Chapter 1511: Obscured Sequence
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
"Play a game with me first…"
As soon as Virtuoso started teasing him, tens of thousands of blood-red lightning bolts shot out from Lin Huang's cuffs.
1
Dagger after God Weapon flying dagger transformed into blood-red lightning bolts that filled the sky and swept in an arc across the void, directly attacking Virtuoso from all directions.
"I'm definitely not in the mood for such things." On that note of disagreement, Lin Huang made his move straight away.
Although the rules in the secret prisoner territory did not allow trial participants to kill one another, it was Virtuoso who had provoked him first after all. Lin Huang could not be blamed for retaliating.
Moreover, as long as neither was killed or disabled, they would not be held accountable.
Lin Huang was not planning on killing Virtuoso; he was only preparing to teach them a lesson.
Outside the secret territory, the group of Heavenly Gods was shocked when they saw Lin Huang's sudden attack.
They had not expected the relationship between the two colleagues in Death Sickle to be this poor.
Many people sneaked glances at Buried Heaven. At this moment, Buried Heaven's brows were furrowed. This was clearly a scene he did not wish to see at all, so much so that he had forgotten to control his facial expressions.
At this moment, the team leaders of the few grade-7 organizations were secretly delighted that Xiu Mu and Virtuoso were at odds with each other. This meant that the chances of one of them leaving Death Sickle would be a lot higher than they had previously expected. Right now, several people were already secretly plotting how to poach them from Death Sickle. It did not matter whether it was Xiu Mu or Virtuoso, getting either one of them would definitely be a steal.
Tens of thousands of telekinetic flying daggers poured down like torrential rain, but Virtuoso just stood there, motionless.
They did not dodge, nor did they display any kind of defensive techniques.
The next instant, their figure was utterly swallowed up by countless blood-red lightning arcs.
Upon seeing this, the spectators outside the secret territory were bewildered.
They could not figure out why Virtuoso had abandoned defending themselves and let Xiu Mu attack them.
One should know that Xiu Mu's attack was probably able to kill even third-rank Heavenly Gods.
"They really didn't think that Xiu Mu would pull back at the last minute, did they?!"
"Virtuoso can't have been killed off so easily, right?"
"For Xiu Mu's current attack, his telekinetic flying daggers have been compounded with two levels of sequence power, which is sufficient to slay even third-rank Heavenly Gods. Virtuoso was hit without defending themselves whatsoever. There shouldn't be any doubt about the results."
While the group of Heavenly Gods was heatedly discussing this, Lin Huang frowned slightly.
He could sense that his attack had failed.
Not a single flying dagger had managed to hit Virtuoso. Strangely, however, his Divine Telekinesis sensed that Virtuoso still remained standing where they were, not having moved an inch.
'Is this a special sequence power?!
'
Logically speaking, rule-type attacks would definitely hit their target unless the other party used Rule Bending Power to dodge or defend themselves.
If even his telekinetic flying daggers with their compounded two levels of sequence power could not hit his opponent, the only logical explanation was that the other party had used sequence power to dodge the attack.
As for his Divine Telekinesis sensing that Virtuoso had not moved, that could only mean that their sequence power possessed the special function of being able to confuse one's Divine Telekinesis.
Although not a single one of Lin Huang's attacks managed to land on his target, he did not give up right away, continuing instead to manipulate the telekinetic flying daggers to keep attacking.
"Don't waste your energy." Virtuoso's voice drifted leisurely through the countless flying daggers surrounding them. "Even if you run out of Divine Power, this kind of attack can't cause me any harm."
As soon as Virtuoso said that, they slowly stepped out as though all the telekinetic flying daggers were nothing to them.
Only then did Lin Huang notice that although all the telekinetic flying daggers pierced straight through Virtuoso's body, they did not cause them any harm.
Outside the secret territory, most of the Heavenly God team leaders did not understand what they were seeing.
The few people who did were staring at Virtuoso with wide eyes.
"So it's Obscured Sequence…"
"Who would have thought that there really is someone who's mastered this kind of legendary sequence power!"
"I initially thought that this Xiu Mu fellow was already invincible enough. I never expected Virtuoso to be even more complicated?"
Buried Heaven's current expression was as unpleasant as it could get. Of course, he knew what sequence power Virtuoso had mastered, but he had not expected Virtuoso to use it publicly like that.
However, right at this moment, on the monitor screen, Virtuoso turned their head all of a sudden and flashed a bland smile at the surveillance camera. "What's about to happen next involves private matters and isn't for public disclosure. For now, you can watch other people's performances."
As soon as Virtuoso said that, they snapped their fingers, and the screen immediately froze on Virtuoso's masked face.
"Switch Xiu Mu and Virtuoso's screen to other monitoring angles!" The team leader of God Capital hurriedly dialed a number.
"There's no way to switch. All the nearby monitors have malfunctioned!" The voice of a staff member came from the other end of the communicator.
"How could this happen?! How long will it take to be repaired?!" The team leader of God Capital asked frantically.
"We have no idea. At the moment, we aren't sure where the fault is. We're still investigating the monitors one at a time. We can't be certain how much time exactly is needed to repair them either."
Upon hearing this reply, the expression of God Capital's team leader became really grim.
This was the first time the monitors in the secret prisoner territory had malfunctioned.
The staff members of God Capital had indeed been somewhat caught off guard.
In the secret territory, Virtuoso switched off the monitor screen before turning their head to look at Lin Huang. "It's just the two of us left."
As soon as they said that, they seemed to have recalled something, glancing at the prisoner. "I almost forgot. There's a third party here."
Lin Huang frowned slightly. "What did you do?!"
"Nothing much, I just used a little trick to temporarily block the monitor." Virtuoso's tone was mild. "In which case, you can demonstrate your abilities without having to hold back, and you don't need to worry about your identity being exposed either."
"I think you might have mistaken me for someone else." Lin Huang still wanted to continue hiding his identity. After all, he was still unable to trust what the other party had said about blocking the surveillance monitors to the outside world.
"Have I?" Virtuoso's eyebrows rose under their mask. "You also have another name, Xie Lin. Of course, I even know that this isn't your real name. Your real identity is human. Your main cultivation path is Sword Dao; telekinesis is just your supplemental path.
"Not only that, but I also know something even Buried Heaven from Death Sickle doesn't—you're an Imperial Censor who can control the Protoss!"
Virtuoso's words caused Lin Huang's expression to darken. He could almost imagine the consequences if the Heavenly God team leaders in the outside world were to hear these words.
"You can relax; since I've come out with it, of course, I'm absolutely certain that no one else can hear what I've just said," Virtuoso added.
"I've already said that you've mistaken me for someone else." Lin Huang still chose to deny it. After all, he could not be certain if the monitors had really been blocked or not.
"Forget it. Whether or not I've mistaken you for someone else, it isn't important." Virtuoso understood as well that Lin Huang did not believe what they had to say. They, too, could not be bothered to continue wasting time on this subject. "My request still stands. Play a game with me.
"Don't say no too hastily. As long as you pass, you'll win a prize. I believe that you'll be satisfied with this reward."
Chapter 1512: Obsidian Dragon-being
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
"The rules of the game are very simple. All you need to do is to defeat it."
Virtuoso pointed at the third-rank Heavenly God prisoner who had been standing motionlessly to one side all this time.
"But I must let you know you that I've made some modifications to this creature, and it's far stronger than before. If you don't fight it seriously, you might very well die at its hands."
As soon as Virtuoso said this, Lin Huang noticed the prisoner slowly raising its head, its body already unleashed in combat mode. Scarlet eyes stared right at him. Simultaneously, a terrifying aura emanated from its body.
This was an Obsidian Dragon-being from the Abyss; under normal circumstances, they even looked somewhat human when viewed from a distance. The scales on their bodies were extremely fine, and if one did not look closely, this might appear similar to human skin. The only difference between themselves and humans was that they had a tail.
However, Obsidian Dragon-beings in combat mode were a different matter altogether.
Their bodies would expand to more than three meters in size, and the two eyes on their heads would split into four. The scales covering their bodies would revert to their original black rhombus-shaped structure. The shape of their bodies would also drastically mutate, their heads appearing similar to that of four-eyed monitor lizards with black scales.
Although this prisoner before him was already in combat mode, it also displayed obvious anomalies.
Lin Huang's sensing indicated that the aura around this prisoner was extremely dangerous, akin to a star on the verge of exploding.
The strength of the prisoner's aura practically broke through third-rank limits in an instant, then climbed all the way up. In the span of several breaths, it had surpassed fourth-rank and continued advancing toward fifth-rank.
Lin Huang also noticed that, even for his opponent, whose inherent physical body strength was in no way inferior to that of its dragonkin, its body was being pushed to its limit step by step, and wisps of black blood were starting to leak out from the cracks between the scales covering its body.
Although Lin Huang did not know the exact method that Virtuoso had used, he knew that this was definitely a technique that forcefully extracted one's potential. This type of technique would typically have severe repercussions.
Judging by this Obsidian Dragon-being's current state, if it were released from Virtuoso's technique, its physical body was likely to disintegrate straight away. Even worse, its soul might be immediately be dispersed as well.
"This fellow…" Lin Huang's pupils narrowed slightly. He no longer had time to pay attention to Virtuoso anymore.
This was because the deadly aura emanating from this monster in front of him was already occupying his full attention.
Without waiting for his opponent's aura to reach its peak, Lin Huang could not help seizing the initiative to make his move first.
