Chapter 1231: Eternity Fire
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
'Qi Muxiong managed to kill Virtual Gods with his imperial-level combat strength without his Goldfinger. He's really a genius!' Lin Huang exclaimed secretly. He admired Qi Muxiong, his senior.
"The information about my main body should be included in most of the inherited memories that I shared with you earlier. Ask whatever questions that you might have. Don't ask trivial questions. A remnant of consciousness like me can't hold on for long." Qi Muxiong's remnant of consciousness that was conversing with Lin Huang for a while could not help but urge him.
"Alright then." Lin Huang nodded and asked in all seriousness after a moment of reflection, "According to your description, Qi Muxiong went to the virtual zone from the gravel world to get to the great world. He also returned to the virtual zone after that and went back to the gravel world. I want to know how he managed to do that."
"He has a god rule relic for teleportation. The god relic records the gravel world and virtual zone coordinates. He depended mainly on that god relic to escape from the great world alive."
"He must've depended on that god relic to return to the gravel world as well. In other words, that god rule relic should've been left behind in the gravel world up till now…" Lin Huang asked the tanned man again after mumbling to himself, "Do you know where he's hiding this god rule relic now?"
"I've no idea." The tanned man shook his head while smiling. "I've no idea what happened after my main body set up this ruin. However, theoretically, there should be related records in the inherited memories my main body left behind for you. He's already given you the inheritance, so there's no reason for him to keep the god rule relic."
"His inherited memories have been sealed by categories. It was unsealed automatically after I elevated to imperial-level. However, there was too much information after it was unsealed, so I didn't look at it thoroughly. I only saw the part on cultivation."
Lin Huang did not rush into checking whether Qi Muxiong left behind the coordinates. He knew that it would be useless for him even if he found it now. The reason being, he could not return to the gravel world within a short period of time. Furthermore, without that god rule relic, it would mean that he would not be able to leave the virtual zone with the same method.
Lin Huang asked again after thinking to himself for a moment, "Apart from that god rule relic, do you know if there's any other way to leave this virtual zone? I could return to the gravel world or head over to the great world, whatever works."
"I've no idea about that either. The memory that my main body has left behind for me only has one method, which is the god rule relic," answered the tanned man, shaking his head.
Lin Huang sighed helplessly after hearing that answer. "It seems like I must get help from the Butterfly Sovereign."
Apart from getting Qi Muxiong's Goldfinger, he actually wanted to learn how to leave the virtual zone. That was the other reason why he entered Qi Muxiong's ruin. However, it seemed like his plan came to a dead-end completely.
"Are there any other questions that you have? I think I only have three minutes left," the tanned man urged again, "Ask any questions that you have now. My main body has something to tell you."
Lin Huang thought about it and asked the question that he had been wanting to ask, "Why did Qi Muxiong make this ruin trial so difficult? I think nobody else apart from me can defeat the three true god-level God Figurines at the very end. Basically, nobody can possibly pass a trial of such difficulty, am I right?"
"There are two reasons. Firstly, as a remnant of consciousness, I can only be activated once. I'll fade automatically as soon as I'm done with my mission. I won't be welcoming the second participant. The reason why the trial benchmark is set so high is that he wanted to choose only the qualifiers to receive his inheritance.
"Secondly, my main body has a high benchmark for the participant's ability because he hopes that the person can avenge him in the future. Therefore, he doesn't expect the participant to have abilities that surpass his, but it has to be, at least, close to his. Otherwise, avenging him would be a suicide mission.
"In reality, he didn't set up the final guardians to defeat the participant. The participant will pass as long as he survives for an hour. Meanwhile, you killed one of the guardians directly, causing the assessment to end ahead of time."
"I see…" Lin Huang could roughly understand why Qi Muxiong set the standards so high.
He proceeded to ask another question that he was interested in after putting aside the matter of avenging Qi Muxiong, "I've got another question. It's about the three God Figurine's Combat Souls. I want to know who was controlling the three God Figurine's Combat Souls since Qi Muxiong isn't around. Was it you?"
"Of course, it wasn't me!" The remnant of consciousness in the tanned man declined directly. "Do you think I could provide the three of them Divine Power with my current condition?"
"Who was it then?!"
"The Goldfinger, of course. It also provides the power in the God Figurines' bodies." The remnant of consciousness did not hide anything. Since Lin Huang had inherited Qi Muxiong's inheritance, the Goldfinger would belong to him sooner or later.
Lin Huang narrowed his eyes lightly. A daring idea soon developed in his mind. "How many God Figurines can that Goldfinger control at the most?"
"Its power is almost endless. Theoretically, it should be able to control countless God Figurines," answered the tanned man to Lin Huang's shock.
Lin Huang's eyes lit up when he heard that.
He had already collected tens of extra God Figurines. He was annoyed that the number of God Figurines his body could contain was full, so he would not be able to use any more. Never had he thought he would find the solution here.
At that moment, he was already thinking of building his God Figurines army in his head…
Seeing that Lin Huang was silent for a while, the tanned man could not help but speak again, "If you've got no more questions, I shall tell you the conditions."
Lin Huang was stunned for a moment and nodded immediately.
"My main body only has two conditions. Firstly, you can't refine his Goldfinger. You can use it, but not refine it to upgrade your own Goldfinger. If you think the function of the Goldfinger doesn't fit you and you don't want to use it, please terminate the contract and let it go.
"Secondly, avenge my main body! Three people attacked my main body and caused him to almost die in the great world. The leader is a Raider called Shentu Zetian. He was already a high-rank True God in Year 5536, but I've no idea what his exact rank is. Meanwhile, the other two were called Wang Ze and Huang Yu. The duo were on medium-rank True God-level back then.
"The three of them were Raiders with Goldfingers. Shentu Zetian's Goldfinger seems to come with the effects of disguising and deceiving. The other two's Goldfingers's effects are unknown. However, it's confirmed that the three of them have techniques to sense others' Goldfingers from a distance away. However, we don't know if such techniques came from one of the Goldfingers."
"I can agree to the first condition." Indeed, Lin Huang was going to refine Qi Muxiong's Goldfinger. However, now that he found out that Qi Muxiong's Goldfinger could control God Figurines, he changed his mind.
"As for the second condition, the traveler was already a high-rank True God over 800 years ago who also possessed a Goldfinger. He might've already broken through to heavenly god-level! Although the other two were only on medium-rank True God-level back then, they might've already broken through to heavenly god-level. I'm speculating that I can only complete this mission when I'm at least a high-rank True God or a Heavenly God."
"There's no rush in that. My main body doesn't want you to go on a suicide mission anyway. Naturally, he only wants you to do that when you have the confidence." The remnant of consciousness's voice faded when it was still speaking. "I don't have any time left. I hope that you can keep your promises."
"I will." Lin Huang nodded lightly.
Just when Lin Huang said that, the tanned man stood where he was without moving. Just like the two other God Figurines far away, he seemed to have become a puppet that had lost its marionette.
A sphere of golden glow came from underground slowly at the moment. The golden sphere that was like a sun looked like the size of a fist, but it had terrifying energy like a star.
The golden sphere rotated around Lin Huang and disappeared after penetrating his chest.
Lin Huang closed his eyes to feel the new Goldfinger. He raised his brow lightly when he opened his eyes slowly a moment later. "Did Qi Muxiong give you the name Eternity Fire?"
Chapter 1232: There Should Be Many Good Stuff in This Ruin, Am I Right?
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The Goldfinger, the Eternity Fire's main function was to provide endless energy.
It could convert include almost all sorts of energy. It also had the ability to absorb and assimilate most of the energies coming from outside.
Not only could it simulate Life Power, but it could even create polymeric substances such as Life Seeds, tinder and energy. That was the reason Qi Muxiong's combat strength managed to be boosted so fast and allowed him to master a suite of abilities at such a young age.
"This Goldfinger is even more ridiculous than I imagined. It transformed Qi Muxiong's body into a pure energy body that was similar to a Virtual God when the Goldfinger was only a baby. It even gave Qi Muxiong the ability to create a suite of Life Seeds and tinders, enabling him to obtain thousands of monster skills!
"No wonder his telekinetic power is close to invincibility. He killed hundreds of types of telekinetic monsters, engulfing and assimilating their Life Seeds as well as tinders, then integrated them into his own body."
Lin Huang was a little envious after scanning through the Eternity Fire's memory of Qi Muxiong roughly.
He thought he had obtained many monster skills, but it seemed like he was far behind compared to Qi Muxiong.
