Monster Paradise

by LightNovels

343-

5. Chapter 5

"Congratulations, octuple cross-ranking kill has been completed. You've obtained Reward Card Draw x50!"

As he pierced through the immortal-level rank-5 monster's heart, Lin Huang could finally obtain the cross-ranking reward for the tenth time.

He managed to kill an immortal-level rank-5 monster despite the fact that his combat strength was merely on the crimson flame-level. He could now achieve an octuple cross-ranking kill. However, he was not satisfied with his performance.

"When I'm at immortal-level rank-1, I'll possibly be able to kill an immortal-level rank-9. However, the abilities of those at the imperial-level will be doubled each time they level up. With the current cross-ranking standard that I can achieve, even if I'm on the black gold-rank in future, I'll only be able to level-up four ranks at once and kill those on the violet gold-rank. However, I won't be able to defeat the demigods." From the Eclipse Boa's memory, Lin Huang knew that there would be a big difference in abilities between each level. If he wanted the ability to kill the demigods, it was insufficient for him to just level-up to the imperial-level.

As for the Transformation Card and Provisional Combat Strength Upgrade Card, they were external factors. Moreover, it definitely depended on one's look to determine whether one could draw it or not. It was not a permanent solution by depending on such cards to improve abilities. Cards were only for emergencies.

During the sunset on the first day after the blood sacrifice, Lin Huang was alone for an hour. Since A Double Reward Card was activated, Lin Huang completed 10 consecutive cross-ranking kills and was given 500 card draws.

Since Lin Huang had enough cards to use, he did not draw any cards yet. He accumulated the 500 draws with remaining 100 card draws.

A few days after obtaining the cross-ranking rewards, Lin Huang, Yi Zheng and the rest were approaching the center of the ruins. Lin Huang and the rest managed to wipe out the monsters in the small and medium-sized sites. Not only did they obtain many items, Li Lang and Yi Yeyu had also found a suitable Life Fire monster and had already leveled-up to blue flame-level.

Naturally, both of them had chosen a double mutated Life Fire monster instead of a triple mutated Life Fire monster. Among other reasons, it was because those monsters were rare and they would not even be able to defeat the triple mutated monsters.

After upgrading to the blue flame-level, both of them relied on a large number of Life Crystals for the cultivation of Life Fire.

Lin Huang's Life Fire was growing due to Lancelot's attacks on the monsters. When there were no powerful monsters at the sites at night, Lin Huang would release Lancelot so that it could attack. There were two Life Fires in Lin Huang's body. One of them stopped growing when it reached 50 meters whereas the other had reached 300 meters and was still growing. Both of them were initially parallel to each other but for now, the fifty-meter Life Fire would be set off against another of his Life Fire.

Lin Huang could do nothing since monsters that had gone through a quadruple mutation were mere legends. It was completely out of his expectation when he previously encountered the Regal Sword Killer. The Life Fire monster that he could find would be a triple mutated monster at the very most.

Leng Yuexin and Yi Zheng were rather picky as they could not find a suitable Life Fire monster yet.

At the spacious ruins.

After about a week, Lin Huang and the rest had finally arrived at the center of the ruins.

In the afternoon when the sun was shining high, they could see the big-sized site from afar.

Soon, Lin Huang and the rest landed on the periphery of the site.

"Lin Huang, is this the site that the Saint members always come?" After Li Lang has descended, he looked at the site from afar. However, he found nothing unique.

"Yes, according to the memory inherited from the Eclipse Boa." Lin Huang nodded his head.

"The Saint members will not come here without a reason. Let's look around patiently and see if we can discover anything." Leng Yuexin suggested.

The rest nodded in agreement.

"Please walk together to avoid unknown dangers that could happen. Although the ruins look safe, we don't actually know the exact situation yet." Lin Huang reminded.

The site was big and looked like a huge palace. However, only half of the floors in the ruins remained. By looking at the door of the remaining floors, it seemed to be about 10 meters tall. They could then estimate that the actual height of the palace door which would be more than 30 meters.

"The building is so big. Are giants living in this building?" Yi Yeyu said as she looked at the huge door and windows.

Yi Zheng stopped in front of the wall. There was something etched on the wall and it was made with a saber.

When Lin Huang and the rest were about to leave, they saw that Yi Zheng was stunned, staring at the etches on the wall.

As Yi Yeyu wanted to give her brother a slap, Lin Huang immediately grabbed her wrist and signed her to keep quiet.

"Don't distract him, it seems like these etches have given him some insights." Lin Huang suppressed his voice and told the rest.

Yi Yeyu then retracted her hand.

"The etches on the wall might be remnants of a war. Let's look around and we might possibly gain something." Lin Huang noticed the etches on the wall as Yi Zheng mentioned it.

Leng Yuexin and the rest began observing the etches on the wall.

Lin Huang did not go too far. Instead, he flew up over the door and looked at the etches on the door. Obviously, they were etches made from a sword. Not only did the etches on the door look like this, it seemed like all the etches in the palace were made by a sword.

Lin Huang stared at the sword etches on the door for a moment and felt nothing special. He then told Lancelot to look after the rest as he flew along, following the path of the etches.

He flew around the site for a few minutes and when he returned, he looked at the etches on the door again.

Right this moment, a scene suddenly appeared in Lin Huang's mind.

There was a palace which existed hundreds of years ago, a few hundred meters in height. The palace was ablaze with light, and there were people singing, dancing, drinking, and talking…

One day, a young man suddenly appeared at the door of the palace. He was wearing a white robe and he had a waist-length hair. Although his face could not be clearly seen, Lin Huang could vaguely feel that he was a handsome man.

The man was holding a black sword in his hand but Lin Huang could not figure out its level. Soon after, he suddenly slashed his sword.

The next moment, the entire palace was cut in two. Apart from that, thousands of people were immediately cut in half regardless of the floors they were on…

Lin Huang was stunned at the terrifying scene he just saw. He was pretty sure that the man used only one sword and he wondered how could that happen. He could not figure out why as the man did not use any territorial power.

It was just an ordinary sword and it was deeply imprinted on his mind. After a long while, only then Lin Huang could recover from his thoughts.

"What just happened?!" Lin Huang did not expect that as he snapped out of his trance, there was a breakthrough in his Sword Dao. He had leveled-up to level-4 Sword Dao – Oblivion.

Lin Huang had been at level-3 of the Sword Dao for quite some time now. He was well-grounded, and with the addition of the external trigger, he managed to make a breakthrough.

The level-4 Sword Dao was called Oblivion. Lin Huang could be regarded as an expert in Sword Dao the moment he achieved this level.

Oblivion was when the user and the sword merged.

The sword had become part of one's life and they could not be separated, becoming an extension that was not unlike the limbs of a human body.

Previously, Liu Ming's combat strength was actually on immortal-level rank-9 as he only had a level-4 Sword Dao. His Sword Dao was one of the strongest among the people of that generation. Very few in Division 7 could surpass him in terms of his Sword Dao. This was also the reason why he was capable of killing an imperial-level when he was still an immortal-level.

At this moment, Lin Huang had made a breakthrough, albeit one that was out of Lin Huang's expectation. He thought that it would take him at least a year to level-up.

The moment the upgrade on his Sword Dao happened, Lin Huang slowly closed his eyes, reviewing the various types of sword skills that he had learned in the past, practicing them in his mind to further stabilize his sword skills.

Lin Huang closed his eyes for several hours, and when they opened, the sky had turned dark.

Yi Zheng and the rest had learned something as they waited for Lin Huang.

Seeing that the sky had turned dark as he opened his eyes, Lin Huang immediately summoned the Dimensional Portal. All of them strode over it and returned to the site near them.

Everyone was quietly having their dinner underground.

"It seems like you guys have learned something today." Lin Huang sized them up and noticed that they were behaving oddly.

"I think the etches on the building have something to do with our dao level improving. My Saber Dao has somewhat benefited from that. I'm not going to kill any monsters in the following days as I can feel that my Saber Dao is about to achieve level-3." Leng Yuexin explained.

"I feel the same way too. If we continue observing the etches, perhaps in two to three days, I'll be able to achieve level-3 Saber Dao." Yi Zheng agreed with her.

"I'm not going to kill any monsters too." Although Yi Yeyu was still far from achieving level-3 Saber Dao, she could feel that her Saber Dao was improving.

"I've been looking around the palace for several hours but I can't seem to find any etchings for a spear. I'll try again tomorrow." Seeing that the rest had improved, Li Lang panicked.

"Lin Huang, you've closed your eyes for so long. Was it a good learning experience?" Li Lang asked.

"Yes, I've achieved level-4 Sword Dao." Lin Huang smiled, nodding his head.

"..." Comparisons were odious and the rest were speechless.

"In the following few days, we shall stay in this site to upgrade our skills. I've just made a breakthrough in my Sword Dao. Therefore, it'll take me some time to stabilize my skills. We can hunt monsters after that." Lin Huang agreed with the rest of them.

The next morning, they arrived at the large site through the Dimensional Portal.

Lin Huang was standing at his original position and closed his eyes once more to focus on strengthening his skills. Meanwhile, Yi Zheng and the rest stood still before the etches on the walls.

When it was slightly past one o'clock in the afternoon, Li Lang finally discovered an etching for spears and stood still before the etchings.

In the next few days, Lin Huang and the rest went there during the daytime. They were there when the sun rose and left before sunset.

On the fourth day, Yi Zheng's had achieved level-3 Saber Dao — the Illumination level.

On the fifth day, Leng Yuexin managed achieve level-3 Saber Dao as well.

Yi Yeyu and Li Lang had arrived at the Consonance level.

They then stayed at the site for another few days. Yi Zheng and Leng Yuexin had strengthened their level-3 saber skills whereas Lin Huang's sword skills had been completely stabilized. He was much stronger than he was before.

Both Yi Yeyu and Li Lang were incapable of getting into level-3 as both of them were still lacking experience. It was because of this that they could hardly achieve level-3 within a short period of time.

"It seems like there aren't any entrances to the underground area in this site… After completely stabilizing his level-4 Sword Dao, Lin Huang had been exploring the site in the past few days. However, he could not find an underground entrance.

According to the normal practice of a site, there had to be a big building under the site.

Yi Zheng and Leng Yuexin joined him after their Saber Dao had been stabilized.

Leng Yuexin sized up the surrounding while walking at the center of the hall and accidentally stepped on a crushed stone and twisted her ankle. She immediately grabbed the border of the stone tower and at that moment, the stone tower moved a little.

Leng Yuexin immediately noticed something unusual about the stoner tower and informed Lin Huang and the rest. "It seems like the stone tower here can move."

They immediately rushed over there. Even Yi Yeyu and Li Lang stopped observing the war etchings.

"I accidentally touched the stone tower earlier and I found out that it can actually move." Leng Yuexin said.

"Let me try." Lin Huang took a step forward, pressing against the white stone tower that was more than a meter in height. Soon after, it started moving in an anticlockwise direction. After rotating for 180 degrees, it stopped.

Right this moment, the ground suddenly trembled. The people floated up into the sky and soon, they saw a circular entrance with a five-meter diameter next to the stone tower being activated. The position of the entrance was right at the center of the hall.

There was a stone staircase near the stone tower.

"I was right. There's indeed an underground are here." Seeing the appearance of the underground entrance, Lin Huang confirmed that he made a right guess.

"The site is so big. There must be a lot of treasures there. We're going to be rich!" Li Lang smiled wryly. He wanted to enter rashly but was stopped by Lin Huang.

"Please wait, I'll ask Bloody to investigate the situation first. Twisted around Lin Huang's wrist, Bloody released purple specks of light and spread them throughout the underground entrance.

Soon, several projections created by Bloody appeared in front of Lin Huang.

The few of them looked at the projections as well.

In the projections, as they reached the end of the spiral staircase, there was a big underground plaza. There were coffins in the plaza that were arranged accordingly and neatly. The leech pods were flying in different directions.

There were only coffins in the plaza and there were nearly 10,000 of them. Not a single monster was discovered.

There were four rooms outside the underground plaza where the treasures were stored. Lin Huang and the rest were staring at those treasures greedily.

Aside from that, at the end of the plaza, there was a red wooden box with a length of less than one meter. There were black intricate patterns all over the box that looked like black chains.

"It seems like it's not dangerous in there. Let's go in." Li Lang spoke excitedly.

Lin Huang frowned, seeing the red wooden box. He was afraid that things might not be that simple.

After a moment of hesitation, he nodded his head. "After collecting the items in the palace, leave immediately. Don't touch the coffins and the box."

After the inspection was completed and there was no danger detected in the underground, Lin Huang and the rest entered.

They climbed down the stone staircase and soon they arrived at the underground plaza.

The area of the plaza was not small and the height of the ceilings had even exceeded 30 meters.

There were coffins that they saw from the scenes projected by Bloody and the coffins were arranged accordingly. The length of each of the coffins was about three meters and it was at least 1.5 meters wide. The distance between each coffin was about three meters.

The base of the coffin was made of wood and they were still in good condition right until now. The coffin cover was transparent and they could clearly see the skeleton in the coffin.

"It seems like they were chopped off by the waist." After observing few of the coffins, Yi Yeyu said.

The rest of them did notice that as well.

The scene that he saw when he was looking at the sword marks appeared again. A young man in white rope cut the entire palace in half. Everyone in the palace, regardless of whether they were right under the sword or not, they were all cut in half…

"That's not important. Quickly leave after getting what we want." Lin Huang could vaguely feel that the skeletons have something to do with the scene that he saw in his mind.

Few of them flew past the coffins and arrived at the first treasure room situated on the left.

The area of the room was at least 10,000 square meters. There was a variety of relics, crystals, and other items. They occupied almost two-thirds of the room.

Lin Huang and the rest were going to make large sums of money as the number of relics alone was more than 10,000. The crystals of various colors could definitely fetch a good price as well.

"How could it be? There are so many of the God Crashers over here?!" Li Lang was standing on top of the treasure and suddenly, he discovered a cannon barrel. He immediately pulled it out.

Yi Zheng and Yi Yeyu went over to help him out.

A smile that could hardly be seen was plastered on Yi Zheng's face as he checked it. He did not have a poker face. After entering the ruins, he was always nervous and that was the reason why he rarely smiled.

"It's a third generation God Crasher that's still in a good condition. It looks like it has never been used before. It's precious!" Yi Zheng liked the God Crasher a lot.

Yi Yeyu wanted to take it from Li Lang but he did not want to let it go.

"Hey hey! I was the one who found the cannon. Could you please be reasonable?"

"Do you know how to use it?" Yi Yeyu rolled her eyes at Li Lang.

"I don't know how to use but I can keep it with me." Li Lang was not happy about it.

"Go away, don't spoil it!" Yi Yeyu said.

"Let's talk about this later when we get out of this place. I'll keep it with me first."

After a few moments, Lin Huang stored all the items in the room into his storage ring.

Yi Yeyu took the God Crasher from Li Lang as well and stored it in her storage ring.

After clearing the first room, they immediately headed towards the second room.

In the second treasure room, the number of treasures was rather similar to that in the first room.

They then proceeded to the third treasure room after searching through the second room.

Just as Lin Huang and the rest entered the third room, at the end of the underground plaza, the blood mist suddenly spread through the gap on the "red wooden" box.

At almost the same time, Bloody's leech pod exploded on its own.

Bloody noticed the problem and immediately contacted Lin Huang, "One of my leech pods have been destroyed. I don't know how it is destroyed but there might be something hidden underground. I didn't discover anything as I investigated previously. That being said, it might be able to get rid of the investigation of my leech pods."

As Bloody reminded, Lin Huang frowned.

Bloody was now an immortal-level rank-1. The unknown that could secretly destroy Bloody's leech pods, it must be something stronger than Bloody.

After collecting all the treasures in the room, Lin Huang immediately asked the rest to retreat, "Quickly leave!"

The rest were stunned but still, they followed after Lin Huang and rushed towards the underground entrance as they left the room.

"Isn't it there's another treasure room?" Li Lang asked when they left.

"We can't make it. There's an unknown monster hiding underground which has just destroyed Bloody's investigating pods." Lin Huang explained as they escaped.

Their face turned grave and headed towards the underground entrance at full speed.

At the end of the underground plaza, the blood mist released through the red wooden box became thicker. On the surface of the red wooden box, the black intricate pattern started turning into a golden color which resembled a little golden snake wriggling on the surface of the box. The red wooden box was vibrating vigorously as if it was suppressing something at full force.

As the vibration became stronger, the gap between the box became bigger as well. Eventually, a red glow erupted and flashed through the sky, creating a single arm.

After a few moments, a bloody mist spread out from the arm, gradually forming a humanoid creature which was in the mist form. Even the arm itself was shrouded in mist.

The creature that was entirely covered by the blood mist was three of the carrions that they fought in mid-air at the site where they were hiding.

At the back of the misty monster, the red wooden box was completely activated, and golden chains extended from it. The limbs and the neck of the misty monster were instantly locked in it and were being drawn backward.

As it was pulled by an immense strength, the misty monster was slowly falling down. However, it looked at Lin Huang and the rest that had reached the underground entrance at a distance of about 10,000 meters.

"Roar!"

It let out a furious roar and at the next second, its body had completely turned into bloody mist and diffused into the red wooden box. On the red wooden box, the golden pattern gradually faded and ultimately, turning into the black pattern it originally had. The underground plaza became quiet again.

When they reached the underground entrance, the monster roar that sounded very much like the rumbling of thunder was heard. They were frightened and broke out in a cold sweat.

As soon as Lancelot that was at the end of the line entered, Lin Huang who was standing next to the stone tower immediately turned the stone tower back and the underground entrance was closed.

"The growl was terrifying. What's that?" Li Lang had goosebumps when he heard that.

"It's not the right place to talk. Let's go!" It was apparent that Lin Huang did not want to stay there any longer. He immediately summoned the Dimensional Portal and the few of them who were there, entered.

At one of the underground floors of a medium-sized site that was thousands of kilometers away from the big-sized site, Lin Huang took out of his Black Ink.

Lin Huang put the Black Ink away in relief.

"What monster was it that just growled loudly? It has a terrifying roar and it gives me goosebumps!" Yi Yeyu exclaimed.

"Me too, I had goosebumps." Li Lang nodded his head in agreement.

"My heart skipped a beat at that instant…" Yi Zheng took a deep breath as he replied.

"If we were only one or two seconds slower, we might've died there." Leng Yuexin could finally calm herself down.

"I've no idea what that was. I only know that it has quietly killed off Bloody's leech pods. In addition to that, the investigation pods did not discover it earlier. I suppose it's stronger than me and that was exactly why I urged you guys to leave." Lin Huang explained. "However, from its growl, the abilities of the monster has to be beyond the imperial-level Eclipse Boa that I killed earlier. Fortunately, we managed to escape in time or we'll all be in great trouble."

Of course, they did not know that the monster that let out a loud roar in the underground had been sealed by the red wooden box. However, after experiencing what they had just been through, they had no intentions whatsoever of ever going to the big-sized site again.

They took out the items from three out of four treasure rooms, seemingly quite satisfied with they got.

"The sky is turning dark soon. Let's stop here. I've aged and I can't take the torture any longer." Yi Zheng took a look at the time and it was just slightly after 4 p.m. There were at least three hours before the sky turned dark but he did not want to go out anymore. He looked for a wall, leaning against it with his legs crossed.

The rest of them were relieved as they sat down.

As Lin Huang sat down, he searched through his storage ring and looked for the items that he just obtained with his mind. After a short while, he grinned. He raised his head, glancing at Yi Zheng and the rest. "Are you guys looking for the God Crasher? Among the items that we've managed to collect, including the one which Yi Yeyu took, we have a total of 12 God Crashers."

Yi Zheng and the rest opened their eyes wide, shifting their gaze to Lin Huang.

"Is that true? Don't joke about this or I'll be pissed." Yi Yeyu shook her fist at Lin Huang.

"I'm not joking. Each of us will get two God Crashers and there are two extras." Lin Huang smiled, as he nodded his head. "Let's divide the God Crasher among us first. We'll discuss the rest of the items as we get out of this place."

Lin Huang took out 11 of the God Crashers he had with him as he said, "Each of you please choose two!"

Each of them then took two God Crashers.

Yi Yeyu took two as well. Yi Zheng frowned and asked, "Don't you already have one with you?"

"Don't bother me!" Yi Yeyu pouted. She then told Lin Huang, "Please deduct the third God Crasher that I took from the other items."

Lin Huang nodded his head, storing three of the remaining God Crasher in his storage space as he replied, "I'll deduct it from the remaining items accordingly as well."

Aside from Yi Zheng, the rest of them had stored the God Crasher.

Yi Zheng looked at both of the God Crasher carefully. He then took out a lot of Life Crystals from his storage space and started inserting them into the power cabin to refill its Life Power.

Right this moment, Li Lang came, "Brother Zheng, since you have nothing to do, can you please teach me how to use the God Crasher?"

Yi Zheng smiled, nodding his head. "It's actually pretty simple. In order to use the God Crasher, the first step is to fill up its power. The latest God Crasher is highly compatible with the energy crystals. Aside from the Life Crystals, many of the energy crystals can be used as a source of energy. However, we now have the third generation God Crasher which can only support Life Crystals and some of the fire element crystals."

"It's easy to fill its power up. You just have to insert the energy crystals into the power cabin behind the barrel. Small crystals can be inserted in bunches but for the bigger crystals, you'll have to cut them into appropriately sized fragments before inserting them. The power cabin will automatically convert the energy within the energy crystals. The scale next to the power cabin shows the ratio of the power. As soon as it reaches 100%, stop inserting energy crystals into the power cabin or it'll explode. Also, the third generation God Crasher can only use a single type of crystal. Don't attempt to mix the powers of various crystals or the power cabin will explode as well."

"As soon as it has been charged, it can then launch attacks. You can stabilize it with a cannon carriage or with your shoulder. However, be aware of its recoil…"

Aside from Li Lang, Lin Huang and Leng Yuexin were paying attention to what he said as well.

Despite Yi Yeyu having never used it before, she was familiar with the God Crasher as she was born into a military family. She took out one of her God Crashers and handled it on her own.

It was about five o'clock in the afternoon after listening to Yi Zheng. Five of them played some card games after their dinner and soon, they were going at it with their own things.

At night, some of them had already fallen asleep while the others were still practicing their skills.

In the ruins, the night belonged to the monsters.

On the ground, many of the monsters started hunting for food. Killing and being killed was something normal.

However, all this had nothing to do with Lin Huang and the rest.

Some of them had slept soundly whereas some of them were still immersed in their thoughts, recalling the etchings that they saw as they continued practicing their skills.

A peaceful night passed.

The next morning, they departed to the next site after having their breakfast.

As usual, no monsters appeared during the daytime in the ruins. Only humans like Lin Huang and the rest were there during daytime.

They went to various sites during the daytime, taking the opportunity to rest inside the sites at night.

Before long, 10 days had passed.

Yi Zheng and Leng Yuexin could finally find their Life Fire monster and had obtained their Life Fire. They had leveled-up, with Yi Zheng now at the gold flame-level while Leng Yuexin managed to achieve the purple flame-level.

They were getting closer to the second blood sacrifice.

"There's another two days before the second blood sacrifice…" At night, on the second underground floor in a small-sized site, Lin Huang gazed upon the rest of them and said, "I'd suggest leaving in the afternoon on the day after tomorrow."

"I've nothing to add since I don't want to experience the blood sacrifice for the second time." Yi Yeyu laughed.

"Since the blood sacrifice will start at night on the day after tomorrow, we can still hunt for some treasures tomorrow in the afternoon." Li Lang nodded.

"I'd prefer to leave tomorrow before sunset. However, it's fine to leave in the afternoon the day after tomorrow as well." Yi Zheng nodded as well.

"What's your plan after leaving?" Leng Yuexin smiled, looking at Lin Huang.

"I'll be going to Division 3. I can hardly find a suitable Life Fire monster in Division 7 to upgrade my combat strength…" Lin Huang finally told them that he was going to leave. "One of the reasons that I invited you guys to enter these ruins is because I wanted to have a gathering before I leave. I thought that it'll be like a vacation, something where we can make some good memories. However, it ended up being a grade-5 ruin where we didn't manage to make any beautiful memories. Instead, we're all frightened…"

"You don't have to feel sorry for that. Being frightened can be very memorable too." Yi Zheng said seriously.

"Brother Zheng was right. It'll remind us of you when we encounter any dangers in the future." Li Lang continued.

Yi Yeyu and Leng Yuexin laughed with their mouth covered.

Few of them chatted until late at night.

However, Lin Huang and the rest did not know that at the city center situated tens of thousands of kilometers away, the bloody mist was spreading out of the red wooden box at the underground plaza again…

At the underground plaza at the large site, the bloody mist escaping from the gaps in the red wooden box got thicker.

The intricate golden pattern on the box began moving quickly and the bloody mist did not stop spreading.

After hibernating for almost half a month, the mysterious creature was struggling in the box and caught the red wooden box off guard on the night two days before the blood sacrifice.

As the red wooden box began vibrating vigorously, the bloody mist finally managed to free itself from the box, forming a human arm in mid-air. It was a man's arm, muscular with its veins bulging.

As soon as the arm was formed, a thicker mist was released. Again, a human-like silhouette was formed in the mist.

Countless golden chains suddenly shot out and tangled around the limbs of the misty shadow. Before its neck was locked in the fifth chain, the misty shadow attempted to break free of the chains and succeeded. It then appeared in the sky in a flash.

It was hanging in mid-air. The misty shadow lifted its head, staring at the red and purple moons in the sky.

With its mouth wide-open, countless monsters that were hunting for food on the ground rapidly turned into a bloody mist, drawn toward the misty shadow.

On this night, every single one of the monsters that were hunting for food suffered. Many of the monsters died without knowing why the blood sacrifice happened two days earlier.

After spending almost half an hour wiping out all the monsters in the ruins, the misty shadow suddenly stood still in its original position. After a few moments, it lifted its head and stared at the mid-sized site that was about 3,000 kilometers away from it. It was the site that Lin Huang and the rest were hiding at half a month ago.

"The ruins… The key…"

The voice was heard coming from its throat and soon, the misty shadow disappeared.

…

Early in the morning, after washing up, Lin Huang and the rest had a chat while having their breakfast.

"Lin Huang, have you chosen the site that we're going to yet?" Yi Yeyu asked while drinking her fruit juice.

"Yes, I've done it last night." Lin Huang nodded his head. "We're going to leave tomorrow so our schedule is full today. Let's see if we can manage to explore three mid-sized sites today. If we can't make it, I can help out when we're at the third site."

"If we're going to explore three sites, we may have to skip our afternoon break." It was obvious that Li Lang wanted to goof around.

"We're leaving tomorrow. We should go to as many sites as we can." Yi Zheng agreed with him. "Since all of us have leveled up, we can make it to three sites if we skip our afternoon break."

"Let's give it a try." Leng Yuexin nodded calmly.

After having their breakfast, they left the site.

Seeing the newly risen sun, Lin Huang felt safe.

"I've been staying in the ruins for a month and the only thing that can make me feel secure is the sun." Leng Yuexin said as she raised her head and looked at the sun.

"I haven't developed any special feelings for this place despite staying over here for an entire month. The only thing I feel is that I smell terrible. The first thing I'm going to do is to take a shower!" Yi Yeyu said with a smile.

"Don't just take a shower, we need a bath in a tub!" Li Lang was a clean freak but such behavior had gone for the past month.

Yi Yeyu laughed and remained quiet afterward.

"If we continue dreaming over here, we can't even finish going into two sites." Lin Huang laughed and stopped them from daydreaming. "Let's start working!"

"Lin Huang, if you were a businessman you'd be a terrible boss!" Li Lang teased.

Yi Yeyu and Leng Yuexin did the same thing to Lin Huang as well.

They were then guided by Lin Huang and headed towards the north.

Bai had been recalled by Lin Huang previously so Lancelot and the five of them began their journey. Just as they were less than 300 kilometers away from their destination, Lin Huang suddenly frowned. He saw the appearance of the red mist from afar that had blocked their way.

"What's that?!" Soon, Yi Zheng and the rest noticed that something was off.

Right this moment, a vivid scene suddenly appeared in Lin Huang's mind.

He could see that there was a human-shaped red mist lingering in mid-air, and it seemed like it was staring at the sky with its mouth wide open. Meanwhile, all the monsters on the ground both alive and dead had turned into a bloody mist. They were then engulfed by the misty shadow.

It was one of the scenes inherited from the Eclipse Boa's memory. It happened hundreds of years ago. According to its memory, the incident had almost turned Eclipse Boa into one of the sacrifices. Fortunately, they were close to the site so they managed to dive underground right at the moment when they noticed that something unusual was happening to escape the danger.

"Run!" At the very next moment that the memory flashed through Lin Huang's mind, his eyes dilated. He could roughly guess what the misty shadow was and immediately instructed the rest of them to flee.

At the same time, he summoned the Black Ink without a moment of hesitation and pulled them into the Dimensional Portal.

The instant when the door of the Dimensional Portal closed, Lin Huang could see the red mist already transforming into the human shape.

At the next moment, Lin Huang and the rest returned to the site where they were at early in the morning.

"What happened?" Yi Zheng frowned as he asked.

"I don't have the time to explain!" Lin Huang summoned his Black Ink again and set a location to a site that was more than 10,000 kilometers away. He then urged the rest to enter. "I can feel that it's not safe enough to stay here. We've to leave immediately!"

Yi Zheng and the rest followed as Lin Huang did not look like he was joking.

Just as they just entered the Dimensional portal to leave, the misty shadow appeared right above the site where they were hiding just now. It entered the site in a flash but noticed that the aura that was blocked by the site reappearing somewhere else. Following that, it went underground but still, it left empty-handed.

Looking in the direction where Lin Huang and the rest disappeared to, the misty shadow mumbled in a deep voice, "The ruin key…"

At the underground of one of the sites that were more than 10,000 kilometers away, Lin Huang and the rest stepped out of Black Ink.

"Can you please tell us what's happening now?" Yi Yeyu felt that what Lin Huang did was ridiculous.

"Did you ask us to escape because of the bloody mist? What's that?" Leng Yuexin could roughly guess why Lin Huang asked them to escape.

"If my guess is right, the bloody mist must be the mysterious monster that fought during the sacrifice with the three demigod remnants in the ruins." After uttering these words, Lin Huang told them about what he saw flashing through his mind.

The facial expression on their faces changed as soon as they heard that.

"How could that be?! Isn't the blood sacrifice happening tomorrow night? Why is it happening today, during daytime?!" Li Lang doubted.

"I've no idea why it suddenly appeared. We don't have time for that though." Lin Huang frowned. "Since the monster has appeared, it's not safe for us to stay here anymore. We have to return to the entrance of the ruins as soon as possible. We must unlock the entrance using the ruin key and leave!"

"It's not important anymore, regardless of whether the mysterious monster is capable of fighting the demigods. For the sake of our safety, it'll be best if we leave the ruins as soon as possible." Leng Yuexin caught a glimpse of Li Lang and she agreed with Lin Huang.

"Under such circumstances, we shouldn't put our faith in luck. We've to be prepared for the worst. According to what Lin Huang said, the bloody mist must be at least on the demigod-level. It's unlikely that we can win the fight. Leaving the ruins is indeed the only choice we have." Yi Zheng agreed with Lin Huang's decision as well.

"Let's leave today. I don't want to die in the ruins." Yi Yeyu said.

Seeing that the rest of them had agreed with Lin Huang's decision after shifting their gaze toward him, Li Lang said, "I don't mean to disagree with leaving the ruins today but I wonder, why did the mysterious monster appear during this particular time? However, it seems like the reason behind its appearance is no longer important. Also, regardless of whether it was the one who managed to defeat the demigod, that's no longer a concern. It's better for us to leave earlier so that I can take a hot shower."

"I can assure you that it's the one." Lin Huang was confident. "Before the Dimensional Portal closed, I saw the bloody mist transforming into the shape of a human, looking exactly the same as the mysterious monster that I saw in the Eclipse Boa's memory."

"I saw that as well…" Yi Zheng reassured.

Since both of them could confirm this, Li Lang was no longer putting his faith in luck.

"Lin Huang, will it discover us if we stay here?" Yi Yeyu was worried about it.

"It won't be able to find us within such a short period of time. Any form of external detection on the sites within these ruins is blocked. To find us, it'll have to follow the aura left on the ground and search through each site in the ruins. The site that we're at is more than 10,000 kilometers away from it." Lin Huang explained. He felt lucky that any form of external detection would be blocked at these sites.

"Have you set the location of the entrance in the Dimensional Portal?" This was Yi Zheng's greatest concern. "If you didn't, the monster will discover us as soon as we reach the ground. We'll definitely die."

"Of course I did. I set the location in my Dimensional Portal as soon as I entered the ruins." Lin Huang raised an eyebrow.

In fact, there were several weak points within the ruins that could be used as an entrance. There were quite a number of weak points where the ruin key could be used to unlock the entrances. This was also the reason why they would be sent to different locations each time they entered with the ruin key. However, Lin Huang and the rest had no time to look for other entrances. Therefore, they had to create a new entrance by relying on the location that they earlier entered from.

"I've already set the location. However, there's another problem that's even more troublesome. We need sufficient time to activate the entrance of the ruins. The rate of Life Power absorption of the ruin key is constant. It'll take me at least five minutes to insert a sufficient amount of Life Power into the key. Then, it's another process for the ruin key to open the entrance. It'll require about one to two minutes." Lin Huang sorted out another problem. "That being said, we'll be on the ground for at least six minutes. The misty monster might sense our presence."

"We have to take the risk. We can't wait here. The longer we stall, the higher the possibility that we'll be discovered." Leng Yuexin analyzed the situation calmly. "Even if we're not discovered today, tomorrow night is the blood sacrifice. This makes the situation even more dangerous."

"Miss Leng is right. We have no way out." Yi Zheng agreed with Leng Yuexin.

Lin Huang remained quiet for a moment but soon, it seemed like something had dawned upon him, "I understand now."

"What should we do now?" Li Lang immediately asked.

"Let's prepare for the worst…" Lin Huang was not relaxed, "Please charge all twelve of the God Crashers with the crystals that we obtained from the large site. Those are Terraflame Crystals. If the God Crasher is charged with those crystals, the effect will be much better than if we were to charge them with Life Crystals."

After he spoke, he took out enough yellow crystals to make them look like a hill, "Take it, I still have more if that's not enough."

They immediately took out their God Crashers, refilling it with the crystals.

"Brother Zheng, could you please help to fix the carriage?" Lin Huang then took out spare parts for the carriage. The items that they had obtained earlier had already been sorted by Bloody. Lin Huang could easily find what he wanted.

Yi Zheng then passed two of his God Crashers to Li Lang and started dealing with his things.

Soon after, all twelve of the God Crashers had been recharged, and Yi Zheng had fixed the carriage as well.

"I'll keep all the God Crashers with me. You guys aren't familiar with it. It'll be faster if I were to use it." Yi Zheng suggested. It was well established that he was an expert in operating the God Crashers. The rest of them were still new to it.

Yi Yeyu wanted to voice her disagreement. However, once she thought it over carefully, it was no longer important regardless of who owned the God Crashers since they were going to use them soon.

Lin Huang and the rest had no objections.

"What else do we need to prepare?" Yi Zheng put away all twelve of the God Crashers and the carriage. He then raised his head and looked at Lin Huang.

"Get ready. We might have to escape at any moment." Lin Huang shook his head with a smile, "When we encounter those on the demigod-level, there's nothing else we can use aside from the God Crashers. As soon as the exit opens, run as fast as you can."

"Haha, I'm good at escaping." Li Lang laughed. He and Yi Yeyu did not think any further.

However, Yi Zheng and Leng Yuexin looked at Lin Huang and instantly understood that Lin Huang intended to be the last to leave.

"Are you guys ready?" After recalling Lancelot into its card form, Lin Huang gazed upon the rest of them.

They nodded their head and as they saw Lancelot disappearing, they knew that even if it stayed, it would not be able to offer any assistance.

"Let's go!" After uttering his words, he summoned the Dimensional Portal once more. After setting up its destination, they pushed the door open.

Both of them strode into it. A few moments after the door was closed, the underground room within the ruins turned silent.

As they left the Dimensional Portal, they found themselves already at the entrance of the ruins that they were at a month ago.

It was a familiar scene… Aside from the dried up ground, there was nothing there.

After Lin Huang put away his Dimensional Portal, he took out the ruin key and immediately began inserting Life Power into it.

Yi Zheng then brought out the God Crashers.

The sun was hanging high up in the cloudless sky and time continued to pass in the ruins.

Yi Zheng and the rest were stressed out. They felt that the time was passing too slowly as each passing minute and second felt like endless torture.

Soon, five minutes had passed. The ruin key was now completely filled with Life Power as it left Lin Huang's palm. Ripples gradually formed in mid-air.

They were relieved. "Two more minutes and we'll be able to leave…" After Li Lang said this, the bloody mist appeared abruptly appeared less than a hundred meters away from them.

Seeing the appearance of the bloody mist, they were stunned.

"Yi Zheng, launch an attack!" Lin Huang immediately shouted. He no longer cared if he was yelling Yi Zheng's name.

Yi Zheng then snapped out of his trance, taking aim at the bloody mist.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Three consecutive shockwaves propagated in the air, along with a roar as the attacks struck the fist-sized bloody mist. The bloody mist was shrouded in the golden flares and let out a furious growl.

Right this moment, nine of the God Crashers were directed toward the bloody mist by his psychic abilities, defending themselves against the bloody mist.

The other three appeared in front of the three God Crashers that had been used to launch an attack instantly. They then rapidly refilled the God Crasher with the Terraflame Crystals.

The ruin key could transform into a door on its own and did not need much attention from Lin Huang and the rest. Then, they shot a deadly stare at the bloody mist.

After the smoke cleared, the bloody mist was now in a lighter shade.

Lin Huang noticed that the formation of the bloody mist was somehow affected by sunlight. When sunlight shone on the bloody mist, it faded a little along with a hissing sound. It sounded like oil, dripping off grilled meat before hitting the coals.

He was unsure if this was due to the effect of God Crasher but still, he told Yi Zheng, "Keep attacking. It can buy us some time!"

The exit behind them grew larger. However, they would need another minute before it was completely formed. Otherwise, the incomplete dimensional channel would crush them into pieces if they attempted to break in. They had no choice but to wait patiently.

Seeing that the God Crasher was seemingly effective, Yi Zheng was slightly relieved. Once again, he pushed the launch button on both God Crashers.

The next second, two golden flares shot up into the sky like a spotlight and enveloped the bloody mist again.

A loud explosion was heard again in the air, spreading around them in a radius that was tens of thousands of kilometers. The ground within that area trembled from the force.

The monsters that were hiding underground attempted to figure out where the explosion of the God Crasher came from in fear. The explosion that sounded very much like the rumbling of thunder, resembling a battle between the demigods. The monsters were considering if they should even hunt for food tonight.

After the second attack, Lin Huang and the rest stared at the bloody mist that was still lingering in mid-air. Before the smoke cleared, a bloody glow suddenly flashed in the sky.

After a few moments, the red glow exploded abruptly and released a large number of red clouds. Within a few moments, Lin Huang and the rest had been enveloped by the red clouds. Sunlight was completely blocked from entering and a radius that spanned hundreds of kilometers from where they were was now plunged into darkness, as if night had come early.

"What is it doing?" Yi Zheng and the rest found out that something was off.

"Sunlight will affect the formation of its body. Therefore, it's attempting to create night." Lin Huang frowned as he stared at the sky. It was impossible for the bloody clouds to clear in a short period of time.

In mid-air, the smoke seemed to be clearing.

Without sunlight, a human arm was gradually formed in the bloody mist, looking like an arm that was slowly extending from the mist.

Lin Huang and the rest felt goosebumps run through their skin as they saw what had happened.

"Continue the attack!" Lin Huang shouted.

Yi Zheng immediately launched an attack from three God Crashers.

Golden flares burst into the sky, enveloping the bloody mist like spotlights on a stage.

Right this moment, the arm was now fully extended from within the bloody mist. It managed to deflect the attacks from three of the God Crashers with its palm.

Lin Huang and the rest were stunned at what they had just witnessed.

Its arm was injured from the attack by the God Crasher, exposing its white bones. However, its wounds were soon enveloped by the bloody mist and were healed in just a few seconds.

"Before its body is completely formed, it can't move. It's now a live target!" Yi Zheng heard Lin Huang's voice again, "Continue attacking and stop it from fully forming its body. As long as we have enough time, we can definitely leave this place!"

Yi Zheng nodded his head and launched another two attacks.

