Chapter 931: Chan Dou's Call
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Lin Huang was in a long silence after closing the window of the Hunter Association forum.
The appearance of the duo, Fu Minghan, and Qi Hao gave him extra pressure.
Both of them were not considered outstanding among imperial-level powerhouses, but they had extraordinary talent in the cultivation of the ancient methods.
He knew that there would be more Fu Minghans and Qi Haos in the future. Inevitably, there would be people who were even more powerful than the duo.
Lin Huang's emotions calmed down after a moment of silence.
He clicked into the Genius Union and logged in. He had been on checkpoint 55 the last time he logged out, and he remained on the same checkpoint when he logged in now.
Looking at the gigantic plants around him, Lin Huang knew he was still in the Secret Forest.
After confirming his direction, the internal communication line in the Genius Union rang all of a sudden when he was ready to kill.
He opened the communication page and realized it was Chan Dou who was calling.
Lin Huang pressed the button to pick up. "Yes?"
"You've finally logged in! I haven't seen you here since over half a year ago." Chan Dou was wearing a white shirt like he always did and a pair of black slacks. He gave people the impression that he came from a wealthy family.
"I've been busy."
"I heard that your combat strength has had a major elevation. So, which checkpoint do you plan to get to this time?" Chan Dou asked excitedly.
"My goal's checkpoint 63, but I'm not sure which checkpoint will I be able to get to," Lin Huang said while smiling.
"It's great that you have a goal. Just work towards it," Chan Dou gave him words of encouragement.
"I don't suppose you called just for this?" Lin Huang faintly sensed that Chan Dou had something else to say.
"You saw through me." Chan Dou chuckled. "Nothing much. I just want to tell you that I'm going to elevate to imperial-level."
Naturally, Lin Huang knew what that meant. Elevating to imperial-level would mean quitting the Genius Union automatically. It would mean that Chan Dou would lose his chief position in the Heaven Alliance.
"That's sudden. Did something happen?" Chan Dou's unexpected decision surprised Lin Huang indeed.
"Actually, I'm almost done with the early preparations," Chan Dou said with a grin, "Indeed, something that made me choose to elevate now has happened."
Lin Huang blinked his eyes and roughly guessed the reason.
"You'd find out about this sooner or later, so it wouldn't hurt for me to tell you now." Chan Dou did not plan to hide anything. "The Union Government got a bunch of ancient cultivation methods from somewhere earlier. It was said that cultivating those methods could elevate a person to virtual god-level. Many organizations and clans are in discussion with the Union Government about this.
"However, the Union Government's still unwilling to open the methods to more people at the moment. They're planning to get imperial-level powerhouses to test the methods out for two years and the quota for each organization is limited. Our clan was given a few slots and one of them is reserved for me. I can only cultivate them officially when I've elevated to imperial-level.
"Initially, I didn't want to rush into it since there's already a quota reserved for me. After all, I could wait for a year or more before elevating to imperial-level. However, there was a piece of news that broke from the Hunter Association that gave the elderly members in our clan a sense of danger. It was said that there are two people who have cultivated to holy fire-level in less than a month. They think that these two might elevate to Virtual Gods a year later. Hence, they're urging me to elevate to imperial-level so that I can cultivate the ancient methods."
Lin Huang was speechless upon hearing that. He could not believe that even Chan Dou, one of the Five Princes, could not escape being controlled by his family.
He could tell that Chan Dou was not ready to elevate to imperial-level yet. Perhaps he had yet to find a Life Base monster that was perfectly compatible, or maybe he had found it but had no confidence to defeat it.
Although such a situation in which his family rushed him into things seemed minor, in the long run, it was unfavorable for Chan Dou.
Although he was the Fourth Prince who was above all immortal-level powerhouses, if he did not choose the right Life Base monster, he would lose his title when he achieved imperial-level and might not even be in the top ten with people of the same level.
"I think it's better that you drag it out as long as you can. Don't mess up your own rhythm." Lin Huang could only give him that piece of advice. Although he thought that Chan Dou's clan behavior of 'killing the goose that lays golden egg' was not encouraged, he was just an outsider after all. It was not his place to comment on other people's business within the family.
"I've been dragging it out for almost two months now. There's nothing else that I can do." Chan Dou forced a smile helplessly. Naturally, he knew what the consequences entailed. "Never mind. Let's not talk about me."
"Try to get to checkpoint 63 this time. If you succeed, my recommendation to make you the Heaven Alliance's deputy chief will have an 80% success rate."
"What?!" Lin Huang was stunned to hear that.
"Since Tang Lang left before the New Year, the position for deputy chief has been vacant. You were already on my waiting list. Tan Lang came looking for me later on and told me that your combat strength has elevated to immortal-level rank-3. That's how you're the first on my list now. If not for your rather low combat strength, I'd even want to relinquish my position as chief to you." Chan Dou could not see Lin Huang's current combat strength because Lin Huang had covered it from being displayed on the Genius Union.
"Oh right, actually, what's your combat strength now? Immortal-level rank-4?" Chan Dou could not help but ask.
"Something like that." Lin Huang was afraid that he might scare Chan Dou if he told the truth, so he decided to hide it. Worried that Chan Dou would ask further, he changed the topic immediately. "Forget about the position. I'm very lazy. It's pretty awesome being an ordinary member."
"Man, don't reject me. I've decided on this." Chan Dou had made up his mind to drag Lin Huang into this no matter what. "It's just a featherbed. You'll only have to put in effort when it's necessary. The chief and the other deputies will handle the usual stuff."
"Alright then…" Lin Huang agreed unwillingly anyway. He knew if he disagreed, Chan Dou would definitely dwell on it. "When do you plan to elevate?"
"Within this month, I guess. I can no longer drag it out." Chan Dou forced a weak smile.
"Great. All the best."
"Thanks, brother! The Heaven Alliance will depend on all of you in the future!"
Lin Huang felt sorry for Chan Dou after hanging up the call.
If Chan Dou elevated his combat strength following his own rhythm, he should be the best of the best among Virtual Gods when he elevated to that level in the future. However, the cultivation now would mess up his rhythm. It might be difficult for him to achieve his peak performance.
"There's a Golden-armored Swine King approaching!" Bloody warned through voice transmission all of a sudden.
Lin Huang turned to look at the direction the monster was coming from. The radius of his Territory skill had expanded to 7,000 meters, so he sensed the swine's movement since the beginning.
"Then, let's begin hunting!" Lin Huang snapped his fingers and summoned Bai and the bunch of imperial monsters.
Chapter 932: The Big Boss Has Returned!
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Lin Huang was in the Secret Forest at checkpoint 55 on the Stairway Tree.
Bai, Lancelot and the other imperial monsters were killing all kinds of monsters along the way towards checkpoint 56.
In reality, the Secret Forest was not a monster level. It was just an area with special rules. Under normal circumstance, the difficulty of this stage would be just the horrible living environment.
However, due to the special rules, many monsters from the monster hordes decided to stay. Since their size was shrunk by 1,000 times, the surface of this level was equivalent to being enlarged a million times, which was huge. The local plants and monsters that were regular-sized seemed gigantic to them whereby the various resources available were unusually rich.
One could say that the total number of monsters on this level was much more than the real number of monsters on the initial checkpoint 56. However, due to the vast surface, the monsters were scattered.
Lin Huang did not waste his time killing monsters here because he had already passed this stage. No matter how many monsters he killed, he would not obtain any points. Even the God Figurines' Combat Souls in his body would not obtain any spiritual energy.
As long as it was a level that the player had already passed, being on the same level again would not reap him any benefit. It would be the same if the player died on the Stairway Tree and began from the first level again.
Using Lin Huang as an example, his highest record on the Stairway Tree was checkpoint 56. If he died for some reason on the Stairway Tree, he would fall back to checkpoint 1. He would not gain any benefit during the arduous process of climbing from checkpoint 1 to checkpoint 55. However, the difficulty of each checkpoint would still remain. The horrible living conditions would be the same as well as the laborious monster hordes. There was no benefit going through the checkpoints again.
Hence, many people would not make it to the same checkpoint they died after putting in so much effort to be at a certain checkpoint. Not surpassing the checkpoint where one failed before would mean no benefit for them. That was the reason why many feared to die on the Stairway Tree.
Only a handful of powerhouses who possessed absolute ability were not scared of death because they had the ability to get to the checkpoint they died at.
After spending over an hour passing through the Secret Forest, Lin Huang brought his imperial monsters to checkpoint 56.
This checkpoint was a monster level and there were monsters called the Combat Hornetdemons all over the place.
Lin Huang only dared to attack a hornets' nest the last time. Then, he had not wanted to create a big commotion in fear that the hornets' nests around would surround him. He was frightened that the hornet queen and hornet guardians would sense him, which would spell trouble for him.
However, he was fearless this time with his bunch of imperial-level crimson gold-rank imperial monsters.
Those Combat Hornetdemons were just high-level immortal-levels and could not even break through the defenses of Bai and the rest since they were on imperial-level crimson gold-rank. They were no threat to them.
