Chapter 121: Life Species Monster
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
"Life Skill Card"
"Life Skill Name: Army Attack Tactics"
"Rarity: Rare"
"Mastery Level: Level 8"
"Effect: 96% increment in the Life Power rotation speed. Increases attack power and defense power by 96% respectively."
"Remarks: With every upgrade, each of the Life Skill effects will be increased by 12%."
"Card Remarks: Usable"
Lin Huang looked at the description of his Life Skill Card and was stunned. He did not expect the effect of the Epiphany Card to be tremendous, allowing him to upgrade Army Attack Tactics to level eight. The increment of 96% of all effects his Life Power was the peak if it was an Ultimate Life Skill. Some people who had high-level Life Skills spent all their lives in training and the best they could do was level five. Only one in a million made it to level six. There was barely anyone who could make it to level seven and eight. Lin Huang had proven himself because he was able to upgrade to level eight in Epiphany mode in just one sitting!
He then checked the cards in his body, there was an addition Healing Card which was his reward for completing the mission.
"To activate or not to activate... A mission card is just a pain in the ass!" Lin Huang exclaimed.
If not for the Epiphany Card, he knew very well that he would never complete the mission no matter what. Fortunately, the effect of the Epiphany Card was incredible. Not only did he complete his mission on time, he even exceeded the expectation for the given task.
After 20 days of training, not only had he managed to upgrade Army Attack Tactics to level eight, he also stabilized his Life Power. He began to think about leveling up to bronze-level. Lin Xin was only left with 10 days of summer break and he planned to head out to kill and hunt monsters once Lin Xin started schooling again. He wanted to focus on choosing his Life Seed in the next few days. In the Life Seed encyclopedia, there were much more bronze-level monsters compared to iron-level monsters. Lin Huang was spoilt for choice.
He finally picked 11 Life Seeds but he still could not make up his mind as to which one he wanted. Initially, he planned to consult Yi Zheng but then he remembered that he had only broken through iron-level rank-2 after obtaining Army Attack Tactics just a month ago. It might make Yi Zheng skeptical if he consulted him about upgrading to bronze-level. He took a pass on that idea.
After some hesitation, Lin Huang sent Leng Yuexin a message.
"Ms. Leng, are you still traveling in Division3?"
"Yes, I'm still in Division3 right now but I'm going back within these few days. Is there anything you need?" Leng Yuexin replied promptly.
"I wanted to get your advice about which bronze-level Life Seed to pick. I still can't make up my mind." Lin Huang hoped Leng Yuexin would help him but there was no guarantee there.
"Send them over and I'll take a look." Leng Yuexin offered.
Lin Huang sent the 11 Life Seed pictures. Leng Yuexin had always kept his secrets and she never once questioned his intentions. Similarly now, she did not ask him for the reason he was looking for bronze-leveled Life Seeds so soon. Soon, Leng Yuexin initiated a video-call with him.
Leng Yuexin was wearing a white maxi dress, it matched her chilly aura while still maintaining her elegance.
"I've looked at the Life Seed you picked. Most of them belong to speed and defense categories, focusing mainly on upgrading your physique, which is unnecessary." Leng Yuexin did not even greet him when the call was connected.
"It's unnecessary?" Lin Huang frowned, what Leng Yuexin said had crushed the plan that he had in mind.
"Your physique can be trained before you become a transcendent. There are movement skills to strengthen your power, to increase your defensive abilities and even more movement skills to increase your speed…"
"Moreover, before you level-up to a transcendent, your body will transform, causing your physical traits to deteriorate to the bare minimum, taking with it all your physique-based skills. That was why a lot of people who had an amazing physique would have to spend time and resources to cultivate their Life Seed after they become a transcendent."
"So it doesn't matter even there are improvements in my physique increased now? Then wouldn't my Sly Hands be useless by then?"
" Sly Hands would still be useful. After leveling up to a transcendent, Sly Hands would transform into a secret skill called Demonic Hands ." Leng Yuexin explained patiently, " Demonic Hands is quite a useful secret skill."
"So, I do need to consider the things that would happen to my physique after I level up to transcendent in order to pick a suitable Life Seed?" Lin Huang had a new idea in his mind.
"That's right, the best ones would be those with effects to protect your life or to help you in scoring critical hits in your battles. These two types of secret skills are the most useful ones when you become a transcendent." Leng Yuexin nodded.
"But I wouldn't know which Life Seed will be the ones that will evolve into these secret skills. Is it possible to purchase such information from the Hunter Association?" Lin Huang was bummed.
"I'll send you a copy later and you can take a look at the Life Seed encyclopedia." After Leng Yuexin said this, she hesitated and continued, "Actually, since you're talking about bronze-level Life Seeds, I thought of a bronze-level monster that you could kill to get a special secret skill after you became a transcendent. I'm unsure if it's suitable for you."
"Do tell!" That got Lin Huang excited.
"This monster is called a Vile Marionette. It's not exactly powerful but it sure is tough as it has the ability to substitute its body with a faux body. After it is killed, you would get a Life Seed called Substitute , it belongs to the psychic element. Its powers are limited and can only be used three times a day to divert non-fatal attacks. It is less powerful than Life Seeds that come with recovery effects which is why most people shy away from choosing this Life Seed. However, once you have leveled up to a transcendent, it can be upgraded Scapegoat, a secret skill, which could help you escape death. It can be used nine times per day."
"Sounds great, I shall put this on my list." Lin Huang did not lack skills. Substitute was a great secret skill once he arrived at transcendent.
"I will send over information regarding secret skills, you can take a look at the rest and think about it."
Leng Yuexin sent over information on secret skills not long after she hung up the phone. Lin Huang sent her a thank you message and started reading. There were not much bronze-level Life Seeds that could evolve when he leveled up to transcendent. There were only 20 of them. Lin Huang flipped through the pages but he did not seem to find one he was satisfied with.
In the end, Scapegoat caught his attention.
"Secret Skill Name: Scapegoat"
"Secret Skill Effect: Substitute your body with a faux body to divert fatal attacks . Limited to nine uses per day."
"Obtaining Secret Skill: From evolving the Substitute Life Seed."
He compared the secret skill with the information he found in the Life Seed encyclopedia.
"Life Seed Name: Substitute"
"Skill Effect: Substitute your body with a faux body to divert fatal attacks . Limited to three uses per day."
"Obtaining Life Seed: By killing the Vile Marionette."
"This seems suitable. I'll pick this." Lin Huang decided on the Life Seed Leng Yuexin recommended.
After he closed the Life Seed encyclopedia and the information about secret skills, he began to read more about the Vile Marionette on the network.
"Vile Marionette, undead species, bronze-level rank-3, monsters living in groups…" He found the information shortly after, "Scattered in Fog Canyon, Forgotten Land, the first level of the Undying Black Abyss …
Lin Huang had heard of the Undying Black Abyss long time ago. It was forbidden land. Only transcendents dared to enter the first level and made it back after that. He had never heard of Fog Canyon and Forgotten Land and so, he did some research. He found out that Forgotten Land was a prohibited area in Division7. Many who discovered the area, transcendents included, would go missing. Those who made it back said there was nothing special about the place except the fact that it was a desert.
As for Fog Canyon, it was a level-4 wild zone.
Lin Huang picked Fog Canyon as his destination without thinking twice. He did not want to lose his life and he did not know much about this world. Even with the Goldfinger, he still needed a long time to learn and grow. After picking his destination, Lin Huang was completely relaxed for the coming days. He planned to leave after Lin Xin went back to school.
A week passed, it was a couple more days before Lin Xin's school would reopen. Lin Huang's communication device rang, it was Fatty, Yin Hangyi who requested a video-call. Lin Huang raised his eyebrow and picked up the call.
"Bro, what's up?" Fatty's big face occupied the entire screen.
"Same old, same old, but I think you have gained weight." Lin Huang had no idea where he picked up the habit of sticking his face so close to the screen even when he knew he had a big face.
"Would it kill you not to tell the truth?" Fatty snapped.
"Yes, I would suffer"
"Damn it, can't you talk properly. Alright then, I will cut to the chase then. I'm in need of help."
"Tell me, what is it?" Lin Huang was slightly concerned.
"I'm leveling up to bronze-level, I need your help! You should be iron-level now, am I right?"
"When?" Lin Huang was surprised that Fatty was planning to level up the same time as him.
"Within the next three to five days, I need a couple of days to prepare myself."
Lin Huang frowned and Fatty noticed Lin Huang's facial expression, "If you have something going on, I'll get someone else to help me. Don't worry about it."
"It's nothing, I can postpone my stuff. Which Life Seed did you pick, where is it located?" Lin Huang assured Fatty.
"The location is a level-4 wild zone called Fog Canyon. The Life Seed monster that I picked is the Vile Marionette. I bet you have never heard of it before right?" Lin Huang did not expect Fatty to pick the same Life Seed monster as he was going to.
Chapter 122: Reunion With Fatty
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
"Don't tell anyone that I told you this. Although the Substitute Life Seed of the Vile Marionette doesn't seem that powerful, once I'm level up to a transcendent, this skill from this Life Seed will evolve into a secret skill that can save your life. I suggest you choose the same Life Seed as I do when you are leveling up to bronze-level in the future. I heard this from my bro who comes from royalty; it's a solid piece of information!" Fatty intentionally lowered his voice as he said this to Lin Huang.
Lin Huang figured if he went to Fog Canyon with Fatty and leveled to bronze-level, Fatty would definitely feel weird because he could not hide his tremendous level-up speed.
"Nevermind, I'll wait for him to level up and convince him to leave me while I stay in Fog Canyon to level up…" Lin Huang thought.
"This piece of information did not come by easily, I'm telling you because you're my bro. Aren't I the best?" Fatty boasted.
"Alright, I'll help you to finish your task. Once it's completed, you can leave while I stay on to settle some stuff." Lin Huang suggested.
"That sounds like a plan! Send me your contact details. I'll book the spaceship ticket to Baqi City for you. We will meet in Baqi City a day before." Fatty paid for Lin Huang's ticket since he asked for his help.
