Monster Paradise

by LightNovels

343-

7. Chapter 7

After giving a vague introduction where nothing could be referred, the auctioneer then shouted its starting price, "The starting price is 20 million Life Crystals! The price increment must be at least 500,000 Life Crystals each round!"

The starting price was not considered to be high as it was the equivalent price of an ancient relic of a lower grade. However, it was an item with unknown functions. Aside from its hard material, there was nothing special about it. Most likely, it could only be used for decorative purposes. Under normal circumstances, anyone would be reluctant to spend money on it.

Even the auctioneer was worried that nobody would place a bid on it and that it would remain unsold.

However, it seemed like he had been worrying too much. The moment the starting price was announced, someone hit the bid button.

"21 million!"

However, the price was not offered by Lin Huang. It was a member from VIP room No. 1 on the third floor.

Lin Huang was stunned as he thought that nobody would bid for it. He moved his head slightly and caught a glimpse of the room next to him. He then pressed the bid button too.

"30 million!"

He raised the price to 30 million and his message was unmistakable– I want it.

Just as the bid was placed, the person next to him responded. The increment offered was not low though.

"50 million!"

Lin Huang frowned. He pondered the response of the member in VIP room No. 1. He wondered if the person simply wanted to retaliate or if he knew that it was a valuable item.

Although he was in doubt, Lin Huang hit the bid button without a moment of hesitation.

"100 million!"

Just as the bid was placed, a racket instantly came from the people in the auction hall.

"What's happening up there? Are the two Supreme members confronting each other?"

"It's a bidding war between members in VIP rooms No. S1 and S2. Did the neighbor just fight? What about neighborhood harmony?"

"That's interesting. I wonder how they're going to end this."

Many of the members in the VIP room on the second floor started studying this scenario. Some of them raised their suspicions. "Is it possible for the wood carving to be something valuable?"

Obviously, the bidding price of 100 million did not scare him away. After a moment of silence, the bidder in VIP room No. 1 placed another bid.

"300 million!"

Lin Huang smirked, looking in the direction where the VIP room was. Again, he pushed the bid button hard.

"One billion!"

"If he continues bidding for the wood carving, most probably he knows the actual function of the statue." Lin Huang frowned, looking at the statue on the auction stage. He did not expect this to happen as it was his first time bidding.

Since he had bid for it at a price of one billion Life Crystals, the bidder would know that placing his next bid with a small increment in price would be useless. If he were really eager to buy the statue, he would need to increase the price by a large margin. If he were just trying to fight back, it would be ridiculous to spend a billion Life Crystals buying a decorative item with unknown functions. A Supreme member of the Wanbao Auction would not be so irrational.

Moreover, the identity of all the guests in the VIP rooms had to be kept secret. Even if he lost the bid, there was nothing embarrassing about it because nobody would know who he was.

The price of the statue had risen from 20 million to one billion in less than a minute. It was exactly five times higher than its starting price. The people felt that it was strange and at the same time, they hoped that the bidder in VIP room No. 1 could place a higher bid.

However, the member in VIP room No.1 decided to remain silent.

In the rest of the VIP rooms on the second and the third floor, many of the members and Supreme members speculated if there were any hidden secrets. However, the price had already increased to a billion Life Crystals. Nobody dared to continue bidding for it purely based on speculation.

"One billion Life Crystals, sold!"

As the auctioneer knocked the hammer, the final decision had been made, signifying that Lin Huang had successfully become the owner of the statue.

"I've bought the statue. Can you please tell me what the God's Figurine is?" Lin Huang secretly contacted the stone tablet.

"Do you know the protoss?" The stone tablet asked.

"Yes, I do. What does it have to do with the protoss?" Lin Huang was eager to know more.

"The God's Figurine is the dead body of the protoss. To be exact, it's the remnants of the protoss's body after its death."

"Are you sure you're not kidding me?" Lin Huang could not believe it at all. "It's a palm-sized statue and it's obvious that it's made of wood. You're telling me that it's the remnants of the protoss?"

"The reason why it's only the size of a palm is that after the death of the protoss, the particles of its body collapsed and reshaped, turning into the state of a God's Figurine. Just like when a dead star collapses and becomes a white dwarf, there'll be a substantial decrease in size. The reason why it looks wooden is that wood was the main attribute of the God's Figurine before its death."

The explanation made sense to Lin Huang. However, something suddenly crossed his mind. "No, a friend of my told me before that a protoss has a perfect human figure. However, the God's Figurine looks like a mutated monster."

"Your friend is right. However, all protoss actually have three bodies. The first body is in the human state which is known as the mortal body. The second body is in the state when it's born; we call it the source body. Lastly, it's called the God's body when its body is in the form of energy.

"They'll normally appear in the form of a mortal body in their daily life. When they're engaged in a fight, they'll return to their energy form, transforming into God's body which is normally huge. The stronger it is, the larger it is. Some of their sizes are on par with whole galaxies.

"All protoss are strongest when they're in the form of their source body. Under such conditions, they can maximize their abilities with ease. However, there's a drawback for transforming its body into this form. The protoss can reshape themselves after the death of their mortal body and God's body. However, if the source body dies, they'll die for real."

"The God's Figurine basically rings the death of the protoss's source body. This is how they originally looked like."

Lin Huang could finally believe the stone tablet's explanation after he heard this.

"The God's Figurine is only as big as my palm. What can it be used for?" He immediately asked.

"As long as it possesses divinity, it can be reactivated."

"Reactivated? Do you mean that you want to revive it?" Lin Huang's eyes widened.

"No. The reactivated God's Figurine no longer has consciousness. It's just like a puppet."

"So, as long as I'm able to reactivate it, it means that I have a protoss that can fight?" Lin Huang comprehended.

"That could be true. However, its combat strength won't be on the God-level that it used to be. It depends on the strength of the soul inserted into it. If you were to insert a soul of demigod-level into it, its combat strength would be on demigod-level. If a Virtual God-level soul is inserted into it, its combat strength would be on the Virtual God-level, and so on," the stone tablet explained in detail.

When Lin Huang heard this, he suddenly recalled that when Zhu Xing was killed, he had obtained Wu Zhi's Combat Soul Card. Obviously, it could be used now. However, he then thought that he would need the combat soul when he advanced to immortal-level so that he could forge his Life Furnace. He suddenly had a headache.

"According to its description, the God's Figurine can be used as a Life Furnace to store the Divine Fire in your body." Xiao Hei's voice was suddenly heard. It was apparent that it managed to sense what Lin Huang was worrying about.

"Storing the Divine Fire? That's something spiritual. Other than the God's soul, only the spiritual god's relic and god's item can store the Divine Fire, isn't it?"

"Since the God's Figurine is the remnant of the protoss, it'll be used to store the soul of the protoss in the past. You're supposed to be able to use it as a container that stores Divine Fire. You can give it a try when you get it." After Xiao Hei had finished its sentence, it kept quiet again.

Lin Huang began pondering how the God's Figurine should be used.

After lunch, the second half of the auction then began.

The auction got livelier in the afternoon. Almost every item sold was exquisitely made. A majority of them were ancient relics of similar levels. All of them were sold at a price of at least 100 million Life Crystals.

Lin Huang had lost his focus as he kept on thinking about the God's Figurine and the Divine Fire in his body.

Yi Zheng found that Lin Huang had been exceptionally quiet in the afternoon and asked about his moodiness. Lin Huang just told him that he was thinking about something. Since he did not want to share much, Yi Zheng did not ask any further.

At about 5.40 p.m., 48 items had been sold.

Since the 49th item had not been brought up to the stage after a long while, the crowd knew what was going to happen soon and they were excited.

Yu Bo remained quiet for a few moments as well. He then said, "Perhaps many of you know that right up to now, we have three more items left available for sale."

"I guess many of you have been waiting for this to come for a long time. I'll stop here and now for our staff to unveil the first secret item!"

After finishing his sentence, two muscular staff brought something that was as large as a wardrobe up on stage.

Almost every person in the auction hall held their breaths, fixing their gazes on the item covered by a red cloth. They were secretly guessing what the item under the red cloth was.

"The first secret item is…" Yu Bo paused for a moment. He then pulled the red cloth away.

A transparent cabinet was unveiled.

A long saber with a scabbard was floating in the middle of the cabinet.

The handle of the saber was burgundy in color. The blade of the saber along with its scabbard emitted a faint, red glow. The oppressing aura of the demigod relic spread throughout the auction hall.

In order to give it a grandiose display, the imperial-level had temporarily activated it before bringing it up on the stage.

Since it was one of the items sold at the end of the auction, they treated the saber which Lin Huang had sent in in a completely different way. After it was activated, all of them could clearly sense the immense power of the demigod relic.

"It's such a terrifying oppression!"

"I seem to be able to smell the scent of blood."

…

Everybody was discussing it and they could clearly sense how bone-chilling the demigod relic was.

Many of the members on the second and the third floor had fallen into deep thought.

"It seems to be a saber that drinks blood…"

Yu Bo finally revealed where the three secret items came from and they were all curious about it.

"Perhaps some of you might've discovered that it's a Bloodthirster. It's forged through blood sacrifice. The Bloodthirster can grow and might even create saber spirit after engulfing sufficient blood.

"We're unsure about the history of the saber. However, based on the evaluation done by the Grade-S appraiser, it should be remnants from the old era. The main material used is the bones of unknown demigods. Most likely, they're monsters that existed in the ancient times and have gone extinct now.

"Although we don't know much about this saber, the person who sent this saber in is a demigod for real. Two days before the auction began, a demigod visited us late at night, sending three items in for sale. The saber is one of them.

"The first item to be sold off at the end of the auction is the Bloodthirster. The starting price is 33 billion! The price increment must be at least one billion Life Crystals each round!"

After finishing his words on the auction stage, three bids lit up at almost the same time from the VIP room on the third floor.

"35 billion!"

"38 billion!"

"40 billion!"

The black screen suddenly glowed continuously and large numbers were displayed.

The crowd in the auction hall exclaimed as it was the first time they were witnessing such intense bidding since the last five days.

"The bidder in VIP room No. 26 has offered a price of 40 billion Life Crystals. Is there anyone…"

Before the auctioneer could finish his words, the black screen on the third floor lit up again.

"45 billion!"

"The bidder from VIP room No. S8 has offered 45 billion…"

In less than five seconds, the bid rose from 33 billion to 45 billion. The people were surprised by what they just saw.

"In less than five seconds, the price has exceeded the final bid price of the demigod relic sold on the first day of the auction." Yi Zheng looked towards Lin Huang. "How do you feel?"

"I don't feel anything."

Lin Huang remained calm as it was completely within his expectations. "The quality of the Bloodthirster is better than the demigod relic sold on the first day. The saber can be further enhanced, so that's why it's normal for it to fetch a higher price."

After Lin Huang explained his opinion, the bid had exceeded 50 billion. It was the highest price offered so far among all the items sold.

However, it was not the end.

"55 billion!"

"The member from VIP room No. S3 has offered 55 billion. Again, he's just broken the record! Is there anyone going to place a higher bid for it?" Seeing that nobody continued to place a bid, Yu Bo grinned. "I'm now putting my job at risk to reveal some information. The Bloodthirster is the last saber for sale at the auction. It's the saber with the highest quality. If you're majoring in saber, perhaps you'll have to wait for another year if you miss out on this chance."

Soon, the black screen on the third floor lit up again.

"60 billion!" It was offered by the member in VIP room No. 6.

"The member from VIP room No. S6 has offered 60 billion!"

"65 billion!" At the next second, the black screen glowed again.

"The member from VIP room No. S8 has raised the price by five billion. The bid price is now 65 billion! Is the guest from VIP room No. S8 going to own the Bloodthirster?" Yu Bo's gaze swept through the rest of the VIP rooms on the third floor. Despite the price exceeding his expectation, he still wanted to know if the price could go even higher.

However, at a price like this, the true value of the Bloodthirster was on the low side. Those who majored in saber knew about this and the rest of the guests in the VIP room remained quiet.

Yu Bo waited for a few seconds. Since no one else continued bidding for it, he then shouted, "65 billion, going once!"

"65 billion, going twice!"

"There goes the last chance…" Yu Bo lifted his hammer and waited for another two seconds, then he shouted, "65 billion, going thrice!"

At the same time, he knocked down the hammer. "Sold!"

A smile finally plastered across Lin Huang's face who was in VIP room No. 2 on the third floor.

"That's great. It's higher than my expected price." His expected price was about 55 billion and he did not expect the final bid price to be 10 billion higher.

Selling the first item went more smoothly than expected. The final bid price had exceeded his expectations as well. He was much happier now, forgetting about the God's Figurine. He began to anticipate the bidding of the next two items.

Soon, the second item was brought up to the stage. It was the demigod-level combat sword Lin Huang provided.

As soon as it was unveiled, the combat sword that floated in the middle of the crystal-clear cabinet released a faint, golden glow, appearing very powerful.

Bloody had intentionally chosen a golden sword. Not only did it have beautiful arcs on the blade of the sword, but the blade and the sheath of the sword were also delicately made. The golden engraving on the sheath looked remarkably artistic.

"It's a demigod-level combat sword forged about 200 years ago. Based on the arcs on its blade and the degree of fineness of the blade and the sheath, it must be the work of Master Jing. Master Jing is the only female forgemaster in this era who can forge a demigod relic. She's also a demigod. There's only a small number of her artworks and it's rare to own a demigod relic forged by her. There are only three demigod relics available in the market so far. The combat sword must be the fourth one and it's also the first demigod-level combat sword she has ever forged…"

Even Lin Huang did not know about the information provided by Wanbao Auction House. He was shocked as he heard it from the VIP room.

Obviously, they had put in a lot of effort to raise the bid price of the item.

"It makes me feel like buying it…" Lin Huang mumbled.

"You majored in sword. Why don't you keep it for yourself? It's just a matter of time for you to get to imperial-level," Yi Zheng asked.

"If I want a sword, I can get a better one at any time," Lin Huang said, raising his brows. He felt that the Stairway Tree was an amazing place.

What he said startled Yi Zheng. However, Lin Huang did not seem to be lying.

Seeing the doubt on Yi Zheng's face, Lin Huang did not say anything else. However, a thought crossed his mind. "I must look for a chance to ask Yi Zheng to join the Genius Union."

Yi Zheng's abilities were on par with a genius'. If Lin Huang were to recommend him, he could definitely join the Genius Union. There was no harm asking him to join the Genius Union.

On the auction stage, Yu Bo announced the starting price of the combat sword.

"The starting price is 32 billion Life Crystals! The price increment must be at least one billion Life Crystals each round!"

An intense bidding war began immediately.

"35 billion!"

"40 billion!"

…

Five minutes later, the combat sword was sold at a price of 62 billion. The final buyer was the guest in VIP room No. A3 on the second floor. He showed his determination in buying the sword throughout the bidding process. He raised the price by one to two billion each time. The two bidders on the third floor gave up bidding for the item as they did not want to increase the price by such a large margin anymore.

After the bidding of the combat sword had ended, there was only one last item remaining and everybody was excited to know what the last item was.

"Is the last auction item a god's relic?"

"The demigod-level sword and saber have been sold. Will the last auction item be a god's item?"

The crowd was anticipating for it in suspense until the last auction item was then brought to the auction stage.

"The last item for sale today, which is also the last item to be sold off at the auction, is here." Yu Bo was not in a hurry to unveil the red cloth. "Do you want to know what it is?"

"Stop dragging. Just show it!"

"Please be quick. I'm going home to breastfeed my baby!" A man with chest hair shouted, exposing his pecs to Yu Bo.

"Hurry up. I have the urge to pee. I can't stand it anymore! I'm going to the toilet after this!"

…

The auction hall was now bustling with chatter. Many of them even neglected the point that the friendly young man was actually an immortal-level rank-9. He was only one step closer to imperial-level.

"I feel like hitting someone…"

Yu Bo did not expect the crowd to react in such a way. He used to imagine that they would be like primary school kids and would all yell, "Yes!". In fact, the adult world was much more complicated.

His emotions then completely returned to normal as he uncovered the last item. The combat armor that Lin Huang provided was displayed.

The black combat armor floated in the transparent cabinet and exuded a faint, black mist. Two beams of bloody light glowed at the helmet visor, resembling a humanoid monster floating on the auction stage that scrutinized everyone in the auction hall.

Everybody kept quiet as soon as the combat armor appeared.

The moment when they saw the bloody glow, their bodies stiffened and they had goosebumps. They felt like an extremely powerful monster was glaring at them.

Yu Bo grinned as the effect was within his expectations.

Despite him being on immortal-level rank-9, he had goosebumps too when he saw the item for the first time.

Most of them in the auction hall had not reached immortal-level yet, so they were very cautious of the appearance and aura of the combat armor.

"The demigod-level combat armor is the only combat armor available for sale at this auction. The three Grade-S appraisers evaluated that the demigod relic wasn't formed from an ancient relic. It wasn't made of the flesh of the demigod-level monsters as well. Instead, it was dropped by the demigod-level monsters after their death. The monster type that dropped the combat armor remains unknown. However, it can be confirmed that it's an abyssal monster and it's highly possible that it's an abyssal monster in the third layer of the Abyss Brink. It's in perfect condition with no damages found…"

"The starting price of the combat armor is 38 billion Life Crystals! The price increment must be at least one billion Life Crystals each round!"

After having uttered his words, the black screen on the third floor lit up abruptly.

"68 billion!"

The member from VIP room No. 3 raised the price by 30 billion. Obviously, he was eager to buy the set of combat armor.

The crowd at the auction hall exclaimed when they saw the bid price.

"Did he accidentally enter an extra zero?"

"I'm pretty sure that he didn't. It's the strategy of bidding. He's not giving others the chance to bid by raising the bid price to 30 billion higher."

"The bidder in VIP room No. S3 is amazing!"

"Perhaps 68 billion isn't too expensive for him."

…

Even Yu Bo was stunned. He thought that he had seen the wrong figure.

Before Yu Bo had the chance to mention the bid price, the black screen which was a certain distance away lit up again.

"75 billion!"

The bidder who offered it was the member in VIP room No. 5. He had never placed any bid for the previous two demigod relics.

"Is it going to be sold at an extremely high price?!"

"Can it reach 80 billion? I heard that none of the items sold at the Wanbao Auction has ever exceeded 80 billion in the past 30 years."

Yu Bo's heartbeat started racing fast. He was waiting for the others to place another bid so that the bid price could exceed 80 billion.

The highest bid in the past 30 years was 78 billion and it had happened 13 years ago.

If he managed to break the record of the highest bid price at the auction that he hosted, he would definitely be rewarded by the top management. He might even have the opportunity to be upgraded to imperial-level.

Yu Bo then calmed himself down. Just as he was about to say something to trigger the bidders' buying intention, a figure lit up on the black screen on the third floor again.

"85 billion!"

Again, it was offered by the bidder in VIP room No. 3.

Seeing the figure, Yu Bo was overjoyed. "It's broken the record!"

The next second, the member in VIP room No. 5 placed another bid. An even higher bid price was achieved.

"95 billion!"

The crowd felt that the members in the two VIP rooms on the third floor had gone insane.

"What's happening? It's reaching 100 billion!"

"I guess 95 billion should mean a lot to those on the third floor."

"I used to think being rich makes me happy. Right until this moment, I realize that I've no idea what the happiness of a rich man is like…"

As an auctioneer, when Yu Bo saw the bid price of 95 billion, his breathing turned into a mess. He had just been trying to break the 30-year record. However, it seemed like it had broken the 50-year record now.

After calming himself down, Yu Bo was preparing himself for what to say next.

Again, the black screen on the third floor glowed.

"120 billion!"

The golden figure lit up abruptly on the black screen in front of VIP room No. 1. Everybody exclaimed in surprise.

Nobody expected that with just one bid, the bidder from VIP room No. 1 would manage to outbid the bidders in VIP room No. 3 and No. 5 who had been fighting over the item for a long while.

Seeing the bid price, Yu Bo was feeling lost as he mumbled, "1-120 billion…"

Soon, he recovered from his thoughts and tried to figure out when was the last time when the bid price had exceeded 120 billion.

"I think the last time the bid was higher than 120 billion was 117 years ago. The highest bid price for a demigod relic was 130 billion. Within 100 years, the highest bid price for a demigod relic was 110 billion which happened 81 years ago. Does it mean that the current bid price has broken the 100-year record?!"

Yu Bo could imagine his status at Wanbao Auction House in the future. "If everything goes well, the position of the principal auctioneer will belong to me!"

After the bid of 120 billion was announced, the members from the rest of the VIP rooms remained silent.

Yu Bo then knew that that would be the final price of the item. However, he was still ambitious, hoping to push the bid higher.

"The bidder from VIP room No. S1 has bid 120 billion for it. This is, by far, the highest bid price over the past 100 years. Congratulations to the member in VIP room No. S1 for breaking the 100-year record of Wanbao Auction House!"

"I've something else to say about this item. Many of you know that the items dropped by monsters can be refined and there's no exception for the demigod relic. This demigod relic is just an intermediate-grade item. However, it's like a raw material that has never been carved to the expert refiners. There are chances that it can be upgraded to an expert-grade item. Everybody knows that there are only three demigod-level combat armors that are of expert-grade in Division 3. This could possibly be the fourth one."

Yu Bo wanted to share this earlier. However, he did not have the chance to do so, but this was a good time.

Many of them could finally understand why it was priced at a much higher price compared to the previous two weapons.

A majority of them used to think that the Supreme members on the third floor were just trying to fight one another as they bid like crazy. Apparently, they were bidding for the potential value of the combat armor. They were all clever ones.

It suddenly dawned on Yi Zheng who then looked at Lin Huang and asked, "Are there grades for demigod relics?"

"Yes, but the difference between them isn't obvious." Lin Huang nodded his head and explained in detail, "A demigod relic is classified into beginner-grade, intermediate-grade, expert-grade, and ultimate-grade. The difference between the beginner- and intermediate-grade demigod relics isn't significant. However, an expert-grade demigod relic is much more powerful. As for the ultimate-grade demigod relic, a minority of them can be compared to a god's relic without instincts.

"By looking at the price itself, a beginner-grade demigod relic can be sold within a price range of 10 to 30 billion Life Crystals. Some of them can be sold at a price of 40 billion and above. However, under normal circumstances, it won't exceed 50 billion. The price of an intermediate-grade demigod relic starts from 30 billion Life Crystals and usually ranges from 30 to 80 billion. Normally, it won't exceed 100 billion. The starting price for an expert-grade demigod relic will be 100 billion and its highest bid price can go to 300 to 400 billion. It won't exceed 500 billion. The starting price for the ultimate-grade demigod relic will be 300 billion…"

On the auction stage, Yu Bo waited for a few seconds. Since nobody placed another bid, he shouted, "120 billion, going once!"

"120 billion, going twice!"

"Is there anyone who's going to bid for it? Otherwise, the combat armor will belong to the member in VIP room No. S1."

Obviously, 120 billion had exceeded the acceptable price range of the rest of the members on the third floor. They knew very well that a subtle increase in price meant nothing to him and that they would suffer great losses if they were to increase it substantially. Therefore, they decided to give up bidding for it.

Yu Bo gazed at the VIP rooms on the third floor. He knew that nobody would place another bid. Therefore, he had to knock the gavel.

"120 billion going, thrice! Sold!"

The last auction item was sold at 120 billion Life Crystals and the five days of the auction had finally ended with a speech from the top management of Wanbao Auction House.

In Lin Huang's VIP room, the doorbell rang. Yi Zheng opened the door and a female staff entered.

She nodded her head at Yi Zheng and walked straight to Lin Huang. Then, she took out two items from her Emperor's Heart Ring.

One of them was the God's Figurine which Lin Huang had bid for in the afternoon and the other thing was a thumb-sized crystal card.

"Mr. Lin, this is the item that you bid for in the afternoon and the payment for the items sold. 3% of the processing fees and the money you spent buying the auction item has been deducted from the payment in the crystal card. Please check."

Lin Huang took the two items from her. He put the God's Figurine into his storage and immediately inserted the crystal card into his Emperor's Heart Ring.

The total amount for the three demigod relics was 247 billion. After deducting 3% of processing fees and the one billion Life Crystals which he had spent bidding for the auction item, the remaining amount was 238.59 billion Life Crystals.

Making sure that it was the right amount, Lin Huang then completed the transaction. He removed the crystal card and stored it in his storage space.

The transaction crystal card that could only temporarily store Life Crystals had its limit and was not valuable. Therefore, the auction house would give it to their customers each time after a transaction.

"It's exactly the right amount of money." Lin Huang nodded his head at the staff.

"The two invitation cards of the underground auction will be emailed to you before 10 p.m. Please take note," the female staff reminded, "The auction begins tomorrow at 8 p.m. It starts from 8 p.m. to 12 a.m. for three consecutive days. For further details, please check the invitation card after you've received it. Is there anything else I can help you with?"

"Is there a list of items for the underground auction?"

"The list will be attached in the invitation email. However, that's just for your reference as the list is subject to change," she explained.

"One more thing. During the auction, can we stay at the VIP room for free?" Lin Huang came up with a shameless request. He had enjoyed staying there for the past few days.

"No, you can't. Wanbao Auction has already ended to the outside world and the VIP rooms will serve as hotel rooms again. All the VIP rooms will be cleaned up today and we'll start our usual business tomorrow. Moreover, the underground auction won't be held here. It's at another underground area."

"Okay." Lin Huang nodded.

As the staff left, the speech on the auction stage had ended as well. The majority of them had left the auction hall.

"Should we leave now or should we stay for a while?" Yi Zheng felt that it was too crowded down there and felt like leaving only when it had subsided.

"What are we waiting for? Don't you know that they're about to clean up this space?" Lin Huang stood up, tossing a red berry into his mouth and walked towards the floating staircase.

Yi Zheng then had to follow after him.

The both of them entered the floating staircase and went down to the first floor. They left the auction hall together with the crowd. They then returned to the hotel they used to stay at which was just a short distance away from the auction hall.

After bidding Yi Zheng goodbye, he then returned to his room. The first thing he did was to summon Kylie and entered her mini world.

Lin Huang was so excited to take the God's Figurine out in her mini world.

The God's Figurine was only the size of an adult's palm. It looked like a statue made of redwood. However, on it was the carving of a creature that Lin Huang had never seen before and it had never appeared in the monster guide either.

It was a humanoid monster that looked feminine and wore a red dress that looked like an inverted rose. Its upper body was completely naked. It looked like it did not have arms and there were two pairs of butterfly-like wings on its back. There were scales all over its body and it had a vine-like tail which extended from the lower edge of its dress. The tail behind its dress hung low on the floor.

After briefly looking at the shape of the God's Figurine, Lin Huang shifted his gaze towards its face.

It had a very beautiful face that looked like a lady from the West. Its head was slightly lowered with its eyes closed and it had waist-length hair that was a bit messy.

Perhaps because it had no arms, Lin Huang felt that it looked sick and weak.

"You're lucky enough. It's a matured Petal Devil. Its previous combat strength was at least on the high-rank True God-level." The stone tablet's voice was heard.

"Is it called the Petal Devil? Is it powerful?" Lin Huang asked.

"The Petal Devil isn't a monster that's skilled at fighting. However, the abilities of a matured Petal Devil can be compared to the protoss that's good at fighting. I said that you're lucky simply because they're monsters that possess the wood attribute. They're the favorites of Nature. In the True Spirit Guide that I gave you, there's a divine tree called Fusang which is also known as the sun tree. It has been said that the strongest sun tree stretches across the Milky Way. The stars and black holes are pretty much its food. It's unbreakable and immortal. The Petal Devil and the sun tree originate from the same monster. With the God's Figurine of the Petal Devil as a medium, visualizing the sun tree's combat soul can be accomplished with ease."

Lin Huang was excited when he heard this. It was a sun tree that stretched across the Milky Way and could even engulf the stars and black holes! If he could form a combat soul like this, he would have the courage to fight someone stronger than the True God.

However, after calming himself down, he felt that what the stone tablet said was deceiving.

"You said that the combat strength of the sun tree is even stronger than the True God right? Have you seen it before?"

"I've never seen the sun tree stretching across the Milky Way before. However, I've seen the engulfment of the stars and black holes for real. I've seen the sun tree extend its branches and twist around the stars. It spent 33 days to engulf everything completely."

What it said startled Lin Huang and he could not say a word for several moments.

"Don't think of creating a sun tree that can engulf the stars. As long as you can form a demigod-level plant, it's probably sufficient to defeat all the demigods in the gravel world."

Lin Huang forced a smile, shaking his head. He then took a deep breath, fixing his gaze back on the God's Figurine.

His Divine Telekinesis surrounded the God's Figurine, slowly dragging it into the world in his body.

If anyone saw what was happening to him, one would see the palm-sized wood statue slowly being dragged towards Lin Huang's chest and disappearing.

After storing the God' Figurine into his body, Lin Huang dragged it to the Divine Fire of the first Life Wheel. The palm-sized God's Figurine was instantly engulfed by the flames.

Lin Huang kept his focus on the internal changes that were happening to his Divine Fire. Soon, a huge whirlpool was formed in the flames that were tens of thousands of meters tall. Its size then began to shrink rapidly.

At the same time, the Life Power that was initially full in his Life Wheel was being overwhelmed entirely by the whirlpool. It did not happen to only the first Life Wheel… Instead, the Life Power in the rest of the nine Life Wheels was being depleted.

Lin Huang could roughly guess what was happening. He immediately used three Life Power Refill Cards to replenish his Life Power, inserting it into the whirlpool.

About half an hour had passed and all the Life Power in Lin Huang's body had been emptied. Even the Divine Fire in his first Life Wheel had completely disappeared. Only the palm-sized God's Figurine remained.

Lin Huang waited for it excitedly yet patiently. He was not worried about his Life Power having already been depleted.

About two to three minutes later, the eyes of the God's Figurine opened abruptly. Two black Divine Fires shot out of its eyes. The red flower-like dress that it was wearing initially became black as if it was dyed by ink. At almost the same time, the size of the God's Figurine began to grow. It was initially the size of a palm but it continued to grow until it was more than two meters tall. After its size had finally stabilized, the God's Figurine slowly closed its eyes. However, the color of its dress was still black in color and did not return to its original color.

The God's Figurine's black dress blew upwards a little with the circles of Life Power. It began to refill his first Life Wheel, followed by the second one, the third one… After all ten of his Life Wheels were being restored, it began to pass through Lin Huang's veins and arteries, muscles, bones, and soul…

Lin Huang was exhilarated. He could clearly sense that the Life Power in his body was transforming. His body and the strength of his soul were transforming as well.

"It can really help me to level up to immortal-level rank-1!" Lin Huang inspected his own body. "The only difference between an immortal-level rank-1 and I is that I don't have a combat soul in my body."

Under normal circumstances, one would need to kill an immortal-level monster and hunt for a monster soul in order to advance from holy fire-level to immortal-level. The monster soul would then be used as a Life Furnace that stored Life Fire. The process was known as lighting up the Life Lamp.

However, since the Life Fire in Lin Huang's body originated from a Divine Pod whereby it belonged to the true Divine Fire, only a True God-level monster soul could store it. Therefore, he had to choose a spiritual god item or god relic to store the Divine Fire. The God's Figurine was a spiritual god's item. It could be used as a container to store his Divine Fire, allowing Lin Huang to light up his Life Lamp.

Theoretically, Lin Huang knew that it would work. Therefore, he gave it a try and ended up successfully upgrading to immortal-level.

"What I shall do next is to visualize the sun tree's monster soul to create a combat soul!" Lin Huang knew what his next step was. "However, I don't think that it can be achieved in such a short period of time."

"Congratulations, you've leveled up to immortal-level!

"There's an upgrade in some of the authorities.

"1. Summon authority of pseudo-mythical-level card is activated.

"2. The number of summoning increases from 10 to 15.

"3. Personal skill slots increase from 20 slots to 30 slots.

"4. The maximum limit of the combat strength of the monster cards is immortal-level rank-9.

"5: Activation of new cards: Duplication Card, Forge Card, Modification Card…

"6: Change of cross-ranking reward rules: You'll only obtain a cross-ranking reward by killing an imperial-level. You can no longer obtain a cross-ranking reward by killing an immortal-level.

"When on the beginner-level of an immortal-level (from rank-1 to rank-3), you'll obtain 10 card draws by killing a black gold-rank; you'll obtain 20 card draws by killing a crimson gold-rank; you'll obtain 40 card draws by killing a yellow gold-rank; you'll obtain 80 card draws by killing a white gold-rank; you'll obtain 160 card draws by killing a purple gold-rank; and you'll obtain 320 card draws by killing a demigod.

"When on the intermediate-level of an immortal-level (from rank-4 to rank-6), you'll obtain 10 card draws by killing a crimson gold-rank; you'll obtain 20 card draws by killing a yellow gold-rank; you'll obtain 40 card draws by killing a white gold-rank; you'll obtain 80 card draws by killing a purple gold-rank; and you'll obtain 160 card draws by killing a demigod.

"When on the expert-level of an immortal-level (from rank-7 to rank-9), you'll obtain 10 card draws by killing a yellow gold-rank; you'll obtain 20 card draws by killing a white gold-rank; you'll obtain 40 card draws by killing a purple gold-rank; and you'll obtain 80 card draws by killing a demigod."

"Remark: You can't use a Function Card to assist in a cross-ranking kill."

…

"I can't use a Function Card? I guess I'm not cheating if I were to use the Knight skill and Integration skill to achieve an upgrade in my combat strength, right?" Lin Huang mumbled with an evil smile, "I can first upgrade the combat strength of the monster that I'm riding on to immortal-level rank-9. With the overlaying effect of the Knight and Integration skills, my combat strength can be upgraded to at least black gold-level or even crimson gold-level…"

"That's too much. According to the strength of your body and soul, black gold-rank is your limit. If you were to advance it to crimson gold-level forcefully, your body and soul will probably collapse in an instant. Therefore, given the restriction of the system, you'll only be able to obtain the minimum overlaying effect of Knight and Integration and your combat strength will only reach black gold-rank. There'll be an exception if you level up to the intermediate-level of the immortal-level."

"Black gold-rank. That's great." Lin Huang did not feel upset at all. "With my abilities on black gold-rank, it won't be difficult for me to fight crimson gold- and yellow gold-ranks. Bai and the rest of their combat strength can be upgraded to immortal-level rank-9 too. Furthermore, I have two pseudo-mythical-level monster card: evil spirit type and Regal Sword Killer. Despite not being able to use the Combat Strength Upgrade Card, they can fight in a team and see if they can kill white gold-rank monsters…"

There was actually a significant increase in Lin Huang's abilities as he leveled up to immortal-level. Nevertheless, he knew that there was still room for improvement.

Training the monster soul could allow him to own the combat soul. The training of the Seamless skill would enable him to create more telekinetic threads, expanding the region covered by his telekinesis. The training of his Sword Dao that had begun to plateau could be further improved. Also, the tremendous improvement in his combat strength unsealed many of the memories inherited…

As he thought of this, Lin Huang knew that he had a lot of things to do.

After returning from Kylie's mini world to the hotel room, it was already 10 p.m.

He felt strange as he could detect with his territory that Yi Zheng was not in the room.

"Did he go for supper?"

Lin Huang did not think too much about it since he had entered Kylie's mini world after they got back from the auction hall. Most likely, because he had seen that he was not in, Yi Zheng had gone out for supper on his own.

After taking a shower, Lin Huang began reading the news on the sofa.

After reading all the news and browsing through social media, it was about 11 p.m. but Yi Zheng had not come back yet.

Lin Huang began to worry about him. He thought for a while. Then, he opened the communication page and decided to call Yi Zheng.

Soon, the call was connected. However, after waiting for a long while, only a beeping could be heard. Until the sound ended after a minute, nobody picked up the call.

"What happened to him?" Lin Huang frowned.

After calming himself down, he texted him. "I called you just now but nobody picked up. Where are you? Please get back to me soon when you see this message."

After the message had been sent, one minute passed, then two minutes, three minutes… Nobody replied to him and Lin Huang panicked.

The Emperor's Heart Ring was different from the usual mobile phone on Earth. It was worn directly on the finger and would not be taken it off even when they were taking their shower. As long as they received a call or text message, it would vibrate. It was impossible that they could not sense it. Even if they were too busy to pick up the call, replying a voice message would only take them a few seconds. Yi Zheng had grown up in the military and he used to be really efficient at work. Normally, he would reply to text messages within seconds.

Since he did not reply Lin Huang after so long, it indicated that something had happened to him.

After making such a conclusion, Lin Huang immediately entered Yi Zheng's hotel room.

It was so clean and tidy inside the room and there were no traces of any scuffle or conflict. Lin Huang scanned the area with his Divine Telekinesis several times but he discovered nothing apart from the balcony door being open.

However, no evidence was found at the balcony.

"Yi Zheng normally closes the balcony door before going out and locks it." Standing at the balcony, Lin Huang checked if he had missed out on anything. "That guy must be strong. He managed to control Yi Zheng in an instant as soon as he entered from the balcony and kidnapped him. When did he get targeted by the kidnapper?"

Lin Huang frowned as he carefully recalled whether somebody had been following after them or spying on them. However, he discovered nothing.

"Regardless of who his target is, if somebody is following me, I'll be able to detect it with my territory. If the opponent is using a spiritual detection skill, I'll be able to detect it easily with my Divine Telekinesis. However, nothing has been detected in the past few days when Yi Zheng was with me."

Lin Huang could not understand it. He had no idea when they got targeted by the kidnapper or why would this happen.

Just as Lin Huang was in doubt, his Emperor's Heart Ring suddenly vibrated. A message came through.

He immediately tapped opened the communication page and unexpectedly, the sender was Yi Zheng.

"He replied?" Lin Huang was stunned. However, it was 20 minutes ago when he had sent the message to Yi Zheng. He did not expect him to reply at this moment. "Did I overthink?"

As he read the message, Lin Huang's pupils dilated.

"If you want to save him, come to Yangui Tower before midnight. Bring along all the auction items you bid from the auction hall and come here alone. If you don't bring all the items you have or you have someone following you, you have to bear the consequences."

"Someone has caught him!" Surprisingly, Lin Huang felt relieved after receiving the message.

Firstly, the person was using Yi Zheng's Emperor's Heart Ring to send him the message. That being said, Yi Zheng was still alive and it was good news.

Secondly, the reason why he kidnapped Yi Zheng was obvious. It was because of the auction items. Therefore, it was less likely that the person would kill Yi Zheng before the deal had been made.

Yi Zheng and Lin Huang had a total of five auction items. The four items that Yi Zheng bought were ancient relics. It was not worth doing so for those items. The only item Lin Huang got was the God's Figurine.

Lin Huang smirked as he understood everything that had happened and could roughly guess the identity of the kidnapper.

"He's coming after the God's Figurine! During the auction, the only person who bid for the God's Figurine was the member in VIP room No. 1 on the third floor. Most probably, he knows the truth about the God's Figurine and that's the reason why he's giving his all to get it. If I'm not mistaken, he's the kidnapper!"

Given Yi Zheng's abilities, if he got kidnapped without having the ability to fight back, it meant that the kidnapper was probably an imperial-level.

Had it happened last time, Lin Huang would have feared him.

However, he felt smug now and was excited to fight him. He hardly had the chance to fight an imperial-level.

Furthermore, he was just estimating his abilities based on theory. In order to know how powerful his abilities were, he had to engage in a real battle.

Since the opponent came to him first, Lin Huang was thrilled.

As for Yi Zheng who got kidnapped…"Hmm… Let's fight the kidnapper first," he thought to himself.

After making the decision, Lin Huang flew up to the sky from the balcony, transforming into a black meteor and headed towards the west of the city.

Guiyan Tower was an abandoned building site at the west of Wanbao City.

The buildings used to be part of a temple during ancient times. However, the temple had turned into a rubble of debris and broken bricks now. Only the lower half of the tower remained.

When the abandoned site was first discovered, the Union Government had sent people in to inspect the site. However, they only managed to dig out some of the books and bones of ordinary people. They then concluded that it was just an ordinary temple.

In the past hundred years, many people came to explore this place. However, nothing was discovered and the number of people who came here subsequently decreased.

In addition, it was too far from the center of Wanbao City. It was more than 2,000 kilometers away and it covered only a small area. Considering the extremely pathetic visitation rate of the ordinary tourists, the Union Government did not make it a tourist spot. Therefore, it was now an abandoned land.

Aside from visiting a few of the tourist spots, Lin Huang had not been to other places ever since he came to Wanbao City. Of course, he had not been to Guiyan Tower.

If the kidnapper had not mentioned it, he would have forgotten that there was such a site during the old era.

Activating his double acceleration, it took him about 20 minutes to arrive at the west of the city. He could see the abandoned site with a half-burnt tower and broken bricks all over from afar.

He could obviously sense that there were two figures on the first floor of the abandoned tower in the region covered by his territory.

A person was leaning against the wall while another stood, lifting his head and looking in his direction. Obviously, he had been discovered.

Lin Huang gradually landed on a hillside with broken bricks all over it. It was about 20 meters away from the abandoned tower and he could maintain a safe distance.

"I came as promised. Can you come out?" Lin Huang remained calm and both of them in the tower heard his voice clearly.

At the entrance of Yangui Tower, a pale, skinny man appeared along with Yi Zheng.

As the moonlight shone on him, Lin Huang could evidently see how the kidnapper looked like.

He looked so pale and ill. He was like the classic vampire described in most novels. He was about 1.8 meters tall and had a skinny and slender body. With very ordinary looks, he could hardly stand out from the crowd.

Without sensing the strength of his aura, Lin Huang would think that he was just an ordinary person.

"You're really an imperial-level. The first rank of an imperial-level – black gold-rank."

After sizing him up, Lin Huang had a rough estimate of his combat strength. He then shifted his gaze towards Yi Zheng.

Yi Zheng's Life Power had been emptied and must have been sealed by some sort of secret skill. However, it seemed like the kidnapper had not tortured him as he still looked fine. However, his face turned ghastly as he saw Lin Huang. "He's an imperial-level. You shouldn't have come."

"You didn't answer my call and reply to my text. What could I do?" Lin Huang smiled with his palms up. "If I don't do anything and you die here, I've no idea how to explain this to your sister."

"The conversation shall end here." The pale man pressed his hand against Yi Zheng's shoulder. Yi Zheng groaned and stopped talking.

"Give it to me and I'll let him go." The man lifted his head and looked at Lin Huang threateningly.

"What's that? You have to tell me clearly," Lin Huang challenged.

"Stop bullshitting me. You know that I want the God's Figurine!"

"Indeed, he knows what the God's Figurine is." Lin Huang's heart sank. However, nothing strange could be picked up from his facial expression. "I really have no idea what the God's Figurine is."

"You've no idea?! Why did you bid for it at the auction?" The man narrowed his eyes. "I've just scanned through his memory. Don't think that I don't know both of you were the members in VIP room No. 3 on the third floor. You're the one who bid for it."

"I bid for it? Oh… Are you talking about the wood carving?" Lin Huang looked like he was suddenly enlightened. "I just found out that it's called the God's Figurine. As an imperial-level, you kidnapped my friend because of the wood carving? It seems to be something valuable."

"Stop talking nonsense. Give it to me!" The man was impatient.

"If you give it to him, the both of us will die," Yi Zheng said calmly.

"I'm not allowing you to talk!" The man pressed against Yi Zheng's shoulder hard with his left hand and the sound of the bone being broken echoed. It was so painful that sweat dripped from Yi Zheng's forehead. He was startled and kept quiet.

"Don't fight first. I'm not saying that I won't give it to you," Lin Huang immediately said, "I can give it to you, but I have one condition. Let him go first."

"I'll let him go after you've given it to me," the man said without any facial expression.

"No, I can't do so. I don't trust you. My friend was right. You might probably kill us after getting what you want," Lin Huang insisted. "He's the brother to a female friend of mine. If he dies, his sister will definitely blame me. Even if I die, she'll hate me forever. Let him go and I'll stay. You know that the item is with me and not him. As long as he can leave here safely, I'll give it to you. If you want to break your promise, just kill me. As long as he's still alive, his sister won't blame me for not taking good care of him. She'll miss me every day because I sacrificed my life for his brother. Thinking of her long legs, it's worth dying for." Lin Huang acted like a drooling pervert.

"Lin Huang, you're thinking about dating my sister all the time!" Yi Zheng glared at Lin Huang. He was so angry and accidentally called out his real name.

"Do you think that I'm treating her like a friend?" Lin Huang raised his brows. "There's no pure friendship between a man and a lady. It's general knowledge that all adults should know."

"You…" Yi Zheng was too mad to the point that he could not say anything.

"Humans really are boring and low-class creatures…" The pale-faced man mumbled. He lifted his head and looked at Lin Huang again. "Alright, I promise you. However, I have another request. I want to have a look whether you've really brought what I want. I'll let him go immediately upon confirmation."

"Alright, keep your promise." Lin Huang grinned.

The man was staring at Lin Huang's hand movement. However, he was laughing on the inside. "Keep your promise? Such an innocent fella. If it weren't because I'm not sure whether you brought the God's Figurine along, I wouldn't have talked so much nonsense to you. After confirming that the item is with you, both of you must die! The only thing I need is the Emperor's Heart Ring."

Lin Huang extended his right arm with his palm facing up.

A palm-sized God's Figurine instantly appeared on his palm, floating a few centimeters off his palm.

