Chapter 1671: Coming Out Of Closed-Door Cultivation
Lin Huang raised his head and looked toward the deep reaches of space in the Kingdom within him. Two giant spheres hovered in the air there, like two massive eggs suspended in the ocean.
These two spheres were the Kingdoms that had been extracted and refined from the two middle-rank Lords—Black Mountain, and Spy—after Lin Huang had killed them.
Although they were sealed at the moment, the size of both spheres was comparable to a star zone.
They existed in a state like this within Lin Huang's Kingdom and had not yet become a part of it, because Lin Huang had been unable to refine them previously.
Although their wills had been erased, the two Kingdoms were currently ownerless. Lin Huang had been unable to refine them, so he had had no choice but to set them aside for the time being.
However, now that he had elevated to become a Lord, he was fully certain that his current self would not encounter any hindrances when refining middle-rank Lords' God Territories.
He immediately set about the matter with barely any hesitation.
All it took was a mere thought, and endless blood-red Divine Fire seemed to appear out of nowhere. It enveloped the two giant eggs instantly and began the refining process.
Days passed in the virtual realm cabin.
After an indeterminate amount of time, the two Kingdoms were finally fully refined. They then became part of Lin Huang's Kingdom.
Including forty-eight Dao seals from Black Mountain and Spy, three hundred thousand god sequence chains, and a massive number of god rules also became part of Lin Huang's Kingdom.
After successfully refining the two Kingdoms in their entirety, Lin Huang lifted his head once more to gaze at the heavens of his Kingdom.
There were still five hundred and forty-one Dao seal stars there, moving around in disorderly fashion.
Apart from the ones he had obtained from killing Babble's group of lower-rank Lords, there were also those that Lin Huang had extracted and refined from the Kingdoms of the lower-rank Lords he had obtained from trading on Royal's auction.
As his Godly Right could not control Dao seals previously, he had not refined these Dao seals. He could only let them drift around in the starry heavens.
Now, however, he could refine them at last.
Lin Huang summoned up a thought, and blood-red fire blazed up again in the Kingdom, enveloping all of the Dao seal stars that were not under any control.
Time did not exist in the virtual realm cabin; Lin Huang did not know exactly how long this round of refining had taken.
Regardless, after the refinement was complete, the number of Dao seals in his possession had exceeded one thousand four hundred in total.
Including the three Dao seals within his body, he could now invoke over five point five million Dao tattoos (previously it had been god sequence chains.)
The Dao tattoos in Lin Huang's Kingdom had also increased exponentially from the initial fourteen point seventy-one million to eighteen million.
After refining all the Dao seals in his Kingdom, Lin Huang looked at his three Dao seals again.
He took a moment to consider whether or not he should continue consolidating more Dao seals.
After all, for every Dao seal he consolidated, the number of Dao tattoo powers that he could invoke would increase by one million.
However, after some thought, he set that aside for now.
He was not sure if he would attract the attention of the previous being above lord-level if he were to consolidate more Dao seals.
If that entity showed up again, he might not be able to count on a second chance of survival.
After all, the lady who had intervened to save him before was also a being above lord-level. Lin Huang did not think that she would be watching over him constantly and protecting him at all times.
Moreover, he now owed her a considerable favor. It would be embarrassing for him to owe her another one.
Lin Huang abandoned the idea of continuing to consolidate more Dao seals and immediately came out of closed-door cultivation.
He put the virtual realm cabin away and stepped back into the material realm.
After glancing at the barren planet where he was, he summoned the Gate of All Realms again and returned to the Ricky Star.
As soon as he returned to his hotel on the Ricky Star, Lin Huang took out his Royal Token and uploaded the eleven intermediate-grade Dao Weapons onto the auction page.
His conditions for the auction were as follows. "Trading in exchange for middle-rank Lords' God Territories that have fifty seals and above. The more Dao seals, the better. No restrictions on the Dao seal type; Abyssal and Bug Tribe seals are fine as well."
This time, Lin Huang set the duration of the auction for ten days.
For one, the trading conditions he had set out were more exacting. If the duration was too short, the Dao Weapons would not go for a good price.
For another, obtaining the God Territories of Lords was not a matter of urgency for him. At his current level of ability, he was more than able to face down any investigators the Raiders would send. There was no need to be in a hurry to refine more God Territories to advance his abilities.
Lin Huang had a lot of free time in the next few days.
He had already used up whatever resources he could currently utilize. If he wanted to elevate his abilities any further, he had to wait for Royal's auction to end.
Fortunately, there were many trading markets on the Ricky Star and within the Coyne Star Zone. Lin Huang just happened to be able to use them to pass the time.
At his current level of ability and experience, there were far fewer items that caught his interest. Therefore, he browsed more and purchased very little.
After strolling around all sorts of marketplaces for a few days, Lin Huang was finally able to gain new awareness about the pricing of various items.
All along previously, he had busied himself with cultivation and had not actually made a note of what resources he did not need.
Apart from that, he had only just discovered that there were grades of marketplaces in the God Territory.
For instance, heavenly god-level powerhouses would usually shop at Precious Treasure Pavilion's Heavenly Treasure Pavilion.
The Heavenly Treasure Pavilion basically did not sell any items below the level of god sequence relics. Not only that, the quality of all their items was assured. However, item prices were much more expensive compared to the black market. It was normal for some rare items to be priced three to five times higher.
Virtual Gods and True Gods, however, usually shopped at the Precious Treasure Market, which was also a Precious Treasure Pavilion site. This market was almost the size of a town. However, it was rented to various stall owners, and the goods were all provided by the various owners themselves.
It was said that Precious Treasure Pavilion had a Secret Treasure Pavilion that only lord-level powerhouses could enter. Rumor was that the collections were all treasures such as Dao Weapons and the like.
However, Lin Huang had only heard about it; he had never been there either.
Although he was a Lord now, he did not want too many people to know about his abilities.
He was quite interested in the Secret Treasure Pavilion, but he did not think that the items would be anything that Royal would not have.
After all, Royal did have beings above lord-level in their midst; they also had countless Lords under their command. A minor organization like Precious Treasure Pavilion could not compare with that.
For the past few days, Lin Huang had strolled around various markets large and small while waiting patiently for the investigators from the Raiders to arrive.
Unlike his previous state of mind when his abilities were insufficient, now he hoped more and more that they would show up earlier.
The sooner they arrived, the sooner he would be able to resolve the issue.
Furthermore, he hoped that they were more powerful and that there would be more of them.
After all, he was severely lacking in lord-level God Territories.
Moreover, the more powerful the investigators were, the more Dao seals and Dao tattoos he could refine.
As for whether he might be subsequently targeted by even more powerful Raiders from the universe, this no longer mattered to Lin Huang.
This was because as long as he showed his face anywhere, it was just a matter of time before he would be targeted by Raiders.
That is, unless he kept his head down for the rest of his life until he was more powerful than everyone in the Raiders.
Lin Huang felt he could not do that.
By nature, he was not someone who wanted to stand out and was willing to keep a low profile in the process of his development. However, if he were truly to encounter certain situations, he would make a stand if he had to. That was his character.
An example would be now, with the Raiders sending investigators over. Lin Huang could actually flee if he wanted to, but he did not wish to run.
Instead, he chose to work hard to become more powerful, then directly confront his enemy.
Chapter 1672: Wanted by the Whole World?
Lin Huang's wait lasted three days.
At the black market that day, as he was going past a shop that specialized in selling intel, he suddenly saw information on a wanted individual being projected on the shop wall that directly faced the entrance.
"Mission: Manhunt
Target: Lin Huang
Gender: Male
Race: Human
Age: Unknown
Combat Level: Unknown
Target's Information: Joined Death Sickle previously under the identities of Xie Lin and Xiu Mu. His main cultivation path is in sword skills, with a secondary cultivation path in Divine Telekinesis. Carries disguise equipment on his person and could be disguised as anyone of any appearance.
Mission Request: If you see this man, all you have to do is provide his coordinates, and you will get a top-grade god sequence relic or another item of the same value. If any lord-level powerhouses assist in the capture, they will be rewarded with an expert-grade Dao Weapon or another item of the same value."
…
Remarks: This man's abilities are not known, but he is extremely dangerous. It is not recommended that cultivators below lord-level confront this individual."
Apart from this textual information, there were also several holographic projections of his various identities beside it.
Lin Huang could not help raising his brows after he finished reading. 'The group of investigators has finally shown up.'
He immediately went into the store and asked, pointing at the projection, "Can this mission be taken on by just anyone?"
Before he had arrived for his temporary stay on the Ricky Star, he had disguised himself with a new form. He had also gotten Yang Ling to create a new identity for him so he was not worried that he would be recognized.
"That's right. Anybody can take up this mission; there aren't any restrictions," the female staff responded with a professional smile. Clearly, she did not recognize Lin Huang.
"Alright, I'll give it a shot." Lin Huang grinned and scanned the info code at the bottom right corner of the projection. Almost immediately, he received the black market mission that the store had sent.
He made a show of looking around and glanced at some of the other missions.
After listening to almost everyone in the store talking about him, he left the black market unhurriedly.
After returning to the hotel, Lin Huang pulled up the mission information and read it over in detail.
It had to be said that the information the Raiders had on him was quite complete.
Practically all the identities he created since coming to the great world had been exposed. Furthermore, his real identity as Lin Huang and his identity as a human had been revealed as well.
This was not surprising in the least. After all, Spy had done some digging into Lin Huang's identity before; it would have been very difficult to keep that information concealed from him. From the looks of things now, he must have put Lin Huang's information on file at the Raiders' headquarters.
In other words, if Lin Huang used any of these identities—Lin Huang, Xie Lin, Huang Mu (Xiu Mu)—and was discovered by anybody in the black market, they would definitely report him.
After closing the black market mission, Lin Huang checked Death Sickle's forum.
He logged in with Xiu Mu's identity using incognito mode, which would not attract any attention. However, if he used his Blood Sickle member authorization, anyone on the system's backend would be able to see his login status.
He used Xiu Mu's identity because it had Gold Sickle authorization in Death Sickle. This meant he could see more information using that identity.
However, as soon as he logged in, he saw that forum's main page was practically swamped with discussions about him.
There were also all sorts of strange headings.
"Xie Lin, Xiu Mu, can't tell them apart"
"Xiu Mu (Xie Lin)'s true identity exposed"
"Xiu Mu, the human spy who sneaked into the God Territory!"
"A boss is still a boss no matter how many identities he's switched"
"My night with that sleaze Xiu Mu"
…
Lin Huang could not help clicking into a few threads to read the contents. The ones exposing his identity were all wild guesses. There were a few conspiracy theories saying that he was a human spy, but none of them provided a shred of solid evidence—they all insisted on laying the blame for various matters at his door. As for the threads that proclaimed he was a sleaze, Lin Huang did not click into those stories at all. However, he glanced at a few of the posters' accounts. They were all men…
Given the state of the forum, Lin Huang did not even need to think about it to know that everyone from Death Sickle must have seen the manhunt information which listed him as its target.
He clicked into the mission section. As expected, the first mission pinned on top was the mission to hunt him down.
Furthermore, the thread was authorized for public viewing. Even reserve members could see it.
Lin Huang did not think there was anything untoward in Death Sickle posting the mission about the manhunt.
He knew that Death Sickle had had no choice but to do it, under pressure from the Raiders' investigators. It not, they would be destroyed in the investigators' fury.
There would be at least one upper-rank Lord among the investigators; Death Sickle would not be able to contend against this at all.
Death Sickle might have a backer behind the scenes in the universe, but in the great world, it was just a small branch organization without a guardian Lord (Buried Heaven had elevated on his own later on).
If Death Sickle truly did enrage the upper-rank Lord and they were wiped out, at most, the Raiders would compensate their backer in the universe out of courtesy. It was highly unlikely that there would be more serious consequences.
Although he had already faked his death to sever any ties to Death Sickle, the Raiders' investigators most certainly would not allow any possible clues on Death Sickle's end to slip through their hands so easily.
However, Lin Huang did not know how much contact the investigators had had with Death Sickle, or if they had been in touch with Buried Heaven. Given Buried Heaven's character, Lin Huang was rather worried he might bring down trouble upon himself by protecting Lin Huang.
Currently, seeing the mission that Death Sickle had posted actually helped him feel slightly less worried. At the very least, Death Sickle's compromise meant that they had not been wiped out.
After closing Death Sickle's forum, Lin Huang checked out the forums of a few grade-7 organizations by logging in as a guest.
Based on the situation in Death Sickle's forum, any news in the grade-7 organizations should also be accessible to the public.
Just as he expected, the discussions on all the forums of the grade-7 organizations were entirely about him.
Most of the topics were discussions about his identity as a human, while most of the threads had nothing good to say.
Of all the discussions, the ones on God Capital's forum were the worst. It was almost entirely one-sided abuse, using the most derogatory of terms.
After all, God Capital was an organization of pure blood Protoss. They even looked down on those of their own kind who were not of pure blood. Naturally, they looked down on humans even more.
Lin Huang ignored these vituperative threads and looked at the mission section.
The five major grade-7 organizations—the Combat God Temple, God Capital, Precious Treasure Pavilion, Xeno, and Divine Clapnet—had published the mission about the manhunt. Not only that, it was accessible to the general public; even guests could view it.
It was the Combat God Temple and God Capital that puzzled Lin Huang a bit more. One must know that these two grade-7 organizations never accepted external missions. However, not only had they accepted the mission this time, but they had even made the mission public.
Lin Huang then checked on news from the humans' side. It turned out that they were discussing him as well.
The three Saints and seven sects—Daluo Temple, Sanctuary, Leiyin Temple, and the rest— had also posted up the mission about the manhunt. The time of the mission's publication was even several hours earlier than the organizations in the God Territory.
This alone had shown Lin Huang how powerful the Raiders were.
It did not matter if the investigators went door to door requesting the organizations' cooperation, or whatever other reason. All of this was sufficient to prove how afraid of these investigators the organizations in this great world were.
"Just as I expected, force wins the day." Lin Huang smiled and shook his head.
If this had occurred before he had performed unification and become a Lord, he might have panicked a bit upon seeing this news. After all, the situation made one feel as if the entire world were against them.
However, right now, Lin Huang merely found it amusing.
Chapter 1673: The Arrival Of Unwelcome Guests
The God Territory, Blood Sickle Shelter, Death Sickle's headquarters.
In the conference room, the expressions of Buried Heaven and the several Blood Sickle members were not very pleasant.
Sitting across from Buried Heaven at the conference table was a red-haired man with a red beard.
He rested both his legs on the table, his upper body practically slouched on the chair. He had a cigarette in his mouth and was blowing a cloud of smoke; his tone of voice sounded rather indifferent.
"I'll give all of you a bit more time to think over whether or not you want to ask Lin Huang to show himself. However, I suggest that you make up your minds soon, as my partners aren't going to ask so nicely."
"Seniors, Lin Huang hasn't made an appearance since he entered a secret Heavenly God territory as Xiu Mu over two years ago. If not for your mentioning him, we'd have thought all along that he had already died," one of the Blood Sickle members said, looking helpless.
The red-haired man blew out a puff of smoke and fixed his gaze on Buried Heaven. "Mr. Buried Heaven, I've heard that personally, you got on fairly well with Lin Huang, and you took good care of him in the past. Hasn't he contacted you since then?"
