As John vanished, Quagmire watched his fading silhouette with a satisfied grin, muttering quietly, “Looks like tonight’s going to be interesting.”
Quagmire nodded in agreement.
Beside them, Dumas looked bewildered, scratching his head in confusion. “What are you two talking about?”
“Don’t ask too many questions, kid. Get back to work,” Quagmire rumbled, hefting the heavy boulder that blocked their path with ease this time, the clanking of his chains resuming.
“Uh…” Dumas sighed, deciding to drop it and just get on with his task.
…
In a deep, dark mine, John’s figure suddenly appeared.
This mine had been abandoned, now overrun by Hunters who had turned it into a nesting ground.
The nearby Hunters noticed John’s sudden appearance and seemed a bit surprised.
But, disguised as a Shadow Clan soldier, John was shielded from the usual hostility of the Hunters his appearance hid any hint of animosity markers they would otherwise detect.
Hunters didn’t normally attack Shadow Clan members.
So they merely observed him with curiosity, puzzled by the sudden arrival of a Shadow Clan warrior in their deserted mine.
“Seems there’s no ore left here,” he thought, scanning the abandoned mine. It had long since been emptied of resources.
Just as he prepared to leave, he felt something unusual.
“A Hunters’ Brood Mother!” he murmured, surprised and delighted.
There were over a dozen Hunters’ Brood Mothers here.
And they held something valuable-Soul Essence. An unexpected bonus.
Without hesitation, John, still in his Shadow Clan disguise, boldly ventured deeper into the mine.
He sensed two powerful Hunters’ Brood Mothers nearby.
The surrounding Hunters continued to eye him curiously but made no move to obstruct him.
The dim mine corridors were littered with Hunters’ eggs.
Soon, John reached the two colossal Brood Mothers, their massive bodies sprawled awkwardly on a smooth stone slab.
They spotted him and looked on warily.
“Shadow Clan? You’re not one of our contracted allies. Leave immediately,” one of the Brood Mothers hissed coldly, ordering John away.
They weren’t hostile toward Shadow Clan members but had no intention of allowing strangers to come close.
A smirk crossed John’s face. “Relax. I’m just here to relocate you to a safer place.”
“Hm?” The two Brood Mothers hesitated, confused. Before they could react, John unleashed a wave of spatial power, transporting them directly into his World-in-Hand.
Inside the mine, he could have easily killed the two Brood Mothers, but that would have caused too much commotion, potentially alerting Shadow Clan elites.
With a thought, he himself entered the World-in-Hand.
The two Brood Mothers scanned their new surroundings suspiciously.
Spotting him nearby, one of the Brood Mothers roared, “This is World-in-Hand! You’re not Shadow Clan! Who are you?”
“Smart,” John said, his face shifting as he shed the Shadow Clan disguise to reveal his true form.
“Beast Clan? Impossible. The Beast Clan has no Overseers!” one of the Hunters gasped, mistaking John for a Beast Clan member.
This was, in fact, his Beast Clan avatar, radiating a powerful Beast Clan aura due to his divine dragon bloodline.
He couldn’t be bothered to waste time with the two creatures. Manipulating the laws within the World-in-Hand, he swiftly dispatched the two Hunters’ Brood Mothers.
The kill granted him a substantial amount of experience, along with a bit of Shadow Power and a few attribute points.
What pleased him most, though, was the Soul Essence dropped by the Brood Mothers.
He stowed it away, and with a thought, exited the World-in-Hand.
This time, he transformed into a Hunter, allowing him to navigate more freely.
He moved swiftly through the dark mine, and one by one, he summoned the remaining thirteen Hunters’ Brood Mothers into his World-in-Hand, swiftly eliminating each and claiming thirteen Soul Essences.
Not in any rush to refine them, he left the World-in-Hand again, this time assuming the guise of a Shadow Clan soldier. Utilizing his Split Void talent, he transported himself to the next
mining site.
This site was in a semi-abandoned state, though a fair amount of ore still remained, guarded by numerous Shadow Clan soldiers.
John’s arrival immediately caught their attention.
The leader, a soldier with a curious look, frowned and demanded, “You’re not stationed here. Which city are you from, and what business do you have in City 113?”
City 113?
John was intrigued; it was the first he’d heard of Shadow Clan cities.
Not interested in explanations, he activated the World-in-Hand, absorbing everyone in the
area.
“What? World-in-Hand? Who are you?” the squad leader gasped, realizing John was no ordinary Shadow Clan warrior.
Among the Shadow Clan, no one had refined the Heart of the Continent. The only possibility was that he was an Overseer from another Lord God realm.
“I’m the one who’s here to end you!” John’s voice was icy as he wielded the power of the laws
to eliminate them.
The commotion drew Lincoln and a few others over.
Seeing the Shadow Clan soldiers, their anger flared.
“How dare you trespass into the master’s world! Prepare to die!” Lincoln and his group charged the Shadow Clan soldiers with fury, Lincoln and Beelzebub especially targeting John.
