Chapter 991: Bai Who Has Elevated
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Before Lin Huang managed to wash up, he got out of the tent immediately and looked at the very last golden egg hearing the cracking noise.
He confirmed what he heard was not an illusion upon noticing a tiny hair-line crack on the golden egg.
After washing up, he took his time to finish his breakfast and put the tent that he had been sleeping in for more than half a month away. He then sat on the rocks while waiting for Bai to complete his elevation patiently.
Nobody knew if it was the eggshell that was extra hard or some other reason, but the cracking of Bai's golden egg was significantly slower than Tyrant's and the rest. The golden eggshell finally broke completely and turned into beams of light that penetrated into Bai's body a full three hours later.
Bai took a step forward and arrived before Lin Huang after he completed his elevation.
He did not undergo a major change in terms of appearances. His hair remained white but his eyes were completely bloody red now. There was a red crystal in between his brows that was the size of a thumb while a thin layer of bloody mist lingered around his body.
The black robe he was wearing changed from pure black to crimson patterns that looked like divine patterns. The crimson patterns looked like living things as they were flowing slowly.
Bai's bloody eyes turned back to black when he trained his eyes on Lin Huang. The blood crystal in between his brows sunk back into his skin automatically, disappearing. The bloody mist lingering around his body also faded quickly. Even the crimson patterns on his black robe stopped flowing as if they were just ordinary patterns now.
What puzzled Lin Huang was that he did not sense a powerful aura from him like Tyrant and the rest had. To be exact, he did not sense any cultivator's aura from Bai. It was as if he was just an ordinary person without any cultivation.
"What happened to your aura?" Lin Huang asked while thinking how odd it was.
"I'm hiding it," Bai explained while smiling, "The effect of elevation this time is so amazing that it's out of my expectations."
What he said puzzled Lin Huang even more in the end.
Just when he wanted to probe further, Bai's body began collapsing. Soon, he turned into a golden card hovering mid-air.
Lin Huang was stunned to see the color of the card.
A mythical-level Monster Card was orange in color but Bai's card was golden. From what Lin Huang knew, only a supreme god-level Monster Card would be gold in color.
He stretched out to pick up the card and turned it over to read right away.
"Monster Card: Bai
"Rarity: Supreme God-level (Pseudo)
"Monster Name: Vampire King
"Type of Monster: Fallen God's Blood (Pure Blood) / Blood Demon Tribe
"Nickname: Vampire
"Combat Level: Imperial-level Yellow Gold-rank
"Major: Blood Bond
"Major Skills: Almighty Vampire Particles, Blood Moon, Blood Demon secret skill, Blood Demon Realm…
"Minor Skills: Flesh Regeneration…
"Summon Authority: Denied (to be activated when you reach imperial level)
"Card Remarks: Recommended to train with maximum effort!"
Lin Huang was a little dizzy just looking at the hundreds of skills in Bai's skill slots. There were quite a number of skills that made him envious when he took a glance at them.
"Almighty Vampire Particles
"Function 1: Evolved from Vampire Particles. It can imitate any form as well as constructing any form from one's imagination as long as it doesn't defy the law of physics.
"Function 2: The owner of the skill can read all information about another living thing on the gene level from their blood. It gives the owner of the skill the ability to imitate the subject perfectly (unable to imitate living things possessed by high-level owners)
"Function 3: The owner of the skill with the living thing's blood can influence and assimilate the subject, and turn it into his Blood Servant. The maximum efficiency would be assimilating a living thing of the same combat strength as the owner of the skill.
"Blood Moon: A Blood Moon can be consolidated from Blood Power and Divine Power coming from the owner's body. Every living thing that the moon shines on within the territory will turn into Blood Servants (only applicable to living things with combat strength and level lower than the owner of the skill)"
"Flesh Regeneration: As long as the owner of the skill has 1% of flesh left on his body, he can be resurrected using the remaining portion of flesh."
Apart from these skills, there were a couple more in the Blood Demon secret skill that made Lin Huang envious.
"Blood Demon Embodiment: An Embodiment made of Blood Power and Divine Power. The embodiment will possess 80% of the owner of the skill's abilities and most of the owner's skills. As long as the owner's Blood Power and Divine Power are available, the embodiment can be consolidated over and over again no matter how it is killed.
"Blood Power Extraction: The owner of the skill with any injuries at all can use this skill to extract all living things' blood within his territory and turn it into Blood Power for healing (only applicable to living things with a combat strength and level lower than the owner of the skill)
"Bloody Sacrifice: The owner of the skill can use this skill to sacrifice a massive amount of living things within his territory to acquire temporary level elevation (the sacrificial lives must have a combat strength and level lower than the owner of the skill. The maximum elevation with this skill is one level higher)
"Stealthy Blood: Hide all life aura and transform oneself into a drop of blood to go completely stealthy".
"What's wrong? Any there issues on Bai's elevation?" Bloody could not help but ask when it saw Lin Huang staring at the card silently for a long time.
As his summoning beast, it could not see the card. However, it knew Lin Huang was looking at Bai's card details.
"Nothing." Lin Huang just snapped back to his senses. He put Bai's card away and shook his head while smiling. "Bai elevated to pseudo-supreme god-level directly. Some of his skills are very impressive."
"He elevated to pseudo-supreme god-level directly?!" Bloody gasped. It was clearly surprised. "Man, I'm envious!"
"There's no need to be envious of him. All of you will elevate to supreme god-level as long as you follow me. It's just a matter of time," Lin Huang assured with full confidence.
"A mythical-level quadruple mutated monster is already a legendary figure. It's a little hard for me to imagine how powerful would a quintuple mutated supreme god-level monster be." Bloody was in awe.
Lin Huang thought it was funny as he watched it. Bloody was usually extremely rational, so it was rare for it to take that much interest in something.
Since the mission of elevating his summoning beasts was completed, Lin Huang's goal of coming to the Abyss Brink this time had come to a perfect end. He could even say that it was more than what he bargained for.
Apart from learning about God Bless which was considered to be bad news, overall, the trip was rewarding.
Not only did he obtain a massive amount of cross-ranking kill rewards and six complete legendary-level Monster Cards, but he even acquired sufficient demigod soul crystals to elevate seven of his God Figurines' Combat Souls to imperial-level purple gold-rank. Lastly, he learned how to elevate himself to imperial-level and even obtained 32 broken Godheads that could be used as elevation material.
Lin Huang called out to Bloody after recalling Grimace who was in charge of setting up the illusion and the God Figurine's Combat Soul Undead Styx that was in charge of guarding, "Let's go!"
Bloody snapped back to its senses and returned to Lin Huang's sleeve immediately.
Lin Huang then summoned a Dimensional Portal and stepped into it.
Chapter 992: Bronze Crow City
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Lin Huang returned to Wanbao City as soon as he came out of the Abyss Brink. However, he did not stay in a hotel this time. Instead, he headed straight to the Wanbao City dimensional portal.
He had lunch and waited for almost two hours before entering the dimensional portal heading to Bronze Crow City.
No. A17 foothold, Bronze Crow City, was one of the two grade-A footholds which the underground organization Purple Crow terrorized in Division 3.
The reason he went there was that he had a massive amount of storage equipment that he needed Yang Ling to unlock for him.
Since he had storage equipment from the great world and other mini worlds, Yang Ling could not unlock them for him from a distance because he would need the storage equipment with him. As a result, Lin Huang could only make the trip to get it done.
He informed Yang Ling that he would visit when he had just gotten out of the Abyss Brink more than two hours ago.
A middle-aged man walked toward him not too far away just when Lin Huang opened the map after coming out of the dimensional portal.
"Brother, do you need accommodation?" asked the man who smirked while speaking through voice transmission, "We offer our special services."
Speechless, Lin Huang did not expect this world to have such a soliciting technique too.
"It's alright. I've already booked a hotel."
"We have everything here. Young ladies or mature women, pick anyone you like. You definitely won't have such service at those usual hotels," continued the man through voice transmission.
"Thanks, I don't need that." Lin Huang waved to reject him outright.
However, just when he was going to key in the name of the hotel on the map, the man spoke through voice transmission again, "If you don't like girls, we have men too. Young boys and old men, you can pick anyone you like. 16 to 60 years old, we have everything."