"No," Buried Heaven responded expressionlessly, "I took good care of him in the past because he had extraordinary talent and incredible potential. I felt he was a worthy young successor and decided to train him up. After he went missing, I tried contacting him, but to no avail, so I just left it at that.
"Anyway, I've been busy with pre-unification preparation work for the past two years. I certainly haven't had time to spare any thoughts for a person who's most probably dead."
Buried Heaven's reply was fully convincing, but the other party clearly did not believe him.
The red-haired man flicked away his cigarette ash and glanced at Buried Heaven. His tone remained casual.
"To be honest, I'm a lazy individual. Whenever I encounter an issue, I always hope to be able to resolve it in the easiest manner. Distinguishing whether a person is lying or not isn't my strong suit. However, some of my partners specialize in this. I hope that what all of you say remains consistent when they show up. Otherwise, the consequences might be extremely serious.
"Alright. I'll end my questions here." The red-haired man glanced at his cigarette, which was already down to its end, and stubbed it into the ashtray. He then lit another cigarette and said rather indistinctly to Buried Heaven and the rest, "You won't mind if we borrow your conference room for a moment, will you?"
"Not at all. Please go ahead, seniors," one of the Blood Sickle members returned immediately.
Just as Buried Heaven and the rest were getting up to leave, they heard the red-haired man's voice again suddenly.
"Oh yes, later on, when our partners arrive, you can just bring them up here straight away, and that will do."
After Buried Heaven and the others departed, the only ones left in the meeting room were the red-haired man and two other men seated on his left and right, who had not said much the entire time.
The man on the left was extremely cadaverous, practically skin and bones like a mummy. "The one called Buried Heaven was clearly lying. Why didn't you detain him directly and force him to contact Lin Huang?"
"If we directly read his memories, perhaps we might find something useful." The one on the right—a tall, lean individual over three meters tall—nodded as well in agreement.
"Do the two of you really think we can do as we please in the great world just because we've applied to Royal for an investigation permit?" The red-haired man glanced casually at the two people on either side of him. "This is Royal's affiliate territory. Everything we do is constantly under Royal's surveillance.
"Furthermore, the top organizations of the universe's affiliated territories are usually under the protection of the organizations in the universe. Judging by how the organizations in this great world are graded, Death Sickle belongs in the top category—they're a grade-7 organization under Royal's protection.
"If we want to move against Death Sickle, we must have a solid reason. Otherwise, Royal will very likely intervene."
The red-haired man took a deep drag of his cigarette, blowing the smoke out after he had finished speaking. "It's not worth coming into conflict with Royal over something so insignificant."
"Then what do we do now?" The cadaverous man asked again.
"We wait," the red-haired man responded simply.
…
Buried Heaven and the rest looked grim as they walked out of the meeting room.
Although this time only three individuals from the universe had come to call, all three were Lords.
Buried Heaven was unable to discern the red-haired leader's combat strength at all. However, he could clearly sense that the two who hardly spoke were middle-rank Lords.
He was vaguely conscious of the deadly threat emanating from these two myrmidons.
As for the red-haired man, Buried Heaven could only hazard a guess that he was an upper-rank Lord.
The crux of the matter was that more than three of them had arrived in the great world.
Given that the veteran grade-7 organizations like the Combat God Temple and God Capital had posted the orders for Lin Huang's capture under coercion from the red-haired man's partners, Death Sickle had no choice but to post the mission regarding Lin Huang as well.
The red-haired man had made it very clear. If they did not cut ties with Lin Huang now, he could regard Death Sickle as accessories in the death of his Raider partners.
If they could not find Lin Huang, they would have no choice but to take revenge by killing all of his Death Sickle teammates.
No matter how close Buried Heaven was to Lin Huang, he could not sacrifice all of Death Sickle's members just to protect him.
Besides, it was merely posting a manhunt mission. They were not being asked to move against Lin Huang.
It was an expedient compromise.
Buried Heaven believed that Lin Huang would understand their situation if he saw the mission that they had posted.
"What do we do now?" Blood Sickle Gao Ming asked Buried Heaven via voice transmission, his brow furrowed tightly.
Buried Heaven fell silent upon hearing the question.
He did not know what he could do at the moment either. Right now, the only thing he could do was to try his best to keep Lin Huang's hiding place a secret.
He had no idea that Lin Huang's previous hiding place—the Devil Hunter Star Zone—had already been reduced to ruins.
"I think that red-haired fellow isn't lying. His partners are likely to be even more dangerous. As soon as they show up at our headquarters, we might run into even bigger problems," Boundless Blood voiced his concerns from where he was standing when he saw Buried Heaven remaining silent.
"So what you're saying is that we should betray Lin Huang for Death Sickle's sake?" Buried Heaven shot a dismissive glance at Boundless Blood.
All along, he had harbored a deep respect for this senior who had participated in the founding of Death Sickle. However, right now, Buried Heaven felt that Boundless Blood was being selfish.
"Buried Heaven, Senior Boundless Blood definitely doesn't mean that." Beside them, the Nine-tailed Fox Hu Xian'er hurriedly smoothed things over. "I think we should at least discuss a plan on how to respond."
"It doesn't matter what we plan; once we make our move, our odds of winning are zero." Buried Heaven shook his head helplessly.
As a Lord, he was the most capable of intuitively sensing the gap in abilities between himself and the three Raiders.
"What if we collaborate with the Combat God Temple and the other organizations? Wouldn't that work?" Hu Xian'er followed up with another question.
"Why do you think the Combat God Temple and God Capital made an exception and posted a reward for capturing Lin Huang? Why do you suppose they made the mission public as well? They haven't made their missions public for a few eras now," Buried Heaven asked in return.
"Because… they've been threatened by these outsiders from the universe?" Hu Xian'er answered rather uncertainly.
"Let me put it this way. That red-haired fellow in the meeting room could easily destroy all the grade-7 organizations in the entire God Territory on his own." What Buried Heaven said stunned the several Blood Sickle members. For a while, they had no idea what to say.
Right as the atmosphere turned chilly, almost to freezing point, Buried Heaven's communication ring suddenly began vibrating…
Chapter 1674: Where Are You?
By the time Lin Huang finished perusing one round of information on the internet, the sky was beginning to darken on the Ricky Star.
He thought for a moment, then called Buried Heaven.
When Lin Huang heard the ring tone being cut off before it had even rung halfway, he smiled.
This was because it meant Buried Heaven was still alive.
If the communicator sensed the host's death, it would be locked and shut down within less than a minute. If one called, they would get a message saying, "The number you have dialed cannot be reached".
"He ended the call in such a hurry…" Lin Huang raised his eyebrows. "That means the investigators are still at Death Sickle."
Now that he had ascertained this, Lin Huang composed a message and sent it off.
"If investigators arrive at Death Sickle, just give an honest answer to whatever questions they ask. There's no need to cover up for me. If they want my contact, just give it to them right away. All of you can't handle these people from the Raiders. Don't put up any resistance; let me deal with them…"
…
Buried Heaven merely glanced at the communication page and ended the call immediately.
Beside him, Boundless Blood and the others glimpsed the name of the caller—Xiu Mu!
The atmosphere became even weightier now.
At that moment, a voice suddenly came from in front of them. "Why didn't you answer the call?"
It was not clear when the red-haired man had shown up in front of them. Smiling, he barred Buried Heaven and the others' way.
Almost at the same time, two figures appeared behind the Blood Sickle members. They were the subordinates who had not spoken at all in the conference room earlier.
Buried Heaven and the few Blood Sickle members looked extremely grim.
However, at that moment, Buried Heaven's ring vibrated again.
The vibration was slightly gentler this time and only sounded once. It was clearly a message notification.
The red-haired man smiled at Buried Heaven. "Take a look and see. Maybe it's Lin Huang?"
Buried Heaven kept his head down and did nothing.
He knew that he would die if he were to attack. He would not be able to escape either, even if he tried.
"Please open your communication page." The red-haired man smiled as he looked at Buried Heaven, his tone still mild. "This isn't a suggestion, by the way."
Buried Heaven knew that he would die if he did not obey the order!
He raised his hand rather stiffly and tapped open the communication page.
A new message notification popped up instantly.
The sender was Xiu Mu!
The entire corridor instantly went silent.
The Blood Sickle members' faces turned ashen when they saw the sender's name.
Even Buried Heaven had some difficulty swallowing.
His mind was rapidly churning as he tried to find a counter-strategy, but nothing occurred to him.
"Ooh, what a coincidence! Isn't this the friend we're looking for?" The red-haired man smiled and walked over to Buried Heaven, then put an arm around his shoulders. "Why are you hesitating? Open it and see what he says. We can read it together."
Feeling the weight on his shoulders, Buried Heaven tapped opened the message helplessly.
The moment the message popped up, everyone focused their eyes on it.
There were only a few short lines in the message. Practically everyone finished reading it almost at once.
After reading the message, Buried Heaven's mind was a tangle of confusion. Since matters had come to this point, he no longer knew what he should do afterward.
The red-haired man next to him patted his shoulder with a smile. "This young fellow is certainly very loyal and self-sacrificing to suggest on his own that you should give him up.
"I think it's not a bad suggestion at all. What about the rest of you?" The red-haired man tilted his head and stared at Buried Heaven.
Buried Heaven kept his head down expressionlessly and did not answer.
Clearly, despite matters coming to this, he was still unwilling to betray Lin Huang.
Observing that Buried Heaven said nothing, the red-haired man kept on smiling.
"Mr. Buried Heaven, Xiu Mu already sent you a message. Isn't it rather rude not to reply?"
He paused, then shook his head. "You should call him back right away. I think a video call would be even more polite."
Buried Heaven remained motionless.
He used silence to indicate his defiance.
However, he suddenly felt as if his body had lost control of itself.
His right hand lifted on its own. Not only that, his finger extended and pressed the sender's name above the message on the communicator display. He then pressed the video call request in a practiced manner…
"You…" Buried Heaven stared at the red-haired man beside him, appalled.
"Since you're unwilling to betray your friend, I had no choice but to give you a little help." The red-haired man's tone remained mild.
…
'Eh? He's calling back? Has he found a safe place to talk then?'
Seeing the sudden video call request from Buried Heaven on his communicator, Lin Huang did not give it another thought and accepted the call.
After that, he saw Buried Heaven and another person's projections appearing simultaneously in front of him.
A red-haired man had his arm around Buried Heaven's shoulders in what seemed to be a very friendly manner.
However, Lin Huang caught the stiff expression on Buried Heaven's face at first glance and instantly guessed the red-haired man's identity.
"If I'm not mistaken, you ought to be one of the Raiders' investigators?"
"Amazing, Mr. Lin! It seems you've guessed my identity with just one look." The red-haired man gave a thumbs-up sign. "You're certainly worthy of being the man who destroyed our branch."
"Let's talk, shall we," Lin Huang returned calmly with a smile.
The red-haired man had obviously not expected Lin Huang to be so calm. However, he nodded immediately. "Very well then, let's talk."
"How many of you came this time? Can you tell me?" Lin Huang asked, still smiling. His tone sounded as if he were catching up with a friend.
"Are you scouting out the enemy's position?" The red-haired man asked with a smile.
"I just want to make sure beforehand so I can prevent any fish slipping through the net when the time comes."
Lin Huang's reply stunned the red-haired man for a moment. Clearly, he had not anticipated such a reply. He then laughed. "I never thought that you would be such a fascinating person. Since you're so interested, I can answer your question.
"Nine of us have come this time. Of these nine, three are upper-rank Lords, and six are middle-rank Lords."
The red-haired man stared at Lin Huang as he was talking, as if he wanted to see the shock on Lin Huang's face. Unfortunately, from beginning to end, Lin Huang did not display any trace of being disconcerted in the least.
"That's more or less what I anticipated." Lin Huang nodded, smiling.
However, Buried Heaven found it hard to stay calm. He had earlier guessed that the red-haired man was an upper-rank Lord, but he had not expected that there would be two more upper-rank Lords on the way.
The Blood Sickle members behind Buried Heaven all displayed shocked expressions. They knew that the red-haired man and the rest were powerful, but they had not expected that there would be upper-rank Lords coming.
"You asked me a question, so now I can ask you a question? It's only fair this way," the red-haired man smiled and asked Lin Huang.
"Sure, ask away." Lin Huang nodded with a smile.
"I want to ask…" The red-haired man continued after a moment, "Where are you right now?"
Buried Heaven's pupils contracted slightly as soon as this question was asked.
The rest stared fixedly at Lin Huang's video projection as well.
Chapter 1675: I Can't Leave A Single One Of You Out
Upon hearing the red-haired man's question, Lin Huang smiled. "What, you're so anxious to meet me?"
"That's right." The red-haired man was smiling too. "If we don't meet you, we'd even lose our appetites."
"It's not that I can't tell you where I am." Lin Huang glanced over the three investigators. "But only three of you are here; it's no fun with so few of you. I prefer more people to liven things up. We'll talk about it when the rest of you arrive."
"You're not afraid to disclose your location, are you?" The red-haired man said with a smile, trying to provoke Lin Huang.
"I'm just worried that after I kill off the three of you, the other six won't dare to come here. Since nine of you arrived, I ought to send all nine off together. I can't leave a single one of you out."
Buried Heaven and the rest of the Blood Sickle members felt their hearts quake when they heard what Lin Huang said.
They had not expected Lin Huang to be this unyielding when confronted by an upper-rank Lord. What made them speechless was that they felt Lin Huang's tough attitude did not seem to be an act at all. He genuinely appeared to be that confident.
The red-haired man was furious, but he smiled instead. "You're the one who said it. I'd like to see if you'll still dare to share your coordinates once all of us have shown up!"
"Don't worry, I'm a man of my word," Lin Huang did not forget to issue a reminder, "Don't forget to send me a video call request as soon as everyone on your side has arrived."
As soon as he finished speaking, Lin Huang immediately ended the call. The video projection of him instantly faded.
The red-haired man stared at the spot where the video projection had faded and growled in irritation, "This fellow…"
It had been years since he last lost a verbal fight to anyone. However, in his conversation with Lin Huang this time, he had not managed to get the upper hand at all. Lin Huang had even ended the call before he had, which also made him feel extremely out of sorts.
"Might there be an ambush?" The cadaverous man asked.
"Would an ambush even work? Judging by the entry restrictions Royal has set, this great world has no upper-rank Lords at all. Besides, we have three upper-rank Lords on our side. What's more, Master Nine Snake is a peak upper-rank Lord. Even if this fellow could get help from hundreds of middle-rank Lords, he won't be able to turn the tables." The tall, thin man had full confidence in the team's abilities. "He was just pretending to be calm earlier in the video call. When all of us have arrived later on, I'm sure he won't accept the video call request."
The red-haired man said nothing. However, he clearly felt that Lin Huang was merely putting on an act in the video call earlier. The reason for this was that he could not figure out what sort of methods Lin Huang might be able to use to extricate himself from this situation.
The investigators were not bothered by the fact that Buried Heaven and the rest were right there during their discussion. It seemed that as far as the investigators were concerned, there was no need to conceal anything.
The several Blood Sickle members kept their heads low and pretended not to hear anything. In their hearts, they were silently hoping that this band of murderers would leave Death Sickle as soon as possible.
Buried Heaven, on the other hand, looked depressed. He put himself in Lin Huang's shoes right now and tried to think of a counter-strategy. However, he could not come up with any way at all to turn things around.
