Chapter 841: Bloody's Puppet Army
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
In the blink of an eye, it was the third day since they entered the Fallen God Land.
Early in the morning, Lin Huang went all out to summon 15 monsters, which was the limit of his summoning authority.
They were Killer, the Evil Dominator, Bloody, Kylie, Lancelot, Bai, Tyrant, Grimace, Charcoal, Warlord, Bloody Robe, the Death Knight, the Fallen Knight, and the two Dark Crescent Snakes.
"Bai with Grimace, Tyrant with Charcoal, Warlord with Bloody Robe, and the two knights with the two Dark Crescent Snakes each. The Evil Dominator, Kylie and Lancelot will be fighting alone."
"I wouldn't have released all of you if not for the sprawling ruins. There are a total of 8,000 people who've entered the ruins this time, which is over 20 times more than the last search. However, from Bloody's investigation, there are still many areas that have yet to be explored by humans. The places that all of you are going to are those that humans have yet to step foot in.
"Those who perform well in the next three months will be rewarded while those who underperform will have their previous reward taken away." Lin Huang looked at Grimace intentionally when he said that.
Grimace had not asked for junk food for his last reward. Instead, he had asked for an ancient relic-level puppet whose price was double of an ancient relic-level telekinetic weapon. It had been painful for Lin Huang. However, the puppet doll was rather practical. At least, it could be used to fight an imperial-level black gold-rank powerhouse under Grimace's control.
"Can I ask for three puppets this time?" Grimace asked with anticipation written all over his face.
"Two," Lin Huang bargained. The toy Grimace wanted was too expensive. He began to worry that he might not be able to afford to keep Grimace.
"Deal!" Grimace agreed directly.
Lin Huang was secretly relieved to see Grimace so obedient.
After a round of simple briefing from Lin Huang, Bai and the rest dispersed under Bloody's guidance.
Lin Huang together with Bloody and the Parasitic Puppet army it moved from Kylie's mini world were the only ones left.
"That many of them?" Lin Huang was shocked to see the army.
"There are a total of 1,128 of them. 32 of them are black gold-rank while the rest are immortal-level rank-9. Also, all of the puppets are tripled mutated." It was clear that Bloody was bragging a little bit judging from its tone. "I've tweaked the battle formations that Kylie gave me last night. I've also done some preliminary development and come up with 21 foundation battle formations and over 400 combo battle formations that suit these bunch of Parasitic Puppet army the best. We can officially begin practice now."
"What are you waiting for then? Let's go!" Lin Huang was interested to see the power of battle formations from this parasitic army.
Soon, Bloody found its first target, which was an imperial-level black gold-rank corpse ghost.
Its height was around two meters and it looked like a dead human corpse that was going through the first stage of rotting. However, there were red flames burning in its eyes like lava.
The 32 imperial-level black gold-rank puppets did not participate in this battle.
Over 1,000 immortal-level rank-9 Parasitic Puppets formed into a battle formation instantly and began to fight the corpse ghost.
The corpse ghost almost escaped in the first couple of minutes, but soon, Bloody was at its peak of controlling the battle formation. In less than five minutes, they managed to kill the corpse ghost.
Later on, it spent a couple of minutes parasitizing the corpse ghost, adding another member to its imperial-level black gold-rank puppets.
"Your battle formation seems to be even more powerful than Kylie's," Lin Huang voiced out what he thought after watching the battle.
"Mine is a complete foundation battle formation and I've more puppets than her Nephilic Judges. Also, my puppets' combat strength and mutation level are higher than her army's. Furthermore, I'm controlling everything in this battle formation whereby I can adjust them whenever I want. It makes sense that the overall ability is more powerful than her Nephilic Judge army's," Bloody explained, "But Kylie's upper hand is that her Nephilic Judges have a high growth rate which my Parasitic Puppets don't. I can only replace the Parasitic Puppets with higher combat strength ones continuously to strengthen the battle formation."
For the next few days, Lin Huang stayed by Bloody's side at all times. He saw it performing different versions of battle formations every day while they got more and more powerful.
Bloody would parasitize the imperial-level black gold-rank monster every time whenever one was killed. More and more imperial-level black gold-rank puppets were added to its collection.
Until the third day, the Parasitic Puppets finally mastered the foundation battle formations fully, so Bloody began to practice the combo battle formations.
The power of the combo battle formations was undoubtedly a few folds more compelling than the foundation battle formations earlier. They could kill imperial-level black gold-rank monsters almost like a piece of cake. They then began to hunt for higher ranked preys in the form of crimson gold-rank monsters.
The truth proved that the imperial-level black gold-rank puppets that were added to Bloody's puppet battle formations were good enough to fight imperial-level crimson gold-rank powerhouses face-on.
Ever since the imperial-level black gold-rank monsters were added into their battle formations, they slaughtered the imperial-level crimson gold-rank monsters easily.
Bloody then began a new around of hunting and parasitizing, possessing more and more imperial-level crimson gold-rank puppets.
In this ruins, Bloody's puppet army was like a bulldozer, killing everything wherever it passed. All of the deceased monsters became one of the puppet army.
During these couple of days, the other Monster Cards did not stay idle as well.
Lin Huang felt the spiritual energy in his God Figurines growing each day. Although the amount of growth was minor, he knew it was possible for the combat soul in his body to grow to imperial-level crimson gold-rank during this trip to the ruins.
The objective of letting Bai and the rest out in the ruins was to help him to hunt for spiritual energy. Looking at the current progress, it was almost ten times faster than him hunting on his own.
Lin Huang had accompanied Bloody all the time during the past few days. He did not fight even once. Apart from the time they were on the move, he was always practicing his swordsmanship.
The pseudo-god-level sword skill Killer had gotten from the Regal Sword Killer had yet to be integrated into his Sword Dao system. It was the best time to practise it.
Lin Huang's Sword Dao reached bottleneck since he achieved gold flame-level which caused him to almost stop practicing entirely. Now that he had broken through to immortal-level rank-3, he already had the basic foundation to advance further. What he was lacking the most now were his sword skill resources. He had only mastered less than 80 types of legendary-level sword skills, which was the reason why he had requested access to the Central Library.
The level-one reading authorization even gave him the access to pseudo-god-level methods, but he could only read one set of method per day at the most. Lin Huang only had three days of authorization which meant that he only had the opportunity to learn a maximum of three sets of pseudo-god-level sword skills.
A level-two reading authorization would give him access to any legendary-level methods with no restrictions. This authorization was usually given to imperial-level powerhouses who contributed to the Union Government.
'I'll make a trip to the Central Library after the three months of searching the ruins is over before heading back to Division 7,' Lin Huang secretly planned.
However, Lin Huang and Bloody had no idea that they were targeted even though they avoided all the areas where humans were hunting along the way.
It was the middle of the night when five people gathered in a tent hundreds of kilometers away.
The five of them wore white robes with a golden cross on their foreheads. They were the members of the underground organization, the Saints.
"The reason I ask you all to gather is because I noticed a huge amount of beasts 2,000 kilometers away. There are over 1,000 beasts. Most of their combat strength is on immortal-level rank-9 while there are tens of black gold-rank beasts. I think we can sweep them together!"
"Immortal-level beasts living in such a massive scale? Are they beasts living in groups?" One of them could not help but ask.
"I've no idea what beasts they are exactly, but all of you know about that demigod-level detection relic that I have. It can detect the rough condition of creatures within 3,000 kilometers. It can only be activated once a day, so it's a yes or no for this mission. But I must warn you, I'm not sure when will we ever see such an insane number of beasts in the future if we miss this opportunity now."
"I'm in! 1,000 immortal-level rank-9 beasts are worth some great sacrifice."
"I think that's a sign that God is showing us!"
"Thank you, God !"
Chapter 842: Meeting the Saints Again
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
It was in the middle of the night. Lin Huang sat in the tent with his legs crossed while he tapped open the virtual map to look at Bai and the rest's coordinates.
Bloody had planted virtual positioning in them, so they could see everyone's exact location.
The Evil Dominator, Kylie, the two knights, and the Dark Crescent Snakes were still on the move while the rest of them were on idle mode.
"Kylie's still leading her army to hunt. The two knights' killing efficiency is higher at night due to the two Dark Crescent Snakes." Bloody had been watching them at all times. "Meanwhile, the Evil Dominator challenged a powerful crimson gold-rank, but he failed, so he's running for his life now."
"Is the Evil Dominator going to be alright?" Lin Huang did not want to lose a pseudo-mythical-level Monster Card.
"He's alright. None of his substitutes are dead. He seemed to be waiting for the opportunity to turn the tables around, so he provoked the monster along the way. If not for that, he'd have gotten away from the monster long ago," Bloody said while projecting the video that its Leech Pod had taken earlier.
In the video, the Evil Dominator took off his pants and farted at the monster. Most importantly, he was not using his own image, but the Regal Sword Killer's image.
"If Killer found out about this, he'd definitely kill him…" Lin Huang was speechless.
The Evil Dominator was pretty close to Killer. Due to their close relationship, Killer gave a lot of his blood to Evil Dominator to duplicate his Evil Blood Substitutes over and over again. If Killer found out that the Evil Dominator had used his substitute to do this, he might not provide Evil Dominator even a drip of his blood ever again.
"Ask Kylie not to rush things. Tell her to rest when she needs to," Lin Huang told Bloody to pass his message.
After turning off the map, Bloody's voice transmission came out of nowhere just when Lin Huang was going to sleep.
"We might be targeted. A Saints team is coming close to where we are at rapid speed. They're less than 300 kilometers from us now."
"A team from the Saints?" Lin Huang put away his tent immediately and got into fighting mode. "How many of them? What are their combat strengths?"