One hundred thousand telekinetic flying daggers shot out from his sleeve cuffs, transforming into one hundred thousand blood-red lightning arcs that rained down on his opponent.
The Obsidian Dragon-being did not dodge. As it saw the countless blood-red blades shooting toward it like lightning, it suddenly opened its mouth, inhaled a long breath of air, then suddenly let out an earth-shaking roar.
"ROAR!"
Circular sound waves spread out in all directions along with the bellowing. Those sound waves were even imbued with levels of sequence power, turning everything to dust wherever they passed.
Under the impact of the sound waves, countless telekinetic flying daggers were sent shooting backward, crumbling all over the ground.
The attack of the telekinetic flying daggers, which had always worked in the past, was easily overcome by his opponent just like that.
Lin Huang frowned slightly. "Its consciousness seems to have already descended into chaos, but it can still perform such precise functions, and its timing is so precisely…"
He could not help but glance at Virtuoso, who was not far away.
It was impossible to tell whether Virtuoso was happy or sad under their mask, but their tone sounded relaxed. "Oh dear, you've discovered it so quickly.
"I forgot to mention just now. As I've done things that can't be disclosed to its body, its consciousness has descended into a state of chaos, and it's unable to fight normally. Therefore, I can only control its body and take over the work in this battle."
Initially, Lin Huang had only been guessing; he had not expected that Virtuoso would reveal the truth so easily.
This Obsidian Dragon-being was only a puppet.
Logically speaking, he should definitely first get rid of Virtuoso, the mastermind, without having to waste time on the puppet.
This idea also flashed through Lin Huang's mind, but he instantly rejected it.
On one hand, the previous round of test attacks had already shown that his opponent would not be so easily dealt with. Until now, he was still unclear as to what method it had used to render his telekinetic flying daggers useless.
On the other hand, Virtuoso had already said that as long as he won this game, he would get some benefits in return. If such a good thing did exist, naturally, he was not about to pass it up.
However, this puppet under Virtuoso's control was truly a lot stronger than Lin Huang had expected.
"I've already said that I've hijacked the monitors. Rest assured that you can fully use your abilities without worrying about anything at all," Virtuoso continued after that, "Look at me. I've revealed my cards, and I'm not worried about being seen by the monitors."
Despite hearing Virtuoso's voice, Lin Huang remained unmoved.
In fact, he knew that it was possible that there really was a problem with the monitors, otherwise, Virtuoso would not display this kind of ability.
One should know that the puppet Virtuoso was currently controlling was strong enough to go up against fifth-rank Heavenly Gods. This kind of power was already beyond all logic, even beyond the level that could be described by the word "genius".
This was so extraordinary that even a Lord would not be able to resist capturing it for a round of dissection.
However, Lin Huang still chose to proceed cautiously. Unless it was a last resort, he still did not wish to reveal his true abilities.
From his cuffs, even more telekinetic flying daggers shot out, surging toward the Obsidian Dragon-being like a wave.
One hundred thousand!
One hundred and fifty thousand!
Two hundred thousand!
…
Three hundred thousand!
The number of telekinetic flying daggers skyrocketed to a grand total of three hundred thousand but still had no effect on the Obsidian Dragon-being.
Thousands upon thousands of attacks did not even break through its defenses.
"You're completely wasting your Divine Power like this, and wasting your time and mine." Virtuoso was evidently very dissatisfied with Lin Huang's current performance. "With this level of attack, even if I don't control it to defend itself, you won't be able to break through its defenses either.
"Pull out your sword and show your true abilities!"
By the time Virtuoso finished speaking, they had already controlled the Obsidian Dragon-being to forcefully break through the circle of telekinetic flying daggers, swiftly approaching where Lin Huang was.
Lin Huang did not panic, and he still was not planning on pulling out his sword.
Telekinetic flying daggers shot out of his cuffs again like a school of fish.
This round, the blood-red lightning bolts were becoming sharper.
However, the Obsidian Dragon-being still under Virtuoso's control did not dodge and continued forcefully breaking through.
Blood-red lightning bolts compounded with three levels of sequence power flashed past the Obsidian Dragon-being's body, slicing through and leaving traces of black blood on its scales…
"At least this round of attack is starting to shape up, but if you want to force it to retreat, that's not enough!" Virtuoso continued shouting imperiously.
The figure of the Obsidian Dragon-being was getting closer and closer…
However, Lin Huang still maintained the same output, looking as if he had no intention of compounding an extra level of sequence power.
This continued until the Obsidian Dragon-being was in front of him, brandishing its heavy fists and preparing to burst open Lin Huang's head.
A cold expression flashed in Lin Huang's eyes. Suddenly, he raised his hands, and in a motion that seemed slow but was, in fact, swift, he tapped a finger on his opponent's heart.
A blood-red gleam beamed faintly from his fingertips.
The next instant, it was as if the Obsidian Dragon-being had been hit by a wave of massive force, and its body shot backward for dozens of kilometers, smashing through several mountain peaks…
Chapter 1513: No Fatality Notification
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Although Lin Huang had released this attack from his fingertips, he had actually used Sword Dao heavenly rule compounded with four levels of sequence power.
Under normal circumstances, a direct hit would have been enough to cause severe damage to a fifth-rank Heavenly God.
"Your attacks are finally starting to take shape," Virtuoso commented loudly. Not only was there no trace of surprise in their voice, but they even sounded slightly delighted.
Obviously, they had already anticipated Lin Huang's abilities.
Lin Huang had deliberately waited for the Obsidian Dragon-being to get close to him before launching this attack, in order to deceive the monitors.
After all, he still did not fully believe Virtuoso's claim that they had manipulated the monitors.
However, Virtuoso, who was at close range, had seen everything clearly. To be precise, they did not actually see the attack but rather sensed it.
As Lin Huang's attack had been directly released into the Obsidian Dragon-being's body from his fingers, nothing extraordinary could be noted visually—only a flash of red light could be seen at most.
Virtuoso was less than a hundred meters away from the two combatants, so they were able to sense even the most subtle of changes.
Although Lin Huang's attack had revealed his aura for only a moment, they still sensed it.
Not only did they sense his Sword Dao heavenly rule, but they could even clearly name all the god sequence chains LinHuang had utilized in this attack.
Crimson Lightning! Sun! Starburst! Godslayer!
Such a violent attack was enough to severely wound a fifth-rank Heavenly God powerhouse.
However, Lin Huang—who had released the attack—was not happy in the slightest at the moment.
This was because he could clearly sense that the Obsidian Dragon-being had withstood his blow and was not dead.
Not only was it still very much alive, but its aura had not even been weakened in the least.
The Obsidian Dragon-being crawled out of a pile of rubble within the sensing range of Lin Huang's Divine Telekinesis.
The fist-sized wound penetrating through its chest healed quickly at a speed visible to the naked eye.
This anomaly made Lin Huang frown slightly.
In fact, ordinarily speaking, the damage caused by rule-type powers could not be healed by Enhanced Regeneration-type divine abilities or powers.
That is unless the opponent possessed Rule Bending Powers of similar strength, in which case they would be able to use their own Rule Bending Power to counteract the Rule Bending Power attached to their wound.
In other words, as Lin Huang had used Sword Dao heavenly rule compounded with four levels of sequence power—which would be equivalent to the compounding of five levels of sequence power—the other party would also need to possess the ability to compound five levels of sequence power to counteract the sequence power attached to its wound.
The wound could only be healed after canceling out the sequence power that accompanied it.
However, the Obsidian Dragon-being's combat power was only third-rank, and it had only mastered three god sequence chains.
Even if it had become stronger due to the modifications made by Virtuoso, only its physical strength and Divine Power would be enhanced at most; it was impossible for it to suddenly master a few more god sequence chains out of nowhere.
Even so, the other had easily counteracted his compounded five levels of sequence power. This made Lin Huang glance at Virtuoso, who was standing outside the battlefield.
If the Obsidian Dragon-being was not the one who had nullified Lin Huang's sequence power, then it could have only been done by its manipulator, Virtuoso.
This made Lin Huang all the more apprehensive of Virtuoso.
This time, however, Virtuoso did not outwardly admit that they had done anything. Instead, they just smiled and said to Lin Huang, "This is the way it should be. Show your true strength, don't conceal it anymore.
"There's a time limit on how long I can manipulate the monitors. The longer you drag this game out, the greater the possibility of your abilities being revealed.
"Therefore, I suggest that you unleash your full strength and quickly end this game."
Lin Huang could tell that Virtuoso was basically semi-threatening him with these words.
The meaning behind his comment was very clear—if you continue dragging things on like this, I can only stop manipulating the monitors.
Lin Huang frowned slightly. After internally weighing the pros and cons, he came to a quick decision. "In that case, I'll do as you wish."
As soon as he finished speaking, more telekinetic flying daggers shot out from his cuffs.
The initial two hundred thousand flying daggers dramatically increased in numbers.
Three hundred thousand!
Four hundred thousand!
Five hundred thousand!
…
One million!
One million telekinetic flying daggers transformed into red lightning bolts, illuminating the entire void.
Dagger after telekinetic flying dagger trailed red electric arcs across the heavens, resembling a wave of blood-red snakes erupting in the sky.
The Obsidian Dragon-being had only just planted itself firmly on the ground when it saw blood-red lightning bolts shooting down from the sky, eclipsing the whole of the heavens like the arrival of a thunderstorm on Doomsday.