This was a hopeless situation!
He could not help feeling sad for Lin Huang.
"Send word to Nine Snake and the others, and have them come here as soon as they're done with their missions," the red-haired man ordered his two subordinates.
He then patted Buried Heaven's shoulder. "Good job, all of you."
After that, he headed straight for the conference room where they had been earlier.
The cadaverous man and the tall, thin man immediately followed suit.
…
Lin Huang could not help giving a faint smirk after ending the call.
'I was originally wondering how to contact all those investigators. I never thought that they would show up at my doorstep on their own.'
Initially, he had only wanted to ascertain the situation with Buried Heaven and Death Sickle. If the opportunity presented itself, he would ask about the investigators' movements.
He had not expected that there would be investigators standing guard at Death Sickle. What was more, they had used Buried Heaven to contact him.
Not only that, the entire exchange could be considered fairly pleasant.
'So in that case, after this, where should I set my battlefield?" Lin Huang tapped open the star map and began choosing suitable battlegrounds.
…
In the evening, a man with snake eyes showed up in the conference room of Death Sickle's headquarters.
As soon as he arrived, the six remaining people in the conference room immediately came to their feet.
"Master Nine Snake."
The snake-eyed man nodded slightly, then turned his gaze to the red-haired man. "Scarlet Fox, why don't you tell me the specifics of the conversation all of you had with Lin Huang."
The snake-eyed man's codename was Nine Snake. His position in the Raiders was higher than the other two upper-rank Lords. This was because he was a direct subordinate of the ultimate-rank Lord, Lonely Peak. He had even been called Lonely Peak's right-hand man.
As for Lonely Peak, he was only half a step away from surpassing lord-level. Among the Raiders, he was one of several Lords with the most potential.
He had already received the message that Scarlet Fox and the others had sent, so he had a rough idea of what had transpired during the video call with Lin Huang.
The red-haired man—Scarlet Fox—nodded and began to recount the conversation he had had with Lin Huang. He did not leave out even the slightest detail.
Scarlet Fox had been dispatched here by Rose. To be exact, he could not be considered Rose's underling; in fact, he was her lover.
Of course, Rose was not his only girlfriend; he had hundreds of other girlfriends and boyfriends.
His tribe was rather unique—they could change their genders whenever necessary.
Nine Snake narrowed his eyes slightly after listening to Scarlet Fox's account of what happened. He directed an inquiry at Scarlet Fox only after falling silent for a moment.
"Do you think he's pretending to be calm, or is he genuinely calm?"
"He didn't look as if he were pretending to be calm, but I think his acting skills are excellent. I couldn't see any flaws, no matter what," Scarlet Fox admitted truthfully after thinking things over for a moment. "However, I did consider things for a good long while. If I were in his place right now, I wouldn't be able to find a way out at all."
Nine Snake turned his gaze to the cadaverous man and the tall man. "What do both of you think?"
"I think he's just putting on a show," the cadaverous man said expressionlessly.
"As far as I'm concerned, he was clearly pretending to be calm," the tall man was even more certain of his answer.
Nine Snake gave a slight nod and did not dwell any further on the matter. He turned his head and looked at the only metal robot present.
This was a bright silver humanoid being. In appearance, he looked like a human formed from metal. His skin, as well as the clothes and shoes on his body, was bright silver like metal.
"Silver, will you be able to pin down his coordinates when we call his number later?"
"Only if the call is answered." Silver's voice sounded like it had been electronically synthesized.
He was a mechanoid. Although he was not from the same Electronic Tribe as Spy, he had taken the initiative to apply for the mission. His purpose for doing so was naturally to obtain Spy's Goldfinger.
As an upper-rank Lord, he was also one of the three investigation team leaders.
"After the call is picked up, how long do you need?" Nine Snake followed up with another question.
"Given the size of this great world, I can lock down his coordinates in five seconds at most. The closer he is, the less time I'll need," Silver answered with complete certainty.
"What if he doesn't pick up?" Nine Snake asked.
"Then there's no way we can locate him," Silver said very frankly.
Nine Snake's expression immediately darkened. "Find a way even if there's none!"
The meeting room instantly went silent.
"Alright, get Buried Heaven in here, and let's give Lin Huang a video call!"
Chapter 1676: I Don't Like Meeting Tardy Dates
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
"I'll pick this one."
Lin Huang spent over half an hour before finally deciding on a battleground that he felt was suitable. He immediately felt much happier.
After that, he stepped through the Gate of All Realms.
It was almost an hour or so later before his communicator finally vibrated again.
Lin Huang clicked into the communication page and saw that it was Buried Heaven who had sent the video call request.
The corners of his mouth quirked up slightly, and he clicked on the answer button.
As soon as the video call connected, the red-haired man and the others immediately appeared in the projected image.
.
The few of them sat around a long table, but Lin Huang did not see Buried Heaven. He was most likely on the other side of the table.
"Good evening, Mr. Lin Huang," red-haired Scarlet Fox greeted with a smile.
In truth, he was rather confused right now, just like everyone else present. They had thought that Lin Huang most likely would not answer the call. They certainly had not expected him to pick up before the first ring.
As Nine Snake watched the projection of a clearly relaxed Lin Huang, his own expression was obviously rather stiff.
Now that he was seeing Lin Huang for himself, he, too, felt that the other's ease of manner was not faked.
"It's noon over here," Lin Huang responded with a smile, then asked, "Is everyone there?"
"Of course. All nine of us are here." As he nodded, Scarlet Fox shifted the camera angle slightly to include all nine people in the conference room in the shot.
"You can make good on your promise now, can't you?" Scarlet Fox asked with a smile. However, up until now, he still did not think that Lin Huang would truthfully disclose his coordinates.
Silver had begun trying to locate Lin Huang as soon as the video call connected.
"Of course. But before that, I need all of you to promise me something." Lin Huang swept a glance over the nine people in the shot.
Scarlet Fox glanced at Nine Snake when he heard that.
"Go ahead," Nine Snake said expressionlessly.
"I hope that all nine of you will come together without leaving anyone behind." Lin Huang stared at Nine Snake, smiling. "Can you do that?"
Nine Snake stared back at Lin Huang and fell silent for a moment before responding, "Very well."
"In that case, I'll tell you my coordinates now. Please make careful note of it since I'll only say it once," Lin Huang emphasized, smiling. "The Ten Thousand Bug Maze in the Queen Mother Star Zone…"
"Are you messing with us?" Nine Snake's eyes were cold.
Way before coming here, they had gathered information on this great world, including information from star maps. They had noted down some key landmark regions as well.
The Queen Mother Star Zone was the core star zone of the Bug Tribe's territory. What was known as the Ten Thousand Bug Maze was actually the Bug Tribe mother hive in this great world. Practically all the Queen Mothers lived there.
By giving this location, Lin Huang clearly intended to make use of the Bug Tribe's advantage in numbers to deal with his opponents.
Nine Snake was not the only one who thought this; almost all of the investigators at the scene did so as well.
However, right at this point, Lin Huang switched the camera angle to the other side.
Very soon, Nine Snake and the rest saw that Lin Huang was really in a hive.
"I'm definitely not kidding." Lin Huang switched the camera angle back, smiling as he looked at Nine Snake and the rest.
"Do you think that will stop us ?" Nine Snake remained expressionless.
"I just thought it would be more fun if I chose this place," Lin Huang answered with a smile.
"I'll be here for one hour waiting for you. If you don't make it here within that hour, I'm very sorry, but we'll have to meet again next time. I'm the sort of person who doesn't really like meeting tardy dates.
"The countdown starts…" Lin Huang extended his hand and tapped open the timer. He raised his brows at Nine Snake and the rest and pressed the timer button without hesitation. "Now!"
The minute he finished speaking, the video projection in Death Sickle's conference room instantly vanished.
Only Nine Snake and the others were left, staring at each other.
"What a nasty character."
Scarlet Fox could not help growling in disgust.
Nine Snake looked at Silver right away. "Have you locked down his coordinates?"
Silver projected the star map at once. A set of red coordinates was blinking on it. The location was right in the Bug Tribe's territory in the Queen Mother Star Zone.
"So he's really in the Queen Mother Star Zone!" Scarlet Fox's eyes widened, and he immediately pulled himself together. "This fellow definitely intends to take advantage of the Bug Tribe's numbers to drain our Odyl."
Nine Snake looked grim. He turned his head and looked at Buried Heaven. "Get out."
Buried Heaven stood up and left without hesitation after hearing this.
Although this was Death Sickle's territory, he felt no sense of security in this conference room.
He was also aware that the affairs of these investigators were not things that he could listen in on. As soon as he heard anything that he should not be privy to, there would only be one end for him—death!
Nine Snake only spoke after he saw Buried Heaven leaving and closing the conference room door.
"I don't think this affair is as simple as it seems…"
As soon as he said this, everyone in the conference room looked at him.
"He didn't seem like he was pretending to be at ease. I think there are two possibilities.
"The first is that he doesn't fear death. Therefore, it doesn't matter how many of us are here or how powerful we are—it doesn't bother him at all.
"The other possibility is that he genuinely has a trump card to go up against us. What's more, he's very confident that he can kill all of us with it. That's why he requested that all nine of us show up there, without leaving anyone behind.
"He might be trying to confuse us by choosing the hive for a showdown so he can conceal his true objective.
"Of course, there's another possibility, which is that he needs the help of the Bug Tribe to unleash the trump card's effects."
"Should we change the meeting point, then?" Scarlet Fox asked immediately, "Or else we can just wait for an hour and let him suggest a change of location."
"He's not going to let the advantage fall into our hands, so he most certainly won't agree to our meeting point suggestions." Nine Snake shook his head, "As for waiting for an hour—if we really do that, I suspect he'll use even more vicious methods to take revenge. It's highly likely he might instantly go incommunicado rather than picking another location like we want.
"Our position would be even more passive then. After all, as investigators, our time in this great world is limited."
"So, what do we do now?" Scarlet Fox asked again.
"We get to the coordinates he's given as soon as possible." Nine Snake's murderous intent flared up instantly. "After that, we join forces to consolidate a battle formation and kill him at once! We won't give him a chance to attack at all!"
Clearly, he had come up with a strategy. No matter what Lin Huang had up his sleeve, things would be fine as long as they disposed of him fast enough—before he had sufficient time to initiate whatever he had in store.
After all, Lin Huang was someone who was not even lord-level yet. Even if he possessed methods that could kill upper-rank Lords, it was highly unlikely that he would be able to pull them off instantly. He probably needed a certain amount of time to prepare.
Nine Snake and the rest did not have any inkling at all that Lin Huang had already elevated to become a Lord.
"Are all of us really going to go?" Scarlet Fox frowned slightly.
He felt that if Lin Huang truly did possess methods of killing them instantly, they would be going straight to their deaths if all of them went.
"The more people, the more powerful the battle formation," Nine Snake gave his opinion, "The power of a battle formation created by all nine of us is comparable to that of an ultimate-rank Lord. Even if he does manage to initiate whatever special methods he has, we should be able to handle him."
Scarlet Fox did not raise any further objections after hearing that.
"Silver, plan the route. We'll get there as fast as possible!"
Chapter 1677: Dog Eat Dog
After ending the call, Lin Huang's figure gradually transformed into a Mantis King.
His level of disguise was already no longer mere simple camouflage but a transformation resulting from a card contract.
This sort of transformation allowed him to take on the appearances of all of the Monster Cards he owned. Furthermore, he would also be able to fully inherit all of the relevant Monster Card skills.
The Mantis King that he had currently transformed into was one of his Monster Cards.
As long as he did not remove the disguise, he could maintain it indefinitely, and no one would be able to see through the ruse.
At the very least, lord-level beings would certainly not be able to see through his disguise.
Hiding in the biggest Bug Tribe mother hive in this great world as a Bug King was practically equivalent to being in the safest place in the entire great world.
However, Lin Huang was not concealing himself here for safety.
He knew very well that in this mother hive, be it Queen Mothers or Bug Queens, even their most powerful abilities would not exceed middle-rank lord-level.
It was only a matter of time before Nine Snake and the other two upper-rank Lords would annihilate this hive once they had joined forces. At most, it would only drain a small fraction of their Odyl.
However, as far as Lin Huang was concerned, this was not his goal. It was merely a small supplemental benefit.
Initially, when he had begun choosing battlefields, he had been considering barren regions.
This would allow him to avoid casualties.
In the great world, there were actually quite a few regions that met this condition.
After looking at several of these places, Lin Huang suddenly discovered a region that was in the core zone of the Bug Tribe. It surrounded the Ten Thousand Bug Maze in the Bug Tribe mother hive.
This was an empty zone constructed by the Bug Tribe specifically to protect the mother hive of the Ten Thousand Bug Maze and had been specially cleared out for this purpose.
However, any living beings that dared to enter this empty zone would be surrounded by the Bug Tribe army immediately.
Lin Huang's discovery of this empty zone was what had led him to transfer his sights to the Ten Thousand Bug Maze.
He suddenly felt that his previous way of thinking had been wrong.
The Ten Thousand Bug Maze was clearly a better battlefield.
The Bug Tribe had wreaked havoc in the great world for countless eras. They now occupied a small, distant plot of land and had become one of the most powerful Tribes.
Furthermore, given the Bug Tribe's reproductive ability, this entire great world might have become their empire if not for the fact that various parties had joined forces in eras past to limit the Bug Tribe's numbers through occasional wars.
The Ten Thousand Bug Maze was the largest Bug Tribe hive in the great world.
Throughout the eras, the hive had continued expanding. Currently, it already encompassed more than twenty star zones.
Over 50% of the Bug Tribe in the great world lived in this giant hive. What was more, there were at least ten Bug Tribe Lords guarding it.
Lin Huang had intentionally chosen this place as his battlefield primarily to draw upon the group of Raiders' powers to destroy this hive, thus removing a grave threat to humans in the great world.
Secondly, he could attack without holding back in here and not worry about harming innocents.
Thirdly, killing mass numbers of Bug Tribe monsters would mean he would definitely be able to obtain many complete bug beast Monster Cards and card fragments. He could use these to expand the numbers of his Bug Tribe army.
Fourthly, all of the Bug Tribe Lords that died here would enter the virtual realm. Lin Huang would subsequently be able to harvest another round of benefits there.
This could be considered killing four birds with one stone.
Compared to other barren regions, this was undoubtedly the better battlefield.
Lin Huang, in his Mantis King disguise, hid himself in a bug cave and patiently waited for the Raiders to arrive.
An hour practically flew past just like that.
Just as Lin Huang was about to start his countdown, Nine Snake appeared above the giant hive of the Ten Thousand Bug Maze with the eight investigators.
As they were too quick, the Bug Tribe could not stop them in time.
However, since enemies had appeared right before their eyes, the Bug Tribe responded immediately without hesitation. A massive horde of bugs swarmed furiously at the nine invaders.
Naturally, Nine Snake and the others did not take the bug horde seriously. Only one middle-rank Lord attacked.
It was a white-robed "Priest".
He struck at the air with an open palm.
In an instant, frightening white rays of light like those of an exploding star lit up the entire Ten Thousand Bug Maze.
The swarming bug horde rapidly melted like accumulated snow under a bright sun. Within three seconds, the tens of billions of bugs in the first bug horde wave were completely annihilated.