When he was on immortal-level, the limit of monster skills his skill tree could contain was 30. Now that he was on imperial-level, it was only upgraded to 50 skills (excluding derivative skills). Meanwhile, Qi Muxiong might have over 100 skills before he became transcendent. He might have already had thousands of skills when he was on imperial-level.
Lin Huang would be lying if he said he was not envious.
"Qi Muxiong didn't make it to virtual god-level with such a Goldfinger?" Lin Huang mumbled softly.
The Eternity Fire spoke through voice transmission all of a sudden when he was going to look at more memory about Qi Muxiong, "It was I who stopped him from elevating." The voice was thick and loud as it interrupted what Lin Huang was going to do.
"Why?" Lin Huang asked immediately.
"His cultivation system is different from the usual system because of me. In reality, there was no Life Palace consolidated in his body when he got to imperial-level, but there was an energy crystal that's similar to a Godhead. Therefore, his imperial-level can also be considered virtual god-level.
"If he wants to get to virtual god-level, he'd have to demote the energy crystal and consolidate a Godhead all over again. However, it's unnecessary to do that. The reason being the energy crystal in his body was made of Divine Power. Its energy density and thickness is no less than a virtual god-level Godhead. Even if he were to consolidate it all over again, it would only be 20% to 30% more powerful than before, whereby there wouldn't be any changes in its nature.
"Therefore, the conclusion we had from the discussion was to simulate virtual god-level, whereby we divided imperial-level into nine steps. We gave the energy crystal nine transformations just like a Godhead. After the nine transformations were completed, he would skip virtual god-level entirely and reach True God after his Divine Fire had been ignited.
"However, he would need some time to digest each energy crystal transformation when he did that. He could only go on to the second transformation when he had completely adapted to the transformed energy to avoid his energy from going haywire. This delayed his time being on imperial-level. When he was setting up this ruin, his energy crystal had only undergone eight transformations."
The Eternity Fire's explanation made Lin Huang recall his own cultivation system. He wondered if he could skip virtual god-level directly too.
"I'll spend some time to discuss with the stone tablet. If I can skip virtual god-level, it'll undoubtedly save me a lot of time."
After putting his personal matter aside, Lin Huang proceeded to ask a few questions that he was eager to know. Since the Eternity Fire started the conversation, he did not bother to look through Qi Muxiong's memories.
"Is this ruin Qi Muxiong's God Territory?"
"Yes."
"How did he consolidate God Territory when he was only on imperial-level?" Lin Huang asked curiously.
"He got it from a virtual god-level monster," the Eternity Fire explained, "The nature of God Territory was actually the reflection and interference of Divine Power on the material world. Naturally, there's a reflection of will on the soul level in between. No matter what, the nature of it would be the reaction of the energy. As long as there's a reaction from the energy, I can assimilate, engulf and convert it. It's just that the assimilation speed will be slower if it's something complicated."
Lin Huang finally understood that Qi Muxiong did not consolidate this God Territory at all. It was the Goldfinger who had created it.
"When Qi Muxiong was building this ruin, he got me to take out a portion of his God Territory. It was approximately a third of his God Territory. Meanwhile, he kept the remaining portion of it.
"I think he must've been dead. Otherwise, it's impossible for him not to come back for me throughout the over 800 years and put away this portion of God Territory."
The Eternity Fire was clearly depressed when it spoke about this.
"Over 800 years ago… To be exact, it was the third year when Qi Muxiong returned to the gravel world that I came from. There was an invasion in the gravel world. According to the historical records, Qi Muxiong participated in the war as one of the main powers and died on the battlefield." Lin Huang provided a simple explanation of what happened in the gravel world. "But that doesn't prove anything. There weren't any True Gods who participated in the war back then, so he might've faked his death. Or maybe he went missing and was recorded dead. He might've gotten the officials to record that on purpose so that he could get out of the public eye."
The Eternity Fire only expressed again after falling into silence for a long time, "No matter whether he's alive or dead, I hope that you can find the trails that he left behind when you return to the gravel world."
Lin Huang nodded to agree to that without hesitation. "No problem. If everything goes as planned, I'll return to the gravel world within a year."
The reason why he could promise that so quickly was mainly that he wanted to look for Qi Muxiong's teleportation god rule relic. Naturally, he respected Qi Muxiong as a senior traveller on the other hand. If Qi Muxiong really was dead, he hoped to bury him properly instead of having his body exposed in the wild.
Qi Muxiong fought the intruders bravely despite missing his Goldfinger while being severely injured just to protect the gravel world. This alone made Lin Huang admire him.
However, Lin Huang recalled something all of a sudden as they talked about the ruin. He then asked the Eternity Fire, "Do you know about the matter whereby this ruin has been sealed by the outside world? There's a second-rank True God-level dragonkin who sealed this ruin with the Ice Law."
"I know that. He kept wanting to come in, but I stopped him." The answer the Eternity Fire gave him went beyond his expectations. "I'm the core of this ruin. Three breaths are all it takes for me to break away from his seal. The reason why I ignored it is that I'm afraid that Qi Muxiong won't be able to find me when he comes back."
"Do you plan to take this ruin away?" the Eternity Fire asked.
"There's no rush. I'll bring this ruin with me when I'm done with my preparation to leave the virtual zone. The Dragon Sovereign might be triggered if I move the ruin beforehand, and it might be a disadvantage towards my plan to leave." Lin Huang did not wish to have any troubles during such a critical time.
If he moved the ruin now, the Dragon Sovereign's first reaction would probably be to seal the entire virtual zone when he found out and prohibit anyone from exiting. As long as he paid his price, the Butterfly Sovereign would give him face and might deny all exit requests within a short period of time.
Although Lin Huang could not bring the ruin away now, the exploration period of the ruin was a total of seven days. He could look for loot in this ruin since he had nothing to do for a couple of days.
Lin Huang could not help but smirk. "Oh yeah, Old Fire, there should be tons of good stuff in this ruin, am I right? Please show me around."
Chapter 1233: You Bastard!
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
As the Eternity Fire pulled Divine Power out of the three God Figurines, the trio soon turned into three sculptures size of a palm.
Lin Huang waved and put away all three of the God Figurines into his storage space.
Later on, he put away the few God Figurine's Combat Souls including the Ninetails Lynx, leaving only the Nightmare Tapir with him.
"Is there any other God Figurine?" Lin Huang asked the Eternity Fire in his body through voice transmission.
"No, Qi Muxiong only left three behind." The Eternity Fire explained further, "Apart from this ruin that was set up preliminarily, he didn't leave many things behind. Apart from the three God Figurines, the valuables in this ruin are basically influenced by me, whereby they were bred automatically throughout over 800 years."
Lin Huang recalled the gigantic plants when he just entered as he listened to this part. They must have been affected by the Eternity Fire and were mutated into giants.
'Since ordinary plants can be mutated like that, theoretically, monsters and items with Life Power must've gone through an even more significant change.' Lin Huang's eyes lit up as he thought about that.
The Eternity Fire proceeded to speak, "There are a few spiritual volcanoes in the southern part of the ruin. They've elevated into Divine Power volcanoes now. There are a few Molten Divine Crystals mines at the bottom of the volcanoes, and they're considered the richest mines. There's a god item that came out of the biggest volcano. It's a Molten Lotus that has mastered the Molten Law preliminarily.
"At the far northern part of the ruin is a frozen ocean. There's an ice crystal mine deep in the ocean which is also a god-level mine. However, there's an Ice Dragon guarding the place and it's also on true god-level.
"To the east side of the ruin is the Eastern Ocean. There's an isolated island in the middle of the sea with a Buddhist Tower on it. It was initially a torn god item, but it absorbed my energy throughout the centuries. Not only was it repaired on its own, but it has even evolved into a god rule item. It suppresses the monsters in the entire Eastern Ocean, and even become the totem that all of the monsters in the Eastern Ocean worship.
"There's a desert on the west side of the ruin. It used to be the place Qi Muxiong piled his monster carcasses up. I don't know if it's because of me or this ruin's nature, but the monster carcasses and skeletons review one after another throughout these over 800 years. They're even more powerful now than before they died. The most powerful one would be the Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon. It's already a True God now.
"Monsters of all sorts in the middle of the ruin and the areas around it have undergone a boost in their size. Those monsters that were regular-sized became giants without knowing why. Some of them even become supreme giants. Even a minority of them got rid of their bodies directly and become pure energy.
"Some of the broken god relics and god relics that are scattered everywhere have gone through all sorts of changes…"
Lin Huang knew he would be busy for the next few days after hearing the Eternity Fire's introduction about this ruin.
"Will it negatively affect the ruin if I hunt god-level monsters?" Lin Huang decided to ask before moving.