"It's alright, I'll book the ticket on my own, even if I'm not helping you, I would have to go there in a couple of days anyway." Lin Huang declined Fatty's generosity.
"I'll take you to a good meal once we're there then." Fatty wanted to repay Lin Huang's kindness.
"Sure, I'll see you next week." Lin Huang hung up the call.
"Brother, who is that whom you were talking to just now?" Lin Xin was picking up a parcel downstairs and saw Lin Huang on a video-call.
"He's a friend, he's asking me to join him in Fog Canyon next week."
"Is it far?" Lin Xin had never heard of the place before.
"It would take more than 20 days. He's leveling up to bronze-level and needs my help. I have something to settle in the same area as well so I agreed."
"Oh…" Lin Xin seemed upset.
"I'll send you the money for food and daily necessities; I will be back end of September. Whatever you need to buy, don't worry about the money." Lin Huang then transferred a million credit points to her.
"One million?!" Lin Xin shrieked, "That's too much!"
"Not at all. I'm a hunter now, an iron-level monster carcass is selling for more than 10,000 credits and I can get at least 100,000 credits for a bronze-level monster carcass. I can make one million within minutes strolling through the wild zone." Credit points were no longer a concern to Lin Huang ever since he became a hunter. His concern was now Life Crystals, one million credit points were equivalent to 10 years' worth of Life Crystals.
"Is it a lucrative job to be a hunter?!" Although Lin Xin knew hunters made good money, she was not too clear about the occupation itself. Now, she finally understood why all hunters were so rich. "I want to be a hunter too when I grow up!"
"Why are you so competitive? You should focus on your studies for now. If you graduate from a prestigious school, you could have a better life than me." Lin Huang patted her head.
"I'm going back to my room to train my gun skills!"
"Go then. Rest up when you need to. Do everything in moderation for the best efficiency." Lin Huang reminded her.
"Okay!" Lin Xin shouted while she made her way upstairs.
Three days passed and Lin Xin's summer break came to an end. She had officially joined the graduation class of Hunter Reserve College. As planned, Lin Huang headed to Baqi City a day earlier before venturing into Fog Canyon. He checked into a hotel near the central plaza and called Yin Hangyi.
"I'm here, where are you?" He called Fatty.
"I've arrived since yesterday!" Fatty sounded lazy, "I just woke up from a nap. Was just thinking of calling to check and see when you'll be arriving. Come to my hotel, I still have an empty room in my suite."
"I just checked into a hotel." Lin Huang did not want to sleep in the same room with the chatterbox.
"So fast? Which hotel are you staying in?" Fatty asked.
"I'm at Yun Man Hotel, what about you?"
"Oh that's such a coincidence; I'm staying at Yun Man Hotel too!" Fatty was excited.
"There are only three hotels around the central plaza that hunters would usually opt for." Lin Huang was not surprised at all.
"Which floor are you on?" Fatty asked.
"I'm o the 17th floor, what are you trying to do?"
"I'm going to visit you of course! I'm still on the 29th floor. Wait for me, I'm coming to you!" Fatty then asked, "Which room number?"
"Room 1721…" Lin Huang knew very well that if he did not tell him his room number, Fatty would definitely knock on each room to look for him.
Fatty rang his doorbell not long after he hung up. He tried to hug Lin Huang but Lin Huang dodged him.
"Wow! Great movement skill! Which level exactly are you on now?"
"Iron-level rank-2." Lin Huang lied.
"So fast?!" Fatty thought Lin Huang had just entered iron-level not long ago and would need some time to get to iron-level rank-2.
"I've got great qualities, there's nothing you can do about it." Lin Huang boasted.
"Which Life Skill are you training now?" Fatty was curious.
"Army Attack Tactics." Lin Huang admitted.
"That's expensive; didn't you tell me that you're poor?" Fatty remembered that Lin Huang could not even afford a portable tent.
"I got it from the Union Government as a reward during the last monster horde invasion." Lin Huang smiled.
"Damn, what a steal!" Fatty thought about it and shook his head, "It would be useless if I got that Life Skill. I'm not as qualified as you and the effect of me training Army Attack Tactics would be worse than other Life Skills. For you, it's different. If you trained until level six, you would be comparable to an ultimate Life Skill."
"The possibilities of it being comparable to an Ultimate Life Skill is the reason I'm training Army Attack Tactics." Lin Huang did not want to tell Fatty that he had trained Army Attack Tactics to level eight.
After chatting for awhile, Fatty said, "I shall head back to my room now, I'll drop by your room around five. Let's go to dinner together! My treat!"
It was two o'clock in the afternoon after Fatty left. Lin Huang read some news about the monsters in Fog Canyon. Soon, it was five and Fatty arrived for dinner.
"What would you like to eat?
"Anything will do, as long as it's delicious." Lin Huang was not fussy.
"Since you're not expecting something like fine-dining, I shall bring you to this one then." Fatty waved his hand, "Come with me!"
After walking for 10 minutes, they arrived at a hotel called Guest Hotel. Lin Huang had heard about this hotel chain before. They were huge and were headquartered in Baqi City.
As Lin Huang followed behind Fatty as they entered the hotel, the staff greeted Fatty. Lin Huang figured he was probably a regular customer. They headed to a private room. Lin Huang drank tea while Fatty ordered the dishes.
A while later, Lin Huang asked to be excused to the restroom.
On the way to the restroom, Lin Huang saw a man in a chef uniform walk out of the restroom. He looked so much like Fatty but was much bigger and taller. He looked like he was in his 40s, Lin Huang found that strange.
When he returned, Lin Huang could not help but ask, "Fatty, is the hotel chef your relative?"
"What's wrong?" Fatty lifted his head and asked. Lin Huang then told him about the middle-aged chef that he saw earlier.
"So you saw my dad? I thought he was not around today, it's your lucky day!" Fatty blurted.
"Your dad is the chef?" Lin Huang knew nothing about Fatty's family.
"He's also the hotel owner." Fatty explained.
"Ahh is that so." Lin Huang thought that no matter how much a chef earned, it would still not be enough to upgrade to iron-level but since his dad was the chain hotel's owner, everything made sense.
"Have a seat, I'll go to the kitchen and ask my dad to make his best dishes. You'll love them!" Lin Huang had tried Fatty's cooking before, it was good. He must have learned it from his dad. Lin Huang was excited to try the food Fatty's dad was going to prepare.
Fatty left to the kitchen and came back 10 minutes later. He smiled while saying to Lin Huang, "My dad has something to settle in Baqi City today, that's why he dropped by the hotel. He saw that the hotel was crowded so he decided to help. You're lucky to have bumped into him."
"Although my dad owns this place, I have to pay whenever I eat here. There's no discount for me, it's a rule my dad set. But since you're here today, he made this meal complimentary."
Lin Huang was embarrassed to hear that, "It's not good that I broke the rules…"
"No you didn't, he put the bill on his own tab. I know him very well." Fatty explained.
The food was served after awhile. The food portion was simple and small. There were three dishes and a bowl of soup but Lin Huang could tell that his dad put a lot of effort to prepare them. Every bite was unforgettable, Lin Huang had only tasted food this good back at the Stable Residence. Lin Huang was impressed with his cooking skills!
After dinner, Fatty's dad met with them. Lin Huang knew that his dad had given them the best. It was a thank you dinner for taking care of Fatty.
"Don't worry, I will bring Fatty back in one piece." Lin Huang thought.
Chapter 123: Lin Huang's Ambition
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
It was a sunny day on the 2nd of September in Baqi City. The Demonic Crystal Spaceship landed on the central plaza at 10 in the morning. Other Demonic Crystal Spaceships that took different routes docked at the same place too.
After scanning their tickets, Lin Huang and Yin Hangyi boarded the spaceship. They were staying on different floors, Lin Huang on the sixth floor while Yin Hangyi was on the eighth floor. However, Fatty loved Lin Huang's company. Besides sleeping, he spent most of the time in Lin Huang's room.
"Hey Fatty, have you ever thought of inheriting your dad's hotel one day?" Lin Huang was annoyed.
"The food ordinary chefs are allowed to handle is limited. If I become a Food Hunter, I'll make even more delicious food. That's my desire in the food industry." Fatty explained, "Besides, I hope that I could do even better than my dad which is why he supports me fully in becoming a Food Hunter."
"What about you, why do you want to be a hunter?" Fatty asked him back.
"I'm not a fan of placing my fate in someone else's hands. It's not 100% safe in the foothold, even C-grade ones that have a transcendent as their guardian. After all, transcendent are still human beings, they too make mistakes, they too could die in battles. Instead of putting my life in a transcendent's hand, I would rather take control of my own life. That's why I aspire to be stronger so that I could protect myself as well as the people around me." Lin Huang spoke with passion and then thought again. There was a deeper reason why he desired to be strong.
"It's not all about insecurity. I would love to see how big this world is. Before I become a transcendent, I am confined to explore the world within the safety zone. Not only I would like to discover other safe zones, I would also like to see the world outside those safety zones, those areas yet to be explored by humans since the new epoch…"
"What's wrong with you, I'd rather spend all my life in the safety zone than to go anywhere chaotic. About exploring the yet to be discovered, I would let someone else do it." Fatty crossed his hands.
Lin Huang laughed and thought that what he said made him look ambitious.
It took them 11 days to travel in the Demonic Crystal Spaceship and finally, they arrived at their destination - foothold No.7C29, Fog City. Fog City was 1,200 kilometers from the Fog Canyon, which was the nearest foothold with people from the canyon. It was September 13th at four o'clock in the afternoon when the Demonic Crystal Spaceship in Fog City. Lin Huang and Yin Hangyi got off the spaceship and checked into a hotel together.
"There's a level-3 wild zone along the way to the Fog Canyon. It would be dangerous if just the both of us went, I will get a team from Adventurer Paradise." Fatty said this after completing the hotel registration but Lin Huang did not say anything. He could just get the Alexandrian Eagle to bring the both of them there but he did not want to reveal his true ability. The reason the silver-level and gold-level adventurers in Adventurer Paradise were willing to bring people along with them was not because of money. It was a service provided by the Adventurer Paradise that every now and then they could bring other hunters of lower level along on their missions to give them good exposure as part of their recruitment drive, hoping that they will consider joining the club in future.