Lin Huang smirked slightly when he saw the first hornet nest not far away as soon as he stepped out of the Secret Forest.
"Apart from Bloody, everyone, scatter. Each of you will handle one hornets' nest. Clear them as soon as you can," Lin Huang ordered, "The first three who clear the nest first will get rewards when we get out of here."
The eyes of Lancelot, Tyrant and the rest lit up as soon as they heard about the potential rewards.
Under Bloody's guidance, Bai and the other 12 monsters soon scattered and began the one-sided massacre after finding a hornets' nest each.
All of the imperial monsters that had demigod relics with them were much faster at killing compared to the time they were in the Fallen God Land.
At the moment, Bai was mainly cultivating towards the direction of a sword cultivator. Lin Huang shared almost all of his Sword Dao inheritance with Bai. For this mission, Bai intentionally fell back on the better swords while he picked a mid-grade demigod battle sword relic. Among the 13, he had the slowest killing speed because he was using those Combat Hornetdemons to practice his sword skills.
Tyrant, who initially fought with his fists, picked up a pair of demigod-level battle axes this time. The two battle axes were mid-grade demigod relics and soon, he was killing the Combat Hornetdemons with the swing of the axes like he was slicing fruits.
The Malachian Fiend looked through the pile of hammer axes and eventually chose an enormous mace. The mace had a solid grip whereby the Combat Hornetdemons would turn into a pile of mush whenever he swung it. Fortunately, the monsters that were killed on the Stairway Tree would disappear directly and would not affect anything since there were no carcasses to be collected.
The battle sword that Killer held was the supreme-grade demigod relic that Lin Huang had just obtained. Many Combat Hornetdemons were killed immediately as soon as the sword was brandished. It was no different from cutting chives. Lin Huang had yet to be on imperial-level for now, so he was unable to use that supreme-grade battle sword. Killer, who was also a sword cultivator, was lucky to be using the sword instead.
Meanwhile, for Lancelot, it took Lin Huang a while to gather 19 demigod sword relics for him and his 18 sword servants. Luckily, their performance was up to expectations whereby their killing speed was the fastest among the 13 teams.
The Evil Dominator could not turn into an imperial-level human due to the restriction on the Stairway Tree. He turned his appearance into Killer again. However, he was only using an expert-grade demigod battle sword relic while his killing speed was slightly slower than Killer.
The two knights picked a mid-grade demigod spear each. Their combat strength elevated to imperial-level yellow gold-rank even when they remained in their original knight form without merging. No monster could survive the first swing of their spears.
Initially, Lin Huang planned to get Grimace and the Imp, who possessed telekinesis, demigod-level telekinetic weapons. However, he had none with him, so he could only lend them two sets of ancient-level telekinetic flying daggers. Nevertheless, with their imperial-level crimson gold-rank telekinetic power, their killing speed was pretty remarkable while they mastered their own set of ancient-level telekinetic flying daggers.
Among the 13 groups of imperial monsters, the one who was fastest at killing would be the Warlord. Although Lin Huang did not get him any demigod relics, apart from reserving the scarce materials, he basically gave all the materials that he had obtained to Warlord to come up with his mechanical army. Not only was the mechanical army boosted to 300,000-strong now, but their quality also experienced a major improvement compared to before. The Warlord was winning in quantity and he could clear a hornets' nest within a few minutes.
Under Bloody's guidance on the map, all the hornets' nests on checkpoint 56 were exterminated.
As the massacre went on, the combat strength of the three new God Figurines' Combat Souls was skyrocketing.
Iron-level, bronze-level, silver-level, gold-level, holy fire-level…
Instead of using the ancient-level soul crystal directly, he replenished the spiritual energy for the three God Figurines by killing monsters because it was rather easy to elevate the combat strength of the God Figurines before they reached imperial-level. To be exact, elevating the combat strength of the God Figurines would not be very difficult before they reached imperial-level yellow gold-rank. The soul crystal could definitely be reserved until it was difficult for them to elevate just by killing monsters.
Lin Huang had yet to use the demigod-level soul crystal for now. He could not make up his mind about which Combat Soul he should elevate to imperial-level purple gold-rank first.
The other thing that was skyrocketing together with his God Figurines' combat strength was his points on the Stairway Tree.
One must know that there were usually 20,000 to 30,000 Combat Hornetdemons in one hornets' nest. Some of the population could even go up to 50,000.
Moreover, all the Combat Hornetdemons were high-level immortal-level. Even if they were just on immortal-level rank-7, killing one would earn him 640 points while killing an immoral-level rank-9 Combat Hornetdemon would earn him 2,560 points.
Apart from the Warlord and Lancelot who were using an army of their own, the rest of them had a similar killing speed whereby they cleared one hornets' nest within approximately half an hour. Even Bai, who was practicing his sword skills by killing the monsters, only spent over 40 minutes to clear one hornets' nest.
Lancelot, on the other hand, spent less than ten minutes. He could clear one nest within seven to eight minutes. The Warlord was even faster whereby he could clear one within two to three minutes.
This also caused Lin Huang's points to skyrocket to over hundreds of millions despite only staying on checkpoint 56 for less than 20 minutes. He became No. 1 on the Stairway Tree leaderboard once again.
The sudden appearance of Lin Xie made everyone's jaws drop again.
People had forgotten the name since it had been half a year since it last appeared.
Not only did it appear out of nowhere, but it also landed in the No. 1 spot on the leaderboard without anyone seeing it coming. Every Genius Union member who was online recalled how terrifying this name Lin Xie was on the leaderboard last year.
The big boss had returned half a year later!
Chapter 933: The Hornet Queen
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
"He obtained hundreds of millions of points and got No. 1 directly. It's so insane!"
"His speed's scary! The points are rising by tens of millions almost every minute!"
"Damn, he's killing monsters like it's a game to him."
"He's clearly cheating!"
Some people were not surprised that Lin Xie was slaying on the leaderboard again, but there were still some sour grapes who reported him for cheating.
Soon, the Genius Union members who were online spread the word about Lin Xie achieving No. 1 on the Stairway Tree leaderboard out of nowhere. Many members who were offline logged in to see it for themselves after hearing the news.
After logging in, many members from various organizations lifted their head to look at the number on the first place of the leaderboard that was skyrocketing continuously.
"It's increasing by tens of millions in a minute. Could it be a system glitch?"
The happiest people had to be the Heaven Alliance members. They could not help but cheer looking at Lin Huang returning with a bang half a year later.
The fame of the Heaven Alliance was boosted once again.
At a corner on the Stairway Tree, Yi Zheng, who found some time to log in after hearing the news, looked at the first name on the leaderboard. He was silent for a long time as he looked at the number that was continuously increasing before muttering softly, "So, this is your real ability, eh?"
On the other corner on the Stairway Tree, Yi Yeyu had just logged in too. She was in slight disbelief when she saw the name Lin Xie on the leaderboard. "Did this fella cheat at all?"
The Heaven Alliance members watched on the Stairway Tree's checkpoint 63.
Ever since Lin Huang had logged in, Chan Dou had been following the changes in Lin Huang's points. He was the only person to witness Lin Huang's entire progress of achieving No. 1 on the Stairway Tree leaderboard all of a sudden.
"He's worthy of being the man I, Chan Dou, look up to the most!"
The high management of the major organizations who were online including the Hong Alliance and the Tang Alliance began to discuss this absurd turn of event.
"Initially, I thought that the Heaven Alliance would fall since Chan Dou's leaving, but now Lin Xie's rising."
"Lin Xie was only on golden flame-level at the end of August last year. It has only been less than eight months. The most he could've achieved would be immortal-level rank-2. Even if he's on immortal-level rank-3, he's still very far away from getting to immortal-level rank-9. No matter how talented he is, it would take at least a year and a half to two years to really grow."
"We shouldn't look at his personal combat strength. No matter what he's relying on, which one of you could kill tens of thousands of Combat Hornetdemons within a minute? Those Combat Hornetdemons are all on high-level immortal-level, but he's killing them like he's chopping vegetables."
"Indeed, it's beyond terrifying if we're talking about combined abilities. I'm afraid that even Chan Dou can't do that."
"No matter what his personal combat strength is now. His combined abilities have far surpassed ordinary immortal-level rank-9 powerhouses. It's just a matter of time for him to possibly become the second Chan Dou and even surpass the man himself!"
"It's unfortunate that Chan Dou has taken such an extraordinary bud."
A chief and three deputy chiefs gathered in one of the Divine Alliance meeting rooms. It was an emergency meeting.
The Divine Alliance chief, Zhong Liyan, sat in the main seat as he glanced at the other three.
"I'll begin since everyone's here. The reason for gathering all of you here is because of that fella named Lin Xie from the Heaven Alliance. All of you should've already seen the Stairway Tree leaderboard. I think that fella could be our next target."
"He's on checkpoint 56 now. Looking at his speed, indeed he's a great sacrifice. He's nothing less than that Chan Dou." The bald man on Zhong Liyan's left was the first to voice his opinion.
"Killing tens of thousands of high-level immortal-level monsters within a minute… That's pretty amazing." The only lady among the four chuckled softly.