Lin Huang blocked the voice transmission speechlessly while keying the hotel name in. After setting the coordinates, he hovered into the sky directly, leaving an explosion as he took off.
The middle-aged man turned around after watching Lin Huang leave. He shook off the wretched expression on his face and walked into an alley. He dialed a number after clicking the communication page on his Emperor's Heart Ring.
"I saw Lin Xie. He's going to the Phoenix Hotel now."
A voice came behind him as soon as he was done speaking. "Are you talking about me?"
The middle-aged man turned around stiffly and realized that it was Lin Huang behind him. "You…"
"I already knew that you're not some motel owner as soon as I saw you, let alone some pimp," Lin Huang said while smiling.
The reason he said that was because the Nightmare Tapir who mastered spiritual force could clearly sense bad intention from anyone. The moment the man locked eyes with Lin Huang, the Nightmare Tapir in his body sensed his evil intentions and informed him immediately.
Subsequently, Lin Huang released the God Figurine's Combat Soul, the Nightmare Tapir, to pull the man into dreamland. Everything was just an illusion, from him speaking to Lin Huang to seeing him leave and informing his senior about Lin Huang's arrival.
In reality, the man had just taken a step toward Lin Huang's direction whereby he had yet to even speak to the latter.
Naturally, him speaking to Lin Huang at the moment was an illusion too. It was the Nightmare Tapir who projected the dreamland for Lin Huang, giving him the opportunity to participate in the dreamland.
In the dreamland, the plot went on.
"If I'm not mistaken, you must be someone from God Bless." The middle-aged man's heart jolted when he heard what Lin Huang said. He did not expect his organization to be exposed.
'No, I must send out the news about Lin Xie knowing about the organization. I'll get the higher management to kill him immediately!' He covered his sleeve with his hand while composing a message using telekinesis secretly in his sleeve.
He was relieved when he noticed that Lin Huang did not seem to realize he was sending the message out. However, he had no idea that whatever he was doing in the dreamland was futile.
"You must be a professional intel to be playing tricks before me!" Even Lin Huang admired the man's professionalism when he noticed the man's secret trick.
"So what if you've found out? I've already sent the message out. You can't change the truth even if you killed me." The middle-aged man seemed to be fearless of death at all. His eyes were filled with disdain when he stared at Lin Huang.
"Thanks for making me understand something. I can't underestimate anyone in God Bless." Lin Huang assigned the man the death penalty as soon as he was done speaking. "You may rest in peace."
A flying dagger shot out of his sleeve as soon as he concluded with that sentence. It pierced through the man's head, penetrating the air tens of times faster than the speed of sound.
The head of the middle-aged man, whose combat strength was only mid-level immortal-level, exploded like a watermelon. He did not have time to respond at all.
When he was pulled out of the dreamland back to reality, the middle-aged man collapsed onto the ground all of a sudden and he was pronounced dead.
Lin Huang walked past the body without stopping at all, as if the person's death had nothing to do with him.
However, he secretly used his Divine Telekinesis to steal the Emperor's Heart Ring on the person's finger silently.
Many people surrounded the body after he took a few steps away. He left the crowd without any reaction and walked to an alley hundreds of meters away.
The Nightmare Tapir transferred the information it had retrieved to Bloody in the alley. Bloody then shared the information to Lin Huang after it was done organizing the data.
Lin Huang could not help but frown after looking at the middle-aged man's memory.
"Why did the people from God Bless come to Bronze Crow City?"
From the middle-aged man's memory, all he could see was that most of the higher management from both God Bless branches in Division 3 came to Bronze Crow City two days ago. However, since the middle-aged man was just a normal spy with extremely low authorization, he had no idea what the two branches were doing in the city at the same time. His responsibility was just to monitor the situation around the dimensional portal.
"If I'm not mistaken, it must be something to do with the Purple Crow. You can take a look at the underground organization forum whether the Purple Crow has been up to something recently," Bloody speculated.
Lin Huang looked at the forum immediately and saw a piece of news that the Purple Crow posted a few days ago. He came to a realization after reading it.
'So, the Purple Crow is electing its Crow Spirit!'
Lin Huang was familiar with the Crow Spirit. He had learned from Hong Zhuang earlier that the Crow Spirit was the Purple Crow's Holy Son or Virgen on the surface, but in reality, they were the Crow God's vessel in the world.
Among the candidates, the Crow Spirit who was eventually selected would have his or her consciousness wiped away by the Crow God. The Crow God would take the body and make it its puppet completely.
'So, Hong Zhuang is here to elect the Purple Crow's Crow Spirit?' Lin Huang could not help but think of that possibility. He could not figure out why she would come to Bronze Crow City that was not considered a tourism city instead of any other foothold in Division 3.
'Forget it, I don't care. What that lady does has nothing to do with me. I'm just here to get Yang Ling to help me unlock those stuff. I'll leave right after that instead of causing trouble.' Lin Huang shook his head and pushed the thought out of his head. He turned off the webpage on his Emperor's Heart Ring and hovered into the air. Then, he flew toward the Phoenix Hotel.
Chapter 993: Meeting Hong Zhuang Again
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Getting to the 81st floor using the elevator, Lin Huang walked along the corridor on his right. He stopped when he arrived at Room 023. Then, he knocked on the door.
A moment later, the door opened. It was a familiar person at the door — Hong Zhuang.
Hong Zhuang had a short, chin-length bob while her fringe grazed above her brows. There was not much makeup on her face and she looked 20 years old at the most. She was at least five years younger compared to the time when Lin Huang saw her for the first time.
She dressed very casually in a white t-shirt and a pair of blue and white jeans. The bottom of her jeans was rolled up, showing her fair ankles. She wore a pair of blue and white sneakers.
Even Lin Huang was doubting whether this lady was Hong Zhuang at a first glance. However, she clearly did not recognize him.
"You're the client Yang Ling mentioned, aren't you? I'm Yang Ling's friend. Please come in," Hong Zhuang greeted him in a friendly manner.
Lin Huang had just snapped back to his senses and quickly spoke to cover his looking lost earlier, "I can't believe that guy managed to find such a beautiful girlfriend."
All Hong Zhuang did was smile, and she did not respond to what he said. "Yang Ling's working on something in the reading room. Please take a seat. Can I get you a drink?"
"Tea will do. Thanks." Lin Huang sat on the couch on his own.
Soon, Hong Zhuang came back with a cup of tea. Lin Huang put it on the coffee table after accepting it from her.
He dared not drink the tea Hong Zhuang made. Who knew what that lady would do to him?
"Do you mind if I look around?"
"That's fine. Please go ahead." Hong Zhuang nodded and flashed a kind smile.
'This lady has acting skills that can win her an Oscar,' Lin Huang thought to himself. He stood up and walked towards the balcony outside the living room.
The al-fresco balcony was vast. It was at least 15 meters long and three meters wide. There were two sun beds and a small coffee table on the left. There were also a huge sun umbrella and a swing on the right.
Lin Huang stood on the balcony and peered around. The sceneries within tens of kilometers filled his eyes; there were all tall buildings farther away.
He recalled that the hotel was not in the center of the foothold but was more than 100 kilometers to the west of the center.
As he was staring far away while standing on the balcony, Yang Ling was finished with his thing and returned to the living room. He walked out and noticed Lin Huang on the balcony. "What are you looking at?"
"The sceneries aren't too shabby. It's just that the hotel's a little far away," Lin Huang turned around and commented to Yang Ling with a smile.
Yang Ling was dressed neatly like the last time Lin Huang saw him in the video call. He wore a white t-shirt with dark blue slacks. On his feet, he wore a pair of shiny, black leather shoes. His hair was much shorter now. It reached his earlobes and he even donned a cool hairstyle.
If Lin Huang had not seen how he used to look like, it was hard for him to imagine how messy and lazy this guy's old life was.
"Hong Zhuang doesn't like crowded places." Yang Ling walked next to Lin Huang and looked into the distance.
"How's the progress now?" Lin Huang asked while smiling.
"She rejected my proposal." Yang Ling shook his head while forcing a wry smile. "Now, we're just friends. That's the farthest we can go."
"How did she reject you?" Although Lin Huang expected that, he wanted to know how Hong Zhuang rejected Yang Ling.