"Can you see it now?" Seemingly, Lin Huang was not worried that he would snatch it away. He did not put it away after showing him the God's Figurine. "Can you let him go now?"

"That's great!" The pale man grinned. "Since you've brought it along, there's no use keeping both of you alive."

After finishing his sentence, the man gradually faded away from his original position and appeared right in front of Lin Huang without a trace. He penetrated through Lin Huang's chest as he struck a blow at him.

At that moment, his facial expression changed as Lin Huang's body distorted slightly and disappeared.

"Kylie, bring Yi Zheng away."

In front of Yi Zheng, two figures appeared abruptly. One of them was Lin Huang whereas the other one was Kylie.

Kylie grabbed Yi Zheng's arm and the both of them instantly disappeared.

Seeing Yi Zheng being brought to Kylie's mini world, Lin Huang grinned. He lifted his head, looking at the pale man with an insulting expression.

"An illusion? You did a great job." The man soon responded to him coldly.

"It's just a trick. Not worth mentioning though," Lin Huang said calmly as if fooling an imperial-level with his ocular skill was just a small matter.

"Why didn't you run away? Do you think that I won't kill you?" The man did not panic when Yi Zheng was evacuated.

"Make another guess." Lin Huang smiled.

The man squinted and glanced at Lin Huang for a while. "You look confident. It's either a big bluff or you have a trump card in hand which makes you think that you're capable of fighting me."

"You're smarter than I can imagine." Hearing the answer, Lin Huang smiled again. "However, I need to correct you. I'm not thinking that I'm capable of fighting you. Instead, I know that I have the ability to kill you."

"That's a funny joke. I don't feel like killing you now. If I were to make you my pet, you could tell me jokes when I'm bored…" The man tilted his head slightly, looking at Lin Huang. "Hmm… Let it be. It's too troublesome to have a pet. I shall just kill you to make a new leather bag."

"A leather bag?" Lin Huang could not understand his rationale. However, before he could ask further, Kylie walked out from her mini world.

"Your pet is back. I've been waiting for her." After uttering his words, an invisible wave spread out from his body, passing through Lin Huang and Kylie and spread further away.

Lin Huang could instantly feel that it was causing their surroundings to freeze. He took a glance at where Kylie was at and the same thing seemed to happen there.

"Is it a dimensional territory?" Lin Huang raised his brows, looking at the pale man.

"You've got 20/20 eyesight." He stared at Lin Huang and grinned. "To stop you from running away like what you did just now, I purposely waited for the return of your pet before sealing the dimension."

"Nothing is affected as the entrance is still open," Kylie contacted Lin Huang through her mind.

Lin Huang grinned. Even if Kylie had not told him about it, he knew that his effort of sealing the dimension would be rendered useless. Kylie's mini world was left on this land by someone who was at least on the Virtual God-level. Regardless of how powerful the imperial-level's territory was, it was impossible for it to affect it.

"Would you believe me if I tell you that I'm not going to run away?" Lin Huang spoke the truth with a smile.

"It doesn't matter whether if I trust you or not. You're going to regret what you said." The man's killing intent immediately grew. He was not going to secretly attack Lin Huang as he was going to kill him from the front, snatching his Emperor's Heart Ring away.

"Such a strong intent to kill. You're scary." Lin Huang sounded like he was teasing him. However, he was really careful. From the aura he released, Lin Huang could sense that he was not an opponent that was easy to deal with.

"Come out, Charcoal!"

Lin Huang then summoned Charcoal whose height had been reduced to only five meters tall.

A non-humanoid monster was needed to activate the Knight skill.

Seeing the appearance of Charcoal, the pale-faced man squinted. "A dragonkin?! And the concentration of its blood isn't low!"

Sensing Charcoal's blood purity, instead of being fearful, the man got more excited. He extended his tongue, licking his own lips. "I can't wait to taste the delicious monster!"

Although he was just mumbling to himself, Charcoal who had just been summoned could hear everything clearly. He immediately targeted the pale man, spitting black dragon flames towards him.

The black dragon flames gushed out like the tide, instantly enveloping the area where the man stood.

Right at this moment, Lin Huang's pupils dilated. He immediately grabbed Kylie's wrist and rode on Charcoal's back.

"Knight!"

"Integration!"

The two skills were unleashed simultaneously.

Kylie then transformed into a beam of black light and penetrated through Lin Huang's chest. Lin Huang's combat strength then began to advance.

Immortal-level rank-1!

Immortal-level rank-2!

Immortal-level rank-3!

…

Immortal-level rank-9!

Charcoal received a similar upgrade in its combat strength.

The entire process sounded long but it actually happened within seconds.

After the upgrade in combat strength, a figure appeared on top of Lin Huang. Impressively, it was the pale man who was shrouded in the dragon flames earlier.

"That's your trump card!?"

He then struck a blow from the sky. A black, gigantic claw that was formed by his Life Power went after Lin Huang and Charcoal. The gigantic claw could be compared to the size of about four basketball courts. Lin Huang and Charcoal had nowhere to flee.

Seeing the gigantic claw on top of him, Charcoal's bloody eyes flashed with a trace of fury. Just as it was about to spit its dragon flames, on its back, Lin Huang swiftly dashed his sword forward.

A black glow that resembled a crescent moon streaked across the sky, crashing into the black, gigantic claw in an instant.

In the next second, the huge claw was sliced into half like tofu, revealing a smooth surface.

After slicing through the gigantic claw, the glow of the sword that was akin to a crescent moon did not collapse. Instead, it went towards the pale man who was in the sky immediately.

Witnessing what had just happened, a flicker of fear flashed through his eyes. For the first time, he had a serious expression on his face.

The glow of the sword arrived right in front of him in an instant.

Just as the sword was about to strike him, he grabbed the blade of the sword. Exerting force on the black glow with five of his fingers, the black glow collapsed into pieces like broken glass.

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Although he managed to dodge Lin Huang's attack without getting injured, he did not look fine. He had to admit that the young man in front of him was really capable of fighting him.

He was not being naïve or swashbuckling.

Mid-air, Lin Huang was standing on Charcoal's back.

It was his first time combining the two skills: the Knight skill and the Integration skill. He was quite satisfied with the effect.

Charcoal was on immortal-level rank-5 and the combat strength of the two skills could only be upgraded three levels higher. However, there were some uncertainties about the advancement of the combat strength as it could increase anywhere from one to three levels higher. However, Lin Huang combined the two skills and his combat strength was four levels higher. He managed to reach his pinnacle – immortal-level rank-9.

It was his first time fighting an imperial-level with the combat strength he currently possessed.

Lin Huang could confirm that the estimation he made for his ability was correct in just one blow.

The pale man who was on black gold-rank was pinned down by him.

Despite the fact that it was also his first time engaging in a fight while standing on Charcoal's back, the both of them could communicate really well with the help of the Knight skill. Lin Huang felt that Charcoal was an extension of his body. Apart from being able to instantly express what he wanted to Charcoal without saying anything, he could even see how the world looked like from Charcoal's point of view.

It was unbelievable that the combination of the Integration and Knight skills could result in such an effect.

After combining with Kylie, not only did she share her abilities and skills with Lin Huang, but she also shared them with Charcoal too.

Aside from possessing Kylie's speed and agility, Charcoal had perfectly inherited all the skills she owned as well.

Lin Huang felt that he had never been so powerful before.

However, the pale man did not have a good time there.

He was familiar with Lin Huang's identity as an Imperial Censor and could tell that Lin Huang might have had a provisional upgrade in his combat strength. He knew this clearly because he had seen Yi Zheng's memory before.

However, he did not expect Lin Huang to be able to level up from immortal-level rank-1 to rank-9. It was unbelievable that Lin Huang, who was on immortal-level rank-9, was capable of fighting him and even possessed the ability to suppress him.

He had underestimated him previously as he used to think that he could pin him down easily. However, he now had to go through a big obstacle getting the God's Figurine.

"I've underestimated you," the pale man admitted unwillingly. He then glanced at Lin Huang vengefully. "You're hiding your skills well!"

"I didn't. It's just that you've underestimated me. " Lin Huang laughed. "Everybody thinks that an immortal-level rank-1 is just an ant to the imperial-level and that they can be easily defeated. However, they never knew that ants could kill too."

"Regardless of how powerful your combat strength is, your time is limited. After that period of time that you receive an upgrade in your combat strength, I can still do whatever I want to you." Despite the fact that Lin Huang's ability had surprised him and he was in disbelief about it, the sallow man still had good control over the battle as he was not blinded by fear. "Regardless of what upgrade you've experienced in your combat strength, you're just an immortal-level rank-1. That's my greatest advantage."

After finishing his words, a monster soon formed in front of the man. Soon, there were seven monsters and each of them was on imperial-level.

Seeing what just happened, Lin Huang frowned.

His opponent was not an Imperial Censor and the monsters that appeared were not summoning monsters. Instead, they were combat souls.

Their combat strength had been upgraded from immortal-level rank-9 to imperial-level. Of course, they would have nine combat souls.

After getting to imperial-level from immortal-level, the combat souls would transform as the souls were strengthened, leveling up to imperial-level. The combat souls would again be the greatest assistance to the imperial-level.

The pale man had excellent control over them, the reason being regardless of how many ranks higher Lin Huang's combat strength could reach, he was just an immortal-level rank-1. He would only have one combat soul.

Seven imperial-level combat souls were summoned and there were two more that had not been summoned yet. Lin Huang could not confirm if the two remaining combat souls were the strongest ones or if they had been destroyed and could no longer be summoned.

However, it was difficult for him to kill the seven combat soul monsters.

Among the seven combat souls, two of them had gone through their third mutation. There were also two undying species that could hardly be killed.

Seven of them had appeared at the same time. Even Lin Huang felt that it was difficult to defeat them.

Lin Huang would, of course, had a higher number of summoning monsters. After getting into immortal-level, his summoning authority had been activated. The number of summoning monsters he was allowed to summon increased from 10 to 15.

However, most of his summoning monsters were on immortal-level rank-5. They could not join the fight.

A thought suddenly ran through Lin Huang's mind and he decided not to summon Bai and the rest.

"Charcoal!" Lin Huang shouted and soon, Charcoal received Lin Huang's instruction in detail in his mind. Flapping its wings, its huge body then strangely disappeared from its original position.

In the next moment, a human and a monster then appeared on top of the monsters.

"Dragon flames!"

At almost the same time, Charcoal and Lin Huang opened their mouths wide. Dragon flames then spewed out of their mouths.

The two flames did not repel each other. Instead, they grew stronger rapidly, gushing towards the seven combat souls and the pale man.

Black flames then engulfed the eight of them like a tsunami, spanning tens of kilometers from where they were and turning the entire region into a black ocean.

Unexpectedly, the force that resulted from Charcoal and his dragon flames did not just double. Instead, it went far beyond that. Its damage and power had multiplied many times. Although the effect might not be as powerful as what Charcoal could achieve when it officially leveled up to imperial-level, the effect was similar.

"It's less likely that they can get rid of our attack as the range of attack is very wide. Most probably, they'll be forced to fight back. If that happens, even if we can't kill the seven combat souls, they'll be severely injured," Lin Huang thought to himself.

This was also the reason why he had activated this skill. He wanted to reduce the number of enemies that could threaten him.

It would be terribly disastrous to be besieged by seven imperial-levels. Despite the fact that they were merely combat souls with no real bodies, their abilities were not much weaker than those with physical bodies. He would feel more relieved even if only one of the combat souls got injured.

The spitting of dragon flames lasted for several minutes. Lin Huang and Charcoal had no means of stopping.

Under normal circumstances, as a dragonkin, Charcoal would not spit dragon flames in such a way. The spitting of dragon flames lasted for just a couple of seconds each time, the longest one lasting for only about 20 seconds. It never lasted longer than half a minute.

It was because the use of dragon flames depleted a large portion of its Life Power. The Life Power in its Life Wheel drained drastically every second like a tidal wave.

It was very important for a dragonkin to rationally distribute the use of its Life Power.

If the time it took to spit dragon flames got too long, its Life Power would be exhausted and it would become a drawback. If the dragon flames were unable to kill its enemy, it would be killed by its opponent.

However, it was not a problem to Lin Huang as he possessed Divine Fire in his body. Compared to the rest of the people, the speed at which his Life Power could be restored was like the difference between a nuclear power plant and a hydraulic power plant. After possessing the Divine Fire, the Life Power in his body was inexhaustible. He could constantly channel it to Charcoal.

Spitting dragon flames for a month would not be a problem to him, let alone a few minutes. Of course, their jaws would feel tired if they were to spit dragon flames for a month.

Charcoal got to enjoy the satisfaction of spitting dragon flames for the first time after getting a constant supply of Life Power from Lin Huang. Nobody could imagine its delight of spitting dragon flames.

Its brutish nature and its desire to destroy things could finally be satisfied. It was like a Husky, which had been kept indoors for a long period of time, happily tearing apart a leather sofa that cost tens of thousands of Life Crystals, three pairs of Armani jeans, a Louis Vuitton bag, and an iPad…

10 seconds…

20 seconds…

30 seconds…

The pale man was secretly counting the time Charcoal took to spit the dragon flames. As time passed, his face turned ghastly.

When Lin Huang and Charcoal spat the dragon flames, he thought of sacrificing two combat souls to interrupt the spitting of the flames. The area covered by the dragon flames was too vast and it was unavoidable. There were only two ways to deal with such an attack. They had to either interrupt it or dodge it.

However, he knew that the time for a dragonkin to spit dragon flames would be limited. He only needed to bear it for about 20 seconds as it would drain a huge portion of its Life Power. The depletion of its Life Power had far exceeded the Life Power consumed by his defensive skill. It would be beneficial to him if a large amount of its Life Power became exhausted.

Therefore, he chose to fight against them.

However, half a minute had passed and the flames did not weaken.

He could clearly sense that apart from the two triple mutated combat souls, there were some problems with the defense layer of the five combat souls. "Hold on a little longer. Their Life Power won't last that long."

He had miscalculated. One whole minute had passed and the dragon flames were still as powerful as ever.

He began to panic.

The defense layer of the five double mutated combat souls was shaking and could collapse at any time. Despite the demigod-level armor which he was wearing completely isolating him from the dragon flames, he was pressured as the armor was constantly exhausting his Life Power.

"It's lasted for a minute…" The sallow man then looked at the combat souls in front of him. Only the two triple mutated combat souls could still bear the dragon flames and were moving against them. The closer they were to the origin of the dragon flames, the higher the damages and the temperature. The combat soul might become destroyed if they were to go against the dragon flames. As he thought of this, the man ground his teeth and decided to bear it. "According to the consumption of Life Power of the dragon flames, I don't think it can still last any longer!"

One minute and 10 seconds…

One minute and 15 seconds…

One minute and 20 seconds…

He continued calculating the time. Every second was a torment to him.

After one minute and 23 seconds, the defense layer of the first combat soul had collapsed. The Life Power of the combat soul was being depleted, turning into ashes in less than two seconds after being burnt by the dragon flames.

After one minute and 26 seconds, the defense layer of the second combat soul collapsed as well…

After one minute and 32 seconds, the third combat soul was destroyed.

After one minute and 36 seconds, the fourth…

After one minute and 42 seconds, the fifth…

As for the two undying species, after their Life Power was drained, there was no way of reviving them and they were burnt to ashes as well.

The defense layer of the two remaining triple mutated combat souls began to collapse…

A third of the Life Power of the pale man remained.

He had made many mistakes in this battle and suffered great losses.

The spitting of dragon flames had lasted for more than one minute and 40 seconds. Still, the flames did not weaken to his utter shock. He could not understand why the dragon flames were now stronger than what he had seen coming from Lin Huang's mouth earlier.

At that moment, he felt regret instead of shock.

He regretted not interrupting the spitting of dragon flames. He regretted choosing to fight Lin Huang in terms of Life Power consumption. If he had made the right decision, there would still have been losses, but not to such an extent.

Seeing the two triple mutated combat souls about to collapse, he had a steely determination in his eyes. Two palm-sized statues suddenly appeared in his hand.

Mumbling, he looked at the two statues in his hand. "God Master, I've ruined your treasure. I'll offer my apology with death when I return."

After finishing his words, he pressed the two statues against his chest.

In a short while, two figures appeared in front of him.

They were two mutated monsters. Their aura barely managed to cover the aura of the two triple mutated monster souls.

One of them looked like a cat but had a wry skeleton-like face. It had sharp teeth that looked like steel nails. Its body was long and it looked like a magnified cheetah with stripes all over its body.

The second one was a snake-headed monster and its lower body looked like a hoofed mammal. However, it had metallic scales all over its body and four extremely huge hooves that could be compared to a basin. Most of the monsters feared being trampled on by the hooves.

Lin Huang had no idea what the name of the two mutated monsters was. They were standing in the middle of the ocean of dragon flames without any defenses. Seemingly, they were completely fine in the ocean of flames.

"Stop the spitting of the dragon flames!" After receiving the instruction from the pale man, the two mutated monsters then looked into the sky. Soon, they could locate where Lin Huang and Charcoal were.

The two figures then blasted off into the sky, heading towards the dragon flames.

The black dragon flames that possessed terrifying destructive power and extremely high temperature surged towards the two mutated monsters. However, it did no harm to their bodies as if they were completely immune to the dragon flames.

Of course, Lin Huang and Charcoal realized this. The dragon flames were like a huge territory to them and they could sense whatever that happened within it easily.

Lin Huang could clearly see the pale man take the two statues out.

"How is it possible for him to have two God's Figurines?!"

Lin Huang's face turned grim as he saw the man pressing the two God's Figurines against his chest. In fact, it was within his expectations when he integrated the God's Figurine with his combat soul, summoning two combat souls with the figurine.

The tablet had told Lin Huang about the characteristics of the God's Figurine.

Although the combat strength of the combat soul would not increase after the integration of the God's Figurine with his combat soul, the combat soul would obtain a god-level body. It would be impossible for any force below god-level to leave any trace on its body, let alone destroy it. The physical defense of such a combat soul could be completely immune to forces below god-level.

This was also the reason why the two combat souls could resist the dragon flames without the use of any Life Power. They could easily go against the dragon flames.

The two mutated monsters gushed out of the dragon flames and pounced towards Charcoal and Lin Huang. The second Lin Huang saw that, he immediately took out his sword. His attack transformed into a crescent moon-shaped black glow and struck the two mutated monsters.

The two mutated monsters howled, but they did not dodge the sword attack and went after it.

Just as they collided with the sword, the glow of the sword that was capable of fighting a black gold-rank collapsed.

The two mutated monsters dove towards them without any obstacles.

Lin Huang's Life Power immediately sheathed the blade of the sword and it turned completely black. Lin Huang leaped down from Charcoal's back and headed for the two mutated monsters.

Bang!

A loud thud was heard just as the blade crashed with the claws of the mutated monsters. The impact stirred the atmosphere.

Lin Huang could feel that there was a force flowing through the blade of the combat sword. The aftershock of the force had far exceeded all the forces he had ever encountered in his life. His combat sword almost detached from his hand when they crashed into each other. The blade shrouded by his Life Power immediately collapsed and the cracking of bones could be vaguely heard coming from his arms.

The next moment, Lin Huang's body flew away and landed on the ground very far away.

Of course, the two mutated monsters were not completely fine. Although their bodies were strong and nobody could break through their defenses, they were not completely immune to the impact that resulted from Lin Huang's sword. They flew away as well and two huge pits were formed on the ground.

Charcoal immediately stopped spitting dragon flames. It flapped its wings and soon, it appeared on top of Lin Huang. Worriedly, it gazed down at the ground where a pit was formed.

"I'm fine."

Thanks to his Divine Regeneration, Lin Huang's broken arms were recovered in the blink of an eye. His injuries resulting from the aftershock were almost recovered as well.

He then got onto Charcoal's back.

The pale man returned to the sky as well after getting rid of the dragon flames. He then recalled the two triple mutated combat souls back into his body. Although they had not collapsed, their Life Power was almost depleted and they could no longer fight.

Apparently, Lin Huang had won the fight as he managed to deal with seven combat souls with just one skill.

Seeing the two monsters that got out of the pits without any injuries and appeared right in front of the man in a flash, Lin Huang felt a headache coming on.

The greatest advantage of the God's Figurine was that it had an unbeatable body. As long as the opponent's damage was unable to destroy the God's Figurine body (or the protoss' body), it would be immune to all kinds of injuries. The protoss was at least on the True God-level. One could imagine how strong its body was.

Nobody in the gravel world could destroy a God's Figurine combat soul, let alone Lin Huang.

Fortunately, only the physical body of the God's Figurine combat soul could be strengthened, but its combat strength would still depend on that of the combat soul. The combat strength of the two combat souls was only on the first rank of imperial-level: black gold-rank. They were not invincible.

The problem was how could he get rid of the two God's Figurine combat souls.

The pale man was happy on the inside.

He clearly saw that Lin Huang was injured as he fought the God's Figurine combat soul.

"The dragon flames no longer work and you can no longer engage in close combat. I'd like to see what you can still do!" The pale-faced man dominated the two God's Figurine combat souls and again, he pounced towards Lin Huang.

However, Lin Huang had learned from the first lesson. He did not use any sword skill to deal with the two God's Figurine combat souls anymore. Instead, he activated his Dark Mirror.

The defense power of the Dark Mirror was 10 times mightier than Lin Huang's strongest attack. Moreover, it possessed a 100% reflection effect. The attack power of the two God's Figurine combat souls would not exceed the Dark Mirror's maximum defensive power. Therefore, regardless of what kind of attack they were going to launch, their attacks would be reflected by the mirror.

Although Lin Huang would be affected by the aftershock, it was much better compared to the aftershock he faced from the front. The consumption of his Life Power was relatively lower as well.

Noticing that the attacks launched by the God's Figurine combat souls in mid-air were rendered useless, the pale man's face turned grave. Soon, he noticed that even he himself and the God's Figurine combat souls would be unable to break through Lin Huang's defensive skill.

He stared at Lin Huang for a moment and soon, he shifted his gaze from Lin Huang to Charcoal.

"In order to control Lin Xie, the both of you must first kill the dragonkin!"

Sensing that he was unable to break through Lin Huang's defense, the pale-faced man decided to attack Charcoal.

"I don't think that your defense skills can protect the dragonkin!"

After receiving new instructions from the pale-faced man, the two God's Figurine combat souls soon changed their target and gave up fighting Lin Huang. Charcoal was now their hunting target.

The pale man then pounced towards Lin Huang.

He knew very well that the ability of his close combat was incomparable to that of Lin Huang. However, as long as he was not going to fight him face to face, it should not be a problem to gain a little control over him.

Watching the man who was advancing towards him, Lin Huang laughed. "You choose to come to me by yourself."

Just as Lin Huang wondered how he could approach the while being bugged by the two God's Figurine combat souls, he did not expect the man to come to him by himself.

Catching a glimpse of the direction where the two God's Figurine combat souls were heading, Lin Huang instantly knew his intentions and he grinned.

The pale man went right in front of Lin Huang at lightning-fast speed. He opened his hands wide and his sharp claws were about to seize Lin Huang's head.

The hellish claws gathered by his black Life Power then grabbed Lin Huang's head with a deadly aura.

Lin Huang picked up his sword and his black Life Power immediately enveloped the entire blade of the sword. A black beam with a crescent moon-like glow then instantly gushed out of the blade of the sword, streaking across the sky!

The crescent moon-like glow then ripped the sky apart, instantly colliding with the claws mid-air.

Just as they crashed into each other, the terrifying claws were ripped apart. It was akin to a paper that was rent into half in a split second. It then collapsed, turning into black ashes, and faded away.

The wan man did not dodge. A flash of fury flashed through his eyes and he struck several blows with his claws. He completely ignored Lin Huang's sword attack.

On the other hand, the two God's Figurine combat souls launched an attack towards Charcoal.

The snake-headed monster pounced towards Charcoal, raised its hooves up high and was about to stomp hard on Charcoal's head.

The wry-faced monster was agile as it quietly went next to Charcoal. It lowered its body, extending its sharp claws and aimed for Charcoal's abdomen.

Charcoal's eyes flashed with mockery.

Just as the monsters' attacks were about to strike it, two Dark Mirrors were instantly formed.

The two God's Figurine combat souls were stunned when they saw the Dark Mirrors. However, it was too late for them to stop their attacks.

The snake-headed monster stomped hard with its hooves and it struck the mirror. An immense force reflected and struck its hooves, sending it flying away

The wry-faced monster encountered the same thing as well. As it stealthily attacked Charcoal with its sharp claws, its attack was reflected by the mirror and it sailed away.

Not far away, the pale man who was engaged in a fierce fight with Lin Huang could sense the situation of the battle on the God's Figurine combat souls' side. His face turned grave.

In order to control Lin Huang, he had put on demigod-level combat armor to battle him. He did not defend against his attack and was continuously attacking Lin Huang. However, Lin Huang still barely managed to pin him down.

He did not expect that the control he had over Lin Huang could do nothing to him. He initially wanted to make use of the two God's Figurine combat souls to get rid of the dragonkin. However, the dragonkin had similar defensive skills to what Lin Xie possessed, so the two God's Figurine combat souls could do no harm to it.

After the failed attempt, it was meaningless to fight Lin Huang any longer. The sallow man stomped in an attempt to get away from the fight.

"Trying to run away? It's too late!" Lin Huang smirked.

The next moment, the man felt that there was a force dragging his ankles down. He saw nothing as he looked downwards. After several moments, his facial expression changed drastically.

"Telekinesis?!"

Although he could not see it, he could feel that both of his ankles were being tangled by at least tens of threads. He then detected the terrifying scene with his spiritual strength.

Aside from his ankles, his wrists, neck, knees, elbows, and other joints were entangled by countless telekinetic threads. There were more than thousands of them.

If Lin Xie wanted to do so, he could turn the pale man into his puppet.

The man's back was drenched in sweat as he had not realized that at all.

"Did you just understand the situation you're in?" Lin Huang smiled calmly.

"With my demigod-level combat armor, even if you're able to control me, you can't kill me. There's a time limit for the advancement in your combat strength. As long as the upgrade in your combat strength ends, I'll still be the winner!" The man still did not think that Lin Huang was capable of killing him.

"It's true that I can't break through the defense of a demigod relic. What if the Life Power in your body is depleted?" Daggers gushed out from his sleeve like swimming fishes. They were all arranged in a row in front of him, totaling to about 7,000 daggers.

Witnessing what just happened, the pale man was upset.

He knew very well that his Life Power would be consumed in order to maintain the defensive power of a demigod relic. The consumption of Life Power would increase each time when he was being attacked. Once his Life Power was drained, the demigod relic would return back into his body as it no longer had any energy supply. His body would need to endure all of Lin Huang's attack by then. Without any Life Power to protect himself against those attacks, he was as weak as tofu when he was attacked by a sword that carried imperial-level power.

There were three ways to kill the God's Figurine combat soul.

The first way was to kill the God's Figurine. However, only a True God could do so.

The second way was to kill the monster soul inside the God's Figurine. However, the strength requirement to kill the combat soul was extremely high. Since the pale man's combat soul was on black gold-rank, only a combat soul that was at least two ranks higher, which was yellow gold-rank, would be capable of killing it.

As for the third way, it was to exhaust the Life Power of the God's Figurine.

This method was very time-consuming. Since the God's Figurine defense was exceptionally strong, it could sustain the attacks with its body and its Life Power would not be consumed at all. Therefore, in order to deplete the God's Figurine Life Power, the only way was to let the God's Figurine attack continuously so that their Life Power would be constantly used during the fight.

Another way was to kill the owner of the God's Figurine in the combat soul.

As long as the owner of the God's Figurine in the combat soul died, the combat soul inside the God's Figurine would collapse. Consequently, the God's Figurine would return to its initial form which was a palm-sized statue.

Lin Huang was unable to execute the first two methods. The third method was way too time-consuming. Therefore, he chose the fourth method.

Lin Huang was still thinking how to get rid of the two God's Figurine combat souls and approach the pale man. He did not expect him to instruct the two God's Figurine combat souls to surround Charcoal and come to Lin Huang by himself.

It was a fantastic chance and, of course, Lin Huang would not miss it.

The two God's Figurine combat souls would certainly fail to kill Charcoal. To avoid the pale man from running away after the failed attempt, he secretly set up everything with his telekinetic threads, so the man did not discover anything.

This explained everything that had happened up till now.

The man's limbs and neck got entangled by thousands of telekinetic threads. He was now being strung up in mid-air like an insect trapped in a spider web. He could not break free from it at all.

"I don't know where you're from and I don't need to know either." Lin Huang stared at the man coldly. "It's because there'll only be one type of person who'll hurt me and the people around me, which are the dead."

After finishing his words, Lin Huang pointed in the direction where the pale man was.

The telekinetic daggers then sped towards the pale man, resembling piranhas that were attracted by the smell of blood.

The man became a live target as he was entangled by the telekinetic threads.

The daggers struck the pale man like swimming fishes and the sound of colliding metal could be heard. The sound could be heard so frequently as if it was a torrential downpour.

As he was protected by the demigod relic, he did not sustain any injuries. Still, he looked upset because he could clearly sense that the Life Power in his body was gushing out uncontrollably in an attempt to restore the Life Power of the demigod relic.

"I can't let this continue. It can last for five minutes at the most and my Life Power will be drained." He immediately contacted the two God's Figurine combat souls, issuing a new instruction.

The two God's Figurines got out of the deep pit, appearing right in front of the man in a flash.

One of them surrounded its sharp claws with Life Power, striving to tear the telekinetic threads apart. Another one stood right in front of the man, blocking all the attacks.

"You're really naïve." Lin Huang was amused.

He moved his fingers slightly and the telekinetic threads then headed out for the wry-faced monster. It immediately dodged the threads and was unable to assist the man.

Again, Lin Huang snapped his fingers.

The trajectory path of the telekinetic daggers began to change. They avoided the snake-headed monster that was blocking the front of the man and continued attacking him without any obstacles.

The man's plan had failed again. He was furious.

"Don't worry about me. Activate ranged attack and destroy all the telekinetic daggers!"

After receiving a new instruction, the two God's Figurine combat souls did as they were told.

The snake-headed monster lifted its hooves up and stomped hard on the telekinetic daggers surrounding it. The wry-faced monster extended its sharp claws as well, attempting to destroy the telekinetic daggers.

"Although it's stupid, it's still acceptable." Lin Huang guffawed when he saw that. He had a plan in store.

After patting Charcoal's head, Lin Huang and Charcoal opened their mouths at almost the same time. Black dragon flames rushed out of their mouths again, enveloping the entire area where the wan man was.

Although the spitting of dragon flames looked the same as the last time, in fact, Lin Huang and Charcoal had hidden a spiritual attack within the flames. They wanted to avoid affecting the impact of the telekinetic threads and the telekinetic daggers.

They did not intend to attack with the spitting of dragon flames. Instead, they wanted to create an environment that was beneficial to them.

Of course, this sped up the consumption of the pale man's Life Power as well.

Seeing the arrival of the dragon flames from mid-air, the man had an urge to criticize and curse out loud.

The next moment, everything in front of him turned dark. He could not even see the two God's Figurine combat souls.

He could sense that they were not far away from him.

Still, the two God's Figurine combat souls who were drowned in flames stood there without any defenses.

Aside from the black flames, both of them could not see anything. They were unable to attack the telekinetic weapons now.

The black daggers moved freely in the flames. It was hard to even trace these black daggers as they were covered by the dragon flames.

However, the coverage of the dragon flames was akin to a huge territory whereby he could sense everything that happened inside. The same went for the pale man's position. The daggers managed to accurately strike his body each time.

In addition to the burning effect of the dragon flames, the consumption of Life Power in the body of the pale man did not slow down; it sped up instead.

The energy reaction of the dragon flames had far exceeded the telekinetic power. Although they were very close to each other, as long as it was not visible to the naked eye, the two God's Figurine combat souls would be unable to sense the existence of the telekinetic daggers. They seemed completely blind.

They could occasionally sense the position of the daggers that were slightly nearer to them. However, before they could react, the daggers had disappeared into the dragon flames.

Sensing the condition of the two God's Figurine combat souls, the pale man had to admit that he was doomed.

"Lin Xie, I admit defeat now. Please let me go and I promise that I'll not get you into trouble in the future."

"Admit defeat?" Lin Huang raised his brows when he heard that. "Do you think that you're playing a game now whereby you can replay after you've lost the game?"

"What do you want? Are you asking for compensation?" The pale man looked in the direction where Lin Huang was through the dragon flames. "Make me an offer."

"It seems like you have a bad memory." It was obvious that Lin Huang was not going to let him go. "I've made everything clear just now. Only the dead will attack me and the people around me! You kidnapped Yi Zheng and even attempted to kill me in order to snatch away the God's Figurine. It's enough for you to die twice!"

"Are you sure you want every one of us to die?" The man's tone became calm. In fact, he could not see Lin Huang, but could roughly tell where Lin Huang was, shifting his gaze towards him.

"Just use whatever skills you have since you don't have much time left." Lin Huang was not worried that the man could threaten him. "If I'm not mistaken, you have one minute left and your Life Power will be completely drained. You won't have any chance by then."

"I'll do as you wish then. I hope that you won't regret it later!"

After finishing his words, the man's Life Power that was depleting was restored abruptly.

Lin Huang could even feel that there was a breakthrough in the pale man's combat strength. His aura grew stronger and stronger.

Just as his aura reached the pinnacle of black gold-rank, it lasted for about three seconds and again, he made a breakthrough in his combat strength, leveling up to crimson gold-rank! His aura continued to grow and it had no means to stop.

Lin Huang was stunned as he sensed the changes. He felt even more surprised by what he had just seen.

A claw that looked like a sharp blade extended from the head of the pale man. Looking from the top, it seemed like a sharp claw had penetrated through his head. The blood stains could still be seen clearly.

As the claw penetrated through the man's head, it moved down slightly, resembling a paper cutter cutting a piece of paper.

Lin Huang frowned when he saw this.

The sharp claw continued to move downwards and blood spurted wherever it passed. The claw stopped cutting when it reached his abdomen, retracting back into the man's body.

After a moment of silence, the squishing of the flesh could be heard. Blood began to ooze out from the man's wound. The shape of his body began to change as if there was something struggling in his body. He looked like he was in so much pain as he let out some weird sounds that no normal human being could.

Lin Huang's eyes were wide open as he fixed his gaze on the tremendously terrifying scene.

The man's wound was being stretched open by an invisible force and there was blood all over his body. A ferocious monster then gradually crawled out of the wound on his body. The man had died, turning into bloody flesh as if he had lost his skeleton.

As the moonlight shone on it, Lin Huang could clearly see the monster's features.

It was a humanoid monster that was more than three meters tall. There were blood stains all over its body. It had four limbs like a human and could stand straight on both of his legs.

However, unlike humans, it had no skin. It also had no scales or feathers like the rest of the animals. It looked like a human specimen with its skin ripped off. There were countless disgusting pustules on its body.

It had a peculiar head. There were no human organs and the only organ it had was a ferocious mouth that occupied almost half of its face. Steely fangs crowded in its mouth. If one were to describe it, it was like an egg with a wide mouth and pustules all over it.

Lin Huang had seen many ugly monsters in the monster guide. However, this was the ugliest one he had ever seen.

"It has no winky for real. It's too ugly to be loved," Lin Huang thought to himself. Soon, his facial expression became serious.

The moment it got out of the pale man's body, its combat strength had increased three ranks higher to yellow gold-rank.

Regardless of how it looked, it was undoubtedly strong.

After sizing it up, Lin Huang's face suddenly turned solemn. His change in mood was not because of its combat strength but because of the disgusting yet devilish aura it exuded from its body. Lin Huang hated it as soon as he sensed the aura just like how an ordinary person would detest seeing a cockroach. However, his hatred was hundreds of times stronger.

"An abyssal monster…" Lin Huang knew where the monster came from the moment he sensed its aura.

It was not his first time fighting an abyssal monster. He had the same feeling each time, but it was rather obvious this time.

The dragon flames on the ground had stopped burning.

The skinless monster staggered before it managed to balance itself.

At that moment, a beam of dazzling red light struck from the sky and the position of the skinless monster was the center point. The area with a circumference that spanned hundreds of meters was enveloped by the red light. At the same time, a red warning page popped up on Lin Huang's Emperor's Heart Ring and a short buzzing sound like an alarm was heard.

"Warning! It's suspected that an imperial-level monster has invaded foothold No. 3A5!

"Preliminary inspection shows that it's an abyssal monster of yellow gold-rank!

"Target has been identified. Please head over to this location and kill it!"

It was a message sent by the defense system of the Grade-A foothold. The defense system would inspect all the safe zones every minute. If it happened to sense any unusual aura from monsters, they would immediately mark down its coordinates and send a warning message to those who had authority over it.

The skinless monster was on imperial-level. Therefore, only imperial-level would receive this message.

Coincidently, Lin Huang's Emperor's Heart Ring was granted this authority as well.

He had heard about such a defense system at the Grade-A foothold earlier in Division 7. However, it was his first time encountering the activation of the defense system.

All the imperial-level in Wanbao City received the warning message at almost the same time.

"Is this a loophole in the defense system of the Grade-A foothold? Or is there any new monster type that managed to get rid of the detection of the defense system? If it's the latter, I'll have new research material."

"Is there a monster invasion? I'm bored. I can now get into the fight and get some materials! Eh, it's on yellow gold-rank. It seems like I can't fight it…"

"It's at the west of the city and it's too far away from me. If I were to go from the east, it's about 1,800 kilometers away. Why doesn't it come to the east of the city? There are so many beautiful ladies here…"

"I can make soup with the yellow gold-rank monster. I hope it's not a humanoid monster or an extremely ugly monster. Now, that'll spoil my appetite."

…

Many imperial-level then headed towards the west of the city.

There were very few people there and it was an abandoned plot of land. In fact, nobody was willing to save the coordinates of any location near this place since they could not be transported and had to fly over there.

"Warning! You're reaching your target. You're 237 meters away from the monster. Please get ready!"

The message suddenly popped up on Lin Huang's Emperor's Heart Ring. He then turned off the notification, lowering his head to look at the skinless monster which aura had reached its peak.

The skinless monster gradually raised his head, taking aim at Lin Huang in mid-air with its head that had no eyes. It slowly opened its ferocious mouth wide and said in the voice that sounded exactly the same as the pale man's, "It's so difficult for me to get into the human foothold. I've been particularly careful over the past few months as I was afraid that my identity will be discovered. I even managed to get into the Grade-A foothold a few days ago. I never expected that I'd bump into you…"

Lin Huang was speechless. Before the skinless monster revealed itself, he really had no idea that it was a monster. He thought that it was the top management from the underworld.

"If you had listened to me just now and let me go, perhaps you could still survive for a short period of time. However, since my identity has been exposed, I don't need to hide my true abilities any longer. It's time to deal with you…"

"Eh, are you sure that you're going to waste your time on me?" Lin Huang pointed at the beam of red light that emerged from the sky. "The defense system of the foothold has been activated. All the imperial-level in Wanbao City are rushing over here. If you were to stay here for another minute, perhaps you'll be besieged by a few of them."

"I'm not worried about them. I don't even need a minute to kill you." After uttering those words, the skinless monster then disappeared from its original position.

The next moment, Lin Huang could detect that the skinless monster that was within his territory appeared right in front of him. He was unable to pull out his sword in time as the monster's sharp claws were about to strike the left of his chest.

Lin Huang had no choice but to create a Dark Mirror, blocking the attack right in front of him.

At almost the same time when the Dark Mirror was created, the ghost-like claws then hit the surface of the Dark Mirror.

Just as they collided with each other, a crack was instantly formed on the surface of the Dark Mirror that used to be unbreakable. It was like a tempered glass being struck by a heavy object. There were white cracks that were visible to the naked eye all over it. However, the cracks lasted for less than a second and eventually, the Dark Mirror collapsed, turning into broken shards.

Lin Huang's eyes dilated as it was his first time witnessing the Dark Mirror being destroyed in one hit.

After the Dark Mirror was broken, the remaining force struck Lin Huang. In the next second, his body flew away from Charcoal's back like a meteorite. He then landed on the ground and a deep pit was formed.

"Are you still alive?" The skinless monster could clearly sense that Lin Huang's aura was still there.

It took a glance at Charcoal, but did not fight it. Instead, it appeared right on top of the pit where Lin Huang landed in a flash.

It extended its claws and was about to make another attack. However, it could sense that there was a heat wave coming from behind.

As it turned its body around, it had no idea when Charcoal appeared behind it. Charcoal opened its mouth wide and dragon flames began to gush out of its mouth.

"If you're on imperial-level, I might be afraid of your dragon flames. However, you're just tickling me now." The skinless monster struck a blow with its claws and it managed to get rid of the dragon flames.

A trace of fear flashed through Charcoal's eyes as its opponent had managed to get rid of its dragon flames. It knew very well that its opponent's ability was far beyond its own.

Catching a glimpse of the deep pit below it, Charcoal shifted its gaze, staring deadly at the skinless monster. Nevertheless, it did not retreat.

"Dragonkins used to be arrogant and it was impossible to tame one. You're an exception. You're so faithful to the human." The skinless monster laughed. Of course, it knew that Charcoal was trying to protect its master.

"Why are you commenting about me? Didn't you follow someone's instructions too?" Charcoal stared at the skinless monster, confronting it. It secretly hoped that it could buy Lin Huang some time so that he could recover from his injuries.

"My master is on True God-level rank-9. It's known as the God Master in the virtual world. You can't compare despicable creatures like humans to my master…" After finishing its words, the skinless monster realized that something was wrong. "Are you buying time for that human?!"

The skinless monster was mad as it extended its claws and again, it pounced towards the deep pit below it.

Right at that moment, Charcoal appeared right in front of him and bit its head.

Before Charcoal could sink its teeth into its disgusting head, an immense force reached Charcoal's torso and it flew away, landing in a deep pit that was hundreds of meters away.

"I'm not going to kill you because you're a dragonkin and the concentration of your blood is close to pure blood. If I were to catch you alive for the God Master, I can probably train a few of the dragonkins with pure blood. I can level up to a True God by then." The skinless monster looked at Charcoal coldly. "However, if you were to continue bugging me, I have no choice but to kill you. I'll bring your dead body back. The sorcerer can make you into a dead puppet."

At the bottom of the pit, Lin Huang was quietly resting. There was a bowl-sized hole on the left side of his chest that penetrated all the way to the back of his chest. He had even lost his heart.

His breathing was extremely weak and his body was about to die. However, he still had his consciousness.

Flesh grew out of nowhere in his chest. In less than two seconds, a heart was quickly formed, connecting all the blood vessels. His body was then further healed.

Lin Huang's breathing slowly stabilized and he gradually opened his eyes. He then realized that he had almost died just now. However, his Divine Regeneration had saved him.

He could feel an immense pain throbbing from every part of his body, accompanied by numbness as if he had experienced an electric shock. Through his Territory skill, he could sense that the skinless monster had appeared on top of him. He wanted to get out of the pit, but he was unable to do so. Even moving his fingers was difficult for him.

Fortunately, Charcoal appeared and blocked the skinless monster's attack.

"The difference in ability is too large…" Lin Huang forced a wry smile.

The skinless monster managed to break the Dark Mirror with its claws. The remaining force even penetrated the Dark Mirror and struck its chest with ease, almost killing Charcoal.

"After returning to its real body, aside from its combat strength that's being upgraded to yellow gold-rank, even its strength and speed have changed," Lin Huang secretly analyzed the difference between them in his mind, "It seems like I need to upgrade my combat strength to imperial-level."

"Xiao Hei, if Charcoal's combat strength is advanced to immortal-level rank-9, which level can I upgrade my combat strength to?"

"Normally, your combat strength can be four ranks higher, bringing you to crimson gold-rank. However, there's a limit on your body. The maximum limit is only black gold-rank. Therefore, you can only reach the peak of black gold-rank."

"That should be enough. I'll use four Monster Upgrade Cards and upgrade Charcoal's real battle ability to immortal-level rank-9," Lin Huang instructed without a moment of hesitation.

"Consuming Monster Upgrade Card x4.

"Monster card used. Charcoal has obtained an upgrade in combat strength.

"Its new combat strength is Immortal-level rank-9!"

After Xiao Hei had finished its sentence, Lin Huang felt an immense strength gushing into his body.

There was an instant breakthrough in his combat strength, leveling him up from immortal-level rank-9 to imperial-level.

The aura of the black gold-rank that was released from his body grew stronger. It then stopped growing as it reached its peak and was about to get to the imperial-level. (The Knight skill is activated after the first ride on the summoned monster. The user does not need to be riding the summoned monster all the time.)

After attacking Charcoal, the skinless monster was about to instruct the two God's Figurine combat souls to capture Charcoal alive. It then sensed that Lin Huang's aura was growing drastically from the deep pit.

"Did he just level up to imperial-level?!" The skinless monster was shocked. Soon, it realized that Lin Huang's aura had stopped growing as it reached black gold-rank. Sarcastically, it said, "I might be afraid of you if you were to level up to crimson or yellow gold-rank. If you're just a black gold-rank, perhaps you can only stay alive for a little longer."

"Is that true? I think a black gold-rank is enough to kill you!" Lin Huang steadily rose from the deep pit, holding a golden ink sword in his hand. It was a demigod relic that he had just gotten from the Stairway Mall.

