Chapter 961: Hat Mountain
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Shi Qiang and the other two men were on imperial-level white gold-rank. Their combat strength exceeded Bloody's ability to cast its parasites on them.
However, it was no trouble for Lin Huang.
His God Figurine's Combat Soul Nightmare Tapir had a hypnotizing ability. Although the Nightmare Tapir's combat strength was only imperial-level white gold-rank, its ability was sufficient to control imperial-level purple gold-rank powerhouses.
As Bloody was attempting to retrieve the memories of the imperial-level powerhouses lying on the ground, Lin Huang began the hypnotizing interrogation on Shi Qiang and the other two.
"What's your name?"
"Shi Qiang."
"Why did you come to the Shadow Canyon?"
"To kill the candidates."
"Who told you about the candidates?"
"Ge Nan did."
"Who is Ge Nan? Why did you trust him?"
"Dynasty sent us into this prison on the same day. Maybe because we went through the same thing, we clicked as soon as we talked. We then became good friends. He's one of the very few people who I could talk to in this prison, and he's also one of the people with whom I could let my guard down."
After confirming that the hypnotization was working by asking what he already knew the answers to, Lin Huang then began cutting to the chase.
"I heard that you're close to Pang Bing, the regional chief here. Is that true?"
"We're not close. I've only seen him three times."
"Does Pang Bing value you?"
"Yes, he thinks that I can break through and he hopes to train me as his underling. He wants me to be the regional deputy chief after I break through imperial-level purple gold-rank and work for him."
"You should know where Pang Bing lives then."
"I do, I've been there once."
Lin Huang was pleased to hear that.
"Where exactly does Pang Bing live?"
"On top of Hat Mountain," Shi Qiang proceeded, "He doesn't live alone. He lives with his six wives. Two of them are on imperial-level white gold-rank while the remaining four are imperial-level yellow gold-ranks."
"What? Does he live such a happy life in prison?! Six wives?!" Lin Huang widened his eyes after hearing that.
"The regional chief is only a position surpassing the chief. The resources they obtain can't compare with ordinary imperial-level purple gold-rank powerhouses. These women must've gone to him for the resources. After all, resources are scarce in the Dynasty prison. They might not have food if they don't depend on a powerhouse." Bloody heard this and explained, "I'm sure that apart from the six of them in his harem, there are more women who desire to climb into his bed in this prison."
"What else do you know about Pang Bing?" Lin Huang returned to the topic after a moment of being astounded and proceeded with the interrogation.
"In reality, Pang Bing's ability is considered mediocre among the imperial-level purple gold-rank powerhouses. However, he has two demigod-level types of equipment with him. One is a defense armor while another is a battle saber. The reason he managed to be the regional chief is mainly because of these two items. Apart from that, I heard he's a relative of Chief Liang's and they were put into this prison together. Nobody knew how true that is."
After some interrogation, Lin Huang and Bloody gained a rough understanding of regional chief Pang Bing. Lin Huang then proceeded to question the other two.
The duo knew nothing much about Pang Bing. However, they knew another regional deputy chiefs each. As a result, Lin Huang gained information that he was not expecting about the two regional deputy chiefs.
Bloody was already done the integration after retrieving the memories way before Lin Huang was done with the interrogation.
"We're currently in Zone 17, which is Liang Jin's territory. The regional chief is Pang Bing, and there are three regional deputy chiefs who all have imperial-level purple gold-rank combat strength. Apart from these four, there are two idle imperial-level purple gold-rank powerhouses who didn't accept Liang Jin's recruitment. There are a total of over 3,000 convicts in the entire zone. Among them are six imperial-level purple gold-ranks, 43 imperial-level white gold-ranks, and 367 imperial-level yellow gold-ranks."
"So, what's the plan next? We already have Pang Bing's coordinates. Do we go to him directly?" asked Lin Huang, "Or do we use our old trick to bait them?"
"We can no longer use the old plan." Bloody shook its head. "In reality, there was a high probability that we might've failed when we were tricking Shi Qiang earlier. Fortunately, Shi Qiang trusted Ge Nan so much and didn't suspect a thing. Otherwise, they definitely wouldn't fall into our trap. The chances of failing are too high if we continue to use the same plan on Pang Bing."
"So, do you mean that we should kill Pang Bing immediately this time?"
"We kill Pang Bing after gathering information from him. We'll kill the three regional deputy chiefs one after another later," Bloody advised.
"Do we give up on all of the convicts?" Lin Huang raised his brow when he heard that.
"Of course not." Bloody shook its head, wearing a smile. "Killing the regional chief and the regional deputy chiefs is the first step. We can only carry out our next plan after killing them."
Bloody then shared the plan eventually and Lin Huang kept nodding while listening.
"That's such a great idea! If everything goes well, we can sweep everything in Zone 17 today." Lin Huang patted the Nightmare Tapir's head while watching Shi Qiang and the other two standing there looking lost. "You can kill them now."
The Nightmare Tapir's eyes turned black like they were dyed with ink.
A moment later, Shi Qiang and the other two fell to the ground. Life oozed out of them quickly.
The 50-odd people who fell unconscious earlier were killed as well.
However, their bodies had no wounds on their bodies at all. They did not look like they were dead. Instead, they looked more like they had fallen into a deep sleep.
"Bury them. They're human just like me after all. It's brutal to just abandon their bodies in the wild." Lin Huang had no sympathy for the convicts, but he thought he should respect the dead by burying them. It would not take too much time anyway.
Bloody summoned its hundreds of parasitical puppets and spent less than ten minutes digging holes. They then buried all of the corpses underground.
"Let's go to Hat Mountain now." Lin Huang summoned Thunder when he noticed that Bloody was done on its side and had recalled all of its parasitical puppets.
Riding on Thunder's back, they headed towards Hat Mountain.
Hat Mountain was approximately 2,000 kilometers away from Shadow Mountain. With Thunder's current speed, they arrived at the destination in less than 15 minutes.
They encountered two rounds of convicts who attacked them along the way. Thunder accelerated to dodge them and they lost the convicts like a piece of cake.
When they saw Hat Mountain in the sky, Lin Huang realized why the mountain had such a common name. The entire mountain looked like a conical hat. It resembled exactly the same as those pointed hats that witches always wore in fairytales. The only difference was that it was green. The entire mountain was covered in trees, and the sloppy tip stood tall in the sky. Compared to the mountains around it, this mountain stood out, which was how Lin Huang recognized it at first glance.
"Hat Mountain lives up to its name!" Looking at the lush green mountain, Lin Huang thought that Pang Bang had an impeccable taste for choosing to live on such a mountain.
Chapter 962: He's A Manstress
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
He's A Manstress
There was a palace perched on top of Hat Mountain that reached the clouds. It looked like the tip of a giant hat.
Lin Huang patted Thunder's neck. "Get down there."
Thunder withdrew its wings and fell rapidly. It spread its wings again when they were about to land and hovered in the air. They landed at the entrance of the palace safe and sound.
Lin Huang got off its back and recalled Thunder. He then summoned the Nightmare Tapir and pushed open the palace doors.
He saw a steamy scene as soon as the door was pushed opened for a second.
Six naked women surrounded a man who was also bare, licking the man everywhere.
In a glance, Lin Huang saw the thing between the strong man's thighs who lay reclining on the chair. He could not help but comment while smiling, "No wonder he could marry six wives. This fella can afford to do that."
Bloody's voice came into Lin Huang's ears at that moment. "He's not Pang Bing. He's the regional deputy chief, Wang Xing."
"Ugh…" Lin Huang suddenly thought that the greenery in this Hat Mountain was perfect for the situation. 1
Wang Xing stood up immediately upon seeing the door open all of a sudden. He widened his eyes and looked at the newcomers.
The six women screamed as they hurriedly picked up their bras that were scattered all over the floor and covered their lady bits.
Wang Xing had sensed Thunder's existence earlier, but he did not care. Since Thunder's imperial-level crimson gold-rank aura masked Lin Huang's immortal-level aura completely, he did not notice that there was a human on Thunder's back.
In this prison, there were initially many local monsters. Since a supply of never-ending convicts was added in, most of the local monsters almost went extinct as a result of the convicts eating them.
The chief back then noticed the severe food shortage and prohibited the hunting of local monsters. For the sake of maintaining the food source in the long run, they allowed those monsters to move around and breed. They would only hunt once a year. Although they would hunt annually, the hunting of baby monsters was prohibited.
Therefore, Wang Xing did not care when he sensed Thunder's existence. He thought it was just an ordinary monster passing by. How could he have guessed that Thunder would dash down directly when it arrived above Hat Mountain? It only took less than one second when Lin Huang opened the palace door.