"She said she's someone horrible and that she's no match for me. She told me that she only approached me so that I could help her to look for someone."
"Who is she looking for? Can you tell me?" Lin Huang proceeded to ask.
Yang Ling glanced at Lin Huang and took out a packet of cigarettes. He shoved one into his mouth. "She's looking for her brother."
Lin Huang perked a brow. He recalled Hong Zhuang mentioning her brother, but he thought it was just something that she made up. However, now it seemed like it might really be the truth.
"So… Did you find him?"
"No. If I had, we wouldn't have come to Bronze Crow City." Yang Ling shook his head.
"Is there a clue that her brother is here?"
"No clue, but there's something here that could possibly help us look for her brother," Yang Ling said before adding "I can't tell you what it is exactly."
"Alright then." Lin Huang did not proceed to ask.
"Did you bring the stuff?" Yang Ling changed the subject directly.
"Yep." Lin Huang took the temporary storage ring that he had prepared earlier out. He had been putting the storage equipment that required unlocking which he had collected over the course of time in the temporary storage ring. There were various coded storage equipment from the great world and the mini-worlds as well as Emperor's Heart Rings from the gravel world.
"They're all inside?" Yang Ling took the temporary storage ring.
"They're all in there," Lin Huang confirmed.
Yang Ling could not help but raise his brow after taking a quick look. "That looks like more than plenty."
"There are a total of 413,628 storage rings and a total of 827 different types of storage equipment," Lin Huang reported the data. Naturally, it was not him who calculated that, but it was Bloody that did.
"You're so detailed in calculating." Yang Ling grinned but become serious later on. "There's something that I must clarify with you. At least half of these storage equipment you brought are old. There are even some antiques that have existed for millions of years. Even if I manage to unlock them, I think there is nothing useful in them. However, I'll definitely charge the unlocking fee according to the number and types of items. The most I can do is to waive the commission if the unlocked items are useless. Of course, I can give you a 20% discount for all the items. You're my old client, after all."
"No problem." Lin Huang nodded to show that he understood, but subsequently voiced his doubt, "However, I have a question. How do you tell that these storage equipment coming from the great world and other mini-worlds are old? How do you manage to distinguish that some models are over millions of years?"
"Well…" Yang Ling rolled his eyes around in a cheeky way and said while smirking, "Of course, I have my ways."
Yang Ling beating around the bush made Lin Huang think that he might have been to other mini worlds and even to the great world. However, since he was unwilling to share more, it was meaningless for him to proceed with the question.
"Roughly when can you get it done?"
"I'll try my best to finish them within a few days."
"Alright then. I'll only leave when you're done."
Initially, Lin Huang thought of returning to Wanbao City first if Yang Ling needed a long time to unlock the storage equipment. He thought of finding a cultivation room to visualize the True Spirits. He would go back to Yang Ling when he was done visualizing the last three God Figurines' Combat Souls. However, since Yang Ling said he could get it done in a few days, Lin Huang thought he would just stay for a few days and leave when Yang Ling was done with the unlocking.
"Just treat this as a vacation and travel around for a few days," Yang Ling said with a grin, "I'll inform you as soon as I'm done with them."
"Sure." Lin Huang nodded in a straightforward manner. "I shan't disturb you guys then."
He patted Yang Ling's shoulder and turned around to head to the living room. Suddenly, Yang Ling's voice came from behind when he was arriving at the door. "Bronze Crow City might be a little chaotic lately. Please be careful."
Lin Huang stopped walking when he heard that warning. He thought of Hong Zhuang and the Purple Crow.
Hong Zhuang happened to walk out of the bedroom at that very moment. Seeing that Lin Huang was leaving, she said with a smile, "You're leaving already? Be careful on your journey."
Her tone was so gentle that she sounded like someone else.
Lin Huang turned around to take a glance at her. Since he could not see any flaws on her face, he nodded while smiling. "I will."
He then opened the door and left.
Chapter 994: A Chance Encounter
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The Phoenix Hotel was located in a rather remote area whereby there were no decent shopping malls around. Lin Huang thought about it. He figured that he would be staying there for a few days since it would be more convenient for him to stay somewhere more crowded. Eventually, he did not stay at the same hotel as Yang Ling did. Instead, he found a hotel in the central zone of the foothold a hundred meters away.
The hotel that he picked was called the Homing Hotel. It was located in the most bustling zone of the Bronze Crow City. The biggest business district of the city was just downstairs. There was everything from food to entertainment, and it was crowded.
Lin Huang did not enjoy the crowd; he just wanted convenience.
Although he would most probably stay in the hotel to practice his sword skills these few days, he did not want to rule out the sudden urge to take a look outside. Moreover, even if he was going to order delivery in, the choice of food around the Homing Hotel was much wider compared to the hotel Yang Ling was staying at.
Just when he had checked in at the front desk, he could not help but raise his brow when he saw the people who were walking out of the elevator. He turned around naturally and began talking to one of the guests in an attempt to be friendly.
"Uncle, your jacket is pretty cool. Where did you get it?"
The man was an uncle who looked over 60 years old and was dressed rather fashionable. He was excited to hear Lin Huang ask about his attire.
"You've sharp eyes, kid. I designed and made it myself…"
Lin Huang nodded and smiled as he listened to the uncle ramble on about the story and process of making clothes.
He only interrupted the man's story when the people who walked out of the elevator left the hotel and were nowhere in sight. "I'm sorry, uncle, I thought of something that I need to do all of a sudden. I'll talk to you some other time."
"Our old man can't stop talking whenever he talks about making clothes. Ignore him, kid. Go do your stuff." The woman who looked like she was in her 50's next to the uncle patted her companion's shoulder, signaling him to stop talking.
"It's great that you have something you're passionate about," Lin Huang said while smiling. He walked to the elevator after saying goodbye to the couple.
When he walked into the elevator, he squinted slightly.
"Never would I have thought that I'd be staying at the same hotel with the people from God Bless. Hmm, this is interesting."
The few people who walked out of the elevator earlier were God Bless members. The reason Lin Huang recognized them at first glance was that there had been tons of information about them in the memory of the middle-aged man who was monitoring the dimensional portal, including their appearances.
Lin Huang picked the room on the 188th floor, which was the top floor of the Homing Hotel.
The elevator finally arrived at the 188th floor after traveling upward for almost half a minute.
Soon, he found his room and entered after swiping the key card.
He called out to Bloody right after he shut the door, "I saw people from God Bless."
"Me too," Bloody said after coming out of Lin Huang's sleeve, "A demigod and two imperial-level purple gold-rank members."
"The demigod is called Shen Yu. He's the person-in-charge of God Bless's second branch in Division 3. The other two imperial-level purple gold-rank powerhouses are members from the second branch too. According to the man's memory, there were one demigod and four imperial-level purple gold-rank powerhouses from the second branch this time. There should be another two imperial-level purple gold-rank powerhouses guarding at the hotel."
"I think we can eavesdrop on what exactly they're up to in Bronze Crow City." Lin Huang grinned.
"I thought you didn't want to create trouble." Bloody could not help but ask, "Didn't you say that you'd leave right after Yang Ling was done with the unlocking and that you wanted nothing to do with this?"
"Since we're staying in the same hotel, it doesn't matter if I eavesdrop conveniently." Lin Huang replied righteously, "Since I'm bored these few days, I'll just treat it as story time."
"Do it your way then. They'll find out about my Leech Pods," Bloody said feeling a little helpless.
"They wouldn't find out about us as soon as we cast parasites on them." Lin Huang smirked.
"What do you mean? Did you find out which rooms they're staying in?"
"I scanned the two imperial-level purple gold-rank members who are guarding in the hotel with Divine Telekinesis." Since Lin Huang knew how the duo looked like, he found out about their coordinates simply with his Divine Telekinesis. "They're staying in the king suite on the 100th floor. There's a huge viewing aquarium in the living room with quite a number of fish monsters in it."
"Indeed, they won't find out about the parasites if we cast them on the fish monsters. The energy wave in the monsters will mask the Leech Pods' energy wave," Bloody explained, "But the problem is, they'll find out about my Leech Pods in the process of casting the parasites. You must know that the radius of an imperial-level purple gold-rank powerhouse's territory is over 100 kilometers. They can clearly sense it whenever there's an energy wave that's out of the ordinary within the range of their territory."