Two golden flares blasted off into the sky again…

In mid-air, the arm of the misty monster that had just been healed took on another attack by the God Crasher.

The monster deflected the attacks with its arms again, its body forming rapidly from its successful defense.

Due to the limit on the refill speed for the God Crashers, Yi Zheng could only use two of them at a go. However, the attacks by two God Crashers were unable to break through the defense of its arms. It could only slow down its progress a little.

"What card can I use now?" Lin Huang was thinking about what he could do.

After a few moments, two cards appeared in his hand. They were the Misfortune Card and the Crippling Card.

"I can just try my best!" Right now, Lin Huang could no longer care how many cards he was going to use. Without a moment of hesitation, he crushed his Misfortune Card followed by the Crippling Card.

The effects of both of the cards afflicted the monster one after the other.

The body of the misty monster faded as soon as the Crippling Card was used. At this moment, a hurricane was formed, dispersing the bloody clouds in the air into several smaller wisps of clouds. The sunlight was now shining on them as usual and it had become rather intense. Since the monster had been weakened, the half-formed body of the monster reduced a little in size once the sunlight shone on it.

Yi Zheng thought that this was a blessing and immediately launched another attack. Lin Huang managed to buy them some time by using two cards.

The exit behind Lin Huang and the rest was almost fully formed. It could be stabilized in half a minute at most.

In mid-air, the misty shadow was slowly forming. Initially, they had no idea what the bloody mist was but now, they could finally see that it was a human figure. It was the mysterious monster that managed to fight the three demigod remnants from the Eclipse Boa's memory. Similarly, it was one of them who began the blood sacrifice in the ruins.

Lin Huang and the rest were racing against the clock and each played their own role. Even Bloody created a few of his clones to recharge the God Crashers with Life Power. At this moment, every second counted. All of them might die if they were even a second slower.

Yi Zheng who was responsible for the attacks had his back drenched with sweat. It was not because the weather was too hot, but was because he was nervous.

The God Crasher could no longer stop the formation of the human figure. It could only slow it down. Although everybody was racing against the clock, nobody had given up.

All of a sudden, they could feel a shockwave from behind them. The exit had finally been formed.

"Let's go!" Lin Huang shouted. Yi Zheng attacked with five God Crashers that had been recharged simultaneously.

The human figure was enveloped by the flares once again.

They did not even have the time to take back their God Crashers as the five of them immediately rushed toward the exit with Bloody by their side.

At that moment, a bloody whip suddenly appeared in the air, targetting Yi Zheng. Lin Huang saw it and immediately grabbed Yi Zheng's arm, pushing him toward the exit.

The bloody whip immediately shifted its target towards Lin Huang as soon as it missed its first target. As it twisted around Lin Huang's ankle, it dragged him out of the exit by force…

Seeing that Yi Zheng and the rest had already disappeared through the dimensional channel, Lin Huang turned his body around.

The human figure in mid-air was now fully formed as it stared at Lin Huang.

The bloody whip that entangled Lin Huang's ankle extended toward his body and soon, his body was completely bound. He could no longer move.

The misty shadow then beckoned Lin Huang toward it and stopped when he was a meter away.

"The ruins… Exit…" Again, the misty shadow uttered those words. It looked excited.

Through its shoulder, Lin Huang saw that there was a golden chain that extended behind the misty shadow.

"It kept me alive is because it can't escape!" He could suddenly understand what the misty shadow meant.

Right this moment, the misty shadow transformed into a bloody mist, spreading through Lin Huang's body through his mouth.

"Xiao Hei, help me! I'm going to die soon!" Seeing the bloody mist gushing into his body, Lin Huang immediately contacted Xiao Hei.

"With the current condition of your body, only the Seal Card can help you to escape this danger. However, the level of the monster is too high, and the success rate of the Seal Card is relatively low. You only have two Seal Cards with you now. If you need more, you can only draw it with 10 times of the normal draw rate to draw a specific card that you want…"

"Stop explaining and just use it! If 10 cards are not enough, use 20 of them, If 20 cards are not enough, use 30 of them. If 30 cards are not enough, use 100 of them! You have to seal it!"

"With the number of card draws you currently have, you can't draw 100 of them. With 600 card draws and with 10 times of the normal draw rate, you can only draw 60 Seal Cards."

"Stop it, I'm really dying…"

"Alright, I'll start using the Seal Cards to seal it."

"Using Seal Card x1, sealing the target… Failed!"

"Using Seal Card x1, sealing the target… Failed!"

"Seal Card has been used up. Using 10 card draws to obtain a Seal Card x1"

"Using Seal Card x1, sealing the target… Failed!"

…

"Seal Card has been used up. Using 10 card draws to obtain a Seal Card x1"

"Using Seal Card x1, sealing the target… Eh... Success!"

"Why did you say eh!" Lin Huang's weak voice was heard.

"Congratulations, you've used 29 Seal Cards and succeeded in sealing the target. Excluding the two Seal Cards that you already have, you've used up 260 card draws and 340 card draws remain."

Just as Lin Huang fell onto the ground, Xiao Hei's voice was heard again.

"I almost died…"

Lin Huang became limp, suffering from pain and feeling weak. The weakness he felt was as if he had gone to the toilet eighty times from food poisoning or that he had sex with his girlfriend eighteen times a day… Of course, the pain he suffered was due to the bloody whip used by the monster and it had nothing to do with his girlfriend at all.

"Hey, did you intentionally lower the success rate of the Seal Card? Why did I need 28 Seal Cards to successfully seal it?" Lin Huang grumbled weakly.

"In fact, you're considered lucky. Without the Misfortune Card, the success rate to seal it would be less than one ten-thousandth due to the difference in your combat levels. Even if you've used 10,000 Seal Cards, you might not be able to seal it."

"Well, we can't give all the credit to the Misfortune Card. The monster has been sealed previously but it managed to get rid of the seal. A huge portion of its strength was spent fighting against the seal. In addition to its abilities being suppressed by the sunlight, the crippling effect of the Crippling Card and the continuous attacks from the God Crashers suppressed his abilities. The combination of all that resulted in a substantial increase in the effect of the Seal Card. If you weren't lucky, even if you've used up all 600 card draws, you might not even be able to seal it with 62 Seal Cards."

"I actually doubted what you said. It's just a demigod…" Lin Huang said and took out the card that had been sealed. He was startled when he saw the card.

On the front of the card, there was a picture of an arm with a big red "sealed" word on it. The name of the card was – The Virtual God's Amputee.

Lin Huang immediately flipped to the back of the card.

"The Virtual God's Amputee."

"Rarity: Pseudo mythical-level."

"Combat Level: Virtual God (Broken)"

"Seal Target Description: The arm of the Virtual God. The rest of its body parts and its head has gone missing. Other information remains unknown."

"Warning: With your current combat level and the authorization level of the system, please do not unseal the card unless it's necessary. Once unsealed, you won't be able to reseal it for the second time. The amputee would completely break free of the seal."

"Now do you know why I told you that you were lucky?" Noticing that Lin Huang had finished reading the card's description, Xiao Hei's voice was heard again. "If it wasn't an amputee that has lost its Godhead, causing its rarity to be on the pseudo mythical-level, the Seal Card will have no effect on it at all."

Lin Huang put away his card and asked, "If the card isn't sealed, do you have any other way?"

"No, if the sealing of the card was unsuccessful, you'll be possessed by the amputee. Once you've lost your consciousness, I'll leave your body and be recalled back to the world of the Goldfingers. My memory and all my data will be cleared, waiting to be assigned to another host. As for your body, you'll become a puppet of the amputee."

Lin Huang remained silent, listening to what Xiao Hei just said.

"I forgot to remind you that if you didn't leave the ruins within ten seconds, you'll have to wait until next year."

"What?" Lin Huang was stunned. He just recalled that the ruin key had a time limit on the exit. If nobody closed it, it would close on its own after three minutes. Moreover, the entrance could only be externally activated once a year while the exit could only be internally opened once a year. If he had yet to leave after three minutes, the ruin key could only be used next year.

"10, 9, 8, 7…"

When he heard that Xiao Hei was counting down, Lin Huang immediately stood up and put away all twelve of the God Crashers into his storage. He then took a leap with his Thunder Step, transforming himself into a crimson-colored lightning and left through the exit of the ruins.

The moment he disappeared through the exit of the ruins took less than three seconds, but it caused the air around it to implode rapidly.

At the War Canyon outside the ruins, a shadow suddenly appeared from the black ripples.

"Lin Huang!"

Yi Zheng and the rest shouted in excitement from seeing Lin Huang escape from the ruins at the very last minute. Before Lin Huang could stabilize himself, Bloody twisted around his left arm again while the rest surrounded him as well.

"Are you okay? All of us thought that you have died." Yi Zheng and the rest came up to him, sizing him up to see if something was missing.

"I'm okay. Yes, I almost died." Lin Huang removed the dust on his clothes calmly. The amputee of the Virtual God had been sealed and the exit of the ruins had closed. He was not worried if anything could get out of the ruins.

"From your clothes, I can see that you're really clumsy just now." Yi Zheng teased Lin Huang since his clothes had been torn apart by the bloody whip that tangled him.

"How did you get out of the ruins? My brother told me that you were caught by the monster." Yi Yeyu immediately asked.

"I'm lucky enough. After catching me, something else seemed to have caught its attention. It dumped me and left." Lin Huang hid the truth and told them a story.

Yi Zheng and Leng Yuexin's eyes flashed with a trace of uncertainty. However, they did not ask any further.

Li Lang and Yi Yeyu thought that what he said was true.

"You're really lucky that you can survive that." Li Lang gave him a stare.

"The monster didn't eat you before leaving…" Yi Yeyu smiled evilly.

"It's great that you managed to survive that." Yi Zheng patted Lin Huang's shoulder. He knew that Lin Huang did not want to talk about that topic anymore and immediately changed the topic, "Thank you for taking care of us over the past month. Without you, we'd have died in the ruins."

"Brother Zheng, there's no need to thank me. I was the one who invited you guys to go into the ruins. It's my responsibility to make sure that all of you can leave the ruins safely." Lin Huang smiled, waving his hand. "Although the trip might not be a happy one, it's somehow a memorable one."

"We've been filled with fear every day over the past month but that's quite happy." Leng Yuexin said.

"I don't think that it's happy but it's indeed an exciting one." Yi Yeyu said.

"If there's something like that, don't forget to find us! As for the stuff that we've collected, don't forget to give me once you've done distributing them!" Li Lang did not forget about that.

"I'll have to consider whether to go on a trip like that with you guys since I'm getting old…" Before Yi Zheng could finish his words, Yi Yeyu interrupted.

"Damn, you're just two years older than me. Do you think that you're 20 years older than me?" Yi Yeyu rolled her eyes at him.

"When are you going to leave Division 7?" Yi Zheng ignored Yi Yeyu and asked as he wanted to change the topic.

"I'll leave most probably by the end of March or during the beginning of April. I'll have to deal with the stuff in Division7 first." Lin Huang thought for a while and realized that he had to deal with a few of the things before leaving Division 7. "Before I leave, I'll distribute the items that we have. I'll make a list and send it to you guys in the first place after I'm done with it. However, as for the items in the Emperor's Heart Ring that have to be unlocked, the person who unlocks it will request 30% of the total. Please bear that in mind."

"I understand that." Yi Zheng nodded.

"By the way, I took twelve of the God Crashers with me. I'll give them to you first." Lin Huang said, taking all twelve of the God Crashers out.

"One is enough for me. I don't need it actually." Leng Yuexin only took one of them.

"I only need one as well since it's just for my collection. There's no need to take two." Li Lang took one as well.

"I'll take two then. I'll give one of them to my father. People from the military like this." Yi Zheng took two God Crashers.

"I'll take two of them as well!" Yi Yeyu stared at Yi Zheng, "You give it to daddy, I'll give it to grandfather!"

Lin Huang had no choice but to put the remaining six God Crashers in his storage.

"Why are you guys giving half of them to me?" Lin Huang was speechless but he could roughly guess why Yi Zheng and the rest did that.

"It'll be useful when you go to the core zone. It means nothing to us and it should be given to people who need it more than us. Otherwise, it'll be a waste." Yi Zheng patted Lin Huang's shoulder again.

"None of the auction houses will accept the God Crasher and it's illegal to sell them at the black market. The Union Government will investigate it. My brother doesn't have the guts to sell it." Yi Yeyu said.

"I understand it." Lin Huang knew that Yi Yeyu was just trying to make him feel better.

"You must accomplish something at the core zone for the reputation of Division 7!" Li Lang patted Lin Huang's shoulder. "Next time, if I happen to visit the core zone, I'll brag about you to the others and say, Lin Huang is my brother!"

"Lin Huang, all the best to you!" Yi Yeyu clenched her small fists.

"I hope we get the chance to meet again in the core zone." Yi Zheng did not say any other thing.

"It's dangerous at the core zone, be careful." Leng Yuexin said seriously.

"I'll remember that." Lin Huang nodded, saying goodbye to the rest while waving his hand, "Take care guys. I hope to see you guys again!"

Seeing the dimensional relic send them away, Lin Huang rubbed Boody's head and said, "It's time to for us to leave as well."

After summoning his Black Ink and when he was about to enter, a notification suddenly arrived.

Lin Huang then tapped open the communication page. Apart from a few of the missed calls he received, there were more than ten incoming messages.

The message that he just received was from Liu Ming. Lin Huang read it.

"Please get back to me as soon as possible when you read this message!"

Lin Huang did not pay much attention to it as it was just a simple message. However, his facial expression changed as soon as he closed the communication page. The reason behind this was because Liu Ming had sent 25 to 26 messages like this over the past month. He sent him a message like that almost every day.

Liu Ming must not be joking as he had sent him so many messages. Lin Huang immediately called him back.

The video call was answered after it rang once.

"Brother Liu, are you looking for me?" On the screen, Liu Ming looked distraught.

"I've been looking for you for a month. Finally, I got in touch with you." Lin Huang was curious as to why Liu Ming was looking for him. "Just as I opened the communication page, I saw more than 20 messages from you. What happened?"

"Go home first. I'll talk to you face to face." Liu Ming did not say what had happened.

"Okay, I'll send you the address."

"I have your address. You don't need to send it to me. I still have some work to do. I'll be there in about three minutes." Liu Ming hung up the call straight away.

As he closed the communication page, Lin Huang immediately pushed against the dimensional relic, stepping into it.

As he returned home at the Winter City, Lin Xin was not home. The doors and the windows were closed and the house was clean and tidy. She had started school half a month ago at the Martial Hunter College. She must have gone back to the White Capital.

After changing his clothes in his room, Lin Huang heard a knock on the door. He immediately ran down the stairs to open the door.

Liu Ming was standing at the door, wearing a grey wind coat. He looked more distraught than he was in the video call.

As Liu Ming went into his house and sat on the sofa, Lin Huang went to the kitchen. He wanted to brew a cup of tea for Liu Ming. However, he realized that there was no hot water at home. Lin Huang then made him a glass of fruit juice.

"Brother, why are you looking for me?"

Liu Ming took over the glass of fruit juice and simply put it on the tea table. He nodded his head at Lin Huang and said, "Sit down first."

Lin Huan then sat on the comfy chair. Looking at the serious expression on Liu Ming's face, he knew that something serious must have happened.

"It's about Mr. Fu." After finishing his words, he stared at the tea table and remained quiet for a while, organizing his thoughts before proceeding.

'Something happened to him?' Lin Huang was shocked. However, he did not ask that, patiently waiting for Liu Ming to continue with his thoughts.

"I wanted to tell this to you face to face because it might involve some of the top management from the Union Government. Our conversation might be tracked if we communicated through the Emperor's Heart Ring." Liu Ming told him the reason that he wanted to meet him.

Lin Huang nodded and did not interrupt him.

"At the end of the year, Mr. Fu visited one of the ruins and he came back last month. He could not get to you when he came back so he asked me to get in touch with you as soon as possible and bring you to him." Liu Ming explained.

"What's wrong with him?" Lin Huang asked.

"He's injured but his life is not at risk." Despite saying that, Liu Ming did not stop worrying.

"That's great…" Lin Huang felt relieved, "So should we go now?"

"I'll bring you there later. However, I have something else to tell you before that." Liu Ming paused for a moment and proceeded, "Although you're Mr. Fu's true apprentice, I guess that you don't have a good understanding of him. Perhaps he won't tell you about his past but let me do it for him.

Lin Huang nodded his head, patiently waiting for Liu Ming to proceed.

"We're not from the same generation. Mr. Fu is born in ancient times. Not only did he participate in the war due to the opening of the Virtual Eye that happened more than 800 years ago, he's also one of three commanders in the human world. He's also one of the three Virtual Gods that's still alive…"

Lin Huang was stunned. He actually wondered if Mr. Fu was a demigod. However, he never expected Mr. Fu to be the Virtual God.

"Despite the fact that monsters had been sealed, humans suffered greatly in the war that happened 800 years ago. Mr. Fu was severely injured and his Godhead was damaged. The other two Virtual Gods died and half of those on the demigod-level were either injured or dead as well. The human race has indeed suffered a major loss."

"Although the monster hordes have subsided and the Virtual Eyes have closed, the world we now know has become the ruins. Mr. Fu and humans that survived were forced to establish the Union Government. They then gathered all the residents that were still alive and built the No.0 Safe Zone which is now so-called the Land of Origin."

"They recuperated at the Land of Origin for decades before humans were able to have a stable life after the war. They slowly expanded after hundreds of years, constructing the safe zones one by one. That's how we came to have the three core zones with the other safe zones."

"Mr. Fu was the first president of the Union Government in the new era. He took up the position for more than 50 years right until the Land of Origin became prosperous. He then offered the position to the second president. This is also the reason why many of the organizations respected Mr. Fu, including those from the underworld. Not only are they afraid of Mr. Fu's abilities, they also know that without Mr. Fu, the human race might've gone extinct 800 years ago."

Lin Huang was shocked when he heard this. He had never expected that would be Mr. Fu's actual identity and status. He finally understood why Liu Ming, Teacher Li and the rest of them from the Hunter Association would become Mr. Fu's biggest fans.

"You mentioned that his injury might be related to some of the top management from the Union Government. What's that about, then?" Lin Huang asked.

"The ruins that Mr. Fu went into were the place where the war happened 800 years ago. It's also the place where the monster is sealed. He went to the ruins previously because the Union Government informed him that the seal has loosened and they requested him to reseal the monster."

"However, as he entered the ruins, Mr. Fu realized that the seal has obviously been broken by someone else. Fortunately, the monster was not completely unsealed. After that, he only managed to seal it with a great amount of effort. Once the seal on the monster was complete, a few demigods clad in black robes took the opportunity to attack Mr. Fu as a large portion of his Life Power has already been drained."

"After a fierce fight, Mr. Fu managed to escape from the ruins. He went to look for the keeper of the ruin key and discovered that the demigod who's the keeper of the key has gone missing. He was angry and looked for the president of the Union Government. However, after the investigation, they came up with a conclusion, saying that nobody has actually informed Mr. Fu that something was amiss with the ruins. They even told him that the keeper of the ruin key was on leave a week ago as the keeper was going into one of the ruins. Nobody could find him in a short period of time."

"Mr. Fu suspected that there's a spy from the Union Government who's at the senior executive level. There has to be one of them who masterminded the attack and even covered the truth."

"He's now injured and dares not reveal his location. Therefore, he asked me to contact you. Not many know about the relationship between us both. He secretly came to my house that day and nobody even knew."

"I understand. Bring me to his house." After listening to what Liu Ming said, Lin Huang did not want any further delays as he nodded his head.

The place where Mr. Fu was hiding in was a forbidden land called the Peaceful Ocean.

It was the largest ocean in the war, with an area that covered eight out of the twelve safe zones. Division 7 was one of them.

Aside from that, the opening of the first Virtual Eye that happened 800 years ago was in the sky above the Peaceful Ocean.

The danger level of the ocean was ranked third on the world's forbidden land board. Not only were there a large number of imperial-level monsters in the ocean, even those who were on the demigod level were present there.

As Lin Huang and Liu Ming stepped into the dimensional portal, Lin Huang regained his senses as they appeared on a ship.

As usual, Mr. Fu was fishing leisurely at the edge of the ship.

"Sir." Lin Huang gradually walked towards him.

"My good apprentice, you're here." Mr. Fu smiled, squinting his eyes. He then turned his head around to look at Liu Ming to say, "Thank you. Stay here for dinner tonight."

"Sure." Liu Ming nodded his head respectfully. He did not want to interrupt the conversation between them so he turned around and left for the cabin of the ship.

"Sir, are you okay?" Lin Huang was worried. After knowing Mr. Fu's identity and achievements, his respect for the elder grew.

"They're just some minor injuries. I'm fine." Mr. Fu waved his hand and patted the deck, "Have a seat. I'll get you a big fish."

"Do you still have another fishing rod?" Lin Huang sat with his legs crossed and asked with a smile.

"Yes, I do but this place is not for you. You're my only apprentice. I don't want you to be eaten by the fish." Mr. Fu smiled, shaking his head.

Lin Huang then recalled that he was at the Peaceful Ocean. All the regions in the Peaceful Ocean in Division 7 were classified as forbidden land as imperial-level monsters were present there. It was indeed not suitable those on the holy fire-level like him to fish there.

"You just wait for the food to be served today." Mr. Fu then noticed Lin Huang feeling embarrassed so he said, "We haven't met each other for a long time, let's have a chat."

"Alright." Lin Huang nodded.

"I heard it from Xiao Liu that you've resigned from your job at the Martial Hunter College a year ago?" Mr. Fu asked.

"Yes, I did. I've read most of the resources available in the library. I've even downloaded the reading materials that I haven't read before I left." Lin Huang nodded his head. "It's difficult for me to look for a Life Fire monster in Division 7. Therefore, I've already made plans to go to Division 3 by the end of March or sometime at the beginning of April after I'm done with things in Division 7."

"Great minds think alike. The main reason why I asked you to work as a teacher at the Martial Hunter College is to hope that you can gain some experience there. You've been leveling-up too quickly and that's why you'll be less experienced than those from royalty. You've been doing pretty good over the first half-year. I've been watching the videos of your lectures. I can see that in order to give a good lecture, you've been exploring different areas. In certain areas, you even have your own understanding of the subject matter. There's indeed no longer a need for you to stay in the Martial Hunter College as you've achieved your goal of being a teacher."

"The plan I previously had for you was to be a teacher for one semester. I'd then send you to Division 3. However, I didn't think about the issue regarding the Life Fire monster. I feel that nobody in Division 7 who's in your generation that can go against you. You'll meet many young geniuses in the core zone. By then, you' might be even more motivated to train."

"I've planned it out for you earlier. I'd send you to Division 3 as my apprentice, and the people over there will take care of you. However, it seems like all this is unnecessary now. You'll have to disguise yourself if you're going to the core zone. You've to change into an identity that has got nothing to do with me as well." Mr. Fu said with an apologetic look.

"Does it have to do with the people in the black robes who attacked you?" Lin Huang knew that Mr. Fu did not want him to get involved in that issue.

"Xiao Liu has told you about that?" Mr. Fu frowned as he asked. He was not surprised though.

"Yes." Lin Huang nodded his head. He briefly told him what they had talked about earlier. "Do you have any clues regarding who the demigod in black robes are?"

"No, I don't for now but one thing I can confirm is that there must be a spy in the Union Government. Otherwise, they won't be able to set a trap for me." Mr. Fu frowned and said, "Since they have the guts to provoke me, you won't be safe as well. Therefore, if you're going to the core zone, you have to fake an identity which has nothing to do with me."

"Regarding the incident that you've been attacked, the Union Government found nothing from their investigation?" Lin Huang asked again.

"It has been a month but yet they have no clues regarding the matter. This is also the reason why I can confirm that the people who attacked me must be connected to the Union Government. Somebody has interfered with the result of the investigation." Mr. Fu was helpless.

"Could they be your enemies?" Aside from seeking revenge on him, Lin Huang could not think of any other motives. Supposedly, Mr. Fu no longer held the public's attention. He no longer has a beneficial relationship with anyone else. Lin Huang could not think of a better reason other than them wanting to take revenge on Mr. Fu.

"Most of my enemies have died 800 years ago. Newer enemies would only backstab me." Mr. Fu knew that Lin Huang was trying to identify the reason why Mr. Fu's enemy would attack him. "There are indeed many of them who wanted to kill me but that's not because of hatred."

"Many of them want to kill me because I'm the last Virtual God in the world. Despite the fact that my Godhead has been broken, I'm still a genuine Virtual God." Mr. Fu said as he lifted his head and stared at one of the clouds in the sky, "They wanted to know how to become a Virtual God and that's why, they attempted to kill me. My dead body means a lot to many of the organizations and people. It's an extremely important research material."

Lin Huang kept quiet as he heard that. He suddenly recalled the character, Xuanzang in the story of the Journey to the West. All the monsters wanted to eat Xuanzang's meat. It was not because he had done something wrong but it was because the monsters desire longevity. The desire could only be fulfilled by eating Xuanzang's meat. For this case, Mr. Fu was like Xuanzang. The people attacked him to satisfy one simple yet selfish desire — to become a Virtual God.

"Why did they choose to act now?" Another question flashed through Lin Huang's mind. Mr. Fu had never encountered a problem like that over the past 800 years. Lin Huang wondered why he was attacked at this juncture in time.

When he heard the question from Lin Huang, Mr. Fu remained silent for a long while. After two to three minutes, he then turned his head around, looked at Lin Huang and said disappointingly, "It's because… I have only three years to live."

Lin Huang was stunned when he heard Mr. Fu's reply. He was immersed in his thoughts for a long while.

"My Godhead was broken during the battle that happened more than 800 years ago and I was severely injured. It's not easy for me to live until this very day. It's actually not a secret as many of them know that I'm going to die soon, so most of them are waiting for that day to come. The reason they attempted to trap me this time was probably because they're afraid that they won't be able to get to my dead body after I've passed on. They might also choose to kill me before that happens due to some other reasons."

"I'm sure that the incident of those people attacking me has something to do with the Union Government. It can't be kept secret from the public eye. Once they spread the news to the public, many of them will have the desire to do so. The people do understand that a strong tiger won't be able to defeat its enemies in an outnumbered fight, let alone a strong tiger that's about to die."

"Sir…" Lin Huang had no idea what he should say to comfort Mr. Fu so he secretly contacted Xiao Hei through his mind.

"Xiao Hei, are there any cards that can be used to repair Mr. Fu's Godhead?"

"No. Due to the restriction placed on your authorization, all the Function Cards will only work on the second level creatures. Any creature that possesses a Godhead belongs to third level creatures. These creatures are of higher level than the second level creatures."

Lin Huang was helpless when he got Xiao Hei's opinion. After keeping quiet for a moment, he suddenly thought of the items he had that might be able to help Mr. Fu. He immediately took them out.

"Sir, please take the God Crashers with you. If you're attacked by the demigods, these weapons might be able to save you some energy." Lin Huang took out five of the six God Crashers, reserving one for himself for emergency use.

"I don't need the God Crashers." Mr. Fu smiled, shaking his head. "Thank you for your concern. However, these weapons aren't effective on the demigods. It can only slow them down but it can do no harm to them."

Mr. Fu caught a glimpse of the God Crashers that Lin Huang took out as he said. He was startled, "Is this the third generation God Crasher? Where did you get it?"

"It's one of the items that I got it from the ruins." Lin Huang explained.

"What kind of ruins was that?" Mr. Fu asked curiously.

Lin Huang hesitated for a moment and decided to tell him everything that happened in the grade-5 ruins.

Mr. Fu remained silent for a long while as he heard that. He then said, "I didn't know that the ruin key of the war ruins would have been taken by the Saint members…"

"The war ruins?"

"The war that happened 800 years ago broke the ground into pieces. It was not the protoss who caused this to happen. It was caused by one of the servants of the protoss and a few of his subordinates. We ended up not being able to kill them as they had the blood of the True God in their body. We could only seal them."

"A few of the Virtual God and I sealed the subordinates in one of the spiritual volcanos. The volcano now belongs to Division 3."

"As for the servant who's the strongest among them, I chopped his head, limbs, and chest into six parts. They were sealed in six different battlegrounds. Soon after, a few of the demigods who possessed good dimensional skills and I joined to make six of the battlegrounds into the ruins."

"The ruins that you've been to must be one of the ones where his limbs were sealed in. The Union Government has lost two pairs of keys through all these years. One of them was the one where his left arm was sealed while the other was the ruins where his right leg was sealed. The ruins where I was trapped was the one where the servant's most powerful part was sealed. Because his Godhead could be found in his chest, so it took me a great amount of effort to reseal it."

Listening to what Mr. Fu said, Lin Huang finally knew whose arm was sealed by his Seal Card.

"To prevent chaos, we came up with a lie and told everyone that we killed the protoss who invaded. In reality, the invader wasn't a real protoss. It was just a God's servant. The irritating thing was that we didn't even manage to kill the god's servant and subordinates. We only sealed them." Mr. Fu had regret written all over his face when he talked about the past.

"Is the protoss really that powerful?" Lin Huang had only heard of the protoss from Xue Luo, but she had not revealed much about it.

"Our understanding about the real protoss is limited as well. All we know is that they have the bloodline of the True God or above, and they'll level up to a Virtual God automatically when they became an adult. Due to their powerful bloodline, even when they're only a Virtual God, their ability is comparable with a True God's."

"The God's Servants are the protoss's bodyguards that usually possess powerful talents at least the level of a Human Genius's. They're like high-level house servants among the protoss. Meanwhile, the God's Subordinates have ordinary talents, but their combat level is high. They're considered low-level house servants among the protoss whereby they'd have to do menial tasks. I heard that protoss will usually have at least two God's Servants and 20 God's Subordinates with them. Therefore, a lone protoss would mean a powerful army."

"The ones that attacked us were just a God's Servant and 12 God's Subordinates. Their master was a True God with 12 God Servants and 200 God's Subordinates. The God's Servant that attacked us ranked the last three among the 12 God Servants."

"The reason why we couldn't kill the God's Servant and 12 God's Subordinates was that each of them had the blood of the True God in them, which came from their master. They won't die unless the blood of the True God is destroyed."

"Is there nowhere to destroy the blood of the True God?" Lin Huang asked.

"It isn't difficult to destroy the blood of the True God as a Virtual God, but the problem is its master will sense it immediately as soon as the blood of the True God in their bodies were destroyed. By then, our world would be doomed if the True God brought its entire army to attack us."

Lin Huang finally understood that it was not because Mr. Fu and the rest lacked the capability to kill the God's Servant and 12 God's Subordinates, but merely because they could not.

"Throughout hundreds of years, some lunatics founded an organization called the Saint and the True God that they're worshipping is the God's Servant's master that we sealed. They call themselves the followers of the True God with the aim of cleansing the world's sins and letting the True God rule the world. They've been studying how to destroy the blood of the True God throughout the years to summon the protoss. They've tried to unseal it many times, but they were stopped."

"What a bunch of idiots." Lin Huang commented about the Saint without thinking twice.

"We've basically retrieved all these information about the protoss from the God's Servant and 12 God's Subordinates' memories, but we're unable to extract their full memory, so the information is limited," Mr. Fu explained before he waved his hand. "We've gone off topic. Let's talk about what we're supposed to talk about."

"I still have three years to live, so you must grow within these three years to at least an imperial-level as well as have the ability to fight a demigod. I know it's hard, but you have to try your best to fulfill this," Mr. Fu said in all seriousness.

"Nobody will dare to hurt you during these three years as nobody would want to get it from me. As soon as I'm dead, they'll come to do so ruthlessly. By then, you'll be their second target after they get my dead body. Just because you're my apprentice, whether or not you know about my becoming a Virtual God, those who desire to become a Virtual God won't let you go."

Lin Huang knew very well that once Mr. Fu died, he would be the secondary target.

"I won't slack these few years, and I'll try to get to imperial-level as soon as possible."

"Becoming a Virtual God isn't a secret actually. The cultivation before the new epoch was different. During that time, we didn't have to kill monsters to upgrade our combat level, but we cultivate instead. As long as we do that, our combat level would increase. However, since the Virtual Eye opened 800 years ago, the rules of the world changed, and people relied on killing monsters to increase their combat level. There're no Virtual God monsters in this world, so nobody can become a Virtual God now."

"The cultivation that we practiced last time was difficult. One of the factors was the person's talent while another would be the time that was put in. You've been trained in Army Attack Tactics before, so you should know how difficult it is to get to level-9. Our cultivation started with training the Army Attack Tactics to level-10, and we would practice the Twisted Fate Scripture after that. That was the real cultivation. There weren't many powerful people during the old epoch as it was difficult, and on the other hand, there weren't many techniques to the Twisted Fate Scripture back in those days."

"Don't the demigods know that your cultivation technique was different?" Lin Huang asked.

"They basically did." Mr. Fu smiled awkwardly and shook his head.

"But what can they do? Even if they know that I used a different cultivation technique, they might still be able to retrieve something from my dead body. Moreover, they were a few of the demigods were cultivators like me. They'd want my dead body even more."

"Is there really no way to break through Virtual God with our part of cultivation?" Lin Huang was concerned that he might get stuck at demigod-level in the future.

"There are two ways. One is to tweak the old epoch's cultivation path whereby you'll learn Army Attack Tactics until level-10 and then train in the Twisted Fate Scripture after that to create a second cultivation system in your body. The other way is to go into the virtual zone to kill Virtual God monsters."

"All of the demigods know about the two different ways. However, they're not good enough to go for the first option as it's hard to progress as soon as one gets to level-8 in Army Attacks Tactics. Only a few of them managed to train until level-9. Meanwhile, not many people will want to go for the second option as nobody has ever returned as soon as they enter the virtual zone, not a single one. Even the saying about Virtual God monsters in the virtual zone is a myth since nobody has ever proven that."

"Because of that, all they can do is to look for shortcuts." Mr. Fu knew very well the reason why the demigods targeted him.

"I announced the Army Attacks Tactics ever since I discovered the disadvantages of the cultivation system. Some of them trained up to level-10 and studied the Twisted Fate Scripture later on to become a Virtual God or even a True God, preventing the world from being destroyed if it were to be attacked in the future."

"I asked you to be my apprentice because besides your personality, you have been trained in Army Attack Tactics pretty well, which proves that your talent is outstanding," Mr. Fu finally told Lin Huang why he had chosen Lin Huang to be his apprentice.

"You haven't been practicing the Army Attack Tactics for the past two years. You should practice whenever you have the time. As soon as you reach level-10, the Twisted Fate Scripture will be activated automatically. It's possible to level up to a Virtual God or even a True God as long as you have enough time and resources."

"I'll remember that." Lin Huang nodded.

"Speaking of the Army Attack Tactics, I must mention my first apprentice. You're my second apprentice, but I had an apprentice during the old epoch called Mo Kui. He only spent three years to reach level-10 Army Attack Tactics. His talent was way above genius level. I've always regarded myself as a genius, but I was nothing like him since I spent five years to complete level-10 Army Attack Tactics." Mr. Fu looked at the calm sea, seemingly reminiscing about something.

"Bro Mo Kui…"

"He became a Virtual God in less than 200 years, and he's no less powerful than I am," Mr. Fu paused.

"He blocked an attack from the God's Servant during the battle 800 years ago and died… That silly kid, if he were still alive, he would definitely be a True God by now…"

Both of them fell silent after the conversation. Around three to four minutes later, the fishing rod in Mr. Fu's hands was tugged at. He snapped out of his silence.

"Hehe, a fish is hooked. We have something for lunch and dinner today!"

Mr. Fu's fishing rod was not an ordinary one. It became a bow as soon as the fish monster was pulling in the water. He grinned as he attempted to tug at the fish monster with one hand. Half an hour later, the fish monster was finally exhausted. Mr. Fu had had his fun and dragged the fish monster of the water. It landed on the deck. Only then did Lin Huang notice that the ship was not the same Red Devil as before but another one which was much bigger.

The fish passed out as it landed on the deck.

"A Crimson Arowana?!" Lin Huang exclaimed when he saw the fish that measured hundreds of meters long which occupied half of the deck. The Crimson Dragon Fish was a sky dragon monster which ranked on top of its species. Such a monster would level up to imperial-level automatically once it became an adult. It was powerful whenever it was in the water. If the thickness of dragon blood in its body increased to a certain level, it would evolve into a dragonkin that was comparable with a demigod called the Crimson Dragon.

As Lin Huang was thinking about the Crimson Dragon, it was only natural for him to compare Charcoal which was also a dragonkin. Charcoal had high-level dragonkin blood now. It would probably be classified as a Virtual God now if its combat level had not been suppressed by Lin Huang's combat level. It would be able to toss the Crimson Dragon around and might even be more powerful than the God's Servant that was sealed. Lin Huang was even more eager to increase his combat level.

"What's that noise!?" Liu Ming dashed from the cabin as he heard the loud thud and the ship trembled. He was stunned to see the gigantic Crimson Arowana.

"There are only a few Crimson Arowanas around this area. This is the third one I've gotten this month. How lucky for the both of you!" Mr. Fu chuckled as he put his fishing rod away. He stood up, patted his chest and walked to the motionless fish. He then started gutting the fish with his knife.

In less than a minute, the fish was cleaned and chopped into many pieces. Half an hour later, a bowl of fresh fish soup was served. It was a filling lunch, and Lin Huang had too much to eat. Liu Ming sat aside with his big tummy that made him look like he was three months pregnant.

"It's been a while since I tasted your cooking. I've had too much to eat today." Liu Ming was embarrassed.

"It's been almost two years since I last tried Sir's fish soup," Lin Huang said.

"As long as you guys like it." Mr. Fu nodded happily. It was an achievement for a chef to render his customers into a food coma.

"Take a rest and digest the food well. Xiao Liu, you'll practice sword with Lin Huang later."

"Sure, it's been almost two months since we last practiced together," Liu Ming said, then he looked at Lin Huang with his eyes wide open.

"You've leveled up to level-4 already?!"

"I just broke through a few days ago." Lin Huang smiled and nodded.

"Did you get the Sword Heart already?" Liu Ming thought it was unbelievable.

"No, I would love to, but I haven't found any monster that's suitable enough to obtain such a skill." Lin Huang shook his head.

"How could you be so talented in Sword Dao without the Sword Heart?" Liu Ming was stunned.

The Sword Heart was a unique monster skill that was like the Saber Heart. It could speed up the realization of all sword skills. Of course, it would depend on the person's talent as well. Lin Huang had always wanted to find a triple mutated monster with Sword Heart to extract its Life Fire, but there was no such monster in Division 7. There were only double mutated monsters.

"I've spent more than 30 years to get to level-4 Sword Dao with the Sword Heart. You've only been training for three years, right?" Liu Ming was who always proud of himself felt useless in front of Lin Huang.

"Actually, I've only taken less than two years," Lin Huang thought to himself as he peeped at Liu Ming and decided not to tell the truth.

Mr. Fu knew the truth, and he smiled without saying a word. After chatting for a while, they stood up and got ready to practice as they did not feel as full as before. Just as Lin Huang took out his sword, Liu Ming and Mr. Fu noticed the crack on the sword. It was the sword that Liu Ming had given him in front of Mr. Fu. Mr. Fu was shocked to see the crack on the supreme relic sword.

"Bro, what's with the crack on your sword?" Liu Ming was even more shocked than Mr. Fu was. It was quite impossible to crack a supreme relic even if he used an ancient relic sword and gave his all.

"I encountered a powerful monster in the ruins, and it did this to my sword. I might've died in the ruins if I didn't manage to kill it," Lin Huang smiled awkwardly as he explained.

"Even I might not be able to crack a supreme relic. Lin Huang must be something else to be able to escape from such a powerful monster," Liu Ming thought to himself without asking further.

Mr. Fu looked at Lin Huang and was impressed by how Lin Huang managed to survive.

"Is there any way to fix this sword?" Lin Huang could not activate an ancient relic before he reached immortal-level, and it was the best sword that he had.

"I shall give you another one then," Liu Ming said and took out a black sword for Lin Huang from his Emperor's Heart Ring.

The sword was completely ebony in color with light silver patterns on the handle.

"This…" Lin Huang longed for the sword, but he was embarrassed. After all, Liu Ming had given him a sword before, and this black sword was obviously another supreme relic which was expensive.

"Take it. We're family. There's no need to feel bad," Mr. Fu offered.

"This is Ink. I've never used it before as I've treated it as a collectible ever since I bought it as there aren't many swords that are completely black like this. It'll be the sword's honor to be used by you," Liu Ming said to Lin Huang.

"Thank, Bro!" Lin Huang took the sword without beating around the bush.

