Chapter 1171: Misery's Secret
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Lin Huang commented while he looked at Killer after getting out of the dreamland, "There's space for your battle skills to improve. However, you're pretty skilled overall. After all, your opponent this time is pretty powerful and you're improving fast."
The giant sword in Killer's hand disintegrated slowly. He then nodded at Lin Huang lightly. Indeed, this battle had exposed his flaws.
Lin Huang extended his hand subsequently and pressed it on Killer's hat to share over 300 sword skills that he promised.
"This is the reward that I promised you. Take your time to digest them." With a flourish of his hand, he recalled Killer back into a card.
Later on, Lin Huang looked at the three bodies that were in Dynasty's meeting room. The three of them from Misery had lost their vital signs completely, but they remained sitting just like how they were before the Nightmare Tapir pulled them into the dreamland. They had not even closed their eyes.
"How's the progress of retrieving their memory?" Lin Huang asked the Nightmare Tapir all of a sudden.
"It's done."
Lin Huang summoned Bloody again after hearing the Nightmare Tapir's response.
Donning a red dress, Bloody was a beauty no matter one was admiring her body or her face. However, she never had any expression on her face. Even Lin Huang had never seen her smiling in this form.
Bloody knew why she was summoned. She leaped and appeared before the Nightmare Tapir, then pressed her hand against the Nightmare Tapir's chin.
She retrieved the memory within two to three breaths while sorting out the information at the same time. She bounded as soon as she let go and appeared before Lin Huang, pointing her finger between his brows.
Lin Huang received the information some ten seconds later. He finally figured out Misery's biggest secret after scanning through the trio's memories.
"So, this is how Misery grew!"
According to Jie Sha and Zhi Lu's memories, Misery discovered a ruins unintentionally over 500 years ago. The ruins had been a Buddhist city back in the ancient era, and it accommodated up to a hundred of temples of all sizes. Many inheritances were left behind in almost each of those temples. There were even many methods that could get one to True God level.
Misery depended on those methods to cultivate many powerhouses and soon became No. 1 among the underground organizations.
Meanwhile, the Demonic Buddhist Telekinesis that Ku Zhen cultivated was the quickest to be acquired among those methods. Therefore, it became one of the main methods that Misery members cultivated throughout centuries.
However, apart from cultivation methods, there were all sorts of Buddhist techniques exclusively for battles among the other inheritances.
Apart from the inheritance, Misery also obtained many resources from the ruins. There were hundreds of god relics, let alone demigod relics and other equipment.
"Never had I thought that such a ruins would have been left behind by the ancient Buddhist era!" Lin Huang could not help but exclaim. It was such a waste for the ruins to be discovered by Misery. Had it been the Union Government or the Hunter Association who found it, many Buddhist cultivation inheritances would be passed on and spread, churning out a few times more powerhouses compared to Misery.
Lin Huang had picked up something about the ancient era unintentionally when he was reading a lot back when he was a teacher. He only found out during that time that the ancient era was between 80,000 to 30,000 years ago. Buddhist cultivation was the main cultivation direction the powerhouses practiced during that era.
However, until now, there were limited ancient era ruins that were excavated in the entire world. Even if there were, those were just medium or small ruins, and no inheritances were left behind.
Never had Lin Huang thought the ruins Misery discovered 500 years ago had so many Buddhist cultivation inheritances.
Apart from that biggest secret, Lin Huang also found out many hidden secrets from scanning the trio's memories.
For instance, there were actually 13 virtual god-level powerhouses in Misery. There were actually not that many demigods more than Virtual Gods as there were only 18 of them. If not for the lack of resources, Misery might have had more than 30 Virtual Gods throughout the years.
Meanwhile, among the 13 Virtual Gods, the one with the highest combat strength was on Virtual God rank-9. There was only one, who was the actual leader of Misery, but he was only a demigod and had only been assigned the position for publicity. However, he basically did nothing.
Apart from the Virtual God rank-9 powerhouse, Misery had two high-level Virtual Gods on Virtual God rank-7 and rank-8.
Below them were seven mid-level Virtual Gods from Virtual God rank-4 to rank-8 and three on Virtual God rank-3.
Among the 13 Virtual Gods, 11 of them broke through by cultivating while only two Virtual God rank-3s elevated through refining Godheads.
The number of Virtual Gods Misery had alone had made them the king of the entire gravel world.
However, Lin Huang found out about a secret that had nothing to do with Misery, but with the Union Government.
The reason why Misery had been refraining from attacking the Union Government was that they knew the Union Government had a technique to kill Gods. It could kill all powerhouses below True God almost in just one blow.
However, Misery had no idea how exactly the technique worked, which irritated Lin Huang. He could only speculate from all sorts of limited information that it might be a weapon that was similar to the God Crasher.
Even though Bloody had filtered the memories, the data in the trio's memories were almost endless. Lin Huang only scanned through them roughly, studied the parts that he was interested in and saved that part of the memories temporarily.
Lin Huang walked to the trio calmly after snapping back to reality. Then, he began searching for loot from their bodies. He found eight god relics from them alone and five Emperor's Heart Rings.
With his Divine Telekinesis, he scanned through the three bodies carefully. He then looked at Jie Sha and Zhi Lu's chests after making sure that he had not missed anything out.
"I wonder if I can refine those inked relics in their bodies."
"The form that was consolidated is different due to different cultivation methods. In reality, inked relics and Buddhist cultivators' warrior relics are pretty much the same in nature," the stone tablet initiated its explanation after hearing what Lin Huang said.
"Since I can refine them, I won't leave them behind. I happen to need Godheads," said Lin Huang and turned his head to look at the Nightmare Tapir. "Dig out the inked relics in their bodies for me."
The Nightmare Tapir nodded and appeared before the three bodies in a flash. He unsheathed his claws.
A moment later, two round, pitch-black gems floated out of Jie Sha and Zhi Lu's bodies and hovered before the Nightmare Tapir.
Lin Huang watched closely and discerned that the two gems were merely the size of an adult thumb. They were like two pitch-black glass spheres that had faint golden patterns on them.
"The one in his body has disintegrated." The Nightmare Tapir pointed at Ku Zhen.
"It's okay. Two will do." Lin Huang stretched his hand out and grabbed the two inked relics in his hand. He played with them for a while and flicked them into his body.
The two inked relics were like meteorites shooting into Lin Huang's Life Palace one after another.
Lin Huang lifted his head and looked far away to the west after snapping back to reality. "It's time to visit Misery…"
Chapter 1172: I'll Give You Two Options
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Foothold No. 1A13, Nirvana City in Division 1 was where Misery's headquarters was located.
The tallest building in the entire Division 1, the Sky Pagoda, was in this foothold.
The 999-story Sky Pagoda was over 3,000 meters high. It stood tall in the central zone of the entire foothold with the building penetrating into the sky.
Although it was an underground organization's headquarters, many tourists would visit this place every year. The adventurous ones might even visit more than one foothold under the jurisdiction of the underground organization. In reality, they knew very well that the safety in those footholds where the underground organization headquarters were was not as lackadaisical compared to the Union Government.
Safety would affect the number of residents directly which, in turn, would affect the number of investors. The number of investors would make or break the economy of a foothold.
Therefore, the footholds where the underground organization's headquarters were based would usually be bearable. At least, it was for the commoners on the surface.
Even most of the underground organizations welcomed tourists to visits their footholds because tourism made good money. The effect also spilled over to many other businesses which was beneficial for the foothold's economy.
Nirvana City was one of the underground organization's footholds that was considered wealthy in tourism.
The Sky Pagoda was the highest artificial building in Division 1, and it attracted many tourists each year. Misery even made the areas around the Sky Pagoda into tourism zones with all sorts of amenities.
At the moment, an elevator containing many tourists was rising from the foot of Sky Pagoda.
The Sky Pagoda was an attraction not to be missed when one visited Nirvana City. All the tourists flocked to it.
Almost all of the ten or so tourists in the elevator were snapping videos and photos.
A little boy of seven or eight pulled his father's hand all of a sudden. "Dad, look! Someone's flying over there!"
His exclamation drew many people's attention, so they looked where he was pointing.
A silhouette to the right of the elevator was flying high at a speed tens of times faster than the elevator.
"It's a transcendent!" someone exclaimed out loud.
The elevator erupted into chaos all of a sudden. Many people began adjusting the angle of their cameras in an attempt to document this moment.
