Chapter 1441: Heart-glimpsing
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
In the unending darkness, a gigantic face that that blocked out the sun emerged slowly into view. The long-legged lady suppressed her auras as much as possible and curled her body up tight, hoping that the face would not notice her.
However, the next instant, the eyes in the massive face suddenly snapped around and locked onto her.
At that moment, she felt as if time had frozen. She was unable to move a single inch of her body, much less flee. She could not even move her fingers at all.
"I'll ask the questions now, you answer."
As the massive face spoke these words, the long-legged lady finally realized that she could move slightly now, and hastily nodded. At this moment, her mind was completely overtaken by terror with no room for any other thoughts.
"Who are you people?"
"I'm… I'm Teng Qing. I'm the deputy sect leader of the Thousand Snake Sect. We are all from the Thousand Snake Sect."
'The Thousand Snake Sect…' Lin Huang was unfamiliar with this name; he felt that it would probably not be that much of a major organization. 'I should get Bloody and the others to do some investigation later.'
"Why are you invading the gravel world?" The massive face asked a second question.
"Myriad Tribe Palace ordered it; I don't know the specifics. Only the succeeding sect leader from the Thousand Snake Sect will be told."
"Myriad Tribe Palace?!" Lin Huang was certainly familiar with this name. Myriad Tribe Palace was one of the top grade-6 organizations in the God Territory; their overall strength was not under that of Death Sickle.
"Who's your sect leader?"
"My elder brother. His name is Teng Ran." Before answering this question, Teng Qing made a strenuous effort to avoid giving a reply. However, she discovered that she had no means of resisting at all. Whatever the questions posed by the massive face, she would answer truthfully in the shortest time possible, as though she were a puppet whose strings were completely controlled by the person in front of her.
What she did not know was that Lin Huang had used a god rule called Heart-glimpsing that allowed him to read all the information he required directly from his target's souls.
This scenario was merely an illusion. In reality, Lin Huang did not need her to open her mouth to answer—her soul would answer all of Lin Huang's questions with no reservations.
However, this God Rule could only be used on people who were much weaker than the user.
Teng Qing fulfilled the necessary criteria perfectly. Although she had more than thirty types of god rule at her fingertips, she had not reached Control-level in any of them. Faced with the compounded effects from the Hypnosis God Rule combined with the Heart-glimpsing God Rule at Control-level, she was utterly helpless.
Lin Huang had chosen Teng Qing as his breach point because he had managed to sense that, among the few rank-9 True Gods, the rule fluctuation from her was the weakest.
"Is the Thousand Snake Sect responsible for the previous invasions too?"
This was one of the questions that Lin Huang truly wanted to know the answer to.
"Yes, clearing up this part of the gravel world has always been the Thousand Snake Sect's responsibility," Teng Qing blurted out the truth with no means of resisting. "Last time, it was our grandfather. Before that, it was our grandfather's grandfather…"
"Are they still alive?" Lin Huang narrowed his eyes as he asked.
"They died as they were evolving into Heavenly Gods."
Lin Huang was quite surprised to hear her answer but he soon felt relieved.
"How many people from the Thousand Snake Sect are here this time? How many stayed back?"
"All the True Gods and Virtual Gods are here." Teng Qing tried her best to shut up but to no avail. "There are a total of twenty-three small worlds that we are monitoring. We gather all the True Gods and Virtual Gods together whenever it's about time to harvest them and sweep across those worlds. Nobody is willing to give up on such opportunities to obtain resources."
"What you're saying is that all the cultivators below virtual god-level in the Thousand Snake Sect know that you've come out to harvest small worlds?"
"Some know, but most people shouldn't be aware of this. This form of resource harvesting is the concern of the upper levels. Nobody in the lower positions is authorized to know. However, close friendships among the sect are unavoidable, so it can't be helped if some news gets leaked. Even so, everyone knows their place and it's impossible for them to reveal the list of small worlds and their coordinates. Their knowledge of this should be very limited."
"Myriad Tribe Palace should know, shouldn't they? About the list of small worlds under your surveillance, their coordinates, and so on…" Lin Huang could not help frowning when he asked this question.
He more or less knew the answer, but he wanted to hear his guess confirmed from Teng Qing's own mouth.
"They do. Apart from the few small worlds allocated to us from Myriad Tribe Palace, we are required to report to them and register the small worlds we discover."
A flicker of hope blossomed in Teng Qing's heart as she answered this question.
No matter how powerful this fellow in front of her was, he could not possibly be strong enough to go up against Myriad Tribe Palace. If the Thousand Snake Sect did not get annihilated this round, it would only be a matter of time before the news reached Myriad Tribe Palace.
When that happened, these people would end up being the object of Myriad Tribe Palace's wrath.
Teng Qing mustered up all her courage, wanting to spew this out to scare the man before her. Yet, she became aware that she was not able to speak a single word if she was not being asked a question.
"How long would it take for Myriad Tribe Palace to realize that something has happened to your harvesting expedition?"
Lin Huang understood that he could not prevent this matter from being revealed. The only thing he could do was to find out how much time he had so he could mentally prepare himself.
"Under normal circumstances, it will take around one year for us to finish sweeping across all the small worlds. Most of our time is spent traveling. If we take more than a year and three months to finish our harvesting, somebody in the Thousand Snake Sect will probably report this to Myriad Tribe Palace. Once the report is sent, within three days someone from Myriad Tribe Palace should be sent to investigate the matter… We have been away for more than two months now."
'Which means to say, we still have a year and a month of leeway at most,' Lin Huang calculated mentally. His brows were now knitted together even more tightly. In the short span of a year and a month, he was not confident that he could improve his abilities to the level where he could take on a powerful organization like Myriad Tribe Palace.
After all, Myriad Tribe Palace was a grade-6 organization headed by a monstrous entity who was a half-step Lord. Under their command was a multitude of Heavenly God powerhouses who followed them.
Lin Huang collected himself and continued asking, "What's your sect leader Teng Ran's strength level? How many Strength Rules has he mastered, and at what level?"
"From what I know, Teng Ran has mastered a total of 67 types of rule. Out of these, 36 are at Adept-level and 11 are at Control-level." No matter how reluctant she was, Teng Qing still could not help spilling out every truthful detail about Teng Ran's true abilities.
Lin Huang nodded slightly. Teng Ran's abilities placed him among the more outstanding True Gods in God Territory.
After obtaining information on Teng Ran, Lin Huang continued his interrogation.
Teng Qing answered everything without fail.
As Teng Qing's position was rather special—after all, she was the younger sister to the Thousand Snake Sect leader—her knowledge of things was second only to Teng Ran. After his interrogation, Lin Huang was fairly satisfied with the information he had extracted.
Once he had ascertained that he had no other questions to ask, Lin Huang did not plan on letting Teng Qing live.
In the darkness, the gigantic face rapidly withdrew.
As Teng Qing breathed a sigh of relief, a massive palm appeared, blotting out the entire horizon.
An instant later, the palm descended as if the sky was falling.
Teng Qing was crushed out of existence, her expression still full of consternation and terror…
Chapter 1442: Lin Huang VS Teng Ran
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Teng Ran brandished the spear in his hands to counter not only those blood-red flying daggers with their strange trajectories but also the undying species and spirit types that pounced on him from all directions.
While this group of undying species and spirit types were not highly intelligent, they were still able to recognize that this Protos—who charged in all of a sudden right before their eyes—was the culprit who had sent them to the gravel world here.
These monsters were unable to find any catharsis for their initial ire, as they were suppressed by Lin Huang's telekinetic flying daggers. Without a doubt, Teng Ran's appearance gave them all a common outlet to vent their frustration.
In the midst of being harassed by hundreds of undying species and spirit types, as well as Lin Huang's blood-red flying daggers, Teng Ran suddenly sensed Teng Qing's life force rapidly vanishing from somewhere close by. He froze in disbelief before reacting instantaneously, letting out a heartbroken howl of grief in the direction of Teng Qing's fast-dissipating aura.
"Teng Qing!!!"
Before Teng Ran could even complete his sentence, he felt Teng Qing's aura disperse completely.
His own sister was truly dead…
The girl who was only a few years younger than him yet always enjoyed acting youthful and dressing up like a high school student.
The girl he had witnessed growing up, whose personality was still as naïve and gauche as that of a young lass.
The girl who had always competed with him, but who had always stood by him during crucial moments.
That girl who was always verbally defiant, but who in reality was always silently following in his footsteps…
In a way, Teng Ran was not a sentimental person when it came to affection, and he had never been close to his parents or elders from the time he was a child.
As for Teng Qing, whom he had grown up with, he was not particularly close to her either. The most he could say was that he cared for her in a detached fashion.
He had always thought that if the day came when Teng Qing were to die, he probably would not be overly upset, just like when his own parents had passed away.
The worst that could happen would be that he brooded for a day, but he would then get on with his life by the second day without pining or harboring any other unusual emotions.
However, now that he actually sensed Teng Qing's life force dissipating, Teng Ran involuntarily discovered a myriad of unusual emotions bubbling up uncontrollably—grief, fury, hatred…
He never thought that Teng Qing's death would stir up so much emotional turmoil within him.
His golden spear swept forward in an attack, slicing through the two spirit types in front of him and reducing them to pulp. Only after clearing the obstacles blocking his line of sight did Teng Ran finally see Teng Qing's fallen body on the ground as it gradually transformed into a God's Figurine.
After staring blankly at his sister's dead body for a moment, he finally shifted his gaze upward and saw Lin Huang hovering above the ground not too far from the corpse. Eyes burning with fury, he snarled at Lin Huang, "I'm going to kill you!"
Lin Huang turned to look at Teng Ran, expression bland. "If I don't mistake my guess, you should be Teng Ran, the sect leader of the Thousand Snake Sect, yes?"
Lin Huang made this deduction based on the other party's reaction after Teng Qing's death. Not only that, the Rule Bending Power fluctuations from Teng Ran were the strongest among all the invaders.