The sword name was Ba Huang and Lin Huang had exchanged 120 million points for the sword. It was an expert-grade demigod relic.

The skinless monster soon noticed the combat sword in Lin Huang's hand.

"It's an expert-grade demigod relic! Why do you have such an awesome weapon?" Greed filled the skinless monster's eyes.

Lin Huang stood up straight with his sword, pointing the tip of his sword towards the skinless monster.

The skinless monster opened its mouth wide and it disappeared abruptly from its original position.

On the other hand, Lin Huang's body transformed into a silhouette and gradually faded away.

In mid-air, the two figures crashed into each other again and again like lightning bolts.

Each collision resulted in an blast like a nuclear explosion. The ground that was thousands of meters away shook as if it was afraid of the collision between the both of them.

The vibrations even stirred up the atmosphere and radiated everywhere. The wind was blowing strongly along with howling in the air.

The ground that was hundreds of meters away from the two of them became flat. Even the grass could no longer be seen.

On the other hand, Charcoal continued to fight the two God's Figurine combat souls.

Charcoal had leveled up to black gold-rank and the combat strength of the two God's Figurine combat souls was affected by the skinless monster whereby they had leveled up to gold flame-level.

Basically, Charcoal was incapable of fighting the two God's Figurine combat souls. It was difficult for it to fight even one of them since there was a huge difference in combat strength.

However, it decided to fight in a nasty way by hiding behind the Dark Mirror all the while.

If the two God's Figurine combat souls happened to launch an attack, it would block the attacks with the Dark Mirror.

Since it could use all the skills possessed by Lin Huang, the effect of the skills would be exactly the same. That being said, despite Charcoal being the one who activated the Dark Mirror, the defensive effect would still be the same. The defensive power of the Dark Mirror was not 10 times of its maximum attack power but was that of Lin Huang's attack power instead.

Of course, the two God's Figurine combat souls would be unable to break through it. They hit it again and again, but they were reflected again and again.

Charcoal was secretly laughing behind the Dark Mirror. "Haha, it's such a magnificent skill to use."

…

Thousands of kilometers away, many imperial-levels were heading towards the battleground where Lin Huang was.

Many of them bumped into their friends and they headed towards the battleground together.

"You've just leveled up to black gold-rank. Why are you going over there? It's a yellow gold-rank monster!" An old man with a white beard who was about 1.6 meters tall frowned as he lectured a man who was at the age of 40 with a height of about two meters tall.

"I'm going over there for fun. I'm not going to fight." The middle-aged man scratched his head. He did not expect to bump into his teacher. "Sir, I thought you've gone to Division 1."

"I just came back two days ago." The old man took a glance at his disciple. "Stop distracting me! Just watch the fight later. Don't fight! Don't you know how strong you are? It's a yellow gold-rank monster. I need to be careful too…"

The middle-aged man suddenly raised his head, looking in the direction where the monster was. "The vibrations are strong. That person arrived so quickly!"

The old man's face turned grave as he turned in the same direction. "There's more than just one vibration wave. There are three of them! One of them is extremely strong and the remaining two are slightly weaker. All of them are on imperial-level! You can only feel one of them because the frequency of its collision is much higher to the point that it's covered the other two vibration waves."

"Do you mean that there are three battles happening simultaneously at one battleground?" The middle-aged man did not sense the two collisions that were slightly weaker.

"No. From the collision itself, it seems like there are two monsters being blocked by three humans. It could also be there are three monsters attacking two humans. However, there must be more than one monster!" The old man's facial expression was stern as he said this.

Lin Huang had crashed into the skinless monster more than 10,000 times within five minutes.

The skinless monster appeared to be nervous as it knew very well that its aura had been discovered. The imperial-levels of Wanbao City would be there at any time.

He wanted to leave with the dimensional portal right after killing Lin Huang. However, he was unable to kill him now and was even bugged by him now. It was difficult for it to get rid of Lin Huang.

To its dismay, the two God's Figurine combat souls had to deal with Charcoal and were unable to help it.

As for its opponent Lin Huang, he only got stronger and stronger in the fight.

After leveling up to imperial-level, there was an increase in his abilities. Still, it was hard for him to get used to the new combat sword.

Soon, he adapted to the new combat sword after colliding with the skinless monster several times. He then had perfect control over his combat strength and Life Power.

Lin Huang noticed that the skinless monster was being impatient. Of course, he knew the reason behind that, so he grinned widely.

"Are you regretting that you didn't kill me before my combat strength was upgraded to imperial-level?"

The skinless monster remained quiet but secretly agreed with what Lin Huang had just said.

"Before upgrading my combat strength, you had the chance to run away. However, that opportunity is gone now.

"Most of the imperial-levels in Wanbao City have gathered at the center of the foothold. They're about 2,000 kilometers away. Your aura has been targeted by the defense system of the foothold. In less than half an hour, more than 80% of the imperial-levels will reach here.

"Five minutes have passed. I need to fight you for another 25 minutes and the reinforcements will arrive. White gold-ranks or even the purple gold-ranks might turn up. I personally think that you might be captured alive.

"Once you're captured alive, the people from the Union Government will start digging secrets from you. For example, they'll ask how you sneaked into the Grade-A foothold? Why do you want to collect the God's Figurine? Who's the God Master that you just mentioned? The answers to all these questions will soon be revealed…"

"Should I thank you for thinking from my point of view?" The skinless monster interrupted Lin Huang.

"I'm just telling the truth." Lin Huang shrugged his shoulders.

"If I'm not mistaken, the time limit for the upgrade in your combat strength should be stricter, shouldn't it? How long can it still last? Half an hour? 20 minutes? Or is it even shorter than that? You're telling me this because you hope that I can end the battle before the upgrade in your combat strength ends."

Lin Huang laughed and did not deny the skinless monster's speculation. "Do you think that you have any other choice? If you want to drag the battle on, I can do it with you. However, can you afford to do so?"

Again, the skinless monster remained quiet. He knew that that was part of Lin Huang's trick. However, he had no other choices because he really could not afford to let the battle drag on.

The reinforcements from Lin Huang's side could arrive at any time. The battle was now at a standstill. If the reinforcements arrived, even if there were only one or two of them, its chances of running away would be much lower.

The skinless monster soon made its decision after thinking thoroughly.

"Lin Xie, you've no idea what kind of monster you've offended," said the skinless monster in a low voice as it slowly raised its head. It placed its hand in front of its chest and mumbled.

Lin Huang found that it was strange as the skinless monster looked like it was mourning. A huge shadow soon appeared on top of its head.

He frowned as soon as he saw the shadow. It was a very huge altar made of countless white bones.

Lin Huang could see more than 10 types of skeletons. There were palms of giants, a dragonkin's spine, a wolf's fangs, and a god's blood skull…

There were nine dragon's teeth that were tens of meters long surrounding the altar.

A raised platform that was about three meters tall stood at the center of the altar. It was made of tens of skeletons of different sizes.

On top of it, there was a god's blood skull that looked similar to a human's skull. It was slightly bigger in size and was golden in color. It seemed like it was made of gold.

Lin Huang's face turned grave as he could recognize that it was the skinless monster's Life Palace at a first glance.

An imperial-level's Life Palace would usually be created in their body.

One might think of a palace when they came across the name of Life Palace. They might think that creating a Life Palace was like creating an actual palace in their body.

However, that was far from the truth. A real Life Palace could take any form. It could be a building, a mutated monster, or even a human. It could also be in the form of a weapon, armor, or a spaceship.

The form of a Life Palace would depend on its function.

The function of a Life Palace that resembled a weapon would be related to the increment in combat strength. For instance, it could be upgrading one's skill, attack power, or obtaining attack skills with immense power.

Most of them who majored in sword would choose a Life Palace like that as it was the simplest one.

The function of a monster-like Life Palace was basically related to the skill of the monster itself. Some of them would create a Life Palace of an undying monster. With the Life Palace they had, they could probably inherit the traits of the undying species so they could hardly be killed. Some of their Life Palaces would be in the form of a dragonkin whereby they could obtain dragon flames.

The most peculiar type of Life Palace was the prop type of Life Palace.

The owner of a Life Palace like that would obtain strange auxiliary abilities.

Lin Huang had heard from Mr. Fu before that a few of them possessed such a Life Palace.

Someone even had a Life Palace that looked like a clock. The ability of his Life Palace was to stop the time of the region covered by his Life Palace. Of course, it could last for only three seconds at the most.

Another person's Life Palace was a multi-faceted dice with a total of 160 numbers on the dice. The number obtained from the dice would be the number of times of increment in his attack with the highest being 160 times.

…

However, Lin Huang knew that the Life Palace could not be created based on one's preferences.

First of all, the form of a Life Palace depended on the Life Base of the imperial-level monster killed by an imperial-level.

Aside from that, it also depended on the skill level mastered by the person, their Elemental Enlightenment and many other aspects.

Thirdly, the Life Palace would be created randomly.

Even twins who had similar qualifications and had obtained similar Life Bases could have completely different Life Palaces formed.

The Life Palace could take any form on and would result in different effects.

Just like the altar of the skinless monster which was made of skeletons, Lin Huang had no idea what its function was.

The altar was then completely formed.

The skinless monster gradually raised its head, pointing its finger and slitting its left wrist.

Blood started oozing out of the wound on its wrist, flowing towards the altar like a river.

Soon, the blood flowed into the god's blood skull through its hollow eyes.

After a couple of moments, two beams of red lights flashed through the eyes of the god's blood skull at the center of the altar as if it had suddenly opened its eyes!

The Life Palace was the most common building one would come across. In fact, most of the imperial-levels would build a Life Palace in this form due to the training system of that era.

Most of their Life Palaces were in the form of a pavilion or a palace. Among the two of them, many of them had palaces.

Since a majority of them had a Life Palace, they would occasionally compare who had the better palace. Soon, the Life Palaces got more and more luxurious. Some of them could be compared to an actual palace whereby it would be called an imperial palace. As time passed, people then got used to it and named the combat strength of this level imperial-level.

Lin Huang had heard about the building of Life Palaces from Mr. Fu.

Most of the tower type of palaces had a suppressing effect.

As for the totem type of Life Palace, it possessed a summoning effect.

The function of a palace type of Life Palace was rather complicated. It could be a storage space whereby it could hold armed forces. Some of them possessed a suppressing effect whereas some of them could teleport like a spaceship.

As for the Life Palace that looked like an altar, Mr. Fu had never mentioned it before and Lin Huang was seeing it for the first time.

At first glance, he thought that it exuded a dangerous aura. He felt the same as when the skinless monster had first revealed its real body.

Seeing the skinless monster cutting its wrists and offering sacrifices to something unknown, Lin Huang felt insecure.

The ancient daggers blasted off and headed towards the skinless monster, controlled by Lin Huang's Telekinesis since he was now an imperial-level in an attempt to interrupt the sacrifice.

However, they were blocked by an invisible defensive layer which was tens of meters away from the skinless monster. The daggers then struck from another side.

Lin Huang frowned and immediately surrounded the skinless monster and the altar above him with more daggers, trying to find its flaw.

Lin Huang activated his ocular skill but could not find anything odd. The defensive layer was like an invisible eggshell, enveloping the skinless monster and the altar above him. It was faultless.

Attempting to attack with his dagger in an irregular fashion several times, his effort was still in vain. Lin Huang did not want to waste his energy any longer.

Although he had no idea what would happen after the sacrifice, he still had to wait patiently to see what would happen next.

After a short while, the sacrificial ceremony on the skinless monster's side finally ended.

At the center of the altar, two crimson glows shot out of the eyes of the golden god's bloody skull as if it had awakened from a deep slumber.

Lin Huang could feel that the aura released at the center of the altar had reached its pinnacle, and it was hundreds of times nastier than that of the skinless monster.

He gripped his demigod-level combat sword tightly, putting his guard up. He was afraid that something might happen.

In the middle of the altar, after the god's bloody skull opened its eyes, it fixed its gaze on the skinless monster. After sizing it up, the skull began to speak, "Little brat, I can smell the scent of the masked old witch from your body…"

"Sir, my God Master is the Mask Master for real." The skinless monster slightly bent its body as a sign of respect. Since it dared to address its God Master in this way, perhaps it was a True God that was as strong as the God Master. Even if it was not, it would not be that much weaker as well.

"I rarely have any contact with the old witch. It seems like we don't have any conflict to break the contract with you. The function of your Life Palace is quite special as it managed to lead my conscience over here. Do tell. What's your deal?"

"If I want to level up to demigod-level, what do I need to do?"

"Three ultimate-grade demigod relics," the skull said, "If you're just asking for a provisional upgrade, one ultimate-grade demigod relic is enough."

It expected to pay for it. However, the skinless monster did not expect that the demands would be so greedy.

"What… What about leveling up to purple gold-rank?" It did not reply the skull and made another request instead.

"For a permanent upgrade, you'll need an ultimate-grade demigod relic. For a provisional upgrade, you'll need an expert-grade demigod relic."

If the skinless monster had brows, he would be frowning. One could now see that its mouth was turned down.

"I don't have an expert-grade demigod relic…"

"There'll be a time limit for the provisional upgrade. It keeps you on the purple gold-rank for three days with an expert-grade demigod relic. If you only need a three-hour provisional upgrade in combat strength, an intermediate-grade demigod relic will suffice. If you only need it for 10 minutes, then a beginner-grade demigod relic will do."

"Exchanging a beginner-level demigod relic for 10 minutes…" It would be trading at a loss. However, the skinless monster had no other choice. Remaining quiet for a short while, he eventually agreed to trade.

"Deal!"

It then took out a beginner-level demigod relic from its storage space and gave it to the skull.

The skull then opened its mouth and sucked it. The beginner-level demigod relic then transformed into a beam of light and entered its mouth, completely disappearing.

At that moment, the skull opened its mouth again, shooting a black beam towards the skinless monster. It penetrated the position between its brows.

The aura of the skinless monster immediately grew and it broke through the yellow gold-rank in less than two breaths. After getting to the white gold-rank, its combat strength continued to grow. Soon, it leveled up to imperial-level rank-5 and was a purple gold-rank.

Its combat strength continued to grow until it reached the peak of purple gold-rank.

The skinless monster felt energized and extremely powerful.

Lin Huang witnessed what just happened with a sinking heart.

Although he could not listen to the conversation between the skull and the skinless monster, he could see that the latter had given a demigod relic to the skull. Soon, the skull spat out a black glow towards it. Its combat strength then began to evolve until it reached purple gold-rank.

Lin Huang's face turned grave.

Right at that moment, the skull turned its head and looked in the direction where Lin Huang was.

It did not shift its gaze away though. Instead, it fixed its gaze on Lin Huang and sized him up.

It then turned its body around and told the skinless monster, "The little brat won't die today."

"What?" The skinless monster was stunned.

"I'm saying that the human brat that you want to kill today won't die. There was no deadly aura that lingered around his body. Even if you were to level up to demigod-level, you can't kill him." The skull continued by saying something strange, "Since your Life Palace looks pretty interesting, it'd be a waste if you were killed. Let me give you another piece of advice. There's a deadly aura that lingers all over your body and it's getting stronger and stronger. There are high chances that you'll die here today. Try to leave this place as soon as possible. Perhaps you can survive…"

After finishing its sentence, the skinless monster did not ask anything else. Looking at the center of the altar, the two red glows disappeared swiftly as if nothing had happened.

Lin Huang had no idea what the function of the skinless monster's Life Palace was since it was in the form of an altar.

However, witnessing the trade between the skinless monster and the skull, he could roughly guess what it was.

"It seems like it allows communication with the God through a blood sacrifice. They then trade… I suppose they're exchanging something for abilities."

He watched the skinless monster take a demigod relic out and give it to the skull, which then released a black beam of light and inserted it into the skinless monster's body. Its combat strength then began to grow. Lin Huang guessed that was the function of the Life Palace.

In fact, Lin Huang did not find it rare. When he was at the Hunter College, he had read through most of the information regarding the Life Palace. Besides that, Mr. Fu had explained to him before. Theoretically, a Life Palace could possess any function.

His opponent's combat strength was the most troublesome thing to him.

After the trade at the altar, the skinless monster's combat strength advanced from yellow gold-rank to purple gold-rank.

The purple gold-rank was the last rank of an imperial-level. It was the most unattainable level for anyone below the demigod-level.

Lin Huang knew that his opponent would have a backup plan. However, it was out of its expectations.

"I'm in trouble."

When the skinless monster was still a yellow gold-rank, he was barely able to suppress it as he was on black gold-rank. However, as the combat strength of his opponent became two ranks higher and managed to get to purple gold-rank, even a black gold-rank could not handle that.

Lin Huang secretly contacted Xiao Hei. "If I were to continue upgrading my combat strength, how long can my body bear the additional burden?"

"Without Divine Regeneration, your body will completely collapse after three minutes at the most if you were to level up to crimson gold-rank.

"With Divine Regeneration, your body can sustain for about 20 to 30 minutes on crimson gold-rank. Your body will collapse after 30 minutes. You can last for about two to three minutes on yellow gold-rank. You'll definitely die if you stay at this level for more than three minutes."

"What about white gold-rank? How long can my body sustain?" Lin Huang continued asking.

"It's quite meaningless to ask this question. At 10 seconds the most, your body and soul will collapse."

"I know. Activate two Provisional Combat Strength Upgrade Cards."

…

After its combat strength was stabilized, the skinless monster said, "Lin Xie, regardless of how strong your secret skill is, you'll just receive an upgrade in combat strength. You can't become a true imperial-level!"

It actually believed what the skull said regarding the deadly aura because it was now in Wanbao City. An imperial-level could appear at any time and it would be killed. Perhaps this was also the reason why its body released a strong, deadly aura.

"I have to admit that you're really an amazing opponent. However, it should end here." After finishing its sentence, the skinless monster then appeared right in front of Lin Huang.

It pointed its finger between Lin Huang's brows.

At that moment, Lin Huang's combat strength grew immediately and had broken through crimson gold-rank, getting to yellow gold-rank.

He extended his palm and the Dark Mirror was quickly formed again, blocking the front of Lin Huang.

The skinless monster's finger that was initially pointing at Lin Huang's brows then aimed at the Dark Mirror, but its attack was soon reflected.

The skinless monster was caught unaware and again, it flew away.

It was difficult for it to balance itself in mid-air. It then stared at Lin Huang in shock. "Your combat strength… How could it be?!"

"Nothing's impossible."

Lin Huang then transformed into a shadow. There was a spark in the air as his demigod relic streaked across the sky.

"Since you've used your trump card, let's see who will be the winner of this battle!"

After uttering those words, he hurled his sword forward.

In mid-air, the collision between the figures had instantly intensified and it was 10 times stronger than before.

The area that was hundreds of kilometers in circumference was affected by their battle as well.

The clouds had cleared away and the bird monsters had fled. Even the ground began to crack open and a huge gully was formed. The mountains collapsed and the peaceful lakes were stirred.

The explosive sound of the battle spread throughout the entire Wanbao City. The rumbling of thunder could be heard late at night, awakening many of the ordinary people.

Those who were heading towards the battleground clearly sensed the energy fluctuation as well, and their faces turned grave.

"The battle's become much more intense now!"

"Perhaps only the purple gold-ranks can result in such an energy fluctuation."

"The battle is so intense. Perhaps they've used their trump cards!"

Right at this moment, a warning from the defense system of Wanbao City was issued.

"Warning! The combat strength of the invader has increased!"

"Its combat strength is now on purple gold-rank!"

Seeing the warning, many of the imperial-levels who wanted to watch the battle began to wonder if they should go to the battleground.

If the combat strength of the monster was only on yellow gold-rank, it would probably miss out on achieving black gold-rank if it were injured. However, it was now on purple gold-rank and was just one step away from getting to demigod-level. Perhaps there were less than five of them in Wanbao City who could fight it. They would be seeking death if they were to go to the battleground.

"The monster is skilled!" The old man squinted his eyes. "The human who's blocking its way isn't weak."

The middle-aged man next to him was upset. "I was still wondering if I could benefit from the fight. It seems like I have no chance to do so now."

At the battleground, Lin Huang crashed into the skinless monster again and again.

After getting to yellow gold-rank, he knew that he did not have much time remaining. He only had three minutes at the most.

If he failed to kill his opponent within three minutes, he would die.

Even if his body did not collapse, the skinless monster would not let him go when he returned to being immortal-level rank-1.

The skinless monster was extraordinarily hostile. Its opponent's Sword Dao was way too powerful. Even though it had leveled up to purple gold-rank and was only one step away from getting to demigod-level, it was still pinned down by the yellow gold-rank.

Despite the fact that it was wearing demigod-level armor, it became slightly injured after each collision.

"No, I can't let this continue. I might be the one that dies."

The skinless monster panicked. It knew that the upgrade in Lin Huang's combat strength would be limited in terms of time. However, it did not know that he only had three minutes. As it thought about what the skull said, it felt that Lin Huang's reinforcements would arrive very soon. Again, he recalled the skull commenting that there was no deadly aura lingering around Lin Xie's body. It had used up all its skills and had no way to defeat Lin Xie, so it wanted to retreat.

It did not show any hint of its fear to Lin Huang and set its plan in mind.

After a short while, it shouted at Lin Huang, "Lin Xie, since I can't run away, let's die together!"

As soon as it finished its sentence, blood started oozing out of its skinless body.

The blood then coagulated at a speed that was visible to the naked eye and flesh was formed. It continued to grow. In just the blink of an eye, the skinless monster's body became much more muscular.

It was originally three meters tall and it looked slightly skinny. It was now four meters tall and was even brawnier.

Again, Lin Huang battled the skinless monster. Unexpectedly, a metallic sound was heard as his sword struck it. There were no wounds and only white stripes could be seen wherever his sword made contact.

The skinless monster smiled wryly, opening its big hand and pouncing towards Lin Huang.

Lin Huang frowned. Again, he brandished his sword, piercing it through its chest. He retreated as he felt the impact traveling up his arms. He then managed to block most of the impact.

At that moment, the flesh on the skinless monster's spine began to creep across its body. A figure was then formed in the blink of an eye.

Lin Huang caught a glimpse of it. It was another skinless monster. The muscular humanoid monster was now an empty shell.

Unexpectedly, the empty shell pounced towards Lin Huang.

The real body of the skinless monster took out a dimensional portal and looked at Lin Huang with an insulting expression as it pushed open the door. "Have fun with my clone. See you!"

It did not know that when its real body got out of the empty shell, Lin Huang had secretly contacted Xiao Hei.

"How long can my body sustain if I were to use another Provisional Combat Strength Upgrade Card?"

"Three seconds."

"That's enough." Lin Huang nodded his head.

…

"Do you think that you can run away?" Seeing the skinless monster that was standing at the entrance of the dimensional portal, Lin Huang gave an insulting smile.

The skinless monster was afraid of him and immediately took a step forward.

Just as it strode into the dimensional portal, a black glow appeared out of nowhere. At almost the same time, it felt a chill coming from its knees. It lowered its head and blood stains extended from its knees to its head.

Before losing its consciousness, it finally saw that the one who had attacked it was Lin Xie who was less than two meters away from it. As it shifted its gaze, it saw that there was another Lin Xie who stood where its clone was. The most surprising fact was that both of them were not on yellow gold-rank but white gold-rank instead.

The dimensional portal collapsed on its own. Obviously, Lin Huang's attack had struck the dimensional portal as well.

The dead body that was cut into half fell to the ground. The skinless monster's real body had died while its clone became limp and turned into flesh.

The two God's Figurine combat souls that were fighting Charcoal transformed into two palm-sized God's Figurines. Charcoal gripped them in its mouth, flying towards Lin Huang.

"Fortunately, the Cloning Card can create a clone anywhere within my territory." Since he was bugged by the clone, not only did Lin Huang activate a Provisional Combat Strength Upgrade Card and level up to white gold-rank, but he had used a Cloning Card as well. He had created a clone of similar abilities to kill the skinless monster. He actually got the idea of using a Cloning Card from his opponent's clone.

Removing the effect of the Provisional Combat Strength Upgrade Card, Lin Huang's body that was about to collapse had been stabilized.

Lin Huang removed the Knight and Integration skills as well, and his combat strength quickly returned to immortal-level rank-1. He felt extremely weak instantly.

Kylie then took all the spoils of war before riding on Charcoal's back and leaving the battleground. Lin Huang then took out his dimensional portal and returned to the hotel.

After Lin Huang had left for less than 10 minutes, two figures arrived at almost the same time at the battleground where Lin Huang and the skinless monster had fought.

They were an old man and a skinny man.

The elder was about 1.6 meters tall with white hair. However, what stood out was his pair of bright piercing eyes, carefully sizing up the surroundings.

The skinny man was about 1.8 meters tall and he looked like he was 30 years old. He had a gloomy expression. Nobody had offended him but he was born with that face.

"Didn't your disciple follow you?"

"He's over there. The vibrations of the battle ended just now. He's such a burden, that's why came over here first." The elder did not turn his head around and continued sizing up the surroundings.

Obviously, the two of them were very close to each other, so they did not need to be really polite when talking to each other.

"I think it's because he has just leveled up to imperial-level. That's when he likes to watch battles the most," the skinny man said.

"He just got to imperial-level and he thought he can go anywhere he wants. He has no idea how dangerous the world is and he'll have to bear the losses later on," the elder grumbled. He then changed the topic. "Let's not talk about him. What do you think about this battleground?"

"No dead bodies were discovered. Aside from the traces of the battle, only two pieces of flesh could be seen on the ground. I've no idea where they're from. We'll need a forensic expert to evaluate it. However, looking at the traces of the battle and the remaining energy, the situation should be almost the same as what we sensed when we were on our way here. There were five of them, two of whom were extremely strong. The last explosion was on par with a purple gold-rank's power. The other three should've been in a two versus one battle whereby their abilities were relatively weaker…"

"Yes, what you said is along the lines of my observation. Just as the energy fluctuation ended, the warning reported by the defense system was removed. The monster must've been killed and its dead body was probably brought away." The elder nodded his head.

"We can't eliminate the possibility that the hunter might've been killed and the monster has won the fight either. Since the monster was capable of sneaking into the foothold, it means it has the ability to get rid of the defense system. It's possible for it to do the same thing again."

"That could be true but that's less likely to happen. I'm more inclined to another possibility whereby the monster was killed. If what you said is true, it's not difficult for us to ask around whether there's a missing person on yellow gold-rank but possesses purple gold-rank abilities."

While both of them were chatting, the rest of the imperial-levels arrived one after another.

After the defense system had removed the warning alert, they no longer needed to go there. However, almost everybody decided to go as they wanted to see the battle of the purple gold-rank.

Some of them hoped that the hunter had not left yet as they wanted to know him.

While everybody was still searching for clues, Lin Huang had already gone back to his hotel room.

After recalling Charcoal back into its card form, Yi Zheng was released from Kylie's mini world.

Just as Yi Zheng got out of her mini world, he saw that there were blood stains all over Lin Huang's body.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Lin Huang smiled, shaking his head.

He was injured but thanks to his Divine Regeneration, he quickly healed. Only blood stains remained on his clothes.

"Where's the imperial-level? Did he chase after us? He knows that we're staying here." Yi Zheng thought that Lin Huang had escaped from the imperial-level and that it was not safe to be in the hotel room.

"Don't worry. He's dead."

"He's dead?" Yi Zheng was startled. He then looked at Lin Huang with an incredulous expression.

"Yes. He's really strong. I've almost used up all my trump cards to kill it." Lin Huang briefly told him what had happened and was not going to explain any further. He did not want to tell Yi Zheng that the imperial-level was actually not a human but a yellow gold-rank monster instead. He was not trying to hide his abilities but it would take him a lot of effort to explain himself.

When he heard this, Yi Zheng knew that he should not ask any further. Since it involved Lin Huang's trump cards, even though they were friends who trusted each other, he did not need to know about it.

He then recalled the independent dimension where Kylie had brought him to. He gave up his intention of asking any further.

"Are you sure you're okay?"

However, he was still worried about whether Lin Huang's body was fine. The bloodstains looked like it was not an ordinary wound. In fact, he was injured because he had saved his life.

"Look at me."

Seeing that Yi Zheng was still worried about him, Lin Huang sighed, taking off his clothes and revealing his upper body. There were muscles rippling across his body but no scars could be found.

"I have a secret skill that can heal my body. As long as I have sufficient Life Power in my body, I can recover regardless of how serious the wound is."

"Don't worry that your combat strength is now sealed. The person who sealed your combat strength has died. Perhaps in less than an hour, the seal in your body will be destroyed and your combat strength will be restored. There's an underground auction tomorrow. Go back to your room and rest well."

After sending Yi Zheng off, Lin Huang burnt the stained clothes and took a shower, cleaning all the blood on his body.

He took out the two palm-sized God's Figurines from the bathtub.

Most of the rewards were still in his opponent's Emperor's Heart Ring. He was not going to take them out yet. After all, the most valuable items were the two God's Figurines.

One of them looked like a cat with a wry face. It had a slender body and there were cheetah stripes all over its fur.

Another one was a snake-headed hooved monster with black scales all over its body, resembling a statue made of black metal.

Lin Huang had never seen the two monsters in the monster guide before.

If he managed to train the two God's Figurines, he could level up to immortal-level rank-3. However, he knew that it was not the time yet.

One of the reasons was that Yi Zheng was with him. It was difficult for him to explain to him how he managed to move up by two ranks in a day.

Another reason was that he knew that the people from the Wanbao Auction paid close attention to his identity. He would be in trouble if there was an upgrade in his combat strength.

Putting the two God's Figurines away, his body slowly submerged into the water. He closed his eyes, recalling the battle that had just happened.

Lin Huang had to do his homework this time.

Each time after experiencing an intense battle, he would recall the entire process of the battle, analyzing every detail. He had to figure out what he did wrong so that he could avoid making the same mistake the next time. Another thing he had to do was to analyze his opponent's strength and determine if there was anything he could learn from his opponent. Also, he would also think from a different perspective, reviewing the entire battle and thinking about whether there could have been a better solution.

Those scenes constantly ran through his mind…

Yi Zheng had been kidnapped. He had saved Yi Zheng and got engaged in an intense fight with the imperial-level. The monster then revealed its real body, offering a sacrifice to the God's Figurine combat souls and its Life Palace.

His brain played back all those scenes very quickly and he recalled all the details. He replayed them again and again.

"I actually had the chance to kill it when it revealed its real body before the appearance of the God's Figurine combat souls and the Life Palace. Before it offered the sacrifice to the Life Palace, I had a chance to kill it as well. I missed two chances…"

"The dragon flames with Charcoal was effective. I've defeated five of its combat souls."

"Nobody can withstand the attack by a demigod relic, not even a demigod. Its clone managed to block my attack as a result of the integration of the clone and the demigod-level. Such a secret skill must've been derived from the cloning skill. Luckily, I figured it out in time and knew that the demigod-level armor isn't on its body but on the clone's body instead. I eventually made the right decision, killing it with my clone."

"It was too risky to make such a decision. If I misjudged and its real body was wearing the demigod-level armor, I wouldn't have been able to kill it. The dimensional portal would've been destroyed and I'd have killed myself since the effect of the combat strength upgrade can only last for three seconds…"

Before he could finish analyzing everything, a few scenes suddenly flashed through his mind. He calmed himself down and began checking what they were. After a short while, he finally found out the sources of those scenes in his Life Lamp. "These are the memories of the skinless monster…"

In the God's Figurine which had a Divine Fire burning, a cloud of pure spiritual energy hovered above the flames and was covered by a layer of faint green glow. It was the protective layer created automatically by the God's Figurine in order for the spiritual energy to block any interference from the Divine Fire.

After some investigation, Lin Huang realized that the images flashing through his head came from the cloud of spiritual energy.

To be exact, the God's Figurine had absorbed the skinless monster's soul automatically after he killed it. With the help of the Divine Fire, it turned the monster's soul into pure spiritual energy.

Since it was filtered through the Divine Fire, most of the information in the cloud of spiritual energy, which was the storage of the monster's soul, vanished. Only a small amount of it remained and was not completely wiped off.

The few images that flashed through Lin Huang's mind was the only remaining information.

"Unfortunately, there's no more information left." Lin Huang did not manage to find out more after checking out the contents of the spiritual energy.

Lin Huang lost his mood for a bubble bath, so he put his clothes on again and returned to the bedroom.

He was initially exhausted physically and mentally from the intense fight. However, he did not feel sleepy at the moment.

His eyes were opened despite lying on the bed as he recalled the few images that had flashed through his head earlier.

The first image was the back of a man.

Although he could only see the man's back, he could discern that the man was young while his body was not exactly strong. He even seemed a little skinny and weak.

The second image was the interior of a hall. There were two rows of powerhouses sitting on both sides in the bright and magnificent hall.

There was a massive golden throne further in the hall with someone sitting on it. However, it was just a black silhouette of which no details could be detected and he could not even determine the person's gender.

The third image was a sky full of blood mist. Under the bloody sky was a variety of monsters gathering all over the land. There were at least millions of monsters within his field of vision.

Meanwhile, the fourth image was a black crack that looked like a spider web. It was a massive crack situated in the sky. The image was dark while the crack was sucking in air rampantly from all directions.

The last three images were all God's Figurines.

Not only did they include the two items that Lin Huang had just obtained, even what he had just refined in his hand was included too.

"These must be the more important memories which it put away deep in his soul without realizing to the point that the memories weren't erased in the preliminary filtering in the Divine Fire. Now, they're just static images with the audio removed.

"The bloody sky in the third image doesn't seem like it happened in our land.

"The crack in the fourth image looks like the Abyss Brink's crack, possibly the other side of it. If that's the case, it must have passed through the air crack and arrived at the human foothold via the Abyss Brink. That's a reasonable explanation. In this case, the bloody sky in the third image could possibly be the virtual zone connected to the Abyss Brink.

"The black silhouette sitting on the throne in the second image should be the God Master the skinless monster mentioned but I can't identify the man in the first image.

"The three God's Figurine images should be the reason why the skinless monster came to our land but I've no idea why would it have or if it looked for the God Figurines. It shouldn't have just created God's Figurine combat souls for all the effort that they're putting in. The nature of a God's Figurine combat soul isn't much more powerful than an ordinary combat soul's. It's just harder to kill…"

Lin Huang thought a lot about the images that he saw but the connection between the images were insufficient. He could not come up with a complete theory.

"If this monster really came from the Abyss Brink's crack, then there might be a change to the five-year catastrophe from the Abyss Brink. It seems like I'll have to visit Abyss Brink after the auction ends." Lin Huang's mind was fully occupied that night. He finally fell asleep when it was past four in the morning as a result of his physical and mental exhaustion.

Around three hours after that, Yi Zheng was going to ask Lin Huang along for breakfast after washing up.

The seal was removed automatically the night before. He was relieved now. It was rare that he could relax.

Just when he was ready to knock on Lin Huang's door, he heard the Voice Transmission coming from Bloody behind the door.

"Master's just fallen asleep a while ago. Let him rest during the day. I'll inform him before the auction starts in the evening."

Although Yi Zheng did not communicate much with Bloody, he knew about its existence, so its voice was not a stranger to him. He nodded immediately after hearing what it said. "Sure, then I won't disturb him. I'll be on my own during the day. I'll see him in the evening."

After sending Yi Zheng off, Bloody dashed back to the couch where it proceeded to work on the Heart Network.

Lin Huang slept all the way past four in the afternoon. He only woke up after sleeping for approximately twelve hours.

Although the major fight which took place in the middle of the night did not leave any after-effects on him, it exhausted him gravely. His exhaustion only went away by 60 to 70% after sleeping.

"It's 4.21p.m.? Have I slept for twelve hours?!" Lin Huang projected the clock from his Emperor's Heart Ring as soon as he opened his eyes and was shocked when he saw the time.

"You've overworked your body, so sleeping a lot from the exhaustion is normal. Generally speaking, you'd need three days at the most to recover completely." Bloody floated into the bedroom slowly. "The underground auction only opens at 7.30 p.m. You can sleep for a few more hours if you're still tired. I'll wake you up by then."

"There's no need. My exhaustion won't be completely taken away even if I sleep for the entire day." Lin Huang hopped off the bed directly.

"Then, eat something. I asked Yi Zheng to bring you some food at noon. It's in the cooler box," Bloody had arranged everything accordingly.

Lin Huang nodded and headed straight to the kitchen. He took the food out from the cooler box and brought it to the dining hall.

He asked while eating after sitting down, "Is there any news today?"

"What happened in the middle of the night is up on the local news. The media says an anonymous powerhouse killed the monster that invaded the foothold. From the news on the media, nobody knows who exactly killed the monster. Otherwise, they would've come to you for interviews."

"What else?" Lin Huang asked again after swallowing the fried egg in his mouth.

"Also, many people from the underworld are investigating this. Some of the forces are trying to find out who killed the monster that invaded. Most of them should be interesting in recruiting the killer."

"How about the God's Figurine? Did you find anything about it?" Ever since he elevated to immortal rank, Lin Huang planned to find as many God's Figurines as he could so that he could elevate to immortal-level rank-9 as quickly as possible.

"No clue. I can't find anything on the Web. I suspect the Union Government secretly did something. There's no news from the black market as well but it's only been a day, so it's normal that we haven't heard anything yet."

"It's been blocked by the Union Government? Seems like the Union Government knows what the God's Figurine is…" Lin Huang squinted lightly.

It was early autumn at the beginning of September. The weather was turning cold while the heat from the summer was long gone. The sky turned completely dark before it was even 7 p.m.

After dinner, Lin Huang and Yi Zheng rushed to the Wanbao Auction together. The underground auction was not held there; it was just a hub.

A few staff welcomed them as soon as they entered the entrance of the auction.

One of them asked, "May I know if the both of you are participating in this together or do you want to be separated?"

"Let's do it together," Lin Huang answered.

"Please follow me." The staff who asked the question led the both of them to an elevator as soon as he was done speaking.

"The elevator will take the both of you to a random vacant room underground. You can pick a mask and cloak that you like. Please go to Room B1 after the both of you put on the mask and cloak. Someone will bring you to the underground auction." The staff tapped open the elevator doors after the simple explanation and watched the both of them enter.

Soon after entering the elevator, the doors opened again and they arrived at an exhibition hall that was more than 100 square meters in size.

There were hundreds of simulation models in the exhibition hall. Each of them wore a different mask and cloak.

Only a minority did not have any cloaks or masks. It was clear that they had been picked by people who arrived before they did.

Yi Zheng was dazzled by the choices at the moment and he had no idea which one he should go for.

However, it was not an issue for Lin Huang. Each and every mask and cloak became clear to him in his head as he scanned through them with his Divine Telekinesis.

He picked the mask and cloak that he desired in less than a minute.

The material of the mask was a light alloy with a silver base and there were not many patterns on it. It seemed extremely plain and simple.

For the cloak, Lin Huang picked a black, long robe. Just like the mask, there were no patterns or decorations on it while the hoodie covered most of his face.

Although he had put on the mask and cloak, Yi Zheng, on the other hand, had not even picked any.

"Aren't you quick to pick?"

"I'm a psychic. I'd be able to see through all of the masks and cloaks with a scan of my Divine Telekinesis. Naturally, it's easy for me to pick them." Lin Huang only realized that his voice had changed after speaking. It must have been a function that came together with the mask.

"I'm dazzled by them. Maybe you should pick for me." Yi Zheng did not bother to choose his own any longer. "Just get something that's similar to yours. The simpler, the better. I don't want anything with patterns or decorations."

"Sure." Using his Divine Telekinesis, Lin Huang soon picked three masks and four cloaks for Yi Zheng.

Yi Zheng picked a set among the shortlisted ones that Lin Huang had picked out for him. He selected a golden mask that had no decorations and a long, black robe similar to the one Lin Huang was wearing.

After Yi Zheng put the mask and cloak on, Lin Huang finished putting the remaining masks and cloaks back on the models.

"Let's go!" The both of them then pushed the door open and left the room.

They lifted their heads and found out that the room that they were in was Room B18. The room numbers got smaller as they walked along the left side of the corridor.

After walking ahead for a moment, the door to Room B11 swung open suddenly. A person in a white robe and a painted mask walked out of the room. The person was skinny and one could not tell if the person was a man or a woman since the robe did a good job at shrouding the person.

The person was slightly surprised to see Lin Huang and Yi Zheng, but soon snapped back to his or her senses and walked towards Room B1 as he turned.

Lin Huang and Yi Zheng were less than 30 meters behind the person. They were following him all the way but were not in a hurry to catch up with him.

When they arrived at the entrance of Room B1, the white-robed person turned around and glanced at them before going into the room.

Lin Huang and Yi Zheng soon followed and entered the room.

The interior of Room B1 was similar to that of a meeting room. There were already 18 people sitting at the long table while there were still three vacant seats.

Among the 18 of them, 17 of them wore cloaks and a variety of masks including the white-robed man earlier. The man who sat at the main seat of the table was the exceptional one. He wore a mask that was as white as a piece of jade but donned a black suit. He did not fit in with the rest of them.

Almost everyone had their eyes on Lin Huang and Yi Zheng.

However, since the masks and cloaks had the function of blocking out detection, nobody could find out anything about the both of them.

Lin Huang glanced through everyone present and his eyes landed on the man in the suit. He figured that man was the staff of the underground auction.

"Take a seat." As expected, the man in the suit spoke after observing them for a little while, "The dimensional portal can transport 20 people each time. We're only lacking one more person now excluding me."

Lin Huang and Yi Zheng then sat down in the vacant seats that were close to them.

The room with 20 people soon fell into a dead silence.

None of them knew each other. Moreover, since their bodies were completely covered, not only were their personal details blocked, but their trust towards each other had dropped to the lowest. so there was nothing that they could talk about.

Although they would check each other out, their eyes usually would not stay on the same person for too long because they could not see anything from just looking. Secondly, some hot heads would treat that as a provocation and that would bring unnecessary trouble to oneself.

Everyone knew that people who were invited to an underground auction were not ordinary people, so none of them wanted to make enemies.

Fortunately, the dead silence did not last for too long as a newcomer came in.

The man in the suit stood up when there were a total of 20 of them. He then brought out a white Dimensional Portal and got everyone to walk through it after activating the transportation coordinates.

As the Dimensional Portal shut slowly, Lin Huang and the rest realized that they had arrived in a hall as a flash illuminated before their eyes.

Lin Huang looked around after hearing chattering.

There was an auction stage not far away. A lady wearing bunny ears was standing on it and she was looking at Lin Huang and the rest of them.

"To the guests who have just arrived, please take a seat wherever you like."

Lin Huang turned to the other side and found that most of the seats were vacant, but around 100 of them were taken. There seats on the first two rows were almost occupied.

The chattering came from there.

Lin Huang glanced over and saw a few pairs of people talking to each other. He figured that they must have come together.

The 20 of them scattered and found their seats after listening to the lady on the stage.

Noticing there were no more seats in the center zone on the third row, Lin Huang found two vacant seats in the middle of the fourth row and sat down with Yi Zheng.

"This venue's so small. There are only a total of 1,200 seats," Lin Huang said through Voice Transmission and smiled.

"The underground auction's usually small-scaled. Moreover, Wanbao City's under the ruling of the Union Government. They'd need to give face to the Union Government, so they have to keep it low," Yi Zheng explained, "The more people they invite to auctions like this, the more trouble there might be."

They were chatting out of boredom since there was still time before the auction began.

More and more guests were transported to the venue while the seats became occupied.

When it was almost 7.50p.m., the 1,200 seats were all filled at the venue as all the invitees arrived.

The lady in the bunny ears finally spoke again when it was 8 p.m. sharp, "Good evening, our honorable guests. Welcome to the auction. I'm the auctioneer of the current auction, Bunny Ears. There's no need to suspect my name. It's obvious that it's not my real name. I hope we can have an enjoyable evening today and that everyone will purchase something that they desire."

"Let's cut to the chase and send the first collection to the stage!" She corrected herself as soon as she was done speaking, "To be exact, this is the first set of collections."

As she spoke, 20 naked men walked onto the auction stage and stood in two rows. The opening act caused many of the guests to discuss among themselves.

"Are they human slaves who have been castrated?" Lin Huang frowned while Yi Zheng looked displeased.

There were no traces of genitals on the lower half of the 20 naked men.

"Isn't the surgery pretty darn clean-cut?" The gray-robed man who sat behind Lin Huang could not help but say out loud.

"It seems like I must explain myself," Bunny Ears spoke again, "These 20 men aren't human slaves like what all of you are thinking. Although they look exactly like humans, they're actually artificial men made with genetic technology. This batch is just the first whereby they're small-scale tests. All of them are on the combat level of immortal-level rank-9."

"There are 20 of them and the opening price will be 100 million Life Crystals each. The bidding increment has to be at least five million Life Crystals. We'll begin the auction with No. 1!"

Each and every artificial man was different. The auctioneer only gave a simple description like a summary about them due to the time constraint at the auction.

At the same time, the organizing team projected the detailed information of each of the artificial men on the screen behind the auction stage.

From the projected information, it was clear that these artificial men were very different from one another.

Some of them were proficient in either Sword Dao, Saber Dao, close-distance combat or telekinesis.

"They have an ability on par with a double mutated monster and come with five skills. They're similar to customized summoning beasts in the form of humans and their price is equivalent to purchasing an immortal-level rank-9 summoning beast."' Lin Huang raised his eyebrow after reading the details. "But coupled with the fact that obtaining new skills from learning makes them more powerful than summoning beasts, I just can't understand why their price is higher than summoning beasts."