However, the silhouette soon disappeared into the clouds above.
"Dad, why is the transcendent flying above the pagoda?" piped up the little boy again.
The kid's father looked pretty young. He was speechless from the question as he had no idea how to explain it.
At that moment, an uncle next to them said, "Kid, this Sky Pagoda has a total of 999 floors, but this elevator that we're taking can only go to the 990th floor. We can't access the last nine floors. I heard that the nine floors above are the headquarters office. The office area has no elevator, so you can only fly if you want to get in. The person who was flying should be a member of Misery."
As those tourists were talking about Misery's headquarters, Lin Huang had passed through the clouds and arrived on the 999th floor of the Sky Pagoda.
"Why didn't the Dynasty's Master Emperor notify us about your arrival? We must roll out the red carpet." A deep male voice came from not far away just when Lin Huang stood still.
A man in a red robe walked out of the dark slowly. There were ten people in gray robes who followed behind him.
Lin Huang noticed that most of the 11 of them were glaring at him like an enemy while a minority of them had no expression on their faces. Meanwhile, the leader had a faint smile on his face.
Clearly, these people had heard about Ku Zhen, Jie Sha, and Zhi Lu's death and knew that he would come.
"Didn't you guys know that I was coming?" Lin Huang smirked and said to the person who was leading the group. He could sense that the person's aura was nothing below the Master God's clone of God Bless. He should be Misery's leader.
Secretly, he observed the person. Both his height and features looked mediocre. He was one of those who looked inconspicuous if he were to be thrown into a crowd.
"Let me introduce myself. Your humble one is Zhi Ji. You can say that I'm Misery's current abbot," the red-robed man said calmly.
"Lin Huang from Dynasty." Lin Huang gave a simple introduction of his identity. He was sure that everyone knew who he was anyway.
"Master Emperor, you came alone. What a man," Zhi Ji said while smiling lightly.
"You guys sent people to visit Dynasty, so I thought I'd visit Misery myself. It's reciprocity, I guess," Lin Huang replied.
"Let's talk in the meeting room then." Zhi Ji gestured for Lin Huang to take a step forward.
Lin Huang did not decline the invitation and stepped out directly.
He had the Ninetails Lynx hiding in the alternate dimension and the Nightmare Tapir which had shrunk to hide in his sleeve anyway. The duo would fight if anything were to happen.
Everyone sat around the table after following Zhi Ji and Lin Huang into the meeting room. Zhi Ji sat at the main seat while Lin Huang sat across him.
A bald man in a gray robe served every one tea after they had settled in.
"Master Emperor, try this snow tea. I brought a few of these tea trees from a ruins over 500 years ago. They only sprout when it snows. I plucked this batch of tea leaves during the first snowfall half a month ago," Zhi Ji introduced graciously.
Lin Huang picked up the teacup and took a sip. He was not afraid that the tea might be poisoned since he had Divine Fire in his body. As long as it could not kill a True God, anything could be refined with Divine Fire. Meanwhile, according to Zhi Lu and the rest's memories, no poisoning techniques were found in the inheritance from the ruins.
The tea was sweet. Indeed, the tea leaves were considered the best Lin Huang had ever tried. It could almost compare with the batch of ancient tea the Union Government chief, Jiang Shan, had.
The people from Misery were surprised to see Lin Huang drink the tea without hesitation.
A few of them were waiting for Lin Huang to refuse the tea. They thought they would have a chance to tease Lin Huang. However, Lin Huang sipped it instantly, so their anticipation was short-lived. Some were a little pissed, so they held their heads down and refused to speak.
However, Zhi Ji remained calm since the beginning. He pretended as if nothing happened and told the story about the tea leaves.
Lin Huang was just as patient. He was chatting with Zhi Ji happily as though he was not there to seek trouble.
After a few cups of tea, Zhi Ji was done with his story. Lin Huang smirked slightly. "Now that we've drunk the tea and talked about other things, shall we get down to business?"
The atmosphere that was eased in the meeting room became heavy all of a sudden after everyone heard what Lin Huang said.
"Do you guys not want to know why I visit you?" Lin Huang looked at Zhi Ji and smiled wryly.
"Lin Huang, you killed…" A bald hunk in a gray robe stood up all of a sudden. However, Zhi Ji applied pressure to his shoulder from far away before he could finish speaking.
"Sit down, Jie Se." Zhi Ji's voice was soft. The bald hunk wanted to say something, but he held his head down upon seeing Zhi Ji's expression. He dared not say anything.
Zhi Ji then looked at Lin Huang after stopping the bald hunk and continued smiling.
"Master Emperor, so what's the purpose of you visiting us this time?"
Lin Huang smiled since they were finally on track.
"Zhi Lu gave Dynasty two options when he visited us this morning. One was to cancel the collaboration between Dynasty and the Union Government and dismiss ourselves as a neutral organization. The second choice was to eradicate Dynasty from this world entirely, sparing nobody's lives.
"I'll also give Misery two options now. One is to serve me unconditionally and become the second organization under me. The second is to be killed by me, sparing nobody's lives!"
Chapter 1173: Come At Me, All of You
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The 11 Virtual Gods from Misery, including Zhi Ji, were shocked when they heard Lin Huang's declaration. Then, rage settled into their hearts.
In the entire meeting room, apart from Zhi Ji who appeared calm, the remaining ten of them glared deadly at Lin Huang.
Three of them stood up directly in a stance which left no doubt that they were going to fight Lin Huang.
"Lin Huang, do you know what's the consequence of challenging us, Misery?" spoke an old man with a mustache sitting on Zhi Ji's left all of a sudden. His tone was clearly furious and threatening.
From Zhi Lu and the rest's memories, Lin Huang recognized this as Jie Wu, Misery's powerhouse whose combat strength was right behind Zhi Ji's. He seemed skinny and inconspicuous. In reality, he had a combat strength of Virtual God rank-8 and was also Misery's second leader. In their memory, although Jie Wu's combat strength was a rank lower than Zhi Ji's, his ability might be comparable with Zhi Ji who was on Virtual God rank-9.
Lin Huang peeked at Jie Wu but eventually ignored him. Instead, he looked away quietly and fixed his eyes on Zhi Ji who was sitting beside him.
"I can give you guys three minutes to discuss it."
"You…" Jie Wu was seething from anger when he was ignored directly. However, Zhi Ji, who was sitting aside, gripped his shoulder.
Jie Wu only calmed down slowly after seeing that Zhi Ji shake his head at him. However, he continued glaring at Lin Huang in rage.
"Please take your seats." Zhi Ji gestured to the three of them who had stood up.
After everyone in the meeting room took their seats in silence, he frowned slightly for a moment before lifting his head to look at Lin Huang.
"How about this, Master Emperor? I know that you brought your imperial monsters and that there are two Virtual God rank-8 imperial monsters hiding in this room."
The remaining ten of them were stunned as soon as Zhi Ji said that. They then looked around immediately.
Lin Huang did not expect Zhi Ji to find out about the Ninetails Lynx that was hiding in the alternate dimension and the Nightmare Tapir that had concealed itself with an illusion. He smiled and refused to comment on that, saying nothing at all.
Zhi Ji continued, "Why don't we make a bet?"
"Pick your most powerful imperial monster to fight me. If your imperial monster wins, we'll serve you willingly. If your imperial monster loses, we won't drag the rest of the Dynasty members into this. I'll send your body to Dynasty myself."
Lin Huang could not help but grin when he heard he stakes.
Clearly, Zhi Ji was a wise man who wanted to take the opportunity to see how powerful his trump card was. If his trump card was powerful enough, he would not lose anything by surrendering. However, if his trump card was measly, it would mean that he was but a lamb sending itself to a tiger's jaws and seeking death.
Lin Huang did not respond to the bet right away. Instead, he glanced at the other ten slowly and smirked more. "This bet of yours isn't exciting enough. Why don't you get all 11 of them to fight together? That way, you can prevent anyone of you from being upset when you lose. I'll still be sending only one imperial monster from my side."
Although the Virtual Gods from Misery felt they were being underestimated, at the same time, they thought there was something wrong with his head.
His changing the bet would mean raising the bar for himself.
"If that's what you say, brat!" Next to Zhi Ji, Jie Wu was so mad that he was cackling. He thought Lin Huang completely underestimated his abilities. A raging fire in his body was rearing to go and was ready to be released later.
