Chapter 861: The Human Immortals Have Appeared
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
This happened at the mountain behind the Luotian Sect. A young Taoist priest in blue robes who looked 12 or 13 was running clumsily in the dense forest. Though a little clumsy, his steps were agile and sturdy.
Soon, he arrived at the cliff behind the mountain.
The wall of the cliff looked as smooth as a mirror; there was not even a single weed growing on it.
The young Taoist priest went to the wall and knelt onto the ground. He took the golden token before his chest out.
"It's Disciple Ling Quan's pleasure to meet all patriarchs!"
"Wicked men have invaded our Luotian Sect. There've been many deaths and casualties. The Sect Leader asked me to bring the sect token to ask the patriarch to show himself!"
After he was done speaking, the young Taoist priest then banged his head against the wall that was as smooth as jade.
For every blow of his head, he would hold his head up and shout, "Patriarch, please show yourself!"
He repeated that over and over again while his voice echoed in the mountain forest. The young Taoist priest's forehead was bleeding from the violence, but that did not stop him at all.
After banging his head for over 20 times, the young Taoist priest felt a little dizzy and he heard someone sighing softly.
Not long later, a cloud of mist appeared on the wall of the cliff. The wall that was as smooth as a mirror vanished completely and was replaced by the mountain with a crack on its surface.
Many gray-robed Taoist priests ran out of the crack and arrived at the foot of the mountain.
A white-haired old man with a long beard walked to the young Taoist priest with a horsetail whisk in his hand and spoke politely, "Is your name Ling Quan?"
"Yes." The young Taoist priest lifted his head, his eyes blurry with tears.
"You're good." The old man brushed his hand on the young Taoist priest's head. The wound on his forehead was healing at a speed that could be seen with the naked eye. It was good as new in the blink of an eye.
However, the young Taoist priest did not seem to care about his forehead as he spoke while choking up, "Patriarch, please help us…"
"Alright." The old man nodded lightly and turned to look at a middle-aged man. "Ming Jing, stay here to take care of this kid."
"The rest will follow me!" The old man flew into the sky as soon as he was done speaking. The remaining 20 or so of them flew to catch up with him.
Looking at the patriarchs leaving, the young Taoist priest finally could not hold himself back and wailed out loud while kneeling on the ground.
The Taoist devotee named Ming Jing squatted down and patted the young Taoist priest's back. "It's alright. Everything's alright…"
"Who dares to mess with my Luotian Sect?!" A scream that sounded like an explosive thunder echoed in every corner of the Luotian Sect.
The spirits of the Taoist priests in the Luotian Sect were lifted upon hearing that voice while the people from Dynasty looked terrified at that moment.
As immortal-level rank-9 powerhouses themselves, the people from Dynasty were familiar with an imperial-level powerhouse's aura.
Hearing the Taoist priests screaming 'the patriarchs have shown up', the people from Dynasty came to a realization that the legendary human immortals had presented themselves.
"I can't believe these old things are still alive!" A sense of fear flashed through the Seventh Prince's eyes. He clearly sensed there were more than 20 imperial-level people coming at a rapid speed. The most powerful one was even more powerful than imperial-level yellow gold-rank. The person was on at least imperial-level white gold-rank or even imperial-level purple gold-rank. The Seventh Prince knew he was no match for that person.
"Retreat!" Without hesitation, the Seventh Prince ordered them to fall back.
He was the first to turn and run. As he did, he remembered to grab the plump man who opened the door.
The people from Dynasty stopped fighting their opponents immediately when they realized that the Seventh Prince had retreated and began to run down the mountain.
"Don't let those vile creatures get away!" A green-robed Taoist devotee shouted.
The Taoist priests ran after the people as fast as they could. They no longer feared them, knowing that the patriarchs were standing behind them.
Sword rays shot in the air one after another, chasing the people from Dynasty.
Due to their rich battle experience, the people from Dynasty knew they could not fight them. They dodged the attacks instead of fighting back. Some of them, who could not dodge, defended the attacks forcefully. They would rather be hurt than battle the opponents. The strategy worked well as they were getting further and further away from the Taoist priests behind them.
Just when they were feeling slightly relieved, more than 20 silhouettes came after them at a rapid speed.
The Dynasty members had a drastic change of expression. They evidently sensed that the ones who were coming after them this time were imperial-level powerhouses!
"How dare you come to our Luotian Sect's doorstep and kill our people? I don't care who you are. You must leave your lives here today!" The leading white-haired Taoist devotee shouted ferociously. As he swung the horsetail whisk, hundreds of sword rays solidified in the air.
The sword rays shot down like arrows one after another. With an intense whistling, they pierced through the Dynasty members' chests.
The single blow killed half of the hundreds of Dynasty members while over 20 of them were badly wounded.
Only about 20 of them who had demigod armor were not injured by the sword rays.
Fear flashed through the Seventh Prince's eyes. The blow alone gave him a clear picture that the old Taoist devotee with horsetail whisk was definitely a supreme powerhouse on imperial-level purple gold-rank. His ability might be just a level lower than a demigod's.
Although the sword ray earlier vanished after colliding with his expert-grade demigod armor, the single attack drained close to a third of his Life Power.
Shock flashed through the old Taoist devotee's eyes after noticing that more than 20 of them were unwounded from his attack. Soon, he realized these people had a high defense armor on them.
The bunch of human immortal-level powerhouses attacked the Dynasty members who were injured together with the old Taoist devotee.
"Don't kill all of them. Keep a few of them for interrogation!" The old Taoist devotee ordered and proceeded to chase the members that were running away.
He swung his horsetail whisk in the air again. Another hundred of sword rays consolidated. They were firing at the Seventh Prince and the rest like arrows.
Nobody was wounded in this round of attack, but a few of them clearly experienced a significant deceleration in their flying speed due to the intense exhaustion of Life Power from the demigod armor which drained the already low Life Power in their bodies.
The old Taoist devotee noticed that instantly. "Running low on Life Power, eh?" He swung his horsetail whisk. As a result, five ropes were divided and attached to the five men whose speed were decelerating. The ropes captured the five of them. "Got them!"
Having been caught by five human immortals, they dared not fight back at all.
They knew very well that their Life Power was exhausted and they recalled the demigod armors. They would die sooner if they were to fight back now. Logically, they would rather pretend to obey now and look for an opportunity to escape later.
The remaining 18 of them were fleeing since the five had been captured.
Knowing that the Seventh Prince and the rest experienced major exhaustion of their Life Power from the armor they were wearing, the old devotee attacked them from far away again.
The third wave of sword rays shot across the sky. A dozen Dynasty members had worn their Life Power out completely. They could not even fly any further and plummeted straight to the ground. A couple of them were spitting blood, badly wounded.
A bunch of Taoist devotees stepped forward to capture them immediately.
Seeing that the remaining six had arrived at their door, the old Taoist devotee swung the horsetail whisk while hundreds of sword rays blasted out again.
At that moment, the Seventh Prince turned around all of a sudden and crushed a jade token.
An intense tremor came from the sky out of nowhere while a fissure appeared in the air, blocking the old Taoist devotee's attack.
A terrifyingly compelling aura came out of the crack.
Shaken, the old Taoist devotee stopped chasing after them and halted the other Taoist devotees behind him.
Suddenly, the crack was torn open while a gigantic human hand came out of it and headed towards the Taoist devotees.
"Retreat!" The old Taoist devotee yelled and swung the horsetail whisk at the same time.
A giant crystal-clear sword that was hundreds of meters long appeared in the air and smashed towards the gigantic hand.
The people from the Luotian Sect were petrified as they watched this round of collision.
The giant sword was crushed bit by bit by the gigantic hand. Even the old Taoist devotee, who had formidable abilities, could not help but spit a mouthful of blood out.
However, thunder exploded in the sky when the giant sword was about to be crushed entirely and the gigantic hand was getting nearer to the old Taoist devotee.
Black lighting bolts came from above unexpectedly and landed on the gigantic hand hard.
The gigantic hand was crushed into pieces as a result of the attack.
The old Taoist devotee landed on the ground slowly. Fortunately, another gray-robed Taoist priest managed to grab him.
Watching the door that was closing and the six who had disappeared, the few human immortal-level Taoist priests attempted to go after them, but the old Taoist devotee stopped them.
"Forget it. There's no need to go after them. These people have powerful techniques and they might have more."
Although the other Taoist devotees were unwilling, they could only let it go recalling the gigantic hand.
"Lock those who are still alive up. Interrogate them separately!" A gray-robed Taoist devotee waved and told the rest.
Meanwhile, the old Taoist devotee looked at the direction where the black lightning had appeared and mumbled softly, "The appearance of thunder means that catastrophe is upon us. We didn't manage to escape this in the end…"
Chapter 862: Killing Seventh Prince
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
In Enlightenment City, Lin Huang had been performing simulated cultivation on a variety of local methods while his Twisted Fate Scripture had advanced all the way to rotation No. 4. All he needed now was eight million mastery level to proceed to rotation No. 5.
For the past few days, Bloody had come up with all the types of crystal cores needed for the monster card.