This was suppression resulting from an absolute gap in abilities.
Naturally, Lin Huang was able to observe everything happening in the outside world using Divine Telekinesis. Even he could not stop nodding as he watched this subduing of the bug horde.
However, the second bug horde wave arrived merely a moment later.
A massive number of bug beasts surged in a frenzy from various hive exits. Almost in the time it took to breathe, hundreds of billions of them had gathered.
This time, the bug hordes were no longer coming at their opponents in a frontal assault. Instead, they swarmed toward the nine Raiders from every direction.
Not only that, the number of bug beasts joining the battle kept on increasing.
This did not surprise Lin Huang at all.
The Bug Tribe was an extremely ferocious Tribe. They would not easily negotiate with their enemies.
What surprised Lin Huang was that Nine Snake and the rest did not seem as if they were intending to negotiate with the Bug Tribe either. Instead, they were planning to die in here with the Bug Tribe.
He realized why after thinking about it carefully for a moment.
The Bug Tribe was inherently enemies with every other Tribe in the universe. The Raiders must have slaughtered countless Bug Tribes in the universe as well.
Now that they had arrived in the great world, the Raiders looked down on these "native" Bug Tribes even more.
Although they knew Lin Huang was merely drawing on the might of the Bug Tribe, the nine Raiders attacked the Bug Tribe without hesitation anyway.
This antagonism was also what Lin Huang was most desirous of seeing.
Like a tsunami, massive numbers of bugs surged from all directions toward the nine Raiders hovering in midair.
Nine Snake and the rest did not panic in the least. The three upper-rank Lords were even calmer; they did not look like they were going to attack at all.
Just a split second before the wave of bugs was about to swamp all nine of them, the white-robed "Priest" took action again.
He tapped the air with a finger. A silver gleam the size of a needle point seemed to slowly drift above their heads. Suddenly, it seemed to freeze in midair.
The next instant, endless silver gleams spread out in all directions. Not a single spot was overlooked.
Wherever the gleams passed through, all the bug beasts were charred to ashes and dissipated in the air…
The silver gleams even found their way through the bug hordes and struck the surface of the Ten Thousand Bug Maze, creating a loud buzzing sound.
Priest smiled faintly. "This hive's defenses are pretty good."
"It's at least as powerful as an intermediate-grade Dao Weapon." Red-haired Scarlet Fox's interest seemed to have been piqued. He turned his head and looked at Nine Snake beside him. "Let me have this hive. I'll trade it with something of the same value."
Nine Snake did not even look at Scarlet Fox. He merely stared at the hive. "Up to you."
When Nine Snake said this, disappointment clearly flashed through the eyes of the few middle-rank Lords present.
Within their midst, the white-robed "Priest" betrayed a slight change of expression as well. However, he did not dare to argue with Scarlet Fox over this matter.
He even had some regrets about the words that had slipped out of his mouth earlier. He wondered if Scarlet Fox would have coveted the hive if he had not brought up the power of its defenses.
Naturally, Scarlet Fox noticed all these microexpressions. However, he merely smiled and ignored them.
Chapter 1678: This Ought To Be Fairly Worth Seeing
Lin Huang lay quietly inside a cave deep within the hive, happily using Divine Telekinesis to observe the battle in the outside world.
Since elevating to become a Lord, his Divine Telekinesis strength had broken through to ultimate-rank lord-level. Furthermore, he was only using its sensing function to do peripheral spying, so he did not need to worry about being discovered.
After two rounds of futile attempts, the Bug Tribe still had no intention of negotiating. Instead, they were becoming increasingly frenzied.
Watching the trillions of Bug Tribe fighters swiftly gathering to consolidate a bug formation outside the hive, Lin Huang could more or less understand the Bug Tribe's fury.
This was their stronghold. It was also the temporary dwelling of tens of thousands of Queen Mothers, as well as many Bug Queens that had not yet grown to full maturity.
Any living beings who barged in were not only showing utter disrespect to the Queen Mothers, but they were also an immense threat to the Queen Mothers, the young Bug Queens, and even the future of the entire Bug Tribe.
A hive was sacrosanct to the Bug Tribe. The Ten Thousand Bug Maze was the most sacrosanct of all sacrosanct objects to the Bug Tribe in this great world.
It was understandable that they seemed to have abandoned all reason, wanting to drive out Nine Snake and the others.
Nine Snake and the team had possibly been aware of this since the beginning, so they had not made any overtures to negotiate at all. They did not even bother to explain why they were here.
They were also aware that Lin Huang was certainly secretly watching the drama unfold at the moment. However, they had no choice but to play things according to what Lin Huang had scripted out.
Even as they watched the bug formation consolidating in the air, Nine Snake and the others made no move to stop it in the least.
A one-sided massacre was indeed rather boring. It was much more interesting to see one's opponents struggle on occasion.
With that attitude in mind, Nine Snake and the rest patiently waited for the bug formation to finish consolidating.
The formation created from trillions of bug beasts had Heavenly Gods as its core and True Gods as auxiliary support, consolidating into a gigantic celestial beast.
Its massive size exceeded many of the surrounding stars.
This was a Galactic Titan Bug, a mutated bug from ancient times.
Back in ancient eras, the Galactic Titan Bugs consumed stars, absorbing the metal mines within them to strengthen their bodies.
When they were young, their size could compare to a planet. As they consumed more and more stars, they would continue to increase in size. The biggest ones were comparable to a star zone and consumed star zones as food.
As they looked at the Galactic Titan Bug that had been consolidated from the bug formation, Nine Snake and the rest remained calm.
For a moment, nobody was willing to make a move, even.
Seeing the Galactic Titan Bug charging over like a tank, a muscular brawler finally stepped forward.
He was short, only around one point six meters tall, but his entire body was terrifyingly muscled.
From where he was watching in the distance, Lin Huang felt that the thickness of this fellow's arms might be at least twice the size of his thighs. He thought the man's pectoral muscles were even bigger than his own head.
As for the man's legs, the word 'bucket' was insufficient to describe how thick they were. More precisely, they were as thick as water tanks.
Lin Huang stared at the man's bald head and secretly gave him a nickname—Short, Burly Baldy.
He abbreviated this to Short Baldy.
After Short Baldy walked out, his body swiftly began to crystallize. Instead of transforming into a white crystal, he changed into a red crystal.
He seemed to have been entirely transformed into a short, burly, bald ruby in human form.
He glittered under the light of the nearby stars.
Lin Huang noticed that the crystallization was not just a superficial change on the surface of the man's skin but a transformation of the cells in his body. Every single one of his cells seemed to have transformed into crystalline structures from the inside out.
"He looks pretty tough," Lin Huang commented casually.
The second his body completely crystallized, Short Baldy grinned ferociously. Suddenly he sprang forward to confront the Galactic Titan Bug, throwing a punch.
An instant later, the blood-red crystal fist collided with the Galactic Titan Bug's head.
Boom!
A violent boom shook the entire galaxy, even transcending the restrictions of a vacuum and spreading in all directions.
A second after colliding with that fist, the Galactic Titan Bug's head instantly exploded.
Immediately after, the punch's power continued to spread deep into the formation itself. The Galactic Titan Bug's body rapidly began to disintegrate like the collapse of a large building triggered by building implosion.
That single punch easily tore through the bug formation made up of trillions of bug beasts. More than half the bug beasts were killed or injured.
Nine Snake and the team watched the entire scenario expressionlessly. They did not display any traces of surprise or delight.
It was as if everything went without saying.
Lin Huang, watching the battle from afar, was not surprised at all either.
Although this bug formation was powerful, the consolidated Galactic Titan Bug was only lower-rank lord-level.
However, the short, burly bald man was a bona fide middle-rank Lord as well as a combat cultivator.
It was not surprising that the bug formation had been shattered by a single punch.
"This third round of assault has been countered as well…" Lin Huang was rather curious what the Bug Tribe's reaction would be next.
Honestly speaking, the Bug Tribe should have had a fairly "accurate" gauge of the abilities of Nine Snake's team after the three rounds of testing. If nothing else, they could determine that these arrivals had the abilities of at least middle-rank Lords
Logically speaking, at this point, they ought to have abandoned resistance and considered making peace with their opponents instead.
After all, given that all nine arrivals were middle-rank Lords, all these Bug Tribe beasts in the Ten Thousand Bug Maze had no chance of winning at all. This was not yet taking into consideration that there might be beings above middle-rank Lords among these nine.
The problem was that the Bug Tribe could not maintain rationality once someone had laid hands on their sacrosanct object.
Lin Huang felt the situation was hard to predict.
However, a moment later, he witnessed the answer to this question.
A massive number of Bug Tribe beasts swarmed out of the hive. Among them were even ten lower-rank lord-level Bug Queens, as well as a middle-rank lord-level Bug Queen.
Lin Huang was quite surprised to see this battle array.
It had to be said that the number of Lords in the Ten Thousand Bug Maze was indeed frightening. Not only that, this was clearly not everyone in the hive because not a single lord-level Queen Mother had revealed themselves yet.
Lin Huang knew that there was at least one lord-level Queen Mother in the Ten Thousand Bug Maze.
The eleven lord-level Bug Queens immediately gathered, creating a bug formation. One by one, they consolidated into the form of ferocious mutated bugs from the ancient era.
Each bug formation was made up of a lord-level Bug Queen as the core, with tens of billions of Bug Tribe Heavenly Gods and trillions of True Gods as auxiliary support.
Within the time it took to breathe, eleven bug formations had consolidated.
The mutated bugs in the heavens were comparable to a star in size. Their aura was skyrocketing.
The weakest aura was middle-rank lord-level, while the aura of the bug formation created by the most powerful Bug Queen had definitely reached upper-rank lord-level.
The team from the Raiders was clearly stirred when they saw that.
Nine Snake was the only one who remained expressionless. His emotions did not display any changes whatsoever.
"This ought to be fairly worth seeing."
Deep in the hive, Lin Huang stared with great interest at the battlefield where both parties were. If not for the fact that he was worried the other bug beasts would smell it, he almost felt as if he wanted to bring out the popcorn.
Chapter 1679: What's the Bug Tribe Best At?
This time around, the Bug Tribe finally began taking things seriously.
Without any further testing of the waters, the eleven lord-level Bug Queens marshaled their bug formations, assembling eleven ancient mutated bugs of various forms in the air.
The mutated bug formed by the leading middle-rank lord-level Bug Queen was a Divine Magic Winged Bug. This was a mutated bug beast that possessed extremely powerful overall abilities back in archaic times past.
It had one hundred and eight pairs of wings, and each wing was a heavyweight killing weapon. Every single scale on the wing surface could transform at will into weapons and defense equipment of all kinds.
Not only did the bug possess powerful attack capabilities, but its speed was also top-notch among monsters of the same level.
The Divine Magic Winged Bug's one hundred and eight pairs of wings slowly unfurled. After that, it let out a high-pitched shriek.
The shriek was like a bugle sounding the charge. The remaining ten mutated bugs immediately went into battle mode and besieged Nine Snake and the others.
The Raiders did not dare delay their response.
The white-robed Priest and the remaining six middle-rank Lords attacked almost simultaneously, charging at the ten mutated bugs.
However, the three upper-rank Lords—Nine Snake, Scarlet Fox, and Silver—watched quietly from the sidelines and did not attack.
For one, they thought it was not necessary.
For another, they wanted to reserve their Odyl to fight Lin Huang later.
On the Bug Tribe's side, the Divine Magic Winged Bug with its upper-rank lord-level combat strength did not attack either.
In reality, the middle-rank lord-level Bug Queen that controlled the bug formations had only sensed Nine Snake and the other two's real combat strength after consolidating the bug formation.
The three of them had not attacked before this, nor had they intentionally released their auras. With the hive in between, the Bug Queen could not sense how unusual these three were.
Not until the bug formations had been consolidated and the hive was no longer separating them did the Bug Queen finally become aware that the sense of danger Nine Snake and the other two gave off was still extremely threatening.
This also made it somewhat reluctant to attack.
The reason was that it knew once it acted, at least one of the three individuals opposite would definitely take a hand. Not only that, there was the worst-case scenario of all three of them joining in the fight together.
The Bug Queen was very much aware of its own abilities. It was not so arrogant as to think it could battle three upper-rank Lords just because it had assembled a bug formation.
The truth was, the three Raiders did not attack because they saw that the Divine Magic Winged Bug across from them had not made a move.
As a spectator of the battle, Lin Huang was actually the most qualified to voice an opinion.
If Nine Snake and the other two fought, this battle would lose all its suspense. It might even be over completely in just a few seconds.
After all, Nine Snake was a peak upper-rank Lord. Once he attacked, he could easily destroy the entire hive on his own.
As for the Divine Magic Winged Bug assembled from the bug formation, the strength of its aura was upper-rank lord-level. However, if someone who had mastered a level-101 Dao seal was an upper-rank Lord, so was someone who had mastered a level-1000 Dao seal. The disparity in ability between the two could almost be considered an insurmountable gap.
Nine Snake was clearly the latter. As for the Divine Magic Winged Bug, it was not that much more powerful than the former.
In terms of the combat strength of the middle-rank Lords in both parties, Lin Huang did not even need to look to know that the Raider team was more powerful.
Although the Bug Tribe had more bug formations, their numbers were far from sufficient to compensate for the disparity in ability.
However, all along, the Bug Tribe's strong suit had never been their abilities. Rather, it was their teamwork in battle.
At least judging by the Bug Tribe's team deployment this time, Lin Huang anticipated that victory would not be so easy for the six Raiders.
Therefore, this round of battle was sure to be interesting.
The battle between both parties swiftly began in the starry heavens outside the Ten Thousand Bug Maze.
As their massive size was not an advantage in this current battle—since this would only result in them become giant targets—the ten mutated bugs consolidated from the bug formations shrank themselves from the size of a planet to the size of a regular bug beast.
The first group of formations spearheading the charge on the frontlines consisted of three heavily armored mutated bugs.
One was a Sacred Beetle that looked as if it were made entirely from gold, one was a Demonic Jumbo Bug that seemed as if it were carved from obsidian, and the last was a Dragon-scaled Beetle with scales that enveloped its entire body.
The second group of formations consisted of three attack-type mutated bugs.
These were a Six-winged Golden Cicada, a Flying Centipede, and a Demonic Armored Mutant.
They were superb fighters in terms of speed and attack capabilities.
The third group of formations was comprised of three control-type mutated bugs.
These three were an Archaic Demon Spider, a Devilish Sonic Cicada, and a Black Abyssal Demon Bug.
The formation bringing up the rear was a Shadow Bug that specialized in stealth attacks.
On the Raiders' side, the short, burly bald man enthusiastically faced down the attack from the three heavy-armored mutated bugs.
The first target he chose was the dazzlingly glittering golden Sacred Beetle that was as tall as himself.
Two golden rays of light collided in the starry heavens.
Just that one collision sent the Sacred Beetle flying backward. However, it was evident that its defenses had not been breached.
However, just as the Sacred Beetle was sent flying, the Six-winged Golden Cicada suddenly attacked. Both its wings stirred in the air, and countless colorless sabers were sent flying at the short, burly bald man.
In a mere instant, tens of thousands of saber gleams shot through the air.
The short, burly bald man was immediately swallowed up in the colorless saber gleams.