"It won't affect much. Their energy will belong to me when they're dead. If the beasts' souls are taken, only a drop of life form will remain in the ruin. However, there aren't many god-level monsters anyway. Even if you killed all of them, it would be less than 1/10,000 of a drop. The number will be remedied soon as long as the monsters in the ruin breed as usual. However, it takes time to breed god-level monsters all over again."
"I'll only hunt for god-level monsters. I won't touch the rest." Lin Huang nodded after he listened and gave his promise.
He then turned his head to look at the Nightmare Tapir after he spoke, "See if there are any god-level monsters around."
The Nightmare Tapir spread his God Territory up to a range of 10,000 kilometers around them. It forced a smile a moment later. "Almost all of them were killed by the impact of the battle earlier."
Lin Huang raised his brow when he heard the update. He paid all attention to using his ocular skill to record the true god-level battle earlier. He did not notice that the spiritual energy filled his body at all.
As he looked into his body, he found out that the clouds of colorful spiritual energy had been filtered into a milky liquid by Divine Fire. They had accumulated into a river.
Lin Huang thought about it for a moment and filled the Nightmare Tapir's body with the spiritual energy that had accumulated into a river directly.
As spiritual energy filled its body, the Nightmare Tapir's aura began growing continuously. It was getting close to achieving Virtual God rank-9. However, its combat strength did not break through eventually after all the spiritual energy was transferred.
"How far away are you?" Lin Huang could not help but ask.
"I still lack five to six Virtual God rank-9 monsters," the Nightmare Tapir answered after checking its condition.
"Then, let's go to the south first. The mines over there are relatively easy to obtain. We'll kill the virtual god-level monsters along the way." Lin Huang soon made up his mind.
Naturally, the Eternity Fire and the Nightmare Tapir had no objection to that.
Lin Huang summoned Thunder and flew all the way to the south of the ruin.
…
The Spider Queen at the entrance of the ruin woke up from her deep slumber.
Her 16 eyes opened one after another while her 12 long legs propped her body up slowly. However, she still felt drowsy. Her sleepiness had yet to fade completely.
"The sky is dark… What happened earlier?"
Night slowly fell in the ruin.
The sky had yet to go into complete darkness at the moment, but it was enough for the Spider Queen to estimate that it had been hours since her last memory.
"We came into the ruin at 9 a.m. Judging by the sky, it's at least 6 pm. or even past 7 p.m. In other words, I've been sleeping at the entrance for close to ten hours…" The Spider Queen recalled what exactly happened carefully.
"I remember coming in with Wu Fei and we waited until everyone left. I felt a sense of sleepiness envelop me all of a sudden." The Spider Queen spread her Territory skill out immediately to see if Lin Huang was around. Naturally, he was not within hundreds of kilometers of her range.
As her sleepiness faded, she started to think clearly. The Spider Queen seemed to realize what happened.
Her 16 eyes glared cruelly while she released a raging shriek far away, "Wu Fei, you bastard! How dare you get rid of me!?"
…
As the Spider Queen was waking up, all sorts of monsters that participated in the trial in the ruin had undergone through close to ten hours of hunting. Some of them even began to familiarize themselves with the environment in the ruin slowly.
They had learned to stay away from dangerous zones as they looked for targets that suited themselves.
Some even reaped rewarding results, but some were struggling to stay alive.
However, nobody could compare to Lin Huang when it came to rewards.
At the moment, he was done digging three Molten Divine Crystal mines and only had one last mine that he had yet to dig.
Lin Huang gazed at the biggest Divine Power volcano far away in the nightlight.
"I wonder how's the Molten Lotus's ability like. I can test it first. If it's too much trouble, I can only give up on the mine temporarily. After all, I only have six days left in here."
Chapter 1234: Molten Lotus
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The Eternity Fire called the biggest Divine Power volcano in the ruin the No. 1 Volcano.
The volcano was over 9,800 meters tall. The bottom stretched 180 kilometers horizontally and spanned 120 kilometers vertically. The entire volcano had over ten craters, but the biggest one was as wide as 40 kilometers.
Thunder flew above the volcano in circles. Even though Lin Huang was only watching the scene below while standing on Thunder's back, he took in the volcano's majesty and beauty.
He also sensed the wave of energy coming from the Divine Power lava at the bottom of the crater from far away.
Watching the flowing golden lava at the bottom of the crater, Lin Huang did not doubt that any cultivators who had not mastered Divine Power would definitely die if they entered it.
However, that was not what Lin Huang was concerned about. No matter whether it came to himself, the summoning beasts he had in store, or his God Figurine's Combat Souls, all of them had mastered Divine Power successfully. Furthermore, he had obtained the Molten Divine Crystals in the three Divine Power volcanoes.
He stared at the bloody lotus located in the middle of the Divine Power lava lake from far away.
The color of the lotus was extremely vibrant. It was so red that it looked like it was bleeding.
The flower had completely blossomed, and there were layers of petals. The stamens and pistils in the middle were of golden whiskers. It seemed like it would take a long time for its lotus seeds to grow.
There was a faint bloody mist lingering within the striking petals, giving the entire lotus an extra striking vibe.
The three lotus leaves around it were not an ordinary green but an eerie maroon. They were also covered in a layer of bloody mist.
Although it seemed like a plant, in reality, this Molten Lotus was not a plant or a plant-type monster. Instead, it was a god item.
To be exact, it was a fire attribute spirit that came out of the Divine Power Lava. From the Divine Power Lava, it evolved into a god rule item due to the influence of the Eternity Fire.
As Lin Huang was observing the god rule item from far away, the Molten Lotus noticed him too.
One of its purplish-red leaves vibrated lightly while a sea of Divine Power Lava in the volcano shot up into the sky. The gigantic volcano erupted immediately without any warning.
The golden lava seemed to defy gravity at the moment. It rocketed up into the sky like an upside-down waterfall.
It drowned the space where Thunder was earlier almost in the blink of an eye.
However, a purple glow ignited within the explosive golden sparks. Thunder escaped almost the second it was drowned by the golden lava.
Lin Huang stood on Thunder's back while looking in the direction of the crater from far away. Thunder took him tens of kilometers away from the volcano in that split second earlier.
"Does a god item have territorial consciousness too?" Lin Huang raised his brow. He did not expect a god item to take the initiative to attack him.
"It attacked not because it has territorial consciousness but because it wants to obtain spiritual energy. Since it has evolved into a god rule item, it obtained a simple consciousness whereby it can sense the spiritual energy in the life forms around it. Its instinct is to kill those living forms to take their spiritual energy to fill its own consciousness for it to become whole. Furthermore, the portion of memory it obtained from the spiritual energy would then become its learning archive," the Eternity Fire gave a detailed explanation.
"It's that powerful?!" It was Lin Huang's first time hearing that god items were like life forms whereby they could learn.
"Do you want to wipe its consciousness out?" The Nightmare Tapir next to Lin Huang lifted his head to look at him. "Its consciousness is very weak, so it's easy to wipe it out."
"It's rare that such a god item would have consciousness growing in it. It'll become more powerful if we retain its complete consciousness," suggested the Eternity Fire.
Lin Huang only made up his mind after falling into silence for a moment. "Retain its consciousness since it can be useful in the future."
Wiping its consciousness would mean killing the growth potential of the god rule item. Meanwhile, Lin Huang had already planned out on whom the god rule item would be used in the future. He did not hope that Charcoal would get a god item with zero growth potential in the future.
The effect of this lotus combined with Charcoal's dragon flame should be great.
The Nightmare Tapir that had gotten the order had no objections. Its pupils turned black immediately.
In the next second, the Divine Power Lava that shot into the sky stopped moving all of a sudden. Subsequently, it seemed to lose its strength and fell. The inverted golden river that was shooting into the sky rained down like a golden waterfall at that moment. A portion of the Divine Power Lava returned to the crater. However, a part of it turned into a storm, attacking the areas around. Everywhere it reached was charred black.
After a long time, the golden waterfall returned to the volcano completely. Everything within the range of hundreds of kilometers regained its peace.
If not for the golden lava that was still flowing in all directions on the ground, nobody might have noticed that the volcano had erupted earlier.
Meanwhile, the Molten Lotus at the bottom of the crater seemed to have fallen into a deep sleep at the moment.
Lin Huang mumbled softly in surprise after sensing the Molten Lotus's aura that had obviously weakened from far away, "You can even pull a god item into your dreamland?"
"As long as it has a consciousness," said the Nightmare Tapir before adding, "Of course, under the premise that it's within my controlling range. I can't do it if its spiritual intensity is much more powerful than mine."
Seeing that the Nightmare Tapir had the extra strength to answer his question, Lin Huang knew that the Molten Lotus's spiritual intensity should not be that powerful.