Lin Huang traded the unwanted crystal cores with Tan Lang and the rest for all the crystals cores that could whet his monster cards' appetite.
Naturally, Tan Lang and the rest thought it was a little odd, but Lin Huang did not explain much about it. All he said was that the Herculean King and the rest of his pet monsters found some crystal cores delicious. Those rejected crystal cores were those that they found yucky.
For that, Lin Huang even got the Herculean King to eat a crystal core that he liked. Since the Herculean King enjoyed himself, whatever doubts Tan Lang and the rest had were cleared. Naturally, Tan Lang suspected Lin Huang might be hiding something, but he did not delve further.
"I've recorded how everyone felt and the effects every time they consumed those crystal cores." Bloody carried out a series of comprehensive recording. "I think I've got the approximate effects of the crystal core now."
"Tell me more." Lin Huang was interested in learning about the crystal cores.
"According to my current observation, every time they consume the crystal core, they obtain the memory of the crystal core's owner. However, they won't be able to inherit 100% of its contents. Moreover, different skills have different probabilities of inheritance. The highest one was above 90% while the lowest one was less than 20%. I'm speculating that the success rate of inheritance should be related to our skill slots.
"As long as we don't elevate, the main branch of our skill slot will remain the same. Meanwhile, the skills that we obtain through these crystal cores will only appear at the very end of our skill slot. The closer the skill that can be placed on the main branch of the skill slot, the higher the chances of the skill being accepted and the higher probability of inheriting it. On the contrary, the more conflicted the skill is with the development of the skill slot, the easier it is to be rejected by the skill slot and the lower the probability of inheriting it.
"The main branch of my skill slot is parasitical ability. Almost all parasitical skills turned into branches in my skill slot. This is the precursor of the core crystals being absorbed into my body. However, there's a division in parasitical skills too. I'm developing more into group parasitization at the moment, so group parasitical skills will be easier to be assimilated into my skill slot and has the highest probability of being inherited.
"Moreover, my parasitical control is more focused on refined control, so low-level or parasitical skills that have poor control will be expelled from my skill slot by instinct, mainly because such skills aren't exactly useful to me. They might even burden my elevation and development of skills unnecessarily in the future. They contribute zero value to my skill slot, so the inheritance probability will be lowered automatically."
"I get it now." Lin Huang somewhat understood what Bloody meant. "Find time to discuss with Bai and the rest about the direction of their development. You guys will decide which crystals cores to consume by yourselves. I won't interfere with that."
The more skills one had did not guarantee better performance. After all, everyone had limited time and energy, so it was impossible to master each skill to their peak.
Nevertheless, some people could master a group of skills to their peak and that allowed them to become a formidable powerhouse. For instance, the demigod Qi Muxiong who had virtually invincible telekinesis could fight equally with a True God despite having a demigod's body.
One of the reasons why Lin Huang gave up being a firearms master was because of the powerful telekinesis ability that he had. The battle direction of a firearms master would overlap with what he was cultivating. Another reason was that he did not have extra time and energy to cultivate that.
If he were to insist on picking up firearms, his cultivation speed might be heavily affected by this sideline while his ability would definitely not be as great as it was now.
The most powerful talent that he was mainly cultivating was Sword Dao. The telekinesis which he was talented in came in handy. It had undoubtedly saved him a lot of time when it came to his elevation.
It would not hurt for him to work on those side skills such as sorcery, firearms and mechanical mastery when he reached a bottleneck in his main cultivation.
After all, there would be times when his Life Power or telekinesis would be limited. By then, he could rely on those side skills.
Since he was done speaking with Bloody, Lin Huang went into the simulated cultivation again.
Not long later, Bloody slipped out of Lin Huang's sleeve all of a sudden.
"People from Dynasty have appeared. They're coming to the city that we're in!" Lin Huang stopped his cultivation immediately upon hearing that.
A couple of hours ago, he heard from Bloody that the people from Dynasty were coming northwest and had entered a mountain not far away from Enlightenment City. They vanished all of a sudden when they went into the mountain.
Lin Huang was rather skeptical when he looked at the six people Bloody projected.
"Only the six of them?"
"Yes, just the six of them. Apart from Seventh Prince, the rest don't seem to have much Life Power left in them," Bloody confirmed, "I was watching them the last time and Seventh Prince noticed my Leech Pods immediately, but he didn't notice them at all this time. Although I'm further away compared to the last time, under normal circumstances, he should be able to notice me. However, he hasn't until now. Seems like he's in a rather bad condition.
The Leech Pods were far away and they could not really see their faces clearly. However, Lin Huang had outstanding eyesight and instantly noticed their gait. "From their flying speed and clumsiness, they seem to be running for their lives."
"Should we attack them?" Bloody hesitated. "The people that are coming after them must have terrifying ability judging from the fact that they rendered Dynasty so inept and only six of them have survived."
"We can't let go of this opportunity to attack them. As soon as they enter the city, it's difficult for us to find them when they go into hiding. Judging from their character, they'll definitely attack the Heaven Alliance as soon as they're healed." Lin Huang knew underground organizations very well and had no sympathy for this bunch that was with Seventh Prince. "Moreover, the enemy's enemy should be treated as friends. People who are after Dynasty probably won't attack us if they see us stopping and killing Seventh Prince."
After making up his mind, Lin Huang brought Bloody out of Enlightenment City secretly.
As the Dynasty members ran for their lives to Enlightenment City, they had to travel 500 kilometers. Lin Huang hovered in the sky casually while waiting for Seventh Prince and the few injured Dynasty men patiently.
In less than 20 minutes, Seventh Prince appeared with the Dynasty members as expected.
Seventh Prince noticed a silhouette that was blocking their way from a distance. At first, he was shocked as he was afraid it was the old Taoist devotee who had caught up to them. However, he realized that it was a young man upon closer inspection. Furthermore, he found the person's face familiar.
"Lin Xie of the Heaven Alliance, what are you doing here?" Seventh Prince squinted a little to scrutinize Lin Huang when they flew closer.
He was familiar with Lin Huang since he was a member of the Genius Union too.
Before entering the Fallen God Land, he recognized Lin Huang immediately after taking a glance at him. However, he did not bother to talk to him because he thought he was weak.
Lin Huang blocking their way now caused him to feel insecurity that came out of nowhere.
"I'm here because I know you guys would come. I'm here to kill all of you," Lin Huang said casually and did not hide what he was planning to do at all.
Chapter 863: Die, Seventh Prince!
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
"Kill us? Just you alone?" Disdain filled Seventh Prince's face but he secretly had his guard up. He spoke to the five Dynasty members behind him through voice transmission, "This fella's behaving weirdly. He might be planning an ambush. Try to attack him on my cue."
"Yes, it's just I alone." Lin Huang nodded in all seriousness.
"Lin Xie, I might be really scared of you if you have the same combat strength as I do which is immortal-level rank-9. But you're only immortal-level rank-3. Speaking to me like that will bring your death forward faster." Seventh Prince did not think that Lin Huang was alone. He suspected that the rest of the Heaven Alliance were hiding nearby. With their current condition, they might not be a match with the ten Heaven Alliance members. Moreover, they were out in the open while their enemies were hiding, so they were at a disadvantage in their given situation.
"Seventh Prince, I thought you'd have the ability to see beyond a person's combat strength. I've overestimated you," Lin Huang teased.
Seventh Prince's lips twitched. He was not sure what kind of irritating words Lin Huang would say if he were to continue to speak to him. He could not help but interrupt him right away, "Alright, quit your act. Get Tan Lang and the rest out. Do you really think we don't know that you have people hiding nearby?"
At least, they could see what they were dealing with if the people from the Heaven Alliance revealed themselves, so they could attack their weaknesses.
Lin Huang spread his arms wide helplessly. "It's only me this time. Tan Lang and the rest are still busy hunting monsters. They don't even know that all of you are in the northwest."
"I'd be stupid to believe you." It was clear that Seventh Prince assumed Lin Huang had backup hiding.
"It seems like all of you really doubt my abilities." Lin Huang shook his head helplessly. "If that's the case, I'll show you a little of what I'm capable of doing then." Lin Huang moved his left hand slightly as soon as he was done speaking. More than 2,000 immortal-level rank-9 Parasitic Puppets that were hiding in the pet spatial ring emerged out all at once.
Lin Huang had bought the pet spatial ring to disguise his identity as an Imperial Censor. It had always been empty until Bloody gained a massive amount of Parasitic Puppets recently, so Lin Huang put all of them into it.
After all, if he were to put them in Kylie's mini world, he would first need to summon her to get her to open it to let all of the Parasitic Puppets out.
Keeping them in the pet spatial ring not only allowed him to skip a step but summoning them directly also suited his character as an Imperial Censor.
The people from Dynasty were shocked to witness the thousands of immortal-level rank-9 monsters appear out of nowhere.
Seventh Prince immediately sensed that the monsters were all triple mutated. He looked extremely horror-struck at the moment. He finally comprehended that what Lin Huang said was the truth. He really was alone as he did not need any of the Heaven Alliance members to help him at all.