It was too late when he reacted as he was distracted, enjoying the six women's attention.
Compared to the women's panic, Wang Xin soon calmed down upon sensing Lin Huang and the Nightmare Tapir's aura. He did not even bother to look for clothes to cover his body as he stood up and shouted at Lin Huang, "Are you seeking death, candidate?!"
"I'm sorry to interrupt your interesting activity." Lin Huang spread his arms wide. "I'd be happy to wait until you guys were done if I weren't in such a hurry."
"Don't be sorry. Just suffer the death penalty." A sword aura shot out from Wang Xing's hand that was lifted as soon as he was done speaking. It arrived in front of Lin Huang's face directly.
However, his eyes turned blank right away while the sword aura that shot out faded in the air. The attack stopped and his body could not move at all as if he was a puppet that was being controlled.
At the same time, the six women, who were putting on their clothes in a panic, fell onto the ground. They seemed to be have fallen into a deep sleep.
"Put on your clothes." Lin Huang lay on the chair and waited for Wang Xing to put his undergarments on before he began the interrogation.
"Who are you?"
"My name's Wang Xing. I'm the regional deputy chief of Zone 17."
"Why are you in Pang Bing's home?"
"The Royal Trials commenced today. The regional chiefs are holding a meeting. He's not home, so his six wives invited me here."
"Don't you have to join such a meeting since you're a regional deputy chief?" Lin Huang asked rather confusedly.
"We only need to get our clone to go to most meetings. My clone went to the meeting this time as well."
"Now that he's being hypnotized, will his clone be affected?" Lin Huang asked the Nightmare Tapir.
The Nightmare Tapir shook its head and sent a thought into Lin Huang's head. He understood the Nightmare Tapir's explanation right away.
When a person was hypnotized, he would be in a kind of slumber while the clone was moving independently. Even if the person himself was in sleeping mode, it would not affect the clone. Furthermore, the clone would not sense whatever that was happening to the person. On the contrary, the person would be aware of whatever that was happening to the clone.
Lin Huang was finally relieved after confirming that and proceeded with the interrogation.
"Does Pang Bing know about your relationship with his six wives?"
"He doesn't. The six wives and I know his whereabouts very well, so we're not afraid of being busted."
"How long have you guys maintained this… relationship?"
"It's been 23 years."
"It's fine if you're with one or two of his wives, but why do you do this with all six wives?" Lin Huang could not understand that.
"Wife No. 6 is actually the spy that I asked to be with Pang Bing. Realizing that Pang Bing's terrible in bed, she connected all of us together and it slowly developed into the relationship that we have now."
"This female spy's powerful. Not only did she give him five women for free, but she also threw herself into his embrace as well," Lin Huang mumbled softly.
"Maybe this female spy has liked him since the beginning." Bloody's voice came out of his sleeve.
After some gossip, Lin Huang finally came to the serious stuff.
"Where's Pang Bing now?"
"He's at Sky Pillar Mountain, hosting the trial meeting."
"Apart from you, who else is at the meeting?"
"Another two regional deputy chiefs."
"Are they using clones too?"
"No, they went as themselves this time."
"When does the meeting end?"
"Looking at the current progress, I'm afraid it'll only end at 1 p.m. or after 1.30 p.m. if it takes longer."
"So, that means I can kill all of them this time without having to look for them one by one!" Lin Huang was elated to hear that.
After asking a couple of questions, Lin Huang got the Nightmare Tapir to retrieve the memories of all seven of them directly and share the information with Bloody.
Soon, Bloody came up with the detailed plan that they should carry out next.
"There's no need to keep these six women around, but we can't kill Wang Xing just yet. His clone will disappear as soon as he's dead. Pang Bing and the rest will know something's off right away."
"Moreover, there are many defensive measures at Sky Pillar Mountain. We'll alert the enemy if we get in with Thunder by force. It'll be much easier to get Wang Xing to go with us."
"However, I'm afraid it's hard to bring someone in since this is a meeting that's strictly for regional chiefs." Lin Huang thought he might be suspected even if he followed Wang Xing.
After all, Bloody's initial plan was to invade the abodes of the regional chief and the deputies to kill them one by one. That would not be happening now.
Bloody grinned to hear Lin Huang's doubts.
"Don't worry. I have my way. Not only will Pang Bing and the rest not suspect your identity, but they'll also get Wang Xing to invite you to the meeting!"
Chapter 963: A Successful Invasion
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
In the meeting room at Sky Pillar Mountain, an old man with silver hair sat on the main seat. The strong Wang Xing and a fat man with small, beady eyes sat on his left while a poker-faced man who looked mediocre sat on his right.
The four of them were the regional chief and regional deputy chiefs of Zone 17.
Wang Xing, who sat on the old man's left, suddenly spoke as he waited for the old man to finish speaking, "Regional chief, my body says that he would like to discuss a deal with all of you."
"A deal?" Pang Bing raised his brow upon hearing that. "What deal is that?"
"A candidate came to my body approximately half an hour ago. He said he brought many food resources and he would like to make a deal with us," Wang Xing explained, "My body has checked the food that he's providing. Apart from meat, there are also vegetables and fruits, and even drinks like alcohol. This candidate clearly came prepared."
Food was the scarcest resource they lacked in this space. Ever since they entered this world, they were basically eating only meat. Neither was there any vegetables nor fruits around. Due to the barren land, they could not plant those at all, let alone brew drinks such as alcohol.
The other three could not help but gulp when they heard that.
"This prison's barren. What does this candidate want?" Although Pang Bing was moved, he remained rational.
"He said all he wants are that storage equipment that we can't unlock," Wang Xing announced the condition of the deal.
"He's out of his mind to be asking for storage equipment in exchange for food. Any of that storage equipment could trade food that could pile into hundreds of Sky Pillar Mountains if he unlocks them." The poker-faced man scoffed. It was clear that he was extremely discontented with the condition.
"You can't say that, Old Ning. Although the storage equipment is valuable out there, they're just a pile of trash since we can't unlock them in this prison. They're just trash even if there are god relics, god items or god-level methods since we can't retrieve them! Food is the scarcest resource this prison lacks. Exchanging a bunch of trash with scarce resources, why can't we do that?" The fatty sitting next to Wang Xing gave a different opinion.
The poker-faced man scoffed and said nothing back.
"What do you think, Old Wang?" Pang Bing turned his head to look at Wang Xing's clone.
"I agree with what Huyan said. We can't unlock that storage equipment anyway, so it's useless to keep them. Some of them have been here for thousands of years and we still can't unlock them. Even if there's something amazing in them, it's futile since we can't retrieve them. Why not just exchange them with food?" Wang Xing shared the same opinion as the fatty.
"Why didn't your body catch that fella directly and force him to hand over all of the food?" The poker-faced man asked Wang Xing.
"I thought the same too, but that fella said he has a team who wants to work with us for the long term when we met. He's the only one who brought food at this time since it's the first time. He wants to see if we can collaborate. As soon as the first collaboration goes smoothly, they'll bring in tens of members with food every time the trial opens and the amount of food will be more than tenfolds compared to this deal. Moreover, we can give them a list of the food that we need in the future," Wang Xing's clone reiterated his body's explanation.
"Collaboration, my as*! Nobody knows how long until the next Royal Trials will take place in this space. You believe him just because he said he would have a long-term collaboration with us?! Don't you know that everybody can make empty promises?!" The poker-faced man, on the other hand, had disdain written all over his face.
"Wouldn't we know if he's making empty promises after he takes Huyan's test?" Wang Xing turned his head to look at the fatty next to him.
"Sure. It's just testing an immortal-level which doesn't require much effort," said the fatty while spreading his arms.
"Then, that's set. Old Wang, ask your body to send the candidate here directly. We'll get Huyan to test him. We'll discuss further if he passes the test. If he fails, we'll kill him directly." Pang Bing eventually decided after the trio's discussion.
The poker-faced man crossed his arms and looked away with a dour expression, but he did not object any further.
Thousands of kilometers away, Wang Xing's body still seemed to have blank eyes while reiterating the clone's discussion.
"They've agreed to the deal, but before discussing it officially, they'll do a test on you to make sure that the long-term collaboration you said is true. If not, they'll kill you directly."
"Test? Something like a hypnotizing interrogation?" Lin Huang raised his brow when he heard this, roughly guessing what the test was.
"Something like that. There's a regional deputy chief called Huyan Zhuo who is an expert in illusion whereby he can easily get the answer to what he wants to know," Wang Xing added, "Apart from the collaboration, they'll seize the opportunity to ask information about the world that you're from."