If it had any self-awareness left, it would have been completely shocked by this scene.
However, it was merely a tool. Under Virtuoso's control, its figure fled into the distance at top speed.
There was no reason for this, other than these millions of telekinetic flying daggers were all imbued with the same sequence powers as the previous one released from Lin Huang's finger.
There were five levels of compounding—Sword Dao heavenly rule, Crimson Lightning, Sun, Starburst, and Godslayer.
It might not have been a big deal if it was just a single blow, but the Obsidian Dragon-being's body would not be able to withstand millions of such attacks at all.
If this were the outside world, the Obsidian Dragon-being would definitely not be able to escape such an attack no matter how fast it was, because regardless of its speed, it would not be able to cross the distance of a star zone in an instant.
In this secret prisoner territory, however, the detection range of everyone's Divine Telekinesis was severely restricted, which gave the Obsidian Dragon-being a chance of survival.
As long as it fled out of the detection range of Lin Huang's Divine Telekinesis, it would be able to completely take care of this threat.
Of course, Lin Huang also became aware of Virtuoso's scheme immediately, and countless telekinetic flying daggers surrounded the Obsidian Dragon-being from various angles and routes.
The Obsidian Dragon-being's speed was indeed incredible, to the point it was almost on par with a sixth-rank Heavenly God.
Even so, Lin Huang's flying daggers were faster. In just two blinks of an eye, they had caught up to the Obsidian Dragon-being and had even blocked off all its escape routes.
The next second, the Obsidian Dragon-being was completely engulfed by the endless blood-red lightning bolts.
It had no time to even make a sound before it was completely shredded to pieces by the countless blood-red sword gleams.
This time, Lin Huang did not give Virtuoso a chance to heal the Obsidian Dragon-being.
However, after ripping apart the Obsidian Dragon-being's body, he frowned again.
This was because Xiao Hei still had not sent him a fatality notification.
Lin Huang thought about it for a moment, then switched the target of his attack without any hesitation. Countless lightning bolts transformed into a single blood-red lightning dragon, which then turned around and charged directly toward Virtuoso.
Despite that, Virtuoso just stood where they were without dodging or defending themselves, allowing the blood-red lightning bolts to swallow them up.
Lin Huang had put his all into this attack, but the moment the dragon's head came in contact with Virtuoso's body, he already knew the result.
This was because he could clearly sense that his telekinetic flying daggers had not hit anything.
To be honest, he had expected this.
Once the lightning dragon completely pierced through Virtuoso's body, Virtuoso patted their chest and exclaimed in exaggerated tones, "I was really scared by that attack just now. How frightening, I almost thought I was done for!"
"That was just an illusion; how could you be killed?" With a slight flick of Lin Huang's cuffs, the countless telekinetic flying daggers spun around and returned to him, disappearing into his sleeve cuffs.
"You saw through me so quickly. This is admittedly a little beyond my expectations…" Virtuoso was startled for a moment, obviously rather surprised.
Chapter 1514: A Reincarnated Being of the Club
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
"When did you become aware of it?" Virtuoso asked with a smile, showing no trace at all of becoming angry from embarrassment at their secret being exposed.
"I had an inkling when I attacked you for the first time," Lin Huang said frankly, "But I was only able to confirm this fact after killing that fellow just now."
Lin Huang glanced in the direction of the Obsidian Dragon-being as he spoke. It was already beginning to reform its physical body from a state of nothingness. However, Lin Huang only briefly glanced at it before turning his gaze away, completely dismissing it as a threat, and continued speaking.
"To be honest, even though I know I was caught up in your illusion, I still haven't figured out exactly which god sequence chain you used, to be able to trick me so stealthily."
"It's not that I can't tell you…" Virtuoso laughed. "But you'll have to get through this game first.
"It's meaningless for me to tell you now because if you don't pass this challenge, you'll die here."
Lin Huang glanced at the Obsidian Dragon-being again. "Is it necessary for us to continue this game? Every time I kill it, you just revive it. Unless your plan all along was to tire me to death?"
"I'm not that ludicrous." Virtuoso shook their head slightly. "It's merely that you haven't found the right method of getting through this challenge."
Upon hearing that, Lin Huang sank into a prolonged contemplative silence.
Seeing this, Virtuoso also stayed silent so they would not disturb Lin Huang's thoughts.
In the distance, the body of the Obsidian Dragon-being swiftly consolidated itself again… into two bodies.
From one, it had now become two…
Since Lin Huang had seen through their illusion, Virtuoso did not bother to conceal it anymore.
Lin Huang sensed an anomaly within the detection range of his Divine Telekinesis and could not resist looking up for a quick glimpse. When he saw the two Obsidian Dragon-beings, he could not help but be stunned for a moment.
Before the two Obsidian Dragon-beings could make a move, two telekinetic flying daggers shot out from Lin Huang's cuffs, taking out one monster each.
Before the two Obsidian Dragon-beings could even fully react, their heads exploded almost simultaneously, turning them into two headless monsters that were standing upright.
Since there was no use in shredding them to pieces, Lin Huang chose to conserve his Divine Power altogether, using only two flying daggers to deal with them.
Since blowing their heads apart and shredding them into pieces gave the same end result, he did not need to waste his Divine Power.
Even though he had killed the two Obsidian Dragon-beings in the time it took to snap his fingers, Lin Huang knew that the game was not over yet, because Xiao Hei still had not sent him any fatality notifications.
Two more heads began to rapidly grow back on the two headless corpses at a speed visible to the naked eye.
What was even more unusual was that the two figures had multiplied into four without Lin Huang realizing it.
When his Divine Telekinesis sensed that the number had increased again, Lin Huang lifted his head for a glance once more, then turned his head toward Virtuoso. "There's no end to this, is there?!"
Virtuoso laughed without saying a word.
They chose to observe without saying anything, wanting to see how Lin Huang would deal with the upcoming crisis.
Every time an Obsidian Dragon-being was killed, their numbers would double. The longer Lin Huang dragged it out, and the more times he killed these Obsidian Dragon-beings, the greater the threat he would face.
Once more, two telekinetic flying daggers shot out from Lin Huang's cuffs like a whirlwind. Together with the two previous flying daggers, they attacked the four Obsidian Dragon-beings.
The four Obsidian Dragon-beings were still lackluster in performance, and collectively had their heads blown apart again.
The next second, however, the heads of the four Obsidian Dragon-beings regenerated. Not only that, but their numbers doubled from four to eight.
Despite this change, Lin Huang's attention was not fully on the Obsidian Dragon-beings.
His Divine Telekinesis surged forth in all directions like a tide, exploring all the nooks and crannies around him, not forgoing even below ground.
However, even after searching carefully several times, he found nothing.
"I can't find any flaws…" Lin Huang frowned slightly.
Based on the hint in Virtuoso's previous comment, he suspected that the key to breaking the illusion did not lie in the Obsidian Dragon-beings, so he had expended no small amount of effort probing his surroundings.
He had spent over ten minutes searching five or six times within the detection range of his Divine Telekinesis—which covered an area of several hundred kilometers—but he still could not find any weaknesses in the illusion.
By now, the Obsidian Dragon-beings had multiplied to more than ten thousand in number.
Even if Lin Huang had previously not paid much attention to the threat posed by the Obsidian Dragon-beings, he had to take them seriously now.
However, he still had not given up on finding a way to end this game.
"Virtuoso said that I haven't found the right method for passing this challenge, but they could be deliberately trying to bamboozle me. Let's forget about what they said for now; finding their real motive is the key to solving this problem.
"As soon as they approached me, they said they wanted me to play a game with them. Throughout the game, the one thing they've been doing repeatedly is forcing me to use even stronger abilities… including the number of Obsidian Dragon-beings that currently just keeps increasing…"
After a painstaking investigation, Lin Huang finally found a clue to beating this challenge.
A blood-red battle sword rapidly coalesced in front of him.
Lin Huang did not notice, but the moment the battle sword coalesced, Virtuoso's eyes locked onto him intently.
Sword hilt in one hand, Lin Huang compounded Sword Dao heavenly rule with six levels of sequence power.
Crimson Lightning! Sun! Starburst! Godslayer! Obliteration! Deathly Stillness!
These six god sequence chains were all from the Sword Servants of the Great Heaven Palace.
Using six borrowed god sequence chains was actually quite a burden on Lin Huang, even though he was currently at third-rank true god-level.
Six types of sequence power with the addition of one type of Sword Dao heavenly rule were equivalent to compounding seven levels of sequence power.
This attack of Lin Huang's was as dazzling as an exploding sun.
The crimson rays illuminated the entirety of the heavens, turning them bright as day. Within the radius of the surrounding ten thousand-plus kilometers, it looked as if a luminous blood-red sun was shining in the sky.
As Lin Huang's blade sliced down, the blood-red rays lighting up the whole of the sky flared even more brilliantly. Even Virtuoso, who had been watching the battle, could not help shutting their eyes from the brightness.
The blinding red light lasted for several full minutes before it gradually faded. The tens of thousands of Obsidian Dragon-beings all turned into black ash that scattered in the wind.
Right at this point, Lin Huang felt as if some kind of layer had suddenly shattered before his eyes.
He zoned out for a moment before discovering that he was still standing where he had been, while Virtuoso, expression as infuriating as before, was standing opposite him not too far away.
Next to Virtuoso, the Obsidian Dragon-being stood motionless and expressionless, as if it had never moved at all in the first place.