He could not help but look into the Nightmare Tapir's dreamland to look at the duo's battle.
In the dreamland, there were loud thuds coming from the inside of Volcano No. 1 accompanied by wailing.
Lin Huang got the Nightmare Tapir to help him hide while he looked beneath the crater as he stood there.
Throughout the battle, the Nightmare Tapir struck the Molten Lotus hard. The beautiful and eerie bloody flower was destroyed at the moment as if a tornado had decimated it. Only a few torn petals were all that remained.
The perfect flower was going bald from the Nightmare Tapir's mauling.
Meanwhile, the Nightmare Tapir ripped the few leaves around it into pieces.
Not long after Lin Huang began watching the battle, the Molten Lotus finally could not take it any longer. Under the Nightmare Tapir's harsh assault, its spirit was close to being destroyed. It was left with its last will wanting to survive. In the end, it chose to surrender. It knew that its consciousness might be completely wiped out if it proceeded to be stubborn.
The Nightmare Tapir finally stopped attacking upon noticing that.
It had already achieved what he wanted. It walked slowly to the lotus and extended a front claw, then patted the Molten Lotus's torn petal. Then, it turned around and left the dreamland.
The Molten Lotus was stunned when it returned to reality. It could not help but shiver for a second when it saw the Nightmare Tapir at the crater.
"I need you to give us access to Volcano No. 1 for a moment."
The Nightmare Tapir did not even reveal the reason. The lotus hovered and landed next to the Nightmare Tapir which peeked at it without saying anything.
Lin Huang patted Thunder, signaling it to head over upon seeing that the Molten Lotus had retreated from the volcano. He then summoned Bai and the rest of his summoning beasts to start a new round of digging as he landed at the crater.
Chapter 1235: Ding Dong, Ding Dong…
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
At Volcano No.1 to the south of the ruin, Bai and the rest were busy digging the Molten Divine Crystals mine.
Meanwhile, Lin Huang rode on Thunder's back while rushing towards the Eastern Ocean to the east of the ruin.
According to what the Eternity Fire said, there was an isolated island in the Eastern Ocean. On it was a Buddhist Tower that had evolved into a god rule item. The tower controlled the monsters in the entire Eastern Ocean.
Apart from conquering the tower, the objective of Lin Huang's journey there was to use the tower to attract the virtual god-level monsters in the Eastern Ocean to take their spiritual energy so that the Nightmare Tapir could break through its combat strength.
"There are approximately 600 virtual god-level monsters in the Eastern Ocean while close to 500 of them are only low-level Virtual Gods. Meanwhile, among the remaining 100 of them, most of them are mid-level while only four of them are high-level," the Eternity Fire described the situation in the Eastern Ocean along the way as Lin Huang requested.
"Only four are on high-level out of the 600 virtual god-level monsters. I wonder if the accumulated spiritual energy will be enough for the Nightmare Tapir to elevate his combat strength."
Lin Huang had finally arrived at the Eastern Ocean past 6 a.m. on the next day as Thunder flew at its full speed.
Apart from the Nightmare Tapir, the the Molten Lotus that he had just conquered earlier came along.
The main reason why he brought the Molten Lotus along was that he did not want it to interfere with Bai and the rest's mining at the bottom of the volcano.
The Buddhist Island was situated in the middle of the Eastern Ocean. It was a small isolated island.
After arriving at the Eastern Ocean, Thunder spent approximately an hour to finally get to where the isolated island was.
However, Lin Huang was puzzled when he saw the island beneath from far away. "Isn't it supposed to be an isolated island? Why are there other islands around it?"
"Those around it aren't islands. They are some sea kings guarding the island," the Eternity Fire explained, "I've no idea why. They were only some ordinary sea monsters, but they kept growing after they were put into this ruin. Some of them evolved into sea kings directly. I've no idea where they learned the technique to hide their aura and pretend to be islands."
Lin Huang was thinking hard to himself. He just found out that the monsters hid their aura. It was no wonder he did not sense any life forms within the range of his territory.
Meanwhile, the Nightmare Tapir had activated its dreamland into which it dragged the island where the Buddhist Tower was as well as the visible islands around it.
Seeing that the Nightmare Tapir had gotten into battle mode, Lin Huang became a member of its audience immediately.
In the dreamland, over ten sea kings which were even bigger than the Buddhist Island seemed to have woken up from their dream. They emerged out of the surface of the ocean one after another and attacked the Nightmare Tapir that hovered in the air.
Among the sea kings, the one with the lowest combat strength was on Virtual God rank-5. All of the four high-level Virtual Gods that the Eternity Fire mentioned were there. Two of them were Virtual God rank-7 while one was on Virtual God rank-8, and another was on Virtual God rank-9.
The 14 sea kings went into a frenzy while their eyes turned bloodshot.
Seeing that, Lin Huang frowned slightly while gazing out at the Buddhist Tower on the isolated island.
The Buddhist Tower looked no different than an ordinary tower. It had a total of nine floors but it was not even 100 meters tall.
Looking at it from a distance, the tower was black like an ancient building that was dated and worn away by years.
However, Lin Huang faintly sensed from a distance away that the tower was releasing a strange aura. It was a little similar to the Holy Power of a God's Blood monster, yet it was different. Compared to Holy Power, this aura was even more powerful and deterring. It even came with a strange, irresistible feeling.
He understood at the moment why these sea monsters would worship it as a totem.
If he was not a gust of consciousness that came in with the Nightmare Tapir's ability and was being protected by the dreamland, he would be deterred and controlled immediately if he was there in his own body and flesh.
'It seems to have mastered a deterrence rule power,' Lin Huang thought to himself carefully. He was thinking who would be more suitable for using this god item after he conquered it.
On the other side, the Nightmare Tapir had killed the 14 god-level sea kings within an extremely short period of time. It destroyed each of them almost with only one slap.
One must know that although its combat strength was only Virtual God rank-8, its grade was much higher than those sea kings.
Furthermore, in its dreamland, not only did it possess the Destructive Divine Mammoth's strength, but it also possessed the Ninetails Lynx's air slicing ability. Naturally, killing a Virtual God rank-9 sea king that was only a rank higher was a piece of cake.
The vital signs of the 14 sea kings that were killed in the dreamland were fading quickly in reality. They turned into 14 gigantic floating carcasses on the sea like 14 massive islands.
Judging by the instant death of its 14 guardians, the Buddhist Tower soon realized that the fella, who only had a combat strength of Virtual God rank-8, was not an easy one to fight.
Its body that was initially black was turning gold at a speed that could be seen with the naked eye. It was shining in a gentle golden glow every millimeter from the tip of the tower to its base.
Under the shining golden glow, Lin Huang, who was only a gush of consciousness, could feel the warmth on his body as if he was sunbathing in the winter. He felt like doing nothing than indulging in the warmth.
"Roar!!!" A deafening noise came all of a sudden, waking Lin Huang up from the strange phenomenon earlier.
He did not look well. He could not believe that he was affected even though he was protected in the dreamland. He slowly shifted his focus onto the Nightmare Tapir which did not seem to be affected at all.
"Oh, wow! The Nightmare Tapir is indeed powerful!"
In reality, the Nightmare Tapir was affected. It did not roar earlier to wake Lin Huang up, but to chase away the strange phenomenon that it was lured into.
As soon as the strange phenomenon was removed, the Nightmare Tapir attacked directly without any hesitation. It disappeared and reappeared above the tower in the next second.
Its pupils turned golden like never before.
Just when Lin Huang was in shock, he saw black shackles growing on the Buddhist Tower's surface.
"Did it copy the Shackle Serpent's sealing ability?!"
The golden tower was shaking as though it wanted to break out of the seal. After its failed attempt that went on for a while, the Buddhist Tower changed its strategy in determination. Golden sparks began burning the surface of the tower at an alarming speed.
As soon as the sparks ignited, the speed of the black shackles spreading dropped significantly. It soon fell into a stagnant mode and even showed signs of retreating as time passed by.
At that moment, the hairs on the Nightmare Tapir's body seemed to be alive. They grew into long whips and went after the Buddhist Tower.
The Buddhist Tower could only watch the countless hairs tying it up since it could not move.
Lin Huang was even more puzzled as he watched to this point. Theoretically, the flame coming from the Buddhist Tower should be burning. The Nightmare Tapir tying the tower with its hairs should have been an unwise move.
However, Lin Huang widened his eyes in the next second.
The hair wrapped around the Buddhist Tower swallowed the flame on the surface of the tower quickly. The fire died out within the blink of an eye.
Without the suppression of the golden flames, the black shackles came alive like weeds growing in full swing after a downpour.