"Yes, mark my word." Lin Huang tilted his head at everyone. "Does anyone have anything to say? It's best that you say it now instead of backing out if you lose later."
While they were secretly cursing Lin Huang for being arrogant, they were also glad. All of them thought Lin Huang changing the bet was undoubtedly digging his own grave.
Naturally, none of the 11 of them objected.
Among the 11 of them, Zhi Ji was the only one frowning a little, but he still said nothing. Although they had the upper hand in the bet, he had the feeling that Lin Huang was either up to something no good or he was really confident about changing the bet.
However, since the bow was already nocked on the arrow, it had to be released.
"Since you suggested that, Master Emperor, we'll change the bet as you wish. The condition of the bet remains," Zhi Ji concluded out loud.
Lin Huang nodded while smiling and shook his sleeve. "You may come out now."
The Nightmare Tapir leaped out of Lin Huang's sleeve as soon as he said that. It restored its original size and revealed itself.
The first impression it gave everyone in his tiger form and long elephant trunk was that it was a ferocious beast. However, Zhi Ji and the rest sensed that the monster before them only had Virtual God rank-8 combat strength.
Zhi Ji suspected something was up at that point. "Master Emperor, are you sure you're using this imperial monster to fight in this bet?"
"I only have three monsters with similar abilities, so I'll choose him," Lin Huang confirmed with a feeble smile.
Meanwhile, Zhi Ji and the rest did not notice that Lin Huang faded and disappeared after he said that.
"Jie Wu, come with me! The rest of you will defend where you are. Beware that he might have some unknown attack techniques!"
Their opponent was a Virtual God rank-8 monster. Because Lin Huang had gotten it to fight them, it could possibly mean that it was a quadruple mutated mythical-level. The monster might not be defeated by low-level and mid-level Virtual Gods. Even a Virtual God rank-7 Virtual God might not be able to break its defense. Therefore, Zhi Ji did not attack directly but delegated the responsibilities to the rest.
The Nightmare Tapir did not attack immediately either. A gleam of disdain flashed through its eyes when he saw the 11 of them summoning their god relic battle armors and weapons right away and glaring at it with their guards up.
Zhi Ji was the first to move. He did not attack immediately. Instead, he was running towards the side rapidly. He seemed to be trying to attract the Nightmare Tapir's attention from the looks of it.
Meanwhile, Jie Wu was the second to move. He headed towards the opposite direction while Zhi Ji went quietly.
Clearly, both of them planned to attack the Nightmare Tapir from the front and behind.
However, just when the duo stayed in position and charged at the Nightmare Tapir from the front and back, it swung its trunk and shrieked louder than thunder.
The deafening shriek pierced through the eleven people's eardrums like some demonic tune hurting their heads.
Even Jie Wu and Zhi Ji who were charging at it covered their ears immediately. They felt like tens of thousands of thunderclaps had exploded in their heads. The roar of endless thunders was screaming in their heads continuously.
However, it was useless to cover their ears since the shriek pierced through their souls directly.
Zhi Ji and Jie Wu only felt their heads hurting terribly, but the remaining nine of them from Misery collapsed onto the ground one after another.
The three powerhouses on Virtual God rank-3 fell onto the ground almost as soon as the shriek was released. The five mid-level Virtual Gods only lasted less than 30 seconds before also collapsing onto the ground. Meanwhile, the Virtual God rank-7 spat foam after lasting for almost three minutes.
Zhi Ji and Jie Wu, on the other hand, began to adapt to the headache three minutes later. Then, they struggled to stand up still.
They realized they were the only two left among the 11.
Until then, Zhi Ji and Jie Wu finally understood why Lin Huang had gotten the 11 of them to fight together.
Zhi Ji understood Lin Huang's ironic act of kindness and could not help thinking to himself, 'This monster really has the ability to fight 11 people!"
Chapter 1174: The Cat-and-Mouse Game
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
In reality, Zhi Ji already had speculation about the ability Lin Huang was hiding when Jie Sha and Zhi Lu were killed. He guessed that his ability should be above Virtual God rank-7. Now that he saw Lin Huang and noticed his two Virtual God rank-8 imperial monsters, he developed new speculation about Lin Huang's ability. He felt that Lin Huang had techniques to fight a Virtual God rank-9.
Even though he thought he had overestimated Lin Huang's hidden ability, he never expected Lin Huang to summon a Virtual God rank-8 imperial monster and defeat almost all of Misery's core team in one go.
Seeing the other members on the ground, Zhi Ji and Jie Wu glanced at each other and saw the fear in each other's eyes.
"This guy is definitely quadruple mutated! Be careful." Zhi Ji guessed that only the Nightmare Tapir was quadruple mutated earlier. However, he was sure of it now. "I'll distract him and you can check on the rest of them."
Jie Wu nodded lightly and appeared next to the other members in a flash. He was relieved after checking on them. He then spoke to Zhi Ji through voice transmission, "They're just unconscious, but they're alright."
In reality, both of them knew very well that the low-level and mid-level Virtual Gods were still alive because the Nightmare Tapir held its power back. Clearly, Lin Huang hoped to take over the complete team after he won the battle.
Seeing the nine of the 11 fall while the remaining two had adapted to his attack and were walking, the Nightmare Tapir finally began the first round of attack.
The thunderous roar that screamed in their heads stopped all of a sudden. Zhi Ji and Jie Wu's heads were peaceful now, and they felt like the world was beautiful again.
To prevent the battle from affecting the remaining nine, Jie Wu dragged them into his God Territory.
On the other hand, Zhi Ji used his Divine Telekinesis to check the floors below. He was completely relieved when he found out that the floors outside the defense layer were not affected.
"Don't worry. This is just a sparring session. I know my limits." The Nightmare Tapir's voice came into their ears slowly. "If you give your attention to something else, both of you might be killed by me in the next attack!"
Jie Wu glared at the Nightmare Tapir madly without saying anything.
Meanwhile, Zhi Ji nodded at the Nightmare Tapir calmly. "Indeed, we were a little distracted earlier, but we'll pay attention now."
The Nightmare Tapir grinned when both of them adjusted themselves and paid it all of their attention. "That's more like it."
Seeing the Nightmare Tapir encouraging his opponents, Lin Huang, who was watching the battle outside the dreamland, was speechless. "Why are you encouraging them? Don't be reckless and lose the battle!"
"Don't worry. They can't defeat me in my dreamland!" The Nightmare Tapir's response made Lin Huang even more speechless now.
"Where exactly did you learn to be so full of yourself?" Lin Huang could not help but mumble softly.
"It's the God Figurine's Combat Soul that you visualized. Naturally, their consciousness is a reflection of your own." The stone tablet's voice came all of a sudden.
Lin Huang had no idea how to argue back after hearing that. "I'm only full of myself occasionally, alright?"
The stone tablet paused before speaking again after waiting for Lin Huang to admit it himself, "Of course, apart from the reflection of consciousness from you, the God Figurine's initial consciousness will remain, as well as the monster tribe's bloodline that you visualized. If you must categorize the God Figurine's Combat Soul's consciousness in detail, the reflection of your consciousness would occupy approximately 50% while 30% comes from its own consciousness and around 20% from its bloodline."
"Are you doing this on purpose? Don't you need to breathe when you speak?"
In reality, Lin Huang knew that his God Figurine's Combat Souls were very different from others.
The Combat Souls that he consolidated from his visualization were complete individuals whereby their combat strength would not be restricted by his own combat strength. If there were enough resources, their combat strength could almost elevate endlessly to the limit they could bear.
Moreover, the Combat Souls were consolidated through the visualization of Protoss's God Figurine as the foundation and the powerful monsters on the True Spirit Guide as the mold and the sea of spirit energy. Their level easily surpassed quadruple mutation.
Apart from that, his God Figurine's Combat Souls came with complete personal consciousness and even had terrifying learning abilities.
Meanwhile, the combat strength of the Combat Souls belonging to the rest of the people in this gravel world would be restricted by their master's combat strength. The highest the God Figurine's Combat Souls could go would be their master's combat strength. The Combat Soul's level would also be limited by the monsters they hunted. Most of them were triple mutated. There were very few that were triple and a half mutated. As for the Combat Soul's consciousness, only their battle consciousness was left behind. They would only move by command without any ability to think.
Even though they managed to refine a God Figurine and integrated the Combat Soul, they would only have a God Figurine's puppet.