"It's not difficult to fix your sword. Give it to me. I'll fix it and bring it back a few days later." Liu Ming smiled.

"Sure." Lin Huang passed the sword to Liu Ming. He observed the sword for a while and stored the sword in his Emperor's Heart Ring. He then took out another supreme sword relic.

"Alright, let's practice now!" Liu Ming looked at a Lin Huang.

"Yes, please!" Ink transformed into the mode that Lin Huang was familiar with.

Liu Ming practiced with Lin Huang for the entire afternoon while Mr. Fu watched. They had dinner past 6 p.m. before Mr. Fu asked Lin Huang to stay after sending Liu Ming off.

"I've basically let you do whatever you wanted for the past two years and didn't teach you much as you have better talent than I do. It wouldn't be right for me to teach from my experience as it might even restrict your development."

"In reality, you have proven that what I've done was the right thing since you're now far ahead than I expected. Of course, I'm not talking about your combat level, but your Sword Dao, your escape ability and some of your other tricks." Mr. Fu figured that Lin Huang must have some secret escape ability that nobody knew about based on the crack on the supreme sword relic, but he did not dwell on it.

"You're on your own path in Sword Dao, which is what people can usually manage to do after tens of years or even a hundred years. Although you've just only built your foundation, it's very impressive seeing that you've only been practicing for two years. Even without the Sword Heart, I can foresee that you'll be extraordinary in Sword Dao in the future.

"However, there's still much to learn to become a really powerful person besides learning battle techniques. Stay here with me before heading to the core zone. I can get someone to run your errands. If there're things that you must do yourself, you can do them after you leave."

"I really do have some errands, but it'll be fantastic if you can get someone to do that for me," Lin Huang said and he took out four storage space rings.

"There are 250,000 Emperor Heart Rings in this white storage space ring. I need to get someone to unseal all of them. There are more than 10,000 expert-grade relic sets, 20,000 expert-grade relic items, 50,000 intermediate-grade, and low-grade relics as well as 10,000 miscellaneous items in this red storage space ring. I'd like to sell all of them. There are a variety of monster carcasses including hundreds of holy fire-level monsters and 70 immortal-level monsters in this black storage space ring. Sell all of them. Lastly, there are low-grade and intermediate-grade minerals in this green storage space ring. I've never counted how many there are but they're piled into hills. I want to sell all of them as well," Lin Huang said and passed Mr. Fu the four storage space rings.

Among the rewards that he had gotten from the ruins, besides some of the supreme relics and expert-grade minerals, Lin Huang planned to sell all of them in return for Life Crystal as Yi Zheng and the rest did not want any of the items that were below supreme-grade. They had decided to settle the rewards this way when they had been in the ruins.

Mr. Fu took the rings and looked at them before shaking his head and smiling.

"You're making a fortune here."

"Apart from the monster carcasses, I'm sharing the rest with my friends." When they were in the ruins, they had picked the monsters that they killed themselves up while they shared the treasures.

"I'll categorize the items after the Emperor's Heart rings are unsealed, but I'll need someone to do that for me. I'll pay for the unsealing."

"I'll get a reliable friend for you, the unsealing should be 10%."

"10%? That's cheap. My friend asked for 30% from me in the past." Lin Huang forced out a wan smile.

"30% is the market price. I know this friend for many years, so it's different. I actually don't have to pay him, but it's not fair for him to do the job for free, so I usually give him 10%. He wouldn't take it if it's any more than that."

"10% is good enough. Thank you so much!" Lin Huang was thrilled that he would be able to pocket 20% more of the total value.

After storing the four storage space rings into his Emperor's Heart Ring, Mr. Fu patted Lin Huang's shoulder.

"Take a good rest tonight. We shall start the training tomorrow. Let's not activate the communication and map functions on your Emperor's Heart Ring while you're here."

"Alright, I understand." Lin Huang knew Mr. Fu did not want his location to be exposed.

It was the first time Lin Huang had a good night's sleep since he left the ruins. It was past 7 a.m. when he woke up the next morning. He heard Mr. Fu's voice just when he opened his eyes.

"Come down for breakfast after washing up.' Lin Huang had picked the room on top of the ship for the view. After washing up, Lin Huang headed straight to the restaurant on the first floor. There was food served on the table. Mr. Fu had eaten and was sunbathing on the deck. Lin Huang cleaned the kitchen after breakfast and went to the deck.

"Have you eaten?"

"Yes I have." Lin Huang nodded.

"Let's get to work then," Mr. Fu said and took out an item that looked like a remote control the size of his palm. He then pressed a button on it. Suddenly, the space in the ship became distorted, but soon, the distortion went back to normal. Lin Huang realized that the ship had appeared on different waters, and there was a mini island.

"Space Warp?" Lin Huang was stunned.

"All demigod-level ships can do this. There's nothing to be surprised about," Mr. Fu nonchalantly said, but he was proud of himself for being able to look cool in front of Lin Huang.

"Considering your extraordinary ability, the first opponent that I've picked for you is no longer a holy fire-level monster, but an immortal-level rank-1 monster. It's just below our ship. Go fight, young man!" Mr. Fu anticipated surprise from Lin Huang, but there was none.

"Immortal-level rank-1… Seems like I've been underestimated." Lin Huang had an odd expression on his face.

"Are you scared? An immortal-level monster isn't as scary as you imagined. Looking at you practicing with Xiao Liu yesterday, it shouldn't be difficult for you to kill an immortal-level rank-1 monster." Although Mr. Fu noticed that Lin Huang had held back his ability when he was practicing with Liu Ming, he had no idea how much he had held back by. However, looking at his performance the previous day, he would be able to kill an immortal-level rank-2 monster. He asked Lin Huang to fight an immortal-level rank-1 monster so that he could get used to the idea of fighting immortal-level monsters.

Lin Huang looked at Mr. Fu helplessly and leaped from the ship. In the next second, he swung Ink at the immortal-level rank-1 Rhino Beast and sliced it into half. He returned to the ship after storing the monster carcass into his Emperor's Heart Ring.

"So, you hid your ability yesterday?" Mr. Fu was stunned at Lin Huang's performance.

"I didn't do it intentionally, I just didn't want to scare Brother Liu." Lin Huang nodded and smiled awkwardly.

"So, you killed all of the immortal-level monsters in that black storage space ring that you gave me yesterday?" Mr. Fu asked.

"Yes." Lin Huang nodded.

"I thought you brought an immortal-level friend into the ruins…" Mr. Fu did not know that Lin Huang had killed the monsters when he got the rings from him.

"So, is immortal-level rank-5 monster the highest rank that you can kill now?"

"I can kill most of the immortal-level rank-5 monsters now, and I can fight a weaker immortal-level rank-6 monster." Lin Huang's ability had increased since he had broken through Sword Dao.

"I've underestimated you." Lin Huang's ability was totally out of Mr. Fu's expectations. He looked worried as Lin Huang had unintentionally messed up the initial plan that he had.

"Erm… You should rest today then. I need time to make changes to the training programme."

Due to Mr. Fu's underestimation of Lin Huang, he would have to make changes to the training programme that he had planned earlier. He left Lin Huang on the deck and advised him before leaving, "Don't worry if demigod-level monsters appear as I've already activated the ship's defense system. The ship will fire at such monsters if they ever come close. Monsters below demigod-level won't be able to break through the ship's defense layer. Also, settle your own lunch and dinner."

Mr. Fu disappeared for the entire day and only got back in the middle of the night.

"You should've had enough rest today. The new training programme is ready. I believe it'll give you a memory that you won't forget for the rest of your life," Mr. Fu smirked.

"That one month was memorable enough. I don't want any more unforgettable memories as my brain capacity is limited," Lin Huang really wanted to say, but he restrained himself as Mr. Fu looked excited.

The next morning, Mr. Fu prepared breakfast that was even more scrumptious than the day before's.

"Gobble it and let's start early." Mr. Fu beamed happily at Lin Huang as he sat at the dining table.

"Is this a special breakfast for those who're going to be sentenced to death?" Lin Huang noticed that Mr. Fu's smile was odd. He had his guard up as he figured that the training that Mr. Fu had planned for him would not be as simple as he thought.

After breakfast, the ship appeared on top of an ocean through a space warp. However, there was nowhere that they could land this time. There were no islands, not even a piece of coral.

"Is there something wrong with the location?" Lin Huang mumbled to himself as he looked around.

"There's nothing wrong with it. The targeted monster this time isn't on the island, but 12,000 meters below sea level." Mr. Fu grinned.

"There's a Dragon Whale's lair right under the ship with two immortal-level rank-5 Dragon Whales. One's a male while the other's a female.

"In this training, you'll kill the two Dragon Whales within 24 hours and bring the two monster carcasses back. You'll be considered to have failed if you don't bring the carcasses back within the time frame given no matter what the reason is. For each failed training, I'll take 10% of the items in the four storage space rings that you gave me earlier," Mr. Fu leered.

"I remember you said that you're sharing the rewards with another four people. If you fail more than twice, you won't be getting any of the rewards and you'll have to pay your friends instead!"

"I knew something was up behind that scrumptious breakfast!" Lin Huang was speechless. He did not expect Mr. Fu to be so cunning.

"Oh yeah, there's something that I would like to remind you. This training is just an appetizer as it's the easiest one. The training later on will get more and more difficult." Mr. Fu grinned so widely that his eyes looked like they were slits.

"I'm looking forward to you losing all of your rewards."

Looking at Mr. Fu's irritating expression, Lin Huang finally understood why the students in the Martial Hunter College hated him so much in the beginning. It was not an uneasy feeling to have Mr. Fu treating him like that.

"This supreme relic is a monitoring ring. I want to witness everything in your battle. Besides your Sword Dao, you can show me everything that you're not afraid to reveal. Just don't use those tricks that you want to keep a secret." Mr. Fu tossed a black ring to Lin Huang. He knew that Lin Huang had his own secrets, but he did not want to dwell on that.

"Alright, it's 7:47 a.m. now. You'll complete your mission as long as you bring back the monster carcasses before 8 a.m. tomorrow." Mr. Fu gave Lin Huang an extra 13 minutes.

Lin Huang caught the monitoring ring and wore it on his left index finger. He nodded to Mr. Fu and leaped into the ocean. As Lin Huang was diving in the water, he formed his plan. There were three challenges in the mission. The first one would be fighting in the water which would be an advantage to the monster. Although he could adjust his oxygen requirement since he had reached transcendent-level, that did not mean that he could breathe underwater. He could stay for two to three days in the water without oxygen if he were not moving, but he would need more oxygen if he were fighting underwater. If he could last a couple of hours in the water, that would be considered amazing.

The second difficulty would be the high water pressure 12,000 meters underwater where he would have to face intense pressure around him all the time. Besides suppressing his ability, his movement and attacks would be affected by the water pressure. However, the water pressure would not affect the monsters at all as they had adapted to such an environment.

The third test would be killing the Dragon Whales that were sky dragon monsters whereby their ability was above most immortal-level rank-5 monsters. Moreover, such a monster had a gigantic body, measuring tens of thousands of meters long. They had remarkable defense abilities as well due to the fats under their skin. As long as the attacks did not penetrate its skin, it would not be harmed at all. They could also heal by eating flesh, so it was difficult for them to be killed. Most of all, he would have to kill two of them within 24 hours.

Lin Huang frowned as he dove deeper. The water pressure was getting more and more overwhelming. He could feel each cell in his body under tremendous pressure, and it was getting more than just uncomfortable. He realized that at least 20% of his ability was suppressed when he was 10,000 meters underwater.

"This is just irritating. I must get a waterproof relic in the future." Just as Lin Huang thought of that, he saw a massive monster under him.

A massive Dragon Whale immediately noticed Lin Huang who had invited himself underwater. As they locked eyes, the Dragon Whale opened its jaws wide. A terrifying energy ball like a tsunami came at Lin Huang. He knew that it was one of the Dragon Whale's skills called the Water Command. Such an ability allowed the Dragon Whale to control the speed and direction of the water flow. It could even complicate the water flow and was also how the Dragon Whale terrorized the piece of ocean for itself.

Looking at the water energy that was hurtling at him in all directions, Lin Huang activated his secret Seraphic Speed skill and managed to escape the assault. He turned around and looked at where he had been standing. It was entirely engulfed by the water, becoming a gigantic frost whirlpool with many sharp teeth.

"What a ruthless skill…" Lin Huang imagined himself being minced meat for dumplings had he been engulfed by the whirlpool earlier.

"If that's how you want to play the game, I shan't show you mercy then!"

"Come out, Charcoal!" Lin Huang shouted to summon Charcoal.

As Lin Huang thought of the three challenges of killing the Dragon Whale while diving into the water, he came up with a plan immediately. Charcoal was an immortal-level rank-1 now. With its thick dragon blood as a high-level dragonkin, it could definitely suppress other sky dragon monsters. Even an immortal-level rank-9 would be affected by its Dragon Power, let alone an immortal-level rank-5 monster.

Mr. Fu had emphasized that he could use any techniques he wanted. Lin Huang thought that Mr. Fu intentionally made the training difficult as he figured Lin Huang would summon his monsters. He was an Imperial Censor after all, so it was only natural for him to summon his monsters. However, Lin Huang did not plan to get Charcoal to kill the two monsters for him. His plan was to get Charcoal to bring the two Dragon Whales to the surface of the ocean. As soon as the two monsters surfaced, the three difficulties that he thought about earlier, including the breathing and water pressure, would not be an issue anymore. When the Dragon Whales lost their advantage in the water, it would be much easier for Lin Huang to kill them.

As expected, as soon as Charcoal appeared and released its Dragon Power, besides the male Dragon Whale below Lin Huang, even the female that planned to attack Lin Huang secretly was now trembling due to the suppression of their bloodline whereby high-level dragonkins could overwhelm sky dragon monsters on the same level. A dragonkin of pure blood, even a holy fire-level, would be able to suppress an imperial-level sky dragon. Unless there was nothing else that it could do, an imperial-level sky dragon would not attack a pure blood dragonkin, usually choosing to run away. No matter how young the emperor was, the general had to respect him. It was the same theory.

Charcoal was summoned in its original form that was thousands of meters long. It was very thrilled when it was summoned. It soon noticed the two monsters that were below it. Although it sensed that the two monsters were much more powerful in terms of combat level, it was not afraid at all. Instead, it was excited to attack.

"Get them to the surface of the ocean!" Lin Huang instructed Charcoal.

Charcoal dashed towards the two Dragon Whales immediately like a black thread. Although the two monsters were much more powerful than Charcoal and their sizes were more than ten times bigger than it, they did not plan to attack it. All they did was run away. Charcoal was having the time of its life as it had been a long time since it was summoned. After chasing the monsters around, Charcoal finally got the two monsters to surface just as Lin Huang had urged it to.

The two gigantic monsters' backs were showing on the surface like two little islands. Charcoal surrounded both of the monsters to prevent them from escaping. Lin Huang floated midair and smirked.

"My time to shine."

There was a golden spark that surrounded his Ink sword. It was as bright as the sun during noon. Even Mr. Fu that was watching Lin Huang's battle from the demigod-level ship on top had to squint his eyes.

Within seconds, the golden glow around his sword peaked and Lin Huang dashed into the ocean after activating his Thunder Steps as well as his Seraphic Speed. Next, his sword pierced deep into one of the Dragon Whales' head. The massive monster's head cracked as it groaned. It would usually use up one Life Wheel of Life Power to kill an immortal-level rank-5 monster. However, as his target was so huge this time, Lin Huang used two Life Wheels of Life Power just to be sure. It created a terrifying scene.

Seeing the first Dragon Whale killed in a second, the second one attempted to escape, but it was blocked by Charcoal. The Dragon Whale did not sure to attack Charcoal, so it controlled the water attacking Lin Huang. The calm sea had churned into an intense tsunami. Lin Huang stood where he was like an invincible warrior and sliced the wave into half with his sword. There was a purple glow springing from his sword.

Before the Dragon Whale could attack again, Lin Huang swung his sword again. Purple streaks that looked like purple crescent moons were fired as he performed hundreds of sword swings within seconds. The purple light collided with the Dragon Whale's head at the same spot repetitively. Eventually, the Dragon Whale's head was chopped off.

The once turquoise ocean water was now bloody red. In less than three minutes, Lin Huang had managed to kill both of the Dragon Whales. Including the time Charcoal took to chase the monsters, it was less than 20 minutes in total. After storing the monster carcasses, Lin Huang shrunk Charcoal and brought it back to the demigod-level ship.

He was concerned to face Mr. Fu as he had played a trick by summoning Charcoal to help him during this round of assessment. Without Charcoal's help, besides his ability being restricted in the Dragon Whales' territory, the monsters could escape if they could not fight him, and they could even eat other monsters to heal themselves. He might not have been able to complete the mission within 24 hours. Mr. Fu smiled as he observed Charcoal, then looked at Lin Huang.

"I'm satisfied with your performance. You even surpassed my expectations!" Lin Huang thought he would receive a lesson from Mr. Fu for getting help from Charcoal, but Mr. Fu was nodding satisfactorily.

"The two Dragon Whales were supposed to own the stage in the battle, but you turned it around by summoning a monster. That's well done! A real kill is never about a one-on-one fight, but a combination of abilities. Fighting your opponent with brute strength is a dumb move as it wastes time and energy. If you have some other enemy that's hiding and waiting for the opportunity to attack you, you'd be taken advantage of. Never drag the battle if you can kill your enemy as soon as possible.

"Just that with this demigod-level ship, I wouldn't attack my enemy right away if a demigod were to attack me. Instead, I would fire at it using my ship from far away. I have enough energy crystals anyway to fire, so why would I waste my energy? Even if I don't manage to kill it, injuring it would be good enough. Even if I don't manage to injure it, I can drain its Life Power which makes the battle easier."

Lin Huang was confused as he was listening. He did not expect Mr. Fu's battle style to be this nasty. However, his theory made sense.

"Of course, I'm not asking you to use your tricks all the way. Do it when you should, but your own ability should be the root of everything. Without ability, those tricks might make kill you even faster…" Mr. Fu explained and gave him some examples of real cases to turn the tables around with tricks. It was an eye-opening lesson. Now, he knew that Mr. Fu was not the only one who had nasty tricks up his sleeve. Many of the demigods that he had heard before were even nastier than Mr. Fu was.

Lin Huang's training went on from mid-March to mid-April just like that. Mr. Fu managed to come out with something new every day during the one-month training. It was proven that the two Dragon Whales on the first day was really an appetizer. Before the training, Lin Huang could only fight an immortal-level rank-6 monster with brute strength. After the training ended, he could break free from being surrounded by five immortal-level rank-6 monsters and kill all of them within 24 hours. He even did that without activating any Function Cards.

Throughout the 30 days, Lin Huang had gone through no less than 100 battles. Besides the first one, he gave his all for the rest of the battles to fulfill Mr. Fu's request. Mr. Fu would point out his problems without holding back after each battle every day and got Lin Huang to think of a solution to improve himself, then plan the training according to Lin Huang's issues. If he did not manage to improve or amend his mistakes, the training would focus on his mistake until he managed to overcome it.

He went through hell for the entire month, but his ability had transformed. Liu Ming had visited once during his training period to return Lin Huang's sword that he had fixed. Lin Huang used his temporary Emperor's Heart Ring to contact Yi Zheng and the rest to give out the rewards that they had obtained from the ruins. On the night of the 30th day, Mr. Fu brought him to the restaurant on the first floor of the demigod-level ship after concluding his performance of the day.

Lin Huang figured that it was time to say goodbye when he saw that the spread on the table was more scrumptious than usual.

"Your performance has exceeded my expectations through the past month. Actually, I gave you some difficult tasks most of the time during the training, and I didn't think you would manage to complete them, but you completed all of them. You've managed to surprise me again and again.

"I've basically taught you everything about battles throughout the month. The rest I'll leave you with are my memories," Mr. Fu said and smiled at Lin Huang.

"Close your eyes and enjoy."

Lin Huang closed his eyes as Mr. Fu asked him to, then he felt Mr. Fu place a finger on his forehead. In the next second, Mr. Fu's memories played in his mind. Under his guidance, the memories were fast-forwarded.

"I'm bringing you through my cultivation journey as well as storing a memory seed for you. Although my cultivation path doesn't suit you, you may keep it as a reference. You can take a look at it when you have time in the future."

Lin Huang opened his eyes slowly as he heard Mr. Fu's weak voice.

In reality, he had only closed his eyes for less than ten seconds, but he had already watched Mr. Fu's thousands of years on his road to cultivation.

"Sir, are you alright?" Lin Huang could tell that bringing him through his memory lane had drained Mr. Fu much of his energy from his apparent exhaustion.

"Don't worry. I'll be fine after some rest." Mr. Fu waved his hand and picked up his chopsticks.

"Let's eat!"

They took a long time to enjoy the dinner as they were chatted while eating. They started talking about Lin Huang's family. Lin Huang told some of the funny things that Lin Xin had done and some interesting stuff about Lin Xuan. Mr. Fu would occasionally laugh when they talked about Lin Xin, but he was quiet when they talked about Lin Xuan. Lin Huang noticed it, but he had no idea why Mr. Fu was quiet, so he stopped talking proceeded to eat.

After a moment of silence, Mr. Fu spoke again, "My apprentice, I've been keeping this a secret from you."

Lin Huang was stunned as he looked at Mr. Fu after swallowing the food in his mouth.

"It was I who made Lin Xuan leave…" Lin Huang was confused when he heard what Mr. Fu said.

"Why would you do that?" Lin Huang asked after calming himself down.

"I suspected he was my first apprentice, Mo Kui, when I first saw him. Mo Kui was an orphan that I looked after since he was young, and Lin Xuan looked exactly the same as Mo Kui when he was young," Mr. Fu told the truth.

"I gave him a drop of Mo Kui's blood, and he managed to integrate the blood. He left the place where you guys live, which proved my estimation to be true."

"So, is this reincarnation?" Lin Huang frowned.

"I don't think so. Reincarnation is just some hearsay that's passed around among the people. Nobody knows if that really exists." Mr. Fu shook his head.

"I remember you told me that his name was a serial number when you found him. I suspect somebody cloned him with some genetic technique."

"I know normal people can be cloned, but can Virtual Gods be cloned too?" Lin Huang thought it was bizarre.

"Theoretically, every living thing can be cloned using genetic technique including the True God and even the more powerful beings." Mr. Fu nodded.

"The Scarborough Workshop did a similar experiment before. They used some of the demigod's genes to clone, but due to the lack of technology, the experiment kept failing. They then focused on genetic modification as well as man-made humans."

"It's been hundreds of years, and the genetic technique is much more mature than before. Perhaps the laboratory can really clone Virtual Gods now." Mr. Fu was sure that his guess was accurate.

"Lin Xuan could have only integrated Mo Kui's blood if they share the same genes."

"I've no idea where they got Mo Kui's genes. I preserved his body well, and buried it somewhere nobody knows apart from me." Mr. Fu frowned.

"If the cloning technology is advanced enough, I'm sure that a single strand of hair will be enough for them to clone." Lin Huang tried his best to grasp the bizarre idea.

"Sir, do you know where Lin Xuan is right now?"

"He's in the Origin Continent, which is the No. 0 Safe Zone. I've been following him ever since he left home. He went directly to the Origin Continent, probably looking for his memory." Mr. Fu seemed apologetic.

"I would like to apologize to you and Lin Xin. I couldn't help myself but test him with Mo Kui's blood. I didn't know that he would leave home. I should've discussed with you before doing that. I wasn't prepared to tell you about Mo Kui that time."

"It's all in the past now. It's good that he's alright now." Although Mr. Fu had crossed his boundaries, as his apprentice who loved him dearly, Lin Huang chose to forgive him.

"I have one last favor that I need to ask of you before you leave." Mr. Fu looked at Lin Huang in all seriousness.

"I'm only left with three years to live. I'll contact you before I die. I hope that you'll come to Division 7 and bury my body at the Three Lifetime Mountain."

"Three Lifetime Mountain?" Lin Huang was surprised to hear that.

"I owe my life to these two persons. One would be Mo Kui, the other would be Jingyue. I owe Mo Kui my life, but I owe Jingyue my heart…" Mr. Fu sighed.

"The person that demigod Jingyue waited for at the Three Lifetime Mountain was you?" Lin Huang was shocked.

Throughout 200 years, nobody knew who the man demigod Jingyue was waiting for was. Lin Huang did not expect Mr. Fu, his master, to be the answer.

"I've already known that I wouldn't live long 800 years ago. I met Jingyue 200 years ago. She's a very special lady who loves deeply. I didn't want to waste her time, so I decided to let her go. I didn't expect that silly girl to wait for me at the Three Lifetime Mountain for ten years… I've no baggage in this world, so it doesn't really matter where I'm buried at. Perhaps being buried at the Three Lifetime Mountain could be deemed as giving back her love for me."

Lin Huang was silent after hearing that.

"Sir, don't think too much, alright? Take care of yourself within these three years. I'll look for a cure for you as soon as possible." Lin Huang knew Xiao Hei must have a card that could heal Mr. Fu, but he was not authorized to use it yet.

On the next morning, Lin Huang returned to the Martial Hunter College after bidding farewell to Mr. Fu. Liu Ming had handed over the role as Dean to the new Dean and headed to Division 3. Although he had given the door passcode to Lin Huang before he left, to prevent people from knowing how close he was to Mr. Fu, Lin Huang decided not to stay in the villa Liu Ming was staying at. Instead, he checked into a hotel that was near the college.

The hotel was less than 300 meters from the college. After settling the check-in process, Lin Huang ambled to the Martial Hunter College. The security guard recognized him at once and greeted him immediately.

"Sir Lin, you're back."

"I've some errands to run in the White Capital, so I thought I'd drop by." Lin Huang nodded and smiled.

After a short chat with the security guard, Lin Huang entered the college. Looking at the environment that he had familiarized with for half a year, his emotions welled up. He had spent most of the year in the college with Lin Xin; more than the time they had spent together at their home in Winter City. The time he spent at the college was the most relaxed time that he had in this world. Although his days had been packed, his life was calm without the pressure that he had always had before. However, such peace was fated to be short in this world.

He then walked to the Sword Dao office. He planned to visit Qin Tianxing and the other colleagues to check on his students during this trip. He knocked on the door while grinning, taking Zhang Xu and Yu Fei by surprise.

"Lin Huang, why are you back?" Yu Fei smiled as she asked. As one of the two ladies in Sword Dao faculty besides Mu Xiaolan, she looked reserved on the outside, but she was lively once she warmed up.

"Are you teaching again?" Zhang Xu asked. Although he and Lin Huang had some misunderstanding earlier, it was all over now.

"No, I've something to do in the White Capital, so I thought I'd drop by," Lin Huang said as he noticed Zhang Xu's relief.

"Isn't Old Qin teaching Sword Dao Class 1 today? Why isn't he here?"

"He has resigned. He resigned at the beginning of the semester. I called him, but he didn't pick up. Nobody knows what he's doing now." Zhang Xu shook his head.

"Then, how about the class…" Lin Huang had not finished his question, but he could guess what the answer was.

"Zhang Xu is teaching his class," Yu Fei replied.

Lin Huang now understood why Zhang Xu was relieved when he confirmed that he was not back to teach.

"So, who's teaching Class 2 now?" Lin Huang asked.

"A transcendent-level teacher that was sent from the Union College." Zhang Xu was upset. Unless he had many years of teaching experience and was related to the Vice Dean, he would not be able to teach Class 1. The teacher that was sent from the Union College was excellent so he would be able to teach Class 1 after teaching for two years.

"Getting the holy fire-level Life Fire is much easier than you imagined. After determining the Life Fire monster and the monster's weaknesses, just get a few friends with you to kill it. As long as you're well prepared before the trip, it's not difficult to kill. You haven't even started the battle yet, and you're scared of holy fire-level monsters without even trying. You won't be able to even perform up to 80% of your ability, that's why you failed again and again. You're an old-time hunter. You should know that most times, the difference in combat level isn't the same with the difference in ability. Holy fire-level monsters are really not as scary as you think."

Lin Huang patted Zhang Xu's shoulder and left.

"Holy fire-level…" Looking at Lin Huang walking away, Zhang Xu clenched his fists.

"I didn't expect Old Qin to resign…" Lin Huang called Qin Tianxing's number after leaving the office. His answering machine informed him that he was not within the service area.

"That means he's either in the ruins or he kept his Emperor's Heart Ring."

Lin Huang shook his head and walked to the building where Class 2 was. He hid on top of a tree that was 100 meters away from the cultural studies to watch his students. Most of them were paying attention in class while a few were not. They were doing well overall. One of them, who was not paying attention, was looking around the field outside the window. Suddenly, he saw Lin Huang who was on the tree. He widened his eyes.

"Sir Lin!" The young man almost screamed out loud.

Lin Huang glared at him and waved his fist, then he pointed at the podium where the teacher was speaking. The young man then looked away. Lin Huang left immediately since he was noticed. A few seconds later, the students peeped at the tree, but Lin Huang was long gone.

Lin Xin had cultural studies as well. Lin Huang knew that she did not have class in the afternoon, so he sent her a message using Ye Xiu's Emperor's Heart Ring before heading back to the hotel.

Lin Xin called Lin Huang when she saw his message after she finished the class.

"Brother, you're back!" Lin Xin jumped excitedly in the video call.

"Yeah. There're too many people that I know in the college. Come to my hotel. We'll talk later." Lin Huang nodded and smiled.

Soon, Lin Xin arrived at the hotel after the call ended.

Lin Huang brought Lin Xin to the private room in the restaurant on the second floor. They started chatting after ordering.

"Brother, didn't you say that you would leave at the end of March or the beginning of April? I thought you've left. Why are you still in Division 7?" Lin Xin thought it was odd.

"Something happened, so my plan got postponed for a month." Lin Huang did not mention Mr. Fu as he did not want to involve her in the matter. "I'll leave in a few days after finishing up some stuff."

"Can you come back during the summer holidays?" Lin Xin asked.

"I don't think so. Something's happened recently. I'll be busy these three years. I might be able to only come back during New Year's Eve." Lin Huang helplessly shrugged as he could not promise to come back during the summer holidays.

"Can you tell me what happened?" Lin Xin asked.

"I can't involve you in this, so it's better that you don't know." Lin Huang shook his head. "Also, don't tell anyone that you're my sister. I'll erase the memories of those who know about you."

Lin Xin had told her roommates that Lin Huang was her cousin. Some of the girls in Class 1 and Class 2 might know about it too.

"Is it the Purple Crow?" Lin Xin asked.

"No, it's even worse than that." Lin Huang's enemy was a demigod who was hiding somewhere, and he had to be careful.

"Oh, yeah. This is for you." Lin Huang passed her a red storage space ring after a moment of silence.

"What's this?" Lin Xin tried to figure out what the ring contained.

"Most of them are fire attributes crystals, and a selection of them are Life Crystals. The fire attribute crystals are for Little 7 (Seventails), and the Life Crystals are for you. People will find out if I send money to you using my account. Use the Life Crystals whenever you need money."

"Later, when we get back to my room, I'll change the ownership of Little 7 to you. It's actually a triple mutated phoenix blood monster. Although it's not a purebred, it will be if its blood thickness is upgraded. Train it well. It's highly possible for it to be upgraded to a purebred. Also, don't show off about it being a triple mutated monster, or else they might steal it from you," Lin Huang advised.

"When are you leaving?" Lin Xin asked.

"Should be tomorrow morning."

After lunch, Lin Huang brought her to his hotel room and swapped Little 7's ownership to Lin Xin. A long hug later, Lin Huang sent her off and waited patiently for the night to come.

The White Capital had amazing nightlife. Although it was a chilly spring in mid-April, there were people on the streets through to midnight. The streets finally became quiet when it was around 1:30 a.m. Lin Huang was still awake. Opening the sliding door on his balcony, he walked out and looked around. He then looked at the direction of the Martial Hunter College.

Soon, a purple Monster Card appeared in his hand. He looked at the purple monster on the card and crushed it. A purple haze appeared before him. It was how Bloody looked like after completing its triple mutation. However, it would disguise itself as a vine whenever there was someone else around.

"Bloody, I need you to find out everyone who knows anything about me and Lin Xin's relationship in the Martial Hunter College and remove that from their memories." Lin Huang knew very well that he could not leave any traces behind. Although there were not many people who knew of their relationship, as long as somebody was targeting him or Mr. Fu, the person would definitely discover this fact as long as they spent some time in the college. As soon as he left Division 7, he would not be back for quite some time and it would be dangerous for Lin Xin, which was why he had to get Bloody to do this.

Lin Huang had thought about bringing Lin Xin along with him but he figured that the three years in the core zone would probably not be peaceful. As soon as his identity was revealed, he might not be able to survive. If he encountered somebody powerful, it would be impossible to run away with Lin Xin. After careful consideration, he had decided to leave Lin Xin in Division 7.

"That's easy... However, I'll have to put my parasites on everyone in the college. I can only determine which of them know about you and Lin Xin through reading their memories," Bloody replied.

"Do that then. Be quick. Try to hide as much as you can, there are many powerful people in the White Capital. It'll spell trouble if we're exposed." Lin Huang reminded Bloody. He knew that Bloody's Leech Pods would disappear without any side-effects after that and the hosts would not notice anything at all.

"Understood." Bloody replied and started getting busy.

A massive amount of colorless Leech Pods began spreading from Bloody. Without Lin Huang's Territory, he would not be able to see any of the Leech Pods. It was only with Territory that Lin Huang would be able to sense the Leech Pods that were many times smaller than a dandelion, floating toward the Martial Hunter College's direction. Soon, Bloody opened its eyes.

"Aside from Lin Xin, I've found twelve people who know about your relationship with her. However, all of them know that you're her cousin."

"That's right, erase that part of their memories." Lin Huang nodded.

Bloody closed its eyes again and opened them shortly after.

"It's been deleted and replaced by some other memories. Are there any other things that you want to erase or amend? If not, I'll recall my Leech Pods."

Recalling would mean the disappearance of its Leech Pods, where only the information would return to Bloody. The pods would not come back to it.

"You've done well! Recall the pods, there's nothing else that I need to do." Lin Huang was relieved.

"I found out there's someone who came to the Martial Hunter College for you," Bloody spoke again.

"I've recalled all of the pods besides these. One is monitoring him while the other is in his brain."

Bloody then projected a young man. He looked like he was in his early twenties, Lin Huang was sure that he had never seen the person before.

"Is he a teacher at the college?" Lin Huang asked.

"Yes, he's white flame-level teaching the Sword Dao in Year 1 Class 2. He didn't only take over your students, he's also staying in the dorm that you were living at," Bloody said.

"From his memory, he's coming for you. He even found out about Lin Xin being your cousin in the past two days and is trying to get closer to her to ask about you."

"Who is this person?" Lin Huang frowned.

"He's from a place called Leib Lab, a spy that was sent by a man in glasses. He has two missions. One is to find out where you're at while the other is to find out who the lady in the white dress is."

"Leib lab…" Lin Huang was familiar with the organization. It was the one who attacked the White Capital together with the Purple Crow. They were the Scarborough Workshop 200 years ago.

Lin Huang's ancient sword relic Air Slicer, Black Feathered Armor, and Dead Body Puppet were stolen from an imperial-level member of the organization. He even activated a Misfortune Card on the person. They did not give up looking for Lin Huang. The incident had just calmed down earlier but now, they had sent a spy to the college to find him.

"What else did you get?" Lin Huang asked again. He was not sure if Leib Lab was related to the matter plaguing Mr. Fu's or if the organization was purely coming for him.

"That's basically it. This person is nobody significant, he doesn't know much. From his memory, the man in glasses who gave him the mission should be the boss of the Leib Lab. It was his first time meeting the man in glasses when he got the mission. He respects the man in glasses deeply."

"That's all I have." Bloody looked at Lin Huang.

"What should we do to this guy?"

"Kill him." Lin Huang was determined.

"There's nothing good for keeping him in the college, they might fight out that his memory was amended by you if he returns to Leib Lab. It might expose Lin Xin. Leib Lab would not send a second spy so soon after he's killed. Even if they do, they won't find out much about me and Lin Xin's relationship any longer."

Bloody agreed with Lin Huang's analysis. Although it was confident with its memory amendment, it was only an immortal-level rank-1 after all. It might be exposed if the person's brain was dissected by an imperial-level person who was expert in the field. As instructed, Bloody detonated the Leech Pods that were hiding in the spy's head. In the projection, the head of the young man who was sleeping exploded like a watermelon dropped from mid-air. His brain splattered all over the wall, even to the extent that it was plastered on the ceiling. Blood endlessly flowed from the neck of the headless body that was lying on a bed with blue bedsheet…

Lin Huang went to bed peacefully after settling the matter at the Martial Hunter College. On the next morning, Lin Huang used Ye Xiu's identity to send Lin Xin a message after breakfast.

"I'm leaving. Take care of yourself, be good in school."

"I understand. Please take care of yourself," Lin Xin replied shortly after.

After switching off the contact page, Lin Huang paid for his hotel room that he checked in with his fake identity online. He then summoned his dimensional relic and stepped through it after changing his features.

…

Early in the morning, Luo Yao dressed herself up and walked out quickly when she realized that it was already 7:15 a.m. She was relieved to see that nobody was waiting for her under the trees nearby. She slowly walked to the tree and looked at the teacher's dorm building next to her room, all the while waiting for the man to walk out of his room. She met this man on the same day during the Martial Hunter College's teacher recruitment drive, and they began teaching on the very same day as well. They stayed just next to each other, so she thought it was fate.

She was teaching Saber Dao Class 8 while the man was a transcendent-level who was teaching in Sword Dao Class 2. He was young and handsome, and she would be lying if she said she did not like him. Ever since school began and they met for the very first time when they headed out of the dorm, having breakfast with this man became a habit for Luo Yao. Most of the time, the man would wait for her under the tree. Sometimes he would be one or two minutes late.

However, time passed by and even after it was 7:30 a.m., the man was still not there. Luo Yao thought it was odd.

'Perhaps he has something to do today.' She thought about it and walked away.

She was upset after having breakfast alone. After some hesitation, she could not help but call the man but it showed that he was not in the service zone.

"Where did he go? It's Friday, doesn't he have a class this afternoon?" Luo Yao returned to her dorm with that question.

It was past 2 p.m. In the afternoon, Luo Yao had lunch and went shopping before heading back to her dorm. She then noticed that there was a bunch of people gathering outside the dorm.

"What happened?" She asked a girl.

"They say a teacher died and didn't go to his class this afternoon. He was found in his dorm by a student, he doesn't have his head anymore. That's so scary…" The girl explained.

"Sir Zhang?" Luo Yao's heart skipped a beat. She pushed the people away and dashed into the dorm. On the second floor of the dorm, she saw a few staff members from the Union Government who were observing a headless body. She started crying…

…

A black dimensional relic appeared in an alley of foothold No.7C357 in Daxi City and a young man walked out of the dimensional relic. The handsome man wore a deep blue trench coat. He looked like he was in his early twenties with maroon hair and was 1.82 meters tall. It was Lin Huang in disguise. Aside from his handsome looks that remained, he looked totally different than before. He found the bar where Yang Ling was located by following his memory, and the staff brought him to the underground room where Yang Ling was in.

The skinny Yang Ling was cuddling a voluptuous lady while being half asleep. The lady winked at Lin Huang as he pushed the door open but he ignored her and looked at Yang Ling instead. Then, he knocked on the door that was shut behind him. In response, Yang Ling slapped the lady's butt and pinched it.

"Come again tonight," he whispered into the lady's ear.

The lady giggled and removed the blanket she had draped over her body. Then, as she got down from the bed naked to put on clothes in front of the both of them, she proceeded to shoot look at Lin Huang with a teasing expression.

It took her more than ten minutes to put on two pieces of clothing — a bra and a dress. Lin Huang sat on Yang Ling's work desk as he watched the show that the lady put on calmly. She had a nice body and a tempting expression, that was the only comment that he had for her.

The lady walked slowly to him after putting on her clothes.

"Hey handsome, look for me if you're interested. It's complimentary for the first time," she whispered into his ear.

Watching the lady leave, Yang Ling removed the blanket on him and put on a gold sleeping robe without even bothering to put on his underwear. He then sat on his work desk.

"Have we met before?" He asked after checking Lin Huang out.

"Take a wild guess." Lin Huang smirked without giving him an answer.

"Nevermind, black card?" Yang Ling asked.

"That's right."

"Which one?" Yang Ling asked again.

"For royalty. The higher the authorization, the better. The best would be one that's opened to those on the demigod-level."