10 minutes later, Fatty called Lin Huang on his communication device. Lin Huang picked up thinking it was strange, "What's wrong?"
"I have found a team, they are departing now. They are in a rush, come and meet us at the east gate!" Fatty hung up the phone without waiting for Lin Huang to respond. He thought it was strange as there was no need for Fatty to rush since there were a couple of adventurers who would team up with other people into the Fog Canyon every day. The sun was setting, if they were to depart now, the both of them would have to stay a night in Fog Canyon on their own.
Lin Huang got out of the hotel right away and rode on the Viridian Wolf to the east gate. When he arrived, he saw fatty and three other silver-level adventurers from afar riding on their mounts while Fatty was standing. He did not look too good.
"What is this about, Fatty?" Lin Huang frowned and asked.
Hearing Lin Huang's voice, all of them turned around and looked at him.
"You sure are slow, can we leave now?" The leader was dark and skinny. He glared at Lin Huang then pulled the rope on his monster and left. The other two adventurers followed him. The one in the was slightly bald while the last adventurer looked younger. He had a goatee, he then yelled at Fatty, "Since your friend has a mount, you don't have to share with us anymore."
Lin Huang pulled Fatty onto the Viridian Wolf and asked while frowning, "What exactly happened?"
"Stop asking, let's go." Fatty sat behind Lin Huang, he shook his head helplessly.
Lin Huang then patted Viridian Wolf and chased after the adventurers. Three of them were silver-level adventurers riding on ground rhino, a bronze-level monster. It was a common mount, it was not too fast but it was quite resilient.
The three adventurers were riding a cheap mount as the price of a Ground Rhino was much cheaper than a Viridian Wolf. They were probably jealous and left right after they saw Lin Huang on a Viridian Wolf.
"You said you were poor, then how did you afford a Viridian Wolf as your mount! The price of this mount is comparable with silver-level equipment." Fatty finally got over being mad at Lin Huang.
Lin Huang did not tell him that it was his summoned monster so he pulled a fast one, "I was lucky that day, bought it at a cheap price."
"How much?" Fatty was genuinely asking.
"Cost one bronze-level equipment." Lin Huang lied again. Not only did Fatty buy what he said, the three silver-level adventurers as well.
They did not look too happy as they traded in two bronze-level equipment to get their rhino. A Viridian Wolf cost at least one silver-level equipment but Lin Huang got it at a much cheaper price.
"Young man, I will buy your Viridian Wolf for two bronze-level equipment." The man with goatee shouted.
"I'm not selling it." Lin Huang declined without even thinking.
The man with goatee glared at Lin Huang. Although Lin Huang did not know what exactly happened before he came, he did notice Fatty was silent during the entire journey. He figured something must have happened involving these three men, probably Fatty was threatened.
They could have arrived at Fog Canyon in an hour but now Fatty had found a team that did not have a flying mount like Lin Huang did, causing a delay in the journey for about eight hours. Lin Huang was upset.
Fortunately, the three adventurers did what they were supposed to do. They killed all the monsters in their way. However, they left no dead bodies behind and kept all of them in their storage space. They must be really broke. Fatty seemed to be more and more uncomfortable. The strongest one among the three was the dark and skinny man. He was a silver-level rank-2 while the other two were silver-level rank-1. Lin Huang just had to summon Charcoal, Bai or Tyrant, and killing them would be a piece of cake.
After traveling for more than six hours, the dark, skinny leader suddenly slowed down.
"It's the level-3 wild zone ahead; we'll have to walk across without our mounts to avoid catching the attention of the monsters in the wild zone."
Lin Huang was shocked that they wanted to be 'careful' in the level-3 wild zone. silver-level adventurers should have no fear of monsters in level-3 wild zones.
Since the three of them kept their mounts, fatty patted Lin Huang's back, "Let's keep it." Lin Huang then kept his Viridian Wolf into his storage space. There was really no difference whether he keeps the Viridian Wolf or not because its footsteps were lighter than that of humans. On the other hand, the rhinos were loud on the road. But he figured that it would be rude if he rode on Viridian Wolf while the rest walked.
"It is more than 300 kilometers, do we have to walk?" Even if they ran, Lin Huang and Fatty's speed of iron-level coupled with the distance would take them at least seven more hours.
"You guys can ride on your Viridian Wolf, don't ask for help if monsters attack the both of you." The dark and skinny man glared at Lin Huang.
"Lin Huang, it's okay, we will run over there. It's too dangerous to be here and alone." Fatty advised.
Since it was Fatty who asked for help from the team, Lin Huang did not want to embarrass him so he agreed but he was definitely irritated, "Let's go then."
The three adventurers together with Lin Huang and Fatty ran at 50 kilometers per hour. Fatty was panting heavily after running for two hours.
"Fatty, if you can't take it, you can ride on Viridian Wolf." Lin Huang suggested.
"I'm okay…" Fatty waved his hand.
Three hours later, Fatty was slowing down. Lin Huang got him to ride on the Viridian Wolf's back while he ran with the other three. Soon another three hours passed, they had finally passed the level-3 will zone and arrived at the canyon. They were covered by the thin fog at the mouth of the canyon. Fatty got down from the Viridian Wolf and thanked the other three adventurers. "Why are you thanking us? You haven't paid us yet, three Life Crystals please." The dark and skinny man grinned at Lin Huang and Fatty while the other two adventurers stood behind them, blocking their way.
Chapter 124: Attack
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Three standard Life Crystal units were equivalent to 300 years worth of Life Crystal pieces. The absurd request from the dark and skinny man stunned Fatty. He did not expect the three adventurers to do such a thing. Lin Huang asked calmly, "So are you robbing us now?"
"How is this robbing? You are paying us wages for bringing you to the Fog Canyon where you can find the Life Seed monster you desired. This is a fair trade!" The bald man who blocked their way from the back said.
"Would you let us go if we say we don't need your help anymore?" Lin Huang knew this was extortion! There was nothing that they could do even if they filed their complaint to Adventurer Paradise.
"If you insist to do that, I will call to complain." Fatty threatened.
"Fatty, there's a reason why we're blocking your way." The man with goatee laughed at Fatty's useless threat.
The three adventurers did not stop Fatty from calling. As Fatty opened the communication page, there was no signal at all.
"The both of you have two choices. The first one, both of you give three Life Crystals each and we'll bring you into Fog Canyon to find your Life Seed monster and then, send you guys back to Fog City in one piece. The both of you will have to swear that you won't tell anyone about this and we shall forget about what happened here. It's good for all of us." The dark and skinny man was confident that they would be obedient, he raised his price from three Life Crystals in total to three Life Crystals each.
"If we promised you, would you believe us?" Lin Huang knew he would not let them go just like that.
"Of course not, you will have to chant after me." The dark and skinny man then showed his tongue and black inscriptions appeared on his tongue.
"You have humiliated all the wordmasters." Lin Huang could recognize the patterns were the sigils of a wordmaster. A wordmaster was a rare profession. They draw their strength from language and they could use languages to curse or to control people's action. Some could even change the course of fate or cause death.
A wordmaster usually made good money. This dark and skinny man must be a lousy wordmaster or else he would not need to resort to robbing them. "I've multiplied the price to six Life Crystals now."
"What's the second option?" Lin Huang ignored him and asked with his eyebrow raised.
"The second option would be to kill the both of you and leave your dead bodies in this canyon for the monsters to feast on so we leave no traces behind. We will go back three days later and tell the Adventurer Paradise that the both of you did not meet us at the promised time." He explained coldly.
Fatty was scared, he shrieked, "Okay, we pick the first one!"
"Wait." Lin Huang stopped Fatty looked at the three of them straight into their eyes, "These two options are not good enough, give me a third one."
"Stupid kid, I will just finish you off right now!" The bald man shouted.
"It's alright, let him talk." The dark and skinny man stopped the bald man.
"The third option would be that all three of you leave right now and we will forget this ever happened. You never saw us, we never knew you." Lin Huang continued, "This is the best option I can and will offer. If you don't accept it, you will regret it very soon."
"Are you a member of royalty?" The three of them frowned, they figured only someone that came from royalty would dare to speak like that.
"That's not right. His name is Lin Huang, your family name is Lin!" The dark and skinny man shook his head, "There's no royal family with the family name of Lin in the entire Division7! Are you trying to trick us?!"
"I've never once said that I'm a member of royalty and I am not tricking you. I'm just a person that you can't afford to offend. I'm suggesting that you consider the third option." Lin Huang stood his ground.
"Boss, why are you still hesitating? This kid is tricking us! If he really is powerful, he would have attacked us since the beginning instead of being disrespectful to us after we helped them!" The bald man complained.
Hearing what the bald man said, the dark and skinny man thought he made sense and shouted
"How dare you tried to trick us, let's kill them!"
The three of them then dashed towards Lin Huang and Fatty with their weapons thrusting forward.
"Sigh…" Lin Huang sighed helplessly. Bai appeared before Lin Huang with silver hair and a black mask on. His four Blood Power wings transformed into three sharp knives and plunged towards the three men. He was so fast that Lin Huang could not catch up.
Three red strokes flashed in the air. The man with the goatee and the bald man's silver-level weapons broke in half. They were sliced into half from their waists and were dead in one hit. The gold-level weapon that the leader was holding was stuck to Bai's wing and was tossed into the air. He saw his two brothers cut into halves while he was flying midair, he had goosebumps. He rolled over and ran into the Foggy Canyon.
"I hate to say I told you so." Lin Huang shook his head. He did not even bother to look at the dead bodies. Since the both of them were so poor, they would not have anything valuable on them. Fatty was stunned, he did not move as he watched. It took him awhile to snap out of it. He looked at Bai, "Is this a vampire?"
"I think so." Lin Huang did not plan to explain to him that Bai had evolved into a blood demon. The less he knew the better.
"A four-winged vampire, isn't this a gold-level monster? How did you manage to master such a monster?" Fatty saw the four Blood Power wings on Bai's back so he asked.
"It's not gold-level, it's mutated." Lin Huang shook his head.
"He managed to kill silver-level within seconds, how is he not gold-level?" Fatty was starting to doubt Lin Huang's combat strength.