"Five of them. Two imperial-level yellow gold-ranks and three imperial-level crimson gold-ranks."
"Do you have the confidence to defeat them? Do you need me to hold the two imperial-level yellow gold-ranks for you while you take the three imperial-level crimson gold-ranks first?" Lin Huang asked.
"No need. I happen to have 28 imperial-level crimson gold-rank puppets that I've yet to put into battle formation. They can practice by joining the battle this time. There are only two imperial-level yellow gold-ranks, so we should be able to handle them." Bloody was always confident in its battle formation.
In reality, even without imperial-level crimson gold-rank puppets participating in the battle formation, a battle formation with imperial-level black gold-rank puppets as its core was sufficient to fight imperial-level yellow gold-ranks. It was just that they did not have the ability to kill an imperial-level yellow gold-rank.
Bloody had not hunted any imperial-level yellow gold-rank monsters for the past two days. The reason being, it could not parasitize them, so it had been hunting imperial-level black gold-rank and imperial-level crimson gold-rank monsters to increase the number of its Parasitic Puppets.
At the moment, apart from the 28 imperial-level crimson gold-rank puppets, the number of imperial-level black gold-rank puppets had skyrocketed to 96.
However, to avoid scaring their prey away, the 28 imperial-level crimson gold-rank puppets had been in hiding mode.
That was the reason why the Saint members did not manage to detect the 28 imperial-level crimson gold-rank puppets.
After confirming the five Saint members' whereabouts, Lin Huang was ready to fight on his side.
The five Saint members, on the other hand, had no inkling about that. They were rushing towards the coordinates following the detection relic.
They traveled across hundreds of kilometers in a couple of minutes.
The five Saint messengers saw the group of a variety of monsters far away. Just when they thought that it was odd, the monsters suddenly moved. They went into their battle formation and surrounded all five of them.
The five of them had a slight change of expression at that moment. Soon, they realized that someone was controlling the monsters because most of the monsters were obviously foreign. The ruins' local monsters only consisted of undying and spirit types.
Soon, apart from almost 100 imperial-level black gold-rank monsters, they saw the tens of imperial-level crimson gold-rank monsters among the group. They looked even more aghast now.
A human powerhouse who could control up to 100 imperial-level monsters and up to 1,000 of immortal-level rank-9 monsters was not someone that they could defeat.
"Senior, the five of us are messengers from the Saint. We've made a mistake coming to your territory. Please forgive us. We'll leave right away," apologized one of the imperial-level yellow gold-rank messengers who was the leader immediately. He was the one with the demigod-level detention relic.
"I didn't hunt you, but you showed up at my doorstep. Since you're here, let's just stay." Lin Huang did not reveal himself, but his voice came from the monsters and entered the ears of the five messengers loud and clear.
After the command, the Parasitic Puppet battle formation launched their attack.
The participation of imperial-level crimson gold-rank puppets boosted the battle formation power.
One blow was all they needed to kill one of the imperial-level crimson gold-rank messengers.
The remaining four of them then come together in an attempt to launch a sneak attack.
However, the two imperial-level crimson gold-rank messengers were killed in less than three minutes. The two imperial-level yellow gold-rank messengers were the only ones left.
"Now that we're done warming up, let's play." Bloody's voice subsequently rang out.
More than 1,000 Parasitic Puppets changed their formation in an instant, forming a six-armed giant with the 28 imperial-level crimson gold-rank puppets as its core.
The giant was 10,000 meters tall whereby a single palm alone was 1,000 meters long. The giant slammed its palm towards the two imperial-level yellow gold-rank messengers.
Bang!
As the palm smashed into them, the ground within hundreds of kilometers radius shook. The ground where the palm was hit had sunken in while a gigantic crater thousands of meters deep was created.
Although the two messengers were not killed by the attack, they were badly injured and they spat out mouthfuls of blood.
"Let's split up!" One of them whispered softly. The two silhouettes emerged underground and escaped towards two different directions.
"Stay!" The six-armed giant shouted while extending both arms in an attempt to catch them.
The duo saw a black shadow coming from above their heads and in the next second, they were wrapped in an immense force, unable to move.
"Die!" The six-armed giant clapped its palms hard together with the duo trapped in them.
Both of them felt like their bodies were crushed together by giant walls. The attack almost broke every bone in their bodies while none of the organs in their bodies functioned after that.
They were almost killed by the attack.
"Not dead yet?" The six-armed giant threw six giant punches at them continuously after tossing them onto the ground.
One punch, two punches, three punches…
The ground trembled intensely with each punch that was thrown.
Lin Huang was a little speechless as he watched. Both of them were already dead when the six-armed giant threw its third punch, but it still ravaged the two corpses.
Bloody only got the six-armed giant to stop after it threw 100 punches while the duo had completely turned into a pile of mushy meat.
"You were venting because you can't parasitize them since they are imperial-level yellow gold-rank, am I right?" Lin Huang said while pouting.
Bloody looked embarrassed when Lin Huang called out its game.
Bloody told the six-armed giant's battle formation to retreat and began the parasitization on the three imperial-level crimson gold-rank messengers after handing over the items from the five of them to Lin Huang.
"You can use the three of them, but you must change their clothes and remove the cross on their faces. We'll bring unnecessary trouble to ourselves if someone sees this." Lin Huang then turned around and began to set up the tent after he was done speaking.
"Yes, Sir!"
Chapter 843: The Third Pseudo Mythical-level Monster Card
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
In the Fallen God Land before daybreak, the golden cross on the forehead of a man in white robes shone brightly out of nowhere like it was burning in flames. The glow dimmed quickly a moment later.
In his white robes, Min Ze opened his eyes all of a sudden.
"Yuan Feng and Luo Liang are dead?! And so are three of our imperial-level crimson gold-ranks?!" Everything that happened before the five of them were killed came clearly into his mind.
"A battle formation made of up to 1,000 different monsters and its ability is close to an imperial-level white gold-rank's battle form…" Min Ze frowned while feeling perplexed. "There must be someone controlling these monsters. Who exactly is that who can control up to 1,000 monsters at the same time?!"
In reality, not only did Min Ze see that. The other Saint messengers saw the same thing too and they were horrified.
The Saints had sent a total of ten imperial-level messengers and half of them were killed. Furthermore, they did not see the murderer's face from the beginning until the end.
Min Ze, the No. 1 powerhouse among the Saint members who were sent into the Fallen God Land did not see any information about the murderer from the scenes that were transmitted from the five dead men. Apart from knowing that the person was a powerful Imperial Censor, he did not have any idea about the location where they were killed. He could not avenge them even if he wanted to.
"I've no clue apart from knowing that the person's a powerful Imperial Censor. I can only hope that I'll have the opportunity to bump into this person who controls the monsters within these three months."
Lin Huang, who was over 20,000 kilometers away, had no idea that the news about the Saint members being killed had been received by the remaining Saint members.
To him, the death of the five Saint members was just a tiny bump which did not affect him much.
In less than a week, Bloody accumulated over 150 imperial-level black gold-rank puppets and it even had over 50 imperial-level crimson gold-rank puppets. The battle formation consisting of those puppets gave them the ability to fight imperial-level white gold-rank powerhouses.
However, Bloody knew that was the limit of its puppet battle formation.
It was not about the battle formation itself, but the core level of the battle formation.
To be able to reach a level whereby they could kill imperial-level white gold-ranks, it must have at least 20 imperial-level yellow gold-rank puppets as the core of its battle formation.
However, with Bloody's current combat strength, it could not parasitize imperial-level yellow gold-rank monsters at all.
While Bloody's battle formation had almost reached its bottleneck, Kylie's battle formation was soaring.
She now had over 120 triple mutated Nephilic Judges which made up a third of her army. Furthermore, since her Nephilic Judges had elevated to immortal-level rank-8 and rank-9, the battle formation power was much more compelling than when she had just entered the Fallen God Land. The army was powerful enough to kill most imperial-level black gold-rank powerhouses.
Lancelot surprised Lin Huang even more as he spent most of his time on the move these days.
The reason being was that the hunting condition was too strict. The prey had to be Sword Dao monsters whereby their combat strength had to be immortal-level rank-9. In addition to that, they must be triple mutated too.
There were only 31 monsters that fit the condition in the entire Fallen God Land and they were scattered far away from each other.
However, after spending over ten days, Lancelot had finally elevated all nine of his sword servants to triple mutation.
They even encountered prey that was immensely powerful along the way, so Lancelot was forced to fight. That caused the elevation to fail twice and they had to look for prey all over again.
Although there were some bumps, all nine sword servants completed their elevation.
Lancelot might not have expected this himself, but since the nine sword servants completed their triple mutation, he was elevated to pseudo-mythical-level.
Lancelot becoming the third pseudo-mythical-level Monster Card went beyond Lin Huang's expectations.
Even since he had elevated to pseudo-mythical-level, Lancelot did not only experience a boost in ability, but his sword servant quota had increased by one fold. He now had 18 slots for sword servants.
He had been busy looking for new sword servants since then.
"I've never expected this fella who loves vegetables to become the most powerful one among all of you." Lin Huang could not help but chuckle when he said, "He should have the ability to kill imperial-level crimson gold-ranks together with his sword servants."
"Master, I should be the most powerful one overall ability-wise," Bloody corrected him with full confidence.
"Oh, I almost forgot about you and your army!" Lin Huang just recalled that Bloody's puppet army was truly invincible now. They would fight imperial-level white gold-rank powerhouses head-on whenever they encountered one. They were more powerful than a few pseudo-god-level powerhouses combined.