Compared to normal Combat Souls, their God Figurine's Combat Souls were not much different from the normal Combat Souls apart from the fact that their bodies were slightly more powerful and had a better ability to carry out the skills that the God Figurines could initially do.
Because of all these reasons, many people thought Lin Huang's God Figurine's Combat Souls were his summoning beasts when they saw them. Under normal circumstances, only summoning beasts had complete self-consciousness and high intelligence.
In reality, due to the God Figurine's Combat Souls' numerous flaws, many powerful genius powerhouses were unwilling to spend time refining them. To them, God Figurine's Combat Souls were not a great help. Besides draining an immense amount of Divine Power, their combat efficiency was only so-so, hence they would rather fight on their own. They would rather elevate their own combat strength or cultivate battle skills than spend the time to refine God Figurine's Combat Souls.
However, Lin Huang broke many limitations of the God Figurine's Combat Souls and they became his trump card.
It gave him the ability to conquer the entire gravel world with his imperial-level combat strength.
Meanwhile, the Nightmare Tapir was at ease as it fought the duo in the dreamland. In reality, it already had the ability to kill Virtual God rank-9s when it was on Virtual God rank-5 back then. Even though Zhi Ji and Jie Wu's abilities were slightly more powerful than normal a Virtual God rank-9's, there was a limit to it. Moreover, it was no longer on Virtual God rank-5 now.
The Nightmare Tapir had been holding back its abilities and merely performed at Zhi Ji and Jie Wu's level to play a game of cat-and-mouse.
Since it had the ability to copy the skills that it had seen in the dreamland, Zhi Ji and Jie Wu were having a tough time fighting it.
Lin Huang, who had been watching the battle, said nothing. After all, the Nightmare Tapir needed the opportunity to practice and he was worried that it would be excluded from performing techniques that were on par with True God.
Meanwhile, Zhi Ji and Jie Wu were extremely clumsy in the dreamland.
The Nightmare Tapir's ever-changing techniques made them fail to expect what was its next move at all.
Within half an hour, they had drained more than half of their Divine Power.
In reality, the duo only managed to attack efficiently only a few times together and they spent most of the time running away from the Nightmare Tapir's attacks. The draining of their Divine Power was mainly caused by the impact of the Nightmare Tapir's attacks.
Chapter 1175: I'll Be A Little More Serious
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
In the dreamland, the 999th floor of the Sky Pagoda was thrown into chaos.
Jie Wu was running while panting hard. His eyes were a little bloodshot and he was obviously in disbelief.
Not far away, Zhi Ji's chest was going also heaving up and down. However, his eyes were clear while he maintained his calmness.
"Theoretically, this guy's Divine Power should've been drained many times more than ours. However, it doesn't seem tired at all and its Divine Power has remained at the same level. It proves that it might have some special technique to replenish its Divine Power. No matter what the reason is, our chances of winning will drop if this goes on," Zhi Ji said to Jie Wu through voice transmission.
"I've told you to kill it since the beginning, but you told me to preserve our Divine Power and find the opportunity to fight back. Now, it's been half an hour. This monster with the trunk has attacked us more than 4,000 times and we've only attacked it four times together," Jie Wu mocked through voice transmission. The mustache above his lips looked like it was flying away.
"Indeed, I miscalculated," Zhi Ji admitted his mistake.
"So, what's the plan? Do we take his attacks on directly, fight him for one round and mess up his rhythm?" Jie Wu asked first and gave his own suggestion later on.
"We can't do that. It'll drain too much of our Divine Power." Zhi Ji shook his head to decline the suggestion. He only spoke a moment after thinking it through, "I'll defend. You'll be responsible for attacking."
Zhi Ji took out a god relic shield as soon as he was done speaking. He stopped running all of a sudden after inserting Divine Power into it. Then, he spun around and defended the Nightmare Tapir's air slices from mauling him by force.
Jie Wu hid behind him in a flash.
The golden shield created a half golden sphere shield after being inserted with Divine Power. It protected the duo.
Seeing that the duo changed the battle model all of a sudden, the Nightmare Tapir could not help but raise a brow. It subsequently revealed a delighted expression that looked human instead of feeling stunned.
In reality, chasing and suppressing the duo was boring for it. Clearly, the duo's defending and retaliating was much more interesting.
"Fight me now. That'll be more interesting." The Nightmare Tapir was smirking in joy.
Zhi Ji headed towards the Nightmare Tapir swiftly, holding the golden shield.
Meanwhile, Jie Wu followed closely behind him. The tip of the spear that he was holding had a white glow the size of a rice.
Just when Zhi Ji was 100 meters away from the Nightmare Tapir, it did not seem to have sensed the danger around it. Instead, it stood where it was. However, behind Zhi Ji, Jie Wu vanished in a flash.
Jie Wu arrived around ten meters before the Nightmare Tapir when he appeared again.
Before the Nightmare Tapir could react, he charged with the bronze spear in his hand. Endless white glow shot out of the tip of the spear and drown the Nightmare Tapir in it.
"Is it over?!" Jie Wu and Zhi Ji thought of that almost at the same time.
However, a voice entered their ears at the moment. "What are you guys waiting for? Are you looking for me?"
The duo spread their Divine Telekinesis as soon as the voice boomed. They searched anxiously for the Nightmare Tapir's coordinates.
However, Zhi Ji had goosebumps as soon as he spread his Divine Telekinesis. The Nightmare Tapir was just ten meters behind him!
'If he hadn't spoken earlier and attacked directly, I think I might've been dead now.' Zhi Ji saw a whip coming at him just when he thought about his mortality. The whip was growing at an alarming speed, so he backed off immediately. At the same time, he inserted Divine Power into the shield.
Meanwhile, Jie Wu, who was on the other side, noticed that Zhi Ji had lured the Nightmare Tapir to attack him. He flashed and swung his spear at the Nightmare Tapir again.
The silver spear charged like a lightning, arriving before the Nightmare Tapir in the blink of an eye. The stars that were shining at the tip of the spear were pointing at its head.
Almost immediately, the Nightmare Tapir mauled it with its claws which collided with the silver tip of spear.
The intense contact flung Jie Wu out.
On the other side, the Nightmare Tapir's trunk collided with Zhi Ji's shield almost at the same time. Zhi Ji also flew out with the shield.
If the Nightmare Tapir did not hold back its ability, the duo would have definitely died from the collision.
However, since the Nightmare Tapir suppressed its ability to be on par with Zhi Ji and Jie Wu, they only shot out from the collision instead of suffering any physical injuries.
The duo adjusted themselves and went back into their high-morale battle mode.
The intense battle began again!
Since their collaboration went well, Zhi Ji and Jie Wu were becoming more and more in sync.
The three silhouettes collided over and over again in the air.
Zhi Ji was not always the one who was responsible for defending whereby they would exchange their responsibilities occasionally, causing a bit of trouble for the Nightmare Tapir.
However, the Nightmare Tapir's Divine Power remained stable as time passed by. No matter how it attacked relentlessly, the Nightmare Tapir's Divine Power seemed to be bottomless.
Meanwhile, Zhi Ji and Jie Wu, on the other hand, could not do the same. The draining of their Divine Power was clearly faster than before since they initiated the attacks.
Their Divine Power was almost non-existent within the short 20 minutes. Zhi Ji and Jie Wu were helpless.
"It seems like we're losing. My Divine Power is only sufficient for one last attack!"
"Mine too."
Naturally, the Nightmare Tapir noticed the changes in the duo's Divine Power. It knew that they were coming to a dead end.
"The both of your Divine Powers are finished. To show my respect, I'll be a little more serious in my last attack. You guys will lose in vain if I keep dragging you around like this."
Zhi Ji and Jie Wu were puzzled.
"This guy held back his abilities? Who is it kidding?"
"I think it's just bragging. After all, everyone knows how to brag."
A gleam of disdain flashed through the Nightmare Tapir's eyes again when it saw that they were in disbelief.
With an aggressive swing of its trunk, a red glow lit up in the sky all of a sudden.
All Zhi Ji and Jie Wu could feel were the red glow approaching them at the speed of light. They were drowned in the red glow before they could even react.
They flew out directly, the very last drop of Divine Power in them evaporating.
Without the support of Divine Power, their god relics retreated back into their bodies. Their bodies that had lost the protection of the god relics were fragile under the immense suppression, so their bones were crushed completely.