"Stop asking, let's go in." Lin Huang interrupted him.
"Will that other guy be waiting to attack us at the canyon mouth?" Fatty was worried. It was foggy everywhere, they could not see anything ahead.
"Don't worry, I'm sure he is afraid of us now and will keep a distance from us." Lin Huang shook his head.
"I'm not sure if they have anything useful on them. They are silver-level after all." Fatty asked.
"You can go and take a look first. Take whatever you want." Lin Huang was not interested.
"Remember! You're the one who said that!" Fatty was over the moon and ran towards the dead bodies. However, he did not find anything valuable on them. Awhile later, he stood up and looked at Lin Huang, "It seems like you knew there was nothing useful on them all this time."
"They were collecting each and every iron-level monster carcass, why would you think they would have anything valuable on them?"
"That makes sense." Fatty just recalled them collecting the monster bodies earlier.
"It's almost dawn now, let's look for a place to rest our feet." Lin Huang did not recall Bai but got him to lead the way while he and Fatty followed behind.
Fog surrounded the canyon and anything 10 meters away was not visible. People would usually be terrified in situations like these but with Bai, Lin Huang was not worried if something attacked from the fog. In a level-4 wild zone like this, only monsters that were gold-level would threaten Bai. As long as they did not go deep into the canyon, they would most probably not encounter gold-level monsters.
"Fatty, why did you follow them at such a last minute and in a rush? Did they threaten you?" Lin Huang needed to know what happened earlier.
"Yea, I went to the reception at Adventurer Paradise and told the receptionist that I was looking for a team. They approached me, saying that they needed someone to follow them to their mission, it was urgent and they needed to leave immediately. Of course, I rejected them because we had just arrived in Fog City awhile ago, I needed time to rest and spend some time to find a team who owned flying mounts."
"They then told me that as long as they were around, other teams would not dare take us along. It could take months! So I went back to the receptionist and she assured that the three are old timers. They told me that their abilities were only mediocre but whenever they were in charge, even adventurers that were gold-level would not dare offend them. I can wait for another one month but I didn't want to waste your time, so I agreed to join their team."
"I thought of tolerating them until we arrived at the destination because we would be free... I didn't expect them to lie about their abilities or attempt to rob and even trying to kill us!"
"If I knew you had such a powerful summoning monster, I wouldn't have looked for a team in the first place." Fatty said and peeked at Bai, he was envious of Lin Huang.
"I wouldn't want anyone to know about my abilities unless if it were life or death." Lin Huang explained.
"Don't worry, I'm just talkative but I can keep secrets." Fatty zipped his lips.
"I would be crazy to believe you…" Lin Huang thought to himself.
Suddenly, Bai stopped walking and pointed at a wall. Lin Huang nodded, "Alright, we will get some rest here. Please dig us a hole."
Soon, Bai dug a cave. Bai had purposely dug the cave to be narrow at the entrance and spacious on the inside. They bent down as they entered the cave. They were satisfied with the cave. Fatty took out his portable tent and set it up. Lin Huang then recalled Bai and summoned the Demonic Dandelion Vine. He got it to seal the cave with its vines. Both of them entered their tents to rest after a long day.
Chapter 125: Fog Canyon
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Lin Huang slept from 4 a.m. to 11 a.m., he managed to catch up with some rest from their long journey last night. When he got out of his tent, he could still hear Fatty was still snoring loudly in his tent. Lin Huang then patted his tent, "Fatty, wake up. If we don't move now, we will be wasting yet another day." Fatty continued snoring.
"Fatty, wake up. Monsters are attacking the cave! Quick!" Lin Huang shook Fatty's tent hard.
Fatty sat up and went to get dressed instantly, then got out of the tent. He asked Lin Huang in shock, "The cave entrance is blocked! How are we going to escape?!"
"Escape what? There's no monster at all, I just needed to wake you up." Lin Huang said casually.
"Damn you!" Fatty then took off his clothes and put them on properly. He was mad.
"Don't you wear clothes when you sleep in a wild zone like this?"
"I can't sleep when I'm fully clothed."
Lin Huang did not bother to say anything. He then kept his tent and went to clean up.
The portable tent could be shrunk to the size of a broad bean. There was a tiny button in the middle and when it was pressed it would expand into a tent with a sleeping bag, pillow, and eye shade. As soon as the tent expanded to its normal size, one could scan their identity to enter it. The same applied when keeping the tent. As long as there were living beings in the tent, including a mosquito, the tent cannot be shrunk.
Because of that, some portable tents were much more expensive than the others as it came with automatic cleaning functions. As long as the tent is activated, it would automatically kill all the insects in the tent. The entire process would only take a maximum of three minutes. The tent that Lin Huang bought was a high-end tent, its price was comparable with a piece of bronze-level equipment.
After he sorted out his tent, Fatty approached him with a packet of snacks and a milk-based drink.
"It's not safe to cook in a level-4 wild zone, we have to survive on snacks now."
Lin Huang nodded and took the food from him. He brought snacks that he ordered from the network before the trip but he was sure that it would not taste better than the snacks Fatty had prepared.
He ripped open the packet of snack; besides dried meat, there was also dried vegetable. Lin Huang raised his eyebrow, "I didn't know that having a balanced diet was important to you."
"I cooked the dried meat and my dad prepared the dried vegetable. He insisted that I bring it along. If you like it, you can have mine too."
"I've never seen you eat vegetable during the assessment." Lin Huang thought Fatty was a carnivore.
"A man once said 'a man who doesn't like meat is not a real man'." Fatty got himself the perfect excuse for not eating any vegetables.
Fatty did not make that up. Lin Huang had actually seen the quote on the network before and thought it was ridiculous. It was said by a transcendent in the past to mock another transcendent that he despised. He then became a demigod and that was how the quote went viral.
"Loving meat and not eating vegetable are two separate matters. In your case, it's called being picky." Lin Huang corrected him. He tasted the dried vegetable, it was good.
Lin Huang was done with breakfast and Fatty had finished cleaning himself.
"What milk is this? It's nice." Lin Huang asked after drinking the last drop of milk-based drink.
"This is the milk of five-flower cow on the Snowy Mountains, it tastes amazing. I got it from my dad and I brought 10 bottles along with me. If I don't treat you like my bro, I wouldn't share this good stuff with you."
Lin Huang had heard of the five-flower cow on the Snowy Mountains. They were one of the best cows in Division7. Although the monster was just iron-level, its milk quality was high that it was comparable to the price of a relic. It barely produces any milk though. It can only produce two to three liters of milk per day and each liter can only be sold up to a price of a bronze-level equipment.
That cup of milk that Lin Huang drank earlier was almost the price of two pieces of iron-level equipment. He initially planned to buy the milk as a thirst-quencher during the summer which was why he asked Fatty about it. However, after he was told that it was the five-flower cow, Lin Huang decided otherwise.
"I should have known that only rich brats could afford this…"
After breakfast, Lin Huang recalled the Demonic Dandelion Vine and the both of them got out of the cave. He then summoned Bai again,
"How many summoning monsters do you have?" Fatty asked.
"Three to four I guess." Lin Huang said as he recalled Fatty had only seen four of his summoning monsters.
"The vampire should be the most powerful among all, am I right?" Fatty remembered the scene when Bai killed the duo earlier.
"Hmm."
"I'm envious of you Imperial Censors, you don't even have to fight on your own. Powerful monsters and cool flying mounts…" Fatty was envious of Lin Huang's gift as an Imperial Censor.
"Everyone has gifts of their own, thus, the different development goals. It's great that you're going to be a Food Hunter, you could own your restaurant, many hunters would dine at your place and Life Crystals would come your way. That's so much better than us who have to be out there fighting and sweating. Your work is much more relaxed and safe." Lin Huang thought Fatty's dream was desirable too.
"That's true; I prefer living a stable life. I would be exhausted if I'll have to fight every day." Fatty thought what Lin Huang said made sense and he should be contented with what he was gifted with.
They left the cave that Bai dug and ventured into the Fog Canyon. If there was no fog, the structure of the canyon was complicated like a circular maze from an aerial view. There were monsters of different strengths and species that were spread out in different areas of the maze. The closer they got to the middle of the maze, the higher the combat level the monsters were.
The Vile Marionette that Lin Huang and Fatty were looking for was located at the border of the maze. However, they did not have the exact coordinates, only the rough direction. The area was covered in a fog all year long, making it hard for people to identify the direction they were headed in. There was no connection or signal on the communication device, they could not locate anything in the maze, including themselves.
Bai was leading the way so they wouldn't get lost. Their journey was smooth-sailing because Bai would kill any monster they encountered with brevity.
"Turn left at the 12th fork… It should be this one." The duo had been walking for more than three hours. Lin Huang did not say much when they were on the way and allowed Fatty to lead. After all, he was here to help him level up to bronze-level. It would be strange if Lin Huang knew the way better than Fatty did.
Although Fatty noticed Bai's unusual combat strength, he thought Lin Huang had some special way to train his monsters but little did he know... how powerful Lin Huang actually was.
"If what I read was correct, there should be a foothold with a Vile Marionette not far from this left turn." Fatty lowered his voice as he said to Lin Huang, "Be quiet, these monsters live in groups. All we have to do it to lure one or two of them out."
They slowed down their pace and walked towards the fork on the left. After 20 minutes of walking, they arrived at a dead end but they did not see any monsters. They then went back to a spacious area and realized there were traces of battle before they came. It seemed to have happened not long ago.
"The Vile Marionette foothold should be here but all the monsters have been killed by someone else, we are too late." Lin Huang concluded.
"Since there's none here, let's go to the other foothold." Fatty did not dwell on this too much.
Two hours later, they found the sign near the second foothold.
"A two-meter gigantic rock of the shape of a sphere, it should be this one!" Fatty pointed at the sphere-shaped gigantic rock at the crossing.
"If we turn right from here and walk for another 10 minutes, we will arrive at the second Vile Marionette foothold."
"Let's go." Lin Huang nodded and proceeded to let Bai lead the way.
10 minutes later, they arrived at yet another empty area. There were no monsters. Similar to the first foothold, there were no traces of battle that happened not long ago.