"If my combat strength breaks through further and I get to imperial-level black gold-rank, I'll be able to control imperial-level yellow gold-rank puppets. By then, we'll be able to even kill imperial-level white gold-rank powerhouses!" Bloody was not boasting at all. As soon as the core of the battle formation rank was elevated, the entire battle formation power would be boosted by folds.
Compared to Bloody, Kylie, Lancelot, and the other Monster Cards did not go through that much increase in their abilities.
After all, their combat strength was still stuck on immortal-level rank-9. There was no way that they could elevate further. It was even more impossible for them to mutate further, so it was only natural that their ability had an insignificant boost.
The only improvement they could have was richer battle experiences.
After watching Bai and the rest battle, Lin Huang was planning to buy some pet equipment for them when the search in the ruins ended.
He had always thought pet equipment was expensive and impractical for them. However, after seeing Grimace control his puppet relic, he realized that the elevation in a summoning beast's ability was correlated with their equipment.
Grimace had killed imperial-level black gold-rank monsters with Bai earlier whereby they would have to show their trump card almost every time they fought. However, with the puppet relic, it was clear that killing was much easier for them. The puppet alone minimized the stress from all imperial-level black gold-rank monsters.
"I'll get Bai two demigod longsword relics to boost his attack ability. I'll get Tyrant either a demigod-level battle hammer or battle ax which can boost his attack ability by a few folds at least. Charcoal too… I'll get it a fire attribute crystal…" Lin Huang was thorough with his plan, but he knew his pathetic savings was unable to buy all of his summoning beasts equipment.
Most pet equipment was even more expensive than human equipment as some of them had to be customized according to the pet's ability, allowing the pet to boost their ability to their maximum capacity.
As time went by, half a month passed since the opening of the Fallen God Land.
The intensity of the combat souls in Lin Huang's God Figurines rose rapidly every day from the continuous hunting by his 15 summoning beasts.
"Looking at the progress, the three combat souls in my body will be able to elevate to crimson gold-rank in five days at the most, or the soonest, in three days." The elevation speed was much faster than what he imagined.
"The monsters that we can kill away from human-populated areas are getting lesser and lesser. More than 80% of the immortal-level rank-9 and imperial-level black gold-rank monsters in these areas have already been cleared," Bloody told Lin Huang a piece of rather bad news, "Those humans who've entered the ruins are searching towards all directions continuously, so our activity range is getting smaller and smaller."
"It's very common for the collision force to spread up to 1,000 kilometers away with fights involving imperial-levels. People will find out about us sooner or later. It's just a matter of time," Bloody voiced a realistic opinion.
"I've thought about what you said, but I didn't expect it to come so soon." Lin Huang frowned. "How about we get them to kill underground organization members whenever they encounter one? They'll kill them if they're capable to and they'll avoid them if they're unable to fight them. We won't fight if we encounter any non-underground organization members. We'll avoid them entirely.
"Also, handle their bodies cleanly and don't leave any traces so that we won't bring any unnecessary trouble to ourselves."
Chapter 844: Golden Cicada Substitute
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
It was a windy night.
Wang Xu stood next to a beast's carcass whose head was severed. He took out a piece of paper from his Emperor's Heart Ring and wiped his demigod relic, the Waning Moon, that was covered with blood.
The Waning Moon was a scimitar that resembled a crescent moon.
Wang Xu had this mid-grade demigod relic scimitar customized especially before he entered the Fallen God Land. He had spent almost all of his savings on it.
However, he thought it was worth it. He had gotten the hang of it these days and felt that his ability had elevated like never before.
A ferocious glow was glistening on the silver saber body after the blood was wiped off.
As he put the carcass away, he tossed the paper onto the ground and was ready to leave. Just as he was turning around, Wang Xu suddenly felt a stirring force coming from far away.
"Is that a fight between imperial-level crimson gold-rank powerhouses?!" He lifted his head and looked towards the direction of the force while showing hesitation on his face.
He would have definitely avoided such a situation in the past. The reason being, he had just broken through to imperial-level crimson gold-rank less than half a year ago. The chance of him defeating an imperial-level crimson gold-rank expert was extremely slim.
Wang Xu was in a pickle for a moment as he looked at the Waning Moon in his hand. Eventually, he made up his mind as a fierce gleam flashed through his eyes.
'Those who have guts will benefit while the timid ones starve. I might not lose even if I fight him now. Moreover, since both of them are fighting now, I'll just hide while waiting for them to finish. By then, I'll reap what's left without putting any effort in.'
Wang Xu put the scimitar away as his thoughts flowed. He then hovered in the air and flew quickly towards the source of force.
His black robes seemed to be invisible in the night sky. However, the white circle on the back of his vest stood out. There was a purple crow standing on a branch in the circle and it seemed lively as if it were alive.
His collar that was lifted fluttered in the wind. There was a purple metal piece the size of a thumb inside the collar. Like the crow on his trench coat, the metal piece was a purple crow.
Sensing the force that was getting more and more intense, Wang Xu slowed down and flew lower.
After flying for around 800 kilometers, he finally saw the duo that were fighting.
It was an imperial-level crimson gold-rank human fighting an imperial-level crimson gold-rank monster.
The human was covered in black robes which made it hard to identify which organization he came from. His weapon was a demigod longsword relic and he had extraordinary abilities.
Meanwhile, his opponent was a Seventails Scorpion, a poisonous undying monster.
This monster had a super regenerative ability whereby it could recover from almost any wound immediately. The only way to kill such a monster was to destroy its heart.
The black-robed man seemed to be aware of that, so he had been trying to aim for its heart. Unfortunately, the monster had a seamless defense.
Both man and monster seemed to fight equally as they had powerful abilities.
Wang Xu realized that the difference between him and the old-time imperial-level crimson gold-rank powerhouse was very clear now. Even with the Waning Moon, he would still rank slightly below average.
However, he did not plan to leave just yet. Instead, he proceeded to hide in the bushes a couple of kilometers away and hid his aura as much as he could.
The fight between man and monster went on for some ten minutes while the black-robed man's stance turned weak all of a sudden.
'What happened? Is he poisoned?' Just when Wang Xu was in doubt, the black-robed man began to retreat quickly. He was retreating towards the direction where he was hiding.
'Sh*t!' Wang Xu did not think that the man had noticed him. He thought the black-robed man might have been poisoned and attempted to flee since he could not defeat the monster, and just so happened to run towards his hiding place.
The Seventails Scorpion caught up with the black-robed man as soon as he began to run.
However, the black-robed man was simply dodging the monster's attacks or running towards some other direction instead of retaliating.
Tail whips struck through the air continuously, creating massive potholes in the ground.
The black-robed man happened to deflect one of the attacks from where it was and slammed towards where Wang Xu was hiding.
Feeling helpless, Wang Xu retreated immediately and managed to dodge the attack.
Although he dodged the Seventails Scorpion's attack, Wang Xu had revealed himself.
"Brother, you're finally here!" The black-robed man shouted to Wang Xu suddenly, "Help me quickly. Let's get this monster together!"
The Seventails Scorpion began to attack Wang Xu right away as soon as it heard that.
Wang Xu only snapped back to his senses after a while of being stunned. He did not expect his plan of waiting for free fortune to end up making the Seventails Scorpion thinking he was the black-robed man's partner. He was being attacked just like the black-robed man was.
"I know you're hiding here to wait for the reward, but there's nowhere for you to escape now," said the black-robed man through voice transmission, "Let's kill it together and half the reward. Or you don't have to agree to my plan. I'll just retreat now and you won't get anything."
"Sure, let's kill it together!" Although Wang Xu agreed to him, he had another plan in his head.
'Since you're poisoned anyway, we'll kill the monster together, then I'll kill you,' he thought to himself.
"You'll contain its tail and I'll find ways to attack its heart." The black-robed man came up with a plan immediately.
"Why don't you contain its tail instead?" Wang Xu was a little reluctant.
"Your scimitar's more suitable for defending a wider range while my sword's more suitable for a focused attack."
Wang Xu had nothing to retort back to the black-robed man. The reason why he had picked the scimitar as his weapon was because of its powerful cutting ability and indeed, he had a defensive saber skill that was suitable for a scimitar of such form.
Feeling helpless again, Wang Xu charged towards the Seventails Scorpion.
After blocking the Seventails Scorpion's tail whip attack, Wang Xu felt a sense of threat coming from his back as he was thinking about what he should do to the black-robed man after killing this monster.
Just when he wanted to dodge, the Seventails Scorpion's tail came whipping before him and he had nowhere to run.
In the next second, a silver ray pierced through the left side of his chest.
As he was going out of consciousness, he heard a voice by his ear, "I'm sorry. I wasn't poisoned at all. I pretended to retreat so that I could end you first before I could fight this Seventails Scorpion in peace."
After killing the core member of the Purple Crow, the black-robed man did not even glance at the body and proceeded to fight the Seventails Scorpion.
Around half an hour later, the Seventails Scorpion become the second dead body on this battlefield.
The black-robed man took off his hood and picked up Wang Xu's scimitar. His face then turned into Wang Xu's instantly.
Lin Huang grinned as he nodded, watching the result of this battle 10,000 kilometers away.
"The Evil Dominator's performance isn't too shabby. He killed an imperial-level crimson gold-rank and imperial-level yellow gold-rank in the past two days with the help of Bloody. After obtaining two Golden Cicada Substitutes, he possesses the ability to kill imperial-level crimson gold-ranks now. If he takes his trump card out, he'll be able to fight imperial-level yellow gold-ranks," Lin Huang said.
"Unfortunately, the Golden Cicada can only make human substitutes. Otherwise, he'd have at least ten imperial-level crimson gold-rank monster substitutes. Although the Evil Dominator doesn't have such a limitation, he has a time restriction. The two skills have flaws of their own," Bloody commented.