"We've surrounded all of you," Lin Huang said for the second time with a smirk.
Although Seventh Prince was arrogant, he knew his capability very well. Not long ago, he had retreated from the imperial-level purple gold-rank old Taoist devotee because he knew it was time to flee.
Looking at the army of thousands of pet monsters, he was sure that it was time for them to run again.
"Retreat!" His voice transmission went into the ears of the remaining five Dynasty members. Without even waiting for a response, Seventh Prince stepped back immediately. He turned around and flew as fast as he could towards the direction they came from.
Meanwhile, the remaining five of them were scrambling for their lives in different directions.
Apart from Seventh Prince, none of them had the confidence to fight the Parasitic Puppets army before them. Furthermore, their Life Power was exhausted. They might not be able to fight one of them given their current condition, let alone a whole army of them.
Anyone would be dumb not to run when encountering such enemies!
However, Lin Huang and Bloody expected them to respond in such a way.
Lin Huang stood where he was while watching them with his hands in his pockets. He was not afraid of any of them escaping.
Bloody, on the other hand, was just getting busy.
"Dragnet formation!" As Bloody issued the order, the Parasitic Puppets spread out quickly and surrounded the six of them in the air like a giant web.
"A battle formation?!" The fear in Seventh Prince's eyes intensified when they were surrounded.
He could guess how Lin Huang managed to obtain such insane points on the Stairway Tree now. If he had such a monster army, he would be able to secure No. 1 on the scoreboard easily too.
However, he had no idea that the 'truth' that he believed in was not the truth at all. Lin Huang did not have such an army when he was on the Stairway Tree. The Parasitic Puppets army had just been raised less than a month ago.
Bloody carried out the next step ruthlessly after surrounding the six of them.
"Killer Spider!" The name of the battle formation was Killer Spider, and not Killing.
The army was divided into six groups which separated the six of them. There were more and more monsters participating in the groups, just like spiders trapping their prey with their spider web.
Seventh Prince struggled to get out of it, but he could not since the group formation had now changed.
The other five were attacked by the five mini monster groups continuously. Their Life Power became depleted one after another and they were smashed into heaps of meat after their demigod armor was obliterated.
In less than a minute, Dynasty was down to one member: Seventh Prince.
Although he could not see their condition, Seventh Prince clearly sensed that their breaths were disappearing one after another. He was the only one left in the end.
He could also tell that the monsters were coming for him since the five of them had perished.
More than 2,000 monsters were attacking him from far away. His Life Power that had been depleted to less than a third seemed to be dropping at a horrifying speed.
He attempted to escape from the attack but he would still be surrounded eventually. None of the pet monsters in the battle formation was wounded from his retaliation.
Realizing that it was impossible for him to run, Seventh Prince finally panicked. "Lin Xie, I surrender! Get them to stop! I'll give you everything I have as long as you're willing to let me go."
Soon, he heard Lin Huang's voice booming outside the monster horde coldly, "Surrender? Do you think this is a match?! Everything that you have will belong to me anyway when you're dead."
"Lin Xie, I'm the Prince of Dynasty. If you kill me, Dynasty will definitely come for you! As long as you're willing to let me go, I guarantee that I won't tell anyone about you attacking us and I won't reveal your real abilities to anyone." Seventh Prince attempted to turn things around one last time, hoping that Lin Huang would change his mind.
"Dynasty will come for me even if I don't kill you. Don't you forget that I've already taken five lives from Dynasty. On the contrary, Dynasty wouldn't be able to find me as easily if I killed you. Nobody would think an immortal-level rank-3 powerhouse like me would be able to kill the Holy Son of Dynasty. Also, your guarantee is worth nothing. To me, only a dead person is the best at keeping secrets."
"Lin Xie, are you a man for hiding behind your monsters? Kill me if you're man enough!" Seventh Prince went insane after confirming that Lin Huang would not let him go. He then tried the very last possibility — getting Lin Huang to show himself.
"Such a dumb way to instigate me!" Lin Huang shook his head helplessly when he heard the taunt and gave Bloody the last order, "Kill him!"
"Consolidation!" The thousands of monsters consolidated into a gigantic battle character in a human form immediately as ordered.
Lin Huang was a little bewildered when he saw the battle character that looked 80% like him. A sword was the only thing that was lacking.
The battle character that was up to 1,000 meters tall clenched its right fist tightly while its body turned into a bow-shape. It charged forward and threw a hard punch at Seventh Prince.
It was a punch that could kill an imperial-level crimson gold-rank powerhouse. As it collided into Seventh Prince's chest, the force of the punch stirred the air within 100 kilometers.
Seventh Prince was flung away from the attack and crushed more than ten huge mountains behind him.
The demigod armor on his body was damaged from the attack immediately while his chest caved in. All of his organs were crushed. There were almost no bones that were intact in his body. Even his skull was cracked.
Bloody had avoided attacking his head in order to cast parasites on him later.
The attack killed Seventh Prince who had less than a tenth of Life Power left in him.
After getting Bloody to perform parasitization on the people from Dynasty, Lin Huang cleared the battlefield and put the Parasitic Puppets army away into his pet spatial ring.
He then summoned the Inferior Imp and gave a similar order as he did the last time, "Settle the battlefield. Use a couple more meteorites this time."
After watching over 10 meteorites falling from the sky and smashing the entire battlefield into ruins, Lin Huang left Enlightenment City with Bloody secretly after making sure there were no traces left.
Chapter 864: The Forming of a Phenomenon, a Chaotic Tribulation
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Returning to the hotel, Bloody then reported what had been retrieved from their memories, "The place that Dynasty previously went to was the Luotian Sect. They initially wanted to plunder the sect. However, the members of the Luotian Sect have awakened the human immortals that were sealed. One of the elder Taoist priests who possesses the strongest ability is on par with the purple gold-rank. He's capable of killing half of the people from Dynasty in one blow. Seventh Prince only managed to escape along with five other people with his life-saving skill."
"So, there really are human immortals!" Lin Huang felt thrilled on the inside but he kept his cool. "Since there are human immortals from the Luotian Sect that managed to survive up until now, there are probably other human immortals from other sects that are still alive."
"There could be demigods or those that are even stronger," Bloody added.
"Does the governor and deputy governor of the city have any relationship with the sect?" Lin Huang asked.
"Yes. Many of the immortal guards are from the sect. Only a few of them who trained themselves will take this position up." Bloody acquired this information from the plump man who had inherited the governor's memory.
"Is there any other useful information?"
Bloody thought for a while before it decided to share, "There's a strange apocalyptic prediction. The plump man retrieved it from the governor's memory too."
"Do tell."
"A strike of thunder heralds the arrival of disaster. The forming of a phenomenon, a chaotic tribulation," Bloody uttered the prophecy. "I guess it doesn't really mean anything. It might just be something they said during the ancient times."
Lin Huang pondered for a while. He had no idea what it could mean. Soon, he snapped out of his thoughts and did not think any further about it.
Two days had passed.
Tan Lang and the rest returned and the ten Heaven Alliance members gathered again.
After distributing the items they obtained, Tang Ning reported the information he had received in the past few days with a weird facial expression. "The government residence has recently received a few weird messages."
"A city situated in the east disappeared abruptly. A few places at the Thule City which is located in the north of the government residence are also haunted. In the south, a sudden snowstorm broke out at Luohua City. The entire government residence was covered in snow in just one night. As for the deserted area in the west, a town has appeared out of nowhere…"
After listening to Tang Ning's report, Lin Huang's heart skipped a beat. He could clearly remember the last two phrases in the prediction: "the forming of a phenomenon, a chaotic tribulation."
"Can you please tell in detail?" Lin Huang immediately requested. "What do you mean by the town suddenly disappearing?"
"All the buildings and residents in town have disappeared. There's only open space there as if nothing has ever existed."
"The exact opposite happened in the west of the government residence. A town suddenly appeared out of nowhere with about 100,000 residents there. There are warriors and cultivators. According to the people in the town, they've been staying there for tens of thousands of years. However, many cultivators who go there to hunt said that they've never seen the town before. They're pretty sure that the area used to be an open space.
"As for the haunted Thule City, nobody has managed to figure out what's the reason behind the strange incidents. A family hears the sound of crying babies every day. The crying can be heard irregularly and most of the time, it comes from one of the small rooms. A cultivator has investigated this issue, but nothing odd has been discovered. Another family sees shadows in the house from time to time. The shadows are like images that nobody can capture. The weirdest part is that in another house, they smell the aroma of food when it's time to eat. It can be the smell of roasted pork, soup, or steamed rice.
"The snowstorm that hit Xueluo City for a whole night has engulfed the city. Only the third floor of a few three-story buildings aren't buried in snow. Fortunately, that was just ordinary snow and nobody was injured."
Tan Lang and the rest did not pay much attention after listening to the news from Tang Ning.
Lin Huang was the only one who frowned as it reminded him about the prophecy.
"Lin Xie, are you okay?" Tan Lang soon noticed that something was wrong with him.
Lin Huang hesitated for a while. He then told him about the prediction.