Watching Lin Huang eyeing him indifferently and inquiring about his identity as though nothing had just happened, Teng Ran's fury escalated to full-blown rage.
He no longer had any doubts whatsoever about Lin Huang's capabilities. Whatever rank this individual had demonstrated his combat level to be, he still was the man who had killed Teng Qing within seconds. His abilities could not be underestimated.
The golden Divine Power within Teng Ran's body surged wildly. He imbued the spear in his hands with layer upon layer of the Rule Bending Powers in which he was most adept.
The numerous undying species and spirit types that had been harassing him sensed the strength of his Rule Bending Power fluctuations and began retreating warily in the face of a superior enemy.
Teng Ran ignored these monsters completely. At this moment, he had eyes only for Lin Huang.
Lin Huang was also staring at Teng Ran with great interest. He could not help raising his brows slightly at the way Teng Ran utilized his Rule Bending Powers.
"Interesting; I'll play along with you."
Lin Huang could clearly sense that the five types of God Rule Power Teng Ran had imbued his spear with were already at Control-level. Lin Huang was finally starting to take Teng Ran more seriously as well; one should know that Rule Bending Power at this level was enough to inflict serious harm upon Lin Huang.
While Lin Huang was only starting to get down to business on his end, Teng Ran had already launched off the ground. A minuscule gesture with his spear and the telekinetic flying daggers which had been persistently tangling with Teng Ran were swept aside right away.
The spear point then transformed into a blazing golden star, reducing the distance between Teng Ran and Lin Huang at a terrifying speed.
Just when that blazing star-like spear point was about to close in on Lin Huang, bolts of blood-red lightning suddenly shot out from the cuffs of Lin Huang's sleeves one after another.
Those rank-2 God Weapon flying daggers were already top-notch god rule relics at peak strength. Moreover, this time Lin Huang had imbued them with numerous types of Lightning, Fire, and Wind Elemental Enlightenment. With a total of five compounded layers of Elemental Enlightenment, the telekinetic flying daggers became even keener, swifter, and more mighty than before!
If Lin Huang's opponent had not been a powerhouse who had mastered Rule Bending Power at Control-level, he might not have been able to withstand even a single blow.
However, Teng Ran was clearly no ordinary True God.
The spear that he wielded was also a top-notch god rule relic. Imbued with numerous types of Control-level Rule Bending Power, its force was unrivaled as well.
Upon seeing the blood-colored lightning coming at him, Teng Ran flicked his wrist slightly and the tip of his spear transformed into points of starlight which hurtled toward the blood-red rays.
He originally had assumed that it would be just as easy to sweep these flying daggers aside like he had done previously, clearing the obstacles in his way.
However, Teng Ran was unprepared for the fact that this first clash of blows would almost tear his spear from his grasp.
His own spear point felt as if it had struck an immovable mountain, wave after wave of terrifying aftershocks transmitting through the entire weapon. At the same time, frightening pulses of Rule Bending Power from the flying daggers assaulted him, draining the rule power within him rapidly.
"This is…Elemental Enlightenment at Control-level?!" Just a single blow and Teng Ran was now certain that the other's capabilities far outstripped what he had expected.
By imbuing many layers of Control-level Rule Bending Power on a telekinetic weapon, his opponent had proven that his use of Rule Bending Power was far superior to Teng Ran.
After verifying his opponent's true capabilities at this initial stage, Teng Ran finally began gradually calming himself down.
The rule power on his spear also began increasing one layer at a time from the initial five layers. Each layer increase was an extra burden for him to bear.
However, he quickly realized that when he compounded his Rule Bending Power to six layers, his opponent also did the same; when he increased it to seven compounded layers, his opponent also matched him at seven compounded layers…
Against the flying daggers, the spear point could gain no clear advantage from start to finish.
Teng Ran immediately felt the blood rushing to his head. Heedless of possibly burning out, he increased his powers layer by layer as if he were competing with Lin Huang.
Six layers!
Seven layers!
Eight layers!
…
Eleven layers!
The battle had not lasted more than ten minutes, but Teng Ran had already revealed his trump card. He had compounded eleven layers of Control-level Rule Bending Power all in one go, without considering the compatibility, coordination, and possible conflict between the different types of Rule Bending Power.
On his side, Lin Huang was calm and collected to the very end. The Control-level Rule Bending Power on his flying daggers was also compounded one layer at a time, all the way to eleven layers.
Although both parties had compounded their Control-level Rule Bending Power up to eleven layers, Lin Huang's flying daggers were becoming more powerful. The blood-red lightning bolts were becoming swifter and stronger, almost crushing Teng Ran toward the end of it.
The only reason for this was that Lin Huang had also carefully considered the combination of different types of Rule Bending Power before compounding them together. The ultimate compounded effects far outstripped that of his opponent by miles.
From beginning to end, Lin Huang had not moved an inch from where he was standing, but the blood-red flying daggers were forcing Teng Ran to retreat further and further away…
Chapter 1443: I've Found You!
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
In the Void, thousands of blood-crimson lightning bolts blasted out one after another and surrounded a lone figure. The figure was holding a spear in their hand which emitted sparks of golden light as it collided with the lightning bolts.
Every impact was like the rumble of a thunderstorm; it changed the color of the sky and made the earth tremble.
The scene was comparable to the fantastical stories of cultivation and overcoming ordeals that were described in cultivation novels.
However, in reality the blood-colored arcs of electricity were just the afterimages that trailed behind the countless telekinetic flying daggers due to their immense speed.
The so-called spectacle of cultivation and overcoming ordeals was in fact just a battle scene where Lin Huang was controlling thousands of flying daggers to crush Teng Ran.
The battle between the two had lasted for more than ten minutes, and Teng Ran had been forced to use up all his trump cards.
He had used eleven types of Control-level Rule Bending Powers, but his opponent's strength was far beyond what he had imagined.
Each of Lin Huang's telekinetic flying daggers was similarly boosted by eleven types of Rule Bending Powers, but his utilization and synergy of the rules types were far superior to Teng Ran's, which forced Teng Ran to drain a hundred and twenty percent of his strength to withstand every wild blow.
Although Lin Huang did not continue to superimpose his Rule Bending Powers, he was mounting increasing pressure on Teng Ran by increasing the number of telekinetic flying daggers with every minute that passed.
In the beginning, there were only a hundred flying daggers, which then doubled to two hundred, four hundred, eight hundred…
Currently, the number of daggers had surged to three thousand and two hundred.
Teng Ran was beginning to get worn out by the relentless onslaught.
He felt like his opponent was merely toying with him, that his adversary was just testing the performance of his toy. This sort of test was usually destructive in nature, and often ended with—as one would expect—the toy being broken into pieces.
Despite his fear and anxiety, Teng Ran still felt his rage rising.
"This guy is either at True God Limit or a Heavenly God. And he's pretending to be a Virtual God so he won't be rejected by the will of the gravel world! This is so goddamn unfair!"
It seemed to slip his mind that he was the leader of a grade-4 top organization from the great world who brought a group of True Gods to attack a gravel world with rules that were not even complete. How was any of that fair?
Lin Huang was indeed fighting Teng Ran with the purpose of gauging his strength, but he never intended to belittle his opponent.
He increased the number of telekinetic flying daggers time and time again to evaluate exactly how much strength he needed to expand to deal with a top powerhouse in the second echelon of True God such as his current opponent.
This way, the next time he encountered an enemy of similar strength, he would know how much power he would need to expend.
"Three thousand two hundred daggers, and he's almost at his limit…" Lin Huang had been observing Teng Ran's reactions. "If I increase it to four thousand, I should be able to finish him off."
A second after making this deduction, another eight hundred blood-colored lightning bolts shot out from Lin Huang's sleeve cuffs, once again darting toward Teng Ran.
Naturally, Teng Ran immediately noticed Lin Huang's fresh attack. After scanning once with his Divine Telekinesis, he determined the number of new daggers.
"It only increased by eight hundred. He's not going to double them this time?" Teng Ran was slightly caught off guard, but then he laughed to himself and muttered, "Looks like this bastard thinks he doesn't even need six thousand and four hundred flying daggers to finish me off…"
In the next instant, eight hundred blood-colored electric arcs struck from different directions and angles, and the original rhythm of the battle was disrupted.
Teng Ran, who was already reaching his limit, continuously brandished the spear in his hand, trying his best to parry the eight hundred newly-added telekinetic flying daggers, but ultimately he could no longer hold out.
The countless crimson rays searched for any gaps to enter, like a poisonous snake prying on the weakness of its prey, and finally penetrated Teng Ran's body.
The spear in Teng Ran's hand slowed down fractionally due to the inflicted damage, and more blood rays seized this opportunity to swarm down on him.
In an instant, thousands of telekinetic flying daggers tore Teng Ran into pieces like a pack of ravenous wild beasts.
Elsewhere on the battlefield, almost everyone had been distracted by the fierce battle between the two.
They all saw Teng Ran being completely swallowed up by countless blood-colored lightning bolts.
Practically everyone's gazes were focused on the scene.
After a while, the lightning bolts dissipated into the wind, and there was not a trace of Teng Ran left behind…
Seeing this, everyone in the gravel world was overjoyed. The strongest enemy was finished off by Lin Huang, which meant that the war was practically half over.
On the other hand, the people from the Thousand Snake Sect fell into despair.
They never thought that Teng Ran would lose. They were well aware of Teng Ran's strength—his name was ranked twelfth among all the True Gods in the God Territory.
Among the True Gods, only a handful of them could kill Teng Ran, and those individuals were all top powerhouses at True God Limit.
Despite that, Teng Ran was obliterated by the other party right before everyone's eyes.
The only reasonable explanation would be that this young man who killed Teng Ran possessed strength that was at least equivalent to True God Limit, or that he may even be a Heavenly God!
However, as his allies rode their wave of high spirits, Lin Huang could not help but raise an eyebrow.
"He's not dead yet?"
