Chapter 1490: New Identity—Huang Mu
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
To help Kylie make a further breakthrough to Pure Spirit rank-6, it was imperative that Lin Huang made a trip to the secret territory.
The only thing was, Lin Huang had previously entered the Great Heaven Territory under the identity of Xie Lin. In the end, although he had faked his death and not teleported out, many organizations in the God Territory had guessed that it was not that he had not teleported out—instead he had obtained the inheritance of the Great Heaven Territory and hidden himself.
Although this matter had occurred nearly a year ago, there were still many powerhouses in the God Territory who were looking for Xie Lin, hoping to seize the Great Heaven inheritance.
Therefore, Xie Lin's identity could no longer be used, at least not openly.
After reading through the information that Bloody had provided, Lin Huang deliberated for a moment before using his communicator to dial a number.
The busy tone had not even rung halfway before the communicator connected, and a male voice came from the other end.
"Xie Lin?!"
"Senior Buried Heaven, I need your help with something," Lin Huang skipped the pleasantries and asked immediately.
"Go ahead." Buried Heaven did not hesitate.
"I want a pass to enter God Capital's secret territory next month," Lin Huang cut straight to the chase.
"It's not difficult for me to help you get a pass. However, you should know that if you're recognized, even Death Sickle can't protect you," Buried Heaven answered just as bluntly.
Lin Huang had previously chosen not to accept Death Sickle's protection, instead opting to disappear straight away after obtaining the Great Heaven inheritance—something which had caused great dissatisfaction among the upper tiers of Death Sickle.
If Lin Huang's identity was exposed during this trial, it was impossible for Death Sickle to come forward and take the pressure for him unless he was willing to give up the Great Heaven inheritance. However, Buried Heaven also knew that Lin Huang would never do that.
"I know that. I'll change my name, and I'll also change my combat style. Moreover, my combat strength has already evolved to true god-level, so people shouldn't make the connection with Xie Lin."
"Since you're set on requesting this, I'll help you apply for a pass then." Buried Heaven did not waste any more words. "Find a branch of Death Sickle on your own and apply for it using a new identity, then tell me your new name, and that will do. After that, I'll send the invitation letter directly to you."
After ending the call with Buried Heaven, Lin Huang immediately dialed Yang Ling's number.
Strangely, the communicator showed the notification, "The number you have dialed is not in service."
Lin Huang frowned slightly. Just as he was about to try calling again, there was an incoming call from an unfamiliar number.
He immediately connected the call.
"Come straight to the point." The voice was clearly Yang Ling's.
"Why has your number gone out of service?" Lin Huang asked in surprise.
"I've encountered a small problem." Yang Ling seemed reluctant to say more. "Whatever it is you need, tell me quickly."
After hesitating for a moment, Lin Huang decided not to probe any further. He immediately told Yang Ling what he needed, "I want a fake identity in the God Territory, one that I can use to register with Death Sickle."
"I'll help you make several this time then, "Yang Ling said straightforwardly, "Just send me the pictures and personal information after disguising yourself—that will do. Also, for the time being, don't contact me if it isn't urgent."
Hearing Yang Ling say this, Lin Huang realized that the problem his friend was facing might not be a small matter.
"Is there anything I can help with?"
Yang Ling fell silent for a moment before answering in a low voice, "It's possible that I'm being watched by the Raiders…There's nothing much you can help with. Just make sure you don't get exposed."
After saying this, he paused but did not hang up. He seemed to hesitate for a little while before continuing, "If something really does happen to me, help me take care of Hong Zhuang."
Hearing these words, Lin Huang blinked in surprise. He recovered himself and was about to ask about Hong Zhuang, but Yang Ling had already ended the call from his end.
'Don't tell me this boy has really developed feelings for Hong Zhuang…'
Whether it was in terms of physique or looks, Hong Zhuang was a top-notch beauty. However, her character and way of doing things had always made Lin Huang keep his distance, despite admiring her.
Even if he was certain now that his abilities had far surpassed Hong Zhuang's own, he was still somewhat wary of this woman.
Looking at the state Yang Ling was in currently, he really felt that this woman's methods were terrifying.
Shaking his head, Lin Huang temporarily set aside the matter of Yang Ling and Hong Zhuang. He put on Thousand Face, disguised himself with several different appearances, and took a few ID photos of himself.
After that, he simply set up the identities for his various new looks and sent the photos to Yang Ling, as well as the identity set-ups.
A moment later, Yang Ling replied with a message.
"In three days, you can go collect them at the front desk of the illegal hotel."
Lin Huang was startled. He had forgotten to tell Yang Ling earlier which planet he was on. Even the hotel he had checked into was an illegally-run hotel that did not require ID verification, but clearly, Yang Ling already knew where he was.
To avoid missing the package that Yang Ling would be sending over, Lin Huang did not go into closed-door cultivation in the days that followed. Instead, he sat cross-legged in the hotel lounge with his eyes closed, cultivating Seamless.
Lin Huang did not know if it was because he had evolved to true god-level, but he noticed that his cultivation of Seamless was more than ten times faster than before.
Since his advancement to the seventh level of Seamless, in the past, the rate by which the length of his telekinetic threads increased was around 200 per hour. Now, however, the number surged to 3000 per hour.
In just the space of one day, the number of his telekinetic threads had exceeded 300,000, and his cultivation of Seamless also advanced to the eighth level.
After that, his cultivation speed for Seamless reduced slightly, but he could still condense 2000 telekinetic threads in an hour.
Three days went by, just like that. After having breakfast early in the morning, Lin Huang retrieved Yang Ling's package from the front desk.
Upon opening it, inside he found four identity rings, each of them slightly different in shape and form.
He tried each of them on and checked them over, making sure that there were no problems before putting three of them away and wearing the remaining one. After that, he headed straight for the outpost of the Death Sickle branch.
After ten minutes or so, he once more obtained the status of a reserve member of Death Sickle.
"Name: Huang Mu"
"Tribe: Unknown"
"Combat Level: Ninth-rank True God"
"Cultivation: Psychic"
…
"As long as I use enough disguises, no one will know who I really am!" Lin Huang grinned.
For this name, he used half of Lin and half of Huang, then reversed the two.1
Not knowing one's tribe was a common occurrence in the God Territory. There were many tribes in the God Territory, and many children were orphaned after birth, not knowing which tribe they belonged to.
For his combat level, Lin Huang disguised himself as a ninth-rank True God to avoid drawing unwanted attention if he advanced too quickly when the time came.
As for his cultivation path, since everyone knew he was a sword cultivator when he was in the Great Heaven Territory previously, he most definitely could not use swords openly. Otherwise, it was inevitable that people would suspect that he was somehow connected to Xie Lin, who had obtained the Great Heaven inheritance. Additionally, an occupation like Imperial Censor was extremely rare in the God Territory, so he could only choose to be a psychic.
Lin Huang made a copy of this identity information and forwarded it to Buried Heaven.
About half an hour later, Buried Heaven sent the invitation letter over directly, without saying a single word.
However, Lin Huang still replied with a "Thank you!"
Now that he had the invitation letter to God Capital's secret territory, Lin Huang felt like a burden had been lifted off his shoulders.
He went downstairs to check out of his room, then returned to the Great Heaven Palace straight away.
After setting a reminder for his departure date, Lin Huang crushed a Time Cabin Card and stepped into it, once again going into closed-door cultivation.
Chapter 1491: Sword Dao Heavenly Rule-level!
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Sitting cross-legged in the Time Cabin, Lin Huang cultivated Seamless this round.
After all, since he wanted to appear as a psychic, he intended to make use of this period—just over a month—to strengthen his Divine Telekinesis so he could face the upcoming trip to the secret territory.
After his cultivation of Seamless advanced to the eighth level, the speed by which his telekinetic threads lengthened had reduced to 2000 per hour. However, in comparison to before his elevation to true god-level, this speed was already a lot higher.
His past three days of cultivation had already allowed his telekinetic threads to surge to 370,000.
Now that he had entered the Time Cabin, he did not have a minute to lose. He even completely disregarded his times for eating, drinking, and sleeping, devoting himself entirely to cultivating Seamless.
The telekinetic threads increased at a rate of 48,000 every day.
In just thirteen days, the number surged to one million, elevating him to a new level of Seamless—the ninth level!
At this point, the speed at which Lin Huang's telekinetic threads lengthened dropped once again to 1000 per hour.
Despite this, Lin Huang did not stop cultivating.
The daily speed at which his telekinetic threads lengthened was maintained at 24,000.
In the Time Cabin, time passed day by day.
It took Lin Huang less than eighty-four days for his telekinetic threads to surge to three million, and he finally made another breakthrough in his cultivation of Seamless, reaching the legendary tenth level.
At this point, Seamless, which Lin Huang had obtained from Qi Muxiong, had reached the end of its cultivation process.
As a matter of fact, when Qi Muxiong derived the ten levels of Seamless back in the day, he himself had only cultivated it till the ninth level. He did not know what the tenth level was like.
However, at this moment, Lin Huang's impression of this level was deeply profound.
He could clearly sense that after reaching the tenth level, his Divine Telekinesis seemed to possess the ability to split itself; he did not need the guidance of his consciousness at all for him to put Seamless into use.
Even the speed at which his telekinetic threads were lengthening had not slowed down in the least, maintaining a rate of 1000 per hour.
Based on this kind of speed, Lin Huang estimated that the number of his telekinetic threads would automatically exceed ten million within a year.
His cultivation of Seamless had entered autopilot mode, and Lin Huang was extremely pleased to see this.
If this were the case, as long as no problems arose, he could allow Seamless to cultivate on autopilot mode completely, and he could devote his time and energy to other matters. He only needed to check on it from time to time.
After coming out from the automatic cultivation state of Seamless, Lin Huang crushed another Time Cabin Card, extending the time to one hundred days.
