Chapter 916: The Moving Shelter
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Han Sen brought the dead man's body down into the shelter. Thinking the place was suitable, he also planted the Devil-Blood Tree and his Pine Tree inside there, as well.
Han Sen did not have many waterdrops still, so he only used what was sufficient to keep them alive for the time being.
For food, he only had some crab meat and dried fruit. If they wanted to increase their strength, they would have to go out and hunt.
But the trees in close proximity to them did not bear fruit. And the presence of creatures was lacking.
Upon greater inspection, and a fair amount of time pondering, Han Sen came to the conclusion that the shelter was moving. And he noticed that every day he woke up, he was in a different spot.
Sometimes they were deeper inside the woods, other times they'd be near the outskirts. While the movements seemed random, he believed there had to be a reason or rhyme to how the shelter behaved—he just had to figure it out.
When they first came to this place, the tree and its shelter were nearly on the outskirts of Thorn Forest. After spending the night there, they awoke to the realization they had been teleported someplace else.
A few days later, days spent tinkering and investigating, Han Sen discovered it always moved around the hour of midnight. If they wanted to leave and go off on a hunt or explore Thorn Forest, they would just have to ensure they were back before then. Otherwise, they'd be stranded with no knowledge of where the shelter had gone off to.
It was easy to find out if you were in the right place as the shelter moved beneath your feet, however. The area above the shelter was quite sparse in terms of plants, and the area was always devoid of creatures. It was easy to recognize.
Han Sen kept up with his training and collected spirit genes from the spirit base whenever he could. In between those activities, he made scouting trips to the surface to observe where the shelter had moved and where they might go to in order to hunt.
The reason no creatures came close to the shelter finally dawned on Han Sen; he attributed it to the giant bones that resided below the surface. He had seen creatures staying far away from such bones before, and so he attributed the lack of nearby creatures to the bones' presence there. While it meant they had to travel a bit to find creatures, it at least meant there wasn't any danger in and around the shelter.
On this day, the shelter moved to the edge of Thorn Forest. When the sun rose, Han Sen ventured out with Qu Lanxi. Together, they slew a few ordinary iron bugs.
Han Sen was also able to find a few wild geno plants, and he managed to collect a dozen waterdrops following their absorption.
And as fruitful as their hunt had been, they did not dare go too far from home. They wanted to create a pantry of food, where they could store much and live in relative peace for a while.
Every few days, almost like clockwork, the shelter moved to the edge of the forest where they could freely hunt without too much concern. This also meant they did not have to worry about dwindling supplies for the time they remained in the shelter. Settling into a nice routine, Han Sen had managed to earn a fair amount of basic geno points and ordinary geno points. Slowly but surely, his fitness level was rising.
Han Sen tried to control the shelter's movements, or see what he could do to influence where it chose to go, but outside the spirit base, he could not last very long in his super king spirit mode. Despite trying many different ways, he was unable to move the shelter how he fancied.
More than anything, however, Han Sen spent most of his time in the spirit base collecting spirit genes.
Squire-class, knight-class, and royal-class spirits all offered up their spirit genes without quarrel, and thanks to this, Han Sen's spirit gene tally increased rapidly.
Ever since he killed Thunderdevil King three times in a row, many royal spirits who saw him would gladly offer up their genes, too.
Some spirits who were known associates of Thunderdevil King made sure to stay out of Han Sen's way, though. They wouldn't give him a single spirit gene.
But for those few people, there was nothing he could do. His rank was far higher than them, after all. Unless others challenged him, he could only challenge the six spirits who had a higher rank than he did.
Fortunately, most spirits were happy to give out their spirit genes for free. Han Sen's squire-class and knight-class geno points were already at one hundred. His royal-class tally was not far behind, either. What he needed now, though, was many king-class genes.
And so now, Han Sen had to select which spirit genes to take. Unless there was a special element attributed to them, he would have to decline many approaching spirits.
Han Sen noticed many more royal-class spirits challenging him these days, too. Although they were weak and easily defeated, they did try their best to fight him.
In the distance, many islands lined up, facing Han Sen. It wasn't too obvious to see, but one of the islands had a few spirits on it together. All the other spirits seemed to avoid this collective of islands like the plague.
On the island, there were two men and two women spirits. They were amongst the top ten king spirits.
One of the female king spirits had cat ears to compliment her beautiful face, which seemed to perpetually smirk. Her body was voluptuous and stunning to behold.
She must have been someone of some renown, and one that many other spirits would assuredly recognize. She held the second rank in the spirit base and was called Heavenly Empress.
The names of the other three king spirits were The King of Truth; The King of Day; and Flower Empress.
"The King's power is too much. Those royal-class spirits don't stand a chance, and their efforts at collecting information for us are practically worthless. I would say he bases his power on strength, but that doesn't help much," The King of Truth said.
The King of Day responded, "He was able to kill that juvenile Thunderdevil King with one hit; of course he's powerful!"
Flower Empress laughed and said, "If he does indeed rely on raw, physical strength, then taking him down shouldn't prove too difficult. Why don't we allow Truth to have a go at him. He is sure to crush The King."
"Yes, I believe Truth can beat that punk. Easy." After The King of Day said this, he continued by saying, "And we need to stop calling him The King!"
"But we are used to calling him that!" Flower Empress laughed.
The King of Truth looked to Heavenly Empress and said, "And what about you? What do you think?"
Heavenly Empress merely smiled and said, "You can try. The white light comes from his body; I suspect your Mirror of Truth can reflect that power. That being said, he is not as simple as he appears to be. There is more to him than meets the eye, so exercise caution."
"I will try then. If I do not win, then at least I can witness the strength he possesses first-hand," The King of Truth said, with grace.
"Don't say that! You will win; your Mirror of Truth can restrain him! We'll celebrate and toast a glass in your honor, when you return," The King of Day said jovially.
"I will be off, then!" The King of Truth returned to his own island and drove towards Han Sen.