He was quite sure that his opponent's physical body had been torn to pieces by the telekinetic flying daggers. Moreover, in order to avoid any mishaps, he deliberately added God-slaying Power when superimposing the eleven rule powers. Logically speaking, both the soul and physical body of a person killed with God-slaying Power should have perished together.
However, Xiao Hei did not send him any fatality notifications, which made Lin Huang certain that his adversary was definitely not dead.
Lin Huang's Divine Telekinesis swept around at full strength in search of Teng Ran's aura, but he found nothing even after a round of searching.
He pondered for a moment, still not giving up.
His pupils suddenly turned an inky-black color, and he immediately activated Truth Vision God Rule.
After a while, the corners of Lin Huang's lips twitched up slightly.
"I've found you!"
In the next moment, Lin Huang took a step forward and vanished from his original spot, then appeared in front of a Virtual God member of the Thousand Snake Sect with a snake tail.
The snake-tailed Virtual God looked at Lin Huang, frozen in place.
Everyone else was also in a daze, puzzled as to why Lin Huang had singled out a Virtual God.
"Stop hiding and come on out."
Lin Huang directed his words toward the snake-tailed Virtual God.
"W…what?" The snake-tailed Virtual God's face was scrunched with confusion.
"If you won't come out by yourself, shall I do it for you?" Ignoring the snake-tailed Virtual God's reaction, Lin Huang continued, "You better make your decision fast. If I attack first, you won't have a chance to make a move yourself."
As soon as he finished his sentence, the body of the snake-tailed Virtual God suddenly started convulsing. The features on his face contorted into a hideous and terrifying sight, and in an instant, the bones in his face were distorted to the point that he did not look human anymore. His mouth, which was originally regular-sized, was stretched out to the extreme to match his twisted bones.
A moment later, he opened his blood-filled mouth which had been completely dislocated and torn, and the golden-colored head of a snake slowly crept out from his mouth.
Not long after, the body of the snake-tailed Virtual God slowly went limp, not unlike the skin of a snake after shedding, and a giant golden-colored python with black markings slithered out of his torn and bleeding mouth, inch by inch…
Chapter 1444: Rank-6
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Using his innate talent and divine ability, Teng Ran had shed his shell and faked his death at the cost of losing his mortal form, one of his three forms, and returning to his python origin form.
After slithering out of the snake-tailed Virtual God's body in his python form, he did not try to run away.
His origin form being discovered meant that his feigned death was a complete failure, which unexpectedly made him calm down.
"I'm curious—how did you find me? My feigned death was flawless."
Lin Huang eyed the giant python in front of him but did not make any immediate moves. He observed the pair of bat-like wings on the other's back with interest. Although they were currently in a contracted state, they were undoubtedly a genuine pair of wings.
"I have a probing-type god rule ability."
This was naturally a cover-up. He could not possibly explain to his adversary that he did not receive a fatality notification from his Goldfinger.
However, Teng Ran just nodded silently and accepted the statement. There were many probing-type god rules, so it was not surprising that there existed a special Probing God Rule that could detect his fake death.
"I still have one more question. Are you actually at True God Limit, or at heavenly god-level?" Teng Ran brought up the question with a note of dissatisfaction in his voice.
"Neither." The corners of Lin Huang's lips twitched up slightly as he replied.
This response left Teng Ran completely stunned. If he was not at True God Limit, nor a Heavenly God, then was he a Lord?! He never once considered that the virtual god-level rank-6 that Lin Huang had been displaying this whole time was his real combat strength.
"You've already asked two questions, but I'll give you the chance to ask one more." As Lin Huang spoke, four thousand telekinetic flying daggers floated in the air in front of him, all pointed directly at the giant python.
Seeing this, Teng Ran felt a chill run down his spine.
After a moment of careful deliberation, he asked his third question.
"Can we call it a truce?"
Before Lin Huang could give him an answer, he hastily added, "The Thousand Snake Sect will surrender and even hand over all the items in our storage equipment as compensation, as long as you let the survivors leave safely. I admit that we have made a grave mistake, that we shouldn't have invaded this gravel world that has already been occupied by you."
Lin Huang gave a hearty laugh after hearing Teng Ran's words.
"First of all, I'm a native resident of this gravel world. What you and your people have invaded is not a world I have conquered, but my hometown.
"Secondly, does the Thousand Snake Sect have any right to negotiate a truce with us? If anything, the ones who should be negotiating with us are the Myriad Tribe Palace who are above you, right?"
Lin Huang's words hit the nail right on the head, and Teng Ran felt his heart thump loudly in his chest.
Of course, he did not actually want to call it a truce. The proposition was only for the sake of temporarily saving his life. He still had to avenge his younger sister who was killed by them!
Moreover, as Lin Huang pointed out, even if the Thousand Snake Sect and Lin Huang were to reach a settlement, it would be meaningless. After all, one word from the Myriad Tribe Palace, and the Thousand Snake Sect would have no choice but to obey their orders. Whether or not a truce could really be agreed was not something that could be decided by the Thousand Snake Sect.
"Therefore, the answer is—no!"
As soon as Lin Huang said that, the four thousand telekinetic flying daggers once again turned into blood-colored lightning bolts and charged right toward the giant python incarnation of Teng Ran.
The bat wings on Teng Ran's back suddenly unfolded, and with an abrupt flap of his wings, he quickly retreated backward. His current speed was more than ten times faster than his human form, and was comparable to that of Lin Huang's telekinetic flying daggers.
Lin Huang could not help raising his eyebrows.
"As expected, his strength is on a different level when in his origin form."
Many of the Protosses that he had killed previously all died in their mortal forms, as they did not even have the time to change their physical forms before they were annihilated within seconds.
Some of them would directly enter the battle in their God's form, but very few would reveal their origin form. This was because once their origin form dies, they would die for good.
However, meeting someone like Teng Ran, who initially went into battle with his mortal body before revealing his origin form, was a first for Lin Huang. He could clearly feel the huge difference in strength between Teng Ran's two different forms.
In his origin form, Teng Ran clearly had a higher level of control over the rules. Lin Huang noticed that the current Teng Ran could even use Wind Elemental Enlightenment to slightly interfere with the trajectory of his telekinetic flying daggers. Although the effect was very subtle, compared to his previous state of complete inability to defend himself, he was definitely much stronger than before.
"Looks like this fellow possesses the Wild Beast Teng Snake's Bloodline from the primeval epoch. The bloodline is very diluted, but the fact that there's even a trace of it left to this day, and that it hasn't been watered down to nothingness by other bloodlines, is already quite impressive," the voice of the stone tablet suddenly resonated within Lin Huang's body.
"Teng Snake? What rank is it?" Lin Huang curiously asked.
"Those who were considered Wild Beasts during the primeval epoch were all Pure Spirit rank-6, and they would achieve lord-level strength when they became adults," the stone tablet explained.
"The rank that's above Supreme God rank-5 is pure spirit-level rank-6?!" Lin Huang had always surmised that there were more ranks above Supreme God rank-5, but he did not expect that today would be the day he found out that above Supreme God, there was still Pure Spirit.
"It's a pity that the Teng Snake's Bloodline in this little gremlin's body is too faint and his other bloodlines are too muddled, or there would've been a slight chance that he could've become a Lord," the stone tablet said rather regretfully.
"Even if it wasn't diluted, he still won't become a Lord, because he'll die here today," Lin Huang took over the conversation. "We can't leave a single one of these invaders alive, or they'll just bring trouble to us sooner than later."
If they completely wiped out these invaders, at least news would not reach the Myriad Tribe Palace until a year later. However, if even one of them were to survive and manage to escape back to the great world, the anomaly in the gravel world would be reported back to the Myriad Tribe Palace on that very day.
Even with a year's time, Lin Huang knew that he would not be able to elevate his strength to a level sufficient to fight the Myriad Tribe Palace. Even so, he could at least use that extra time to come up with other strategies.
However, if the Myriad Tribe Palace was to find out about the anomaly in the gravel world now, the entire gravel world would most likely be destroyed within the same day.
This was also the reason Lin Huang refused to negotiate with Teng Ran. Even if Teng Ran could guarantee that what happened here would not be reported back to the Myriad Tribe Palace, it was impossible to be sure that no one else would secretly leak the news. After all, just as how the flames of a fire cannot be swathed with paper, as long as an event has taken place, the day it comes to light will arrive sooner or later.
The only rational solution was to silence them with death. This was also the safest approach.
The stone tablet did not say anything more. It just sensed the Teng Snake's Bloodline in Teng Ran's body and felt a little rueful about it. Even if Teng Ran had the full Teng Snake's Bloodline within him, if Lin Huang wanted him dead, it would not be able to prevent him from achieving that.
Although Teng Ran possessed a Pure Spirit bloodline within his body, it was too faint, and in reality it did not increase his strength by much—it only greatly increased his potential in wind elemental and water elemental attributes.
Out of the eleven types of Control-level God Rule Power that he had mastered, six of them were of Wind and Water Elemental Enlightenment.
However, Teng Ran himself did not seem to be aware that he had the Teng Snake's Bloodline within himself. In fact, he might not even know that he had an innate talent in Wind and Water Elemental Enlightenment. The sixty-seven God Rule Powers that he had cultivated were very disparate in nature, most of which had nothing to do with either wind or water elements, and a lot of time and energy had therefore been wasted in the cultivation.
If he had specialized in wind and water all these years, there might have been twenty or thirty Elemental Enlightenments that could have reached Control-level, or even broke through to complete-stage.
Chapter 1445: New Monster Card
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Teng Ran hunched up, making himself smaller. His wings kept on oscillating, figure darting around the void non-stop as he dodged the blood-colored lightning bolts coming at him from all directions.
In his original form, his mastery of Strength Rule was much smoother.
If forced to, he could even use compounded Elemental Enlightenment and affect the trajectory of Lin Huang's telekinetic flying dagger attacks but the effects were very minimal.
Even so, the disparity between his abilities and Lin Huang's was still too great—like before, he continued to be completely overwhelmed.