After scrutinizing the autopilot mode of Seamless for several minutes and ensuring that there were no issues, only then did he shift his attention toward his Sword Dao.
Although his disguise in the God Territory this time did not allow him to openly use swords, Sword Dao was his main cultivation path. Since he had extra time, the first thing he thought of, naturally, was upgrading his Sword Dao.
Immersing his consciousness into Great Heaven's inheritance memory, Lin Huang rapidly began learning even more sword skills.
He did not know whether it was because of his elevation to true god-level, or because his cultivation of Seamless had caused his Divine Telekinesis to strengthen greatly—or even perhaps because his Sword Dao had evolved to True Self Level, or because of some other reason… Lin Huang now realized that his speed of learning for sword skills was astronomically faster than before.
Originally, at most, he could only learn around 350 types of mythical-level sword skills in a day. However, he basically only needed a single glance to learn a new skill now. This was because, with one look, his mind could automatically deduce the workings of the entire sword skill, even to where he could automatically correct and modify the original skill itself.
Within the mere space of a day, he learned more than eighty thousand mythical-level sword skills—practically almost one skill every second.
He only used less than nine days to increase the original number of sword skills he had mastered from three hundred thousand to more than a million.
Although the number of sword skills he mastered had exceeded one million, Lin Huang still could not manage a further breakthrough to reach Sword Dao heavenly rule-level.
He was not bothered by this, merely glancing at the number of sword skills he had mastered before shifting his attention to even higher-level sword skills—supreme god-level sword skills!
His learning speed for supreme god-level sword skills reduced visibly, and he only mastered around one thousand five hundred skills in an entire day.
Lin Huang had few complaints about this kind of learning speed. After all, these were supreme god-level sword skills that contained rules.
It was difficult for ordinary True Gods to master hundreds of sword skills, even if they specialized in sword cultivation.
However, he could learn thousands of sword skills in a day.
He closed his eyes and meditated, flipping through these sword skills in his mind while simultaneously running through implied simulations with them in his head.
The number of supreme god-level sword skills he mastered kept increasing as well.
Inside the Time Cabin, two months passed by in the blink of an eye.
The number of supreme god-level sword skills Lin Huang had mastered finally broke through to the one hundred thousand mark.
At that very moment, it was as if he had pierced through a barrier in his mind. In an instant, he had an even clearer perspective of Sword Dao.
Within him, the True Self Level of his Sword Dao true meaning was shattering inch by inch, transforming and condensing into a force of will similar to the world will of the gravel world.
At this point, the Sword Soul within Lin Huang's body opened its eyes and roared, its body expanding at a rate that was visible to the naked eye.
After breaking through to True Self Level, the Sword Soul had originally been almost exactly the same in height and form as Lin Huang, but now it expanded into a towering giant within a mere few seconds. The blood-red battle sword in the giant's hands also grew larger.
On the massive blade, the golden seal tactics lit up once again, and the living creature-like golden patterns began undergoing minuscule changes that were visible to the naked eye. A moment later, the golden glow on the sword blade gradually faded away. The seal tactics slowly re-emerged on both sides of the sword hilt in relief form. Although they were similar to the ones before, they had visibly become more complicated.
Lin Huang tried to look at the seal tactics again, but he still became dizzy and immediately withdrew his gaze.
"Is this Sword Dao heavenly rule-level?!"
After sensing the changes in himself, Lin Huang could clearly feel that his Sword Dao had strengthened countless times over.
He felt that he would be invincible as long as he had a sword in hand.
However, he also knew that this was a normal illusion.
There were three levels of Sword Dao heavenly rule, namely Heavenly Sword, Heavenly Heart, and Heavenly Dao.
What was regarded as Heavenly Dao-level was an invincible level where there could be only one sword to conquer all.
Of course, one was not truly invincible, but this was the state of mind at this level.
Once they had reached Sword Dao heavenly rule-level, sword cultivators would automatically condense sword force.
In this world, sword force was not an illusory thing such as described in novels, but a type of substantive power derived from spiritual-layer oppressive power. More precisely, it was a spiritual-layer attack technique derived from Sword Dao.
Sword cultivators at heavenly rule-level only needed to release their sword force without even lifting a finger, and this was enough to severely injure several true god-level powerhouses whose soul strength was weaker.
To put it another way, Sword Dao heavenly rule was actually a type of god sequence chain, but a more unique one.
Its level divisions were completely different from that of god sequence chains. Besides having power similar to that of god sequence chains, it also possessed many characteristics of the sword itself…
After sensing the Sword Dao changes within him, Lin Huang glanced at the time remaining in the Time Cabin. There were 27 days left.
He did not intend to waste this time and continued to sit cross-legged with his eyes closed, learning more sword skills and strengthening his newly-evolved Sword Dao heavenly rule.
Now that he had advanced to Sword Dao heavenly rule-level, he also became aware that his sword skill cultivation speed had increased. Based on the time he took to learn a sword skill, he roughly estimated that the one thousand five hundred supreme god-level sword skills he could initially learn in a day had now skyrocketed to thirty thousand a day…
He was even able to vaguely comprehend some of the Holy sword skills that he had initially been completely unable to understand.
Chapter 1492: Whenever He Had An Idle Moment, He Would Snack On Something
After advancing to Sword Dao heavenly rule-level, Lin Huang used four days' worth of time to learn a further one hundred and twenty thousand supreme god-level sword skills. Next, he spent another day fully mastering and consolidating all the sword skill inheritances below supreme god-level that he had obtained.
Only then did he start shifting his focus toward a Holy sword skill in Great Heaven's inheritance memory…
Twenty-two days later, the Time Cabin transformed into glimmers of starlight that dissipated, but Lin Huang still sat cross-legged in the same spot, continuing to derive that specific Holy sword skill…
For the next twenty days or so, he remained seated in this position on the floor of the Great Heaven Palace and did not move an inch, as if he had turned into a stone sculpture.
He did not use a Time Cabin Card any further—instead, he continued deriving at the normal speed of time.
It was not until three days before the opening of the secret territory that Lin Huang finally opened his eyes.
He exhaled a long breath. "At least I've gotten that seen to before going into the secret territory!"
Li Huang was not referring to the cultivation of his Holy sword skill. He had actually used less than a week to derive and cultivate it successfully.
Since then, he had been reading through thousands of Holy sword skills stored in Great Heaven's inheritance memory. He did not cultivate these sword skills, however—instead, he specifically searched for methods of using Sword Dao heavenly rule that were contained within the skills. Then, he did a round of practice and inference in his mind, which was why he had used up more than half a month on this.
Glancing at the time and noting that there were still three days left before the secret territory opened, Lin Huang then rose immediately and opened the doors to step outside.
"Lord Swordmaster!" Sensing Lin Huang's aura, astonishment flashed through Sword1's eyes. As a powerful sword cultivator, he could clearly feel that Lin Huang's Sword Dao had already broken through to heavenly rule-level.
He was instantly shocked—the swordmaster had only been in closed-door cultivation for over a month, and his abilities had already undergone such terrifying improvement!
Lin Huang paid no attention to Sword1's astonishment and merely greeted him, before teleporting himself straight out of the Great Heaven Territory.
After putting on Thousand Face and a new identity ring, Lin Huang transformed himself into Huang Mu.
At present, he appeared to be around twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old. He now had a beard; he also wore black robes and had long hair, giving off a dispirited vibe.
Wearing a hood gave him a somewhat treacherous air.
His manner was completely different from that of Lin Huang himself, as well as the previous Xie Lin.
He felt sure that no one would be able to make the connection between this identity and Xie Lin.
Prior to entering the secret territory, he did not need to prepare anything.
His weapons, armor, and other equipment were God Weapons that possessed the potential for growth. When he evolved to true god-level, they had automatically transformed to Rank-3 and were comparable to top-notch god sequence relics.
He could use them to fight beginner or intermediate-stage Heavenly Gods; furthermore, the highest combat strength allowed into the secret territory was only ninth-rank true god-level.
However, he still made a trip to the marketplace in Devil Hunter Star Zone to see if he might be able to pick up any treasures there, but his main purpose was to buy some food.
Actually, true god-level powerhouses were able to survive in a vacuum, and for a long time as well. The ones who had mastered Light Rule were even able to rely on reflected light from planets; they did not require direct light from stars. With just this, they could survive till the end of their lives.
Lin Huang had stopped needing food or water a while back, but he still maintained his original eating habits.
Although he could not really be counted as a true gourmet, he could genuinely be considered an epicure.
At present, eating had turned from a necessity into a sort of hobby.
Whenever he had an idle moment, he would snack on something. After all, he would not get fat.
Lin Huang spent one day strolling around Devil Hunter Star Zone. Apart from buying some food, he did not really find anything else of note, so he made a detour directly to the assembly point that Buried Heaven had mentioned—the Undead Shelter.
The Undead Shelter was a grade-6 shelter, which was also the headquarters of a grade-6 organization known as Undead.
Although Undead was one of the more ordinary grade-6 organizations, it had a good relationship with many grade-5, grade-6, and grade-7 organizations. Many major organizations had established their own branches at the Undead Shelter.
Death Sickle also had a branch here, and the Undead branch was one of the three largest branches apart from Death Sickle's headquarters itself.
Besides the dozen or so grade-6 organizations, including Death Sickle, the three major grade-7 organizations—Divine Clapnet, Precious Treasure Pavilion, and the Combat God Temple—had also established branches here.
In addition, the Undead Shelter's extremely prosperous service industry and its excellent customer service had rapidly led to it becoming one of the top grade-6 shelters.
Even heavenly god-level powerhouses frequently appeared here as well—numerous ones, in fact.
Upon arriving at the Undead Shelter, the first thing Lin Huang did was not to look for a hotel but to stroll around the various marketplaces.
After visiting Precious Treasure Pavilion's marketplace, Lin Huang went on to visit several small marketplaces until nightfall, then went to look around the black market.
In the end, he remained empty-handed.