Lin Huang smiled without saying anything. The Evil Dominator would be almost invincible if there were no flaws in either skill.
Lin Huang had both of the skills while his Evil Blood Substitute was exactly the same as the one the Evil Dominator had.
However, his Golden Cicada had been extracted from the Evil Dominator's body by Xiao Hei back then. It was the lower-end version which he could only use three times per day*.
Lin Huang did not really care about the substitute's ability back then. After all, the substitute had not exactly been powerful when he had used it to kill an evil spirit type of monster as it just seemed to be harder to be defeated.
However, its terrifying ability seemed to be coming out as his ability elevated.
Just like the Evil Dominator which was on immortal-level rank-9, his ability would elevate to imperial-level yellow gold-rank as soon as he summoned the imperial-level yellow gold-rank substitute. It was many times more powerful than his own combat strength.
'Looking at my current body strength, I could bear an imperial-level yellow gold-rank's substitute forcefully which is a rank higher than the boost using the knight's skill. Moreover, the Golden Cicada can copy the substitute's inheritance, memory, and abilities completely…' A new idea popped into Lin Huang's head instantly as he thought about this.
"Bloody, please look for some imperial-level crimson gold-rank sword cultivators from an underground organization for me. I would like a few of them, also some imperial-level black gold-rank sword cultivators as well!"
*Translator's note: (details in Chapter 769)
Chapter 845: We Didn't Hit It Off
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Ever since entering the Fallen God Land the past half a month, Han Jie's journey had been a smooth sailing one.
As a Duke of Dynasty, the members from the other organizations would avoid him no matter what kind of monsters he was hunting.
Although his combat strength was only on imperial-level crimson gold-rank, which was the lowest among the 20 imperial-level Dukes from Dynasty who entered this round, even some imperial-level yellow gold-rank powerhouses dared not challenge him for prey due to the golden cape he was wearing.
Once, he even encountered an imperial-level yellow gold-rank from the Hunter Association, but the person did not fight him.
"This Fallen God Land's such an amazing place! I've already killed more than 20 imperial-level crimson gold-rank monsters in the past 20 days while I've already killed up to 100 imperial-level black gold-rank monsters. I'll make a clean cut of tens of billions of Life Crystals just by selling all these monster carcasses. With the extra reward, I'll make at least hundreds of billions…" Han Jie grinned while looking at the corpse wearing a trench coat under his foot as he spoke.
The body was lying facing him, and there was a logo of a purple metal crow on the collar.
As a member of an underground organization, although his main goal was to kill monsters every day, Han Jie did not let go of other organization members whenever he encountered one. No matter if it was members of the union organization or an underground organization, he basically destroyed everyone that he could defeat.
The body below his feet was the fifth imperial-level black gold-rank powerhouse that Han Jie had killed ever since he arrived at the Fallen God Land. Three days ago, he attacked an imperial-level crimson gold-rank powerhouse from the Union Government when the person was fighting a monster. Eventually, he killed the powerhouse.
Everything in the person's Emperor's Heart Ring naturally belonged to Han Jie eventually.
"I'll make billions selling these human bodies as puppets!" After browsing through the items on the body, Han Jie was planning to let go of them.
As a member of Dynasty, he did this kind of business frequently. Even if it was a naked corpse, he would sell everything he could possibly retrieve from the body.
In reality, all organizations would recycle dead bodies and bury them. Since there were few human corpses with high combat strength, the selling price was many folds higher than monster carcasses of the same level.
Although Lin Huang would take everything from the dead people that he killed too, he had never done any business selling human bodies.
"Who is that?!" Just when he was ready to leave after putting the dead body away, Han Jie lifted his head all of a sudden and looked towards one of the directions.
A man in a black trench coat walked over, and he had a purple crow pin on his collar too.
Han Jie was stunned for a moment when he saw the person's attire. After all, the imperial-level black gold-rank powerhouse that he had just killed was from the Purple Crow and now, he was caught by someone else from the same organization.
He was slightly relieved after sensing that the person had the same aura as he did, which was imperial-level crimson gold-rank.
"Brother, I killed him because he attacked me first." Han Jie turned the tables around before anything could happen.
"Really? I might believe it if you're from a union organization," said the man in the trench coat as he walked towards Han Jie slowly.
Han Jie knew that what he said was hard to believe.
Dynasty was worthy of being called the No. 1 underground organization in Division 3 with which other underground organizations were unwilling to have any conflicts. Even an imperial-level yellow gold-rank Purple Crow member might not attack Han Jie if they bumped into each other, let alone an imperial-level blank gold-rank member.
"So what do you want? To avenge him?" Han Jie had his guard up slightly, but he still thought it was quite impossible for the person to attack him.
"Why would I do that? I wasn't close to him." The man in the trench coat shook his head while smiling. "Let's just share 50% of the reward since he belongs to the same organization as I do."
"What makes you think that you deserve that? I was the one who killed him. You did nothing and you're asking for 50% of the reward?!" Han Jie scoffed in disdain. It was clear that the person did not plan to attack him, so there was no need for him to be afraid of him. "I'm leaving now. Don't tell me you're going to stop me?"
"I won't stop you, but I'll tell on you." The man in the trench coat continued to grin. "The father of this person you killed is a demigod while his brother's in this ruins as well. He's an imperial-level purple gold-rank powerhouse. What're the odds of you walking out of this Fallen God Land alive when I tell them who the murderer is? Even if you manage to survive the remaining two months or so, do you think Dynasty would protect you if a demigod demands for you by then?"
"You…" Han Jie was sweating profusely when he heard this revelation. He had no idea that he had killed such a prominent person. However, he now had the intention to kill this black-robed man before him.
"Naturally, I won't sell you out as long as you give me 50% of the reward. I'd be asking for death if I did that," proceeded the man. "I'll give you a minute to think about it. You can reject me, then I won't ask you to stay. I'll leave and report about you."
"How do you want to do it? He only has one Emperor's Heart Ring." Han Jie chose to compromise temporarily while looking irritated.
"Give me the Emperor's Heart Ring. I'll give you half of the contents after I unlock it."
"No way. What if you ran away after taking the Emperor's Heart Ring from me?" It was clear that Han Jie did not trust the man in the trench coat before him.
"Don't worry. I'll definitely share half of the items with you. I don't want you to turn the tables around and tell people that I killed him when you get out of this place." The man looked down and glanced at the time on the Emperor's Heart Ring. "Also, you don't have any other choice now. You only have 30 seconds. I'll leave if you don't decide."
"Fine, I'll give you the Emperor's Heart Ring!" Han Jie tossed the Emperor's Heart Ring at him while looking reluctant.
Just when the man reached out to grab the ring, Han Jie moved all of a sudden. He tore towards the man in the trench coat while unsheathing his battle sword in an instant.
A fleeting green sword ray flashed through the air and arrived at the throat of the man in the trench coat while the Emperor's Heart Ring was still in the air.
However, an intense sense of danger came at this moment.
Han Jie saw a black ray radiating through the air and the man passed him in the next second.
He felt a devastating pain radiating from his chest at the moment.
Han Jie looked down and suddenly noticed a gash which appeared on his chest without even realizing it. The wound went through his chest and his heart beneath it was crushed.
As his vision was fading slowly, the voice of the man in the trench coat came from behind faintly, "Your sword's too slow…"
The man's body changed as soon as he put away his sword into its sheath. Soon, the person took on Han Jie's appearance.
"This is the sixth imperial-level crimson gold-rank substitute now…" A cloud of purple mist came out of the sleeve of the substitute Han Jie slowly. "You could've killed him in one hit. Why did you have to talk so much with him?"
"Why must we use violence so soon? I think it's nice to chat. I might let the person go if I encounter someone who hit it off with me," said 'Han Jie' while smiling. "Too bad this fella from Dynasty didn't hit it off with me."
Bloody roughly understood what Lin Huang said.
Not everyone who joined an underground organization was wicked. Some of them were forced to enter, but they were not evil just like Xiao Mo, the boy Lin Huang met in the Purple Crow training camp.
The reason why Lin Huang chatted with the person was because he was deciding if he should kill him.
For the past few days, Lin Huang had been killing underground organization members. Since the Golden Cicada secret skill would give him their inheritance, everyone he killed was sword cultivators.
There had been 17 imperial-level black gold-rank sword cultivators and six imperial-level crimson gold-rank sword cultivators who died by his hand in the past few days.
With his current ability, he could even fight imperial-level white gold-ranks with an imperial-level crimson gold-rank substitute. If not for the heavy burden an imperial-level crimson gold-rank substitute brought him and the time limitation that was restricted to half an hour, he could even kill imperial-level white gold-rank powerhouses.
It was not difficult for him to kill an imperial-level crimson gold-rank powerhouse in one blow under the condition of using an imperial-level crimson gold-rank substitute. Meanwhile, he could kill imperial-level yellow gold-rank powerhouses within 10 swings of his sword.
Apart from the increasing number of substitutes, the three combat souls in Lin Huang's body completed their breakthrough two days ago. They elevated from imperial-level black gold-rank to imperial-level crimson gold-rank.
His overall ability was considered a rank higher now.
However, his summoning beasts began to face trouble.
Due to the ever-growing expansion of human exploration areas, Bai and the rest could not avoid encountering humans.
Their hunting speed was plummeting more and more in the past week due to the encounter with humans.
As Lin Huang asked them to avoid members from the union organization as well as the underground organization members that they could not fight. This caused their activity range to be more and more limited.
Moreover, the army Kylie led was too large. They were sought after a couple of times as their whereabouts were revealed by the humans' detection relics.