The five remaining Raiders made no move to act. They knew how powerful the short, burly bald man's defense capabilities were. The might of the Six-winged Golden Cicada's attack was not enough to breach his defenses at all.
However, a devastating shriek sounded an instant later from where the short, burly bald man was.
Even Nine Snake and the other two upper-rank Lords looked over in his direction with some confusion.
A moment later, Nine Snake looked across the void with his snake eyes. His gaze fell on a mutated bug at the back.
It was the Devilish Sonic Cicada!
At present, a faint light was radiating from its entire body, and it was muttering softly as if it were chanting.
The short, burly bald man's physical defenses were indeed still intact. However, the Devilish Sonic Cicada's mystic tone had infiltrated his mind and was directly attacking his God's soul.
Lin Huang, watching the battle in secret, was able to observe this even more clearly. The Devilish Sonic Cicada was extremely adept at seizing opportunities to attack. It had taken advantage of when the short, burly bald man was defending himself against the saber gleams. The bald man had thought that his opponent's attack would not breach his defenses, so he had relaxed his guard for just an instant.
It had to be said that the Bug Tribe's collaborative efforts were indeed splendid this time.
The remaining five people on the Raider team soon noticed the anomaly.
"Muscle Overlord, you missed this time," the white-robed Priest teased, pointing all ten of his fingers in the air. Countless golden beams of light shot in the Devilish Sonic Cicada's direction like bullets being fired continuously.
In less than the time it took for a breath, the golden beams already numbered over ten thousand.themselves
The white-robed Priest was not only attacking the Devilish Sonic Cicada, but also the nearby Archaic Demon Spider and Black Abyssal Demon Bug.
However, the Demonic Jumbo Bug suddenly let out a high-pitched cry. The sound wave rippled and formed a black mirror in the air, shielding the Devilish Sonic Cicada and the several mutated bugs. It devoured all of the golden beams of light; not a single one escaped.
The white-robed Priest raised his brows when he saw what happened. "This is quite interesting."
At that very moment, a bewitching sound suddenly arose in his head, and his gaze abruptly became vacant.
At the same time, a tall, thin humanoid figure rapidly consolidated within his shadow. An inky-black, sharp arthropod leg stabbed toward the back of the white-robed Priest's head.
An instant before the Priest's head was about to be impaled, the arthropod leg suddenly froze in its tracks.
Blood-red threads wound themselves around the Shadow Bug's body.
The red-robed woman's voice was charming. "I've got you now…"
Before she finished speaking, the body bound by the blood-red threads gradually faded, as if what had been captured earlier was merely a phantom.
The white-robed Priest struggled free from the illusion at the same time. He was panting hard. "Damn it, I nearly failed at something so easy!"
Chapter 1680: This Guy is Really Lucky!
Watching the Bug Tribe's beautifully timed cooperation over and over again, Lin Huang could not help cheering for them.
He suddenly realized that the battle was much more interesting than he had initially anticipated.
On the Bug Tribe's side, there were tanks, strikers, controllers, and even covert killers.
The ten mutated bugs had their own duties. They worked together seamlessly in practically every round of battle. Clearly, they had trained countless times before this.
However, the six individuals on the Raiders' team obviously had no rapport.
Even with the few rescues that had been enacted, Lin Huang could still clearly see how hastily they had been carried out.
If they had been just a second late, the white-robed Priest would have been killed by the Shadow Bug.
Even a layman could tell by a glance that the six of them had definitely never worked together before.
Lin Huang even had some suspicions that among all six, some might have been meeting their partners for the first time because of this mission.
With that in mind, it made total sense that some of them had no sense of rapport at all.
The fight between both sides was still going on in the starry heavens.
Their several embarrassing performances caused the six individuals from the Raiders to begin taking things seriously.
The Bug Tribe's camp, however, was orderly and methodical. They were old hands at working together.
Their plan remained the same—three defense mutated bugs, two assault bugs, and one mobile defense that was ready to take the attacks for the other mutated bugs at all times.
The three high-damage dealing mutated bug strikers attacked in a frenzy as soon as they decided on their target.
The three control-type mutated bugs were ready to take control of the battlefield at any time. They were watching for any chances to create an opportunity for the mutated bug strikers to fight.
As for the Shadow Bug proficient in stealth attacks, it was watching the entire battle situation attentively. It would attack immediately as soon as it found an opportunity to do so.
Whether or not it managed to kill its target, it would slip away immediately after its attack without lingering.
The ten mutated bugs worked together in a practically flawless manner.
Lin Huang could almost imagine the extremely strict training these bug beasts had gone through in private to be able to perform so competently on an actual battlefield.
In comparison, the Raiders' side messed things up completely despite having superior abilities.
As the ten mutated bugs fought steadily, the six middle-rank Lords from the Raider's camp were gradually split up.
The courageous short, burly bald man's heavily muscled, resilient physique was useless at present. As soon as he came back to his senses in the slightest, the Devilish Sonic Cicada and Black Abyssal Demon Bug would take turns to attack his God's soul.
He could only strive to protect his God's soul. He did not have the strength to attack at all.
The white-robed Priest, who possessed the fastest attacking speed, was being targeted by the Shadow Bug. It would attack him whenever it could seize the opportunity to do so; he was completely unable to defend himself against this. The few control-type mutated bugs would attack him once in a while as well.
After almost being killed two or three times in a row by the opportunistic Shadow Bug, his mental state completely went under. He could only unleash less than fifty percent of his ability.
Meanwhile, the red-robed woman who used the blood-red threads had been targeted by the Demonic Armored Mutant. The blood-red threads she unleashed were easily cut through by the Demonic Armored Mutant's blade-like legs.
In addition, the several control-type mutated bugs had been controlling the battlefield, so she was practically being subdued the entire time.
She felt as if the Demonic Armored Mutant was pursuing her to her death.
There was also a plump man who specialized in violent damage dealing, but his defense capabilities were nowhere near those of the short, burly bald man. However, his ability to deal damage as an individual was probably the most powerful of all six Raiders.
He had almost killed the six defense-type mutated bugs in the beginning. However, the Bug Tribe had very soon found a counter-strategy.
The Flying Centipede—the most mobile of the mutant bugs—confronted him, with the Six-winged Golden Cicada acted as auxiliary support and the Archaic Demon Spider controlling from a distance away.
Under the effects of the Flying Centipede's toxin, the plump man's condition very evidently deteriorated. The space between his brows was already gradually beginning to turn jet-black.
Watching the entire battle via Divine Telekinesis, Lin Huang noticed that even the plump man's God's soul had been contaminated by the Flying Centipede's toxin.
However, the plump man himself did not seem to notice this at all. Instead, he continued to deal out massive damage, venting his fury.
Judging by how fast the toxin's contamination was spreading, Lin Huang's best guess was that the plump man could only last for another half an hour at most. After half an hour, even an upper-rank Lord would not be able to be revived.
Lin Huang saw from the surveillance image that the two middle-rank Lords were obviously not in good condition at this point.
From a distance, the Six-winged Golden Cicada's colorless saber gleams targeted the cadaverous man by kiting him. As soon as he went after the Cicada, however, he would inevitably be blocked by the Archaic Demon Spider's spider webs.
His defense capabilities were second only to the short, burly bald man. Therefore, the Bug Tribe's strategy was to restrain him instead of treating him as the main hunting target.
However, the plump man was worn out from the Six-winged Golden Cicada's interference. Not only that, he would occasionally be hampered by spider webs and did not have extra energy at all to go to anyone else's aid
As for the tall, thin man, the situation was worse.
He specialized in God's soul attacks. However, this ability was not very useful when he was faced with the bug formations.
This was because a portion of his God's soul attack was filtered off by the bug formation. The load of attack power that passed through the bug formation would be disseminated among the massive numbers of bugs in the bug formation.
One must know that there were trillions of bug beasts. After the bug formation had filtered the attack and the Bug Queen Lord at the core of the formation had taken the brunt of the impact, the shared load of the God's soul attack that each bug beast bore would be somewhat minimalized.
After sensing his condition, the Bug Tribe immediately put him on the list of those that absolutely had to be killed.
The tall, thin man was the one with the highest rate of interference from the three control-type mutated bugs. Not only that, he was the main target of the Six-winged Golden Cicada's kiting. He was also the Shadow Bug's primary target.
Within just a short few minutes, he almost died several times.
Lin Huang broke out in a cold sweat for the tall, thin man as he watched, giving a running commentary.
"Hey, he hasn't died yet!"
"That still didn't kill him?!"
"This fellow may just have used up a lifetime of luck in this battle."
…
Right as the Shadow Bug ambushed the tall, thin man once more, and Lin Huang felt that he was truly doomed this time, a blood-red electric arc shot into the air, crushing the Shadow Bug's newly consolidated shadowy figure.
It was Scarlet Fox who had attacked.
Unable to restrain himself anymore, the upper-rank Lord had finally been moved to act.
Nine Snake's expression displayed no signs of joy or sadness. Silver, whose whole body seemed to be made of metal, showed no trace of emotion on his face either. However, the irritation on Scarlet Fox's countenance was clear for all to see; he did not conceal it at all.
Scarlet Fox had been annoyed ever since the battle started, and he saw the six Raiders falling into the tempo of battle the Bug Tribe had set. However, since Nine Snake had not said anything, he had forced himself to tolerate things until now.
At this point, he could take it no longer and finally made a move.
This was because he knew the tall, thin man he had brought along would die if he did not do so.
The ten mutated bugs from the Bug Tribe's side swiftly fled the battlefield as soon as Scarlet Fox attacked.
The six disgraced middle-rank Lords from the Raiders' side did not pursue them. Instead, they returned to their camp.
The intervention of an upper-rank Lord was a signal that the fighting was about to escalate.
The warm-up battle had ended, and the second stage was about to begin!
As he watched both sides stop fighting at the same time, Lin Huang felt as if he were left wanting more of that excitement.
"Tsk, tsk. That tall, thin fellow escaped death again. This guy is really lucky!"
Chapter 1681: First Display Of Ferocity
As soon as Scarlet Fox attacked, he entirely disrupted the initial balance of the battlefield.
Both parties began the next stage of battle proper.
With regards to this stage, Lin Huang felt there would be no real suspense to it.
After all, there were three upper-rank Lords in the Raiders' group. What was more, one of these was Nine Snake, who was a powerhouse nearing the level of an ultimate-rank Lord.
However, Lin Huang still continued to watch the battle with great interest.
On the Raiders' side, after Scarlet Fox's attack, Nine Snake remained expressionless and silent throughout.
Silver remained where he was. He did not have any intention of taking a hand.
Scarlet Fox rubbed his nose and had no choice but to step forward.
After all, he was the one who had intervened earlier, not Silver or Nine Snake.
On the Bug Tribe's side, the middle-rank lord-level Bug Queen that was the core of the Divine Magic Winged Bug felt slightly relieved when it saw Scarlet Fox standing out there on his own.
When it saw him attacking earlier, its biggest concern was that a war would fully break out, and the three upper-rank Lords would attack together.
Fortunately, such a situation had not happened.
Seeing Scarlet Fox coming forward, it immediately controlled the Divine Magic Winged Bug to shrink it down to a smaller size.
"My apologies, I was curious. I was wondering if I could experience for myself how powerful your bug formation really is." Scarlet Fox's tone remained polite.
The Divine Magic Winged Bug said nothing; instead, it immediately made its move.
Its one hundred and eight pairs of scale-covered wings vibrated at high speed. Countless blade-like rays rained down like a storm, deluging the entire area in an instant. They filled the sky as far as the eye could see, and all of them surged toward the lone figure of Scarlet Fox.
Although Nine Snake and the rest were standing not far behind Scarlet Fox, the Divine Magic Winged Bug still did not dare to include them in its attack. It only dared to target Scarlet Fox alone.
It knew very well that if it dared to attack anyone other than Scarlet Fox, it would definitely be met by combined suppression from the three upper-rank Lords.
It was not even sure if it could defeat Scarlet Fox, so of course, it was unwilling to face the combined forces of all three Lords.
Scarlet Fox watched as the blade-like rays that filled the whole sky headed toward him. Remaining utterly calm, his figure moved continuously, forming tens of thousands of shadows in the air. For a while, the spectators had some difficulty differentiating which figure was real and which was false.
"This fellow is definitely something." Lin Huang was also staring at Scarlet Fox's display of movement skill.
This was a lord-level movement skill that clearly combined shadow rule and illusion rule.
Cultivators who had weaker God's soul strength than Scarlet Fox were entirely unable to counter movements like this because there was no way at all to differentiate the real from the false.
On the outer perimeter of the battlefield between the two combatants, the eyes of the six middle-rank Lords in the Raiders' team widened at this point. On the Bug Tribe's side, the ten lower-rank Lords who were the core of the mutated bugs looked completely dumbfounded as well.
The truth was when one's movement skill had reached this level, the shadows were not totally illusory—they were clones that could be made tangible. Not only that, Lin Huang could tell that Scarlet Fox was probably even able to switch his own position with that of the shadows as he pleased.
This set of movement skills was so subtle and exquisite that even Lin Huang felt a slight urge to learn it.
In a little while, Scarlet Fox's figure and the tens of thousands of shadows were completely swallowed up by the massive torrent of blade-like rays.
Any of the spectators watching with Divine Telekinesis could clearly see that the illusory figures were rapidly destroyed by the attacking blade-like rays. However, many more illusory figures consolidated to take their place.
Eventually, when all the blade-like rays had faded, Scarlet Fox's figure was still standing where it had been all along as if it had not moved at all from the beginning until the end.
"This round at least has some sort of standard to it. Thumbs up for you," Lin Huang commented, smiling.
Naturally, he had clearly seen that Scarlet Fox did actually move, switching his position with the shadows at least ten times. However, in the end, he had gone back to his initial position on purpose.
It was just that he had performed all of this with extreme subtlety. If not for the fact that Lin Huang possessed a more powerful God's soul than Scarlet Fox, it would have been hard for him to notice this.
Since the first round of attack had failed, the Divine Magic Winged Bug launched a second assault without hesitation.
It did not know what kind of rules its opponent had mastered or what kind of abilities Scarlet Fox possessed. Therefore, it chose to attack first to subdue him and not give him a chance to attack.
The one hundred and eight pairs of scale-covered wings on the Divine Magic Winged Bug's back mutated abruptly, spawning countless tentacles which surged toward Scarlet Fox like a tsunami.
However, on the other side of the battlefield, Scarlet Fox's hair swiftly grew out at a speed that was visible to the naked eye. In an instant, it had already reached his waist.
As Lin Huang watched in shock, Scarlet Fox's chest began to expand like an inflating balloon, and the lines of his facial features began to soften…
One by one, fiery red, furry tails rapidly sprouted from his coccyx—nine in total.
"What's happening?!" Lin Huang's expression was full of shock.
This was a scenario he had obviously not anticipated at all.
Lin Huang was not the only one—on their side, the Bug Tribe was rather stunned as well.
Even on the Raiders' side, the eyes of the six middle-rank Lords widened too. Clearly, it was their first time seeing this as well.
Some of them might have heard about Scarlet Fox's abilities and were aware that he could change gender whenever he wished. However, this was the first time they were seeing it with their very own eyes.
Even Nine Snake, who had been calm all this while, had a faint, startled expression flash through his eyes upon seeing Scarlet Fox in a female body.
The only one who remained unmoved was Silver, the mechanoid.
To him, gender was quite obviously something completely immaterial.