The Buddhist Tower attempted to break away from the shackles. However, the tower shivered and everything it did seemed to slow down tens of times.
Although the effect only lasted for a short two to three seconds, the speed of the black shackles growing on it was not affected at all. The result was boosted by heaps, and the entire Buddhist Tower was soon tied up.
Within the short few seconds, the Nightmare Tapir used the Shackle Serpent's seal, the Divine Sun Tree's fire assimilation, and the Creation Clock's slowing down of time. With the three abilities combined, he finally suppressed the Buddhist Tower.
Although the Divine Power within was suppressed to its very limit, the Buddhist Tower was still trying to break away from the shackles.
Noticing that, the Nightmare Tapir turned the Shackle Serpent's shackles into a bell shape, engulfing the entire Buddhist Tower within them. Then, it subsequently hit it hard.
Ding dong…
The heavy sound of a ringing bell chimed like the bell that rang at the old temples in the morning.
The Buddhist Tower that was covered in the shackles trembled as the Nightmare Tapir smirked and struck it again and again.
Ding dong, ding dong…
The ringing echoed on the isolated island over and over again, agitating the air above the entire Eastern Ocean.
Chapter 1236: Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The bell ringing only echoed in the Eastern Ocean sky for less than ten minutes before the Buddhist Tower completely surrendered.
Each time the bell rang, its entire body would shake from the base to the tip of the tower. There was a soreness in its entire body as if it would collapse any time.
The Molten Lotus that was dragged into the dreamland to watch the battle was terrified as it watched that. By then, it only found out that the Nightmare Tapir had yet to perform many techniques when they fought earlier.
The Buddhist Tower completely lost its temper when it was released from the dreamland. Under the Nightmare Tapir's request, a circle of black waves spread out of the body of the tower and rippled towards the sea.
Within half an hour, over 600 virtual god-level monsters in the entire Eastern Ocean appeared one after another.
After confirming that all the virtual god-level monsters were present, the Nightmare Tapir activated its dreamland again and pulled all hundreds of the virtual god-level monsters into it.
Later on, Lin Huang saw sea monster carcasses floating on the surface of the ocean around the Buddhist Island one after another.
In less than a minute, more than 600 virtual god-level monsters were killed.
Lin Huang could clearly sense the sea of spiritual energy rush into his body. Then, he quickly transferred the energy into the Nightmare Tapir's body.
The spiritual energy in the Nightmare Tapir's body accumulated immediately. Some five to six minutes later, its spiritual energy had finally reached its limit and began to stabilize. However, it was still one step away from reaching Virtual God rank-9.
"Almost there. I'll get there when I have tens of mid-level Virtual Gods." The Nightmare Tapir could not help but sigh softly while looking at the spiritual energy that was so close to breaking through in his body.
Next to him, Lin Huang smiled while speaking, "Don't worry. There are still many virtual god-level monsters to the west of this ruin. We can continue hunting."
The Nightmare Tapir nodded and turned its head to glimpse at the Buddhist Tower that was not far away. "Do we bring it with us? Or do we leave it here?"
"Bring it along." Although Lin Huang was planning to bring the entire ruin with him eventually, he thought he should bring everything that he could this round.
Although the Buddhist Tower was resistant, it chose to obey since it had witnessed the Nightmare Tapir's techniques. It entered Lin Huang's body after the Molten Lotus did.
After conquering his second god rule item, Lin Huang summoned his dimensional portal immediately. He stepped into the dimensional portal with the Nightmare Tapir and returned to the central zone that he set the coordinates of before. Bai and the rest had finished digging the entire Molten Divine Crystals mine beneath Volcano No. 1.
Lin Huang complimented them and promised to give all the participants three months' worth of snacks. He then summoned all of them back into their card forms.
After putting the Molten Divine Crystals away, he then summoned Thunder.
"Let's go to the Deceased Desert to the west."
As ordered, Thunder flew and rushed all the way to the west of the ruin with Lin Huang and the Nightmare Tapir.
They finally arrived at the Deceased Desert to the west of the ruin when it was approximately 3 p.m. The Deceased Desert was where Qi Muxiong piled the monster carcasses in his God Territory.
However, since Qi Muxiong divided this God Territory, nobody knew whether they were affected by the Eternity Fire, the monster carcasses came alive one after another and became spirit-type monsters.
There were all kinds of spirit-type monsters wandering in the entire desert.
Only a minority of them had complete bodies whereby most of them had broken limbs and a handful of them had completely turned into skeletons.
"The most powerful monster in this area is a Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon which is a first-rank True God. It was a complete dragon skeleton when Qi Muxiong acquired it. He thought he'd keep it as a piece of art since it was well preserved. Perhaps because it had been dead for too long, this dragon skeleton didn't retain its original consciousness when it came back alive. It was only left with its instinct. Its consciousness only developed slowly throughout the hundreds of years.
"Apart from that, because the monster carcasses that were piled here had rather high combat strength, there are over 1,200 virtual god-level monsters in this area compared to the Eastern Ocean. There are 11 high-level virtual god-level monsters while two are on Virtual God rank-9. There are over 200 of them that are mid-level Virtual Gods."
Lin Huang's eyes lit up after hearing the Eternity Fire's description. All of those monsters were prey to him. However, he spoke to the Nightmare Tapir while remaining calm, "That Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon managed to elevate to True God, proving that it was at least a mythical-level dragonkin when it was alive. Although it has turned into a spirit-type monster, we shouldn't underestimate its ability."
The Nightmare Tapir nodded but it did not see its opponent as a threat. "I'll take note of that. However, since its consciousness is new, the intensity shouldn't be anything much more powerful than the Molten Lotus and the Buddhist Tower. In reality, it's a monster that I'd suppress."
Lin Huang knew that apart from a minority of beings with compelling spirits and consciousness, most of the life forms could hardly resist being dragged into the Nightmare Tapir's dreamland. Beings with weak spirits and consciousness would definitely be suppressed by the Nightmare Tapir even if they had compelling combat strength.
As long as his opponents were dragged into his dreamland, they were basically waiting to be killed. The reason being the Nightmare Tapir was close to invincible in its dreamland.
When Thunder had just gone into the Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon's sensing range above the clouds, Lin Huang and the Nightmare Tapir could obviously sense someone was watching them.
Through Thunder's eyes, Lin Huang saw the Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon lying on top of the massive mountain from thousands of kilometers away.
It was a dragon skeleton that was at least tens of thousands of meters long. Its body was crystal clear like white jade. This dragon skeleton was preserved close to perfection without any flaws whereby each detail on it was exquisite. The sharp bones that popped up since it was mutated made it look tens of times more ferocious than when it was alive.
What caught most attention were its four charcoal-red pupils. They looked like fire burning in its eye sockets. Meanwhile, the four eyes were fixated on Thunder thousands of kilometers away.
In reality, it did not see Thunder that was above the clouds. However, it sensed Thunder's exact location clearly within its territory range. It could also sense Lin Huang and the Nightmare Tapir standing on Thunder's back.
The reason why it was looking at Thunder was that it could sense the Virtual God rank-8 monster on Thunder's back with its instinct. The monster was emanating a faint threat.
Doubt showed in its four pupils. It could not really understand why it would feel threatened by a Virtual God rank-8 monster. It was not because he had never encountered such combat strength, but because such a monster was merely food to it.
Naturally, Lin Huang could not see the doubt from this dragon skeleton that did not even have flesh on it. Noticing that the dragon skeleton had noticed him, he did not bother to hide himself and patted Thunder's back. "Approach it slowly, but be careful."
He then turned his head to look at the Nightmare Tapir. "You can do it when we're close enough. No need to wait for Thunder to get very close to it."
The Nightmare Tapir nodded. Thunder, which had received the order, began slowing down and approaching the Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon carefully.
8,000 kilometers, 7,000 kilometers… 3,000 kilometers…
The Nightmare Tapir's pupils turned black just when flames were spurting out of the dragon skeleton's four pupils faintly. The flames in the Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon's pupils extinguished all of a sudden, and it stopped moving completely.
Chapter 1237: Surrender Or Die!
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The battle soon commenced in the dreamland.
The Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon's four crimson pupils had sparks coming out of them while it lifted its head to release a ferocious roar.
A sonic boom spread up to 1,000 times faster than the speed of sound. It stirred the entire Deceased Desert immediately.
Countless spirit-type monsters in the desert seemed to have received the Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon's order whereby they turned around and lifted their heads to look where the Nightmare Tapir was.
Each and every spirit-type monster, including those with complete limbs, broken limbs, the rotten ones, and some that were only left with skeletons without eyes looked at the direction of the Nightmare Tapir as if they were on a pilgrimage.