"Someone killed all the monsters here as well?!" Fatty groaned, "Who are these people, why did they target the same monsters that we're looking for?"
"Fatty, did you tell the three adventurers about the Life Seed monster that you picked?" Lin Huang sensed it could be the dark and skinny man who did this.
Fatty was stunned and nodded his head, "They asked me so I thought it would be no harm if I told them. Are you saying they did this?!"
"It's very possible." Lin Huang nodded.
"We have encountered attacks of other monsters along the way but none of them were completely killed. The person who took the same route as us did not kill all the other monsters along the way, which shows his target was not to collect dead monster bodies but he killed all the Life Seed monsters that you wanted too. It seems like he did it on purpose."
"That makes sense." Fatty nodded at Lin Huang's analysis. "So what do we do now? What if he killed all the Vile Marionettes in the foothold…"
"I don't think so. His speed is only slightly faster than us. From the traces, I think he was here just about an hour ago. Let's skip the third foothold and go straight to the fourth foothold instead. Maybe we can catch up with him!"
There were only four footholds with Vile Marionettes in the entire canyon. If they did not make it there before dark and the other man did, Fatty would not be the only one who would have to change his choice of Life Seed monster. Lin Huang would be dragged into this matter as well.
"Alright, let's go straight to the fourth foothold!"
Chapter 126: Purple Crow
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Song Nan had spent more than 30 years of his life in Fog City. He had seen many things in his time, and he had not an ounce of fear for anyone he encountered. Even gold-level hunters in Fog City did not want to offend him as he was well known for executing revenge plots on his enemies. Although he was not exceptionally powerful, he surely was a sly man.
However, Lin Huang managed to tackle him and kill two of his men. He was sure to not let him off the hook without a painful reminder of his actions.
"I'm going to kill all the Vile Marionettes in the canyon, see how those two damn kids going to get their Life Seed! So what if they have a vampire? I'll get some supplies to fight the vampire once I get back to the city. Your vampire will be useless against me then!" he plotted aloud.
Song Nan shuddered a little when he recalled the moment he saw his two men getting killed by Bai. He was afraid of Bai but to him, if he wanted to conquer his fear, he would have to face it. As long as he killed the vampire, he would rid himself of this fear completely. Before he did that, he wanted to kill all the Vile Marionettes in the four footholds. There were only four footholds with Vile Marionettes in Fog Canyon. Song Nan had already cleared two footholds and he left no bodies behind.
Just when he was on his way to the third foothold, two shadows passed by his head and appeared before him. It was a man and a lady. The man was 2.2 meters tall while the lady stood at an average height and built. They dressed strangely, both wearing black capes with a black hat on their heads.
"Who are you?" Song Nan looked at the duo with a posture ready for an attack. They appeared out of nowhere and he could not sense their auras at all.
"We're on the same team. Let's walk together," the lady said as she licked her red lips seductively.
"Did the kid send you?" Song Nan asked firmly. He thought it was a trap and the duo was sent by Lin Huang to fight him.
"What kid?" the tall man questioned him as a frown formed on his face.
"Stop talking nonsense with him, let's just get him," the lady said and leapt up high off the ground.
Song Nan was shocked. His face turned pale when he saw the logo on the lady's cape as she spun around mid-air. The black cape was flowing with the wind, and there was a white circle in the middle with a purple crow standing on a branch. Song Nan recognized that they were members of the Purple Crow organization. All hunters and adventurers would definitely have heard of the Purple Crows as they were the top criminal organization in the Underworld.
There was a saying on the network about the organization that went, 'Blood will be shed when the purple crow cries'. In the Underworld, the Purple Crow was considered an elite organization. They did not have many members, but all of them were transcendents and all of them possessed terrifying abilities in their areas of expertise.
If Song Nan was just a bully in the smaller footholds, the Purple Crow was an enhanced version of the Mafia. Each and every official member was a world-ranked professional killer. As he stood facing the tall man, Song Nan was like a child being picked on by the grown man. He did not have the ability to defend himself at all. The tall man grabbed him by the collar and the duo flew Song Nan all the way to the middle of Fog Canyon. They then landed next to a crystal clear lake.
"You sure it's here?" the tall man asked as he tossed Song Nan on the ground like a rag doll and looked at the lady.
"Of course, how would I not know everything I planned for?" The lady said mockingly and rolled her eyes at him. "Scoot aside, you big oaf", she continued.
The man kicked Song Nan hard and he flew backwards. He then took a few steps back himself and stood still. Song Nan was immobilised with a spell the man had casted earlier and he could not move a muscle. He could not do anything when the man kicked him. The lady with red lips stood by the lake, squatted down and placed her palm on top of the lake.
Soon, the lake started boiling. The lady retracted her hand, took a few steps back and watched the lake as it changed. The clear lake became red while it boiled. As time went by, it became a darker shade of red and soon, it was a bloody crimson red. Song Nan was getting uncomfortable looking at the lake as it changed.
"How is it?" the man said as he walked next to the lady with red lips.
"I have been preparing this Netherworldly Water for 12 years. From the color, it looks like it's ready," the lady replied with a nod and shifted her gaze to Song Nan. "Didn't we bring a guinea pig to test it out? We shall know after we toss him in," she said, a menacing tone to her voice.
Song Nan heard them loud and clear. However, all he could do was to look at them helplessly. The man picked him up by the scruff of his neck.
"Unseal him before throwing him in or else we won't be able to see if the experiment shows its results," the lady reminded her partner. Seconds later, the spell on Song Nan was lifted. He begged with the duo immediately, "Please don't throw me in, I can get other guinea pigs for you. I know there are two kids in this canyon that'll work really well…" Seeing the boiling bloody water alone was terrifying enough for him. He knew he'd be screwed if he ended up in the lake.
"I only need one guinea pig," the lady said coldly as she looked at Song Nan with an expressionless face, like he was already dead.
"Toss him in!" she shouted.
The man tossed Song Nan into the lake without hesitation. The duo stood by the lake and observed. The gold-level equipment on him glowed a bright gold and seemed to get absorbed into his body. The duo was stunned by that. In the boiling water, there were strange changes to Song Nan's body. His skin turned green, his skinny body became muscular, his hands and legs were growing…
Around three minutes later, the changes to his body stopped. Waves of bloody water pushed him to the side of the lake. The two transcendents were excited as they looked at the figure that was once Song Nan, completely transformed on the bank.
"I'm surprised that he actually combined with his equipment and transformed into a Mutated Sword Thrall!" the man said. The idea was unbelievable.
"That's something new. Let's search for some guinea pigs to experiment with along with the combinations of equipment when we get back," the lady squealed. She was excited too.
"Should we bring him back?" The man asked.
"It's okay, let him die here. We just needed to experiment. We'll come back a year from now and see if he's still alive. If he is, we'll study his survival in the wild," the lady said. The man shook his head and said, "It seems like the effect of the Netherworldly Water was not exactly what I expected. We can accept it for now," he said.
The man nodded and took out a box that was a sixth of his palm. He then tossed the box in the air. The opening of the box faced the middle of the lake, and the boiling bloody water was swallowed by the box. Within two minutes, the entire lake was sucked into the red box with no water left behind.
The box then flew back to the man's hand. He closed the box and kept it in his storage face.
"It's done, can we leave now?" The man asked as he looked at the lady.
"Wait, I found something interesting…" the lady smirked while she looked at something far away.
Chapter 127: Encountering Purple Crow
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
To be able to reach the fourth Vile Marionettes foothold before the dark and skinny man did, Lin Huang summoned the Alexandrian Eagle. They arrived at their destination within minutes. "It should be somewhere around here, let's look for it." Lin Huang recalled Alexandrian Eagle and said to Fatty.
"How would you know the fourth foothold is around here?" Fatty asked. He then saw a tall fir tree not too far away and recognized that as a landmark for the fourth foothold.
"I was afraid that we might be lost here so before the trip, I checked out all the locations of the footholds," Lin Huang said to him, which was actually just an excuse.
"If I knew you had checked out the locations, I wouldn't have had to lead the way…" Fatty whined. Doing extra work was always a burden to him and he did not deny how lazy he was. However, since he encountered Lin Huang who was as responsible a person could be, he knew could trust him with his life. That was the reason he slept soundly in a wild zone like this. If he was not looking for the Life Seeds himself, he would not have looked at the map at all and Lin Huang would have lead the way.
"There's a fork on the left of the fir tree, if we walk along it for another two or three minutes, there should be a fork to the right. We should see the fourth foothold once we turn right," Lin Huang said as he pointed at the fir tree.
"That's the same route I saw on the map," Fatty replied and nodded in response.
Lin Huang activated Boundless Vision and saw a couple Vile Marionettes gathered not far from where they were. All of them had rectangular heads while everything below their heads was similar to a human. However, their limbs were longer than humans and they were two meters tall. They walked on both legs. Their bodies seemed to be made of wood. If they were many times smaller, they would look exactly like dolls.
Lin Huang finally knew why would they were called Vile Marionettes when he saw their faces. Their eyes, nose, and lips were all messed up like toy parts which were displaced. What was even weirder was the placement of their eyes, nose, and lips. Each one puppet's face arranged differently. They each had different characteristics to their own vile features.
"If they were shrunk and sold at toy stores, I don't think anybody would want to buy them. They look scary," Lin Huang thought to himself.
"Fatty, you wait here. I'll get Bai to catch one of them from over here," Lin Huang said to Fatty as he led Bai into the fog.
In the fog, the Vile Marionettes did not sense that danger was closing in as they wandered around. Suddenly, a couple of red beams flashed by and one of the Vile Marionettes disappeared. Soon, Lin Huang was back with Bai with a Vile Marionette that was locked in a pair of Blood Power wings.
"Fatty, I have brought this back for you. You can just stab it to death," Lin Huang provided Fatty with a full-service treatment.
Fatty smirked when he saw a Vile Marionette tied up like a dumpling, "This could be the easiest upgrade in history!" He said.