The Territory skill was slow in detecting idle objects, they would simply appear as clouds of black silhouettes. Including human and monsters, their faces could not be seen; only their shapes could be projected. However, a moving object's trajectory course could be easily captured. Including energy waves, it was as glaring as a beam of light in the dark when the Territory skill was unleashed.
The reason Bloody could not use its Leech Pods was that they contained a tiny amount of energy. Though tiny, they drew attention just like fireflies within a powerhouse's territory. Bloody could block the detection if the person's combat strength was lower than itself. However, they were going up against imperial-level purple gold-rank powerhouses. The powerhouses would definitely find out as soon as Bloody released its Leech Pods.
"If we can't do direct parasitization using Leech Pods, we might be able to do it another way." Lin Huang squinted slightly. "For instance, through the hotel staff… I remember you have an infectious parasite ability, don't you?"
"I think I know what we should do now." Lin Huang's suggestion made Bloody's eyes light up as it came up with a plan immediately.
After discussing through voice transmission, Lin Huang activated his Emperor's Heart Ring and called the front office of the hotel.
"Hi, Mr. Lin. May I know if there's anything that we can assist you with?" sang a sweet front desk attendant's voice.
"The toilet in my bathroom is clogged. Please get someone to fix it now," Lin Huang answered while sitting on the couch.
"Is your room number No. 188021?"
"Yes."
"Sure, I'll make the arrangements right away."
"Thanks."
In less than three minutes after the conversation with the front desk attendant, someone rang his door.
A young man asked with a smile after Lin Huang opened the door, "Hi, are you Mr. Lin? Did you call about the clogged toilet?"
"Oh, yes. Please come in." Lin Huang nodded and extended his hand.
The young plumber was stunned, but he shook Lin Huang's hand anyway.
While they shook hands, Bloody's tentacle stretched from his sleeve and tapped on the plumber's palm lightly. The plumber turned into a parasitical puppet right away.
Then, Bloody controlled the plumber to stroll into the living room while Lin Huang closed the door.
It only took a moment for Bloody to read all of the plumber's memory.
"The virus parasite that I'm using is a microbial-level parasite. There's no energy reaction, but it can only be contracted through skin contact," Bloody explained to Lin Huang through voice transmission, "I can control this young man to infect the other hotel staff he knows. The parasite's pathogen will spread continuously from him, so it should take less than an hour to infect all of the staff in the hotel."
"Yes, the first step has been very successful. Let's proceed with the rest of the plan that we discussed." Lin Huang nodded. He could not help but secretly be in awe with how terrifying the parasite species of monster could be.
Chapter 995: Infected
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
In the staff toilet at the Homing Hotel, a middle-aged man lit up a cigarette for himself at the urinal. He unzipped his pants slowly and began peeing.
At the moment, a young man walked in. It was the plumber who had just left Lin Huang's room not long ago.
"Brother Wang, you're smoking in the toilet again." The plumber greeted him with a wry smile and stood at the urinal on the right of the middle-aged man.
"Well, I can't smoke anywhere else," the middle-aged man responded unclearly while dragging on the cigarette.
"Give me a puff," said the plumber who turned his head while smiling.
"Didn't you quit?" Although the middle-aged man asked that, he passed the cigarette from his mouth anyway.
"I told Xiao Wen that I quit, but how could I ever quit?" The plumber took the cigarette and accidentally touched the person's finger…
…
The security officer walked out of the toilet and walked toward the security room.
A bunch of young men in the security room projected the pages of their Emperor's Heart Rings. Some were playing games, some were watching videos while some were binging on dramas.
They shut their Emperor's Heart Ring pages in panic when Old Wang entered.
"You bunch of bastards sure are lazy. It's working hours, yet all you guys care about is having fun!" Old Wang slapped their heads lightly one after another.
…
A young security guard walked toward the front desk in the hotel lobby while a female attendant was flushed upon seeing him walking over.
The rest of the female attendants were waiting for a good show to begin.
"Why did you come? It's working hours now," said the female attendant softly when she saw the security guard arrive before her.
"They've just started to sell red plums on the market. I got you some and I've already washed them." The security guard took a box of red plums out from under his shirt and handed it to the female attendant. "I wanted to pass it to you after work, but I remembered you didn't really eat at lunch. I brought it to you, figuring you might be hungry later."
"I have snacks here. I can eat them to fill my stomach if I'm really hungry. Don't come here during working hours again. It's inappropriate if the manager sees us." Flustered, the female attendant accepted the fruit box.
The security guard pinched her hand mischievously and only let go a moment later.
…
At the front desk, the female attendant Xiao Li watched her security guard boyfriend leave while blushing.
"Xiao Li, I bought you red plums and they're washed," a female attendant ridiculed her by imitating the security guard boyfriend's tone earlier.
"You're showing off much earlier than usual today," the other female attendant teased while smiling.
"I want a boyfriend too. I want one who'd send me food every day," whined a female attendant with a puffy face while looking envious.
"Let's try how these fresh red plums taste." Xiao Li opened the box and grabbed a few for everyone. She passed them around by wrapping the red plums in serviettes.
…
In the hotel room No. 188021, Bloody nodded to Lin Huang half an hour after sending the plumber out. "Over 90% of the staff are infected now. We've completed the preliminary work, so we can go on with the next step now."
"Let's do it." Lin Huang nodded.
A moment later, Xiao Li the female attendant called a number using the hotel line at the front desk.
The Emperor's Heart Ring of a God Bless man with a buzz-cut began vibrating all of a sudden. He tapped the communication page open and picked the call up, seeming a little puzzled after realizing that it was the hotel front desk calling.
"Hi, this is the front desk. May I know if you're the guest from Room No. 100003?"
"What's up?" asked the man while frowning a little.
"Oh, it's just a small matter. Today is the day we do our monthly aquarium cleaning for the king suites. Our staff will go to your room later to change the water in the aquarium. The process might take approximately 20 minutes. I hope that it won't disturb you. If you're not okay with this, we can transfer you to another room with a clean aquarium."
"What's wrong?" asked the short, buff man next to him.
"The front desk said they're coming to change the aquarium water. It's the official aquarium-cleaning day today," replied the man with the buzz-cut.
"Oh, no wonder I sensed staff going into a couple of rooms on this floor earlier."
The man with the buzz-cut recalled sensing something like that within the range of his territory earlier. He said to the front desk, "We don't need to change rooms, but please be quick with the cleaning."
"Sure, we'll make the arrangements right away. It's our pleasure to be at your service."
Approximately two minutes later, the doorbell of Room 100003 rang.
The man with the buzz-cut only let his guard down when he opened the door and sensed no cultivator's energy wave from the two young hotel staff in uniform.
"Please clean the aquarium quickly. My boss has a bad temper. He doesn't like being disturbed. It's best that you get it done by seizing the opportunity since he's not here."
"Sure, we'll get it done as soon as we can."
The man with the buzz-cut closed the door and walked to the balcony for a puff. However, he was facing the living room to watch the two young men work.
The staff used a net and another used his hand to scoop the fishes out one after another before putting them into a temporary tank.
These fish monsters seemed to have gotten used to such a routine, so they did not struggle at all.
After scooping all the fishes out, the duo removed the plug at the bottom to release the water. Later on, they began cleaning the inside of the tank with tools such as the water gun.
The man with the buzz-cut lost his interest when he watched them to this point. He turned around and looked outside the hotel.
Approximately 15 or 16 minutes later, the aquarium was filled with water again as the fishes were slipped back in one after another.
The duo put the tools away and wiped the floor completely dry. They then informed the man with the buzz-cut that they were done and left.
"There's nothing to be nervous about. The two of them are just ordinary people. They were just doing their job all the way and they did not do anything else," reported the short, buff man as he walked into the living room with a grin. "Look, the water in the aquarium is so much cleaner now."
"I wasn't nervous. I was just being cautious." The man with the buzz-cut snubbed the cigarette out with his fingers and walked straight into the living room. He shuffled into the kitchen, took out a bottle of beer from the refrigerator and popped it open with his thumb. Then, he took a big gulp with his head up.
"Old Lei, we've known each other for say, over 20 years. Don't you think I can't tell whether you're cautious or nervous?" teased the short, buff man while smiling.