Lin Huang was not exactly interested in artificial men like those. He already had more than ten summoning beasts which talents were more powerful, so it was unnecessary for him to purchase such artificial men. Moreover, such living creatures could not be made into cards directly like how he could with Bai and the rest. He would not mind purchasing one if they could be made into cards so that he could train them bit by bit.

However, Lin Huang had no idea if artificial men were classified as humans or monsters. If they were humans, there would be no Monster Card given when they were killed. The most one could get was Skill Cards. If they were monsters, the chances of getting Monster Cards were slim even if all 20 of them on the stage were killed.

Lin Huang decided not to participate in the auction after giving it some thought.

"Lend me some Life Crystals if I don't have enough later," Yi Zheng who was sitting beside him said through Voice Transmission suddenly.

"Sure." Lin Huang nodded directly. He did not lack money and he was not afraid that Yi Zheng would not return the money.

The artificial men were sold one after another on the auction stage.

Yi Zheng, who sat next to Lin Huang, suddenly called his bid when they were auctioning the sixth artificial man.

"150 million!" Lin Huang was stunned to hear his price and turned to ask, "What do you want to do with this thing?"

"I want the military to study them," Yi Zheng replied through Voice Transmission, "If possible, I'd like to purchase three of them: a spear cultivator, a sword cultivator and one that's proficient in close-range combat."

"Sure, let me know if you're out of Life Crystals." Lin Huang nodded.

Yi Zheng had grown up in a military family and he actually had a job in the military. However, it was just a cinch whereby he had little power in his position.

The objective of him going to Division 3 to train was mainly for him to add colors to his experience. Just like those who were studying their Ph.D. on Earth, many of them were required to study abroad.

Although Yi Zheng's direction of development in the military had nothing to do with research, it would be an achievement for him to bring the artificial men back. Furthermore, the military would definitely reimburse his spending.

After intense bidding, Yi Zheng managed to purchase the sword cultivator at 270 million.

Later on, he purchased a spear cultivator at 230 million and a close-range combat cultivator at 240 million.

The man in red mask right behind Lin Huang and Yi Zheng could not help but mumble out loud, "I wonder what's he going to do with so many male artificial men given that all of the ones he purchased are strong." He was judging Yi Zheng beneath his mask.

"I'd like to purchase an artificial female, but the thing is, there isn't any…" Yi Zheng forced a smile while shrugging helplessly.

Most of the other bidders only purchased one while a minority of them purchased two. Yi Zheng had purchased the most and he happened to purchase the three strongest ones. However, he was analyzing the three artificial men's abilities and the fact that they possessed the skills and test reports from the factory. He did not notice how the artificial men looked like at all.

In reality, just like the man in the red mask, most of them were hoping to see the female version after seeing this batch of artificial men. However, the auctioneer revealed they had yet to perfect the manufacturing technique of the artificial females, so none were produced this time. It might be next year if the technical issues were solved.

Soon, the 20 artificial men were all sold out. Bunny Ears then presented the second collection.

The staff brought ten cabinets that were around two meters high onto the auction stage.

Ten metal cages were revealed when the red cloths were lifted. There was a lady in each cage. They were naked and seemed no different from humans, just that their breasts were much larger than ordinary ladies'.

"Busty women…" Lin Huang frowned. It was not his first time seeing busty women being auctioned. He had seen them once when he went to the Mystery Auction with Leng Yue Xin in the past.

Busty women were not human; they were mutants produced by human and busty monsters.

However, these mutants almost went extinct 800 years ago. It was impossible for ten of them to exist even if they were the Descendants of the Sin.

Clearly, these ten busty women were created through genetic modification elixir made of living female bodies through genetical technique. One wondered how many women died from the modification process for them to come up with ten end products.

"This Wanbao Auction must be related to the Mystery Auction." Lin Huang had not thought of that earlier when the artificial men were auctioned. Now that he saw these busty women, he figured that these two auctions must have the same supplier or may even be run by the same person.

Soon, the busty women created an outburst that was even bigger than before.

It was clear that Wanbao Auction had arranged that on purpose. They auctioned male artificial men first to gauge the crowd's anticipation of artificial females. Although there were no artificial females, they could get many busty women.

Although he pitied these women, Lin Huang did not participate in the bidding while next to him, Yi Zheng did not bid since his last purchase.

The reason being that it was redundant for him to purchase them. As long as there was no end to the production of such mutants, there would be more busty women and other mutants sold at various auctions.

As he thought of the mutant's situation, Lin Huang could not help but think of Xiao Mo who he met at the Purple Crow training camp. The kid was a mutant too.

Although he seemed like a human on the surface, there was a Descendants of the Sin's mark on his body. It was a mark of shame for him that would follow him for the rest of his life.

"I wonder how's that kid Xiao Mo now…"

Soon, the ten busty women were sold out in the heat of the crowd's enthusiasm

The third item was a batch of combat-type mutants.

Lin Huang was in deep thought when he saw the third batch of items.

"There must be an organization that does genetic modification exclusively behind this Wanbao Auction which captures humans illegally and creates these mutants in mass production. These artificial men might even be related to the organization. They dare to do this in the ruling area of the Union Government, so perhaps even the Union Government's internal department isn't that clean too."

Lin Huang thought of the bunch of demigods who had plotted to kill Mr. Fu as he thought about this. He was frowning even more now.

"They knew the catastrophe from the Abyss Brink is coming soon, but they're still thinking of ways to benefit themselves unscrupulously."

Time flew by and it was soon the third day of the underground auction.

Lin Huang saw many genetical products on the first two days.

Apart from artificial men and mutants, there were many genetically modified monsters that did not exist in the monster encyclopedia.

It reminded him of the Scarborough Workshop.

He clearly remembered that there were many similar monsters on the Enigma Island created by the people from the Scarborough Workshop.

"It seems like the supply to the Wanbao Auction might be coming from the Scarborough Workshop. They might even have more collaboration. After all, organizations such as the Scarborough Workshop would need massive financial backing to run studies like these." The name Leib Lab flashed through Lin Huang's mind. Since it was an organization that originated from the Scarborough Workshop, it might be working on studies on a similar track. However, Lin Huang could not be sure of that since he did not know much about it.

His mind wandered off as he sat on his seat at the auction until the appearance of the God Crashers on the auction stage.

"The eighth collection today is something that many have been waiting for…"

Thick black barrels were revealed as the red cloths were lifted. The muzzles pointed at the audience's direction, causing many to exclaim out loud.

"These are 28th generation God Crashers that the Union Government's military has eliminated. There are a total of 30 of them. They've been left alone in the warehouse ever since they were produced and have never been used before.

"Perhaps some of you aren't aware of what the 28th generation God Crasher is. Let me take some time to explain this.

"The 28th generation God Crasher ranks second in power among all God Crashers. It's ranked right behind the 3rd generation God Crasher. However, the flaw of the 3rd generation God Crasher is very obvious. Some of you might have heard that although it's powerful, it can only be used for ten times. It's completely worthless after ten times.

"Meanwhile, the 28th generation God Crasher is the improved version of the 3rd generation God Crasher. Its power is equivalent to 82% of the latter which is enough to cripple an imperial-level purple gold-rank powerhouse. Moreover, its effect will last more than 60 times. Experienced Gunmasters can even use it for 100 times…"

A lot of them who were proficient in guns and firearms realized that the rabbit-eared auctioneer was actually mixing up the concepts on purpose. The 28th generation God Crasher was only effective for 30 uses whereby the muzzle would begin to deform after that. Naturally, the data was the result of test after test in which the God Crasher was not maintained at all during the process.

Meanwhile, Gunmasters would usually maintain the muzzle, so it would basically only begin to deform when it was used for more than 60 times.

On a certain level, Lin Huang was not considered a certified Gunmaster, so he was usually rough when he used God Crashers. Taking time to maintain them? He would rather spend the time practicing his sword skills. However, the precise 30 uses of the 28th generation God Crasher was enough for him.

The auctioneer was intentionally mixing up the concepts to confuse those who knew nothing about God Crashers.

After some introduction, the auctioneer finally named the starting price.

"The starting bid of the 30 God Crashers are the same which is 150 million Life Crystals! Each bid has to be an increment of at least five million Life Crystals. Now, let's begin the bidding of the first God Crasher!"

"200 million!" Someone in the audience named his bid as soon as the auctioneer was done speaking.

The person who bid was even faster than Lin Huang.

Lin Huang raised his eyebrow under his mask and spoke directly before the second person could bid, "250 million!"

As soon as the bid was out, nobody in the crowd made a sound.

Most of the wise buyers knew very well that the 28th generation God Crashers were auctioned at 230 million on average. Any price higher than that was not worth it.

Furthermore, there would be 29 more later. It was unnecessary to fight with Lin Huang at 250 million.

"250 million, going once!

"250 million, going twice!

"If nobody is bidding at a higher price, our first God Crasher will go to this man in the silver mask.

"250 million going, thrice! Sold!

"Now, let's begin the bidding of the second God Crasher…"

"240 million!" Lin Huang was the first one who bid.

Bunny Ears attempted to pique the interest of the others, but nobody was willing to bid at a higher price.

"240 million, sold!" The second God Crasher became Lin Huang's too.

"230 million!" This time it was not Lin Huang who called out the price.

However, Lin Huang's voice followed. "240 million!"

He purchased the third God Crasher.

"Now, let's begin the bidding for the fourth…"

"240 million!" Again, Lin Huang was not the first one who called out the price.

"250 million!" Lin Huang was the second to call out the price again. He purchased the fourth God Crasher.

"Now, let's begin the bidding for the fifth…"

"250 million!" It was not Lin Huang who called out the price first.

"255 million!" This time, Lin Huang only added five million. He purchased the fifth God Crasher.

…

The bunny-eared auctioneer was a little speechless. The starting bid of the God Crasher was only 150 million, but it rose above 250 million because of Lin Huang which blew the other buyer's desire to bid.

Lin Huang purchased ten God Crashers at a price of around 250 million each with the same method. Finally, somebody could not help but challenge Lin Huang when it came to bidding for the eleventh one.

The both of them competed until the bid went all the way to 350 million. Finally, the person gave up and let Lin Huang win the God Crasher.

The rest turned solemn after finding out that Lin Huang's base price had exceeded 350 million.

He then proceeded to purchase the remaining God Crashers at around 250 million each. Almost nobody competed with him.

When they were auctioning the last few God Crashers off, the participants could not tolerate Lin Huang for dominating the auction, so they began to bid too.

The 21st God Crasher was sold at a high price of 410 million. Finally, Lin Huang was not the buyer this time.

However, he was a troublemaker in the coming auction whereby he kept bidding and raising most of the God Crashers' price to over 400 million.

Meanwhile, he purchased two more God Crashers at 390 million and one more at 400 million.

The bidding of the last three God Crashers was intense. They were sold at 490 million, 530 million, and 610 million respectively.

Since Lin Huang purchased 23 God Crashers, he became the biggest winner and was resented by the participants at the auction.

"Aren't you afraid that you'd be targeted for buying so many God Crashers yourself?" Yi Zheng teased.

"They don't know who I am anyway," Lin Huang said like he did not care, "These are trump cards to save my life. Of course, the more the better. I just don't want people to think that I'm an idiot who splurges, or else I wouldn't have let go of any of the 30 God Crashers."

He knew very well that the other buyers would definitely raise his price if he was determined to purchase every single God Crasher available at the auction. By then, 600 million aside, he might not even be able to purchase them at six billion. Therefore, he made up his mind to stop bidding after purchasing 20 God Crashers. The three that he purchased later was actually a bonus to him.

After obtaining the 23 God Crashers, Lin Huang had finally accomplished his ultimate goal of going to Wanbao City this time.

The items that were auctioned later were some contrabands which sale was prohibited by the Union Government. Nevertheless, Lin Huang and Yi Zheng had little interest in those items.

The third day of the auction had finally come to an end when it was almost 12.30 a.m.

The staff arranged for Lin Huang and the rest to remove their masks and cloaks respectively. Then, they were transported back to Wanbao City.

The Wanbao Auction managed the underground auction in complete confidentiality. The communication and positioning system on everyone's Emperor's Heart Ring were locked, so none of the guests knew where it took place.

Although Wanbao Auction clearly had the Union Government supporting them and sleeper agents, they were cautious and prudent in managing the auction to eliminate the possibility of being held ransom.

"They're worthy of being the top ten in Division 3. The way they handle things is extraordinary." Even Lin Huang admired their efforts on confidentiality.

The night passed by peacefully. What Lin Huang was unaware about was that the imperial-level powerhouses in Wanbao City had been looking for the killer who destroyed the monster which invaded the city.

However, that had nothing to do with him since he was ready to leave.

Lin Huang said goodbye to Yi Zheng when they were having breakfast early in the morning.

"I've sent you all the detailed documents on the segregation of Division 3's organizations. You must be extra cautious when you get into the territory of underground organizations. Never underestimate those fellas whose combat strength are lower than yours. It's messy in there and they can do anything to achieve what they want. Even a person on holy fire-level could possibly plot against you. You must watch out for that…"

"You told me that you'd leave after the auction ended. I thought you'd stay for at least another one or two days. I didn't expect you to leave so soon," Yi Zheng said while shaking his head with a smile.

"I came to Wanbao City to purchase God Crashers. Since I've gotten them, why should I continue staying here?" Lin Huang shoved half a fried egg into his mouth.

"So, where are you heading to next? Mind sharing?" Yin Zheng asked rather curiously.

"I'll drop by the Abyss Brink. There's something that I need to handle there."

"The Abyss Brink…" Yi Zheng's pupils shrunk when he heard that name.

The Abyss Brink was ranked the No. 2 forbidden land in the entire continent. There were a massive amount of immortal-level monsters wandering on each level. It was not exactly safe even for an immortal-level powerhouse.

Yi Zheng had some goosebumps just from hearing the name. He did not ask any further.

"You already have ancient relic-level equipment now but have as many life-saving measures as you can on stand-by. Borrow Life Crystals from me if you don't have enough. Don't be embarrassed to do so. Please contact me if you get yourself into unsolvable troubles. You have my number. Don't be embarrassed to ask. Your reputation isn't as important as your life," Lin Huang advised.

"Alright." Yi Zheng looked helpless. Although he was the senior between the both of them age-wise, Lin Huang was advising him instead.

"There's something that I almost forgot to tell you." Lin Huang recalled suddenly. "I've sent you the Genius Union invitation code earlier. Take some time to sign up. There might be a virtual assessment by then, and you should be able to pass it with your abilities as long as you roughly prepare yourself."

"Genius Union?!" Naturally, Yi Zheng had heard of the organization. He was a little dumbstruck hearing Lin Huang talking about it so casually.

"Yes, sign up and familiarize yourself. I can be your referrer to the Heaven Alliance if you want to join the genius organization by then."

Yi Zheng had no idea what the Heaven Alliance was. Only people in the internal management of Genius Union or those in the higher management of major organizations knew the names of Genius Union's internal organizations. Yi Zheng's eyeballs might fall out now if he found out that the Heaven Alliance was the No. 1 organization in the Genius Union.

Lin Huang got the idea of getting Yi Zheng and the rest to join the Genius Union in order to obtain more resources after seeing the latter purchasing equipment at the auction. He had always thought since Yi Zheng came from a rich family, his family should not lack cultivation resources.

It was past eight in the morning when they were done with breakfast. They walked to the hotel lobby as they chatted.

Yi Zheng then sent Lin Huang to the hotel entrance after he checked out of his room.

"Please don't die. Your sister's waiting for you to go home," Lin Huang said while smiling and waving after summoning a Dimensional Portal.

"Same to you."

Lin Huang stepped into the Dimensional Portal and vanished after the portal was shut.

Seeing the Dimensional Portal disappear, Yi Zheng then turned around slowly while a faint smile appeared at the edge of his lips. "I can't believe this kid who wasn't even on iron-level has grown to what he is now in a short two years. I really won't be able to catch up with him if I don't work harder."

In a deserted city in a Grade-B foothold near the second layer of the Abyss Brink, a white Dimensional Portal slowly opened in a residential alley. A young man walked out of it.

The young man mumbled softly after putting the Dimensional Portal away, "There's no need to stay in a hotel this time. I'll just go straight to the second layer of the Abyss Brink after I refine the two God Figurines."

"Kylie, bring me to your mini world." A lady in black armor appeared following his soft mumbling.

She grabbed the young man's wrist and both of them disappeared in the next second.

Lin Huang sat in a meadow after entering Kylie's mini world. He then took out the two God Figurines that he had obtained after killing the skinless monster.

One of them was a feline with a grimacing skull face. Its body was slender while it was covered in leopard fur. It looked like a specimen that was made of a tiny feline's carcass.

Another one was a hooved monster with the head of a snake. It had black armor covering its entire body like a sculpture made of black metal.

"The Grimace Feline Demon and the Snake Ungulate are combat-type of protosses. When they were alive they were True Gods which combat strength was on the medium-rank True God-level." The stone tablet's voice came out of nowhere.

"Is it weaker than the Petal Devil that I obtained earlier?" Lin Huang remembered the stone tablet had mentioned before that the Petal Devil was a high-rank True God-level.

"You can't compare them like that. That's just the difference in combat strength. The Petal Devil's still more powerful than both of them in terms of combat strength. After all, the Petal Devil isn't a combat-type protoss," the stone tablet explained.

"So, what kind of combat souls are these two suitable to visualize?"

"The Grimace Feline Demon's most suitable visualization is a Ninetails Lynx while the Snake Ungulate should visualize the Destructive Divine Mammoth," the stone tablet proceeded. "The Ninetails Lynx is the most energetic monster in the True Spirit Encyclopedia. It's said that a peak-level Ninetails Lynx has the ability to control space whereby it can traverse the world as it wishes. Meanwhile, the Destructive Divine Mammoth is a monster of strength. It's definitely worthy of being ranked in the top ten among the strength-type of living forms. I heard the most powerful one has the ability to crash the galaxy, suppressing the other side of the world."

Lin Huang was lost just by listening to that. He only grumbled to himself after a while, "The more I listen, the more I think that this True Spirit Encyclopedia's fabricated by some novel author. It's either traversing or crashing the galaxy…"

The stone tablet heard what he said and refuted, "What does a kid like you know? You'd know that those descriptions of creatures whose power surpasses True God are valid as soon as you witness it."

It seemed to recall something suddenly, then it rhetorically said, "What do you think caused that massive crack next to this foothold? It's a crack in the world that was created as a result of the fight between True God-level powerhouses."

"Do you mean the Abyss Brink…" Lin Huang seemed to have heard an earth-shattering secret.

"Also, that ocean named the Peaceful Ocean or something… Wasn't it caused by the collapsing of continents due to the fight between True God-level powerhouses too?" The stone tablet revealed another shocking news.

"Hmm, are you sure those are done by humans?" Lin Huang was in disbelief.

"Well, do you think it's by natural causes?" If the stone tablet had eyes, Lin Huang was sure that it had to be rolling its eyes at him when he said that.

"Alright then…" Lin Huang felt his world perspective being reconstructed.

If what the stone tablet said was true about the True God-level powerhouses being able to cause such damage to the continent, it was possible for those powerhouses above True God-level to crash the galaxy.

"What's exactly behind the crack in the Abyss Brink? Do you know?" Lin Huang asked in a testing manner. He was not sure if he could get a direct answer from the stone tablet.

"Such a crack in the world could lead to anywhere. If one's lucky for it to lead to a gravel world of the same level, the abilities of the living forms should be similar to what you have here. A world war is the worst that could happen. If one's unlucky whereby the crack connects to a higher world, a world invasion would take place even if it's just a small world as long as it has a complete set of rules and regulations of its own. That would happen because to the higher world, your gravel world's just a subsidiary space. Put simply, your world's just a model or a test run in a game for one to brush up their experience by playing it."

The stone tablet's words sent chills down Lin Huang's spine.

From the conversation he had with the True God Wu Mo from the tribe, Lin Huang knew that the reason the ancient era had perished was due to the complete opening of the crack in the Abyss Brink. It had led to an insane amount of powerhouses from the outside world carrying out a massacre. Wu Mo even speculated that the ending of each era of the continent was caused by the same thing.

"If what you said is true, the latter might possibly be what happened to our continent," he said, feeling helpless although he was unwilling to admit it.

After the conversation with the stone, Lin Huang felt a stronger sense of danger and he was eager to achieve an upgrade in his combat strength

After integrating the two God's Figurines into two different Life Wheels, it took Lin Huang a whole day to completely refine the figurines.

"I've finally managed to get to immortal-level rank-3." Lin Huang, who was in the meadow, slowly opened his eyes. He could clearly distinguish that there was an advancement in his combat strength. "It seems like my combat strength can be quickly upgraded as long as I have enough God's Figurines. I can even level up to immortal-level rank-9!"

After confirming that, Lin Huang knew that before getting to imperial-level, his main task would be to collect the God's Figurines!

In fact, he was already doing that now.

He had contacted the black market earlier to ask about the God's Figurine. He asked Yi Zheng to contact him as well if there was any information from the Union Government.

However, as for the secret of the God's Figurine, he had had a question in mind while he fought the skinless monster earlier. However, he had forgotten about it because he had been really busy these days.

"Stone tablet, you told me earlier that the God's Figurine can be activated as long as it possesses divinity. For example, if a demigod-level possesses divinity in his body, he'll be able to activate a God's Figurine. The skinless monster which I encountered earlier was just an imperial-level. How could it have activated the God's Figurine as well?"

"Because it's not just an abyssal monster, but also a god's blood monster. It possesses god's blood in its body. Under normal circumstances, possessing god's blood alone can't activate the God's Figurine. However, it seems to have some sort of secret skills whereby the divinity of the god's blood was activated. That's how it managed to activate two God's Figurines. If I'm not mistaken, the skill must've been taught by the God's Master it mentioned. It makes sense for the True God-level to own such a skill," the stone tablet explained.

"It means that most of the time, other than those who are on demigod-level and me, it's useless for the rest to own a God's Figurine," Lin Huang sought confirmation.

"In fact, that's what normally happens," the stone tablet continued, "However, I realized that most of the demigods don't know that the God's Figurine can actually be integrated with a combat soul. Therefore, not many people collect the God's Figurine like you do."

"The Union Government must've known something about it. Otherwise, they wouldn't have blocked all relevant news about the God's Figurine on the Heart Network. I'm not sure about the other organizations though." Lin Huang was slightly relieved. "That's good news for me. The lesser the number of people who know this, the better it is. I'll have lesser opponents and collecting the God's Figurine will be way easier."

After resolving his doubts, Lin Huang then left Kylie's mini world.

By the time he returned from Kylie's mini world to the deserted city, it was about six o'clock in the evening. The sky was turning dark.

Under the lights along the street, a faint white glow was emitted and the area was brightly lit.

There was the scent of food in the air. It was time for dinner.

There were two boys chasing after each other, laughing and having fun as they ran down the street.

Lin Huang had an illusion as if he had gone back to Earth when he saw this.

"Everything will be destroyed if it's invaded by the higher world…" Lin Huang clenched his fists tightly.

Walking halfway down the street, he flew up into the sky, transforming into a meteorite and headed to the second layer of the Abyss Brink.

When he arrived at the entrance, he did not stop at all and went straight into it.

…

The timezone at the second layer of the Abyss Brink was the same as the outside world. The sky had also turned dark.

Lin Huang gradually landed on the ground and summoned Bloody.

"Bloody, please check the distribution of monsters. You may then parasitize some of the monsters in different areas. Let's see if there's anything odd." After instructing Bloody, Lin Huang summoned the rest of the monster cards: Bai, Tyrant, Lancelot, Kylie, Ghastly, Thunder, the Sanguine Overlord, the Malachian Fiend, the Imp, the Eclipse Boa, the Death Knight, the Fallen Knight, and two Dark Crescent Snakes.

Similar to Bloody, after Lin Huang leveled up to immortal-level rank-3, the 14 monsters cards were upgraded to immortal-level rank-7 as well. Lin Huang did not summon Charcoal because its combat strength was already on immortal-level rank-9.

"You are now currently on immortal-level rank-7. However, the maximum combat strength you can actually achieve is immortal-level rank-9. Therefore, in the next few days, form a team of two and kill the abyssal monsters so that you can level up to immortal-level rank-9."

Lin Huang issued this instruction because most of the immortal-level monsters would occupy the entire region on their own. They would rarely come in a group. Without a doubt, allowing the monster cards to kill separately would definitely increase their efficiency instead of killing as a group.

"Bloody will send all the dead bodies to me and it'll take care of it. The only thing that you need to do is to hunt for monsters so that your combat strength can be upgraded.

"I'll now divide all of you into different groups. Bai teams up with Ghastly, Tyrant teams up with the Eclipse Boa, Thunder teams up with the Sanguine Overlord, the Malachian Fiend teams up with the Inferior Imp, and the Death Knight teams up with Dark Crescent Snakes. Lancelot and Kylie can fight on their own because they have the sword servants and Starlight Beasts to back them up."

The 14 monsters were divided into eight groups.

"Bloody, you're in charge of contacting them. You need to provide them with various information as well as the hunting paths and plans."

"It's now free and easy time, but there are three rules that you must obey. First of all, don't stray from the hunting path given by Bloody. Otherwise, you'll probably encounter imperial-level monsters or humans.

"Secondly, don't ever fight humans unless you're forced to do so. If you ever attempt to provoke humans or kill them, you'll be sealed and be stuck in your card form forever. I'll never summon you." As Lin Huang said that, he glanced at the Supreme Overlord.

"Thirdly, try not to fight the imperial-level monsters. Most of them have gone through their third mutation as you have. Even if your combat strength is on immortal-level rank-9, it's still risky to kill them. Also, it's a waste of time and strength.

"Lastly, let's talk about the rewards. You'll be given one month of junk food as a reward if you manage to complete the upgrade within three days. You can exchange it for other items if you don't want junk food. As long as it's a reasonable request, I'll try my best to satisfy you."

Everyone was excited to give it a try when they heard this.

Even Bai, who used to be calm, was about to act immediately.

Although the Supreme Overlord looked like it was not interested in it at all, its eyes flashed with a trace of uncertainty.

Seeing everyone being so exhilarated, Lin Huang knew that his trick had worked.

Despite the monster cards being unable to go against his instructions, he still wanted them to complete the task willingly as this would obviously increase their efficiency.

"That's all. Bloody will contact you afterward. You can now spread out according to your groups."

After Lin Huang had given his orders, the eight teams then chose a direction and left.

Bloody asked him after Bai and the rest had left, "Master, the rewards that you just mentioned…"

"The task assigned to you is much more important than the rest. You'll be rewarded without any upgrade in combat strength." Lin Huang patted Bloody's head.

The monsters were most active at night in the Abyss Brink.

However, the second layer of the Abyss Brink was slightly different from usual that day as there were fourteen rather different monsters blending in.

There was a sky dragon that looked like T. Rex with a body over 30 meters long running out of control on the meadow.

Meanwhile, a silhouette that looked like a human was chasing it.

If one were to look closer, the human-form monster was over three meters tall. It had a muscular body and wore a pair of army green capri pants while it chased the monster in bare feet.

Deep footprints were imprinted on the ground every step it took as if it was stepping on the sand at the beach. It would move hundreds of meters forward with every leap it took, getting closer and closer to the sky dragon in front of it.

The sky dragon was roaring in rage as it ran out of control. There were a couple of obvious wounds on its body. The wounds did not look like they were caused by weapons. Instead, they resembled more like the result of a monster's claws and teeth tearing through the flesh. Some of them were still bleeding continuously. However, the monster could not be bothered about its wounds right now. All it could do was to run as fast as it could.

Meanwhile, the human-form monster behind it was getting closer and closer.

300 meters!

200 meters!

100 meters!

50 meters…

Roar!

As it was catching up to the sky dragon, Tyrant released a roar of excitement and accelerated. It extended its hand and grabbed the sky dragon's tail.

The sky dragon that was running for its life felt the great pulling force that came from its back and soon its feet were lifted from the floor before it was smashed hard on the ground.

With both of its hands, Tyrant lifted the sky dragon's body by grabbing its tail and smashing it on the ground hard. It repeated the same thing over and over again.

The gigantic sky dragon was like a giant hammer at the moment which was continuously being smashed by Tyrant.

Around ten minutes, Tyrant released its hands and tossed the body of the sky dragon on the ground.

This immortal-level rank-9 sky dragon seemed to have no intact bones left in its body while it was at its brink of death now. It seemed like it would die any second.

Tyrant leaped onto its stomach and stomped towards its head.

However, a bloody glow came out of Tyrant's body at that moment and pierced through the sky dragon's eyes. In the next second, the gigantic monster lost its pulse completely.

"Hey, you didn't put any effort this time. Also, how dare you take the head from me?" Tyrant frowned as it looked at the sky dragon's head and shouted.

"Don't be selfish, big guy. All of the prey will be yours after I elevate to immortal-level rank-9," A tiny brain came out of the sky dragon's nostril. It was just the size of an adult's thumb. There was a layer of semi-transparent mucus covering it. "Look at this. The fella has quite a big brain. I can give you some. Do you want to eat it?"

"No," Tyrant declined right away, "I'll help you elevate to immortal-level rank-8 and you'll help me back. Then, I'll help you boost yourself to immortal-level rank-9 after that. But you must help me to get to immortal-level rank-9 later on. If you disagree with that, we'll just part ways now."

"Deal!" The Eclipse Boa agreed to that immediately. "This sky dragon's brain is much juicier than those before it. Are you sure you don't want any?"

"No. Finish it now so that we can proceed on our journey." Tyrant declined again.

"We fight! We fight for a head and we got a dumb dragon. We smash! We smash its head open and indulge in a fresh dragon's brain…" 1 A tune was sung from where the sky dragon's head was after a short moment of silence.

"Shut up!"

"Hehe, it tastes good!"

…

On a cliff, there was a gigantic dark gray bird with golden patterns on it. It was looking at a swamp not far beneath it.

"I see the prey that Bloody mentioned."

"You've such great eyes. I've looked around three times and saw nothing but some mosquitoes." Thick white mist flowed continuously from the Sanguine Overlord's white flaming eyes on his skull. He had a crown on his head and a red robe around on his body. "How does the monster look like?"

"It should be a Champsosaurus-type of sky dragon. It's pretty big — at least 30 meters long, but it has a great disguise whereby it almost blends with the swap completely. It makes sense that you can't see it." Thunder's eyes did not leave the swamp when it was speaking. "The swamp's its home ground. I think it'll take us a great effort to kill it."

"That's easy. We'll just have to make it our home ground," Bloody Robe snickered.

"How do we do that?" Thunder turned around to look at Bloody Robe.

"I'll turn this swamp into lava." Bloody Robe turned his head too and locked eyes with Thunder.

"Alright, let's use your method to get it out."

"Wait, we must make it clear before we do it. Whose will this prey belong to later?" Bloody Robe seized the opportunity to ask.

"It'll be yours, okay?" Thunder was quick to respond. "You'll do the last hit, I won't do it."

"Deal!" As soon as the both of them came to a consensus, they then attacked the monster below.

Dark red lava emerged from the underground and drowned the entire swamp in an instant.

The prey had finally shown itself. It was a giant Champsosaurus close to 50 meters long.

It climbed out of the lava while roaring. Then, it looked at the two culprits after lifting its head. It bellowed in rage, "Who is your master? Don't you know the rules?"

"In fact, we don't actually know." Dark clouds were formed in the sky as soon as Thunder said that. A purple lightning bolt flashed through the night sky and struck the Champsosaurus's body accurately.

"How dare the both of you attack me? Do you know that my boss is Master Ku Long?!" Not sure if enraged or if it was the lighting's doing, the Champsosaurus was shaking as it was speaking.

As soon as it spoke, another purple lighting bolt struck followed by the second one and the third one…

Lightning was striking one after another. Not only did the Champsosaurus not have the opportunity to fight it, but Thunder also did not even give it the opportunity to speak.

"I… want… to see your… master…" The Champsosaurus expressed what it wanted while being interrupted.

"You'll definitely see him, but that'll only happen after you're dead." Thunder did not stop its attack.

"This fella has such thick skin. It feels like your attacks are just numbing it temporarily while no physical damages are done at all," Bloody Robe who was aside said while stroking his chin, "Let me help you."

Bloody Robe extended his hand and a couple of flaming chains materialized out of thin air.

The Champsosaurus that was numbed by the lightning strikes had a drastic change of expression seeing that. It tried its very best to dodge, but only managed to move ten meters away before Bloody Robe's Punishment Chains bonded it tightly. Its Life Power retreated back into its body while it felt a clear gush of weakness spread all over its body.

Another lightning struck in the next second.

"Ahh!" A burn that it had never experienced before shocked it, causing the Champsosaurus to release a devastating wail.

"Bondage, electric shock and devastating wail… What a perfection combination!" There was joy in Bloody Robe's voice. "It'd be even more perfect if there are some tentacles. Hmm, I'll replace the lava with that…"

In the next second, the ground beneath the Champsosaurus turned into lava instantly.

Mạny lava tentacles clung onto its body and went into its eyes, nose, and mouth like they would not let go of any holes there were on its body…

Under the duo's attacks in the condition of Life Power being sealed, it only managed to hold on to dear life for less than five minutes before it was killed on the spot despite its powerful body defenses.

"It hasn't even been five minutes. How pathetically weak! What kind of male animal is this that it can't be even challenged for half an hour?" Bloody Robe clearly wanted more fun.

"Let's go for the next one." Thunder flapped its wings and lifted into the air.

Bloody Robe flew immediately and caught up with Thunder. "Hey, Thunder, I just thought of a new way to play. Put your lightning onto my lava tentacles and let's see what's the effect of electrical tentacles…"

"I disagree!" Thunder who was flying ahead declined determinedly before Bloody Robe could finish what he was saying.

A tremendous battle was going on in a valley.

There was a fiend and an imp on one side while an Earth Ursine was on the other side of the battle.

The Earth Ursine was a triple mutated monster with midnight-black skin and a layer of golden armor on its head, abdomen, and back. The golden armor was not put on. Instead, it grew together with their skin since birth.

The strongest suit of such a monster was its body whereby it could tear most of the double mutated monsters of the same combat level into half like a piece of thin paper. Its defense ability was strong enough to protect itself from most of the monsters of the same combat level, preventing them from breaking their defenses.

This Earth Ursine before them had a combat level of immortal-level rank-9.

The shocking fact was that the Malachian Fiend, which combat level was only on immortal-level rank-7, was going strong against the Earth Ursine.

His green skin showed signs of turning into a metallic armor which expanded his body further, making him look even bigger. He was initially two meters tall, but with the addition, he looked at least 2.5 meters. However, he was still a fat meatball.

Meanwhile, the Earth Ursine was over 30 meters long. Even if the Malachian Fiend expanded by heaps, it would still be a tiny bean before the Earth Ursine.

The Inferior Imp who was on the same side as the Malachian Fiend was hovering hundreds of meters away from the battle. It seemed like it was just a spectator.

However, if one was to study it with spiritual strength, they would see the hundreds of telekinetic threads being released from his body. The other ends of those telekinetic threads clung onto the Earth Ursine's limbs and neck.

The telekinetic threads were breaking one after another as a result of the Earth Ursine's immense strength. However, the Inferior Imp reconnected them again and again. The strength the Inferior Imp was putting in was nothing lesser than the Malachian Fiend that was fighting on the battlefield.

"You damned Fatty, why couldn't you have chosen an easier prey?!" The Inferior Imp's bloodshot eyes seemed like they were going to spit fire. "Forget about those before this that had crazy strength! This ursine has such insane defense. The both of us might not be able to kill it even if we keep doing this until the next morning!"

"Big Bull, you don't know the fun in fighting at all," the Malachian Fiend replied immediately, "Such a collision of power is the biggest joy a man could have!"

"Stop calling me Big Bull!" The Inferior Imp objected.

"It's you who called me Fatty first."

"It's because you're fat! Fat*ss!"

"Then, I'll call you Big Bull because of the bullhorns on your head and your nose that looks like a bull," the Malachian Fiend retorted rudely.

"Do you want to fight?!" The Inferior Imp really sounded mad now.

"Come at me! I'm not afraid of you! I've despised you since the beginning." The Malachian Fiend threw a punch at the Earth Ursine and turned around to look at the Inferior Imp.

The Earth Ursine retreated slowly and did not attack the Malachian Fiend sneakily from his back.

To the Earth Ursine, these two foes were on par with it when they fought together. It was uncertain who would emerge as the winner eventually. However, this was undoubtedly an advantage for the Earth Ursine since both of them had an internal conflict now. It decided to strike the last blow when they seriously injured each other later. It required little effort, and the Earth Ursine was happy to do it. It chose to watch aside decisively.

Meanwhile, the two silhouettes were about to collide.

The Inferior Imp's close-range ability was not too shabby. It was just that he had gotten used to fighting methodically. However, he was not at a complete disadvantage fighting with the Malachian Fiend.

The Earth Ursine was watching the fight delightedly, sitting on the ground not far away. It would have been perfect if there were snacks like popcorn or sunflower seeds for it to munch on.

In the air, the Inferior Imp soon fell at a disadvantage. After all, he did not have much opportunity in close-range confrontations in real life and its body was not as powerful as the Malachian Fiend's.

It crawled out of the ground slowly after being punched by the Malachian Fiend while spitting a mouthful of blood that looked like lava onto the ground. He lifted his head to look at the Malachian Fiend while resentment filled his eyes.

"What else do you have? Show me all of it now or else you won't have the opportunity to when I kill you later," the Malachian Fiend said fearlessly while crossing his arms.

"Since you want to die so badly, I'll make your wish come true!" The red glow in the Inferior Imp's eyes grew. "If you're that powerful, don't dodge my next attack!"

"I won't dodge then! I'm not afraid of you!" As soon as the Malachian Fiend was done speaking, a spark lit up in the sky. It was extra bright in the night sky like a meteor that was plummeting from outer space.

Evidently, the meteor was flying towards the battlefield in the valley.

The Earth Ursine that was watching aside noticed that something was off immediately. It could not help but open its mouth wide seeing the meteor that was flying towards them. "It can't be! How can he summon a meteor… shower?!"

Before the Earth Ursine was done speaking, it saw the second and third meteor raining down from the sky. Sparks fell one after another. Soon, there were hundreds of them.

"a This fella has such terrifying technique!" The Earth Ursine gaped at the Inferior Imp with fear now.

However, it soon noticed that the Malachian Fiend was just hovering where he was, maintaining his stance of crossing his arms without showing any signs of dodging.

"Is this fella a little dumb? Is he really not dodging?!" The Earth Ursine was secretly glad after being concerned for the Malachian Fiend for a split second.

"As soon as the Malachian Fiend is dead, I shouldn't worried about that Inferior Imp. He has already unleashed a big hit, so he should be exhausted by now. He shouldn't be able to execute such a powerful blow for the second time in a short period of time. I'll be able to do anything I want with him by then."

The Earth Ursine retreated a distance away and did not leave. It was waiting for the duo to finish their fight and it would pick up whatever was left.

Hundreds of meteors come raining down from the sky. They could even hear the air-piercing whistles from far away.

The meteor shower added vibrant color to the quiet night sky.

However, grave danger came after the beautiful scene.

Each of the meteors was burning furiously. They were dropping to the ground at a terrifying speed. One could only imagine how much damage they would bring.

The more the Earth Ursine watched, the more terrified it felt. Among the meteorites, the smallest one was just slightly smaller than the Earth Ursine.

It was even mourning a little for the Malachian Fiend. "I'm afraid such an attack could even kill an Inferior Imperial-level."

However, the Malachian Fiend remained hovering where he was with no plan to escape. The meteorites arrived close to the valley in the blink of an eye, aiming at the Malachian Fiend.

"There's no way that he can turn the situation around at all." The Earth Ursine found it hard to watch the disaster that was Inferior Impending.

However, something changed. The meteorites in the air moved in an arc in the air while the Earth Ursine now became their target.

"What happened?!" The Earth Ursine was stunned to see that. It reacted right away and shouted at the Inferior Imp and Malachian Fiend, "The both of you tricked me!"

The first one landed as soon as it uttered its last word.

Bang!

A deafening thud exploded while a huge piece of the ground collapsed in the valley.

Amongst the endless chunks of dirt flying in the air, a gigantic silhouette flew out in devastation and fell hard into a mountain range in the valley.

The Earth Ursine fell deep in the mountainside and could not help but spit a mouthful of blood out. It had tried to defend itself from the attack with its palm in panic. Now, it's entire arm was entirely obliterated as a result of the collision while the golden armor on its chest had faint cracks on it. Meanwhile, its organs went through a serious tremor while it felt a burning sensation as if there was a fire in its lungs when it breathed.

The second meteorite came crashing into the mountainside before it could even catch its breath.

Followed by the third, fourth, fifth…

Over 200 meteorites fell like cannonballs, and the entire valley was smashed into a flatland completely.

Meanwhile, the Earth Ursine was killed upon the crashing of the eleventh meteorite.

"That ursine's so dumb to even believe what a Malachian Fiend says. He actually thought we were having an internal conflict!" The Malachian Fiend landed slowly on the ground which was now completely ruined.

"We Inferior Imps are born con men and actors." The Inferior Imp walked over slowly too while looking at the Malachian Fiend with a smirk. "I've taken so much physical pain from this round of attacks which caught it off-guard."

"I'm sorry, Boss…" The Malachian Fiend turned into a scaredy-cat in a split second.

"Do you think an apology does anything?" The Inferior Imp remained smiling.

"Ugh… I think we should look for the next prey now. If we can't accomplish the mission within three days, we'll lose a month's supply of junk food." The Malachian Fiend changed the topic immediately.

"It's your fault, Fat*ss. You pick preys that are getting harder and harder to kill!" The Inferior Imp was enraged as he thought about this point.

"Big Bull, I'm warning you. Stop calling me Fatty! And don't even think about calling me Fat*ass!"

"What did you call me?! I'll summon the meteorites to kill you."

"I'm sorry, Boss…"

Two black and gold silhouettes flew under the sunlight with one of them leading the way.

"Hey, handsome boy with the white hair before me, could you fly a little slower please?" The man in the golden robe shouted at the man in the black robe in front.

"I can't." The black-robed man with white hair turned around and glared at him while replying with those two words coldly. He then accelerated after that.

"Hey, hey, can you not do this? You've got the skill to boost your speed, but I don't. It wouldn't kill you to consider someone else's feelings," the golden-robed man shouted again.

The man with white hair then slowed down his pace. However, he did not even turn around this time and stayed silent.

The golden-robed man then caught up with him slowly and they proceeded on their journey together.

The duo was the Ghastly Clown and Bai. Lin Huang had put the both of them in a team.

"Xiao Bai Bai, we should be partners since we've been fighting together for two days now…" Before the Ghastly Clown was done speaking, Bai turned around, glaring at him. His eyes were cold.

"Did we fight together? It was me who was fighting while you just watched. Not helping aside, you even took my prey in the end," Bai said, looking pissed. If not for Lin Huang who had asked them not to fight among themselves beforehand, he would have attacked the Ghastly Clown since the beginning.

"Is it necessary for you to be this mad? All that I did was take a couple of your victims," Ghastly Clown said like he did not care, "I didn't help because I knew you could handle them yourself. I'd definitely have helped if you encountered one that you couldn't handle."

"I'd be stupid to believe you," Bai thought to himself secretly. "You'll definitely run faster than anyone else if I really encounter monsters that I can't handle."

After spending two days together, Bai knew the Ghastly Clown's character well now. All he was competent at was cheating. Anyone would be unfortunate to encounter him.

"Look, we're both on immortal-level rank-9 now and we've accomplished our mission a day ahead. Shouldn't everyone be happy now?"

"Yeah, right!" Bai did not say that out loud.

Bai had lost interest in what the Ghastly Clown was saying. Later on, he thought that communicating with the Ghastly Clown was a complete waste of time.

"Xiao Bai Bai, we're already on immortal-level rank-9 now. It's no fun killing monsters on the same level. Why don't we start killing prey on imperial-level now? I've never killed anyone on imperial-level before," the Ghastly Clown suggested all of a sudden.

Bai pretended like he did not hear him and ignored the suggestion.

"Xiao Bai Bai, did you hear what I said?"

Bai proceeded to ignore him. He knew that the more he responded to the Ghastly Clown, the more he would babble on.

"Xiao Bai Bai, are you ignoring me?" After being snubbed twice, the Ghastly Clown knew what Bai was doing in response, or lack thereof, to him. He smirked and come up with a strategy.

"Bloody, give me the nearest black gold-rank's coordinates."

"Ghastly Clown, please don't create trouble and stay on your mission obediently." It was clear that Bloody took the same side as Bai.

"I'll just go in a random direction if you don't give me the coordinates." The Ghastly Clown stood where he was and watched Bai go.

"Ghastly Clown, Master mentioned that those who disobey will be sealed into card form and won't be summoned ever again. Are you sure you want to go against the Master's orders?" Bloody took out the big guns.

The Ghastly Clown had a slight change of expression, but soon he looked normal again. "Master doesn't like me anyway. Even if I obey the orders, I might not have many opportunities to be summoned in the future. Go ahead and seal me. I don't care."

Bloody went speechless at that moment. Feeling helpless, it sent a message across to Lin Huang.