The scene looked extremely odd. Fortunately, it only lasted less than the span of a breath.
After confirming the Nightmare Tapir's location, countless monsters hovered into the sky one after another and charged toward the Nightmare Tapir was at an alarming speed.
Despite that, the Nightmare Tapir did not panic at all. All it did was give a strange smile and disappear directly. When it reappeared, it had arrived less than a kilometer from the Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon.
The Nightmare Tapir's body size looked like an ant when it was standing before the Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon. Its dragon skeleton was tens of thousands of meters long while the Nightmare Tapir was less than five meters tall. It was even smaller than the Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon's nostril.
The Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon took some time to put its four crimson pupils into focus as the Nightmare Tapir showed himself. It had finally seen how its enemy looked like.
"Surrender or die!" ordered the Nightmare Tapir in an overbearing tone before waiting for the Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon to do anything.
The Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon was stunned when it heard the threat. Its first reaction was not anger but confusion. However, it was enraged completely later on.
"You're seeking death, you little thing!"
Flames went wild in the Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon's four pupils. The flames even spurted tens of meters away.
However, a crash came before it could finish speaking.
Subsequently, it felt an immense strength slamming into its head. It seemed to have lost its ability to fight, whereby its massive head was slammed deep into the ground directly by the immense strength.
The gigantic mountain that it was initially lying on turned into a sinkhole as if a meteorite had hit.
Not far away, the Nightmare Tapir lifted its right front claw and licked it with its tongue. "So much nonsense."
The Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon was dumbstruck as its entire head was buried in the ground.
'What happened? Was I attacked? Why didn't I sense anything?' It only dawned on it slowly after it asking itself those three questions.
'Was it that feline monster with the trunk that attacked me? It's only on Virtual God rank-8. How is it possible that it has such great strength?'
Although many doubts popped into its head that was devoid of brain juice, the Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon decided to put aside those questions while focusing on the enemy that it was fighting.
It retrieved its massive dragon head out of the sinkhole while staring at the feline monster with four of its eyes on fire. It was smarter this time whereby it did not bother with any nonsense while opening its mouth to spit dragon flames directly.
Just when the massive skeleton dragon head opened its mouth from which flames ignited, the Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon realized that the feline monster had vanished.
In the next second, an intense sense of danger came from above its head. Just when it lifted its head, it felt an immense strength slamming down from the top before it could see the Nightmare Tapir.
This time, it finally knew what had attacked it earlier.
Bang!
As a loud bang exploded, the Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon that had just lifted its head was slammed back into the ground. It was the Nightmare Tapir that did it.
The mountains around them collapsed from the tremor that came from the attack while the sinkhole created by the slamming of the dragon's head this time was 20% to 30% bigger than before.
The Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon had no chance of fighting at all, and it was suppressed by the Nightmare Tapir twice in a row.
Lin Huang, who was watching the battle from far away, was a little confused. To him, this dragon skeleton was a true god-level monster after all. Even though they were in the dreamland, it should not be so weak that it would become the Nightmare Tapir's toy.
However, now it seemed like the Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon had no chance of fighting back at all.
Lin Huang finally realized something when the Nightmare Tapir slammed the Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon into the ground for the third time.
"The movements of the Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon seem to slow down whenever it's going to fight back."
The Nightmare Tapir calmly through voice transmission after hearing Lin Huang mumble to himself, "Yes, I used the Creation Clock's ability to control the movement of his body."
Lin Huang came to a realization by then. He kept thinking that the Nightmare Tapir was only using the Ninetails Lynx's teleportation ability and the Destructive Divine Mammoth's Superhuman Strength, but never had he thought that the Nightmare Tapir had been secretly using the Creation Clock's ability to control the flow of time.
With the three combined abilities, the Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon had no time to react at all. It could only become the Nightmare Tapir's target.
Lin Huang saw it crystal clear on the side, but the Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon failed to react so quickly.
It had always thought that it was because the Nightmare Tapir was quicker than it was. Therefore, it always managed to suppress it before it could reach.
After being suppressed for over ten times, the Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon slowly realized the odd flow of time around it. By then, it had drained half of the Divine Power in its body.
Although it failed to attack even once, the Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon would drain a sea of its Divine Power to defend each and every of the Nightmare Tapir's attack. It had drained half of its Divine Power after being attacked for over ten times.
The Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon also realized that it was only a matter of time for it to be defeated if this went on. As soon as the Divine Power in it was completely drained, it would turn into dead meat.
'There's no way that I can win if I proceed with the current battle mode. It's basically winning with its speed and control of time. I might only be able to turn the tables around if I change my strategy.'
The Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon soon had a plan as it thought about this point.
Glaring flames burst out of its four crimson pupils again. However, its pupils were not the only thing on fire this time. Its entire body was on fire too. Compared to the crimson flames in its eye sockets, the flames that ignited on its body were blue.
The gigantic dragon skeleton was soon covered by a layer of blue flames. It lay there like a massive mountain that was burning blue.
Watching from far away, Lin Huang knew that it was the Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon's last bet.
Naturally, the Nightmare Tapir noticed that too. Although it pretended not to be bothered by its opponent, in reality, it had been careful and dared not underestimate its opponent at all.
The blue flames soon spread towards the Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon's entire body. Meanwhile, the crimson pupils in its four eye sockets were burning the brightest they could, like four crimson mini suns.
"Roar!"
As crimson sparks shot out of its pupils, the Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon lifted its head all of a sudden and released a raging roar that shook heaven and earth.
Chapter 1238: I Chose to Surrender
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Roar!
As the deafening cry came, the blue flames on the Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon's body exploded almost at the same time. Blue sparks spread towards all directions.
The sparks covering hundreds of kilometers in the blink of an eye and was almost 1,000 times faster than the speed of sound.
The blue flames were no ordinary blaze but a Fire God Rule called the Death Flame.
As soon as a life form touched such a god rule, the life energy in one's body would be taken away. One could even say that the power was nothing below true god-level dragon flame.
Naturally, Lin Huang and the Nightmare Tapir had no idea about that.
Although the Nightmare Tapir had its guard up, it did not expect such a thing to happen. Unable to dodge in time at all, it was swallowed by the blue sparks.
Lin Huang, who was watching the battle from far away, was a little surprised to see that. However, he did not seem to be worried.
The Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon did not stop at all since its attack worked. It lifted its head and targeted where the Nightmare Tapir was by sensing with its Territory skill. It then opened its mouth directly and spat crimson dragon flames out. The flames completely engulfed the Nightmare Tapir.
As a ninth-rank True God, even a second-rank or third-rank True God-level powerhouse would be severely harmed by the Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon's attacks that came without warning consecutively.
The Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon thought that even if the Nightmare Tapir did not die in this attack, it would lose his strength fighting after spurting the crimson dragon flames for a couple of minutes. Since it did not have that much Divine Power left in its body, it then stopped the dragon flames.
However, as the flames faded together with the sparks, the Nightmare Tapir stood where it was proudly without being harmed at all.
Seeing the Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon stare at him after the flames faded, it shook his body and lifted its head to look at it with a smirk.
The Nightmare Tapir disappeared again in the next second.
Bang!
Almost the same time when the Nightmare Tapir disappeared, the Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon's gigantic head was flung hard into the ground again.
"Not again…"
All the Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon could feel was pain throbbing from the back of its head followed by intense dizziness. It even suspected that it would have a concussion if it had flesh on its body. Although it did not even have a brain now, it would feel its world spin every time it was attacked.
"Why is this happening?! My attack earlier could've harmed a True God of the same combat strength severely. It took the hit entirely without dodging and it's in perfect shape without having the time to perform any defense techniques!"
It was very confused. It could not understand why its attack that could harm and even kill a true god-level powerhouse did not work on the Virtual God rank-8 monster.
As the Nightmare Tapir took over the battlefield again, the fight turned back to how it began.
The Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon's head was slammed into the ground again and again. As it was restricted by the flow of time, it could not find any chance to fight back at all. In addition to that, it could not think of any techniques to break the cycle.
Seeing that the Divine Power in its body was wearing out and soon coming to an end, the Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon finally made up its mind.
"Stop this! I surrender!"
The Nightmare Tapir finally ceased the attacks as soon as the Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon spoke. It appeared above the Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon's head in a flash and glared at its four crimson pupils without speaking.
The Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon only peeked at the Nightmare Tapir and held its head down. It had given up on trying to attack the Nightmare Tapir.
Seeing that it really surrendered, the Nightmare Tapir deactivated its dreamland and released the Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon from it.
The Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon that escaped the dreamland was shocked to see everything around it in perfect condition. It realized that the battle earlier did not happen in real life.