Lin Huang did not panic at all and maintained his original tempo of battle. The number of rules that had been compounded on the telekinetic flying daggers remained unchanged, but the red gleams that shot out from the cuffs of his sleeves kept increasing.
Initially, it was only four thousand telekinetic flying daggers, but that quickly increased to five thousand, then six thousand…
Each of the telekinetic flying daggers transformed into scarlet lightning bolts and shot out like lasers. They drew countless fine lines across the void, hurtling toward Teng Ran like a dragnet.
In contrast, Teng Ran was like a little fly flying wildly through a realm covered with cobwebs.
By the time number of telekinetic flying daggers had increased to 10,000, the blood-red gleams left in the air by every one of those daggers was like a blood-red torrent of lightning arcs that swept toward Teng Ran to overwhelm him.
At the same time, the dragnet that Lin Huang had woven finally took shape, completely sealing off all Teng Ran's avenues of escape and containing him within a sphere-shaped space.
This scenario caused the entire Thousand Snake Sect immense anxiety. Seeing that Teng Ran was finally completely hemmed in, almost everyone fell into despair.
This time, it was Teng Ran's original form that was trapped; he was unable to use his divine ability to shed his skin for the second time. Moreover, if his original form died, he would truly be dead with no possibility of being resurrected.
In the void, the entire blood-red sphere-shaped space formed by the telekinetic flying daggers kept getting continuously smaller, shrinking the area that Teng Ran could move about in.
Teng Ran kept flying along the boundary of the sphere with Rapid Speed. He tried to find a point he might be able to use as a breach, but he could find none at all.
When he saw that the sphere-shaped area delineated by the telekinetic flying daggers was becoming smaller and smaller, Teng Ran suddenly accelerated and charged toward a random point within the space. Just when Lin Huang felt puzzled, Teng Ran's figure suddenly shrank rapidly, almost instantly becoming the size of a mosquito. With his golden spear suspended in front of him, he hurtled toward the gap between two flying daggers.
The spear, compounded with eleven layers of Control-level Rule Bending Powers, pierced forward in an attack. The tip of the spear transformed into a dazzling golden ray and charged with the force of a thunderbolt toward the point of energy connection between the two flying daggers.
The next second, the golden ray pierced through the blood-red ball of lightning arcs, causing a fissure in the scarlet sphere created by the thousands of telekinetic flying daggers.
"Huh?!" When he saw this, Lin Huang could not help exclaiming in surprise. His enemy's attack—a desperate gambit for life—did indeed end up giving him a fighting chance of survival. However, Lin Huang's surprise was only momentary, and the corners of his lips quirked up the faintest hint of a smirk.
Teng Ran did not linger around to try and do more with this end result. Powered by Rapid Speed, in a flash, his figure swooped out through the fissure in the sphere.
Right as he was about to continue his escape, he discovered that there was a figure already standing in front of him.
Fixing his gaze on this apparition, he felt a chill suddenly run through his entire body. It was Lin Huang who was blocking his way.
He had no idea either when Lin Huang had appeared.
Teng Ran's fright lasted only briefly as he suddenly became aware that Lin Huang was right in front of him. In that instant, he harbored the illusion that he could turn the tables.
"This fellow is a psychic; he's only proficient in mid-to-long range attacks. He's certain to be weak in close combat, but close combat is my strong suit. As long as the threat of those telekinetic flying daggers can be eliminated, this fellow's nothing to be afraid of!"
With this thought in mind, Teng Ran's courage returned.
His figure instantly returned to normal size. Golden spear suspended in front of him, he hurled himself forward to attack Lin Huang.
In an instant, the spear was imbued with compounded layer upon layer of Rule Bending Power.
With this attack, Teng Ran no longer merely compounded eleven layers of Control-level rule power; he also stacked them with all 67 rules that he had mastered.
In a flash, he threw himself toward his opponent and the spear hurtled through the air from a distance of less than one meter away from Lin Huang. Wherever the tip of the spear pierced through, it seemed as if time and space disintegrated inch by inch.
When Teng Ran saw that Lin Huang remained expressionless from beginning to end, he assumed it was just because the distance was too close, and the speed of his attack was also too fast for Lin Huang to be able to manipulate the telekinetic flying dagger attacks in time.
However, the moment his spear thrust forward, Teng Ran suddenly noticed that a blood-colored hilt had appeared in Lin Huang's hand out of nowhere.
'Where's the blade?' Just as suspicion floated up in Teng Ran's heart, he suddenly felt a cold sensation coming from his neck.
When he looked at Lin Huang again, he realized that the blade was a narrow silver one—and that it was stained with a golden-red splash that was dripping down along the point of the weapon.
"I don't know where you got the courage to engage in close combat with me." The sword in Lin Huang's hand gradually dissipated and he looked at Teng Ran with pity in his gaze.
These were also the last words that Teng Ran heard before his consciousness was completely obliterated.
The gigantic python's head slowly slid down and the headless corpse collapsed forward onto the ground.
Two strands of Lin Huang's telekinetic threads reached through the air, and the headless corpse was deposited into his space storage. However, another telekinetic thread suspended Teng Ran's head in front of Lin Huang, parallel to his own head.
When Lin Huang stared into the pair of blue diamond-like eyes in the python's head, his pupils instantly turned dark blue, like that of a starry sky.
The Control-level god rule Brain-Read instantly initiated.
Brain-Read was the best type of god rule to decipher a brain that was not completely dead but had lost its sense of self-protection.
This was also why Lin Huang did not need to keep Teng Ran alive.
Unlike Heart-glimpsing, which probed the level of the soul in a mere passing flash of time within the material realm, Brain-Read required a specific amount of time.
Lin Huang waited for the Brain-Read progress bar to slowly rise while he looked at the push notification that Xiao Hei had just sent through.
"Congratulations to the Host, you've obtained a complete Monster Card Teng Mang (Pseudo-supreme God)"
'I obtained a complete Monster Card?!' Lin Huang was a little surprised and immediately retrieved the card to check it.
"Monster Card: Teng Ran"
"Rarity: Supreme-God (Pseudo)"
"Monster Name: Teng Mang"
"Type of Monster: Mutated Snake Species/Winged Snake Tribe"
"Bloodline: Teng Snake (Unawakened)"
"Combat Level: Sixth-rank True God (Ninth-rank True God)"
"Major: Spear Dao, Wind Elemental Enlightenment, Water Elemental Enlightenment"
"Major Skills: God-Slaying Spear, God-Crashing Storm…"
"Minor Skills: Sea of Illusion…"
"Spear Dao: True Meaning Level"
"God Rule: Sharp…"
"Elemental Enlightenment: Storm Wind, Sea of Wrath…"
"Summon Authority: Activated"
"Card Remarks: Trainable! "
"Remarks: It is recommended that training start with the purification of the Wild Beast's Bloodline. "
When he saw that there were hundreds of skills on Teng Ran's skill slots, and even the page on Rule Bending Powers was densely packed, Lin Huang felt that he had profited greatly by this card.
Xiaohei even helped note suggestions about the direction training should take, obviously extremely optimistic about the Teng Ran card.
'If a Wild Beast really has the potential to achieve Pure Spirit rank-6 as the stone tablet says, then this Teng Ran card definitely needs to be properly trained!'
Lin Huang had already begun to quietly plan in his mind how he would train Teng Ran, his newly acquired imperial monster…
Chapter 1446: The War Is Over!
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
It took almost five or six minutes to read Teng Ran's memory.
Lin Huang casually put the snake's head into his space storage; only then did he begin searching for the answers he wanted within Teng Ran's memories.
It took him merely a few seconds to find specific information on the Thousand Snake Sect.
The Thousand Snake Sect was a top grade-4 organization in the God Territory.
Its founder was Teng Hui, Teng Ran's great-great-grandfather. At that time, Teng Hui had only just elevated to true god-level, and the Thousand Snake Sect started out as a mere grade-2 organization.
After the Thousand Snake Sect had been established, it did not see any improvement for several years, and Teng Hui's combat strength advancement was also extremely slow.
Right around this time, Myriad Tribe Palace had just been promoted to a grade-6 organization; they began recruiting and expanding.
Almost all the grade-2 to grade-5 organizations were fair game for recruitment.
As soon as Teng Hui got the news, he submitted an application, and the Thousand Snake Sect successfully became an affiliate organization under Myriad Tribe Palace. Through the first batch of benefits issued by Myriad Tribe Palace, he managed to successfully advance his combat strength to that of a third-rank True God.
Not long after this elevation in Teng Ran's combat level, a mysterious member of Myriad Tribe Palace's top-tier personnel suddenly came to him and assigned a mission to the Thousand Snake Sect.
This task was to eliminate mini world No. 4815162342!
This mini world designated as No. 4815162342 was the current gravel world that Lin Huang had traveled to. In that era, however, the rules of the gravel world were more complete than they were now—it was even possible to breed True Gods then.
To ensure that the Thousand Snake Sect successfully completed its mission, that unknown member of Myriad Tribe Palace's top-tier personnel even sent out one hundred ninth-rank True Gods to arrive with Teng Hui and assist in this genocide.
Although Teng Hui felt that there was something odd about this mission, he still accepted it.
The mission was carried out without any hitches. With the assistance of one hundred ninth-rank True Gods, the Thousand Snake Sect took less than ten days to fulfill their task of elimination, completely annihilating all the cultivators in this mini world.
However, something even stranger occurred afterward.
That same top-tier individual sought out Teng Hui and informed him not to tell anyone about the genocide mission carried out on mini world No. 4815162342. Teng Hui soon discovered that everyone else in the Thousand Snake Sect had completely no recollection of the number and coordinates of this particular mini world.
Although Teng Hui felt that this was extremely peculiar, he did not dare probe further into the matter.
As for Myriad Tribe Palace, no one was sure if it was because Teng Hui was sufficiently obedient in following orders or for some other reason, but mini world No. 4815162342 was then classified as a subordinate territory under the Thousand Snake Sect. Several other mini worlds and gravel worlds were also given to the Thousand Snake Sect as subordinate territories.