It was not that there was a lack of good items. Lin Huang saw a great many excellent items but did not make a bid for them.
On one hand, they were non-essential items.
In the section for weapons, armor, and the like, there were excellent god sequence relics. Lin Huang even saw two sets of telekinetic weapons that tempted him slightly. However, the problem was that he currently already had God Weapons and no longer needed these things.
On the other hand, he did not see any hidden treasures that might interest him.
Whether at the marketplace or the black market, all the good items he saw were priced appropriately. As for the cheap bargains, using his keen eye and the strength of his Divine Telekinesis, he did not find very much that was good among them.
Perhaps there might have been good items there earlier, but they could have already been snapped up by others.
He strolled around the marketplace for the entire day. By the time he left the black market, it was already past nine o'clock at night.
Lin Huang had great difficulty before finally managing to book a good hotel. By the time he checked in, it was nearly ten-thirty.
He stayed at the Undead Shelter for a night. Only after having his breakfast the next day did Lin Huang set out unhurriedly for the Death Sickle branch.
Upon arriving at his destination, Lin Huang walked straight into the first-floor conference room.
This was the assembly point that Buried Heaven had arranged.
As he entered the conference room, Lin Huang discovered that there were people present already.
There were even many familiar faces.
As both Virtual Gods and True Gods were able to enter the secret territory, Fallen Star, Destiny, and Twin were all on the invitation list as well.
In addition to the three people he knew, Lin Huang also recognized Virtuoso, who was ranked first on the White Sickle Leaderboard.
They looked the same as before, wearing black robes that enveloped their entire body and a white mask on their face.
As soon as Lin Huang pushed the door open and walked in, everybody's gaze shifted to him.
This was because those who had received an invitation letter from Death Sickle were practically the strongest powerhouses on the Black Sickle and White Sickle Leaderboards, so everyone was acquainted with each other.
As for Lin Huang, everyone present was completely unfamiliar with his face and could not remember when such a fellow had joined Death Sickle.
Under normal circumstances, Lin Huang would have definitely taken the initiative to go and greet everyone. However, his current identity set-up was that of a dispirited youngster who was not interested in anything. He merely glanced at the others, walked straight to a front-row seat away from the rest, and sat down by himself.
Behind, he could hear several people gossiping about him, but he chose to ignore them.
"This guy must be new, right? I don't think I've seen him on the ranking list."
"His aura isn't weak. He's a ninth-rank True God, but I don't know how strong his abilities are."
"Is that new guy so snobbish that he won't even come and say hello?"
However, what Lin Huang did not notice was that as everyone else was busy discussing among themselves, Virtuoso kept staring at his back, gaze unwavering…
Chapter 1493: Are You Sure You Want Me to Remove My Mask?
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
At eight o'clock sharp in the morning, Buried Heaven arrived promptly.
In the presence of the members of Death Sickle's inner circle, he revealed himself using his original appearance—a white-haired young man, less than 1.6 meters tall.
As soon as he entered the room, he saw Lin Huang sitting in the first row, seemingly not getting along with everyone else.
At the sight of Lin Huang, he was taken aback for a moment. Although he was not a sword cultivator, he was a well-known figure who was among the top-tier Heavenly Gods, and he could clearly sense that Lin Huang's Sword Dao had broken through to heavenly rule-level.
Looking away from Lin Huang discreetly, he glanced at the other people sitting at the back. When he saw the expressions on their faces, he immediately understood what was happening.
He said to Lin Huang, "Newcomer, why don't you briefly introduce yourself?"
Lin Huang nodded. He stood up, turned to look at the people behind him, and took off his hood. "I'm Xiu Mu, and I've just recently joined Death Sickle. I'll be in your care."
Huang Mu was the real name of this identity, while Xiu Mu was the code name that he had applied for in Death Sickle.
After this simple introduction, Lin Huang turned around and sat back down again.
Buried Heaven raised his brows at Lin Huang's brevity; he guessed that Lin Huang was probably putting on an act.
The others in the conference room were rather dissatisfied with this, however.
"This fellow is saying that he'll be in our care, but there's nothing in his expression or his attitude that makes it seem like he needs our care, is there?"
"What a terrible personality this fellow has!"
"He sure has some balls, acting so arrogant even in front of Senior Buried Heaven!"
Naturally, Lin Huang heard these grumblings, but he could not be bothered to respond to them.
The corners of Buried Heaven's lips quirked up slightly. Conversely, he found Lin Huang's role-playing very amusing.
"Alright, since everyone else already knows each other, there's no need for further introductions.
"Everyone's already here, so we'll head out now."
As soon as he said that, Buried Heaven shook the cuff of his sleeve, and a green-colored snake as thick as a pinky finger shot out, landing on the conference table.
The little snake merely opened its mouth slightly, and Lin Huang, along with the other six people, rapidly shrank in size, turning into tiny particles that were swallowed up by the tiny snake.
After swallowing the seven of them, the little black snake transformed into a python, and in a flash, Buried Heaven stepped up on top of its head.
The next instant, a black whirlpool appeared out of nowhere, and the black python slid into it, bringing Buried Heaven along.
A moment of dizziness and darkness later, when Lin Huang and the others were spat out by the python, they found themselves already in an expanse of void.
Lin Huang looked around. Buried Heaven—who was standing to one side—had long since changed his appearance into that of a muscular man who was more than two meters tall.
The six people who had been in the conference room previously were all present as well.
In addition to the few participants from Death Sickle, more than a dozen organizations had also arrived, each forming a small group. The number of people was quite small.
Lin Huang even saw two grade-7 organizations that had sent only ten people—five Virtual Gods and five True Gods, no less.
Just when Lin Huang was wondering if this secret territory had a limit for the number of participants, Destiny could not help speaking up from where he was standing to one side.
"Master Buried Heaven, even the grade-7 organizations have sent so few people. Is this because the secret territory has a limit on the number of participants?"
"That's not the reason." Before Buried Heaven could even open his mouth, a True God beside them spoke up, "It's because the hunts in this secret territory hunting are solo battles, and each person's hunting points count only toward themselves. That's why the major organizations have selected only the strongest powerhouses within their own organizations. This is also to prevent weaklings from joining, so as not to disgrace the entire organization through earning hunting points that are far too low."
He deliberately glanced at Lin Huang as he delivered this last sentence.
This True God was Wild Fiend, the current number three on Death Sickle's White Sickle Leaderboard. His main reason for being upset with Lin Huang was that previously, Buried Heaven had announced that only three True Gods from Death Sickle would be entering the secret territory this time. This year, he had only managed to secure third place on the White Sickle Leaderboard after much difficulty and had very nearly lost the position to other people. However, this limited spot that he had managed to obtain only after a year of hard work had been easily secured by a newcomer, in a complete departure from the rules. Naturally, he was extremely displeased.
Lin Huang had no idea how precious his spot was. He had only asked Buried Heaven for it because he needed it, and Buried Heaven had immediately agreed. Buried Heaven had not mentioned how scarce these spots were either.
Of course, he could pick up the indirect barb in Wild Fiend's words, but he did not know why the other showed such animosity toward him. He assumed that his previous attitude had upset Wild Fiend, so he just ignored the other's provocation.
In Lin Huang's opinion, such low-level provocation was meaningless. If the other party were genuinely capable, he should be thinking about how to crush Lin Huang in terms of hunting points, instead of verbally making oblique accusations at him before the hunt had even begun.
Seeing that Lin Huang did not rise to the bait, Wild Fiend did not continue being aggressive.
On the one hand, Senior Buried Heaven was right there, so Wild Fiend could not simply antagonize Lin Huang. On the other hand, there were also many other organizations in the vicinity, and it would not reflect well if others were to witness internal conflict within Death Sickle.
The truth was, if it were not for his apprehension at Buried Heaven's presence, he might have directly started a fight with Lin Huang when they were still in the conference room.
What Wild Fiend did not know, however, was that he was lucky.
If he had chosen to make a move against Lin Huang at that time, there was a high chance that he might have immediately lost this opportunity to enter the secret territory.
Ignoring the murmurs of the people beside him, Lin Huang directed his gaze toward the other organizations' sites.
The participants from the two grade-7 organizations—the Combat God Temple and Xeno—had all arrived. He even saw a few familiar faces, such as Unrivaled God from the Combat God Temple, and Frontier from Xeno…
More than a year had passed, yet these old acquaintances, just like Fallen Star and the others, were still at virtual god-level rank-9. However, their auras had obviously become much stronger than before.
Just when Lin Huang felt regretful that he had left this group of individuals far behind him in terms of advancement, a figure suddenly leaned over from beside him.
"Haven't I seen you somewhere before?"
Surprisingly enough, the speaker was the black-robed Virtuoso. Their voice was very neutral, and it was impossible to make out whether they were male or female.
Lin Huang turned around to look at Virtuoso and smiled as he answered a touch mockingly, "You'll have to take your mask off for me to have a look, then I'll know if we've met before or not."
As the few Death Sickle members were wondering why Virtuoso had taken an interest in this newcomer, they heard what Lin Huang said, and their expressions immediately became rather odd.
"Are you sure you want me to remove my mask?" Under Virtuoso's white mask, red lips quirked up slightly.
However, their mask was actually concealing their lips. Logically speaking, Lin Huang should not have been able to make out any expression on the other's face, but he definitely saw the corners of their lips curl up.
Right at this point, Buried Heaven could no longer keep silent. "The secret territory is opening soon—both of you better not cause any trouble!"
Lin Huang noticed something unusual in Buried Heaven's tone as he said that, and guessed that something might happen if the other party were to remove their mask. Judging from the expressions on the others' faces, it was not likely to be anything good.
This made Lin Huang a little curious as to the abilities of this fellow who was ranked first on the White Sickle Leaderboard.
Chapter 1494: Rules That Are as Childish as Little Kids Playing House
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
This secret prisoner territory of God Capital had existed for more than seven hundred thousand years and had also been opened up countless times.