Zhi Ji and Jie Wu gaped at their bodies in shock. Their bones began to be pulverized from the chest spreading all over their bodies. From their shoulders to the tip of their fingers, from their pelvic bones to their toes, and from their chest to their back…
At that very moment, Zhi Ji and Jie Wu sensed the very horror of death.
As their bones were crushed, their organs turned into mush. They watched their bodies become distorted and sunken. It was the longest and scariest one second that they had ever experienced in their lives.
Fortunately, all of the bone-crushing and tremors came to a halt abruptly right before the horror spread to their skulls.
Only able to move their heads, they felt like they were fish on the chopping board at the moment, waiting for death.
Until then, they finally realized their differences in abilities compared to the Nightmare Tapir.
However, the Nightmare Tapir did not tell them that that was not even its maximum performance level.
Chapter 1176: From Today Onwards, You Guys Will Have Support!
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
In reality, the Nightmare Tapir's last attack was very close to a True God's attack.
Although one had no idea if the attack would be rebounded back by the gravel world if he were to perform a True God's ability, his real combat strength was only on Virtual God rank-8 after all. Recalling Lin Huang's warning earlier, the Nightmare Tapir maintained the attack below True God without stepping out of the line.
Even though that was the case, the attack suppressed Zhi Ji and Jie Wu like a piece of cake.
He even had the ability to control the intensity of the attack to stop it from spreading before it arrived at the duo's heads.
Zhi Ji and Jie Wu felt like they escaped death from the attack.
The Divine Power in their bodies were drained completely when the collision happened. As a result, their god relics retreated back to their bodies. The intense attack crushed their bodies one after another when it reached their bodies. If the Nightmare Tapir did not manage to control its power, their skulls and brains might have turned into mush by now.
Left with their heads, the duo saw darkness envelop them and the Nightmare Tapir then released them from the dreamland.
All 11 of them from Misery looked puzzled when they returned to reality all of a sudden.
Apart from Zhi Ji and Jie Wu, the rest had no idea what happened. All they remembered was the Nightmare Tapir's thunderous shriek and they blacked out. To their absolute surprise, they were sitting at the meeting table in peace when they woke up.
Zhi Ji and Jie Wu were in shock. They only realized that the tough battle that they were in was only a dream after seeing that their bodies were perfectly fine while they were sitting in the meeting room and everything around them was in one piece. Never had they thought they would be dragged into the dreamland without realizing it.
Nevertheless, they dared not underestimate the Nightmare Tapir. They knew that if they were killed in the dreamland, they would truly die in reality. They would not have a chance of waking up.
Meanwhile, the Nightmare Tapir had shrunk and laid by Lin Huang's feet at that moment.
The Ninetails Lynx also revealed itself. It shrunk into a kitten and lay on Lin Huang's shoulder.
Zhi Ji and Jie Wu looked at the Nightmare Tapir in fear. However, their pupils shrunk when they saw the kitten that was pretending to sleep on Lin Huang's shoulder as they sensed its true aura.
Lin Huang smirked and trained his eyes on Zhi Ji directly. "I won the bet."
Zhi Ji nodded before Lin Huang proceeded to speak further. "We've lost. We're willing to do as we promised!"
"From today onwards, Misery will be under your jurisdiction, Master Emperor! We'll publish an announcement within 24 hours telling the entire gravel world about this news."
"Oh, no. We're the only ones who need to know about Misery being under my jurisdiction. There's no need to inform the world. You don't have to announce it, so the Union Government won't think I'm trying to take over them," Lin Huang waved his hands and said while smiling.
Lin Huang was even delegating all of his responsibilities as the Emperor of Dynasty. He knew that he could not take up the responsibility as chief of the Union Government.
He had never thought of taking over the Union Government. Although it was glorious being a leader, the role would come with great responsibilities.
In reality, the Union Government had been doing a great job throughout the hundreds of years. From building safety zones from nothing and building as well as maintaining all sorts of regulations, Lin Huang knew he definitely could not do any better than they had.
Moreover, compared to being the leader of a gravel world, he would rather explore a bigger world to see what was outside this gravel world.
"Misery is still Misery on the surface. Nothing has changed," Lin Huang continued, "I don't need you guys to convert into a neutral organization either, but we hope that Misery will be the leader of the underground world and law enforcer, just like the Union Government's position in the union organization. Your mission is to standardize all the underground organizations' doings."
The people from Misery initially looked upset as they thought Lin Huang would make their organization a neutral one. They never thought Lin Huang would have made such an arrangement instead.
"I'll come up with a code of conduct for underground organizations. You guys think of ways to promote it. I'll give you guys some suggestions. You can use Dynasty being dismissed from the underground world as a reference."
Zhi Ji and the rest frowned slightly as people from the underground organizations obeyed no one. The mission that Lin Huang had assigned them was definitely a tough one.
"Oh yeah, you actually do need to publish an announcement. However, it has nothing to do with me. It's about Misery's statement of agreeing to Dynasty pulling out from the underground world. Just make it simple."
"We'll sort it out later." Zhi Ji nodded lightly.
"I'll treat you well for being under my jurisdiction. You guys will have the same treatment as Dynasty does. Whatever Dynasty has, you guys will have it too."
"I'll register you guys as an affiliate organization of Royal, so you'll enjoy the same treatment as Dynasty does. You guys didn't have support in the great world back then, but now you do!"
By doing so, Lin Huang was binding himself completely to Misery. Misery would become an organization under him officially instead of having a vague verbal agreement.
After all, Misery was the No. 1 underground organization. Throughout the years, they had heard of Royal that was behind Dynasty. Although they did not know much about Royal, they knew that it was a major organization in the great world.
Naturally, Misery was willing to have support from such a major organization.
"Just like Dynasty, we'll give you access to the many trial zones in Royal. It depends on how willing you are to give in to obtain cultivation resources."
Zhi Ji and the rest's eyes lit up when they heard that. Misery's current issue in development was the lack of resources. If they had sufficient resources, Misery could have over 30 Virtual Gods now.
"As for the ruins and sites that you currently own, they'll still be yours. Just like Dynasty, we'll have our own possessions, and nobody will interfere with each other. Of course, if you guys are lacking the manpower to explore ruins and sites, you can ask me for Dynasty's help. On the other hand, I'll also request assistance from you if Dynasty has such a need," Lin Huang said intentionally to tell Zhi Ji that he was not interested in the Buddhist city ruins that they were hiding.
"I won't be going through Misery's treasury, but there are a few things that I hope that you guys can collect for me." Lin Huang had already seen what was in Misery's treasury in Zhi Lu and the rest's memories. Indeed, there was nothing that he was interested in.
"Do tell, Master Emperor."
"The first are the Godheads and broken Godheads. The more, the better. The second one would be the god-level soul crystals. The higher the grade and the more of them there are, the better. The third thing, other items that contain a sea of spiritual energy…"
Chapter 1177: Misery's Announcement
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After adding Misery to Royal's list, then getting Zhi Ji and Jie Wu's signature as well as stamping the list with Misery's chop, Lin Huang finally owned his second affiliated organization.
Since the registration was done, Lin Huang delegated the responsibilities to Zhi Ji and Jie Wu after holding a simple meeting with the 11 Misery Virtual Gods.
Naturally, he did not forget to return Jie Sha, Zhi Lu, and Ku Zhen's bodies to Misery before leaving so that they could be buried.
It was almost noon when he returned to Emperor City.
Huang Tianfu was the first to welcome him after seeing his return. "Master Emperor, how was the discussion with Misery?"
"It was pretty successful," Lin Huang said with a wide grin. "They'll publish an announcement either today or tomorrow to verify the fact that Dynasty has been pulled out of the underground world."
"Wow, the people from Misery let you off so easily?" Huang Tianfu was baffled to hear that.
After all, Lin Huang had killed people from Misery, so it was pretty impossible for them to be so friendly to him.
"They're Buddhist cultivators after all. They'll listen as long as what I say makes sense," Lin Huang explained smugly. He did not utter the last sentence that he wanted to say, 'Everything makes sense when you have a bigger fist!'
The impression Huang Tianfu had on Misery was different. Hearing how Lin Huang made it so simple, the more he thought that Lin Huang's ability was unfathomable.
"Oh yeah, how's the gathering of the Godheads and the rest that I asked you to collect for me?"
"We didn't collect many Godheads. There are only 11. Very few organizations are willing to sell that. We have slightly more broken Godheads. There are over 200 of them. There are also very few high-grade god-level soul crystals. We've only collected three."