"I understand now. Lead the way then." Lin Huang nodded, wearing a smile.
Pang Bing and the rest were plotting against him, so was he not too?
Approximately 15 minutes later, Lin Huang arrived at the core zone of Zone 17, Sky Pillar Mountain, with the guidance of Wang Xing.
The mountain was the highest among all of the peaks in Zone 17. It was also where Wu Bin, the first chief of this Dynasty prison lived. Tens of millions of years ago, this prison had four chiefs and Wu Bin was one of them. It was those four who had implemented the orders in this prison which resulted in the stable development now.
To show respect to Wu Bin, nobody ever lived in Sky Pillar Mountain. The palace that used to belong to Wu Bin slowly became the Zone 17 office.
In midair faraway, Lin Huang saw many guards around Sky Pillar Mountain. There were at least 30 to 40 of them. Most of them had imperial-level yellow gold-rank combat strength and a few were on imperial-level white gold-rank.
He was not surprised to see that since he had heard about it from Wang Xing earlier.
As they landed on Sky Pillar Mountain, Lin Huang followed behind Wang Xing and entered the palace right away. Nobody stopped him. The guards did not even bother to look at him and ignored his existence completely.
Lin Huang figured it must be Pang Bing who notified them before their arrival. Otherwise, it was impossible for him for step foot in this palace even though Wang Xing was there.
After entering the palace, Lin Huang realized the palace was a demigod relic.
The demigod relic palace looked brand new even though tens of millions of years had passed. Of course, apart from the accumulation of energy for generations, the credit must go to the people who managed it often.
As Lin Huang stepped into the palace, the door closed automatically.
In the hall, the gray-haired Pang Bing sat on the main seat while Wang Xing and the other two sat on both sides.
However, Wang Xing's clone faded immediately when Wang Xin himself arrived. He took big strides and sat where his clone had been before.
Lin Huang stepped forward slowly.
When Pang Bing was ready to ask his questions, the Nightmare Tapir had released the Ninetails Lynx from its alternate dimension.
The Nightmare Tapir's eyes turned completely black when a little white cat landed on Lin Huang's shoulder sturdily.
Pang Bing and the rest stared blankly. They could not move as they sat on the chairs.
Chapter 964: The Disclosure of Dynasty
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
As soon as the Nightmare Tapir activated its ability, Pang Bing and the rest were hypnotized without being able to fight back at all.
After reading their minds for less than a minute, the Nightmare Tapir sent the information that it had read to Bloody.
Bloody spend three to four minutes selecting and categorizing the information before snapping back to its senses.
"So, is there any useful information?" Lin Huang, who was standing aside, asked.
"There are quite some information about this prison and something about Dynasty. I think you should take a look," said Bloody and extended one of its tentacles, pressing it to his forehead.
A moment later, the sea of information Bloody selected and categorized rushed into Lin Huang's head.
Lin Huang took close to half a minute to digest the information as he shut his eyes after Bloody was done with the transfer and had retrieved its tentacle. "Dynasty is that powerful?!" That was the first thing Lin Huang said after he opened his eyes again.
In reality, Lin Huang already got some of the killed convicts' memory from Bloody this morning. He found out quite some information about the other worlds.
He gained a rough understanding of Dynasty after he got Pang Bing and the rest's memory. He also had a preliminary understanding of the gravel world, the mini world, and the great world.
The gravel world was a mini world with an incomplete order. It could be a mini-world that was growing or one that had fallen.
The world that Lin Huang was currently in was a gravel world. Furthermore, judging from the current situation, it should belong to the latter category.
In a gravel world with incomplete order, it was impossible to have True Gods in it. Even elevating to Virtual God was extremely difficult.
A mini world was a complete gravel world. Such a world had complete order where True Gods could be born. There might be heavenly god-level powerhouses that surpassed True Gods who were born in a minority of powerful mini worlds due to some special reason or opportunity. Some people would call this kind of world a medium world, but in reality, the nature of such a world was still a mini world.
A great world was the ultimate version of evolution in a world. In such a world, even lord-level powerhouses could be born. They could end a mini world with the flip of a hand.
There were countable Lords even in the great world with many tribes and talented geniuses.
According to Pang Bing's memory about great worlds, Dynasty was not a tribe, but a special organization outside a great world. There was a division founded in the big world.
However, such a division had a Lord guarding them. In the great world, their combined ability ranked No. 3 in all the organizations.
Dynasty had an extremely high acceptance rate to be a member. Apart from the minority Bug Tribe and Abyssal Tribe, they treated almost all tribes equally without discrimination. They would recruit members from all the worlds every now and then. No matter whether the person came from a gravel world, a mini world, or a great world, they could be a Dynasty member as long as they passed the trial.
The biggest advantage of being a Dynasty member was that they could trade resources they desired in the Dynasty market no matter which world they were in.
Due to the massive number of Dynasty members in every world with the existence of many gods, one could purchase almost anything that one thought of. God relics and god items aside, one could even get methods to cultivate to become a Lord.
"It seems like Dynasty's a little bit like an upgraded Genius Union, but they have a higher demand for personal ability. Only one person passes in the end among the 10,000 supreme geniuses compared to Dynasty's Prince," Lin Huang could not help but exclaim. "According to Pang Bing and the rest's memory, even without me, powerhouses such as Huang Wuji of the Five Princes have less than a 10% chance of passing the trial looking at the candidates who've passed in history.
"But the fact that I can trade different resources in various worlds is worth the effort to fight to be a Dynasty member." Lin Huang was sure that he wanted to be a Dynasty member after learning a little bit more about Dynasty.
"Only the person who obtains the highest points in this trial will be accepted as a Dynasty member. Although it's easy to achieve No. 1 on the leaderboard under normal circumstances, we can't be sure about what special techniques the others have. We can't see their points after all. To be safe, I suggest that we eliminate all of the participants first." Bloody offered a bold suggestion.
Lin Huang was stunned to hear that. He had never thought Bloody would make such a suggestion.
Bloody added after noticing that Lin Huang did not speak for a while, "Judging from the memory of Pang Bing and the rest, most of them who are participating in the trial came from a mini world while some of them came from a great world. The similarity is that those people came from major organizations. Some have True Gods in their organization while some even have Heavenly Gods. The seed players those organization sent should have formidable trump cards with them. We can't rule out the possibility that they can harm you. The easiest way to eliminate those threats is to eliminate them right away."
Lin Huang could not argue with what Bloody said at all.
"So, you're saying that we won't be following our initial plan of going for the three chiefs? Instead, we're going for the participants?"
"We're still implementing our initial plan as a whole, but we're not clearing Zone 17." Bloody shook its head. "Because we need those convicts to hunt those participants."
"You're saying that we're using the local convicts' strength to eliminate all of the participants?!" Lin Huang understood what Bloody meant now.
"That's right," Bloody confirmed, wearing a smile, "The efficiency is too low if we do it ourselves. The trial is only opened for a month. It might not be sufficient for us to kill all of the participants hiding everywhere within a month. Using the convicts will be much faster. They're more familiar with the terrain and the number of them is tenfolds more than the participants. It shouldn't take too long for them to eliminate all of the participants if all of them hunt together. We can prevent the risk of the participants from attacking using their trump cards if we get the convicts to kill them for us."
"So, what do we do next?" Lin Huang asked, "Do we find the three chiefs, hypnotize them and order them to hunt for the participants?"
"Something like that, but we can't order them to hunt just like that. Those convicts aren't as obedient after all. Most of them won't be enthusiastic about carrying out the order if we ask them to hunt right away." Bloody shook its head while smiling. "They'll be more enthusiastic plotting a plan that makes them think them they'll benefit," Bloody voiced its concern after telling its plan.
"There's another thing. The three chiefs are the top among imperial-level purple gold-ranks. Looking at Pang Bing's memory, they might be supreme geniuses. The Nightmare Tapir's combat strength's only imperial-level white gold-rank, so I'm a little concerned that the hypnotizing might fail."
Lin Huang took out a demigod-level soul crystal from his storage space, smiling after hearing that. "I've been putting this aside. Now, I can finally use it."
He fed the demigod-level soul crystal to the Nightmare Tapir. After some ten minutes, it digested the soul crystal successfully and elevated from imperial-level white gold-rank to imperial-level purple gold-rank. It was Lin Huang's third imperial-level purple gold-rank God Figurine's Combat Soul!
Within the ten minutes, Lin Huang got the regional chief Pang Bing to bring out all the treasures around Sky Pillar Mountain in Zone 17.