After collaborating with other major organizations and taking in more prisoners, the frequency of this place being opened had increased significantly. Currently, it was made accessible once every two to three hundred years.
Therefore, in the beginning, the team leaders from the major organizations were those at peak heavenly god-level. The standard had then slowly lowered to ninth-rank heavenly god-level, then even further to high-rank True Gods. Up until now, the team leaders' abilities were still getting lower in level, to the point where some high-rank Heavenly Gods of certain organizations would let those at medium-rank lead the team if they themselves were unavailable. Basically, there were very few team leaders who were at ninth-rank.
Therefore, everyone was surprised when they saw Buried Heaven, wondering why he was the one leading Death Sickle's team this time.
As a top figure among those at heavenly god-level, Buried Heaven could be said to rank higher than everyone else present, whether in terms of ability or seniority.
As soon as he arrived, practically all the team leaders of other organizations took the initiative to greet him. Even the team leaders of the two grade-7 organizations were no exception.
This was even more apparent for the teams that arrived after Death Sickle, with some team leaders even taking the initiative to approach him with a few words of greeting. After all, outside of Death Sickle, it was extremely difficult for other people to have any contact at all with Buried Heaven.
By around eight-fifty in the morning, everyone was present.
Lin Huang also saw both Kylie and Bloody among those from the Nephilic Judge Tribe. The two women had only been able to recognize Lin Huang through the contract sense of their cards.
However, they only glanced briefly at each other before all three of them looked away.
What gave Lin Huang a sense of satisfaction was that Kylie was already at ninth-rank true god-level, while Bloody had also elevated to eighth-rank.
The team leader from the Nephilic Judge Tribe was also the only other ninth-rank Heavenly God present, apart from Buried Heaven.
Nevertheless, when he arrived and saw Buried Heaven, he had greeted him with a "Sir."
"After entering, all of you will be randomly teleported to an area that matches your combat level. Virtual God rank-9s will be teleported to an area where there are Virtual God rank-9 prisoners, while ninth-rank True Gods will also be teleported to an area where ninth-rank True God prisoners roam.
"On top of that, you'll only earn hunting points by hunting prisoners with either the same combat level or a higher combat level than yourselves. You won't get any hunting points if you hunt prisoners with lower combat levels.
"One more thing—I've also emphasized this in the information that I sent to you. These prisoners are not the low-IQ monsters that you've hunted before, and they'll use any method possible to try and kill you in order to survive.
"Although the rules don't allow hunters and prisoners to team up, and every fight has to be one-on-one, the prisoners will certainly use their surroundings to their advantage—they may even set traps.
"Every energy fluctuation arising from your battles will expose your position and attract these prisoners to come and investigate. You should know that the individuals confined in this sort of place are mostly lunatics. Even if they weren't lunatics before being imprisoned here, it wouldn't have taken long for them to turn into one.
"You want to hunt these prisoners to get hunting points, while they want to hunt you even more to get resources!
"Everything I've just mentioned was included in the information that I sent out more than a month ago. I'm re-emphasizing these things now because I fear some of you might not have read the information at all." Buried Heaven's gaze swept over Lin Huang's group, his eyes purposefully lingering on Virtuoso for a moment. It was obvious that he was referring to Virtuoso.
Virtuoso paid no heed to Buried Heaven's words, however, and just acted like none of this had anything to do with them.
Just like Lin Huang, they did not hold Buried Heaven in as high a regard as the others did.
Buried Heaven also noticed Virtuoso's wandering attention, cleared his throat, and then continued, "There's one last thing I would like to emphasize once again. The entire secret prisoner territory is under the supervision of God Capital. Whatever you do inside the secret territory, we can clearly see it from the outside. During the entire hunting process, all of you are only allowed to hunt prisoners and monsters from the secret territory. Do not attack hunters who are members of other organizations, and especially do not attack members of your own organization!"
Buried Heaven glanced at both Virtuoso and Lin Huang when he said this. He was a little worried that the slightest disagreement between the two would cause them to start fighting inside the secret territory.
"Once someone is discovered to have attacked a fellow hunter contestant, they will be severely punished once they come out!"
Upon hearing this, Virtuoso could not help curling their lips, staring at Lin Huang with a smile. "Such boring game rules."
Lin Huang chuckled as well. Obviously, Virtuoso had not looked through the information sent out by Buried Heaven, but Lin Huang had read it. Therefore, he knew very well that Buried Heaven had described the rules more stringently to prevent himself and Virtuoso from fighting.
In fact, the rule of the secret territory was that one could attack other hunters within a limited range. Sharing pointers was allowed, as long as one did not kill or incapacitate others, conduct malicious sneak attacks, or plot deliberate set-ups.
As long as hunters behaved appropriately, they could move against each other.
God Capital even encouraged the plundering of points. As long as both parties set the amount in advance, the loser had to pay the winner the forfeit agreed upon.
Even other hunters could use their own points to place bets on the winner or loser if they were spectators.
"I have a question," Virtuoso seemed to have suddenly thought of something, and asked Buried Heaven, "If other hunters attack me first, can I kill them?"
"You can fight back, but you can't kill or incapacitate them, nor can you deliberately set them up." After Buried Heaven said this, he emphasized yet again, "Whatever you do in the secret territory can be clearly seen from the outside at any given moment. Whether there is any subjective malice or not, I believe that can be easily determined by everyone."
"These rules are so childish, just like little kids playing house," Virtuoso complained in some dissatisfaction.
"Alright, if you have any other questions, please ask now." Buried Heaven eyed the time. "The secret territory will open in less than five minutes."
"I have a question," Lin Huang did not ask this question out loud, but directed it to Buried Heaven through voice transmission, "In the secret territory, is the accumulation of hunting points based on each person's actual combat level, or their combat level after disguise?"
"After disguise. To be precise, it's the combat level that you registered with," Buried Heaven replied via voice transmission, "Your hunting points are calculated by the staff of God Capital based on the number of hunts and the level of the target in question. In fact, they can't see your combat level through the monitoring screen at all, so they can only calculate based on the registration information provided by the major organizations.
"There have been no previous cases of fraud regarding such matters. On one hand, the major organizations are full of people who value their pride. In a minor competition such as this, there's no need to resort to fraud, because if it were discovered, one would become the laughing stock of the entire God Territory. On the other hand, the participants are basically all virtual god-level rank-9 and ninth-rank True Gods—very few people of other combat levels take part. Once they appear, the major organizations will probably notice them, so it would be difficult to cheat." When Buried Heaven said this, he cast a glance at Bloody from the Nephilic Judge Tribe.
"Then, the combat level that you signed me up for is…" Lin Huang asked.
"Didn't you ask me to register you as ninth-rank true god-level?" Buried Heaven returned matter-of-factly.
'Did you not just say that there have been no previous cases of fraud?!'
Lin Huang exclaimed silently in his heart. He had asked because he was worried that Buried Heaven had registered him as a first-rank.
He did not expect, however, that the direct and honest Buried Heaven would have no sense of deception whatsoever and had even answered him with such confidence.
Chapter 1495: Gamble
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
At nine in the morning, the Heavenly God team leader of God Capital opened the gates of the secret territory.
Hunters from more than twenty organizations stepped forward one after the other.
First up were a few grade-7 organizations; all the hunters from the grade-7 organizations entered the arena.
The Heavenly God team leader of God Capital looked over at the Death Sickle team.
"Senior Buried Heaven, please go ahead with your team."
Since each person would be teleported to a different location, and the hunters were not allowed to plunder each other, the order in which they entered the secret territory was actually irrelevant.
Everyone else did not have any opinions about Death Sickle being the first to enter the arena after the grade-7 organizations, given it was one of the top grade-6 organizations, and Buried Heaven was leading the team this time around.
Lin Huang discreetly glanced in the direction of the Nephilic Judge Tribe, then followed the rest of the Death Sickle team through the gates of the secret territory.
As soon as he stepped through the gates, Lin Huang could clearly sense a dimensional force enveloping his whole body and pulling him into another space entirely.
By the time this feeling faded, he was already in a completely different area.
The dry, cracked ground in front of him showed absolutely no traces of life, not even a blade of grass.
He estimated that the temperature in the air was at least two hundred degrees Celsius. Together with the occasional waves of heat, it felt as if he were inside an air fryer.
Such a climate was obviously not suitable for the survival of regular living beings. Such a high temperature alone would be enough to turn most non-transcendents into dried meat.
A glance over the area showed there were barely any plants, let alone animals.
Lin Huang surveyed his surroundings once through, then activated his Divine Telekinesis.
After a while, he frowned slightly.
"This place is certainly a prison. The restrictions on Divine Telekinesis are so severe…"
After Lin Huang evolved into a True God, the strength of his Divine Telekinesis had transformed once again. Together with his diligent cultivation of Seamless, under normal conditions, the current strength of his Divine Telekinesis would have had enough range to cover a star zone.
However, in this secret prisoner territory, his Divine Telekinesis—which was comparable to that of a Heavenly God—was limited to a 30-kilometer probing range, and the strength of the suppression far exceeded that of even the Battlefield of the Dragon Abyss previously.
Seeing that his own Divine Telekinesis was already so severely restricted, he could guess the extent to which the other hunters' Divine Telekinesis had been suppressed.
"Space-type rules have practically been prohibited…" Lin Huang secretly mobilized various Rule Bending Powers and quickly discovered that the Space Rules of this secret territory were also severely restricted.
After adjusting to this new environment, Lin Huang turned his gaze in a specific direction.
Earlier on, while probing with his Divine Telekinesis, two individuals had appeared within detectable range. Both of them were virtual god-level rank-9s, and the one who was closer was less than five kilometers away from him. (TN: This appears to be a typo on the author's part; the two should be at ninth-rank true god-level, but we have opted to translate it as it is.)
This individual was a bald, well-built man of more than two meters in height. His muscles were so toned they looked terrifying.