"That's too risky, I'm not doing that. The most that I can do for people outside the core zone is one that authorizes immortal-level people. If you're using it in the core zone, I could give you the one that's open to imperial-level. However, if you use it outside the core zone, you'd have to bear the consequences." Yang Ling looked at Lin Huang in all seriousness.

"Imperial-level it is then." Lin Huang nodded without thinking twice.

"Normal ones for royalty would cost 10,000 Life Crystals, where it'll have authorization up to the holy fire-level. I'll give you a fixed price for the imperial-level card, 500,000 Life Crystals. However, I must clarify that this information comes from the underworld, not the Union. It comes from the Saints. If you use it outside of the core zone, the Saints will come for you and I won't be able to help you if that happens."

"Sure, do it." Lin Huang transferred the fee to Yang Ling's trading chip.

After confirming that the transferred amount was correct, Yang Ling started working on it.

"Name and age?" Yang Ling asked after taking a photo of Lin Huang.

"Lin Xie, 22." It was the new name that Lin Huang came up with.

"Parents died since young, had a brother who is two years older but I've no idea where he is. The rest of the information would be the default setting."

Yang Ling looked at Lin Huang and proceeded to work on the registration without saying a word. He came up with an identity with a brother so that people would not relate him with the old Lin Huang. He picked the name Lin Xie last night from a couple of names that he came u with. It was safe to keep his surname as there were billions of people in this world with the same surname. With a false identity, it was likely that people would not relate him to his old identity.

10 minutes later, the new Emperor's Heart Ring was complete. The gold ring was beautiful like an art piece.

"Don't activate it whenever you're outside of the core zone." Yang Ling reminded him when he was trying on the ring.

"I know." Lin Huang tried it on, took it off and put it away in his storage space.

Lin Huang stood at the entrance of the bar and looked at the sunny sky.

"Goodbye, Division 7."

Lin Huang was feeling dizzy as he stepped out of the dimensional portal. It was the side effect of taking the long-distance dimensional portal. Even an imperial-level would experience the same feeling but milder. The two holy fire-levels who took the same dimensional portal as he did throw up after taking a few steps. A few staff in uniforms came and blocked the way of the duo.

"We're the staff from the health department of Sweep City. You guys have broken the rules of the city. Please show your ID and pay the fine as well as cleaning the trash."

The staff was all on immortal-level. The two holy fire-levels did not dare to talk back and paid a fine although they were still dizzy. They were released after cleaning the area.

"Breaking the rules? We'll be fined 1,000 Life Crystals just for vomiting?" Lin Huang thought that was strange. The rule sounded like it was fabricated. Moreover, 1,000 Life Crystals were enough to get a customized grade-1 relic. He figured that the staff must be fake. Lin Huang left after watching that bizarre scene. A bald hunk, who was over two meters tall, headed his way soon after. There were a few men following behind him.

Lin Huang frowned and dodged the baldy. Just as the baldy missed Lin Huang, he fell onto the ground.

"Damn it, kid! Are you blind? You knocked me over! Ahh, it hurts! You hurt me! What should we do now?" The baldy sat on the ground and refused to get up as the men following him surrounded Lin Huang.

"You're so bad at scamming. I didn't even touch you." Lin Huang instantly understood what was happening.

"Nonsense, you knocked me over! My bros saw it too. They're my witnesses! You said you didn't touch me. Do you have any witnesses?" The baldy looked around with a threatening expression.

Many people had gathered to watch what was going on. Some of them wanted to stand up for Lin Huang, but upon realizing that the baldy was a gold flame-level and his men were all on purple flame-level, none of them dared to say anything.

"This young man is in trouble. Sun Ba has been in this scamming business for more than 30 years. They target people who have low combat levels. Nobody can escape from them. This young man might have to give everything he has up, or else he won't be able to leave." Some of the people among the crowd knew the baldy's background. Most of them knew the truth about what happened, but nobody dared to stand up for Lin Huang.

Lin Huang put his hands in his pockets and looked at the baldy calmly.

"You sure you won't regret scamming me?"

The baldy was stunned to hear that. His hunky followers did not know what to do and looked questioningly at the baldy.

"Wow, look at this brave man!" The crowd was ready to watch the show.

The baldy hesitated before shouting at Lin Huang, "It makes sense for you to pay for knocking someone over! I don't care who you are, even if you're one of our Purple Crow members!"

Many of them were scared when they heard about the Purple Crow.

Lin Huang smirked when he heard that.

"Alright, then… If you want money, come and get it."

He flashed a storage ring in his palm. Many of the bystanders were disappointed to see the young man decide to compromise as the Purple Crow was just too powerful…

The baldy got up from the ground, dusted his clothes, and signaled the hunk next to him. The hunk walked to Lin Huang and grabbed the storage ring from his palm. Suddenly, Lin Huang clenched his fist and lashed out a punch at the hunk's cheek. The guy flew away as an impact of the blow.

Everyone was shocked.

Many of them had a shocking impression of the kid who dared to make the first move. Later on, many of them realized that the young man was only on crimson flame-level and the hunk who was punched was on purple flame-level! Baldy and the rest snapped out of it after a while.

"How dare you?!"

"Didn't you guys want this storage ring? Come and take it if you can. Don't blame me if you can't," Lin Huang taunted the baldy.

"Bros, kill him!" As the baldy shouted, the hunks dashed towards Lin Huang. He stood where he was, and a few shadows shot out like cannons. He grabbed the baldy, who was the last to come at him, holding him up as he grabbed his neck. The baldy did not dare to move as he could sense that Lin Huang was very close to snapping his neck. The five purple flame-levels and the single gold flame-level lost to a crimson flame-level in less than three seconds.

The crowd was shocked to see the fight.

"A crimson flame-level fighting a gold flame-level! That's three whole ranks higher! This young man is a genius!"

"What comes around, goes around. Sun Ba and the rest finally got it today for offending a genius. I wonder which organization does this young man belong to. If he's from an underground organization, they'll be dead today."

"They wouldn't have gone through whatever they're going through now if they didn't do what they do. I think they deserve it!"

…

Nobody among the crowd wanted to help Sun Ba as they chatted among each other.

"Do you still want me to pay the compensation?" Lin Huang smiled at the baldy.

"No, no need…" The baldy stammered immediately, frightened out of his wits. A genius who could cross three ranks to fight him must be a member of the top organization. He had offended someone that he should not have that day.

"But why is it that I recall somebody saying that I'll have to pay no matter what background I come from if I knocked you over?" Lin Huang asked while grinning.

"You didn't knock me over. It was I who scammed the wrong person and offended a god like you. It's my fault. I'll never do that again. Please let me go. I'm not worthy of your time," Sun Ba begged Lin Huang as he knew that he could not fight Lin Huang.

"Do you know if there's anywhere less crowded around here?" Lin Huang asked out of nowhere.

"Sir, please, it's tough to make a living here. There're so many people watching. Don't you think the guards would know that you'll kill me even if you bring me to somewhere less crowded?" Sun Ba was scared.

"I just need to get to a quiet place to ask you some questions." Lin Huang let go of Sun Ba's neck and studied the rest. "Stop pretending. I know how much strength I used just now. I might really kill you guys if you continue to lie on the ground."

The hunks got up from the ground immediately after hearing Lin Huang.

"Alright, show the way!" Lin Huang looked at Sun Ba. Though unwilling, Sun Ba had no other option, but to bring Lin Huang with him.

It was Lin Huang's first time in Division 3. Although he knew something about the place from Mr. Fu, the information was from many years ago and might be outdated. He planned to settle down in a hotel room and find out more about Division 3 on his own, but he did not expect "tour guides" to be sent his way. Of course, he took advantage of them.

Sun Ba and the rest brought Lin Huang to an abandoned warehouse which was one of their gathering points. They did not dare to bring Lin Huang to their base camp.

"Dear Master, please ask whatever you have in mind. We'll answer whatever we know!" Sun Ba pulled a chair out for Lin Huang as they entered the warehouse while they stood aside. They were actually worried that Lin Huang might kill them.

"Isn't there anyone in the Sweep City who does anything about your scamming?" Lin Huang asked his first question. Theoretically, core zones should have better safety protocols than Division 7. However, the Sweep City, which was an A-grade foothold in a core zone, seemed to be less safe than any of the A-grade footholds in Division 7.

"It must be your first time in Division 7, Master." Sun Ba smiled when he heard that question.

Lin Huang glared at him. Sun Ba then stopped smiling and started explaining, "Actually, in Division 7, besides No. A1 to No. A10 footholds that require a pass for entering, the other footholds aren't as safe. Our Sweep City isn't the only one."

"Why's that?" Lin Huang found Sun Ba's reply to be ridiculous.

"It's normal that you don't know about this as many people outside the core zone have no idea about this. Division 3 is labeled a core zone to the outside, but it's just a piece of chaotic land. There are many underground organizations' headquarters here. In fact, 80% of the popular underground organizations, including the top ones, have their headquarters based here." Lin Huang was surprised by what Sun Ba said.

"Did the Union Government close one eye to this?" Lin Huang asked.

"No, they approved it. 200 years ago, the Union Organization had an agreement with the underground organizations to let go of Division 3. From the outside, Division 3 is still under the Union Government's territory, but it's really the territory of all the underground organizations."

Now, Lin Huang finally understood why Division 3 had such low security. It made sense that Sun Ba announced his ties to the Purple Crow in public so nobody would do anything to him. If that happened in Division 7, someone might have reported him to the Union Government as soon as he said that.

"So, those people from the health department who were giving out fines aren't fake? They were genuine staff?" Lin Huang had thought the staff who were acting like gangsters were bogus. He had never seen anybody who issued fines for lack of cleanliness in Division 7. However, such a thing happened in the territory of the underground organizations.

"They're considered real staff, I guess, but they don't belong to the Union Government," Sun Ba smiled as he explained.

"Are they from the Purple Crow?" Lin Huang speculated since Sun Ba pretended to be one of the Purple Crow members earlier.

"Yes, Sweep City is under the control of the Purple Crow," Sun Ba confirmed.

"There are 33 A-grade footholds in Division 3. Besides Sweep City that's terrorized by Purple Crow, which organization took over the other footholds?" What Lin Huang was asking was not pictured on the map.

"No. A1 to A.10 are under the Union Government. No. A11 to No. A13 belong to Dynasty. No. A14 and No. A15 belong to the Heretics, while No. 16 and No. 17 belong to the Purple Crow…" Sun Ba told Lin Huang accordingly. Basically, No. A11 to No. A27 belonged to the top underground organizations, while No. A28 to No. A33 belonged to the other underground organizations.

Besides Dynasty, the remaining top underground organizations were similar in terms of abilities. The numbering followed the time of agreement from the Union Government and was not related to the power of each organization. Sweep City was No. 3A17 which belonged to the Purple Crow. Later on, Lin Huang asked Sun Ba a couple more questions before leaving.

Sun Ba and the rest were relieved as they watched Lin Huang leaving their field of vision. They were afraid that Lin Huang might kill them after finishing his questioning. After leaving the place, Lin Huang activated Lin Xie's Emperor's Heart Ring and checked into a hotel in the central zone of Sweep City. Although the security was terrible, Sweep City was much more crowded than most of the A-grade footholds in Division 7. The population was even bigger than the White Capital's.

Standing on the hotel's balcony, Lin Huang felt refreshed as he watched people flying across skyscrapers on their flying mounts. People were using flying mounts in the White Capital too, but not as many as there were here. Most of them had Zephyr Dragons as their flying mounts in the White Capital. It was a mini sky dragon that was either red, green, or blue. However, Lin Huang saw more than 20 different types of flying mounts after standing less than three minutes on the balcony. There were different sizes with varying levels of combat. It was a messy scene.

"Stupid dragon, can you stop looking at others' butts? Didn't I feed you this morning?" Lin Huang looked amusedly at a lady who was shouting at her dragon. It was a cool blonde lady riding on a red dragon. The dragon was looking at the Inky Duck's fat butt as it flapped its wings. It was looking around distractedly as it flew in a straight line. Everything that came its way was destroyed.

Lin Huang frowned as the dragon was flying towards the balcony.

"Stupid dragon, you'd better stop now. There's someone over there!" The blonde lady slapped the dragon's head, but it totally ignored her screaming and slapping. All it was focusing on was the Inky Duck's butt. It had set its mind on biting its butt. Soon, the dragon flew into the balcony where Lin Huang was standing. To the dragon, Lin Huang and the balcony was just an obstacle to it.

"No!" The blonde lady covered her eyes and screamed as the dragon was going to crash into Lin Huang.

However, the blonde lady felt an intense force coming her way and yanked the dragon from going forward. She almost fell off the dragon's back. She opened her eyes and saw a dark shield that was fading away. A young man stood in front of the dragon unharmed. Meanwhile, her dragon had passed out and was falling to the ground. Just when they almost landed on the ground, she snapped out of the zone, leaped and landed on Lin Huang's balcony.

"Thanks! Luckily, you managed to make it stop." The blonde lady knew that her dragon had just passed out. However, she was curious about Lin Huang when she noticed his combat level. Her dragon was on gold flame-level while the young man in front of her was just a crimson flame-level like she was, yet he had managed to stop her dragon.

Before she could say anything, there was a bunch of people coming after her. They were demanding compensation for the stuff that her dragon had destroyed.

"I'm so sorry, I'll pay…" The blonde lady bowed and apologized to the people sincerely. She then turned around and said to Lin Huang, "I'm so sorry. I'll thank you again after I've settled the compensation."

"There's no need. It's just a small matter." Lin Huang shook his head.

"I have to. I'll be back tomorrow and treat you to a meal." Without waiting for Lin Huang to reply, the blonde lady leaped down and recalled her dragon before leaving with the victims.

"So, she's an Imperial Censor…" Lin Huang raised an eyebrow when he saw her recalling her dragon.

Lin Huang planned to visit the black market after lunch. Although he had obtained a lot of information from Sun Ba for free, some of the information would need to be purchased at the black market, including where a specific triple mutated monster would appear, the different monster types, and the combat levels across the danger zones. The main reason why he had chosen to come to Division 3 was to look for a suitable Life Fire monster for himself to level up. He was even more determined since Mr. Fu had been attacked.

Just when he was about to go out, Lin Huang sensed someone following him. The person seemed to linger on the balconies of the same floor for a while, and he was coming closer to his room. He frowned as he observed the balcony. He had no idea if it was a thief or someone else. Soon, the person arrived on his balcony. Just when he was ready to attack, he looked closer and realized that it was the blonde lady that he had seen this morning.

The lady stood behind the sliding door on the balcony. She was surprised when she saw Lin Huang, but soon she was overjoyed as she waved at him.

"I'm back!"

Lin Huang shook his head and opened the balcony door for her.

"Can't you use the front door?"

"I wanted to, but I don't know your name and your room number, so I could only follow what I remember. This lousy hotel has balconies that look the same. I forgot which room it was, so I had to look from balcony to balcony. Luckily, I got the right floor." The lady's explanation made Lin Huang realize why she had lingered on each balcony for a little while earlier.

"Please, come in," Lin Huang welcomed the lady into his room.

"Oh, it's nothing special! The one I'm staying at is nicer," The lady looked around as she entered and commented.

"It's not bad," Lin Huang simply said, not wanting to dwell on the topic.

"Didn't you say you would drop by tomorrow?"

"I was bored, so I thought I would come now." The lady peered at Lin Huang. "Can't I do that?"

"I have something to do in the afternoon." Lin Huang did not bother to answer her question.

"Let's go for lunch together. It's my treat," the lady initiated.

"I had lunch." Lin Huang pointed at the lunch box in his dustbin. It was lunch hour, so the hotel restaurant was full. He ordered take-out and had his lunch in his room instead.

The lady thought Lin Huang was just polite, but she realized that he was telling the truth when she saw the lunch box.

"A lunch box… I'll treat you a better meal." The lady looked at Lin Huang emphatically as she concluded that Lin Huang was poor, judging from the room that he was staying in as well as the food that he had.

"It's alright. I know you're being nice, but I really have something to do now." Lin Huang opened his door, making it evident that he wanted her to leave.

"Where are you going? I can go with you since I've nothing to do in the afternoon." The blonde lady was reckless and was not afraid that Lin Huang might be a human trafficker.

Lin Huang figured that she must come from a wealthy family background since she managed to live with such poor social skills.

"I'm going to the black market. It's not a place for a lady like you."

People who went to the black market were usually people from the underground organizations. Lin Huang thought that the lady might be scared if he said that, but she gave an unexpected response.

"Oh, the black market! I've never been there. My dad and sister won't allow me to go. I can't find the place by myself. I heard there're a lot of good stuff in the black market, and I've always wanted to go there. Since you're going, you should bring me along then." The blonde lady looked anticipatedly at Lin Huang.

"I have proper business to settle at the black market. It's inconvenient to bring you along," Lin Huang rejected right away. He started thinking that this lady was even more difficult than Sun Ba the scammer.

"All you'll have to do is to bring me to the black market. You can do your own thing while I look around myself without disturbing you. We'll meet at the entrance for dinner. I'll bring you somewhere good."

"I'll bug you every day until I repay you if you don't promise to bring me along," she insisted as she noticed Lin Huang's deep frown.

"What I did this morning was just something menial. You don't have to take it so seriously." Lin Huang did not expect the lady to be so stubborn.

"It's something small to you, but it's not to me," she said in all seriousness.

"If you didn't do what you had this morning, my stupid dragon would've destroyed more stuff, and I'd have to pay more compensation. Moreover, what my stupid dragon did might have even killed people. My dad would definitely ground me. I hate being grounded!

"Also, my dad taught me that we must remember those who helped us. You've helped me so much, so I must thank you with all my heart. If you don't accept it, this debt will stay in my heart forever."

After hearing the long story, Lin Huang did not want to retort back because he knew if he did, the lady would not give it up easily since she was stubborn. He thought about it and nodded eventually.

"Alright, then. I'll bring you to the black market, but you'll have to listen to me. Don't run around there. Wait for me while I'm settling my stuff. I'll show you around when I'm done. Also, everything comes to an end after dinner. You'll go home and pretend that you never knew me and I never knew you."

Although the lady looked naive, Lin Huang had his guard up whenever someone got close to him due to Mr. Fu. His disguise would usually work for people under imperial-level, but people with unique skills might still be able to see through his disguise.

"Got it!" The blonde lady nodded in excitement after hearing his confirmation.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Yao Huanhuan." She extended her hand for a handshake.

Lin Huang realized that the lady had not paid any attention to what he said. He had told her to pretend not to know each other, but now that she was introducing herself, he was not sure if she had done so on purpose.

"Wu Ming." He shook her hand anyway.

"Why's your name like that? It doesn't sound like a name. Which 'Ming' is that? Is it the 'Ming' from 'Guang Ming'? Can I call you Xiao Ming?"

Lin Huang ignored her questions and stormed out of the room.

"Close the door!" He said to Yao Huanhuan who was left behind.

Lin Huang had found out the location of the black market from Sun Ba. It was located near a busy street in the southeast of Sweep City. He summoned Thunder and rode on it once they got out of the hotel entrance. Yao Huanhuan was surprised to see the flying mount summoned.

"You're an Imperial Censor too?"

Lin Huang nodded. He already knew that Yao Huanhuan was an Imperial Censor when they had first met in the morning.

"What a coincidence! Me too!" Yao Huanhuan seemed to think that they had something in common which made them even closer to each other now. She then summoned her flying mount, a Tweedle Bird. Perhaps she was worried that her dragon would destroy things again, so she did not summon it. Her flying mount was a gold flame-level double mutated Tweedle Bird. It drew attention when it chirped loudly as it was summoned. No less subtle were its colorful feathers.

The Tweedle Bird seemed to be proud that people were looking at it. Just when it was ready to chirp again, it noticed Thunder glaring at it not far away. It stopped making any noises and stepped aside. Thunder was different from the Tweedle Bird as it was a cruel predator while the Tweedle Bird was a pet with a melodious voice. Although they were both double mutated, even if they were on the same combat level, Thunder was much higher than the Tweedle Bird on the food chain. Let alone when Thunder was an immortal-level rank-1 now while the Tweedle Bird was only on gold flame-level.

"Why are you so scared, Xiao Hong?" Yao Huanhuan noticed the change in her pet's behavior and patted Tweedle Bird's wings as she smiled. The Tweedle Bird was upset and ignored Yao Huanhuan by turning its head away.

"Let's go." Lin Huang patted Thunder and flew into the sky.

Yao Huanhuan rode on Tweedle Bird and chased after them.

As Lin Huang rode on Thunder, he figured that he had been too busy earlier and he needed to groom this old partner again. He planned to activate an Advanced Card to upgrade it to triple mutation, then use the Reborn Card and the Blood Thickening Card. After all that was done, Thunder should go through an ability transformation. He had used up his Advanced Cards, Reborn Cards, and Blood Thickening Cards earlier, so he put this aside. Now that he was left with 340 card draws, he would start a new round of cross-ranking kills after he leveled up to blue flame-level in a few days, and he would get even more card draws by then.

Sweep City was almost the same size as the White Capital which was 15 million square kilometers. It was almost of the size of Russia on Earth. The distance from the hotel to the black market in the southeast was 2,500 kilometers away, and they took more than 40 minutes to arrive. Thunder landed on top of a skyscraper following Lin Huang's command while the Tweedle Bird followed. He then caressed Thunder's wings and recalled it back into card form.

"Your pet is so well behaved!" Yao Huanhuan enviously commented.

She then fed the Tweedle Bird with a jelly bean and recalled it much to its chagrin. It was Lin Huang's first time witnessing a relationship between an Imperial Censor and its pet, and he found it was interesting. All of his Monster Cards did not need to eat. Unlike regular pet monsters, they needed to be fed and had to shit every day. Although his monsters had a character of their own, they would not throw tantrums like this Tweedle Bird or ignore instructions like the dragon this morning. Basically, they obeyed whatever Lin Huang said.

As he thought about that, Lin Huang figured that he might not be a qualified Imperial Censor. Although Yao Huanhuan would occasionally be tortured by her pet monsters, looking at the way she communicated with them, despite not being an extraordinary Imperial Censor, she was much more qualified than Lin Huang was in many ways.

"Let's go." Lin Huang then looked away from Yao Huanhuan and glanced at the streets down below.

"So, it's in the busy streets down there? It's so crowded!" Yao Huanhuan recalled Tweedle Bird and studied where Lin Huang was gazing. However, she was looking at the busy streets next to the black market.

"Follow me." Lin Huang leaped and fell gracefully to the ground.

Yao Huanhuan shrieked and followed him by leaping at the edge of the building.

Soon, the both of them landed at different paces. Lin Huang then walked into the black market that was ten meters away while Yao Huanhuan followed him excitedly.

When they arrived at the entrance, Yao Huanhuan looked at the busy streets that were 20 meters away. She was disappointed.

"Oh, so it's not that way!"

"Follow me, don't run around. It's not my problem if the human traffickers take you away," Lin Huang warned her and walked into the alley ahead.

"What human traffickers? Do you think I'm a three-year-old kid?" Yao Huanhuan giggled.

Lin Huang stared at the naive Yao Huanhuan who was still giggling.

"Are there really human traffickers?" Yao Huanhuan was stunned when she noticed Lin Huang's serious expression.

"Of course, this is a black market. Any of the stores could be doing human trafficking businesses," Lin Huang revealed the truth.

"Hmph, if they dare to touch me, I'll get my stupid dragon to bite them." Yao Huanhuan remained carefree.

"It's better that you don't let your dragon out, or else people might follow you. In this black market, there might be immortal-level and even imperial-level people here. To them, your dragon is priceless. Don't show your wealth off here, or else you'll get yourself into trouble," Lin Huang said.

Just when Yao Huanhuan wanted to object to Lin Huang, the door of the house ahead was opened. Five young men who dressed like gangsters walked out of it, all of them on gold flame-level.

"Kill the man, keep the lady. Let's take turns to have fun with her later." The leader with blonde hair and a nose piercing glared at Lin Huang and focused his attention on Yao Huanhuan.

The men around him had dyed hair like watercolor had been splashed onto their heads. They had nose piercings too.

"F*ck off!" Lin Huang did not hold back. In the black market, the more timid you were, the more you would be bullied. Of course, you would need to have abilities yourself to be fearless, or else you would leave this place as a dead body. Killing was prohibited in all footholds besides the black market.

"Wow, are you trying to be a hero here?" The leader with blonde hair then looked at Lin Huang amusedly.

"You won't have the time to if you don't run now." Lin Huang stared at the leader and ignored the rest.

"Kill him! Kill the lady as well. We can have fun with her even if she's dead!" The leader was taken aback by Lin Huang's response, but he soon snapped out of it.

Yao Huanhuan was terrified when she saw the men coming towards her. She was planning to summon her dragon. Suddenly, five crimson glows flashed in the air as Lin Huang raised his hand. There were holes that were the size of thumbs on the five men's foreheads. They then fell onto the ground. After killing the five of them in one hit, Lin Huang moved his finger and retrieved their Emperor's Heart Rings with his Telekinesis. He then kept the rings in his storage space.

"They're dead…" Yao Huanhuan was shocked as she stared at the dead bodies on the ground which were still bleeding in their heads.

"Let's go." Lin Huang did not bother about Yao Huanhuan who was in shock and gestured at her to leave. He crossed the dead bodies and proceeded to walk ahead. Yao Huanhuan looked at Lin Huang who was getting further and ran after him following a moment's hesitation.

Since the five gold flame-level men were killed in a single hit, the store owners and visitors, who were ready to watch an exciting show, returned to the stores. They proceeded to do what they were doing and pretended not to have seen anything. Besides showing his stunning ability off, Lin Huang had just sent everyone a message that he was a crimson flame-level genius who had the ability of an immortal-level. Everyone knew that such a genius must be a core member of a top organization. People who dared to touch him would suffer a horrible death.

Lin Huang brought Yao Huanhuan deeper into the alley. As soon as they disappeared, a few people dashed towards the dead bodies. In less than a second, the bodies were taken away, and there were even two individuals who fought each other for a dead body. To ordinary people, a dead human body was useless. However, to many of the business owners in the black market, it was something valuable that could be sold to puppeteers or witches. A complete gold flame-level human body could be sold at a higher price than a gold flame-level monster carcass.

Of course, Lin Huang had no idea about all that. Even if he did, he had no one to sell the bodies to. As they entered the alley, they soon arrived at the main street of the black market. There were more stores there, but business was slow. Including Lin Huang and Yao Huanhuan, the number of visitors were less than half of the number of stores that were available.

"It's so quiet." Yao Huanhuan was upset as she walked into the alley. She did not speak until she saw the actual black market.

"Most of the trading is done online now, so fewer people are shopping at the brick and mortar stores," Lin Huang turned around and explained to her.

"Then, why didn't you do it online?" Yao Huanhuan asked.

"There're many scammers online who sell fake stuff and fake information. I prefer to shop at the stores. There are fewer scammers here," Lin Huang explained patiently.

"But what if there are scammers at the stores? They might just close their stores and leave after scamming you." Yao Huanhuan was determined to get to the bottom of this.

"If that happens, I'll try to look for the scammer when I have the time and make him pay for the price." Although Lin Huang's tone was calm, Yao Huanhuan could sense that the cold tone in it. She recalled the dead bodies at the entrance of the black market.

"Do you… always kill?" Yao Huanhuan asked after a moment of silence.

"If I don't kill, they would've killed me." Lin Huang did not answer her question directly.

"Is this why you refuse to tell me your real name? Are you afraid that I'm here to kill you?" Yao Huanhuan knew the name that he had given her was fake. She had just been pretending earlier.

"Too many people want to kill me, so I have to be careful," Lin Huang admitted that he had his guard up against Yao Huanhuan.

They became silent after that conversation. Soon, Lin Huang finally found the store selling information that Sun Ba had told him about.

"Wait for me at the hall. Don't run around and create trouble. There are many people like the five men in the black market, and there are even more powerful people than that," Lin Huang reminded Yao Huanhuan again as they walked into the store.

Lin Huang then followed the female staff into a room. There was a lady who was in her early 30's in the room. She had a voluptuous body, but she was not fat. Her combat level seemed to be hidden using a relic, so Lin Huang could only sense that her aura was just like an average person's.

"Dear Sir, what would you like to know?" The lady sounded extraordinarily sweet which made Lin Huang feel comfortable. She did not use any bewitching skills, but her voice was distinctive.

"I want to know all the details of holy fire-level and immortal-level triple mutated monsters that are located in Division 3. Also, I need all the details of the danger zones and forbidden lands as well as the monsters in them," Lin Huang requested directly.

The lady raised her eyebrow and smiled.

"Not many people ask for such information. It's a massive amount of data, and I'll need some time to put them together. Could you come back tomorrow?"

"Sure." Lin Huang nodded.

"Is there anything else that you need?" The lady asked.

Lin Huang thought about it and nodded. "All the details of the organizations in the Division 3 footholds."

"That's tough. I can only provide you info on A- to C-grade footholds although the C-grade foothold data is just a tough one, let alone the D-grade. But it seems like no organization wants to take over the D-grade footholds," the lady explained.

"A- to C-grade are good enough." Lin Huang nodded.

"If you're not in a hurry, you can collect all of them tomorrow." The lady smiled at Lin Huang.

"Sure!"

After transferring the fee, Lin Huang gave her Lin Xie's contact number.

"Just send everything to this number tomorrow."

"Please come back soon!" Lin Huang left after hearing the lady's sweet voice. He soon noticed that Yao Huanhuan was no longer at the hall. He frowned and asked the staff who had brought him into the room, "Do you know where the lady went?"

"She went into another trading room after you left," the staff explained.

Soon, Yao Huanhuan returned.

"Didn't I ask you not to leave?"

"I heard from the staff that they sell information here. I happen to have something to ask. Moreover, I didn't leave this store. That's not considered leaving!" Yao Huanhuan denied.

Lin Huang did not want to argue with her.

After leaving the store, Lin Huang shopped at the black market with Yao Huanhuan just like he promised. She would stop whenever she saw something interesting like a curious kid who stopped to look at fun things. After shopping at most of the stores, Yao Huanhuan bought many peculiar things that Lin Huang did not know about. She said she spent all her money on items that she had never seen before as collectibles. Lin Huang did not bother to tell her that some of the odd pots that she had bought were spittoons from the olden days.

They finally got out of the black market when it was past 6 p.m. Yao Huanhuan projected the map, pinned the location, and summoned her Tweedle Bird. She then waved at Lin Huang.

"Let's go! I'll bring you somewhere good!"

It was proven that Yao Huanhuan was from a wealthy family as she brought Lin Huang to a posh restaurant called the Sweep Gourmet. The restaurant looked like a glorious palace and was decorated just like a palace where a real emperor lived. It was not the obnoxious kind of decoration whereby gaudiness ruled over class. The settings were just right. It seemed like every corner of the restaurant was carefully designed.

Lin Huang secretly searched for the restaurant on the Heart Network and found out that it was opened by a demigod. The restaurant was a demigod relic just like the Union Government headquarter in Division 7. It was also the first official restaurant in Sweep City and ranked No. 9 in Division 3. It was famous from excellent word-of-mouth and delicious food. There might only be one flaw that the restaurant had - its menu was so freaking expensive!

Of course, almost everything was served here including double mutated imperial-level monsters. As long as one had enough Life Crystals, they could even order a triple mutated monster or rare types such as dragonkin. However, the price of such monsters would be even more expensive than purchasing them alive from an Imperial Censor.

Yao Huanhuan seemed to be a regular customer. She brought Lin Huang straight to the third floor and asked for a private room. He was shocked to see the prices on the menu. The price of a plate of meat was equivalent to a third of a monster carcass on the market. The restaurant's profit must be sky-high.

For instance, an adult Swine Beast weighed more than five tons, and its meat made up 70% of its body. Taking away its bones and pure meat that occupied 35%, the meat was only 1.75 tonnes. Assuming a plate of stir-fried meat weighed 0.5 kilograms, one Swine Beast would be equivalent to 3,500 plates. Moreover, the Swine Beast's bones could be used to boil soup, make braised pork, and be barbecued… The gross profit would at least be thousands of times more. Deducting the labor and other costs, the restaurant's clean profit was hundreds of times more than a typical restaurant's.

They ordered four dishes and one soup for dinner. It cost more than 5,000 Life Crystals. A modified grade-3 relic only cost 4,000 Life Crystals while 5,000 Life Crystals could be spent on a customized grade-3 relic. Lin Huang was embarrassed to let Yao Huanhuan pay, so he went to the counter to settle with the excuse that he was going to the loo. The staff at the counter then told him that the dinner was complimentary. Lin Huang was surprised as he did not know that Yao Huanhuan was such a big shot. He returned to the private room on the third floor without asking any further.

He did not plan to find out more about Yao Huanhuan's identity as they would not be seeing each other after dinner. No matter how interesting her identity seemed to be, it was none of his business. Yao Huanhuan had no idea that he had attempted to pay. It would be a total joke to know that a crimson flame-level person could not hold his bladder after one meal, but she pretended not to bother. It was 8 p.m. when they were done with dinner, and the sky was completely dark now.

"Thanks for dinner," Lin Huang said after noticing that Yao Huanhuan finally put her chopsticks down.

"How was it? Sumptuous, isn't it?" Yao Huanhuan was contented.

"Pretty good."

"I'll treat you again some other time."

"I'll be leaving Sweep City in two days." Lin Huang planned to leave after getting the monster's location to get himself a suitable Life Fire monster the next day.

"Where're you going?" Yao Huanhuan asked immediately.

"Not sure yet. I'll only decide tomorrow after obtaining the information," Lin Huang said truthfully.

"Will you come back?" Yao Huanhuan asked in anticipation.

"Not sure, we'll see."

"Oh…" Yao Huanhuan seemed to be gloomy to hear his answer.

As they walked out of the restaurant, Yao Huanhuan stood at the entrance and asked Lin Huang, "Can you tell me your real name now?"

Lin Huang hesitated before nodding. "My name is Lin Xie."

Since it was a new identity, Yao Huanhuan would not be able to find anything. Besides, he would leave the next day if everything went as planned. There was no way for her to look for him.

"I'll remember that!" Yao Huanhuan nodded firmly before she grabbed Lin Huang's hand and introduced herself again, "My name is Yao Huanhuan. From now on, we're officially friends."

Lin Huang wanted to withdraw his hand, but he did not. What Yao Huanhuan did was out of his expectations.

"I need to go home now, or else I'll get scolded. See you if we have the chance in the future." Yao Huanhuan withdrew her hand and summoned her white dimensional relic. She stepped into it and waved goodbye at him.

Lin Huang smiled and shook his head as he watched Yao Huanhuan disappear together with her dimensional relic. The lady was even weirder than he thought. He then summoned his dimensional relic and vanished from where was. After he returned to the hotel, figuring that he would have a long day tomorrow, he got ready for bed when it was past 11 p.m. after reading some news. However, something caught his attention.

The headlines were "Little Princess Dating A Strange Man in the Middle of the Night" and the photo was of him holding Yao Huanhuan's hand at the entrance of Sweep Gourmet.

"Princess?" Lin Huang tapped on the news in doubt.

Three sentences into the news, Lin Huang finally found out Yao Huanhuan's true identity. She was the daughter of Sweep City's first family.

Although Sweep City was under the Purple Crow, the Yao family was the first family who lived in the Sweep City 700 years ago. They were also an Imperial Censor family. In Division 3, besides the top eight families, the Yao family was the first echelon family. They held a high status as they had been in Sweep City for many years. Even the Purple Crow would avoid them as they were the real royal family.

The restaurant's demigod founder was Yao Huanhuan's great-grandfather. Now, Lin Huang finally understood how Yao Huanhuan could eat for free. She was the youngest member in the family at only 17. She had a sister called Yao Lan, and the both of them were the only two daughters in the youngest generation of the family, so they were precious. They were called the Big Princess and Little Princess in Sweep City.

The most popular thing about the little princess was that she would get a new summoning monster every six months. When she obtained her new monster, she would destroy the city. However, she did not do that on purpose because she had yet to master the summoning monster which was triggered by the environment and would start destroying buildings. The dragon that Lin Huang encountered earlier was one such situation.

At first, nobody dared to ask for compensation as the Yao family was a significant royal family after all. However, she would always initiate the compensation and would always pay more than twice the price of the damages. Since then, everyone got used to it and would ask for compensation from the family. They even welcomed the Little Princess to destroy their houses.

"I didn't know I would be famous on my first day in Division 3…" Lin Huang wondered if he should laugh or cry after reading about the Yao family.

The next morning, Lin Huang went to the buffet breakfast on the second floor after washing up. Just when he was getting his food, he noticed that many people were watching him. He did not bother at first, but as he sat down after exploring the buffet spread and getting the food that he wanted, he realized that almost everyone in the restaurant was staring at him. Some of them were even pointing and talking about him.

"What's this about?" Lin Huang looked down at himself. He seemed to be dressed alright today. He then turned on the selfie mode on his Emperor's Heart Ring to see if there was anything on his face. He was getting more and more skeptical.

"Why are all these people looking at me?"

On the double, Lin Huang left the restaurant after finishing his breakfast. Noticing that the staff at the entrance was looking curiously at him too, he could not help but ask, "Why are you guys looking at me? Is there anything wrong with me?"

"Dear guest, didn't you read the local news?" The female staff asked him back.

"The local news?"

"About you dating Little Princess last night. Everybody knows about it now. It's the biggest news of the year in Sweep City." The female staff smiled.

"People in Sweep City has nothing better to do…" Lin Huang thought to himself when he heard the staff's answer.

After he returned to his room, he found out that the comments of the news last night had blown up.

"Little Princess is mine! The strange man can go f*ck himself!"

"Judging by his look, we know that he's a bastard who scams little girls!"

"5 credit points to get the strange man's address who dated Little Princess. I want to stab him to death!'

"Upvote to that! Credit point +1. Don't forget to livestream when you stab him to death!"

"I support that! Credit point +2. I'll give you chicken feet if you livestream that."

"Credit point +3! Please get more chicken feet and marinate them… Ahh, I'm drooling!"

"Credit point +4. We've found a man-eater here! I'm reporting this!"

…

They were almost 100,000 comments on that single piece of news. Lin Huang then registered a new account on Weibo and found out that all the locals were talking about the same topic. Tens of thousands of threads had been created in a night and it was increasing. There were new threads coming up almost every second. It was mind-blowing.

Lin Huang was speechless.

"That girl did this to me!"

His plan was to stay low for a while in Division 3 so that he could focus on leveling up. He could always show off when he reached immortal-level. He did not expect himself to become famous in Sweep City on the second day after arriving in Division 3. If the topic became the number one in the browsing section, not only Sweep City, all of the other footholds in Division 3 would see his face. Luckily, his face was a disguise. Even a demigod could not tell how he really looked like from his picture.

Lin Huang calmed himself down and read the other news as well as the public information about the black market. He received a message from the lady from the black market when it was past 9 a.m. Before he could view the attachments, the lady sent a video call request. Lin Huang frowned and decided to pick up the call.

"Morning, dear customer!"

"Why are you calling?" Lin Huang asked.

"Mainly to tell you about the documents that I've just sent you." The lady sounded sweet as usual.

"Of course, but I'm sure there's something else besides that."

"Go on."

"Do you know that many people contacted us to find out about you after the news got out last night?" The lady smiled.

"And then?"

"We did a check on you, but we didn't manage to get anything, so we didn't really make much money from that."

"Are you saying that you want to pay me a portion of what you made?" Lin Huang remained calm. There was nothing much about Lin Xie, so it was only natural that the lady did not manage to get anything.

"You're so good at joking." The lady smiled.

"Stop beating around the bush. Say what you need to say." Lin Huang knew very well that the lady had not just called to chat with him.

"Alright then, I shall get straight to the point!" She became serious.

"Since you asked for information about monsters, I'm sure you're going to kill a number of them. Could you sell us the monster carcasses after that? We'll buy them at market price since we don't have many monster carcass resources."

"Why me?" Lin Huang asked.

"We need the stock urgently. We've already contacted customers who hunt and you're one of them. You've proven that you have stunning killing abilities. That's the kind of collaborating partner that we're looking for."

"I can sell them to anyone I want. What do I get if I sell them to you?" Lin Huang asked practically.

"As long as you agree to do this, you'll be our partner and we'll guarantee not to leak your identity," she said slyly, "Especially your identity that's being investigated to find out who you really are."

Lin Huang's heart skipped a beat. The lady knew that he was using a fake identity.

"Why don't you tell me who I really am?" Lin Huang remained calm on the surface.

"We don't know as we didn't investigate." The lady was honest.