"He's only on immortal-level no matter how powerful he is. Even Chan Dou has to run away from imperial-level yellow gold-rank powerhouses. He's no match for powerhouses of such combat strength." The last who spoke was a fair, sinister-looking man.
"So, should we make him our next target?" Zhong Liyan glanced at the three again.
"I agree." The bald man was the first to vote.
"I've no comment on that as long as we don't miss." The lady twirled her hair while looking at her crimson nails with her head held low like it did not concern her.
"I've no comment too.' The fair man nodded and proceeded to speak, "But I suggest that we only talk about the details after we've captured the current sacrifice target before capturing Lin Xie. Our main focus should be on the current sacrifice now. After all, the current target isn't even an easy one."
"Sure, so we're set on the next sacrifice. We'll talk about the details again. That's all for today." Zhong Liyan stood up as soon as he was finished. He held his fist and placed it on his heart confidently. "Glory to the Lord!"
The rest stood up immediately and posed the same way. "Glory to the Lord!"
…
Lin Huang had no idea about what happened at all. Even if he did, he would not take it to heart.
He had been practicing his demigod-level sword skills while Bai and the rest were hunting since he had nothing else to do.
There were at least tens of thousands of hornets' nests on the Stairway Tree's checkpoint 56. At their speed, they could clear 40 to 50 nests within an hour if they tried hard enough. Even if they hunted for 24 hours without stopping, they could clear just over 1,000 nests a day at the most. Moreover, the Stairway Tree would refresh the monsters every day. After clearing 1,000 hornets' nests today, another 1,000 nests would appear out of nowhere tomorrow. They could never clear all of the hornets' nests.
Lin Huang was only planning on killing the monsters as he made his way up as he just wanted the points.
After spending over an hour killing Combat Hornetdemons, Bai and the rest had killed more than millions of monsters in total.
The three new God Figurines' Combat Souls in Lin Huang's body had finally elevated to imperial-level black gold-rank. His points had surpassed 800 million and were close to one billion.
However, Bloody spoke through voice transmission while smiling all of a sudden, "The hornet queen has noticed the unusualness and is coming our way." Bloody projected a surveillance image as it spoke.
In the projected image, there was a conglomerate of hundreds of hornets' nests with up to tens of millions of Combat Hornetdemons sweeping like locusts.
There were over 300 Combat Hornetdemons in the middle of the swamp of hornets that were clearly different from the rest.
Their size was much smaller whereby the length of their bodies was only five to six meters. Meanwhile, most parts of their body were golden and they looked much more elegant.
However, one should not underestimate those Combat Hornetdemons that seemed a little different. They were the hornet queen's guardians. Each of them had combat strength of peak immortal-level rank-9 and all of them were triple mutated. They were not afraid of death when they battled and they had distinguished abilities.
There was a huge hornet queen in the middle of the hornet guardians. She was much bigger than an ordinary Combat Hornetdemon. Her body was more than 100 meters long. While the top part of her abdomen looked normal, ger bottom looked extremely swollen. She looked eight to nine months pregnant.
In addition to that, it could not fly, so it depended on the 200 hornet guardians carrying it. The remaining 100 or so hornet guardians were responsible for the safety around it.
"It has to be carried when it's out. How high and mighty!" Lin Huang teased while grinning.
Chapter 934: Fight!
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Fight!
Seven to eight months ago, Lin Huang did not have the absolute confidence to break through checkpoint 56 since Bai and the rest of his imperial monsters were only on immortal-level rank-9. They would have to bypass the hornet queen and her guardians if they encountered them and try to avoid them as much as they could.
However, Lin Huang's personal combat strength was on immortal-level rank-7 now while all of his imperial monsters had elevated to imperial-level crimson gold-rank which was two ranks above the hornet queen and her guardians. There were seven God Figurines' Combat Souls Lin Huang's body, four of which had a combat strength of imperial-level white gold-rank. They were practically invincible.
Even though the hornet queen and the hornet guardians were advancing with an army of tens of millions of Combat Hornetdemons, they were just free meat to Lin Huang now. He even wanted the hornet queen to bring her entire army. If that happened, the God Figurines' Combat Souls in his body might elevate to imperial-level purple gold-rank without him even using a demigod soul crystal.
"I love those monsters who have self-awareness and lay themselves across my doorstep." Lin Huang grinned as he watched the majestic Combat Hornetdemon army that Bloody projected. "This is going to save so much of my time!"
"In reality, Chan Dou could only run away if he was to encounter such a large-scale bug horde." Even Bloody could not help but pity the hornet queen. "Too bad the hornet queen has made an enemy out of us."
Although there was a massive amount of Combat Hornetdemons coming, Lin Huang's imperial monsters had the upper hand.
One of the reasons for the one-sidedness was the suppression of combat strength. The Combat Hornetdemons could not even break the defenses of Bai and the rest. The other reason was that Lin Huang had an endless supply of Life Power, giving his imperial monsters infinite strength to show their trump cards without having to worry about straining themselves.
If Bai and the rest had their hands tied, Lin Huang would get his God Figurines' Combat Souls to fight. This bug horde were dead fishes on his chopping board. There was no way for them to turn the tables around.
The hornet queen was coming close to where Lin Huang was at with her Combat Hornetdemon army. There were Combat Hornetdemons streaming out of the hornets' nests along the way, joining the army.
Around half an hour later, the hornet queen finally arrived. The Combat Hornetdemon army had grown from 10 million to 50 million along the way.
Watching the arrival of the bug horde, Lin Huang recalled all of the Monster Cards that were fighting out there in a relaxed manner. He then summoned the monsters who were more suitable for mass battling.
"This horde should earn me tens of billions of points."
The Combat Hornetdemons did not attack right away without the hornet queen's order. Instead, they opened a path, letting the hornet guardians escort their queen out.
Lin Huang did not rush into things since the hornet queen did not attack immediately. He wanted to know what she was up to.
After being escorted out by the hornet guardians like it was sitting atop a mini hill, the hornet queen first glanced through the summoning beasts before Lin Huang with its compound eyes before finally resting them on Lin Huang.
"Human, if I'm not mistaken, these imperial-level monsters should be your summoning beasts, am I right?" A voice came into Lin Huang's ears out of nowhere. She sounded like a matured lady.
"Yes. Is there a problem?" Lin Huang raised his brow, surprised that the hornet queen had spoken. It was the first local monster that had ever vocalized anything among all the 56 checkpoints Lin Huang had been on.
"Your summoning beasts killed many of my children just now. How do you want to settle this?" The hornet queen asked.
"How do you want to settle this?" Lin Huang asked her back.
"There's a human phrase that goes 'a murderer must pay with his life'. Give your summoning beasts to us, then we'll forget about what you did. To remedy the loss of your summoning beasts, I'll give you a pass through checkpoint 56." The hornet queen named her request.
"What if I don't agree to that?" Lin Huang asked.
"I admit your summoning beasts are very powerful but do you really think your dozen summoning beasts are a match for my million-strong army? You must be dreaming then!" The hornet queen cackled and reminded Lin Huang, "You must know that there's an end to one's Life Power even if you're an imperial-level purple gold-rank powerhouse."
"The reason why you didn't attack immediately is that you sensed my imperial-level aura and you daren't be hasty. You're negotiating terms with me calmly because you know you'll lose badly if you fight me since you found out that all of my summoning beasts are imperial-level crimson gold-rank powerhouses. You just want to take my trump cards that can fight you away, so you're advising me to surrender my summoning beasts as well as offering me a pass through the checkpoint. As soon as I agree to that and give you my summoning beasts, you'll definitely break your promise right away and kill me.
"In reality, the terms that you gave aren't convincing to me at all. I don't need your permission to pass through checkpoint 56 of this Stairway Tree. Also, I've been waiting for your great Combat Hornetdemon army for a long time. I won't have to waste my imperial monsters' time to go for the nests one by one since you've brought them over. You've saved much of my time and I really want to thank you for that."
"Outrageous!" The hornet queen was completely enraged even before Lin Huang was done speaking.
He did not take the hornet queen or her Combat Hornetdemon army seriously.
"Since you're rejecting my kind advice, then we'll fight! When all of your Life Power has been drained, I'll inject a toxin into you myself and watch you die slowly!" The hornet guardians retreated while carrying the hornet queen as soon as she was done speaking. The sea of Combat Hornetdemons was charging at Lin Huang like a wave.
Meanwhile, Lin Huang shouted at the hornet queen that was already drowned out by the hornets, "I forgot to tell you one thing. Indeed, an imperial-level purple gold-rank would have his Life Power drained, but not me!"
As soon as Lin Huang declared that, Bai and the rest began fighting with the Combat Hornetdemons.
The Warlord could finally release all of his mechanical army without holding back. His 300,000-strong mechanical army fired violently and the Combat Hornetdemons fell onto the ground without having the strength to fight back at all.
