John quickened his pace, urgency sparking in his eyes.
Deep within the palace, a fortified cage held a brood mother from the Hunters, relentlessly using a soul skill to torment Avis.
Agony from the soul attack tortured Avis, pushing him to the brink.
He roared furiously, “Damn it, when my master arrives, he’ll tear you all apart!”
Boom!
Across the hall, another cage held Behemoth, who pounded against the iron bars in rage.
John’s anger ignited instantly.
The Shadow Clan elite beside him, oblivious to the shift in mood, smirked with satisfaction, “See? I told you everything’s under control.”
“Not for long,” John replied coldly, his tone dripping with killing intent.
Suddenly, the two upper-tier god-level Shadow Clan elites burst into the room, realizing the imminent threat. “He’s a problem-kill him!” one shouted.
“What?” The guard beside John barely had time to react before John struck.
Boom!
With a deafening blast, the guard flew backward as John shed his disguise, revealing his true form.
“You-who are you?” The two upper-tier gods circled him, watching him coldly, not yet making a move.
“Master!”
“Sir!”
Avis and Behemoth recognized John, their astonished voices breaking the tense silence. “You’re the Godslayer?” The elite sneered, piecing it together. “The masters had instructed us to leave you alone, but since you’ve come to us, attack!”
At his command, a dozen Shadow Clan warriors surged forward, their eyes gleaming with malice.
“Be careful, Master! These guys have strange powers,” Avis shouted, worriedly warning John. But John merely smirked, unfazed. With a flick of his wrist, three long swords shot forward, slicing through the advancing Shadow Clan warriors in a frenzied assault.
“Life Drain!” With a shout, red tendrils shot toward John, winding around him.
“This trick again? Is that all you’ve got?” John scoffed, his mind steady as he summoned his Golden Lotus Hellfire.
Whoosh!
Golden flames erupted, engulfing the surrounding Shadow Clan warriors.
Their screams filling the air in waves of agony.
Avis’s face lit up with exhilaration. “Ha! Shadow Clan scum-didn’t expect to see the tables turn, did you?”
“Damn you!” the elite Shadow Clan god roared, summoning a brood mother from the Hunters.
One bound to him by a soul-sharing contract.
“Now! Soul attack!” he commanded.
John’s expression turned serious. The brood mother’s soul power was overwhelming, far surpassing his own, and a soul attack could put his life in danger.
He prepared to counter with Golden Lotus Manifestation.
Buzz!
The air vibrated.
John frowned. This soul power, although intense, lacked any lethal effect-it was eerily identical to the torment he’d faced in the starting village.
These Hunter brood mothers possessed soul attack abilities, but none had truly powerful soul skills.
“So that’s it!” John sneered, not even bothering with Golden Lotus Manifestation. He activated World-in-Hand, channeling a unique power that directly blocked the soul attack. “You’re all going to die today!” John’s voice was cold as he connected with World-in-Hand. With a single thought, he pulled the entire palace into his World-in-Hand.
Boom!
Spatial energy pulsed, and everything around them blurred—a shift into an entirely different realm of power.
“Welcome to my world!” John spread his arms slightly, finally understanding what the Sea King must have felt back then.
Here, he controlled everything; he was the sovereign.
Even without World-in-Hand, he could now crush the Shadow Clan’s peak upper-tier gods and the Hunter brood mothers.
But he didn’t want to reveal too much yet; he needed to end this quickly and return to the starting village.
“World-in-Hand! So, you really did refine the Heart of Skyline Continent.” One of the upper- tier gods elites stared, astonished but unafraid.
“Kid, bringing us into your World-in-Hand? That’s pure folly,” he sneered, gathering a massive attack to shatter John’s domain.
Buzz!
A huge crimson blade shadow sliced through the air, aimed at the void.
A ripple appeared in the air, but the blade shadow dissipated without leaving any impact. “What? Impossible!” The Shadow Clan warrior’s eyes widened in shock. “How… How is your World-in-Hand so stable? There’s no way! You’re not even a One-Star Overseer; it’s impossible to create such a solid world…”
“One-Star Overseer?” John raised an eyebrow, realizing the Overseers must have ranks as
well.
“Quick, we need to escape!” The remaining elites, sensing the terror of John’s domain.
They tried to generate a spatial rift to escape.
John looked at them dismissively, raising his hand, causing all spatial energies around them
to dissipate.
“You’re finished!” He declared coldly as a massive surge of the laws of power crushed toward
them.
The Shadow Clan was powerful, yes, and their methods were strange.
But here, within John’s World-in-Hand, their powers were rendered useless.
The weaker Shadow Clan members exploded instantly, along with the Hunter brood mothers
at their sides, turning into clouds of blood mist, their very souls obliterated.
Only the two peak Shadow Clan elites remained, barely holding on.
Yet even they showed signs of strain, faces twisted in pain, unable to fight back much longer.