Before Lin Huang could say anything, Virtuoso spoke up once again.
"Many people think that the god sequence chain I've mastered is the Obscured Sequence. Actually, the god sequence chain that I've mastered is called Fabrication. Not only can I switch between illusion and reality, but I can also create false images."
Virtuoso merely left it at that without providing any further explanation. However, they could still be considered to have kept their promise by telling Lin Huang the name of the god sequence chain that they had mastered.
"Let's reacquaint ourselves with each other, then. The Club—reincarnated being Xu Bin." Virtuoso extended a hand to Lin Huang…
Chapter 1515: Sword Seal Fragment
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
"Reincarnated being…"
These individuals known as reincarnated beings were part of a special profession selected by something called the Lord System. They traveled back and forth between various planes and universes to complete missions assigned by Lords, as well as to exchange various resources.
As a traveler, Lin Huang was naturally aware of the concept of reincarnated beings.
When he was in college, there was a time when he had read online literature. That period had really been the golden age of online literature, and he had read all kinds of novels. He had read more than a hundred works from the infinity genre at the very least, so he was no stranger to the mechanics of reincarnated beings from these novels. (TN: The infinity genre is mainly found in Chinese novels. It typically involves stories where characters are repeatedly summoned into alternate or virtual spaces separated from the real world and are made to complete certain tasks, such as missions, puzzles, or survival games.)
"Is it really like in the novels?" Lin Huang could not help asking as he looked at the Club identity page that Virtuoso projected.
"More or less," Virtuoso replied vaguely as if they did not want to dwell on this topic any longer.
"Okay…" Lin Huang was not very satisfied with this answer. "Why didn't you just tell me you were a member of the Club, instead of deliberately stirring up trouble like this?"
"I just wanted to test your abilities a little. If your abilities were no good, then there wouldn't be any need for me to tell you my identity," Virtuoso said boldly. They paused for a moment before directing their words toward Lin Huang again, "I've already introduced myself, so won't you introduce yourself too?"
"My apologies, it's just that this is my first time meeting a reincarnated being." Lin Huang smiled as he introduced himself, "The Club, traveler, Lin Huang."
He emulated the other and projected his own Club identity page.
"As I thought, it really is you." Virtuoso did not seem surprised.
"You know who I am?" Lin Huang was slightly confused.
"I've heard about you before." Virtuoso nodded slightly. "The total number of people in the Club is relatively small, and the frequency of newcomers being recruited is also very low. You're the one and only newcomer in nearly thirty thousand years, so naturally, you would have attracted everyone's attention."
"The only one in nearly thirty thousand years?" Lin Huang stared at Virtuoso with wide eyes. This was the first time he had heard about this, but he was also a little curious. "What about you?"
The reason he asked this question was that according to the information he had obtained from Death Sickle, Virtuoso was not that old—only a little over a hundred years old.
"Haha… this identity I have as Virtuoso is just a reincarnated clone of mine in this great world," Virtuoso replied with a smile. "My Primordium joined the Club more than two hundred thousand years ago.
"I was thinking that since I was in the same great world as you, we could take this opportunity to get to know each other. When you joined Death Sickle as Xie Lin previously, I actually already suspected that it might be you, but before I could confirm this, you disappeared.
"Fortunately, you reappeared and joined Death Sickle again as Xiu Mu. This proves that the link between our fates is still not over yet…"
This last comment made Lin Huang shiver when he heard it.
"Since you joined the Club more than two hundred thousand years ago, you're my senior." Lin Huang cupped his hands in front of himself in obeisance and said courteously, "This humble junior acted too irreverently a while ago."
It was hard for him to imagine just how strong someone was who possessed a Lord System and had lived for more than two hundred thousand years. Although the other had not said anything, Lin Huang guessed that their Primordium was most likely a lord-level powerhouse, or even stronger.
"Don't call me 'senior'. I'm me, and my Primordium is my Primordium. Both our consciousness are independent of each other. Moreover, my own combat level is not that much higher than yours." Virtuoso smiled and shook their head. "If you want to address someone as 'senior', you can do that when you meet my Primordium in the future. You don't have to do that with me.
"Everything I just told you is actually a secret. Buried Heave,n as well as the upper tiers of Death Sickle, don't know about my identity as a reincarnated being. All they know is that I'm a powerful reincarnation."
At this point, Virtuoso suddenly said, "We've veered way off topic with our chatting, so let's get back to the matter at hand.
"I actually had another reason for testing your strength besides wanting to get to know you."
Lin Huang raised his eyebrow slightly. To be honest, he had been a little puzzled over this. If the other had just wanted to get to know him, there really was no need to attack him to that extent.
"I want to invite you to join my team to go on a trip to the Abyss." After saying that, Virtuoso added, "The real Abyss."
Lin Huang could not help being stunned when he heard this.
It was not as if he had never encountered an Abyssal creature before, and he had even entered several secret zones and ruins related to the Abyss. However, he had never been to the real Abyss.
He was also aware of how terrifying the real Abyss was. Not only were there countless lord-level monsters in its depths, but there were also slumbering beings who were stronger than Lords.
He did not think that he was powerful enough at all in his current state to go wandering around the Abyss.
"Can I decline this offer?" Lin Huang immediately rejected the other party's invitation without hesitation.
"Can't you even let a person finish speaking first?" Under their mask, Virtuoso's expression was most certainly one of extreme exasperation.
"Alright, please go on." The expression on Lin Huang's face clearly said, 'Go ahead and say your piece, since I'll end up declining anyway.'
"I need a certain item from the Abyss to elevate to Heavenly God. That item is inside the body of a high-rank Abyssal Heavenly God, and I must personally retrieve it. I've been making preparations for the past few years so I can form a team to help me complete this matter."
"Can't you just request for help from some Heavenly Gods?" Lin Huang asked, raising his brows.
In his opinion, to solve a matter like this, they just had to bring a group of high-rank Heavenly Gods to help out, or they could simply ask Buried Heaven to go with them. There would be practically no Abyssal Heavenly Gods that they could not handle.
"Due to certain restrictions, I can only ask help from True Gods at most," Virtuoso shook their head rather helplessly as they explained.
"Does this count as a job change mission given to you by a Lord?" Lin Huang could not help smiling as he asked.
Virtuoso just stared blankly at him for a moment, then nodded their head. "I guess you could say that."
"You said you wanted to form a team. Besides me, who else have you invited?" Lin Huang inquired again.
"One of them is my friend's clone, a ninth-rank saber cultivator who's also a member of the Club. Another two are disciples who trained under my Primordium; one is a combat cultivator while the other is a spell caster, and they're both also ninth-rank. Including you and me, there will be five of us," Virtuoso explained.
"Let me just outright voice my concerns then. If we ever get targeted by a Lord or a being greater than a Lord, do you have a way to get us out of there?" If this were someone else, Lin Huang would not have even asked such a question because it was impossible that a True God would have the ability to escape alive from a Lord's grasp. However, Virtuoso's Primordium had exceptional strength, and they were also a highly-experienced reincarnated being, so they might really possess a means to escape from a Lord.
Upon hearing this question, Virtuoso was silent for a moment but finally nodded. "Initially, I wasn't actually planning on exposing a trump card such as this, but since you asked, I think it's better that I be honest. I do have a space-time flying shuttle in my possession. It was personally refined by my Primordium, and it can allow us to escape from the Kingdom of a Lord.
"You probably don't fully understand how things work in the Abyss. Although the borders are not very clear, the distribution of monsters is different at different depths of the Abyss. Lords and Heavenly Gods aren't within the same depth.
"Furthermore, in the Abyss, once various types of powers are released from the body, they will be extremely weakened. Unless a lord-level powerhouse or someone even stronger than that attacks, the energy fluctuations will not be transmitted very far. Even when top-tier Heavenly Gods collide, the fluctuations from the battle usually can only be sensed within the range of a hundred kilometers. Beyond this distance, no one will know that a battle was taking place."
"What will I gain if I join?" Lin Huang pondered for a moment, then asked.
Although he had been prepared to decline the offer at first, Virtuoso's explanation had dispelled much of his worries. Furthermore, he had been thinking about the fact that after leaving this secret territory, he would still need to hunt down more heavenly god-level monsters to increase his combat level, and most secret zone ruins did not have that many Heavenly Gods for him to hunt.
Based on Virtuoso's description, the Abyss indeed sounded like a good place to gain experience.
"Your cultivation is in Sword Dao and Telekinesis, so I can give you a Soul seal fragment first as a down payment. You can also consider it an apology for attacking you just now. After we're done and are out of the Abyss, I'll give you a Sword seal fragment as well," Virtuoso stated their conditions for this deal.
"Soul seal? Sword seal?" Lin Huang was utterly confused; he had absolutely no idea what these two things were that Virtuoso had mentioned.
Seeing Lin Huang's expression, Virtuoso immediately understood that he did not know what Soul seals and Sword seals were, and promptly explained, "You've probably heard that for Heavenly Gods to evolve to Lords, they need to consolidate Dao seals, right? These so-called Soul seals are the Soul Dao Dao seals consolidated and formed by Lords who are soul cultivators, while Sword seals are the Sword Dao Sword seals consolidated and formed by Lords who are sword cultivators. (TN: We believe that this was a typo on the author's part and it should be Sword Dao Dao seals instead of Sword Dao Sword seals, as the pinyin for the Chinese characters of 'Sword' and 'Dao' are both spelled as 'dao'. However, we have opted to translate it as is.)