"But I can't guarantee that nobody will spend a sum of money to find out about you. Trust me, no matter how you hide, there are ways to discover your real identity as long as someone pays. If we become partners, we'll keep this a secret and even come up with fake information when it's needed."

"I'm just an ordinary person. There's nothing to investigate about my identity." Lin Huang smiled as he shook his head. "I'm not sure how you even came up with this false assumption that my identity is fake. Without any practical benefits, I won't come all the way here just to sell the monster carcasses to you. I can sell them anywhere else at the same price. That's more convenient for me. I'm hanging up if that's all you have to say."

"Wait!" The lady was surprised by Lin Huang's response, but soon she came up with a new plan. "We'll give you a 20% discount if you're asking for information or purchasing items from us!"

"Can you give a better discount?" Lin Huang raised his eyebrow.

"20% is the highest that I can get for you." The lady shook her head and smiled.

"This is the best that I can do. Please don't make it tough for me."

"Alright then, it's set!" Lin Huang agreed.

Lin Huang was relieved as he hung up the call. He had almost admitted his fake identity. Luckily, he was smart enough to deny it.

On the other side, the lady frowned as she looked at Lin Huang's identity in her hand.

"So, did he agree?" A man in glasses asked as he stood at the door.

"Yes, he did. He agreed to the 20% discount that I offered." The lady forced a smile.

"Didn't you say that you could get him to talk since you know that his identity is fake?" The man in glasses was surprised.

"He denied it." The lady shook her head.

"I've investigated his identity, but there's nothing wrong with it. My instincts tell me that he's using a fake identity, so I tried to trap him, but I failed. Perhaps my instincts were wrong. It's not the first time anyway…"

"Maybe you're too tired. Rest more, alright?" The man in glasses comforted her.

Early morning in the Yao residence in Sweep City, Yao Huanhuan walked to the dining room while humming after washing up. Her mother, father, and sister were seated. The three of them were peeking at her as they ate slowly.

"Sis, when did you come back?" Yao Huanhuan was surprised to see the young lady home.

"This morning," Yao Lan replied.

"So early? Don't you always come back during lunch? So, you've decided to come back during breakfast now?" Yao Huanhuan giggled.

"I had a last-minute mission in the middle of the night which was just near home, so I dropped by.

"Oh." Yao Huanhuan chatted with her sister before joining them for breakfast.

"Huanhuan, where did you go last night that you had to come home so late?" Her mother asked a while later.

"Didn't I tell you that I bought my friend a meal? We ended up shopping in the afternoon, so I bought him dinner before coming home." Yao Huanhuan skipped the part where she went to the black market.

"You bought someone a meal?" Yao Lan thought it was odd.

"Yeah, I told you about the guy who blocked my Dumb Dumb yesterday morning," Yao Huanhuan said with a smile.

"Dumb Dumb?" Yao Lan thought that she could not understand her own sister anymore.

"The dragonkin that you got her earlier," her mother explained helplessly.

"Didn't you call it Hong Hong?" Yao Lan frowned.

"I changed its name yesterday. It's so dumb!" Yao Huanhuan explained.

"I suppose you rode on it before even coming to an agreement with your summoning monster?" Yao Lan glared at her.

"Didn't I tell you many times that you need to train your summoning monster for at least three months before bringing it out in public?!"

"But it behaved well when it was at home!" Yao Huanhuan denied.

"That's just the preliminary training. You'll need more training such as anti-interference. You've always brought your summoning monsters out in public after finishing the preliminary training and ignored the other training. It's normal for it to go crazy when it sees so many people and flying mounts all around it!" Yao Lan gave her a lesson, knowing how reckless Yao Huanhuan was.

"So, how many streets did it destroy yesterday?

"Not many. Less than two streets," Yao Huanghuan chuckled.

"All thanks to my friend. If he didn't slap Dumb Dumb to make it pass out, I've no idea how much compensation I'd need to pay. So, of course, I had to buy him a meal to thank him."

"He made your gold flame-level triple mutated dragonkin pass out with one slap?" Yao Lan raised her eyebrow.

"Your friend is an immortal-level?"

"Hehe, he's only crimson flame-level," Yao Huanhuan said excitedly.

"Sis, you might not be able to fight him even if the both of you are on the same level. He didn't only slap Dumb Dumb, he even killed…"

Yao Huanhuan then realized that she had said something that she should not have, so she stopped immediately.

"What did he kill?" Her father, who had been quiet, frowned and asked when he heard that.

"No… Nothing." Yao Huanhuan looked down and shoved a bread into her mouth.

"Did he kill people in front of you?" Her father demanded.

"No, no," Yao Huanhuan denied. She knew that if her parents found out what Lin Huang had done, they would ask her to stop being friends with him.

Her parents looked at each other. They knew how she behaved like when she was lying, and it was obvious that she had just lied.

"You're not allowed to see this person anymore!" Her father said furiously.

"Huanhuan, try not to get close to people like that. Since you've already bought him a meal, you've already paid your deed." Although her mother's tone was gentle, the message she was trying to send was the same as Yao Huanhuan's father.

"Huanhuan, the triple mutated gold flame-level dragonkin that I got you actually has the ability of an immortal-level rank-2. Your friend is just on crimson flame-level, but he managed to settle the dragon that was a level higher than him. That proves that he's a real supreme genius. I would've lost to an immortal-level rank-2 monster if I were to fight one when I was on crimson flame-level, let alone settling it in a single blow. Such a person must be trained by a powerful organization, and there are only a few such organizations in Division 3 besides underground members. I know most of them, but I've never heard of such a person. That possibly mean he's a member of an underground organization, most probably one of the top ones," Yao Lan analyzed Lin Huang's identity.

Yao Huanhuan did not say a word as she already knew that Lin Huang was a member of an underground organization. It was not difficult to conclude that from the way that he had killed and how familiar he was with the black market. However, she did not think that Lin Huang was a bad person.

"I'm full. You guys go on." Yao Huanhuan put the bread down on the table and left. The three of them looked at her leave without stopping her.

After Yao Huanhuan left, Yao Lan spoke to her parents, "You guys have spoiled her. I think the guy didn't know who Huanhuan is, so he wasn't interested in her. Now that it's all over the news, it's too risky to let her get close to that guy."

"Old Yao, get something to find out who that guy is." The mother looked at her husband desperately.

"Whether it's related to Huanhuan or not, this person must have some kind of intention. We must find out what he's doing in Sweep City."

"Yes, we should. The father nodded and glared deadly.

"If he's coming for the Yao family, no matter which organization he's from, I won't let him live.

…

Lin Huang, who was tens of kilometers away, had no idea that he was being targeted by the Yao family After hanging up on the call from the lady, he looked at the documents that she had sent immediately. The first one was of the organizations in all footholds of Division 3. It detailed the records from A-grade to C-grade footholds and even included the contradictions between the organizations as well as the fights that had happened in the past.

He had a rough skim through and started looking at the second document. The second one held the information of severe danger zones and forbidden lands as well as where the monsters were. Lin Huang noticed that the number of severe danger zones in Division 3 were more than thrice the number that they had in Division 7. There were 18 forbidden lands, which was almost triple what Division 7 had.

He then looked at the last document about holy fire-level and immortal-level triple mutated monsters in Division 3. It was the most important document to him at that point. He then started looking for the Life Fire monster that suited him the most…

The Four-Faced Beast was an immortal-level rank-5 triple mutated monster. It had a gigantic head with four human faces that faced different directions. Besides the four faces, it had 16 muscular arms and four strong legs. If it was placed on Earth, it would definitely be classified as a deformed human caused by severe nuclear radiation. Obtaining its tinder would give Lin Huang the ability to form extra arms during battles.

The Argus Scorpiodemon was an immortal-level rank-6 triple mutated fiend. It had four large and eight small eyes on its head. Besides that, there were tens of yellowish fangs exposed in the middle of its head. The entire head and body were covered with a brown, hard carapace. Its dark purple pinchers were bigger than its head. There were irregular spikes growing on its head all the way to its tails. It had three long tails on its back with a green iridescent shimmer that could be seen under the sun. Obtaining its tinder would give Lin Huang the ability to master more than 300 types of venom.

Meanwhile, the Cimmerian Corpse was an immortal-level rank-6 triple mutated spirit monster. It was covered in a big black robe that almost covered its feet as it floated around. In its loose sleeves were five black claws measuring almost 50 centimeters in length like the tail of a scorpion. It had a rotten human face with maggots squirming all around. Its tinder would give Lin Huang the ability to control bones whereby he could form a black bone structure that could be a weapon or a shelf. The strength of the bone structure was as powerful as a supreme relic.

…

The black market provided Lin Huang with the information about more than 30 triple mutated monsters. After some careful elimination, those that he was able to kill shrunk the list to less than half while the rest were monsters that were above immortal-level rank-7. He was not surprised by that as there were not many triple mutated monsters since the beginning. Moreover, all of the powerful Imperial Censors would follow the trails of triple mutated monsters and hunt them down as soon as they found one that was suitable for them.

Besides Imperial Censors, geniuses, who would able to fight triple mutated monsters, would kill them to obtain their tinder or their monster souls. Those triple mutated monsters that were not killed or captured were weak and nobody wanted them as a pet or a monster soul. Meanwhile, the powerful ones could not be killed by geniuses or tamed by Imperial Censors. Sometimes, they appeared in areas that were difficult to access such as forbidden lands which death rate was high.

Lin Huang frowned as he finished reading the document. There was only one monster that was related to Sword Dao among the 30-odd monsters, but it was an immortal-level rank-9 monster. Besides, the tinder of the monster was only a legendary-level Sword Dao skill, and not the Sword Heart that he desired. Lin Huang was not interested in the Sword Dao skill as he had Mr. Fu and Qi Mu Xiong's memories. With his One Page Sword Scripture, he was already on his path in Sword Dao, so skills that were below god-level could not interest him anymore.

A holy fire-level only had five chances to get to Life Fire. Lin Huang did not want to waste the opportunity on a Sword Dao skill that was unnecessary. Moreover, he would need to waste a Provisional Transformation Card to level up his combat level to kill the immortal-level rank-5 monster. However, besides that monster's tinder, there was none that he was happy with. He could not make a decision until lunch time.

Feeling helpless, he summoned Bloody for advice as well as contacting the hotel staff for service. Soon, the staff sent two portions of lunch. As Lin Huang ate his lunch, he waited for Bloody to read all about the monsters patiently so that it could give him some suggestion. As he was finishing lunch, Bloody had read everything about the monsters.

"I've ordered lunch for you. You can eat it before advising me." Lin Huang pointed at the plate.

Bloody then extended its two antennas, grabbed the plate and poured the food into its mouth. It put the plate back where it had been after licking the plate clean. Lin Huang had just finished his food and passed his plate to Bloody when he saw what it had done.

"You can clear this as well."

Bloody did not mind Lin Huang's leftovers and licked his plate clean too.

"I sure hope the staff clean the plates when they get them back," Lin Huang mumbled to himself.

Bloody then started speaking after spending a couple of seconds finishing its lunch, "I think this is the Life Fire monster that suits you best." Bloody used its antenna to point at one of the monsters on the projection.

"The Devil's Psykid?" Lin Huang raised his eyebrow when he saw the monster that Bloody was pointing at. It was a human kid monster on the screen. It looked like a little boy that was less than 1.2 meters tall with a black cloak. Its face was hiding under the hood. Half of it was a skeleton while another half was perfectly fine. Its eye on the right looked scary.

The Devil's Psykid was a triple mutated fiend that was skilled at Telekinesis and spirit attack. In the document, it stated that it was an immortal-level rank-6. It was the perfect range for Lin Huang to fight without using a Transformation Card. However, he eliminated this monster as his Life Fire monster from the beginning.

"The Devil's Psykid's Life Fire has Demonic Telekinesis. I already have Divine Telekinesis. Wouldn't it waste my time killing it?" Lin Huang shook his head as he explained.

"Master, you got something wrong. Telekinesis is an ability that can be strengthened continuously. The Divine Telekinesis that you have will be strengthened when you obtained Demonic Telekinesis," Bloody paused.

"Moreover, the most important part is although the Devil's Psykid doesn't have Supreme Intelligence, it's a monster with high intelligence. The telekinesis that it has is already on a terrifying level whereby it's comparable with a supreme genius who's an expert in telekinesis. You won't be just getting its telekinesis skill when you get its Life Fire, you'll also obtain its experience in telekinesis. It's a whole package. If you obtain this skill, Master, you'll save two to three years mastering telekinesis."

"The path to telekinesis doesn't sound bad." Lin Huang was convinced after hearing Bloody's explanation.

"With this new identity in Division 3, it isn't convenient for me to use my sword. My close-distance ability is limited, so the most I can fight is an immortal-level rank-2 or rank-3 monster…"

There were actually many telekinesis skills and techniques in Qi Muxiong's memories, but Lin Huang did not have the time to train earlier. It would take time to master telekinesis, so he had put it aside. Not that there was a shortcut available, but he would not want to let it go.

"Sure, let's go for the Devil's Psykid then!"

The immortal-level rank-6 Devil's Psykid was a great source of tinder as well as an excellent choice as a summoning monster. It had not been captured or killed by anyone mainly because it was locked on the second layer of the forbidden land, Abyss Brink. The Abyss Brink existed 800 years ago before the first Virtual Eye opened, and it was the second most dangerous forbidden land in this world.

The Abyss Brink almost covered the entire world. If one was to shrink the world map many times smaller, the Abyss Brink was like a gigantic, complicated spider web. Its ocean covered 8 of the 12 safe zones while the entire Abyss Brink covered the 13 safe zones, including the land of origin. Mr. Fu and the rest who were involved in the building of safe zones could not help this. Besides the borders of the world, no matter where the safe zones were built, they would always land on the Abyss Brink.

This particular forbidden land was dangerous as the Abyss Brink did not have any monsters that were below transcendent-level. Even the least powerful monster on the first level of the Abyss Brink was a holy fire-level monster. There were even many immortal-level monsters wandering on the first layer of the Abyss Brink. Meanwhile, on the second layer where the Devil's Psykid was located, the least powerful monster was an immortal-level rank-1, and there were even imperial-level monsters. On the third level, even an imperial-level person would not dare to enter as the least powerful monster was on imperial-level, and there were even demigod monsters.

There was also a fourth level in the Abyss Brink, which was called the virtual zone, as well as an isolated forbidden land that was the most dangerous forbidden land in the world! Its entrance was located on the third layer while its opening times and location were different every time. The period for which the entrance stayed open differed from time to time as well. It was like a ruin that opened irregularly, which was why it was called a virtual zone.

The virtual zone's existence was similar to the Abyss Brink's whereby it had opened way before the first Virtual Eye. However, all of the ancient recordings during the ancient epoch had never mentioned anybody surviving the virtual zone after entering it. This forbidden land that existed in isolation was like a massive black hole that engulfed everything.

With Lin Huang's current ability, he was unwilling to risk his life in the Abyss Brink. If he had to, he would usually explore the first level and would not go to the second level as there were just too many life-threatening monsters there. However, after hearing about all the benefits that killing the Devil's Psykid would give, he decided to risk his life this time.

"Although it's the second layer of the Abyss Brink, it should still be safe if I follow the coordinates that were provided to find the Devil's Psykid and get out from the place as soon as I kill it," Lin Huang comforted himself. The six God Crashers that he had were only down to three to four shots but to be safe, he decided to reload all of them just in case something happened.

After spending the entire afternoon and half his evening preparing for his trip, he went to bed right after that. He had no idea that the Yao family had been doing all sorts of investigation throughout the day.

In the middle of the night, Yao Huanhuan's father, mother, and sister Yao Lan gathered in their family reading room.

"So, did you manage to get anything about the guy?" The mother asked.

"This guy is hiding very well. There's nothing wrong in his network history on his Emperor's Heart Ring. He has never downloaded any 'movies' before. I mean, which young kid like him has never watched those sort of 'movies'? I remember when I was younger…" The father started, then he realized that his wife was staring angrily at him, so he changed the topic.

"Ahem, so that shows that he's hiding many things. Although it's been a short period and the people investigating him could only find his basic information, it proves that there's a powerful organization that's concealing his identity for him. If he's from a Union Organization or some member from a prestigious family, he wouldn't conceal his identity like that. It's no surprise that he might even be a member of an underground organization. It's just that we haven't managed to find out which underground organization he belongs to."

"So, you're saying that you didn't manage to find out any sh*t about this guy?" The mother was dissatisfied with the outcome of the investigation.

"Don't say that! At least now I know he's not interested in our Huanhuan." The father smiled.

"Why so?" The mother asked.

"He has bought a ticket to the Abyss Brink today and he'll leave Sweep City tomorrow," he explained with a wide grin.

"He's only a crimson flame-level but he's going to the Abyss Brink. Is he digging his own grave?" Yao Lan rolled her eyes.

"Supreme geniuses usually have high expectations. Didn't you say that you wanted to explore the Abyss Brink when you had just reached white flame-level?" The father had a less biased judgement towards Lin Huang ever since he found out that Lin Huang was not interested in his daughter.

"Moreover, as Huanhuan described, the possibility of this guy risking his life on the first level of Abyss Brink is low."

"Since he's going to the Abyss Brink, why can't he just go from another city? Why must he come to Sweep City?" Yao Lan still could not get over the fact that this strange man had gotten so close to her sister.

That's my sister. Get off, bastard!

She had rejected a mission in the middle of the night when she saw the picture of Yao Huanhuan holding a strange man's hand. What she had said in the morning was just an excuse.

"I found out that he didn't come to Sweep City on purpose. He was sent from another safe zone's dimensional portal." Many people had witnessed the incident involving Lin Huang with Sun Ba, so that was not difficult to find out.

"You mean this guy came from a safe zone outside of the core zone?" Yao Lan raised an eyebrow.

"There're supreme geniuses outside of the core zone…"

The dimensional portal in Sweep City sent people randomly from divisions outside of the core zones. Besides Sweep City, to save energy, besides the dimensional portal in No. A1 to No. A10 footholds, all of the other A-grade footholds in Division 3 would transport people at the same time. The operation was only done once a day.

The dimensional portals in Division 3 were like receiving terminals that received people who were sent across the safe zones at the same time. Therefore, Sweep City could not determine which division was Lin Huang sent from.

Hearing Yao Lan's doubts, the father said in all seriousness, "Lan Er, don't underestimate anyone's birthplace as one's ability. There are also supreme geniuses who are comparable with the people in Division 1 to Division 3, so it's normal that there are supreme geniuses in other divisions."

Yao Lan was quiet as she stared at the table. Nobody knew what she was thinking about.

A while later, she peered up from the table.

"I shall visit the Abyss Brink as well. There's a mission taking place there."

"Lan Er, please don't find fault with the kid. After all, he didn't do anything to our family. Don't create trouble out of nowhere and offend the organization behind him." The mother frowned.

"Don't worry. I'm not going to find fault with him. I'm just going for a mission and I shall see what's the guy that Huanhuan has so many good things to say about is like." Yao Lan smirked.

The next morning, Lin Huang checked out of the hotel after breakfast and headed straight to the dimensional portal terminal to the Abyss Brink. The dimensional portal to the Abyss Brink was located at a different place from the usual foothold dimensional portal as the both of them were hundreds of kilometers apart. Just like the usual dimensional portal, it was operated by a team that handled the daily maintenance.

The dimensional portal would only be opened at 9 a.m. once a day. If a person missed it, he would have to purchase a ticket again and come back the next day. There were already 30 to 40 people at the dimensional portal when Lin Huang arrived. Most of them were having breakfast or drinking coffee at the stores nearby. Some of them sat on the bench reading news and scrolling on social media sites.

He went into the cafe and got himself a seat after ordering a cup of black coffee. He started reading the news. Soon, the waiter served his drink. He waited patiently for the dimensional portal to open as he sipped on his coffee. As he was finishing his coffee, a young lady in her early 20's walked into the cafe. The lady smirked when she saw Lin Huang. As she passed by where he sat at the al fresco area and ordered her coffee, she turned around and headed towards Lin Huang's table.

"Hi, anyone sitting here?" The lady asked as she stood across Lin Huang at the table.

"No." Lin Huang was so engrossed in reading the news that he did not even look up when he responded.

The lady frowned when she realized that Lin Huang did not even bother to look at her.

After a moment of silence, the lady suddenly spoke, "Eh, aren't you the guy who dated Yao Huanhuan?"

Lin Huang then looked up and studied the lady. His eyes lit up. She looked like she was in her early 20's and was almost 1.7 meters tall. She had a pair of long legs and a pretty nice body but… her breasts were a little too small.

"You've got the wrong guy." Lin Huang looked away after checking her out.

"How is that possible? You look exactly like the guy in the picture!" The lady exclaimed and projected the picture in the news.

"The picture only shows the side profile of the man. I admit his side profile looks a little like mine, but if you compare me and him, you'll realize that his front profile isn't as handsome as mine," Lin Huang started rattling nonsense.

"Ever since the news was published that night, people have told me that I look like him yesterday. It's irritating. So, I'll tell you once again that the guy in the news isn't me. Our side profiles just look slightly similar."

The lady was stunned like she did not expect Lin Huang would deny her like that. She almost believed that she had the wrong guy, but soon she snapped out of it.

"It's you. Stop denying!"

"Lady, you've really got the wrong guy. Can't you see that we're wearing different clothes?" Lin Huang proceeded to deny.

"Different clothes?" The lady was stunned. She then studied Lin Huang and looked at the picture before realizing he was playing a fool with her.

"You can change your clothes! Do you think I'm a three-year-old?!"

"I've already told you that I'm not the guy in the news. What do you want from me?" Lin Huang spread his arms wide.

"Whether you admit it or not, I know you're the guy!" The lady insisted.

"Whether you believe me or not, I'm not," Lin Huang insisted.

The staff finally served the lady's coffee, and she calmed down slightly. Lin Huang then proceeded to read the news again.

After taking a sip of coffee, the lady interrogated, "What's your relationship with Yao Huanhuan?"

"We're not in any relationship. I don't even know her," Lin Huang replied callously without even looking up.

"Alright then, maybe I've really got the wrong guy." The lady finally let it go.

"I've told you that since the beginning, there's nothing that I can do if you don't believe me." Lin Huang had his eyes on the news page.

"Since you said you don't know Yao Huanhuan, that means you're not from Sweep City then? She's the Little Princess of Sweep City. Nobody in the foothold doesn't know her. Even if they've never seen her, the name should ring a bell," the lady proceeded to probe.

"Yeah, I'm not," Lin Huang gave a short reply.

"Then, why are you here in Sweep City?" The lady asked.

Lin Huang frowned when he heard that. If the lady recognized him from the news, what she asked should be all about Yao Huanhuan. After all, Yao Huanhuan was the person everybody cared about while he was just a sidekick that rode on the wave of fame. However, now that the lady had started focusing on him instead of Yao Huanhuan, he had his guard up towards her.

"I'm just passing by," Lin Huang gave a short reply again.

"So, where are you from?"

"Why don't you guess?" Lin Huang glared at the lady, trying to figure out if the lady had investigated him.

"I can't guess. Forget it if you're not telling." The lady did not fall into his trap and changed the subject instead.

"Why are you going to the Abyss Brink? I guess you can tell me that?"

"To hunt for Life Fire monsters," Lin Huang told the truth.

"Me too. My name is Lan Yao. Let's form a team." Yao Lan gave a fake name and suggested that they form a team.

"No," Lin Huang rejected her directly.

"Why not? It'll be safer if the both of us are together."

"I'm used to doing things on my own," Lin Huang replied.

"So, you want me to go on my own? What if something happens to me?" Yao Lan showed a pitiful expression.

"Then, you shouldn't go or get a few friends to go with you. There's no difference if you go now or later since you're hunting Life Fire monsters."

Yao Lan had no idea what to say to Lin Huang as what he said made sense.

"What's the matter with you?" She did not expect to be backhanded so many times by him.

"Lady, let me give this to you straight. We're on different roads. I'm going to the second layer of the Abyss Brink." To Lin Huang, she was just another crimson flame-level. To prevent her from following him, he revealed his plans.

"You're going to the second layer?" Yao Lan was shocked to hear that and she could tell that Lin Huang was not lying. However, the second layer of the Abyss Brink was not a place for her as an immortal-level rank-3. Lin Huang was only a crimson flame-level, but he had the guts to go to the second layer. To her, he was digging his own grave.

"You're only crimson flame-level and you're going to the second layer? Do you plan to die there?"

"There's nothing that I can do. The Life Fire monster that I'm looking for is on the second layer. I'll leave right after I kill it." Lin Huang shrugged.

"Do you think the Abyss Brink is a place that you can just enter and leave as you wish?" Yao Lan thought Lin Huang was being ridiculous.

"Never mind then. I'm not stopping you from killing yourself. Have fun!"

Yao Lan stood up and left immediately, not bothering to speak to Lin Huang anymore. To her, as long as he got to the second layer, it was impossible for him to get out alive. It was unnecessary for her to waste her time on a person who was going to die soon.

"I've finally chased her away." Lin Huang looked at the time. It was already 8.40 a.m. and the dimensional portal would be opened soon. He ordered another cup of coffee as he waited patiently.

When it was almost 9 a.m., they started queuing up a few minutes beforehand to have their tickets checked. Surprisingly, when they formed two lines, there were a total of 167 of them.

Lin Huang took a glance at the queues and realized that two teams were going on a trip!

The leaders of both of the teams were the immortal-levels, and he guessed that they were on the rank-3 or rank-4. Both of them were holding red flags with white words printed — A day trip to the Abyss Brink.

The holy fire-level young men that followed them were chatting with each other.

'How could they develop the tourism industry in the forbidden land? The people in the core zone are really geniuses…' Lin Huang thought to himself.

Looking at the time, it was already 8.57 a.m. He then put the cup down and slowly made his way towards the queue.

A young man was queuing up in front of Lin Huang. Because he saw that Lin Huang had lined up behind him, he asked curiously, "Bro, are you from our group? Why didn't I see you just now?"

The man was one of the team members on the trip.

"No, I'm going on my own." Lin Huang shook his head.

"You're just on crimson flame-level, yet you have the guts to enter the Abyss Brink on your own? You're kind of brave, aren't you?!" He exclaimed. In fact, he felt that Lin Huang was eager to die. However, he was not close to Lin Huang and felt that if he were too direct, he would undoubtedly offend him.

"Is it safe to go on a trip in a group?" Lin Huang was curious.

"It's quite safe. Although it's a vacation, we actually follow the tour guide and walk along the safe route for only half a day. We'll take photos and kill two monsters in the Abyss Brink so that we can experience how it feels like to hunt monsters in the forbidden land. After we return, we can share the photos on our social networks," the man explained honestly.

"Can't you guys stay overnight?" Lin Huang asked.

"Of course we can't. Doing so is dangerous. The monsters will be rather active at night compared to during the daytime. Most of the predators are active at night." The man explained further, "However, there's also an overnight package which costs a lot more and signing a waiver is necessary. If anything happens, the tour company and the tour guide aren't going to bear the responsibility. It's less likely for anyone to sign up for that tour package. They can't even get a single business transaction for that package in a month. Most of the day trip tour guides are immortal-level rank-3 or rank-4. As for the tour guides of the overnight trip, they are immortal-levels of higher ranks, possibly immortal-level rank-6 or rank-7."

"Is there any limit on the combat strength of the people who join the travel program?" Lin Huang made a guess as he noticed that none of the holy fire-levels joined the team.

"They must be at least on white flame-level. Also, they must've completed building their flying forcefield so that they can master the flying skills. Otherwise, they won't be able to escape if anything happens."

"It sounds interesting." Lin Huang felt that the person who came up with the idea of the tour program was intelligent. "I suppose it's not cheap to go for a trip like this, is it?"

"It's quite expensive! It costs 3,000 Life Crystals, and there's no refund or transfer allowed. We have to pay for everything that we prepare for the trip as well as the traveling tickets through the dimensional portal." The man looked upset. "I regretted right after paying for the tour program. Oh well, since I've already paid for it, it'll go to waste if I don't go."

"This is considered the cheapest package among all. There's the overnight package, the three-day trip, and the seven-day trip. The overnight trip costs more than 10,000 Life Crystals. As for the three-day trip, it costs 50,000 Life Crystals, and the seven-day trip costs 100,000 Life Crystals."

After chatting for a while, the portal was activated. Both of them then stopped talking.

Soon, both of the teams entered after scanning their entrance tickets.

Lin Huang was the last one to enter the portal. After he stepped into the portal, the door gradually closed.

A few moments later, the crowd cautiously strode out of the dimensional portal and appeared at the border of the deep entrance.

"Right through this entrance is the Abyss Brink. Please fly according to the white dotted line drawn on the cliff and make sure that you don't stray from the flight path as you'll get lost easily over here. If you're flying off track, you might accidentally wander into places that you shouldn't enter, and you'll have to bear the responsibility." After explaining, the staff summoned his dimensional relic and left.

Lin Huang set the location in his dimensional relic as well so that he could come the next time again.

Many of them jumped into the entrance.

"Good luck, bro." The man who had chatted with Lin Huang patted his shoulder, then followed his team and entered. He wondered if Lin Huang would survive.

Many of them had left. Lan Yao, the girl who had talked to him earlier, was there as well. He did not bother about her and took a leap towards the entrance.

"I'd like to see if the guy is actually going to the second layer!" Yao Lan hesitated for a while when she saw Lin Huang leap towards the entrance. Still, she chose to follow after him.

After Yao Lan had left, three of the men exchanged glances with each other.

"She's so pretty!"

"But she has small boobs."

"What's wrong with having small boobs? She's still pretty! Do you want her? If you don't, she'll belong to both of us."

"Yes, I do. Of course, I do!"

The three of them entered as well.

As Lin Huang flew along the white dotted line, he saw many other black ripples that might possibly be the entrance to the other parts of the Abyss Brink. Some of them allowed direct access deep into the Abyss Brink whereas some of them were temporary entrances that nobody knew when would close. If anybody happened to enter the Abyss Brink through those, it would be difficult for them to leave.

After moving down for about five minutes, Lin Huang finally arrived at the end of the dotted line. There was a giant arrow pointing downward at a large, blue-black ripple.

It was the actual entrance to the Abyss Brink which would lead them to the periphery of the first layer.

Seeing that the people in front of him had entered, Lin Huang followed after them as well.

As he passed through the blue-black ripple, he could see a yellowish sky that looked somewhat like the weather during a sandstorm in the city on Earth.

They could not see the Sun although it was now daytime. Only the sound of the wind howling could be heard.

The ground had become desolate with a few clumps of withered grass. The place did not look like it had entered spring at all. Apparently, the weather over here was different from the outside.

Not far away from Lin Huang, two of the small teams rested for a while, and soon, they left with the four immortal-level leaders acting as their guide.

The rest of them left in groups of at least three.

Only a minority of them left on their own, and they were on immortal-level.

Just as Lin Huang was about to leave, he was blocked by four people. The four of them were on gold flame-level.

"Little brat, give us your Emperor's Heart Ring, and you may leave," one of them threatened.

Still, Lin Huang placed both of his hands in his pockets and said, "Why don't the four of you give me your Emperor's Heart Rings and leave?"

"I hate those who're weak but arrogant." A flicker of fury flashed through his eyes, and he snarled, "I've changed my mind. I want to kill you and cut you into 18 pieces to feed my pet monster."

"I hate those who're weak but arrogant too." Lin Huang grinned at the man. "Therefore, I've also changed my mind, and I want to kill all of you."

Yao Lan, who had just passed through the entrance, saw this. She grinned as she stood nearby and watched what had just happened. From her sister, she knew that Lin Huang was strong. It would be easy for Lin Huang to defeat the four gold flame-levels that were trying to get him into trouble. However, she wanted to know how strong Lin Huang exactly was.

Right at that moment, the three men, who had followed her, approached her.

"Hey girl, let's have some fun."

Yao Lan rolled her eyes at the three of them. Soon after, a snake the size of her thumb appeared on her palm.

"A Braineater Serpent?" Their eyes flashed with fear. "Sister, it's our fault…"

"Green Scale, the three of them are here for your breakfast."

A second later after Yao Lan finished her words, a sage green glow streaked across the sky and penetrated through their heads. Their bodies immediately became limp and collapsed.

After Yao Lan recalled her little snake, there were already four dead bodies in front of Lin Huang, and he was searching through the body of the corpses rather rudely.

After rifling through the four dead bodies, Lin Huang then stood up and looked behind him. He vaguely heard people growling in pain earlier.

However, as he turned his head around, he could only see three dead bodies. The assailant was no longer there.

Still, he noticed that the Emperor's Heart Rings on the three bodies were still intact. He then sized up the surroundings and concluded that there was no one else there. He walked towards the corpses.

At about ten meters away from the corpses, Lin Huang stopped advancing forward. The men had been killed in the same way. There was a thumb-sized hole on their temples as if they had been pierced through forcefully by a finger. However, Lin Huang felt that it was strange as there were no traces of blood splatter.

Lin Huang did not investigate any further. To avoid having to make contact with the dead bodies and risking his safety, he extracted the three rings by using his psychic skill.

After storing the three Emperor's Heart Rings in his storage space, he took out the map provided by the black market. Upon confirming his location and the location of the entrance to the second layer, he set the next destination in his dimensional relic. He then summoned Thunder and rode on its back.

"Let's depart!" Lin Huang pointed towards the direction of the entrance to the second layer.

Thunder fluttered its wings and flew into the sky. Soon, it disappeared from the sky…

After Lin Huang had left, a woman gradually appeared from the cliff. Impressively, it was Yao Lan who had just killed the three men who had harassed her.

"He's an Imperial Censor?!" Yao Lan was shocked as Yao Huanhuan had never told her about that. She raised her head, looking in the direction where Lin Huang had just disappeared. She frowned. "That direction… It seems like he's really going to the second layer..."

Sitting on Thunder's back, Lin Huang fixed his gaze upon the ground.

Though barren, the land was not wholly dead. One could still see one to two dying trees with a few leaves occasionally.

After a short while, Lin Huang could see the group of people that had left the entrance not long ago following a low-level flight.

Seeing Thunder fly over them, some of them that were flying in the same direction as Lin Huang switched their paths to another direction.

Lin Huang spotted the two small teams that were going on a trip. As soon as they detected Thunder, they did not flee. However, they brought the passengers to land on the ground. They were preparing to defend themselves.

"It's an immortal-level rank-1 Viridescent Thunderhawk. Hide behind us!" The four leaders shouted at the crowd.

"An immortal-level rank-1! He should be easy to handle, shouldn't he?" Some of them asked.

"Although the Viridescent Thunderhawk is merely a double mutated monster, it's one of the best predators. The sky is their playground. An immortal-level rank-2 might not be able to take advantage of it. Even if immortal-levels rank-3 and rank-4 like us fail to kill it in a single hit and it attempts to escape, we won't be able to catch up with it. Once it's offended, we'll be in great trouble if we attract a flock of bird monsters. Most of them hold grudges," one of the leaders explained. "However, it seems like they're just passing by. As long as we don't block their way, we won't be their target."

"It seems like a person is sitting on its back!" A young man with 20/20 eyesight shouted.

"Yes, there's someone sitting on its back! I just noticed that." One of the leaders smiled, nodding his head. He saw that there was a figure sitting on the back of the Viridescent Thunderhawk. However, he could not identify who that was, and he was unsure of the person's combat strength. "It's actually not strange for an immortal-level to have an immortal-level monster as a flying mount. Even if he's not an Imperial Censor, they can buy the pet monster that's been tamed from many of the large-scale auctions. The only downside is that it's quite expensive."

They felt envious of the rider when they heard that. They wished that they could get to immortal-level as soon as possible so that they could buy an immortal-level pet monster as a flying mount.

Of course, Lin Huang did not know that the people were daydreaming enviously of his luck as he passed by.

After having sat on Thunder's back for more than seven hours, Lin Huang finally arrived at the entrance to the second layer.

On their way there, many of the monsters had avoided Thunder. They were afraid that they would become Thunder's hunting target.

Aside from encountering attacks by immortal-level monsters thrice, Lin Huang managed to go all the way to straight to his destination. As for the three of the immortal-level monsters that had attacked him, they were killed by Lin Huang in a blow. The carcasses were then stored in Lin Huang's storage space.

Lin Huang knew that he had reached the entrance to the second layer as soon as he saw the crack on the ground from afar that looked very much like a gaping mouth. He then patted Thunder's back and said, "Let's land next to the crack in the ground.

When Thunder heard that, it retracted its wings a little and descended towards the crack on the ground.

After a few moments, Thunder flapped its wings and landed gracefully next to the crack.

Lin Huang leaped down from Thunder's back. He patted its wings, and soon, it was recalled back into its card form.

Because Thunder was a double mutated monster, it could not be summoned on the second layer of the Abyss Brink. With its abilities, it would end up at the bottom of the food chain where most of the monsters were eager to hunt it for food.

The entrance to the second layer of the Abyss Brink looked like a wide-opened mouth when studied from an aerial view in the sky. In fact, it was actually a vast fissure towards the underground. It was a few kilometers long with a width of more than 500 meters.

Somewhere near the crack, there was a massive stone table that measured about ten meters tall.

A phrase was engraved on the stone tablet: "The crack is the entrance to the second layer of the Abyss Brink. Please do not enter if you're any lower than immortal-level rank-3. Otherwise, you'll certainly die!"

As soon as he saw the engraving on the stone tablet, the first thought that came to his mind was, "None of them actually commented on this?"

He took a few steps forward with his hand extended and touched the stone tablet. He then discovered that there was a faint white glow being emitted which blocked him from contacting the stone tablet. Apparently, it was a protective measure taken by the predecessors to prevent humans or monsters from damaging the stone tablet. The tablet must have existed for a long time. So many years had passed, but the power of the protective layer was still there. It must have surpassed the skill of a demigod.

"It's not because nothing is engraved on it. There's a protective layer, and nobody can carve it," Lin Huang laughed.

He then retracted his hand from the stone tablet and stood at the border of the crack. Looking down into the Abyss Brink, it seemed to be bottomless. Without a moment's hesitation, he took a deep breath and leaped into the Abyss Brink.

He continued moving forward and soon, Lin Huang discovered that the world beneath the fissure was like a bottle. It became wider as he moved downward.

After a minute of passing through clouds, Lin Huang finally reached its bottom.

Lin Huang was startled upon realizing that the ground under his feet was grassy.

The second layer of the Abyss Brink was utterly different from the scenery of the first layer where the plants were all dying. Instead, it looked like the outside world with spring in the air. Lin Huang had a temporary illusion as if he was back at the grassland in Division 7.

What made Lin Huang feel strange was that he could no longer see cliffs or the entrance that looked like a gaping mouth above him. Instead, above him was a blue sky with the bright sun hanging in the air…

After familiarizing himself with the environment, Lin Huang could feel an aura approaching him swiftly.

He raised his head and looked ahead. A blue bird was flying towards him. As it extended its wings, he noticed that they were more than ten meters long.

"It's an immortal-level rank-2 Blue Sparrow… Does it see me as prey?"

Lin Huang frowned, and the next moment, a snake the size of his middle finger with crimson patterns over its body appeared in his hand. It was the imperial-level Eclipse Boa that he had encountered in the ruins previously. However, after being transformed into its card form, its abilities were restricted by Lin Huang's combat strength. Therefore, its capabilities had been lowered to immortal-level rank-1.

Nevertheless, the triple mutated Eclipse Boa had been a boss in the past. One could definitely not afford to offend it.

Seeing the Blue Sparrow in the air pouncing towards him, the Eclipse Boa's red eyes flashed with a trace of fury. The next moment, it opened its small mouth and swept the entire area with its terrifying power.

It was too late when the Blue Sparrow realized that something was wrong. As it frantically flapped its wings and attempted to flee, its efforts were in vain. It was being drawn in by the fierce wind. After letting out a growl, it was drawn into the Eclipse Boa's mouth which was even smaller than the size of a palm.

The Blue Sparrow was rather pitiful. Even though it was an immortal-level rank-2 monster, it was easily defeated by the Eclipse Boa that had gone through its third mutation. It was killed within seconds.

However, the Eclipse Boa did not actually eat its prey. Instead, it extracted the soul of its prey. The soul was then crushed and absorbed as it stored the carcass in an independent space within its body. It could disgorge its prey in its complete form when necessary.

Lin Huang knew this, and that was the reason why he had chosen to summon it. Otherwise, if it digested the entire immortal-level carcass, Lin Huang would suffer a significant loss as he would not be able to sell the carcasses. Each of the immortal-level carcasses would earn him at least 10,000 Life Crystals.

