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Chapter 279: The arrogant challenger
Lancelot Empire, in a small town named Billow on the outskirts of Bimson City.
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Mayor Colbert had just finished eating a snack under the sunlight and was humming a little song as he lazily lay on the highest, most luxurious balcony in town. He squinted at the town girls walking around, trying to decide whose house he would visit to relax for the evening.
This small town wasn’t big, but it could still produce a few thousands gold coins in tax revenue every year. Colbert could live somewhat comfortably off of this money. From time to time, when his interest was roused, he could randomly use brute force or abuse his privilege on the women in town. No one dared say anything.
That was because he had the title of a baron and the power of mayor, and he himself was a powerful swordmaster. All of these conditions were more than enough to make him an emperor of this small town.
“Ai, when will this kind of life end?!” A civilian had just returned from the mountains and was complaining in a low voice.
“I heard that Roots’ wife was raped by Colbert again. This is the ninth time this year. How about we leave Billow? This is no way to live!” Another civilian let out a long sigh and said helplessly.
“Mhm, we need to be a careful if we want to leave. We will die very miserably if he finds out. Truly evil!”
“Excuse me, is this Billow?” Someone suddenly asked while the two were whispering to each other. The speaker was a very tall youth with a bright smile on his handsome face.
“That’s right. Young man, what did you come here for?” One of them asked, puzzled.
“Does your mayor go by the name Colbert?” Han Shuo smiled and asked again.
The person nodded, his expression changing slightly as he added with disgust, “You know our mayor? And what do you do?”
“I have some small matters, where does he live?” Seeing this civilian reveal an expression of  disgust upon hearing Colbert’s name, Han Shuo immediately understood the situation in his heart.
“Go straight ahead. The biggest, most luxurious house you see is where he lives!” The other person answered then pulled his friend away from Han Shuo, whispering, “Don’t you want to live anymore? You see how tall and strong he is? He’s definitely a friend of that bastard Colbert. Don’t bring trouble upon yourself!”
The two whispered back and forth as they quickly left after throwing Han Shuo a disdainful look. Han Shuo’s sensitive hearing caught it all. He secretly thought that this Colbert was truly devoid of conscience. Even as a mayor of this small town, there wasn’t a bad thing that he hadn’t done.
Han Shuo quickly walked to the biggest house and said to the guard at the gate, “I want to meet mayor Colbert.”
“Who are you?” The guard frowned and threw Han Shuo a glance as he replied.
The three yin demons surveyed the rooms in the house and took note of every detail for Han Shuo. He smiled and said, “I heard that mayor Colbert was a powerful swordmaster. This time I’ve come especially to challenge him to a fight. Please report this for me!”
“The mayor has no interest in you. You’d better leave while you can!” The guard rudely replied, seeming to have no intentions of making a report.
Taking a step forward, Han Shuo broke apart the door. He raised his voice and shouted, “Colbert, you coward! As a swordmaster, you still don’t dare to accept my challenge?”
“Boy, are you purposely trying to make trouble?” The two guards were instantly shocked. They drew their swords, about to make a move.
Han Shuo fanned out two slaps, pushing back the two guards before they could see anything. Smiling as he look at the two clutching their faces, Han Shuo said leisurely, “It would be best if you two were not to seek your own deaths!”
Han Shuo’s loud shout echoed so far that half of Billow heard it. The townspeople immediately stopped what they were doing to come watch when they heard that someone had come to challenge Colbert.
Colbert had been squinting, leering randomly, when he obviously heard Han Shuo’s voice. He shouted furiously from the high balcony, “Where do you come from, brat? You dare come to Billow to cause trouble!”
A dozen soldiers rushed out from inside the house to accompany Colbert’s shout. Afterwards, Colbert walked out from the broken door with a cold face and shiny set of silver armor.
“What the hell are you looking at?! You damnable bunch of lowly people, scram!” The first thing Colbert did after walking out was roll his eyes and glare, cursing the civilians. Then he angrily looked at Han Shuo and said, “Little brat, you deliberately came to cause trouble, didn’t you?”
