Chapter 1190: Asura Betrayal
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
While Han Sen was flying back, someone called out his name. When he turned around to take a look, he saw an eight-year-old child squirming and writhing around on the ground as if in pain.
"Baby Ghost?" Han Sen was surprised to see him there.
He was glad he was alive and had not been killed. He didn't have any green sproutlings popping up all over him, but there was definitely something wrong with him.
He used to have the face of a child, but now he was a child completely. The head was still frighteningly large, however. His lifeforce was weak, almost as weak as a newly-spawned Golden Growler.
"What happened to you?" Han Sen asked.
"Talk later. For now, we should get moving." Baby Ghost clearly did not know Sky King had returned to the tree.
Han Sen grabbed Baby Ghost and returned to the underground shelter with him. Then, he ordered Moment Queen to move the shelter.
Little Angel and Han Sen were weak, and in their current state, they no longer had the ability to combine together and fight Sky King. As such, they decided the best course of action was to leave.
Han Sen spoke to Baby Ghost and asked, "I thought you went looking for Sky King after I told you the truth of matters. What happened to you?"
Baby Ghost answered, "I told Qing Jun, and we only went and spoke to the others. We didn't consult Sky King, but we were going to. But before the opportunity arose, the tree began to revive."
"Okay, and what happened to you?" Han Sen asked.
Baby Ghost explained, "Fortunately for me, I had Ghost Baby to escape. I abandoned my vessel and sacrificed a portion of my spirit stone to survive. I say fortunately loosely, as now I'm only a shadow of what I once was. My progress has been wiped; I don't even have a single gene lock open."
"Just being alive is enough, Baby Ghost. Even if you're weak, being alive is more than worth the sacrifice." Han Sen smiled softly to comfort him.
Qing Jun was in even worse condition, though. Those that had escaped into the Cruel Bottle were all alive, but they were stuck inside the bottle and unable to exit. If they left the confines of the bottle, the Sky Tree would finish the job and absorb them. Being unable to get rid of the vines meant they'd possibly be stuck inside the bottle forever.
The Cruel Bottle was like a room that operated independently to everything else, but it had to be sealed and had to remain sealed. It could not be opened, lest the Sky Tree finish what it had already started.
Aside from destroying the Sky Tree, Han Sen had no clue how he might proceed. There didn't seem to be any other way Han Sen could remove the vines. The creatures and spirits had each consumed too much lifewater, too, so the core of a Sky Fruit would be largely ineffective.
In the meantime, though, Han Sen decided to return to the Alliance. Little Angel and Han Sen were both still too weak, and for the time being, they wouldn't even have the strength to tackle a super creature.
Han Sen rested there for two days, and after that, he started refining the Life Geno Essence of the Sky Peacock.
"Life Geno Essence absorbed: super geno points +1."
Han Sen was delighted, hearing the announcement chime more than once. In total, the Life Geno Essence provided him four points in total.
Super creatures in the Third God's Sanctuary were different. Some could give eight to nine super geno points, whereas others could only give three to four. Han Sen guessed it had something to do with the generation of a super creature, but he hadn't had much time to test and prove such theories.
Sky Peacock was a mount beast soul, and Han Sen considered it to be fairly useless.
When Han Sen's condition and health improved, he didn't jump back to start hunting super creatures again. He realized he still needed a lot more strength to fight an emperor, though; he had to be careful where he next ventured.
If he combined powers with Little Angel, the cooldown period was extreme. The boost didn't last very long, either, so he knew he couldn't rely on that trick very often. It had to be used as a last resort.
What Han Sen wanted to do most right now was research the vines and find a way in which he might remove them without destroying the Sky Tree. If he saved all the creatures and spirits inside, they'd all owe him one, and they might end up following him. If that was true, he'd more than have what it took to take down a king-class shelter.
Dragon King gave Han Sen a number of ideas, but Han Sen didn't dwell on many of them. He didn't think he should trust Dragon King as much, anymore.
That being said, Han Sen understood Dragon King never wanted to bring harm to him. Dragon King had made a simple blunder, and the results of his time in Immortal Shelter did not come about through some evil machination or scheme the spirit had hatched, as Moment Queen might do. After all, if something bad happened to Han Sen and he was killed, that would be game over for Dragon King, too.
So, more than anything, Han Sen had just called Dragon King's overall intelligence into question. It boggled Han Sen's mind how someone so dumb might have once been an emperor.
"Please have faith in me. I have a plan. This could really work." Dragon King felt sorry for what had happened and desperately wanted to get back into Han Sen's good books.
Dragon King was relying on Han Sen to find him a vessel, after all.
"The Asura Sutra can get rid of those vines," he said, but Han Sen struggled to believe it.
"If you practice the Asura Sutra, you can fix them. Back then..." Dragon King realized he had said something he should not have mentioned.
"Back then what?" Han Sen asked.
Dragon King knew, if he didn't play his cards right and only do good for Han Sen, he'd be trapped in the ring for all eternity.
"Asura was one of the generals who beat Sky King. His Asura Sutra is bad for the tree, but you would need to find a spirit of that bloodline to perform it," Dragon King said.
"Didn't you say Sky King was an emperor? And Ancient Devil Emperor beat Sky King himself? So Asura was just a general, but he was able to defeat Sky King, too?" Han Sen thought there were inconsistencies in the spirit's tales, and he wasn't sure whether or not he should give Dragon King the benefit of the doubt.