Sensing the pathetic Divine Power in its body, it quickly realized that although the battle did not happen in reality, the Nightmare Tapir could have killed it. All of a sudden, it was done with thinking of ways to get back at the Nightmare Tapir.
"Summon all the virtual god-level monsters under your territory. There's no need to summon those under virtual god-level," the Nightmare Tapir commanded directly.
Although the Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon was puzzled about why a human below virtual god-level would be standing next to the Nightmare Tapir, it nodded without hesitation and began carrying out his order.
A ferocious dragon roar echoed and the sonic boom spread in all directions like ripples on water.
Soon, virtual god-level monsters that were close by came one after another.
Spirit-type monsters of all forms lay low at the bottom of the massive mountain beneath the Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon. None of them dared to venture any closer.
As time passed by, more and more virtual god-level monsters gathered at the bottom of the mountain. Approximately two hours later, there were more than 1,200 virtual god-level spirit-type monsters at the bottom of the mountain.
The Nightmare Tapir did not bother to wait any longer. It activated its dreamland and drowned more than a thousand virtual god-level spirit-type monsters within it.
All of the spirit-type monsters at the bottom of the mountain became silent as if they fell into a deep sleep.
In less than half a minute, the spirit-type monsters that were laying low lost their vital signs one after another. It took less than ten minutes to kill more than 1,200 virtual god-level spirit-type monsters.
After witnessing that, the Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon that was standing aside jolted secretly. It was even glad that it decided to surrender in time. Otherwise, it might end up the same as these little virtual god-level creatures before it.
A sea of spiritual energy rushed into Lin Huang's body from the death of the over 1,000 virtual god-level monsters. He then transferred a portion of the energy to the Nightmare Tapir immediately.
Since the Nightmare Tapir was breaking through to Virtual God rank-9, it made sense for it to be given the spiritual energy first.
As the aura in his body rose again, the Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon that was watching the scene unfold could not help but gulp.
Not long later, the Nightmare Tapir's spiritual energy finally reached the brink of breaking through. Its aura began transforming into Virtual God rank-9 at a speed that could be seen with the naked eye.
In less than three minutes, its aura finally stabilized completely.
Upon noticing that, Lin Huang stopped transferring spirit energy to the Nightmare Tapir. He began transferring the remaining spiritual energy to the Ninetails Lynx.
"Where to next?" the Nightmare Tapir asked in excitement after allowing the changes that hummed through his body to sink in for a while.
"To the north of the ruin. Let's find that Ice Dragon." Clearly, Lin Huang was planning to take everything in this ruin before leaving.
"Should we bring this thing?" The Nightmare Tapir glared at Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon.
"Of course, we are," Lin Huang said while grinning.
The Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon was a legit true god-level fighter, and it would be a waste to not bring it along.
The Nightmare Tapir then turned its head to look at the Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon. "Shrink your body a little and bring us to the north of this ruin."
Though unwilling, the Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon knew that the situation was not in its favor now. The Nightmare Tapir that was on Virtual God rank-8 earlier had defeated it and now it was a rank higher now.
After shrinking its body to over ten meters tall, the Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon lowered its head, allowing Lin Huang and the Nightmare Tapir to ride on its back.
It flapped its wings and transformed itself into a white glow as it flew to the north of the ruin.
Chapter 1239: Nightmare Tapir VS Ice Dragon
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The Eternity Fire described the Ice Dragon in the northern frozen ocean in detail, "The Ice Dragon in the frozen ocean in the north was a carp that went through evolution twice. There seems to be an extremely faint ancient spirit beast's bloodline in her body. Perhaps because the ruin was affected by me, the purity of her bloodline went through a certain level of boost, causing her to elevate to a True God.
"She's the monster with the most powerful ability in this ruin. Although she has the same combat strength as the Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon whereby they're both first-rank True Gods, her ability is much stronger. Furthermore, the frozen ocean is her territory.
"Within hundreds of kilometers around her, almost no life form below virtual god-level can get close to her. Those who have low combat strength will be turned into ice sculptures within a few seconds as soon as they get closer."
Although the Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon could not hear the conversation between Lin Huang and the Eternity Fire, it could not help but finally speak when they approached the frozen ocean in the north, "The Ice Dragon has lived deep in the frozen ocean for a long time. She has pretty amazing abilities and the frozen ocean is her territory. I fought her before, but I didn't get anything out of her."
Despite the Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon's indifferent admission, in reality, Lin Huang and the Nightmare Tapir could tell that it must have lost really badly. According to what the Eternity Fire said, the Ice Dragon was also on virtual god-level when it was released into this ruin. The intensity of her consciousness and spirit were way above the Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon's. Furthermore, overall, she had a more powerful ability and the frozen ocean was her territory. One could imagine what happened to the Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon for finding fault with her.
"But she won't be able to do anything if the Boss, the Nightmare Tapir, were to fight her." The Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon peeked at the Nightmare Tapir carefully. It was secretly anticipating to see how the Ice Dragon would look like after the Nightmare Tapir defeated her.
They finally arrived at the frozen ocean when it was past six in the morning, and the sky had just turned bright in the ruin.
Looking from above, the frozen ocean was black. It was so deep that they could not see the bottom.
However, the surface of the ocean was peaceful, appearing more like a lake.
Before Lin Huang could speak, the Nightmare Tapir hopped off the Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon's back.
In the next second, the pupils of the Nightmare Tapir that was standing in mid-air proudly turned pitch-black. At that moment, the frozen ocean at dawn seemed deathly silent as night fell.
The Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon was worried that it might be affected by the battle impact, so it flapped its wings and retreated a distance away.
Meanwhile, Lin Huang, who was riding on its back, got the Nightmare Tapir's help to get into the dreamland quietly again, so he became a member of the audience now.
Lin Huang noticed that everything before him was different as soon as he entered the dreamland.
Earlier, they were above the frozen ocean, but now, he dove into the ocean with the Nightmare Tapir.
Piercing cold sent a jolting shock through his body. Although he was protected by the dreamland, Lin Huang clearly felt that the cold surpassed the limit his real body could take.
"There're no monsters below virtual god-level that can approach her within hundreds of kilometers. The Eternity Fire wasn't exaggerating," Lin Huang could not help but exclaim secretly, "This is done by the Element God Rule against the material world. It's unbearable even though the god rule only affects the areas close to her."
Meanwhile, the Nightmare Tapir dove to the bottom of the ocean quickly as if it was not affected at all.
Lin Huang went after it immediately.
Nobody knew how long they swam for. Lin Huang finally caught up with the Nightmare Tapir at the bottom of the ocean. It was then that he finally saw the legendary Ice Dragon.
It was a dragon whose body seemed to be made of ice and snow. It looked like an ice sculpture but was also like a flawless jade sculpture. It was much smaller than the Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon.
Lin Huang might have thought she was really a sculpture if the Ice Dragon did not observe the Nightmare Tapir curiously after noticing him.
After studying each other for a while, the Ice Dragon took the initiative to speak.
"You came with that skeleton dragon, am I right? So, did he send his underling to hell because he's a coward himself?"
Clearly, the Ice Dragon misunderstood the Nightmare Tapir's intention. She could tell that the Nightmare Tapir's combat strength was only Virtual God rank-9. Furthermore, she sensed the Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon's aura earlier from far away and found out that they came together. Naturally, they thought the Nightmare Tapir was Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon's underling.
"I'm not his underling. On the contrary, he's considered my underling now," the Nightmare Tapir explained with a grin.
Clearly, its answer was beyond the Ice Dragon's expectation. She could not help but be stunned when she heard its explanation. She subsequently guffawed.
"Do you think I'll believe that? You're only on Virtual God rank-9 while he's already on true god-level, though he's the weaker one among the true god-levels. Tell me whatever he asked you to say. Stop beating around the bush and fooling yourself."
"Indeed, that big guy has a higher ability than I do, but I suppressed him. He would've been dead if he didn't yield, so he became my underling," the Nightmare Tapir gave a simple explanation and proceeded to speak, "I'll give you two options now. Surrender or die. Pick one."
The Ice Dragon finally looked serious now after hearing what the Nightmare Tapir said.
Initially, the Nightmare Tapir was nothing to her. Although Virtual God rank-9 was only a step away from true god-level, the difference was like heaven and earth. All True Gods mastered the god rule; that alone defeated virtual god-level powerhouses. However, now that the Nightmare Tapir said it had defeated the Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon, it did not seem like it made it up. That proved that the Nightmare Tapir should have some special techniques to fight god rules or even master god rules in advance.
The will to kill flashed through the Ice Dragon's eyes as thoughts raced through her head.
In the next second, she opened her mouth directly while white frost rushed out like a river towards where the Nightmare Tapir was.