“I have heard of Baron Colbert’s great name as a swordmaster. I also train in the ways of the sword and was passing through Billow, so I hoped to ask your Lordship for some guidance. But I don’t know whether your Lordship… has the guts to accept?” Han Shuo smiled blandly, waiting for Colbert’s answer.
Colbert glared at Han Shuo and said in rage, “You, a little brat who doesn’t know the height of the sky, dares to challenge me?! You really must be tired of living. Good! I accept your challenge. However, don’t blame me if you die!”
“Of course!” Han Shuo replied straightforwardly.
“You guys back off. See how I kill him!” Colbert waved his subordinates away. He drew his sword, taking a deep breath. He suddenly calmed down.
“Young man, I’ll let you attack first!” Colbert put on a generous face and said calmly to Han Shuo.
“Alright!” Han Shuo didn’t drag his feet. As soon as he finished speaking, he walked calmly to Colbert and deployed a punch.
“Oh?!” Colbert was a little stunned seeing Han Shuo not take out his sword. However, he was even more surprised upon seeing no fighting aura radiating from that punch. Feeling strange, Colbert sneered and raised his sword to stab right back at the punch.
“Heh heh, courting death!” Han Shuo also spared a moment to jeer. His magical yuan condensed, dazzling red light bursting out from the punch.
The red light instantly surged and destroyed the milky white aura surrounding Colbert’s sword. The punch smashed into the sword, making a metallic clang. A current of hot air burst out, accompanied by Colbert’s tragic scream. He was blown away along with his sword and couldn’t stop vomiting blood.
“Oh my god, the demon is heavily wounded!”
“Great! I hope he just dies this time! We’ll be free then!”
“He’d best die, or Billow Town won’t have a day of peace!”
After seeing Colbert become heavily injured after just one hit, the townspeople, who were watching from a distance away, became as joyous as if it were a holiday and murmured in low voices.
“I, I have no hatred nor injustice with you, so why did you come for me?” His mouth overflowing with blood, Colbert immediately understood that Han Shuo’s strength was far above his after being heavily injured by a single punch. However, he didn’t know how or when he’d offended Han Shuo.
“Heh heh, because you deserve to die!” Han Shuo smiled coldly. He slowly approached Colbert and said, “I am Bryan, and you are the first!”
Bang! echoed a blow. Colbert had no strength to resist when the punch smashed down on his head. He immediately bled from all seven orifices and died on the spot.
“I fairly and openly killed him in a challenge, and all of you are witness to this.” Han Shuo turned to the lackeys, expressing that he didn’t do it on purpose. After saying this, he left Billow Town in style under the shocked, puzzled, and fearful gazes of the people.
The Empire wouldn’t pursue the matter if one killed the opponent after a challenge was accepted. Candide had explained clearly to Han Shuo earlier. The old man would take care of the aftermath, so Han Shuo wasn’t worried at all.
“Second target – water archmage Deborah in Bimson City. Killed a family of eighteen people three years ago in a magic shop over a magic staff. The aftermath was handled cleanly, leaving no clues. Successfully escaped the punishment of the Empire. Mm, she’s the one!” Han Shuo took out the paper Candide gave him and skimmed it.
Candide had put his heart into it indeed. Each target was in close proximity to the previous one, making it convenient for Han Shuo to act.
Two hours later, In Bimson City, at the residence of Count Chapman Dean.
Han Shuo wore a mage outfit, his hand grasping the white bone staff. He gracefully appeared at the residence of Count Chapman Dean and spoke to the guard with a smile, “I’m looking for the honored water archmage Deborah.”
“Follow me.” This guard saw Han Shuo in a mage outfit with the white bone staff in his hand to boot. Therefore, he didn’t dare be discourteous and led Han Shuo in respectfully.
When they arrived inside a big courtyard, the guard spoke, “Please wait a moment, I’ll go inform Master Deborah!”