"Shall we depart now?" Lin Huang could not wait to go ahead with the next plan after noticing that the Nightmare Tapir's elevation was completed while he had the loots in his hands.
Chapter 965: The Clearing Plan Takes Off
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Lin Huang got the Nightmare Tapir to go easy on the hypnotizing so that although Pang Bing and the rest were now semi-hypnotized, it seemed nothing out of the ordinary to outsiders. After that, Lin Huang left Sky Pillar Mountain and headed toward where Chief Liang Hao lived.
Liang Hao was one of the three chiefs in the current Dynasty prison who actually had a secret identity. He was Pang Bing's nephew.
Liang Hao had a formidable ability and was worthy of being called a supreme genius before elevating to imperial-level. In the great world, he was considered a person with extraordinary talent. Unfortunately, he did not come from a powerful family and had rather bad luck. He grew up in a minor organization that Pang Bing had founded. However, someone attacked the organization when Liang Hao was still on immortal-level and the organization was completely destroyed.
Since then, he had been following Pang Bing, living a life full of swindle.
Ever since Liang Hao elevated to imperial-level, both of them founded a minor organization in the great world to con the rookies in the main city. They even killed the rookies after conning them to prevent from being exposed.
Relying on those immoral resources, Liang Hao and Pang Bing cultivated their skills all the way to imperial-level purple gold-rank.
However, the good old days did not last long. They eventually offended a Dynasty member one day. While the organization was destroyed, Liang Hao and Pang Bing were thrown into this prison.
Ever since they arrived in the prison, Liang Hao soon realized that his ability made him a dominator in this space. He challenged the previous chief and killed him. Naturally, he became the new chief since then.
Lin Huang learned about that information from Pang Bing's memory.
Lin Huang did not doubt Liang Hao's ability. Liang Hao used to be a supreme genius after all. Perhaps his ability was nothing less than a pseudo-mythical-level monster since he elevated to imperial-level. His ability should be even more powerful now ever since he became the new chief. Besides having a full set of demigod relic equipment, he even got himself a god sword relic.
However, Lin Huang did not think Liang Hao had the upper hand if he were to fight his God Figurine's Combat Souls of the same combat strength.
After spending more than half an hour, Lin Huang arrived where Liang Hao lived — Dragon Pond Mountain.
He sensed the aura of more than 100 imperial-level powerhouses in the Dragon Pond Mountain area when he was far away midair. Most of them were on imperial-level yellow gold-rank while a minority of them were on imperial-level white gold-rank. The latter should be the guards.
He also saw a gigantic building on top of Dragon Pond Mountain. It was clearly another demigod relic palace.
The aura inside the palace was blocked entirely, so he could not sense anything inside at all. However, he knew that everyone in the palace sensed his presence since the beginning.
Apart from the people in the palace, even all the guards on Dragon Pond Mountain lifted their heads and pointed at the sky cautiously.
Liang Hao, who was sitting on a brass throne, raised his head slightly. "A participant?"
"Boss, do we catch him alive?"
There were four other people in the palace hall, three men and one woman whose aura was clearly on imperial-level purple gold-rank. The four of them were Liang Hao's personal bodyguards.
"He's only on immortal-level rank-7… Has Dynasty lowered its standards in the trial?" mumbled Liang Hao softly and shook his head, smiling. "Ignore him. The guards out there will take care of him."
Before he was even done speaking, he faltered and soon looked aghast.
The reason being was the young man, who appeared below 20 years old, summoned a monster which attacked all the guards on Dragon Pond Mountain until they slumped to the ground. They seemed to have been attacked by an invisible curse.
In the next second, the young man grabbed the token hanging on the waist of an entrance guard and opened the palace door.
Lin Huang and the Nightmare Tapir walked into the palace hall as soon as the door opened. He had a faint smile on his face while he glanced past the five of them present and his eyes eventually stopped on Liang Hao.
"Who are you?" Although Liang Hao was asking Lin Huang, he had his eyes trained on the Nightmare Tapir. His instinct told him that this little beast that appeared rather small was life-threatening to him.
"Hi, Chief Liang," Lin Huang introduced himself while grinning, "It's your humble servant, Lin Huang, the participant. The reason I'm here is to let you have a good sleep."
"Go!" Liang Hao shouted all of a sudden before Lin Huang could finish.
The five of them left their seats almost at the same time, racing toward Lin Huang and the Nightmare Tapir like an arrow leaving its bow.
At the moment, the Nightmare Tapir lifted its snout up high while releasing a loud roar from its muzzle. The sound wave spread almost 100 times faster than the speed of sound, and the five of them stopped moving.
The four of them had their eyes looking blank while Liang Hao managed to struggle for less than 0.1 seconds before he became a hypnotized puppet too.
After it was done reading their minds, the Nightmare Tapir sent the information to Bloody again.
The Nightmare Tapir put all five of them into a semi-hypnotized mode once the searching of the loot was done. Lin Huang then headed toward where the second chief lived.
It was close to four in the afternoon after spending close to an hour and a half hypnotizing the second and third chiefs as well as completing the search for the loot.
Lin Huang stopped moving around. Instead, he stayed in the house of the third chief, Liu Hong.
"We can commence our plan now that all three chiefs have been hypnotized."
"Yes, we can get the Nightmare Tapir to make the three chiefs announce the hunting of the participants at the same time now," Bloody confirmed.
"The notice must make the hunting rule clear. Those who manage to find the participants and provide accurate information will be given 10% of the prey. Those who manage to kill the participants will be given 50% of the prey.
"Among the 35 regions, all of the members in the top three regions will be given 30%, 20% and 10% of the prey they hunt respectively as a reward. Regions that rank from No. 4 to No. 10 will have a 5% reward on the prey that they hunt. The regions that rank No. 33, No. 34 and No. 35 will have 10%, 20% and 30% of the prey that they hunt taken away respectively.
"In the top three major zones, everyone in the major zone that ranks No. 1 will have 10% reward of the prey that they hunt while the No. 3 region will have 10% of the prey that they hunt taken away. The region that ranks No. 2 won't have any reward or punishment."
The notice was sent to the talismans of all the convicts in the prison around four in the afternoon simultaneously.
They were excited and could not wait to commence the hunt as soon as they saw the notice.
Under normal circumstances, the convicts would have to submit 50% of the preys that they hunted. 20% would go to the chiefs while 30% would go to the regional chief and regional deputy chief. The convict could only keep half of their prey.
However, they would be given 10% as soon as they found the participants. Together with the 50% that they obtained from killing the participants, they would be given 60% of the harvest. If their region and major zone ranked No. 1, they would be given another 40%. That would be mean that they would get 100% of the harvest.
Naturally, the regional chiefs were displeased to see the notice because their benefits would be taken away because of the new rule.
Just when the regional chiefs were complaining, another notice was sent to all of the regional chiefs and deputy chiefs.
"For the remaining bodies in this hunt, the three chiefs will only be given 5% while the remaining 95% will be given to the top 10 regional chiefs and deputy chiefs. The region that ranks No. 1 will be given 30%, No. 2 20%, and No. 3 10% while No. 4 to No. 10 will be given 5%."
Everyone shut up as soon as the notice went out.
The regional chiefs and deputy chiefs from the 35 regions gathered people to hunt for the participants immediately.
Chapter 966: The Gravel World's Dangerous Situation
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Huang Chenyu hid carefully in the branch of a big tree. He leaned closer to the branch and stopped breathing entirely. His heartbeat was so weak that it almost came to a halt.
It was a disguise ability that he had mastered, giving him the ability to blend in with the environment rapidly so that nobody could sense his presence. With his current imperial-level crimson gold-rank combat strength, he could even hide being detected from imperial-level yellow gold-rank powerhouses' Territory skill.
He assassinated three local convicts throughout the day with the same ability. One of them was an imperial-level black gold-rank and two were imperial-level crimson gold-ranks.
However, as the Second Prince of Dynasty, he was not hunting. Instead, he was avoiding himself from being killed.
He hid on top of the tree for over ten minutes without moving. Midair, the search teams went by one after another. He was relieved to sense the aura of the two teams getting further and further away.
"What exactly happened? It was fine during the day. Why did these convicts become so hardworking with their large-scale search for participants before the sky turned dark?" mumbled Huang Chenyu softly.
"That's because the three chiefs ordered them to hunt." A voice came from above Huang Chenyu.
Stunned, Huang Chenyu did not look at the person at all as he hurried on tip-toe rapidly into the dense jungle.
A skeletal gray silhouette followed closely behind him. He was getting closer and closer. Soon, his voice went into Huang Chenyu's ears clearly.