"Ask him to go ahead if he wants to kill imperial-levels. It's good to teach him a lesson. Tell him that since this is his idea, he'll have to fight while Bai's only responsible for assisting. I'd love to see his capacity." Lin Huang had always been slack about the different personalities of his Monster Cards. Not that he did not care about them, but he thought it would be healthier for them to explore and express themselves. Even when it came to the stubborn Ghastly Ghost, Lin Huang did not plan to oppress or correct him. The most he would do was to guide him accordingly.

He had always thought that a person's perspective on life should not be taught. Instead, it should come from self-learning and self-correction. It was something that should be built slowly within a person.

Due to everyone's different genes since birth, the people that they came to know in society differed as they grew and learned in different environments. Therefore, it might not be the best for one to apply something that someone else had learned to themselves. Just like if one copied what the world's richest man did and applied it to a newborn, it would still be hard to cultivate the newborn into the next richest man tens of years later.

The best view of life came from the person's personal failures. It was the value that the particular individual could come up with from the mistakes that they made.

What was right, what was wrong, what could be done, what could not be done… Compared to the values that you fed him, it would not be as impactful as letting him make the mistake himself. He would understand it clearly as soon as he realized his mistake.

Lin Huang understood that theory very well, which was the reason why he took such loose measures with the Ghastly Clown.

Soon, Bloody's Leech Pods sent Lin Huang's message across thousands of kilometers away.

The Ghastly Clown had a rather odd expression. It was obvious that he did not expect Lin Huang to agree to his idea just like that. He thought Lin Huang would warn him, but still, he said nothing.

"Did he really just say that and nothing else?"

"He said you'd learn the lesson when you get yourself into trouble." Bloody's voice came through the Leech Pods once again. "Alright, I'll give you the coordinates."

Bloody called Bai who had left far away over after showing it the coordinates.

"What exactly do you want?" Bai advanced towards the Ghastly Crown while looking mad.

"Xiao Bai Bai, I've told you that we'll team up to kill imperial-level prey." The Ghastly Clown winked at Bai.

"I'm not interested in that. You can go on your own," Bai rejected directly and turned around, about to leave.

"The Boss has agreed that you'll be my assistant. I'll be fighting. You just have to cheer me on from the side." The Ghastly Clown grinned as he spoke.

Bai looked doubtful at the Leech Pods, clearly seeking confirmation from Bloody.

"Master said it's for him to learn a lesson." Bloody's voice came through the Leech Pods again.

Hearing what Bloody said, Bai understood Lin Huang's intentions immediately and nodded. "Let's go then."

The duo turned into black and gold bright glows as they turned around, heading towards their new target.

"Xiao Bai Bai, I won't mind if you'd like to help me. If you fight, I'll try my very best to assist you. If you don't want me to help, I'll cheer you on from the side…"

"It's you who chose the opponent. I'll be stealing your limelight if I interfered. I'll cheer on for you in my heart." Bai turned around and looked at the Ghastly Clown while smirking.

The hunt went on for two days. In his dark-red armor, Lancelot led nine sword servants as they killed a variety of monsters along the way. He obtained Life Power and finally accomplished Lin Huang's mission, which was to elevate him to immortal-level rank-9.

Besides him, the nine sword servants under him were elevated to immortal-level rank-9 too. They experienced an immense boost in their ability.

A cold gleam flashed through Lancelot's eyes when he looked at the nine sword servants.

"Bloody, help me find triple mutated Sword Dao monsters. Their combat strength must be on immortal-level rank-9."

"No problem. But there aren't many such monsters on the second layer of the Abyss Brink. I've only found three at the moment," Bloody replied immediately.

"It's alright. Three is good enough. We'll look for more slowly if it's necessary in the future. Please send me the coordinates." Lancelot nodded.

After he was done communicating with Bloody, Lancelot gathered his nine sword servants.

They were the Fiery Swordfiend with fire attributes, the Frigid Swordswoman with frost attributes, the Luminescent Angelwing with light attributes, the Hatted Swordsman with many swords, the Sword Knight with a sword and a shield, the Swordfiend Soldier with a greatsword, the Cursed Swordfiend that was an expert in assassination, the Sword Dominator who could manipulate swords, and the Spiritsword Supreme in sword form.

"To the nine of you, double mutation isn't enough if all of you want to follow me in the future. Immortal-level rank-9 is the limit of double mutation and you won't be able to reach imperial-level. Meanwhile, it's just a matter of time for me to go up to imperial-level. If your combat strength stays on immortal-level rank-9, I'll have to replace you guys when necessary."

The nine sword servants had special skills of their own while they were the best of the best among the double mutated monsters. However, Lancelot thought it was not good enough because being immortal-level rank-9 was basically the end for a double mutated monster's combat strength. Their chances of breaking through and stepping into imperial-level were slim.

Many of the sword servants changed their expressions as soon as Lancelot said that.

"Sword Master, please don't refrain from telling us what you need us to do directly," the Spiritsword Supreme who took the sword form spoke right away. It seemed to grasp the underlying meaning of what Lancelot said.

"Alright then, I'll be straightforward. I hope that you guys can achieve a triple mutation. I have an idea on how to get you guys there." Lancelot paused and glanced at the nine of them before he proceeded to speak, "But it's extremely risky for you guys to carry out this plan. You might even die while you're at it."

"Sword Master, please do tell!" It was the Sword Dominator who could not wait to hear what Lancelot's plan was.

Meanwhile, the other sword servants looked at Lancelot with anticipation.

"I have a secret skill that can replace the Life Fire in your bodies, but there are four preconditions to perform this secret skill.

"Firstly, it can only be used on my sword servants. Secondly, the substitute and the monster to be replaced must be skilled in Sword Dao.

"Thirdly, the sword servant will have to kill the monster to be replaced. The other sword servants can help, but their combat strength can't be higher than the monster's. The mutation level must be lower than the monster's as well.

"Lastly, the monster to be replaced must have the exact combat strength with the sword servant.

"To put simply, you guys will have to kill immortal-level rank-9 triple mutated Sword Dao monsters. I'll use the secret skill to retrieve the rank-3 Life Fire from the monster's body and replace the rank-2 Life Fire in your bodies."

The nine sword servants realized the difficulty of the plan as they listened.

To be able to achieve triple mutation, they would have to kill other triple mutated monsters on the same level. A triple mutated monster was much powerful than a double mutated monster, let alone monsters of Sword Dao with powerful attack strength.

Although they had the upper hand in quantity since it was nine against one, it was possible for a powerful triple mutated monster of Sword Dao to kill them with a single swing of a sword.

Moreover, the more sword servants elevated to triple mutation, the fewer of them could participate in the killing. In other words, with fewer of them killing the monster, the more difficult it would be. Especially for the last one to elevate, the sword servant would have to fight the triple mutated monster on his own since the remaining sword servants had elevated to triple mutation and they could no longer help.

Naturally, Lancelot hid a fact here.

Although he and the sword servants who completed the elevation would not be able to participate in the killing, they could share their skills. Lancelot could share his skills with the sword servants while the power of the skills could be copied 100%.

The reason he hid this fact from them was that he hoped his sword servants would fight with their own might without thinking of having a plan B to fall back on.

"Only three monsters of Sword Dao fit the requirements in this area, so only three of you can elevate first. The three that I've picked are the Hatted Swordsman, the Swordfiend Soldier, and the Fiery Swordfiend."

…

In her black armor, Kylie flapped her dozen black wings that were as sharp as blades on her back slightly as she hovered in mid-air, watching the battle beneath.

The 368 troops of the Nephilic Judge army in silver armor formed a killing formation as they fought a triple mutated immortal-level rank-9 monster.

These Nephilic Judges were only double mutated beings while most of their combat strength was only on immortal-level rank-5 or rank-6. However, their combat strength was on par with an imperial-level black gold-rank powerhouse when they performed the formation.

Even Kylie herself found it hard to believe. Theoretically, such a difference should not be possible with hundreds of Nephilic Judges. However, she achieved it with the formation inheritance she received from the black rock. Not only were the Nephilic Judges fighting hard against the immortal-level rank-9 triple mutated monster, but they had also completely oppressed the monster.

In less than ten minutes, this triple mutated monster that was just slightly less powerful than Kylie was killed on the spot. It did not manage to fight back even once from the beginning until the end. Not a single Nephilic Judge was harmed.

"If it were me, I might have needed two to three hours to kill this monster…" Kylie watched everything above the battlefield. The triple mutated monster that died was powerful, but the formation the Nephilic Judges came up with was even more domineering.

As her mind wandered off for a moment, Kylie suddenly noticed something happening among the Nephilic Judges.

There was a glaring white glow kindling within an immortal-level rank-7 Nephilic Judge. Other Nephilic Judges moved away and watched what was happening curiously.

Kylie was shocked to see threads coming out of the white glow gradually and wrap around the Nephilic Judge slowly. "Is it going to perform a triple mutation?!"

Meanwhile, Lin Huang who was thousands of kilometers away watched the scene through Bloody's projection.

"They'd be an invincible army if more than 300 Nephilic Judges complete the triple mutation at once!" Lin Huang's eyes lit up as he watched.

"The last hit was performed by this Nephilic Judge that's going through the mutation now," Bloody narrated its observation.

"So, do you mean these Nephilic Judges will mutate automatically as soon as they kill a triple mutation monster?" Lin Huang raised his brows. "But this isn't the first triple mutated monster that Kylie's army has killed. Am I right?"

"The monster that's just been killed is a spirit type monster. Maybe it's related to that," Bloody speculated.

"So, it's similar to the terms of Kylie's evolution back then. It's just that the condition to elevate their combat strength is stricter now," Lin Huang mumbled softly, "The monster the Nephilic Judges kill must be triple mutated dark creatures. Nephilic Judges would've to complete the trial on the monster that suits the conditions for the elevation to happen."

As he had no bond with these Nephilic Judges, Lin Huang could not see their specific information. He had to speculate about most things.

"This is just a speculation for now, but we can get Kylie to lead them and test that out," Bloody suggested.

"Tell Kylie then. If she still has full control over these Nephilic Judges after they've elevated, then let her do it. If these Nephilic Judges will provoke her power after they've elevated, there's no need for them to elevate." Lin Huang made up his mind decisively.

Even though the elevation of the Nephilic Judges would make them a powerful army, Lin Huang hoped that it would not turn into grave trouble. If Kylie was unable to control such a powerful army, it would mean that these elevated Nephilic Judges would rebel anytime and turn into her enemies. Such tremendous power would become disastrous as soon as they came together and might even be used by other organizations. It would be better if they were smothered in the cradle before a disaster happened.

The moonlight was shining brightly late at night.

There were two powerful aurae colliding into each other repetitively above a lake in the second layer of the Abyss Brink.

Many of them who had been to the Abyss Brink would know the name of the lake – Black Water Lake.

Due to the existence of imperial-level monsters, many immortal-level human powerhouses treated this lake as a forbidden land which made it hard to discover.

If anyone who learned about the lake was nearby, one glance was enough for the person to recognize the master of the lake which was fighting above the lake at the moment: the black gold-rank Devil Ray.

Meanwhile, a pitch-black gigantic boa was fighting the Devil Ray at the moment. The boa was 9,000 meters long while there was a human-form monster in black armor standing steadily on its head. The monster had a faint layer of black mist surrounding its body.

A similar thing was happening above a snowy area thousands of kilometers away.

A gigantic boa was also carrying a black-armored monster in a human form and fighting a black gold-rank Frost Bear.

However, the boa disappeared in the middle of the battle. The human-form monster with an unknown aura lingering around its body experienced a boost in its combat strength. It was elevated to crimson gold-rank.

The battle turned one-sided later on.

In less than three minutes, the head of the powerful Frost Bear was chopped off. Bright, red blood splashed all over from its severed neck, dyeing the snow red. It was like a red rose being painted on a piece of white paper.

"Everyone has accomplished their mission in less than three days and has gone up to immortal-level rank-9," Bloody reported its observation, "Some of them even took the initiative to kill imperial-level monsters."

"It's the third day tomorrow. Should we call all of them back?"

"There's no need. Most of them are trying something new. It's good to let them practice, but Thunder, Bloody Robe, the Malachian Fiend, and the Inferior Imp should be done having their fun. We can change the teams now." Lin Huang came up with a plan ahead.

Lin Huang could not stand some of the repulsive addictions that Bloody Robe had when he teamed up with Thunder.

Meanwhile, the Malachian Fiend and imp duo had the bad habit of torturing and tricking their prey. However, that was something that was planted deep in the Malachian Fiend's bones and there was no way to eradicate it at all. Their behavior might worsen if they were ordered to stop behaving that way in the long run. All Lin Huang could do was to take the opportunity to let them release it moderately.

"Is there still nothing about the crack in the world at all?"

"No, my Leech Pods have spread all over the second layer of the Abyss Brink these few days, but they found nothing. Nothing odd has happened recently to the monsters that were parasitized. I'll need more time to investigate this further."

"There's no rush. I haven't even collected half of the spiritual energy. We'll need to stay for three or four more days, or even longer." Getting Bai and the rest to kill in teams allowed them to obtain Life Power and, on the other hand, obtain spiritual energy to fill the God's Figurine in his body.

"Bai and the rest have killed at least over 300 monsters these few days whereby the lowest combat strength of the monsters was immortal-level rank-9. How come you haven't collected the full spiritual energy? Is the conversion rate very low?" Bloody could not help but ask.

"Yes, even with the God's Figurine protection, the spiritual energy needs to be filtered by the Divine Fire. The spiritual energy's conversion success rate is less than 1%." Lin Huang looked helpless as he spoke. "But that's not entirely bad. At least, the converted spiritual energy will be extremely pure and won't be affected by the Divine Fire again."

The third night was the due date of the mission Lin Huang had assigned to them. All of them thought that the time given was too short and they were not done having fun.

Initially, they had accepted this mission for the junk food reward or other things that they desired. However, without Lin Huang by their side for the past few days, almost all of them unleashed their true monster characters.

When Bloody sent Lin Huang's order across for them to continue with the killing through his Leech Pods, Tyrant and the rest almost cheered.

However, some of them were unhappy, including Thunder, Bloody Robe, the Malachian Fiend, and the Inferior Imp.

After recalling the four of them into cards, Lin Huang summoned the Herculean King, Bing Wang, Killer and the Evil Dominator.

Killer and the Evil Dominator were two pseudo-mythical-level monsters, and it was the first time Lin Huang had summoned them. They teamed up with Bing Wang and the Herculean King to begin a new round of killing.

Lin Huang had been watching the two teams as he was worried.

However, the truth revealed that his concern was unnecessary as the two pseudo-mythical-level monsters were invincibly powerful. Although they only had a combat strength of immortal-level rank-7, they won the battle in less than a minute when they encountered triple mutated monsters of immortal-level rank-9.

The two apes only realized that the teammates they had never met before were the real bosses after seeing them fight.

"Pseudo mythical-level is so much more powerful than legendary-level. I wonder how powerful a real mythical-level Monster Card is!" Lin Huang became excited looking at the duo's performance.

The two pseudo-mythical-level monsters led the two apes and elevated to immortal-level rank-9 that night itself. The reason why the two teams had such high efficiency was that the two pseudo-mythical-level monsters would cripple the prey since they advanced to immortal-level rank-9. Then, they would get the two apes to kill them directly.

Ever since they got to immortal-level rank-9, Killer and the Evil Dominator brought their burden along to fight imperial-level monsters.

If they were in other teams, the two apes might have been able to share the responsibility and be of great help. However, in the shadow of these two pseudo-mythical-level bosses, the two apes had no opportunity to fight at all. They ended up being their transportation vehicles and would sometimes cheer for them.

"The Herculean King and Bing Wang seemed to be treated as transportation vehicles now. They hardly get out to move around, these poor babies…" Even Bloody could not take it any longer. As opposed to the two Dark Crescent Snakes which had the opportunity to fight with the Knights, the two apes completely became benchwarmers.

"It's my fault. I miscalculated the two pseudo mythical-level monsters' abilities. I should've paired the two apes up instead while letting Killer and the Evil Dominator be on the same team." Lin Huang was not sure to laugh or to cry. "The only thing I can do is to make up with free time for the Herculean King and Bing Wang next time."

Time flew by and soon three days passed. The spiritual energy of the three God's Figurine in Lin Huang's body had been finally filled to the amount he expected.

Bai and the rest killed tens of black gold-rank monsters throughout the past few days.

There were not many imperial-level monsters on the entire second level of the Abyss Brink, let alone black gold-rank monsters. The news of a massive amount of black gold-rank monsters being killed was spread a few days ago, so many of the black gold-rank monsters hid. However, Bloody found most of them while a handful of them ran to the third level of the Abyss Brink.

Since that was the case, Bai and the rest could only hunt for immortal-level rank-9 monsters which were abundant in the Abyss Brink.

Meanwhile, Killer and the Evil Dominator challenged a crimson gold-rank monster each which ended up to be a tie. They then retreated respectively.

Later on, the two pseudo-mythical-level monsters proceeded to challenge more crimson gold-rank monsters. They won some and lost some, but did not manage to kill any.

The two apes, on the other hand, were put into a team when the two pseudo-mythical-level monsters were challenging their first crimson gold-rank monster. They proceeded to kill immortal-level rank-9 monsters.

Among the nine sword servants that Lancelot was leading, three of them completed triple mutation.

Meanwhile, on Kylie's side, only 16 monsters completed triple mutation. The truth proved that Nephilic Judges would really have to go through a trial to advance into triple mutated Nephilic Angels. However, the success rate of elevation was less than 10%.

Too many things had happened throughout the past three days, but Bloody had yet to find anything about the crack in the world.

Lin Huang even began to suspect the new crack might not be on this level.

"If the imperial-level skinless monster managed to pass through the crack, it proves that the crack must either be on the second or third level of the Abyss Brink. The reason being that there's a limitation on the first level whereby imperial-levels can't enter. Now that we can't find it on the second level, the only possibility is that the new crack's on the third level."

"Please give me two more days. Let me look for it thoroughly one more time." Bloody refused to give up.

At midnight of the fourth day, Bloody exclaimed out of nowhere, "I've found it!"

"Found it!"

Bloody finally managed to find the new crack after it looked around.

Lin Huang was shocked as it projected the scene monitored by the Leech Pods.

"Isn't that the crack that we discovered earlier? Is the seal no longer working?!"

The location displayed on the screen was the crack Lin Huang had discovered in a cave a few months back. The wall looked exactly the same.

Right at this moment, the black mist was coming out from the purple-black crack as if it was alive, spreading out from the fissure.

"It's not because the seal is no longer working. Instead, the second crack was found in the same position," Bloody said, projecting an image. "This is the photo I captured earlier. You can compare them."

"It seems like there are some cracks that look different over there." Lin Huang could immediately recognize the differences between them.

"That's not the point," Bloody explained, "If you were to look at it carefully, you should realize that the crack initially looks like a huge spider web. The additional crack is just another spider web. The new spider web is a new channel and it's completely different from the seal that you discovered a few months ago."

After listening to Bloody's explanation, Lin Huang soon realized that it was correct. The new crack seemed to be overlaid with the original crack. One would feel that the original crack was spreading, which was not true. Just like what Bloody said, there were two spiders forming two spider webs that were completely different in the same position.

"I didn't discover it earlier as there used to be a crack over there. I didn't pay close attention to it. Until today, the black mist was released from the crack. Only then did I notice that something was wrong." Bloody had put a lot of effort into looking for the crack. It did not expect it to be the one. "I felt the same too. I thought there was something wrong with the seal. After observing it carefully, I noticed that it's a new channel created after the previous channel was sealed."

"Let's go there and have a look."

Lin Huang immediately flew into the sky, heading towards the cave where the Devil's Psykid had been a few months ago.

It took him more than an hour to reach there. He then immediately recorded the latest situation of the new crack in the cave with his Emperor's Heart Ring as well as capturing some high-definition images.

It was about 2 a.m. now after getting all this done.

"Bloody, you may stay at the Abyss Brink and monitor the killing process of Bai and the rest. I have somewhere else to go." Lin Huang immediately gave new instructions as he got out of the cave.

The Emperor's Heart Ring had no network connection and signal in the Abyss Brink, so Lin Huang had to leave the Abyss Brink if he wanted to send the message.

Lin Huang immediately strode into it after activating his dimensional portal.

Bloody waited at the entrance of the cave where the crack was, patiently waiting for Lin Huang to return.

As he passed through the entrance of the Abyss Brink, Lin Huang immediately sent the videos and photos he recorded in the cave to Yao Lan and dialed her number as well.

Lin Huang did not know many people in Division 3. Yao Lan was royalty and also the member of the Adventurer's Paradise. In addition to her previous task being related to the crack in the world, Lin Huang had thought of her in the first place.

It was about 2 a.m. now. However, Lin Huang's video call request was answered in just a heartbeat.

"Why are you disrupting my sleep in the middle of the night?!"

As soon as Yao Lan's voice was heard, Lin Huang could see from the video that the room was brightly lit and Yao Lan had just gotten up from her bed. Her upper body was exposed outside the blanket and she was naked…

"Ah!"

Seeing that the person in the video call was Lin Huang, Yao Lan was shocked. Soon, she heard an ear-piercing scream. She immediately grabbed the blanket to cover her body and wrapped herself tightly in the blanket. Not even her neck could be seen. She then shifted her gaze towards Lin Huang.

"Lin Xie, what did you see?"

"No, I didn't see anything," Lin Huang answered innocently with his palms up.

"You did!"

"I saw nothing for real…" Lin Huang mumbled, "You're flat-chested like a boy. What can I see?"

"What did you say?!" Yao Lan heard it clearly and she got even angrier.

"I didn't say anything. I have something serious to tell you." Lin Huang immediately changed the topic.

"It's 2 a.m. now and you're making a video call. Do you think that I'm that close to you?!"

"There's another crack that's appeared at the second layer of the Abyss Brink." Lin Huang knew very well that there was no need to continue the conversation with her, so he went straight to the point. "I've just sent the videos and photos to you. Have a look first."

Yao Lan was stunned. She rolled her eyes at Lin Huang then tapped the images open and videos. She frowned.

"Isn't the position similar to the one discovered earlier? Was it unsealed?"

"It's the same position, but it's a different crack." Lin Huang shared Bloody's observation, "You'll know once you compare it to the photo that was taken previously."

"I got it. I'll check whether if it's true later. If it is, I'll make a report immediately." Yao Lan nodded her head. Just as she was about to hang up the call, a question ran through her mind. "Why did you go back to the cave?"

"I'm hunting for monsters. I went back to the cave to have a look since I was nearby. I then saw what was captured in the videos and photos." It was impossible for Lin Huang to tell Yao Lan that he had killed an imperial-level monster and had gotten the clue from the monster. Therefore, he then lied to her.

"Can you please tell a more plausible lie?" Yao Lan knew that he was lying.

"I'm telling the truth. Let it be if you don't trust me." Lin Huang shrugged his shoulders.

"I'm not going to trust you." Yao Lan knew that she would not find anything out from him and did not bother talking nonsense to him any longer. She then hung up the call.

Lin Huang grinned after she hung up the video call. "She's really flat-chested like a boy…"

Lin Huang did not go to the cave after he returned to the Abyss Brink. He recalled Bloody instead and did not meet Yao Lan as well.

One of the reasons was that the flat-chested lady would get him into trouble.

Another reason was that when he last met her, he was only on crimson flame-level. His combat strength had leveled up to immortal-level rank-3 in less than half a year. Such an upgrade was unusual.

The crack in the world was found and he had informed the person-in-charge as well. Lin Huang had basically completed his task at the Abyss Brink.

"The last thing to do now is to obtain the cross-ranking reward!" Lin Huang had gathered 30 cross-ranking rewards from immortal-level rank-1 to rank-3.

Since he had used the Combat Strength Upgrade Card, the system did not consider the imperial-level skinless monster that Lin Huang killed a few days ago as a cross-ranking kill. Otherwise, there would be 29 cross-ranking rewards remaining.

"My combat strength is now on immortal-level rank-3. It belongs to beginner-level immortal-level. My combat strength can still be upgraded to black gold-rank if I were to combine the Knight and Integration skills." Xiao Hei had given a detailed explanation regarding the upgrade in combat strength when the Knight and Integration skills were activated. For a beginner-level immortal-level, authority would be restricted to black gold-rank. Despite achieving immortal-level rank-3 whereby Lin Huang's body could barely manage to withstand the combat strength of crimson gold-rank, the level of authority he had would not change. Only an immortal-level rank-4 to rank-6 would be granted the authority of crimson gold-rank.

"I suppose yellow gold-rank is sufficient to perform a cross-ranking kill since the second layer of the Abyss Brink can only bear monsters of yellow gold-rank. The efficiency of killing them will be increased if Killer and the Evil Dominator are summoned." Lin Huang pieced his plan together and soon, he decided his first hunting target.

"The first monster to kill is the Rakshasa Mother. It's never too late for revenge. It seems like it's been less than half a year since I last came."

Lin Huang encountered the Rakshasa Mother when he entered the Abyss Brink for the first time to hunt for the Devil's Psykid.

The Devil's Psykid was the Rakshasa Mother's adopted son. After Lin Huang killed it, he was attacked by the Rakshasa Mother.

The Rakshasa Mother's clone chased after him until he escaped to the first layer of the Abyss Brink. Finally, Lin Huang managed to kill its clone with his God Crasher.

As the saying went, every dog had its day.

Lin Huang was going to take revenge that day.

Along with the Regal Sword Killer and the Evil Dominator, Lin Huang rode on Charcoal's back and arrived at the Rakshasa Mother's lair.

"It's you!" The Rakshasa Mother saw Lin Huang from afar and could recognize him at first glance.

Less than half a year had passed. The Devil's Psykid had been the one with the greatest potential among all its adopted sons, so of course, it could clearly remember how Lin Huang looked like since he had murdered the Devil's Psykid.

"It seems like you can still remember me, Rakshasa Mother." Lin Huang lowered his head, shifting his gaze towards the Rakshasa Mother in its red robe.

Catching a glimpse of Lin Huang, the Rakshasa Mother soon noticed Charcoal and the two pseudo-mythical-levels. Seemingly, she did not notice anything special about the Regal Sword Killer and the Evil Dominator. Soon, it shifted its focus back to Lin Huang.

"There are three triple mutated immortal-level rank-9 monsters and a dragonkin. It's a solid combination, but their combat strength is rather weak. Human brat, do you think that you're capable of fighting me with your three little monster pets? I have to admit that you're too naïve and a little cute."

The Rakshasa Mother stood about 1.8 meters tall in its red robes. It had a curvy body and was extremely seductive. It was beautiful and it spoke like a human.

However, Lin Huang knew that the monster could disguise itself as any female creature it had ever seen. Only when it was emotionally aroused or engaged in a fight would it reveal its true self. It had a green, ghastly face with fangs. One would not describe it as beautiful at all.

"You'll know soon enough whether if I'm capable of fighting you or not." After uttering those words, Lin Huang's Knight skill was activated. Charcoal and his combat strength immediately grew to black gold-rank.

The Rakshasa Mother was surprised by what unfolded before it. "It's indeed a great skill to level up straight away from immortal-level rank-3 to black gold-rank. However, if that's your trump card, perhaps you won't even have a chance to run away later."

"I'm an imperial-level rank-3 on yellow gold-rank. If you were to ask for help from three monsters on crimson gold-rank, you might get me into trouble. At least, you'd have a higher chance of running away. However, since this is the case, the four of you came to me by yourself and you're going to be my snack. Hmm, I can imagine that you're going to be delicious," the Rakshasa Mother cackled, licking its lips.

"It still remains unknown who's the one who has to be extra careful." Lin Huang did not want to talk nonsense to it. After sending a message via his mind, Charcoal was the first one to launch an attack.

It opened its mouth wide, black dragon flames beginning to gush out of its mouth and covering an area with a circumference that spanned tens of kilometers in an instant.

"You've destroyed my lair. You're digging your own grave!"

Along with the yell, dragon flames spat out of the Rakshasa Mother's mouth. Its entire body was covered by a layer of red Life Power. Seemingly, it could defend itself against flames to a certain degree as it did not seem to be injured by the dragon flames. Its once pretty face turned green with fangs while two glimmers of bluish green light glowed in its eyes.

Just as the dragon flames struck, the Rakshasa Mother immediately flew up into the sky, pouncing towards Lin Huang and Charcoal.

Right at that moment, a shadow appeared in front of it abruptly.

Before the Rakshasa Mother could figure out who was blocking its way, a black sword glow flashed in the air. The sword glow streaked across the sky and spanned hundreds of meters, resembling a gulf that blocked the Rakshasa Mother's way.

Sensing the danger coming from the sword glow, the Rakshasa Mother's flaming eyes dilated. "That's incredible!"

It did not dare to fight it straight away. Pointing its finger at the crack in the air that was tens of meters long, it instantly collided with the gulf-like black sword glow.

A snap was heard. Soon after, the crack and the sword glow collapsed at almost the same time.

Just as the Rakshasa Mother appeared again, another sword glow that looked exactly the same struck from behind.

Even Lin Huang was startled. Two Regal Sword Killers blocked the Rakshasa Mother's way. One of them came from the front whereas the other came from behind. They looked exactly the same.

However, Lin Huang soon figured out what was happening now. The Evil Dominator had transformed itself into the Regal Sword Killer.

Lin Huang could still remember that one of the skills possessed by the Evil Dominator was called Evil Blood Substitute. As long as it managed to obtain one drip of its target's drop of blood, it could create a clone that looked exactly the same as its target. Also, it could perfectly duplicate all the abilities of its target. Even if the substitute was killed, it would not die. It could still create another clone and continue the battle.

It was apparent that it had borrowed blood from the Regal Sword Killer, creating a clone that looked exactly the same as the latter and perfectly inherited the Regal Sword Killer's abilities.

The Regal Sword Killer itself was shocked when it saw what just happened.

The Rakshasa Mother felt that it was facing difficulties that it had never encountered before after being attacked by the two Regal Sword Killers.

It used to think that they were only on immortal-level rank-9. Despite the fact that they were triple mutated monsters with special bloodlines in their body, it would be amazing if their abilities were on par with a black gold-rank's. However, it seemed like the two monsters were of crimson gold-rank.

"Have the two of you… Gone through deification?!" The Rakshasa Mother exclaimed.

A deified 1 monster was a monster that had gone through its fourth mutation.

"No. We're just halfway through deification," Killer admitted its weakness.

The Evil Dominator then continued, "Otherwise, I'd be able to kill you on my own."

In fact, if Killer and the Evil Dominator were not of pseudo-mythical-level but true mythical-level, Lin Huang would have been unable to summon them with his current level of authority.

The Rakshasa Mother was slightly relieved. However, it began to have its guard up and staying aware of Lin Huang who had yet to fight. It knew that since Lin Huang was capable of taming the two monsters, his abilities could probably be much stronger than the monsters.

Still, Lin Huang who was in mid-air did not launch an attack.

He could tell that the Rakshasa Mother had not given its all yet. It was still capable of fighting the three of them. Occasionally, it managed to strike out at the two Regal Sword Killers as well as fighting Charcoal.

The intense battle lasted for about half an hour. However, no flaw was found in the Rakshasa Mother's attack.

Lin Huang knew that it was meaningless if he were to continue waiting.

He then brandished his sword, unleashing his Thunder Sting.

It was an extremely quick attack and was more than 10 times quicker than Killer's maximum speed. His sword appeared right in front of the Rakshasa Mother at almost the same time when he wielded his sword.

The Rakshasa Mother was unable to defend against it in time. It moved its body slightly, attempting to dodge the attack.

However, it was unable to act as fast as Lin Huang's sword. Despite not being annihilated by the attack, a wound that was about 10 centimeters long was formed on the right side of its waist. One could even see its internal organs through its wound.

He joined the battle with a powerful offense, severely injuring the Rakshasa Mother in just one hit.

One must not underestimate the injury caused by an expert-grade demigod relic.

Lin Huang did not hold back against his opponent. He did not even give the Rakshasa Mother a chance to breathe. The second attack was then launched.

The Rakshasa Mother felt a strong sense of doom advancing towards it. Withstanding the pain coming from its wound, it attempted to flee. However, it was blocked by Killer and the next attack struck it.

Again, the black sword glow streaked across the sky.

It clenched its teeth, extending its claws and pouncing towards Killer. It knew that Lin Huang's attack would be much scarier.

At that second, the Evil Dominator stealthily attacked from the side.

The sword shot out rapidly like a crescent moon. There was nowhere else for the Rakshasa Mother to dodge and another wound formed on the left side of its torso.

The injury was less serious than the one caused by Lin Huang. Still, blood dripped out of its wound.

The Rakshasa Monster covered its wound with its left hand, glaring at Lin Huang and the rest with a stone cold expression on its face.

She had been struck by two consecutive attacks. She knew that she might not have the chance to use her trump card any longer if she did not use it now.

Before Lin Huang made his third attack, it summoned its trump card.

A bloody red Life Palace appeared.

The Life Palace lingering in mid-air looked like an ordinary house. It had a red roof and white walls that seemed completely new.

The wooden door of the house was automatically activated right with the arrival of the Life Palace and humanoid monsters then strode out of the door. The most surprising fact was that all the monsters looked like 15-year-old teenagers.

There were thousands of monsters like this and the one with the weakest combat strength was on immortal-level rank-9. The one with the strongest combat strength was on crimson gold-rank, placing next to the Rakshasa Mother.

However, there was only a small number of imperial-level; there were three of them. There were two crimson gold-ranks and a black gold-rank. The rest of the immortal-level rank-9s had just completed their double mutation.

They must be the Rakshasa Mother's adopted children. Oddly, their bodies did not exude the aura of a living creature.

"Kill all of them!"

The humanoid monsters immediately pounced towards Lin Huang and the three monsters after receiving the instruction from the Rakshasa Mother.

"Charcoal!"

Lin Huang was not afraid of being outnumbered by his opponents. With Charcoal's dragon flames, as long as their combat strength was weak enough, it was just a waste of effort regardless of the number of opponents.

As an advanced dragonkin that had completed its third mutation, its dragon flames would rip off the skin of the triple mutated monsters of the same rank, let alone those that were weaker in combat strength.

Charcoal was now on black gold-rank. When he encountered the double mutated immortal-level rank-9s, they would turn into ashes in less than a minute if they were tainted by its dragon flames. There would be no exception.

Upon receiving the instruction, dragon flames then gushed out of Charcoal's mouth. The ocean of black flames instantly engulfed the thousands of monsters summoned by the Rakshasa Mother.

The two teenagers on crimson gold-rank managed to break through the dragon flames and fought the two Regal Sword Killers.

Lin Huang smirked as he looked at the Rakshasa Mother. "It seems like your troops made of your children are going to die soon."

"Don't count your eggs before they hatch!" The Rakshasa Mother did not look nervous at all.

At that moment, Lin Huang heard Charcoal whisper, "They have a tremendously terrifying recovery ability. Their recovery rate is on par with the speed that my dragon flames can harm them."

Lin Huang's vision penetrated through the dragon flames with his ocular skill and he could see how the humanoid monsters looked.

Charcoal's dragon flames had destroyed their bodies at a speed visible to the naked eye. At the same time, their body recovered rapidly as well. It looked like the effect of Divine Regeneration.

"I guess it's not Divine Regeneration or any regeneration type skill. That'd consume an extremely large portion of Life Power. Their Life Power is in its active state and still at its peak condition. There are no signs of their Life Power weakening." Lin Huang felt that it was suspicious. "Moreover, Divine Regeneration is an extremely rare secret skill. It's impossible for thousands of monsters to possess such a secret skill."

"It seems like you've found out." The Rakshasa Mother noticed Lin Huang's facial expression as she smirked. "My children are immortal. Regardless of the way you use to harm them, they'll be able to recover on their own in an instant."

"This is the effect of your Life Palace." Lin Huang soon understood after listening to the Rakshasa Mother.

"You made the right guess!" The Rakshasa Mother clapped its hands and laughed. "The power of my Life Palace is called 'mother's love'. As long as my children are cultivated by my Life Palace, they'll be protected by their mother's love. No matter what injury it is, they'll instantly be nurtured by their mother's love. Therefore, my children will never be killed. Are you feeling disappointed now? Your Life Power will eventually be drained. I'm still going to be the winner!"

"I have to admit that the ability of your Life Palace is immensely strong and you've got a sound plan. However, you didn't realize that you're the weakest link in your entire plan. As long as you die, all the little monsters that have been assimilated by your Life Palace will immediately perish." Lin Huang grasped the key point.

"Then, let's see if your dragonkin is capable of killing me before its Life Power is depleted. How long can the spitting of its dragon flames last? Is it three minutes or five?" The Rakshasa Mother grinned evilly. "The only thing that I need to do is to wait until the exhaustion of its Life Power. My children will be able to get rid of its dragon flames then."

"Trust me. You'll never be able to wait until its Life Power is depleted."

Lin Huang did not bother to explain any further as he encountered another opponent that mistakenly estimated the timing of the dragon flames.

With his black gold-rank combat sword in hand, he brandished his sword with his fastest skill, Thunder Sting.

His legendary-level sword skill, Star Dome, was used as an outline and the pseudo-mythical-level Almighty Surgical Knife was the core of the skill. There were also hundreds of human and monster sword skills being integrated as the basis of the skill. His Level-5 sword realm would play a leading role. The modified Thunder Sting could never be compared to an ordinary epic-level sword skill.

Thunder Sting maximized the speed of the sword attack. Each attack was unleashed at lightning-fast speed. The attack struck just as he brandished his sword.

The same thing happened to the yellow gold-rank Rakshasa Mother as well. It was unable to capture the entire process when Lin Huang advanced. It could see that him brandishing his sword. In the next moment, it appeared right in front of it and his black gold-rank combat sword then struck it.

It attempted to block the attack with its claws.

In mid-air, ten black claws hindered the attack from the black sword that looked like a crescent moon.

Right at this moment, tens of daggers shot out of Lin Huang's sleeve, streaking across the sky. The daggers then made their way through the Rakshasa Mother's arms and crushed its vital parts.

The Rakshasa Mother's pupils dilated. The attack was out of its expectations.

It stomped hard and immediately retreated as its body made several turns in the air and managed to avoid most of the attacks. Still, a few of the daggers managed to penetrate through its body.

Lin Huang did not give it any chance to rest. Before it could balance itself, his Thunder Sting was unleashed again.

It appeared right in front of the Rakshasa Mother in a flash.

The Rakshasa Mother felt a strong sense of doom as it was struck by the attack. It retreated again and the wounds on its body did not have time to heal.

Lin Huang flourished his sword which sliced at the Rakshasa Mother like tarsal bone maggots.

The Rakshasa Mother extended its claws and collided with his sword. A loud clang was heard and the aftershock of the collision spread throughout an area that was tens of kilometers away.

Lin Huang took a step in the air and chased after it.

Both of them then pursued each other and the battle lasted for about ten minutes.

The Rakshasa Mother was severely injured. However, Charcoal's Life Power had not been drained yet and its children had no way to get rid of the dragon flames.

Lin Huang did not expect the Rakshasa Mother to withstand the attack for so long.

It was just trying to dodge Lin Huang's attack, not initiating any attack at all because it wanted to drag the battle on.

However, it never knew that with the condition that Lin Huang and Charcoal could both share their Life Power, it would be impossible to drain Charcoal's Life Power. Its Life Power would never be emptied despite spitting dragon flames for three days and three nights.

The Rakshasa Mother that was severely injured withstood the attack for ten minutes and it seemed to have reached its limit.

"How could it be? Why can't it use up its Life Power?"

"There's something that I forgot to tell you." Lin Huang grinned as the Rakshasa Mother mumbled. "Charcoal is rather special as its Life Power can never be drained. It can continue spitting dragon flames for three days and three nights. That's why I told you that you won't have the chance to wait until its Life Power is depleted."

The Rakshasa Mother was stunned. Although it did not completely believe what Lin Huang said, from the aura released by Charcoal, it could tell that Charcoal's Life Power had never become weak.

As the saying went, one false step might ruin you forever. The Rakshasa Mother had risked its own life because of a misjudgment.

Thousands of immortal-level rank-9s and a black gold-rank were drowned in the dragon flames and they had no way of escaping. The two crimson gold-ranks were fighting the two monster pets and could hardly escape from them as well.

They were unable to fight Lin Huang even if they were to fight face to face. The situation had worsened as the Rakshasa Mother was now severely wounded and had to fight Lin Huang on its own.

After checking its own condition, the Rakshasa Mother pondered to itself. It decided to continue defending itself from Lin Huang's attack while waiting for its children to escape from the dragon flames. Still, it did not believe that Charcoal's Life Power was inexhaustible.

Its heart sank as time passed.

11 minutes, 12 minutes…

As it reached the 16th minute, it could not hold it any longer.

His Thunder Sting that was akin to a black electric glow streaked across the sky, piercing through the Rakshasa Mother's neck.

Immediately, blood began to drip out of its wound and soon, its head fell off. Blood then gushed out of its neck like a fountain, splashing all over the sky.

After the Rakshasa Mother's death, the red house lingering in mid-air broke into pieces.

The body of the two crimson gold-rank monsters that fought the two Regal Sword Killers began to collapse. Besides that, the thousands of monsters that were shrouded in the dragon flames began to collapse.

After a couple of moments, everything turned into ashes.

Aside from the dead body of the woman with a broken head, there were only traces of blood splatter that remained…

Soon, three days had passed.

In the past three days, Lin Huang along with Charcoal and the two pseudo-mythical-level monsters had been busy hunting for monsters.

They managed to kill 30 imperial-level monsters in three days, slaughtering almost all the yellow gold-rank monsters in the second layer of the Abyss Brink.

Many of the imperial-level monsters went back to the third layer of the Abyss Brink when they knew this. They were afraid that they would be involved in the slaughter.

Despite Lin Huang killing all the yellow gold-rank monsters, they were completely different in terms of their strength and weaknesses.

The first Rakshasa Mother killed was not considered weak in terms of its overall ability. Among the 30 yellow gold-rank monsters, it was moderately competent. Its Life Palace was indeed strong but had been restricted by Charcoal. However, its ability was considered the worst among the rest of the yellow gold-ranks.

Lin Huang managed to kill most of the 30 yellow gold-rank monsters within an hour. It even took him less than half an hour for some of them. However, as for those that were extraordinarily strong, Lin Huang spent more than three hours destroying them.

One of the most difficult monsters to handle was a humanoid monster called the War Overlord.

It was a mechanical monster with an appearance that looked like a black metallic egg about one meter in diameter.

Although it looked ordinary, its overall ability was immensely powerful to the point that Lin Huang used up all his trump cards. Under the condition where he was not allowed to use any cards, Lin Huang had no choice but to kill it with a God Crasher.

It was also the monster that took Lin Huang the longest time to kill at exactly 6.5 hours.

During the fight, Lin Huang was overwhelmed by a few of the skills possessed by the War Overlord.

One of them was the grandmaster-level Mechanical Building. This skill enabled the use of a variety of materials to build a mechanical weapon with the best function and quality in an instant.

Another skill was known as the grandmaster-level Mechanical Recovery. The skill was capable of recovering all the weapons destroyed in an instant, transforming back into its raw materials so that they could be reused for a mechanical building.

There was also the Dimensional Shift which was somewhat similar to Kylie's teleportation. However, it was not a space warp. It was short-distance teleportation, creating an effect similar to the space warp although it was unable to create an energy wave in the space.

Another one was the ability of its Life Palace, the Intellectual Territory. All the mechanical weapons within this territory possessed an intelligence that could be compared to humans. They would automatically strike an attack and defend against their enemy, judging the right timing during a battle like an army.

Lin Huang felt that he was fighting a fort that could move.

Most of the time he seemed to be playing kites as he had to attack from afar.

There had been many times when Lin Huang was very close to his opponent, but it managed to flee with its teleportation and distance itself from Lin Huang. Nobody could approach it.

Fortunately, Lin Huang's Dark Mirror had the ability to defend and reflect. Moreover, his Life Power was supported by his Divine Fire and would not be exhausted. Eventually, he still had to use his God Crasher and kill his opponent when it was unaware of him.

He was lucky though as the War Overlord with the strongest overall ability was the only monster card through which Lin Huang obtained a complete set among the 30 king-level monsters.

"Monster Card: Unnamed

"Rarity: Legendary

"Monster Name: War Overlord

"Type of Monster: Mechanical type

"Combat Level: Immortal-level rank-9 (Yellow gold-rank)

"Life Palace: Mechanical Territory

"Major: Mechanics

"Major Skills: Mechanical Building (Grandmaster-level), Mechanical Recovery (Grandmaster-level)…

"Minor Skills: Dimensional Shift, Gunmaster, Defensive Fort…

"Summon Authority: Activated

"Card Remarks: Intensive training is recommended!"

As soon as he got the monster card, Lin Huang began to consider whether he should become a gun master.

The War Overlord's performance had simply been amazing.

The monster card was a surprise to Lin Huang as he had obtained a lot of card rewards in the past three days.

He performed a cross-ranking kill to kill a yellow gold-rank with a combat strength of immortal-level rank-1 to rank-3. He was rewarded 40 card draws each time.

There were 30 cross-ranking kills in three consecutive days. He had used 30 Double Reward Cards and was rewarded with a total of 2,400 card draws.

He had never reaped such huge rewards before this as the rewards he got covered three ranks.