It was an imperial-level crimson gold-rank mechanical army after all. Even an imperial-level yellow gold-rank powerhouse would have to avoid them, let alone the Combat Hornetdemons that were only on immortal-level. The tremendous mechanical army was like a gigantic meat grinder on the battlefield. Everything was killed wherever it passed by.
Apart from the Warlord, Bloody finally controlled its parasitic armies to battle. One of the parasitic armies was made of tens of thousands of triple mutated immortal-level rank-9 monsters while another consisted of thousands of imperial-level monsters. Bloody named them his immortal army and his imperial army.
Under the battle formations, the two armies turned into two enormous beasts that rampaged among the bugs. They were invincible.
Meanwhile, Charcoal's killing speed was nothing slower than Bloody's armies. Even the imperial-level yellow gold-rank monsters dared not touch its Dragon Flames. The immortal-level Combat Hornetdemons died as soon as they came in contact with the flames. Unfortunately for the Combat Hornetdemons, they were like moths drawn to flames and turned into dust one after another.
Bing Wang fought with all he had as well. The land turned into ice wherever he passed while countless Combat Hornetdemons turned into crystal-clear ice sculptures.
As Bloody Robe's red robes fluttered, volcanoes appeared out of thin air one after another. Fiery lava was spreading everywhere like water and all of the Combat Hornetdemons were drowned everywhere the lava flowed.
Thunder, on the other hand, flapped its wings while a ferocious gleam sparkled in its eyes. Gray thunder clouds were forming in the sky rapidly and they soon covered half of the sky. Countless purple lightning bolts struck like punishment raining from God, taking out countless Combat Hornetdemons.
Lancelot and the Sword Dominator unleashed their Sword Manipulation to the peak, making countless swords fly among the bugs. The Combat Hornetdemons were pierced one after another continuously.
Grimace was doing a similar thing whereby he was controlling the telekinetic flying daggers to destroy the enemies at lightning speed. His speed was nothing less than Lancelot's.
Meanwhile, the Imp summoned meteorites that fell one after another rapidly like nuclear explosions.
The thumb-sized Eclipse Boa opened its mouth which was like a bottomless black hole. Many Combat Hornetdemons lost control of their bodies and were sucked into its mouth. The Combat Hornetdemons were shrinking at an alarming speed and eventually, they turned into black spots that were the size of sesame seeds before they were eaten.
The Malachian Fiend used Megamorth to boost his body to hundreds of meters tall. It walked around among the bugs like a massive tank.
The Herculean King regained his original size of over 2,000 meters tall. He was a few times bigger than the Malachian Fiend and could kill a bunch of Combat Hornetdemons with one single slap.
Tyrant, who had regained its original size, was more than 20,000 meters tall. Even the great, lush mountain became a tiny slope before him. It was Lin Huang's first time seeing Tyrant's original size since it became triple mutated. Many Combat Hornetdemons were smashed into powder as soon as he stomped his feet.
Bai also held nothing back at all. He had fallen into a frenzy. There was a layer of bloody mist surrounding his entire body. The bloody mist had vine-like tentacles extending out of it and they pierced through the Combat Hornetdemons one by one. The attacked hornets' bodies soon shriveled up as if any liquid in them had been sucked dry. Meanwhile, the bloody mist around Bai's body was getting thicker and its coverage was getting wider. More and more tentacles extended out of the bloody mist.
Chapter 935: The Hornet Queen's New Order
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Lin Huang's points saw a hike by tens of folds on the Stairway Tree leaderboard ever since the hornet queen arrived with her army.
Bloody and the rest fought with all their might as soon as the imperial monsters were replaced with those that were great in mass killing. They had no concern about draining their Life Power. Naturally, their killing speed was faster than before.
Lin Huang's points were rising by 300 to 400 million per minute on the Stairway Tree leaderboard.
The countless Genius Union members who were online were dumbstruck as they watched the numbers fly by.
"What's happening? His points have risen by close to 400 million within a minute!"
"It must be a system malfunction! Maybe Lin Xie's points increased too quickly, causing the Stairway Tree leaderboard to become faulty."
"The tens million points per minute earlier was scary enough and now it's a few hundred million per minute, so was he warming up just now?"
"He has to be cheating! Even if all the monsters that he's killing on checkpoint 56 are on immortal-level rank-9, 400 million points would be somewhere around 156,000 monsters if we're talking about 2,560 points for each monster. How could anyone possibly kill 150,000 monsters within a minute?!"
However, the truth was that there were more immortal-level rank-7 monsters in the Combat Hornetdemon army while there were only some on immortal-level rank-9. Lin Huang's imperial monster army was killing more than 500,000 monsters a minute.
Lin Huang had no idea that the surge of his points had become a hot topic among everyone in the Genius Union once again.
Compared to before, most of the people thought his speed this time was fake because it was just extremely unusual.
Hence, many people reported Lin Huang this time.
In the Heaven Alliance residence on checkpoint 63 of the Stairway Tree, Chan Dou had been following Lin Huang's progress in points. He figured what happened roughly.
"His points are skyrocketing once again. I suppose he encountered the bug army led by the hornet queen!"
"This Lin Xie dares to fight on just like that. One must know that it's a bug horde consisting of tens of millions of Combat Hornetdemons." Chan Dou was sure that he himself would not have such guts. It might be difficult for him to escape as soon as he was drowned by the bug horde. Even if he had an ancient armor relic, each attack would drain his Life Power and he would be dead if his Life Power was completely exhausted.
"The Combat Hornetdemons on checkpoint 56 are just on high-level immortal-level. Obtaining 300 to 400 million points each minute would mean that he'd have to kill 400,000 to 500,000 Combat Hornetdemons per minute. His speed of killing is just terrifying! How the hell is he doing it?!" Chan Dou did not think that Lin Huang was cheating, but he could not figure out how he was achieving that.
The high management of the Hong Alliance and the other organizations were having the same doubts.
They also roughly figured that Lin Huang was fighting with the hornet queen on checkpoint 56 of the Stairway Tree. However, they could not figure out how Lin Huang had managed to achieve such a killing speed no matter how hard they cracked their heads.
Meanwhile, the battle was on-going at checkpoint 56 of the Stairway Tree.
The Combat Hornetdemons were dying by batches just like moths drawn to a flame. It was tragic and devastating.
The hornet queen that was sure that it would win in the beginning was completely dumbstruck as it watched the performance of Lin Huang's summoning beasts. They seemed to have cheat codes in them whereby they threw their trump cards continuously as if their Life Power cost them nothing.
"Is he giving it his all since he knows he can't run?" The hornet queen could not understand that but she pitied its children.
Even she had to admit that the speed of Lin Huang's summoning beasts was terrifying. Over 500,000 of its children were dying every minute.
Looking at the rate things were going, the 50 million-strong army would be decimated within an hour and a half.
However, the hornet queen had no plan of retreating at all. "I want to see how long you guys can take it!"
As time went by, she began to regret a little.
The battle had been one-sided since the beginning. Initially, she thoughts she had the upper hand in numbers whereby she could drain Lin Huang and his summoning beasts' Life Power. As soon as their Life Power was drained, that would spell death for Lin Huang and the rest. How could she have known that those summoning beasts were still fighting with all their might after 20 minutes had passed as if their Life Power was endless?
"Can their Life Power really be infinite?" Suddenly, the hornet queen thought of what Lin Huang said earlier. "Indeed, an imperial-level purple gold-rank would have their Life Power drained but not me!"
The thought only stayed in the hornet queen's head for a flash before it was forgotten. "How is it possible for one to have endless Life Power? There must be a limit no matter how much Life Power one has!"
With that thought, the hornet queen chose to fight Lin Huang head-on. "I don't believe I can't drain all of your Life Power!"
Soon, another 20 minutes passed by. Lin Huang's summoning beasts were having fun throwing their trumps cards like before. None of them looked tired.
The hornet queen was finally shaken.
Among the 50 million Combat Hornetdemons that she had brought, more than 20 millions of them had been killed, which was almost half of them.
"Could their Life Power really be endless?"
Lin Huang had been hovering mid-air, not involving himself in the battle from the beginning. Bloody did not let any of the Combat Hornetdemons go, so there was no chance for Lin Huang to fight at all.
The 40 minutes that had passed not only boosted his points on the Stairway Tree leaderboard, but the combat strength of the three new God Figurines' Combat Souls in his body elevated to imperial-level yellow gold-rank.
Initially, he thought the three new God Figurines' Combat Souls would only get to imperial-level yellow gold-rank after receiving sufficient spiritual energy when he reached checkpoint 63 of the Stairway Tree. How could he have thought that he would achieve it earlier than expected?
Noticing that the hornet queen had given him a massive gift, Lin Huang could not help but begin to like her even now.
"Now, it doesn't seem as ugly as it was before. Maybe this hornet queen's the type whereby the more you look at it, the prettier she becomes!"
However, the hornet queen felt the complete opposite about Lin Huang.
In the beginning, she thought Lin Huang and his summoning beasts were just sitting ducks. She thought that by just sacrificing some Combat Hornetdemons, she would drain this human and his summoning beasts to their deaths sooner or later.
Unfortunately, now, she was tempted to retreat with its remaining army.