Huang Tianfu took out a temporary storage ring and gave it to Lin Huang who then patted Huang Tianfu's shoulder.
"Thanks for the hard work. Continue to collect them and let me know if the money is insufficient. Don't use Dynasty's money. These are things I personally asked for after all."
"Your humble one understands." Huang Tianfu nodded.
"Anything else? If not, I'll go into closed-door cultivation in the Emperor's Palace." Lin Huang could not wait to refine the Godheads that he had just obtained.
"I can basically handle the rest here! However, the heretics sent an invitation this morning saying that they'll visit us. I think it's better for you to be present, Master Emperor."
"The heretics?" Lin Huang was stunned to hear the familiar name. "Why are they visiting us?"
"They didn't specify the exact reason. They only said that they're visiting since they're also a neutral organization," Huang Tianfu informed the reason the heretics included in the invitation helplessly.
"It does sound like what they would say." Lin Huang could not help but recall the time when he fought the heretics. They were insane like that. "Let them come then. We'll just chase them out if they stir trouble up here. I won't be going into closed-door cultivation these two days then. Let's see what the heretics want."
Lin Huang began sorting out the loot he had obtained that day as soon as he returned to the Emperor's Palace.
It was a rewarding trip to Misery this time. Misery had more than a hundred Godheads of all grades alone and up to 1,00 broken Godheads. There were more than ten types of god-level soul crystals and at least ten different treasures containing spiritual energy.
Lin Huang had retrieved the methods the people from Misery cultivated from Zhi Lu and the rest's memories. Nevertheless, he got Zhi Ji to make a copy of all of the methods that they excavated from the ruins.
After sorting out the loot, Lin Huang did not go into cultivation immediately. Instead, he summoned Bloody.
"There are up to a hundred Buddhist cultivation methods here. Most of them can get one to virtual god-level. You can refer to them and see if you can integrate them with the ancient methods that I gave you before coming up with a few sets of new methods."
"I'll try." In her red dress, Bloody sat with her legs crossed in the Emperor's Palace after getting the Buddhist methods from Lin Huang. She then began to study those Buddhist methods that she had just obtained.
Lin Huang, on the other hand, took out the god-level soul crystals from his storage space and summoned the Shackle Serpent.
As a control-type of God Figurine's Combat Soul, the Shackle Serpent had mediocre battle ability but remarkable sealing ability. Lin Huang had taken some time to think about it before deciding to pick it as the fourth God Figurine's Combat Soul to be elevated to Virtual God rank-8.
He tossed the soul crystals at the Shackle Serpent which opened its jaws wide and swallowed all the 18 soul crystals into its stomach.
Subsequently, Lin Huang took out the treasures containing spiritual energy and fed them to the Shackle Serpent one after another.
Although the Shackle Serpent's aura was being upgraded, it was still some distance away from elevating its combat strength after finishing all the materials.
In reality, the elevation of the God Figurine's Combat Soul's combat strength was the easiest to Lin Huang. As long as he had sufficient resources, the upgrade was possible. However, now that the resources were insufficient, their combat strength elevation would become a long, arduous journey.
Since Lin Huang knew that, he did not feel troubled at all. He patted the Shackle Serpent's head and recalled it back to his body.
Lin Huang left Bloody alone upon seeing that she was in the zone with her legs crossed.
He took out all of the Godheads and broken Godheads, then tossed them into his body without hesitation. The Godheads and broken Godheads he obtained this round combined together with the Virtual God rank-9 Godhead he had were sufficient to get him to imperial-level rank-3.
However, since the heretics were visiting tomorrow, he had to wait for a day before he could go into closed-door cultivation.
Sensing the broken Godheads being refined automatically in his body one after another and flowing into his Life Palace after turning into Divine Power, he could clearly feel that the Divine Power provided by the broken Godheads was decreasing.
"The broken Godheads' effect is dropping immensely before I've even gotten to imperial-level rank-2. I think the broken Godheads would lose their effect entirely when I get to imperial-level rank-3. Furthermore, the effect of the Virtual God rank-1 and rank-2 Godheads would have dropped by heaps by then."
Considering that he had something to deal with tomorrow, Lin Huang refrained from refining the Godheads. He was afraid that he might be unwilling to stop as soon as he got into refinement mode.
He thought about it for a while and sat with his legs crossed. Then, he began cultivating Seamless.
However, Lin Huang had no idea that the entire cultivation world was stirred up not long after he stepped into the Emperor's Palace.
The announcement published by Misery was the reason for the uproar.
This was the rough content of the announcement: "After a friendly discussion between Misery and Dynasty, Misery feels sorry that Dynasty is pulling out of the underground organization. However, we respect the decision that Dynasty has made, and we wish Dynasty the best in their development as a neutral organization."
The simple two sentences caused many different encryptions by countless people.
Most of them thought Dynasty had bribed Misery. They must have come to a secret agreement for which Dynasty might have paid a big price.
Only organizations such as the Union Government that knew Lin Huang's ability very well could figure out this matter might not be as simple as it seemed.
In the Union Government headquarters, Jiang Shan looked out of the floor-to-ceiling window while frowning a little. "Lin Huang's ability is so much more powerful than we estimated!"
Chapter 1178: Eight Sedans, Is That Grandeur Enough?
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The announcement from Misery caused a stir.
Misery, which had been staying low-key for many years, became the No. 1 trending topic on all the social media platforms.
Dynasty soon trended as No. 1. However, not many talked about Lin Huang this time. After all, it did not seem to be very much related to him this time.
"Dynasty has been doing so many things recently. They came up with an agreement earlier and it has only been two to three days, but they're already at peace with Misery. I wonder what will happen next."
"They had just dropped from the top ten trending topics this morning and they've risen back to No. 2 in the afternoon. They're amazing!"
"They're trending everyday. I'm a little tempted to join Dynasty for the exposure."
"The neutral organization, Dynasty, welcomes everyone to join us! You can join as long as you pass Dynasty's assessment and are at least 16 years old. No matter what your gender is, what kind of person you are, how you look like, your height, weight, and sexual preferences… We don't discriminate. We welcome minors below 16 too as long as you've got your guardian's permission!" That was the response Dynasty posted on their official account.
"Damn, their official account is so playful! Can a gender-bender join too? Asking for a friend."
"Of course, there's no gender restriction o(*￣3￣)o," responded the official account.
"Are you talking about yourself when you said you were asking for your friend?!" Many people commented below.
"I'm also asking for a friend. Can a person who weighs 800 pounds join?"
"Sure, we accept anyone who passes the assessment," the official account replied again.
"800 pounds… Did you eat the weighing machine when you were growing up?"
"Wow, that weight is ten times more than mine!"
"The commenter who said he's 80 pounds, you must have looked at the wrong unit. Am I right?"
…
Misery's account was jammed pack as well. However, the admin taking care of Misery's account seemed to be a cold person, and he replied to none of the comments.
No matter what the people commented, the admin remained silent.
It was crowded on all the social media sites, and even more so on the black market forum.
After all, it was about Misery. It attracted tons of attention as soon as the announcement was made.
However, the first thought everyone had when they saw the announcement was, 'The account that posted the thread has to be fake, isn't it?"
However, the account was verified by the forum when they refreshed the thread. It caused a stir among the commenters.
Nobody could believe that Misery compromised with Dynasty and permitted them to pull out!
Initially, most people from the underground organizations were upset with Dynasty's decision.
How could a top three underground organization pull out from the underground world and convert to a neutral organization?
However, most of them were only criticizing Dynasty online. None of them had the guts to confront Dynasty face-to-face.
Hearing that Misery visited Dynasty, they thought Misery was going to claim justice, whereby they would definitely teach Dynasty and Lin Huang a good lesson.
They never thought that that would be the outcome. They could not believe that Misery permitted Dynasty to pull out.
Many of them looked dumbstruck when they saw the announcement Misery published.
However, many people shifted their rage away from Dynasty to Misery in the thread.
"Why don't you guys pull out from the underground world just like Dynasty did? The neutral organization would definitely welcome you guys with open arms!"
"This announcement… They were obviously bribed!"
"I thought Misery would claim justice. I can't believe they put up a show like this."
Although many people were criticizing them on the black market forum, Misery did not explain themselves.
…
Meanwhile, in foothold No. 2A13 of Freedom City, the 13 of them gathered in the meeting room of the heretics' headquarters.