The man with the buzz-cut was quiet.
"You escaped from the Purple Crow. The Boss brought you here on purpose. This is a mission against the Purple Crow. He's giving you an opportunity to prove yourself, so don't do anything foolish," the buff man proceeded.
"I've told you countless times. I didn't escape. I went in as God Bless's spy since the beginning," explained the man with the buzz-cut while frowning. "The reason why I was unwilling to come isn't that I still have feelings for them, but I know how scary the Crow God is…"
In Room No. 188021 on the top floor of the hotel, Lin Huang was smirking as he sat on the couch while Bloody projected what was happening in Room No. 100003. In the projection, the conversation between the man with the buzz-cut and the short, buff man was crystal clear.
Chapter 996: The Crow God's Eye
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Shen Yu brought the people back to the hotel when the sky was turning dark.
The man with the buzz-cut and the short, buff man wanted to ask him something, but they decided to keep quiet upon noticing his extremely grim expression.
Shen Yu walked past the living room directly to the balcony. After taking a few deep breaths in, he turned around and headed back to the living room. He asked the few of them, "Tell me, which part of me, Shen Yu, is less than that person surnamed Feng? I've been with God Bless longer than he has and I've gone for more missions than he has. If he didn't obtain a massive amount of God Bloods by kissing as*, I would've beaten him up to the point his mother can't even recognize him!"
The four imperial-level purple gold-rank powerhouses dared not speak. All they did was listen while standing. Even the man with the buzz-cut hid the beer bottle in his hand behind his back secretly.
"F*ck! He made my team bait while his team went for the loot. Who the hell does this Feng Li think he is?! He's just good at kissing as*! They even asked him to lead the mission this time!"
The four of them listened to Shen Yu vent for over ten minutes without saying anything. Until he had released everything and returned to his room, the long-haired man who came back with Shen Yu asked the man with the buzz-cut and the short, buff man, "Old Lei, Old Cui, have you guys had dinner?"
"Not yet, we were waiting for you guys to come back," The man with the buzz-cut who was addressed as Old Lei took another sip of beer.
"Let's order take-out. I'm sure Boss doesn't want to eat out." The long-haired man glanced at the remaining three of them. "What do you guys feel like eating?"
The few of them named what they craved. He walked to Shen Yu's room after jotting them down.
Old Lei then waved at the bald man who came back with Shen Yu. He asked while lowering his voice, "What exactly happened, Old Wei?"
Old Cui came closer after hearing Lei An's question.
Old Wei peeped at Shen Yu's room. Noticing that Shen Yu did not stop them with the question, he spoke quietly, "Boss Feng is the captain of the mission this time."
A cough came from Shen Yu's room as soon as he spoke. It clearly came from the long-haired man.
Old Wei changed what he was going to say immediately. "As the captain of the mission this time, Feng has three demigods and 20 imperial-level purple gold-rank powerhouses in his team. He asked our team and Master Li's team to be the bait to get the Purple Crow's attention. As the third team, they'll be hiding in the dark all this time and will only show themselves to get the target in the very last moment. Moreover, he asked both of our teams to be their backups."
"In other words, we're just the bait and they'll take the credit." Old Cui raised his brow.
"There's nothing that we can do. Feng has a good relationship with higher management. They made him the captain of this mission." Old Wei spread his arms while feeling helpless. "Furthermore, we're not the only bait. I'm guessing except himself, everyone else, including the team that he's leading, are the bait too."
"Don't worry about it. Him wanting to go for the target himself is a good thing for us. Believe me. That thing is a curse as soon as you touch it." Old Lei took another sip of his beer.
At the moment, Shen Yu flung the door open all of a sudden. "Lei An, what exactly do you know about the Crow God's Eye?"
"I've already reported whatever I know to the headquarters, but the higher management only sees the benefit and ignored the risk of the item. I emphasized the risk on purpose, but they said I'm just being an alarmist and they ignored me completely!" Lei An had helplessness written all over his face.
"Tell me everything you know." Shen Yu took a step out and appeared before Lei An.
"Sure," Lei An nodded, "I'll give you guys a rough explanation."
"The Crow God of the Purple Crow is a true Protoss. He's on a completely different level from the fake Protoss that attacked us 800 years ago. His combat strength is at least True God-level or even higher."
"Legend has it that the Crow God has a total of 108 eyes with different abilities in each of them. The one that the Purple Crow has is called the Detective Eye. It can see through lies and reveal the truth. It's an extremely rare god item.
"To the Purple Crow, the main function of the Detective Eye is to pick out the Crow Spirit. At other times, it's hardly used apart from in special situations. Only the No. 1 Crow Leader in the Purple Crow's headquarters has the authorization to use it. The rest have very limited knowledge about this god item.
"The reason I said it'll be a curse to the person who takes this item is that the Detective Eye isn't a stand-alone god item. It's connected to the Crow God's will. Although this item isn't necessary the Crow God's eye, it's tightly connected to the Crow God. Cutting off such a connection might trigger the Crow God himself. That's what has been bothering me recently.
"Although it's impossible for the Crow God to come himself, the fury of a True God or higher existence isn't something that we can handle. Nobody knows if the Crow God has an attack tactic that could cross to another realm among the over 100 abilities he possesses.
"Apart from the Crow God's Eye, the Crow Spirit is a gravely dangerous existence too.
"Each Crow Spirit that's been selected from the candidates using the Crow God's Eye will be transformed by the Crow God in an extremely short time. The Crow Spirit will possess a body and spirit that's as powerful as complete-stage demigod-level as well as the Crow God's inheritance. The transformation only takes a few mere minutes.
"The transformed Crow Spirit will possess complete-stage demigod-level abilities. They can even unleash virtual god-level ability when necessary."
"Therefore, if we're still going for the second target which is the Crow Spirit, the only time to do it is the few minutes when the Crow Spirit is being transformed. If we're too early, the Crow Spirit might not be elected yet. If we get there late, the Crow Spirit will become a great obstacle in our mission.
"If we really can't do it, we can only give up the second target. The first target which is the Detective Eye is our first priority," Shen Yu said without thinking twice.
"If we only focus on the first target, indeed, the difficulty of the mission will drop by heaps." Lei An looked at Shen Yu while frowning. "But would Feng agree to this? Judging by his character, I guess it's pretty impossible for him to give up the second target."
"That dumbas*, he might be killed by the Crow God's hand in this mission," Shen Yu condemned, "I really don't understand which part of him does the God's Messenger like."
…
In Room No. 188021 on the 188th floor, Lin Huang watched the entire discussion the few God Bless members had while sitting on the couch. He heard everything the five members said without missing anything.
"So, the Purple Crow's electing the Crow Spirit…" Lin Huang only found out about the reason why God Bless came to Bronze Crow City. He also found out that God Bless had more than two teams. There were three teams in total while one team was in hiding.
"If I'm not mistaken, Yang Ling and Hong Zhuang must be coming for the Detective Eye too!" Soon, Lin Huang recalled Yang Ling telling him that there was something that could help Hong Zhuang find her brother. Looking at the current information he had, the Detective Eye was most probably it.
Chapter 997: I Bet You've Never Seen An Immortal-level Who Managed to Kill Demigods
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Lin Huang heard quite a number of secrets through the fish monsters in the hotel room.
He thought he just happened to bump into people from God Bless and was curious about what they were up to. Never had he thought that it would have something to do with the Purple Crow and even involved Yang Ling and Hong Zhuang.
"So, do we stick our noses in this?" Bloody turned its head to ask Lin Huang after they were done eavesdropping on the God Bless members.
"I'm not interested in the Purple Crow's Crow Spirit and that Detective Eye. It doesn't hurt for me to stay to watch the show if time permits." Lin Huang's purpose of going to Bronze Crow City was just to look for Yang Ling to unlock the storage equipment. He planned to return to Wanbao City as soon as he collected the unlocked items so that he could perform closed-door cultivation to visualize the last three True Spirits.
However, he never thought that he would encounter such a matter during his trip to Bronze Crow City.
Lin Huang did not mind staying just to watch if the election of the Purple Crow's Crow Spirit was just a few days away from Yang Ling completing the unlocking. Witnessing a demigod battle was rare. Furthermore, he wanted to know what exactly Yang Ling and Hong Zhuang possessed in order to be fighting for the same target with an organization that was guarded by demigods. Apart from that, he wanted to confirm whether the Crow God, the existence which combat strength was at least as powerful as true god-level, could really attack by crossing realms.