After swallowing the Blue Sparrow, the Eclipse Boa shook its head at Lin Huang as if it wanted to butter up to him since it was the first time Lin Huang released it after it became a monster card. For the sake of its freedom, it chose to fawn over its master.

Lin Huang touched the Eclipse Boa's head and said, "Hide in my right sleeve."

He did not recall the Eclipse Boa. Since it was small in size and convenient to bring along, plus the fact that it was quite powerful and capable of defeating monsters that attempted to attack him quickly without leaving any traces, he decided to leave it out.

The Eclipse Boa nodded its head slightly and slipped into his right sleeve.

After it went up into his sleeve, Lin Huang took out his dimensional relic again and set the next location. He then put his dimensional relic away, projecting the map of the second layer of the abyss which had been provided by the black market.

Seeing the symbol of the Devil's Psykid shown on the map, he frowned. "It's so far away. It's at least 20,000 kilometers away from my current location…"

At Lin Huang's current flying speed, even if he activated his single acceleration, he had to fly for ten continuous hours to arrive at his destination. Although it would be faster to ride on Thunder, they would quickly become the target of the other monsters. As for his double acceleration, it would consume a significant amount of his Life Power. In dangerous places, it would be imperative for him to conserve his Life Power. That was why Lin Huang strategized to clear all the monsters that attempted to attack him with his summoning monsters.

"The sky will possibly turn dark in two hours. If we resume our journey, the probability of encountering monsters will increase. We have to look for a suitable place for our stay tonight before the sky turns dark. We shall depart when the sun rises tomorrow morning." Lin Huang immediately activated his single acceleration and quickly headed towards the direction where the Devil's Psykid was.

He maintained a low-level flight for almost half an hour, and none of the monsters blocked him. Although the monsters on the ground often attempted to attack him, he managed to dodge all those attacks. He did not waste any time and did not bug them either. Although a few of the monsters tried to chase after him, Lin Huang activated his double acceleration for a short while, and soon, he managed to get rid of them.

This proved that Lin Huang was like a delicious dish to all the monsters on the second layer of the abyss which all of them would like to taste.

If he were to kill all the monsters, he wondered if he could reach the place where the Devil's Psykid was at in a week, let alone arrive tomorrow afternoon.

It was almost six o'clock in the evening. Seeing that the sun was about to set as he fixed his gaze upon the sky, he made his way through a forest and summoned Bloody.

Bloody then transformed into a purple snake and twisted around Lin Huang's left arm.

"Bloody, please check if there are any places that I can hide in. It's fine even if it's a monster's lair."

Upon receiving Lin Huang's instruction, clear Leech Pods were released by Bloody, spreading everywhere.

Lin Huang waited patiently at his original position for the result of the investigation.

After more than ten minutes, he received the information from Bloody which had found three places. They were monster caves. Fortunately, the three monsters were not that strong as they were merely immortal-level rank-3 and immortal-level rank-4.

Lin Huang chose the one that was nearer to the location of the Devil's Psykid.

After several minutes, Lin Huang then appeared at the entrance of the monster lair. The master of the monster lair was only an immortal-level rank-4 Cavernous Ursa.

Although it was only a double mutated monster, it had rather strong defensive abilities and strength. Its skills could be compared to some of the immortal-level rank-5 monsters.

However, encountering such a monster like that, Lin Huang still did not fight but summoned Bai instead.

Right after Bai entered the monster lair, furious roars were heard coming from the cave. In less than 20 seconds, the roars faded into groans. The cave then ended in silence within the next ten seconds.

After several moments, Bai walked out of the cave, nodding its head at Lin Huang.

As Lin Huang walked into the monster lair, he saw that the Cavernous Ursa that was more than ten meters tall had been entirely mummified. The monster was supposed to be extremely strong. However, it looked very skinny at the moment as if it was suffering from hunger.

Aside from a few of the wounds that were visible on its body, there was only a gash on its neck. However, there was no blood dripping out of its injuries. Neither were there any blood stains on the ground or the wall.

Lin Huang had never underestimated Bai's ability. Each time when it was summoned during a fight, its performance was often out of his expectations.

Lin Huang thought that it would be a fierce battle for Bai. However, from the marks left in the cave, he could see that it was an easy fight and it seemed like it had managed to pin its enemy down easily.

"Could a triple mutated God's Blood be this strong? Perhaps it's on par with a supreme genius…" Seeing the situation of the battle, Lin Huang had to re-evaluate Bai's ability. Although it was only an immortal-level rank-1, its ability might be comparable to the immortal-level rank-6. It was a leap that spanned five ranks and was definitely something the supreme genius could achieve.

The Eclipse Boa secretly peered at the Cavernous Ursa's dead body through Lin Huang's sleeve. A flicker of fear then flashed through its eyes.

After putting the Cavernous Ursa's carcass away, Lin Huang did not recall Bai into its card form. Bai was then instructed to keep watch at night.

With Bai's assistance, Lin Huang would not have to worry that they would be distracted by the monsters at night. He had to be prepared for the extraction of the tinder the next day as well.

That night, Lin Huang could sleep soundly as not a single monster roar was heard.

The next morning, after washing up, Lin Huang then noticed four carcasses outside the cave when he walked out. The weakest monster was an immortal-level rank-3 whereas the strongest one was an immortal-level rank-5.

All four of the carcasses were killed in a blow, and their heads were chopped off. There were no other wounds on their body. All the corpses appeared to be mummified, and no blood stains could be found at all.

After storing the four carcasses, Lin Huang knew that he had made the right decision by asking Bai to keep watch at night. If the Eclipse Boa had been assigned instead, he would not have gotten to sleep until the early morning.

After having some snacks, Lin Huang recalled Bai to its card form before 7 a.m. Along with Bloody and Eclipse Boa, they departed. The reason why he did not bring Bai along was if he encountered a monster attack, it would be inconvenient to activate his double acceleration. Bai's flying speed was slower than his double acceleration. As opposed to Bai, Bloody and Eclipse Boa would sit on him like passengers.

It took him more than eight hours to arrive at his destination from the monster lair that he had stayed at for the night. He intended to find the Devil's Psykid before sunset and complete the kill. If he was attacked by monsters during the journey, it was less likely that he could reach his destination before the sky turned dark.

Although the exact location had been provided to him by the black market source, the probability of the Devil's Psykid staying at the same place was low. After he arrived, he might probably have to search through the area with the help of Bloody. Taking all sorts of possibilities into consideration, Lin Huang departed early in the morning.

He maintained a low-level flight and the situation was similar to what had happened yesterday. Many of the monsters attempted to launch ranged attacks, and some of them even chased after him.

Just like what he did the day before, Lin Huang accelerated to get rid of them. He had been using this skill for more than five hours, and everything went smoothly. However, at about noon, Lin Huang got into trouble.

An immortal-level rank-5 triple mutated monster was staring at Lin Huang from high in the sky.

"An Ashenplume Falcon…" At that very moment, Lin Huang sensed that he had become the monster's target and he could recognize it in mid-air.

Lin Huang chose to maintain a low-level flight to avoid encountering such monsters.

Apart from that, there was often an outbreak of groups of monsters in the sky. There was also the occasional lonely monster that was extremely strong.

The reason why he did not want to offend such monsters was that most of them possessed terrifying flying abilities. Their speed could surpass Lin Huang's double acceleration easily. He would not be able to get rid of them if he bumped into them in the sky and could only kill them. It was fine if such an encounter happened only once or twice. However, if that happened all throughout their journey, it would be a waste of time.

Despite having chosen a low-level flight, he was still targeted by the Ashenplume Falcon. He felt helpless.

The Ashenplume Falcon was a triple mutated monster. It had the blood of an ancient monster, the Bloodcrow Falcon, in its body and it was one of the top predators in the sky.

The position of Thunder or the Viridescent Thunderhawk in the food chain was much lower than the Ashenplume Falcon. They were of different levels regardless of the number of times of mutations, the strength of their blood, and their combat level.

Lin Huang did not want to waste any more time. As soon as he discovered that he was being targeted by the monster, he immediately activated his double acceleration and attempted to get rid of it.

Unexpectedly, the Ashenplume Falcon did not give up chasing after him. It did not pounce on Lin Huang. Instead, it kept trailing after him as if they were playing hide and seek.

Soon, Lin Huang did not bother as it did not attempt to attack him. He then proceeded on his journey at his initial speed.

Since the Ashenplume Falcon was following him, many of the monsters fled as they were afraid that they would become its prey. They did not even attack him. Lin Huang wondered if he should laugh or cry seeing the "side effects" of the appearance of Ashenplume Falcon. "I didn't expect that I can take advantage of it this round."

However, Lin Huang's happiness did not last long. About ten minutes later, the Ashenplume Falcon seemed to have sensed that the prey below it was actually not afraid of it. It lost its patience and immediately pounced on Lin Huang.

"I'm waiting for you to attack!" Seeing that the Ashenplume Falcon was diving towards him, Lin Huang was not shocked. Instead, he felt a thrill. A black battle sword instantly appeared in his hand.

Seeing Lin Huang whip out his weapon, the Ashenplume Falcon's eyes flashed with a trace of egotistical fury.

How dare the human the size of an ant attack me?!

Chirp!

A screeching bird cry was heard as the Ashenplume Falcon pulsated its wings up and down. Wind gusts were formed out of nowhere, creating ripples in the air and heading towards Lin Huang.

"Its skill is quite impressive." Lin Huang grinned. The Ashenplume Falcon unleashed its ultimate skill in its first hit. If the attack struck an immortal-level rank-5, they might probably die on the spot.

However, Lin Huang showed no terror on his face. He picked up his long sword and simply thrust his sword forward.

A crimson glow could be seen on the blade of his sword as it flashed into the sky in the form of a bloody crescent. At that instant, it collided with the gust of wind.

The next moment after he collided with the gust, which managed to kill an immortal-level rank-5, was cut into half like tofu.

In mid-air after performing the cut, the bloody crescent sliced through the neck of the Ashenplume Falcon without slowing down.

The screeching of the Ashenplume Falcon immediately stopped. After several moments, purple blood streams dripped out of its neck. Soon after, its head was detached from its body, and its purple blood started oozing out of its neck.

At this moment, a bloody glow appeared from Lin Huang's sleeve. The Eclipse Boa then flew into mid-air, opening its small mouth and swallowing the Ashenplume Falcon's head and body that still had blood oozing out of it.

The Ashenplume Falcon actually had strong abilities. Even if it were on the second layer of the Abyss Brink, if it encountered any monster that it was unable to defeat, it would still manage to escape. Unfortunately, it was easily killed by Lin Huang in one hit because it had underestimated its enemy. Another reason was that Lin Huang was extremely strong.

If this had happened before Mr. Fu's special training, Lin Huang might have taken some time to kill the Ashenplume Falcon. However, after undergoing the rigorous training, he was now a changed man. His ability was incomparable to the past.

The Ashenplume Falcon's appearance only caused him a little delay on his journey and did not create that big a trouble for him.

The remaining three hours after that was much more peaceful. Lin Huang did not encounter any more bird monsters. By using the skill that he used the day before, he managed to reach the location at about 3.30 p.m.

He sized up his surroundings. However, he did not discover any traces of the Devil's Psykid. He gradually landed on the ground, observing around but still, he found nothing.

"Bloody, I'm counting on you." Lin Huang knew that he could only rely on Bloody at the moment. "Please get me the location of the Devil's Psykid!"

The transparent Life Power pods were spreading out in all directions, and Bloody started combing through the surrounding area.

10 kilometers, 20 kilometers… 50 kilometers, 100 kilometers…

Time had passed, but still, he did not receive any news from Bloody regarding the Devil's Psykid.

"Could it be fake news?" Lin Huang frowned but soon, he shook his head and excluded the possibility. He had made three trades with the woman from the black market that day. They even agreed for him to sell her monster carcasses after that. The woman could not possibly fool him with fake news.

As he thought about it carefully, the woman had gotten the information about the location from someone else more than two months ago. Perhaps the Devil's Psykid had been attacked within the two months and was forced to leave. It might even have been killed by other monsters or humans.

If it were the former one, it would take him some time to find it again. However, if it were the latter, his efforts to go into the Abyss Brink were in vain.

"Please don't be killed by the others…" Lin Huang thought to himself as he did not want to go home empty-handed. It was not easy for him to choose a suitable Life Fire monster. If he could not find it, he would have to select another one again. If there were no other suitable monster, he would have to wait for the latest news of the monster up to a few months.

"I've found it!" After about an hour, Bloody's voice was suddenly heard.

"Is it far from here?" Lin Huang immediately asked.

"It's not too far. It is approximately 1,500 kilometers away," Bloody answered. "However, it's not easy to kill it."

"Has it leveled up?" Lin Huang immediately asked. According to the information he had, the Devil's Psykid was originally an immortal-level rank-6. If it were now an immortal-level rank-7, it would be beyond Lin Huang's capabilities. He would have to use the Transformation Card to increase his combat strength.

"It's not about its combat strength, but it's been captured by a Rakshasa Mother." Bloody sounded helpless.

"A Rakshasa Mother?!" It was not Lin Huang's first time coming across this monster name.

The Rakshasa Mother was a fiend. It was a humanoid monster which was born an immortal-level. As it grew up, it would upgrade to imperial-level. The Rakshasa Mother liked kids, especially boys. It was said that if it happened to bump into boys aged below 16 years old, it would catch them to its lair and raise them. Due to its maternal instincts, it would treat them as its own child. However, as they grew up and became an adult, they would then be killed. Therefore, some of the monsters that looked like kids would surrender to it so that they would be protected for their whole life.

Of course, Lin Huang had only heard of such legendary monsters before. There was just a brief description of this monster in the monster guide as it was not clearly recorded. He had never expected to encounter one on his own.

"Does it really catch monsters that look like kids?" Lin Huang asked curiously.

"I guess it does," Bloody said while projecting a picture that it had managed to capture through its Leech Pods.

It was a building with dim lights. Not only did Lin Huang see the Devil's Psykid that he wanted to kill, but there were also two other monsters that looked like kids and a monster that looked like a baby.

However, it seemed like the Rakshasa Mother was not present.

"It seems like we're in big trouble…" Lin Huang never expected this to happen.

The Devil's Psykid had been adopted by the Rakshasa Mother which made killing it much more difficult.

"Bloody, do you have any good ideas?" Lin Huang felt that he had a slight headache.

"There are three ways to kill the Devil's Psykid," Bloody suggested, "First, kill the Rakshasa Mother. Secondly, sneak into the building when the Rakshasa Mother isn't there and kill the Devil's Psykid. Thirdly, try to lure the Devil's Psykid out and destroy it.

"The first way will prevent any future trouble, but that costs us too much. As for the second way, it's difficult to ensure that we won't be discovered by the Rakshasa Mother while sneaking in. It must've set up some monitoring systems in the building. The third way will be the safest one, but we have to think of a way to lure the Devil's Psykid out."

Lin Huang then shook his head slightly. "If the Rakshasa Mother is only an imperial-level of black- or crimson gold-rank, I might be able to win the battle with my cards. However, if its combat strength is on yellow- or white gold-rank, I'm simply seeking for death. Moreover, it's not worth wasting a card that can protect my life for the sake of obtaining tinder. As for the second method, it's too risky to sneak in. We know nothing about the Rakshasa Mother's abilities. If it possesses abilities like dimensional travel and I'm detected by its monitoring skill, it'll probably kill me in the next second. Let's follow the third suggestion and find a way to lure the Devil's Psykid out."

"If you were to choose the third way, we might possibly have to stay in the Abyss Brink for a few more days," Bloody answered. "I'll need a few days to monitor their activities so that I can come up with a plan."

"Sure. Let's stay here for another few days." Lin Huang nodded in agreement. "Let's look for somewhere to stay."

"There's a Humanoid Spider in a cave that's 120 kilometers away. The Humanoid Spider is only an immortal-level rank-3." Bloody extended its antenna, pointing towards the two o'clock direction.

After several minutes, Lin Huang appeared outside of the cave as directed by Bloody.

Before Lin Huang could even instruct it, the Eclipse Boa then transformed into a bloody glow and entered the cave. A moment later, it returned victoriously.

Lin Huang cleaned up the cave and set up his tent. Since he was going to stay there for several days, he had to make sure that the environment was conducive.

After cleaning up and setting up his tent, it was about 6 p.m. The sky was turning dark.

Lin Huang then summoned Bai and Lancelot, and they had their snacks together in the cave.

As usual, Lancelot was in love with its vegetables whereas Bai was drinking its fruit juice that was bright red in color. It did not bother to eat any of the solid foods. Bloody was munching on sweets happily whereas the Eclipse Boa was taking a small bite of the dried meat.

Lin Huang and his summoning monsters lived peacefully in the following few days.

Although they were on the second layer of the Abyss Brink which dangerous, he could still live a happy life.

There were no strong monsters in the place where he was living. The strongest monster would be an immortal-level rank-5 or rank-6. After he had occupied the cave of the Humanoid Spider, Bai and Lancelot fought an immortal-level rank-6 invader on that day itself. After that, the both of them had risen up to become one of the bosses in the area as they had gained considerable prestige. Many of the monsters did not dare to approach the cave where Lin Huang was.

Lin Huang was afraid that they would be discovered by the Rakshasa Mother which was more than 1,000 kilometers away. Otherwise, he would have organized a barbecue party each night. He had been eating snacks in the past few days and was soon bored with the food.

Something that Lin Huang did not know was that Yao Huanhuan who was at Sweep City had created trouble for her parents.

"Daddy, it has been a few days. Do you have news about Lin Xie?" After knowing that her sister had gone to the Abyss Brink to get Lin Huang into trouble, Yao Huanhuan had been asking for permission to go to the Abyss Brink every day.

Of course, her parents would not let their daughter take the risk. They could only help her ask about Lin Huang.

"He hasn't gotten out after so many days. Did Sister kill him?"

"Huanhuan, your sister has her limits." Father Yao was speechless.

"Could he have been eaten by monsters?" Yao Huanhuan asked again.

"I'm not sure about that since it is the Abyss Brink…" Before Father Yao could finish his words, Mother Yao stared at him and said, "He might be able to survive."

"Even if one day isn't enough, he can definitely hunt for tinder in two days. Why hasn't he got out of the Abyss Brink?"

Father Yao wanted to reply, "He has most probably died there." However, seeing his wife, who was standing next to him glaring at him, he dared not say that.

"Something might have slowed him down. Your sister is still there. Let's ask her when she comes back. Perhaps she has met Lin Xie there." Mother Yao comforted her again.

After consoling her, Father Yao and Mother Yao frowned. They were not worried about Lin Huang but about Yao Lan instead.

Yao Lan had gone into the Abyss Brink for three days, but she had not come back yet. If it were a hunting mission, she would have completed it in a day or two. However, it was already the third day.

As for the young man called Lin Xie, they did not care at all. For a crimson flame-level young man, who had not returned after entering the Abyss Brink for three days, her parents considered him dead.

Lin Huang had been staying in the Abyss Brink for six days.

Other than the first two days, he practiced the Army Attack Tactics in the next four days.

One of the reasons that he did so was Mr. Fu had advised him to before. Another reason was that his Sword Dao was stuck. He had to find a way to improve his abilities via other methods.

Lin Huang achieved level eight in his Army Attack Tactics two years ago. However, he had neglected it since then. It rotated on its own with the use of his Life Power. He would use it occasionally during a fight to increase the speed of releasing his Life Power.

It would require 810,000 card pieces to level up to level nine. However, he had only managed to collect 600,000 pieces over the past two years.

When he activated his Life Power at full speed, he could complete a skill rotation cycle in a second. On the first day of his training, he managed to collect more than 50,000 card pieces in about ten hours.

He did not do anything else in the next few days. Other than eating and sleeping, he spent almost 15 hours practicing Army Attack Tactics. Four days later, he finally collected 810,000 card pieces, and a notification from Xiao Hei arrived.

"810,000 Army Attack Tactics card pieces detected. You have fulfilled the requirement to level up. Would you like to use 810,000 Army Attack Tactics card pieces to level up?"

"Yes!" Lin Huang decided without a moment of hesitation.

"Using Army Attack Tactics card pieces x810,000… Army Attack Tactics is being leveled up…"

"Congratulations, Army Attack Tactics has leveled up to level nine!"

"You're required to collect 10 million Army Attack Tactics card pieces for the next level!"

"Eh, 10 million? I can finally understand why there are so few of them who practiced this in the past." Lin Huang was speechless right after he saw the figure.

Even he, who had a Goldfinger, would need 10 million card pieces to level up to Army Attack Tactics level 10. It was the standard to become a cultivator. However, to gather 10 million card pieces, even if he did not do anything else and just trained Army Attack Tactics for 15 hours a day, he would need 200 days to complete the collection, let alone ordinary people that had no Goldfinger. They could not obtain the complete skill set just by collecting card pieces. Forget leveling up from level one to level nine, to upgrade from level nine to level ten alone, they would not be able to achieve it without practicing for several years.

In Army Attack Tactics, for every six levels there would be a low threshold, and for every eight levels, there would be a high threshold. From the ninth level to the tenth, it was a bottomless pit. Anyone without talent, ability, and determination would have given up halfway through. However, by achieving level 10, only then they could practice The Twisted Fate Scripture and become a true cultivator. This was the reason why there were so few cultivators in the old epoch.

However, there would not be much improvement in Lin Huang's ability when he leveled up to level nine. The only difference was that the speed of his recovery of Life Power was a few times faster than before, which enabled Lin Huang to have better control over his Life Power.

In the afternoon of the sixth day, Lin Huang gradually opened his eyes after leveling up to Army Attack Tactics level nine.

"Master, I've found a chance to kill the Devil's Psykid." Sensing that Lin Huang had regained his consciousness, Bloody spoke, "Tomorrow is when the Rakshasa Mother gives the kids free time. Free time is only given to them once a month. That's the only day when the Devil's Psykid and the rest of the monsters will leave the Rakshasa Mother's lair."

"Tomorrow? I shall quickly think of a way to kill it," Lin Huang said. The news came at the right time as he had just completed his upgrade in the Army Attack Tactics.

"The Rakshasa Mother will leave its lair early in the morning. So, it's a workable plan. However, their bodies may be monitored," Bloody reminded.

"Therefore, right after I've completed the kill, I'll have to leave immediately with the carcass. I can't extract its tinder first." Lin Huang nodded.

After the monster died, the Life Fire in its body would go through a slow process of collapsing. He had an hour to extract the tinder. After an hour, when the Life Fire had disappeared entirely, he would have no way of obtaining it. Lin Huang did not have much time.

"Yes, since we have no idea how strong the Rakshasa Mother is, we'll have to be prepared for the worst and assume that she can perform dimensional travel," Bloody confirmed. "Therefore, you have to leave right after you've completed the kill."

After communicating with Bloody, they then confirmed their murder strategy. At about 1 a.m, Lin Huang went to bed.

Early in the morning, before 6 a.m, Lin Huang was awake.

After waiting for so many days, he finally had the chance to extract the tinder.

Lin Huang then recalled Bai, Lancelot, and the Eclipse Boa into their card forms after having his breakfast. Bloody was not recalled as he needed its guidance.

Sitting at the entrance of the cave, he waited patiently for the chance to strike.

At slightly after eight o'clock in the morning, as shown in Bloody's monitoring screen, the Rakshasa Mother carried a monster that looked like a baby and left.

In just a short while, a few of the monsters that it had adopted were released from the building. Lin Huang's target, the Devil's Psykid, was the last one to be released.

The monsters soon headed in their own directions. The Devil's Psykid sized up the surroundings, then it flew in a random direction of its choice. It seemed like it was flying towards where Lin Huang was.

"Why is it coming towards our direction?" Lin Huang asked curiously.

"It's not coming after us. Perhaps it's going back to its own lair," Bloody guessed.

"It's going back to its lair? Does it miss home?" Lin Huang felt that only humans had emotions, but he was unsure if a triple mutated monster would be emotional.

"I don't think so. Most of the monsters have different ways of thinking compared to humans. They know nothing about home. Their lair is just a temporary habitat to them. The concept is the same as humans' short-term tenancy, and they won't miss home. It chooses to go back to its own lair probably because there's something it cares for over there."

"Something that's caught a triple mutated monster's attention? It must be something valuable!" Lin Huang laughed, "Can you confirm the exact location of its lair?"

"I confirmed it two days ago. Other than the cave that we've been staying in, there's only another cave around us that's vacant."

"Let's wait for it at its lair!" Lin Huang grinned wryly.

A few minutes later, Lin Huang and Bloody appeared outside the lair.

"Here it is. Are we going in?" Bloody asked. "It'll need more than half an hour to arrive. Although I found nothing inside its lair by using my Leech Pods, we can still search."

"There's no need to do so. Let's wait outside." Lin Huang shook his head. They then hid in the forest nearby, restraining their aura.

In fact, the Devil's Psykid was indeed heading back to its lair. It appeared outside its den after about half an hour. It stopped for a moment and looked around before entering the cave.

After the Devil's Psykid entered the cave, Bloody projected the situation inside the cave immediately.

The Devil's Psykid went deep into the cave. Before reaching the wall, it pressed a portion of it. A few moments later, the wall started cracking and becoming stone chips. Black crevasses that looked like strands of hair appeared. The cracks were like vines forming all over the wall. Countless small fissures started extending slowly.

Black mist was gushing out of the wall, entering the Devil's Psykid's nose and mouth…

"What's that?!"

Lin Huang frowned at what just happened in the cave. It was strange.

"If I'm not mistaken, it must be the Abyssal Mist. However, I've no idea why it is being released from the wall," Bloody answered cluelessly.

Right at that moment, a strand of mist that looked like a long whip came out of the wall, heading for Bloody's monitoring Leech Pods.

Bloody was caught unprepared, and soon, its Leech Pods were covered by the mist.

A few moments later, Bloody screamed in shock. Soon after, there was a blackout on the monitoring screen.

"Bloody, what happened?" Lin Huang immediately asked.

"The Abyssal Mist is kind of evil. It's capable of capturing the aura of any living beings. By touching my Leech Pods, it can contaminate my body…" Bloody murmured in shock. "Fortunately, I managed to destroy my Leech Pods in time."

Lin Huang knew that the Abyssal Mist was capable of contaminating bodies with a soul to demonize them.

To most humans and non-fiends, the Abyssal Mist was the source of contamination. However, it was a supplement to the fiends and demons. The Abyssal Mist was a holistic medicine to most of the monsters in the Abyss Brink. That was the reason why the Devil's Psykid hid it there. The wall that released the Abyssal Mist could be intimidating to the imperial-level Rakshasa Mother.

Of course, there were grades for the contamination power of the Abyssal Mist. The demonizing effect of the grade-1 Abyssal Mist could only work on ordinary people or monsters with no Life Power in their bodies. The grade-2 Abyssal Mist could contaminate any humans or monsters of any levels lower than transcendent. The grade-3 Abyssal Mist could complete the demonizing process swiftly on those of a level lower than transcendent. It could also affect holy fire-levels and immortal-levels. The grade-4 Abyssal Mist could slowly contaminate those on imperial-level. As for the grade-5 Abyssal Mist, even demigods would avoid it if they happened to encounter it.

Lin Huang and Bloody had never heard of an Abyssal Mist that seemed to possess self-consciousness before. Both of them were shocked by the scene they saw when the Abyssal Mist attack Bloody's Leech Pods.

"Since you're an immortal-level and it has an effect on you through your Leech Pods, the Abyssal Mist being released from the wall must be at least on grade-4. It shouldn't exist on the second layer of the Abyss Brink," Lin Huang analyzed in a deep voice.

"The monitoring screen has been destroyed. I'll release another Leech Pods so that we can monitor at a further distance," Bloody suggested.

"There's no need to do so. Let's just wait here." Lin Huang shook his head. "Since it's here to inhale the Abyssal Mist, it'll definitely get out of its lair after it's done with that. We'll kill it by then."

Bloody did not refute him. It was still filled with intense fear due to the demonizing power coming from its Leech Pods.

The reason why Lin Huang no longer needed to monitor the situation inside the lair was that with his Territory, he could roughly investigate the situation inside the cave. Although it looked like an infrared image at night, he could still clearly see everything that happened inside the cave. He would not have to worry about the Devil's Psykid running away.

Outside the cave, time passed. Lin Huang and Bloody waited patiently for the Devil's Psykid to finish inhaling the Abyssal Mist.

After about two hours, Lin Huang could finally detect that the Devil's Psykid had stopped inhaling the Abyssal Mist with his Territory skill. It spent another half an hour digesting the Abyssal Mist in its body. Soon after, the Devil's Psykid pressed the wall again. Controlled by its mind, the surrounding stone chips quickly turned into a layer of a wall, returning to its original state where the cracks on the wall were completely sealed.

The Devil's Psykid then stepped out of the cave after doing all this.

When it stepped out of the cave, Lin Huang appeared in front of it in a flash. He did not show any mercy as he unleashed Thunder Eclipse in his first hit.

Transforming his black sword into purple lightning, he slashed his sword at the Devil's Psykid.

A flicker of fury flashed through the Devil's Psykid's eyes. It could not dodge the attack in time. A layer of a crystal-clear shield was immediately formed in front of it with its Telekinesis powers.

Purple lightning hit the shield at almost the same time when it was formed.

The transparent shield immediately cracked, and the purple blade of the sword penetrated through the Devil's Psykid's body without any hindrance.

Seeing its body collapsing, the Devil's Psykid was shocked. It thought that with the Abyssal Mist in the cave, as long as it had sufficient time, it would soon become one of the bosses in the Abyss Brink. However, it never expected that it would not have the chance to enjoy the treasure that he had found.

Relying on a sneak attack, the Devil's Psykid was caught unprepared and was killed within seconds. The level of difficulty of the fight was totally out of Lin Huang's imagination.

He initially thought that if his first attack failed, he would summon Bai and the rest, and fight it together. He had to complete the kill as fast as he could.

Seeing that the Devil's Psykid had died, Lin Huang then stored it in his storage space without any delay.

He then turned around and summoned his dimensional relic. Just when he was about to enter, a woman approached him.

Lin Huang caught a glimpse of the woman. He initially did not bother to entertain her and was about to leave. However, he realized that she was the one who had flirted with him at the coffee shop a few days ago. He immediately stopped in his tracks.

"It's you?!" Obviously, Lan Yao could recognize him as well and landed in front of him. "Why are you here?!"

"I don't have time to explain. Let's go!" Lin Huang immediately grabbed Yao Lan's wrist.

"What are you doing?!" As Yao Lan struggled, she sensed the sky suddenly turning dark.

"Follow me if you don't want to die!" Lin Huang immediately tugged Yao Lan into his dimensional relic.

Right then, a demonic face in the form of dark clouds appeared in the sky. The rumbling sound of thunder was heard.

"Little brat, you killed my children! Do you think that you can run away?!"

"It's an imperial-level…" Yao Lan was terrified.

At almost the same time when its voice was heard, the dimensional relic closed. Both of them then disappeared from their original positions.

The next second after they disappeared, a blue ripple was formed not far away. A woman in black robes who was carrying a baby walked out of the ripple.

"Damned human! I must kill you today!" As it shouted, its hand swept across the sky, and a blue ripple was formed again. It then walked into it.

Stepping out of the Dimensional Portal, Lin Huang and Yao Lan appeared at the entrance of the second layer of the Abyss Brink.

"Let's go!"

Lin Huang immediately put away his dimensional relic. Again, he grabbed Yao Lan's wrist and dragged her towards the exit.

"Get your hands off me!" Yao Lan shoved Lin Huang angrily. "Why are you bringing me along with you when you're being attacked by an imperial-level monster? Do you want me to die?"

"If I didn't bring you along, you'd have died," Lin Huang answered simply.

Yao Lan then realized that it had been an imperial-level monster. If Lin Huang had not dragged her along, she would have undoubtedly become the monster's target to vent its anger.

At that moment, Lin Huang saw a blue ripple rapidly forming. Again, he grabbed Yao Lan's wrist and dragged her to the passageway of the exit before she could react.

Lin Huang was slightly relieved as he rushed out of the exit.

The imperial-level would be unable to enter the crack that could lead them to the first layer. This was also the reason why there were no imperial-level monsters on the first layer of the Abyss Brink.

In fact, be it the entrance or the exit on the first layer, the intrusion by any imperial-level was prohibited as they would be restricted by a unique kind of power. Even a Virtual God would not be able to break the rule.

Aside from imperial-level monsters, even human imperial-levels were not allowed to enter the first layer of the Abyss Brink. They could only enter the second or the third layer of the Abyss Brink through another channel.

"What are you doing? I haven't completed my mission, and I can't leave the Abyss Brink now!" Yao Lan struggled again as she was being dragged to the first layer of the Abyss Brink.

"Don't give a damn about that mission! The imperial-level monster is chasing you. Do you want to go back to seek for death?" Lin Huang swore.

Yao Lan immediately kept quiet.

A few moments later, Lin Huang realized that what he said sounded rude. He then calmed himself down and pleaded, "Please give up on that mission. Our presence is being targeted by the imperial-level monster. If you were to go to the second layer of the Abyss Brink again, it'd sense your aura right away. In addition to that, she possesses the ability of dimensional travel."

"Why did you save me?" Yao Lan suddenly asked after keeping quiet for a while.

"There's no reason behind what I do. I simply wanted to," Lin Huang thought to himself for a while and said. He had not contemplated much at that moment. Seeing the Rakshasa Mother chasing after them, he had just dragged her into the dimensional relic.

Lin Huang's reply was beyond Yao Lan's expectations.

Right just as they were in that awkward situation, a figure suddenly emerged from the ground. To their utter horror, it was the Rakshasa Mother.

"Human, do you think that the channel can stop me from chasing after you?!" At the same time when the Rakshasa Mother's voice boomed, it appeared in front of both of them in a flash.

"Aren't imperial-levels not allowed to enter?" Yao Lan was shocked as despair overcame her.

"This is just a clone. It's only an immortal-level rank-9!" Lin Huang was startled when he saw the appearance of the Rakshasa Mother. However, it suddenly dawned on him that something was wrong with its combat strength.

"You're quite intelligent. I can't chase after you but my clone can. An immortal-level rank-9 is more than enough to kill the both of you!" The Rakshasa Mother cackled, proud of herself. As it was approaching them, it imagined Lin Huang's head being used to commemorate its child.

"An immortal-level rank-9…" Yao Lan bit her lip. She was an immortal-level rank-3. Since she was a supreme genius, she could defeat most immortal-level rank-8s. She managed to fight immortal-level rank-9s as well. However, the humanoid monster that appeared in front of her had apparently gone through its third mutation. Moreover, because its true body was on imperial-level, she would have a low chance of winning the battle.

"Lin Xie, leave first. I'll be able to defend against it for a while!" After a moment of hesitation, Yao Lan finally came up with a firm decision. It was not because she liked Lin Huang. Instead, she felt that because Lin Huang had saved her life twice, she did indeed owe him a favor. If she were not going to return the favor, Lin Huang would probably die there. Although she was incapable of defeating the monster, she could buy him some time at the very least. In addition to having skills that could protect her life, she could still escape if she could not fight the monster.

"I didn't know that you were so generous." Listening to Yao Lan's order, Lin Huang grinned. "It's fine. Since it's just an immortal-level rank-9 clone, it's far from capable of killing me."

"Stop bullshitting at this moment. Leave now. I'm capable of protecting myself." Yao Lan frowned. Still, she felt that Lin Huang was letting his ego speak over his rationale.

"Do you like firecrackers?" Lin Huang asked mischievously.

Yao Lan did not answer his question. Instead, she looked at him as if she was looking at an idiot.

"Alright, ignore me then." Lin Huang rubbed his nose and took out the God Crasher from his storage space. He then placed it on his shoulder.

Yao Lan was stunned when she saw the God Crasher. She could identify what it was at first glance and immediately understood why Lin Huang had no fear at all.

The Rakshasa Mother had been staying in the Abyss Brink all the time. Despite living for so many years, it had never seen a God Crasher before. It thought that Lin Huang was just taking out a strange-looking weapon and it shouted at him, "Even if you were to use a demigod-level relic, it can do no harm to me!"

"Let's see what'll happen then. Even if your real body were here, you wouldn't be able to survive this, let alone your immortal-level rank-9 clone!" Lin Huang grinned as he took aim at the Rakshasa Mother with his God Crasher.

The next moment, a golden flare zipped through the air abruptly along with a loud explosive sound.

The Rakshasa Mother's clone could not dodge the attack in time, and it could only look on as it was engulfed by the flare.

Soon after, the bright light faded and the clone had disappeared as well.

At the second layer entrance, the real body of the Rakshasa Mother spat a mouthful of blood out and glared at the exit on top of it. It let out a furious growl and said, "Human, I'll remember you!"

After putting his God Crasher away, Lin Huang and Yao Lan passed through the passageway, reaching the first layer of the Abyss Brink.

"I still have something to deal with. Let's go home on our own." Lin Huang was in a hurry as he wanted to extract the Life Fire tinder. The Life Fire inside the Devil's Psykid's body would only exist for an hour at the most.

"Do you hate me?" Yao Lan felt that he was trying to get rid of her.

"No, I don't. I've only met you twice, and I don't know much about you. Of course, I won't hate you." Lin Huang shook his head. "You managed to hide your combat strength well. You even fooled me. I've no idea why you're trying to approach me, but I'm not interested though. Regardless of what your actual combat strength is, please don't get me into trouble anymore. Otherwise, you'll regret what you've done to me."

"My name is Yao Lan. I'm Yao Huanhuan's sister." From what Lin Huang said, Yao Lan knew that she had to be frank with him. "One of the reasons that I'm looking for you is because of the mission. I have to go into the Abyss Brink. Another reason is that I've seen the news about you going on a date with my sister."

"No wonder…" Lin Huang then noticed that Yao Lan and Yao Huanhuan looked alike. However, it had not crossed his mind previously. He then explained, "Don't get me wrong. We were just eating together, but it wasn't a date. You don't have to worry about me snatching your sister away."

"Aren't you worry that what you said will make Huanhuan feel sad?" Yao Lan asked with a smile.

"Do you mean that you wished there'd be something between your sister and me?" Lin Huang asked.

"Go to hell!" Yao Lan scoffed angrily.

"Stop fooling around. I really have something to deal with urgently." Lin Huang turned to leave.

"What's more important than talking to a beautiful girl like me?" Yao Lan stared at him.

"What's the use of being pretty? I can look but I can't f*ck," Lin Huang thought to himself. However, he just politely replied, "Sis, I'm looking for a place for extracting tinder. I don't have much time left."

"Okay." Yao Lan then understood why Lin Huang was so nervous. "I can stand guard while you do what you have to."

"There's no need to. Go and look for a place to have fun," Lin Huang rejected.

"What does that mean? Don't you want an immortal-level rank-3 supreme genius to guard you?" Yao Lan rolled her eyes at Lin Huang.

"I'm afraid that you'll attack me while I'm extracting the tinder," Lin Huang told her the truth.

"You're just a crimson flame-level. If I were to attack you, would a sneak attack truly be required?" Yao Lan sneered annoyedly. However, she soon recalled the God Crasher that Lin Huang owned. If she were to fight him, she might be killed. She instantly felt guilty. "Whether you want it or not, it's no longer important as I'm going to do it for you no matter what. Unless you're not going to extract the tinder."

"What do you want from me? I didn't even offend you." Lin Huang was speechless.

"You've saved my life twice. I owe you two favors. I'll only feel better after returning you the favor," Yao Lan said as-a-matter-of-factly.

"I can finally believe that Yao Huanhuan is your sister now." Lin Huang smacked his hand to his forehead as he recalled how Yao Huanhuan insisted on returning his favor earlier. She had been so attached to him then like a wad of chewing gum. What Yao Lan was doing was exactly the same as what Yao Huanhuan did. Naturally, they were born into the same family.

Yao Lan followed after Lin Huang, asking various questions. She was like a sticky candy that he could not get rid of. After confirming her relationship with Yao Huanhuan, Lin Huang could not chase her away. He had no choice but to let her follow after him.

"What's the imperial-level monster that wanted to attack you?"

"The Rakshasa Mother."

"The Rakshasa Mother is a legend. Does it really exist?!" Yao Lan was shocked and stared at Lin Huang with a strange expression on her face. "You're kind of brave. How dare you offend an imperial-level monster that has gone through its third mutation? Don't you know that you're only on crimson flame-level?"

"I didn't provoke it. It's because the Life Fire monster that I've chosen had been adopted by it. I only knew after entering the second layer of the Abyss Brink," Lin Huang said helplessly. Although he had quite a number of trump cards, he wanted to keep them for an emergency. He undoubtedly would not have intentionally provoked an imperial-level monster. If the Rakshasa Mother had not adopted the Devil's Psykid, he would have avoided the imperial-level monster. Since those cards were consumables, he would have a card less whenever he used one. Even the God Crasher could only be used once. Moreover, he was not a person that would simply offend others.