A while later, a short, slightly fat woman of around forty years of age walked out. She wore a luxurious magic robe and a blue space ring on her finger. She frowned suspiciously at Han Shuo and asked, “Who are you? I don’t think I know you?”
Nodding, Han Shuo answered with a smile, “Of course, this is our first time meeting. However, I have admired your great name for a long time. This time, I came here to ask for your guidance on some magic knowledge, I hope you agree!”
Upon hearing Han Shuo’s words, Deborah impatiently waved her hand, “And I wondered who you were. Don’t care. Scram now. Don’t make me angry, damn brat!”
Sweeping a look at the guard, Deborah reprimanded, “Next time clearly ask who the visitor is. Don’t think that all mages are acquainted with me. I have no time to deal with this immature brat!”
Finishing her speech, Deborah treated Han Shuo as though he were nonexistent and walked back inside, intending to continue fiddling around with some new magic potions.
“Ugly old granny, you don’t dare to accept my challenge? Or do you think that you’re so ugly that you wouldn’t want to let others look at you for too long?” Still with a smile on his face, Han Shuo deliberately played the old trick, using vicious words to anger his opponent.
Sure enough, Deborah immediately fumed over Han Shuo’s malice. She abruptly turned around, staring sinisterly at Han Shuo and said with a cold smile, “Fine. I accept your challenge. I’ll send you on your way to the underworld.”
A light flashed as a blue magic staff appeared in her hand. Deborah chanted an incantation and three men, five meters tall and each made of water, suddenly appeared out of nowhere on the rooftops and shot towards Han Shuo. The water men wielded sharp ice awls that emitted a brilliant cold light as they stabbed towards Han Shuo.
“Interesting!” Han Shuo let out an odd laugh. The white bone staff in his hand trembled as he quickly chanted an incantation. A white bone shield suddenly appeared in front of his body.
The five ice awls were faster than the water men and rammed straight at the shield’s surface with a huge amount of force. The ice awls shattered as cracks also appeared in the shield.
Han Shuo unhurriedly shrank the white bone shield’s size. The white bone staff once again shone. Two hate warriors, one evil knight, a dozen zombies, and twenty-odd skeletal warriors in addition to a team of flying gargoyles appeared in the air, filling the yard.
The evil knight rode a warhorse spitting fire, his hand holding an enormous bone lance. He stabbed out at the five meter tall ice man, piercing a big hole through the latter. The evil knight ordered his skeletal warhorse to spew out a breath of fire, and the rest of the ice men evaporated into mist with a sizzling sound.
“You, you‘re actually an archmage necromancer!” Deborah was terrified, her voice trembling as she shouted.
Necromancy mages were at a disadvantage against light mages of the same level. However, they held a major advantage against other magic majors due to their ability to summon powerful creatures. If it hadn’t been for the disappearance of the realms of grand magi and sacred magi as chronicled in the Necromancy Codex, the number of necromancy mages wouldn’t be as few as they were now.
When the Canopy of Necromancy spread out across the sky, the speed and strength of the dark creatures inside suddenly increased immensely. Caught within the Canopy of Necromancy, two water men were surrounded by a huge number of dark creatures.
The evil knight in particular now charged forward with terrifying force directly towards water archmage Deborah. The hovering gargoyles flashed out as deadly shadows, one after the other in, a manner that appeared very fast and strange, thanks to the aid of the Canopy of Necromancy.
Han Shuo didn’t need to rely on the little skeleton, earth elite zombie, and wood elite zombie nor his magical cultivation in this fight. He had gained an absolute advantage using purely necromancy magic alone. Except for light archmages, no other mage at the same level as him could be his match. Even if the opponent was a light archmage, Han Shuo could still easily kill them as the little skeleton, earth elite zombie, and wood elite zombie were all immune to light magic.
Therefore, Han Shuo was invincible when fighting mages of the same rank, even without using demonic magic!