The baby-faced man sitting in the main seat took his mask off. He wore a black robe.
He glanced at everyone before speaking, "I'm visiting Dynasty tomorrow. Those who are willing to go with me, please raise your hand."
The 12 of them at the meeting table were doing everything else such as digging their noses and rubbing their feet. None of them seemed to be listening to their leader. None of them even raised their hands.
Baby-face cleared his throat, feeling a little embarrassed upon seeing that. He changed his way of conveying the message by shouting directly, "Those who are unwilling to go, raise your hand!"
The meeting room was peaceful. Still, nobody raised their hands.
Baby-face looked helpless. Clearly, it was not the first time such a thing had happened.
"Since none of you are volunteering, I'll pick on my own. Whoever I pick later must go with me. I don't care if you're unwilling by then!"
"Boss, I remember that girl, Xia Yu, spoke to Lin Huang before. You can bring her with you. It's easier to go with someone familiar with the Emperor after all. Moreover, she's a Virgen. She's a suitable candidate to go to the meeting with you." The person who spoke was a middle-aged man with stubbles on his face and was picking his nose. His voice sounded nasal.
"Hey, stop giving stupid ideas, okay?" The hunk, who was rubbing his feet, could not help but confront him. "Xia Yu told me about her encounter with Lin Huang before. She was trying to bring Lin Huang back to the heretics back then, but he fought back hard, so the mission failed. It should be an upsetting experience for Lin Huang."
"Ah, so that's what happened. Indeed, I've never heard of this story before. I thought they were friends." The hunk, who was picking his nose, dug a sticky booger out of his nostril without a care in the world and flicked it at the trash can with a sign written 'residual' on it.
"Hey, can you stop doing such a disgusting act in front of everyone?"
"How is that disgusting? Have you never dug your nose in your whole life?! Furthermore, how's your habit of rubbing your feet any better than mine?" The middle-aged man digging his nose confronted and taunted before he was done.
"Alright, alright. Stop fighting," pacified Baby-face immediately. "I'll ask Xia Yu later. She'll go with me if she's okay with it."
"How about the rest? Do you guys want me to go with just a little girl? I'm the heretics' Presiding Judge after all. If we don't show any grandeur, people will think that the heretics are dead," Baby-face argued again.
"What kind of grandeur do you want? You're not getting married anyway," complained the young lady who was biting her nails in silence. Although her voice was soft, everyone heard her loud and clear.
"That's right. Do you want us to rent eight sedans and get eight muscular hunks to carry you to Dynasty's headquarters?" argued the middle-aged man digging his nose in his nasal voice, "Is that grand enough?"
"I think that's a terrific idea. We'll definitely trend the next day. I've already thought of the news title, 'Breaking News: The Heretics' Presiding Judge is Married to Dynasty!" crowed the hunk rubbing his feet.
"Are both of you eager to be smacked?" Baby-face glared at both of them and subsequently looked at the rest. "Since none of you volunteered, I'll pick the candidates then."
Chapter 1179: Heretics' Visit
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Lin Huang was woken up from his cultivation by the alarm on his Emperor's Heart Ring at 8 a.m.
He stopped cultivating Seamless immediately and left the Emperor's Palace after getting up to wash up. He left Bloody behind in the palace to continue coming up with the methods.
The meeting with the heretics would be at 9 a.m. It was not even 9.50 a.m. when he came back from breakfast. Just as he stepped into Dynasty's headquarters, a voice echoed all around Emperor City, "The Heretics' Presiding Judge, Sun Zhuo, visits Dynasty with the Vice Presiding Judge and the Virgen!"
Lin Huang stopped walking upon hearing the voice. He turned towards the direction of the voice, looking stunned. "They're the heretics alright. They even brought their own announcer."
It was crowded in the Emperor City. Especially with those cultivators, someone soon posted about it on the Heart Network and all the social media platforms.
Dynasty that was initially trending as No. 2 achieved first place in less than ten minutes after the news spread.
All the social media platforms were busy early in the morning.
"Holy sh*t! They're conquering the union organization, the underground organizations, and the neutral organizations! Is Dynasty planning to conquer the world and become the ruler?"
"They were involved with the Union Government a few days ago. They flirted with Misery yesterday and are dating the heretics today. Dynasty is a classic a*shole!"
"The commenter above is so accurate in his description! I already have the live version in my head."
"They really look like a*sholes if you put it this way! I'm crying from my laughter ＼(*T▽T*)／"
Four official accounts responded to that comment.
"A*shole! ヾ(｡｀Д´｡)ﾉ彡," commented the heretics' official account.
"A*shole! ヽ(#`Д´)ﾉ┌," commented the Union Government's official account.
"Hehe," commented Misery's official account.
"???," commented Dynasty's official account.
As people were discussing fervently on the Internet, the people from the heretics had walked into Dynasty's headquarters.
Lin Huang and the three Grand Dukes welcomed them.
The heretics' Presiding Judge looked the same as Lin Huang had seen from the video a few years ago. He still wore his black robe and a terrifying white mask on his face.
"I'm the heretics' Presiding Judge, Sun Zhuo." The Presiding Judge in a terrifying mask introduced the other three behind him after a simple self-introduction. There was a man and two ladies standing behind him.
Lin Huang noticed the middle-aged man behind him immediately because the man clearly had a Virtual God rank-3 aura. He looked like he was over 40 years old with a plump body. He had stubble all over his face and looked like he was sleep-deprived.
"This is our Vice Presiding Judge, Zhou Tong."
"This is our Presiding Judge Elder, Cao Ya." Sun Zhuo then pointed at the one who was skinnier among the two ladies.
The lady was very petite. She was less than 1.5 meters tall even in her shoes. She looked like a 12 to 13-year-old girl. She dyed her hair purple and divided it into two ponytails. She did not look like an adult no matter what.
However, Lin Huang knew very well that her real age definitely exceeded what she seemed like because her combat strength was clearly on demigod-level.
As for the last lady, Lin Huang actually recognized her as soon as he saw her.
The lady was the heretics Virgen who had attempted to capture him back to the heretics last time.
"This is the heretics' Virgen, Xia Yu." Sun Zhuo and the rest were secretly observing Lin Huang's response when Sun Zhuo said that.
Lin Huang merely peeped at Xia Yu and nodded. "I know. We met three years ago." However, he only glanced at her and stopped giving her attention.
The heretics' Virgen had been on blue flame-level back then while Lin Huang, who had been on bronze-level, could only run clumsily when they met. Now that three years had passed, although this lady had experienced a great improvement whereby she was on immortal-level rank-5 now, he had surpassed her by heaps.
Meanwhile, Xia Yu was observing Lin Huang secretly.
She had a deep impression of Lin Huang because he was the one and only mission that she had ever failed in her life. Since she found out about Lin Huang's identity as the Emperor throughout the half a year, she would occasionally follow the news about him.
She would always feel it was absurd whenever she saw Lin Huang doing something dramatic on the news. The little guy who had only been on bronze-level back then had surpassed her immensely no matter whether it came to combat strength, ability, or identity.
After the heretics introduced their people, Lin Huang also gave a simple introduction to his people. They then entered the office with the heretics. He closed the meeting room door after the four heretics had entered.
The heretics' Presiding Judge finally removed his mask then. Lin Huang finally saw how he really looked like. He could not believe that he had such a baby face that made him looked like he was only in his early 20s.
Huang Tianfu and the other two were surprised too.
"I never thought the heretics' Presiding Judge would be so young," Lin Huang teased while smiling.
"Stop teasing me, Master Emperor. My parents gave me this face, so there's nothing that I can do about it. I've always been treated as a little brother by everyone who's the same age since I was a kid," Sun Zhuo said while smiling helplessly.
Lin Huang could roughly understand why Sun Zhuo insisted on wearing a mask whenever he was out. In reality, not only did he have a babyface, but he also looked like a harmless, kind person. One could say that he was not threatening at all.
Although Lin Huang was also young and handsome, his glory on the Stairway Tree was known to the world. Nobody dared to underestimate the No. 1 genius of the era. Furthermore, as long as he did not smile and showed a poker face, he would be taken seriously no matter where he went.
However, Sun Zhuo would look like a dummy if he had a poker face with how he looked. He would look like an irritated baby when he was mad, and it would be funny.
Therefore, wearing a mask was actually a wise move.