"This stealthy disguise ability of yours isn't too shabby. You might be able to hide from me if your combat strength is a rank higher, but now you're like a firefly in the dark. You can't hide no matter where you go. Instead of wasting your strength running away, why don't you just fight me? At least, you could die with dignity."
Huang Chenyu said nothing as if he had not heard what the person said. He traveled through the dense jungle, twisting and turning in an attempt to get rid of the person.
Both of them tore through the dense jungle for a couple of minutes. One was running away while the other was in pursuit. The gray silhouette seemed to be afraid of attracting attention and did not attack.
However, a black gleam flashed diagonally at his front all of a sudden. Huang Chenyu was shocked, but it was too late when he tried to avoid it. The black gleam pierced through his chest and his heart burst into pieces.
Huang Chenyu's aura disappeared on the spot while he fell onto the ground.
They gray silhouette behind halted immediately and revealed a tall, skinny man. He condemned in rage, "Who dares to take my prey? Come out now!"
At the moment, a skinny silhouette walked out of the dense jungle slowly. He wore a white robe with disheveled long hair. He lifted his head and looked at the tall, skinny man as a challenge. "Do you have any comment on this?"
"N-No comment." The tall, skinny man waved his hand immediately as cold, dense sweat dripped down his forehead.
"I found this meat first. Get out," said the white-robed man casually as if he was telling the truth.
"Yes, yes, yes… I didn't see anything!" The tall, skinny man turned around and immediately fled. He only stopped running when he was tens of kilometers away. He wiped the sweat on his forehead away. "Scared the sh*t out of me! Even the white-robed lunatic is participating in the hunt this time. Isn't this fella a lone wolf whereby even the regional chief means nothing to him?"
At the same time that Huang Chenyu was killed, a large-scale hunt for the participants took off everywhere.
Many participants could not understand it until the final seconds when death loomed in front of them. Why did all of the convicts in the trial space go nuts and began seeking and killing participants when they had just skimmed the surface by killing two to three convicts?
What they had no idea about was that someone had the entire space figured out while the rest were combing the trial space carefully. This person was the culprit who drove all the convicts nuts.
As the hunt for the participants got heated out there, as a participant himself, Lin Huang was sitting on the couch in Chief Liu Hong's home, studying the memory Bloody had selectively sent him.
"Ahh, the so-called Virtual God and True God are just how the Protoss addresses them…"
According to the great world, virtual god-level was called destiny-level and was the level to consolidate Life Columns. There would be nine transformations in the Life Columns. Each transformation would be called a rotation, so there would be a total of nine rotations on destiny-level.
In this level, a territory that was initially invisible would form a mini world because of the Life Columns. It was called a God Territory, which the Protoss called "Kingdom".
After the nine rotations in the Life Columns were completed while the Divine Fire was lit, one would reach god order-level when they learned the orders and sequences, which was what they called true god-level. There were nine sequences in the god order-level. One would master a level of the order of the world every time they broke through a sequence.
A complete sequence chain would be formed once the person mastered the order up to the ninth sequence. A powerhouse who achieved Supreme Godly Right covering the entire God Territory would be said to have achieved god sequence-level. Since the Godly Right could not be rebelled against and was formidable, the Protoss called the level heavenly god-level. The ranks were divided into five titles according to the intensity of the Godly Right and the God Territory which were duke-rank, marquess-rank, earl-rank, viscount-rank, and baron-rank.
Moving up, Absolute Godly Right would be formed when one consolidated nine or more god sequence chains. A powerhouse who elevated his God Territory to Supreme Kingdom would be on what they called supreme god-level, which the Protoss called lord-level. Strictly speaking, only the God Territory of a supreme god-level could be called a real Kingdom. Even though a powerhouse had just entered supreme god-level, the Kingdom would already be fully opened and contain up to 1,000 mini-worlds. On this level, he could build an enormous Kingdom of his own easily.
However, that was all the chiefs understood about the combat strength.
Liang Hao and the rest had no idea how supreme god-level or lord-level were divided exactly, let alone the existence of other levels above supreme god-level.
Nevertheless, the current information was sufficient for Lin Huang. He had yet to reach imperial-level now, so virtual god-level was far away from him, let alone the higher levels.
Apart from learning about combat strength, Lin Huang had a rough idea about the tribes and the distribution of the organizations now.
In the great world, the most powerful tribe would be the Protoss. The second would be the Bug Tribe and the third would be the Immortal Tribe. The fourth would be the foreign Abyssal Tribe and the fifth was the Dragon Tribe. Humans ranked No. 6, which was the lowest among all.
The Dragon Tribe which ranked No. 5 was the only tribe in the top six that was not a prominent tribe. In reality, the ability of their top powerhouse was no less than a Protoss'.
Just like the Dragon Tribe, the other tribes were less in quantity compared to the great tribes. Overall, they were not as powerful as the Dragon Tribe so they ranked after human. However, that did not mean they had no powerhouses.
"Looking at the situation of the gravel world that we're in, our world's most probably within the range of power under the Protoss's organization. Those that have been invading our world has always been the Protoss and the God Servants!" Out of the blue, Lin Huang noticed that after having a rough idea of the distribution of the tribes.
"I think it's more possible for us to be at the intersection of the Protoss and the Abyssal Tribe's territories," Bloody added, "Many abyssal living things in the Abyss Brink should come from the Abyssal Tribe's territory."
"What you said makes it sound like the situation's actually worse now." Lin Huang shook his head while forcing a smile.
"It's pretty bad. It's usually just a copy for the Protoss to gain experience whereby they'd leave after they're done with it. As soon as the Protoss and the Abyssal Tribe go to war, it won't be just a one-off incident. The entire gravel world might even be destroyed."
"Waiting for the Protoss to come and defend them then won't be a solution. Even if the defense works in the end, it doesn't solve the root problem." Lin Huang scowled to hear what Bloody said. "We must find ways outside of gravel world to solve it completely!"
"I'm planning to break through to imperial level as soon as I can after I leave this trial space. I'll leave the gravel world after settling some stuff!"
Chapter 967: Number of Remaining Trialists: 1
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
It was midnight. A silhouette dashed at high speed in the dense jungle. Up to a hundred skinny silhouettes followed closely behind him
Huang Wuji was running for his life like a mad man. Before entering this trial space more than ten hours ago, he had never imagined that such a thing would happen to him.
As the Fifth Prince, he was well-prepared before coming to the trial. He even hired an Imperial Censor to sign a contract with three imperial-level monsters for him to bring them into this trial space. He obtained a Life Base as soon as he entered the trial space and elevated all the way to imperial-level yellow gold-rank.
Initially, he thought elevating to imperial-level yellow gold-rank would give him the ability to fight most imperial-level purple gold-rank powerhouses head-on, making him the overlord in this trial space. Never had he thought that he would break the beehive after killing a few convicts and end up being chased by a bunch of local convicts who had lost their minds like he was a dog.
'Seriously? All I did was killing a few of you and up to a hundred people are chasing me for more than 5,000 kilometers. Plus, there are more and more people! Could one of the people I killed come from a powerful background? Am I that ill-fated?'
Huang Wuji sensed a few powerful aurae advancing toward him swiftly as he was thinking to himself. There were four of them and their combat strength was clearly on imperial-level purple gold-rank. Their aura was much more powerful than the usual imperial-level purple gold-rank powerhouse.
"Sh*t! These four must be the regional chiefs and the deputy chiefs of this region. Are people of such a level out hunting too?" Huang Wuji was hesitating as to whether to leave the trial now.
He tried deviating his direction a little, but the people that were approaching him changed their flight trajectory immediately and headed toward him.
"I've been targeted!" There were obstructions before him and people chasing behind him while he was surrounded on both sides too.
Knowing that it was impossible for him to escape, Huang Wuji did not choose to give in. He went forward to the few imperial-level purple gold-rank powerhouses before him, clenching his teeth.
Soon, both parties met.
Huang Wuji glanced at the four of them. Instead of targeting the one who had the weakest aura, he had his eyes fixed on the one who had the most powerful aura. His intention to battle was skyrocketing.
"If I'm not mistaken, you should be the regional chief. Do you dare to take my challenge?"
"Boss, this kid's interesting," said a shorty standing next to him while grinning.
"You have excellent eyes." The man with facial paralysis, who was challenged, smirked. "Let's play then."
Huang Wuji tossed the golden combat spear in his hand as soon as the man was done speaking. The spear spun rapidly like an arrow in the air and a golden line reflecting the moonlight arrived before the man's face. At the same time, he raced towards the man.
The man with facial paralysis had no expression. He pointed his right hand in the air as he lifted an eyelid, pointing at the tip of the golden spear.