If Lin Huang's summoning beasts were to proceed to kill like this, the 50 million Combat Hornetdemons that she brought would be destroyed completely within an hour.
"No, I can't let them kill like this!" The hornet queen was panicking and her eyes soon stared at Lin Huang who had yet to fight since the start. The intent to kill was rising in her eyes.
As long as he died, his summoning beasts would be gone too! 1
As she thought about this, the hornet queen communicated with the hornet guardians secretly, issuing an order to assassin Lin Huang.
The 100 or so hornet guardians formed a team and scattered away. They rejoined the battle from all directions as individual hornet guardians.
They looked like they were new additions to the battlefield on the surface, but in reality, they were targeting Lin Huang. The hornet guardians hid among the bugs and approached him stealthily.
Chapter 936: Congratulations, You've Passed Through the 56th Checkpoint!
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Of course, Lin Huang could clearly see what the hornet guardians had done.
The radius of his territory had expanded to seven kilometers, so he could sense everything that happened within the region covered by his territory.
The odd movements of the hundreds of hornet guardians were visible like lights in dark.
Bloody, who was in charge of the overall situation, noticed that as well. Just as it was about to instruct the army of puppets to launch an attack, Lin Huang stopped it.
"Let them come. It's time for me to practice with my sword." Lin Huang chuckled. "If you aren't going to give them any chances, the hornet queen might bail out and escape with the team."
As soon as Bloody heard what he said, he reluctantly allowed a few of the hornet guardians to enter.
Although it knew that Lin Huang had terrifying abilities, only three of them were allowed to enter.
Right after they managed to break through their defense, they rushed towards Lin Huang who was ever ready to fight.
Both parties were locked in the battle and it was an interesting fight.
All the hornet guardians were on immortal-level rank-9 and had completed their third mutations. In fact, they were not weak at all. They were just slightly weaker compared to the Herculean King when it was on immortal-level rank-9.
When Lin Huang had been on immortal-level rank-1, he was capable of fighting an immortal-level rank-9. Since he was currently on immortal-level rank-7, in addition to his Sword Dao achieving Level-6, he could even fight a yellow gold-rank. He was capable of killing a crimson gold-rank with ease.
It seemed like they were locked in a fight. However, he was just practicing his sword skills with them.
He was afraid that if all the hornet guardians were killed within seconds, the hornet queen would bail out of the battle.
Watching Lin Huang being engaged in an intense fight from afar, the hornet queen was worried but felt exhilarated.
She was worried because the hornet guardians failed to attack Lin Huang and they were unable to kill the human Imperial Censor. However, she was smug that the Imperial Censor was not that strong and they might probably win the fight.
However, the fight was miserable for the few hornet guardians. They could tell how powerful he was. His sword controlled them and they became his puppets. The only thing they could do was follow the movements of his sword skills. Otherwise, they would die in the next second.
Their opponent seemed to have isolated them from the outside world whereby they were unable to contact the hornet queen to report their actual situation.
Bloody then allowed more hornet guardians to enter. Lin Huang only let himself be surrounded by about three hornet guardians. If there were more than that, he would begin to take them out.
The hornet queen then panicked while the number of Combat Hornetdemons reduced drastically every minute as they were slaughtered by Bai and the rest of the imperial monsters.
The people seemed to have gotten used to the rapidly increasing points on the leaderboard of the Stairway Tree.
Lin Xie's points increased by about 300 million every minute and the growth in his points lasted for an hour. The total points which he had accumulated exceeded 20 billion.
What could 20 billion points buy?
The price of a god relic or a god item would start from 10 billion points in the Stairway Mall. Lin Xie's current points were sufficient to exchange for two basic god items or god relics!
The slaughter continued on the 56th checkpoint of the Stairway Tree.
Hundreds of hornet guardians that attacked Lin Huang were killed. The hornet queen then realized that she was being fooled by the human.
Among the 300 hornet guardians, a third of them had died. Initially, there were 50 million Combat Hornetdemons, but about 30 million of them were killed.
The hornet queen then knew that it would lose the fight.
The Life Power of her opponent's imperial monsters was inexhaustible. They could unleash their powerful skills with ease. Moreover, the difference in the combat strength between them was too huge. They were unable to break through the defense as their opponent was extremely strong. If it persisted, 50 million Combat Hornetdemons would eventually be killed.
Although she was annoyed, the hornet queen soon managed to calm down.
A peculiar buzz from the hornet queen could be heard. Soon after, there was a sudden change in the formation of the Combat Hornetdemons.
Millions of Combat Hornetdemons got into a defensive position and many of the Combat Hornetdemons began to move backward, heading towards the hornet queen.
"They're about to retreat!" Bloody, who was monitoring the situation of the battle all the while, immediately noticed that something was off. It knew what the hornet queen's intention was.
"Do you want to retreat? It's not that easy!" Lin Huang glowered. "Bloody, parasitize them!"
After receiving Lin Huang's instruction, millions of Leech Pods were cast on the Combat Hornetdemons' bodies.
The Combat Hornetdemons that were parasitized began to attack their companions all of a sudden. In an instant, the army of Combat Hornetdemons was in chaos.
Just as the hornet queen wondered what was happening, one of the Leech Pods had secretly parasitized her body. She could immediately sense it and the Leech Pod was quickly destroyed.
"Eh?!"
Bloody was shocked when it failed to parasitize the hornet queen. Soon, it noticed that the hornet queen could probably be a pseudo-mythical-level monster.
It transformed into a purple glow and secretly appeared on top of the hornet queen. Before she could respond, a tentacle was extended towards her head.
The hornet queen struggled for a while. Soon, a purple glow flashed through her eyes. She saw Bloody but did not launch an attack.
Opening her mouth wide, a buzz could be heard again.
A massive amount of bugs soon flipped out and began to bite their companions.
20 million Combat Hornetdemons were all exterminated in less than 10 minutes.
The efficiency of Bloody's parasitizing could be compared to the fight by the rest of the imperial monsters that took half an hour.
Again, Lin Huang witnessed how terrifying the Leech Pods were.
After the battle, only the hornet queen that was being parasitized by Bloody remained alive. All the hornet guardians had died and none of them managed to survive the battle. None of the living beings could leave the Stairway Tree.
"Do you want to let the hornet queen gather more Combat Hornetdemons?" Bloody did not kill the hornet queen because it wanted to ask Lin Huang whether if he still wanted to collect points.
Just as Lin Huang nodded his head in agreement to earn more, the Emperor's Heart Ring that he was wearing suddenly vibrated and he received a pop-up notification.
"Congratulations, Lin Xie, you've passed checkpoint 56!"
Lin Huang frowned. The Stairway Tree could not take it any longer and allowed him to complete that checkpoint. That being said, he could no longer get any rewards if he were to stay at checkpoint 56.
Of course, Bloody saw the notification. It then laughed. "It seems like that's just too much."
"We've just collected about 30 billion points." Lin Huang pouted.
"It's okay. There are checkpoints with monsters later on," Bloody assured. Not far away from them, the hornet queen's head exploded. The headless corpse soon collapsed into bits and disappeared.
Since nobody could take a living puppet away from this place, there was no need to keep it alive.
Lin Huang was upset because he did not receive any notification that he had obtained a complete set of monster cards. "It's too bad that I can't get a complete set of monster cards from the hornet queen."
If he happened to obtain a complete set of monster cards, Lin Huang might have trained it. Since the hornet queen was a pseudo-mythical-level monster, she could form an army of Combat Hornetdemons.
It took them more than an hour to butcher 50 million Combat Hornetdemons. The three new God Figurine's Combat Souls in Lin Huang's body were nurtured by a large amount of spiritual energy and all of them upgraded to white gold-rank. Lin Huang decided to insert the remaining spiritual energy into the Ninetails Lynx's body. However, it was not sufficient for the Ninetails Lynx to advance to purple gold-rank.
Lin Huang's points on the Stairway tree leaderboard finally stopped increasing.
Chapter 937: I Feel Like Kicking Him Out!
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Lin Huang did not expect to be expelled from checkpoint 56 by the Stairway Tree.
However, as he thought about it carefully, there was nothing strange about it. The Stairway Tree became out of balance due to his existence.
Other than the demigods, none of them could fight 50 million immortal-level rank-9 monsters, not even a purple gold-rank would be able to do so.
The combat strength of the members of the Genius Union was restricted to immortal-level rank-9. As for immortal-level rank-9s, even a supreme genius like Chan Dou could only fight a yellow gold-rank at his best.
Having Lin Huang in the Genius Union was like the existence of a programming error.
If it were not because of his combat strength only being on immortal-level rank-7, he would have long been expelled from the Genius Union.
Since he could no longer earn any rewards on checkpoint 56, Lin Huang did not stay there any longer. Recalling Bai and the rest, he then summoned the Herculean King and continued to climb.
What he did not know was that he stirred issues up again as soon as his Stairway Tree points stopped increasing.
On the leaderboard, Lin Xie who ranked first had accumulated more than 35 billion points.
"Take a look at Lin Xie's points. They've stopped increasing!"