However, if the Purple Crow delayed their election of the Crow Spirit, he did not plan to waste his time there. He was eager to elevate his combat strength and ability since he found out about the condition of the gravel world in the great world as well as the existence of God Bless. No matter how excellent the show was going to be, it would serve no purpose to the elevation of his ability.
"On the other hand, I'm pretty interested in the Detective Eye," Bloody said while smiling, "I've been thinking how it'll work theoretically when the man with the buzz-cut was describing the Detective Eye earlier. The more I listened to him, the more I thought that the thing is more like a medium instead of a god item that comes with detecting functions."
"What do you mean?" Lin Huang's interest was piqued after hearing what Bloody said.
"God items usually form naturally and usually come with only one ability. Even if it contains various abilities, the nature of the abilities are in-line."
"According to that man with the buzz-cut who fit Lei An's initial description, the function of the Detective Eye should be exposing lies and revealing the truth. It makes sense to use this to elect the Crow Spirit.
"However, he mentioned later on that the Crow Spirit that's been elected through the Detective Eye will be transformed by the Crow God. The Crow Spirit will even obtain the Crow God's inheritance. That's strange because the Detective Eye will now become the medium connecting the Crow God and the Crow Spirit.
"This medium function has nothing to do with the detection ability at all. It's two different abilities on the other side of the spectrum."
"It's impossible for a natural god item to possess two completely different abilities. Therefore, I'm suspecting that the so-called Detective Eye doesn't possess detective ability but rather a medium item."
'So, you're saying it's the Crow God who is electing the Crow Spirit instead of the Detective Eye? The Detective Eye's real ability is just a disguised medium?' Lin Huang thought to himself carefully and figured it might be possible. 'So, the Crow God's transformation of the Crow Spirit and the passing on of the inheritance by crossing realms is made possible with this medium too?!'
"The so-called Crow God's Eye should be a gimmick the Purple Crow came up with to disguise the Detective Eye's real function." Bloody nodded. "If I got it right, God Bless's motive of taking this Detective Eye is valid."
"They want to use this medium to connect the great world organization behind them!" Lin Huang declared the motive out loud.
The entire thing went through a painstaking analysis. The more Lin Huang thought about it, the more he thought that Bloody's speculation might really be the truth.
"So, Yang Ling and Hong Zhuang…"
Now that he basically confirmed the Detective Eye had no detection function, Hong Zhuang would not be able to find her brother even if Yang Ling and she were to obtain the god item.
Lin Huang could not help but frown a little when he thought about this.
Bloody's voice came through voice transmission at the moment. "I'm not sure about Yang Ling, but I think Hong Zhuang most probably knew about the truth about the Detective Eye. That lady Hong Zhuang was a core member of the Purple Crow. She escaped from the Purple Crow because she found out about the truth of the Crow Spirit. It's highly possible that she knows the real function of the Detective Eye."
"So, are you saying she's just messing with Yang Ling when she told him that she's looking for her brother so that she could earn his sympathy?" Lin Huang was stunned when he heard that. He thought he was becoming more and more clueless about Hong Zhuang now.
"It's possible, but maybe she's a team with Yang Ling. I can't figure that out at the moment," said Bloody, "But I suggest that it's best you don't trust Yang Ling entirely. He has most probably been to the great world and other mini-worlds."
Lin Huang frowned even deeper now.
When Yang Ling recognized the age of the storage equipment from the other worlds, Lin Huang figured he must have been to the great world and the other mini-worlds. Although Yang Ling had zero cultivator's aura from him and seemed like a completely ordinary person, Lin Huang knew very well that Yang Ling was a traveler who possessed a Goldfinger like he did.
Since Yang Ling came from Earth just like he did, he always felt close to Yang Ling since they came from the same hometown. Though he had his guard up, he never thought that they would be enemies.
Lin Huang was even more puzzled now. He was not even sure if Yang Ling was with Hong Zhuang out of love or if both of them had intentions of their own and were just acting.
"Also, whether Yang Ling knew about the real function of the Detective Eye or not, he's in the same boat with Hong Zhuang now. Knowing the truth or not doesn't change this fact."
Lin Huang thought the entire thing was getting more and more complicated as he delved deeper into it.
In Room 081023 of the Phoenix Hotel more than 100 kilometers away, a couple was having a chat.
"That client of yours with the surname Lin who came earlier looks familiar. I wonder if I've seen him before." Hong Zhuang stood at the reading room and chatted with Yang Ling, pretending to be casual.
"It's not odd that you find him familiar. His name is Lin Xie and he's the No. 1 supreme genius on the Genius Union leaderboard for two years consecutively." Yang Ling gave a short response while working.
"That name… It's a fake identity you made for him, isn't it?"
"Yes," Yang Ling confirmed. He seemed like he was unwilling to reveal his client's confidential information.
"Have you seen his real face before?"
"I haven't. He looked like that since we first met." Yang Ling lifted his head to look at Hong Zhuang while speaking in a rather jealous tone, "Are you interested in him?"
"Stop overthinking. I just find him a little familiar. I'm worried that he's from the Purple Crow," Hong Zhuang explained while smiling.
"Don't worry about it. The Purple Crow won't be able to train such an outstanding guy like him." Yang Ling felt relieved and shook his head with a smile.
"He's just on immortal-level no matter how powerful he is." Hong Zhuang pouted. Clearly, Yang Ling included her in his earlier reference.
Yang Ling raised his brow and thought to himself secretly, 'I bet you've never seen an immortal-level who has managed to kill demigods.'
"Oh yeah, I almost forgot about this. The Crow God Ceremony of the Purple Crow will officially take place at 12 a.m. in three days. Are you ready?"
"I'm all set."
Chapter 998: Exposed Ability
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
It was the second day since Lin Huang arrived in the Bronze Crow City.
"I've unlocked all of the storage equipment. Are you coming to get them now or are you coming over tomorrow?"
It was past 11 at night and Lin Huang had just finished practicing his sword skills and was planning to go to bed. A message popped up on his Emperor's Heart Ring all of a sudden. Naturally, it was Yang Ling who had helped him to unlock the storage equipment and sent him the message.
"I'll be there right away." Lin Huang summoned a dimensional portal as soon as he replied to the message. He then stepped into it.
As he walked out of the dimensional portal a moment later, he arrived at the entrance of Yang Ling's hotel room.
He rang the doorbell and Yang Ling, who was dressed in pajamas, opened the door a while later.
He was surprised to see Lin Huang standing at his doorstep. "How did you come so quickly?"
"I set the coordinates of your hotel room the last time I came."
"Come in then." Yang Ling gestured him to enter.
Lin Huang did not see Hong Zhuang when he entered. However, he sensed someone lying in the bedroom within the range of his territory. He thought to himself, 'She has such a healthy lifestyle!'
"Hong Zhuang is already sleeping. Let's talk in the reading room," Yang Ling lowered his voice and led Lin Huang straight to the reading room.
The reading room was a little messy, but it was clearly much better than where Yang Ling used to work.
Lin Huang glanced through the room without missing anything. He thought Yang Ling had undergone a significant change compared to the past. No matter whether it was his state of mind or personal lifestyle, it was undoubtedly much healthier now.
Looking at those details, it did not seem like he was putting on an act.
Relating to Yang Ling's messy life in the past and the changes he had made since meeting Hong Zhuang, Lin Huang was more convinced that Yang Ling had no idea about Hong Zhuang's real intentions.
Naturally, Lin Huang's guard remained up since Yang Ling hid the fact that he had been to the great world.
After closing the door to the reading room, Yang Ling passed Lin Huang the temporary storage ring he had given him earlier.
"There are a total of 413,628 storage equipment, 133,186 of which can't be unlocked although I've unlocked the rest for you.
"Why can't you unlock them?" Lin Huang asked rather confusedly.
"A minority of them are too old. A part of the storage equipment has decomposed, causing its insides to collapse. As for the rest that failed to be unlocked, it's basically because the deceased's immediate family logged out of the account and transferred the items out. The respective organizations collected the empty storage equipment back."