As they were chatting, Lin Huang noticed that Xia Yu had been observing him. She looked like she had something to say but was hesitating.
"Is there anything that you would like to say, Virgen?" Lin Huang asked with a smile.
Xia Yu hesitated and decided to speak up anyway, "I'm just very curious about how you cultivated. How did you manage to cultivate so fast?!" The reason why Xia Yu asked that was that she was also a supreme genius, and she could not figure out how Lin Huang had surpassed her so much in terms of cultivation speed.
"Hmm, how do I explain this? I can only say that it depends on the body that we're born with. I adapt to Life Power faster whereby I can break through without spending too much time digesting whenever I reach each rank." Lin Huang told her the excuse that he had prepared beforehand with a grin.
Naturally, he could not tell her that he managed to elevate so quickly because he could obtain a sea of Life Power by getting his imperial monsters to kill other monsters instead of refining Life Crystals to replenish his Life Power slowly.
"I'd bring you back to the heretics even if it meant death for me if I knew you have such potential back then." Xia Yu shook her head while sighing helplessly. Until now, she regretted having passed the chance to make a good bud such as Lin Huang back then.
Sun Zhuo and the rest had a slight change of expression after hearing that. They told Xia Yu to stop talking about that through voice transmission. After all, this part of the history was not glorious to Lin Huang.
On the other hand, Lin Huang smiled while waving his hand. He accepted everything that had happened to him in the past.
"There's nothing that I can't talk about. This might be fate. If you really had captured me for the heretics back then, I might not have achieved what I have today."
"We have to make many choices at the crossroads in our lives. It might seem unimportant when we make our decisions, but it might decide where our future leads. I just happened to be fortunate enough to have made the right choice."
Chapter 1180: You're Such A Nice Person
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
They finally got in business after a while of chatting.
Lin Huang did not bother to beat around the bush, so he went straight to the topic.
"Presiding Judge, we're happy that you guys are visiting Dynasty. However, I still don't know what your purpose of visiting is since our chat earlier. Can you tell me more about that?"
"Purpose?" Sun Zhuo raised his brow when he heard Lin Huang. "Of course, we're looking into collaborating."
"Didn't you guys invited people to collaborate with Dynasty in the video a few days ago? Here we are," said the Vice Presiding Judge Zhou Tong sitting on Sun Zhuo's left while digging his nose.
Lin Huang frowned at what Zhou Tong was doing. Since he entered the meeting room, he had been picking both of his nostrils alternately with his left little finger as if he would feel uncomfortable if there was no finger stuck up one of his nostrils.
Noticing that, Lin Huang frowned at Zhou Tong. Sun Zhuo explained softly through voice transmission immediately, "Zhou Tong has always had this peculiarity since way back. He loves digging his nose. Don't mind him, Master Emperor."
"I see. I thought something was wrong with his nose," Lin Huang smiled while replying through voice transmission.
After looking away from Zhou Tong, Lin Huang unintentionally caught sight of Cao Ya who was sitting next to Zhou Tong. She was biting her fingernails.
Just when Sun Zhuo wanted to explain, Lin Huang spoke through voice transmission, "Peculiarity. I get it."
Among the three people that Sun Zhuo brought along, Xia Yu was the only one who appeared normal.
Lin Huang could not help but sympathize with Sun Zhuo. It was pretty tough to lead such an odd team.
Hearing what Zhou Tong said, as the one responsible for all matters in Dynasty, Huang Tianfu spoke, "What kind of collaboration are you looking at?"
Sun Zhuo laughed when he heard that question. "Of course, collaboration in all aspects." He signalled Cao Ya who was biting her fingernails after he said that.
Cao Ya took her finger out from her mouth calmly and projected a document from her Emperor's Heart Ring.
Lin Huang looked at the projected document while Huang Tianfu next to him turned on his Emperor's Heart Ring and accepted the document Cao Ya shared.
Lin Huang glanced through the outline of the documents roughly. Apart from the financial collaboration, the heretics listed many other aspects in the outline. It seemed like they were planning to form a thorough collaboration with Dynasty.
"I'll get Tianfu and the rest to look at the proposal. Let's chat." Lin Huang turned his head and said to Huang Tufu, "Tufu, get the kitchen to prepare some desserts."
He thought of something all of a sudden just when he said that. He asked Sun Zhuo, "Is there anything that you guys don't eat or are allergic to?"
"I'm allergic to nuts," Cao Ya answered before Sun Zhuo could speak.
Sun Zhuo shook his head helplessly. "Only Xiao Ya is allergic to nuts. The rest are fine."
"Alright." Lin Huang nodded and said to Huang Tufu again, "Get them to avoid nuts in the desserts. And ask them to prepare a few glasses of fruit tea."
Huang Tufu nodded and left after standing up.
Lin Huang began chatting with Sun Zhuo since Huang Tufu left. Huang Tianfu and Huang Wunan, on the other hand, began to study the heretics' proposal.
Soon, Huang Tufu had returned.
Sun Zhuo and the rest were surprised when they saw him taking desserts out from his storage space because he had just left for less than two minutes.
"That's quick!"
Huang Tufu smiled while nodding. "I got them to prepare this beforehand, so it was ready even before you guys get here. I told them to leave out the two desserts with nuts and brought the rest here."
Lin Huang smiled while speaking upon seeing Huang Tufu bring the fruit tea out. "Try the tea. It's a secret recipe that our back kitchen had just come up with earlier. You can only taste it at Dynasty at the moment."
There were many food cultivators in Dynasty's back kitchen, including some retired Food Hunters with amazing cooking skills. They had many secret recipes that they would not share with anyone. A particular chef might be the only one who could make that specific dish in the entire gravel world. The fruit tea that Lin Huang mentioned was clearly one of those secret recipes.
Hearing that it was a secret recipe, the people from the heretics could not help but sip it immediately.
"It's so delicious!" Cao Ya and Xiao Yu exclaimed almost at the same time.
"It feels like we're slurping on a frozen watermelon in summer," Zhou Tong said with a dazed smile after taking a sip.
"Sweet, fragrant, and a magical taste that lingers." Sun Zhuo nodded lightly. "This fruit tea is interesting."
"Try the desserts. We have a pastry chef in our back kitchen. His skill ranks among the top three in the entire gravel world." Lin Huang promoted again.
"Is he Master Zhou?!" Xia Yu asked immediately.
"Yes, he only stays with Dynasty for three days per month. He happens to be here today. These three desserts we have today are made by him." Lin Huang did not tell them that the reason Master Zhou was here was that Dynasty had gotten him back after the people from Misery visited yesterday.
Xia Yu's eyes lit up when she heard about the chef. She had loved desserts since she was a kid.
"Master Zhou has a store called Hearty in the business district near my house. The store opens at 8 a.m. but there will be people queuing from 5 a.m. until they close at 10 p.m. There's always a queue. It's even crazier during the weekends. There would always be more than a hundred people queueing. It's the most popular store in the entire business district. It even boosted the business of hiring someone to queue and purchase pastries for you. I'll have to hire someone to buy it for me every time I'm craving for their desserts."
"There's one near my house too. True, there's always a queue everyday," Cao Ya agreed.
"Those pastry chefs at Hearty were trained at the academy that Master Zhou owns. It isn't Master Zhou who teaches them but some of his students. Sometimes, it's even the students of his students. Nonetheless, the desserts that we're having today were made by Master Zhou himself this morning." Huang Tianfu could not help but interrupt them after hearing them talking about the desserts.
"Come and try," Lin Huang invited while smiling. He picked up a piece as well.
"It's so heavenly!" Xia Yu and Cao Ya cried out almost at the same time again.
"It's never too much for me to eat ten pounds of these everyday." Zhou Tong shoved the desserts into his mouth immediately.
"To be honest, I'm not a dessert person, but I can eat this every day," Sun Zhuo said while grinning after eating one.
"Boss, I think we should include Master Zhou in this collaboration. Let him work for the heretics three days a month too!" Zhou Tong announced in a muffled voice as he spoke with his mouth full.
"If he can't do three days, one day will work too!" Xia Yu offered.
Sun Zhuo was speechless.
"We can't be deciding this for Master Zhou, but since he happens to be here today, I'll bring you guys to see him after our discussion is over later. You guys can discuss the part-time matter with him," Lin Huang said while smiling.
"Emperor Lin, you're such a nice person!" Cao Ya looked grateful while Xia Yu next to her nodded.