Her Nephilic Judge army had close to 200 triple mutated Nephilic Angels now. With Bloody's improved battle formations, they could even fight imperial-level crimson gold-rank monsters.
However, there were some imperial-level yellow gold- and white gold-rank people who joined two of the hunting expeditions looking for Kylie and her army.
If not for her mini world, Kylie and her Nephilic Judge army would have been caught alive.
Although the rest of his summoning beasts were doing better than Kylie, Lin Huang speculated their hunting range would be completely occupied by humans in a few days. By then, he would have to turn them back into cards.
However, Lin Huang did not consider that as a setback. What upset him was not having any news about the God Figurines since the day he set foot in the Fallen God Land over 20 days ago.
"Did Chan Dou trick me?" Lin Huang even began to suspect that Chan Dou had misled him about the God Figurines being in the ruins just to trick him to enter.
Chapter 846: A Sudden, Unusual Phenomenon
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
As time passed, it had been more than a month since Lin Huang entered the Fallen God Land.
A few days ago, since the number of human explorers was constantly growing, Bai and the rest did not have any place to hunt. Aside from Bloody, the rest of the summoning monsters had been recalled back into their card forms.
More than 200 Nephilic Angels from Kylie's army had completed their triple mutation. Despite the fact that all the Nephilic Judges had completed the upgrade, her army was still incapable of fighting a yellow gold-rank.
However, there were not only yellow gold-ranks but also white gold and purple gold-ranks.
Although Kylie was unwilling to do so, she still accepted Lin Huang's arrangement.
Lin Huang promised her that she would be summoned again when the time was right.
He had never stopped hunting for those who majored in swordsmanship from the underworld. The number of inheritances he obtained increased as well.
The number of legendary-level sword skills he used to have was less than 80 and there were more than 180 of them now after they had been multiplied.
He even obtained pseudo-mythical-level sword skills: the Void Sword and the Instantaneous Slash.
The Void Sword was a very powerful skill, but it was rather different from Killer. Killer leaned more towards a close-range attack whereas the Void Sword tended to be a Life Power attack. Of course, it would not be weak if one were to use it for a close-range attack.
As for the Instantaneous Slash, it was a completely different kind of sword skill as there was only one hit for the skill. It was an extremely fast attack.
Lin Huang had practiced sword skills of such speed before. He had even derived many legendary-level sword skills from Thunder Sting. The sword skill that he recently used to kill the crimson gold-rank was the new version of Thunder Sting.
However, be it the speed of the sword, its cutting ability or its speed when the attack was launched, it was more than 10 times faster than the new version of Thunder Sting.
Despite the fact that the skill consisted of only one single hit, its power was tremendously terrifying. Even Lin Huang dared not fight such an attack.
Lin Huang felt that the Instantaneous Slash would be on par with the mythical-level skill. The one who created this skill was definitely on god-level.
The scariest part of Golden Cicada was that not only did it allow others to learn the skill, but it could be directly inherited and the memory could be retained.
In the past 10 days, each time when Lin Huang killed a person who mastered swordsmanship, he was able to completely obtain their experience in sword training. He could even get the hang of the skill.
Lin Huang's Sword Dao was improving by the day.
Aside from taking a good rest, he basically did only three things every day which were to proceed with his journey, kill sword majors, and go for sword training.
As for Bloody, it had stopped hunting for the Parasitic Puppet.
Its responsibility was to provide Lin Huang with a hunting target and parasitize the sword majors that had been killed by Lin Huang. Also, it had to look for the God Figurine which nobody had any idea about.
Lin Huang practiced his sword skills as usual tonight.
Before midnight, a silver glow lit up abruptly in the sky as if there was an explosion.
The silver cloud lingered in the air and did not clear away even after a long while.
Seeing what just happened, Lin Huang stopped his sword training and asked, "Bloody, can you see what's happening out there?"
"A beam of light was released from the foggy area which I've no way of exploring. However, there are no changes in the fog." Bloody's Leech Pods could immediately identify where the silver glow originated from. "Hey, it's kind of weird."
"What happened?" Lin Huang immediately asked.
"There are people heading over there right now. It seems like even the people that are tens of thousands of kilometers away from the ruins have witnessed this phenomenon," Bloody explained.
"If it's bright enough, there's nothing unusual about everyone seeing it. Just like how we're able to see the sun and the moon."
"However, it seems like only immortal- and holy fire-levels can see it. The imperial-levels can't seem to see the strange phenomenon at all," Bloody said, projecting a few of the imperial-levels. "The three imperial-levels are less than 100 kilometers away from the fog. The one who's farthest away is only 300 kilometers away. Look at their reactions."
From the projection, the three of them ignored the strange phenomenon above them. It seemed like they could not see it at all and they were busy getting their work done.
One of them ran in the opposite direction while another one was setting up a tent, getting ready to sleep. The third one got into an intense fight with the imperial-level monster.
"Aside from the three of them, it seems like all the imperial-levels are unable to see this phenomenon. They're busy with their own work and none of them even bother to look in the direction where the strange phenomenon occurred." Bloody projected more than 10 of the imperial-levels being monitored.
Lin Huang frowned. "Only those who're below imperial-level are able to see it? That's really strange."
"Do we need to go and have a look?" Bloody asked. It was feeling worried because its Leech Pods were unable to explore that area.
"Let's go!"
Lin Huang nodded his head without a moment of hesitation. "Chan Dou mentioned that the God Figurine is in the ruins. I guess he's not bluffing as he won't tell such a joke. You haven't been able to find anything regarding the God Figurine for the past month. That being said, the God Figurine might be in an area that you're unable to detect. If we don't go and have a look, it's a waste coming to the Fallen God Land."
"However, I think it's too risky as it's an area that can distract the imperial-levels." Bloody tended to avoid those unknown areas.
"The rest of the immortal-levels have the courage to go. Why don't we give it a try? We're capable of fighting a white gold-rank. Even if we encounter any danger, I guess our survival rate will be higher than the immortal-levels'." Lin Huang was quite confident in his abilities. "In addition to having so many God Crashers in our hands, even if we happen to bump into demigod-levels, we can fight them. If we're in really great trouble, we can even hide in Kylie's mini world."
After listening to what he said, Bloody frowned. It knew that Lin Huang had made up his mind and very unlikely that it could do anything to change his decision.
The foggy area was at the northwest of the ruins. It was an extremely huge stretch and was approximately half the area of Earth.
It had attempted to explore this region with its Leech Pods previously. However, once the Leech Pods entered the foggy area, they would completely lose connection. This was the reason it wanted to stay away from this region all the time.
However, the appearance of the phenomenon indicated that there might be hidden danger lurking there. It could be an opportunity for Lin Huang as opportunities were often accompanied by risks and it was inevitable.
If Lin Huang managed to obtain the God Figurine, he would level up to immortal-level rank-4 and advance to the intermediate level of an immortal-level. Its combat strength would be upgraded to black gold-rank as well. It would not be a problem to parasitize a yellow gold-rank by then. The upgrade in its abilities could even surpass more than that.
As it thought of this, Bloody no longer stopped Lin Huang from entering the area. However, it made a request. "We can go, but you have to promise me that you'll quit if one of your clones dies."
"Sure," Lin Huang promised.
If it was so dangerous to the point that his crimson gold-rank clone died, he would probably perish there.
After coming to an agreement, the two of them departed.
Lin Huang then summoned Thunder and headed towards the fog.
Chapter 847: Tan Lang
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
It was past ten in the morning on the second day when Lin Huang arrived at the entrance of the foggy area.
The entrance of the foggy area was located in a valley and there were already hundreds of people gathering there.
Lin Huang saw a familiar person there — Huangfu Lin.
He saw her even before they entered the ruins. However, Huangfu Lin did not notice him among the crowd.
Startled was her first reaction when she saw Lin Huang. His presence was out of her expectations. However, after sensing his powerful aura, her frozen reaction turned into shock in the blink of an eye.
"It's been awhile." Noticing that Huangfu Lin had seen him, Lin Huang knew there was nowhere he could run, so he walked towards her while smirking. The reason he did not really want to meet Huangfu Lin, his old friend, was that of the illogical elevation rate of his combat strength.
As expected, the first thing Huangfu Lin said was, "Your combat strength's on immortal-level rank-3 now?!"
The last time they had seen each other was merely half a year ago and Lin Huang's combat strength had been only blue flame-level back then. Leaping five ranks above within half a year and elevating by a level from holy fire-level to immortal-level in between, his cultivation speed was so fast that it was absurd.
"Yeah, I just happen to have great luck." Lin Huang nodded while smiling. However, that simple response halted the topic completely. What he really meant was that he did not want to talk about it.
Huangfu Lin did not ask further so she changed the topic, "You shouldn't have come even though you've advanced to immortal-level rank-3."
"I just thought of taking a look since there was quota available." Lin Huang did not bother to explain although he knew he was being underestimated. After all, apart for a couple of people on holy fire-level, his combat strength was indeed the lowest among all who were present. It would be ridiculous for him to tell Huangfu Lin that he was actually so powerful that he could even fight an imperial-level white gold-rank.
"Why is everyone gathering at the entrance but not going in?" Lin Huang changed the topic to avoid Huangfu Lin discussing his combat strength.
"We can't go in yet. The area covered in white fog seems to be blocked by a layer of invisible film. You'll know what I mean if you touch it with your hand," Huangfu Lin explained. She had arrived a few hours before Lin Huang, so she already found out what had happened.
"So what do we do now? Do we just wait?"
"The people from the Union Government said the defense layer will only be effective for 24 hours. It'll fade away automatically 24 hours later. We can go in by then." It was not confidential information, so naturally, Huangfu Lin did not have to keep it a secret.
