"Let me check on Han. He's so quiet all of a sudden." Lance frowned and said to the group.
After a minute, Lance came back with his mouth wide open in disbelief, his hands holding a letter. Not only that, he led two fusion beasts, numbers eight and thirteen.
Shua—
Everyone's eyes focused on Lance, while Lance gulped and with a hoarse voice said, "Han is gone."
"What are you bluffing about?"
"I'm not bluffing, see for yourself. This is Han's message for us."
Jian Jia snatched the letter from Lance's hands, where Han wrote that he had to leave due to special reasons. He had left numbers eight and thirteen, who had stronger sensing capabilities and could help the group identify threats.
Han also said that he was sorry he could not help them any further, and that he hoped everyone could get out of Mystic Valley safely.
Jian Jia finished reading the letter. Everyone was stunned. Han was undoubtedly the leader, the backbone of the group, and now he left without saying a word? Why? What should everyone do now?
Jian Jia dumped the letter onto the ground and stomped on it angrily, shouting, "Han! You irresponsible prick! How dare you leave us alone! I won't believe that anything urgent just came up right now, liar!"
Everyone knew that Jian Jia was a little girl, only she would not admit it and everyone else stayed quiet about it.
But just now she accidentally used the female pronoun for herself, making her gender even more obvious.
"Han's not an irresponsible person!" Many people were upset by Jian Jia's curses, but the first person to stand up for Han turned out to be the quiet Ke Lake. With a stern face, he bellowed, "Han, irresponsible? If he were irresponsible our planet would have stopped existing ages ago! It's he who single-handedly saved the Earth from the verge of darkness!"
"If I had a say, Han's biggest problem isn't that he's irresponsible, it's that he cares about 'responsibility' too much! He'd rather sacrifice himself than hurt us!"
Jian Jia pouted and said, "Then how do you explain his sudden departure?"
Ke Lake said, "Because he has something more important than leading us out of Mystic Valley".
Displeased, Jian Jia said, "You must be a fool to believe that. Everything was fine, why would he have something else important to do?!"
Ke Lake was stubborn, "I don't care! Either way I trust Han! If he said he had something important to do, he did! You know nothing about Han, woman!"
Ke Lake's sexist comment angered Jian Jia, she yelled, "Yes, I know nothing and you do! So now that Han's gone, what do we do?"
"Of course we go look for him! What kind of brother would I be if I didn't?" Ke Lake took on a sharp gaze, "Lance, you take over the ground and I'll be in the sky. We have to find Han no matter what, I'm worried".
Lance nodded gravely, and Wuyun adds, "I'll disperse the Spider Legion so that we could do a blanket search".
Blue-blooded man Boya said, "I have some friends in other teams, I'll let them know so that once Han is seen we'll know".
Jian Jia suddenly realized how alone she was in this situation; she did not expect these guys to trust Han so much.
Hmph!
Ignoring Lance and other people who wanted to go after Han, Jian Jia turned around to leave. Her prestigious upbringing and stubbornness did not allow her to admit that she had misunderstood Han. Ye Weiwei wanted to stop her, but failed.
Pride and prejudice were indeed fatal failings of humanity. Even though Jian Jia knew she went overboard with her anger-fueled words, and that the others judged Han correctly, she just wouldn't admit defeat.
Despite Han's departure and the team's subsequent fallout, Jian Jia did not leave alone. The four guards that her family sent had always been so inconspicuous they were unnoticeable, but they were immensely loyal to Jian Jia.
"Was I wrong?" Jian Jia asked the guard.
"No, miss".
"Dammit Han, I wasn't mad that he left, it's that he left without a word! Why wouldn't he just tell me? With my identity and status I could solve anything for him, but this proud guy had to bear everything on his shoulders, like he's the hero and we're all dumbos—that's why I was mad!" Jian Jia's little face was stern.
The guards were at a loss of words. So Han being responsible was a problem?
"You left pretty determinedly", Luyao whispered in Han's consciousness, "Only now your friends would blame you".
Han frowned a bit, "Forget it, being blamed wins over getting them killed".
Luyao nodded slightly, "I'm trying to think of a skill set that caters to your ability, maybe it could aid you".
Han smiled bitterly, "You're only thinking of me now? I think it's too late".
Luyao said, "it's better to have something than nothing at all; while living in your brain I've been thinking about your Six Paths of the Void, and there should be one more Path that lets you integrate all you've learnt already. For some reason your teacher didn't tell you that".
Han replied, "You mean Pathless Origin? No way, he's a man with integrity. Maybe he himself did not know that; after all, although he taught me the Six Paths, he had only mastered the first five, up until the Path of Demon".
Luyao said, "That's possible. Let me think…lets retreat while studying the final Path of the Six Paths of the Void; I think what it wants to achieve goes beyond merely mastering the skill, but what is it?"
"To be honest, I've always considered myself to be a genius and have learnt so much throughout the years, but the Six Paths of the Void could be the most wicked skill set I've encountered. The Six Paths do not develop one after the other naturally, but are contradictory. For example, if you mastered the Path of God, you would be upsetting the Path of Man; if you mastered the Path of Demon, then the Path of God would be disrupted, and every disruption pushes you towards a new level".
"If you get the chance, you should ask Pathless Origin where the Six Paths of Void originated from. I feel that even though it emerged in this insignificant galaxy, its origins must be extraordinary".
Han nodded, "If we live, I will ask him. By the way, how much time do we have?"
Luyao said gravely, "Judging from your speed and theirs, within twelve hours we'll encounter the Execution Squad. In other words, unless the All Gods Corporation regains control over Mystic Valley in the next twelve hours, we'll be gone".
At the headquarters of All Gods Corporation—
Mr. Shui, Jian Jia's mysterious father, ran from the Mechanics Department like a crazy man, hair loosened, eyes red and his gaze sharp like he was ready to kill.
"I don't care! I don't care if the Particle Module is overload! Do whatever it takes to regain control over Mystic Valley! Or else!" Mr. Shui yelled hoarsely, without turning his head.
Seeing the usually calm and polite Mr. Shui angry made the staff at the Mechanics Department duck their heads.
"What's with Mr. Shui? Throwing such a tantrum, like he's going to eat us".
"Sigh, if not all for his daughter".
"Mr. Shui's daughter? Jian Jia Shui?"
"That's her".
"But everyone knows her status, who would harm her?"
"I heard she's stuck in Mystic Valley because something went wrong with the Particle Module, and it's apparently because the Mass Demon Corporation cast a Directional Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Wave that not only destroyed the border, but also wrecked the Module engines and communication devices".
"The Mass Demon Corporation? Then Mr. Shui should be going to the Defence Department for help instead! It's not like the Mechanics Department deals with foreign affairs".
"You thought he hadn't? That's where Mr. Shui came from; I heard even Military Lord Kabri got a stern scolding. I only hope Ms. Jian Jia's fine, or else it wouldn't just be Mr. Shui—all hell would break lose if the Shui family's "old monster" knew about it."
"Yeah, after all it is the Shui family".