"I accidentally came across an ancient book when I was at the library of Gushan City. There's this stanza…" Part of what Lin Huang spoke was the truth as he shared coming across the prophecy from an ancient book.
"A strike of thunder heralds the arrival of disaster. The forming of a phenomenon, a chaotic tribulation." Tan Lang and the rest frowned as they heard the saying.
"Is the phenomenon referring to our current situation?" Shen Tao asked.
"That's possible." Lin Huang nodded his head.
"Listening to that, I suddenly recall that when I received the information regarding the strange phenomenon from the rest of the government residences, one of the deputy governors was there. He had a strange facial expression and left immediately as soon as he received the information." Tang Ning frowned. "I guess the governor and the deputy governor must have known something about this."
"I'll ask more about it." Tan Lang felt that things were not that simple. "Any other information?"
"There's another important message." Tang Ning bobbed his head with a serious facial expression.
"One of the sects called the Luotian Sect was attacked. According to the description, it was probably the people from Dynasty who did it." Tang Ning paused for a while as he said, "It's been said that the attack has caused a big scene, causing all the patriarchs at the Luotian Sect to be unsealed. More than 20 of the human immortals have shown up. The people from Dynasty have disappeared in the past few days. Perhaps, they're all dead."
"The people from Dynasty are all dead?!" Tan Lang and the rest were stunned.
"According to the abilities of the people from Dynasty, they might not all be dead if they encounter a yellow gold-rank. Perhaps, the abilities of the human immortals can be compared to the white or purple gold-rank." Tan Lang was familiar with the overall abilities of Seventh Prince and the people from Dynasty. "It seems like this world is much more complicated than we think."
"I guess the people from the sect aren't unreasonable. As long as we maintain a good relationship with the government residence, it's less likely that they're going to attack us." Lin Huang could understand the sect as he had grasped the knowledge from the memory retrieved by Bloody. "If they aren't friendly, we can just leave the foggy world and try not to have any conflict with them."
"That's what I was thinking." Tan Lang nodded his head. "Since the Fallen God Land is so big, we can explore other places."
"That's it. I'll head over to the government residence to ask about the unusual phenomenon tomorrow." Tan Lang made further arrangements. "We'll only need six people, including the Herculean King, for tomorrow's monster hunt. We'll need two people to stay at the government residence for safety purposes. Who's going to stay?"
"I'll stay. I have stronger senses." Li Jia was the first to suggest.
"I'll stay here too." Shen Tao volunteered to stay there as well.
"Alright. Li Jia and Shen Tao will be in charge of safety at the government residence. Lin Xie and Tang Ning will remain at their original positions. The Herculean King and the rest will follow me to go monster hunting."
Chapter 865: Two Governors
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The next morning, Tan Lang arrived at the government residence because he doubted the prophecy. However, the door of the government residence was closed and the entrance was blocked by a team of honorary immortal guards.
Under normal circumstances, the door of the government residence would be opened at 8 a.m. sharp. There would be two honorary immortal guards stationed in front of the entrance and four people to work in shifts. The team would change every three days. Other than the leader of the team, the members would take turns to be on duty.
In the government residence, there was a team of 13 honorary immortal guards that was responsible to be on patrol duty. The leader would take the lead and the team would be rotated each day.
The entrance was now blocked by a team of honorary immortal guards. That being said, something must have happened at the government residence.
Tan Lang frowned and rushed to the leader of the team. "What happened?"
The leader could recognize Tan Lang at first glance and he was familiar with the people from the Heaven Alliance. Aside from his sleeping hours, Tang Ning from the Heaven Alliance had been staying at the government residence most of the time. He knew that Tan Lang was the leader of the Heaven Alliance and he exuded an aura that was much stronger than that of the governor.
"Mr. Tan Lang…" The leader seemed troubled as he was being questioned. "The deputy governor instructed that we're not allowed to reveal anything that happens in the government residence. I can't tell you anything. Please don't ask about it anymore. I'm sorry. The entrance to the government residence has been blocked and nobody can enter or leave." The leader shook his head.
"Alright, I don't want to trouble you. You may look for us at the inn if there's any problem that you can't settle." Tan Lang took a glimpse at the door that had been shut and left as if he had something in mind.
Returning to the inn, Tan Lang gathered everybody and told them what he had encountered at the entrance of the government residence.
"Any chance that an unusual phenomenon has occurred at the government residence?" Lin Huang was the first one to ask after hearing the report.
He actually knew what was happening at the government residence through Bloody's Leech Pods. However, he could not tell them that.
"That's possible," Li Jia agreed with Lin Huang, "If the government residence was under attack, they shouldn't be reacting this way. Furthermore, the inn is less than a kilometer away from the government residence. If there's a battle, it's impossible for us not to be able to sense anything. However, it's possible for the unusual phenomenon to appear without a trace."
"If it's something serious, we shall stay here and not go hunting for monsters. Let's wait for the news from the government residence." Tan Lang was still worried about it.
"There's no need to do so. Li Jia and Shen Tao are here. Don't worry and go hunt for monsters." Lin Huang did not want Tan Lang and the rest to slow his progress down. If they did not go on a monster hunt, he would obtain lesser crystal cores. "If there's no news from the government residence for three days, are you going to wait here for three days?"
"The Herculean King shall stay here. You need an imperial monster for safety purposes." Tan Lang was worried about Lin Huang's safety as Chan Dou had asked him to take good care of Lin Xie.
"Ask the Herculean King whether if I'm lacking imperial monsters or not." Lin Huang shook his head and smiled.
The Herculean King turned its head and looked at Tan Lang. "Among all the imperial monsters he has, I'm considered as the one with the weakest abilities."
Everybody from the Heaven Alliance was astonished when they heard that and they stared at Lin Huang in surprise.
"The Herculean King is just being humble," Lin Huang said with a smile.
Of course, the Herculean King knew that Lin Huang actually wanted to hide his abilities, so it did not say anything else.
"Oh, you really scared the crap out of me!" Listening to Lin Huang's explanation, Tan Lang then looked at the Herculean King with a burning desire while thinking to himself, 'It knows how to be humble. Its intelligence is comparable to humans.'
Realizing that Tan Lang was looking at itself with a strange expression, the Herculean King that was initially standing on the left side of Lin Huang stepped back.
"It doesn't want me." Seeing what the Herculean King did, Tan Lang became gloomy.
After the discussion, they decided to follow last night's plan whereby Lin Huang and the three others would stay there and the Herculean King and the rest would go on a monster hunt.
After Tan Lang and the rest had left, Tang Ning headed towards the government residence to ask for more information. Lin Huang and the others stayed at the inn.
After a short while, Tang Ning returned. He was stopped by the honorary immortal guard outside the government residence as well and did not manage to get any useful information from them.
Seeing Tang Ning being blocked, Li Jia was triggered.
"It sucks to be kept completely in the dark about this. Let the bugs detect what's actually going on."
"We must stay calm," Lin Huang disagreed with Li Jia. "The government residence has blocked the information. This means that they don't want anyone else to know about this. Something strange just happened to the whole world. The government residence doesn't completely trust us. If we were to investigate this, it'll be fine if they don't discover us. However, they're going to lose trust in us if they find out. Especially at this point of time when it's been proven that there are sects and human immortals backing the government residence up, we have to build a good relationship with the government residence. Don't get ourselves into too much trouble.
"Moreover, if the government residence needs help, they'll definitely look for us. If they don't, it simply means that they're capable of solving the problem and they don't need our help. If we were to investigate this by ourselves, they might think that we have other intentions."
"What Lin Xie said makes sense." Shen Tao nodded his head in agreement with Lin Huang.
"Let's not think about this anymore. Get on with your work. Otherwise, take a good rest." After Lin Huang finished his sentence, they went back to their own rooms.
The three of them then exchanged glances with each other and left.
In the afternoon, the deputy governor came to the inn along with the honorary immortal guards. They were looking for Lin Huang and the rest.
Obviously, they were incapable of solving the problem and they had to ask for help from the Heaven Alliance.
Looking at the Heaven Alliance members, the deputy governor felt awkward.
"What's happening? Can you please tell us now?" Li Jia had been itching to ask about this for the entire afternoon. He finally had the chance to do so now.
"An unusual phenomenon has occurred at the government residence this morning. There are now two governors," said the deputy governor helplessly. "It took us the entire afternoon and we can't figure out who's the real governor…"
"Are you sure that it's caused by the unusual phenomenon? Could it be somebody disguising themselves as the governor?" Tang Ning asked.
"I don't think so. He knows a lot about the secrets of the sects, including the governor's private matters. No outsider would know this." He Tao, the deputy governor, shook his head. "The only possibility must be in relation to the unusual phenomenon."
"What can we do?" Lin Huang asked. He had already known about this early in the morning because Bloody's Leech Pods had been monitoring the situation in the government residence. However, he was unable to identify who the real governor was through Bloody's screen.
"We have no idea what to do. That's why we're here to ask for your opinion." He Tao looked helpless.
"Perhaps there's nothing we can help since you're unable to recognize him as well." Shen Tao shook his head.
