Chapter 232 - Protection of the Spirit Generals
The trials set by the Spirit Generals were far from over, and soon Han Wu faced the second challenge. Another Spirit General, tainted by the black oil, appeared. Though the viscous substance clung to him from head to toe, his handsome face remained untouched. His weapon of choice was a bow.
Han Wu could tell that the Spirit General before him was from the Archer caste and immediately transformed into his Iron Stupa form to defend against the incoming arrows.
The Spirit General launched a volley of nine arrows, each embedding itself about one centimeter into Han Wu’s armor. Fortunately, none penetrated the Iron Stupa’s heavy plating.
Han Wu’s breathing eased slightly. So far, no enemy had broken through the Iron Stupa’s armor. Even Qin Shuang’s strongest caste, the Sonorous Brigade, required three arrows to do so.
Still, he hadn’t expected this Spirit General’s arrows to penetrate so deeply. Relying on his exceptional defense, he withstood the remaining shots until the Spirit General exhausted his quiver and surrendered. After his defeat, the black oil covering his body gradually faded, and Han Wu could finally inspect the Spirit General’s data.
[Spirit General Hua Rong. High Lord life form. Skills: Critical Shot, Nine Consecutive Shots, Cloud Piercer. Liang Shanpo’s ninth Spirit General. Unmatched in archery. Can strike a willow leaf from 100 steps away.]
For clearing the stage, Han Wu presented three new rewards.
[Reward 1: Wanderer’s Bow. Spirit General Hua Rong’s weapon. The sound of its bowstring strikes fear into enemies.]
[Reward 2: Critical Shot. Spirit General Hua Rong’s secret skill. It can improve the attack and range of arrows.]
[Reward 3: Accumulate and snowball rewards.]
After Han Wu passed the second trial, the strange voice echoed again, this time sounding agitated. “Don’t even think about clearing the third trial after defeating two of my Spirit Generals!”
Han Wu chuckled and entered the third trial. Everything shifted as seawater surged into the arena, swallowing him whole. Deep beneath the waves, Han Wu spotted something darting through the water at dizzying speed. It was most likely this trial’s Spirit General.
The strange voice echoed inside Han Wu’s mind. “Let’s see how you clear this.”
Han Wu chuckled and transformed. A massive whale emerged at the heart of the ocean. The Spirit General, speeding through the water, couldn’t change course in time and slammed straight into the whale’s immense body. His oil-slicked face twisted into a look of horror.
Han Wu’s Heavy Cavalry caste, the Deeptide Whale, had emerged. It was his strongest caste, excelling in aquatic combat—the undisputed king of the seas. The sudden change to an aquatic fight posed no threat to Han Wu; instead, it worked to his advantage. He unleashed Maelstrom, pulverizing the High Lord Spirit General swimming in the water column into dust.
Han Wu then learned the Spirit General’s name was Zhang Shun, the White Ribbon of the Waves. He chuckled, thinking Zhang Shun should be called the Black Ribbon instead, given the black oil covering him.
Han Wu chose to snowball his reward and pressed on, defeating nine trials in a row and enraging the mysterious foe. The other party had believed that polluting all the Spirit Generals with black oil would deal significant damage to the Warring Kingdom Civilization. They never expected Han Wu to breeze through nine of them at once.
After clearing all nine floors, Han Wu was surprised to find he had not yet claimed Liang Shanpo’s Ruins as his reward. He learned the ruins housed 108 Spirit Generals, and he had defeated only nine. He still lacked the approval of the others.
Undeterred, he resolved to clear the ruins eleven more times to win them all and chose to snowball his rewards again. Unexpectedly, after snowballing for the ninth time, he gained the chance to select one Spirit General to protect him. He had witnessed the strength of such protection when he faced Bao Xiren during the second calamity. From then on, he had hoped to gain such protection himself but never expected the chance to come so soon.
He carefully reviewed the Spirit Generals that he had defeated and chose the 9th Spirit General, Hua Rong. From that moment on, only 107 Spirit Generals remained in Liang Shanpo’s Ruins.
Han Wu challenged the ruins repeatedly over the next few days. Each time he defeated a Spirit General, the corruption from the voice weakened. By his twelfth run, he had challenged all 108 Spirit Generals.
Each lost their black oil, which purified them and restored them to their original selves. The black oil from all 108 merged into a small humanoid form. Han Wu recognized it as the entity that had tried to sway him into fighting the Warring Kingdom Civilization.
He commanded his twelve Spirit Generals to attack simultaneously. These Spirit Generals were High Lord life forms, reinforced by Han Wu’s strength. Working together, they surrounded the culprit that had tainted them. The humanoid could neither escape nor win and was ultimately destroyed. Han Wu tossed its remains to one of his Dark Cursed Bugs to consume.
Now that he had obtained the twelve Spirit Generals, Han Wu’s strength increased once more, and he finally became a genuine King life form. Qin Shuang benefited as well. With his support, she cleared Liang Shanpo’s Ruins ten times and obtained ten Spirit Generals to protect her.
Together, they had claimed twenty-two Spirit Generals, leaving eighty-six still in the ruins. Han Wu refused to surrender these ruins to anyone else, so he used the trade function to give the tickets to Sun Qingnian first. From there, it was up to Sun Qingnian and his skills to claim the remaining Spirit Generals.
Once they settled these matters, the two departed the island and resumed their voyage. They encountered even more mutated beasts along the way but easily defeated them with their newfound power.
They sailed for a long stretch before finally reaching the Warring Kingdom Continent. They docked at the kingdom closest to their shelter—the Wei Kingdom.
Their arrival did not go unnoticed. As soon as they reached the shore, a huge swarm of mutated beasts noticed them and launched a relentless attack. Han Wu commanded his army to face the numerous but weak mutated beasts.
In the end, he lost seventy-nine Osteomancers but single-handedly defeated 9.2 million mutated beasts. He also raised 150 massive Dark Cursed Bugs by feeding them the mutated beasts’ corpses. In a way, this compensated for the loss of his Osteomancers.
The battle drew significant attention, reaching one of the Wei Kingdom’s royal palaces. Once the fighting ended, an official arrived to invite Han Wu and Qin Shuang to dinner to discuss strategies for defeating the mutated beasts. They accepted. Their goal was not only to grow stronger but also to help the Warring Kingdom Civilization overcome its current crisis.
That night, they were carried to the Wei Kingdom’s royal palace in a palanquin borne by eight men and brought to its reception hall.
Many officials and ministers were already waiting for them. The two received a warm welcome and quickly noticed the large number of attendees. Half the guests wore armor, likely military officers. Then Han Wu spotted a familiar face at the head table—the Thunderfire General, Luo Wulei.