The task of supervising mini world No. 4815162342 fell to Teng Hui as well.
Teng Hui set up an alert system—as long as the number of True Gods in that mini world exceeded ten people, or the number of Virtual Gods exceeded three hundred, he would lead a group there to wipe them out.
After several such eliminations, a great deal of resource plundering also happened.
Mini world No. 4815162342 rapidly degenerated into a gravel world with incomplete rules.
…
"Myriad Tribe Palace—Zos…"
According to Teng Ran's memories, the impression Teng Hui had of this upper-tier individual in Myriad Tribe Palace was only the name "Zos". Nothing else was known.
This was because that particular individual always wore a loose black robe that hid everything beneath it.
However, Teng Hui had a vague guess about the identity of that individual. It was highly likely that they were one of the founders of Myriad Tribe Palace.
"Why would a grade-6 organization like that be interested in our little gravel world—especially one that likely has a half-step Lord behind it?"
With this suspicion in mind, Lin Huang continued to dig deeper into Teng Ran's memory.
After more than ten minutes of searching, he finally found a potential answer to this question.
Although Teng Hui did not have the courage to probe further into the truth of the matter, Teng Ran's grandfather became curious about this issue and secretly investigated it for many years.
In the end, based on the conclusions of various investigations, Teng Ran's grandfather speculated that mini world No. 4815162342 was likely to be the God Territory world core left behind after the death of a Heavenly God, or perhaps even a half-step Lord. Moreover, this Heavenly God or half-step Lord might have had a hostile relationship with Myriad Tribe Palace; the black-robed top-tier individual might also have had some unknown personal grudge against the mini world.
He chose to annihilate the cultivators in this mini world over and over again but had not destroyed the entire world or slaughtered all the living beings there. The purpose for this was so that the descendants of the enemy would keep building up hope repeatedly, but watch it collapse every time.
Teng Ran had also run some investigations based on the clues left by his grandfather. However, he had not made much progress, so he had abandoned the attempt. However, his own speculations were similar to that of his grandfather.
With the ability that Myriad Tribe Palace possessed—or even the abilities of the unknown top-tier black-robed individual—destroying a mini world, or even a gravel world, was a mere snap of the fingers. There was no need at all for this repeated torment.
Lin Huang had not expected that the final answer would be something like this.
Then again, perhaps it was just a personal grievance, which had dragged the gravel world's cultivation epochs into suffering extinction time and time again for millions of years.
From a psychological standpoint, Lin Huang found it difficult to accept this conclusion.
"Perhaps the real truth is only known by that Zos individual from Myriad Tribe Palace." Lin Huang had already made up his mind that someday he had to find out the real reason from Zos himself.
Lin Huang did not get an exact answer to the foremost question that he wanted to ask, so he had no choice but to let it go and dig no further into it. Instead, he sought answers to other secondary questions.
It took another ten minutes to confirm that the information previously obtained from Teng Qing was correct. It was true that all the Virtual Gods and True Gods of the Thousand Snake Sect had arrived in the gravel world, and there was still more than a year before any reports would be sent back to Myriad Tribe Palace. Lin Huang felt slightly more relieved after finding this out.
'If that's the case, we can finish things up now.' After confirming that no other fish had slipped through the net, Lin Huang felt that it was almost time for the war to end.
This eased his mind a little, and his gaze swept over the three areas of the True God battlefield.
An instant later, the tens of thousands of telekinetic flying daggers that had besieged Teng Ran transformed into blood-colored lightning bolts. They shot out in three directions, directly targeting the three True God battlefields.
In a flash, blood-red lightning bolts blotted out half the sky.
A moment later, the true god-level invaders on all three battlefields were impaled by the blood-colored lightning bolts one after the other, and their life force was instantly dispelled.
It did not matter whether they were first-rank or ninth-rank—a single attack and they all died without exception.
This happened for no other reason than every one of Lin Huang's telekinetic flying daggers retained the compounded eleven layers of Control-level Rule Bending Powers. The might of each blow was almost equivalent to a full-strength attack by Teng Ran—perhaps even stronger.
Besieged by an attack of such power, the numerous True Gods of the Thousand Snake Sect, as well as the undying species and spirit types from the Undead Dimension, could put up no resistance at all.
They could not defend themselves against Lin Huang's attacks, much less even try to dodge in time.
Even to the eyes of the ninth-rank True Gods, the speed of the flying daggers was faster than their Divine Telekinesis could perceive, and was certainly beyond the limits of what the naked eye could see.
In the void, True God corpses fell to the ground one by one.
Everyone in the gravel world watched, stunned, and the invaders were all in a state of desperation.
When Lin Huang's numerous Sword Servants and imperial monsters saw what was happening, they immediately turned and charged into the Virtual God battlefield.
Their participation immediately broke the initial stalemate.
The invading Virtual Gods died in swathes, wailing in despair…
Lin Huang was not idle either. He summoned five giant Titan Bugs that stomped into the Virtual God battlefield…
Chapter 1447: Lin Xuan's Secret
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
With the addition of True Gods—the Sword Servants and the imperial monsters—the Virtual God battlefield was now a one-sided massacre.
Less than ten minutes later, all the virtual god-level invaders had been annihilated; not a single one had survived.
Lin Huang had already stored the loot and monster corpses from the True God battlefield into his space storage much earlier.
On the Virtual God battlefield, the Hunter Association, Dynasty, and other organizations, as well as the Bug Tribe, were rapidly sorting out the loot.
Dongfang Bai, chief of the Union Government, walked over to Lin Huang.
The expression in his eyes as he gazed at Lin Huang was completely different now.
Before, he had regarded Lin Huang as one of his peers, mainly because Lin Huang was the Emperor of Dynasty. After seeing Lin Huang's true abilities in this last battle, however, Dongfang Bai was now completely in awe of this young man.
Everyone on the third layer of the Abyss Brink knew that if Lin Huang had not been present at this invasion along with the reinforcements and imperial monsters that he had brought with him, the invaders would long since have broken through into the gravel world.
"Emperor Lin, on behalf of the Union Government, I offer our sincere gratitude!" The first words out of Dongfang Bai's mouth were his heartfelt thanks.
"Chief Dongfang, you're most welcome. The gravel world is also my homeland." Lin Huang felt the change in Dongfang Bai's attitude as well and gave him a slight nod.
"Where on earth did these invaders come from?" Dongfang Bai asked this because he had noticed Lin Huang holding up Teng Ran's head to read his memory after Lin Huang had killed him.
"They are from the God Territory—a top grade-4 organization by the name of the Thousand Snake Sect," Lin Huang explained briefly.
"We've killed so many of their people; will there be trouble from them the future?" Dongfang Bai asked, frowning. He was rather worried about this.
"There'll be some trouble, yes." Lin Huang nodded. "As to the specifics of the situation, I'll pay a visit to the Union Government in a few days, and I'll explain it all in detail then. Chief Dongfang, if you could, please help me make an appointment with Chief Jiang—it would be preferable if all the higher levels of the Union Government can be present."
"Of course! If there's anything that the Union Government can assist with, please do let me know." Dongfang Bai nodded quickly.
The two of them chatted for a while; the Virtual God battlefield was finally cleaned up as best as could be done.
The upper tiers of all the various major organizations came over to exchange words with Lin Huang one after the other. After all, Lin Huang had already established himself as the most powerful individual in the gravel world, with Dynasty—one of the organization giants—under his command.
In the wake of this war, Dynasty had faintly overshadowed the Union Government in terms of the limelight.
After Sun Zhuo, the Heretics' Presiding Judge, had greeted Lin Huang, he gathered all his subordinates and departed from the third layer of the Abyss Brink.
When they returned to the second layer of the Abyss Brink, Cao Ya could not help speaking out.
"I feel more and more that that silly girl Xia Yu's failure to pull Lin Huang back into the Heretics last time was a huge mistake!"
"That's true. If Lin Huang were the Heretics' Presiding Judge, it wouldn't be Dynasty in the limelight now, but us Heretics!" Zhou Tong's response was muffled as he inserted his little finger into one nostril.
"Hey, that's enough, you two. Are you so brazen already, to be able to say something like this to my face?" Sun Zhuo's expression was black with anger.
"If Lin Huang was our Presiding Judge, I think we could move our headquarters into that hive. Think about how awesome it would be with millions of virtual god-level bug guards! Not only that, anywhere you wanted to go, you could directly fly over in the hive. No matter where we went, everyone would be envious," Zhou Tong ignored Sun Zhuo, continuing to agree with Cao Ya.
"I think that white-haired imperial monster is incredibly handsome. I'd move my desk opposite him; even if I had to remain in the office every day I'd be more than willing!" After this comment, Cao Ya abruptly turned to look at Sun Zhuo. "I think that you should go get plastic surgery and marry someone from Dynasty. Then you can gift the Heretics to Lin Huang as dowry…"
"F*ck off!" Suddenly Sun Zhuo had the urge to resign from his post of Presiding Judge.
…
On the third layer of the Abyss Brink, following the departure of the contingent from the Union Government, all the various major organizations also departed after they had greeted Lin Huang.
Lin Huang recalled the hive and all the imperial monsters. After the people from Misery left, he returned to Emperor City as well with the people from the Dynasty.
Wu Mo temporarily returned to the floating land.
Lin Xuan followed Lin Huang and returned to the Emperor City.
After requesting Huang Tianfu to help Lin Xuan find a place to stay, Lin Huang, Mr. Fu, and the upper tiers of both Dynasty and Misery held a short video conference.
Lin Huang explained about the Thousand Snake Sect and Myriad Tribe Palace; he also informed everyone present of the potential crisis in a year.
After finding out this information about Myriad Tribe Palace, everyone present—who had been feeling relieved for less than half an hour—suddenly felt twice the amount of pressure from before.
After the meeting, Lin Huang went to look for Lin Xuan at the first possible opportunity.
Because of the war happening previously in the Abyss Brink, there were many questions that he had not asked Lin Xuan. Now, he finally had the time to do so.