"Dao seal fragments are the remnants left over after a Lord dies and their Dao seals fall to pieces. Although the Dao contained in these fragments is incomplete, they can still be interpreted, and a large amount of Dao power still remains within them.
"Every piece of Dao seal fragment is a priceless treasure to Heavenly Gods and half-step lord-level powerhouses alike. Heavenly Gods can increase their mastery over god sequence chains through interpretation of the Dao seal fragments and may even obtain a complete inheritance, while half-step lord-level powerhouses can absorb the Dao power from within and advance to become Lords."
Hearing this, Lin Huang was inevitably a little intrigued.
His Sword Dao was only at the beginning stages of Sword Dao heavenly rule, so he guessed that it would be highly unlikely for him to advance further in the foreseeable future. If he obtained a Sword seal fragment, he might be able to greatly speed up the progress of his sword cultivation.
"Can we change it to two Sword seal fragments instead?" Lin Huang could not help asking.
"What do you think these are—cabbages sold at the side of the road that you can pick and choose? I only have one Sword seal fragment. If I had two of them, I definitely would have given them to you. I'm not even a sword cultivator, so there's no use in me keeping them. Although you won't benefit from a Soul seal fragment as much as you would with a Sword seal fragment, it can still indirectly increase the strength of your Divine Telekinesis, and if you're lucky, it's not impossible for you to obtain a telekinesis-type inheritance." Virtuoso was feeling slightly exasperated.
"Alright, I guess. Soul seal it is, then." Lin Huang's tone was laced with obvious disappointment. "Can you make the Sword seal fragment your down payment, though? I'm fine with getting the Soul seal fragment after we're out of the Abyss."
"Alright," Virtuoso readily agreed and retrieved the Sword seal fragment.
Lin Huang looked curiously at the item that Virtuoso produced, but the moment he saw it, his eyes widened and his face filled with shock. "Are you telling me that this thing is a Sword seal fragment?!"
Chapter 1516: Lords Are Just Slightly Stronger Cultivators
The Sword seal fragment in Virtuoso's hand looked somewhat familiar to Lin Huang.
This was a dark gold-colored piece of paper the size of a human palm, and there were black sigils shining faintly on it. However, this piece of paper appeared to be incomplete, as if it had been torn off by someone.
Lin Huang's eyes widened. This item was almost identical to the One Page Sword Scripture within him, except that its torn shape was slightly different.
"Why, have you seen it before?" Virtuoso was also slightly surprised upon hearing this. Based on what Lin Huang said, he seemed to have seen it before. (TN: Author appears to be referring to Lin Huang's comment in the previous chapter, "Are you telling me that this thing is a Sword seal fragment?!")
"I guess I have." Lin Huang answered vaguely. He concealed the fact that he already had a Sword seal fragment within him.
Seeing that Lin Huang did not want to elaborate further, Virtuoso did not delve deeper into this topic either.
"I have a question. If it's the same for sword cultivation, and elevation to lord-level is through Sword Dao, will the condensed Sword seals have any differences in terms of strength?" Lin Huang was extremely curious about Dao seals and could not help but ask such a question.
"Yes, of course." Virtuoso smiled and nodded.
"The stronger the foundation of a person's cultivation, the stronger the condensed Sword seal will be.
"It's actually very simple logic. A Sword seal condensed from nine god sequence chains will never be stronger than the one condensed from hundreds of god sequence chains.
"Sword Dao is essentially a type of Rule Bending Power. In fact, there aren't any fundamental differences between Sword Dao heavenly rule and god sequence chains.
"Of course, the difference lies in the fact that each person's condensed Sword Dao heavenly rule is unique because it's impossible for two people to cultivate exactly the same sword skills. Even if you take things back to the very beginning and hypothesize that two apprentices cultivate the exact same sword skills, their inborn talent and comprehension would definitely not be identical. Moreover, their comprehension of different types of sword skills would never be the same either.
"It's these various factors that form the uniqueness of Sword Dao heavenly rule and determine the strength of Sword Dao heavenly rule, as well as the strength of the Sword seals that follow.
"In short, if you don't want to be crushed by other Lords after becoming one yourself, lay a solid foundation." After Virtuoso finished explaining, they added a concluding statement.
"I have another question." Lin Huang could not help but ask. "After lord-level… is there really a higher level?"
After deliberating for a moment, Virtuoso answered, "Let me put it this way, becoming a Lord is only the first step to becoming a powerhouse.
"Of course, for most people, lord-level is the final point, as well as the highest point in life. But for some people, the remaining journey is still very long…" When Virtuoso said the last sentence, they deliberately looked at Lin Huang.
"May I ask what the combat level of your Primordium is?" Again, Lin Huang could not help asking.
"This is confidential for the time being." Virtuoso shook their head and refused to provide an answer. "Because there's no point in telling you."
At this reply, Lin Huang smiled in embarrassment and did not continue probing.
After taking the Sword seal fragment from Virtuoso and agreeing on when they would enter the Abyss, Lin Huang chatted with Virtuoso for a while. It was basically him asking questions and Virtuoso answering them. Only when Virtuoso told him that the block they had placed on the monitors was about to lose its effect soon, did Lin Huang finally end the conversation reluctantly.
After the two of them exchanged their numbers, Virtuoso quietly left.
After Virtuoso left, the Obsidian Dragon-being soon recovered its willpower.
Lin Huang also quickly re-entered hunting mode.
Outside the secret territory, when the monitor screens were restored, the group of Heavenly Gods only saw Lin Huang fighting against the Obsidian Dragon-being.
"Where's Virtuoso?"
"Did the two of them fight or not?!"
"I really want to know what just happened…"
Several Heavenly Gods quickly opened up the Gold Leaderboard to check and saw that Virtuoso's name remained on it. Only then did they completely banish the thought, 'Has Virtuoso been killed by Xiu Mu,' from their minds.
Although Buried Heaven did not know what exactly had happened, seeing that Lin Huang remained intact and Virtuoso was still on the Leaderboard, he let out a long sigh of relief.
One was the almighty reincarnate, and one was the invincible genius.
Something bad happening to either of them was an outcome he did not want to see.
Inside the secret territory, Lin Huang quickly and successfully killed the Obsidian Dragon-being. After storing away its corpse, he continued hurrying toward his next target.
Although the encounter with Virtuoso was only a small interlude of ten minutes or so, Lin Huang now had a much deeper understanding of this world compared to before.
Perhaps Lords were the most powerful beings in this great world, but there were countless great worlds in the universe, most of them stronger than the great world he was currently in.
In the universe, Lords were just slightly stronger cultivators. There were stronger beings than Lords.
In the universe, those preeminent overlords might even have hundreds or thousands of Lords working for them.
He had originally thought that he was already quite powerful, to have been able to kill Heavenly Gods. However, after his conversation with Virtuoso, Lin Huang knew that this world was a lot more vast than he had imagined!
Setting aside his unruly thoughts, Lin Huang increased his determination to become stronger.
This was because only by becoming stronger would he get to see the vast world out there!
Outside the secret territory, several individuals from the group of Heavenly Gods soon discovered the change in Lin Huang.
"Have you all noticed that Xiu Mu's combat style seems to have become a lot steadier?"
"I feel it too. During the previous hunts, he seemed to be forcing his opponents to exert themselves to their fullest. Only when his opponents displayed their full strength would he dispose of them. But now the battles are a lot more concise and efficient, and it seems like he's trying to use the least number of telekinetic flying daggers to kill his opponents."
"I've also noticed that he's picking up on his opponents' every flaw and going after every single one of them to inflict maximum damage! His grasp of timing is much stronger than before."
"These changes are likely to have been brought about by Virtuoso!"
Buried Heaven had actually noticed the change in Lin Huang right from the start. In the beginning, he had been slightly concerned, worried that Virtuoso had done something to Lin Huang. However, gradually, he began to feel that this kind of change was not a bad thing, and it might even be good for Lin Huang.
Only Lin Huang himself knew that the reason behind his change of combat style was because he now understood that becoming stronger was not just about elevating his combat level.
Putting his heart and soul into experiencing each battle, seizing upon every detail of the fight, and learning from his opponents was also one way to become stronger.
As long as he worked hard enough, even if his opponent were weaker than himself, he would be able to gain something from every battle.
He even felt somewhat that he had rediscovered the kind of enthusiasm he had had when he first began the path of cultivation.
Another two days passed quickly in the secret territory.
Through each hunt, Lin Huang plundered rules from the inner worlds of the Heavenly God prisoners and soon raised his number of rules from 400,000 to 810,000, successfully elevating to fourth rank.
However, he had no plans to change his hunting targets, and still set his sights on third-rank Heavenly Gods.
His apparent combat level was ninth-rank true god-level, after all. Normally speaking, being able to hunt third-rank Heavenly Gods at this combat level was already quite impressive.
Although hunting fourth-rank Heavenly Gods would allow him to plunder rules much more speedily, to avoid attracting more attention, he still decisively chose to give up on that.
Chapter 1517: What A Savage!
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
In the void, a three-headed monstrous bird howled miserably as it frantically fled.
Large areas of the scales and feathers on its body were scorched black. Not only that, even one of its heads was gone.
If Lin Huang were here, he would probably have been able to identify that this monstrous bird being hunted down was called a Three-headed Owl. It was an aberrant species from the Abyss.