Judging solely from appearances, it was very likely that he was a combat cultivator powerhouse.
"He looks very strong." If Lin Huang were to compare the two individuals he had detected solely on the strength of their auras, this bald man within closer range was much stronger than the other individual.
Lin Huang quickly selected his hunting target. In just a single move, he appeared right in front of the bald man almost instantaneously.
What he had utilized was not Space Rule, but a speed type Light Enlightenment.
He had wanted to take this opportunity to hunt down some heavenly god-level powerhouses, but since his every move was being monitored, that would inevitably expose his abilities to a certain degree.
Therefore, he had no intention of hiding his power, but he did not intend to use his Sword Dao or his summoning beasts either.
The bald man saw Lin Huang suddenly appear, and an expression of evident shock showed on his face for a moment.
He was a combat cultivator, and the strength of his Divine Telekinesis was very weak. Within this prison, the detection radius of his Divine Telekinesis was less than one kilometer; it was far less than the range of one's line of sight.
Therefore, every time the trial was held, he would wait for a hunter to approach him first.
This time around was no exception, but he had not expected that a hunter would come to him so quickly.
Sensing that Lin Huang's aura was only at ordinary ninth-rank true god-level without the abnormal strength of a gifted genius, the bald man's mouth curled up into a cruel smile.
Not the slightest hint of fear could be seen in his gaze as he looked at Lin Huang; in fact, it was as if he were looking at a lamb waiting to be slaughtered.
"How unlucky that I was the first one you ran into, little brat. You can only blame yourself for your bad luck." The bald man grinned.
"I think you might be confused as to who's the one with bad luck here." Lin Huang smiled faintly.
"What an arrogant little brat!"
As the bald man spoke, his body began to transform drastically at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Blood-red hair rapidly sprouted from his originally bald head, like a living creature emitting the stench of blood into the air.
His body also expanded rapidly—in the blink of an eye, he had shot to more than ten meters in height. His muscles bulged to the point of turning reddish-purple, and the surface of his skin condensed into a thick layer of horned scales.
His spine had undergone an even more drastic transformation. As a result of such intense physical expansion, half of his spine now protruded through his skin, turning into a centipede-like purplish-black carapace that covered most of his back. Even his tailbone had extended to more than ten meters past his feet, turning into a long bone-spur tail.
When he witnessed this, Lin Huang finally understood the reason for this individual's imprisonment here.
"An Abyssal Protoss…"
An Abyssal Protoss was the result of a Protoss being corrupted and degenerated by Abyssal energy.
The Protoss were a proud race and had always regarded these Abyssal Protoss who had been corrupted by Abyssal energy as enemies. An organization made up of pure-blooded Protoss, such as God Capital, would detest them even more and would kill every one of them on sight. The fact that this bald man in front of him was alive and locked up in this prison meant that it was highly likely he had been sent here by an organization other than God Capital.
Lin Huang had attracted the attention of many spectators outside the secret territory the very moment when he and the bald man had encountered each other.
"So early on, and someone has already encountered Ba Lin. That's such terrible luck that it's positively terrifying!"
"Although Ba Lin's strength is average, his defenses aren't something that an ordinary ninth-rank True God can get past. To do that, one must have at least Control-level mastery of their rules. However, Control-level rules are only capable of breaking his defenses; it would still be difficult to actually kill him. That little brat is probably going to fail…"
"If I remember correctly, I think this little brat is a newcomer in Death Sickle?" As soon as someone said that, the numerous Heavenly Gods present turned their gazes toward Buried Heaven.
Buried Heaven's expression was calm; he clearly had no intention of making any comments.
In the face of Buried Heaven's silence, the rest immediately had all kinds of speculations. However, most of them felt that this newcomer's abilities were probably nothing impressive.
"Why don't we make a wager on this fight?" Someone suddenly suggested.
"I'm betting on Ba Lin with two mid-level god sequence relics!"
"I'm also betting on Ba Lin with one high-level god sequence relic!"
…
More than a dozen Heavenly Gods participated in the wager, and most of them bet on Ba Lin.
Seeing that there were more than ten people still who were not participating, the dealer shouted, "Does anyone else want to place a bet?!"
"Ten high-level god sequence relics…" Buried Heaven had quietly appeared next to the gambling area. "I'm betting on Xiu Mu."
At the sight of Buried Heaven handing over ten god sequence relics to the dealer, a great many individuals instantly turned pale.
After all, Buried Heaven was the only person present who knew anything of the newcomer's abilities.
Furthermore, he had wagered ten high-level god sequence relics right off, and it was obvious that he had not done so for the sake of Death Sickle's dignity. He had to have been absolutely certain to place such a large bet.
The dealer's face also paled slightly at the sight of the wager that Buried Heaven had handed over to him. He smiled obsequiously at Buried Heaven as he said, "Sir Buried Heaven, we're just playing around; there's no need for you to place such a large bet."
Buried Heaven stared at the dealer wordlessly.
After a while, seeing that Buried Heaven refused to take the items back, the dealer had no choice but to accept the wager.
"Is there anyone else who wants to wager? If not, I'm closing the bets."
As soon as he said that, several Heavenly Gods joined in. They all followed Buried Heaven in betting on Lin Huang, but they did not wager much.
Once everyone had finished placing their wagers, the dealer immediately closed the betting.
Everyone present looked toward the video feed, waiting for the final results of this fight…
Chapter 1496: The First Person to Earn Hunting Points
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Seeing the dramatic changes in his opponent's body, Lin Huang did not immediately make a move but patiently waited for the other's transformation to be completed.
Various thoughts rushed through the minds of the Heavenly Gods who were staring at the surveillance video.
If it were not for Buried Heaven wagering ten high-level god sequence relics during the betting, they might have all thought that this newcomer from Death Sickle had been frozen in shock by the scene before him, and had forgotten to seize the opportunity to either attack or escape.
However, most of them did not think that way now. They felt that this fellow named Xiu Mu was deliberately waiting for his opponent to complete his transformation so that he could exhibit his power by defeating a perfect enemy.
While it was true that Lin Huang was deliberately waiting for the other's transformation to be complete, it was definitely not because he wanted to display his strength in front of all the Heavenly Gods. In fact, he did not actually want his every move to be monitored, so that he could unleash his full ability.
He was deliberately waiting for his opponent to finish transforming, only because he felt that the other was too weak before it, which really failed to pique much of his interest. After the transformation, at least the other's defensive powers would be stronger, so Lin Huang would need to utilize his brain a little to estimate how many layers of rule power he should compound onto his telekinetic flying daggers.
"If I remember, in the information submitted by this little brat named Xiu Mu, it stated that he was a psychic. Against a combat cultivator such as Ba Lin, he'll definitely find himself restricted." Standing in front of the surveillance video, the Heavenly God team leader of God Capital suddenly laughed. "I'm guessing this fight will be very difficult for Xiu Mu."
"Yes, psychics are restricted to a certain extent in the secret prisoner territory. Taking into consideration Ba Lin's strong defenses, it's really hard to tell who will win or lose in this fight…" another Heavenly God responded.
Both of them had put their bets on Ba Lin as the winner.
Buried Heaven was silent, not bothering to say anything to this group of people.
He knew that Lin Huang would definitely give him a pleasant surprise.
In the secret prisoner territory, Ba Lin's aura had rapidly reached its peak after completing his transformation.
He had extreme confidence in himself currently. He was born with extremely strong defensive capabilities—his body was comparable to top-tier rule armor—in addition to the compounded effects of more than ten Control-level defense-type rules and Elemental Enlightenments. He was confident that as long as he did not encounter a top-tier true god-level powerhouse, he would be invincible. Even the vast majority of True Gods were unable to break his defenses.
Looking at Lin Huang, who was waiting nearby for him to complete his transformation, Ba Lin's face twisted into a smirk.
"What an arrogant fellow!"
The next moment, he suddenly exerted force with both legs at the same time that his blackish-purple bone tail flicked toward the ground.
A huge crater instantly formed on the spot where he had been standing, and his figure vanished completely.
In a flash, he appeared right above Lin Huang as if he had teleported.
Evidently, his speed and flexibility had not diminished in the slightest, even after his physique had expanded. On the contrary, he had become even stronger than before.
Appearing in front of Lin Huang in the mere blink of an eye, Ba Lin drew back his lips in a grin, his killing intent surging. He raised his huge palm high and brought it down toward Lin Huang as if he were swatting a fly.
At this moment, however, the hitherto-stationary Lin Huang suddenly moved.
His actions were so minuscule that it had seemed like he had only shaken his sleeve slightly.
Almost simultaneously, a blood-red gleam shot out at a terrifying speed, resembling a ray of lightning as thin as a strand of hair flashing in the air.
The red gleam was so faint that it was barely perceptible, but the group of Heavenly Gods watching from the outer perimeters of the secret territory were all taken aback.
"That was so fast!"
"The attack speed of this telekinetic flying dagger is probably comparable to that of a heavenly god-level psychic!"
"Ba Lin's been killed…"
As soon as someone within the group of Heavenly Gods said that, on the surveillance video, Ba Lin's movements suddenly stopped, as if his image had completely frozen.
A second later, a gush of blackish-purple blood spurted out from his solar plexus, and a hole the diameter of a bucket appeared in that area. The hole had pierced through his chest and completely wiped out his life force.
"Seems like I used a bit too much power…" Lin Huang muttered in a low voice, then extended his telekinetic threads to twine them around Ba Lin's dead body.
Lin Huang's figure slowly floated over and stopped in front of Ba Lin's head. His pupils turned a dark blue like that of a starry sky.
The Control-level god rule "Brain-read" immediately went to work.
Outside the secret territory, a group of Heavenly Gods was discussing the recent fight.
"Xiu Mu's attack just now was enhanced with more than twenty types of Rule Bending Power. Not only was it able to break through Ba Lin's defense so easily, but it was even able to kill him within seconds?!"