The golden gleam at the tip of the spear disappeared. It expanded rapidly and exploded. Countless golden rays shot out everywhere as if a sun had just exploded. The blast sounded like tens of millions of thunders rumbling at the same time and the area within a radius of tens of kilometers turned into ruins.
In the next second, the man with facial paralysis pointed in the air again as his eyelid twitched.
A silhouette went from being invisible to turning visible. His body shot out like a cannonball as he spat a mouthful of blood out.
"You're worthy of being called the regional chief! You sure are compelling!" Huang Wuji realized how far apart his ability was from the person in that instant. The regional chief should have been a supreme genius even before he elevated to imperial-level.
"Eh, he's still alive?" The man with facial paralysis raised his brow faintly. Just when he lifted his hand in an attempt to attack again, he did not expect to hear the participant across him.
"I'll surrender since I'm not a match for you. You guys don't have to send me off." Huang Wuji crushed the trial token without hesitation as soon as he finished speaking. His body was covered in a golden glow in an instant and it turned into a golden sphere. He then shot into the sky at the speed of light and disappeared in the clouds in the blink of an eye.
Some seed players from other organizations who were sent in experienced a similar encounter with Huang Wuji.
All of them came in with full confidence with the expectation of showcasing their abilities to win themselves a place in Dynasty. However, they were treated like dogs not even a day into the trial. Those who were slightly lucky like Huang Wuji managed to escape by crushing the trial token in time. Those who were unlucky could not even escape and were killed by a bunch of convicts who collaborated.
Early the next morning, since the trial began, 90% of the 10,000 participants were disqualified, so only less than 1,000 remained.
Looking at the calculated data the trial system conveyed, Lin Huang could not help but admire the convicts' terrifying hunting efficiency.
"It's only been a day and 9,081 people have been disqualified. Including me, there are only 919 participants left now. Looking at the progress, they'll clear all of the participants within one or two days."
"I don't think it'll be that quick." However, Bloody gave a different opinion. "The reason the first hunt had a high efficiency is that the participants were caught off-guard since they didn't expect the convicts to be hunting them. They had no upper hand since they're unfamiliar with the terrain.
"Those who managed to survive the first hunt should have top-notch abilities among those participants. Furthermore, after a night of escaping, they should've gained a certain understanding of the terrain. Although the number of convicts has the absolute upper hand, it'd take at least a week to kill all of the participants."
"What you said makes sense." Lin Huang figured that he was thinking too shallowly after hearing Bloody's explanation. "Seems like we can only wait patiently."
Lin Huang spent the next few days practicing his swordsmanship.
Time flashed by and a week had passed. Among the 10,000 participants, three people survived.
Apart from Lin Huang, the other two had been playing hide-and-seek of all sorts with the convict army.
According to the messages the convict army sent back, the two participants were imperial-level white gold-rank powerhouses. The ordinary imperial-level purple gold-rank could do nothing for them since they would only be afraid of masters such as the regional chief.
Just when Lin Huang was cracking his head, pondering how to kill the two people, the number of remaining participants dropped to 2 all of a sudden. It was clear that someone had either been killed or disqualified.
"There's this one last man left. The Dynasty member quota will be mine as soon as he's dead," Lin Huang muttered softly at the number 2.
Soon, two days had passed and the number of remaining participants stayed unchanged at 2.
Even Lin Huang was considering if he should hunt the person himself.
After lunch, a maidservant walked toward Lin Huang with a plate of fruits. She turned her head after placing the plate on the coffee table and realized that Lin Huang was looking at her smiling.
"Don't go since you're here." Lin Huang grabbed the lady's wrist.
"Are you sure about that, Master?" The lady leaned in while smiling sweetly.
"Of course I am." Lin Huang released her arm and pulled her into his embrace.
At the moment, the lady grinned and grabbed a short blade from her sleeve. She shoved it rapidly and pierced it through Lin Huang's head.
However, the lady had a slight change of expression at the same time. She stepped back quickly because she saw Lin Huang's penetrated head being crushed into pieces and fading away.
"There are two things that I didn't expect. One is that you'd be a lady and secondly, I didn't expect you to come to my doorstep." Lin Huang stood at the entrance of the palace and looked at the lady in a maid's uniform as he leered. "Perhaps I couldn't do anything to you if you were to hide properly for a short period of time, but now…"
"I didn't expect it to be an immortal-level who managed to create such a stir in Dynasty's trial space and get everyone disqualified." The lady's body gradually transformed into her original body. She was a beauty, much prettier than the maidservant that she had disguised as earlier.
"Can I ask you a question? How did you find out about me? I thought I disguised myself perfectly as this maidservant. There shouldn't be any flaws at all."
"I hypnotized everyone in this palace, but you're the only one who isn't under the spell." Lin Huang knew this lady was the last participant that he was looking for as soon as he laid his eyes on her.
"Since you're done asking, do you want to leave by yourself or should I send you out?" Lin Huang asked while smirking.
"Aren't I the one who has the upper hand in such a situation?" It was clear that the lady did not want to give up on the member quota of Dynasty that was just right there.
"Some things can't be seen by the naked eye." Lin Huang smiled while raising his brow.
Just when the lady was attempting to launch an attack, she felt a searing pain that spread from her neck out of nowhere. In the next second, her head tumbled from her neck as fresh blood spurted out of her neck like a fountain.
Lin Huang's silhouette was reflected in the eyes of the head on the ground. Without any realizing it, a tiny little cat had appeared on his shoulder.
A notification from the trial system popped up before Lin Huang all of a sudden.
"Number of remaining participants: 1"
Chapter 968: The Hongmen Feast
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
On the tenth day since the Royal Trials began, apart from Lin Huang, all 10,000 participants were disqualified.
By then, Lin Huang had completed a significant part of the goal of his journey in the Royal Trials.
Glancing away from the notification coming from the trial system, Lin Huang observed the headless lady's body.
A ball of black liquid appeared on the left side of him. It then turned into a black stream and headed towards the lady's headless body and her decapitated head.
Approximately ten seconds later, the black liquid vanished completely. The lady's severed head was reconnected with black threads. As if she had merely faked her death, the lady stood up from the ground. Her aura was still the initial imperial-level white gold-rank aura. Apart from her eyes that were now all black without any white irises, nobody could tell there was anything off about her.
"Master." The lady bowed respectfully to Lin Huang slightly as she fixed her eyes on him.
Lin Huang raised his brow. The ball of black liquid was his God Figurine's Combat Soul, the Undead Styx. He roughly knew that it could resurrect the dead. Furthermore, the person who was resurrected would be immortal.
Because the lady before him had a terrifying ability when she was alive, he suddenly had an idea of trying the Undead Styx's resurrection ability.
"Does this resurrection preserve her ability and memory from when she was alive?"
"Yes. As long as the soul's intact, complete preservation is possible," replied the lady with a nod.
"Even if the brain's been destroyed?" Lin Huang asked rather surprisedly.
"That doesn't matter. It won't affect anything whether it's destroyed or rotting because I retrieve information from their soul."
"How many people can you control at once?" Lin Huang asked again.
"According to my inherited memory, there shouldn't be a limit on the quantity." The Undead Styx's answer was rather out of Lin Huang's expectations. "Wouldn't it burden you if the number is too high?"
"No. The soul and body I devour will become part of my body, so it'll only strengthen me."
"What about the limit to the resurrection combat strength?"
"The highest I can resurrect will be imperial-level purple gold-rank. I can't resurrect people on demigod-level and above due to the Divine Power in their bodies. However, since my combat strength's only on imperial-level white gold-rank now, it'll take a longer time for me to resurrect an imperial-level purple gold-rank powerhouse. The more powerful the soul is, the longer it'll take."
"How long does it take for you to resurrect an imperial-level purple gold-rank then?" Lin Huang asked immediately.
"Usually around three minutes. I'll need at least ten minutes for those who've elevated from supreme genius. If the person's comparable to a quadruple mutated monster, it'll take at least two hours. Due to the combat strength restriction, I can't resurrect many imperial-level purple gold-ranks at once currently. I can only resurrect one at a time. I won't have this problem if my combat strength is elevated to imperial-level purple gold-rank. Then, the speed of my resurrection will experience a boost by tenfolds too."
Lin Huang asked a couple more questions and achieved a better understanding of the Undead Styx's abilities.
After recalling the Undead Styx, he realized that the resurrected lady had disappeared as well.
"With the Undead Styx's ability, it won't take long for us to build an undead army," Bloody declared while smiling in envy.
"You don't have to be envious of its ability. All it does is resurrect dead beings while you can cast parasites and control all living things," Lin Huang comforted.
