house had collapsed. He didn’t return to the Guild, but boarded a carriage that had been prepared prior, saying to the groom, “Go to Cara’s place, be careful!”
Han Shuo had heard from Phoebe last time that Grover’s mistress was called Cara, this was why he’d notified Phoebe and Candice.
The three original demons would become harder to control if they were too far from Han Shuo’s side. When Grover had left, Duke and the members of “Shadow Ghost” on this side had just made contact. Han Shuo’s control over the original demon became more and more difficult as Grover’s carriage rushed away. When Phoebe and Candice agreed, they immediately traveled at full speed towards Grover’s location.
The sky was starting to grow hazily bright when Han Shuo appeared on the streets in the west of the city with Phoebe and Candice. Compared to the northern and southern sides of the city, it was dirty and messy here, with trash everywhere on the streets. A few beggars were wearing thin clothes in this frigid weather. They had curled themselves up and lay next to the piles of trash, seeming to want to obtain some warmth from the trash bags.
“To think that Grover, with his status, would come to the slums . He’d hidden his mistress away here, no wonder we couldn’t find her. Grover is a difficult person to move against alright!” Phoebe frowned as she looked around and said lowly to Han Shuo.
“Alright, this is the place. Follow me, I don’t think Grover will be able to escape this time!” Han Shuo had seen through the eyes of the original demon that Grover had entered a dirty and broken house. He immediately circled past the piles of trash in front after speaking to Phoebe, darting into an alleyway in which flies and bugs danced in flight.
Although they were disgusted by this place, Phoebe and Candice still grit their teeth and darted in after Han Shuo. The two continuously flapped their hands, trying to shoo away the flies around them.