Aside from that, he obtained a small reward whereby 39 of Kylie's Nephilic Judges had completed their triple mutation, evolving into six-winged Nephilic Angels.

The reward Lin Huang got during his trip to the Abyss Brink was far beyond his expectations.

It was in the early hours of the fourth day after killing the last yellow gold-rank monster.

It was meaningless for him to stay there any longer. After telling Bai and the rest, he then recalled all the monster cards and headed towards the exit of the Abyss Brink.

As he returned to the deserted city, he checked into a hotel. Lin Huang then immediately tapped open his communication page to check his messages.

He had been waiting for the news of the God Figurine when he was at the Abyss Brink. However, no news came from the black market or Yi Zheng's side.

The same thing happened now. There were three missed calls from Yao Lan. There were also two unread messages from her as well.

Lin Huang frowned and read the two messages.

The first message was sent to him three days ago. He had informed her about the crack and she sent him a message half a day later.

"I've seen the crack and it's there for real. I've sent the videos and photos as well as a report to my superior. Someone will deal with this matter."

The second message was sent to him two days ago.

"The Adventurer's Paradise and the Union Government have sent four demigods to seal the crack. At the same time, the Union Government will send investigators to each layer of the Abyss Brink to investigate whether other cracks actually exist."

"Fortunately, the crack was discovered in time as it's been formed for less than a year. The Union Government is going to reward you and you can probably choose a demigod relic. However, I've not been able to reach you in the last few days. Let me know what you want and I'll pass the message on to the person-in-charge. Please reply me as soon as possible."

Lin Huang's eyes brightened after reading the second message. "I wonder if I can get a God Figurine. It'd be amazing if I can exchange for one."

As he thought of this, he immediately replied Yao Lan with a short message. "The reward I want is pretty simple. I want a God Figurine."

"What's a God Figurine?" Yao Lan replied within seconds.

"Please keep it a secret. Just inform the Union Government that this is what I want. I guess they'd know what I'm looking for."

Yao Lan then replied with an eye-rolling emoji instantly.

Lin Huang grinned as he closed the communication page.

"If the Union Government agrees to reward me with a God Figurine, that'd be great. I can then level up to mid-level immortal-level. The combat strength of Bai and the rest will also be upgraded to black gold imperial-level. My overall abilities will have a substantial increase. If they don't agree to do so, I can make another reasonable request…"

Now that it was the end of September, the weather in the deserted city had turned cold.

Early in the morning, the sun was high in the sky. It felt warm as the sun shone down.

It was the second day since Lin Huang had come back from the Abyss Brink. He had been really tired in the past few days and he woke up at about 8 a.m. today.

After washing up, Lin Huang immediately changed his clothes, sitting on the sofa in the living room without having his breakfast.

He suddenly had three additional monster cards in hand: Killer, the Evil Dominator, and the War Overlord that had not been named.

Due to the fact that his summoning authority had previously been limited, Lin Huang was unable to extract the skills of the two pseudo-mythical-level monsters. He could now extract the skill together with the War Overlord's skill that he had just obtained.

Lin Huang showered early in the morning in anticipation that the skill would be randomly extracted for the first time. He began to extract the skills before having his breakfast with the hopes that he could pick a good one.

He somewhat had to believe in spirituality as it might probably work.

He closed his eyes, calming himself down. Then, he slowly opened his eyes.

"Xiao Hei, extract all three skills at once."

"Skill extraction activated… Randomly choosing a skill… Random selection has completed!

"Congratulations, you've obtained a skill – Mechanical Recovery (War Overlord)

"Congratulations, you've obtained a skill – Sword Realm (Killer)

"Congratulations, you've obtained a skill – Super Clone (the Evil Dominator)

"Mechanical Recovery… It seems like I can only extract Mechanical Building as the second skill. Without Mechanical Building, this skill can only be used to recover equipment to become raw materials," Lin Huang thought to himself when he saw the skill extracted from the War Overlord.

"I guess Sword Realm can integrate with my territorial skill." Lin Huang then looked at the last skill. "Super Clone. Although it's just a minor non-combat skill, it isn't weak. Seemingly, it's possible to easily integrate it with Super Disguise. However, nobody knows what the new Skill Card that will be produced is after combining them…"

The three randomly selected skills were not what Lin Huang wanted. However, they were not weak.

Taking out three Skill Extraction Cards, Lin Huang specified the skill to be extracted for the second time without hesitation.

"Xiao Hei, I want to extract Mechanical Building from the War Overlord,Killer's Sword from Killer 1 , and the Evil Dominator's Evil Blood Substitute."

"Congratulations, you've obtained a skill – Mechanical Building (War Overlord)

"Congratulations, you've obtained a skill – Killer (Killer)

"Congratulations, you've obtained a skill – Evil Blood Substitute (Evil Dominator)"

Mechanical Building was being selected as it paired perfectly with Mechanical Recovery. Having had great interest in gunfighting, Lin Huang was actually quite interested in the War Overlord's set of skills.

He thought to himself, "After obtaining the two core skills from the War Overlord, I can now figure out how they can be played… Eh, no. I mean figure out a brand new battle mode."

As for Killer, it was the Regal Sword Killer's strongest sword skill where it was on pseudo-mythical-level. Choosing this skill was like learning a pseudo-mythical-level sword skill from scratch without wasting any time.

The Evil Blood Substitute was rather different from the Golden Cicada secret skill. Without killing anybody, a clone could be created with a mere drop of blood. Its advantage was that it was extremely easy to be used. However, its weakness was that the clone could only exist for 24 hours. As for the Golden Cicada secret skill, the created clone could exist forever as long as it was not murdered and could be summoned at any time.

"Xiao Hei, activate Skill Combination Card."

"Skill Combination Card activated.

"Choose from the below two combinations.

"Combine Territorial Skills: Sword Realm, Exclusive Territory

"Combine Minor Skills: Super Clone, Super Disguise

"Are you sure you want to combine them?"

"Please do." Lin Huang nodded.

"Skill Combination Card has been consumed. Monster Skills Sword Realm and Exclusive Territory have been consumed. Producing new Skill Card…

"Congratulations, you've obtained a new card: Life Palace (Non-elemental)."

"Life Palace (Non-elemental): Creates a Life Palace whereby its ability can be defined by the user. Upon confirming the ability, Life Palace will be created.

"Remarks: It doesn't affect the formation of the imperial-level Life Palace."

…

"Skill Combination Card has been consumed. Monster Skills Super Clone and Super Disguise have been consumed. Producing new Skill Card…

"Congratulations, you've obtained a new Minor Skill Card: Perfect Disguise

"Perfect Disguise: It is a flawless disguise whereby it is able to deceive those below god-level.

"Remarks: Demigods who possess unique detection ability can probably see through it."

…

"How did I just produce a non-elemental Life Palace?!" It was an unexpected surprise to Lin Huang as he used to think that there would not be a substantial change by combining the two territorial skills.

Obtaining a non-elemental Life Palace could probably be Li Huang's greatest reward in the extraction of skills.

After completely forgetting that he had to christen the War Overlord, Lin Huang immediately recalled the three monster cards and tapped his personal data open. He then checked it.

"Host: Lin Huang

"Gender: Male

"Age: 18

"Combat Strength: Immortal-Level Rank-3

"Inheritance: Demigod's brain, One Page Sword Scripture, Sorcerer Goddess, Moon Engulf, Telekinesis

"Secret Skills: Superhuman Strength, Seraphic Speed, Substitute, Engulf Power, Golden Cicada, demon hand

"Life Palace: Unnamed Life Palace (Non-elemental)

"Sword Dao (Level-5): Possesses Sword Heart, Sword Spirit

"Sword Skills: Almighty Surgical Knife, Killer, Star Dome, Royal Sword, Wildfire, Thunder Sting, Great Sword Scripture, Hundred Flowing Blades, Mountain Blade…

"Gunfighting Technique: Thunderstorm, Sandstorm, Torrent…

"Movement Skills: Thunder Steps, Cloud Steps, Spectral Snowsteps, Imperial Flight…

"Minor: The Twisted Fate Scripture, Seamless, Fatal Tactic, Undefeatable Warrior, Heaven's Wrath, Omniscient Nature…

"Monster Skills: Telekinesis (Pseudo), Divine Regeneration (Pseudo), Holy Power, Elemental Immunity, Leech Pods, Absolute Control, Purification Light, Revival, Warrior Body, Vampire Particles, Immense Strength, Absolute Defense, Lightning Control, Dark Mirror, Doll secret skill, Punishment, Witchcraft, Knight, Integration, Mechanical Building, Mechanical Recovery, Evil Blood Substitute, Perfect Disguise.

"Summon Authority: Activated (Pseudo Mythical-Level)

"Available Number of Summons: 15

"Remarks: Finally managed to be on the same level as primary school kids."

The Life Palace alone was separated from the Monster Skills and did not occupy any of his Monster Skill slots. Exclusive Territory had disappeared from the secret skill as well.

Killer's Sword did not occupy any Monster Skills slots either. It was dragged to the sword skill slot instead.

Super Clone that had been combined with Super Disguise had also disappeared and it was replaced by the new skill, Perfect Disguise.

The remaining three monster skills had occupied three Monster Skill Slots.

"What ability should I choose for the non-elemental Life Palace?" Lin Huang took a look at his exclusive card, stroking his chin and falling into deep thought.

Lin Huang summoned the two intelligent monsters, Bloody and Ghastly to discuss the construction of the Life Palace.

According to what Lin Huang and Bloody had read and by referring to all the Life Palaces owned by the imperial-level that the three of them had encountered, it took them the entire afternoon to come up with three solutions.

The first one was most people's popular choice which was to upgrade themselves as a whole and build a Life Palace that could strengthen them in a fight.

With such an elemental Life Palace, Lin Huang would become stronger regardless of the weapon he used. Be it a sword, Life Power, gun, or even mechanical skills, they could be boosted.

The second one would suit Lin Huang best which was to simply build a Sword Dao Life Palace.

Such an elemental Life Palace could further improve Lin Huang's Sword Dao and upgrade Lin Huang's abilities directly. Such an upgrade would, of course, be much stronger than the one that improved one's ability in a fight. Furthermore, it could probably derive other abilities in his Sword Dao.

The third idea was a result of the Rakshasa Mother's Life Palace which was to structure a Life Palace that gathered all the monster cards.

The Life Palace he attempted to build was the one that possessed unlimited revival ability. After all the monster cards were inserted into the Life Palace and connected to it, the spirit would return to the Life Palace on their own each time after death. They would then be revived with Life Power and could be summoned again to engage in the next fight. As long as there was sufficient Life Power, they could be revived endlessly.

Lin Huang named the Life Palace Monster Paradise.

Bloody had something to comment about this.

"It's a great idea. However, the ability of such a Life Palace is way too complicated. Also, the building process of the Life Palace is out of your control. It might turn out not to be the effect that you desire. I personally do think that the first two ideas are rather safe. At least, its final product won't deviate much from the targeted one."

"As for me, if there are a total of 100 marks available, the first idea would've failed. The second one would get a score of 70 whereas the last idea would get 99 marks." Ghastly fully supported the third idea instead.

"I'm more inclined to the third one." After falling into deep thought, Lin Huang then decided, "If it turns out not to be the effect I desire, I'll just take it as I've never obtained a Life Palace Card before anyway."

Lin Huang then took out his Life Palace Card. "Activate Life Palace Card."

"Life Palace Card (Non-elemental) activated.

"Please name your Life Palace.

"Monster Paradise.

"Please briefly describe the ability of the Life Palace that you would like to set up in one sentence. Do not exceed 20 words."

"I want my Monster Cards to have unlimited revival abilities with my Life Power." Lin Huang intentionally restricted it to his Life Power as he was afraid that during the construction of Life Palace, other types of energy would be used to revive his Monster Cards by default. They could be spiritual energy, spiritual strength, or even one's life. All this were possibilities As for Lin Huang who possessed the Divine Fire, what he had in excess was Life Power.

"The idea is verified. Beginning construction…"

The Life Palace Card transformed into a golden stream and trickled into Lin Huang's chest.

After a short while, Lin Huang noticed that a golden palace had quickly formed in his body in less than an hour.

As soon as the luxurious golden palace was formed, all the Monster Cards in Lin Huang's body transformed into beams of lights and were inserted into it. Soon, the lights became real objects with monstrous physiques.

In the Life Palace, a dimension that looked exactly the same as Lin Huang's surroundings had been created.

The hotel room looked exactly the same and there were buildings of different heights outside it. Even the shape of the clouds looked exactly the same… The entire dimension was exactly the carbon copy of Lin Huang's physical world.

However, aside from Bai and the rest of the Monster Cards as well as some plants, there were no other creatures.

Lin Huang soon discovered that there was a border in the dimension of the Life Palace. If he were the center point, the area that was three kilometers away from him was separated by an invisible, hemispherical isolation layer. Bai and the rest could look at the scenery that was three kilometers away from them. However, they were unable to leave the radius. Their movements were restricted by the isolation layer.

"Perhaps this is the active range of the territory of my Life Palace." Lin Huang was not surprised by it. "As I grow stronger, the range will probably increase."

"The construction of Life Palace 'Monster Paradise' has been completed!

"Life Palace: Monster Paradise.

"Life Palace Ability: If the monster dies within the active range of the territory of the Life Palace, its spirit will return to the Life Palace and its body will be restructured with Life Power, completing the revival process."

"Territory of Life Palace: Taking the host's body as the center point, it will be within a three-kilometer radius (expandable).

"Ability Restriction: Each monster can only be revived three times at the most within 24 hours. The spirit will immediately collapse if it exceeds three times and it will be unable to return to its Life Palace (can be trained).

"Ability to Derive: None (activated for imperial-level)"

The card information was soon revealed after the construction of the Life Palace.

"In fact, it's unable to have unlimited revivals in 24 hours are pretty decent though. The number of times can be increased later on." Lin Huang was quite satisfied with the construction of the Life Palace.

He then immersed his body in his consciousness while observing the situation in the Life Palace.

Bai and the rest had separated, exploring the completely new world. Although the radius in which they could move was not large, there were quite a number of houses available. It would be good for them to familiarize themselves with the environment.

Just as Lin Huang was checking on his Life Palace, his Emperor's Heart Ring suddenly vibrated. Lin Huang immediately regained his consciousness.

Seeing that the caller of the video call was Yao Lan, Lin Huang knew that it was regarding the rewards dished out by the Union Government.

Answering the call, Yao Lan had donned an office lady look with black-framed glasses on her nose bridge.

"What is a God Figurine?" As soon as the video call was answered, Yao Lan immediately demanded.

"Good afternoon," Lin Huang greeted with a smile, completely ignoring her question.

"Stop interrupting me. I'm asking you what a God Figurine is."

"It's just a statue that's used for decoration," Lin Huang answered as he raised his brows.

"You lie! If you're not telling the truth, I'm not going to give it to you." Yao Lan intimidated him with a smile.

"You didn't manage to get it, did you?" Lin Huang said confidently.

"What makes you think so?"

"It's simply because right until now, you didn't take anything out." Lin Huang remained calm. "If you've already gotten the God Figurine, you'd have taken it out in the first place when I answered your call. You'd show off before asking me what it actually is."

"Alright, it's true that I didn't manage to get it. The Union Government has rejected your request. They said that the reward that you requested has exceeded what they can give and asked if you can request for something else," Yao Lan had no choice but to admit. Still, she did not give up and asked, "What is a God Figurine? I can't seem to find anything about it online. Apparently, the information has been blocked by the Emperor's Heart."

"It's just a unique god item. You don't need to ask anything about it anymore. For those below demigod-level, it's similar to an ordinary decorative item but its hardness is slightly stronger," Lin Huang briefly explained and changed the topic as he did not want to get into trouble. "Since I can request for something else, I'll do so. I want to be granted the highest reading authority in the central library in Division 3!"

There were a total of 183 monsters being recorded in the True Spirit Encyclopedia. Each of them was born to be a True God. Some of them were of a higher level whereby they had immense strength to destroy everything in their adult phase.

The most surprising fact was that with the visualization skill, Lin Huang only had to stare at the image of the monster for ten seconds. The image of the monster would then be created in his mind. He could visualize the growth experienced by the monster and each of its battles could clearly be seen. He was like an onlooker, watching the entire life of the monster.

However, the progress of the visualization was extremely slow.

The first monster he visualized was the sun tree. It took him exactly three days to visualize the germination of the sun tree seed. A sprout that was shorter than the little finger then grew.

"According to my current process, I guess I'll need to visualize for another ten years to be able to see the formation of the sun tree…" Lin Huang was speechless. The visualization skill was not as simple as he thought but he did not expect it to be so difficult.

"The visualization speed is related to your spiritual strength and your comprehension ability. Your comprehension ability usually won't change much. However, your spiritual strength will grow as your combat strength becomes stronger. The stronger your spiritual strength, the faster the visualization speed will be. Therefore, you definitely don't need to wait for ten years. I guess two to three years should be enough for you," the stone tablet explained. "If you happen to have a chance of epiphany, it'll probably be created in less than two years."

Two to three years were short to the stone tablet. It gave Lin Huang the True Spirit Encyclopedia for his long-term development instead of accomplishing it within one stroke.

However, two to three years were very long to Lin Huang. After all, it had been two years since he traveled to this word from Earth.

However, Lin Huang was suddenly enlightened after listening to the stone tablet.

"Epiphany can speed up the process!"

Exchanging ten card draws for an Epiphany Card, Lin Huang crushed the card without a moment of hesitation. Again, he began to visualize.

With the effect of the Epiphany Card, Lin Huang felt that his brain seemed to have detached from his body and his mind had never been so clear before.

He seemed to own the whole world and the entire growing process of the sun tree could be observed. It seemed like someone had fast-forwarded the growing process of the sun tree as well. Time passed very quickly in this dimension.

In just the blink of an eye, the sun tree that was about one meter tall grew. The Life Soul in Lin Huang's first God Figurine had completely turned into a tree with a height of one meter as well. It looked exactly the same as the tree visualized and it was surrounded by the aura of an imperial-level.

Right at that moment, the effect of the Epiphany Card disappeared. Lin Huang then snapped out of his visualization.

Before he could check on his body condition, Bloody's voice was heard.

"You've been visualizing for nine days. The reading authority that you asked Yao Lan to apply for has been approved. However, the first level of authority is only opened to you for three days and you have complete access to the second level of reading authority. She said that this is what the Union Government can do at the most. If you're not going to accept it, you can ask for other rewards."

"Also, Chan Dou from Division 1 has called you twice. He's left a message, asking you to contact him immediately once you're free. He didn't tell what has actually happened."

Lin Huang did not know that the epiphany would have taken so much of his time.

After replying Yao Lan's message regarding the reward, he immediately called Chan Dou's number.

As soon as the video call was answered, Chan Dou appeared, still looking the same. He was in his elegant white shirt, holding a green beverage in his hand.

"Lin Xie, how long has it been since you showered? You need to shave."

"I've been really busy these days. I immediately called you back as soon as I received your message. What happened?" Lin Huang then noticed that he did appear rather sloppy.

"I heard that you're looking for a God Figurine?" Chan Dou took a sip of his drink and asked.

"How did you know that?" Lin Huang was stunned.

"I have my way. I even know that you've bought the God Figurine sold at the Wanbao Auction," Chan Dou laughed as he said.

Lin Huang frowned when he heard that. The information of the VIP members at the Wanbao Auction was supposed to be kept private.

"Don't worry. Everyone has their secrets. I'm not interested in knowing the reason why you're looking for a God Figurine." Chan Dou knew what Lin Huang was worrying about. "I'm calling to tell you that I know there's a place where you can probably find one."

"Where?" Lin Huang immediately asked.

"Fallen God Land," Chan Dou uttered.

"Are you referring to the war ruins where many of the True Gods died?" Lin Huang had heard of the ruins before. It was the second largest ruins in Division 3. "Isn't it only opened to imperial-level?"

"A new crack has appeared at the Abyss Brink in Division 3 recently. Those from Division 1 and Division 2 have been investigating this issue and the crack has been discovered as well. Although we managed to seal it in time, it shows that the condition at the Abyss Brink has deteriorated. We predict that the crack will become uncontrollable within five years. However, it seems like it can't even last for three years.

"The Union Government from different divisions have been discussing this. However, they've not come up with a solution yet. There are a few things that have been confirmed. One of them is to train more transcendents, increasing the number of imperial-levels. Therefore, many of the sites and ruins that are only opened to imperial-level will be opened to immortal-levels and holy fire-levels too. The number of people allowed has been increased as well.

"Also, the Union Government and other organizations fully support the development of the Genius Union. Aside from some of the extremely dangerous areas, we have access to almost all of the ruins and sites. Only the members from the Genius Union are given the privilege to access the sites.

"The Fallen God Land in Division 3 will be activated once in 100 years. It's now about a month away from the next opening. It's going to be the first 7-star ruins opened to immortal-levels and holy fire-levels."

The 5-star ruins could be threatening to demigod-levels and the 6-star ruins could be dangerous to Virtual Gods as well. As for the 7-star ruins, they were the sites and ruins with the highest danger level and could even be threatening to True Gods.

"However, the Fallen God Land has been activated many times. It's been explored by many imperial-levels in the past." Lin Huang was not really interested in it as the 7-star ruins were too dangerous. Moreover, the ruins had been explored by many people and the rewards were very limited. The probability of obtaining the God Figurine would be too low.

"You're wrong. The area of the Fallen God Land is extremely big. The war ruins keep on drifting in the dimension and they merge with other war pieces as they drift. The area will be expanded each time during the activation of the Fallen God Land."

"Furthermore, the ruins are only opened for three months. In addition to the limited number of imperial-levels available and Division 3 not allowing people from other regions to enter, not even a fifth of the area has been explored. The area of the Fallen God Land will become larger this time and probably only a seventh or an eighth of the area has been explored," Chan Dou explained and Lin Huang began to feel excited.

"So, are you asking me to go into the ruins?"

"Yes, you're right. The Heaven Alliance was given 10 quotas and I'm going to give one to you." Chan Dou placed the beverage that he was holding down and said, "One thing good about it is that your combat strength is only on holy fire-level. The imperial-level won't fight you. The immortal-levels from other organizations won't fight you as well. In addition to you being capable of fighting the high immortal-levels, as long as you keep a low profile when you enter the ruins, most of the enemies that you'll encounter will be on holy fire-level. Therefore, you have a higher survival rate compared to the others."

Obviously, he could not sense Lin Huang's aura from the video call. Chan Dou thought that Lin Huang's combat strength was still on holy fire-level since it had just been a few months since they last met on the Stairway Tree.

Lin Huang did not bother to explain that his combat strength had been upgraded to immortal-level rank-3. He asked another question that he was rather interested in instead, "Who's the most powerful person among the immortal-levels that enter the ruins?"

"Why are you asking about this?" Chan Dou found it strange.

"I have to run away if I happen to bump into them." Lin Huang sounded reasonable.

Chan Dou was stunned. Soon, he said, "The Holy Sons from a few of the organizations are going and they're very powerful. Although they're the Holy Sons that have obtained a lower ranking, they're all supreme geniuses. They're on at least black gold-rank. The strongest one has to be the Seventh Prince. His abilities are capable of fighting a crimson gold-rank."

"The one who's capable of fighting a crimson gold-rank is only ranked seventh?!" Lin Huang was bewildered. Chan Dou and the rest who were capable of fighting crimson gold-ranks had been the Five Princes in the old days.

However, since Chan Dou sounded calm, Lin Huang began to feel that his capability of killing a crimson gold-rank was merely what Chan Dou showed the others. His true abilities could be much stronger.

"The dynasty is strong. Even among the underworlds in Division 1, their abilities are ranked the top 3. They're doing pretty well in Division 2 and Division 3. Especially in Division 3, they're undoubtedly strong. The First Prince is one of the Five Princes – Royal Infinity.

"Aside from the Holy Sons like the Seventh Prince, there are also the EA.2 members from the Union Government, the Hunter King from the Hunter Association, and the Adventure King from the Adventurer's Paradise… Their abilities can be compared to the Holy Sons from the underworld.

"Other than that, try to avoid the imperial-levels as well. Under normal circumstances, an imperial-level won't bother to fight a holy fire-level. Many of them are from the underworld and some of them might have psychological problems, so they might probably fight you."

"And also the demigods…" Lin Huang forced a smile.

"You don't need to worry about them. The demigods aren't going to enter the ruins since it's less likely they'll get an upgrade. Therefore, they gave the opportunity to the rest. Those that enter the Fallen God Land with the highest combat strength will be on purple gold-rank."

"Can you please tell me who are the nine of them that will enter the ruins?" Lin Huang asked again.

"It hasn't been confirmed yet. I've just come up with the list, but not everyone is willing to take the risk." Chan Dou had nothing to hide. "I can now confirm that Tan Lang is going. His abilities are on par with the Seventh Prince. The rest that I've chosen are those with strong survival abilities and are on immortal-level rank-9."

Among the three deputy chiefs of the Heaven Alliance, Tan Lang was one of them and he had the strongest abilities in the Heaven Alliance.

"Is Tan Lang going to be the leader? How are we going to divide the rewards then?" Lin Huang asked realistically.

"It doesn't have to be in teams. Everyone will go by themselves. As for the rewards, they belong to the person who manages to get it. The Heaven Alliance isn't going to divide the rewards. However, if there's anything you want to sell, please first consider selling it internally in the Heaven Alliance."

"Alright, I agree to join." Lin Huang then accepted the invitation to join.

"The Fallen God Land will be activated on the first of November and the gathering point is at the Magical Sky City. You may arrange your time and don't delay."

"I got it."

"It'll open on 1 November and last for three months, which means it'll be 1 February when I get out. Will I miss the New Year then?" Lin Huang checked the calendar immediately.

Next to him, Bloody spoke directly, "The New Year falls on 8 February. You'll still have time to head back to Division 7."

"Alright, great." Lin Huang was relieved, but he checked the calendar anyway as he was still a little worried. He wanted to make sure that what Bloody said was accurate. After all, he had promised Lin Xin he would go home for the New Year. The girl would definitely be hopping mad if he were to miss it.

"Is it already 28 September today?" Lin Huang also noticed the date shown on his Emperor's Heart Ring.

"I've already told you that you were in an epiphany for full nine days and your body began to smell." Bloody moved a little further away while looking disgusted.

Lin Huang pulled his shirt and sniffed it. "I really do."

He stood up from the couch and stretched his body while his bones cracked loud and clear. He then walked toward the bathroom.

After taking a shower and eating, Lin Huang returned to his room again after getting the hotel staff to clean it.

In reality, the hotel staff had been wanting to go in to clean it for the past couple of days, but they had been sent away by Bloody who had disguised as Lin Huang.

The reason why Lin Huang was not chased out of the hotel was that Bloody had been extending his stay for him.

After returning to the hotel room, Lin Huang sat with his legs crossed on the couch again after informing Bloody. He then crushed another Epiphany Card and entered the second round of the epiphany mode.

It was only a month before the opening of the Fallen God Land. He had to consolidate the combat souls as soon as possible.

For the next 20 days or so, Lin Huang spent nine days consolidating the Ninetails Lynx's combat soul and ten days consolidating the Destructive Divine Mammoth's combat soul.

At that moment, the three combat souls were formed preliminarily. All of their combat strength was on imperial-level black gold-rank.

If not for the 30 imperial-level yellow gold-rank monsters that were killed and allowing Bai and the rest stay for another three days in the Abyss Brink, the amount of spiritual energy Lin Huang accumulated might only be enough to consolidate three immortal-level rank-9 combat souls.

That was one of the God Figurine's advantages. As the God Figurine's spiritual energy storage was on par with a True God, a powerful combat soul could be consolidated as long as there was sufficient spiritual energy.

Normal immortal-level powerhouses, on the other hand, were limited to the Life Fire and Life Wheel power in their bodies. They could only consolidate combat souls that had the same combat strength as the powerhouse himself. For instance, a powerhouse with immortal-level rank-3 combat strength could only consolidate a combat soul of immortal-level rank-3 at the most. It was impossible for them to even consolidate a combat soul that was a rank higher.

After the three combat souls' consolidation, it was half a month before the opening of the Fallen God Land.

Lin Huang took a shower and changed after he was done visualizing. He packed his stuff as well.

He checked out of the hotel room on his Emperor's Heart Ring directly and stepped into the Dimensional Portal without hesitation. He arrived in No. 3A1 foothold, the Magical Sky City.

After checking into a hotel in the Magical Sky City, Lin Huang frequented the black market, the auctions and the chamber of commerce for the next few days. He purchased all sorts of metallic and non-metallic materials in bulk as well as ancient and supreme relic pieces.

For the next few days, Lin Huang put his hotel room into soundproof mode as he summoned the War Overlord to make a variety of mechanical weapons with his insane mechanical crafting skills.

He initially gave the War Overlord a cool nickname which was Metal Egg. However, due to strong objections, it was changed to Warlord.

Lin Huang did not stay idle during the days when Warlord was making mechanical weapons. He redeemed two sets of ancient relic-level telekinetic flying daggers from the Stairway Mall and began practicing Seamless.

When he was on gold flame-level, his telekinetic cultivation arrived at a bottleneck. Due to the restriction of combat strength and low spiritual force, he could no longer divide more telekinetic threads.

Now that his combat strength had experienced a three-rank leap and his spiritual force had a boost, he could divide the telekinetic threads further.

Days passed and the amount of Lin Huang's telekinetic threads did not stop growing. He had been focusing on his cultivation to the point that he did not even have time to read the news.

It was more and more crowded in the Magical Sky City these few days.

Almost every transcendent knew of this place since the Fallen God Land was the second biggest ruins in Division 7.

Although it was a grade-7 ruin that was full of danger, everyone was flocking there as they figured that this round of searching could get them something advantageous that would allow them to sky-rocket.

However, to maintain the stability of the ruins, the search was only limited to 8,000 people.

Moreover, among these 8,000 people, almost everyone in Division 3 participated apart from more than 300 imperial-level powerhouses and some other powerhouses from Division 1 and Division 2. In other words, almost all the outstanding powerhouses of Division 3 were participating.

Among the 8,000 people, at least half of them were members of the Genius Union while more than 80% of them were high immortal-levels.

Although only 8,000 people were allowed into the ruins, there were more than 8,000 transcendents in the Magical Sky City.

Almost all of the hotels in the central area of the entire Magical Sky City were fully booked. It was as crowded as the New Year.

Not only were thee transcendent powerhouses from Division 3 talking about this, but even the cultivators below transcendent level also heard of this and began all sorts of discussions on forums.

Some of them posted invitations that they had screen-shot somewhere else, and the post went viral from people commenting.

Lin Huang only received the official invitation from Chan Dou on 29 October.

The invitation was exquisite. It was a card that was only the size of a palm and it was bright red. There were two big, black words stamped on top of it. The handwriting was beautiful, clearly the hand of a famous calligrapher.

Personal information was not shown on the invitation but was hidden inside. One could only see the invitee's personal information by scanning it.

Lin Huang was almost done with the division of his telekinetic threads when he received the invitation. The initial 10,000 telekinetic threads increased to more than 18,000 threads. However, his cultivation on Seamless came to yet another bottleneck.

Although his spiritual force was a few folds more powerful than the time when he was on gold flame-level, it was harder to divide telekinetic threads as the cultivation of his Seamless skill went on. Looking at the current process, Lin Huang speculated he could only divide 30,000 telekinetic threads when he was on immortal-level rank-9.

Until 29 October evening, Lin Huang had finally ended his cultivation in the Seamless skill.

Meanwhile, Warlord had exhausted all of the materials. Most of his previous mechanical weapon materials came from monster bones and some human relics, which were disintegrated from machinery recycling. The materials Lin Huang purchased were not only given a boost in his mechanical weapon power, but the number of mechanical weapons was also at least threefolds more now.

Warlord's current overall ability might be more powerful than Bai's.

"I can finally rest well for the next two days to adjust my body." Ever since he had promised Chan Dou, Lin Huang had been worried that he might not have enough time. No matter whether it was the previous epiphany or the cultivation of Seamless during this period of time, he had cut his eating and sleeping time down drastically. On average, he might not even eat, drink a glass of water, or shower in a week. He would only take a nap for one or two hours when he was exhausted, but that only happened every four to five days.

The truth had proven that such management of time allowed him to reach his goal and he completed all of the basic preparation he needed before the battle. He could finally feel relieved and the exhaustion kicked in quickly.

Lin Huang slept from past eight in the evening on the 29th until eight in the morning on the 31st.

He had slept a whole day, so he felt refreshed when he woke up.

After taking a shower and having his breakfast, Lin Huang headed to the biggest supermarket nearby and spent almost the entire morning there. He bought a variety of food and drinks in bulk before heading back to the hotel.

He just recalled he would have to spend three months in the ruins this trip when he woke up in the morning. If he did not bring anything with him, he might have to eat grilled meat for three months continuously.

While grilled meat was delicious, he would definitely be sick if he had to eat it for three meals a day for three months.

Drinks were mandatory. It would be huge trouble if there was no clean water source in the ruins. Although transcendents would not die from not drinking water for a long time, it would still affect his body condition as well as affecting him from performing his abilities well.

After the trip to the supermarket, Lin Huang began to think what he might have missed out on. After all, he had been sleep-deprived before this and was not 100% there. He might miss out on something, just like how he had almost forgotten to prepare food and water.

After some thorough thinking, he relaxed upon confirming that he did not miss anything.

After lunch, Lin Huang read some news and looked at a few social media sites.

He smiled when he read the hot discussion on the Fallen God Land.

He even saw a fake Heaven Alliance invitation being posted. It was the same red design but the words were golden in color and written in cursive. It was even prettier than the one Lin Huang had received. There were up to a million comments on the post, consisting mostly of compliments.

There were also people who were asking what the Heaven Alliance was. Soon someone found out that the Heaven Alliance was the most powerful organization in the Genius Union while the chief was Chan Dou of the Five Princes. The comment section was then flooded with praises and fawning upon the person who had posted the fake invitation.

Lin Huang was not sure to cry or to laugh reading those comments.

As every organization had a different invitation design, there were many exquisite ones posted on the web, and Lin Huang could not identity their authenticity.

He also saw people he followed posting similar things.

Yi Yeyu posted an invitation screenshot that she had gotten from somewhere. The caption was: "Should I go or not?"

The first comment came from Yi Zheng. "You're thinking too much, Sister."

Li Lang used the same screenshot Yi Yeyu had but he posted a couple minutes later than she did with the caption: "Selling this invitation. The bid starts at 100 million Life Crystals and each increment has to be at least 10 million. The highest bidder wins."

Yi Yeyu was the first one who commented. "Aren't you shameless to be stealing my screenshot!?"

The second comment came from Yi Zheng. "Shameless! How dare you steal my sister's screenshot!?"

Lin Huang smiled and took a screenshot of his invitation, then sent it to his friends.

The caption was: "Three months. Please leave a message if you need me."

The first comment came from Li Lang.

"Great job, Brother. Your invitation looks exactly the same as the real one! And it's from the Heaven Alliance! But it'll look even more authentic if the words are in gold."

He had browsed through the web and found out what kind of organization the Heaven Alliance was.

The second comment came from Yi Zheng. It was clear he knew Lin Huang's invitation was authentic.

'You shouldn't have accepted the invitation. The Fallen God Land's too dangerous.'

Lin Huang smiled as he replied. 'I'll just take a stroll in there. It's good to learn something.'

The third comment came from Leng Yuexin and was just a simple "Be careful."

The fourth comment came from Yi Yeyu. "You're going to the grade-7 forbidden land! Are you crazy?!"

Li Lang commented again subsequently. "The heck!? Your invitation's real! I must kiss your ass now!"

After chatting with a couple of friends, Lin Huang then turned off the chat.

For the rest of the afternoon, he drank tea while sunbathing on the balcony. He completely indulged in relaxation and laziness.

He watched the evening news after dinner and went to bed early.

Early the next morning, Lin Huang checked out of his room right after his breakfast and walked towards the Union Government office building like he was taking a stroll.

The hotel he stayed at was less than 300 meters across the Union Government office building, so it only took him a couple of minutes to walk there.

A female staff welcomed him after he scanned his identity and registered himself at the entrance of the office building. She got Lin Huang to show his invitation. After the scanning went through, she led him to a room entrance.

It was a small meeting room with only 300 seats as he looked. There were already some ten people sitting in the room.

Lin Huang took a glance at those people. All of them had a combat strength of immortal-level rank-9 with no exception. Since he knew no one there, he occupied a vacant seat in the first row.

The people were pretty curious about Lin Huang too. He did not hide his combat strength after all. Everyone was clear that he was on immortal-level rank-3.

Most of them only took a glance at him and that was it while a minority of them began to discuss among themselves softy.

"Even an immortal-level rank-3's invited. He must be from some insignificant organization that has no high immortal-level powerhouse."

"He might've come in from the back door by using his connection."

Although those people were discussing softly, Lin Huang heard them loud and clear, but he did not bother to take it to heart.

More people came in continuously awhile after he took his seat. Basically, all of them had a combat strength of immortal-level rank-9.

Finally, a short, young man appeared at the entrance after ten minutes. His combat strength was only on immortal-level rank-6.

He glanced through the room at the entrance, appearing a little fearful upon realizing that everyone in the room were immortal-level rank-9 powerhouses. However, very soon, he saw Lin Huang who was in the first row. He was slightly relieved and walked towards Lin Huang quickly, sitting next to him.

"Hi, my name's Tong Lin."

"Hi, I'm Lin Xie." Lin Huang nodded while smiling.

"Oh my god. I thought I'm the only one who isn't immortal-level rank-9." Tong Lin felt like he had just met someone similar to him seeing that Lin Huang had a lower combat strength than him.

Lin Huang smiled and said nothing. He knew 80% of the participants were high immortal-levels this time and only 80% of them were on immortal-level rank-9. That being said, participants with a combat strength of immortal-level rank-9 only consisted 64% of all the participants. The reason why everyone in the room was on immortal-level rank-9 was that it was still early, so there were less than 40 of them.

Just as expected, more people on immortal-level rank-7 and rank-8 came into the room after Tong Lin. When there were almost 100 of them in the room, a few silhouettes wearing golden vests appeared at the entrance out of nowhere. The entire room became silent as soon as they appeared.

Everyone recognized them. They were from Dynasty. The leading person was a young man who looked like he was in his early 20s. He had slicked back hair and instead of a vest, he was wearing a black suit with a golden trench coat on top.

"The Seventh Prince from Dynasty…" Tong Lin who was sitting next to Lin Huang said softly.

Lin Huang could not help but frown when he heard that. He remembered clearly that Chan Dou said this Seventh Prince should be the most powerful immortal-level in the participant list this time.

The Seventh Prince took a glance around the room and merely paused when he saw Lin Huang, then looked away. It was probably not because he realized how powerful Lin Huang was, but a little surprised that even a person with an immortal-level rank-3 combat strength would be invited.

He lingered at the entrance for less than a second and led the few people behind him towards the last row of the room.

The people who were sitting in the last row took the initiative to give up their seats immediately.

Ever since the people from Dynasty came, more and more people came. The room was almost full after five to six minutes.

At that moment, a male staff in a uniform walked in.

He explained after bringing out a Dimensional Portal, "Behind this Dimensional Portal is the entrance to the Fallen God Land. There'll be staff attending to all of you when all of you are transferred, and they'll assist you in the Fallen God Land."

"Now let's begin from the first row. Please queue to enter the Dimensional Portal."

"Why aren't you starting from the last row!?" At that moment, one of the Dynasty members wearing golden vests and sitting in the last row shouted.

The man in the uniform lifted his head and took a glance at him. He then looked at the Seventh Prince sitting next to the golden-vested man who was waiting for an impressive show to begin before he spoke, "Because the first row is closer to the Dimensional Portal. If you were to calculate the distance between the first row to the last row and everyone's walking speed on average, getting the first row into the Dimensional Portal first would take one minute and 40 seconds faster than getting the last row to queue first."

The people from Dynasty did not seem to expect the person to give such a serious explanation which rendered them speechless.

Lin Huang smiled but said nothing.

"Alright, we'll start from the first row. Stop wasting time."

Lin Huang and the rest then walked into the Dimensional Portal one after another.

After all 300 of them entered the Dimensional Portal, the man in uniform then closed the Dimensional Portal.

A lady's voice came into the meeting room all of a sudden.

"One minute and 40 seconds faster? You're so good at making things up." A tall lady in heels walked in while smiling.

"Haha, you heard that!" The man in uniform smiled as he said.

"It's not every day that they can come to the Union Government headquarters. The people from Dynasty are always looking for ways to stir things up so that they can brag to their acquaintances when they go back. They'd make noise if I insisted on letting people in the first row go first. Although I'd definitely oppress them, it'd only delay the time. If I do what they want me to, which is to let them go first, they'd tell everyone that the Union Government's afraid of Dynasty. So, why not just come up with a lie which solved the problem like a piece of cake?"

Lin Huang only snapped back to his senses after staring at the black, gigantic crack that seemed like a Virtual Eye for a while.

Almost everyone who was transported together with Lin Huang had the same shocked expression on their faces.

Lin Huang looked around and very soon saw a bunch of people on his left. There were about 300 of them, and they should be the team that had been transported before them.

There was a bunch of men in military uniform under the crack in the sky.

The leader, a hulking, tall man who wore a white cloak, walked towards Lin Huang and the rest. He did not hide the powerful aura on him at all.

'This person's definitely a demigod!' Lin Huang could clearly sense that the aura on this man was much more powerful than those imperial-level yellow gold-rank monsters that he had killed. It was the distinction between a candlelight and a sun; it was so powerful that it made one tremble.

"Please project your invitation. We need to verify your invitation once again." As soon as he spoke, he moved his finger slightly while the 20 men in military uniform began to verify the invitation.

After a couple of minutes of verification, the leader of the army spoke again after confirming that everything was alright.

"The ruins will officially open at nine. Before that, all of you can take a rest at formation No. 2.

"Don't run around or create trouble. If any of you do that, you'll delay the opening time of the ruins. You'll be executed even if the delay is only by a mere second!" The leader glanced at everyone coldly when he uttered the last sentence. A terrifying intention to kill swept across the 300 people including Lin Huang in the blink of an eye. It gave them chills and goosebumps. He did not seem like he was joking at all.

Nobody objected, even the Seventh Prince only glared at the man for a second while scowling. He then followed everyone and walked to the space in formation No. 2.

"Oh my god! It's Bai Qi, the God of Slaughter from the army," Tong Lin who was next to Lin Huang mumbled softly.

"Bai Qi?" Lin Huang was familiar with the name. However, it was clear that this person just happened to share the same name with the historical person on earth.

"Do you mean the fella wearing a cloak just now?"

"Haven't you heard of Bai Qi? The God of Slaughter from the Union Government Military, the No. 1 in Division 3's army! I heard that his ability ranks top five among the demigods in Division 3!"

Ever since Lin Huang arrived in Division 3, he did not follow such news and it was his first time hearing about Bai Qi.

"How did he get the nickname 'God of Slaughter'? Did he kill many monsters?"

"Not monsters, human," Tong Lin said through voice transmission, "He was put in a special force in the military and was responsible for wiping out underground organizations. There are at least tens of thousands of underground organization members who died by his hand within the past century."

"Otherwise, why is the Seventh Prince so quiet like a coward now and even followed the team here? If he really stirred things up, Bai Qi would surely kill him. Among the underground organizations, Bai Qi has killed at least over 20 Holy Sons, including the First Holy Son. Even the Dynasty would have to accept it if Bai Qi killed the Second and Third Prince, and they wouldn't take revenge, let alone if he annihilated the Seventh Prince. The price to pay for killing Bai Qi's too high. It might even cause the demigod in one's organization to be killed. There's already been two cases like that."

Bai Qi's ability alone caused powerful underground organizations to fear him, which proved how terrifying his ability was.

That was the direction Lin Huang had been working towards.

"Lin Xie, you're not a local from Division 3, am I right? Even the local transcendents on holy fire-level would've heard of Bai Qi." Tong Lin was very sure of that.

"Indeed, I'm not. I came from another Safety Zone," Lin Huang confirmed.

"I saw that your invitation came from the Heaven Alliance just now. Don't tell me that you come from the Heaven Alliance's headquarters in Division 1?!" Tong Lin's eyes lit up. "I thought you're a member from the Heaven Alliance's branch in Division 3."

"I didn't come from the headquarters but another division."

"It must be Division 2's branch then!" Tong Lin thought of Division 2 immediately.

Lin Huang smiled without saying anything since he was lazy to explain.

"Then, you must be powerful, aren't you?" Tong Lin asked immediately.

"There are indeed many powerhouses in the Heaven Alliance. I'm just a normal member who just joined not long again," Lin Huang said humbly. He did not have the habit of boasting about himself before others. His skin was not that thick.

"The more humble you are, the more I think you're hiding who you really are." Tong Lin had disbelief written all over his face. "I think it's impossible that the Heaven Alliance would send someone incompetent here to die. They would definitely send powerhouses here to make the quota worth it and to obtain some resources. Also, I think you must've been specially transferred from Division 2…"

Lin Huang smiled and said nothing again. He really did not bother to explain anything to him.

More people were being sent through the Dimensional Portal as the both of them chatted.

Those people verified their identities again and were arranged to group at formations No. 3 and No. 4.

After eight o'clock, the frequency of people being sent in through the Dimensional Portal became higher and higher. Soon, there was a batch every two to three minutes.