"The points have stopped increasing. Did the system just lock it because he cheated?"
Just as the majority of them thought that Lin Huang's points had been locked, the points that he had accumulated changed. However, only the last four digits changed.
That then put a stop to these rumors.
The change in points was because the Herculean King had encountered a lonely Combat Hornetdemon as it climbed up and gave it a hard smack.
After a short while, people noticed that the checkpoint where Lin Huang was at had changed.
"Lin Xie has gotten to checkpoint 57!"
After less than five minutes, again, there was a change in the checkpoint where he was.
"He's on checkpoint 58 now!" Many of them were amazed.
"He managed to break through checkpoint 57 in less than five minutes!"
He now encountered the Devil Swamp on checkpoint 57 of the Stairway Tree. Most people had to be extra careful when they reached this checkpoint. Since creatures from the outside were not allowed to fly when they were on the Stairway Tree, they would sink if they happened to step into the swamp. The swamp had a very strong magnetic force and could engulf humans. Moreover, most of the plants in the swamp had offensive abilities and would attempt to attack the humans who tried to get through that checkpoint.
Normally, in order to get through this checkpoint, one would have to carefully look for a landing point and be cautious of each step they took.
However, Lin Huang aggressively summoned the Herculean King straight away. An ice road was built in the middle of the swamp.
Under normal circumstances, if humans attempted to pave the road this way, it would be destroyed by the plants around. However, the Herculean King was on crimson gold-rank. The ice it made caused the plants surrounding it to freeze-up. Right until the Herculean King and Lin Huang had left checkpoint 57, the plants on both sides had not thawed. In fact, even if these plants did not freeze up, it would be difficult for them to destroy the ice road that had been paved by Herculean King.
Checkpoint 58 was also a checkpoint with monsters. The Mutated Serpent occupied this checkpoint.
More than half a year ago, when Lin Huang was in the Secret Forest, he had encountered this monster.
The Mutated Serpent was a very special type of serpentine monster which would undergo a genetic mutation once in its early phase of life. This mutation caused each of them to be very different from the rest of the Mutated Serpents. Some of them were huge, some could secrete toxin, some were extremely fast, and there were even those that had control over elemental forces. Even twins would be completely different after the mutation.
As for ordinary humans, they would have a headache if they encountered monsters like these because before the Mutated Serpent launched any attack, they would have no idea what abilities it would possess at all.
However, Lin Huang did not mind whether he knew what their abilities were or not since he was capable of defeating them.
When he got to the 58th checkpoint, Lin Huang summoned Bai and the rest of the imperial monsters again. Then, he instructed them to hunt separately.
The reason why he entered the Stairway Tree this round was not to obtain points. His main purpose was to obtain spiritual energy because one could rarely find a place with a dense monster distribution in the real world. Due to limited resources, most of the monsters on holy fire-level and above would not live in groups. Apart from the monster horde from which Lin Huang could obtain spiritual energy, he could hardly find anywhere else he could gather spiritual energy in such a convenient way.
Therefore, even though he was kicked out of checkpoint 56, he still decided to hunt for monsters as soon as he reached checkpoint 58. He did not mind being kicked out again after this wave of the monster horde as the Stairway Tree had no way of overriding the spiritual energy which he had obtained.
Bai and the 13 other imperial monsters left, guided by Bloody. They then began to look for the lair of the Mutated Serpent.
The living habits of the Mutated Serpent on the 58th checkpoint were somewhat similar to that of the Combat Hornetdemons on checkpoint 56. Tens of thousands of Mutated Serpents formed a group, digging a huge serpents' den underground. They lived and multiplied together.
There might be about 20,000 Mutated Serpents in the smaller den while there could be about 200,000 of them living together in the larger den. The capacity of the underground serpents' den was much larger than that of the Combat Hornetdemons'.
Following Bloody's instructions, Bai and the rest sneaked into the serpents' den and wiped them out.
On the leaderboard, Lin Xie's points began to rise again.
Seeing Lin Xie's points increasing again, the members of the Genius Union who were online had gotten used to it by now.
"Do whatever makes you happy since we're just the audience." That was what ran across most of their minds.
While Lin Huang continued obtaining points on checkpoint 58, the Genius Union finally responded to the reports that were made.
A message was instantly sent to everybody's communication devices.
"Since many of you have raised your objections to the rise in Lin Xie's points and have reported him for cheating, the union has repeatedly looked into this matter. From the final results of the investigation, it turns out that Lin Xie did not cheat. Lin Xie managed to obtain a massive amount of points because he killed all the monsters in a proper way. The data of the points are valid and they aren't false data.
"Other than that, many members have suspected that there could've been a system glitch. The system has been both self and externally inspected. The final inspection results show that there's nothing wrong with the system of the Stairway Tree. Please take note of the above."
As soon as the message was received, the Genius Union members began to kick a fuss about it.
"F*ck! He isn't cheating even though he has collected hundreds of millions of points in a minute?! How strong can Lin Xie be?!"
"Lin Xie isn't cheating and there aren't any system glitches. The conclusion is that Lin Xie is cool!"
"Is Lin Xie the son of the Genius Union?"
"He might be an investor of the Genius Union."
If there were human emotions in the Genius Union system, their inner voice might have been saying, "Lin Xie's playing by the rules. What can I do? I'm in despair! He has almost ruined the system!! Damn it, I feel like kicking him out!"
Chapter 938: The Stairway Tree's New Rules
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The Mutated Serpents were densely distributed in the underground serpents' den. It made it much easier for Bai and the rest to perform the slaughter. Their efficiency was much higher than when they were trying to clear the hornets' nest.
Despite the fact that it could not be compared to their efficiency during the arrival of the army of Combat Hornetdemons, Lin Huang managed to earn about 50 million Stairway Tree points every minute.
If they were to go further up to checkpoint 58, the next checkpoint with monsters would be checkpoint 61.
However, considering that there were not that many Luna Beasts on checkpoint 61, Lin Huang did not choose to pass checkpoint 58 and go further up. Instead, he decided to stay on this checkpoint and continue hunting for monsters.
It lasted for more than seven hours until the sky turned dark. The system did not force Lin Huang to leave either.
Bai and the rest had killed more than 40 million Mutated Serpents in the last seven hours. The total Stairway Tree points Lin Huang had gained had increased by more than 25 billion. However, despite a large amount of spiritual energy being inserted into the Ninetails Lynx's God Figurine, still, it did not manage to level-up to purple gold-rank.
"According to its progress, it seems like if I were to upgrade a God Figurine from white gold-rank to purple gold-rank by absorbing spiritual energy alone, it's going to take up to hundreds of millions of points." Lin Huang knew that the spiritual energy required by God Figurine would increase later on. However, he was surprised by the consumption of a purple gold-rank. "That being said, there are nine Combat Souls and I'll need to kill at least 900 million high-level immortal-level monsters. However, that's only an upgrade from a white gold-rank to a purple gold-rank. The consumption by one rank up…"
Right while Lin Huang was secretly calculating this, Bloody's voice was suddenly heard. "The sky is turning dark soon. Shall we go offline? Or shall we deal with the next wave of monsters?"
"Let's stay for the next wave of monsters." Lin Huang raised his head, gazing at the sky. In fact, dusk was falling and it would probably turn completely dark in less than half an hour. "Let's make it through the night. We go further up tomorrow and there's no need to stay on the 61st checkpoint. The Luna Beasts aren't densely distributed there and it's going to waste a lot of our effort. Let's go straight up to checkpoint 63. We can then go offline and rest."
"Alright!"
Bloody did not mind at all since its combat strength was already on imperial-level. There would not be much effect on it even if they were not going to sleep for months. It had asked so because Lin Huang would sleep every day and rarely stayed up all night.
The main reason why Lin Huang did not like to stay up all night was that he had gotten used to pulling all-nighters when he was on Earth.
However, it would be fine for Lin Huang to stay awake for one night. If an ordinary person did not sleep for the whole night, one would only feel tired the next day. An immortal-level might probably feel tired after not sleeping for a month, but they would definitely feel nothing after staying awake for the entire night for a day.
After 6 p.m., the sky gradually turned dark.
The members of the Genius Union had either gone offline or returned to their stopping point on the Stairway Tree.
However, Lin Huang stayed on checkpoint 58. Seeing the images Bloody projected, the monster horde was about to begin. He had recalled all the monster cards and quickly returned to the starting point of checkpoint 58. He then summoned all the imperial monsters that were adept at killing in a group, patiently waiting for the arrival of the monster horde.
At about 6.30 p.m., it was pitch black. That was when the monster horde appeared!
On the 58th checkpoint of the Stairway Tree, all the Mutated Serpents that were hiding underground during the daytime swarmed out, heading towards checkpoint 55.
After several moments, the first wave of Mutated Serpents bumped into Lin Huang.
Because Lin Huang the rest were blocking their way, they triggered the Mutated Serpents' rage. They could clearly sense human aura which they really despised.
Sensing the existence of Lin Huang, the Mutated Serpents went berserk and pounced towards him. However, before they could approach him, they fell into a variety of traps set by Ghastly.