"Yes, it stands to reason that an attack like this that's been boosted with more than twenty Control-level rules would certainly be able to break through Ba Lin's defense, but it shouldn't have been able to kill him instantly."
"You're both not wrong about the number of rules or about them being at Control-level. However, that's not the issue—it's that telekinetic flying dagger." At this moment, a Heavenly God spoke up and reminded them, "If I'm not mistaken, that telekinetic flying dagger is a god sequence relic."
The conversation suddenly flagged, but more enthusiastic discussions followed soon after.
Inside the secret territory, Lin Huang's instant killing of Ba Lin made him the first hunter to earn hunting points.
On the Hunter's Gold Leaderboard, the name "Xiu Mu" directly appeared at the top of the list. Although he had merely accrued 1 point, his was still the only name on the list.
Currently, there was no name on the Hunter's Silver Leaderboard for Virtual Gods, which was below the Gold Leaderboard.
The whole process of entering the secret territory, locking onto his target, and killing it had actually taken Lin Huang less than ten seconds.
In such a short time, most hunters had not even located hunting targets yet, let alone killed them.
Therefore, the fact that Lin Huang had successfully carried out a hunt so quickly immediately attracted the attention of many hunters within the secret territory.
"So fast?! That kill was completed in less than ten seconds after entering?! What good luck that fellow has, running into a hunting target right off the bat!"
"The kill was carried out extremely quickly, and the fact that no accidents occurred means that the opponent was immediately eliminated. If he can kill off a fellow ninth-rank, this fellow called Xiu Mu is definitely no weakling!"
"Xiu Mu, I've never heard of this name before. Which organization is this newcomer from?!"
…
Lin Huang was not aware of the commotion that he had caused. After killing Ba Lin, he had immediately read through the memories in the other's mind.
Although he had obtained quite a lot of information about the secret territory from Buried Heaven, the secret territory was quite vast. The range of Lin Huang's Divine Telekinesis had been severely restricted from the moment he was teleported in, so he had no idea where he was or what the situation around him was like.
After spending a few minutes reading through Ba Lin's memories, Lin Huang quickly figured out his current coordinates as well as which direction he should head for next.
"Before meeting Kylie and Bloody, I have to hunt down some Heavenly Gods and obtain a grade-5 Advance Card…"
The purpose of his trip here was very clear. Participation in the hunt came second; the most important thing was to meet up with Kylie so he could use the grade-5 Advance Card to help her complete her advancement to pure spirit-level rank-6. This was also the single most reliable way to help Kylie get out of her current situation.
Chapter 1497: So Impressive Even When Not Using A Sword?!
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After acquiring Ba Lin's memories, Lin Huang headed straight toward the area where the Heavenly God prisoners were being held.
He did not bother wasting any time. All the prisoners he encountered along the way he killed with a single attack, not even bothering to wait for them to speak.
In the short space of less than an hour, he had killed more than ten ninth-rank true god-level prisoners, and now securely occupied the top position on the Hunter's Gold Leaderboard with 10 hunting points.
The second and third places only had 3 hunting points each, while the fourth to ninth places only had 2 hunting points respectively.
In reality, most of the hunters had only just gotten into their various hunting modes. Under these circumstances where their Divine Telekinesis was so severely restricted, most individuals had only just encountered their first prisoner and had yet to come across their second hunting target.
The reason Lin Huang had encountered a large number of prisoners was that, for one, he had acquired Ba Lin's memories and therefore knew of the approximate locations of nearby prisoners. For another, it was because the strength of his Divine Telekinesis was comparable to that of a Heavenly God, and his detection range was much greater than those of other True Gods.
Apart from these two factors, he also differed from other hunters in terms of cautiousness. He could not care less at all about whether or not he would be discovered by the prisoners in the secret territory. Within just an hour, the distance that he had covered was hundreds of times that of other hunters.
The name Xiu Mu also became very familiar to all the hunters in less than an hour.
"I don't know where this fellow sprang from, but he's really strong!"
"Let's set aside this fellow's abilities for the time being. If this sort of hunting efficiency isn't because he's cheating, then he probably has some special detection-type techniques. If I'd known earlier, I would've also learned a detection technique or bought a detection-type god rule relic."
"Based on his hunting speed, all the prisoners encountered by this fellow named Xiu Mu were probably killed instantly. He's hunted down ten prisoners of the same rank in less than an hour, so that's an average of a little over five minutes per person, with an estimate of five minutes spent on the road…"
What this hunter did not know was that the average of five minutes-plus that Lin Huang took for each kill not only included his time on the road but also the time spent reading the minds of each corpse.
Lin Huang's outstanding performance caught the attention of not just the hunters inside the secret territory, but also the numerous Heavenly Gods outside the secret territory.
"All the ninth-rank true god-level prisoners were killed instantly, and he didn't even use a second flying dagger."
"We don't even know if he only has this one single god sequence relic-level flying dagger or if he has a full set of them. If he has a whole set, then everyone else needn't fight anymore; he'll have basically secured first place on the Gold Leaderboard. Everyone else can just diligently try for second place."
"Ultimately, he's only at true god-level. The strength of his Divine Telekinesis is limited, and so is his Divine Power. For him to use one telekinetic flying dagger with such power, I'm guessing he's already at the far end of his limits. Even if he has a complete set, he wouldn't be able to use every one of them with the same amount of power. His Divine Power wouldn't be able to withstand such degree of depletion," the Heavenly God team leader of the Combat God Temple frankly stated the problem that he had noticed.
"Moreover, there probably aren't that many rules that he's mastered up to Control-level. At present, it seems that the total number of rules he's compounded at any given time is twenty-eight at most. If he's only mastered that number of Control-level rules, then his overall abilities should be a bit lower than those at the top-tier level." At this point, the Heavenly God team leader of God Capital spoke up from where he was standing off to one side, "Currently, we're only at the warm-up stage. Once the others familiarize themselves with their surroundings, they'll probably enter the Heavenly God domain to hunt for heavenly god-level powerhouse prisoners. That's when the competition will truly begin!"
As Heavenly God team leaders who had top-tier geniuses within their own teams, they obviously did not want to see a dark horse like Lin Huang thriving all the way to the end.
Of course, they said this as well because they were genuinely not very optimistic about Lin Huang's subsequent performance.
After all, once the several top-tier geniuses started hunting down Heavenly Gods, their points would increase by the hundreds, which would be much faster than the current one-point increases.
Even if Lin Huang continued at his current hunting speed, it would take him almost nine more hours to accumulate up to 100 points.
It was much easier to earn points by hunting down Heavenly Gods. One only needed to kill one single first-rank to directly earn 100 hunting points.
Although the initial stage of the hunt had been shocking, most of the Heavenly Gods present were not very optimistic about Lin Huang's subsequent performance either, just like the Heavenly God team leaders of the grade-7 organizations.
Buried Heaven did not refute any of the onlookers' discussions.
For one, there was some degree of truth to their words. For another, he really did not know what Lin Huang's current abilities were.
After all, the Lin Huang that he knew was a sword cultivator, and in this trial, Lin Huang had not used his sword at all to avoid arousing suspicion.
Buried Heaven could not be bothered to participate in debating topics like this, but when the discussion was at its most intense, he smiled and took out a storage ring. He then retrieved all the god sequence relics he had won from the wager earlier and lined them up in front of him, carefully inspecting them one by one and completely disregarding everyone else present.
At the sight of this, the babble of spectator discussion suddenly died down.
Even the team leaders of the grade-7 organizations just smiled awkwardly and ceased their words.
However, at this moment, a Heavenly God team leader suddenly gave vent to a low mutter.
"This fellow isn't planning on hunting down Heavenly Gods, is he?!"
Although he had said that sotto voce, his words were still clearly heard by everyone present, and they immediately looked toward the surveillance video.
Everyone soon located the main subject of discussion—Lin Huang.
At present, Lin Huang was already nearing a border between the True God domain and the Heavenly God domain.
The route he had taken was not a straight line, but one with many twists and turns instead. He had even doubled back twice to hunt some targets down, so everyone had not realized his destination at first.
Right now, however, as he got closer and closer to the border area, everyone finally realized what his actual destination was.
As Lin Huang's travel route revealed itself, the expressions of the two Heavenly God team leaders from the Combat God Temple and God Capital instantly became acutely embarrassed.
Right after they had just predicted that Lin Huang's abilities would probably not be good enough for him to hunt down Heavenly Gods and that his hunting points would be overtaken by someone else sooner or later, Lin Huang's course of action had given them a direct slap in the face.
He did not even need to warm up, merely headed straight for the Heavenly God domain on the very first day of entering the secret territory.
Buried Heaven also looked up at the surveillance video. His face still bore a faint smile as he watched Lin Huang making haste the entire way, giving the impression that he had known since the beginning that Lin Huang would do this.
In reality, the expression on his face was a remnant from when he had been inspecting the god sequence relics earlier. He himself was actually quite confused as well upon seeing Lin Huang heading directly toward the Heavenly God domain.
After some time, he noticed that many of the Heavenly God team leaders were looking at him, their faces full of admiration and envy. It took Buried Heaven considerable effort to maintain control of his expression, as he forced himself to stifle his astonishment and surprise.
He still had a faint smile on his face as he looked away from the surveillance video and slowly put back into his storage space each of the god sequence relics spread out in front of him, but his mind was full of puzzlement.
'Can this fellow still be so impressive even when he's not using a sword?!'
Chapter 1498: Aberrant Species—Bright Cosmos
The border area of the secret territory was generally very clearly delineated.
This was actually a buffer zone purposely set up by God Capital to prevent hunting trial participants from accidentally entering an area that was beyond their cultivation level.
Under normal circumstances, if hunters were to set foot in an area where prisoners were extremely scarce, they would soon realize that they might have already crossed into the border area.