"What's the Life Fire monster that you've chosen?" Yao Lan was curious.

"The Devil's Psykid." Lin Huang knew that he could not hide this from her. Even if he were not going to tell her now, she would definitely steal a glance later as Yao Huanhuan, and she had the same behavior which was being over-friendly.

"The Devil's Psykid. That's good. It's a triple mutated immortal-level monster. Its tinder inherits its Telekinesis." Yao Lan acted as if she was a senior and commented, "Such tinder can indeed improve minor skills. However, I'd suggest you consider attack-based tinder as strengthening your abilities is essential. Telekinesis is just a minor skill…"

"The demigod Qi Muxiong, demigod Coulaux, demigod Cyclone… Didn't you inherit their Telekinesis?" Lin Huang reeled off a few names. They were demigods with extremely powerful Telekinesis that existed in the battle that had happened more than 800 years ago. Each of them had abilities that were almost on par with the Virtual God.

Yao Lan then realized that she had been boasting and quickly retorted, "They are different… You obtained the Telekinesis from the monsters. It can't be compared to those who are born with Telekinesis."

Lin Huang did not want to talk about that with Yao Lan anymore. He had chosen the Devil's Psykid as his Life Fire monster not because he wanted to obtain its Telekinesis. Instead, it was because of the experience it had in developing and using its Telekinesis.

Ten minutes later, under the guidance of Bloody, Lin Huang found a monster lair.

After killing the resident monster, Lin Huang made it the site for his tinder extraction.

Yao Lan then guarded the outside of the cave and did not follow after him.

Despite confirming that Yao Lan would not attack him, still, Lin Huang had to be careful. He summoned Bai and Lancelot to protect him.

The extraction of tinder was completed in an instant as Xiao Hei turned it into a card. The training went smoothly after that.

After inserting the new tinder into his body, Lin Huang could feel that his body had gained immense strength. The two-leaved Life Fire flame he initially had in his body had now become a three-leaved Life Fire flame. However, the third leaf was as small as a sesame seed compared to the other two leaves.

After about three hours, Lin Huang had finally leveled up from crimson flame-level to blue flame-level. The Life Fire and Life Power in his body had turned from flaming red color to a deep blue color.

Not only did the Telekinesis inherited by the tinder further improve Lin Huang's Divine Telekinesis, but the experience that the Devil's Psykid had in the development of Telekinesis had also instantly been integrated into his body.

Although he would still need some time to completely master it, Lin Huang could obviously sense that the control he had over his Telekinesis had been upgraded. If his skill was equated to being on kindergarten level previously, he was now at least on high school level now. It would not be a problem for him at all achieve university level after practicing for a specified period of time.

After leveling up, Lin Huang immediately recalled Bai that had leveled up to immortal-level rank-2 and Lancelot into their card forms. He then walked out of the cave.

"You've completed it in less than three hours. That's fast enough." Seeing Lin Huang walk out of the cave, Yao Lan, who was sitting in a rocking chair, glanced at the time and got up from the chair. She could sense that Lin Huang's aura had been upgraded to blue flame-level.

Under normal circumstances, the higher the level of the tinder, the higher the difficulty level of extraction. Therefore, the time taken to train it would be longer. Normally, a double mutated rank-2 tinder would require one to two hours for the extraction and the training of tinder. As for a triple mutated monster, one would need more than five hours to do the same for a rank-3 tinder. The faster he managed to extract and train the tinder, the higher the compatibility between them. He could also master the inheritance of the tinder more quickly.

Lin Huang had completed the process of extraction and training in three hours. Other than Xiao Hei saving him some time during the extraction of the tinder, his training speed was indeed faster than an average person's.

"You've leveled up to blue flame-level. What's your plan? Going home to absorb Life Crystal to strengthen your combat strength?" Yao Lan asked.

"I'm going to stay in the Abyss Brink for a period. I've accepted an order for monster carcasses before I came. I'll only leave after my Emperor's Heart Ring has been fully loaded. I can then focus on my training as well." Lin Huang gave an excuse to stay. In fact, he wanted to train his third Fire Flame to its maximum height by killing monsters.

"I'll stay here and assist you then. Since I have nothing to do and my mission has failed, I have to vent my frustration."

"Sis, are you in need of sex?" When he heard that Yao Lan wanted to vent her frustration, Lin Huang thought to himself. Of course, he dared not say that out loud. "Since you've failed your mission, you should go back and report to them so that others can take over. Staying here isn't a solution."

"That's your fault. Perhaps I'd have successfully completed the investigation without you!" Yao Lan fumed as she recalled this. "I've never failed any mission in the past."

"What was your mission anyway?" Lin Huang hesitated for a while before asking. He actually did not want to care so much. However, as he thought about it carefully, if he could help her complete the mission so that she could leave the Abyss Brink earlier, he could stop her from bugging him.

"An unusual energy wave appeared on the second layer of the Abyss Brink. I wanted to investigate what caused this to happen." Yao Lan did not hide what her mission was about. "In the past few months, many people have accepted the mission, but none of them managed to figure out the reason behind this. A few days ago, I had something to do at the Abyss Brink, which was why I accepted the mission."

Yao Lan did not tell him what she wanted to do was actually to see who Lin Xie was as her sister had often praised him.

However, Lin Huang did not bother much about that. He frowned and asked, "Can't unusual energy waves be easily detected by an energy detection shell? Although the second layer Abyss Brink isn't that small an area, how is it possible that it can't be detected even after a few days?"

"Don't you think the others never thought of this before? I've no idea how many times have people searched through the Abyss Brink over the past few months." Yao Lan rolled her eyes at Lin Huang. "However, before encountering you today, I did actually get a strange alarm from my detection shell. It's somewhere near the area where you were. However, can't understand it. I was at the area two days ago, but my detection shell picked up nothing…"

After listening to what Yao Lan said, Lin Huang suddenly thought of the Abyssal Mist.

"I roughly know what triggered your detection shell."

Lin Huang then told her about the Devil's Psykid immersing itself in the Abyssal Mist at the cave.

The truth dawned on Yao Lan when she heard his explanation. "No wonder so many of them can't figure out where the unusual energy wave came from. It's possibly due to this reason that the Abyssal Mist remained hidden as it had been sealed by the Devil's Psykid. That's why the unusual energy appeared only once a month, and each time it'd only appear for several hours. No wonder everybody couldn't find it!"

"It seems like I didn't fail my mission. Do you have any photos as evidence? I'll have to inform Adventurer's Paradise regarding this." Yao Lan was excited. However, she suddenly thought of the fact that it was Lin Huang who had discovered it. "Don't worry, the credits will be given to you. I'll only ask for the reward points from Adventurer's Paradise."

"There's no need to do so. Take a photo of this and report to them earlier." Lin Huang projected the image taken by Bloody. The communication function of the Emperor's Heart Ring could not be used where they were, so Yao Lan could only snap a photo of it.

After taking the picture, Yao Lan then patted Lin Huang on the shoulder happily. "I owe you a favor again! I'll have to leave first and treat you to a meal later."

"As you like."

Lin Huang nodded with a smile. He recalled the food that Yao Huanhuan had treated him to at the Sweep Gourmet tasting sumptuous, so he did not reject her offer. Of course, the main reason was that he knew that if he were to refuse Yao Huanhuan, the consequences would be... It would feel like there was a wad of chewing gum stuck to the sole of his shoe…

After Yao Lan left, in the following days, Lin Huang started clearing the immortal-level monsters on the first layer of the Abyss Brink according to the map provided by the black market.

Lancelot attacked the monsters, and the battle was basically a one-sided slaughter. He was continually collecting monster carcasses. The third tinder in Lin Huang's body had grown to a maximum height of 50 meters in less than two days due to the massive amount of Life Power having been inserted into his body.

At first, one of the leaves was taller than the other. Now, he had finally managed to make the three leaves evolve into one tall leaf and two short leaves. Lin Huang felt pleased just looking at it.

Bloody led him to spend another two days killing ten immortal-level rank-7 monsters on his own. Due to the effects of the Double Reward Card, he obtained 600 reward cards.

Over the past four days, almost two-thirds of the immortal-level monsters on the first layer of the Abyss Brink were killed by Lin Huang. The weakest monster was an immortal-level rank-1, and the strongest monster was an immortal-level rank-7. There were three triple mutated monsters. Lin Huang had stored the carcasses so that they could be used as Bloody's puppets.

When he got out of the Abyss Brink, he returned to Sweep City immediately.

Since he had come to an agreement to work with Sweep City, he would comply with what they agreed on and sell the carcasses to them.

After checking in to Sweep City, he returned to the black market right away.

The woman from the black market was called Hu Lu, and she welcomed him back.

"Mr. Lin, you've been staying at the Abyss Brink for many days. It seems like you've gained a lot over there." Hu Lu observed that Lin Huang's combat strength had upgraded to blue flame-level at first glance.

"I've indeed gained a lot over there. However, I was almost fooled by the information that you gave to me." Lin Huang raised his eyebrow.

"How could that be? I've provided you a list of the triple mutated monsters. I've checked it, and there isn't any problem." Hu Lu felt that it was strange. "Mr. Lin, which Life Fire monster did you choose?"

"It's fine. Let's don't mention it." Lin Huang did not want to reveal his actual abilities, so he just grumbled and changed the topic. "If there's any information regarding triple mutated monsters in the future, I hope that you will inform me in the first place."

"That's for sure. We're working together." A smile immediately stretched across Hu Lu's face. She was an intelligent lady and knew that Lin Huang would not spread lies to ruin the reputation of her business. She could also guess the reason why Lin Huang was reluctant to tell her what the Life Fire monster he had chosen was. Since Lin Huang did not look into it, it was to her advantage.

Lowering her head and taking a sip of her tea, Hu Lu smirked and looked at Lin Huang as if she was not nervous at all.

"Oh yeah, I need you to buy an item for me," Lin Huang then said as the lady remained calm.

"What do you want, Mr. Lin?" Hu Lu was not really interested in a single item order. However, she did not reveal her impatience, and she still sounded laid-back.

"It's a psychic weapon that has to be at least a supreme relic. Of course, it'd be best if you could get me an original relic," Lin Huang requested.

When Hu Lu heard that, a trace of shock flashed in her eyes. Based on the previous information, she could not tell if Lin Huang was a psychiatrist, but she quickly erased any tell-tale signs from her expression.

"Mr. Lin, the psychic weapon is much more expensive than the ordinary weapon and armor. The cheapest supreme relic costs more than 150,000 Life Crystals. Exclusively made relics or supreme relics with a special request can possibly cost up to millions of Life Crystals. However, as for the psychic weapon, any of the supreme relics will cost more than five million Life Crystals, and they'll possibly cost more than 10 million Life Crystals. If the original psychic weapon is sold at any of the auctions in Division 3, they'll be the best item to be sold off on the last day of the auction. One won't be qualified to place the bid without hundreds of millions of Life Crystals."

"If there really is an original psychic relic, I want it regardless of the price." Lin Huang was not surprised by the extremely high price.

Before leaving Division 7, Lin Huang along with Yi Yeyu and the rest had gone to the grade-5 ruins. They had earned a total of more than eight billion Life Crystals. After deducting 10% from the total Life Crystals they had as payment for Mr. Fu's contact to unlock the Emperor's Heart Ring, each of them received 1.5 billion Life Crystals. Their wealth was comparable to a poor demigod's. They were indeed rich people.

Although Hu Lu knew that Lin Huang did not lack money, she did not expect him to be that rich. He did not care despite the item costing billions of Life Crystals and firmly said, "I want it regardless of the price."

Of course, Hu Lu did not think that Lin Huang owned that many Life Crystals. She felt that it was the organization backing up him that provided the financial support to train him. However, she was unsure which organization Lin Huang was from.

"Alright, let's now talk about something serious." Lin Huang sized up the surroundings and said, "Where shall I put the monster carcasses? This place can't store that many of them."

"We have an underground warehouse." Hu Lu then stood up and said, "I'll bring you there. The staff over there will manage the inventory."

Hu Lu brought him to the underground warehouse. The underground space was made of the shell of the Idler Snail. Its capacity was thousands of times bigger than the actual area of the warehouse.

The Idler Snail was an imperial-level monster with dimensional abilities. Not only could it perform dimensional travel, but the shell on its back was also capable of compressing the dimension. It was only tens of meters tall. As a matter of fact, it could actually occupy an entire mountain.

An immortal-level rank-9 elder guarded the warehouse. Lin Huang was shocked to see that he was an immortal-level rank-9. The organization that supported Hu Lu was much stronger than he expected. However, since they were partners, it benefitted him.

Guided by the guard, Lin Huang took out all the monster carcasses in an open space. He stacked up thousands of monster carcasses like a few small mountains.

The warehouse guard did not waste much of his time. He scanned it with his mind and soon, he retrieved the statistics.

"233 immortal-level rank-1 carcasses, 197 immortal-level rank-2 carcasses, 161 immortal-level rank-3 carcasses… 27 immortal-level rank-6 carcasses. All the carcasses are well stored. Most of them were killed in one blow, and none of them are damaged…"

The data was accurate. Lin Huang had not taken out the ten immortal-level rank-7 carcasses that he had killed. He wanted to avoid the others from noticing that he majored in swordsmanship.

"Send me the details of the data. I'll leave with the client," Hu Lu said and led Lin Huang to her office.

"Mr. Lin, you surprise me. I thought that you'd only be able to provide me immortal-level rank-2 or rank-3 monster carcasses. It seems like I've underestimated you. Regardless of the number or the quality of the monster carcasses, they're beyond my expectations."

"I've told you that we'll make purchases at the market price. An immortal-level rank-1 carcass costs 10,000 Life Crystals, an immortal-level rank-2 carcass costs 20,000 Life Crystals, an immortal-level rank-3 carcass costs 40,000 Life Crystals, an immortal-level rank-4 carcass costs 80,000 Life Crystals, an immortal-level rank-5 carcass costs 160,000 Life Crystals, and an immortal-level rank-6 carcass costs 320,000 Life Crystals. As for the unique monster carcasses, you'll be paid a premium price," Hu Lu told him the price list.

After a few moments, Hu Lu projected a figure on the calculating sheet of paper in front of Lin Huang.

"Is the figure correct?" Hu Lu knew that Lin Huang must have gauged the number.

"Yes, it is." Lin Huang smiled, nodding his head.

Approved by Lin Huang, Hu Lu transferred the amount of money into his account without hesitation.

Before Lin Huang left, she suddenly asked, "Mr. Lin, are you sure that you want us to buy the psychic weapon for you? You aren't going to stand us up, are you?"

"Don't worry. I'm not that bored. If there's an original relic, I want both the original and the supreme relic," Lin Huang said before he left.

The Yao family heard about the news as soon as Lin Huang left the Abyss Brink. Instead of informing Yao Huanhuan, her parents contacted their elder daughter, Yao Lan, who was busy working.

"Lan Er, did you meet that Lin Xie kid at the Abyss Brink?" The mother asked during the call in the reading room.

"Yes, I did."

"What do you think about him?" The father asked directly.

"He's very powerful. I can't fight him even if we were on the same level," Yao Lan commented.

"It can't be. You're a supreme genius as well. How could you guys be so different ability wise?" The father frowned.

"It's not only his battle ability. He's much more powerful than normal holy fire-levels overall as well as being skilled in a variety of techniques… He's overall ability would top all supreme geniuses. Perhaps not more than five people of the same level could fight him in Division 3," Yao Lan gave an honorable comment.

"Did you fight him?" The father was surprised to hear her.

"No, I imitated what Huanhuan would say and do while I spent a day with him." Yao Lan smirked.

The parents were concerned. They did not expect their elder daughter to be this mischievous.

"His ability is indeed out of my expectations. He's a crimson flame-level who hunts for immortal-level rank-6 triple mutated Life Fire monsters. He even escaped from an imperial-level triple mutated monster. I think I wouldn't have been able to do it if I didn't use my ultimate move with my current abilities," Yao Lan shared what she observed after spending a day with Lin Huang.

Her parents, who were on imperial-level, were in disbelief about how powerful Lin Huang was after listening to what Yao Lan said.

"But the good news is that he's really not interested in Huanhuan." The parents were relieved by Yao Lan's conclusion.

"But the kid is back in Sweep City now for God-knows-what reason. We haven't told Huanhuan yet, but she's been bugging us to get the kid's whereabouts," the father said helplessly.

"This Lin Xie isn't a bad person, but it's better not to let Huanhuan get close to him. I couldn't get anything from his identity besides what's on the surface. Judging from his ability, he could be a Holy Son candidate trained by a top underground organization. We shouldn't offend the organization behind him."

"But Huanhuan…" The mother looked troubled.

"You guys have spoiled her. Why don't I talk to Huanhuan after I'm done with my stuff here a few days later?" Yao Lan told her parents.

"Stop investigating Lin Xie. It's better than we don't have anything to do with him. Don't say anything even if somebody asks us about him."

After hanging up, from a hotel room in the foothold near the second layer of the Abyss Brink, Yao Lan projected a gold list from her Emperor's Heart Ring. If somebody else had been there with her, they would have recognized that more than ten names on the list were famous supreme geniuses in Division 3. Yao Lan smirked while she moved her graceful fingers, adding 'Lin Xie' at the bottom of the list in gold ink.

…

Besides visiting the black market, Lin Huang had been staying in his hotel room ever since he returned to Sweep City. He had been getting used to the telekinesis ability before obtaining the telekinesis weapon. After spending two days practicing the Devil's Psykid's telekinesis, he had mastered 80% of it. The inheritance of monster tinder was different from the legacy of the human memory as the former was more than just a memory whereby the human could obtain the skill directly. Take an ordinary person obtaining the ability to make dual-vector foil out of nowhere for instance. He did not have to learn and understand the theory of making it. Gaining such an ability became part of his body; he could create a dual-vector foil by himself as long as he had enough materials. The only thing that he had to go through was to get used to the process of creation.

The inheritance of the human's memory allowed one to obtain the memory but not the ability. It was like obtaining all of the information on how to make a dual-vector foil, but you would have to learn and understand the information before creating the dual-vector foil itself. If one could not understand the theory of making it, he could not make the dual-vector foil even the information was in his brain and the materials were sufficient.

That was the main reason why Lin Huang had picked the Devil's Psykid as his Life Fire monster after listening to Bloody's explanation. Obtaining the Devil's Psykid's telekinesis would save him at least two years of training time. It was calculated based on Lin Huang's supreme genius standard. For others, it would take tens of years - even up to 100 years - to master the ability. Ever since he received the ability, he had mastered it from kindergarten-level to a highschooler's level within two days. Besides some detailed and complicated techniques that required more training, he had basically mastered it.

With his current mastery of Divine Telekinesis, he could easily kill an immortal-level rank-3 monster without using any telekinesis weapons.

"There are still some difficulties in mastering the details. I'll need at least a week to practice and familiarize the Devil's Psykid's telekinesis." Lin Huang was aware of his own progress. Although he had mastered 80% of the Devil's Psykid's ability, the remaining 20% required more time as it was complicated.

Besides possessing Divine Telekinesis himself, Lin Huang chose the ability to hide his identity as he also inherited memory of the demigod Qi Muxiong. Qi Muxiong was a master in telekinesis, so it was a no-brainer that his telekinesis power was mighty since he was young. Besides discovering many telekinesis techniques throughout his life, he had also come up with a telekinesis cultivation called Seamless. The cultivation would allow a person to channel telekinetic power into countless threads which could then be controlled from far away.

Qi Muxiong could divide his telekinetic power into 18,000 threads as well as controlling the threads to attack at will within the range of 30,000 kilometers. If he was on Earth, he could stand on his balcony and control the threads to pierce through any creature's head that was located in any corner on Earth. The level-1 of Seamless was to use telekinetic power to divide 300 threads. After two days of training and mastering the basics, Lin Huang finally proceeded to learn Seamless

The telekinetic division was a difficult task whereby it required detailed control ability in telekinesis. Before obtaining the Devil's Psykid's ability, training Seamless would be as tricky as a kindergarten child being asked to solve a high school academic question. However, it was not difficult for Lin Huang to train that now. Within a single morning, he managed to use his Divine Telekinesis power to divide a strand of thread into two, two into four, and so on… Eventually, he managed to divide the thread into 300 of them, completing level-1 of Seamless. Later on, he started practicing the controlling of the 300 threads.

When it was past 10 p.m., Lin Huang managed to control the 300 threads to dissect and sew monster carcasses. The poor White Night Wolf that he used to practice on was dissected more than 1,000 times. It was so disgusting that even the Eclipse Boa refused to eat it and Lin Huang had to dispose of it. The next morning, he began training level-2 of Seamless and dividing threads using Divine Telekinesis. Since he was now more in control of the mastery of his power, his speed of dividing accelerated. By the time it was past two in the afternoon, he had completed level-2 of Seamless and had managed to split 1,000 threads. He then began practicing the control of those 1,000 threads.

Just after five in the afternoon, Lin Huang's communication device rang. It was a message from Hu Lu with three documents attached.

"Mr. Lin, we've found three supreme telekinetic weapons in different forms for you. One is conical, one is star-shaped while another is in a flying dagger-form. You can take a look at the details of the three weapons. I'll arrange the purchase for you once you've decided."

Lin Huang looked at the three documents as soon as he read Hu Lu's message. The first one was the conical telekinetic weapon. It was made of 180 spikes that looked like beaks. The weapon was the fastest as well as the most penetrable one among all. Therefore, most of the psychics used weapons in such form. It cost 9.8 million Life Crystals.

The second document was of the star-shaped weapon made of 108 meteorites. The attack of this weapon was like the falling of meteorites, which required minimum control of telekinesis. It was easy to be mastered as it was mainly operated by the speed of telekinesis control as well as the weight of the meteorites. It cost 8.5 million Life Crystals. Each of the meteorites cost was higher than the spikes.

Finally, the third document was the telekinetic weapon in flying dagger-form which was made of 360 flying daggers. It required a high control of telekinesis. If one controlled his power well, the speed and penetrability were just as powerful as the conical weapon. Besides, it had more modes compared to the latter. However, if one could not master the power well, the impact would be worse than the star-shaped weapon. This was the most expensive one, costing 21.9 million Life Crystals.

Lin Huang picked the most expensive one without thinking twice as the flying dagger one would match his Sword Dao.

"Too bad it's too little. It'd be great if there are thousands or even tens of thousands of flying daggers in one of those." He thought of the time when the Sword Dominator controlled more than 3,000 flying daggers. The scene still impressed him until now.

After picking his weapon, Lin Huang called Hu Lu immediately. Hu Lu picked up his call with a smile in her voice.

"You've made your decision?"

"Yes, I would like the flying dagger one."

Hu Lu was not surprised at all. "Sure, I'll order it for you."

"No news on the ancient relic?" Lin Huang asked.

"Ancient relics are rare, let alone telekinetic weapons which hardly appear in a few years." Hu Lu shook her head.

"I'll keep an eye on that for you and inform you as soon as there's any news. The one you're ordering is a supreme one. You can use that first. Is there anything else that you need?"

"Erm…" Lin Huang hesitated before nodding. "Let me know if you can order more of this supreme flying dagger weapon. I'd like to get more of them."

"More?" Hu Lu was skeptical. She thought that Lin Huang wanted to resell the item. "If you're planning to resell them, you're not going to make much profit as the price is quite transparent. Moreover, such a supreme weapon is expensive. You'd be lucky if you could make 10% from it."

"That's none of your business. Just order it for me." Lin Huang did not bother to explain.

"Alright then, how many do you want?" Hu Lu asked unwillingly.

"Get me nine more to round it up to ten." Lin Huang smirked.

"10?!" Hu Lu thought Lin Huang had gone crazy.

"Mr. Lin, you can get two of them to test the market if you're really planning to resell them. If you buy ten of them, you might lose 200 million!"

Hu Lu had never expected that Lin Huang would buy all the weapons for his own use as most of the psychics could only divide 100 threads and even fewer of them could split more than 300 threads. The weapon was amazing enough for most of the psychics out there.

"That's my problem. I won't look for you if that happens. Just order them for me." Lin Huang smiled. "Let me know the price. I'll pay the deposit."

Hu Lu did not want to say any further since Lin Huang insisted. She did not understand how spoilt brats spent their money. After the call ended, Lin Huang transferred the 21.8 million Life Crystals to Hu Lu for the first weapon that he had ordered.

The next afternoon, Hu Lu dropped by the hotel Lin Huang was staying at just before he was ready to train level-3 of Seamless. She was there to pass the weapon to him.

After confirming that he wanted to order the other nine weapons, Hu Lu left full of doubts while Lin Huang stayed in the hotel to train his Seamless skill. Just as he wrapped up in the evening, he managed to divide more than 1,800 threads. He could clearly feel that he was getting better at controlling the threads as a whole. Three days passed, and Lin Huang had mastered 90% of the Devil's Psykid's ability. He figured he would achieve the Devil's Psykid's standard when he completed level-3 of Seamless and could control 3,000 threads.

Lin Huang began reading the news after washing up. It was a habit of his before he went to bed. Just when he opened the black market's page, the top news caught his attention immediately. The headlines were 'Mysterious Case in the Level-2 Abyss Brink'. Lin Huang frowned as he read the news. The mysterious case was actually the wall with Abyssal Mist in the cave where Devil's Psykid had entered. After Yao Lan had reported that to the Adventure Paradise a few days ago, besides the imperial-level people that were sent to investigate, even the Union Government and the Hunter Association had assigned more imperial-level people to check the case out.

The report showed that the cracks on the wall was nothing ordinary, but was a gap connecting to an unknown space. The cracks were slowly expanding. The Abyssal Mist that was seeping from the cracks was a level-5 contamination. Two imperial-level people had become fiends in less than ten minutes after accidentally touching the mist. It was irreversible, and what was worse was that the mist seemed to have an instinct whereby it would go for non-fiend creatures.

The incident had caught the attention of a couple of demigods who speculated that there was a perilous world on the other side of the cracks since they learned about the report. As the fissures enlarged, the creatures from the other side might head to the Abyss Brink and even access the humans' world from there. The humans' world might encounter a massive crisis that was just as catastrophic as the Virtual Eye opening 800 years ago

What happened in the second layer of the Abyss Brink brought people from the mainland to investigate. The conclusion was that although the cracks were expanding at a slow pace, it would take at least five years for the creatures from the other side to enter the Abyss Brink. The mainland even gathered a group of demigods to seal the space. Tens of techniques were used, but none of them worked.

The news soon spread and many transcendent- levels in the community found out about it. Besides the core zones, even the safe zones heard of the story. Under the Union Government's strict orders, the news did not spread to people below transcendent-level. Lin Huang could sense that the crisis was getting more intense. He heard about the catastrophe that had happened 800 years ago from Mr. Fu. If something similar happened, even Virtual Gods might not survive the disaster. He knew very well that the five-year period was not just hearsay.

"Seems like imperial-level isn't enough anymore. I must get to Virtual God or even True God within five years!" Lin Huang gave himself a new target. He did not have the ambition of saving the world, at least not now. All he hoped for was not to die in the coming war. Throughout the coming days, besides sleeping, Lin Huang spent his time training his telekinesis. His usual three meals a day were consolidated into a single breakfast for him. He even used his telekinesis to order take-out food for himself. If the lack of food did not affect his health, he might have even skipped breakfast. Skipping meals for a week would not affect holy fire-level humans, but it would be detrimental if it exceeded more than a week.

On the second day after the news of the Abyss Brink broke, Lin Huang had broken through level-3 of Seamless and managed to divide 3,000 threads. He had arrived at the Devil's Psykid's level. After that, he spent a week achieving the division of 8,000 strands. He could finally slow down at level-4 of Seamless training. Although his Divine Telekinesis was powerful, his spirit was restricted by his low combat level which resulted in greater thread division.

However, after ten days of non-stop training, Lin Huang's telekinetic power was strong enough to kill the immortal-level rank-6 Devil's Psykid that he had encountered earlier. Within that week, Hu Lu had ordered two supreme telekinetic weapons made of 360 flying daggers. By then, he had more than 1,000 telekinetic flying daggers with him. With the three weapons, his combat strength in telekinesis was nothing lower than his Sword Dao's.

After the ten days in Sweep City, Yao Lan finally contacted Lin Huang again. She sent a short message: "8 p.m. tonight, Sweep Gourmet. Room 301. There's something good for you."

He was not surprised that Yao Lan knew he was in Sweep City. After all, the city was the Yao family's territory, and nothing could escape them. Since his training had stagnated these two days, Lin Huang agreed to meet her right away since he was not busy anyway.

At 7.50 p.m., he arrived at the Sweep Gourmet ten minutes before the agreed time. A female staff brought him to Room 301. Just as the staff was serving him tea, Yao Lan walked into the room with a young man who looked like he was in his mid-twenties. The man was a rank higher than Yao Lan on immortal-level rank-4. Lin Huang had his guard up. Just in one glance, Lin Huang could tell that the man was also a supreme genius and his ability might exceed immortal-level rank-9.

"Lin Xie, let me introduce you guys. This is Huangfu Hao from the Huangfu family," Yao Lan introduced the both of them.

"Hao Zi, this is the Lin Xie that I told you about."

The Huangfu family was the second most prominent family in Sweep City whereby their overall ability was level with the Yao family, and they were not too far apart. Lin Huang had heard of Huangfu Hao before. He was a supreme genius among the Huangfu family's younger generation.

"I heard from Xiao Lan that you have a mind-blowing ability. Attack me with all you have," Huangfu Hao challenged directly after checking Lin Huang out.

"Hao Zi, let's eat first…" Yao Lan frowned.

"Xiao Lan, I know you would prefer to take this slow, but you know that I'm impatient. I'm used to finishing business first." Huangfu Hao raised his hand to stop Yao Lan from talking. Then he looked at Lin Huang.

"If you manage to win my trust, I'll apologize for my absurd attitude later."

"So, this is the 'good' stuff you told me about?" Lin Huang raised his eyebrow as he looked at Yao Lan.

"This guy has a low EQ. Please don't take it personally," Yao Lan explained helplessly.

"Don't mind him. Let's eat first. We'll talk about it later."

"We don't have to do that. Let's get straight to business." Lin Huang took a sip of his tea and put the teacup down.

"Alright then." Noticing that the atmosphere was tense and nobody had the appetite to eat, she agreed to what Lin Huang suggested.

"We would like to invite you to join the Sweep Alliance."

"The Sweep Alliance?" Lin Huang had never heard of such an organization.

"The Sweep Alliance is a special organization that was founded by geniuses more than 300 years ago. All of the members of the organization are geniuses. There are supreme geniuses among them including myself and Huangfu Hao," Yao Lan explained.

"A genius organization?" Lin Huang had heard from Mr. Fu that it would be best if he could join such an organization when he arrived at the core zone because some of the rare ruins and special mysterious lands were opened only to genius organizations. However, different genius organizations would have different criteria whereby some of them would thoroughly investigate the person before allowing one to join. That was why Lin Huang did not have high hopes of joining any genius organization from the beginning as his identity was fake. It would mean trouble for him if he got investigated.

"Yes, our Sweep Alliance is more flexible. You can join as long as you have at least two members who recommend you. Although more than a third of the members are locals, we don't have any requirement about the member's origin, so we won't dig into your personal details. It's alright even if you're coming from an underground organization as long as you have impressive abilities and aren't involved in any other genius organizations. However, the reason why the terms are flexible is that our organization is less powerful compared to the other genius organizations," Yao Lan told Lin Huang the reason why she had asked him to join.

"The powerful genius organizations in Division 1 wouldn't need to recruit members as all the powerful geniuses would go to them on their own."

"Are there any restrictions after joining the organization?" Lin Huang asked.

"The management is very flexible as it's not a formal organization, but it still is a beneficial one. Let me send you the offer letter since it's nothing confidential," Yao Lan said and sent the offer letter to Lin Huang. He started reading it as soon as he received the document. There was nothing strict on the member duty list. There were only three requirements. The first one would be to claim the Stairway Tree as often as the member could, while another would be to explore the ruins and mysterious lands while the last one would be to join at least one battle hunt once a year.

"What's the Stairway Tree?" It was Lin Huang's first time hearing about that.

"It's no surprise that you've no idea what that is. The Stairway Tree is a tree in the virtual world that only genius organization members are eligible to climb. The higher you climb, the more points you'll get. Not only will it be added to your total points in the genius organization, but you can also use the points to redeem items. Those who rank on top will enjoy rewards every month. Ancient relics, demigod relics… As long as you have enough points, you can redeem almost everything at the Stairway Mall."

"I supposed it's not as simple as climbing a tree." Lin Huang knew instantly that it would not be that straightforward when he heard Yao Lan's explanation.

"Of course not. Climbing the tree is just the tip of the iceberg. The difficult part is fighting with the rest. The capacity of the tree is limited at different heights, so competition is inevitable. You'll know the exact rules when you get there," Yao Lan explained it vaguely.

"Sounds interesting." Lin Huang thought everything sounded fine after reading the offer letter that Yao Lan had sent him. He then turned around and looked at Huangfu Hao.

"So, you're the second referrer?"

"That's right, but you'll have to win my trust before I can recommend you," Huangfu Hao said directly.

"Sure, let's fight." It was clear that Lin Huang agreed to Yao Lan's invitation.

"Can't you guys fight after dinner? I'm hungry…" Yao Lan whined helplessly.

"No!" Lin Huang and Huangfu Hao exclaimed at the same time.

"Don't hold back. Attack me with all you have. It'd be best if you could show me all of your techniques," Huanggu Hao said to Lin Huang.

"Should we do this somewhere else?" Lin Huang studied the room in the restaurant and looked at Yao Lan. Although the restaurant was a demigod relic itself, he was not sure if the building structure was stable. After all, the restaurant was the property of the Yao family. With the daughter of the Yao family there, it would be bad to destroy the restaurant in front of her.

"Don't worry, the restaurant is a demigod relic. There are special defenses in the rooms that make it indestructible to people below imperial-level. There's nothing valuable in this room anyway, and we can always replace them."

Yao Lan then mumbled to herself, "Luckily, the dishes have yet to be served…"

After confirming that the battle would not annihilate the restaurant, Lin Huang then stared at Huangfu Hao. A silver glow flashed in the air and appeared in front of Huangfu Hao at an instant.

"That's fast!" Yao Lan, who was watching, exclaimed.

Huangfu Hao's pupils shrunk as a gold shield appeared in front of his body when he extended his hand. The silver glow collided with the shield and sliced through the shield at an odd angle.

Huangfu Hao did not have the time to avoid the attack. All he could do was watch the silver glow glide by his arm, leaving a light trail. Yao Lan was shocked to see that happen. Lin Huang then retrieved his flying dagger and said to Huangfu Hao, "Is that enough?"

"Was that all you've got?" Huangfu Hao disabled his shield and fronted Lin Huang.

"Almost there." Lin Huang nodded. Neither did he release his Life Power nor his Sword Dao in his attack. However, he had given 90% of what he had in terms of speed and strength.

"Your speed is almost at the immortal-level rank-7 standard," Yao Lan concluded before Huangfu Hao could say anything, "But I can't determine your attack strength."

"Your attack strength is on immortal-level rank-7 as well. Most immortal-level psychics wouldn't be able to switch the attack angle just like you did. If we were on the same combat level, your attack just now could definitely kill me." Huangfu Hao made a fair comment.

"I would like to apologize for my absurdness earlier. Welcome to the Sweep Alliance," Huangfu Hao said and extended his hand for a friendly handshake. Lin Huang shook his hand.

"Your defense is terrifying. My flying dagger couldn't break through it," Lin Huang smiled when he said.

"My inherited ability is special. Although I'm only an immortal-level rank-4, nobody below imperial-level can break my defense." Huangfu Hao's poker face was long gone.

"Xiao Lan, why didn't you tell me that Lin Xie is a psychic? You only told me that he's a powerful Imperial Censor," Huangfu Hao turned around and asked Yao Lan.

"How would I know that he's a psychic? He never used any telekinetic power in front of me." Yao Lan glared at Lin Huang as his biodata did not state that he was a psychic; not even his Imperial Censor identity was revealed.

"Didn't you know that?" Huangfu Hao realized that it was a surprise to Yao Lan that Lin Huang was a psychic.

"How many flying daggers can you control?" Yao Lan questioned Lin Huang, perking Huangfu Hao's interest as well.

"More than 300." Lin Huang did not tell the truth since controlling 300 flying daggers were terrifying enough.

"You're crazily talented as a psychic! I've met a couple of immortal-level psychic geniuses. The most they could control were 280 psychic weapons. Most of them could only control within 180 to 240 weapons." Huangfu Hao could not be any happier that Lin Huang was joining the alliance.

"Let's scan your identity." Yao Lan was worried that Lin Huang might take his words back, so she protected the scan page immediately.

"Don't you want to eat first? I thought you're hungry!" Lin Huang teased.

"I'm not hungry anymore. Hurry!" Yao Lan urged.

Lin Huang projected his ID while Yao Lan and Huangfu Hao scanned theirs to apply for Lin Huang's membership together. In less than ten seconds, his application had been approved. An offer letter was sent to Lin Huang's Emperor's Heart Ring.

"Have a look now. Sign your name if everything is fine and you'll be one of us." Yao Lan was impatient.

"Take a look first. Let us know if there's anything that you find unreasonable and we can get it amended," Huangfu Hao added.

Lin Huang nodded and started reading the offer letter. The terms of the offer letter were clear. It was basically the same as what Yao Lan had sent earlier.

After confirming that everything was fine, Lin Huang signed his name 'Lin Xie' on the offer letter and sent it back. Soon, an identity token was sent. There was a huge 'Sweep' engraved on the golden token. From the projection, the token was breathtaking. It was obvious that it was the work of a master.

"Here you go." Yao Lan flicked her finger and a golden ball fell into his hand. He opened his hand and saw that it was the physical version of the token that was half the size of a palm. It was almost exactly the same as the one that had been projected.

"It's just a collectible. Most of our activities are carried out on the Heart Network. Since the design of the token is pretty, many members wanted the physical one, so it was made later on," Yao Lan smiled as she explained.

The token was really beautifully designed with good material, Lin Huang observed for a while before keeping it into his Emperor's Heart Ring.

"Let's eat. We'll talk about the Sweep Alliance later while we eat." Yao Lan started ordering as she browsed the food menu.

After ordering food, Yao Lan spoke again, "Lin Xie, about the Abyss Brink, the Union Government will send the rewards within these two days. I'll bring them to you. As promised, you'll get the rewards and I'll get the points."

"What happened at the Abyss Brink?" Huangfu Hao asked.

"It was Lin Xie who found out about the cracks on the second layer of Abyss Brink and I reported it," Yao Lan explained.

Of course, Huangfu Hao knew about the cracks as every transcendent-level person knew about it since a few days ago. He did not expect that it was Lin Huang who had discovered it.

"You found out about the cracks?"

"It was just a coincidence. I was hunting a Life Fire monster and found out about the Abyssal Mist that was coming out of the cracks on the wall. However, I thought it was just a normal wall crack which might be connected to the ground, and that was how the Abyssal Mist came about." Lin Huang nodded as he explained.

"There will be a catastrophe coming in five years. All of the transcendent-levels are worried about their own lives. Many organizations are recruiting members to train more people to prepare for the war. The same goes for genius organizations. We need more resources to level up our abilities. This is the reason why the Sweep Alliance started the recruitment early this time."

"Nevertheless, we usually make an exception to recruit supreme geniuses even if the war isn't happening," Yao Lan smiled as she said.

"We don't have many members. Including you, there're only 36 of us and there're only four supreme geniuses. Besides the three of us, the other supreme genius would be Hao Zi's sister, Huangfu Lin. You're the second member that I managed to recruit."

"Aren't you shameless? The ridiculous list that you have are all supreme geniuses. It's your luck that you managed to get two," Huangfu Hao teased Yao Lan.

"Why would I want to waste my time if it's not for supreme geniuses?!" Yao Lan rolled her eyes.

"So, the first one that you recruited would be…" Lin Huang interrupted.

"Him." Yao Lan pointed at Huangfu Hao.

"Well, this girl insisted that I must join for the honor of Sweep City. After I rejected her, she followed me everywhere we went, even to the toilet. She even told me that the way I pee is wrong…" Huangfu Hao was pissed as he talked about it.

"I thought your sister got you to join." Lin Huang did not expect Huangfu Hao had such a terrible experience.