After chatting with Huangfu Lin for a while, Lin Huang saw Shen Tao from the Heaven Alliance descending from the sky, riding on a beast.
Shen Tao noticed Lin Huang in the crowd in an instant.
After putting the beast away, he walked towards Lin Huang in large strides. He only noticed how extraordinary Lin Huang's combat strength was when he got closer. "Lin Xie, your combat strength…"
"Just luck." Lin Huang shook Shen Tao's hand while smiling.
Compared to Huangfu Lin, Lin Huang had fought alongside with Shen Tao at the tribal land before, so it was natural for them to be closer.
"You guys go ahead." Huangfu Lin nodded to both of them and left.
Shen Tao took a glance at Huangfu Lin, then patted Lin Huang's shoulder and gave him a thumbs up when she left far away. He said softly, "That chick's not bad!"
"You're thinking too much. We've just met once before this." Lin Huang shook his head while smiling.
"Let's meet more frequently. Work harder. It's possible to meet her for another 10 or 20 times," Shen Tao winked as he spoke, "Let me tell you, you must be clingy if you want to win a lady's heart."
"I don't need you, a single dog, to teach me how to woo a lady. I'm afraid I'll have an even harder time to find a girlfriend after listening to your advice," Lin Huang attacked him verbally in a straightforward way.
Shen Tao had nothing to say.
"What do you guys know about this foggy land?" Lin Huang said through voice transmission all of a sudden.
"We know nothing," Shen Tao replied in all seriousness, "The Fallen God Land is a grade-7 ruins. The Union Government in Division 3 is keeping it confidential. Although the ruins opened on a major scale, they only provide us with the most basic information."
"Although they've only explored less than a fifth of the ruins throughout the past hundreds of years, the Division 3 Union Government must have collected quite some information. As for this foggy land, I think the people from the union organizations such as the Union Government and Hunter Association might know something about it," Shen Tao voiced his speculation.
Recalling what Huangfu Lin had said earlier about the people from the Union Government knowing the defense layer would only be effective for 24 hours, Lin Huang figured that Shen Tao's speculation was accurate.
"Let's not talk about this. Since you're here, let's join the rest, so we can take care of each other." Shen Tao pulled Lin Huang towards the direction where the few Heaven Alliance members were gathering. "Big Brother Tan Lang's here too. He's been wanting to meet you."
Lin Huang had only heard of Tan Lang but had never seen him before. In reality, Lin Huang had never seen any of the three Heaven Alliance deputy chiefs before and had no idea how they looked like.
Five Heaven Alliance members arrived before Lin Huang and Shen Tao did.
Seeing Shen Tao walking over with Lin Huang, the five of them from the Heaven Alliance were observing him while feeling a little curious. They did not expect Lin Huang, who was only holy fire-level from what they recalled, to elevate to immortal-level rank-3 now. They were all surprised by the elevation speed of his combat strength.
Lin Huang scanned through the five of them. Although all of them had a combat strength of immortal-level rank-9, he recognized Tan Lang immediately.
He was not as tall as Lin Huang had imagined at a little over 1.8 meters, which was similar to Lin Huang's height. He wore a black, slim-fit trench coat with a stand-up collar while his body was rather skinny. However, Lin Huang was almost sure that he was the kind who appeared skinny but was chubby underneath those clothes.
His skin was tanned. Although his appearance was not considered handsome, he was very manly. There was a scar across the left side of his cheek which was almost three centimeters long. However, instead of making him hideous, it made him cool.
Although they were all immortal-level rank-9s, Tan Lang, who was clad in black, had the strongest aura which was much more powerful than the three of them among the four.
'He's indeed on par with the Seventh Prince from Dynasty,' Lin Huang secretly commented.
Apart from Tan Lang, there was a baby-faced person who made Lin Huang do a double take. That person's aura was just slightly weaker than Tan Lang's, but it was clear that he was a supreme genius too.
His age should be at least 28, but he looked only 17 or 18 at the most. He dressed like a student with a gentle smile on his face which made him look rather harmless.
"He disguises himself to be harmless, but he's actually not." Lin Huang secretly gave him a label.
"Hi, everyone. My name's Lin Xie." Lin Huang walked forward and greeted them.
"Tan Lang." Tan Lang was the first one who shook hands with Lin Huang.
"Li Jia." The baby-face was the second.
After some introduction, Lin Huang found out that Tan Lang and Shen Tao both came from Division 1 while Li Jia came from Division 2. Among the 10 quotas that the Heaven Alliance were given, Chan Dou gave two to Division 1, one to Division 2 while the remaining seven were assigned to the local members from Division 3.
"Lin Xie, I know that your ability surpasses your combat strength. Although your combat strength's only immortal-level rank-3 now, your real ability might be more powerful than many immortal-level rank-9 powerhouses. But there are many immortal-level rank-9 supreme geniuses who are coming into the ruins this time. Some even have the ability to kill imperial-levels while there might also be many imperial-level powerhouses who participated this time. To put it simply and although it was rather displeasing to hear, your ability's not worth mentioning among these people."
"Chan Dou gave me a mission before I came. If I happen to see you in the ruins, I must do my best to protect you. He thinks you've got the potential to be one of the Five Princes and hopes you won't die here. I don't want to judge if what he thought is accurate or not but I don't want to fail my mission. Hence, I'm giving you a mission here. The mission sounds simple, but it might not be easy to fulfill: protect yourself," Tan Lang said in all honesty and straightforward.
Although it was rather displeasing, it was clear that he came with good intentions.
"Alright then." Lin Huang had no idea how to respond to what Tan Lang said.
"Don't leave the group once we get into the foggy area. We must move together. If we're separated, you must follow me first, Li Jia second and Shen Tao third…"
"Understood," Lin Huang agreed while nodding calmly.
Chapter 848: Bug Master
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
At midnight, the silver clouds in the sky dispersed slowly while the phenomenon finally began to fade away
Everyone knew that the isolation layer lingering around the foggy area should be waning soon.
There were already over 5,000 human powerhouses gathered at the entrance of the foggy area. It surpassed half of the total people who had entered the ruins.
Among the thousands of people, most of them were immortal-level rank-9 powerhouses while a minority of them were holy fire-levels. There were even over 30 imperial-level powerhouses among them.
These imperial-level powerhouses could not witness the phenomenon in the sky at all.
Most of them came here following the news spread by the immortal-level members from the same organizations. Although the communication function on the Emperor's Heart Ring could not be used, these major organizations had their unique way of communicating. However, it was not as convenient as the Emperor's Heart Ring which had a limited communication range too.
There was also a minority of them hunting around the area and could not help but go there to check it out after noticing many immortal-level powerhouses gathering towards the direction.
Among the crowd, many of the immortal-level powerhouses were complaining discreetly. With more than 30 imperial-level powerhouses there, they might not even get a piece of monster bone if they got in.
The phenomenon in the sky was fading quickly and many of them began to touch the invisible isolation film at the entrance of the valley.
Soon, someone in the crowd shouted, "The isolation layer's gone!" The people became excited when the scream rang out while many of them began to rush into the valley.
Lin Huang and the rest were behind them. They saw many of them entering the entrance and disappearing into the fog. In a while, they could no longer sense any of their aurae.
The members of the few major organizations under Union Government did not rush in like the rest. Instead, they got their members to join hands and walk into it in groups.
"I don't think the people from the Union Government joined hands because they're afraid they'd be separated. They might be transported when they go in," Tan Lang voiced his speculation as he watched.
The rest agreed with what he said.
Just when the 10 of them from the Heaven Alliance joined hands before entering, an imperial-level powerhouse dashed towards the entrance all of a sudden.
However, the person seemed to have smacked himself onto an invisible glass and his face deformed a little when he bounced back.
Everyone was stunned to see that.
"Is the entrance closed?" Someone shouted in surprise.
An immortal-level member from a group extended his hand and passed through the layer of isolation easily. He then disappeared with his team into the fog.
Later on, other immortal-level groups went in one after another and none of them faced any obstacles.
Imperial-level powerhouses then extended their hands, but they realized that they were blocked out. It was clear that the foggy area stopped imperial-levels from entering.
An imperial-level white gold-rank powerhouse frowned a little and appeared next to a group of immortal-levels that was going into the valley in a flash. He grabbed one of the group members' hands. "Bring me in!"
The member dared not deny him, so they had to bring him in.
The group of five passed through the isolation layer very soon, but when it was the imperial-level white gold-rank's turn, he let go of the immortal-level's hand that he was holding automatically when he bounced back.
Looking at that, the rest of them basically confirmed one thing. This foggy area prohibited imperial-level powerhouses from entering.
Tan Lang and the few of them were secretly pleased.
Without the participation of imperial-level powerhouses, it would mean they were the most powerful powerhouses in the area. They would not have to tiptoe around other powerhouses when they were looking for resources, so it was undoubtedly great news for them.
The rest of the imperial-level powerhouses looked extremely horrified. They had spent the entire day waiting outside, but they could not enter in the end.
"Let's go!" Staying there and watching would only make the imperial-level powerhouses even madder, so Tan Lang urged them to join hands and dash towards the entrance.
The ten of them made it through the isolation layer successfully as they vanished into the fog.
All Lin Huang felt was that he passed through a layer of white fog and his vision became clear all of a sudden.
The fog around vanished completely and the ten of them appeared on a field while joining hands. There was a fresh floral aroma in the air.
There was a red and a purple crescent moon hanging in the sky above their heads, giving the night a mysterious cast.
"It kind of looks like we're back in our world," Shen Tao mumbled softly.