After the transformation, it was very evident that Scarlet Fox's aura was no longer the same. It was much more ferocious now.
Her nine tails transformed into nine bright red flames. They increased dramatically in size in the face of the opposition and attacked the tsunami of tentacles surging toward her.
This time, she did not dodge the attack at all, meeting it head-on instead.
Lin Huang kept his gaze intently on Scarlet Fox. "This fellow's character seems to have changed as well after the transformation. Is that a different personality?"
It was not just Scarlet Fox's aura that had changed. Even his style of fighting and his demeanor were completely different from before.
Previously, he had always given the impression that he was indolent, unable to rouse up much enthusiasm to do anything. His style of fighting had also always seemed to concentrate on frontal attacks.
However, right now, he was very clearly on the warpath and full of energy. His current style of fighting was full of animosity as if he had swallowed dynamite—eager to fight tens of thousands of rounds to vent his internal rage.
After observing him for quite a while, Lin Huang was almost certain that this was Scarlet Fox's second personality on display.
"His personality changed after he transformed… I wonder if he would display more personalities and fighting styles if he transformed into other appearances…"
When Lin Huang was delving into this issue, someone from the Raider's camp was thinking about matters outside the battlefield.
'Lord Rose is so lucky…'
On the battlefield, the clash between both parties swiftly produced an outcome.
Scarlet Fox was obviously more powerful. She attacked continuously with her nine tails, inexorably vanquishing the tsunami-like wave of tentacles and subduing her opponents by direct confrontation.
Not only that, her figure continuously flickered from point to point as she approached the Divine Magic Winged Bug, attempting to fight it at close range.
The Divine Magic Winged Bug's one hundred and eight pairs of wings finally displayed their ferocity as well.
One by one, the pairs of wings began to transform into different Dao Weapons for attack, control, and defense…
The single mutated bug abruptly transformed into a team formed from hundreds of mutated bugs…
Even Lin Huang's eyes lit up as he observed how it utilized its abilities. He rapidly began thinking about how he could construct a similar fighting style.
Chapter 1682: This Bug Formation Is Quite Powerful
Clearly, everyone present did not expect the Divine Magic Winged Bug to suddenly display such a move.
Everyone knew that its wings could transform into various forms. However, nobody knew that they could transform into Dao Weapons, let alone that they could possess the abilities of those Dao Weapons.
Twelve of the wings turned into massive bells. As they rang loudly, circle upon circle of formless ripples began spreading out.
Scarlet Fox's rapidly approaching figure was dozens of times slower now as if he had suddenly fallen into mud.
Another forty-eight of the Divine Magic Winged Bug's wings transformed into sabers, spears, swords, and halberds, seizing the opportunity to attack Scarlet Fox.
When Scarlet Fox saw this, his form immediately altered again.
This time, he transformed into a muscled strongman standing more than two point five meters in height. His build was even wider than that of the short, burly bald man.
At the same time that his transformation completed, his body immediately turned a bronze color, its surface entirely covered with Odyl. Inexorably, he faced down this wave of attack.
Lin Huang particularly noticed that the Divine Magic Winged Bug's attacks did not leave any wounds on Scarlet Fox's body at all.
'A transformation like this probably isn't a rule power; it's his Goldfinger's ability,' Lin Huang rapidly conjectured as he watched Scarlet Fox laughing arrogantly at the Divine Magic Winged Bug. 'What's the principle behind his Goldfinger's function? It likely isn't as simple as being able to transform when he sees someone. Could it be that after he kills someone, he's able to transform into that person and gain all of their abilities…
'His personality seemed to have changed again after this transformation… So the price for using his Goldfinger is that he gains a personality each time he obtains a new transformation privilege?'
In his heart, Lin Huang silently speculated about this.
'If gaining split personalities isn't the cost of utilization, then this Goldfinger's abilities can probably be considered extremely powerful.'
After his transformation into the muscular strongman, Scarlet Fox's fighting style had clearly become increasingly crazed.
He began making his way closer to the Divine Magic Winged Bug, disregarding everything else. Snarling and roaring as if he had lost his mind, he ignored all his opponent's attacks.
The Divine Magic Winged Bug possessed considerable combat experience. Immediately, it changed its battle strategy.
Its wings transformed into more massive bells to restrict its opponent's movements.
On another front, its initial attack weapons also instantly transformed into spiritual attack Dao Weapons. They transformed into ghost heads.
The dozens of ghost heads simultaneously uttered piercing shrieks, spreading circle after circle of God's soul attacks.
Not only was it hard for Scarlet Fox to move forward, but there was an excruciating stabbing pain in his head. He felt as if his God's soul was being bitten by tens of thousands of ghosts.
This time, Nine Snake finally could not stand it any longer and took a hand.
His tongue darted out like an electric arc and coiled around Scarlet Fox's waist, dragging him out of the battlefield.
"Rest for a while."
Seeing that the heavily-muscled Scarlet Fox was still holding his head in pain, Nine Snake immediately gave an order and signaled to Silver—who was standing beside him—with his eyes.
Naturally, Silver did not dare to refuse. He turned into a silver ray of light and closed in on the Divine Magic Winged Bug.
Despite noticing that it suddenly had a different opponent, the Divine Magic Winged Bug remained calm.
The battle with Scarlet Fox earlier had clearly boosted its confidence.
It used the same technique from just now on Silver.
Although Silver's movements did slow down considerably, the God's soul attack did not seem to work on him at all.
When the Divine Magic Winged Bug saw this, the ghost heads instantly turned into Buddha statues.
The Buddha statues were striking wooden fish—percussion instruments made from hollow blocks of wood— while chanting scriptures.
For a while, there was chanting in the air accompanied by the percussion sounds of the wooden fish and the ringing of bells.
Lin Huang felt as if he had been transported into a temple. The only thing lacking was a stick of burning incense.
This technique involving Buddha statues was still a God's soul attack; it merely used a different method to do so.
However, apart from his body being slightly dented, Silver remained unaffected by the God's soul attack.
Only then did the Divine Magic Winged Bug realize that its opponent's God's soul might be anomalous, making it immune to God's soul attacks.
Without hesitation, it decisively changed methods.
One by one, the Buddha statues transformed into sabers, spears, swords, and halberds again, as well as a comprehensive variety of other weapons.
It only did this so it could test which kind of weapon would be most effective on its opponent.
However, all the weapons comparable to expert-grade Dao Weapons could only cause light scratches less than one centimeter deep when they struck Silver's body.
Silver was even able to repair those light scratches instantly. They did not remain on his body for any longer than one second at most.
"A powerful mechanical species with dual defense capabilities…" Lin Huang fell into deep thought as he stared at Silver.
He was considering how he would respond if he encountered an opponent like this, and he could not use force to break their defenses.
Silver was practically immune to God's soul attacks because he was a purely mechanical being that did not have a God's soul at all.
His consciousness was stored in a mechanical tinder somewhere within his body.
Naturally, God's soul attacks would not work on him in the least.
If one wanted to kill Silver with God's soul attacks, one had to possess a God's soul so powerful that it could break into the tinder within his body and erase his consciousness by force.
The Divine Magic Winged Bug's God's soul had obviously not reached such a level yet.
Even Lin Huang was not really sure if he himself could do that. After all, the other party was an upper-rank Lord.
Silver was clearly top-notch in terms of physical defenses.
Purely mechanical beings were top-notch in physical defense capabilities even if these abilities were transplanted into the universe.
Not only did they have powerful defense capabilities, but they were also immensely strong. They were by no means inferior to many ferocious combat cultivator-type beasts from the ancient epoch, even.
To kill an individual with such powerful physical defense capabilities, the best method was still subjugation via might. Either one mastered Dao seal power that was much stronger than that of the other party, or else one could use Dao Weapons that surpassed the opponent's physical strength.
However, the Divine Magic Winged Bug clearly possessed neither of these.
Lin Huang even envisioned putting himself in the Divine Magic Winged Bug shoes for a moment and imagined himself fighting, using the Divine Magic Winged Bug's current level of abilities. He ran a simulation in his head and realized it would still be difficult to breach his opponent's defenses, despite being a sword cultivator with powerful attack ability.
"Now that's quite difficult." Lin Huang glanced at the Divine Magic Winged Bug with a touch of sympathy.
Any attack methods that the Diving Magic Winged Bug could use had been completely suppressed by Silver.
Apart from control-type skills that were still effective, spiritual and physical attacks had very little effect.
Just when Lin Huang thought the Divine Magic Winged Bug had exhausted its bag of tricks, an unusual change abruptly occurred on the battlefield.
The Divine Magic Winged Bug let out a shriek, and the ten mutated bugs not far behind moved almost simultaneously. One by one, they began to integrate with the Divine Magic Winged Bug's bug formation.
As the mutated bugs integrated one by one, the Divine Magic Winged Bug's aura began to skyrocket extremely quickly.
Its aura—initially early upper-rank lord-level—soon rose to peak upper-rank lord-level at a speed that could seen with the naked eye.
"This bug formation is quite powerful."
Lin Huang could not help raising his brows when he saw what was happening. When the bug formation was fully integrated, the strength of the Divine Magic Winged Bug's aura was only a step away from that of a Lord.
Nine Snake had preserved his calm all along, but when he saw the Divine Magic Winged Bug's transformation, a grave expression flashed through his eyes.
The bug formation's elevation in power was enough to make him feel threatened.
Chapter 1683: The Formidable Nine Snake
After the Divine Magic Winged Bug had integrated with the remaining ten mutated bugs, its abilities were boosted significantly.
Due to the vibrations from the giant bells that the Bug's wings had transformed into, Silver seemed as if he had fallen into a bog. He could barely move forward and was practically a target now.
The Divine Magic Winged Bug seized the opportunity without hesitation. It charged at Silver again after transforming its remaining wings into all manner of weapons such as sabers, spears, swords, and halberds.
This round, the attacks were clearly much more powerful than before. Almost all of the Dao Weapons that the wings had transformed into left deep wounds on Silver's body.
Silver could do nothing except to protect his vital body parts and attempt to retreat out of the area that was under the giant bells' control.
However, the wounds on his body were increasing significantly almost every second.
One, ten, one hundred, one thousand…
Very soon, there was an obvious decline in how swiftly his wounds recovered.
Silver, who had almost entirely subdued the Divine Magic Winged Bug earlier, was now the one being subdued completely. He did not have the strength to fight back at all.
The Divine Magic Winged Bug was aware that it would be very difficult to kill Silver, but it was trying its best to drain the Odyl within his body.
Nine Snake, who had been observing the battle all along from not too far away, hesitated for a moment before finally deciding to take a hand.
He hesitated because he knew that Silver had yet to use his trump card. Nine Snake was deliberating on whether Silver might still have a chance to turn the tables. However, after a moment of consideration, he decided to attack anyway. This was because he felt that under such circumstances, it meant little if Silver used his trump card and won the battle. It would be better for him to save his strength to fight Lin Huang later.
After all, their biggest enemy was not the Bug Tribe in front of them, but Lin Huang, who was somewhere watching secretly.
A shadow suddenly sprang out from behind Nine Snake. It turned into a dark ray of light that wound around Silver's body, then swiftly pulled him back.
Nine Snake could not help frowning slightly when he sensed the massive resistance that came from the giant bells.
He had originally brought the entire team of Raiders here to forcefully subdue the Bug Tribe and display the Raiders' might in front of Lin Huang.
He had never expected that matters would escalate to this point.
Scarlet Fox and Silver had been defeated one after the other. He had no option but to take the initiative to rescue them.
He had intended to punish the Bug Tribe as a warning to his enemy, but his plan had backfired, and he was now being laughed at.
After pulling Silver back to the Raiders' camp with his snake tail, Nine Snake turned a cold-eyed gaze toward the Divine Magic Winged Bug, whose aura strength was now not that much weaker than his own.
Naturally, he was confident that he could defeat his opponent. However, if he were going to fight, then he had to win the battle decisively and in style.
The Divine Magic Winged Bug did not take the initiative to attack him. The Bug Queen in the core had a fearful expression on its face. Naturally, it knew that this leader with the vertical pupils was the most powerful of the nine intruders.
The Bug Queen had known this after watching Nine Snake save his teammate earlier. Although it had fortified itself to this extent at present, the dozens of massive bells still did not seem to decrease Nine Snake's speed by much.
"To be honest, even I find it quite admirable that all of you have managed to get to this level." Nine Snake took a step forward. The aura around his whole body began to skyrocket. "But let's end this nonsense now."
As soon as he finished speaking, a giant shadow suddenly appeared above his head.
It was a giant snake monster.
Black scales covered its entire body, which was wreathed in black mist. A pair of solid gold snake eyes with vertical pupils stared fixedly at the Divine Magic Winged Bug.
An instant later, the black snake tail lashed out like a long whip that also resembled a full moon scimitar, attacking the Divine Magic Winged Bug.
The arc-shaped black ray was extremely fast, reaching the Divine Magic Winged Bug almost at once.
The Divine Magic Winged Bug was completely unable to dodge the attack. It could only try its best to transform its wings into massive shields to block the front of its body.
Almost at the same time that all these layers of shields consolidated, the arc-shaped black ray collided with them.
The Divine Magic Winged Bug felt a burst of immense power the second the collision happened. Its entire body was sent flying back, completely out of control. It then crashed hard into the hive.
The attack dented a large crater at least three meters in diameter on the hive. Even the entire Ten Thousand Bug Maze shook slightly, emitting a dull rumble.
Deep in the hive, even Lin Huang clearly sensed the tremor.
"Truly worthy of a being who's almost an ultimate-rank Lord." Lin Huang's Divine Telekinesis traversed the void, allowing him to clearly see that practically all the Divine Magic Winged Bug's wings that had reverted to their original form had faint cracks on them.
He could also distinctly sense that the Divine Magic Winged Bug's aura had slumped significantly.
However, what he could not see was that the bodies of many True God fighters in the bug formation had instantly ruptured from the impact of the earlier attack. A small number of Bug Tribe Heavenly Gods also died at the same time.
Nine Snake could be considered to have held almost nothing back in this attack. The strength of the assault had obviously exceeded what the bug formation could sustain in terms of force.
This impact, which was over the limits of what the bug formation could sustain, automatically spread through the inner sections of the formation, killing many Bug Tribe fighters.
However, Nine Snake did not seem to be fully satisfied with the result of this attack.
He could not help frowning slightly when he saw that the bug formation had not been destroyed by the assault and that the Divine Magic Winged Bug's aura had only decreased slightly.
"I'd like to see how many more hits you can take!"
Nine Snake attacked again as soon as he finished speaking.
The giant python shadow over his head locked onto the Divine Magic Winged Bug as its target, and the inky-black snake tail lashed through the air again.
This time, the Divine Magic Winged Bug did not dare delay its response to the attack. It flapped all one hundred and eight pairs of wings suddenly and swiftly moved.
It had witnessed how powerful Nine Snake was and did not dare meet the attack head-on.
However, right at that moment, the black snake tail abruptly split into countless snake heads, hurtling like a giant net toward the Divine Magic Winged Bug to try and encompass it.
The Divine Magic Winged Bug speeded up to its limits to try and escape. However, the snake heads frenziedly divided over and over again until, at last, they enveloped the Bug's body entirely.
Its one hundred and eight pairs of wings turned into sharp blades, slicing at the snake heads that had divided multiple times. Sparks flew as the blades sliced down, leaving no trace behind at all.
