House pondered for a moment after hearing that, then finally said,
"Since you said Miss Fanny headed toward Palang City, let's turn around and go to Palang City as well. Hopefully, we can intercept them."
The leopard-shaped Metal Lifeform abruptly changed direction and shot off into the distance like a Light Ray.
Aboard the Flower-shaped Metal Lifeform, Fanny smiled. "They must have flown toward Palang City, but our real destination is Timbu City!"
First Battle in Hell
Inside the Flower-shaped Metal Lifeform, Simon and Fanny sat on the sofa, savoring fine wine.
"Simon, if we run into bandits, make sure you stay close to me. I'll protect you."
"Haha, Fanny, you don't need to worry about me. Just protect yourself during a fight. I can handle it."
Seeing Simon so confident, Fanny's curiosity was immediately piqued.
"Oh? Looks like you hid your strength when we sparred before, Simon. You don't trust me that much?"
"Ahem, it's not that I don't trust you, Fanny. Sparring between friends should stop at the right point. Anyway, trust me. I won't hold you back."
"Oh? Then I'll be watching."
The wealthy Fanny directly stuffed enough Divine Crystals into the Metal Lifeform to power it for decades. It continued flying on as though it would never tire.
Several days later.
Boom...
An attack suddenly struck, and the Flower-shaped Metal Lifeform instantly exploded.
Simon and Fanny, who had been chatting inside, were both dumbfounded. They knew Hell was filled with bandits and robbers, but they had not expected to encounter some so soon after leaving the Teleportation Formation's sphere of influence.
Moreover, judging from the formation, these robbers did not seem weak. Their leader was clearly a Highgod, commanding over a hundred Midgods.
Simon looked at the men glaring at them greedily.
"What do you intend to do, my friend? We don't want any unnecessary trouble. Compensate us for our Metal Lifeform, and we'll let this matter go."
"Hahaha, what is this Midgod thinking? Is he threatening us? Did he not wake up yet?"
A green-haired young man among the bandits sneered.
The other bandits burst into laughter as well.
The originally grim and solemn atmosphere seemed to become cheerful amid the bandits' laughter.
The bandit leader raised a hand, and the noise behind him immediately fell silent.
"I am Quite, the third leader of the Black Wind Bandit Group. Don't joke around, you two. Hand over ten million Inkstones obediently, and we'll let you leave. If you refuse, then we'll have to take them ourselves."
Quite, the cold-faced bandit leader, saw that Fanny was also a Highgod and that she dared travel through the Hell Wilderness with only a Midgod at her side. He did not want to take unnecessary risks. If he could obtain ten million Inkstones without fighting, that would naturally be best.
"Ten million Inkstones? What if we refuse to give you even one?"
Fanny looked at him coldly.
She knew she could not show weakness before vicious bandits. Once she agreed to their demand, there was no guarantee they would not continue demanding more wealth, eventually even asking to inspect their Spatial Rings.
So, she had to be tough from the very start. Even if a fight broke out, she was not afraid.
"Then attack!"
With a wave of Quite's hand, a blade ray radiating an intense Conception of Destruction flew toward Simon and Fanny. The more than one hundred Midgods behind him also unleashed all kinds of attacks.
For a moment, elemental beasts of every color, along with blade rays and sword rays, howled as they rushed toward the two.
Simon and Fanny had briefly discussed their strategy the moment they saw the bandits. As soon as the enemy attacked, they immediately burst forth with Extreme Speed and dodged.
The strategy was simple. Fanny would handle the bandit leader, while Simon would deal with the Midgod bandits. Whoever finished first would assist the other with the remaining enemies.
Fanny then gripped her shortsword and charged toward the enemy leader, while Simon used the Speed Profound Truth to weave around the battlefield. For the moment, he did not intend to deploy Ice Wind Space. He wanted to test the power of the Speed Profound Truth on these Midgod bandits first and gain some practical combat experience along the way.
Thus, as Simon's figure flashed past, one Midgod bandit after another fell beneath his longsword. A few material attacks struck him, but Ice Mist Battle Armor easily blocked them. The scattered Soul Attacks could not penetrate his powerful soul defenses at all.