Although the imperial monsters had yet to launch an attack, all the Mutated Serpents were trapped and died on the spot.
The Mutated Serpents had no fear at all. Instead, they became more aggressive and dove for them.
The effect of Ghastly's trap was quite impressive. Since there were a limited number of traps, they were all used up very soon.
Bai and the rest finally launched an attack and began their slaughter.
The abilities of the Mutated Serpents on checkpoint 58 were not as strong as that of the Combat Hornetdemons that occupied checkpoint 56. The only difference was that they possessed a wide variety of skills. When they encountered Bai and the rest that were on crimson gold-rank, it was a one-sided fight.
The arrival of the monster horde led to a sudden rise in Lin Huang's points. His performance had reached its peak as if he was on checkpoint 56 again. His points increased by about 300 million every minute.
"I wonder how long the system of the Stairway Tree will allow me to earn points. According to the speed of Bai and the rest, if I'm allowed to hunt until the next morning, I'll obtain about 200 billion Stairway Tree points. Moreover, at least three or four of my God Figurines will elevate to purple gold-rank."
Just as Lin Huang did his calculations, he could vaguely feel that things would not go so smoothly. He knew that he had already disrupted the balance of the system.
If the Genius Union allowed him to collect 200 billion points a day, perhaps he would be able to earn sufficient points to buy all the gold relics and god items at the Stairway Mall very soon.
Lin Huang could confirm that the Stairway Tree system would do something to restrict him. However, before a restriction rule was triggered, he would surely earn as many points as he could!
With this thought in mind, Lin Huang continued to hunt for monsters gleefully.
He did not know that other than the Heaven Alliance, the Divine Alliance, and hundreds of other organizations had requested to restrict the points Lin Xie could earn.
According to them, even though Lin Xie did not cheat, the number of points which he had earned had caused the Stairway Tree system to tip out of balance. If Lin Xie was allowed to collect hundreds of billions of points a day, it simply meant that he could own everything available at the Stairway Mall. It was unfair to the rest of the members!
A few of Lin Xie's "criminal evidence" had been provided in the joint request, stating that it would lead to serious consequences.
Chan Dou who was from the Heaven Alliance would, of course, receive the message as well. He made another request on behalf of the Heaven Alliance. However, he knew that it would not help much because Lin Xie did really cause the Stairway Tree system to go out of balance. Even if the people from the Divine Alliance did not bring this issue up, the Stairway Tree system would still put a limit on Lin Xie. It was just a matter of time.
Lin Huang was allowed to accumulate points freely for about five hours and by then, his Stairway Tree points had increased by more than 110 billion. The number of Mutated Serpents and Luna Beasts Bai and the rest had killed during the monster horde had exceeded 200 million monsters. Lin Huang managed to collect a large amount of spiritual energy and he could finally upgrade the Ninetails Lynx and the Destructive Divine Mammoth from white gold-rank to purple gold-rank.
However, at midnight sharp, an announcement suddenly popped up on Lin Huang's communication device.
"Announcement: two new rules have been added to the Stairway Tree system.
"One, the maximum number of points allowed to be collected on each checkpoint is limited to 100 billion. Once the number of points accumulated on each checkpoint has reached its limit, the member will be able to get through the checkpoint. The member won't receive any further rewards on that checkpoint.
"Two, each member is only allowed to collect a maximum of 10 billion points a day. Regardless of which checkpoint on the Stairway Tree and what methods have been used to collect the Stairway Tree points, each member is only allowed to collect 10 billion points at the most. Once the member has collected more than 10 billion points, the member will not be rewarded any longer on that particular checkpoint on the Stairway Tree."
Lin Huang immediately checked the points he had collected as soon as he saw the two new rules being implemented. He was afraid that out of all the points he earned that day, he would only be rewarded 10 billion. Soon, he was relieved when he saw that there were no changes in the points he had accumulated. Apparently, the points which he had obtained before the new rules were introduced would not be impacted.
Although it was within his expectations, Lin Huang was still depressed. "Why are they being so mean? Only 10 billion points are allowed in a day? I can only play for half an hour!"
Chapter 939: Arriving at the 63rd Checkpoint
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
As soon as the new Stairway Tree's rules were imposed, everybody at the Genius Union was excited. They all knew that this rule was made because of Lin Xie.
Other than Lin Xie, nobody could possibly collect 10 billion points in a day in the Genius Union. Perhaps only Lin Xie could earn 100 billion points on one checkpoint.
Although there seemed to be only two new rules, he was actually highly restricted.
Not each of the checkpoints would have monsters. Going up 10 checkpoints further from checkpoint 58, only checkpoints 61, 63, and 67 had monsters there.
That being said, including checkpoint 58, if Lin Huang were to earn points by killing monsters, he could only gather 400 billion points at the most. In addition to only earning 10 billion points a day, that indicated that it would take him 40 days to gather 400 billion points.
If he were not being restricted, he would only need two nights to gather 400 billion points.
When the new rules were announced, the Divine Alliance and the rest of the organizations that had submitted the request were exhilarated.
Regardless of how cool you were, we can still restrict you with the rules! Don't expect to get the benefits that we can't!
Other than the Divine Alliance and the rest of the organizations, the majority of the members from the Genius Union were enjoying the show.
Lin Xie was never close to me, so why should I help him?
He had gained so many points. If that continued, it would seem like the Genius Union actually belonged to him.
Since the two rules were restricting something that no one could ever achieve, they all thought that they should just watch the show.
Only the Heaven Alliance members and a small number of people felt sorry for Lin Huang.
"Lin Xie must be upset since he's suddenly being restricted." Chan Dou smiled, shaking his head helplessly. If the Genius Union came up with two rules just to restrict him, he would definitely feel annoyed about it.
After a moment of hesitation, Chan Dou sent a message to Lin Huang. "Are you okay?"
Soon, Lin Huang replied, "I'm okay. I'll go offline later and go to bed."
On checkpoint 56, Lin Huang frowned after going through the two new rules. He did not deem them as a restriction. Instead, he said with a smile, "They changed the rules just because of me which means that I'm pretty cool."
Lin Huang could still vaguely remember when he was on Earth, China's table tennis players were extremely formidable. They would emerge as champions every time they participated in an international competition. As a result, the international competition revised their rules again and again because of them.
"Should we log out of the system?" Bloody asked when it saw the announcement.
"Let's stay on for another half an hour. We can collect 10 billion points today," Lin Huang declared with a smile.
It took them another half an hour to earn 10 billion points. As soon as he confirmed that Bai and the rest would not be rewarded even if they continued to hunt for monsters, Lin Huang then exited the Genius Union.
At the hotel, Lin Huang was sitting on the sofa, checking his rewards.
Five out of seven God Figurines were on white gold-rank while the other two had advanced to purple gold-rank.
The Stairway Tree points he owned had exceeded 190 billion. He had reaped huge rewards.
"I wasn't allowed to stay up all night," Lin Huang sighed, shaking his head.
"With the new rules that have just been implemented, it's not worth going straight up to checkpoint 63," Bloody reminded, "We have a chance to obtain 100 billion points on checkpoints 58 and 61. Once we manage to pass through that checkpoint, we're giving up our chance to collect points on the two checkpoints.
"However, if we don't, we have to stay at the two checkpoints for 20 days. There's no need to waste our time there." Lin Huang shook his head. "I won't remain on immortal-level for too long. The points that we're going to miss out on the two checkpoints can be earned back later on. We must first arrive on checkpoint 63 before the Royal Trials begins. We have to hunt for the Queen Mother's monster card!"
Lin Huang was rushing to checkpoint 63 because on that checkpoint itself, there was a monster that looked somewhat like a mythical-level Queen Mother which was from the Bug Tribe. The Queen Mother had a dozen bug guardians that were proven to be on pseudo-mythical-level.
All of the 13 monsters were monster cards that Lin Huang wanted to own. Especially the Queen Mother that was much stronger than the Hornet Queen on checkpoint 56, Lin Huang was determined to hunt for her.
"With the new rules, we can only collect 100 billion points on each checkpoint. We must kill as few monsters as possible on checkpoint 63 and go right after the Queen Mother and the bug guardians. The lesser points we obtain, the higher the chances we can hunt for the Queen Mother," Bloody reminded.
"Let Ghastly use its illusion skill to control part of it and the rest shall be controlled by your parasites. Try to reduce the number of monster deaths." Lin Huang put a plan together. "Leave immediately after killing the Queen Mother and her bug guardians."
Most people would want to collect as many points as possible. It was ironic that Lin Huang was afraid of overkilling and exceeding the maximum number of points allowed.
After chatting with Bloody for a while, Lin Huang then went to the bathroom and washed up. When he returned to his bedroom, he lay on the bed and read the news for a while before falling asleep.
The next morning, Lin Huang returned to his room again after breakfast and tapped open the Genius Union webpage.
After midnight, he had collected 10 billion Stairway Tree points. If he were to log in now, regardless of how many monsters were killed, he would not be rewarded. Still, Lin Huang logged into the system.