"Can we let go of our hands now?" Lin Huang turned to look at Tan Lang beside him.
After letting go of their hands, Tan Lang looked around before speaking, "There's no one else's aura around. We should be transported somewhere in the foggy area as a team while the other team should be experiencing the same thing."
"Does anyone have any detection abilities or detection relics? Let's see if there's anything odd happening around here and see if there's anywhere to rest our feet."
"I'll do it," Li Jia walked out from the crowd and said to Tan Lang.
Tan Lang nodded. As the deputy chief of the Heaven Alliance, he had a rough understanding of his Heaven Alliance members. Especially before going there, he did his homework as he had gotten the list from Chan Dou beforehand.
Li Jia closed his eyes slowly. A while later, black, flying bugs that were the size of mosquitoes came out of his collars and sleeves. They flapped their wings and flew towards all directions.
"A Bug Master?!" Someone among the crowd shouted out loud.
Lin Huang was a little surprised too as it was his first time seeing a Bug Master.
He had heard of such profession before whereby he knew that a Bug Master was even rarer than an Imperial Censor, but he had never seen a real one.
In the ancient times, a Bug Master was actually a branch under an Imperial Censor — a Bug Imperial Censor.
However, due to further studies into varieties of bugs, the Bug Imperial Censors came up with all sorts of new abilities and new battle modes. That was how they got their independence from the Imperial Censor and a new profession was born — the Bug Master.
Bugs had the most varieties among all monsters, hence the battle style of a Bug Master was more colorful than an Imperial Censor's. They walked on a different path which only got further away from Imperial Censors. Now almost everyone agreed completely that the Bug Master was an independent profession which was different from the Imperial Censor.
To Lin Huang, Li Jia's detection skill was similar to Bloody's Leech Pods. However, the number of bugs was limited while its detection range was smaller. Their detection accuracy was definitely below Bloody's. After all, Bloody possessed Supreme Intelligence which allowed it to control information coming from tens of millions of Leech Pods. Li Jia definitely would not be able to do that.
However, Li Jia had released up to 10,000 bugs now. It proved that his soul was much more powerful than those who had the same combat strength as he did.
Around some ten minutes later, the bugs came back and entered Li Jia's body. He then opened his eyes slowly while looking a little peculiar.
"What's wrong?" Tan Lang asked immediately.
"There are natives here…" What Li Jia said shocked everyone. He then proceeded to give a detailed explanation, "In our 10 o'clock, 120 kilometers away is a little town where people live. They're all ordinary people who have no cultivation base and they dress rather strangely. They kind of dress like those ancient people, like the kind of clothes I've seen in the museum…"
Chapter 849: Little Town
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Li Jia's discovery was rather unexpected. Even Lin Huang was a little surprised by that.
"Are you sure it's a mistake? Are they really human and not disguised by monsters?" Tan Lang still thought it was a little unbelievable.
"They should be real. It's clear that the buildings in the town are made by humans and it's brightly lit now. I don't think monsters are able to build such a human town." Li Jia was sure of that.
"Could they be survivors from the ancient times?" Shen Tao could not help but frown. "It's possible that the people who survived during the war gathered and bred, then slowly built a town of their own."
"It's certainly possible theoretically." Lin Huang nodded to agree with what he said.
What Shen Tao said was logically reasonable.
"Maybe this foggy area happens to protect them and prevents outsiders from interfering with their lives. Maybe that's how they managed to live for generations until now," Li Jia added.
His voiced thoughts made everyone believe those people might really be survivors of ancient times.
"Then, let's check it out together. We need a place to rest anyway, so we can ask around about the area as well." Tan Lang came up with a plan after some thinking. However, he did not forget to remind them, "No matter whether these people are ancient time survivors or not, we should have our guard up. Remember, we're still in grade-7 ruins. It's possible for anything to happen."
After that piece of short advice, Tan Lang then led them to fly towards the town ahead.
Soon, they saw the town that Li Jia was talking about.
The town was small. It was approximately 40 to 50 square kilometers large. The buildings in the town were almost all low houses with red bricks and green tiles. There were hardly any double-story houses.
There were red lanterns lit up at the entrance of every house. The fire burned inside the lanterns; the light did not come from energy stones.
"I've seen such lanterns at the museum before. I remember them being used by the commoners in the Middle Ages as a source of light," recalled an immortal-level rank-9 powerhouse, "I think the fuel is made of animal fats."
They descended slowly from the sky.
"There really isn't any energy around. The people around here should be ordinary people who have no cultivation base." Tan Lang finally proved that Li Jia's speculation earlier was accurate. He was relieved after finding out about it himself.
Meanwhile, Lin Huang noticed a 12 or 13-year-old boy looking at them descending from the sky through the window in a house not far away.
He turned to look at where the young boy was. The young boy hid his head under the window immediately and only revealed half of his head slowly to peek at Lin Huang and the rest after a while.
Lin Huang smiled while nodding at him. The boy was stunned for a moment and seemed troubled for a while before he opened the window and shouted at Lin Huang, "Are you guys immortal?"
Lin Huang and the rest were stunned to hear his question.
"Kid…" Lin Huang held Shen Tao's shoulder just when he was going to say something and shook his head.
Lin Huang took a step forward and said to the young boy with a smile, "We're not immortal, we're cultivators."
"But I saw you guys fly from the sky. It means all of you are immortal!" The young boy said with conviction.
"You mean like this?" Lin Huang hovered from the ground slowly and flew towards the window.
"You guys really are immortal!" The young boy's eyes lit up and he was no longer scared upon realizing that Lin Huang was friendly. He then said to Lin Huang in excitement, "You guys must know how to kill demons then!
"Demons?" Lin Huang was stunned again hearing that, but he responded, "How does the demon you mentioned look like?"
"They…" The young boy was interrupted all of a sudden.
"Xiao Yu, who are you talking to?" A woman suddenly opened the door to the young boy's room.
"Aunty…" The young boy turned to glance at the door immediately.
"Who are you?" The woman looked at Lin Huang warily. She then stepped forward and pushed the young boy behind her.
"Aunty, he's an immortal!" The young boy named Xiao Yu exclaimed excitedly.
"Immortal? More like a con man!" The woman seemed even more skeptical now.
"He's not a con man. I really saw him fly!" Xiao Yu explained on behalf of Lin Huang quickly.
"Are you leaving? I'll call the police if you don't!" The woman threatened Lin Huang fiercely. She was sure that Lin Huang was a con man.
"Sis, please calm down. I just want to ask about the demons." Lin Huang wrung his hands helplessly.
"Oh, you want to know about the demons. You really think you're immortal, don't you!?" The woman said in disdain, "I've seen so many scammers in my life. You're not the only one who can fly. Do you think I don't know the tricks that you guys play to scam people?! If you really are who you said you are, then make me fly! I'll believe that you're immortal if you make me fly."
"If you say so." Lin Huang could not help but smile hearing what the woman said.
He extended two telekinetic threads which tangled around the bodies of the woman and the young boy. Lin Huang moved his fingers slightly while the duo's feet floated from the ground.
"I…" The woman wanted to say something but she realized that she was hovering in the air. She swallowed the words that were coming out of her mouth.
"I'm flying!" Seeing that he was flying, Xiao Yu was cheering and dancing with excitement.
"So, can we talk now?" Lin Huang said with a smirk after a while, waiting for the woman to snap out of her bewilderment.
"You really are an immortal…" The woman mumbled softly.
After opening the door and letting Lin Huang and the rest into the house, she realized that there was not only one immortal who came, but ten of them.
"Please… Please take a seat…" The woman brought all of the stools that she had at home out clumsily, but there were only eight of them. She was panicking even more now.
"Sis, don't panic. We only have a few questions." Lin Huang knew the woman might be spooked.
"Please do shoot away. I'll definitely tell you everything that I know."
"Well, we've just arrived at this town, so we've no idea what's the situation here. I heard from Xiao Yu that there are demons here. Could you tell me more about that?" Lin Huang went straight to the point while Tan Lang and the rest listened carefully because they did not want to miss a thing.
"Oh, so you guys are here to kill the demons! That's great!" The woman was relieved and started rattling on like a bullet train. "There's this Black Dragon Mountain near our town and there's a super powerful demon on the mountain. I heard it's a black, one-eyed dragon. The black dragon has tens of small demons as its minions and each of them is insanely strong. Even the officers from the local authority can only fight equally with the demons. One small demon can take on three officers. Those small demons would come into town to devour people every three to five days. My poor son was taken away by a wolf demon even though he was hiding under the bed…"
"Sis, how do those small demons look like?" Lin Huang asked after listening to the woman narrate her story in tears.
"All of them look different. Some look like monkeys, some like wolves, and some of them are like humans and they walk as we do… No matter what, they have sharp teeth and claws. They're stronger than tigers!"
Lin Huang looked at Tan Lang and the rest. They were almost sure that the demons the woman was talking about should be monsters.
"Sis, why don't all of you move away since there are demons in this town?" Lin Huang proceeded to ask.
"Wouldn't it be the same no matter where we move? Which town doesn't have demons now? I heard that people from a town died of no reason every day before this. And nobody even saw any demons in there. They had no idea where to hide, so all of them ran away. At least, we can still see the demons here and we can hide somewhere," explained the woman helplessly, "The cities are safe, but they're too far away. We don't have the money to live there!"
"Why are the cities safe?" Now, Lin Huang finally understood that this town was not the only town in the foggy area. There were many towns, and there were more people living there.
"There are walls around the cities and guards. Of course, they're safe!" The woman did not know much about the cities.