Bloody did not dwell on the topic. It then focused on the important thing at hand.
"Now that all of the participants have been cleared, we'll have to clear the convicts next."
"Do you have any idea how to gather these convicts together?" Lin Huang had been thinking about it for these past few days, but he could not come up with a solid plan.
"It's simple. We'll organize a Hongmen feast!" Bloody told him how to carry out the next plan in detail.
Both of them discussed until late at night until they had nailed down all the details of the Hongmen Feast.
When it was almost 10 p.m., Lin Huang got the Nightmare Tapir to issue the order to the three chiefs. They announced a new notice together when it was 10 p.m. sharp.
"The participant-clearing collaboration has officially ended!"
"Congratulations, everyone! It's the first time we've cleared all the Dynasty participants in our territory."
"The three chiefs are officially inviting all regional chiefs, regional deputy chiefs and all members in this prison to have a feast tomorrow at 10 a.m. at the foot of Tongtian Peak."
"By then, please submit all the meat that everyone has hunted this time. We will calculate and rank the three zones and regions based on the number of prey. After the ranking is done, we will distribute the meat according to the rule that was set earlier."
"The three chiefs will come to your doorstep if anyone doesn't attend the feast at the said time and if you hide the meat. All the meat will be confiscated and you won't be given any food and water for a hundred years. Those who refuse to surrender the meat when the three chiefs visit will be killed on the spot!"
…
Those who were planning on playing tricks eliminated their plan as soon as the notice went out. Nobody wanted the three chiefs to come to them and they were far from willing to give up on a hundred years of food and water.
Although the notice was filled with harsh words and it was rather odd to demand everyone to be there, not many people suspected the authenticity of the notice.
A similar incident had happened before; it was not the first time the three chiefs were doing such a challenge. Besides that, the trio had announced the notice together, proving that they had discussed this before, so the probability of it being fake was almost zero. Nobody would be able to figure that the three chiefs were being controlled without them even realizing it.
Since the notice went out, many of them departed directly to Tongtian Peak.
A minority of powerhouses who were not in the organization under the three chiefs frowned slightly when they saw the notice. They communicated with each other immediately.
"I'm sure you guys saw the notice Liang Hao and the rest sent, didn't you?"
"Yes, it's obvious that they're pointing at us."
"Didn't we just got a few bodies when we followed the crowd? It's so petty for them to want us to submit all the bodies."
"It has nothing to do with the meat. The trio is just seizing the opportunity to flaunt their power."
"Do we go? I'm guessing they might really come to us if we don't. Since they've already announced that, they wouldn't want to look bad."
"Of course we're going. They'll have something to hold against us if we don't. We'll just play by their rules. If they ask for trouble even if we obey, we'll kill them together. Let's see who'll die then!"
"Let's see what kind of trick they're pulling off."
…
Clearly, this notice had extremely high oppressive power. Even those who were usually rebellious did not dare to say anything this time.
Even a minority of them, whose abilities were comparable with Liang Hao and the rest, chose to compromise. After all, they would not be able to take Liang Hao and the rest on since they had more people on their side no matter how powerful their personal ability was. If they really were to fight, the upper hand was not theirs.
Lin Huang and Bloody waited patiently for the next day to come after sending the notice out.
Chapter 969: We Should Be Humble Instead of Being High on Pride
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Tongtian Peak was the interception of the three zones. It had also been the fixed venue for all of the collaborative activities of the three zones for tens of thousands of years.
It was past nine in the morning, but the foot of Tongtian Peak was already congested with people. Most of them made it there last night and they had been waiting at the foot for a night.
Apart from the minority of them who had been killed by the two days ago, basically 99% of the 100,000 convicts in the entire prison were here.
Lin Huang, on the other hand, arrived at the place leisurely after having some light breakfast early in the morning. However, he was hiding in the Ninetails Lynx's alternate dimension where nobody could see him.
Everyone was relaxing while chatting with people they knew since the chiefs were not there yet.
Even some of the regional chiefs were talking about the feast this time.
"Why do you guys think the three chiefs are doing this? If they're going to divide the meat according to the rules that they've set, they won't be getting much meat."
"I guess they just want to torture us since they're bored."
"What else? They just want to show off! Remember the Octodecathlon last time?"
"Don't talk about the Octodecathlon anymore. Ugh, I get so pissed whenever someone mentions this!"
"Oh yeah, your region came in last for the Octodecathlon last time. What? Are you fighting for the last place again this time?"
"F*ck! Can't you say something more auspicious? Boss Zheng will kill me if we get last again."
"Do you guys think the people in Dynasty will go insane since we've cleared all the participants in the Royal Trials this time?"
"I don't think so since we're only one of the tens of thousands of trial venues. Moreover, it's normal for participants to fail. It's not like there's always an implicit condition whereby the participant who gets the most points must obtain at least 1,000 points."
"I don't think so either. This is only a Rank-D trial space after all. The participants will only get a Rank-D authorization even if they pass this trial. There are at least millions of Dynasty members with Rank-D authorization. They wouldn't care whether they have one more or one less Rank-D member."
…
Liang Hao and the other two arrived at the scene when it was approximately 9.55 a.m.
Everyone who gathered at the foot of the mountain fell into a hushed silence as soon as the three showed up. They then shuffled back to their own teams.
"I won't beat around the bush. Regional chiefs, do a headcount and see who isn't here yet. Hand me the list of absentees. Cross the names of those who made it before 10 a.m. off the list. We'll handle those who arrive after 10. Their meat will be confiscated and they won't be given food and water for 100 hundred years!"
Many regional chiefs looked solemnly at the other two chiefs, Zheng Tu and Liu Hong.
Both of them nodded to the regional chiefs under their wings. "Follow what Chief Liang said."
The regional chiefs and regional deputy chiefs began working as soon as the two spoke.
Many of them who made it just on time looked guilty, they were secretly relieved that they were not late.
When it was almost 10 a.m. sharp, four imperial-level purple gold-rank powerhouse whose aura was nothing less than Liang Hao and the rest arrived just in time. They way they looked at Liang Hao and the rest two was a little provocative.
However, Liang Hao and the two did not do anything about that since they were under the Nightmare Tapir's control.
Liang Hao spoke again as soon as time passed ten.
"Those who haven't arrived will be given the punishment that was set last night."
Around some ten minutes, only three among the 35 regional chiefs handed the list. Everyone in the remaining regions made it there.
There were only four names on the three lists.
Among the four names, one of them made it to Tongtian Peak but he was approximately three minutes later.
The people who knew him turned to look at him when the three chiefs read out his name. Most of them had teasing expression on their faces, only a minority of them had sympathy flashed through their eyes.
"Chief Zheng, please give me one more chance. I could've made it on time but I was chased by a monster when I was on the way. I took a big round and that's why I'm late…"
Zheng Tu, who was short and muscular, spoke without an expression on his face, "You're an adult. Adults should pay for their mistakes. There's nothing to complain about. No matter what the reason is, it's a fact that you've broken the rule that we've set. If I let you go this time, we'll set precedence. In the future, everyone will think that they can break the rule that we've set. Just accept the punishment obediently and stop complaining. I'll kill you if you continue to complain!"
The man, who still wanted to argue, shut up immediately. He dared not utter another word.
"We'll visit the remaining three who haven't made it here until now after the feast has ended." Zhang Tu glanced at everyone when he said that. Many people had goosebumps from that warning of his.
"Alright, we'll begin with the submission of the meat. All the members of each region will hand all of the meat to your regional deputy chiefs. The regional chiefs will be responsible for registering and calculating the data. Pass the data to your chief when you're done with the calculation. The three of us will confirm the number. Don't cheat. All the meat from the entire region will be confiscated if we find out that anyone has cheated on the data!"
All of the regional chiefs who were planning to cheat began the registration obediently when they heard the last sentence.
Lin Huang stayed in the alternate dimension until past noon. Seeing that everyone surrendered the thousands of participants' bodies they had hunted and put them into 35 piles, he got the Ninetails Lynx to release him.
Everyone looked puzzled when he appeared next to the three chiefs.
Many of them reacted immediately upon realizing that he was a foreign participant. However, what puzzled them was that the three chiefs seemed to be ignoring him.
"Get good sleep, all of you." Next to him, the Nightmare Tapir released a loud roar as Lin Huang snapped his fingers. The sound wave spread at a speed that was close to 100 folds faster than the speed of sound.
Many of the convicts fell onto the ground wherever the sound wave passed by.