Of course, following the setting up of this border area, prisoners also rapidly learned to make use of it. Some injured prisoners would hide here to nurse their wounds. In order to avoid excessive internal friction between the prisoners, God Capital tacitly condoned this type of behavior. However, after recovering from their injuries, prisoners had to leave this area.
As time went by, the border area turned into a gathering place for the disadvantaged, such as the elderly and the frail. The prisoners here were less likely to provoke hunters of their own accord.
Amongst the hunters, there was usually a tacit agreement not to spontaneously attack prisoners in the border area either.
After all, everything they did would be seen on the outside. It would be too unbecoming to target the disadvantaged.
Furthermore, the individuals who participated in the secret territory hunts were the pride of the various major organizations. They would not stoop to something as low as that, not just because of their organization's reputation, but for their own sakes as well.
Bullying the disadvantaged was something that would make them a mockery for ages if word got out.
Of course, Lin Huang knew the unspoken rules here. From the moment he set foot into the border area, his Divine Telekinesis had sensed the presence of scattered prisoners within its probing range, but he chose to bypass them.
He was not doing so for the sake of his reputation, but simply because he felt that it was meaningless to bully the disadvantaged.
One by one, many prisoners in the border area sensed Lin Huang's presence. Of course, they knew that individuals who passed through this area were too dangerous to provoke. All of them hid their own auras and minimized their presence to avoid being noticed by the other party.
Although the chances of the other party attacking were not high, they might encounter a hothead who would do anything to hunt and accumulate points, even hunting in the border area.
Once they sensed Lin Huang's aura leaving the area they were in, the prisoners who were recovering from their wounds were finally able to heave a huge sigh of relief.
Following the memory information scoured from the minds of many True God prisoners, Lin Huang spent more than ten minutes passing through the border area before finally entering the Heavenly God domain of the secret territory.
Once he set foot in the Heavenly God domain, he immediately extended the probing range of his Divine Telekinesis to its maximum and scanned his surroundings, his mind quickly discerning his exact location currently based on the terrain in front of him.
'I didn't stray from the location I anticipated. Around two hundred kilometers ahead from here, I should encounter that bat monster.'
After ensuring that there were no issues with his coordinates, Lin Huang's figure immediately rose into the air and sped toward his first heavenly god-level target.
The first hunting target that he had locked in on was an aberrant species prisoner with bat-like wings.
This prisoner was originally an angel. After being corrupted by Abyssal energy, its body underwent severe deformation. Its former snowy-white wings shed their feathers, turning into ugly bat wings that were covered in warts. Even its appearance changed from one that angels took pride in, turning into an ugly aberration covered in festering pustules, to the point that its skull bone structure had become deformed as well.
Even more twisted was its soul, which had almost completely been corrupted by Abyssal energy. If one were to check using Law Bending Powers of the soul probing-type, they would see that its life essence was no longer that of an angel, but an abyssal monster through and through.
Although it retained a certain degree of its original consciousness, its current consciousness was occupied by madness and hysteria most of the time.
It had even attacked angels of its own tribe more than once and infected others with the Abyssal energy within its body.
Most of the heavenly god-level prisoners in the secret prisoner territory would not attack hunters of their own volition, but there were some prisoners similar to this aberrant species who had already lost their fundamental sanity and would attack any living being close to them.
This was also why God Capital wanted to make a clear division between the Heavenly God and True God domains, to prevent trial participants from entering by mistake.
Outside the secret territory, once the numerous Heavenly Gods saw Lin Huang's flight path, they soon knew what his hunting target was.
The expressions of more than a few Heavenly Gods turned rather peculiar.
Even Buried Heaven could not help but frown slightly.
"Senior Buried Heaven, do you want to suggest that he change to another hunting target?" The Heavenly God team leader of God Capital noticed Buried Heaven's barely perceptible reaction and could not help asking.
For hunters who were hunting Heavenly Gods, God Capital gave every organization the authority to issue a one-time notification to trial participants via special equipment, notifying them of information or suggestions.
However, in actual fact, there were not many who used this authority.
It was usually when trial participants chose unsuitable opponents that their team leaders would suggest that they change their targets.
Buried Heaven deliberated for a moment but shook his head in the end. "It's not necessary; he should know what he's doing."
He had also noticed that Lin Huang had read through the memory information of many True God prisoners, and there must have been information regarding this Heavenly God prisoner. Since Lin Huang was heading straight for the other party, this meant that he had to be quite sure of himself.
Buried Heaven's refusal was something that everyone had not really anticipated.
This was because no matter how one looked at it, the battle was not in Lin Huang's favor.
This aberrant species was once an angel. It was definitely proficient in rapid speed rules and sequences. Those whose path was rapid speed were extremely good at restraining psychics.
On the other hand, this aberrant species had little sanity left and could erupt into madness at any given time. It was highly likely that its abilities would show an abnormal increase, per its abnormal mental state. Therefore, it posed a far greater danger than ordinary Heavenly God prisoners.
Everyone was hotly discussing this battle that Lin Huang was about to initiate. Most of them were not optimistic about him, even though they had been repeatedly defeated by Lin Huang previously.
Right at this moment, another nosy Heavenly God jumped up.
"Since everyone's having such a heated debate, let me start a wager. For this round, we'll bet on whether Xiu Mu wins or loses…
"Those who want to bet on Xiu Mu winning, place the items you want to wager in the storage ring on my left hand. Those who want to bet on Bright Cosmos winning, your items go into the storage ring on my right hand…"
A new round of betting started again.
Everyone placed their wagers into the storage rings one after another, but more than 90% of them chose the right-hand storage ring. There were only two people who placed their bets on Lin Huang in the left-hand ring, and each of them only put in a beginner-stage god sequence relic.
Once everyone had more or less cast their bets, Buried Heaven glanced at the crowd of people who were looking at him and once again took out his storage ring from earlier.
This storage ring not only included the ten high-level god sequence relics he had bet on in the previous round, but all the items he had won from that round as well.
Upon seeing Buried Heaven place such a large bet, everyone could not help raising their brows.
Those who had already placed their bets instantly felt slightly uneasy.
There were several others who had not yet placed their bets; they immediately followed Buried Heaven in betting on Lin Huang. However, they did not dare to place a big bet and only threw in one or two beginner-stage god sequence relics.
The round of betting had just been closed when the monitor screen showed that Lin Huang had already entered the aberrant species' territory…
Chapter 1499: Uglier Than Expected…
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
In the void, Lin Huang was able to see his first heavenly god-level hunting target from afar.
"It's even uglier than I expected…"
Earlier on, he had read about Bright Cosmos' appearance in many True Gods' memory images. However, when he actually saw Bright Cosmos in person, he could not help but lament out loud.
He did not know if this additional hideousness was because the aberrations of Bright Cosmos' physical body had gotten worse or because of some other reason.
Lin Huang could clearly see that the exposed areas of its body were covered with mucus-filled pustules of various sizes. Its head was so swollen that it gave the impression it might explode at any moment.
From head to toe, there was not even a shadow of its original angel form.
If Lin Huang had not obtained information about Bright Cosmos from reading numerous True Gods' memories, he would have even suspected that this aberrant species before him was an abyssal monster from birth.
Even the Holy spear in its right hand had completely turned inky-black after being contaminated by Abyssal energy, to where it had even formed some special sort of integration with its aberrant body.
To a certain degree, Bright Cosmos was no longer an angel. It had even abandoned part of its living characteristics and become a fusion of living and dead matter.
Lin Huang also noticed the abnormality of its aura but did not probe further into this aspect.
1
He had seen many Heavenly Gods but had never fought against them before.
This aberrant species before him was his first Heavenly God opponent.
Therefore, Lin Huang was very much on his guard.
This was the first time he had been so serious since entering this encaged space.
Outside the secret territory, the eyes of almost every Heavenly God there were glued to the monitor screen showing where Lin Huang was. At this moment, all the other trial participants had completely lost the attention of the Heavenly God spectators outside the arena.
In the video projection, after the two of them met, there was not even so much as an opening remark before the battle kicked off right away.
The one who attacked first was Bright Cosmos, who did not have much sanity left.
In its current state, it had already utterly lost the ability to distinguish between friend and foe. Without hesitation, it would attack any living being that encroached upon its territory, and of course, Lin Huang was no exception.
On its back, dozens of bat wings suddenly fluttered. The next instant, its figure vanished, leaving behind a swirling wind in its place, which spread out in all directions like water ripples.
"It's fast!" Someone among the Heavenly Gods watching the battle suddenly exclaimed.
Although Bright Cosmos was only a first-rank Heavenly God, the speed it currently displayed was practically the same as that of a third-rank.
The moment Bright Cosmos displayed its astonishing speed, there were even many Heavenly Gods watching the battle who thought that Xiu Mu would be the one killed this time.
However, this did not happen.
Lin Huang had been prepared for the sudden attack by Bright Cosmos. He had anticipated that his opponent would most likely make the first move right away.
The moment Bright Cosmos moved, so did he.
He shook the cuffs of his sleeves slightly, and hundreds of lightning-like red gleams shot out at a speed that was in no way inferior to that of Bright Cosmos.
When the Heavenly Gods watching the battle in front of the monitor saw this happening, many could not help but gasp.
"Xiu Mu's flying daggers are really that fast?! Their speed has entirely surpassed true god-level—they're as fast Bright Cosmos' movements!"
"Each flying dagger has been compounded with hundreds of types of control-level Rule Bending Power! He's actually mastered these many rules at control-level?!"
"The power of his flying daggers has elevated by more than one level since the last round. Even at this level of power, the control of his telekinesis over the flying daggers is still accurate to such an extent. His Divine Telekinesis has probably reached heavenly god-level!"
Seeing Lin Huang in action, most of the Heavenly Gods were fulsome in their praises.
This was because there were truly not many Heavenly Gods who could do what Lin Huang just did.
However, there were a few Heavenly Gods who still did not look favorably upon the outcome of Lin Huang's battle.