What Yang Ling said confirmed Lin Huang's suspicions that he had been to the great world even more. Otherwise, it was impossible for him to know about such a log-out process so clearly. However, Lin Huang did not question him any further.
"Thanks. I'll take a look at them when I get back and I'll pay your commission later."
"Lin Xie, I have a favor to ask," Yang Ling hesitated before saying all of the sudden.
"What is it?"
"There are over 300 storage rings among the pieces of storage equipment that come from the great world. I would like one, any one of them. I only want the ring. I don't want anything in it," Yang Ling finally voiced his request, "I can give you a 20% discount on the commission."
"Can you tell me the reason why you want the storage ring?" Lin Huang thought about it and asked directly.
"I can't tell you that. All I can tell you is that it's related to my privacy. It won't harm anyone." Yang Ling stared at Lin Huang as he gave him an explanation that could not really be considered a reason.
Lin Huang fell into silence for a moment and eventually nodded. "Alright then."
To him, it did not hurt to lose one of those storage rings. Furthermore, Yang Ling did not specify which one he wanted whereby Lin Huang could just pick any for them. Even if Yang Ling wanted a specific one among all of them, the probability of him having it was less than 1/300.
Lin Huang used his Divine Telekinesis to detect his temporary storage ring and casually picked a male storage ring. He handed it to Yang Ling after retrieving its contents.
Yang Ling had no objection, so he put the ring on his finger as soon as he took it. He smiled and nodded at Lin Huang. "Thanks."
"I'll make a move now if this is all." Lin Huang put the temporary storage ring away and looked at Yang Ling.
"When do you plan to leave Bronze Crow City?"
"Within these two days. What's up?"
"Nothing. It's just that it'll be chaotic in Bronze Crow City lately, so it's best if you can leave as soon as possible to prevent from yourself from getting into trouble." There was a hidden message in Yang Ling's words as he looked at Lin Huang hintingly.
"I don't usually create trouble, but I'm not afraid of trouble." Lin Huang locked eyes with Yang Ling while speaking cryptically. "If some bastard insists on coming at me, it's his bad day then."
The two of them looked into each other's eyes for a moment and smiled.
"I'm leaving!" Lin Huang waved and summoned a dimensional portal before stepping into it right away.
A moment later, the dimensional portal closed and Lin Huang disappeared. However, Yang Ling mumbled to himself with a sigh as he watched Lin Huang vanish, "I hope this guy won't stick his nose into this…"
Lin Huang sat on the couch and remained silent for a long time when he returned to the hotel room. He knew that his ability was now exposed.
What Yang Ling said earlier clearly meant to urge Lin Huang not to interfere with what was going to happen in Bronze Crow City. It also meant that Yang Ling knew Lin Huang had the ability to interfere.
"How did I expose myself?" Lin Huang took out the temporary storage ring and looked into it with his Divine Telekinesis. He looked through the storage equipment in it one after another.
He soon found out what the problem was. There was Divine Power left behind in some of the storage equipment.
Bringing out the storage equipment, he soon found out the reason of Divine Power remnant was because of the blood on them.
In reality, many storage equipment would have blood on them and Lin Huang basically would not clean them. Nobody knew how long it would take to clean hundreds of thousands of storage equipment one after another. He would usually retrieve the loots and sell the storage equipment on the black market. The black market would clean the storage equipment themselves when they received the storage equipment.
However, the blood on the storage equipment was clearly not regular monster blood. Instead, it was demigod blood, hence the remnant of the Divine Power.
"That's strange. How would these storage equipment have demigod blood? I used the temporary storage ring to keep the storage equipment temporarily. I put those demigod-level monsters carcasses that I killed in Abyss Brink away straight into my Emperor's Heart Ring." Lin Huang thought it was a little odd.
Bloody knew what happened as soon as it heard Lin Huang's soft mumble.
"You must've gotten the blood from the Emperor's Heart Rings you obtained from killing the demigod-level monsters on the third layer of the Abyss Brink. You put the hundreds of Emperor's Heart Rings away in there too. I figured there might be rings used by demigods before and Yang Ling would see through your ability, so I took the time to pick them out before sending them for unlocking. Never did I think I would've overlooked the blood." It was normal for storage equipment to have blood on them. Even Bloody overlooked it when it handled them, thus it did not think of the remnant of the Divine Power.
Such remnant from demigod blood would not last long and would vanish a month later the most. It was easy for Yang Ling to figure that the blood was left behind after killing demigod-level monsters.
"Forget it. Let it be if he finds out." Lin Huang did not want to dwell on it since it had come to this point.
"The Crow God Ceremony is beginning in two days. He must be putting all of his focus on it instead of watching me."
Chapter 999: There's More Than One God in This World!
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Time flew by and soon two days had passed.
Lin Huang spent the past two days in the hotel room practicing his sword skills. He even handed the task of eavesdropping on the God Bless members to Bloody which relayed the important messages to him.
Apart from learning about the time and venue of the Crow God Ceremony, he did not only learned about the mission this time, but he even heard many God Bless secrets.
The founder of God Bless was called the Master God and his combat strength and ability were unknown. He had been in hiding for hundreds of years and had just come back to take over God Bless again.
That was also the reason why God Bless was active lately all of a sudden.
Below the Master God were four God's Messengers whose combat strength was unknown as well.
However, judging from Shen Yu's respect towards the God's Messengers, the four of them might most probably be virtual god-level powerhouses. Shen Yu was a demigod himself, after all, and only Virtual Gods could make a demigod fear for them.
Then, there were Commanders below the four God's Messengers.
The Commanders were in charge of all of the branches in the entire safety zone. Some safety zones had one Commander while some had a main Commander and a Deputy Commander.
The guy with the surname Feng whom Shen Yu mentioned earlier was Commander Feng Li. He was currently leading God Bless in Division 3, and he managed all three branches in Division 3.
The reason Shen Yu despised him was that the latter who had more experience was supposed to be appointed as the new Commander since the past Division 3 Commander was re-assigned. Never had he thought that Feng Li would appear out of nowhere. Not only Feng Li was given a massive amount of god's blood and elevated to perfect-stage demigod-level despite only going on very few missions, but he was also assigned to be the Commander of Division 3.
Since Shen Yu secretly had the most complaints towards Feng Li, Bloody knew a lot about him.
Almost half of the Commanders from God Bless had the same combat strength as Feng Li whereby they were on perfect-stage demigod-level.
Perfect-stage demigod-level would mean that 100% of the Life Power in the demigod-levels' bodies could transform into Divine Power. On a certain level, such a person was close to Virtual God. Powerhouses on perfect-stage demigod-level would have their flesh and soul washed completely with a sea of Divine Power, practically reaching Virtual God standard. Their ability was comparable with a virtual god-level rank-1 who had just elevated. People would easily mistake their combat strength as a virtual god-level powerhouse by sense.
However, the broken Godhead in their bodies made the construction of God Territory impossible. They could not produce Divine Power naturally, and could only replenish it from external sources.
Below Commanders were the Captains of each branch, which was Shen Yu's current position at God Bless.
All of the Captains of God Bless had demigod-level combat strength; that was the mandatory condition of being a Captain.
God Bless had a couple of branches in the three core safety zones. For instance, Division 3 had three branches while Division 1 and Division 2 had more.
After the Captains came the normal members.
God Bless did not have many members. They were basically on high immortal-level and imperial-level. Each branch had few members with only 20 to 30 members or over 100 members at the most.
Comparatively, God Bless might have more spies allocated in each organization than their members.
Naturally, the spies followed another system that was entirely different from the system Shen Yu and the rest followed. Even the intel branches of each division were unrelated.
Shen Yu only chatted about that with his few underlings once and it was just a short conversation, so Bloody obtained very limited information from that.
Lin Huang frowned when Bloody was telling him that information.
"Are you sure those four God's Messengers are Virtual Gods?" That was the first question Lin Huang asked after hearing what Bloody said.
"It's confirmed. Shen Yu has no respect for this perfect-stage demigod-level Feng Li. Him taking Shen Yu's position aside, Feng Li is just a demigod to him even though he's on perfect-stage demigod-level. He's not as powerful as Shen Yu who could easily get to perfect-stage demigod-level as long as he obtains sufficient god's blood. Therefore, he has no respect for Commanders.