"I always assumed that it was either Leib Labs or Shiabelle Studio that cloned you. I didn't expect it to be the Union Government."
"The Union Government obtained gene technology from an ancient ruin more than three hundred years ago. Two years after they completed explorations in those ruins, they set up a genetic laboratory. Later, they obtained related biotechnology from several ruins in succession and trained a large number of biological researchers. Right up until a hundred or so years ago, they obtained cloning technology once again from a nearby ancient ruin. After that, the entire laboratory's work focused on that direction.
"Over the past hundred years or so, they have carried out many cloning experiments in secret. It wasn't until eleven years ago that the technology reached an initial level of advancement sufficient enough to successfully clone cultivators. Eight years ago, they began to use demigod-level samples for cloning experiments. Among these samples were the remains of Mo Kui. I'm one of those clones…"
"The level of security in this sort of laboratory is generally extremely high; it's certainly not inferior to what's used at the Union Government headquarters. How did you escape?" This was the question that had puzzled Lin Huang the most.
"Previously, I'd always thought that I had escaped too. Then I returned to my place of origin, only to discover that I was sent out.
"The reason for this was that the laboratory found that all clones don't have the ability to advance via hunting and killing monsters. Our bodies can't integrate Life Seeds to become transcendent, let alone Life Fire tinder. Hundreds of laboratory staff have spent years on this problem, but none of them were unable to solve it.
"Therefore, someone in the laboratory suggested sending clones into the gravel world to conduct differentiated social observation experiments. They would allow the clones to develop freely and see whether it was possible for them to find a way to evolve.
"Four years ago, they selected a hundred clones just like me and placed them in the gravel world as a social observation experiment.
"Most of these one hundred clones were adopted, but most of them were adopted into ordinary families and didn't become cultivators. Only a few individuals, myself included, were exposed to the Life Power of cultivators. Aside from me, however, the Life Power in the others' bodies quickly dissipated within a year, and they could not assimilate Life Power a second time.
"It was only later that I also discovered that if it weren't for you teaching me Army Attack Tactics, I wouldn't have been able to embark on the path of cultivation. There is only one way that clones can cultivate—that is, you must learn the cultivation method that the parasite body used in its cultivation path to be able to cultivate normally.
"The cultivation path of my parasite body, Mo Kui, was based on Army Attack Tactics, and what you taught me happened to be Army Attack Tactics. So, I became the only cultivator among one hundred cloned individuals.
"However, the Union Government has been continuously keeping me under observation. They also know that you infused me with Life Power, which allowed me to assimilate into a silver-level cultivator. However, due to the short duration of my exposure to Army Attack Tactics, my combat strength never advanced to gold-level, which led them to think that ancient cultivation methods were not that effective. That's why they left me alone.
"Later, the drop of Mo Kui's God Blood that Mr. Fu left behind transferred a lot of Mo Kui's memories to me. At that time, I didn't know that I was a clone. I thought I was Mo Kui, who had been able to regenerate through some means.
"Because of my incomplete memories, as well as too many unanswered questions, I desperately wanted to search for the truth so I left you all…
"After I received Mo Kui's God Blood and left you, I was finally free of the Union Government's surveillance. My combat strength improved every day and my abilities also became more powerful. I also quietly continued to investigate the mystery of my own origins.
"In only half a year, I advanced to virtual god-level. After another six months, I elevated to Virtual God rank-3 and finally located the Union Government's genetic laboratory.
"There, I fought a massive battle with the Virtual God who was in charge of overseeing the place. After I won, I finally learned the truth from the scientific researchers themselves.
"After that, the Union Government contacted me many times to negotiate with me. In the end, Jiang Shan personally came to inform me of the crisis in the gravel world and offered certain terms in exchange to persuade me to cooperate with the subsequent cloning experiments.
"Those few batches of Virtual God clones on the battlefield were all created by them with the information and physical data that I provided…"
After listening to Lin Xuan's experiences over the past few years, Lin Huang was silent for a long time before he stretched out his hand, placing it on Lin Xuan's shoulder. "You've had it rough these past few years.
"What do you plan on doing next?" Lin Huang asked again.
"I don't know. Now that the mystery of my origins has been untangled, I've not much of a purpose anymore." Lin Xuan shook his head and smiled bitterly. "If I have to give a purpose, then maybe it might be advancing to True God."
"Why not go to the great world together with us then?" Lin Huang suggested, "With your current Virtual God rank-9 combat strength, you'll only be able to advance further if you go to the great world.
"Xin Er is also Virtual God rank-9 already, and there's really no need to stay in the gravel world any longer. Our family can be reunited in the great world," Lin Huang continued, "Teacher will also head to the great world with us. You should have a lot of memories of him in your mind, right?"
"Teacher…" Lin Xuan fell silent after hearing this. Of course, he had memories of Mr. Fu. Mr. Fu had adopted Mo Kui from an early age and raised him. To Mo Kui, Mr. Fu was both master and father.
Lin Xuan had previously emphasized that he was Lin Xuan when he met with Mr. Fu in the Abyss Brink, mainly because he did not know how to face Mr. Fu. After all, he was not Mo Kui. Yet, Mo Kui's memories were like Lin Xuan's personal experiences, which made him felt like Mr. Fu was both his master and father.
"Don't think too much about it, just let things develop as they will." Lin Huang also noticed Lin Xuan's struggle. However, he also knew that Mr. Fu had no children, and it would not be an exaggeration to say that he thought of Mo Kui as his own since he had raised Mo Kui as an infant. He would inevitably think of Mo Kui when he saw Lin Xuan, who was exactly the same in appearance and temperament.
The relationship between the two would indeed be very awkward.
"I may still need to remain in the gravel world for a month or two. After that, I'll take Xin Er and the others to the great world," Lin Huang continued, "Don't get all knotted up about it, let's just go together. You'll have to go to the great world sometime anyway."
"Alright then," Lin Xuan finally agreed.
After all, he had nothing more to worry about in the gravel world. The only ones who had ties here were Lin Huang and Lin Xin.
Chapter 1448: Return To First City
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
On the same day that everyone in the Abyss Brink returned to their respective organizations, news that the war had been won quickly spread throughout the cultivation world.
There were a handful of Virtual Gods who uploaded videos to the Heart Network that they had secretly recorded. Although the videos were deleted by the Emperor's Heart within seconds, some cultivators still managed to view them. A few people quickly took screenshots and shared them continuously on different social media platforms. By the time the Emperor's Heart had managed to eliminate all the screenshots from all these social media platforms, almost half of the cultivators who were following this incident had seen at least some of the screenshots.
In less than half a day, hundreds of versions of various stories were fabricated based on these screenshots. However, the main focus in almost every version was Dynasty's Emperor, who had returned six months ago.
This was because most of the videos that were posted on the Heart Network were of Lin Huang and a few of the True God battlefields.
That was also why many of the screenshots posted had Lin Huang in them.
One of the clearest screenshots taken showed the scene where Lin Huang had just cut off Teng Ran's snakehead, holding it up in front of him to read his memory.
This scene was interpreted in several versions of the story as Lin Huang's act of declaring his victory after he had slaughtered his opponent.
Fortunately, there were multiple versions of the story and most of the details would not stand up to scrutiny, but in general, they were not far from the actual facts themselves—under the Emperor of Dynasty's leadership, the people in the gravel world had defeated the invaders and resolved the crisis.
Many people who did not like Dynasty and Lin Huang immediately criticized these stories for being untrue. They intimated that these stories were compiled by the people of Dynasty, or by fans of Dynasty, to promote Dynasty and Lin Huang. Some people even deliberately made accusations, trying to provoke conflict between Dynasty and the Union Government and stir everyone up to attack Dynasty and Lin Huang.
Fans of Dynasty retaliated furiously online, flaming those who spread such rumors.
In no time at all, an online war of words was raging. In the space of less than a day, it engulfed almost all the social media platforms commonly used by cultivators.
Even the Union Government and the internal forums of the Hunter Association were spammed by flame wars from both sides.
However, even though the online war went on for one full day, except for the Emperor's Heart continuously deleting posts, none of the participating organizations' official accounts put forward their opinions.
The Union Government did not make an appearance to clarify the situation for the entire day, which caused everyone to vaguely speculate about whether or not the rumors were true.
So the dominant force in the battle was not the Union Government or the Hunter Association, but Dynasty?!
Just as a big storm was being stirred up on the Internet, Lin Huang quietly brought along a few members of Dynasty's upper-tier personnel and arrived at the No. 1A1 foothold in No. 1 Zone—First City.
This was where the Union Government's headquarters was located.
In the conference room, Lin Huang, Mr. Fu, Lin Xuan, Huang Tianfu, and Huang Tufu were all present. Two Sword Servants were sitting as observers by the wall behind Lin Huang's chair; they were Sword101 and Sword 102. Their actual combat strength had been re-sealed; what was displayed in public was their previous combat strength of Virtual God rank-9.
No one in the entire room one dared to look down on them.
On the Union Government's side, the Union Government Chief Jiang Shan, vice chief Dongfang Bai, the head of the agency for Agency EA Guan Zhong, the Union Government committee chairman Zhao Lingming, committee vice-chairman Ran Ning, and Qiu Xu, press representative Han Yao, and almost all upper-tier personnel were present.
In addition to the Union Government and Dynasty, the Hunter Association—led by vice president Wu Xing—had also brought three elders along.
Lin Huang was not surprised by the appearance of the Hunter Association.
The group of people exchanged brief greetings before Jiang Shan went straight to the point.
"Emperor Lin, everyone is here now, so let's start first with what you're able to share."
Lin Huang nodded. "Let me think about where I should start…"
After a while, he spoke again.
"The Thousand Snake Sect is a grade-4 organization in the God Territory of the great world. As for what's considered a grade-4 organization, it's one that is protected by top True Gods. Not only that, the number of True Gods will be no less than one hundred, and the number of Virtual Gods in the organization will be over ten thousand. The Thousand Snake Sect is considered relatively powerful among grade-4 organizations.