Simon did not even use Ice Wind Space. Before long, relying solely on his speed and defensive advantages, he had nearly slaughtered all one hundred Midgod bandits. Though there were many of them, most were weaklings who had fused with Godheads, including the green-haired man who had shouted the loudest at the start.
Those who had fused with Godheads could not withstand even one casual strike from Simon. The few stronger ones could barely endure a single blow, but they only needed another slash afterward.
The two bandits who realized things had gone wrong relied on their speed to flee in different directions. Simon could not be bothered to chase them, instead moving to surround Quite.
Quite, who was barely holding off Fanny's attacks, was miserable beyond words. His strength had only just reached the threshold of a Five-Star Fiend. He was already struggling against Fanny's explosive fighting style. Then, seeing his subordinates nearly wiped out by Simon in mere moments, he realized that Simon, despite being a Midgod, was no easy opponent either. Knowing he had hit an iron wall this time, he wanted to find a chance to escape.
But Simon, who had already closed in, would not give him that opportunity. With a thought, Ice Wind Space descended.
This suddenly appearing domain became the final straw that broke Quite. Nearly unable to move under its restraints, Quite tried to dodge in terror, but Fanny would never miss such an opportunity. Holding her shortsword, she instantly unleashed her ultimate move and pierced Quite's skull.
Quite's head exploded the instant it was struck by Fanny's ultimate move. Two Godheads fell from the air: one Highgod Spark of the Laws of Destruction and one Midgod Spark of the Darkness Element. As for his Saint Realm main body, nothing remained beneath Fanny's ultimate move.
In less than a minute, the arrogant Black Wind Bandit Group had nearly been wiped out.
"Not bad, Simon. Your domain space is quite something. It can even restrain Highgods. No wonder you were so confident before."
Fanny watched Simon clean up the battlefield. In truth, she was also shocked by his Ice Wind Space. With this ultimate move supporting her, Fanny even felt that she could exchange blows with a Six-Star Fiend.
"This domain is called Ice Wind Space. I comprehended it not long after becoming a Wind Element deity. It only works especially well against weak Highgods like this. Against stronger opponents, it might not be nearly as effective."
Simon collected all the bandits' Spatial Rings, as well as the divine artifacts and Godheads they had left behind. Though such things were common in Hell and worth only a few Inkstones, Simon thought that if he ever returned to his clan, the sheer quantity of divine artifacts and Godheads would surely leave the clan leader and the others speechless...
After gathering the spoils, Simon signaled that Fanny could leave.
With a wave of her hand, Fanny produced another Flower-shaped Metal Lifeform. She had plenty of them in her Spatial Ring. She even wanted to give several to Simon, but Simon disliked their flower-shaped appearance, finding them insufficiently fierce. He only accepted one halfheartedly.
Inside the new Metal Lifeform, Fanny continued marveling at the wonders of Simon's Ice Wind Space. She even asked Simon to use it on her so she could experience it properly.
Unable to endure her pestering any longer, Simon could only cast a small Ice Wind Space around Fanny, just large enough to envelop her.
Fanny felt the omnipresent restraining force pressing in from above, below, left, and right. She discovered that unless she used her movement ultimate move, which fused the Profound Mystery of Fire Element and the Profound Mystery of Explosion, she could barely move at all.
Even after unleashing her movement ultimate move, she found that the surrounding space still pressed against her. Her movement speed was reduced to one-third of its usual level. At such slow speed, she would be nothing more than a living target when fighting an opponent of the same level.
After personally experiencing the astonishing restraining force, Fanny finally understood Quite's helplessness before his death. Quite could originally have relied on his decent Laws of Destruction to hold on for a while longer, but under Simon's Ice Wind Space, he could not even withstand a single move.
Harvest
After experiencing it for a little longer, Fanny signaled for Simon to disperse Ice Wind Space. She tidied up her appearance before returning to the sofa.
"Simon, your domain space is really domineering. How did you comprehend it? No matter how hard I think about it, I can't figure out an ultimate move like that. I'm so jealous."
Fanny patted her chest and sighed.