"However, he's always calling God's Messengers 'Master God's Messenger' and dares not cross the line. He clearly respects them. It's impossible for Shen Yu to fear perfect-stage demigod-levels.
"However, according to the cultivation system in our gravel world, it's impossible for someone to elevate to Virtual God." Lin Huang was very much aware of the current cultivation system's flaw. Indeed, just like what the stone tablet said, it was impossible for someone to elevate to Virtual God.
"The current cultivation system can't do that, but what if they're cultivating using the old cultivation system?" Bloody voiced its opinion, "Or maybe they're like Mr. Fu whereby they're Virtual Gods who survived the ancient era?"
"According to historical records, many powerhouses' bodies weren't found during the battle 800 years ago. Perhaps most of them were eaten by monsters but we can't rule out the possibility that there were some Virtual Gods who hid and healed from the battle."
Lin Huang could not argue about what Bloody said because it was indeed possible.
"I personally think that these Virtual Gods elevated by integrating Godheads," the stone tablet voiced its opinion out of the blue.
"Why would you say that?" Lin Huang asked immediately.
"Otherwise, where did the Godheads of Gods who died during the ancient era go when their bodies were found?" The stone tablet was calm as it posed the question.
What the stone tablet said terrified Lin Huang. There might be millions of Gods that died during the ancient era. Even if most of them remained unfound, as long as a minority of the Godheads were found by major organizations, they could manufacture many Gods from there.
"Judging from what you said, it's very possible that the Master God of God Bless is a True God." Lin Huang thought his view of the world was now completely shaken.
He had always thought Mr. Fu was the only God in this gravel world. However, now it seemed like this gravel world was much more dangerous than he imagined.
"If that's the case, fighting God Bless is much more difficult than I expected." Lin Huang looked helpless.
"I was thinking why would God Bless have to be secretive in their missions if they really had such power, especially when Bloody mentioned they might have four Virtual Gods? They could totally wipe out all the organizations in the entire world under the sun, making them the overlord of the gravel world.
"However, now it seems like organizations such as the Union Government and the Hunter Association might have more hidden god-level powerhouses. God Bless doesn't announce their power not because they can't, but because they know very well that there are even more powerful organizations that exist in this world."
Lin Huang soon connected the dots after the stone tablet reminded him about it.
"These god-level powerhouses haven't shown up for hundreds of years. They might've come to an agreement with all the organizations not to reveal themselves. Just like the game theory of deterrent forces that all the countries applied on Earth…"
Chapter 1000: Ten Candidates
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Late at night, two round red and purple moons hung in the sky like a pair of gigantic beast's pupils in different colors.
The maroon moonlight shone on the blue ocean. Combined with the rumbling of the waves, the layers of mysterious colors rippled.
It was the Tranquil Ocean, a sea that branched out from the east of Peaceful Ocean 5,000 kilometers to the northeast of Bronze Crow City.
At the moment, there were four massive pitch-black airships above the Tranquil Ocean. They were flying towards the central zone of the Tranquil Ocean.
If one were familiar with airships, he would be able to recognize these four airships that looked exactly the same. They were demigod-level supreme motherships — the Midnight God.
The fuselage of the airship was flat while its rear looked like a flatland. Its length exceeded 12,000 meters, making it seem like a supermassive aircraft carrier hovering in the sky.
As a demigod-level supreme mothership, the Midnight God could be sold at a price similar to a god item in the market.
The four airships flew in sequence and soon arrived at the central zone of the Tranquil Ocean. They landed less than 100 meters above the ocean.
Subsequently, the four airships began transforming. Their rears turned into a 90-degree fan-shaped form and connected together perfectly. As the four massive motherships became one, they formed a round platform that was more than 24 kilometers in diameter.
There were over 4,000 dense cannons below the platform that stretched out of the platform, pointing in 360 degrees.
After the transformation was done, more than ten silhouettes in black trench coats appeared on the round platform at the back of the mothership in a flash. There was a white circle in the middle of the black trench coat where a purple crow perched on a dry branch.
Soon, the 13 of them began working.
One of them waved and opened a midnight-black dimensional portal.
A moment later, a gigantic black sharp claw reached out of the portal. The claw alone plugged the entire portal.
"Stop clogging the portal. Come out now," shouted the man who summoned the portal at the monster that stretched its claw out.
The black sharp claw shrunk at a rapid speed as a pitch-black dragon-like creature came out of the portal. It glared at the person who shouted at it, feeling crossed, then looked around. "There's no fight here, Lu Dong. Why did you summon us?"
The second monster crawled out of the portal as soon as he was done speaking. It was a green giant with countless lumps all over its body. Its height was approximately seven to eight meters tall, and it had bulky muscles all over.
"How many times do you want me to tell you not to call me by my name, Big Black? You're my imperial monster. You should have some basic respect toward your master," Lu Dong said with arrogance on his face. He would usually let it go, but many of his colleagues were around to witness the scene.
"Respect, my as*. Since there's no fight here, I'm going back to sleep." The dragon creature named Big Black snorted, turning the air into ice in the next second while the temperature on the platform plunged. He glared at his master and turned around in an attempt to leave.
"Dracaena!" Lu Dong shouted immediately upon seeing him leaving.
Big Black stopped right away while a hint of slyness flashed in his eyes. He swung his head. "300!"
"200! Go back to sleep if you don't want any."
"Deal!" Big Black then turned around.
"Barbecue!" The green giant looked at Lu Dong with a grin. Clearly, he was going to lock a deal down.
"Two tonnes, nothing more!" Lu Dong announced grimly.
The giant nodded immediately.
Another four monsters came out of the portal at the same time and they were grinning at Lu Dong.
Lu Dong glanced at them and looked even gloomier now. However, he said while gritting his teeth, "Give me everything you have today. Those who slack will have their reward taken away!"
Although they put on an amusing show whereby the master was bullied by his imperial monsters, Lu Dong's colleagues did not make fun of him.
All six imperial monsters clearly had demigod-level aura, and it only proved Lu Dong's power as an Imperial Censor.
Moreover, there was a demigod who had teased Lu Dong after seeing a similar situation and he was beaten up by Lu Dong and his six imperial monsters to the point that he was bedridden for half a month.
Given such a severe warning, nobody dared to make fun of Lu Dong.
The six demigod-level imperial monsters began working immediately. Apart from the two that stayed by Lu Dong's side, the remaining four scattered. Two of them flew into the air while another two jumped into Tranquil Ocean to hide.
After the preparations, Lu Dong sat with his legs crossed while watching his 12 colleagues building the altar nearby patiently.
Approximately half an hour had passed. An altar that spanned a kilometer in diameter was erected on the platform at the rear of the airships.
It was 11.50 p.m. by then.
"The power of the Divine Stone is enough to hold up the airship's defenses, isn't it?" The leading middle-aged man glanced at the time and said to the lady next to him, "We'll bring in the Crow Spirit candidates when the defenses are activated."
The lady nodded and disappeared right away.
Soon, a semitransparent defensive layer formed quickly the air above the airship platform, engulfing the entire area.
Looking from far away, the platform at the back of the airships was not the only covered area. There was also a semitransparent membrane overlaying the bottom of the airships without the cannons.
Approximately two to three minutes after the shield was formed, the lady who disappeared and the other man brought ten young people in white robes in through the elevator.
The muscular man who had just arrived was clearly a demigod judging by his aura.
Meanwhile, the young people in white robes were of mixed genders and had different combat strength auras. Six of them were on imperial-level, and the one with the highest combat strength was on imperial-level purple gold-rank. The other three were on high immortal-level. The last one was on holy fire-level, having just stepped into white flame-level.
The leading middle-aged man glimpsed through the bunch of young people in white robes and began speaking, "Being selected as a Crow Spirit candidate is an honor. However, only one among you will be elected as the Crow Spirit, the Crow God's representative in this world. We won't know who'll be elected until the very last moment. The election has nothing to do with your combat strength or ability. The will of the Crow God will determine the final decision.
"For those who aren't selected, don't give up. You're an irreplaceable Purple Crow member. Be diligent in cultivating. You'll still have the opportunity to go for my position as Crow Leader."
The middle-aged man held his head down and looked at the time after he was done speaking. "It's almost time now. Let's begin."