After confirming those pieces of information, Lin Huang asked a couple more questions and found out that her knowledge was limited. It was clear that she had heard rumors and hearsay, some of which were exaggerated and fake. Moreover, she told many things that were unrelated to what Lin Huang asked, such as Xiao Yu's parents being captured by the demons and that she was taking care of him out of pity…
Since he was sure that he could not ask any further, Lin Huang and the rest then left her house.
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Chapter 850: The Remnants of the Immortals
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The Good Luck Inn was one of the rare double-story buildings in town.
Lin Huang and the rest stayed in the biggest dormitory in the inn.
"Now, we're basically sure that there are many humans living in this foggy area as well as a massive amount of monsters around. People are living in two types of places. One is the town that we're currently in where security is low while the other one is the cities, which is the safest place. They're similar to the human footholds in our world, just that the classification isn't as detailed.
"There are many towns while the guards depend mainly on the officers from the local authority. The officers are called 'warriors' and their aura is basically below holy fire-level. People who are more powerful than warriors are called immortals. To the commoners, only immortals can fly. I'm guessing that the 'immortals' they've labeled are cultivators above holy fire-level, but they have a different cultivation system than we do.
"There are only 12 cities with high walls surrounding them and immortals guarding them. They have to pay a high accommodation fee in order to live in the city in return for the protection. Hence, most of the people who can't afford it only live in the towns. Although the towns are invaded by demons, it's still much safer than living in the wild.
"The demons that they talk about are monsters of our world. These monsters are scattered all over with many varieties. Most of them consume humans and other animals. A minority of them don't consume humans, but they're not exactly friendly to humans since they hunt and kill them for fun.
"These demons live in groups while many of them are of different kinds whereby the most powerful one will be the leader. Some of the demon leaders can even speak the human language. These demons usually live near towns where humans are easy prey. Apart from that, places with more monsters have a head honcho which they call a demon king. The demon king is in charge of a territory.
"According to what the local authority said, demon kings have powerful abilities while some of them can even kill immortals. From my speculation, those so-called 'demon kings' have a much more powerful ability than the leaders. They should have immortal-level combat strength, but we've no idea for now if there are any monsters that are more powerful than demon king."
Tan Lang summarized the information that he had gathered one by one. He had gotten most of them from the local authority earlier.
After leaving Xiao Yu's house earlier, Lin Huang and the rest headed straight to the local authority. The officer saw all ten of them flying, so he told them everything that he knew and answered every question quickly. The information they obtained from him was much more detailed and clearer than what the woman had told them earlier.
"I guess only 'immortals' can give us more detailed information. I think we should head straight to the city to know more about the situation from the 'immortals'," Li Jia suggested.
"The cities have curfews at midnight when people are prohibited from entering and exiting. The officer said that demons that fly won't be able to fly into the cities as there's a prohibitive barrier in the sky above the city wall. We can only head over there when the city door opens tomorrow morning. Let's rest well tonight." Tan Lang came up with a plan.
"I think we should clear the demons nearby before we leave," Lin Huang who was standing aside said all of a sudden.
The rest looked a little uneasy upon hearing what he said.
Lin Huang could roughly figure out what they were thinking about. After all, the people in this world were different from theirs. It was unnecessary for them to protect the people, so they were unwilling to put in any effort to help.
"I'll take a walk. You guys rest well."
"I'll go with you." Seeing that nobody responded, Shen Tao patted his thighs and stood up.
"It's alright. I'll go on my own. I'll come back in a couple of minutes," Lin Huang rejected Shen Tao's kind intention.
He could feel that Shen Tao was actually unwilling to do it, but he initiated accompanying him just so Lin Huang did not seem so awkward alone.
Lin Huang hovered into the sky after getting out of the inn and headed towards the Black Dragon Mountain.
Li Jia shook his head and said while smiling and watching Lin Huang vanish into the sky, "Young people just can't sit still."
"You look even younger than him," Shen Tao teased.
"I'm already 28, which means I'm already an uncle," Li Jia wanted to look mature, but his baby-face was not convincing at all.
"Your constipated face makes you look nothing older than 18!" What Shen Tao said made everyone burst out laughing.
Black Dragon Mountain was less than 300 miles from the town, so it only took Lin Huang a short while to arrive above the mountain range.
The mountain range stretched up to a hundred miles across and it was filled with dense, lush greenery and hulking trees.
"Bloody, release your Leech Pods and see what's the deal about this world. Also, look where those demons are hiding." Lin Huang had hidden Bloody when he was with Tan Lang and the rest, so he did not get it to release its Leech Pods to look around to prevent Bloody from exposing itself.
Although the Leech Pods could hardly be discovered under usual circumstances, it was possible for one to see them if the distance was very close. After all, Tan Lang's ability was considered the best of the best among immortal-level powerhouses while Li Jia had extraordinary spiritual energy since he was a Bug Master.
Although they were all from the Heaven Alliance, Lin Huang did not want them to find out about Bloody's skills. Hence, he used an excuse to get away from the people before getting Bloody to release the Leech Pods. Killing the demons surrounding them was just something he would do conveniently.
Bloody found a demon after releasing its Leech Pods for a moment.
"Found it!" Bloody projected the demon right away.
Lin Huang raised his brow slightly as he watched the projection. "I thought it would either be a dragonkin or a sky dragon. Hmm, it's just a boa…"
Lin Huang remembered the woman from Xiao Yu's house claiming that the demon on the Black Dragon Mountain was a black, one-eyed dragon. However, what Bloody projected was a humongous black, one-eyed boa.
The boa was hundreds of meters long and had a green eye with black scales all over its body. Half of its body was hidden in the swamp, which was pretty terrifying to look at.
"Its combat strength's just purple flame-level on the holy fire-level. It should be double mutated judging from the intensity of its aura," Bloody voiced its observation.
"Cast parasites on it then. See if there's any useful information in its head."
Such a holy fire-level monster was too easy for Bloody to cast parasites on since Bloody was on immortal-level rank-9.
The Leech Pods went into the demon's body like a piece of cake without it even realizing at all. Its consciousness was taken away and replaced in the blink of an eye.
It only took less than three seconds to retrieve its memory. Just like that, Bloody received everything in its head.
"This demon's called the Dark Water Boa. It has a demon king behind it called the Bewitching Spider Lady. It's a monster that can turn into a human lady. The Dark Water Boa received her orders to watch the Black Dragon Mountain. It has to hand 100 humans to her to consume on time every month. The Bewitching Spider Lady has 16 leaders guarding each spot under her. The other leaders have a similar ability as the Dark Water Boa."
"It seems like this Bewitching Spider Lady should have a combat strength of immortal-level. It's very possible that it's triple mutated since it can turn human." Lin Huang nodded lightly after hearing the report and asked immediately, "Is there anything about the demons above the demon king?"
"No. According to the memory of this Dark Water Boa, the Bewitching Spider Lady has the most powerful ability it has ever seen. It has some images of the Bewitching Spider Lady fighting human powerhouses from this world in its head. Looking at the images, the Bewitching Spider Lady's ability should be mid-immortal-level while the human powerhouse who fought her should have a similar ability as hers."
"So, there are immortal-level powerhouses among those 'immortals'…" For now, Lin Huang could only be sure that there were immortal-level powerhouses in this part of the world, but he could not confirm if immortal-level rank-9 was the highest combat strength in this area. He was not even sure if imperial-level powerhouses existed in this world.
"This monster doesn't know much about human cultivators. It's killed a few 'immortals' but they had inferior abilities," Bloody proceeded.
"How about the remnants of those 'immortals'? Did it keep them?" Lin Huang asked not because he figured there might be something valuable from those immortals. Rather, he wanted to learn more about the human cultivators from those remnants.
"It kept them. They're all hiding in his stomach," Bloody confirmed, "I'll bring it over."
A while later, the black boa whizzed in front of Lin Huang and spat everything out of its stomach.
Apart from a few weapons and armors, Lin Huang saw a few rings.
He extended telekinetic threads to retrieve the four rings into his palm and began to take a good look at them.
"These should be storage rings to store items, but their craftsmanship is completely different from an Emperor's Heart Ring." Lin Huang attempted to insert his Life Power, but the rings showed no response. He then used Divine Telekinesis which activated the rings in an instant. He began looking into the space of the rings right away.
"I see. They can be activated with spiritual energy." Lin Huang was elated by the unexpected discovery.
As opposed to the Emperor's Heart Ring, these storage rings would not be locked after the owners died. Instead, the rings would go back to ownerless mode. They would be activated again as soon as spiritual energy was inserted while the items inside could be explored and taken out as one wished.
Soon, a gray crystal that was the size of a thumb appeared in Lin Huang's hand. This was what occupied most of the four storage rings.
"It has a massive amount of active energy, but it's completely different from Life Power." Lin Huang studied it for a while with Divine Telekinesis. "All the crystals are of the same standard. If I'm not mistaken, this should be a currency similar to the Life Crystal which could be the exclusive currency used among the immortals. Looking at its active energy, the immortals' cultivation system here should be completely different from ours."
After peering into the storage rings for a while, apart from the gray crystals, Lin Huang found many tiny bottles too. There were tiny pills with different colors in those bottles. There were many metallic and non-metallic materials as well as some herbs.
Eventually, a couple of crystal clear jade slips caught Lin Huang's attention.
"Are these accessories?" Lin Huang was a little perplexed as he picked up a jade slip. "But there's no hole, so how does one wear it?"
Lin Huang could not help but release his Divine Telekinesis to see if he missed out any details. However, an extensive amount of information rushed into Lin Huang's head as soon as his Divine Telekinesis touched the jade slip.
"Ice Heart Tactic?" After taking some time to read all of the information, Lin Huang came to a realization. "These jade slips contain methods and tactics!"