"Here in the gravel world, if you exclude me as an anomaly, the highest level an organization can reach is only grade-2. The Thousand Snake Sect can easily slaughter thousands of grade-2 organizations under normal circumstances.
"However, behind this mighty Thousand Snake Sect is another extremely powerful backstage player. This backstage player is Myriad Tribe Palace, which is one of the top grade-6 organizations in the God Territory."
Upon hearing this, the expressions of almost everyone present changed drastically. They were not even very clear what a grade-6 organization was, but they had already realized that it was a behemoth that would have no rival in any gravel world.
"Emperor Lin, with your current ability, what sort of a chance do you stand against Myriad Tribe Palace?" Dongfang Bai could not help asking.
Lin Huang glanced at Dongfang Bai, shook his head, and smiled bitterly. "Let's not talk about what I am currently; even if you give me a year, I have no chance of winning if it comes to a head-on clash.
"The grade-5 organizations above the grade-4 organizations are always protected by Heavenly Gods. As for the grade-6 organizations above the grade-5 organizations, they are all protected by top-tier Heavenly Gods, and the guardians are practically all powerhouses at ninth-rank heavenly god-level. Not only that, the number of Heavenly Gods exceeds one hundred.
"As a top grade-6 organization in the God Territory, Myriad Tribe Palace's overall ability is second only to the five major grade-7 organizations protected by Lords. There are rumors in the God Territory that their palace masters and deputy palace masters are half-step Lord peak powerhouses. There are thousands of Heavenly Gods under their command, and there is a multitude of True Gods…"
When they heard that, the expressions of Jiang Shan and the others present—including Mr. Fu and Lin Xuan—became increasingly despondent. They finally understood why Lin Huang had said that even after a year, his ability would not be sufficient to go up against Myriad Tribe Palace.
Having heard Lin Huang's description of Myriad Tribe Palace's might, Jiang Shan could not help speaking up again.
"Would a lofty organization giant like Myriad Tribe Palace interfere in this conflict between ourselves and the Thousand Snake Sect?"
Lin Huang's expression revealed a degree of helplessness as he continued, "This is what I want to talk about next.
"The reason why the Thousand Snake Sect attacked our gravel world was because they were following Myriad Tribe Palace's orders!"
As soon as the words were out of Lin Huang's mouth, the atmosphere in the entire meeting room dropped to freezing point.
"Why? We're just a gravel world with incomplete rules. Why are we being targeted by one of the top grade-6 organization in the God Territory?" It was Mr. Fu who posed the question this time.
"I don't know the specific reason. There's nothing specific about it in Teng Ran's memories either." Lin Huang shook his head. "However, from Teng Ran's memories, I know that every time the gravel world's cultivation epochs have been destroyed, it was directed by Myriad Tribe Palace with the Thousand Snake Sect as the instrument.
"In other words, from the very beginning, the conflict between ourselves and the Thousand Snake Sect has essentially been a conflict between us and Myriad Tribe Palace!"
In the conference room, everyone's hearts gradually sank completely.
"Since the Thousand Snake Sect's invasion has failed now, that means Myriad Tribe Palace will send someone here in person?" Lin Xuan asked, turning his head toward Lin Huang.
"Yes." Lin Huang nodded helplessly. "Every time the Thousand Snake Sect eliminates a subordinate mini world, it takes about a year at most—no more than one year and three months. It's been two months now since Teng Ran and the others set off. That is to say, in a year and a month at the very latest, Myriad Tribe Palace will receive news that Teng Ran's invasion has failed."
At Lin Huang's words, almost everyone present fell into despair.
This was completely different from the previous invasion of the Thousand Snake Sect. If Myriad Tribe Palace really showed up, even Lin Huang would not be able to turn the tide. The fate of the gravel world could only be imagined then.
"Lin Huang, is there really nothing that can be done?" Mr. Fu even forgot the nickname that he used to call Lin Huang when he was being a "good apprentice" and used his name instead.
"The only thing I can think of is to destroy the thirty-three space tunnels in the Abyss Brink. I'm not talking about sealing them, but completely annihilating them to the point where nothing is left! Although this is not a solution to the fundamental problem, at least it can buy us some time.
"However, there is a caveat to this delay—which is, if Myriad Tribe Palace does not have the specific dimensional coordinates of our gravel world. This way, it will be extremely difficult for them to re-establish the space tunnels.
"If they do have our dimensional coordinates though, it doesn't make much sense to destroy the space tunnels. At a rough estimate, it can delay them for a few months at most, and they will soon be able to rebuild the space tunnels."
"Let's set aside the question of whether or not they have our dimensional coordinates first. The internal Space Rules for these space tunnels have long since stabilized since they've existed for several eras. If they could be destroyed, our predecessors would have destroyed them long ago." Jiang Shan exhaled in a long sigh.
"Can you do it?" Mr. Fu asked Lin Huang with a glimmer of hope.
"I've tried, but it doesn't work." Lin Huang shook his head, "If I could do it, I would have destroyed all these tunnels long ago and directly cut off the path for the Thousand Snake Sect's invasion.
"I've asked you to this meeting to discuss whether there might be a way to solve this problem of Myriad Tribe Palace. It doesn't matter if it's destroying the space tunnels or some other way. Everyone brainstorm and share what you think—even if there's only a hint of possibility, share it!"
In the conference room, everyone fell silent, as if they were thinking about whether or not there might be a possible solution.
Suddenly, Jiang Shan's Emperor's Heart Ring began vibrating.
He looked down in surprise. He clearly remembered turning off his communication signal before the meeting started.
However, when he saw the number that popped up on the communication page, his expression suddenly changed.
"My apologies; I have something that I need to deal with."
As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Jiang Shan got up and left the conference room.
He closed the door to the conference room and surrounded himself with a barrier screen. Then, he clicked on the message that had just been sent through to the communication page.
After he read it, his expression became even more puzzled.
Jiang Shan turned off the communication page and stood still, considering things for a while. Only then did he turned around and open the door of the conference room again.
His gaze traveled through the assembled individuals and settled directly on Lin Huang.
"Emperor Lin, there's a matter on my side that requires you to come with me."
When he saw that two Sword Servants were preparing to stand up, Jiang Shan immediately added, "The rest of you can wait in here in the conference room; we should be back soon."
Lin Huang nodded at the Sword Servants, signaling for them to sit down and be at ease. He then nodded at Mr. Fu, who looked at him, then stood up and walked toward Jiang Shan alone.
Chapter 1449: Conversation With Emperor's Heart
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After they left the meeting room, the two walked a distance along the promenade before Lin Huang finally asked, "Can you tell me what this is about now?"
"Emperor's Heart wants to see you."
Jiang Shan stopped and activated screen barriers before he turned and confronted Lin Huang.
"Emperor's Heart?" Lin Huang was not expecting this answer and was a little surprised. "It's sentient?"
He raised this question because, apart from Goldfinger, he had not seen any god relic or god rule relic with sentience. Even a god sequence relic like Thousand Face only had a weak consciousness and did not have the ability to think independently.
"It has always been sentient." Jiang Shan nodded and gave an affirmative answer, but these words seemed to have a deeper meaning to it.
Lin Huang fell into silence as he contemplated the messages from Jiang Shan's words.
1. Emperor's Heart was not a product of the new era—it may have come from a certain ruin or wasteland.
2. From the very moment it was discovered, Emperor's Heart had been sentient.
3. Emperor's Heart had the ability to communicate with humans, and it should have reached a certain cooperative relationship with the Union Government.
After he summed up the few pieces of information, the first thought that popped into Lin Huang's mind was—Artificial Intelligence.
Before Lin Huang traveled over, Artificial Intelligence was also one of the developing areas of science and technology. Many giant technology companies had established specialized departments and developed many derivative products such as drones, sweeping robots, smart translators, et cetera.
However, the development of artificial intelligence on earth was still in its infancy stage, and it was still far from advanced artificial intelligence.
However, Lin Huang vaguely felt that Emperor's Heart might be an advanced piece of artificial intelligence.
Otherwise, it was impossible for it to build the Emperor's Heart network throughout the entire gravel world on its own. After all, this world had no programmers.
In an instant, Lin Huang had a whirlpool of thoughts in his mind, but the last thing he said out loud was one short sentence.
"Why does it want to see me?"
"I don't know."
Jiang Shan was telling the truth—he did not know why Emperor's Heart suddenly wanted to see Lin Huang. When he received the news from Emperor's Heart, he was no less surprised than Lin Huang.
Lin Huang could also tell that he did not lie. He nodded slightly and did not press Jiang Shan any further.
After he deactivated the screen barrier, Jiang Shan summoned a dimensional portal, and Lin Huang followed him into it.
Lin Huang was not wary of Jiang Shan potentially plotting against him. With his current ability, there was really nothing that could threaten him in this gravel world, whether it was people, monsters, battlefields, battle formations, or weapons.
However, he was still on guard against Emperor's Heart.
If it was Artificial Intelligence, it may possess weapons beyond this gravel world. If it was a Goldfinger, it likely had mastered a terrifying unknown power.
As he pondered the matter, the dimensional portal opened.
Lin Huang collected his thoughts, followed Jiang Shan, and stepped out of the portal.
The underground cave in front of him was not unfamiliar to Lin Huang.
Two years ago, Guan Zhong brought him here when he unlocked his Emperor's Heart ring.
The giant sphere was still suspended in the void. The entire structure looked like it was constructed from the roots of countless trees, layered on top of each other, but there were round holes on the surface. It looked a bit like a huge honeycomb.
As Lin Huang considered his next move, a deep voice of a middle-aged man resounded.
"Jiang Shan, I want to be alone with Lin Huang for a while."
The sound was transmitted from the inside of the sphere.
Jiang Shan nodded slightly in the direction of the sphere, then turned and addressed Lin Huang, "Then I shall leave first."
As he spoke, he turned around, pushed open the dimensional portal again, and stepped into it. Soon, the dimensional portal was closed and gradually faded away.