She even ignored the options that the Nightmare Tapir gave and attacked without hesitation after confirming his intention. She was very decisive!
The spreading of the white frost was up to 1,000 times faster than the speed of sound. It drowned the Nightmare Tapir almost immediately.
The Ice Dragon was relieved to see that her attack drowned the space where the Nightmare Tapir was while it did not seem to manage to escape. However, she was not so naive to think that she had defeated her opponent just like that. Since the Nightmare Tapir managed to defeat the Crimson-Eyed Skeleton Dragon, it proved that it had a terrifying ability, so such an attack should not be able to kill it.
The Ice Dragon glared dangerously at where the Nightmare Tapir stood earlier and retreated quickly, intending to pull a distance away. After all, she was an expert in mastering the Ice Element but not close-range combat.
However, a voice came above her head just when she was going to move. "Retreating a distance away? Wise choice."
The Ice Dragon jolted and lifted her head to see where the voice came from immediately. The Nightmare Tapir appeared less than 100 meters above her head, leering at her in mockery.
Although she had many questions in her head, the Ice Dragon did not waste any time to ask. Instead, she flapped her wings directly and began the second round of attack.
Countless iced crystal blades appeared in the air as she flapped her wings. They went after the Nightmare Tapir like a storm.
'I don't believe you can dodge this!' growled the Ice Dragon to herself. She decided to perform a distanced attack on purpose to see how exactly the Nightmare Tapir managed to escape her attack earlier.
However, she did not see the Nightmare Tapir dodging at all this time as well.
After the barrage of crystal blades ended, the Ice Dragon glared where the Nightmare Tapir was, attempting to see what its deal was. However, a voice came from behind this time. "Why are you staring over there?"
The voice came from right behind her. Whipping her head around, the Ice Dragon had no idea when the Nightmare Tapir got behind her so quietly.
At that very moment, the Ice Dragon seemed to have realized something all of a sudden. She squinted a little. "So, it's teleportation!"
Chapter 1240: The Power of Slaps
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
In the beginning, the Ice Dragon was curious about how the Nightmare Tapir dodged her attack. After attacking in a testing manner twice, she finally realized the technique the Nightmare Tapir was using.
The Ice Dragon held her head high and looked at the Nightmare Tapir that was beneath her while revealing an expression as if she was winning the battle. "I might be afraid of you if you mastered the Space God Rule, but it's unfortunate that you're only a Virtual God. No matter how powerful your divine ability is, it's not a god rule after all."
The Ice Dragon spread her wings wide as she spoke. In the blink of an eye, she looked like she had turned into an ice sculpture that had existed for tens of thousands of years. A frigid chill was spreading towards all directions.
Compared to the chill that came naturally, this bitter cold clearly contained a god rule.
Even the seawater that would not normally freeze at zero degrees Celsius finally broke its limit at that moment as it began to freeze.
The seawater froze at a speed that was 1,000 times faster than the speed of sound. It swelled to the Nightmare Tapir immediately, so it was frozen into a perfect ice sculpture as if it could not fight it.
Seeing that the Nightmare Tapir was frozen, the Ice Dragon descended to the same level as he was. She was moving freely in the ice crystal like how she had been moving in the ocean earlier.
"Since you're using the Space Rule, I'll freeze the space then. Let's see how you're going to escape this now!" The Ice Dragon stared at the frozen Nightmare Tapir with a smirk.
However, before she could do anything else, a soft cracking came all of a sudden. Almost at the same time, Lin Huang saw the ice crystals around the Nightmare Tapir's body begin cracking.
Never had the Ice Dragon thought that the Nightmare Tapir could break her god rule when he was only a Virtual God. One must know that a god rule was a Rule Bending Power, so it definitely surpassed most divine abilities and skills. The difference between the two was almost like a mountain and a rock. Just like an ordinary person, he could carry rocks of a certain weight with both his arms, but it was impossible for him to carry a mountain.
At the moment, the act of the Nightmare Tapir breaking the ice crystals was almost the equivalent to a person moving a mountain.
As the Ice Dragon was still in shock, the ice around the Nightmare Tapir's body began to break, crushing into bits almost immediately. Even the entire frozen space was cracking and disintegrating to a greater degree.
It only took the Nightmare Tapir a mere flash to get out of the frozen space. Right after that, he slapped the frozen space that had yet to completely collapse in front of the Ice Dragon.
That slap clearly possessed the Destructive Divine Mammoth's Superhuman Strength. An intense bang exploded from the slap, and subsequently, the entire frozen space collapsed like an avalanche.
Witnessing that, the Ice Dragon finally found out how the Nightmare Tapir got out of her Ice God Rule. It was through pure brute strength.
Upon realizing that, the Ice Dragon was not sure whether to laugh or cry. The battle earlier made her think that the Nightmare Tapir was an expert at speed. However, it looked like it was also an expert in strength. Its strength was so great that it was terrifying.
'This guy doesn't seem to have any shortcomings at all. Even the Ice God Rule can't contain him! What do I do now?' the Ice Dragon thought to herself. Initially, she thought she could defeat the Nightmare Tapir by possessing the Ice God Rule. She assumed that it was a sure win. However, now that her trump card was destroyed, she had no idea how to defeat her opponent now.
"Your most powerful Ice God Rule can't defeat me. You're not my match when it comes to close combat either." The Nightmare Tapir did not rush to fight back. Instead, it was advising the Ice Dragon with a grin, "Just surrender. At least, your skin will suffer less if you surrender now."
"You wish!" the Ice Dragon rejected directly without even giving it a thought.
Before the Nightmare Tapir could speak, the icy wings on her back spread open again. Her body turned into a chilly hell once more, freezing everything around her.
Once again, the Nightmare Tapir was frozen into an ice sculpture.
However, the Ice Dragon did not stop after freezing the Nightmare Tapir this time. Instead, she proceeded to charge the Ice God Rule to freeze him in more layers. She only stopped the layering a little unwillingly when she had drained more than half of the Divine Power in her body.
"Let's see how you're going to get out now!" the Ice Dragon recalled her wings and shouted at the frozen Nightmare Tapir in rage. She then glared dangerously at the ice crystal where the Nightmare Tapir was frozen.
Time passed by. Just when the Ice Dragon was secretly relieved that there was no commotion coming from the Nightmare Tapir, a light crack was heard.
The Ice Dragon widened her eyes when she saw a crack on the ice crystal that the Nightmare Tapir was wrapped within again.
The crack was only as thick as a hair in the beginning and less than a centimeter long. However, in a heartbeat, there were up to a hundred cracks like spider webs. Some of them were as thick as fingers while some were a few meters long.
Almost in the next second that the first crack was formed, the ice crystal around the Nightmare Tapir fell completely as it made it out of the ice again. It appeared not far before the Ice Dragon directly in a flash from the frozen space and taunted her with a smile.
"I've told you that it's futile no matter how many times you try. After all, you're only a first-rank True God whereby your god rule is limited. Even if you charge all the god rules you have in your body, the most you can do is to trap me for a few seconds more. It's useless.
"Perhaps you could really hurt me if you combined this technique with a powerful attack skill. Unfortunately, your most powerful attack technique is an Ice Element, so you can't break through my defense at all."
The Ice Dragon knew very well that the Nightmare Tapir was right. Her biggest weakness was that she lacked a powerful attack technique.
She could restrict someone by freezing them and attacking them with elemental divine skill if she encountered an ordinary opponent. The combination of controlling and attacking was a great technique. However, she could not even show a tenth of her upper hand when encountering the Nightmare Tapir who was an expert at resisting elemental divine skills.
"I'm going to give you one last chance: surrender now or surrender later when I beat you up. It's your choice." Nobody knew whether the Nightmare Tapir was showing sympathy or had some other reason for changing his options from surrendering or dying to just surrendering.
Just when Lin Huang was puzzled, the Nightmare Tapir's voice transmission came into his ears. "This Ice Dragon's inherited memory is rather special. She might have a bloodline that's even more powerful than what you see on the surface. You can try training her."
Lin Huang came to a realization when he heard that. It turned out the Nightmare Tapir had retrieved a part of Ice Dragon's memory. That was the reason why he changed the options, he was not showing sympathy at all.
Meanwhile, the stubborn Ice Dragon on the other side chose to fight further.
However, what she received was the Nightmare Tapir's merciless slaps.
The slaps that went on one after another was like a cat playing with a ball. It was having so much fun. Half an hour later, the Divine Power in the Ice Dragon's body was finally drained completely. She lay dying in a sinkhole under the ocean, unable to even get up.
The Ice Dragon then finally made the correct decision.
"I surrender…"