The level-4 equipment in his hand transformed into a battle sword and he slashed the Vile Marionette's neck. The puppet's head fell to the ground. However, the body turned into a pice of wood and appeared from the Blood Power wings. Lin Huang and Fatty were stunned. The Blood Power back extended again and captured the body. Fatty did the same thing and slashed at the piece of wood but it turned into another piece of wood again and began to run away.
No matter how fast it was, it could not beat Bai. It was then captured by Bai again while Fatty repeated the same thing he did…
Five attempts later, the Vile Marionettes's body no longer transformed into a piece of wood. After that, Bai let go of its body and white Life Light splashed out of the Vile Marionette towards Fatty. The Life Light Baptism took three minutes, and then Fatty was finally bronze-level.
"So how is your Life Seed?" Lin Huang walked towards him and asked.
"It's all good. Exactly the same as what I read on the network," Fatty nodded. "I have done what I came to do, we can head back to Fog City now. We'll head back to Baqi City once you have settled your stuff," he continued.
"You don't have to wait for me. I'll be needing quite a few days here," Lin Huang said. He did not expect Fatty to stay with him.
"It's okay. Since I have already upgraded to bronze level, there's no need for me to leave immediately. If that's not convenient for you, I will stay in the hotel to train my Life Skills. Let me know once you have settled your stuff and we will leave Fog City together," Fatty said. He did that out of kindness. He thought since Lin Huang had helped him so it would be bad if he left him alone.
"I think you should head back to Baqi City on your own. Honestly, I'm not sure how long would I take," Lin Huang explained.
Lin Huang did not want to head back to Baqi City with Fatty as he only managed to partially hide his abilities. Once he got to bronze-level, Fatty who was now also bronze-level would definitely sense the changes in his combat strength. By then, he would not able to hide his secret anymore.
Fatty was a nice person but Lin Huang did not think that he could keep a secret. He tried not to let him know too much about himself.
"Then I'll wait for a month, since I don't have much going on," Fatty insisted. "If you take longer than a month, then I'll leave on my own," he said.
"Alright then…" Lin Huang obliged and nodded.
"So do we go back to the city now?" Fatty asked.
"I'll get Alexandrian Eagle to send you back. I have something to do here. I won't be going back just yet," Lin Huang said as he summoned the Alexandrian Eagle.
Fatty had many questions but thinking he might intrude on Lin Huang's privacy, he decided not to ask.
Lin Huang instructed Alexandrian Eagle after Fatty got on its back. It flapped its wings and headed to Fog City with Fatty. Lin Huang turned around into the fog again. He got Bai to look for another mutated Vile Marionette but there was not a single one around. He decided to capture a regular Vile Marionette and killed it after six attempts. The white Life Light was transferred from the puppet to Lin Huang.
Enveloped in a white glow, there were changes to his Life Wheel. His iron Life Wheel turned to bronze. It was a Life Wheel transformation that follows with every level up. After the Iron Life Wheel was replaced by a bronze Life Wheel, another three rounds of white columns appeared. It was the same as before, 360 columns on each circle.
As his Life Wheel changed, the two Life Wheels that he got from the Life Power storage cards started changing too. Soon, all three bronze Life Wheels in his body were fully formed.
As his Life Wheels formed, the Life Light Baptism ended. A greyish black bead the size of a thumb dropped from the Vile Marionette's dead body and went into Lin Huang's body and then into his newly formed Life Wheel.
"New Life Seed has been detected, would you like to turn it into a card?" Xiao Hei said.
"Yes please," Lin Huang answered and nodded.
A moment later, Xiao Hei spoke again.
"I have turned it into a card."
Lin Huang looked at the new Life Seed Card that he just acquired. The card looked the same as Sly Hands with a Black Furry Ball. He turned the card around to read the description.
"Life Species Card"
"Life Species Name: Substitute"
"Rarity: Normal"
"Type: Psychic "
"Skill Effects: Substitute your body with a faux body to divert fatal attacks. Limited to three uses per day."
"Card Remarks: Rubbish"
Lin Huang was speechless at the card remark that Xiao Hei gave it. It had been awhile since Xiao Hei had given such a horrible card remark. He then kept the card and mumbled to himself, "I can't be meeting Fatty now or else he would find out how powerful I am. I'll stay in this canyon and accumulate my life Power to bronze-level rank-3."
He then looked at Bai beside him. The vampire was now a silver-level rank-1. Under normal circumstance, monsters that went through two mutations would have basic combat strengths that were higher than transcendents. Just like the Demonic Dandelion Vine, it was one example that completed two mutations before it achieved transcendence. Aside from the Demonic Dandelion Vine, all the epic monster cards that Lin Huang possessed would be upgraded automatically before Lin Huang leveled up to transcendent. Before Lin Huang arrived at gold-level, their combat strength would only be one rank higher than his
Now that Bai was a silver-level rank-1, his ability might be more powerful than most gold-level rank-1 monsters. In level-4 wildzones like this, he could kill most of the monsters in the area on his own. Lin Huang was anticipating the upgrade of his combat strengths too.
Just when Lin Huang was thinking about it, a man and lady appeared out of the fog. The man was 2.2 meters tall while the lady was 1.7 meters tall. Standing next to the man, she looked small. Both of them were wearing black coats with black hats. They were walking briskly in Lin Huang's direction. He had his guard up as he could not sense the aura from their beings at all.
"Hi, little kid." The lady greeted Lin Huang as they approached him.
"Anything I can help you with?" Lin Huang asked. He had a feeling they were both transcendents.
"Nothing, I just thought your vampire seemed cool, so I'm here to take a look." The lady replied with a smile.
"Two mutations?" The man mumbled under his breath to the lady and he felt it was rather strange.
"It really is mutated twice!" the lady with red lips confirmed as she walked around Bai. "This is my first time seeing a vampire with a double mutation," she continued.
Just then, Lin Huang noticed the Purple Crow logo on her coat. His heart sank, "It's the Purple Crow…"
Chapter 128: Hong Zhuang
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
A black coat and black hat, that was the attire of an official Purple Crow member. A reserve member was not entitled to dress like that. The duo appeared before Lin Huang and their outfits showed him that they were official members of the Purple Crow organization and also, transcendents.
Lin Huang's mind was spinning, but he could not think of a way to escape. Although, the Small Destruction Card was powerful, it would only be effective for people below transcendents. It could not do anything to hunters who were transcendents and above.
"If there's nothing I can help you with, I'll get going now," Lin Huang said as he pretended he did not know who they were.
"Little kid, let me introduce myself. My name is Hong Zhuang and I'm an official member of the Purple Crow," the lady with red lips said. She knew that Lin Huang was attempting an escape. She then smirked and said, "This is my partner, Xu Qiang. He is also an official member of the Purple Crow." Lin Huang frowned. Since the duo had revealed who they were, it was impossible for him to walk away now without offending them.
"May I know why are you looking for me?" Lin Huang asked, politely.
"I think you're outstanding, I would like to invite you to join the Purple Crows. I could be your referral for you to be a reserve member," Hong Zhuang said as she walked slowly towards Lin Huang and stopped less than 50 centimeters from him. "You have to know that usually a reserve member has to be at least gold-level. So, what do you think?" She continued.
"I haven't thought of which organization to join yet. Your invitation is too sudden for me to make a decision. Please give me some time to think about it," Lin Huang replied. Truthfully, he was relieved. He did not expect them to invite him to join the Purple Crows. However, he was also not interested in joining them too, so he decided to postpone his decision.
"You're smart to not reject us directly," Hong Zhuang whispered and then laughed hard at what Lin Huang said. "A bronze-level young man mastering a vampire that has gone through mutation… Twice for that matter is really impressive. If such a talent joined some other organization when he's older, he might be the Purple Crow's biggest enemy," she said menacingly.
"You're kidding, I'm just lucky. It was by accident that my vampire mutated twice. Honestly, I didn't know it myself," Lin Huang said as he created an excuse carefully without revealing himself.
"Accident or not, it's a fact that your vampire has mutated twice now. We Purple Crows appreciate talents. We will treat Imperial Censors who owned summoning monsters with two mutations very well, in fact, much better than any other organization. When you become a transcendent, you will definitely be one of our official members. By then, I can satisfy all the needs you have, even if it crosses certain lines," Hong Zhuang said and winked at Lin Huang.
Xu Qiang could not take it anymore, "Hong Zhuang, why would you talk such nonsense to a child like him? Isn't it easier if we just take him away?" He said, angrily.
"What do you know? Convincing him is much better than forcing him," Hong Zhuang scolded the man in response.
"Kid, I'm giving you two options now. Either we kill you or you follow us. I'm giving you 10 seconds to think about it," Xu Qiang said to Lin Huang, ignoring Hong Zhuang.
"Alright, I will follow you," Lin Huang replied. He knew very well that their conversation would be heading down that path anyway even if Hong Zhuang did not flirt with him. He could only conform and look for an opportunity to escape later.
"See, my way is much more effective," Xu Qiang laughed.
Hong Zhuang rolled her eyes at him and looked at Lin Huang. "Recall your vampire," she ordered.
Lin Huang nodded and recalled Bai. When encountering two transcendents, Bai was nothing to them. Even without Bai by his side, it would not have made much of a difference.
Xu Qiang walked towards Lin Huang and tapped his left shoulder. Instantly, the Life Power in Lin Huang's body was sealed and he could not move anymore.
Xu Qiang then bundled him on his shoulder in a fireman's carry and asked Hong Zhuang, "Can we leave now?"
Hong Zhuang ignored him while performing complicated hand seals. Out of thin air, a black metal door appeared before them. She led the way by opening the door and walked into it. Xu Qiang followed behind her while carrying Lin Huang.
A quaint room was behind the metal door. After stepping in, Hong Zhuang recalled the door. A middle-aged man who was also wearing a Purple Crow coat got up hastily from a couch at the corner and said, "You are back, masters. Was it successful?"
"Yes it was, thank you very much," Hong Zhuang said as she nodded at him.
Xu Qiang then unsealed Lin Huang and put him down.
"Who is this?" The middle-aged man asked as he looked curiously at Lin Huang.
"We found him on the road. A kid from Division7. I'd like to recommend him as a reserve member to the organization," Hong Zhuang explained.