"This girl got me to bring my sister in as well. There was nothing that I could do, so I begged my sister. If I had known her well, I wouldn't have slapped this b*tch since the beginning."

Lin Huang was glad that he agreed to join, or else similar consequences would happen to him.

"Oh, right, you said there are only 36 members at the moment. Did they quit? We're there many of them?" Lin Huang asked.

"They didn't quit. They retired," Yao Lan shook her head and explained.

"All of the members of genius organizations will have to retire when you're above 40 or arrive on imperial-level. This rule came about as most of the members would be at immortal-level rank-9 when they're 40. Those who can't level up to imperial-level would waste the organization's resources if they stay while imperial-level people would need resources to sustain themselves. Since they have the ability as well as enough resources on their own, it would affect the resources for the new members if they continue to stay in the organization…"

The conversation with Huangfu Hao and Yao Lan went on until past 11 p.m. The dishes were amazing. There was even a soup made of an immortal-level rank-9 monster. However, Lin Huang focused more on the information that was provided by the both of them. The conversation had given him a better understanding of the genius organization and the Sweep Alliance. He had officially stepped into a brand new community.

On the second day of joining the Sweep Alliance, Lin Huang logged into the Genius Union's website through a unique site on the Heart Network after his breakfast. The website scanned the identity of the user automatically. Without registering via the genius organization, the page would not be found. Two options popped up on the main page once Lin Huang logged in: "Browsing Mode" and "Conscious Mode".

Lin Huang heard Yao Lan mentioned this yesterday. The browsing mode was available for people to browse pages, news, videos, and search for information without joining any activities while the conscious mode allowed the person to enter the Genius Union's virtual world with one's consciousness. The latter was the only way to participate in the Stairway Tree climb.

After summoning Bloody and Bai to protect himself, Lin Huang pressed the conscious mode button. In the next second, he appeared in a white space.

"We've detected that this is the first time you're logging in. You're given one complimentary opportunity to adjust your own height and appearance. Would you like to proceed with the adjustment?" A gentle female voice echoed.

"Yes." Lin Huang nodded immediately.

The wall transformed into a full-length mirror, reflecting Lin Huang's original appearance. As he was thinking how he would like to look like, the voice came again.

"You'll only have to think of the appearance and height that you desire, and we'll make the adjustments accordingly."

He then thought of Lin Xie's appearance that he had disguised as immediately. His appearance soon changed to how Lin Xie exactly looked like in the full-length mirror.

"Are you sure you want to make these changes? Please take note that once the change is confirmed, your appearance and height in Genius Union will be fixed. In the eyes of all Genius Union members, this is how your appearance will be unless you want to change it again using your Stairway points."

"Yes!" Lin Huang decided without any hesitation.

"Appearance settings completed. Please complete personal information privacy settings."

"Privacy settings available:

"Visible to everyone.

"Visible to friends.

"Only specific information are visible (to be selected manually).

"Confidential (Any information other than name and organization is not open to anyone else.)"

"I choose No.4. Confidential!" Lin Huang did not want his age to be revealed to anyone.

"Basic settings are complete. Please fill in your details below…"

After spending more than ten minutes completing all the settings, Lin Huang was finally sent into the virtual world of the Genius Union officially.

As he stepped out of the dimensional portal, it was as if Lin Huang had arrived in a bustling city which was as well-developed as Sweep City. Looking at the skyscrapers around and the people strolling on the streets as well as the breeze on his skin, it did not feel like a virtual world at all.

Ding! "You have a voice message. Would you like to play it?"

Lin Huang's attention was brought back by the prompt tone of the Emperor's Heart Ring. After playing it, Yao Lan's voice ordered, "Come to the Stairway Tree as soon as possible since you're here. Open the map on the Emperor's Heart Ring directly."

After listening to the voice message, Lin Huang opened the map of the Emperor's Heart Ring, finding the location of the Stairway Tree at the center of the map quickly. An option popped out after he clicked the Stairway Tree.

"Are you sure you want to be sent to the Stairway Tree?"

"Yes!" After Lin Huang clicked on the option, he was sent to the bottom of the Stairway Tree immediately.

"This transfer function is so useful!" After turning off the map, Lin Huang looked up at the moat-like Stairway Tree not far away from him.

The size of the tree was beyond his understanding. Besides not being able to see the top of the tree, he could not see the end of the 'wall' as he looked to the left and the right. He looked at the details of the giant tree and realized that the diameter of the trunk alone was more than 300 kilometers. The longest branch extended up to tens of millions of square kilometers, occupying the entire sky of the virtual city.

Not only could he not see the treetop by gazing up, but he also could not even see the end of this wall as he looked around horizontally.

"The area of the treetop is even larger than the continent of China on Earth…" Lin Huang thought it was incredible.

"I had the same reaction as yours the first time I saw this tree." A female voice came from behind.

Lin Huang turned around immediately and saw Yao Lan who he was expecting.

"You're 5 minutes and 18 seconds late," Yao Lan glanced at the time and said to him in all seriousness.

"I'm sorry. There was some delay with the settings when I came in." Lin Huang forced a smile, knowing that he was late without having to look at the time. He initially thought he could make it on time since he had entered ten minutes ahead, but he did not expect that the settings would have delayed him by 15 minutes

"Don't worry about it. I forgot to tell you about the information settings yesterday." Yao Lan waved her hand. "Let's get a drink and then I'll show you around."

Yao Lan brought Lin Huang to an open-air bar and sat down. She ordered a glass of mixed fruit juice while Lin Huang ordered a glass of green juice.

"Since you were late, the drinks are on you," Yao Lan said as a matter of fact.

"Sure," Lin Huang replied.

He was curious as the seats were almost fully occupied in the bar as well as in the stores around. The streets were crowded too.

"Didn't you say that all people are geniuses in this virtual world? Why are there so many people everywhere?"

"The people that you see aren't human but are virtual humans. Some of them are service staff providing various services to us. For instance, the bar owner and waiters as well as the staff in the stores over there. Besides them, the rest are virtual residents who don't do anything. After all, there are limited geniuses in this world. It'd be pretty empty if we place limited geniuses in this city that's the size of an A-grade foothold. I think that's the reason why they came up with virtual residents.

"Also, there's a rule in this virtual world. We're not allowed to fight the virtual humans, or else, we'll be banned from entering," Yao Lan reminded Lin Huang while they were on the topic of virtual residents. He was not interested in the virtual humans at all as he looked at the Stairway Tree nearby. People were climbing the tree.

"I supposed we're not allowed to fly up the tree?"

"Yes, anything that flies is prohibited on the tree. Not only that, teleportation is prohibited too. All you can do is climb." Yao Lan nodded.

"Can I ride my summoning monster then?" Lin Huang asked.

"Yes, you can, but your flying summoning monster won't be able to fly near the tree. Besides, there's nothing that we can do about the gravity over here. Apart from summoning monsters that can climb, the rest won't apply to the tree," Yao Lan explained.

"But even if you have a summoning monster that can climb, you'll be attacked by the other climbers much more easily."

"They can attack as they wish?"

"Of course, competition on the tree is intense. As long as you have sufficient abilities, besides attacking, you can kill as you wish. You'll gain half of the points of the other person if you kill him. As soon as the person dies, not only will his accumulated points in the year be cut by half, he'll half to climb from the very bottom again. Although the points can be used to redeem items, the monthly rewards are based on the height climbed. That's the reason why many people would prefer to be robbed by half of their points instead of getting killed and starting from the bottom."

"Why are you at the bottom of the tree?" Lin Huang was curious.

"I used my points to redeem a virtual clone. My real body is on the tree. Do you really think I'd come all the way to the bottom to welcome you? There are different difficulties at different heights where we'll have to try a couple of times before succeeding. It's difficult to go back to how far you've climbed when you're starting all over again."

"A virtual clone?" Lin Huang could not tell that she was just a clone.

"I used my points to redeem it. The clone is just an empty shall with my aura without any combat ability," Yao Lan confirmed.

"How do we get points?" Lin Huang asked.

"You'll obtain basic points from climbing different heights. Killing the monsters on the tree will earn you points. You can kill or rob the others to get points too. You can also use items to redeem points on the system or trade with others. Those are the four ways of getting points," Yao Lan explained in detail.

"Climbing the Stairway Tree basically depends on yourself. The most we can provide you with are some strategies. Unless we're climbing on the same height, there's nothing that we can do to help you. We don't have many members in the Sweep Alliance. Unlike those powerful genius organizations in Division 1 and Division 2, they have 18 supreme geniuses with 15 immortal-level rank-9s among them. Each of them can kill imperial-level humans."

"Seven of the top 10 genius organizations come from Division 1 while three are from Division 2. The No. 1 in our Division 3 is only ranked No. 12 on the leaderboard."

"Where does the Sweep Alliance sit?" Lin Huang asked.

"Erm… No. 180…" Yao Lan scratched her nose out of embarrassment.

Lin Huang felt that he had been tricked into this organization after hearing the ranking.

"No wonder the Huangfu siblings were unwilling to join…"

There were more than 120 genius organizations in Division 1 alone and more than 80 in Division 2. Although there were lesser in Division 3, there were still more than 40 of them. Meanwhile, the remaining nine divisions outside the core zones had a total of 12 genius organizations. There were a total of 268 genius organizations in the Genius Union.

The Sweep Alliance ranked No. 183 due to two main reasons. One was their low number of members. Half of the 268 genius organizations had more than 100 members while the Sweep Alliance only had 36 members. They ranked No. 240 based on their number of members, coming in at almost the last 20. Another reason was that the did not have a really powerful member. Huangfu Lin was the only one in the Sweep Alliance that could kill imperial-levels. Her combat level was only on immortal-level rank-7. Immortal-level rank-9 supreme geniuses led the top-ranking organizations, and they even had more than one immortal-level rank-9 supreme geniuses.

Lin Huang understood where the Sweep Alliance stood after hearing Yao Lan's explanation. She was picky when it came to picking members while Huangfu Lin did not bother about that at all. Among the 36 members, besides some of them that had been recruited by Huangfu Hao, most of them joined on their own. Some of them joined before Yao Lan did and they had yet to retire.

However, due to the war that was coming within five years, the Genius Union would need more resources. She had lowered her criteria in recruiting to get more members for the Sweep Alliance. Besides personal rewards for higher positions, there were also rewards for team ranking. The benefits were definitely attractive. After completing the basic explanation, Yao Lan brought Lin Huang to the Stairway Tree.

"You can start climbing today if you're not too busy. Rewards will be given 20 days later, and your result will be added to the points for the month." Yao Lan sounded impatient.

"Alright, I shall warm up today." Lin Huang nodded and summoned a golden-haired ape.

It was one of the Monster Cards that he had obtained after killing the Triheaded Ape earlier. After Xiao Hei's amendment, the apes' genetic issues had been solved. Besides that, one of them obtained an ancient Mighty Ape's bloodline during its triple mutation while another obtained the bloodline of an ancient Frost Flame Ape.

The golden-haired ape was the one that had obtained the Mighty Ape's bloodline. It was more than 200 meters tall like a little mountain. Many people exclaimed when they saw it.

"That's a triple mutated ancient monster's bloodline!" Yao Lan was stunned when she saw the golden-haired ape. Some of the people who were climbing mid-way and those ready to climb looked enviously at the ape. None of them planned to capture it as the Mighty Ape's aura was an immortal-level. Besides, from its size alone, it seemed like a bad idea to offend it.

"Let's go!" Lin Huang waved at Yao Lan and hopped onto the Mighty Ape's shoulder.

"Herculean King, let's climb trees today!" The Mighty Ape (the ape only had the bloodline of the Mighty Ape, but not a genuine one as it was just a temporary name) that was summoned by Lin Huang was excited as it was its first time being summoned. It pounded its chest after hearing his instruction and roared into the sky before climbing.

Although the branches of the Stairway Tree were as thick as a wall, the barks were not as smooth as the surface of a wall. The cracks in the barks were the best climbing points of the tree. Although the Mighty Ape was huge, its ape instinct still made it much agiler than the people who were having a hard time climbing. Because of its massive size, in less than one minute, it had climbed thousands of meters high and disappeared into the clouds.

The people below were envious as they watched the ape disappear. Yao Lan, who was watching at the bottom of the tree, smiled and she shook her head.

"At this speed, he should face his first challenge soon."

There would be checkpoints every 10,000 meters on the Stairway Tree. The higher it was, the more difficult it was to go through the checkpoint. Besides abilities, most of the checkpoints would require specific skills or strategies to be exact. The lower checkpoints were public whereby everybody knew the usual modus operandi, but up to a certain level, the strategies were kept private by the organizations and would not be leaked to other organizations. Some of the organizations would sell the strategies at a high price, but only some of the top organizations had the strategies to the more difficult checkpoints. They were not lacking points and did not wish to be on par with other organizations.

The first checkpoint that was 10,000 meters above ground was the Fog Cloud level. It was the layer of white clouds that Lin Huang had seen when he was at the bottom of the tree. The cloud was thousands of meters thick. Entering the cloud was like entering fog that made everything poorly visible. Most importantly, the fog had an intense hallucinogenic effect that penetrated directly into human bodies and could not be avoided.

Those who were not aware and breathed normally would accelerate the hallucinogenic effect once the fog was in the lungs. In the fog, let alone holy fire-level human, an immortal-level person would be affected if they stayed. It was easy to get lost in the thick fog, and with the hallucinogenic effect, many holy fire-level humans would be stuck on this level.

Yao Lan had planned to give the strategy to Lin Huang, but he did not ask for it. He even refused to hear anything about the checkpoint. He thought it would be more exciting and new that way. He wanted to know how far he could go with his own ability and without any strategies that were told by someone else.

As soon as he entered the clouds, Lin Huang sensed something odd in the fog. As a psychic, his sense was much more powerful than the average person. He could sense clearly that there was an odd energy in the fog that was trying to penetrate his body.

"This hallucinogenic cloud should be the first checkpoint. It will definitely affect those who have weak spirits. Normal people should be slower than me if they're not riding a summoning monster as I do. The longer one stays in this cloud, the more one will be lost," Lin Huang analyzed the complication of the checkpoint.

Before he could analyze further, the Mighty Ape had gotten out of the clouds and climbed further up. Clearly, the hallucinogenic effect could do little to no harm to immortal-level humans in such a short period of time.

"I wonder what the second checkpoint is going to be..." Lin Huang stopped looking at the clouds beneath and looked up into the sky. There was a layer of dark clouds on top of his head. Suddenly, it was snowing…

"It's snowing?" Lin Huang frowned as he looked at the nebulous cloud that was getting thicker on top of him. As the Mighty Ape was climbing higher, the cloud got darker. In less in than a minute, the sky was so dark that it looked like it was dyed in black ink. The day became night in an instant. Lin Huang realized that the absurd change of weather was not natural at all.

"This should be the second checkpoint."

The higher they went, the lower the temperature became. There was a layer of white frost on the tree bark.

"It's a little cold up here."

Soon, he felt a chilly breeze penetrate his body. The cold breath that he exhaled became frost. He opened the thermometer on his Emperor's Heart Ring. It measured -80 degree Celsius and was still descending.

Although Lin Huang's body was immune to the cold since he had a layer of Life Power covering him, the cold was draining his Life Power. In less than half a minute, he had drained almost one Life Wheel of Life Power. The Mighty Ape had frost on its body too. However, it did not affect it as much as the Mighty Ape was an immortal-level. It started climbing slower as the surface was getting slippery. However, the wind was blowing strongly, and the snowfall was getting heavier as they ascended. The Mighty Ape missed its steps a couple of times as its vision was affected.

Noticing that, Lin Huang recalled the Mighty Ape and summoned the Frost Flame Ape. Because the Frost Flame Ape was a monster with frost attributes, the weather could do nothing to it. With its thick, white fur, every breath it took absorbed the cold around it, and every exhalation released heat. It was like a giant air conditioner that absorbed and release heat. It felt like spring in winter as Lin Huang rode on its shoulder as his Life Power that had been draining went back to normal.

The Frost Flame Ape was excited to be summoned. It started climbing as soon as Lin Huang instructed it and it was no slower than the Mighty Ape. It did not have to climb using the cracks as frost formed on its palms and feet that clung onto the bark as soon as they touched its surface. Climbing was like walking on flatland to it. The chilly wind that was blowing on top could do nothing to the Frost Flame Ape that was exhaling heat.

In less than five minutes, the Frost Flame Ape brought Lin Huang to arrive at the dark cloud. The black fog lingered around the ape and still could not defeat the heat that it was breathing out. Suddenly, the Frost Flame Ape slowed down its pace and said to Lin Huang, "Master, the black fog is beneficial to me. I would like to stay here for a while to absorb the cloud."

Lin Huang know that he could not deny the Frost Flame Ape's request.

"This is a virtual world. Theoretically, your real body won't be affected if you absorbed the cloud here. Give me a minute. Let me ask someone about this." Lin Huang then contacted Yao Lan.

As soon as the video call was connected, the first thing Yao Lan noticed was the change of color of the ape.

"Eh, how come your ape's color has changed? Wasn't it gold earlier? Does it have color-changing abilities?"

"This is another ape that I have…" Lin Huang answered helplessly. "Let's not talk about that now. I have a question."

"Do tell."

"Whatever that we get from this virtual world will lose its effect in the real world, right?" Lin Huang asked.

"Why are you asking this? Did you get anything worth keeping?" Yao Lan asked with her eyes wide open.

"No, my monster would like to stay in the second checkpoint," Lin Huang said and switched the angle of his question. "If it doesn't work in reality, I shan't stay here any longer."

Yao Lan was shocked when she saw where Lin Huang was. She suppressed her curiosity and answered his question, "The cultivation in the virtual world will be the same as in reality. Everything that you get, including items, can be brought into existence.

"It can't be. I can understand the projection of items from the real world into this world, but not virtual items into reality. Is that even possible?" Lin Huang thought he would just confirm with Yao Lan, but she gave him an answer that he never expected.

"Are you messing with me?"

"I might mess with you on other matters, but not this as it will affect your Stairway points and our accumulated Sweep Alliance points." Yao Lan did not look like she was joking.

"All of us have an Emperor's Heart Ring with us, but most of the people don't know that the ring was made of a god relic called the Emperor's Heart. The virtual world of the Genius Union is also made of the Emperor's Heart. The power of the Emperor's Heart isn't the Heart Network that's used by all humans, but the ability to make virtual items into reality. All of the items that we obtain here are real. All of the things that we consume here will work on our bodies in reality. All of the ancient relics and demigod relics will become real in reality!"

"Making virtual items into reality… That's too mind-boggling even for a god relic."

Yao Lan's explanation made Lin Huang's jaw drop. He thought such an ability was even more powerful than Xiao Hei his Goldfinger.

"The Emperor's Heart shouldn't be a god relic. It's impossible for an ancient god relic to make virtual items real. Even I can only use part of the virtual world to make a slight shift in reality. There is a 99.998% possibility that the Emperor's Heart is a Goldfinger that was manufactured from the same place that I was."

Xiao Hei's notification popped out of Lin Huang's eyes all of a sudden.

"Then, how about the 0.002%?" Lin Huang asked secretly.

"The 0.002% could possibly be a relic that's gone through an advanced evolution either on its own or through the powerful people that owned it and eventually were got rid of, but the likelihood of this is almost impossible."

"However, there's a condition to bringing virtual items into reality. You must place the items into the storage space in your Emperor's Heart Ring. If you hold the items in your hands or hide them in your clothes as you exit the virtual world, the items won't be brought into reality. The next time you log in, the items that you didn't place in your Emperor's Heart Ring would have disappeared," Yao Lan added.

"So, whatever that you got in the virtual world… either use them immediately or keep them in your storage space. Don't bring the items that you'd like to trade with you. Only bring them out from your Emperor's Heart Ring when you're ready to trade."

"Alright, I understand now. Thanks for reminding me," Lin Huang said.

Lin Huang was shocked to find out about that from Yao Lan. He took a while to calm himself down after hanging up the call and said to the Frost Flame Ape, "You can stay here to absorb the cloud then. I'd love to conduct an experiment as well."

As soon as getting Lin Huang's permission, the Frost Flame Ape started absorbing the black fog around it. Lin Huang then left its shoulder and climbed down to leave the dark cloud. Under the snow, he found a crack in the bark and hid in it. He activated his Army Attack Tactics to recover his Life Power. The experiment he was trying to conduct was to give himself pressure in the cold weather to see if he could accelerate his cultivation in the Army Attack Tactics as his Life Power was rapidly draining.

As Lin Huang sat in the crack of the bark, he was activating his Life Power to prevent the cold from entering his body. He was like a candle swaying in the wind, and he looked like he was going to be put out anytime. Without the Frost Flame Ape's protection, he was exposed to -200 degree Celsius conditions. The draining of his Life Power was much faster than before.

In such a horrible environment, Lin Huang activated the Army Attack Tactics' rotation. He did not want to stay there, but he wanted to see if he could accelerate the speed of his Army Attack Tactics' card accumulation under such circumstances. If this worked, he planned to train his Army Attack Tactics there whenever he had the time.

This only proved that Lin Huang's speculation was true. Under the quick draining of his Life Power, the Army Attack Tactics level-9 which required one second to complete a cycle was increased in less than five minutes to 0.5 seconds per cycle. Besides, it was not the end yet. He could feel that the speed was accelerating. Noticing that his last Life Wheel was depleting, he used a Life Power Refill Card immediately and climbed back to the Frost Flame Ape immediately.

As soon as he got back to the Frost Flame Ape, Lin Huang started the rotation of his Army Attack Tactics again to restore the Life Power that was depleted. Without the pressure, the rotation went back to one second per cycle. Time went by on the Stairway Tree. The gigantic Frost Flame Ape attached itself on the bark as it absorbed the black fog with its mouth wide open. Lin Huang had no idea what the fog was, but he could feel the deadly threat looming behind it. He could also feel the chill when he used the telekinetic thread to touch it. He figured he might become frozen if his body were to touch the fog.

Lin Huang and the Frost Flame Ape were stuck at the second checkpoint for more than three hours. The ape stopped absorbing the fog, and it seemed like it was now full with the fog in itself. Meanwhile, seven out of ten Life Wheels in Lin Huang's body were filled. It was past noon when he checked the time. He did not plan to stay any longer, so he instructed the ape to move on. In less than three minutes, they passed through the second checkpoint. Looking at the area that was covered in black fog beneath, Lin Huang knew that he would be back one day. However, he shook his head while forcing a smile when he recalled the chill in his bones.

"I guess many geniuses that are below immortal-level will be stuck in this checkpoint for a while…"

Just when they left the second checkpoint, the Frost Flame Ape spoke to him., I'm sorry, Master. Since I've absorbed a massive amount of black fog earlier, my bloodline thickness is going to level up soon. I might not serve you at the moment."

"Don't worry about it. Focus on breaking through." Lin Huang nodded and leaped to a crack in the bark. He summoned the golden-haired Mighty Ape again after recalling the Frost Flame Ape.

"Let's go up!" Lin Huang climbed on top of the Mighty Ape's shoulder and instructed.

The Mighty Ape was exuberant as it claimed. It was worried that Lin Huang might not summon it again since it had made mistakes earlier. Without the snow, the Mighty Ape's performance peaked as it was reaching more than 30,000 meters. Lin Huang looked up as he noticed that the reading on his Emperor's Heart Ring showed 30,000 meters. He could not wait to see what the third checkpoint was about. The clouds were gray this time, and it looked like it was going to rain.

"It was a snow storm on the second checkpoint. Could this be rain?" Lin Huang thought it would be lack of creativity if the third checkpoint were as he speculated.

Just when he was going to get the Mighty Ape to pass through the cloud, there were purple flashes of lightning on top of the clouds coming towards them. The Mighty Ape sensed danger by instinct and leaped aside, managing to dodge the attack.

However, that was just the beginning. Right after the Mighty Ape dodged it, the gray cloud was like an angry beast that was awoken as purple lightning bolts struck towards them. It felt like there was a giant purple squid on top of the sky that was attacking Lin Huang and the Mighty Ape with its lightning-like tentacles.

"It's useless to hide like this. Let's go through it." Noticing that the Mighty Ape was dodging the attacks clumsily, Lin Huang thought avoiding was a waste of time and strength as they could not move with the lightning bolts striking them.

The Mighty Ape noticed that it was impossible for it to dodge every single lightning bolts that were coming their way at such a high frequency. It made more sense to just go through it. After hearing Lin Huang's instruction, the Mighty Ape gave up on dodging and proceeded to climb up after covering its body with a layer of Life Power. Lin Huang, who was sitting on the ape's shoulder, activated his Dark Mirror as his defense.

Along the way, the purple lightning bolts hit the Mighty Ape's body, but it did almost nothing to it as it was an immortal-level. After confirming that the lightning was not a threat, the Mighty Ape climbed as fast as it could. Lin Huang was a smaller target. Although he was hit by lightning occasionally, the lightning would be reflected away by the Dark Mirror. This checkpoint was nothing difficult for him. However, the deeper the Mighty Ape got into the gray cloud, the purple lightning turned into blue, and it was more powerful now.

Every strike of blue lightning would drain tens of times more of the ape's Life Power than before. The bolts of lightning could occasionally break through the Mighty Ape's Life Power shield and cause it to be stiff. Lin Huang could feel that the Life Power of the Mighty Ape was tapering and its body was stiff. He did not expect that it was merely the third checkpoint that would be such trouble to an immortal-level Mighty Ape. He then urged the Mighty Ape to climb at its peak speed.

As the Mighty Ape climbed as fast it could, they finally passed through the gray cloud more than two minutes later. After passing through the third checkpoint, Lin Huang had a new understanding of the challenges of the Stairway Tree. It was a few times more difficult than he imagined. The third checkpoint could stop more than 90% of holy fire-level humans and even some less powerful immortal-levels. They might even be stuck at the second checkpoint.

"The third checkpoint is already so difficult, but some people managed to get to the 72nd checkpoint when they're only on immortal-level rank-9…" Lin Huang was impressed by those people who had managed to pass through 70 checkpoints in history. Although they depended on strategies on some of the levels, looking at how difficult they were, they're not easy to go through even provided with strategies.

Lin Huang had heard from Yao Lan that the 72nd checkpoint was the highest checkpoint anyone had ever gotten to in history. However, the highest checkpoint that the current genius organizations members managed to climb to was only the 63rd checkpoint. They could not pass through that despite being provided with strategies. After some realization, Lin Huang snapped out of his thoughts and looked up to the sky, knowing that the fourth checkpoint would be even more difficult than before!

As the Mighty Ape was clambering up, Lin Huang heard an odd sound that he could not identify. It sounded like a collision on the ground. It was so insignificant that nobody could probably notice it. At first, he thought it was just the sound of the wind, but soon he sensed something had entered his territory.

"Is there something in the bark?!"

Lin Huang clearly sensed that something was moving through the cracks not far above. They were not moving fast, but there were many of them. Looking at the way they traveled, they did not seem like humans.

"Be careful," Lin Huang was alert as he warned the Mighty Ape. He had a couple of telekinetic flying daggers in front of him.

He heard from Yao Lan that killing monsters on the Stairway Tree would earn him points. Since the moving objects did not look like humans, they must be monsters then. The Mighty Ape took a few leaps and climbed more than 1,000 meters high. Just when it was bounding in the air, a couple of white silk threads shot out of one of the cracks, heading towards the Mighty Ape. A couple of silver lights flashed in the air and sliced the threads, then shot towards the cracks where the threads originated from.

Soon, groans were heard. Lin Huang instantly killed the monsters that had attacked the Mighty Ape. He knew that the monsters would attack, so he reacted as soon as they made their move. He had no idea what the monsters looked like; all he did was to identify their locations with his Territory skill and killed them with his flying daggers.

It was a battle model that he had come up with earlier which seemed to work for now. However, the coverage area was small at the moment. Even since Lancelot had leveled up to immortal-level rank-2, his territory coverage had increased from 1,000 meters to 2,000 meters together with Lancelot's Saber Dao Territory, but he thought it was still insufficient.

After killing the faceless monsters, Lin Huang was not relaxed at all because he felt that something was wrong when he heard the groans. Just when he wanted to get the Mighty Ape to leave the area, the monsters that were hiding in the bark cracks acted up. The groans of the dying monsters were like pebbles that were tossed into the calm water, creating ripples.

Within the coverage of his territory, Lin Huang sensed that all of the monsters that were hiding in the bark were starting to dash out.

"Let's get out now!" Lin Huang shouted at the Mighty Ape when the threat intensified. The ape seemed to sense the danger as well, so it started climbing as fast as it could. Standing on the ape's shoulder, Lin Huang finally saw how the monsters looked like.

Worms were coming out of the cracks of the bark everywhere. Although they were crystal white in color, they had a sticky mucus on their bodies which was disgusting. The worms looked like maggots that were hundreds of times bigger. The smaller ones were two meters long while the longer ones were above five meters. As they got out of the cracks, they crawled sturdily towards Lin Huang and the Mighty Ape. Some of them stuck their lower bodies to the bark and spat white threads at the Mighty Ape.

Lin Huang did not hold back anymore as he got all 300 of his flying daggers to cut off the threads and kill the worms, clearing a path for the Mighty Ape. However, Lin Huang was horrified when the tens of worms exploded upon being killed. Green mucus shot everywhere before the carcasses disappeared. The corrosive slime sizzled as it clung to the bark and green smoke danced out of it.

Lin Huang activated his Dark Mirror that looked like an umbrella and held it on top of his and the Mighty Ape's head. A few drops of the green mucus fell on the ape. After switching the Dark Mirror to transparent mode, the ape's vision was no longer blocked and it started climbing up again as it ignored the corrosive pain from the mucus. Meanwhile, Lin Huang was controlling his hundreds of telekinetic flying daggers to kill the worms as he defended themselves with the Dark Mirror.

Without the Dark Mirror and the flying daggers, Lin Huang might not have been able to go through the fourth checkpoint as the least powerful worm was on gold flame-level while many of them were on immortal-level rank-1 and rank-2. There were tens of thousands of them in Lin Huang's field of vision and they were coming everywhere for him and the Mighty Ape. The mucus that was produced after the worms exploded was extremely corrosive. The Mighty Ape was unfortunate to get a few drops on it and those spots were now bald. Its skin was decaying too. Luckily, the wounds were small and with the Mighty Ape's Enhanced Regeneration, the corrosion on its skin was healing albeit at a slow pace.

Within the short seven to eight minutes, Lin Huang had killed at least thousands of worm monsters while the Mighty Ape managed to pass through the worms and complete the fourth checkpoint. After they got through, the worms did not come after them and returned to the cracks in the bark. In less than 20 seconds, the barks that were filled with white worms were nowhere to be seen. It felt like everything had just been a figment of Lin Huang's illusion. If not for the wounds on the Mighty Ape's skin caused by the green mucus, he would have really thought that it was all an illusion.

"There are already immortal-level monsters at the fourth checkpoint. Although the worms were slow and their defenses were weak, there were just too many of them and the corrosive effect was terrifying. It's not easy for an immortal-level rank-4 person to win this," Lin Huang concluded about the fourth checkpoint. The higher he climbed, the more respect he had for the people who made it to the 60th to 70th checkpoints.

After breaking through the fourth checkpoint, Lin Huang rode on the Mighty Ape and got to the fifth checkpoint soon. They encountered a star-beaked bird beast that Lin Huang had never seen in the monster encyclopedia before at the fifth checkpoint. It was in between immortal-level rank-1 to rank-3 and was remarkably agile. The Mighty Ape suffered at this checkpoint while Lin Huang remained safe thanks to the defense of the Dark Mirror.

It was proven that the no-fly condition on the Stairway Tree only applied to humans and summoning monsters, but not the local creatures on the tree. The bird beast was flying territorially at this checkpoint. After passing the arduous fifth checkpoint, Lin Huang rode on the Mighty Ape's shoulder and passed through the sixth, the seventh, and the eighth checkpoints…

After 6 p.m., Lin Huang had finally broken through the 20th checkpoint and arrived at the 21st checkpoint. He had primarily managed to break through each checkpoint within ten minutes for first to the ninth checkpoints. However, he and the Mighty Ape took more than 15 minutes to get through each checkpoint since the 10th one; some even took more than 20 minutes to break through, especially the 20th checkpoint that they had just passed. For that particular one, they needed half an hour to break through it.

From the 21st checkpoint onwards, there were finally branches on the Stairway Tree. Lin Huang looked up at the branches that extended up to the sky. All of them surpassed his field of vision. They were like pillars that disappeared into the sky. It felt like they were scaling a massive wall when they were climbing on the trunk earlier. In no way did they think that they were climbing a tree. When he saw the branches, he finally realized that they were not climbing a tree, but an ancient, gigantic tree. He finally had a sense of the proportion of the Stairway Tree.

"Yao Lan said that places above the 21st checkpoint with leaves are safe. There's an isolation bubble on the last leaf of each branch. Those are the refuge spots for humans. The Life Power in the isolation space can accelerate our recovery, and we won't be attacked by monsters when we're there. It even isolates humans from attacking us. Even an imperial-level human can't break through it."

Although Lin Huang did not see leaves anywhere, he knew that the place must be the gathering point for humans. Below the 30th checkpoint, only the 21st checkpoint had branches. It was the first formal gathering point for humans on the Stairway Tree, and it was also the most crowded point. As soon as he arrived at the checkpoint, Lin Huang did not plan to climb further up. It was late, and the parasitic monsters on the tree would be out hunting for food when the sky turned dark. He would be digging his own grave if he were to climb the tree at night. Moreover, he wanted to see how the human gathering point looked like.

Lin Huang then instructed the Mighty Ape to head to the branch that was nearest to him. Riding on the Mighty Ape, they soon arrived at that branch, and the ape leaped onto the branch. The Mighty Ape's appearance caught many people's attention. Many of them were afraid as they thought it was a local monster from the Stairway Tree while some of them noticed a person sitting on its shoulder and realized that it was a summoning monster.

Lin Huang jumped onto the branch and just when he was ready to recall Mighty Ape, a young man in white shirt walked towards him. The man was an immortal-level rank-1.

"Name me a price for the giant ape." The man in the white shirt was apparently from a wealthy family as he sounded obnoxious.

"You want to buy it?" Lin Huang thought that was a ridiculous idea. Then he looked at the Mighty Ape. "It depends if he wants to go with you."

The Mighty Ape shook its head immediately and glared furiously at the man. It did not want to leave Lin Huang as he had made it into a triple mutated monster as well as obtaining the Mighty Ape's bloodline which gave it the possibility to level up to a quadruple mutation. It was natural that it did not want to leave its master. Even without all those advantages, a Monster Card would usually have 100% loyalty towards its master (except for special conditions).

"Did you see that? It doesn't want to go with you." Lin Huang turned around and smiled at the man.

"10 million Life Crystals." The man did not give up and named his price.

10 million Life Crystals was a high offer. Although an immortal-level triple mutated monster was rare, the market value of an immortal-level rank-3 monster would usually cost around 5 million. Even a monster with ancient monster blood would require, at most, 8 million. It would not exceed 9 million if it were sold at an auction. Since the man offered 10 million, it was clear that he knew the market value.

All of the people watching discussed among each other when they heard the offer. Many of them knew the man in the white shirt and his background, so they knew he could afford the ridiculous price that he offered.

"Take a good rest, Herculean King," Lin Huang ignored the man and said to the Mighty Ape, "We shall continue tomorrow."

He then recalled the Mighty Ape into its card form.

"12 million!" The man in the white shirt insisted.

"Not selling." Lin Huang glared at him and left without bothering to talk to him.

The onlookers buzzed with conversation.

"The guy is stupid to not sell it for 12 million. He'll be lucky enough if that triple mutated ape can be sold for 9 million at auctions."

"The guy is an Imperial Censor. Perhaps he has feelings for his pet."

"What can feelings do? Can that compare to money? That's 12 million Life Crystals! He could get a pretty impressive ancient relic with that money."

"15 million!" The man in the white shirt teleported and blocked Lin Huang's way, glaring deadly at him.

"You must know that 15 million is enough to purchase an immortal-level rank-9 triple mutated ancient blood monster. Your ape is just an immortal-level rank-2. If you miss this opportunity now, I won't offer such a price anymore."

"I've told you that I'm not selling!" Lin Huang stared into the man's eyes. He lost his patience with the man's stubbornness.

"Is it so hard to understand?"

"How dare you talk to me like that? You're only a blue flame-level. Do you want to die?" The man became mad. On the one hand, he was repeatedly rejected by Lin Huang while on the other hand, he did not like Lin Huang's tone.

"You can try and see who'll die first." Lin Huang grinned as he did not mind sending the man to the beginning point of the Stairway Tree as he would obtain half of the man's accumulated points.

The people who were watching were excited. Some of them pulled out chairs from their storage space while some even started munching on snacks as they watched.

"They're going to fight! Who wants to bet? 1-5 for the new kid and 1-1.2 for Sun Yu!"

"1-5 for the new kid? Isn't that way too low, Zhao San? It should be 1-10."

"1-10? You'll take the lead then!" The guy named Zhao San glared at the other man who spoke.

"Never mind, I'll bet 10 points on the new kid that he'll win!" The man, who had shouted earlier, said.

"Aren't you ashamed of yourself for betting only 10 points?!" Zhao Yan rolled his eyes.

"Hehe, then I won't lose much, and I'll get 50 points if the new kid wins."

"I'm betting 100 points on Sun Yu!"

"I'm betting 200 points on Sun Yu!"

"I'm betting 300 points on Sun Yu!"

…

Most of them bet on Sun Yu while only some of them bet on Lin Huang. Those who bet on Lin Huang were only wagering with 10 and 20 points. Only one person placed an ante of 30 points.

Zhao San was grumbling, "What the hell? Wouldn't I lose a lot as a maker?"

"Hey, can I join the bet as well?" Lin Huang asked Zhao San as he noticed that everyone was betting.

Zhao Sun was shocked to hear that, and he nodded immediately. "Yes you can, but you can only bet on yourself."

"Then, I'll be betting with all of my points." Lin Huang was confident in himself.

"No, you can only bet on half of your points. If you're killed, half of your points will go to Sun Yu, and you'll only be left with half," Zhao San explained.

"You don't have to transfer your points to me. I shall hold your account since everyone is watching. There's nowhere you can run to later."

"Sure, let's do that." Lin Huang nodded.

"What're your total points?" Zhao San wanted to record Lin Huang's points. Since he was a newbie, he thought Lin Huang would not have that many points.

"5,728 points," Lin Huang declared.

Besides Zhao San, all of the onlookers were shocked when they heard the figure. Even Sun Yu raised his eyebrow.

"How is that possible? Is that a mistake?" Zhan San went to Lin Huang and looked at the personal details that Lin Huang projected. Besides his name Lin Xie and the organization that he belonged to, there was only the total of his points showing. The figure was indeed 5,728 as Lin Huang had announced earlier.

"How is it possible that you already have so many points when you're new here?" Zhao San was skeptical.

"I killed some monsters along the way," Lin Huang explained.

Each checkpoint from the first to the 10th checkpoint earned one point. From the 11th to the 20th checkpoint, one would receive 10 points per checkpoint. Killing a holy fire-level monster would only gain one point, 10 points for an immortal-level rank-1, 20 points for an immortal-level rank-2, and 30 points for an immortal-level rank-3. The points would double up accordingly for every rank.

Lin Huang managed to get so many points because he had killed many monsters along the way. The least powerful one was a holy fire-level while the most powerful one was an immortal-level rank-3. Besides the monsters that he killed, the monsters that the Mighty Ape killed would add to his total tally as well.

However, Zhao San and the rest did not think that Lin Huang obtained the points by himself. They doubted that his points came from his summoning monster that would have helped him killed the monsters. They reasoned that to get more than 5,000 points below the 20th checkpoint would mean he had killed a massive amount of monsters. Many of them speculated that Lin Huang had acquired the points from other members of the Sweep Alliance. Even Sun Yu thought the same as he did not believe that Lin Huang could depend on an immortal-level rank-2 ape to obtain that amount of points.

"Half of my total points would be 2,864, so I'll bet on that. Please record this down for me." Seeing that Zhao San had confirmed that what he said was accurate, Lin Huang proclaimed the points that he was betting on out loud.

"If that's what you want, I shall give it to you then." Sun Yu laughed.

"I have 12,000 points now. I'll bet 6,000 on myself!"

"Sure! I've recorded both your points. After the battle ends, the loser will transfer the points to me!" Zhao San agreed on their bets. Soon, the people gathered to watch the show. Lin Huang and Sun Yu stood 30 meters across each other, and Zhao San who was the maker became the judge of this battle.

"3, 2, 1. Fight!"