Currently, the Divine Magic Winged Bug had been reduced to a bird in a cage.
However, the cage kept on getting smaller. The snake heads continued shrinking; in the end, everything was swallowed up entirely.
Right at that moment, the Ten Thousand Bug Maze suddenly began to shake.
Lin Huang thought the Bug Tribe had more tricks up its sleeve and wanted to mount a rescue. However, he soon sensed a wave of immense dimensional power.
"They're trying to escape?!" Lin Huang was stunned for a moment but realized why an instant later.
This move seemed ruthless, but it was actually a wise one.
They were no match for their opponent; the entire hive would fall into enemy hands if the battle dragged on. Naturally, the best choice was to sacrifice a proverbial pawn to save the queen.
Before the Divine Winged Magic Bug was completely annihilated, they would seize the opportunity to escape!
The hive immediately tore open a space rift and headed straight for the deep reaches of the heavens. Clearly, they had made escape preparations much earlier.
However, fleeing was not going to be as easy as it seemed.
Before Nine Snake stepped in to fight, he had communicated with Scarlet Fox and Silver through voice transmission, telling them to watch the hive. He wanted to prevent it from escaping.
He had crossed paths with the Bug Tribe in the universe numerous times and had seen them playing similar tricks many times over.
Since Scarlet Fox and Silver had lost their battles, naturally, they did not dare neglect Nine Snake's order. On the surface, it looked as if they were fully concentrating on watching the battle. In reality, they had never stopped covertly observing the hive with Divine Telekinesis.
As soon as the hive made the slightest move, both of them noticed and intercepted it immediately.
As the two upper-rank Lords joined forces, the space rift that the hive had torn open was instantly obliterated.
Half the hive that had initially made it through the rift into space was sent rebounding right back. The escape plan was considered a total failure!
Chapter 1684: Ding, The Fighters Have Been Credited To Your Account!
Watching as the hive was intercepted, Lin Huang, who had been hiding deep within it, was relieved.
He had genuinely been worried earlier that the hive would flee, which would be the equivalent of him failing to keep his appointment with Nine Snake's team. The crux of the matter was that they might make trouble for Death Sickle if they were stood up.
This was what Lin Huang did not wish to see happen at all.
Naturally, he did not know that as a grade-7 organization, Death Sickle was protected by Royal in this great world. If the matter was not a direct conflict, Royal would expel the Raiders if they were to take action against Death Sickle.
Lin Huang had cut ties with Death Sickle in name by faking his death previously.
The conflict between him and the Raiders could be said to have little connection with Death Sickle.
That was why Scarlet Fox and the rest had mounted guard at Death Sickle, but they had not forced Buried Heaven's group to hand Lin Huang over to them.
If not for Lin Huang contacting Buried Heaven of his own volition and Scarlet Fox finding out, the Raiders might have needed to take a great many more twists and turns to find him.
Deep in the hive, Lin Huang had been observing the changes in the outside world through Divine Telekinesis. However, he was unable to probe the state of things inside the hive.
Now that their escape plan had failed, the Queen Mothers in the Ten Thousand Bug Maze were in despair.
The Divine Magic Winged Bug's bug formation outside had amassed practically all the forces of the entire hive.
Currently, only the old and the weak, the Queen Mothers, a small number of young Bug Queens, and many unhatched eggs remained in the hive.
The Divine Magic Winged Bug's defeat in battle was the equivalent of the entire hive's defeat.
If they wanted the hive's legacy to live on, their only recourse was to escape.
However, that solution was now a dead end.
The space tunnel that the hive opened up had now been destroyed by Scarlet Fox and Silver.
It was no longer just the two upper-rank Lords—even the short, burly, bald man and the other five middle-rank Lords were watching the hive now. They were standing guard in case of any unexpected moves.
Escape was definitely not possible now.
Not too far off, the Divine Magic Winged Bug had been taken captive by Nine Snake. However, it was still resisting stubbornly.
Any discerning person could tell that it would not be able to last long.
The bug formation itself was a method that gained its immense strength through putting pressure on the participants in the bug formation. The more powerful the bug formation, the heavier the burden on the host in the core.
In one respect, all of the bug beasts that participated in the bug formation would have constant pressure applied to the Divine Power, God's soul, god rules, sequence powers, and even Odyl within their bodies.
On the other hand, the longer the bug formation lasted, the more the damage inflicted on the God's soul and the physical body of the host in the core.
As a result, the formation could only be sustained for a limited amount of time.
Now that it was imprisoned by the snake tail, the Divine Magic Winged Bug could not even dodge anymore.
It could do nothing except forcefully resist the snake tail's continuous shrinking and strangling.
However, each time it resisted, this would result in the death of many bug beasts in the bug formation. This was caused by the Odyl shockwaves that were beyond what the bug formation could bear.
This also resulted in a decline of the Divine Magic Winged Bug's ability.
The middle-rank lord-level Bug Queen controlling the core was coming under more and more pressure.
A scant few moments after being imprisoned by the snake tail, the entire bug formation was already at the point of collapse and could fall apart at any time.
Nine Snake remained expressionless from beginning to end. As far as he was concerned, he was merely defeating a bunch of hillbilly bug beasts. It was no cause for happiness.
From the very beginning, he had not taken these bug beasts seriously.
If not for Scarlet Fox and Silver's consecutive defeats, he would not have wished to take a hand at all.
Lin Huang watched Nine Snake's one-sided subjugation of the Divine Magic Winged Bug from faraway. He had already begun counting down to the moment when he would show himself.
After all, there were eleven lord-level bug beasts in the Divine Magic Winged Bug's bug formation. Among them were at least ten Supreme God rank-5 Bug Queens. Lin Huang even suspected that the middle-rank lord-level Bug Queen might be Pseudo Pure Spirit rank-5.5.
He was not about to let Nine Snake have these creatures.
Ever since Xiao Hei had released authorization, card fragments no longer dropped whenever Lin Huang killed monsters. As long as he agreed, Xiao Hei could consolidate complete Monster Cards right away.
As far as Lin Huang was concerned, the eleven Bug Tribe Lords were already his. Naturally, he was not about to let Nine Snake kill them.
However, Nine Snake did not know what Lin Huang was thinking. He only wanted to dispose of the Divine Magic Winged Bug as soon as possible, then kill Lin Huang and bring his body back to the universe. That would signal the successful completion of his mission this time as an investigator who had arrived in this great world.
After his snake tail imprisoned the Divine Magic Winged Bug, he began using it to violently strangle the Bug.
He could even distinctly sense that the Divine Magic Winged Bug's bug formation was weakening drastically.
Practically within the time it took for a few breaths, it plummeted to initial-stage upper-rank lord-level.
In another few more breaths, the Divine Magic Winged Bug's combat strength nosedived significantly again, dropping to middle-rank lord-level.
Almost at the same time, the bug formation rapidly began to collapse.
Nine Snake felt a slight frisson of happiness. 'It's finally going to end!'
Once the bug formation was crushed, it would be much easier for him to kill this horde of bug beasts.
However, blood-red lightning bolts abruptly lit up the sky. They filled the heavens; in almost an instant, they had reached the area where he was.
Shock flashed through Nine Snake's eyes. Simultaneously he abandoned the bug beasts and beat a frantic retreat.
A second later, the area where he was standing was deluged by endless blood-red lightning bolts.
Scarlet Fox, Silver, and the others stared at the blood-red lightning bolts with utterly shocked expressions.
They could distinctly sense how terrifying the lightning bolts were. If those lightning bolts were to swallow them up, there might not even be dregs remaining.
More terrifying was the fact that from start to finish, they had not even seen where this attack originated from.
Even Nine Snake was frowning hard. He had spread his Divine Telekinesis earlier but had not found anything at all.
His gaze finally landed on the hive.
There was no powerful aura within the periphery of the dozens of surrounding star zones. In that case, the individual who had attacked was most likely in the hive that was right in front of them.
As to whether it was Lin Huang hiding in the hive or other beings within it, he was not very sure yet.
However, an instant later, he sensed that the auras of the bug beasts which formed the bug formation were rapidly being obliterated.
Nine Snake swiftly came to a conclusion and his gaze grew even keener as he stared at the hive.
"Lin Huang, are you brave enough to come out and face me in battle?"
His voice rumbled like thunder and spread toward the hive.
Scarlet Fox and the rest looked utterly confused.
"It was Lin Huang who attacked?!"
Currently, Lin Huang was indulging in the joy of having obtained the bug beasts' cards.
After using a dimensional secret technique and his Divine Telekinesis flying daggers to kill all the bug beasts that formed the Divine Magic Winged Bug, he had Xiao Hei consolidate eleven complete Bug Tribe Lord Monster Cards.
As he had expected, of the eleven Bug Queens, the ten lower-rank Lords were Supreme God rank-5, and the middle-rank Lord was Pseudo Pure Spirit rank-5.5.
He was thrilled to have obtained eleven Bug Tribe fighters out of the blue—ones he could immediately utilize, even.
When he heard Nine Snake's deliberately provoking comment, he was not angry at all.
"The show that all of you put on was even more interesting than what I had imagined. I was so engrossed in watching that I didn't really have the heart to interrupt things." At the same time that this voice was heard, Lin Huang's figure slowly materialized outside the hive. With a faint smile, he looked at Nine Snake and his team.
Chapter 1685: Lin Huang Versus Nine Snake
Nine Snake did not display any delight when he saw Lin Huang reveal himself.
He could not help frowning slightly either when he realized that he could not read this young man in front of him.
He was unable to sense how powerful Lin Huang's aura was, but his instincts told him that the young man before him was extremely dangerous.
Scarlet Fox and Silver, who were nearby, had similar reactions. However, they could not sense things as distinctly as Nine Snake; they were only able to get a vague sense of the threat emanating from Lin Huang.
Under normal circumstances, powerhouses who had elevated to lord-level usually had very acute preternatural senses.
For a while, the three upper-rank Lords fell silent, quickly trying to think of a plan.
Perhaps because the disparity in their abilities was too great, the short, burly, bald man and the remaining five middle-rank Lords did not sense the danger. They even thought that Lin Huang's aura was less powerful than their own.
Seeing that Nine Snake and the other two remained silent, the few middle-rank Lords assumed they wanted them to test Lin Huang's abilities.
The short, burly, bald man who had full confidence in his defense capabilities took the lead and spoke first, "So you're Lin Huang?"
"That's right, I'm Lin Huang." Lin Huang turned his head to look at the short, burly, bald man, smiling. He continued after that, "Your defense capabilities aren't bad. I want them!"
The moment he finished speaking, a blood-red arc pierced right through the short, burly, bald man's forehead, leaving a hole that was as big as two fingers.
Everyone else present could distinctly sense that the short, burly, bald man's life force seemed to have been instantly snuffed out.
His face still retained its arrogant expression, but he had already become a corpse. It was obvious that he had utterly failed to defend himself against Lin Huang's attack.
Upon seeing the short, burly, bald man's sudden demise, practically everyone present felt their hair stand on end.
The three upper-rank Lords, including Nine Snake, were no exception.
Although they could not consider themselves close with the short, burly, bald man, they knew that he was a formidable combat cultivator. Among the Raiders' middle-rank Lords, his defense capabilities were in the top three ranks.
Scarlet Fox and Silver were secretly making some assessments. At their current upper-rank lord-level combat strength, it would be very difficult to kill the short, burly, bald man in a direct confrontation, much less kill him instantly.
Nine Snake also had a general idea of the abilities of the current team that he had brought with him. He knew that at his present level of ability, it would not be difficult for him to subdue the short, burly, bald man, but killing him would take some effort. Although he could kill him instantly like Lin Huang had, it would require the use of some trump card techniques.
He had to admit that the attack Lin Huang had used to kill the short, burly, bald man was no less powerful than if he himself used a trump card. He did not even have enough confidence to pull off a move like that.
However, he did not know whether Lin Huang had merely launched an offhand attack or if he had used a trump card to intentionally intimidate them.
Only Lin Huang himself knew that his attack earlier had been an offhand one.
His God Weapon flying dagger was inherently already a supreme-grade Dao Weapon. Even if he were to encounter ultimate-rank Lords, he could easily breach his opponents' defenses without utilizing any defensive techniques at all.
The short, burly, bald man, on the other hand, only had the physique of an upper-rank Lord at most. Even with maximum compounding of defense techniques, at best, he would still only achieve peak upper-rank lord-level strength. Naturally, Lin Huang's God Weapon flying dagger had easily impaled him.
Furthermore, Lin Huang had compounded two Dao seals onto the flying dagger in this attack.
However, any single one of Lin Huang's Dao seals was different from everyone else's because it was constructed from millions of Dao tattoos.
Compounding two such Dao seals was comparable to the Odylic Force released by two million Dao tattoos simultaneously.
Moreover, under normal circumstances, even an ultimate-rank Lord possessing over a thousand Dao seals would have less than two million Dao tattoos in total, even if they were all added up.
On top of that, Lin Huang's Divine Telekinesis was ultimate-rank lord-level in terms of strength, so even though he had not unleashed his full power, it was a legitimate ultimate-rank lord-level attack.
It was no wonder that the short, burly, bald man had been killed instantly.
The short, burly, bald man being killed instantly was a scene so shocking to everyone that nobody dared to stop Lin Huang when he collected his victim's Goldfinger and corpse.
Lin Huang calmly put away the man's Goldfinger and his corpse. Only then did he turn his gaze to everyone else present.
However, no matter where he looked, practically everyone kept their heads down and did not dare to meet his eyes.
Nine Snake was the only one who stared at Lin Huang, his expression betraying mixed emotions.
Initially, he had thought that coming to a great world in a corner of nowhere and apprehending a local brat would be an easily accomplished task.
After all, according to the information Royal had provided on this great world, there were only three middle-rank Lords here.
He had not anticipated that his target would have hidden his abilities so well.
'The information Royal gave us has caused us a great deal of trouble…'
Nine Snake cursed secretly in his heart, then rapidly began thinking of a counter-strategy.
What he did not know was there was actually no error in the information Royal had given.
In the great world under Royal's jurisdiction, every powerhouse who elevated to become a Lord would be registered and reported to the relevant authorities as soon as the staff in the great world found out about it. Royal's headquarters would then enter the information on the Lord and file it on record.
The issue was that Lin Huang had only elevated to become a Lord three days ago and had not displayed his abilities since his advancement.
Therefore, Royal had no idea that he had elevated to lord-level. Naturally, this information was also not on record.
Nine Snake made up his mind immediately after only a few moments of consideration.
His voice transmission spread to the remaining Raiders. "Don't be scared by him. He may have used a special technique to attack just now, so his subsequent attacks might not be as strong. His defense capabilities might not be that powerful either. Let's attack together! I'll be responsible for dealing with him; the rest of you find opportunities to deal some lateral damage!"
What Nine Snake did not know was that Lin Huang—whose Divine Telekinesis was significantly more powerful—had intercepted the voice transmission loud and clear.
However, Lin Huang's expression did not change outwardly at all. He continued smiling faintly.
He calmly observed the figure of the giant python above Nine Snake's head as it abruptly grew a second and third snake head. Immediately after that, more snake heads began sprouting one after the other.
Within a blink of an eye, a massive nine-headed python had fully consolidated.
The strength of its aura was infinitely close to that of an ultimate-rank Lord.
