The Seventeen Flying Swords then swung around the mountain, mercilessly slaughtering the few remaining godhunters. Soon they were all reduced to lumps of flesh.
The greyish smoke billowing from their bodies was sucked into the Cauldron of the Myriad Demon, which hovered high in the sky. The eerie, dark glow on it grew brighter and brighter.
Then, with a wave of his hand, the Cauldron and the Seventeen Flying Swords swooshed back towards Han Shuo and disappeared into his body.
Wasir flew to Han Shuo's side and gazed at the area where the dazzling radiance erupted and vanished. With a puzzled look, he asked Han Shuo, "Where are Dennis and the others? What exactly happened?" Wasir could tell that Han Shuo must have done something to Dennis' spatial rift. Otherwise, Dennis wouldn't have tried to crawl out of it and made that bloodcurdling screech.
Han Shuo smiled brightly and explained, "I knew that Dennis and his followers wanted to use the rift to escape, so I let them. Then I secretly altered several key points of the spatial structure, effectively sabotaging his space-time tunnel."
Han Shuo had been racking his brains to find a way to prevent Dennis from constructing a space-time tunnel and escaping while the battle was at a stalemate. He had thought hard about it, but it seemed impossible. But then it finally hit him. Instead of preventing Dennis from constructing a spatial rift, he might as well let him do it and use the spatial rift against him.
He deliberately slowed down his flying swords by fractions of a second to fool Dennis into thinking he was distracted and allow Dennis to construct his rift.
The moment Dennis ripped the fabric of space-time and constructed a spatial rift, several demon generals made of Highgod souls secretly moved into it and changed several points in the space-time structure.
Under normal circumstances, Dennis might be able to detect the minute changes to his space-time tunnel. However, with the great threats of Han Shuo and Wasir rushing towards him, and especially with the Seventeen Flying Swords and the Cauldron of the Myriad Demon flying towards him, Dennis wasn't in the state of mind to notice the changes. He walked into the rift without thinking.
But as soon as he entered the tunnel, he discovered that his destination wasn't where he'd intended, but an unstable temporal void. It was a desolate space, billions of light years away, devoid of elemental energies. Exotic matter glittered and gave off strange radiances as it consumed everything in its path like a black hole.
Dennis immediately realised that he had fallen for Han Shuo's evil plan. But unfortunately for him, before he could crawl out of the rift, the Seventeen Flying Swords and the Cauldron of the Myriad Demon struck the rift, causing it to collapse and slashing through him. Cutting away his hope of ever escaping.
After listening to the smiling Han Shuo explain what he had done, Wasir looked at him with horror in his eyes and asked, "So you have been plotting against him from the beginning?
Han Shuo nodded and replied, "Well, he wanted to use a spatial tunnel to escape, so I granted him his wish. Hehe, not only did I make him dig his own grave, I even made him happily jump into it! Isn't that wonderful?"
Wasir was astonished. It took him a moment to come to his senses and he remarked, "You are truly treacherous!" Then, after a brief pause, with a curious look on his face, he asked, "And what will happen to Dennis and the others?"
"The temporal void will collapse. The implosion will be powerful enough to destroy them instantly. Except for Dennis, who is in the Overgod Realm, it should be impossible for any of them to survive that kind of power." Han Shuo smiled even wider and continued, "But Dennis should be badly injured by the implosion and sucked into a corner of the universe. By my estimation, it would take him tens of thousands of years to return to Elysium, at least."
A shiver ran down Wasir's spine. He took a moment to digest it before remarking, "Ruthless even!"
Han Shuo gladly accepted Wasir's praise and said nothing in response. He turned to look at Wasir's followers as they respectfully approached them. He noticed that Wasir had suffered considerable losses, with hundreds of his followers killed. Some of his most loyal and brave Highgod experts had been killed, their bodies completely destroyed.
"My apologies. I did not expect them to show up so soon," Han Shuo said in a low voice.
Wasir immediately shook his head and replied, "It is not your fault. I also did not expect the woman who cultivates the Edict of Fate to be so miraculous that she could predict my every move and even read my thoughts. But fortunately, she couldn't predict your arrival in time. Otherwise, I'm afraid the Glacial Peak would have fallen by now".