When he saw Jiang Shan leave, Lin Huang raised his vigilance slightly and looked at the sphere in the void with scorching eyes.
At this moment, the suspended sphere suddenly squirmed, and the structure that looked like plant roots moved like living tentacles and quickly condensed into the shape of a human head. Its face had a full set of facial features. Its hair was thick, and it had a bushy beard and a sideburn.
When he saw that, Lin Huang was visibly taken aback, but soon recovered his composure.
"Hello, Lin Huang. I'm Emperor's Heart."
The bearded head was the first to offer a greeting.
"Hello," Lin Huang responded quickly.
"No need to be nervous, I have no ill intentions." The bearded head seemed to notice Lin Huang's heightened guard. "Although it is the first official meeting between you and me today, I actually knew about you ages ago and have been observing you silently."
After he heard this, Lin Huang still did not lower his guard. "When you say ages ago, how early do you mean?"
"The first day that you traveled over." Emperor's Heart had a faint smile on his face, he seemed to expect that Lin Huang would not guess his answer.
When he heard the answer, Lin Huang's expression stiffened slightly. He never expected that he had entered the sight of Emperor's Heart so early on.
"The day was June 6th five years ago, the exact time was 8:08 in the morning." Emperor's Heart even offered a more precise time.
Lin Huang's heart jumped when he heard it. Of course, he clearly remembered the specific time he had traveled over, and it was exactly the time Emperor's Heart stated.
"The reason I know it so clearly is because the Emperor's Heart ring you wore was abnormal for a moment on that day. Your life fluctuation disappeared for an instant. Although it returned to normal in the next instant, I still caught it. I knew that the moment Lin Huang's parasite body died, you traveled here."
"You know about the existence of travelers… so you are a Goldfinger?!" Lin Huang realized the identity of Emperor's Heart at this moment.
"That's right," Emperor's Heart readily admitted.
"Who is your host?" Lin Huang pressed.
"My host died a long time ago." Emperor's Heart's answer did not surprise Lin Huang.
"I'm asking about the current host. Without a host, how can you function as a Goldfinger?"
"If you only perform part of the function, you don't need to have a host. A temporary host is fine," Emperor's Heart explained. "Do you remember the Stairway Tree? That is my current host."
"Stairway Tree?!" Lin Huang certainly knew about the Stairway Tree in the genius organization, it was the largest tree he had ever seen in his life. "But isn't that just a virtual thing on the Internet?"
"Why can't virtual things act as a host?" Emperor's Heart retorted. "The essence of consciousness is information. The network can store information, so why can't it store consciousness?"
"Okay." Lin Huang conceded that Emperor's Heart had a point. It had the ability to digitalize their own consciousness, so it was not impossible to hide the ontology in the network.
"I think we should go straight to the topic. What do you want with me?" Lin Huang changed the subject.
"Mainly two things. One is about Myriad Tribe Palace, the other is related to my host."
Chapter 1450: The One Who Came From The Abyss
"I had always known that this gravel world is facing a threat from a certain organization of the great world."
The Emperor's Heart paused to gather his thoughts a little and continued.
"To be precise, it is under threat from one individual. The Myriad Tribe Palace is just their pawn."
"Are you sure? Myriad Tribe Palace is the grade-6 top organization in God Territory, and they have at least two half-step lord-level powerhouses!" Lin Huang's face was full of amazement. He always thought he had fully excavated the background of the Thousand Snake Sect, which stopped at the Myriad Tribe Palace. "If such a huge organization is only a pawn, then is the person you are talking about a certain Lord of God Territory?!"
"They are an extremely powerful Lord. However, they don't come from the God Territory but from the Abyss." The Emperor's Heart finally revealed this secret that he had kept hidden for many years.
"A Lord from the Abyss has also developed a grade-6 peak organization in God Territory?! Who possesses such great ability?" Lin Huang asked hurriedly.
"Their name cannot be mentioned, because wherever their name is uttered, their sight will be cast there. Their eyes cannot be directly gazed upon. Those who look directly upon them will be completely plunged into the Sea Abyss and perish on the bottom of the sea for eternity. Their call cannot be answered. The responder will lose all of his will and become their slave forever…"
Although the Emperor's Heart's words were somewhat vague, Lin Huang understood how terrifying this "they" was.
"Why is such a terrifying existence setting their sights on a small place like ours?" Lin Huang suddenly guessed the answer when he asked this question. He raised his head and stared at the huge head floating in the void, frowning slightly. "You know so much…Is it because of you that the gravel world is being targeted?!"
"To be precise, it is because of my host." The Emperor's Heart finally told the truth. "They and my host are mortal enemies and have fought many times. In the last battle, my host was defeated, and the remnant of my host's soul and I fled."
"You fled to this gravel world, and then you were discovered? So "they" sent someone to chase after the two of you?" Lin Huang guessed the subsequent plot.
"It's not as simple as you think." The Emperor's Heart shook his gigantic head.
"You should know that there is more than one great world, right? The battlefield where my host fought with them is not in this great world. After my host's initial defeat, my host split their God Territory into a million fragments and projected them toward different great worlds. The severely injured soul of my host and I were hiding in one of the fragments of God Territory and descended into this great world."
"The gravel world under your feet is that fragment of God Territory! To some extent, you are all descendants of my host."
Lin Huang did not expect this turn of events. "What happened after that? Was this fragment discovered?"
"After the epic battle between the two, my host died in the battle, but 'they' were also seriously injured. For millions of years, that person should have been hiding in the Abyss to heal their wounds. But before returning to the Abyss, they left behind a projection in the Incubus World, which has induced a large number of believers in their dreams."
"For these years, that person's followers have been searching for the existence of my host's God Territory fragments in various great worlds. Over millions of years, most of the fragments of the God Territory have been discovered, including ours."
"I have a few questions." As he listened to the story, Lin Huang could not help but interrupt the Emperor's Heart's narration. "According to the information I got from the Thousand Snake Sect, Myriad Tribe Palace should have discovered our gravel world long ago. Why doesn't the powerhouse of the Myriad Tribe Palace directly come to destroy our world? Even if they don't want to let other organizations know, as long as a Lord hides their identity, they won't be discovered by making a single attack.
"Also, why did the Myriad Tribe Palace get the Thousand Snake Sect to only eliminate cultivators and not ordinary people? Isn't it more effective to eliminate all living things once and for all?"
"The reason is very simple. That person wants to obtain the source of my host's strength, they want to get their hands on me, a Goldfinger!"
"Myriad Tribe Palace discovered that our gravel world is a fragment of God Territory, but they didn't know that the remnants of my host and I were hiding on this particular fragment. So, they have not taken the next step to refine the gravel world forcefully and enshrine it for that person. Instead, they have been waiting for that person to give instructions for the next step and dare not make a move themselves."
"As for not eliminating all life forms, the reason is simple. God Territory fragments are not complete worlds (here we are referring to incomplete worlds, not incomplete rules). Once a large number of life forms die out, the world composed of God Territory fragments will soon move toward self-disintegration."
"You should also know that when the Thousand Snake Sect made a move on this world several times in the past, the rules of the True God of this world were still complete. But more than 800 years ago, the rules were no longer complete. This is due to the death of a large number of cultivators. The entire energy of the God Territory fragments scattered, leading to accelerated disintegration.
"It knows that my host's remnant soul cannot be awakened in a short time, and once the fragments of the God Territory attached to the remnant soul collapses, the remnant soul will die for good. What that person wants is the living remnant soul with the memory of the host intact, and as such, they do not want the fragments of God Territory to collapse."
"As for the cultivators who instructed the Myriad Tribe Palace to hunt for the fragments of God Territory, the reason is also very simple. Because once the native cultivators of the God Territory fragments have reached the true god-level and mastered Rule Bending Powers, they may be recognized by the world will of the mini world, and it is even possible for them to successfully refine the fragments of God Territory."
At this point, the huge head of the Emperor's Heart looked down at Lin Huang, and after a pause, he continued.
"You want to relieve the gravel world of its current crisis, here is the solution."
Lin Huang listened for a moment, and then immediately reacted. He looked up at Emperor's Heart with a look of surprise. "You mean…for me to communicate with the world will and refine this piece of God Territory?!
"But, even refining it would be useless. Won't the several spatial dimensional gateways in the Abyss Brink still exist? Myriad Tribe Palace can still transport people over."
"After you refine this piece of God Territory fragment, you will have control over the world will. By that time, you can easily peel off the third layer of the Abyss Brink. No matter how stable those dimensional gateways are, they can only be transmitted to the third layer of the Abyss Brink that has been stripped, and can't reach the gravel world." The Emperor's Heart had obviously put some thought into it.
Lin Huang fell into silence for a while after he heard that. "Are you sure this method is feasible?"
"One hundred percent," the Emperor's Heart answered very firmly.
Lin Huang fell silent for another moment, then suddenly raised his head and asked, "Am I your previous host?"
"No," the Emperor's Heart said without hesitation.
"Then your host…has been awakened?" Lin Huang asked again.
"My host has successfully reincarnated." The Emperor's Heart nodded.
"Then why are you asking me to refine the fragments of your host's God Territory, instead of letting your host do it themself? Stripping off the third layer of the Abyss Brink, wouldn't your host be able to do the same?" Lin Huang pressed.
"All Virtual Gods and True Gods born in this gravel world can try to refine it, but my host alone cannot." The Emperor's Heart looked serious and shook his head. "If my host refines any fragment of God Territory from their previous life, there will be energy fluctuations similar to those in the previous life, and this fluctuation will be instantly captured by that person from the Abyss, who will find out our precise coordinates.
"I have followed my host for millions of years and have seen countless geniuses in the vast sea of stars, and there are also other travelers. Your talent and potential, among all the people I have seen, can be easily ranked in the top three. If my host wanted to choose a person in this gravel world to refine the fragments of his God Territory, I believe they would choose you."
Lin Huang was surprised that the Emperor's Heart would have such a high evaluation of him.
Lin Huang instantly quelled his doubts. "Then I will give it a try!"