"Let's go and have a look." Li Jia was interested in this dilemma. "However, we can't promise that we'll know what to do."
"Alright!" He Tao had no other choice, allowing Lin Huang and the rest to give it a try.
Chapter 866: I Think It's A Steal
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Lin Huang and the rest followed Deputy Governor He Tao to the city. The city gates remained closed just like they were in the morning. However, they were not stopped by the honorary immortal guard troop this time. Instead, He Tao brought Lin Huang and the rest to the government residence as he wished.
He Tao brought a few of them straight to the meeting hall.
There were two governors sitting in all seriousness in the meeting hall. They were drinking tea and they did not even bother to look at each other.
To Lin Huang and the rest, the two looked exactly the same. There seemed to be no difference between them.
They had large eyes, thick brows, and a mustache. They had the same body size and height. Even the way they drank their tea was the same.
"You guys are here!" Seeing Lin Huang and the rest, both of them stood up almost at the same time to greet them.
Shen Tao stepped forward and walked around them, chuckling with his eyes wide. "The both of you really look the same!"
As Lin Huang observed them, he fixed his eyes on the duo's storage rings on their left hands. He then asked the Deputy Governor upon noticing that the two storage rings were exactly the same. "Have you checked their storage rings?"
"We have." Deputy Governor He Tao shook his head helplessly. "The items in both rings are exactly the same. So are the inner garments they're wearing. There's nothing more, nothing less. They've also gotten us to check the weapon armors which ownership has been claimed. Theoretically, it's impossible for there to be a second Blood Dragon Halberd, but after our thorough investigation, we found out that the duo's Blood Dragon Halberds are real."
"How is it impossible to have a second Blood Dragon Halberd?" Lin Huang asked immediately.
"It was my master who made the Blood Dragon Halberd exclusively for me. The main material to make it was the entire spine of the one and only blood dragon," the governor on the left explained, "There's no other blood dragon in the world."
"My master was dying when he was making the Blood Dragon Halberd. He passed away on the third day the Blood Dragon Halberd was made," added the governor on the right.
Lin Huang went completely silent after hearing that and he did not ask further.
"Since you've gone through the things that they have, how about their bodies?" Li Jia asked.
"The governors initiated us to check their bodies," He Tao responded, "Not just the appearance of their bodies, but even the inside of their bodies look exactly the same. There's no difference between them."
"May I investigate further?" Li Jia looked at both of them. "You might feel a little uncomfortable during the process. I need you to tolerate it a little."
"No problem."
"I'm fine too."
Li Jia walked to them and held their arms in each of his hands. "Please don't resist."
As soon as he was done speaking, countless black bugs crawled out of his sleeves and burrowed into the skin on both of their arms.
They wanted to pull their arms back by instinct, but resisted the urge immediately, allowing the bugs to crawl into their bodies.
The bugs that Li Jia used this time were much smaller than those that he used for the investigation the last time. They were approximately a tenth of an ant. Completely black, they did not seem to have the ability to fly.
Those little bugs penetrated the duo's skin easily and disappeared into their bodies.
The two governors began having a slightly odd expression on their faces as soon as the bugs entered their body.
"It's a little ticklish. Please bear it, or else you'll chase the bugs away," Li Jia reminded.
Around five to six minutes later, the bugs returned to Li Jia's sleeves after crawling around their bodies twice.
The two governors were relieved.
Li Jia closed his eyes in silence for a little while after releasing both of their arms. He only opened his eyes later and shook his head helplessly. "I was checking their muscles and bones. I'm so sorry, but I don't find anything different between them."
"There's nothing else that I can do. They're all yours now." Li Jia looked at Lin Huang and the rest with his arms opened.
Tang Ning thought about it for a while and asked, "When was the first time the both of you met? What exactly happened?"
"I saw a person in my bed when I opened my eyes this morning." The governor on the left peeped at the one on his right as soon as he was done speaking.
"I've been busy the past few days and didn't get enough rest. Because I was exhausted last night, I slept all the way until the morning. When I woke up, just like he said, I noticed a person in my bed, which is ridiculous!" The governor on the right had a more detailed explanation.
"How could both of you not sense anything since someone appeared so close to you?" Tang Ning asked while frowning.
"I should've been able to sense it immediately under usual circumstances, but I really didn't sense anything this time. My mind was completely blank when I saw him. I thought I was hallucinating," explained the governor on the left.
"It's the same for me. I didn't sense anything. I just noticed a person sleeping next to me when I woke up." The governor on the right provided the same answer.
"Is there any surveillance around?" Tang Ning turned to ask Deputy Governor He Tao who was standing at the side.
"There's none in the bedroom, but there is at the entrance. I've already checked both surveillances at the bedroom entrance and didn't find anything out of the ordinary."
"Alright then. There's nothing I can do here." Tang Ning thought about it and realized there was no longer anything worth asking. The questions that he came up with had been asked by the government residence this morning.
The rest then looked pointedly at Shen Tao and Lin Huang.
Lin Huang turned to ask Shan Tao, "Do you have any suggestions?"
"No." Shen Tao shook his head. "I've been observing them when you guys asked your questions. The observation proved that they're the same person."
Lin Huang nodded while smiling. "You're right about that. Indeed, they are both Governor Tu Ming."
"Lin Xie, what do you mean?" Both of the governors were triggered upon hearing that.
"If I'm not mistaken, the phenomenon must've cloned another Governor Tu Ming. That's why we can't find anything different between them," Lin Huang voiced his observation, "When the both of you said it's impossible to have two Blood Dragon Halberds in this world, I suspected it might possibly be cloning done by the phenomenon's force. Governor Tu Ming isn't the only thing being cloned, but everything that comes with him was duplicated too. That's the reason why there are two storage rings with exactly the same contents and even two identical Blood Dragon Halberds."
"So, is there any way to identify which is the clone?" The two governors asked almost in unison.
"There's no way." Lin Huang shook his head. "Even the clone doesn't know he's a clone. With the complete memory of Governor Tu Ming, the clone thinks he's the real one."
"What should we do now?" Deputy Governor He Tao asked immediately.
"I don't think we should do anything about it." Lin Huang raised his brow. "Since the clone possesses Governor Tu Ming's complete memory and wouldn't do any harm to the government residence or the city, I don't think there's a need to distinguish them apart."
"Moreover, no one can tell who the real Governor Tu Ming is before the phenomenon fades away. So, why waste all this effort in futile?"
"But who knows when is the phenomenon going away? It wouldn't affect much if we don't have a governor for a couple of days, but what if the phenomenon goes on for a couple of months or even years? Without the governor, there are many things that we won't be able to do," He Tao said while looking worried.
"Who says you have no governor? All of you can use both of the governors now. A clone isn't an outsider in disguise. He won't be exposing anything, so why can't you use him?" Lin Huang asked like it was a no-brainer.
Deputy Governor He Tao looked at Lin Huang with his eyes wide open. He had no idea what to say at the moment. "We can do that?!"
"Other government residences can't have two governors even if they wanted to. It's a steal." Lin Huang raised his brow again. "Alright. Since it's been solved, we should head back to the inn now."
Lin Huang turned and left after patting He Tao's shoulder. The rest of the Heaven Alliance followed him while wearing smiles.
The puzzled He Tao and the two governors who were staring at each other were the only ones left.
Chapter 867: Gullies
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Lin Huang really had no idea what to do about Governor Tu Ming.
The phenomenon cloned the entire person. It did not only apply to every single cell in his body, but even his soul was also duplicated entirely. There was no way to tell who was the real person and who was the clone.
However, the phenomenon was indeed something that did not require solving.
Lin Huang did not follow up on Governor Tu Ming since then. He only heard the news coming from the sect and that the two governors had left Enlightenment City together from Tang Ning.
The city regained its peace a few days after the strange phenomenon.
Tan Lang and the rest would still come back once every few days for supplies as well as to distribute the rewards.
Tang Ning would consolidate the news regarding the phenomenon from various places. The frequency of the phenomenon was getting higher and higher. Although it did not cause any severe trouble at the moment, everyone knew that the peace was just temporary.
Li Jia released his bugs to every city to monitor them. With his monitoring, Lin Huang stayed indoors even more now.
Shen Tao was the only one was bored. He was currently on the brink of elevating to imperial-level. The reason he had yet to elevate was that he had yet to find a suitable imperial-level monster.
One would have to kill an imperial-level monster to obtain the Life Base of its Life Palace in order to elevate from immortal-level to imperial-level. If one were to treat a Life Palace as a building, the Life Base would be the blueprint. One would only be able to construct a building with a blueprint. Obtaining a monster's Life Base was to form the foundation of Life Palace.
The reason why Shen Tao entered the Fallen God Land was to find a suitable imperial-level monster. However, he had not seen any imperial-level monster ever since he entered the foggy area. After killing ascendance-level monsters with Tan Lang for a while, the slaughter was almost one-sided which did little to help his cultivation. Hence, he decided to stay in the city.
However, he was getting bored these days.
He looked for Li Jia for battle practice, but the latter rejected him with the excuse of being busy.