When he logged into the Genius Union again, Lin Huang was on checkpoint 58 of the Stairway Tree. He was still where he had been when he exited the Genius Union yesterday.
The monster horde had cleared out after last night's killing spree. The Mutated Serpents on checkpoint 58 had returned to their underground serpents' den as well, so all was peaceful.
Lin Huang then summoned the Herculean King and headed toward checkpoint 59.
Half an hour later, the Herculean King made it through from checkpoints 58 to 61 along with Lin Huang.
"Aren't we going to stay here for a day?" Bloody asked.
"No. There are only 10 billion points here. We'll be able to earn them later." Lin Huang shook his head. He then patted the Herculean King's neck, instructing him to go further up.
After spending another 20 minutes, the Herculean King finally arrived at checkpoint 63 with Lin Huang.
Checkpoint 63 was the highest checkpoint that all the Genius Union members could ever achieve. Even Chan Dou was stuck on this checkpoint and was unable to go further up. It was also a checkpoint with monsters.
However, compared to the abilities of the monsters on checkpoints 58 and 61, they were a few levels higher.
All the monsters were no long on high-level immortal-level. Instead, they were all on immortal-level rank-9. In addition to that, about a tenth of them were triple mutated immortal-level rank-9 monsters.
The most troublesome part was that there was a Queen Mother that seemed to be on mythical-level and 12 incredibly strong pseudo-mythical-level bug guardians.
The 12 bug guardians could be compared to Lancelot and the Regal Sword Killer that were on the same rank. Despite the fact that one bug guardian alone would not threaten Chan Dou, if he were besieged by three to four of them, he would barely escape from them.
As for Lin Huang, the reason why he stayed on checkpoint 63 was to obtain the monster cards of the Queen Mother and her bug guardians.
Chapter 940: Meeting Chan Dou Again
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Since there were not many changes on the Stairway Tree leaderboard and few people were online in the Genius Union, nobody noticed Lin Huang breaking through to checkpoint 63.
He noticed that Chan Dou was online when he arrived on checkpoint 63. Lin Huang recalled the Herculean King and headed straight to the Heaven Alliance foothold.
Just when he got into the range of the Heaven Alliance foothold, Chan Dou welcomed him, dressed in a white suit.
After taking a good look at Lin Huang, Chan Dou said in surprise, "Your combat strength…"
"I'm already on immortal-level rank-7 now." Lin Huang nodded. There was nothing to hide since those Heaven Alliance members would find out sooner or later.
"The elevation rate of your combat strength is terrifying!" Chan Dou had found out from Tan Lang that Lin Huang was only on immortal-level rank-3 when they came out of the Fallen God Land before the New Year. It had only been less than three months since they got out of the Fallen God Land and he had already elevated four ranks so quickly!
Though surprised, Chan Dou knew it was Lin Huang's private matter, so he did not ask further. The duo chatted while walking towards the office.
"How do you know I'm here?" Lin Huang asked.
"My communication device notified me when you logged in. I realized you were breaking through the checkpoints rapidly. You spent less than an hour getting to checkpoint 63." Chan Dou flashed a thumbs up.
Lin Huang had just recalled that he added Chan Dou as a friend on his communication device whereby there would be notification whenever a friend came online. He only had Chan Dou as his friend in Genius Union, he had countable friends overall including Yi Yeyu. Since he was often offline, he seemed to have never heard the notification tone and almost forgotten about it.
"Since you're already on checkpoint 63, it means you're eligible to run as the deputy chief of the Heaven Alliance. I'll find time to gather everyone within these few days to officially recommend you as our deputy chief of the Heaven Alliance. I'll let you know once I've fixed the time, but you must be present by then." Chan Dou brought up the notion of nominating Lin Huang as deputy chief again.
Lin Huang had already promised him earlier, so he did not bother rejecting him this time. All he did was remind Chan Dou, "I won't stay too long on immortal-level. I'll definitely elevate to imperial-level within this year."
Chan Dou nodded a little helplessly wearing a smile. "I could see that. It's my mistake. I thought you were still far away from elevating to imperial-level, but it's alright. Just help us whenever you're still the deputy chief."
"Are you really ready for your elevation?" Lin Huang could not help but ask when both of them arrived at the entrance of the office.
"So what if I'm not ready? The situation's more powerful than I as a person." Chan Dou forced a smile and shook his head. He pushed the office door open. "The Union Government's rules are set. Those below imperial-level aren't eligible to obtain the methods."
Lin Huang walked into the office too. After taking the cup of tea Chan Dou handed him, he sat on the couch and fell into silence for a while with his head held down. He put the tea down and lifted his head to look at Chan Dou. "What if I have my ways to get you the methods?"
Initially, Lin Huang was unwilling to involve Chan Dou in this because his identity might be exposed as soon as the ancient methods spread out. Although Chan Dou would not sell him out, the Union Government would find out about him if they put enough effort in.
However, he thought about it and realized that Chan Dou had been taking care of him all this while. He had a kind personality too. It would be unfortunate if he ruined his future just for the ancient methods.
Moreover, Mr. Fu did not say that the Union Government prohibited him from spreading the methods around. Even if the Union Government were to find out about Lin Huang and his identity, they would not look for him about that matter.
Most importantly, two of Lin Huang's God Figurines' Combat Souls had elevated to imperial-level purple gold-rank and had the ability to fight demigods. He had sufficient power to take on any powerhouse's challenge now.
Chan Dou, who sat across the couch, was first stunned by what Lin Huang said, but subsequently shook his head immediately. "Stop fooling around. Even if you manage to get it, the risks are just too high. The Union Government isn't any other organization, you'll be doomed on the entire continent as soon as you offended them."
"I'm not stealing intelligence from them. I don't think they would come for me just for that," Lin Huang said with a smile, "I'll ask you again. Do you want it?"
Chan Dou had a complicated expression on his face and he finally nodded after some struggle. "Yes! I owe you one."
"These methods can't be transferred through data, so I can only give you the method via jade slip in person. Are you getting someone to pick it up from me in Division 3 or do you want me to send it to you?" Lin Huang asked.
"I've been tied up here recently. Otherwise, I would've taken it from you myself." Chan Dou thought about it. "I think Tan Lang's in Division 3 these few days. Give it to him. I'll get him to bring it back."
Although Tan Lang had 'graduated' from the Genius Union, they had been good friends for years and knew each there even before joining the Genius Union. Chan Dou had no concern getting him to help.
"Sure, I'll arrange the time to meet him." Lin Huang nodded. He had Tan Lang's contact number.
"If your family asks about the methods…"
"Don't worry about it. I'll insist that I obtained them from the black market without deliberately looking for them. I won't involve you in it." Chan Dou already had an explanation prepared.
In reality, even if the Chan Clan did not believe that explanation, they would not investigate further into it. The possibility of them helping Chan Dou to keep the secret was even higher.
"Don't rush into elevating to imperial-level. Break through after you've done all the preparations." Lin Huang did not want to see Chan Dou ruin himself, which was the reason why he wanted to give him the methods.
"I know." Chan Dou grinned while nodding. He then took a long look at Lin Huang. "To be honest, I can no longer tell how powerful your ability is."
"It's just immortal-level rank-7. That's two ranks lower than you," Lin Huang said humbly.
"Hey, I can't obtain 100 billion points on the Stairway Tree." Chan Dou waved and grinned immediately.
"Unfortunately, I can't do that now." Lin Huang was rather annoyed as he thought about that.
"What plans do you have now? Are you going up further?" Chan Dou asked.
"No, I'll stay on checkpoint 63 for now." Lin Huang shook his head and looked at Chan Dou while raising his brow. "Are you so sure that I can break through checkpoint 63?"
"I think you can." Chan Dou picked up the tea and sipped it slowly.
"I heard the bug guardians and the Queen Mother are very powerful. Have you fought them before?"
"I've no idea about the Queen Mother. I've never seen her fight, but the bug guardians are indeed formidable. Their abilities alone are much more powerful than triple mutated monsters. They might be quadruple mutated. Their abilities are on par with mine if three of them fought together. I'd have to run away if four of them attacked me at once," Chan Dou shared his battle experience.
"Is that so?" Lin Huang was a little disappointed not to have learned anything about the Queen Mother's ability.
"I think you could take three of them down at once. Try it." Chan Dou attempted to persuade Lin Huang while smirking.
"Not today. I've reached my limit before dawn." Lin Huang shook his head while returning the smile.
"I've almost forgotten that you didn't obtain any points all the way from checkpoint 58 to checkpoint 63." Chan Dou just recalled that Lin Huang's points remained the same since he had logged in earlier.
Just when Lin Huang and Chan Dou were chatting happily in the Heaven Alliance office, someone finally noticed that Lin Xie had made it to checkpoint 63 on the Stairway Tree leaderboard.
"Lin Xie has arrived on checkpoint 63!"
Soon, the news spread in the Genius Union.
Many powerhouses who stayed on checkpoint 63 stopped treating Lin Huang as a junior ever since they heard the news. They began treating Lin Xie as being on the same level as they were.