This type of bird could fly extremely fast, and its body stance and motions were like those of a demon. It moved silently and unpredictably, and its forte was assassination techniques.
Additionally, each of its three heads had individually mastered a type of Rule Bending Power from birth.
Usually, these types of Rule Bending Power were strength-type, illusion-type, and toxin-type.
Several extraordinary such Three-headed Owls could evolve into Heavenly Gods and condense Rule Bending Power into god sequence chains.
This Three-headed Owl being hunted down was one that had evolved into a Heavenly God.
Evidently, this battle had also caught the attention of several Heavenly God team leaders outside the secret territory.
"I seem to remember that initially, God Capital procured a batch of Three-headed Owls for experimental purposes, right?" The team leader of Xeno suddenly broached the subject.
"I remember this incident too. In the beginning, because of this, the price of Three-headed Owls shot up exorbitantly then. Many people headed into secret zones and ruins related to the Abyss especially to capture Three-headed Owls alive," the team leader of Precious Treasure Pavilion immediately chimed in as well. "At the time, we were wondering why God Capital was suddenly interested in Three-headed Owls, even purposely keeping dozens of them for research. We only found out later that the Owls were bought to be experimented upon."
"From the looks of it now, those experiments most probably failed." The team leader of Divine Clapnet smiled and glanced at the team leader of God Capital. It was rare enough to encounter an opportunity for a dig at God Capital, so of course, they were not about to pass it up.
The rest of the team leaders from the other organizations did not dare to speak, but most of them were secretly rejoicing.
God Capital had always taken pride in its pure blood. In fact, most of the God Territory organizations currently did not approve of this concept. What made individuals from God Capital even more unwelcome was the fact that its members were almost always flaunting their sense of superiority wherever they went.
Watching the team leader of God Capital being roasted right now, most of the team leaders from the various organizations present were feeling particularly invigorated.
As for the matter discussed by the several grade-7 organizations, most of the Heavenly God team leaders present understood it to some degree.
Ten thousand years ago, a researcher in God Capital was suddenly inspired to experiment on monsters like the Three-headed Owls. The reason was that the three heads of the Three-headed Owls were born with the inherent ability to master three different types of Rule Bending Power.
The researcher conceptualized, therefore, that if they forcefully elevated Three-headed Owls to heavenly god-level, would it be possible for this monster to master three god sequence chains straight away at first-rank heavenly god-level.
If this experiment succeeded, based on the biological characteristics of the Three-headed Owls, they could further study how to bypass and break through the strength limits of body and soul to master multiple god sequence chains.
However, this experiment failed right from the very start.
After all the Three-headed Owls had successfully condensed a god sequence chain, they either elevated straight to heavenly god-level or were stuck at true god-level, unable to break through. Some of them also experienced an acceleration of their aberration after being forced to condense a second god sequence chain, and exploded to death.
As for three god sequence chains—not a single Three-headed Owl had successfully condensed even two god sequence chains at first-rank heavenly god-level.
After thousands of experimental failures, God Capital ultimately gave up on this experiment for lack of a better option.
As for the remaining experimental subjects, they were naturally tossed into the secret prisoner territory.
"The little princess from Nephilic Judge Tribe is performing quite well." The team leader of God Capital changed the subject right away, as it was Kylie, the little princess of the Nephilic Judge Tribe, who was hunting down this Three-headed Owl. "I heard that several of our dashing young talents have gone forward to propose to her?"
The Nephilic Judge Tribe team leader's smile held a touch of awkwardness. "It's true."
"Her abilities are truly something else. She can be regarded as a top-tier True God." The team leader of the Combat God Temple nodded in satisfaction. "I heard that kid Zhan Kuang seems to be interested in her."
"It's not just Zhan Kuang. From what I know, there are many prodigies who adore this little princess." The team leader of Divine Clapnet smiled. "Although there are several of them who haven't expressed it yet, I anticipate that after this trip to the secret territory, they'll definitely make a move."
According to the insider information Divine Clapnet had received, many organizations actually had set their sights on Kylie.
Some top-notch True God prodigies had not expressed their intentions yet, wanting to see for themselves whether this little princess was a phony or if she was genuinely that powerful.
However, during this trip to the secret prisoner territory, Kylie had already demonstrated top-notch prodigy-levels of strength.
It was anticipated that several prodigies, who were originally watching from the sidelines, would take action soon.
Listening to the others' discussion, the team leader of Nephilic Judge Tribe merely laughed along without sharing his opinion.
They were clearly aware that this little princess had no intention whatsoever of marrying; when it came to the Nephilic Judge Tribe, she did not have much of a sense of belonging either.
How to convince her to marry was still a big problem.
In the secret territory, clad in silver armor with faulds, Kylie was unaware that the outside world was talking about her.
From the moment she entered this secret prisoner territory, she vented all her emotions through hunting.
This three-headed monstrous bird before her was the prey that had given her the most emotional catharsis since entering the secret territory.
Although there was hardly any expression on her face, her every blow revealed her displeasure.
Although this Three-headed Owl could not be regarded as the most powerful amongst the first-rank Heavenly Gods in the secret prisoner territory, its overall abilities could be considered top-notch.
Normally, when it encountered other prisoners it could not afford to antagonize, it could hide or run away.
However, in front of Kylie, it had nowhere to retreat. It could neither hide nor escape.
Once electromagnetic induction was turned on, all its escape methods were useless in front of Kylie. In terms of speed, it did not have any advantages over her at all.
Since their initial encounter, the Three-headed Owl had been subdued into a state of subjugation all this while, to the extent it could not even lift its head.
The god sequence chain it had mastered was a type of toxin, but in front of Heaven's Punishment—the god chain Kylie had mastered—it was broken down by lightning straight away.
The small remaining part that had not been broken down was also isolated outside its body by Kylie's electromagnetic screen, which contained sequence power, making it hard to enter.
What was even more preposterous was the fact that Kylie was also wearing a full-body god sequence relic outfit.
From the crown on her head to her earrings, and necklace, to her battle armor and faulds, as well as the battle spear in her hand, her rings, then the high heels on her feet… All of them were god sequence relics.
Therefore, in front of this little princess from the Nephilic Judge Tribe, the only option that remained for the Three-headed Owl was to be pulverized.
The god chain, Heaven's Punishment, was extremely lethal to begin with, and it was a sequence that resulted in extreme agony.
Every time Three-headed Owl was hit, it was no different from being tortured.
Each time it howled, it was due to the excruciating pain emanating from the depths of its heart.
Therefore, before it was hit more than twice, it knew that it was no match for Kylie and turned to flee.
However, it had not expected to be unable to escape.
This was because this woman was faster than it was…
Kylie gave chase with the battle spear in her hand. With each attack from her spear, purple-red lightning burst from the spear tip, turning into countless lightning arcs that descended upon the Three-headed Owl.
After being chased like this for over twenty minutes, in the middle of its miserable howls, the Three-headed Owl's last head exploded in the lightning arc. It turned into a headless scorched corpse and collapsed onto the ground…
Watching this scene unfold, many Heavenly Gods outside the secret territory secretly thought, "What a savage!"
Chapter 1518: That Purple-haired Girl Is Pretty Good
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After successfully elevating to fourth rank, to avoid attracting even more attention, Lin Huang kept his sights on third-rank heavenly god-level prisoners as his hunting targets from beginning to end.
After all, there were only a few like Stitch, who contained large quantities of Rule Bending Power inside their inner worlds. The majority of the third-rank prisoners he had slain only allowed him to plunder fifteen thousand to twenty thousand types of rules.
As the domains of the Heavenly God prisoners were far away from each other, most of his time was spent on traveling, and the number of Heavenly God prisoners he killed every day was usually between twelve and fifteen.
At this rate of plundering, it took him a whole week before he managed to obtain enough rules to advance to fifth-rank true god-level.
As he was limited by the distance between the domains of the Heavenly God prisoners and was also unable to use Space Rule and sequence to teleport—coupled with the fact that his hunting targets were still third-rank heavenly god-level prisoners—his killing efficiency did not increase by much after his combat level had advanced.
The Heavenly God team leaders outside the secret territory saw that he was becoming more adept at hunting.
It was just that after numerous times, they did not feel surprised anymore.
Several Heavenly God team leaders were even discussing why Lin Huang was not challenging more difficult targets.
"I thought that after Xiu Mu familiarized himself with hunting third-rank Heavenly God prisoners, he would continue challenging himself and try hunting fourth-ranks. But it's been a week, and he seems to have no intention of trying at all."
"I don't really understand either. Why did he give up on challenging fourth ranks straight away? Looking at the character he's displayed previously, it shouldn't be like this."
"Maybe he feels that hunting third-ranks is a more efficient way to obtain points, in order to secure first place on the Gold Leaderboard. After all, the prize for first place on the Gold Leaderboard is still a fairly tempting prospect."
"I don't think that he's the kind of person who gives up a challenge for points and rankings. Moreover, he still has a clear advantage in points. Even if he delays for two or three days, he's still unlikely to be overtaken by the person in second place. Spending half a day to attempt this challenge once won't affect his ranking at all. There has to be another reason for him not to challenge the fourth-ranks."
"Why are you guys complicating things so much? Perhaps he just feels that he isn't strong enough to challenge fourth-ranks and has simply given up."
There were even people who directed their questions straight at Buried Heaven, enquiring as to what Lin Huang's true abilities were.
Buried Heaven only smiled and responded with, "I'm not sure either."