"But we need to go back to the headquarters to submit our mission now. It won't be convenient to bring him along so I plan to leave him here with you. Train him for me but don't kill him. I'll come back for him in three months," she instructed.
"Sure, no problem. It's definitely an honor for me to care for master's recommendation," the middle-aged man said respecfully. Lin Huang was confused. The man was exceptionally respectful to them when they were all official members of the Purple Crow and transcendents.
Hong Zhuang then looked at Lin Huang, "We have a special mission that we need to get to the headquarters to attend. You haven't had your assessment and registration so you can't follow us to the headquarters at the moment. I will leave you at the branch in Division7 and come back for you in three months time," she said.
"Within these three months, they'll send you to a training camp with the other new recruits. Aside from not being killed, there will not be any special treatment for you. It depends on how you plan to survive."
Lin Huang nodded. He was relieved that he was brought to Division7. If he was to go to other division, even if he managed to escape, it would be hard for him to leave the division and make his way to Division7.
"I believe this little kid should not be too bad since he was spotted by you, Master," the middle-aged transcendent said and smiled at Lin Huang.
"We'll get going now. Please take care of him," Hong Zhuang said, ignoring the flattery. She then summoned the black door again. Xu Qiang and herself then stepped in and soon the door closed and disappeared.
The middle-aged transcendent checked out Lin Huang and smiled, "You're lucky the master spotted you." Lin Huang asked what he was curious about before. "Sir, you are also a transcendent wearing the Purple Crow attire, why would you call the both of them masters?"
"Transcendent is just a default name for people who are higher than gold-level. It does not represent one's combat level. Transcendents can drastically differ in their combat ability. You will come to understand that in the future. I call them masters because their abilities are stronger than mine. Another reason is because their rank is higher than mine in the organization," he explained. As Lin Huang was brought back by Hong Zhuang, the middle-aged transcendent did not treat Lin Huang as an outsider and spoke to him casually.
"Do you see the logo on our collars?" The middle-aged transcendent said as he pointed at the collar of his coat. There was a black metal piece the size of a thumb. It looked like a Purple Crow.
"Yours is black. I remember theirs were red," Lin Huang said as he nodded.
"That's right. The black logo means I'm an official member of the organization. Most of the official members belong to the divisions. Red logo are a rank above us, and they are the elites. They work at the headquarters. The highest one would be a purple logo. They are the core members of the organization. All the plans introduced in the organization are based on their decisions," the middle-aged transcendent continued.
"Is that so…" Lin Huang had just found out about the internal structure of the organization. He figured since Hong Zhuang and Xu Qiang were both elite members, their abilities must be much stronger than the common transcendents.
"It's late now, I will get you a place to sleep. I will bring you to the training camp tomorrow morning. They will take care of you. However, don't expect a relaxing life at the training camp. I can only guarantee that they don't kill you. The rest depends on how you behave," he warned. The middle-aged transcendent was very respectful of what Hong Zhuang had instructed.
"Thank you sir, I understand that," Lin Huang said and nodded, all the while thinking of ways to escape.
Chapter 129: Xiao Mo
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Lin Huang was arranged to stay in a guest house that night. He found out the middle-aged Transcendent's name was Lu Xuan. He was thinking of escaping but now since the room that he was staying was less than 500 meters away from Lu Xuan's, he gave up on his plan. Even if he was to transform into Ghost Shadow and escaped underground, Lu Xuan would sense that his vibe disappeared as he transformed. It was impossible to escape from him.
Although Lu Xuan was friendly, he seemed to be aware that Lin Huang was attempting to escape. Not only was he not allowed to leave the area outside the house, he was not allowed to use the network and communication devices too. To make matters worst, he had no idea which foothold he was in.
After dinner, he went straight to bed. The next morning, Lu Xuan sent someone to the room that the both of them met on the first day when they arrived.
"Where is the training camp? How do we get there? Lin Huang asked. He wanted to get him to tell him their location so that he could factor it into his escape.
"There's no rush, I'll bring you there," Lu Xuan said calmly while summoning a red door. It was a space treasure tool. In reality, space treasure tools like those were rare and were priced at more than 10 times a normal treasure tool of the same level. However, Lin Huang had gotten used to these treasure tool within the days he was there, he was not impressed by them anymore.
Lu Xuan performed hand seals and the red door opened. He then nodded to Lin Huang and said, "Let's go."
They stepped into the door. A plaza was before them as they stepped through the door. Lin Huang looked around. To him, the place looked like a small foothold.
"Stop standing around, follow me," Lu Xuan scolded as he kept away the red door and waved Lin Huang onwards.
Lin Huang followed him and they walked to the bottom of a gigantic tower in the middle of the 'small foothold'.
They entered the gigantic tower and went all the way to the top in the elevator. There was a big room located at the top floor. At the huge meeting table, a man with a scar on his face placed both his feet on the table. He was puffing away at a cigar.
"Yo, you're free today?" the man said as he greeted Lu Xuan.
"Sending a kid here," Lu Xuan replied and nodded.
The man looked at Lin Huang and smiled. "Who is this?" he asked Lu Xuan.
"At Master Hong Zhuang's recommendation, she wants to refer him to join the reserve recruits," Lu Xuan said.
"He's only a Bronze-level? What happens if he dies here?" the man asked.
"Master Hong Zhuang said you can do anything to him as long as you don't kill him," Lu Xuan said and laughed at the thought.
"Sigh…" the man shook his head. "You should know that there are things that I can't control. This kid is too weak. I can't kill him and I'll have to babysit him. I'm like his nanny now," the man said nd slapped his forehead.
He was not happy with the arrangement.
"There was nothing we could do. It was the instructions from Master Hong Zhuang herself. If she comes back three months from now and this kid is gone, that would be bad for us," Lu Xuan said. He was helpless too.
"Alright then, I'll try my best," the man replied.
"I will leave him to you, and you do your best. I'll get going now," Lu Xuan said and patted Lin Huang's shoulder. He then summoned the red door and left.
Seeing him leave, the man sucked hard on his cigar and put down his feet. He placed his cigar aside and placed his hands on the desk. He then looked at Lin Huang and finally spoke.
"Listen, kid. I don't care who is supporting you behind the scenes, there's no special treatment here. Master Hong Zhuang said we have to keep you alive, but if you break the rules here, I have many ways to make you feel pain much worse than dying," he threatened.
Lin Huang nodded expressionless. The man then looked away and made a call. "There's a kid here, bring him to the dorm," he said to the person over the phone.
After he hung up the call, the man stared at Lin Huang again until a man in a black uniform took Lin Huang away. Following the man down the elevator, they headed north from the tower and walked into a courtyard behind a big metal door. After registration, they passed a large courtyard and entered into a building.
They arrived in a small room on the first floor and the man in uniform tossed two army green shirt at him.
"Change now," he ordered.
He remained standing without an expression. He did not seem to be walking away.
Lin Huang did not bother to say anything. He removed his clothes to his underwear and put on the army green shirt. It was fitting but ugly.
He then kept his clothes into his space storage. The man in uniform then said, "You can only wear this green uniform here. You're not allowed to wear any other clothes. This is a rule among others and there will be no tolerating rule breakers."
He brought Lin Huang to the 11th floor. Lin Huang frowned as he walked seeing the rooms were designed to resemble a prison. The room door was an anti-explosion door. One could look into the room from the metals bars. The room was 10 square meters with a double decker bed. The basin and toilet bowl were placed inside the room.
Seeing Lin Huang's arrival, many stood by their doors and watched him. The man in uniform suddenly stopped walking. "1121, this is your room. We have sent all the rules and regulations to your Emperor's Heart Ring. Memorize them," he bellowed.
There was a boy sitting by the bed looking at him in fear. The boy looked like he was 15 or 16. He was dark and skinny.
"Go in now," the man in uniform ordered as he pushed the door open. After Lin Huang stepped in, the man closed the door and left. Lin Huang looked at his roommate and smiled. "Hi, my name is Lin Huang," he greeted him.
The boy hesitated and nodded to Lin Huang, saying, "Xiao Mo."
Just when Lin Huang wanted to sit down, a bell went off. The bell ring sounded like a school bell when he was on Earth but it was much louder and clearer.
"What is happening?" Lin Huang thought. This was ridiculous.
"Breakfast," Xiao Mo mumbled and got down off his bed.
Soon, the doors automatically opened. Xiao Mo waved at Lin Huang and ran right out. Lin Huang followed too. Many of them were running downstairs. When they arrived at the canteen, it was almost full.
He then picked up a metal plate and queued at the back. When it was his turn, there was nothing much left. The staff got him a bowl of sticky stuff that looked like porridge but the color and texture looked more like vomit. Lin Huang lost his appetite. Just when he was going to put down his plate and leave, he saw Xiao Mo waving at him. He then walked to him with his plate. When he was sitting down, a young man with buzz cut hair walked towards them with his plate.
"Kid, you're fast today. You even got meat," the buzz cut man stabbed at a piece of meat using his fork and ate it. Lin Huang frowned as he watched.
"How can one piece of meat satisfy me?" the buzz cut man continued mockingly and swallowed the meat. "Since I'm not satisfied, you shall not eat yours," the man said and flipped Xiao Mo's plate over spilling his food all over him.
The people around them were enjoying the show. None of them stood up for Xiao Mo.
"Hey, aren't you too much?" Lin Huang put down his plate and said to the man.
"What kid.. This is none of your business," the buzz cut man ignored Lin Huang.
"Pick up the plate and apologize to him," Lin Huang said menacingly and stared deadly at him.
Lin Huang standing up to him got the people excited. They were smiling and waiting for a climax to the show.
"Who do you think you are!" the buzz cut man shouted and glared at Lin Huang.
"Let me repeat myself. Pick up the plate and apologize to him!" Lin Huang said firmly. He did not want to give in.
"It's okay…" Xiao Mo said softly as he stood up and shook Lin Huang's arm.
"Kid, I'm warning you. Before you step into my business, you should consider if you have the…" Before the man could finish what he said, Lin Huang wrapped his hand around the man's neck and slammed his head against the table. His fork was in his hand, and he was holding it at less than one centimeter from his eyeball.