“Stop! It’s me, Godslayer!” he called out hastily, realizing he was still in his Shadow Clan disguise. He quickly deactivated his god-level disguise talent.
“Huh? My lord?” They recognized John and halted immediately.
Without further explanation, he swiftly eliminated the Shadow Clan soldiers, sparing only
one upper-tier god.
He needed information about the Spirit Stone veins, and his best option was to extract it from a Shadow Clan member.
He planned to use Memory Extraction on this one, but since that was an ability only his main body possessed and not his Beast Clan avatar, he opted to restrain the man for now. “You…you’re that human, Godslayer?!” the Shadow Clan soldier stared at John, both shocked and furious, yet too fearful to attack outright.
In the World-in-Hand, John was the ultimate sovereign.
John turned to Lincoln and the others, saying calmly, “This one’s yours to handle. Don’t kill him—just rough him up a bit. See if you can get any information about the Immortal Herb Garden or the Spirit Stone mines out of him.”
“Understood,” Lincoln replied with a glint in his eye.
“Leave it to us, my lord,” Beelzebub echoed, eager to begin.
Lincoln and Beelzebub, both peak upper-tier gods, had the upper hand within the World-in- Hand, where Shadow Clan powers were nearly useless. They’d handle the interrogation with
ease.
Without lingering, John returned to the mining site, surveying the piles of ore in front of him.
“I wonder if I can store these ores in the World-in-Hand,” he mused.
These Shadow Star ores were unique, with properties that blocked Spatial Power, rendering
them incompatible with ordinary storage spaces.
He focused, and the World-in-Hand activated again.
Buzz!
The mountain of ore disappeared, absorbed into his World-in-Hand.
Moments later, a notification sounded.
[Your World-in-Hand has refined Shadow Ore. Stability has increased, and you have advanced
to a one-star initial Overseer.]
“World-in-Hand can actually refine these ores directly?” he murmured, pleasantly surprised.
Even better, he’d leveled up to a one-star initial Overseer.
He could already feel an enhanced control over the World-in-Hand.
“These ores have surprising uses,” he noted, picking up a stray piece, astonished by its
properties.
Excited, he set off to search for the other mining sites.
Quagmire and Dumas had given him coordinates for 19 mines in total.
Three of the sites were completely abandoned, overrun by Hunters and now serving as nests
for Hunters’ Brood Mothers.
John didn’t spare them, dispatching the creatures and gaining a total of 44 Soul Essences,
enough to boost his Soul Technique by 440,000 points.
Unfortunately, with Shadow Clan soldiers monitoring his main body 24/7, he couldn’t refine
them just yet.
At the remaining 16 sites, he gathered a substantial amount of Shadow Ore, storing it all in the World-in-Hand for absorption and refinement.
The World-in-Hand grew even more stable, though he remained at the one-star initial
Overseer level.
“Time to track down that Windling traitor,” John thought, glancing at the horizon as dawn
approached.
Lincoln and Beelzebub had yet to extract any useful information from the captured Shadow
Clan warrior.
Without delay, John activated Split Void, transporting himself to the novice village where Quagmire was stationed.
Quagmire hadn’t returned yet, so John kept his distance, activating Concealment to avoid detection. Using the coordinates, he located the residence of the Windling traitor, Hamen.
To his surprise, it wasn’t a straw hut.
Before him stood a modest wooden house, simple yet far more refined than a straw hut.
It a clear attempt by the Shadow Clan to curry favor.
John pushed open the wooden door and stepped inside.
On the bed, Hamen stirred awake, jolting upright as he noticed the intruder. Frowning, he
asked coldly, “Who are you, and why have you barged into my room?” Hamen’s hand reached instinctively toward a long stick by his bedside a signal stick given to
him by the Shadow Clan. If he snapped it, Shadow Clan elites would be alerted immediately.
John glanced at him and asked coolly, “Hamen?”
Hamen nodded reflexively. In the next instant, a surge of Spatial Power swept over them, transporting both John and Hamen into the World-in-Hand.
And leaving the signal stick behind on the bed.
“Aaaagh…”
In the distance, agonizing screams echoed through the space. Lincoln and the others were still
torturing the Shadow Clan warrior.
They less for information and more to vent their anger for the torment they’d endured under
the Shadow Clan.
Hamen’s face turned pale as he heard the cries, and he swallowed hard, eyeing John with a
shaky tone. “Do you have any idea who I am? If the Shadow Clan finds out you laid a hand on
me, you’ll regret it!”
John smirked, unimpressed. He’d lost count of how many times he’d heard such threats, though usually they came from
Shadow Clan elites.
“Do you even believe that nonsense, coming from a mere lapdog?” he asked with a slight
sneer.
Fuming, Hamen forced himself to look braver than he felt, raising his voice in anger, “What
do you want with me?”
“You answer; I ask,” John said simply, raising his arm. The elemental forces gathered,
forming a comfortable chair.
He settled back into it, crossing his legs casually. “Tell me, what is the Immortal Herb
Garden?”