The Heavenly God team leaders were tired of watching Lin Huang hunt, so they finally began shifting their attention to other trial participants.
Many of the trial participants were completely oblivious to the fact that although the trial had already progressed to one-third of the way through, they were finally being noticed for the first time.
However, in comparison with Lin Huang, the others' performances were not as satisfactory.
Most of them hunted ninth-rank True Gods, and there were basically no highlights; the Heavenly God team leaders nearly fell asleep while watching.
Although several top-tier hunters were hunting first or second-rank Heavenly Gods, their battles were extremely difficult. The shortest battle still took more than two hours to complete; the longest battle even lasted for a full day and night.
If this had been in the past, no matter how long these battles lasted, they were still marvelous in the eyes of the Heavenly God team leaders.
After all, True Gods crossing levels to hunt Heavenly Gods was an extraordinary feat in itself.
However, this time the Heavenly God team leaders were frowning while watching.
After witnessing Lin Huang's crushing successes, there was a clear sense of contrast, and this group of top-tier hunters was a lot weaker compared to Xiu Mu.
Lin Huang hunted down third-rank Heavenly Gods as smoothly as moving clouds and flowing water. Not a single unnecessary move was made throughout the entire process. Moreover, one battle lasted for half an hour at most, and he could complete a hunt in approximately twenty minutes most of the time.
In comparison, the hunts of other top-tier powerhouses were a lot more awkward.
Of course, there were a few trial participants below the top-tier levels who drew attention as well.
An example was Bloody.
Amongst the True God hunters, Blood could be regarded as one of those with the lowest combat level.
This was because, in order to showcase the strength of their younger generation, the trial participants sent by the major organizations to take part in the secret territory hunt each time were essentially their strongest geniuses.
Those at virtual god-level were basically all Virtual Gods rank-9. Those at true god-level were basically all at ninth-rank as well.
Bloody was the only eighth-rank participant among the True Gods.
Originally, the Nephilic Judges were quite reluctant to give the slot to Bloody, because if she did not perform well, she would bring shame to the Nephilic Judge Tribe.
It was Kylie who strongly contested this, saying that if they did not allow Bloody to participate, she would not take part either.
Only then did the Nephilic Judge Tribe give Bloody a slot.
Bloody was not considered strong among the many True God geniuses since she was only at class-4.5 Pseudo-supreme God-level, whereas there were at least dozens of participants who were Supreme God rank-5s.
However, her performance was very outstanding, even comparable to that of several top-tier powerhouses.
After entering the secret prisoner territory, she did not immediately proceed to hunt down ninth-rank True Gods. Instead, she turned to the eighth-rank prisoner domains and spent a whole two days controlling more than ten eighth-rank prisoners. On the third day, she finally brought along more than ten of these eighth-rank parasitic bodies and began attacking ninth-rank prisoners.
While she was besieged by a group of eighth ranks, she then searched for an opening to parasitize them.
After that, she took three days to control ten ninth-rank prisoners before leading the group to slaughter their way into the domains of first-rank Heavenly Gods.
In the past five days, she had already defeated seven first-rank Heavenly Gods.
She had also succeeded in controlling two of them.
What the Heavenly God team leaders in the outer world did not know was that Bloody actually could control all seven of them but she intentionally acted three times as if she had failed at controlling them, just to reveal the limits of her parasitic power to avoid others being afraid of the consequences.
Even the team leader of Nephilic Judge Tribe bought it. This was because their impression of Bloody was that her abilities had always been poor, and Kylie was always protecting her. Her performance this time had already exceeded their expectations by leaps and bounds.
There were even a few Heavenly God team leaders who began to discuss Bloody.
"That purple-haired girl from the Nephilic Judge Tribe is pretty good. Although her combat strength is a bit weak, she's actually mastered god sequence chains, and it's a control-type god sequence chain which can control first-rank Heavenly Gods!"
"The limitations of this power are a bit too low. It's reached its limits after controlling only two first-rank Heavenly Gods. It's rather a pity…"
"This type of control power is generally related to psychic strength. Although it can only control two first-rank Heavenly Gods now, it still has the potential to be strengthened further. After all, this girl's combat level is only at eighth-rank true god-level. When she elevates to heavenly god-level, her spirit strength will also undergo a round of transformation, and her psychic strength will greatly increase then. Being able to control ten Heavenly God puppets is far stronger than average Heavenly Gods of the same rank."
Evidently, Bloody's acting skills had successfully fooled all the Heavenly God team leaders who were watching the battle through the screen.
In fact, if it were not that she had to meet up with Lin Huang, based on Bloody's cautious habits, she would definitely have given up on trying to enter the Heavenly God domain to hunt. She would have continued keeping a low profile to prevent herself from being noticed.
She had entered the Heavenly God domain because from the beginning, she had discussed the matter with Lin Huang and agreed to meet him there.
Moreover, the meeting point that she and Kylie had decided upon was also in the Heavenly God domain.
Chapter 1519: Touch Ball
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
In a flash, five days passed by just like that.
Bloody and Kylie successfully managed to meet in the Heavenly God domain.
Currently, Bloody had gone through half a month of hunting and had elevated to ninth-rank True God. The number of ninth-rank Heavenly Gods she could control had also grown from two to three.
As the hunting rules had stated that group hunting was prohibited in the secret prisoner territory, the duo worked out a way of hunting in the manner of playing touch ball.
Every time they encountered a target, one would be responsible for attacking, while the other would watch the battle from the sidelines.
However, once the prey revealed its weakness, the other person would take over the attack.
On the surface, it seemed as if they were fighting over the target; in reality, they were aiding each other, breaking the target's tempo of battle.
This fighting technique that the two ladies displayed became a topic of discussion among the Heavenly God leaders who were watching outside the secret territory.
"This touch ball technique is… amazing!"
"That purple-haired girl is so accurate with her timing! Every time she controls her puppets to attack, it's always at the opponent's weakest point."
"The most important thing is that it seems like she's really competing for the target every time she attacks. If I didn't know that they're best friends, I'd genuinely believe that she's fighting to snatch away the prey."
"I think we can let the participants do it like this too in the future."
As the group of Heavenly God leaders continued their heated discussion, the expressions on the faces of God Capital's Heavenly God leaders were rather unpleasant.
The rule set by God Capital had been broken and in front of so many people. To God Capital, this was not something to be proud of at all.
In all honesty, they could not determine that the way Bloody and Kylie played was collaboration. Instead, it looked as if the two girls were fighting to snatch the other's intended prey.
However, the duo's hunting efficiency had increased more than several times by doing so. Not only that, they were practically invincible in the first-rank Heavenly God zone.
The rate at which their hunting points increased was rapidly catching them up with the top three participants.
The performance of the two girls caused a lot of discussion among the Heavenly God leaders outside the secret territory.
"If I'm not wrong, that purple-haired girl must have combined a simplified battle formation, where three puppets are equivalent to one person. The three puppets' ability isn't a simple matter of compounding either."
"Little Princess Kylie is performing pretty well too. She must have known the purple-haired girl for a long time. This sort of tacit understanding can't be developed in a mere short period."
After a full day of major battles in the secret prisoner territory, both girls headed straight to the domain of the second-rank Heavenly God prisoners early the next day and began a new round of hunting.
The first target the duo chose was a Demonic Eight-Eyed Ape.
This Demonic Ape had mastered two god sequence chains—Superhuman Strength and Vajrapani. It had prodigious strength and unparalleled defenses; it was also an expert in close-quarter combat.
Its overall ability could be considered top-tier among the second-rank Heavenly Gods.
In reality, the two girls had chosen this hunting target not to kill it but to test the waters.
For one, Bloody wanted to find out the limits of her battle formation consisting of three first-rank Heavenly God convicts. For another, Kylie wanted to find out how far her most powerful attack could go.
With these goals in mind, the two girls invaded the Demonic Eight-Eyed Ape's territory.
The ape did not beat around the bush either; the battle started immediately.
Bloody controlled the battle formation consisting of the three convicts and took the initiative to charge at the Demonic Eight-Eyed Ape. Meanwhile, Kylie watched the battle from the sidelines just like before.
The giant shadow of a blood-red ape consolidated in the air and collided with the Demonic Eight-Eyed Ape.
The collision of the two massive silhouettes, one black, and one red, caused Divine Power to surge in all directions.
It seemed as if they were evenly matched, but as soon as the collision happened, Bloody knew a direct attack would not win the battle.
Judging by the pressure coming from the battle formation, the opponent had the upper hand in terms of suppression.
On second thought, Bloody immediately controlled the battle formation and changed her modus operandi of battle.
She retreated far away at once from the massive energy surging from her opponent, offloading the majority of the force of the attack.
Seeing that the giant ape shadow had not settled down yet and that the Demonic Eight-Eyed Ape wanted to seize the opportunity to go after it, Kylie could not help making her move.
Her spear stabbed holes through the void, which turned into hundreds of purplish-red lightning arcs that blocked the Demonic Ape's way.
As soon the giant ape shadow finished offloading the impact not too far away, Bloody took control and sent it charging at the Demonic Eight-Eyed Ape to prevent the monster from changing its battle target.
Kylie's attack earlier was clearly not to snatch the target away, but to help Bloody.
This time, it was obvious to anyone not blind.
Fortunately, Bloody managed to draw the Demonic Eight-Eyed Ape's attention back to herself, while Kylie also became aware of her own mistake. She stopped attacking and did not participate in the fight.