He even lowered his pride to ask Lin Huang to allow him to practice his sword skills with his summoning beast. However, Lin Huang rejected him, saying he did not want his summoning beast to be killed by Shen Tao.
In reality, Lin Huang's Lancelot and the sword servants under him were suitable to practice sword skills with Shen Tao. If it Lancelot elevated to pseudo-mythical-level while fighting Shen Tao, it was uncertain who would be killed.
Lin Huang did not want to expose his abilities, so he rejected Shen Tao directly.
For the past few peaceful days in the city, Lin Huang maintained his usual lifestyle whereby he proceeded to cultivate the simulation of local methods. He stayed in ever since Li Jia got his bugs to monitor the situation. The Twisted Fate Scripture had broken through rotation No. 4 within a few days and entered rotation No. 5.
He would need 16 million mastery levels to get to rotation No. 6 of the Twisted Fate Scripture. Although it was quite impossible to break through in such a short period of time, Lin Huang insisted on doing the simulation in his room every day.
Meanwhile, Bloody was monitoring the entire world. Lin Huang would know what happened in the world each day even before Tang Ning did.
In the morning, Bloody interrupted Lin Huang out of nowhere as he was cultivating after breakfast as usual.
"Something's happened!"
"What's that?" Lin Huang knew Bloody would not interrupt his cultivation if it was something minor.
Bloody projected the images captured by a couple of Leech Pods right away.
In the images, gigantic gullies appeared in the ground out of nowhere. The gullies were deep and endless, but the Leech Pods detected many monsters crawling up from the walls of the crevasses continuously. There were countless monsters. There were so many of them that it was horrifying.
This was happening in more than one location. Bloody had already projected eight locations.
"Are those monster hordes?!" Lin Huang frowned a little. Although he foresaw that the world would end sooner or later, he thought it was unreal when the problem surfaced.
"There are eight of these at the moment, but I speculate that there'll be even more later on." Bloody's tone sounded negative.
"These gullies… Why do they look a little like the Abyss Brink?" Lin Huang realized all of a sudden after taking a closer look at the eight images.
"You noticed it too. Indeed, those are the eight main branches of the Abyss Brink, but they're much smaller," Bloody spoke while projecting another image.
It was shot from an aerial view far from the ground. He could see the eight gigantic intersecting gullies on the ground. There were like the frame of an umbrella.
"How are the abilities of those monsters that are crawling out of the abyss?" Lin Huang could not sense the monsters' abilities through the images, so he could only ask Bloody.
"I've only seen holy fire-levels at the moment. There isn't even one immortal-level monster." Bloody added as soon as it was done speaking, "But I'm suspecting this is just the first wave of the monster horde. There might be immortal-level monsters and even imperial-level monsters after this."
"I'm sure that the other government residences will hear about this since it's such a huge commotion. Let's see what they're going to do and we'll plan later on." Lin Huang frowned.
He did not think much about it before this since this world might be built by a bunch of survivors from the ancient times. However, now it seemed like it was not as simple as he thought.
The eight gigantic gullies that were similar to the Abyss Brink made him realize that this world might not be as straightforward as he believed.
Tang Ning returned from the government residence in the afternoon.
As expected, he brought back the news about the monster hordes.
The government residence asked the Heaven Alliance for help, hoping that they could fight the monster horde together. Apart from that, they expressed that they were willing to pay the price of an equivalent value.
Tang Ning sent the message to Tan Lang and the rest who were hunting out there.
They rushed back before the sky turned dark and had a meeting with the two deputy governors and the bunch from the Heaven Alliance at the government residence.
The people from the government residence explained the situation, which was similar to what Bloody had observed.
The Heaven Alliance members noticed that something was off as they studied the eight intersecting gullies.
After some discussions, the people from the Heaven Alliance returned to the inn while Tan Lang gathered them around.
"What do you guys think the eight gullies look like?" Tan Lang glanced at everyone.
"What else do they look like? They're the eight main branches of the Abyss Brink." Shen Tao was the first to speak while the rest nodded in agreement.
"Now, I'm suspecting whether this world's made of ancient survivors." Li Jia's suspicion was aligned with what everyone was thinking about.
"I think the Union Government should know something about it, but they won't release the news easily now," Lin Huang voiced his speculation.
"Why don't we capture some of the people from the Union Government and interrogate them?" Shen Tao grinned.
"Are you trying to create trouble?" Tan Lang stared at Shen Tao.
"There are 200 of them from the Union Government coming in this time. The ordinary members shouldn't know that much about it. If you want, you should capture those EA.2 members." Lin Huang looked at Shen Tao while grinning.
Shen Tao looked troubled when he heard what Lin Huang said.
The Union Government's intelligence agency Agency EA had sent three EA.2 members into the Fallen God Land this time. Each of their abilities was on par with the Heaven Alliance's Tan Lang or Dynasty's Seventh Prince. Shen Tao would definitely be defeated if they were to fight one-on-one.
Because of the three of them, even Dynasty's Seventh Prince would have to make way if he bumped into the Union Government's team.
"The Union Government would have to collaborate with the others to survive the crisis this time. They'll share the news sooner or later," Lin Huang continued, "I think our priority now is to handle the monster horde with the government residence and reap all of the benefits that we can!"
Chapter 868: Our Sect Isn't To Be Underestimated
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Meanwhile at the Luotian Sect Hall, Sect Leader Duan Mu Rui sat on the main seat uneasily. There were 24 human immortals sitting in both rows next to him, all of them exuding a majestically powerful aura.
The bunch of human immortals was discussing how should they handle the arrested Dynasty members. As Sect Leader, Duan Mu Riu had been listening quietly. He sat with his back straight, not daring to interrupt from the beginning until the end.
Although he was the Luotian Sect Leader, among the 24 people who were present, his grandmaster ranked the last in seniority. Most of them were even great-grandmasters.
As the people were in the zone of discussion, a messenger burst into the hall all of a sudden.
"Sect Leader, all patriarchs… There's an emergency coming from the city!"
"We'll talk about it when the meeting is over!" Duan Mu Rui frowned and waved him away.
"Wait." The old, white-bearded Taoist devotee sitting on Duan Mu Rui's left lifted his head to look at the messenger and turned to Duan Mu Rui. "Sect Leader, let him speak since it's an emergency. We won't have any results for our discussion anytime soon anyway."
"You're right, Patriarch." Duan Mu Rui nodded immediately.
The white-bearded Taoist devotee holding a horsetail whisk was the most senior among the patriarchs. He was the old Sect Leader who had decided to seal the door tens of thousands year ago. Including the time he sealed himself, he was close to 13,000 years old.
Duan Mu Rui knew that the old Taoist devotee had no right to bypass him to command the messenger just like that. Instead, he was showing his respect to Duan Mu Rui as the Sect Leader.
"What's the emergency? Please, speak."
"A piece of news has come from the government residence. Gigantic gullies have appeared in several locations early in the morning. They've found eight gullies so far which have spread across the entire continent." The messenger disciple provided a summary of the news. "Also, there's a massive amount of demons crawling out of the gullies. Looking at the current situation, they're all mortal transformation-level demons."
The entire hall fell into dead silence as soon as the messenger reported that.
Besides Duan Mu Rui, even all of the patriarchs, including the old, white-bearded Taoist devotee were stunned.
"Have you confirmed the authenticity of the news?" The old Taoist devotee was the first to snap out of his shock and asked immediately while frowning.
"I've confirmed it. More than one government residence has found out about this. Moreover, the Wuchen Sect, the Xiaoyao Sect, and the other sects heard about this before we did. There are rumors saying that they're opening their doors," said the messenger respectfully.
The hall fell into a dead stillness once again.
The old Taoist devotee could no longer consider Duan Mu Rui's position and he said to the messenger directly, "Contact the government residence now. We want to know more about it."
The messenger stepped forward immediately and contacted the government residence after bringing out a communication crystal stone.
After talking to the government residence, the people from the Luotian Sect looked horrified. The old, white-bearded Taoist devotee looked at Duan Mu Rui after asking the messenger to leave. He seemed to be hesitating if he should ask him to leave too.
Noticing his great-grandmaster's hesitation, Duan Mu Rui stood up on his own and said with cupped hands, "I'll make a move."
"No need. Stay. You need to know about this sooner or later," sighed the white-bearded old Taoist devotee softly and he signaled Duan Mu Rui to stay in the end.
"It must be those outsiders who brought this disaster upon us!" A middle-aged bearded Taoist priest was the first to speak, unable to hold it back any longer. "If not for them, the thunder wouldn't have appeared! We should ask them to leave!"
It was clear that the Luotian Sect found out that organizations such as Dynasty had come from outside.
"Indeed, it's the outsiders who have brought this, but why are you complaining now?" The fat Taoist priest sitting next to him said while shaking his head, "Even if we were to ask them to leave now, would the phenomenon disappear and the disaster be averted?"
"Now that the disaster's here, it's unwise to declare war with the outsiders. I think it'll be better for us to fight this with them." An old Taoist devotee with white hair disagreed too. "There are quite a number of them, after all. There are over 5,000 people while most of them are complete ascendance-levels and some of them even have an ability on par with human immortals."