"My movement ultimate move fuses the Profound Mystery of Explosion from the Fire Element. It specializes in explosive bursts, yet even at full power, I was still so heavily restrained in your domain that my speed dropped drastically. It's truly an ultimate move made to support combat. The two of us working together would cut down these bandits like vegetables. Hahaha."
By the end, Fanny laughed happily. She had originally thought Simon was merely skilled in speed, but this battle had given her an enormous surprise.
"This domain space fuses Wind Space and the Profound Mystery of Wind Element. Together with some special application methods I comprehended, it produced its current power. However, the fusion of Wind Space and the Profound Mystery of Wind Element is still not deep enough. It is only at the initial application stage. There are still many areas that need improvement in the future."
In Simon's vision, he would eventually fuse Water Element Essence into it as well. Then, with Wind Space combined with the most fundamental elemental Profound Mysteries of two elements, along with his special application techniques, he could create the ideal domain space. At that time, Ice Wind Space would reach its final form and truly live up to its name.
Simon believed that by then, Ice Wind Space would be able to directly suppress even Seven-Star Fiends and Asura-level experts.
"Such a powerful restraining force, and you've only just fused two Profound Mysteries. Simon, you're incredible."
Simon merely smiled modestly. He did not tell Fanny that there had previously been an Ice Wind Space 1.0 version that fused the Profound Mystery of Wind Element and Water Element Essence. The current version had been improved from that one; otherwise, its power could never have been so great. But that involved his Soul Mutation.
Simon did not want to reveal that secret so soon. He planned to give this young lady from a great Hell clan a small shock with his strength later.
The Metal Lifeform continued flying toward Timbu City.
After encountering their first wave of Hell bandits, the two did not run into any more over the following days. This was likely the territory of the Black Wind Bandit Group, so they would not encounter other bandits for the time being.
During those days, Simon inspected the Spatial Rings he had obtained one by one. Fanny, who had seen plenty of treasures, had no interest in them. She merely sat nearby, watching the excited Simon with a foolish grin.
This boy from a Material Plane had given her too many surprises. She had thought this impulsive journey through Hell would involve her protecting him, but his strength did not seem much weaker than hers. Moreover, Simon appeared to have other methods as well.
Fanny had only felt this kind of unfathomable feeling from her grandfather, Grayson.
Now, this familiar feeling had appeared once more in Simon, and Fanny found herself deeply fascinated by it.
Perhaps the boy before her would bring her even more surprises, Fanny thought unconsciously.
After opening every Spatial Ring he could, Simon discovered that aside from a few he could not open because their owners still had surviving divine clones, all the others could be opened, including the bandit leader's. Perhaps Quite believed that following his strongest divine clone was the safest choice.
That greatly benefited Simon.
After inspecting everything, Simon found that Quite, the bandit leader, had contributed more than one billion Inkstones. All the other Midgod bandits combined had only a little over twenty million Inkstones, not even a fraction of Quite's wealth.
Simon could not help sighing at the gap between the rich and the poor.
"Not bad. We just arrived in Hell, and we've already earned our first fortune! Many thanks to the Black Wind Bandit Group for their generous sponsorship."
"Our future is bright, Fanny! Hahaha."
Simon happily counted the Inkstones.
"I have more Inkstones than I could ever use, Simon. I can give you as many as you want."
Fanny, who had never lacked Inkstones, could not understand why Simon was so happy over such a small amount.
"How could Inkstones be as satisfying as money you earn yourself? I don't want to live off a woman. Back home, people despise men who live off women the most."
Simon seemed to recall something. Only then did he remember the vow he had made at the beginning never to live off a woman...
"What does living off a woman mean, Simon?"
"Relying on women for everything is called living off a woman."
"Hehe, I see. Then why don't you live off me?"
Fanny looked at Simon with a mischievous smile.
"Fanny, do you really want me to...?"
Simon suddenly met Fanny's gaze, his deep eyes filled with affection.
Fanny, who had been about to say something, suddenly met Simon's eyes. Her heart began pounding wildly.
"Then do it, hmph~"
"Hahaha!"
Simon withdrew his gaze and burst into laughter.
Fanny realized she had been teased. She climbed over the sofa to hit Simon, but Simon rose and dodged.
Before you continue