Lin Huang saw someone familiar among the crowd — Huangfu Lin from the Sweep Alliance. Judging from her aura, she had elevated to immortal-level rank-8.

However, Huangfu Lin did not notice Lin Huang's presence. Perhaps, she did not imagine that he would have managed to score himself a place there. After all, Lin Huang's combat strength was only blue flame-level when they last saw each other three months ago.

After Huangfu Lin's batch, Lin Huang saw another Heaven Alliance member, Shen Tao.

The last time when they had entered the tribe's floating land, it was the immortal-level rank-9 Shen Tao who had led the Heaven Alliance team. Although his combat strength remained on immortal-level rank-9, it was clear that his aura was much stronger than it had been a couple of months ago. He was almost on the verge of breaking through to imperial-level.

Lin Huang guessed that his goal of coming to the Fallen God Land this time must be to break through to imperial-level black gold-rank.

However, Shen Tao's aura was not considered the top among those people.

Lin Huang sensed at least 20 people on immortal-level rank-9 who had more powerful auras than Shen Tao did. Judging by aura alone, the Seventh Prince was considered the best of the best among the group of more than 20 people.

However, what Lin Huang cared about were those imperial-level powerhouses who were mixed in the teams.

Almost every one of them had a much more powerful aura than the Seventh Prince. They were like firewood that burned in the night which nobody could ignore.

Naturally, the strength of one's aura could not be used to determine one's ability. Lin Huang was a great example himself. His aura strength was only on immortal-level rank-3. Without those tens of holy fire-levels, his aura was the weakest among the crowd. However, if his overall ability was taken into account and the comparison even included imperial-level powerhouses, he would easily rank in the top 100.

When it was close to 8.50 a.m., all 8,000 of them were assembled.

Many of the armies were secretly relieved. They were worried that there would be a delay and were scared that Bai Qi would be mad.

Bai Qi had an obsession disorder when it came to time. Almost every military in Division 3 knew about that. He had even snapped at the current Division 3 Union Government chairman at a meeting for being late for three minutes.

"Alright, you can relax since everyone is here. We'll open the ruins officially at nine sharp!" Bai Qi looked at the time and his rather serious expression finally eased.

It was 9 a.m. sharp on 1 November.

Bai Qi flew slowly to the crack in the sky and produced a golden key in his right palm. He flicked it softly, the key turning into a golden stream that flowed into the black crack in the air.

Subsequently, he began to perform a set of complicated seals at a rapid speed.

The black crack gradually turned golden until eventually, there was a golden glow that shot out of it. It was like sunshine that shone through clouds onto the ground.

"All of you, stand where the golden glow is shining!" As Bai Qi ordered them, the people from each formation hurried to the area where the golden glow was shining.

Lin Huang walked over there, following his team. As soon as he entered the glowing region, he felt his body seeming to lose gravity and he began to float. He was drifting rapidly towards the source of the glow.

In less than ten seconds, Lin Huang and the rest got into the golden crack in the air following the stream and vanished completely.

…

After passing through the golden crack, Lin Huang could feel his body descending slowly.

As his feet touched the ground, his sight that was covered by the golden glow finally recovered gradually.

Lin Huang looked everywhere. Apart from himself, there was nobody else in his field of vision. It was clear that the entrance would send the person to different locations of the ruins randomly.

The sky above his head was gray and he could not see the sun. It was a little similar to the hazy weather back on Earth, just that the light was even dimmer here. It felt like dusk when the sun was setting.

There were cracks as well as potholes all over the ground. They were war scars everywhere.

Lin Huang did not see any plants at all. All he saw were bones that were covered with some soil and a couple of broken swords and sabers.

After a slight observation and not finding anything odd, Lin Huang then focused a small part of his consciousness into his Life Palace.

He was surprised to find that the space in his Life Palace had completely simulated the environment of the ruins.

After a moment of shock, Lin Huang recalled his main objective and summoned Bloody and Lancelot.

He did not lose his sensing ability since his territory had been converted into his Life Palace. However, his territory had become his Life Palace's subsidiary skill, which was now on par with Lancelot's, so the coverage of his Territory skill depended on his combat strength now.

Now that Lancelot's combat strength had reached immortal-level rank-9, the radius of his Territory skill had expanded to nine kilometers. The coverage far surpassed Lin Huang's which was merely three kilometers.

Summoning Lancelot could undoubtedly expand the coverage to sense danger.

After all, Bloody's Leech Pods could only sense sight and sound. They could not sense anything intangible.

Meanwhile, summoning Bloody was something that Lin Huang had to do whenever he went somewhere new.

In reality, Lin Huang knew that Bloody's Leech Pods had powerful functions and applications. However, they were best used in investigating logistics.

Bloody was fond of collecting information itself whereby it would browse through different information on the Heart Network whenever it had nothing to do. To Bloody, investigating a new place was collecting information as well which it enjoyed.

Planning logistics was the basics of battle strategy. Compared to fighting, Bloody preferred being a military adviser as well as feeling in control of the whole situation.

Bloody received the preliminary investigation report in less than ten minutes while Lin Huang stayed where he was.

"There's an immortal-level rank-6 Spirit Skeleton at our one o'clock, 252 kilometers from us. Judging from its aura, it should a triple mutated monster. It's suitable for Kylie to lead her Nephilic Judges to hunt it down."

Out of 368 Kylie's Nephilic Judges, only 39 of them had evolved into triple mutated Nephilic Angels. All of the local monsters in this ruins were either spirit or undying types, which were the targets for Nephilic Judges to evolve.

"Bloody, look around for triple mutated immortal-level rank-9 Sword Dao monsters for me please," Lancelot gulped the dried vegetable in his mouth down instantly and said to Bloody.

"Don't worry. I always have that in mind," Bloody said while smiling and nodding.

Lancelot then put another dried vegetable into his mouth and chewed on it slowly.

"Do your best in these three months. You'll be rewarded with three months worth of junk food if you perform well!" Lin Huang patted Lancelot's shoulder.

Two blue rays shot out of Lancelot's blue eyes when he heard that. He said to Lin Huang immediately, "I would like dried carrots, please!"

Lin Huang nodded while smiling and he thought to himself, 'Am I feeding a rabbit now?'

Lin Huang only summoned Kylie and Thunder after setting his coordinates on the Dimensional Portal. They then sat on Thunder's back and headed toward the destination Bloody had told them about.

Soon, Lin Huang saw the Spirit Skeleton that was almost three meters tall with red flames burning in its eyes.

The monster noticed Lin Huang and the rest at an instant. However, it turned around in an attempt to run away when it sensed Lancelot, Kylie and Thunder's powerful aura. As usual, Bloody curled itself around Lin Huang's arm and hid its aura just like Lin Huang did.

As Kylie waved her hand, at least 300 Nephilic Judges made their glorious entry.

Although the Nephilic Angels did not participate in the confrontation, the Spirit Skeleton was drowned by the overwhelming amount of Nephilic Judges. It was killed in the blink of an eye while its bones were scattered all over the place.

"Wow, a human wave attack is kind of scary," Lin Huang could not help but exclaim out loud after witnessing that.

"Two o'clock, 128 kilometers."

Thunder deviated immediately. They arrived at their second destination in less than a minute as Thunder flapped its wings.

The Nephilic Judges were just as fast as Thunder as they caught up with it subsequently.

The target was another triple mutated spirit monster in the form of a beast skeleton. Its eyes were the same with the skeleton earlier whereby they burned with red flames as well. However, it had a more powerful combat strength at immortal-level rank-8.

The Nephilic Judges charged at it all together again. The spirit monster only managed to hold on to its dear life for less than five seconds before it turned into a pile of broken bones.

At that moment, one of the Nephilic Judges experienced a blaring, white glow shooting out of its body, and soon it turned into a white cocoon.

"Is the evolution of a Nephilic Judge into a triple mutated Nephilic Angel this simple?" Lin Huang thought it was a little odd as he witnessed that.

He had spent quite some effort to elevate Lancelot and the rest to perform their triple mutation.

"It should've something to do with the mini world in my body." It was clear that Kylie shared a similar thought. "I've been having a subtle feeling recently that I might elevate to quadruple mutated mythical-level directly if all of them elevated to triple mutation."

Lin Huang was elated to hear that but he realized something immediately. As soon as Kylie elevated to mythical-level, she would surpass his own limit and he would not be able to summon her any longer. By then, the army of over 300 triple mutated Nephilic Angels would be sealed altogether and he would not be able to use them in battles.

"I can clearly sense that the mini world in my body has been urging me to make this happen as soon as possible in order to elevate to mythical-level," Kylie could not help but reveal the secret that she had been hiding all this time. "Actually, I've been having this feeling ever since the first Nephilic Judge evolved to a Nephilic Angel. The feeling's getting more and more intense following the increasing number of Nephilic Judges evolving into Nephilic Angels."

"Don't overthink so much. Just go ahead on your elevation. My summoning limit should open when I break through to imperial-level." Lin Huang did not plan to stop Kylie's evolution, especially when she was currently in such a situation.

Lin Huang knew if he was not mistaken, the summoning authority of mythical-level Monster Cards should expand when he elevated to imperial-level. Even if Kylie elevated to mythical-level now, she would only be sealed temporarily.

The ruins was huge. Bloody spent two full days spreading up to a million Leech Pods to complete the preliminary search.

"This ruins is insanely huge! It's almost ten times bigger than the surface area of Earth that you mentioned." The reason why Bloody would say that was that Lin Huang would always compare this world's footholds with the size of the countries on Earth. Bloody had asked about Earth before and found out its surface area was 510 million square kilometers.

"No wonder Chan Dou said he has explored less than a fifth of the place. This is simply too big." Lin Huang projected the explored regions that Chan Dou had sent him while Bloody began to draft the complete map on the existing map.

Bloody only managed to come up with the first draft of the map half an hour later.

"What's with the area marked with question marks?" Lin Huang could not help but ask, noticing that Bloody had drawn question marks on a couple of spots on the map.

"There are some areas where the Leech Pods failed to enter. There seems to be a thin layer of transparent film around them. There are also some of them with odd occurrences. For instance, the Leech Pods lost their signal as soon as they entered one of these areas. I'm not sure if they were attacked or something else caused that. There are also areas covered in fog, thunderstorms, special magnetic fields…"

"Then, how about those marked with a skull?"

"Those are areas where the Leech Pods basically found demigod-level powerhouses."

"The imperial-levels' ranks are marked by colors. Black for black gold-rank, red for crimson gold-rank, yellow for yellow gold-rank, silver-white for white gold-rank, and purple for purple gold-rank. Since the base color is white, we could only use silver-white color for white gold-rank."

"So, where are we now?" Lin Huang asked again.

"We're here!" Bloody extended a tentacle and marked a red dot on the map.

The red dot was located on the southeast of the map.

"This map's just a simple first draft. I'll put in the detailed information into your Emperor's Heart Ring tonight and make a virtual map of this ruins. By then, the positioning system would've come up with the calculation following the location on the virtual map and note the virtual positioning. It's like playing a single-player game whereby no network signal is required."

Lin Huang had no idea that Bloody could do that.

"Bloody, did you find any target that suits my requirement?" Finally, Lancelot, who was standing aside, could not hold it in any longer and asked again. He did not interrupt Bloody since it had been investigating the ruins the past two days.

"I've found a total of 31 triple mutated immortal-level rank-9 Sword Dao monsters that suit your requirement, but they're quite far from where we are now. I'll complete the map tonight and plan the route again. If everything goes as planned, you should be able to get your sword servants to kill the first target tomorrow before noon," Bloody laid out the preliminary plan.

Since entering the ruins, Lin Huang had not let Bai and the rest out. The reason being, Bloody had yet to complete the logistics planning while they had no clue about the distribution of monsters or where the other human powerhouses were transported to. Letting Bai and the rest out like that would risk their lives for intruding dangerous monsters' territories or even be killed by human powerhouses.

This was a grade-7 ruins after all. There were too many powerful monsters in there. Moreover, among the people who had entered this time, a third of them were the outstanding ones in the entire Division 3, excluding demigods.

In the past two days, along with Thunder and Lancelot, Lin Huang had been trailing Kylie to watch her Nephilic Judge army battle.

Within the short two days, there were eleven of them in the Nephilic Judge army that had elevated to triple mutated Nephilic Angels. It increased the number of Nephilic Angels to 50.

In reality, the Nephilic Judge army had killed more than 100 undying and spirit monsters throughout the two days which far surpassed the amount of Nephilic Judges that had elevated.

However, Lin Huang witnessed how terrifying the Nephilic Judge army's ability was.

In actual fact, among the Nephilic Judges, most of their combat strength were only immortal-level rank-6 and rank-7. However, when they created a battle formation, they could fight straight on even if they encountered an imperial-level black gold-rank monster. Whenever they encountered immortal-level monsters, even if those were triple mutated, they would not be able to withstand the Nephilic Judge army for more than 20 minutes.

That was the result even without the 50 Nephilic Angels and Kylie joining the battle.

"Your battle formations are really powerful. They almost unleashed the full advantage of these Nephilic Judges' speed." Lin Huang recognized the amazing result too.

"I'll improve the battle formations slightly. Then, I should be able to use it on my Parasitic Puppets." Bloody began to consider the practicality of Kylie's battle formations.

"I'll share them with you. This isn't consider a core inheritance, so it can be shared." As soon as Kylie said that, she pointed her finger between Lin Huang's brows while laying another finger on Bloody's head.

A while later, the complete inherited information was sent into both of their heads directly.

"36 sets! That many?" Lin Huang was a little surprised. He had only seen the Nephilic Judges using two sets of battle formations, so he expected Kylie to have only two sets of battle formations in the inheritance.

"Although there are a total of 36 sets, you'll need to practice the battle formations. They're only familiarized with eight sets of battle formations at the moment. The first 18 sets are still manageable, but the last 18 sets are very complicated. Also, I don't have enough Nephilic Judges." Kylie was not entirely satisfied with the current progress.

Bloody got some ideas after studying them for merely a couple of minutes.

"Among the 36 sets, the first 18 sets aren't complete battle formations. They were put together from three different complete battle formations for simple application. They were disassembled intentionally for one to learn them easily. The second half are real complete battle formations. However, they are still just the foundation. They can be developed into more complicated and powerful battle formations."

"I've understood their application mechanism roughly. I'll spend some time developing them, so I should be able to fortify the battle formations for you. I can also tweak them a little and make a puppet battle formation. The impact should be impressive." Bloody had created up to a thousand Parasitic Puppets in the Abyss Brink.

Most of them were triple mutated immortal-level rank-9 monsters that Bai and the rest had killed but which brains were still well maintained. Their brains had been parasitized by Leech Pods when they were still active.

A small amount of them were triple mutated immortal-level rank-9 monsters which Bai and the rest had killed along the way. They were then parasitized by Leech Pods directly. Naturally, it was more taxing for Bloody to cast parasites on living things. There were two failed cases as proof of that.

Apart from that, there were 32 imperial-level black gold-rank puppets. They were flying puppetry monsters which were brought back in time for Bloody to cast parasites on when their brains were still active. After all, Leech Pods could not cast parasites on monsters which rank was higher. Hence, Bloody had to do that itself.

Unfortunately, the 30 imperial-level yellow gold-rank monsters Lin Huang killed surpassed Bloody's parasitic ability. They were then left in Lin Huang's storage space. However, since their brains had lost activity, they could no longer be parasitized. They could only be summoned into spirits with a Witchcraft Rune. However, that could only be done when Bloody reached imperial-level black gold-rank. Otherwise, there would be a high possibility that the summoned spirit would lose control and might even backfire.

After obtaining Kylie's battle formations, Bloody was more confident in its puppet army now. It even had the confidence to fight imperial-level yellow gold-rank powerhouses with its puppet army after they successfully practiced the battle formations.

In the blink of an eye, it was the third day since they entered the Fallen God Land.

Early in the morning, Lin Huang went all out to summon 15 monsters, which was the limit of his summoning authority.

They were Killer, the Evil Dominator, Bloody, Kylie, Lancelot, Bai, Tyrant, Grimace, Charcoal, Warlord, Bloody Robe, the Death Knight, the Fallen Knight, and the two Dark Crescent Snakes.

"Bai with Grimace, Tyrant with Charcoal, Warlord with Bloody Robe, and the two knights with the two Dark Crescent Snakes each. The Evil Dominator, Kylie and Lancelot will be fighting alone."

"I wouldn't have released all of you if not for the sprawling ruins. There are a total of 8,000 people who've entered the ruins this time, which is over 20 times more than the last search. However, from Bloody's investigation, there are still many areas that have yet to be explored by humans. The places that all of you are going to are those that humans have yet to step foot in.

"Those who perform well in the next three months will be rewarded while those who underperform will have their previous reward taken away." Lin Huang looked at Grimace intentionally when he said that.

Grimace had not asked for junk food for his last reward. Instead, he had asked for an ancient relic-level puppet whose price was double of an ancient relic-level telekinetic weapon. It had been painful for Lin Huang. However, the puppet doll was rather practical. At least, it could be used to fight an imperial-level black gold-rank powerhouse under Grimace's control.

"Can I ask for three puppets this time?" Grimace asked with anticipation written all over his face.

"Two," Lin Huang bargained. The toy Grimace wanted was too expensive. He began to worry that he might not be able to afford to keep Grimace.

"Deal!" Grimace agreed directly.

Lin Huang was secretly relieved to see Grimace so obedient.

After a round of simple briefing from Lin Huang, Bai and the rest dispersed under Bloody's guidance.

Lin Huang together with Bloody and the Parasitic Puppet army it moved from Kylie's mini world were the only ones left.

"That many of them?" Lin Huang was shocked to see the army.

"There are a total of 1,128 of them. 32 of them are black gold-rank while the rest are immortal-level rank-9. Also, all of the puppets are tripled mutated." It was clear that Bloody was bragging a little bit judging from its tone. "I've tweaked the battle formations that Kylie gave me last night. I've also done some preliminary development and come up with 21 foundation battle formations and over 400 combo battle formations that suit these bunch of Parasitic Puppet army the best. We can officially begin practice now."

"What are you waiting for then? Let's go!" Lin Huang was interested to see the power of battle formations from this parasitic army.

Soon, Bloody found its first target, which was an imperial-level black gold-rank corpse ghost.

Its height was around two meters and it looked like a dead human corpse that was going through the first stage of rotting. However, there were red flames burning in its eyes like lava.

The 32 imperial-level black gold-rank puppets did not participate in this battle.

Over 1,000 immortal-level rank-9 Parasitic Puppets formed into a battle formation instantly and began to fight the corpse ghost.

The corpse ghost almost escaped in the first couple of minutes, but soon, Bloody was at its peak of controlling the battle formation. In less than five minutes, they managed to kill the corpse ghost.

Later on, it spent a couple of minutes parasitizing the corpse ghost, adding another member to its imperial-level black gold-rank puppets.

"Your battle formation seems to be even more powerful than Kylie's," Lin Huang voiced out what he thought after watching the battle.

"Mine is a complete foundation battle formation and I've more puppets than her Nephilic Judges. Also, my puppets' combat strength and mutation level are higher than her army's. Furthermore, I'm controlling everything in this battle formation whereby I can adjust them whenever I want. It makes sense that the overall ability is more powerful than her Nephilic Judge army's," Bloody explained, "But Kylie's upper hand is that her Nephilic Judges have a high growth rate which my Parasitic Puppets don't. I can only replace the Parasitic Puppets with higher combat strength ones continuously to strengthen the battle formation."

For the next few days, Lin Huang stayed by Bloody's side at all times. He saw it performing different versions of battle formations every day while they got more and more powerful.

Bloody would parasitize the imperial-level black gold-rank monster every time whenever one was killed. More and more imperial-level black gold-rank puppets were added to its collection.

Until the third day, the Parasitic Puppets finally mastered the foundation battle formations fully, so Bloody began to practice the combo battle formations.

The power of the combo battle formations was undoubtedly a few folds more compelling than the foundation battle formations earlier. They could kill imperial-level black gold-rank monsters almost like a piece of cake. They then began to hunt for higher ranked preys in the form of crimson gold-rank monsters.

The truth proved that the imperial-level black gold-rank puppets that were added to Bloody's puppet battle formations were good enough to fight imperial-level crimson gold-rank powerhouses face-on.

Ever since the imperial-level black gold-rank monsters were added into their battle formations, they slaughtered the imperial-level crimson gold-rank monsters easily.

Bloody then began a new around of hunting and parasitizing, possessing more and more imperial-level crimson gold-rank puppets.

In this ruins, Bloody's puppet army was like a bulldozer, killing everything wherever it passed. All of the deceased monsters became one of the puppet army.

During these couple of days, the other Monster Cards did not stay idle as well.

Lin Huang felt the spiritual energy in his God Figurines growing each day. Although the amount of growth was minor, he knew it was possible for the combat soul in his body to grow to imperial-level crimson gold-rank during this trip to the ruins.

The objective of letting Bai and the rest out in the ruins was to help him to hunt for spiritual energy. Looking at the current progress, it was almost ten times faster than him hunting on his own.

Lin Huang had accompanied Bloody all the time during the past few days. He did not fight even once. Apart from the time they were on the move, he was always practicing his swordsmanship.

The pseudo-god-level sword skill Killer had gotten from the Regal Sword Killer had yet to be integrated into his Sword Dao system. It was the best time to practise it.

Lin Huang's Sword Dao reached bottleneck since he achieved gold flame-level which caused him to almost stop practicing entirely. Now that he had broken through to immortal-level rank-3, he already had the basic foundation to advance further. What he was lacking the most now were his sword skill resources. He had only mastered less than 80 types of legendary-level sword skills, which was the reason why he had requested access to the Central Library.

The level-one reading authorization even gave him the access to pseudo-god-level methods, but he could only read one set of method per day at the most. Lin Huang only had three days of authorization which meant that he only had the opportunity to learn a maximum of three sets of pseudo-god-level sword skills.

A level-two reading authorization would give him access to any legendary-level methods with no restrictions. This authorization was usually given to imperial-level powerhouses who contributed to the Union Government.

'I'll make a trip to the Central Library after the three months of searching the ruins is over before heading back to Division 7,' Lin Huang secretly planned.

However, Lin Huang and Bloody had no idea that they were targeted even though they avoided all the areas where humans were hunting along the way.

It was the middle of the night when five people gathered in a tent hundreds of kilometers away.

The five of them wore white robes with a golden cross on their foreheads. They were the members of the underground organization, the Saints.

"The reason I ask you all to gather is because I noticed a huge amount of beasts 2,000 kilometers away. There are over 1,000 beasts. Most of their combat strength is on immortal-level rank-9 while there are tens of black gold-rank beasts. I think we can sweep them together!"

"Immortal-level beasts living in such a massive scale? Are they beasts living in groups?" One of them could not help but ask.

"I've no idea what beasts they are exactly, but all of you know about that demigod-level detection relic that I have. It can detect the rough condition of creatures within 3,000 kilometers. It can only be activated once a day, so it's a yes or no for this mission. But I must warn you, I'm not sure when will we ever see such an insane number of beasts in the future if we miss this opportunity now."

"I'm in! 1,000 immortal-level rank-9 beasts are worth some great sacrifice."

"I think that's a sign that God is showing us!"

"Thank you, God !"

It was in the middle of the night. Lin Huang sat in the tent with his legs crossed while he tapped open the virtual map to look at Bai and the rest's coordinates.

Bloody had planted virtual positioning in them, so they could see everyone's exact location.

The Evil Dominator, Kylie, the two knights, and the Dark Crescent Snakes were still on the move while the rest of them were on idle mode.

"Kylie's still leading her army to hunt. The two knights' killing efficiency is higher at night due to the two Dark Crescent Snakes." Bloody had been watching them at all times. "Meanwhile, the Evil Dominator challenged a powerful crimson gold-rank, but he failed, so he's running for his life now."

"Is the Evil Dominator going to be alright?" Lin Huang did not want to lose a pseudo-mythical-level Monster Card.

"He's alright. None of his substitutes are dead. He seemed to be waiting for the opportunity to turn the tables around, so he provoked the monster along the way. If not for that, he'd have gotten away from the monster long ago," Bloody said while projecting the video that its Leech Pod had taken earlier.

In the video, the Evil Dominator took off his pants and farted at the monster. Most importantly, he was not using his own image, but the Regal Sword Killer's image.

"If Killer found out about this, he'd definitely kill him…" Lin Huang was speechless.

The Evil Dominator was pretty close to Killer. Due to their close relationship, Killer gave a lot of his blood to Evil Dominator to duplicate his Evil Blood Substitutes over and over again. If Killer found out that the Evil Dominator had used his substitute to do this, he might not provide Evil Dominator even a drip of his blood ever again.

"Ask Kylie not to rush things. Tell her to rest when she needs to," Lin Huang told Bloody to pass his message.

After turning off the map, Bloody's voice transmission came out of nowhere just when Lin Huang was going to sleep.

"We might be targeted. A Saints team is coming close to where we are at rapid speed. They're less than 300 kilometers from us now."

"A team from the Saints?" Lin Huang put away his tent immediately and got into fighting mode. "How many of them? What are their combat strengths?"

"Five of them. Two imperial-level yellow gold-ranks and three imperial-level crimson gold-ranks."

"Do you have the confidence to defeat them? Do you need me to hold the two imperial-level yellow gold-ranks for you while you take the three imperial-level crimson gold-ranks first?" Lin Huang asked.

"No need. I happen to have 28 imperial-level crimson gold-rank puppets that I've yet to put into battle formation. They can practice by joining the battle this time. There are only two imperial-level yellow gold-ranks, so we should be able to handle them." Bloody was always confident in its battle formation.

In reality, even without imperial-level crimson gold-rank puppets participating in the battle formation, a battle formation with imperial-level black gold-rank puppets as its core was sufficient to fight imperial-level yellow gold-ranks. It was just that they did not have the ability to kill an imperial-level yellow gold-rank.

Bloody had not hunted any imperial-level yellow gold-rank monsters for the past two days. The reason being, it could not parasitize them, so it had been hunting imperial-level black gold-rank and imperial-level crimson gold-rank monsters to increase the number of its Parasitic Puppets.

At the moment, apart from the 28 imperial-level crimson gold-rank puppets, the number of imperial-level black gold-rank puppets had skyrocketed to 96.

However, to avoid scaring their prey away, the 28 imperial-level crimson gold-rank puppets had been in hiding mode.

That was the reason why the Saint members did not manage to detect the 28 imperial-level crimson gold-rank puppets.

After confirming the five Saint members' whereabouts, Lin Huang was ready to fight on his side.

The five Saint members, on the other hand, had no inkling about that. They were rushing towards the coordinates following the detection relic.

They traveled across hundreds of kilometers in a couple of minutes.

The five Saint messengers saw the group of a variety of monsters far away. Just when they thought that it was odd, the monsters suddenly moved. They went into their battle formation and surrounded all five of them.

The five of them had a slight change of expression at that moment. Soon, they realized that someone was controlling the monsters because most of the monsters were obviously foreign. The ruins' local monsters only consisted of undying and spirit types.

Soon, apart from almost 100 imperial-level black gold-rank monsters, they saw the tens of imperial-level crimson gold-rank monsters among the group. They looked even more aghast now.

A human powerhouse who could control up to 100 imperial-level monsters and up to 1,000 of immortal-level rank-9 monsters was not someone that they could defeat.

"Senior, the five of us are messengers from the Saint. We've made a mistake coming to your territory. Please forgive us. We'll leave right away," apologized one of the imperial-level yellow gold-rank messengers who was the leader immediately. He was the one with the demigod-level detention relic.

"I didn't hunt you, but you showed up at my doorstep. Since you're here, let's just stay." Lin Huang did not reveal himself, but his voice came from the monsters and entered the ears of the five messengers loud and clear.

After the command, the Parasitic Puppet battle formation launched their attack.

The participation of imperial-level crimson gold-rank puppets boosted the battle formation power.

One blow was all they needed to kill one of the imperial-level crimson gold-rank messengers.

The remaining four of them then come together in an attempt to launch a sneak attack.

However, the two imperial-level crimson gold-rank messengers were killed in less than three minutes. The two imperial-level yellow gold-rank messengers were the only ones left.

"Now that we're done warming up, let's play." Bloody's voice subsequently rang out.

More than 1,000 Parasitic Puppets changed their formation in an instant, forming a six-armed giant with the 28 imperial-level crimson gold-rank puppets as its core.

The giant was 10,000 meters tall whereby a single palm alone was 1,000 meters long. The giant slammed its palm towards the two imperial-level yellow gold-rank messengers.

Bang!

As the palm smashed into them, the ground within hundreds of kilometers radius shook. The ground where the palm was hit had sunken in while a gigantic crater thousands of meters deep was created.

Although the two messengers were not killed by the attack, they were badly injured and they spat out mouthfuls of blood.

"Let's split up!" One of them whispered softly. The two silhouettes emerged underground and escaped towards two different directions.

"Stay!" The six-armed giant shouted while extending both arms in an attempt to catch them.

The duo saw a black shadow coming from above their heads and in the next second, they were wrapped in an immense force, unable to move.

"Die!" The six-armed giant clapped its palms hard together with the duo trapped in them.

Both of them felt like their bodies were crushed together by giant walls. The attack almost broke every bone in their bodies while none of the organs in their bodies functioned after that.

They were almost killed by the attack.

"Not dead yet?" The six-armed giant threw six giant punches at them continuously after tossing them onto the ground.

One punch, two punches, three punches…

The ground trembled intensely with each punch that was thrown.

Lin Huang was a little speechless as he watched. Both of them were already dead when the six-armed giant threw its third punch, but it still ravaged the two corpses.

Bloody only got the six-armed giant to stop after it threw 100 punches while the duo had completely turned into a pile of mushy meat.

"You were venting because you can't parasitize them since they are imperial-level yellow gold-rank, am I right?" Lin Huang said while pouting.

Bloody looked embarrassed when Lin Huang called out its game.

Bloody told the six-armed giant's battle formation to retreat and began the parasitization on the three imperial-level crimson gold-rank messengers after handing over the items from the five of them to Lin Huang.

"You can use the three of them, but you must change their clothes and remove the cross on their faces. We'll bring unnecessary trouble to ourselves if someone sees this." Lin Huang then turned around and began to set up the tent after he was done speaking.

"Yes, Sir!"

In the Fallen God Land before daybreak, the golden cross on the forehead of a man in white robes shone brightly out of nowhere like it was burning in flames. The glow dimmed quickly a moment later.

In his white robes, Min Ze opened his eyes all of a sudden.

"Yuan Feng and Luo Liang are dead?! And so are three of our imperial-level crimson gold-ranks?!" Everything that happened before the five of them were killed came clearly into his mind.

"A battle formation made of up to 1,000 different monsters and its ability is close to an imperial-level white gold-rank's battle form…" Min Ze frowned while feeling perplexed. "There must be someone controlling these monsters. Who exactly is that who can control up to 1,000 monsters at the same time?!"

In reality, not only did Min Ze see that. The other Saint messengers saw the same thing too and they were horrified.

The Saints had sent a total of ten imperial-level messengers and half of them were killed. Furthermore, they did not see the murderer's face from the beginning until the end.

Min Ze, the No. 1 powerhouse among the Saint members who were sent into the Fallen God Land did not see any information about the murderer from the scenes that were transmitted from the five dead men. Apart from knowing that the person was a powerful Imperial Censor, he did not have any idea about the location where they were killed. He could not avenge them even if he wanted to.

"I've no clue apart from knowing that the person's a powerful Imperial Censor. I can only hope that I'll have the opportunity to bump into this person who controls the monsters within these three months."

Lin Huang, who was over 20,000 kilometers away, had no idea that the news about the Saint members being killed had been received by the remaining Saint members.

To him, the death of the five Saint members was just a tiny bump which did not affect him much.

In less than a week, Bloody accumulated over 150 imperial-level black gold-rank puppets and it even had over 50 imperial-level crimson gold-rank puppets. The battle formation consisting of those puppets gave them the ability to fight imperial-level white gold-rank powerhouses.

However, Bloody knew that was the limit of its puppet battle formation.

It was not about the battle formation itself, but the core level of the battle formation.

To be able to reach a level whereby they could kill imperial-level white gold-ranks, it must have at least 20 imperial-level yellow gold-rank puppets as the core of its battle formation.

However, with Bloody's current combat strength, it could not parasitize imperial-level yellow gold-rank monsters at all.

While Bloody's battle formation had almost reached its bottleneck, Kylie's battle formation was soaring.

She now had over 120 triple mutated Nephilic Judges which made up a third of her army. Furthermore, since her Nephilic Judges had elevated to immortal-level rank-8 and rank-9, the battle formation power was much more compelling than when she had just entered the Fallen God Land. The army was powerful enough to kill most imperial-level black gold-rank powerhouses.

Lancelot surprised Lin Huang even more as he spent most of his time on the move these days.

The reason being was that the hunting condition was too strict. The prey had to be Sword Dao monsters whereby their combat strength had to be immortal-level rank-9. In addition to that, they must be triple mutated too.

There were only 31 monsters that fit the condition in the entire Fallen God Land and they were scattered far away from each other.

However, after spending over ten days, Lancelot had finally elevated all nine of his sword servants to triple mutation.

They even encountered prey that was immensely powerful along the way, so Lancelot was forced to fight. That caused the elevation to fail twice and they had to look for prey all over again.

Although there were some bumps, all nine sword servants completed their elevation.

Lancelot might not have expected this himself, but since the nine sword servants completed their triple mutation, he was elevated to pseudo-mythical-level.

Lancelot becoming the third pseudo-mythical-level Monster Card went beyond Lin Huang's expectations.

Even since he had elevated to pseudo-mythical-level, Lancelot did not only experience a boost in ability, but his sword servant quota had increased by one fold. He now had 18 slots for sword servants.

He had been busy looking for new sword servants since then.

"I've never expected this fella who loves vegetables to become the most powerful one among all of you." Lin Huang could not help but chuckle when he said, "He should have the ability to kill imperial-level crimson gold-ranks together with his sword servants."

"Master, I should be the most powerful one overall ability-wise," Bloody corrected him with full confidence.

"Oh, I almost forgot about you and your army!" Lin Huang just recalled that Bloody's puppet army was truly invincible now. They would fight imperial-level white gold-rank powerhouses head-on whenever they encountered one. They were more powerful than a few pseudo-god-level powerhouses combined.

"If my combat strength breaks through further and I get to imperial-level black gold-rank, I'll be able to control imperial-level yellow gold-rank puppets. By then, we'll be able to even kill imperial-level white gold-rank powerhouses!" Bloody was not boasting at all. As soon as the core of the battle formation rank was elevated, the entire battle formation power would be boosted by folds.

Compared to Bloody, Kylie, Lancelot, and the other Monster Cards did not go through that much increase in their abilities.

After all, their combat strength was still stuck on immortal-level rank-9. There was no way that they could elevate further. It was even more impossible for them to mutate further, so it was only natural that their ability had an insignificant boost.

The only improvement they could have was richer battle experiences.

After watching Bai and the rest battle, Lin Huang was planning to buy some pet equipment for them when the search in the ruins ended.

He had always thought pet equipment was expensive and impractical for them. However, after seeing Grimace control his puppet relic, he realized that the elevation in a summoning beast's ability was correlated with their equipment.

Grimace had killed imperial-level black gold-rank monsters with Bai earlier whereby they would have to show their trump card almost every time they fought. However, with the puppet relic, it was clear that killing was much easier for them. The puppet alone minimized the stress from all imperial-level black gold-rank monsters.

"I'll get Bai two demigod longsword relics to boost his attack ability. I'll get Tyrant either a demigod-level battle hammer or battle ax which can boost his attack ability by a few folds at least. Charcoal too… I'll get it a fire attribute crystal…" Lin Huang was thorough with his plan, but he knew his pathetic savings was unable to buy all of his summoning beasts equipment.

Most pet equipment was even more expensive than human equipment as some of them had to be customized according to the pet's ability, allowing the pet to boost their ability to their maximum capacity.

As time went by, half a month passed since the opening of the Fallen God Land.

The intensity of the combat souls in Lin Huang's God Figurines rose rapidly every day from the continuous hunting by his 15 summoning beasts.

"Looking at the progress, the three combat souls in my body will be able to elevate to crimson gold-rank in five days at the most, or the soonest, in three days." The elevation speed was much faster than what he imagined.

"The monsters that we can kill away from human-populated areas are getting lesser and lesser. More than 80% of the immortal-level rank-9 and imperial-level black gold-rank monsters in these areas have already been cleared," Bloody told Lin Huang a piece of rather bad news, "Those humans who've entered the ruins are searching towards all directions continuously, so our activity range is getting smaller and smaller."

"It's very common for the collision force to spread up to 1,000 kilometers away with fights involving imperial-levels. People will find out about us sooner or later. It's just a matter of time," Bloody voiced a realistic opinion.

"I've thought about what you said, but I didn't expect it to come so soon." Lin Huang frowned. "How about we get them to kill underground organization members whenever they encounter one? They'll kill them if they're capable to and they'll avoid them if they're unable to fight them. We won't fight if we encounter any non-underground organization members. We'll avoid them entirely.

"Also, handle their bodies cleanly and don't leave any traces so that we won't bring any unnecessary trouble to ourselves."

It was a windy night.

Wang Xu stood next to a beast's carcass whose head was severed. He took out a piece of paper from his Emperor's Heart Ring and wiped his demigod relic, the Waning Moon, that was covered with blood.

The Waning Moon was a scimitar that resembled a crescent moon.

Wang Xu had this mid-grade demigod relic scimitar customized especially before he entered the Fallen God Land. He had spent almost all of his savings on it.

However, he thought it was worth it. He had gotten the hang of it these days and felt that his ability had elevated like never before.

A ferocious glow was glistening on the silver saber body after the blood was wiped off.

As he put the carcass away, he tossed the paper onto the ground and was ready to leave. Just as he was turning around, Wang Xu suddenly felt a stirring force coming from far away.

"Is that a fight between imperial-level crimson gold-rank powerhouses?!" He lifted his head and looked towards the direction of the force while showing hesitation on his face.

He would have definitely avoided such a situation in the past. The reason being, he had just broken through to imperial-level crimson gold-rank less than half a year ago. The chance of him defeating an imperial-level crimson gold-rank expert was extremely slim.

Wang Xu was in a pickle for a moment as he looked at the Waning Moon in his hand. Eventually, he made up his mind as a fierce gleam flashed through his eyes.

'Those who have guts will benefit while the timid ones starve. I might not lose even if I fight him now. Moreover, since both of them are fighting now, I'll just hide while waiting for them to finish. By then, I'll reap what's left without putting any effort in.'

Wang Xu put the scimitar away as his thoughts flowed. He then hovered in the air and flew quickly towards the source of force.

His black robes seemed to be invisible in the night sky. However, the white circle on the back of his vest stood out. There was a purple crow standing on a branch in the circle and it seemed lively as if it were alive.

His collar that was lifted fluttered in the wind. There was a purple metal piece the size of a thumb inside the collar. Like the crow on his trench coat, the metal piece was a purple crow.

Sensing the force that was getting more and more intense, Wang Xu slowed down and flew lower.

After flying for around 800 kilometers, he finally saw the duo that were fighting.

It was an imperial-level crimson gold-rank human fighting an imperial-level crimson gold-rank monster.

The human was covered in black robes which made it hard to identify which organization he came from. His weapon was a demigod longsword relic and he had extraordinary abilities.

Meanwhile, his opponent was a Seventails Scorpion, a poisonous undying monster.

This monster had a super regenerative ability whereby it could recover from almost any wound immediately. The only way to kill such a monster was to destroy its heart.

The black-robed man seemed to be aware of that, so he had been trying to aim for its heart. Unfortunately, the monster had a seamless defense.

Both man and monster seemed to fight equally as they had powerful abilities.

Wang Xu realized that the difference between him and the old-time imperial-level crimson gold-rank powerhouse was very clear now. Even with the Waning Moon, he would still rank slightly below average.

However, he did not plan to leave just yet. Instead, he proceeded to hide in the bushes a couple of kilometers away and hid his aura as much as he could.

The fight between man and monster went on for some ten minutes while the black-robed man's stance turned weak all of a sudden.

'What happened? Is he poisoned?' Just when Wang Xu was in doubt, the black-robed man began to retreat quickly. He was retreating towards the direction where he was hiding.

'Sh*t!' Wang Xu did not think that the man had noticed him. He thought the black-robed man might have been poisoned and attempted to flee since he could not defeat the monster, and just so happened to run towards his hiding place.

The Seventails Scorpion caught up with the black-robed man as soon as he began to run.

However, the black-robed man was simply dodging the monster's attacks or running towards some other direction instead of retaliating.

Tail whips struck through the air continuously, creating massive potholes in the ground.

The black-robed man happened to deflect one of the attacks from where it was and slammed towards where Wang Xu was hiding.

Feeling helpless, Wang Xu retreated immediately and managed to dodge the attack.

Although he dodged the Seventails Scorpion's attack, Wang Xu had revealed himself.

"Brother, you're finally here!" The black-robed man shouted to Wang Xu suddenly, "Help me quickly. Let's get this monster together!"

The Seventails Scorpion began to attack Wang Xu right away as soon as it heard that.

Wang Xu only snapped back to his senses after a while of being stunned. He did not expect his plan of waiting for free fortune to end up making the Seventails Scorpion thinking he was the black-robed man's partner. He was being attacked just like the black-robed man was.

"I know you're hiding here to wait for the reward, but there's nowhere for you to escape now," said the black-robed man through voice transmission, "Let's kill it together and half the reward. Or you don't have to agree to my plan. I'll just retreat now and you won't get anything."

"Sure, let's kill it together!" Although Wang Xu agreed to him, he had another plan in his head.

'Since you're poisoned anyway, we'll kill the monster together, then I'll kill you,' he thought to himself.

"You'll contain its tail and I'll find ways to attack its heart." The black-robed man came up with a plan immediately.

"Why don't you contain its tail instead?" Wang Xu was a little reluctant.

"Your scimitar's more suitable for defending a wider range while my sword's more suitable for a focused attack."

Wang Xu had nothing to retort back to the black-robed man. The reason why he had picked the scimitar as his weapon was because of its powerful cutting ability and indeed, he had a defensive saber skill that was suitable for a scimitar of such form.

Feeling helpless again, Wang Xu charged towards the Seventails Scorpion.

After blocking the Seventails Scorpion's tail whip attack, Wang Xu felt a sense of threat coming from his back as he was thinking about what he should do to the black-robed man after killing this monster.

Just when he wanted to dodge, the Seventails Scorpion's tail came whipping before him and he had nowhere to run.

In the next second, a silver ray pierced through the left side of his chest.

As he was going out of consciousness, he heard a voice by his ear, "I'm sorry. I wasn't poisoned at all. I pretended to retreat so that I could end you first before I could fight this Seventails Scorpion in peace."

After killing the core member of the Purple Crow, the black-robed man did not even glance at the body and proceeded to fight the Seventails Scorpion.

Around half an hour later, the Seventails Scorpion become the second dead body on this battlefield.

The black-robed man took off his hood and picked up Wang Xu's scimitar. His face then turned into Wang Xu's instantly.

Lin Huang grinned as he nodded, watching the result of this battle 10,000 kilometers away.

"The Evil Dominator's performance isn't too shabby. He killed an imperial-level crimson gold-rank and imperial-level yellow gold-rank in the past two days with the help of Bloody. After obtaining two Golden Cicada Substitutes, he possesses the ability to kill imperial-level crimson gold-ranks now. If he takes his trump card out, he'll be able to fight imperial-level yellow gold-ranks," Lin Huang said.

"Unfortunately, the Golden Cicada can only make human substitutes. Otherwise, he'd have at least ten imperial-level crimson gold-rank monster substitutes. Although the Evil Dominator doesn't have such a limitation, he has a time restriction. The two skills have flaws of their own," Bloody commented.

Lin Huang smiled without saying anything. The Evil Dominator would be almost invincible if there were no flaws in either skill.

Lin Huang had both of the skills while his Evil Blood Substitute was exactly the same as the one the Evil Dominator had.

However, his Golden Cicada had been extracted from the Evil Dominator's body by Xiao Hei back then. It was the lower-end version which he could only use three times per day*.

Lin Huang did not really care about the substitute's ability back then. After all, the substitute had not exactly been powerful when he had used it to kill an evil spirit type of monster as it just seemed to be harder to be defeated.

However, its terrifying ability seemed to be coming out as his ability elevated.

Just like the Evil Dominator which was on immortal-level rank-9, his ability would elevate to imperial-level yellow gold-rank as soon as he summoned the imperial-level yellow gold-rank substitute. It was many times more powerful than his own combat strength.

'Looking at my current body strength, I could bear an imperial-level yellow gold-rank's substitute forcefully which is a rank higher than the boost using the knight's skill. Moreover, the Golden Cicada can copy the substitute's inheritance, memory, and abilities completely…' A new idea popped into Lin Huang's head instantly as he thought about this.

"Bloody, please look for some imperial-level crimson gold-rank sword cultivators from an underground organization for me. I would like a few of them, also some imperial-level black gold-rank sword cultivators as well!"

Ever since entering the Fallen God Land the past half a month, Han Jie's journey had been a smooth sailing one.

As a Duke of Dynasty, the members from the other organizations would avoid him no matter what kind of monsters he was hunting.