"These people are greedy! They dared to fight our sect for resources." The bearded Taoist devotee was resolute in his objection. "Aren't we afraid that they'll stab us in the back if we were to collaborate with them?!"
"I've got the same concern too." The silver-haired old Taoist devotee sitting on Duan Mu Rui's right could not help but speak up while frowning. He had his silver hair knotted in a bun with a black hairpin.
"These outsiders come to our world for resources. Looking at their behavior, they don't seem to be treating us as their human partners but merely survivors of ancient times. To them, our time has long ended, so our dying would be something acceptable to them. Even if we come to an agreement, as soon as the disaster comes at full force, they can exit our world anytime they want and let us die."
"No matter what, I don't trust those outsiders." The silver-haired old Taoist devotee smacked the ground with the walking stick in his hand.
"Junior Brother, I understand your concern," addressed the old, white-bearded Taoist devotee with the horsetail whisk finally while stroking his beard. "But there are dozens of different organizations coming from outside. We shouldn't generalize them. Also, about the trust issue, there's a way to solve it."
All of them had their eyes on the white-bearded old Taoist devotee when he spoke sagely.
"All they want are resources, so that's what we'll give them then," said the old Taoist devotee while smiling lightly as he stroked his beard. "We'll give them as much as the effort they put in."
"We actually don't need mutual trust. All we need is an employment relationship. I believe these people will definitely accept being employed. After all, they're here for the resources."
"I think Junior Uncle's idea's great." The white-haired old Taoist devotee nodded to show agreement. "An employment is more stable than an alliance. Moreover, we're the employer who holds the power."
"This seems to be the only workable solution at the moment." The fat Taoist priest nodded lightly.
"I think we can discuss this employment with the other sects and share the resources for the employment. If we share resources, each sect will only have to contribute a small part of it," added the white-bearded old Taoist devotee.
The few of them who disagreed became silent.
"Since there are no better suggestions, let's vote now." The white-bearded old Taoist devotee glanced at everyone. "Those who agree with the employment, please raise your hand."
Including Duan Mu Rui, among 25 of them, only six of them did not raise their hands.
"19 to 6. The voting results are very clear," announced the old Taoist devotee while smiling, "So, it's set!"
"Senior Brother!" However, the old silver-haired man sitting across him spoke again, "Since you said that, should we release the people from Dynasty, return the resources to them and get them to fight for us?"
"Of course not." The old man stood up with a smile. "Since they're prisoners, they'll get a different treatment naturally."
"Give them a slave imprint and train them to be our battle slaves! Show the outsiders that our sect isn't to be underestimated!"
Chapter 869: The Sects Resurfaced
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Monster hordes broke out the night the gullies were formed.
From the images Bloody projected, Lin Huang saw the bone-chilling number of mortal transformation-level monsters crawling out of the abyss.
They were like countless ants gushing out of the core of the entire continent, spreading towards all directions. Everywhere they passed turned into barren land.
Over 200 towns were destroyed in one night while seven cities were besieged by the monster horde.
The situation was still alright in the cities due to the city walls and formations to protect the cities since the monsters were blocked outside the cities.
However, almost all of the towns turned into ruins. Apart from the ascendance-level powerhouses who managed to run in time when they realized how bad the situation, the rest became monster food.
Looking at the scenes, Lin Huang could not help but recall the world outside of the ruins. Perhaps this would happen when monster horde broke out of the Abyss Brink a few years later.
The next morning, Tang Ning spread the news of monster horde breaking out in all the locations not long after he arrived at the government residence.
Lin Huang knew about it last night and he could not sleep because of that.
However, Tang Ning brought another piece of news. The sects had a mass-resurface and over 80 of them founded an alliance organization: the Sect Alliance.
All of the outsiders knew that war was at their doorstep upon hearing that news.
Apart from Tang Ning, everyone from the Heaven Alliance gathered in the inn.
"We've no idea what this alliance organization, the Sect Alliance, thinks about us." Tan Lang was a little concerned.
"Judging by Dynasty and those underground organizations' doings, I'm afraid that we outsiders can't win the trust of these local sects." Li Jia shook his head while looking bitter. He was not optimistic about this. "Even if they know we come from different organizations, they wouldn't change their perception about us. After all, we come from the same world as those underground organizations. It's a little difficult for them to work with us."
"It's fine if we don't work together. We can continue to hunt for monsters for resources as long as they don't chase us away." Shen Tao was unwilling to let go of the monster crystal cores that could replenish his Life Power rapidly.
"Tang Ning wasn't chased out of the government residence this morning. That shows that the probability of us getting chased out of this world is rather low." Lin Huang was rather clear about this. "The monster horde has broken out, so I suppose the sects won't want to waste their efforts on us."
"If I were in the high management of a sect, I'd definitely be keen to use the outsiders to fight the monster horde. After all, most of the 5,000 people who came in are on par with complete ascendance-levels while some of them even are on par with human immortal-level powerhouses. Such a force will be great to share the burden of the monster horde," Lin Huang voiced his thoughts. "There should be wise men in the sects. I think it's quite possible that they would want to work with us. I'm just not sure what kind of collaboration method will they implement eventually."
Tang Ning came back from the government residence when it was close to noon.
They knew the Sect Alliance must have decided to collaborate looking at the excitement written all over his face.
Tang Ning only spoke with a wide grin after gathering all the people from the Heaven Alliance.
"The Sect Alliance has come up with a decision. They want to work with us in the form of employment. The 83 sects have founded a Glory Treasury together. I heard there are treasures from mortal transformation-level to celestial immortal-level in there.
"We outsiders will help them hunt monsters and we'll get Glory Points. Later on, we can use the points to redeem treasure.
"Also, there'll be a Glory Ranking. A one-star Glory will receive a 10% discount on redeemable treasures, 20% for a two-star Glory, 30% for a three-star Glory… 50% for five-star Glory while the highest will be 70% for a seven-star Glory."
Tang Ning excitedly explained the conditions roughly and projected the rules of the hunting points that he had retrieved from the government residence.
'Glory Ranking
'One-star Glory: 100 Glory Points
'Two-star Glory: 1,000 Glory Points
'Three-star Glory: 10,000 Glory Points
'Four-star Glory: 100,000 Glory Points
'Five-star Glory: One million Glory Points
'Six-star Glory: Ten million Glory Points
'Seven-star Glory: 100 million Glory Points'
…
'Redeemable points for treasures of each rank (excluding Glory Ranking discount)
'Points to redeem mortal transformation-level treasure: 1 – 100 points
'Points to redeem ascendance-level treasure: 10 – 1,000 points
'Points to redeem human immortal-level treasure: 1,000 – 100,000 points
'Points to redeem earth immortal-level treasure: 100,000 – 10 million points
'Remarks: Some unique items might exceed the points system'
…
'Respective Glory Points for each beginner-stage, intermediate-stage, and advanced-stage mortal transformation-level demon carcass: 1 point, 2 points, 4 points
'Respective Glory Points for each beginner-stage, intermediate-stage, and advanced-stage mortal transformation-level demon internal elixir: 2 points, 4 points, 8 points
'Respective Glory Points for each beginner-stage, intermediate-stage, advanced-stage, and peak-stage (including complete-stage) ascendance-level demon carcass: 10 points, 20 points, 40 points, 80 points
'Respective Glory Points for each beginner-stage, intermediate-stage, advanced-stage and peak-stage (including complete-stage) ascendance-level demon internal elixir: 20 points, 40 points, 80 points, 160 points
'Respective Glory Points for each beginner-stage, intermediate-stage, advanced-stage, peak-stage and complete-stage human immortal-level demon carcass: 1,000 points, 2,000 points, 4,000 points, 8,000 points, 16,000 points
'Respective Glory Points for each beginner-stage, intermediate-stage, advanced-stage, peak-stage and complete-stage human immortal-level demon internal elixir: 2,000 points, 4,000 points, 8,000 points, 16,000 points, 32,000 points
'Respective Glory Points for each beginner-stage, intermediate-stage, advanced-stage, peak-stage and complete-stage earth immortal-level demon carcass: 100,000 points, 200,000 points, 400,000 points, 800,000 points, 1.6 million points
'Respective Glory Points for each beginner-stage, intermediate-stage, advanced-stage, peak-stage and complete-stage earth immortal-level demon internal elixir: 200,000 points, 400,000 points, 800,000 points, 1.6 million points, 3.2 million points'
…
"Did they set the redeemable points all the way to 1,000 points for one monster carcass when it comes to human immortal-levels on purpose to encourage us to hunt more imperial-level monsters?" Shen Tao shook his head while querying with a smirk. "Earth immortal-levels too. The points skyrocket to 100,000 points each. It's too bad that the equivalent of an Earth immortal is a Virtual God. We'll have to see if we manage to do that by then."
"The redeemable points for monster carcasses and crystals cores are just a false hike. Didn't you see that the points for the treasures increase as well?" Li Jia who was standing aside noticed. "It's a steal if we redeem low-level treasures, but redeeming same-level treasures would still be a high price."