“Human, you’ll regret crossing the Shadow Clan!” one of them cursed before his body burst apart, transforming into a cloud of blood, his soul erased entirely.
[You have slain a peak upper-tier god of the Shadow Clan, gaining 2,676.6 billion experience
points]
[You have leveled up to 100,061]
[Plunder ability activated: Shadow Power +10, Luck +1, Magic Crit +1, Physical Crit +1]
…
Notifications flashed across his vision as John’s Plunder talent once again stole several of
their attributes.
This time, however, he didn’t Plunder any abilities.
He could sense that those two peak upper-tier gods from the Shadow Clan possessed
powerful SSS-grade talents.
Not overly concerned, he collected the items they dropped.
There were over a dozen Shadow Clan treasures, more than twenty Talent Copy Stones, four
Soul Essences, and several skill stones among the loot.
“Master, how did you become so powerful?” Avis, still locked in his cell, asked in shock.
John merely smiled, without further explanation. With a thought, he shattered all the cages in
the area.
“Everyone, come out,” he commanded calmly.
One by one, captives emerged from the palace. “Godslayer!” a few recognized him, their faces showing amazement.
They had already sensed the unique rules governing this place-it was a World-in-Hand.
John scanned the group. Most were strong beings from Skyline Continent, while others were from unfamiliar races.
“You’re safe here for now,” he declared coldly. “Stay here and obey my commands from now
on. Understood?”
Some of them exchanged uneasy glances, clearly reluctant.
They had been imprisoned here precisely because they refused to submit to the Shadow Clan, and they weren’t about to surrender to a human so easily.
“Godslayer, the Angel Race pledges allegiance to you,” Lincoln was the first to step forward, willingly signing a soul contract with John.
“The Demon Race agrees to serve as well,” Beelzebub added quickly.
The Skyline Continent elites, from several races, expressed their willingness to follow John.
As for the others, they remained silent, showing no sign of compliance. John didn’t bother pressuring them. Their hatred for the Shadow Clan ran deep, and with his impending assault on the Shadow Clan, he could simply release them then.
“Lincoln, Beelzebub,” John said, “keep an eye on these people. If anyone causes trouble, execute them on the spot.”
“Don’t worry, Master. Leave it to us,” they nodded in agreement.
John felt at ease; Sini and several other trusted women were also present here, and he had
granted them limited control over the World-in-Hand. If anyone attempted to cause trouble, they could swiftly handle it.
“Do you know where the others are?” he asked, concerned about Cand-Dragon, the elves, and members of Skyline Continent’s Undying Legion, none of whom he had seen. Lincoln spoke up, “The elves and the humans from Skyline Continent were taken to a place called the Immortal Herb Garden, where they tend to the spirit herbs. Cand-Dragon and the others are reportedly mining Spirit Stones somewhere, but I don’t know the coordinates of
these locations.”
John nodded. It was a relief to know they weren’t in immediate danger. With their locations identified, he could start gathering more information over time.
“Stay here for now,” John instructed, “Anyone who hasn’t signed a soul contract with me is forbidden from approaching the central area around the Tree of Life.” With a few more reminders to those gathered, he left World-in-Hand with a thought.
Dawn was approaching, and he didn’t want to draw attention.
John reappeared in the Secret Area, set the palace back in its original place, and exited.
Activating Split Void, he returned to the starting village.
The moment he appeared in his straw hut, angry roars and waves of soul attacks echoed
around him.
He let out a sigh of relief; he’d timed it perfectly, just as everyone was gathering.
John stepped out of the hut.
The others around him looked weary, dragging themselves toward the square with tired
bodies. Most of them had barely managed to complete yesterday’s quota, having had no rest.
“Sir, how did it go?” Dumas approached John quietly, his voice hushed.
“Not here,” John replied, motioning for silence.
From the distance, a figure sped toward them-it was the old village chief.
John guessed he might have already heard of what happened.
Sure enough, the village chief made a beeline for him.
“Godslayer, what were you up to last night?” He fixed a cold stare on John, questioning him
sharply.
The others looked on curiously, crowding around.
John yawned, his face filled with feigned exhaustion, and asked with a puzzled look, “I was
asleep all night. Why? Is something wrong?”
“Oh, really?” The chief narrowed his eyes, clearly skeptical.
He replied coldly, “Human, I’ll be watching you closely. You’d better stay in line.”
“I’m always well-behaved. By the way, don’t we have to mine today?” John said, changing
the subject.
Immediately, complaints erupted around him.
“Village chief, can we have just one day off? The quota is too much. We just got back and
haven’t even closed our eyes before we’re sent back to work.”
“Yes, we’ll serve, but this is too much.”
“The quota needs to go down, and the conditions need to improve. We should at least get
some rest.”
“Exactly…”
Voices of discontent filled the air as the crowd murmured their grievances.