The group of Heavenly God leaders watching outside the secret territory also did not say anything.
The leaders from God Capital merely frowned and said nothing either.
The battle in the secret territory surprised nobody.
The giant ape shadow was suppressed by the Demonic Eight-Eyed Ape throughout the close combat between the two gigantic monsters.
Bloody had been controlling the giant ape shadow to avoid a head-on collision. She destroyed the attacks with her agility and countered the threats one after another. However, her attack did not cause any substantial harm to the Demonic Eight-Eyed Ape.
The battle lasted for almost three hours, but she decided to give up in the end.
Meanwhile, Kylie, who had been watching the battle from the sidelines, immediately began the second stage of combat.
She showcased her upper hand as soon as she began fighting.
She dominated her opponent with her speed and agility while she dodged all of its attacks with ease. Not only that, due to her extremely swift and stealthy attacks, most of her blows managed to hit the Demonic Eight-Eyed Ape.
Ray upon ray of purplish-red lightning shot out at different angles and in various forms. However, they merely caused a little bit of external injury at most every time they struck the Demonic Eight-Eyed Ape. These wounds recovered almost immediately.
Although Kylie had a massive advantage in speed, she was defeated by her opponent's defenses. Her attack power was even weaker than Bloody's battle formation shadow, and she could not cause any effective harm to the Demonic Eight-Eyed Ape at all.
Nevertheless, Kylie was unwilling to give up and tried for close to two hours, even though she knew she could not break through its defenses. In the end, she had no choice but to abandon her attempts.
However, the Demonic Eight-Eyed Ape had been enraged by the duo and was not planning on letting them leave just like that. One must know that it had been disturbed for over five hours for no reason by the both of them taking turns to attack it.
Although it had the advantage over Kylie and Bloody in terms of strength and defenses, it was far inferior to Kylie where speed was concerned.
Kylie flapped her wings and flew away immediately after putting Bloody and the three convicts away in her God Territory. It took her only less than three minutes to shake off the Demonic Eight-Eyed Ape that had been pursuing her.
Despite the two girls being unsuccessful in this battle, they had still attracted the attention of many Heavenly God leaders outside the secret territory.
Some even sympathized with them, thinking that they had picked the wrong opponent.
However, some of the Heavenly God leaders could tell that the two girls had deliberately provoked the Demonic Eight-Eyed Ape on purpose.
On the surveillance camera, Kylie released Bloody from her God Territory after shaking off the Demonic Eight-Eyed Ape on her heels.
Although this battle had been a failure, they did not give up at all. They continued heading towards their next target while beginning to review the earlier fight…
Chapter 1520: The Meeting Of The Three
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Lin Huang felt that the time spent hunting in the secret prisoner territory went by very quickly.
By the time he elevated to sixth-rank True God, it was already the last three days before the secret territory closed.
He had not actually forgotten the main reason for entering the secret prisoner territory this time. It was just that he had not been able to find a particularly opportune moment to meet up with Kylie and Bloody.
Since he could sense his summoning beasts' coordinates at all times, his choice of hunting targets throughout this half-a-month seemed random, but in reality, he was heading closer to where the two girls were.
Bloody and Kylie could also sense where Lin Huang was; as they hunted, they too were approaching closer in his direction.
On the second day after Lin Huang elevated to sixth-rank True God—which was also three days before the secret territory closed—he suddenly chose a prisoner located close to the border of the first-rank and second-rank Heavenly God domains.
Kylie and Bloody picked a second-rank Heavenly God prisoner close to the border at almost the same time as well.
The two territories were less than six hundred kilometers apart.
Very soon, the Heavenly God leaders outside the secret territory noticed this unusual situation.
"The target that the little princess from the Nephilic Judge Tribe picked is so close to the one Xiu Mu chose!"
"Those two girls won't encounter Xiu Mu face-to-face, will they?!"
"They're too close to each other. There's a high possibility of them sensing each other as soon as the waves from the battles spread. I wonder if Xiu Mu will go investigate out of curiosity."
"It doesn't really matter even if they encounter each other. All the participants know the hunting rules in the secret prisoner territory. The possibility of Xiu Mu attacking the two girls is low."
Although most people believed that Lin Huang would not attack the duo, the Nephilic Judge Tribe team leader still displayed a rather unpleasant expression.
He would not be as worried if Kylie were to encounter any other top-tier True God powerhouses apart from Xiu Mu and Virtuoso.
However, she was unfortunate enough to encounter Xiu Mu this time—an unbelievable genius whose ability could completely crush third-rank Heavenly Gods.
Although the rules said that attacking participants was not allowed in the secret territory, the lines were very blurred.
The organizers would turn a blind eye on the participants as long as nobody was killed or incapacitated.
Moreover, Xiu Mu also had his battle with Virtuoso as precedence. It would not be surprising if he attacked other participants.
The group of Heavenly God leaders was still discussing this topic outside the secret territory.
Meanwhile, Kylie and Bloody had arrived in the domain where their target was and had initiated combat.
The battle between the two girls and the second-rank Heavenly God prisoner had only just begun for less than twenty minutes before Lin Huang arrived where his target was as well. He began hunting a third-rank Heavenly God prisoner.
In reality, the three of them already knew they had arrived at this distance from each other, even without using telepathic voice transmission.
The three of them did not display anything out of the ordinary, behaving as usual.
In the surveillance monitors, it seemed as if they were not aware of each other's existence at all.
As usual, Lin Huang overwhelmed his opponent just as he had done on previous occasions, taking only twenty minutes or so to kill his prey.
However, after killing his opponent and storing the monster carcass away, he suddenly lifted his head and stared toward the distant sky.
There were streaks of faint purplish-red lightning illuminating in the clouds in that direction.
This gesture caused the Nephilic Judge Tribe leader watching outside the secret territory to have a moment of tension.
The rest of the Heavenly Gods watching the battle were staring at the surveillance screen as well, not wanting to miss a single thing.
A couple of seconds later, Lin Huang moved in a flash, swiftly heading in the direction of the purplish-red lightning streaks.
"As expected, they've been discovered…"
Someone among the Heavenly God team leaders could not help sighing.
It took Lin Huang merely the space of a few breaths to cross the distance of over five hundred kilometers.
When Kylie was still fighting the second-rank Heavenly God prisoner, he revealed himself completely, standing upright in the void less than a hundred meters from the battleground.
Bloody immediately looked up at him, her expression guarded and vigilant. Her acting skills were perfect.
Lin Huang merely glanced at her without a word.
However, Kylie, who was currently fighting, was clearly a little distracted.
She was actually not acting at all; she was genuinely distracted by sensing Lin Huang's aura near her again.
"Being distracted during a battle is a cardinal sin," Lin Huang reminded her immediately. "Don't mind me. I sensed the energy waves and thought I would stop in on the way to check it out."
Although he said this, Lin Huang had no intention of leaving at all. Instead, he crossed his arms and watched the battle, sitting in the void with his legs crossed.
Kylie hurriedly focused after hearing Lin Huang's reminder and put herself entirely in battle mode.
Outside the battleground, Bloody was watching Kylie's fight while keeping her guard up at Lin Huang.
"Who are you?"
Bloody's acting skills were perfect. As Xiu Mu had only risen to prominence since entering the secret territory, by all normal logic, she certainly would not know who he was. Moreover, as the best friend of the Nephilic Judge Tribe's little princess, it even made sense for her to not know anyone else, other than a few top-tier True Gods.
"Xiu Mu from Death Sickle," Lin Huang disclosed his identity and looked at Bloody with a smile. "I've seen the both of you outside the territory—the Nephilic Judge Tribe's little princess and her best friend."
Bloody's face turned pale upon hearing Lin Huang's identity; it seemed that she was shocked by his name. However, she remained stern as she spoke, "Good that you know then. You'd better not plot anything against us!"
Lin Huang displayed both his hands while smiling, implying that he had no intention of attacking.
However, Bloody clearly did not let her guard down, still looking rather displeased.
"Girl, I heard the little princess is getting married?" Lin Huang asked, testing the waters while smiling.
"No, that's fake news!" Bloody denied right away. In reality, she said this on purpose for the benefit of the many organizations that were watching through the surveillance video. "Sister Kylie isn't impressed by stupid men like you! She's going to elevate to Supreme God rank-6 and dominate all you supreme geniuses!"
"Oh, I see…" Lin Huang cupped his chin, looking like he was in deep thought.
Outside the secret territory, after hearing Bloody's comments, the numerous Heavenly God leaders realized immediately that Kylie herself had no intention of getting married.
The Nephilic Judge Tribe team leader looked rather embarrassed. Naturally, he knew of Kylie's aspirations. However, he was just like the upper echelons of the Nephilic Judge Tribe and thought that she did not possess such ability. Only by marrying her off would the Tribe benefit most of all.
The Heavenly God leaders saw the awkward expression on the Nephilic Judge Tribe leader's face and felt even more certain that the arrangements for marriage were against Kylie's will.
Although some organizations did not mind that and felt that what she wanted did not matter as long as the marriage happened, other organizations felt that a forced marriage would bring hidden misfortunes with it. They began considering whether or not they should abandon their plans for proposing marriage.
What everyone did not know was that right under the surveillance cameras, Lin Huang had crushed five Supreme God rank-5 Advance Cards secretly and imbued them into Kylie's body. This would help her break through the most important hurdle and successfully elevate to sixth-rank Supreme God…