Although his combat strength was only on imperial-level crimson gold-rank, which was the lowest among the 20 imperial-level Dukes from Dynasty who entered this round, even some imperial-level yellow gold-rank powerhouses dared not challenge him for prey due to the golden cape he was wearing.

Once, he even encountered an imperial-level yellow gold-rank from the Hunter Association, but the person did not fight him.

"This Fallen God Land's such an amazing place! I've already killed more than 20 imperial-level crimson gold-rank monsters in the past 20 days while I've already killed up to 100 imperial-level black gold-rank monsters. I'll make a clean cut of tens of billions of Life Crystals just by selling all these monster carcasses. With the extra reward, I'll make at least hundreds of billions…" Han Jie grinned while looking at the corpse wearing a trench coat under his foot as he spoke.

The body was lying facing him, and there was a logo of a purple metal crow on the collar.

As a member of an underground organization, although his main goal was to kill monsters every day, Han Jie did not let go of other organization members whenever he encountered one. No matter if it was members of the union organization or an underground organization, he basically destroyed everyone that he could defeat.

The body below his feet was the fifth imperial-level black gold-rank powerhouse that Han Jie had killed ever since he arrived at the Fallen God Land. Three days ago, he attacked an imperial-level crimson gold-rank powerhouse from the Union Government when the person was fighting a monster. Eventually, he killed the powerhouse.

Everything in the person's Emperor's Heart Ring naturally belonged to Han Jie eventually.

"I'll make billions selling these human bodies as puppets!" After browsing through the items on the body, Han Jie was planning to let go of them.

As a member of Dynasty, he did this kind of business frequently. Even if it was a naked corpse, he would sell everything he could possibly retrieve from the body.

In reality, all organizations would recycle dead bodies and bury them. Since there were few human corpses with high combat strength, the selling price was many folds higher than monster carcasses of the same level.

Although Lin Huang would take everything from the dead people that he killed too, he had never done any business selling human bodies.

"Who is that?!" Just when he was ready to leave after putting the dead body away, Han Jie lifted his head all of a sudden and looked towards one of the directions.

A man in a black trench coat walked over, and he had a purple crow pin on his collar too.

Han Jie was stunned for a moment when he saw the person's attire. After all, the imperial-level black gold-rank powerhouse that he had just killed was from the Purple Crow and now, he was caught by someone else from the same organization.

He was slightly relieved after sensing that the person had the same aura as he did, which was imperial-level crimson gold-rank.

"Brother, I killed him because he attacked me first." Han Jie turned the tables around before anything could happen.

"Really? I might believe it if you're from a union organization," said the man in the trench coat as he walked towards Han Jie slowly.

Han Jie knew that what he said was hard to believe.

Dynasty was worthy of being called the No. 1 underground organization in Division 3 with which other underground organizations were unwilling to have any conflicts. Even an imperial-level yellow gold-rank Purple Crow member might not attack Han Jie if they bumped into each other, let alone an imperial-level blank gold-rank member.

"So what do you want? To avenge him?" Han Jie had his guard up slightly, but he still thought it was quite impossible for the person to attack him.

"Why would I do that? I wasn't close to him." The man in the trench coat shook his head while smiling. "Let's just share 50% of the reward since he belongs to the same organization as I do."

"What makes you think that you deserve that? I was the one who killed him. You did nothing and you're asking for 50% of the reward?!" Han Jie scoffed in disdain. It was clear that the person did not plan to attack him, so there was no need for him to be afraid of him. "I'm leaving now. Don't tell me you're going to stop me?"

"I won't stop you, but I'll tell on you." The man in the trench coat continued to grin. "The father of this person you killed is a demigod while his brother's in this ruins as well. He's an imperial-level purple gold-rank powerhouse. What're the odds of you walking out of this Fallen God Land alive when I tell them who the murderer is? Even if you manage to survive the remaining two months or so, do you think Dynasty would protect you if a demigod demands for you by then?"

"You…" Han Jie was sweating profusely when he heard this revelation. He had no idea that he had killed such a prominent person. However, he now had the intention to kill this black-robed man before him.

"Naturally, I won't sell you out as long as you give me 50% of the reward. I'd be asking for death if I did that," proceeded the man. "I'll give you a minute to think about it. You can reject me, then I won't ask you to stay. I'll leave and report about you."

"How do you want to do it? He only has one Emperor's Heart Ring." Han Jie chose to compromise temporarily while looking irritated.

"Give me the Emperor's Heart Ring. I'll give you half of the contents after I unlock it."

"No way. What if you ran away after taking the Emperor's Heart Ring from me?" It was clear that Han Jie did not trust the man in the trench coat before him.

"Don't worry. I'll definitely share half of the items with you. I don't want you to turn the tables around and tell people that I killed him when you get out of this place." The man looked down and glanced at the time on the Emperor's Heart Ring. "Also, you don't have any other choice now. You only have 30 seconds. I'll leave if you don't decide."

"Fine, I'll give you the Emperor's Heart Ring!" Han Jie tossed the Emperor's Heart Ring at him while looking reluctant.

Just when the man reached out to grab the ring, Han Jie moved all of a sudden. He tore towards the man in the trench coat while unsheathing his battle sword in an instant.

A fleeting green sword ray flashed through the air and arrived at the throat of the man in the trench coat while the Emperor's Heart Ring was still in the air.

However, an intense sense of danger came at this moment.

Han Jie saw a black ray radiating through the air and the man passed him in the next second.

He felt a devastating pain radiating from his chest at the moment.

Han Jie looked down and suddenly noticed a gash which appeared on his chest without even realizing it. The wound went through his chest and his heart beneath it was crushed.

As his vision was fading slowly, the voice of the man in the trench coat came from behind faintly, "Your sword's too slow…"

The man's body changed as soon as he put away his sword into its sheath. Soon, the person took on Han Jie's appearance.

"This is the sixth imperial-level crimson gold-rank substitute now…" A cloud of purple mist came out of the sleeve of the substitute Han Jie slowly. "You could've killed him in one hit. Why did you have to talk so much with him?"

"Why must we use violence so soon? I think it's nice to chat. I might let the person go if I encounter someone who hit it off with me," said 'Han Jie' while smiling. "Too bad this fella from Dynasty didn't hit it off with me."

Bloody roughly understood what Lin Huang said.

Not everyone who joined an underground organization was wicked. Some of them were forced to enter, but they were not evil just like Xiao Mo, the boy Lin Huang met in the Purple Crow training camp.

The reason why Lin Huang chatted with the person was because he was deciding if he should kill him.

For the past few days, Lin Huang had been killing underground organization members. Since the Golden Cicada secret skill would give him their inheritance, everyone he killed was sword cultivators.

There had been 17 imperial-level black gold-rank sword cultivators and six imperial-level crimson gold-rank sword cultivators who died by his hand in the past few days.

With his current ability, he could even fight imperial-level white gold-ranks with an imperial-level crimson gold-rank substitute. If not for the heavy burden an imperial-level crimson gold-rank substitute brought him and the time limitation that was restricted to half an hour, he could even kill imperial-level white gold-rank powerhouses.

It was not difficult for him to kill an imperial-level crimson gold-rank powerhouse in one blow under the condition of using an imperial-level crimson gold-rank substitute. Meanwhile, he could kill imperial-level yellow gold-rank powerhouses within 10 swings of his sword.

Apart from the increasing number of substitutes, the three combat souls in Lin Huang's body completed their breakthrough two days ago. They elevated from imperial-level black gold-rank to imperial-level crimson gold-rank.

His overall ability was considered a rank higher now.

However, his summoning beasts began to face trouble.

Due to the ever-growing expansion of human exploration areas, Bai and the rest could not avoid encountering humans.

Their hunting speed was plummeting more and more in the past week due to the encounter with humans.

As Lin Huang asked them to avoid members from the union organization as well as the underground organization members that they could not fight. This caused their activity range to be more and more limited.

Moreover, the army Kylie led was too large. They were sought after a couple of times as their whereabouts were revealed by the humans' detection relics.

Her Nephilic Judge army had close to 200 triple mutated Nephilic Angels now. With Bloody's improved battle formations, they could even fight imperial-level crimson gold-rank monsters.

However, there were some imperial-level yellow gold- and white gold-rank people who joined two of the hunting expeditions looking for Kylie and her army.

If not for her mini world, Kylie and her Nephilic Judge army would have been caught alive.

Although the rest of his summoning beasts were doing better than Kylie, Lin Huang speculated their hunting range would be completely occupied by humans in a few days. By then, he would have to turn them back into cards.

However, Lin Huang did not consider that as a setback. What upset him was not having any news about the God Figurines since the day he set foot in the Fallen God Land over 20 days ago.

"Did Chan Dou trick me?" Lin Huang even began to suspect that Chan Dou had misled him about the God Figurines being in the ruins just to trick him to enter.

As time passed, it had been more than a month since Lin Huang entered the Fallen God Land.

A few days ago, since the number of human explorers was constantly growing, Bai and the rest did not have any place to hunt. Aside from Bloody, the rest of the summoning monsters had been recalled back into their card forms.

More than 200 Nephilic Angels from Kylie's army had completed their triple mutation. Despite the fact that all the Nephilic Judges had completed the upgrade, her army was still incapable of fighting a yellow gold-rank.

However, there were not only yellow gold-ranks but also white gold and purple gold-ranks.

Although Kylie was unwilling to do so, she still accepted Lin Huang's arrangement.

Lin Huang promised her that she would be summoned again when the time was right.

He had never stopped hunting for those who majored in swordsmanship from the underworld. The number of inheritances he obtained increased as well.

The number of legendary-level sword skills he used to have was less than 80 and there were more than 180 of them now after they had been multiplied.

He even obtained pseudo-mythical-level sword skills: the Void Sword and the Instantaneous Slash.

The Void Sword was a very powerful skill, but it was rather different from Killer. Killer leaned more towards a close-range attack whereas the Void Sword tended to be a Life Power attack. Of course, it would not be weak if one were to use it for a close-range attack.

As for the Instantaneous Slash, it was a completely different kind of sword skill as there was only one hit for the skill. It was an extremely fast attack.

Lin Huang had practiced sword skills of such speed before. He had even derived many legendary-level sword skills from Thunder Sting. The sword skill that he recently used to kill the crimson gold-rank was the new version of Thunder Sting.

However, be it the speed of the sword, its cutting ability or its speed when the attack was launched, it was more than 10 times faster than the new version of Thunder Sting.

Despite the fact that the skill consisted of only one single hit, its power was tremendously terrifying. Even Lin Huang dared not fight such an attack.

Lin Huang felt that the Instantaneous Slash would be on par with the mythical-level skill. The one who created this skill was definitely on god-level.

The scariest part of Golden Cicada was that not only did it allow others to learn the skill, but it could be directly inherited and the memory could be retained.

In the past 10 days, each time when Lin Huang killed a person who mastered swordsmanship, he was able to completely obtain their experience in sword training. He could even get the hang of the skill.

Lin Huang's Sword Dao was improving by the day.

Aside from taking a good rest, he basically did only three things every day which were to proceed with his journey, kill sword majors, and go for sword training.

As for Bloody, it had stopped hunting for the Parasitic Puppet.

Its responsibility was to provide Lin Huang with a hunting target and parasitize the sword majors that had been killed by Lin Huang. Also, it had to look for the God Figurine which nobody had any idea about.

Lin Huang practiced his sword skills as usual tonight.

Before midnight, a silver glow lit up abruptly in the sky as if there was an explosion.

The silver cloud lingered in the air and did not clear away even after a long while.

Seeing what just happened, Lin Huang stopped his sword training and asked, "Bloody, can you see what's happening out there?"

"A beam of light was released from the foggy area which I've no way of exploring. However, there are no changes in the fog." Bloody's Leech Pods could immediately identify where the silver glow originated from. "Hey, it's kind of weird."

"What happened?" Lin Huang immediately asked.

"There are people heading over there right now. It seems like even the people that are tens of thousands of kilometers away from the ruins have witnessed this phenomenon," Bloody explained.

"If it's bright enough, there's nothing unusual about everyone seeing it. Just like how we're able to see the sun and the moon."

"However, it seems like only immortal- and holy fire-levels can see it. The imperial-levels can't seem to see the strange phenomenon at all," Bloody said, projecting a few of the imperial-levels. "The three imperial-levels are less than 100 kilometers away from the fog. The one who's farthest away is only 300 kilometers away. Look at their reactions."

From the projection, the three of them ignored the strange phenomenon above them. It seemed like they could not see it at all and they were busy getting their work done.

One of them ran in the opposite direction while another one was setting up a tent, getting ready to sleep. The third one got into an intense fight with the imperial-level monster.

"Aside from the three of them, it seems like all the imperial-levels are unable to see this phenomenon. They're busy with their own work and none of them even bother to look in the direction where the strange phenomenon occurred." Bloody projected more than 10 of the imperial-levels being monitored.

Lin Huang frowned. "Only those who're below imperial-level are able to see it? That's really strange."

"Do we need to go and have a look?" Bloody asked. It was feeling worried because its Leech Pods were unable to explore that area.

"Let's go!"

Lin Huang nodded his head without a moment of hesitation. "Chan Dou mentioned that the God Figurine is in the ruins. I guess he's not bluffing as he won't tell such a joke. You haven't been able to find anything regarding the God Figurine for the past month. That being said, the God Figurine might be in an area that you're unable to detect. If we don't go and have a look, it's a waste coming to the Fallen God Land."

"However, I think it's too risky as it's an area that can distract the imperial-levels." Bloody tended to avoid those unknown areas.

"The rest of the immortal-levels have the courage to go. Why don't we give it a try? We're capable of fighting a white gold-rank. Even if we encounter any danger, I guess our survival rate will be higher than the immortal-levels'." Lin Huang was quite confident in his abilities. "In addition to having so many God Crashers in our hands, even if we happen to bump into demigod-levels, we can fight them. If we're in really great trouble, we can even hide in Kylie's mini world."

After listening to what he said, Bloody frowned. It knew that Lin Huang had made up his mind and very unlikely that it could do anything to change his decision.

The foggy area was at the northwest of the ruins. It was an extremely huge stretch and was approximately half the area of Earth.

It had attempted to explore this region with its Leech Pods previously. However, once the Leech Pods entered the foggy area, they would completely lose connection. This was the reason it wanted to stay away from this region all the time.

However, the appearance of the phenomenon indicated that there might be hidden danger lurking there. It could be an opportunity for Lin Huang as opportunities were often accompanied by risks and it was inevitable.

If Lin Huang managed to obtain the God Figurine, he would level up to immortal-level rank-4 and advance to the intermediate level of an immortal-level. Its combat strength would be upgraded to black gold-rank as well. It would not be a problem to parasitize a yellow gold-rank by then. The upgrade in its abilities could even surpass more than that.

As it thought of this, Bloody no longer stopped Lin Huang from entering the area. However, it made a request. "We can go, but you have to promise me that you'll quit if one of your clones dies."

"Sure," Lin Huang promised.

If it was so dangerous to the point that his crimson gold-rank clone died, he would probably perish there.

After coming to an agreement, the two of them departed.

Lin Huang then summoned Thunder and headed towards the fog.

It was past ten in the morning on the second day when Lin Huang arrived at the entrance of the foggy area.

The entrance of the foggy area was located in a valley and there were already hundreds of people gathering there.

Lin Huang saw a familiar person there — Huangfu Lin.

He saw her even before they entered the ruins. However, Huangfu Lin did not notice him among the crowd.

Startled was her first reaction when she saw Lin Huang. His presence was out of her expectations. However, after sensing his powerful aura, her frozen reaction turned into shock in the blink of an eye.

"It's been awhile." Noticing that Huangfu Lin had seen him, Lin Huang knew there was nowhere he could run, so he walked towards her while smirking. The reason he did not really want to meet Huangfu Lin, his old friend, was that of the illogical elevation rate of his combat strength.

As expected, the first thing Huangfu Lin said was, "Your combat strength's on immortal-level rank-3 now?!"

The last time they had seen each other was merely half a year ago and Lin Huang's combat strength had been only blue flame-level back then. Leaping five ranks above within half a year and elevating by a level from holy fire-level to immortal-level in between, his cultivation speed was so fast that it was absurd.

"Yeah, I just happen to have great luck." Lin Huang nodded while smiling. However, that simple response halted the topic completely. What he really meant was that he did not want to talk about it.

Huangfu Lin did not ask further so she changed the topic, "You shouldn't have come even though you've advanced to immortal-level rank-3."

"I just thought of taking a look since there was quota available." Lin Huang did not bother to explain although he knew he was being underestimated. After all, apart for a couple of people on holy fire-level, his combat strength was indeed the lowest among all who were present. It would be ridiculous for him to tell Huangfu Lin that he was actually so powerful that he could even fight an imperial-level white gold-rank.

"Why is everyone gathering at the entrance but not going in?" Lin Huang changed the topic to avoid Huangfu Lin discussing his combat strength.

"We can't go in yet. The area covered in white fog seems to be blocked by a layer of invisible film. You'll know what I mean if you touch it with your hand," Huangfu Lin explained. She had arrived a few hours before Lin Huang, so she already found out what had happened.

"So what do we do now? Do we just wait?"

"The people from the Union Government said the defense layer will only be effective for 24 hours. It'll fade away automatically 24 hours later. We can go in by then." It was not confidential information, so naturally, Huangfu Lin did not have to keep it a secret.

After chatting with Huangfu Lin for a while, Lin Huang saw Shen Tao from the Heaven Alliance descending from the sky, riding on a beast.

Shen Tao noticed Lin Huang in the crowd in an instant.

After putting the beast away, he walked towards Lin Huang in large strides. He only noticed how extraordinary Lin Huang's combat strength was when he got closer. "Lin Xie, your combat strength…"

"Just luck." Lin Huang shook Shen Tao's hand while smiling.

Compared to Huangfu Lin, Lin Huang had fought alongside with Shen Tao at the tribal land before, so it was natural for them to be closer.

"You guys go ahead." Huangfu Lin nodded to both of them and left.

Shen Tao took a glance at Huangfu Lin, then patted Lin Huang's shoulder and gave him a thumbs up when she left far away. He said softly, "That chick's not bad!"

"You're thinking too much. We've just met once before this." Lin Huang shook his head while smiling.

"Let's meet more frequently. Work harder. It's possible to meet her for another 10 or 20 times," Shen Tao winked as he spoke, "Let me tell you, you must be clingy if you want to win a lady's heart."

"I don't need you, a single dog, to teach me how to woo a lady. I'm afraid I'll have an even harder time to find a girlfriend after listening to your advice," Lin Huang attacked him verbally in a straightforward way.

Shen Tao had nothing to say.

"What do you guys know about this foggy land?" Lin Huang said through voice transmission all of a sudden.

"We know nothing," Shen Tao replied in all seriousness, "The Fallen God Land is a grade-7 ruins. The Union Government in Division 3 is keeping it confidential. Although the ruins opened on a major scale, they only provide us with the most basic information."

"Although they've only explored less than a fifth of the ruins throughout the past hundreds of years, the Division 3 Union Government must have collected quite some information. As for this foggy land, I think the people from the union organizations such as the Union Government and Hunter Association might know something about it," Shen Tao voiced his speculation.

Recalling what Huangfu Lin had said earlier about the people from the Union Government knowing the defense layer would only be effective for 24 hours, Lin Huang figured that Shen Tao's speculation was accurate.

"Let's not talk about this. Since you're here, let's join the rest, so we can take care of each other." Shen Tao pulled Lin Huang towards the direction where the few Heaven Alliance members were gathering. "Big Brother Tan Lang's here too. He's been wanting to meet you."

Lin Huang had only heard of Tan Lang but had never seen him before. In reality, Lin Huang had never seen any of the three Heaven Alliance deputy chiefs before and had no idea how they looked like.

Five Heaven Alliance members arrived before Lin Huang and Shen Tao did.

Seeing Shen Tao walking over with Lin Huang, the five of them from the Heaven Alliance were observing him while feeling a little curious. They did not expect Lin Huang, who was only holy fire-level from what they recalled, to elevate to immortal-level rank-3 now. They were all surprised by the elevation speed of his combat strength.

Lin Huang scanned through the five of them. Although all of them had a combat strength of immortal-level rank-9, he recognized Tan Lang immediately.

He was not as tall as Lin Huang had imagined at a little over 1.8 meters, which was similar to Lin Huang's height. He wore a black, slim-fit trench coat with a stand-up collar while his body was rather skinny. However, Lin Huang was almost sure that he was the kind who appeared skinny but was chubby underneath those clothes.

His skin was tanned. Although his appearance was not considered handsome, he was very manly. There was a scar across the left side of his cheek which was almost three centimeters long. However, instead of making him hideous, it made him cool.

Although they were all immortal-level rank-9s, Tan Lang, who was clad in black, had the strongest aura which was much more powerful than the three of them among the four.

'He's indeed on par with the Seventh Prince from Dynasty,' Lin Huang secretly commented.

Apart from Tan Lang, there was a baby-faced person who made Lin Huang do a double take. That person's aura was just slightly weaker than Tan Lang's, but it was clear that he was a supreme genius too.

His age should be at least 28, but he looked only 17 or 18 at the most. He dressed like a student with a gentle smile on his face which made him look rather harmless.

"He disguises himself to be harmless, but he's actually not." Lin Huang secretly gave him a label.

"Hi, everyone. My name's Lin Xie." Lin Huang walked forward and greeted them.

"Tan Lang." Tan Lang was the first one who shook hands with Lin Huang.

"Li Jia." The baby-face was the second.

After some introduction, Lin Huang found out that Tan Lang and Shen Tao both came from Division 1 while Li Jia came from Division 2. Among the 10 quotas that the Heaven Alliance were given, Chan Dou gave two to Division 1, one to Division 2 while the remaining seven were assigned to the local members from Division 3.

"Lin Xie, I know that your ability surpasses your combat strength. Although your combat strength's only immortal-level rank-3 now, your real ability might be more powerful than many immortal-level rank-9 powerhouses. But there are many immortal-level rank-9 supreme geniuses who are coming into the ruins this time. Some even have the ability to kill imperial-levels while there might also be many imperial-level powerhouses who participated this time. To put it simply and although it was rather displeasing to hear, your ability's not worth mentioning among these people."

"Chan Dou gave me a mission before I came. If I happen to see you in the ruins, I must do my best to protect you. He thinks you've got the potential to be one of the Five Princes and hopes you won't die here. I don't want to judge if what he thought is accurate or not but I don't want to fail my mission. Hence, I'm giving you a mission here. The mission sounds simple, but it might not be easy to fulfill: protect yourself," Tan Lang said in all honesty and straightforward.

Although it was rather displeasing, it was clear that he came with good intentions.

"Alright then." Lin Huang had no idea how to respond to what Tan Lang said.

"Don't leave the group once we get into the foggy area. We must move together. If we're separated, you must follow me first, Li Jia second and Shen Tao third…"

"Understood," Lin Huang agreed while nodding calmly.

At midnight, the silver clouds in the sky dispersed slowly while the phenomenon finally began to fade away

Everyone knew that the isolation layer lingering around the foggy area should be waning soon.

There were already over 5,000 human powerhouses gathered at the entrance of the foggy area. It surpassed half of the total people who had entered the ruins.

Among the thousands of people, most of them were immortal-level rank-9 powerhouses while a minority of them were holy fire-levels. There were even over 30 imperial-level powerhouses among them.

These imperial-level powerhouses could not witness the phenomenon in the sky at all.

Most of them came here following the news spread by the immortal-level members from the same organizations. Although the communication function on the Emperor's Heart Ring could not be used, these major organizations had their unique way of communicating. However, it was not as convenient as the Emperor's Heart Ring which had a limited communication range too.

There was also a minority of them hunting around the area and could not help but go there to check it out after noticing many immortal-level powerhouses gathering towards the direction.

Among the crowd, many of the immortal-level powerhouses were complaining discreetly. With more than 30 imperial-level powerhouses there, they might not even get a piece of monster bone if they got in.

The phenomenon in the sky was fading quickly and many of them began to touch the invisible isolation film at the entrance of the valley.

Soon, someone in the crowd shouted, "The isolation layer's gone!" The people became excited when the scream rang out while many of them began to rush into the valley.

Lin Huang and the rest were behind them. They saw many of them entering the entrance and disappearing into the fog. In a while, they could no longer sense any of their aurae.

The members of the few major organizations under Union Government did not rush in like the rest. Instead, they got their members to join hands and walk into it in groups.

"I don't think the people from the Union Government joined hands because they're afraid they'd be separated. They might be transported when they go in," Tan Lang voiced his speculation as he watched.

The rest agreed with what he said.

Just when the 10 of them from the Heaven Alliance joined hands before entering, an imperial-level powerhouse dashed towards the entrance all of a sudden.

However, the person seemed to have smacked himself onto an invisible glass and his face deformed a little when he bounced back.

Everyone was stunned to see that.

"Is the entrance closed?" Someone shouted in surprise.

An immortal-level member from a group extended his hand and passed through the layer of isolation easily. He then disappeared with his team into the fog.

Later on, other immortal-level groups went in one after another and none of them faced any obstacles.

Imperial-level powerhouses then extended their hands, but they realized that they were blocked out. It was clear that the foggy area stopped imperial-levels from entering.

An imperial-level white gold-rank powerhouse frowned a little and appeared next to a group of immortal-levels that was going into the valley in a flash. He grabbed one of the group members' hands. "Bring me in!"

The member dared not deny him, so they had to bring him in.

The group of five passed through the isolation layer very soon, but when it was the imperial-level white gold-rank's turn, he let go of the immortal-level's hand that he was holding automatically when he bounced back.

Looking at that, the rest of them basically confirmed one thing. This foggy area prohibited imperial-level powerhouses from entering.

Tan Lang and the few of them were secretly pleased.

Without the participation of imperial-level powerhouses, it would mean they were the most powerful powerhouses in the area. They would not have to tiptoe around other powerhouses when they were looking for resources, so it was undoubtedly great news for them.

The rest of the imperial-level powerhouses looked extremely horrified. They had spent the entire day waiting outside, but they could not enter in the end.

"Let's go!" Staying there and watching would only make the imperial-level powerhouses even madder, so Tan Lang urged them to join hands and dash towards the entrance.

The ten of them made it through the isolation layer successfully as they vanished into the fog.

All Lin Huang felt was that he passed through a layer of white fog and his vision became clear all of a sudden.

The fog around vanished completely and the ten of them appeared on a field while joining hands. There was a fresh floral aroma in the air.

There was a red and a purple crescent moon hanging in the sky above their heads, giving the night a mysterious cast.

"It kind of looks like we're back in our world," Shen Tao mumbled softly.

"Can we let go of our hands now?" Lin Huang turned to look at Tan Lang beside him.

After letting go of their hands, Tan Lang looked around before speaking, "There's no one else's aura around. We should be transported somewhere in the foggy area as a team while the other team should be experiencing the same thing."

"Does anyone have any detection abilities or detection relics? Let's see if there's anything odd happening around here and see if there's anywhere to rest our feet."

"I'll do it," Li Jia walked out from the crowd and said to Tan Lang.

Tan Lang nodded. As the deputy chief of the Heaven Alliance, he had a rough understanding of his Heaven Alliance members. Especially before going there, he did his homework as he had gotten the list from Chan Dou beforehand.

Li Jia closed his eyes slowly. A while later, black, flying bugs that were the size of mosquitoes came out of his collars and sleeves. They flapped their wings and flew towards all directions.

"A Bug Master?!" Someone among the crowd shouted out loud.

Lin Huang was a little surprised too as it was his first time seeing a Bug Master.

He had heard of such profession before whereby he knew that a Bug Master was even rarer than an Imperial Censor, but he had never seen a real one.

In the ancient times, a Bug Master was actually a branch under an Imperial Censor — a Bug Imperial Censor.

However, due to further studies into varieties of bugs, the Bug Imperial Censors came up with all sorts of new abilities and new battle modes. That was how they got their independence from the Imperial Censor and a new profession was born — the Bug Master.

Bugs had the most varieties among all monsters, hence the battle style of a Bug Master was more colorful than an Imperial Censor's. They walked on a different path which only got further away from Imperial Censors. Now almost everyone agreed completely that the Bug Master was an independent profession which was different from the Imperial Censor.

To Lin Huang, Li Jia's detection skill was similar to Bloody's Leech Pods. However, the number of bugs was limited while its detection range was smaller. Their detection accuracy was definitely below Bloody's. After all, Bloody possessed Supreme Intelligence which allowed it to control information coming from tens of millions of Leech Pods. Li Jia definitely would not be able to do that.

However, Li Jia had released up to 10,000 bugs now. It proved that his soul was much more powerful than those who had the same combat strength as he did.

Around some ten minutes later, the bugs came back and entered Li Jia's body. He then opened his eyes slowly while looking a little peculiar.

"What's wrong?" Tan Lang asked immediately.

"There are natives here…" What Li Jia said shocked everyone. He then proceeded to give a detailed explanation, "In our 10 o'clock, 120 kilometers away is a little town where people live. They're all ordinary people who have no cultivation base and they dress rather strangely. They kind of dress like those ancient people, like the kind of clothes I've seen in the museum…"

Li Jia's discovery was rather unexpected. Even Lin Huang was a little surprised by that.

"Are you sure it's a mistake? Are they really human and not disguised by monsters?" Tan Lang still thought it was a little unbelievable.

"They should be real. It's clear that the buildings in the town are made by humans and it's brightly lit now. I don't think monsters are able to build such a human town." Li Jia was sure of that.

"Could they be survivors from the ancient times?" Shen Tao could not help but frown. "It's possible that the people who survived during the war gathered and bred, then slowly built a town of their own."

"It's certainly possible theoretically." Lin Huang nodded to agree with what he said.

What Shen Tao said was logically reasonable.

"Maybe this foggy area happens to protect them and prevents outsiders from interfering with their lives. Maybe that's how they managed to live for generations until now," Li Jia added.

His voiced thoughts made everyone believe those people might really be survivors of ancient times.

"Then, let's check it out together. We need a place to rest anyway, so we can ask around about the area as well." Tan Lang came up with a plan after some thinking. However, he did not forget to remind them, "No matter whether these people are ancient time survivors or not, we should have our guard up. Remember, we're still in grade-7 ruins. It's possible for anything to happen."

After that piece of short advice, Tan Lang then led them to fly towards the town ahead.

Soon, they saw the town that Li Jia was talking about.

The town was small. It was approximately 40 to 50 square kilometers large. The buildings in the town were almost all low houses with red bricks and green tiles. There were hardly any double-story houses.

There were red lanterns lit up at the entrance of every house. The fire burned inside the lanterns; the light did not come from energy stones.

"I've seen such lanterns at the museum before. I remember them being used by the commoners in the Middle Ages as a source of light," recalled an immortal-level rank-9 powerhouse, "I think the fuel is made of animal fats."

They descended slowly from the sky.

"There really isn't any energy around. The people around here should be ordinary people who have no cultivation base." Tan Lang finally proved that Li Jia's speculation earlier was accurate. He was relieved after finding out about it himself.

Meanwhile, Lin Huang noticed a 12 or 13-year-old boy looking at them descending from the sky through the window in a house not far away.

He turned to look at where the young boy was. The young boy hid his head under the window immediately and only revealed half of his head slowly to peek at Lin Huang and the rest after a while.

Lin Huang smiled while nodding at him. The boy was stunned for a moment and seemed troubled for a while before he opened the window and shouted at Lin Huang, "Are you guys immortal?"

Lin Huang and the rest were stunned to hear his question.

"Kid…" Lin Huang held Shen Tao's shoulder just when he was going to say something and shook his head.

Lin Huang took a step forward and said to the young boy with a smile, "We're not immortal, we're cultivators."

"But I saw you guys fly from the sky. It means all of you are immortal!" The young boy said with conviction.

"You mean like this?" Lin Huang hovered from the ground slowly and flew towards the window.

"You guys really are immortal!" The young boy's eyes lit up and he was no longer scared upon realizing that Lin Huang was friendly. He then said to Lin Huang in excitement, "You guys must know how to kill demons then!

"Demons?" Lin Huang was stunned again hearing that, but he responded, "How does the demon you mentioned look like?"

"They…" The young boy was interrupted all of a sudden.

"Xiao Yu, who are you talking to?" A woman suddenly opened the door to the young boy's room.

"Aunty…" The young boy turned to glance at the door immediately.

"Who are you?" The woman looked at Lin Huang warily. She then stepped forward and pushed the young boy behind her.

"Aunty, he's an immortal!" The young boy named Xiao Yu exclaimed excitedly.

"Immortal? More like a con man!" The woman seemed even more skeptical now.

"He's not a con man. I really saw him fly!" Xiao Yu explained on behalf of Lin Huang quickly.

"Are you leaving? I'll call the police if you don't!" The woman threatened Lin Huang fiercely. She was sure that Lin Huang was a con man.

"Sis, please calm down. I just want to ask about the demons." Lin Huang wrung his hands helplessly.

"Oh, you want to know about the demons. You really think you're immortal, don't you!?" The woman said in disdain, "I've seen so many scammers in my life. You're not the only one who can fly. Do you think I don't know the tricks that you guys play to scam people?! If you really are who you said you are, then make me fly! I'll believe that you're immortal if you make me fly."

"If you say so." Lin Huang could not help but smile hearing what the woman said.

He extended two telekinetic threads which tangled around the bodies of the woman and the young boy. Lin Huang moved his fingers slightly while the duo's feet floated from the ground.

"I…" The woman wanted to say something but she realized that she was hovering in the air. She swallowed the words that were coming out of her mouth.

"I'm flying!" Seeing that he was flying, Xiao Yu was cheering and dancing with excitement.

"So, can we talk now?" Lin Huang said with a smirk after a while, waiting for the woman to snap out of her bewilderment.

"You really are an immortal…" The woman mumbled softly.

After opening the door and letting Lin Huang and the rest into the house, she realized that there was not only one immortal who came, but ten of them.

"Please… Please take a seat…" The woman brought all of the stools that she had at home out clumsily, but there were only eight of them. She was panicking even more now.

"Sis, don't panic. We only have a few questions." Lin Huang knew the woman might be spooked.

"Please do shoot away. I'll definitely tell you everything that I know."

"Well, we've just arrived at this town, so we've no idea what's the situation here. I heard from Xiao Yu that there are demons here. Could you tell me more about that?" Lin Huang went straight to the point while Tan Lang and the rest listened carefully because they did not want to miss a thing.

"Oh, so you guys are here to kill the demons! That's great!" The woman was relieved and started rattling on like a bullet train. "There's this Black Dragon Mountain near our town and there's a super powerful demon on the mountain. I heard it's a black, one-eyed dragon. The black dragon has tens of small demons as its minions and each of them is insanely strong. Even the officers from the local authority can only fight equally with the demons. One small demon can take on three officers. Those small demons would come into town to devour people every three to five days. My poor son was taken away by a wolf demon even though he was hiding under the bed…"

"Sis, how do those small demons look like?" Lin Huang asked after listening to the woman narrate her story in tears.

"All of them look different. Some look like monkeys, some like wolves, and some of them are like humans and they walk as we do… No matter what, they have sharp teeth and claws. They're stronger than tigers!"

Lin Huang looked at Tan Lang and the rest. They were almost sure that the demons the woman was talking about should be monsters.

"Sis, why don't all of you move away since there are demons in this town?" Lin Huang proceeded to ask.

"Wouldn't it be the same no matter where we move? Which town doesn't have demons now? I heard that people from a town died of no reason every day before this. And nobody even saw any demons in there. They had no idea where to hide, so all of them ran away. At least, we can still see the demons here and we can hide somewhere," explained the woman helplessly, "The cities are safe, but they're too far away. We don't have the money to live there!"

"Why are the cities safe?" Now, Lin Huang finally understood that this town was not the only town in the foggy area. There were many towns, and there were more people living there.

"There are walls around the cities and guards. Of course, they're safe!" The woman did not know much about the cities.

After confirming those pieces of information, Lin Huang asked a couple more questions and found out that her knowledge was limited. It was clear that she had heard rumors and hearsay, some of which were exaggerated and fake. Moreover, she told many things that were unrelated to what Lin Huang asked, such as Xiao Yu's parents being captured by the demons and that she was taking care of him out of pity…

Since he was sure that he could not ask any further, Lin Huang and the rest then left her house.

The Good Luck Inn was one of the rare double-story buildings in town.

Lin Huang and the rest stayed in the biggest dormitory in the inn.

"Now, we're basically sure that there are many humans living in this foggy area as well as a massive amount of monsters around. People are living in two types of places. One is the town that we're currently in where security is low while the other one is the cities, which is the safest place. They're similar to the human footholds in our world, just that the classification isn't as detailed.

"There are many towns while the guards depend mainly on the officers from the local authority. The officers are called 'warriors' and their aura is basically below holy fire-level. People who are more powerful than warriors are called immortals. To the commoners, only immortals can fly. I'm guessing that the 'immortals' they've labeled are cultivators above holy fire-level, but they have a different cultivation system than we do.

"There are only 12 cities with high walls surrounding them and immortals guarding them. They have to pay a high accommodation fee in order to live in the city in return for the protection. Hence, most of the people who can't afford it only live in the towns. Although the towns are invaded by demons, it's still much safer than living in the wild.

"The demons that they talk about are monsters of our world. These monsters are scattered all over with many varieties. Most of them consume humans and other animals. A minority of them don't consume humans, but they're not exactly friendly to humans since they hunt and kill them for fun.

"These demons live in groups while many of them are of different kinds whereby the most powerful one will be the leader. Some of the demon leaders can even speak the human language. These demons usually live near towns where humans are easy prey. Apart from that, places with more monsters have a head honcho which they call a demon king. The demon king is in charge of a territory.

"According to what the local authority said, demon kings have powerful abilities while some of them can even kill immortals. From my speculation, those so-called 'demon kings' have a much more powerful ability than the leaders. They should have immortal-level combat strength, but we've no idea for now if there are any monsters that are more powerful than demon king."

Tan Lang summarized the information that he had gathered one by one. He had gotten most of them from the local authority earlier.

After leaving Xiao Yu's house earlier, Lin Huang and the rest headed straight to the local authority. The officer saw all ten of them flying, so he told them everything that he knew and answered every question quickly. The information they obtained from him was much more detailed and clearer than what the woman had told them earlier.

"I guess only 'immortals' can give us more detailed information. I think we should head straight to the city to know more about the situation from the 'immortals'," Li Jia suggested.

"The cities have curfews at midnight when people are prohibited from entering and exiting. The officer said that demons that fly won't be able to fly into the cities as there's a prohibitive barrier in the sky above the city wall. We can only head over there when the city door opens tomorrow morning. Let's rest well tonight." Tan Lang came up with a plan.

"I think we should clear the demons nearby before we leave," Lin Huang who was standing aside said all of a sudden.

The rest looked a little uneasy upon hearing what he said.

Lin Huang could roughly figure out what they were thinking about. After all, the people in this world were different from theirs. It was unnecessary for them to protect the people, so they were unwilling to put in any effort to help.

"I'll take a walk. You guys rest well."

"I'll go with you." Seeing that nobody responded, Shen Tao patted his thighs and stood up.

"It's alright. I'll go on my own. I'll come back in a couple of minutes," Lin Huang rejected Shen Tao's kind intention.

He could feel that Shen Tao was actually unwilling to do it, but he initiated accompanying him just so Lin Huang did not seem so awkward alone.

Lin Huang hovered into the sky after getting out of the inn and headed towards the Black Dragon Mountain.

Li Jia shook his head and said while smiling and watching Lin Huang vanish into the sky, "Young people just can't sit still."

"You look even younger than him," Shen Tao teased.

"I'm already 28, which means I'm already an uncle," Li Jia wanted to look mature, but his baby-face was not convincing at all.

"Your constipated face makes you look nothing older than 18!" What Shen Tao said made everyone burst out laughing.

Black Dragon Mountain was less than 300 miles from the town, so it only took Lin Huang a short while to arrive above the mountain range.

The mountain range stretched up to a hundred miles across and it was filled with dense, lush greenery and hulking trees.

"Bloody, release your Leech Pods and see what's the deal about this world. Also, look where those demons are hiding." Lin Huang had hidden Bloody when he was with Tan Lang and the rest, so he did not get it to release its Leech Pods to look around to prevent Bloody from exposing itself.

Although the Leech Pods could hardly be discovered under usual circumstances, it was possible for one to see them if the distance was very close. After all, Tan Lang's ability was considered the best of the best among immortal-level powerhouses while Li Jia had extraordinary spiritual energy since he was a Bug Master.

Although they were all from the Heaven Alliance, Lin Huang did not want them to find out about Bloody's skills. Hence, he used an excuse to get away from the people before getting Bloody to release the Leech Pods. Killing the demons surrounding them was just something he would do conveniently.

Bloody found a demon after releasing its Leech Pods for a moment.

"Found it!" Bloody projected the demon right away.

Lin Huang raised his brow slightly as he watched the projection. "I thought it would either be a dragonkin or a sky dragon. Hmm, it's just a boa…"

Lin Huang remembered the woman from Xiao Yu's house claiming that the demon on the Black Dragon Mountain was a black, one-eyed dragon. However, what Bloody projected was a humongous black, one-eyed boa.

The boa was hundreds of meters long and had a green eye with black scales all over its body. Half of its body was hidden in the swamp, which was pretty terrifying to look at.

"Its combat strength's just purple flame-level on the holy fire-level. It should be double mutated judging from the intensity of its aura," Bloody voiced its observation.

"Cast parasites on it then. See if there's any useful information in its head."

Such a holy fire-level monster was too easy for Bloody to cast parasites on since Bloody was on immortal-level rank-9.

The Leech Pods went into the demon's body like a piece of cake without it even realizing at all. Its consciousness was taken away and replaced in the blink of an eye.

It only took less than three seconds to retrieve its memory. Just like that, Bloody received everything in its head.

"This demon's called the Dark Water Boa. It has a demon king behind it called the Bewitching Spider Lady. It's a monster that can turn into a human lady. The Dark Water Boa received her orders to watch the Black Dragon Mountain. It has to hand 100 humans to her to consume on time every month. The Bewitching Spider Lady has 16 leaders guarding each spot under her. The other leaders have a similar ability as the Dark Water Boa."

"It seems like this Bewitching Spider Lady should have a combat strength of immortal-level. It's very possible that it's triple mutated since it can turn human." Lin Huang nodded lightly after hearing the report and asked immediately, "Is there anything about the demons above the demon king?"

"No. According to the memory of this Dark Water Boa, the Bewitching Spider Lady has the most powerful ability it has ever seen. It has some images of the Bewitching Spider Lady fighting human powerhouses from this world in its head. Looking at the images, the Bewitching Spider Lady's ability should be mid-immortal-level while the human powerhouse who fought her should have a similar ability as hers."

"So, there are immortal-level powerhouses among those 'immortals'…" For now, Lin Huang could only be sure that there were immortal-level powerhouses in this part of the world, but he could not confirm if immortal-level rank-9 was the highest combat strength in this area. He was not even sure if imperial-level powerhouses existed in this world.

"This monster doesn't know much about human cultivators. It's killed a few 'immortals' but they had inferior abilities," Bloody proceeded.

"How about the remnants of those 'immortals'? Did it keep them?" Lin Huang asked not because he figured there might be something valuable from those immortals. Rather, he wanted to learn more about the human cultivators from those remnants.

"It kept them. They're all hiding in his stomach," Bloody confirmed, "I'll bring it over."

A while later, the black boa whizzed in front of Lin Huang and spat everything out of its stomach.

Apart from a few weapons and armors, Lin Huang saw a few rings.

He extended telekinetic threads to retrieve the four rings into his palm and began to take a good look at them.

"These should be storage rings to store items, but their craftsmanship is completely different from an Emperor's Heart Ring." Lin Huang attempted to insert his Life Power, but the rings showed no response. He then used Divine Telekinesis which activated the rings in an instant. He began looking into the space of the rings right away.

"I see. They can be activated with spiritual energy." Lin Huang was elated by the unexpected discovery.

As opposed to the Emperor's Heart Ring, these storage rings would not be locked after the owners died. Instead, the rings would go back to ownerless mode. They would be activated again as soon as spiritual energy was inserted while the items inside could be explored and taken out as one wished.

Soon, a gray crystal that was the size of a thumb appeared in Lin Huang's hand. This was what occupied most of the four storage rings.

"It has a massive amount of active energy, but it's completely different from Life Power." Lin Huang studied it for a while with Divine Telekinesis. "All the crystals are of the same standard. If I'm not mistaken, this should be a currency similar to the Life Crystal which could be the exclusive currency used among the immortals. Looking at its active energy, the immortals' cultivation system here should be completely different from ours."

After peering into the storage rings for a while, apart from the gray crystals, Lin Huang found many tiny bottles too. There were tiny pills with different colors in those bottles. There were many metallic and non-metallic materials as well as some herbs.

Eventually, a couple of crystal clear jade slips caught Lin Huang's attention.

"Are these accessories?" Lin Huang was a little perplexed as he picked up a jade slip. "But there's no hole, so how does one wear it?"

Lin Huang could not help but release his Divine Telekinesis to see if he missed out any details. However, an extensive amount of information rushed into Lin Huang's head as soon as his Divine Telekinesis touched the jade slip.

"Ice Heart Tactic?" After taking some time to read all of the information, Lin Huang came to a realization. "These jade slips contain methods and tactics!"