But Dragon King then explained, "Folk of the Asura bloodline can defeat Sky King. Besides, he betrayed Mister Ancient Devil. You remember Devil's Realm and Ancient Devil Shelter, don't you? That was the consequence of his betrayal."
Chapter 1191: Harvest?
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
"What?" Han Sen stared at Dragon King and asked, "Then why would the Asura Sutra be on your scale? Were you best buds with Asura?"
"Um..." Dragon King, for once, had been rendered speechless.
Han Sen was starting to understand what had happened; Dragon King had most likely been a traitor. He had committed a betrayal, and now—in his current state —he was afraid of seeing the other generals from that time.
"Trust me. Once more, I plead you. Asura King is in the Fourth God's Sanctuary, but I know a trace of his lineage is still here in the Third God's Sanctuary. If we get this person to practice the Asura Sutra, we can remove the vines..." Before Dragon King could finish speaking, Han Sen put him away.
"I don't need you to find Asura." Han Sen knew of someone else who could practice the Asura Sutra.
Han Sen wondered just how strong Zero had become with the skill.
But he also wondered why the Asura Sutra was practically the same as the Falsified-Sky Sutra. And also, why could only the shura fully learn it?
"Are all these tangents connected somehow?" Han Sen had a lot to mull.
The concept was not entirely impossible or even implausible, as he now knew that creatures of the Sanctuary were capable of entering the Alliance. Bao'er was the latest example. She was born in the Sanctuary, but she could go to the Alliance and back with no issue.
"If the shura were the descendants of this Asura, shouldn't that mean they would be able to enter the sanctuaries? But it is a well-known fact they cannot." This was quite the headscratcher for Han Sen to contemplate.
Something else weighed on Han Sen's mind, too: Baby Ghost. No matter what Han Sen asked about Blood Legion, he was given the same response, "You are not Blood Legion, so I cannot tell you."
Han Sen was desperate to find out why Blood Legion had kidnapped Han Jingzhi, but try as he might, the only person he knew who could give him an answer, refused to.
Qing Jun had been grievously damaged following the ordeal with the vines. But the damage was not entirely physical. She was Sky King's child, yet Sky King showed no remorse in attempting to sacrifice her with the rest. She was heartbroken by the betrayal.
After trying it out, Han Sen was unable to use Zero's Falsified-Sky powers to remove the vines. So, for now, they all had to remain stuck inside the bottle.
If Han Sen was able to save them all, Han Sen did not know whether or not the creatures would pay him heed and listen to what he commanded, either. As such, he decided to speak with each of them, and gauge which creature he might be able to trust the most.
Han Sen asked Moment Queen to move the shelter once more, hoping it would move them closer towards Holy-Sword Shelter. Xie Qing King and the silver fox were supposed to be in that place.
Han Sen knew the Thorn Forest well by now, and he knew where Holy-Sword Shelter lay.
He was worried about the silver fox, though. Han Sen still missed his companionship a great deal, and the silver fox's absence in his escapades was still sorely felt.
Even now, Han Sen would occasionally brush his own shoulder in the mistaken belief that the silver fox was right there.
For now, though, Han Sen had to return to the Alliance. He wanted to pick up a new hyper geno art. Due to his inability to break the mirror, he knew he needed a move with a bit more of a power-focus. Saving Money was great, but it wasn't the best when used in a one-on-one fight, particularly so if it was in close-quarter combat.
Furthermore, after his duel with Sky King, he had become infinitely more fascinated with the powers of bending and manipulating space. He had one hundred space geno points, too, so he thought there'd be no harm in trying out an ability related to the element of space.
There weren't many hyper geno arts associated with the space element, however. There were only a dozen s-class skills for him to choose from. And what was more, they were pretty weak. There was one that was named Space Blade, but it only cut enemies slightly.
Han Sen wanted to be able to properly bend and warp the dimension. He wanted something that would allow him to really grip the fabric of space and manipulate it to his own will, just as Sky King did.
After much perusing, Han Sen found an s-class hyper geno art that attracted him far more than all the others. This hyper geno art was called Hyperspace. It was a fairly modern skill, too, and it wasn't something derived from some musty, aged texts of yore. It was a skill that had been derived from the teachings and learnings of modern science.
It was widely believed that humans live in a three-dimensional reality, but according to the theory of relativity, that was not entirely the case.
The concept of three dimensions of space, alongside one dimension of time, produced the concept of humans living in a four-dimensional continuum.
But there were believed to be eleven dimensions in total.
Hyperspace dealt with the time axis a lot, though. So, it was a hyper geno art most closely associated with the element of time.
Han Sen wanted the skill not because it was strong, but because of how refreshing it looked. It inspired him in more ways than one. For most people, though, hyperspace was more theory than anything. You needed time and space talents to learn it effectively.
Few people could fully learn it, but even if they did, it wasn't very effective.
A hyper geno art like that, though, employed techniques not even the fiercest of super creatures could.
Han Sen thought he needed a space hyper geno art only, but he was wrong.
"I already have one hundred space king spirit geno points. Moment Queen is associated with the element of time, so if I could get one hundred time geno points off her, I'd be all set! I'd be proficient in both talents, and I could learn that hyper geno art." Han Sen paused his thoughts for a moment, and then went on to think, "I was gone from the underground shelter for some years; she must have obtained many geno points in my time away. Perhaps it is only fair that she share the wealth