"At his current level of ability, he might still stand a chance against ordinary first-rank Heavenly Gods. However, that said, his current opponent is Bright Cosmos who can restrain him. At least for the present, I still don't see any chance of him winning."
"He's compounded the telekinetic flying daggers with so many levels of Rule Bending Power. Every boost will have massively depleted his Divine Power. Moreover, he's also controlling hundreds of these flying daggers at the same time, which will consume even more of his Divine Power. How much longer his Divine Power can last is an issue, not to mention whether or not an attack of this strength will be able to injure Bright Cosmos."
On the monitor screen, Lin Huang's hundreds of flying daggers formed a large net in the void, heading straight for Bright Cosmos to envelop it.
In the void, Bright Cosmos' figure flickered successively, dodging all the blood-red lightning bolts and continuing to approach Lin Huang.
Hundreds of lightning-like red gleams shot out from Lin Huang's cuffs again, forcing Bright Cosmos back a certain distance.
However, after dodging the attack from the second wave of flying daggers, Bright Cosmos spun around and headed toward Lin Huang again.
The aura around his entire being was less stable than before, evidently due to the negative emotions produced by being forced backward.
However, Lin Huang was completely unfazed. After Bright Cosmos approached again, he shook his sleeve cuffs once more, and hundreds of blood-red lightning bolts shot out.
Bright Cosmos dodged yet again, evading the incoming attack of the flying daggers.
After three successive waves of passive response, many Heavenly Gods outside the secret territory frowned.
"Is he so passive already? It looks like he's being restrained in terms of speed."
"Continuing like this is a very bad thing. Xiu Mu can't keep attacking this way indefinitely. What's more, Bright Cosmos' negative emotions will increase as it keeps getting forced back. Sooner or later, it will forcefully charge over regardless of the attacks by the telekinetic flying daggers. Judging from the current power of Xiu Mu's daggers, the most they can inflict on Bright Cosmos in terms of damage is a bit of bruising."
The team leader from God Capital also could not help turning to Buried Heaven. "Senior Buried Heaven, do you want him to withdraw and choose another target?"
Buried Heaven's gaze was fixed on the monitor screen, his expression unreadable. When he heard the question from God Capital's team leader, he shook his head. "I believe he knows what he's doing."
On the monitor screen, Lin Huang had already used the same method to force Bright Cosmos to retreat more than a dozen times.
It looked as if he did not have any other way of dealing with his opponent's attack, but strangely enough, his expression revealed not a single trace of panic. In fact, he still looked rather calm.
Watching Bright Cosmos charge over, dodge, then retreat time and time again, its fury rising after each encounter, Lin Huang remained extremely calm.
Faced with a heavenly god-level powerhouse as his opponent, from the very start, he had not intended to kill his opponent so quickly.
Even though he currently could do so if he were to go all out, he was not planning on revealing his trump cards while he was being monitored.
As a matter of fact, earlier, when he had chosen Bright Cosmos as his hunting target, his mind had instantly formulated a hunting strategy for Bright Cosmos.
Now, everything was turning out exactly the way he had anticipated…
Chapter 1500: Xiu Mu, or Xie Lin?
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Since Lin Huang's opponent did not have much reason left, this meant that his opponent's battle style would probably lean more toward instinct rather than intelligence. If that were the case, the simplest counter would be to make use of the other party's lack of intellect to defeat it.
This was the tactic that Lin Huang was utilizing.
The aberrant species would repeatedly dodge Lin Huang's attacks time and time again out of instinct. However, after each evasion, its fury also rose higher and higher.
Outside the secret territory, the spectators watching the monitor screen all felt that Lin Huang was walking a tightrope.
This was because sooner or later, Bright Cosmos would abandon evasion and break through Lin Huang's defenses full force.
However, there were a few people who managed to catch an inkling of what was going on.
After being forced backward seven times by the telekinetic flying daggers, Bright Cosmos—who had very little remaining reason—finally reached a point beyond rage.
The killing intent radiating from its entire body had already reached its peak.
It pounced again—this time, it moved much faster than any of the previous times.
Lin Huang's expression remained calm as if he were completely unfazed by his opponent's monstrous killing intent, which was practically tangible.
The next instant, the aberrant species charged toward Lin Huang.
The Heavenly God spectators gasped in astonishment at its invincible demeanor.
Lin Huang's expression remained calm, just like before. With another flick of his sleeve cuffs, hundreds of blood-red gleams shot out again.
However, this time, the aberrant species did not dodge at all and continued charging toward Lin Huang.
Lin Huang's lips curled upwards imperceptibly. An instant later, tens of thousands of red lightning bolts poured forth from his cuffs at terrifying speed. Each lightning bolt was imbued with lightning sequence power; they were so fast that Bright Cosmos had no time to react at all.
In the void, the figure of the aberrant species was completely engulfed by the blood-red lightning bolts, and it let out a howl that was dismal beyond measure.
The howling lasted for less than three seconds before abruptly ceasing.
Outside the secret territory, the Heavenly Gods stared wide-eyed at the monitor screen, the entire place falling so silent one could hear a pin drop.
After a long while, someone finally turned to Buried Heaven to ask a question.
"Senior Buried Heaven, where did you find this bad*ss, who's actually managed to condense god sequence chains at true god-level?!"
Buried Heaven remained expressionless and did not answer, merely glancing at the Heavenly God who had posed the question. However, inwardly he muttered, 'I had absolutely no idea that this lad had already condensed god sequence chains either…'
Seeing that someone had broken the silence, everyone started discussing once more.
"Turns out this Xiu Mu fellow was intentionally provoking Bright Cosmos right from the start. He was waiting for the moment it completely abandoned evasion to deal the fatal blow!"
"He played this hand beautifully! Given Bright Cosmos' speed, if this attack had been carried out right off the bat, it would've been nowhere near as effective—in fact, a good half of it would have come to nothing. I have to say, he truly chose the most suitable moment to execute a perfect blow!"
"I suddenly feel that if I were Bright Cosmos, I might also have been ground down by Xiu Mu's IQ. Being forced to retreat repeatedly seven times—if it were me, I wouldn't be able to stand it either…"
As soon as this was said, many Heavenly Gods began to reflect on whether or not they themselves would have been fooled by Xiu Mu's tactic.
The result was that most of them realized they would have fallen for it as well.
Lin Huang was unaware that his strategy had stirred up so much reflection from the Heavenly God team leaders.
After putting away both telekinetic flying daggers and Bright Cosmos' corpse into his space storage, he began heading toward his next target while checking his gains from this battle.
In his inner world, a wave of new sequence power surged in, followed by a massive number of Rule Bending Powers along with sequence powers. The original forty-odd thousand rules instantly skyrocketed to more than fifty thousand.
In addition to this, an unusual wave of energy surged into the world will, strengthening the gravel world's world will within Lin Huang and starting a new round of expansion of his inner world's territory.
The strength of the Divine Fire within him also increased.
However, Lin Huang could clearly feel that he was still far from breaking through to second-rank true god-level.
'I don't know how many Heavenly Gods I need to hunt for my combat level to undergo another breakthrough.'
Lin Huang himself was not very sure what the specifics of his advancement process were.
However, killing Heavenly Gods made him stronger, which meant that hunting Heavenly Gods was the correct thing to do. As long as he continued hunting, his combat level would achieve a breakthrough sooner or later.
With this thought in mind, Lin Huang continued hurrying toward his second hunting target.
Outside the secret territory, the wager was over. One by one, the dealer transferred the god sequence relics into Buried Heaven's storage ring, his expression sour.
The remaining Heavenly Gods who had lost the bet also wore unpleasant expressions.
This was especially true of the leaders of the several grade-7 organizations. They had originally thought that since the several geniuses in their organizations possessed the ability to kill Heavenly Gods, those geniuses would put up a splendid display during this prisoner hunt. Even if they only killed one or two Heavenly Gods throughout the entire trial, it would still be enough to impress everyone.
Nobody had expected that Lin Huang would manage to achieve a fatal blow on the first day itself.
Not only had he managed to occupy first place on the Hunter's Gold Leaderboard as soon as he had joined the trial, but he had also even managed to kill a heavenly god-level prisoner less than two hours after the start of the hunt. From an unknown dark horse, he had become the main focus of the entire trial!
Lin Huang's every move had become the focus of attention of many Heavenly Gods from the outside world. Not many of them were even paying attention to the other trial participants at all.
Inside the secret territory, although no one could see the monitor screen, the changes on the leaderboard were immediate.
Once a kill was completed, the kill points on the leaderboard would reflect that practically the next instant.
The second after Lin Huang had completed killing Bright Cosmos, his kill points on the Gold Leaderboard shot straight up to 100 points.
He had already been occupying the top spot on the Gold Leaderboard all this while. This sudden surge in points was instantly noticed by all the trial participants.
Everyone knew what a sudden increase of 100 kill points meant.
An increase in points like this only happened for a kill of a higher level.
For the kill points of this fellow named Xiu Mu to suddenly surge by 100 points, there was only one possibility—at his current true god-level, he had successfully killed a first-rank Heavenly God.
When the trial participants saw the changes in Lin Huang's points, practically all of them were stunned.
Even the few who had originally not taken a dark horse like Lin Huang seriously at all narrowed their eyes.
"In less than two hours, he's already killed a Heavenly God?! Who would have thought that apart from Virtuoso, another bad*ss character like that would emerge from Death Sickle!"
"Looks like I underestimated this newcomer previously. I thought that given his rate of killing ten ninth-rank True Gods in an hour, I would easily overtake him as long as I killed Heavenly Gods. I never expected that this newcomer would have the ability to kill Heavenly Gods as well!"
…
Virtuoso stared at the first name on the Gold Leaderboard for a long time, then suddenly muttered to themselves, "Sure enough, you haven't disappointed me… Should I call you Xiu Mu then, or Xie Lin?"