"This is the last time I'm going to say this. Apologize!" Lin Huang looked deadly. He was not going to give up until the man apologized.
"I'm… Sorry…" the buzz cut man squealed. He was scared and startled while apologizing.
The bell rang, and it was the end of breakfast. The rest stood up and left to put their plates back. Lin Huang then let go of the man and shouted at Xiao Mo asking him to leave.
The buzz cut man left silently. Many of the others were making fun of him. After putting their plates back, Xiao Mo followed Lin Huang as he was leaving the canteen. After some hesitation, he said, "Thank you."
"There's no need to thank me. How did you get on his bad side?" Lin Huang asked casually.
"Once I accidentally stepped on his foot when I was walking down the stairs…" Xiao Mo told him. "I apologized immediately but he just didn't want to let go and keep coming back for me…"
"This kind of people are sick. The more you let him, the more absurd he will behave. You should not allow him to treat you like this!" Lin Huang said. He thought the way Xiao Mo behaved was weak.
"But… I can never fight him…" Xiao Mo mumbled softly. He was clearly upset.
"Then try your best to make yourself stronger. One day you will fight him," Lin Huang said. He suddenly recalled he still had the dried vegetable from Fatty in his space storage. He patted Xiao Mo's shoulder and said, "Let's go back to the room. I have some good stuff in my space storage…"
Chapter 130: Public Execution
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Lin Huang was adapting to the life in the training camp; it was similar to being held as a prisoner against his will. All communication and network signals were blocked, and they were completely disconnected from the outside world. There were surveillance cameras in every corner of the small foothold, and there were no blind spots at all. There was no privacy at all given; they were watched 24-hours a day, when they used the toilet, bathroom, and even while they slept.
Their daily routine was to wake up for breakfast from 8 a.m. to 8:30 a.m., and following that, they would be free to do as they please for the next hour. From 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., they would be killing monsters in the training tower for the entire length of eight hours. 5:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. was dinner time and again, they were free to do as they pleased. After that, it was back to killing monsters in the training tower for three hours, from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. They only got to rest after 11 o'clock at night.
Soon, two days had passed. It was free and easy time after breakfast, and suddenly, a tune that sounded like a ringtone was played on the loudspeaker. Half a minute later, the music stopped and a man began to speak.
"Everyone gather round the execution point in 10 minutes!"
Lin Huang thought that was odd. "What's going on?" he asked Xiao Mo.
"It's public execution day today…" Xiao Mo explained softly. "Everyone has to be there to watch it."
"You mean executions for the three people who are ranked the lowest?" Lin Huang asked him again. He knew the rule himself but it was his first time he was going to witness an actual execution. "Are they really going to carry out the execution in front of everyone?!" He almost yelled.
Lin Huang had read about this rule in the beginning when the training camp made them take a ranking test. They could collect points by killing monsters in the training tower.
Iron-level
Rank-1 = 1 point
Rank-2 = 2 points
Rank-3 = 4 points
Bronze-level
Rank-1 = 10 points
Rank-2 = 20 points
Rank-3 = 40 points
Silver-level
Rank-1 = 100 points,
Rank-2 = 200 points
Rank-3 = 400 points
Gold level
Rank-1 = 1,000 points
Rank-2 = 2,000 points
Rank-3 = 4,000 points
By accumulating points, they could redeem things that they wanted which included combat skills, Life Skills, equipment, food and a lot more. The ranking was refreshed daily and was sent to everyone's Emperor's Heart Ring through the local network. It was mentioned that those who ranked top-3 for 100 consecutive trials or broke through to gold-level during these trainings would officially become a reserve member of the Purple Crow. Meanwhile, those who ranked the in on the lowest three for 10 consecutive days would be executed in public.
"The public execution serves as a reminder to all of us," Xiao Mo explained. Looking at everyone leaving, he urged Lin Huang, "Let's leave now. There will be punishments for the latecomers."
Both of them followed the crowd to the other building in the small foothold, they arrived at an enormous ring-shaped arena. There was an empty space the size of a football field in the middle of the arena. It was surrounded by chairs, and within a glance, it could probably accommodate more than 10,000 people.
Lin Huang and Xiao Mo found themselves a seat. Soon the empty seats in the arena were almost full. It was only then that Lin Huang realized there were so many people in the training camp, more than he expected.
"So many people…"
"This isn't considered many. There are 13 training camps in Division7. Ours is only the 11th when it comes to the number of participants," Xiao Mo explained immediately when he heard Lin Huang's exclamation.
"There are 13 training camps?!" Lin Huang gasped. He had thought this was the only training camp in Division7. He had definitely underestimated the organization.
"Shh…" Suddenly, Xiao Mo gestured at Lin Huang to stop talking and said quietly, "The public execution is starting, we're not allowed to talk."
Lin Huang nodded and kept quiet while looking at the people at the arena. The arena was completely silent. It seemed like everybody was aware of this rule.
Three young men in green uniforms were shoved in from the entrance of the arena. They looked like death row inmates with dead eyes and expressionless faces. There were three executioners in black behind them.
The three young men in green uniforms walked slowly to the middle of the area. One of the man in black who was wearing sunglasses walked towards them with a sealed box.
"What is happening?" Lin Huang asked quietly.
"They're asking the young men to choose how they would die by drawing ballots," Xiao Mo explained.
Lin Huang was solemn as he watched the events transpire.
The three young men extended shaking hands into the sealed box. They then pulled out a wooden piece each.
"Say your name, ranking and the style of execution," the man in sunglasses said into a loudspeaker receiver the size of a palm. He then passed the loudspeaker to the first man. The receiver was turned on and a long antenna came out from it and stopped by the man's mouth. As it turned out, it was the mouthpiece for the loudspeaker.
The young man stuttered, "My name is… Han Yang… I'm ranked… last in the point rankings... for the past… 10 days. My death… would be… by beheading…"
He cried as he said those words out loud. He was terrified!
Lin Huang could tell that this person was only iron-level rank-2, a rank which was considered to be the weakest in this training camp, so it was not out of the ordinary that he ranked last.
After the young man's report, the man in sunglasses took the loudspeaker receiver from him and nodded to the executioner who was standing behind him and he took a few steps back. The golden ring on the executioner's hand transformed into a sword and he held the young man on the ground by force. Soon, the sword came down on the young man and a head shot up into the air as blood gushed everywhere.
Lin Huang frowned as he watched. Although he had killed people before, it was the first time he watched an actual execution happen. He thought it was gruesome and unethical. However, the man in sunglasses did not seem to be affected at all. He then walked across the pool of blood in his pair of black leather boots and handed the loudspeaker receiver to the second man with an expressionless face.
"My name is Lu Shen, I ranked second last in the past 10 days. My death will be execution by gunshot," the second young man said with a gloomy expression. The man in sunglasses nodded to the executioner again. The golden ring transformed into a pistol and he pointed it at the left side of Lu Shen's head. The executioner pulled the trigger without a moment's notice. "Bang!" A bullet was shot, and the young man's head exploded. It was Lin Huang's first time witnessing the power of a gold-level gun.
The man in sunglasses then walked to the last person and handed him the loudspeaker receiver.
"My name is Zou He, I'm ranked the third last in the past 10 days. My death will be through... Dismemberment..." Suddenly, an uproar broke among the crowd as the young man mentioned how his execution would be carried out. Many were discussing the execution as it seemed like it had been awhile since the last time someone was executed by dismemberment. The man in sunglasses was stunned as well but his surprise slowly turned to anger as he frowned at the noisy crowd.
"Silence!" The man in sunglasses shouted into the loudspeaker receiver and the arena went silent. Once the man made sure that the people were calm, he took a few steps back and nodded to the executioner. The executioner then sealed Zou He's movement from the back of his neck. His clothes were removed and he was tied with a metal rope before he was hung on a metal shelf. He looked like a beast waiting for slaughter.
Soon blades appeared in the executioner's hands and he began performing his knife skills on Zou He. His skills were refined from years of experience as he slowly sliced the flesh off Zou He's body. Once his clothes were completely removed, each of the wounds were clear before everybody's eyes. Zou He was groaning in pain, and the sounds were transmitted, loud and clear through the loudspeaker. Lin Huang had heard of such executions before had never imagined it to be this gory and cruel.
It lasted for more than three hours. Zou He was finally dead with thousands of slices of his flesh were carved from his body. The execution was carved into everyone's mind and they were in fearful awe of the executioner. Zou He's groan echoed in Lin Huang's head as he walked back to his room.
"It seems like the Purple Crow is a cult…" he thought. It was the first time he had seen something so gruesome since he joined the training camp.
Xiao Mo had been quiet ever since they got back to their room and he has not spoken a single word since the incident. Lin Huang soon noticed his odd behaviour and asked, "Xiao Mo, what's wrong? Were you traumatised by the execution we saw earlier?"
"I will die 10 days from now…" Xiao Mo said after being quiet for awhile.
"What do you mean?" Lin Huang wondered as he thought what he said was ridiculous.
"I'm one of those who will be executed in the next batch," Xiao Mo mumbled as he did not want to explain any further.
Lin Huang then realized what Xiao Mo was trying to say. As he was only an iron-level rank-3 hunter and his combat strength was limited. He had ranked at the bottom for a while After the three young men were executed, Xiao Mo was the next one who was ranked last on the leaderboard.
"Don't worry, there's still another 10 days to go. There must be a way." Lin Huang said as he tried to improve the morale between them. He did not know what else to say. "Try to stay longer in the training tower for the next few days."
Each room in the training tower could only accommodate one person and each mission had to be done alone. There was no way for Lin Huang to help Xiao Mo.
"Oh, yeah... How far are you from filling up your Life Power?" Lin Huang asked.
"My Life Power is full but I don't dare to level-up because once I arrive at bronze-level, I won't be able to enter the iron-level training room any further. I'd accumulate points at an even slower rate..."
Xiao Mo was in a vicious cycle. He could accumulate points by killing iron-level monsters but the points were much lower compared to bronze-level monsters. On the other hand, if he chose to level-up, his abilities were still insufficient to kill bronze-level monsters and this would slow him down even more. Lin Huang was at a loss as there was nothing he could do to help in this situation.