"The Edict of Fate is truly miraculous. If Mascy were in the realm of the Overgod, she would be even more terrifying than she already was. It seems that of the Twelve Fundamental Powers, the Edict of Destiny is not only the most mysterious, but also the most formidable," Han Shuo remarked. On his way to the Glacial Peak, he had the vague feeling that someone was probing his soul.
Surprised by this feeling, Han Shuo immediately split his consciousness into millions of strands and changed the state of his soul. With that, Mascy was unable to predict his origin and arrival. Otherwise, Mascy and Dennis would surely have tried to finish off Wasir as quickly as possible and wait for his arrival. By then, even Han Shuo might be powerless against the duo.
"Greetings, Lord Bryan!" Angelo, who had been lucky enough to survive the slaughter, greeted respectfully. Many of Wasir's followers also came to Han Shuo and bowed to him, thanking him for saving their lives.
Han Shuo took a good look at the faces of all these people, nodded and said to Wasir, "These men of yours are admirable - they are loyal and devoted!"
"Speak nothing of what has happened here today," Perhaps touched by the loyalty of his subordinates, Wasir's expression became unusually kind after scanning Angelo and the others. He warned, "And tell no one that Bryan was here! The war has only just begun. You lot better stay alert!"
"Yes, my lord!" replied Angelo and the gang. They were pleasantly surprised that their lord had secretly formed an alliance with Han Shuo. Having witnessed Han Shuo's power first hand, they became hopeful for their future. They felt that with an ally as powerful as Han Shuo, their chances of surviving the war would be much greater.
"Wasir, come with me to Pandemonium. I have been counting the days, and Dhaka and the others should have attacked my base by now. I'm afraid my people won't be able to hold them off for long. But as long as we can get there in time, we can finish off the three Hegemons just like we got rid of Dennis and Mascy," Han Shuo suggested after seeing that Wasir had finished giving his troops the appropriate orders.
"Sure!" Wasir agreed straight away. He paused briefly and added: "Wait a moment. I will bring my men with me. The forces under Dhaka and the others are formidable. I'm afraid you won't have enough men to deal with them."
Han Shuo shook his head and replied with a smile, "That won't be necessary. Just the two of us will be more than enough. Hehe, Dhaka and the others lost half of their army to me on their way to the Pandemonium. My demon guards are not only more powerful in battle, but also more numerous. If it weren't for the presence of Dhaka, Dagmar and Asser, I wouldn't even need to return to the Pandemonium. - My House of Han guards could easily crush them.
Wasir was astonished. He shouted, "What? Half of their army was killed before they even entered the Pandemonium?"
Han Shuo had sealed off all information on his side, while Dhaka and the others definitely wouldn't go around telling everyone about their pathetic losses. Therefore, no one knew about it until now.
"This is unbelievable!" exclaimed Wasir before asking, "How many casualties did you suffer?"
"Zero. Hehehe, I only lost three mountains and some energy crystals. Um, it will take a while to explain. Come, I'll tell you everything in detail as we travel," after dropping an even bigger bombshell on Wasir, Han Shuo left, leaving the gaping Wasir in his wake.
"My Lord, Lord Bryan was gone!" Angelo reminded him when he saw that Wasir was still staring blankly into the air.
Only then did Wasir emerge from the shock. Desperate to know how Han Shuo had managed it, Wasir hastily gave Angelo and the others the final instructions before quickly flying off in Han Shuo's direction to catch up to him.
Destroying half the enemy's army without losing a single man! Such an extraordinary ratio of casualties was astonishing even to a sovereign like Wasir.
***
While Han Shuo was busy slaughtering Godhunters all over the Glacial Peak, Dhaka, Dagmar, Asser and their Godhunter finally arrived at Pandemonium. Han Hao, Stratholme, Andrina and the others, who were in an underground chamber, could clearly see the Godhunters stationed on the outside of the Pandemonium through a huge spatial refraction mirror.
After suffering a crushing defeat, Dhaka and the others learned to be much more cautious in their approach. When they reached the outer perimeter of the Pandemonium, no one dared move forward recklessly. They paused, taking their time to carefully scan their surroundings, down to the last piece of rock.
Having lost half of their men, Dhaka and other Hegemons were terrified and dared not underestimate the power of the House of Han. They truly regarded the Pandemonium as the most dangerous place that it was. They would be careful with every step they took. As a result, it took them an hour to complete a journey that would otherwise have taken minutes.