The few imperial-level purple gold-rank powerhouses who had similar abilities with Liang Hao and the rest had the fastest reaction. They sped toward Lin Huang in an attempt to attack him. However, they lagged far behind the Nightmare Tapir's sound wave attack no matter how fast they were. All of them fell midair as the sound wave spread.
In less than a second, at least 100,000 convicts fell into the Nightmare Tapir's dreamland.
After spending more than an hour reading everyone's minds, the Nightmare Tapir made everyone fall asleep in the dreamland forever.
Lin Huang then summoned the Undead Styx to take over the loose ends.
The Undead Styx that was initially the size of four basketballs turned into a flowing black river. It devoured all of the convicts apart from the imperial-level purple gold-rank powerhouses.
In less than an hour, more than 4,000 participants and 100,000 convicts, who were deep in the dreamland, woke up again. However, their eyes were now pure black as if they were dyed with ink.
The Undead Styx spent almost a day and night to devour all the remaining over 180 imperial-level purple gold-rank powerhouses before resurrecting them.
The three chiefs took the longest whereby it spent more than half an hour resurrecting them.
Lin Huang was beaming with pride as he looked at his imperial-level army that was close to 110,000 people. "Such an army should be enough to clear any organizations in a gravel world."
However, Bloody soon ruined his imagination. "I'm afraid it's not sufficient yet. Even though the imperial-level powerhouses' numbers surpass any organization's, we're still lacking the peak combat strength — demigod!"
"In an organization such as the Union Government, they would have at least 15 demigods. The Hunter Association would have more than ten. I'm afraid that even Dynasty would definitely have more than five. And that's conservative speculation."
Lin Huang's pride was torn as Bloody practically splashed a bowl of cold water onto him.
"Hmm, I think we should be humble instead of being high on pride then."
Chapter 970: He Took All the Corpses With Him
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The Undead Styx that had a 110,000-strong army under its wing controlled the undead army to go their old lair respectively as Lin Huang ordered. They then searched for loots in the lair.
Although most of them had no space for equipment, the Undead Styx could turn into liquid and devour all the items to store them inside its body temporarily.
Whilst the undead army was searching for loots, the Undead Styx shared the memory of its army members with Bloody. After some selecting and arranging, Bloody shared the useful bits with Lin Huang.
More than an hour later, the undead army came back when Lin Huang was still digesting the sea of memories in his head. They handed all of their stored items to Lin Huang without holding back.
Apart from their items, the treasuries of the 35 regions were emptied too. Also, the over 4,000 participants' storage equipment became Lin Huang's loots too.
Lin Huang only left each of them a set of weapon and armor equipment.
After the search of loots, Lin Huang thought about it and decided not to let go off the three convicts who did not come to the feast. He made the Undead Styx control the three chiefs to lead and form three teams consisting of the regional chiefs and deputy chiefs to kill the remaining three.
When the three convicts, who were thousands of kilometers away, died eventually, a notification from the system popped out in front of Lin Huang immediately.
"Number of Remaining Participants: 1
"Number of Remaining Convicts: 0
"All of the convicts are killed, the trial has officially ended!
"Calculating trial result…
"Participant: Lin Huang
"Gender: Male
"Age: 18
"Combat Strength: Immortal-level Rank-7 (Candidate's cultivation system is eligible for the trial)
"Qualification Assessment: Grade-A
"Basic Points: 552,831
"Reward Points (Killing Regional Chiefs): 780,000
"Reward Points (Killing Chiefs): 300,000
"Total Points: 1,632,831
"Qualification Result: Total points exceed one million points, trial result — Perfect.
"Congratulations, participant, you've obtained a Perfect qualification in the trial and won yourself a Rank-A Dynasty member authorization!
"The trial has officially ended!
"Do you want to be sent out of the trial space right now?"
Lin Huang selected "no" immediately.
"Reminder: Please handle the loose ends as soon as you can. The trial space will shut down automatically 24 hours later. You can leave anytime within the 24 hours. At the last minute before the trial space shuts down, you will be sent back to your world by force whether you're willing to leave or not."
No more notifications popped out from the system after the reminder.
Lin Huang stood there looking a little lost. He had yet to digest the sea of information Bloody had sent earlier and the system issued such a reminder all of a sudden. It caught him by surprise.
Theoretically, he would not obtain a million points after killing all of the convicts. However, after studying the two reward points closely, he realized that he was given 10,000 reward points for killing each regional chief and 5,000 reward points for killing each regional deputy chief. As for each chief, he was awarded 100,000 reward points. As a consequence, he accumulated a total of over 1.6 million points.
What he was even more confused about was that he was given a Rank-A Dynasty member authorization albeit having participated in a Rank-D trial.
"What's happening? Could the Dynasty member authorization have something to do with the trial points?"
"Indeed, it's related to the trial points." Although Bloody could not see the system notification Lin Huang read, it took over the subject anyway. "Liang Hao and the rest have a related memory on this. The participants will only pass if they obtain more than 1,000 points. Otherwise, it's futile even if they get first place in the trial after staying for a month in the trial space. However, the participants who pass the trial will only be given Rank-D Dynasty member authorization.
"As the points go up, the trial qualification will be classified 'Good' as long as the points exceed 10,000 and a Rank-C Dynasty member authorization will be granted. Those who obtain even higher points will qualify for 'Outstanding' as long as the points exceed 100,000 and the person will be given a Rank-B Dynasty member authorization.
"However, nobody knows if one would attain higher authorization if they obtain more points than that. The highest Liang Hao and the rest have in their memories is Rank-B authorization."
The related information appeared in Lin Huang's head after Bloody reminded him.
Although the three chiefs had no information about the Rank-A authorization, it was easy for him to figure the reason he had obtained the Rank-A authorization from the available information. It should be the reason he accumulated more than 1 million points and was graded Perfect.
After solving his doubt, Lin Huang put aside the Dynasty member authorization temporarily while proceeding to digest the information Bloody had sent.
The three chiefs returned with glory a few minutes after he was done digesting the information.
They brought back the dead bodies and loot of the three men who refused to join the feast.
"The three of them are on imperial-level purple gold-rank. Two of them have similar abilities with the regional chiefs while one has an ability that's comparable to the chiefs," reported the Undead Styx through Liang Hao.
"It's a good thing that the undead army has three more outstanding fighters now!" Lin Huang nodded while smiling and putting the loots away in his Emperor's Heart Ring.
The Undead Styx spent some time to resurrect the three imperial-level purple gold-ranks one after another.
By then, all of the convicts were dead and had become members of the undead army.
"We should've already done everything we need to in this trial space. There's nothing that we left out. Am I right?" Lin Huang held his head down and asked Bloody that was in his sleeve. He could not think of anything that had not been done.
"You're the only participant left and all the convicts have become part of the undead army." Bloody thought about it and said, "As for the plunder, we've searched through all the accommodation of the 4,000 participants and 100,000 people. We didn't leave anything behind in the treasuries of the regions and zones. Even a few mini treasuries that a few regional chiefs squirreled away didn't escape from the Undead Styx's mind-reading. We've got everything."
"If we have to look for things that we haven't searched, we're left with the hundreds of local monsters. Most of them are baby beasts with limited combat strength. Moreover, they're all carnivorous monsters with little potential to elevate." Bloody had learned about the local monsters from Liang Hao and the rest's memory. It knew every single detail of each monster.
"Which means there are no more benefits that I can gain from this place." Lin Huang pouted when he heard that. He had little interest in those monsters that had low combat strength and little potential to elevate.
"Then, there's no longer any reason for us to stay," Lin Huang declared and he recalled the Undead Styx before recalling Bloody back to card form after that.
As the crowd at Tongtian Peak foot vanished all of a sudden, Lin Huang was the only person left at the empty place.
"Send me out then."
Lin Huang's body was wrapped in a ring of golden light as soon as he said that. The golden sphere then shot into the clouds at the speed of light and vanished completely.
Not long after Lin Huang disappeared, a tremor shook the trial space out of the blue. Two silhouettes, one skinny and one plump, walked out of a crack.
The duo had a rather perplexed expression on their faces as they scanned through the entire trial space with their Divine Telekinesis.
"What's happening? Where are the convicts?"
"There's not even a single participant either."
"Is there surveillance?"
"There used to be, but it was removed later on. It was said that a female leader came to check on the trial space many years ago, and the higher management was afraid that she would see obscene things, so they removed many surveillance cameras in the prison. They didn't put it back after that."
"So, how are we supposed to find out what that participant Lin Huang did in this trial space?"
"Looking at the current situation, we can report that he killed all of the participants and convicts, then took all of the corpses with him."
"It doesn't sound credible at all…"
"Why don't you make something up then?"
"Err, let's just report what you said then."