"In order to obtain more discounts, we'll still have to kill more monsters while redeeming monster carcasses and crystal cores to level up in the Glory Ranking. I wonder who came up with this. It's pretty brilliant." Lin Huang could not help but compliment after taking a careful look at the rules.
"If we don't kill any imperial-level (human immortal-level) monsters, we'll need to kill at least 600 immortal-level rank-9 (peak-stage ascendance-level) monsters to get to four-star Glory. It's quite difficult. To get to five-star Glory, we'll need to kill 1,000 monsters even if the monsters are on imperial-level black gold-rank (beginner-stage human immortal-level).
"Judging from that, most people will be stuck on three-star Glory for quite some time and they can only elevate to four-star Glory at the most. To the Sect Alliance, they might not really be at a loss if they were to sell the items at a discount of 30% or 40%. What a thorough calculation in these set of rules!" Lin Huang did some calculation and found out that it was a little difficult for him to elevate to five-star Glory, let alone the others.
"40% is actually not bad. That's better than not collaborating and buying the items from other stores at full price," Tan Lang pointed out. He calculated secretly after hearing Lin Huang's observation and realized that it was indeed difficult to elevate to five-star Glory.
"Indeed. No matter what, we've come to an agreement now," Lin Huang acknowledged. In reality, this was what everyone wanted. Even without working together, the people from the Heaven Alliance hoped they could stay in this world to hunt for monster crystal cores (internal elixirs). However, they were more motivated since there was this set of rules.
"Chief, now that monster horde has broken out and there are so many monsters, we'd have a higher efficiency if we hunt on our own than in a group. I think we should do this separately," Shen Tao suggested all of a sudden, seeming very enthusiastic.
"Then, we'll hunt separately then since there are only holy fire-level monsters in this wave. We still have a rapid replenishment of Life Power with the crystal cores, so the risk's low." Tan Lang glanced at them and agreed with Shen Tao's suggestion knowing that was what everyone wanted.
Lin Huang was secretly elated. Hunting alone would mean that he could use all of the techniques that he did not want them to know about.
Chapter 870: The Hunt Begins
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The monster horde broke out in the central area. Enlightenment City which was at the border of the northwestern area only had a small monster horde at the moment.
As soon as the order to hunt individually came from Tan Lang, the ten Heaven Alliance members departed in the afternoon.
Lin Huang summoned Bing Wang and headed straight to the gully of the abyss. All of the monsters they encountered along the way froze into ice sculptures that seemed alive.
It was the same even when they encountered triple mutated immortal-level rank-9 monsters. With Bing Wang who had the ancient Frost Flame Ape's bloodline, they could not escape their fate of turning into ice sculptures no matter how powerful they were.
Lin Huang put all of the ice sculptures away in his storage rings along the way. Fortunately, he had gotten many storage rings from the rewards earlier. Otherwise, he might not have enough space in his Emperor's Heart Ring.
In reality, these holy fire-level monster carcasses and crystal cores were worthless to him. Although the monsters had low combat strength, the crystal cores in the bodies might be useful for his Monster Cards' skills. Moreover, as long as there were many carcasses, he would be able to redeem a lot of Glory Points. Hence, he decided to collect the monster carcasses in the end since he had enough space. It would be dumb not to do so.
After over an hour collecting monster carcasses while sitting on Bing Wang's shoulder, Lin Huang finally saw the true form of the gully.
There were massive numbers of mortal transformation-level (holy fire-level) monsters gushing out of the gully. It looked like a burst pipe from which water was rushing out of it.
"Go!" As soon as Lin Huang ordered him, Bing Wang dashed into the crowd of monsters without hesitation.
Everywhere he stepped would turn into white frost. With him as the center point, everything around him would start to freeze.
Besides the monsters that were diving at him, the grass, flowers, and even the soil on the ground froze into ice that was harder than metal.
In a few breaths, Bing Wang passed through the monsters and arrived at the edge of the gully.
"Let's go down!" Lin Huang issued a new order without thinking much.
Bing Wang hopped into the gully and tore towards the bottom of the abyss.
Lin Huang looked at the walls around along the way. There were mortal transformation-level monsters everywhere like the walls were full of crawling ants.
The gully was immensely deep. Even with Bing Wang's speed, they only arrived at the bottom half an hour later.
After they arrived at the bottom, Lin Huang summoned Bai, Lancelot, Thunder, and Kylie.
The reason he summoned them was that they were just like Bing Wang who had a compelling group of killing techniques.
Naturally, Charcoal and Bloody Robe had similar techniques too, but one of them used Dragon Flame while another used lava. They would destroy the monster carcasses. Lin Huang decided to not summon them after giving it some thought.
Tyrant, Malachian Fiend, and the Herculean King were like tanks in the battlefield which made them suitable for group kills under usual circumstances. Lin Huang figured they might just crush the monster carcasses entirely, so he did not summon them. Holy fire-level monsters were rather weak after all.
Hunting was the second priority for summoning Kylie whereby the main objective was to help collect monster carcasses.
Her Nephilic Judge army had tremendous speed. Also, she could put away the piles of monster carcasses in her mini world.
Naturally, Kylie was unsatisfied with her assigned responsibility. She only agreed to do it when Lin Huang promised to put aside a tenth of the monster carcasses for her Nephilic Judge army as food.
The hunting was almost a bloodbath.
Bai turned Vampire Particles into bloody threads which penetrated the holy fire-level monsters' hearts and brains easily. Monster carcasses were strewn all over the place with no wounds on them wherever the threads passed by.
Lancelot summoned the Sword Dominator, the Luminescent Angelwing, the Frigid Swordswoman, and a few sword servants who were experts in group battles while he killed rapidly with his Sword Manipulation all the way.
Little black swords were flying in the air and pierced through the monsters' bodies one after another quickly.
Thunder's attack was the most straightforward. It summoned thunderclouds directly as it flapped its wings and aimed for the ground. All of the monsters that were struck by the bolts of lightning fell onto the ground.
To prevent it from destroying the monster carcasses, Lin Huang especially reminded it to maintain the intensity of the lightning bolts so that it was enough to kill immortal-level rank-2 or rank-3 monsters.
As usual, everywhere Bing Wang went turned into a land of snow while all of the monsters froze into ice sculptures.
Kylie did not fight at all. Instead, she summoned her Nephilic Judge army to move all of the monster carcasses into her mini world. Meanwhile, she was standing on Bing Wang's shoulder watching the fight just like Lin Huang was.
Lin Huang's four summoning beasts fought all the way slowly towards the center of the gully.
When it was almost night time, Lin Huang and his bunch of summoning beasts had traveled almost 150 kilometers deep into the gully. Bloody roughly calculated the number of monsters killed. There were at least 800,000 monsters.
"The speed of accumulating points is so much faster than I imagined. It seems like going down the bottom of the gully was a wise move." Lin Huang had excitement written all over his face. He would achieve at least millions of Glory Points with those 800,000 holy fire-level monsters. It would mean that he had elevated to five-star Glory in merely one afternoon.
"I'm already eligible to enjoy 50% off the treasures. Judging from the speed of accumulating points, I guess I'll elevate to seven-star Glory in a few days. I'll be enjoying a 70% discount by then which countless people will envy."
As a matter of fact, Lin Huang's body was a great advantage in such a situation.
The Divine Fire in his body continuously provided Life Power to his Monster Cards, allowing Bai and the rest to unleash all the skills that they possessed as they wished. That was how they managed to achieve such a high killing rate.
Without the Divine Fire providing Life Power, Bai and the rest would not be able to withstand such speed of killing for even half an hour. As soon as half an hour passed, their Life Power would be drained. They would not even be able to run by then and would drown in the endless amount of monsters.
Even the human immortals from the sects dared not come to the bottom of the gully of the abyss following the breakout of monster horde this time. Lin Huang was the only one who had the guts to do this due to his abundant Life Power.
However, although they had endless Life Power, Bai and the rest had limited strength.
The hunt went on until past eleven at night where their strength began to drop while their hunting rate was decreasing.
"Alright, that's all for today." Lin Huang finally stopped the hunt upon noticing that.
After recalling Bai and the rest, Lin Huang summoned Bloody Robe to make a cave in the wall using lava to be his temporary shed. After entering the cave, Lin Huang got him to seal the cave entrance with the cooled down lava to prevent monsters from coming in at night.
As soon as a human elevated to transcendent-level, he would have a strong adaptative ability. Without oxygen, a holy fire-level human could live for two to three days. Meanwhile, an immortal-level powerhouse could live ten days to half a month without oxygen.
Moreover, Lin Huang would only need a night's rest in such an enclosed environment.
He brought his tent out in the cave. After setting it up, he got Bloody Robe to guard outside while he went into the tent.
Due to his excitement, Lin Huang chatted with Bloody until past 1 a.m. before he fell asleep.
Bloody did not tell him about the progress of Tan Lang and the rest before he fell asleep. For the entire afternoon, they had killed almost zero monsters because Lin Huang had wiped their prey out.