The instant the giant nine-headed python finished consolidating, Nine Snake initiated an attack without hesitation.
This time, he held nothing back at all, utilizing an ultimate move with the strongest attack power.
The giant nine-headed python's heads opened their mouths at practically the same time. Black electric arcs rapidly consolidated in their maws.
The next second, nine black shock waves shot forward almost simultaneously at maximum speed. Practically an instant later, they were right in front of Lin Huang and were about to swallow him up.
However, Lin Huang extended a finger into the void and a mirror so black it could swallow up everything consolidated, blocking the shock waves like a massive wall.
He could not help but sigh faintly when he saw the nine shock waves being swallowed up by the Mirror. "Why do all of them like releasing shock waves as soon as they attack?"
As soon as he finished speaking, nine blood-red shock waves shot out from the Mirror, aiming straight at the giant nine-headed python above Nine Snake's head…
Chapter 1686: Annihilated En Masse
The nine blood-red shock waves shot through the void like lightning, more than several times faster than the shock waves Nine Snake had released.
Lin Huang secretly added two Dao seals to this round of deflection.
The blood-red shock waves immediately shot through the void. Before Nine Snake could even fully react, they had struck the shadow above his head.
The next instant, the giant nine-headed python's nine heads exploded almost all at once. Immediately after that, the shadow swiftly disintegrated, transforming into countless black points of light and fading away.
Below, Nine Snake abruptly spat out a mouthful of blood.
Although Lin Huang had not directly attacked Nine Snake's actual person this round, Nine Snake had still suffered a backlash.
Nine Snake's technique was powered by his God's soul and had integrated Divine Power, Odylic Force, and Dao seal power.
Since his technique had been shattered by violence, naturally, his God's soul was impacted.
Fortunately, he managed to withdraw his Divine Power in time, so he only suffered the aftermath of the impact.
However, in order for the giant nine-headed python to absorb Lin Huang's attack, he had drained an immense amount of the Divine Power and Odylic Force within his body.
Almost one-third of the Divine Power and Odylic Force within him was stripped away by the attack.
He had no choice either because by the time he could respond, the nine shock waves were already practically in his face. There was no way he could evade them at all, so he was forced to take the brunt of the attack head-on.
If he did not do that, his God's soul would have been instantly annihilated.
Nine Snake thought that Lin Huang must surely have seen through the nature of this technique, which explained why he had not attacked Nine Snake's physical body, instead launching an assault on the giant nine-headed python above his head.
However, the truth was that Lin Huang had not made a study of Nine Snake's technique at all.
The Mirror's deflection angle could be adjusted as necessary to attack whatever target he wanted. However, he had not bothered to make any adjustments.
The giant nine-headed python was massive and obviously a target that would be easier to hit.
Moreover, crushing an energy being like this would definitely drain a great deal of his opponent's Divine Power and Odylic Force. This was something one would know even without even needing to study the technique.
The first clash between both of them began abruptly and ended just as abruptly.
Scarlet Fox and the others watched, dumbfounded.
As upper-rank Lords, Scarlet Fox and Silver could distinctly sense the giant nine-headed python's terrifying aura, which was already almost as powerful as that of an ultimate-level Lord.
An off-hand attack could easily kill any powerhouse at the scene, let alone if all nine heads were to attack at the same time.
As for the handful of middle-rank Lords, although they did not have such a clear perception of Nine Snake's technique, they were still able to sense how terrifying it was when the giant nine-headed python spat out its shock waves. The aftermath alone made the hearts of all six quail.
Initially, almost everyone present thought there was a ninety percent chance that as soon as Nine Snake attacked, Lin Huang—who was opposite him—would die.
After all, the attack was already as powerful as that of an ultimate-rank Lord.
However, they had never expected the actual situation to turn things upside down.
Not only had Lin Huang suffered no harm, but he had also confounded Nine Snake's attack immediately.
The rest of the Raiders initially thought they might individually have a chance to bag Lin Huang as a trophy if Nine Snake's attack did not kill him.
However, after witnessing what happened, the eight of them felt cold chills running through them.
Even Silver, the mechanoid, displayed fear.
His silver physical body turned dark red at a speed discernible to the naked eye.
This physical state was a reaction that would automatically be triggered whenever Silver sensed life-threatening danger. It would temporarily raise his physical constitution by a level.
Under normal circumstances, Scarlet Fox would certainly not have been able to restrain himself from asking questions if he saw Silver changing color like this.
However, he was entirely in no mood to do so right now.
He had already begun rapidly plotting an escape plan.
All of them would certainly die if they fought someone that even Nine Snake could not defeat. Their only chance of survival was to seize the opportunity and flee.
Lin Huang did not even look at Scarlet Fox and the others.
Right now, among the nine of them, Nine Snake's ability was the only one that drew his attention, albeit reluctantly.
As for the rest, he would not even need to use a second God Weapon flying dagger to kill them.
"If you hadn't used that move earlier, perhaps you might have been able to last a little longer." Lin Huang smiled at Nine Snake.
Nine Snake said nothing, but his expression was indescribable.
He had certainly not expected things to turn out this way.
"Since you attacked first earlier, it's my turn now." As soon as Lin Huang finished speaking, countless electric arcs shot out of his sleeves like blood-red lightning bolts that filled the heavens as far as the eye could see.
Nine Snake's pupils contracted slightly when he saw this.
However, the blood-red electric arcs suddenly disappeared.
A second later, Nine Snake saw the blood-red electric arcs covering the entire area densely, fully three hundred and sixty degrees without a single gap…
Things looked entirely different from where Scarlet Fox and the others were standing.
They only saw the electric arcs shoot out and cover the distance almost instantly, forming a blood-red sphere of light around Nine Snake to completely envelope him…
This was a new technique that Lin Huang had devised after seeing how the Divine Magic Winged Bug used its wings.
He integrated teleportation into the Divine Telekinesis flying daggers' use.
The moment the millions of Divine Telekinesis flying daggers shot out, Lin Huang teleported them to surround Nine Snake, then envelop him entirely.
In less than the time it took for three breaths, Scarlet Fox and the rest sensed that Nine Snake's life force had been completely obliterated.
Scarlet Fox did not need to think at all. Without hesitation, he hid behind Silver in a flash and summoned a dimensional portal.
However, the instant he called up the portal, he saw a red beam of light in his peripheral vision. Immediately after that, everything went black, and he completely lost consciousness.
Only then did Lin Huang's gaze shift from the area surrounded by the lightning bolts. He then turned his head to look at where Scarlet Fox and the others were.
The seven people left alive were still in shock. They only reacted when Scarlet Fox made his move; all of them immediately chose to flee.
All Lin Huang did was glance over, and a red electric arc flashed across the distance, killing the six of them instantly.
"Eh?"
Suddenly, Lin Huang raised his eyebrows.
Out of the seven Raiders, one of them was surprisingly not killed at once.
The Divine Telekinesis flying dagger had not gone completely through his body. It had merely left a wound.
This individual was Silver, whose body was now dark red. He looked like a metallic being entirely covered by rust.
However, this form was the state in which his defenses were at their most powerful.
This peak mode would only be triggered when his subconscious sensed lethal threats.
His original physical constitution was already at peak upper-rank lord-level. Now that he had practically elevated a full level, his constitution was comparable to that of a peak ultimate-rank Lord.
This was why Lin Huang's Divine Telekinesis flying dagger had not been able to completely breach Silver's defenses.
However, Lin Huang knew that this mode could not be sustained for long.
With a touch of interest, he looked across the distance at the fleeing Silver. He manipulated more Divine Telekinesis flying daggers to attack Silver for a second time, then a third time, and a fourth…
When the flying daggers attacked Silver for the eleventh time, they finally impaled his body all the way through.
It was not that his defenses had been breached; instead, the Divine Power and Odylic Force within his body had been totally drained. He no longer had the strength to maintain this mode.
In the end, all nine Raiders were wiped out en masse after being subjugated by Lin Huang's show of force. Only after a glance at Silver— who eventually toppled to the ground—did Lin Huang turn around unhurriedly. He looked in the direction of the colossal edifice behind him—the Ten Thousand Bug Maze!
Chapter 1687: Royal Supervisor
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Lin Huang's face was expressionless as he faced the colossal edifice in front of him.
He remained where he was, wondering how to deal with this batch of Bug Tribe monsters.
Suddenly, a spatial fluctuation began spreading out.
Lin Huang immediately turned his head to look in the direction of the spatial fluctuation and was instantly on guard.
He had not requested for any assistance.
Therefore, anyone who showed up now might well be the Raiders' reinforcements.
A figure slowly stepped out of the Dimensional Whirlpool.
It was a fairly well-dressed man who was even wearing a top hat. He looked to be in his early twenties, handsome in appearance and possessed of rather extraordinary charisma.
Although the other did not release his aura, Lin Huang's pupils contracted involuntarily the instant he saw the newcomer. He immediately went into a state of combat readiness.
He could sense that the person in front of him was an ultimate-rank Lord.
"Don't worry, Lin Huang. I don't belong to the group that you've just disposed of." The man removed his hat, revealing neatly slicked-back hair, and gave Lin Huang a faint nod.
"Let me introduce my humble self. I am Liu Fu, Rank-S Royalty. I'm also the Supervisor for this investigation."
"Supervisor?" It was the first time Lin Huang had heard of such a position.
Although he was Royalty as well—a Rank-A member even— he knew almost nothing about Royal's internal organizational structure.
Liu Fu had obviously read Lin Huang's file and knew that he had had practically no contact with other Royal members. As a result, his knowledge of Royal was very limited. Patiently, Liu Fu proceeded to explain.
"You probably know that this great world is Royal's affiliate territory. Organizations from the outside world have to submit an application to Royal for entry, and they are only allowed to enter if we approve.
"However, if the applicant's ability exceeds the highest combat strength of our affiliate territory's local population, our assessment will be extra strict. The applicant needs to have sufficiently legitimate reasons, or we'll completely deny them entry.
"However, what many outsiders don't know is that if the applicant's ability exceeds the highest combat strength of our affiliate territory's local population and their application is approved, Royal will secretly arrange for a Supervisor to observe the applicant's every move.
"In Royal's internal department, a Supervisor isn't a position—it's a mission codename.
"Any time Royal is in need of a Supervisor, they will publish the mission. Whoever accepts the mission will be the Supervisor of the mission in question.
"Of course, there are requirements that must be met when one accepts a Supervisor's mission. The Supervisor's ability must be more powerful than that of the applicant seeking entry. If there are many applicants, the Supervisor must possess the ability to keep all of the applicants under control.
"When this group of Raiders applied for entry, I happened to see the Supervisor's mission and accepted it, so I became the Supervisor for this matter."
Lin Huang more or less understood what Liu Fu was saying. The Supervisor would be the one who kept the investigators' movements under surveillance to prevent them from behaving as they pleased in Royal's affiliate world.
"You're here now because I've stirred up trouble by killing the Raiders' investigators?" Lin Huang asked, his gaze fixed on Liu Fu.
"You're over-thinking matters." When he heard this, Liu Fu shook his head, smiling. "It's very common for investigators to die during the course of their investigations. Royal won't make trouble for its members just because of an outsider.
"However, if the Raiders demand an explanation from us, we might just send them the video showing the entire process of you killing all those nine investigators. After all, the Raiders are a top organization in the universe; we can't refuse to give them an explanation."
Lin Huang's expression altered slightly at this point. He did not wish to be targeted by Raiders in the universe who were even more powerful.
He had now killed a peak upper-rank lord-level powerhouse like Nine Snake.
If the Raiders saw the video, the next time they would send at least an ultimate-rank Lord to kill him. They might even send a supreme powerhouse above lord-level.
When Liu Fu noticed Lin Huang's change of expression, he continued.
"You don't have to worry about that. Even if we do send the video, as long as you hide in this world, the Raiders can't do anything to you.
"This is because the most powerful combat strength of the local population in this world is only that of a middle-rank Lord. The highest rank that Royal will allow into this world is an upper-rank lord-level powerhouse. Anyone more powerful than that is barred from entry. Even if they do send more investigators, it should be no problem at all; your current ability is sufficient for you to protect yourself."
"I can't hide like a coward in this great world forever." Lin Huang shook his head when he heard this.
To become more powerful, he would have to leave this great world.
"You've made your presence known just to tell me this?" Lin Huang fell silent for a moment, then abruptly asked Liu Fu, "Or is there something else?"
"Actually, all members of Royal are under Royal's protection. Even if Rank-A members offend lord-level powerhouses, Royal will still protect them. However, if they offend powerhouses above lord-level, Royal will hand over this member without hesitation. That's because it isn't worth offending a powerhouse above lord-level for the sake of a Rank-A member.
"However, Royal will protect a Rank-S member with everything they have, even if that member offends a dao-level powerhouse above lord-level…"
Liu Fu paused at this point and smiled, looking at Lin Huang.
Lin Huang locked eyes with Liu Fu for a moment. Seeing that Liu Fu did not continue, he could not help but ask, "How does one become a Rank-S member?!"
"It's very simple. As long as you possess Rank-S potential and talent, you're eligible." Liu Fu smiled and continued, "To be more specific, you only need to kill an upper-rank Lord by using lower-rank lord-level combat strength. That will be sufficient."
"So I can be upgraded to Rank-S, then?" Lin Huang felt slightly more at ease at this point.
Although he usually disliked being dependant on any organization, based on the current situation, Royal was undoubtedly his best refuge.
"What do you want?" Lin Huang calmed down very quickly, then looked at Liu Fu.
He knew that Liu Fu had to have some sort of motive for disclosing so much information to him.
"I can recommend that you be upgraded to Rank-S. What's more, your chances of successfully being upgraded are very high," Liu Fu smiled as he spoke, "What I want is simple. When the time comes, just write my name in the referral column, and that will be enough.
"When a member is upgraded to Rank-S or when there's a new Rank-S member, the referrer gains a handsome reward."
"There aren't any other requirements?" Lin Huang was quite surprised.
"No." Liu Fu shook his head with a smile. "I'm a mere half step away from breaking through to lord-level. There isn't anything I want from a junior just yet.
2
"I'm recommending you be upgraded because you do indeed possess the ability. For one, I happen to be able to do a good deed. For another, the reward I'll obtain from recommending that you be upgraded to Rank-S might just increase my chances of a breakthrough by that much."
"I understand. Thank you, senior." Once Lin Huang realized that the other was not imposing any further demands on him, he relaxed his guard slightly.
Liu Fu left after they had chatted a little.
Lin Huang only turned around after seeing Liu Fu off and focused his attention back on the hive in front of him.
Chapter 1688: Die Once
Lin Huang hovered before the Ten Thousand Bug Maze. In contrast to the massive hive, he was as tiny as a particle of dust.
However, he was not afraid at all in the face of this colossal edifice.
Instead, he was very sure that the many Bug Tribe beasts in the hive ought to be filled with respect for him at the moment.
For a while, he did not do anything at all. He was thinking of how to deal with the hive and the remaining bug beasts within it.
He had no sympathy at all for the Bug Tribe.
This was because the tribe destroyed every place they went to. They would frenziedly plunder various resources in the great world to strengthen their Tribe. After exhausting all the available resources, they would migrate to the next world in a carefree manner, leaving the dead world behind. They would then repeat the same process as before.
They did this to such an extent that the ancient legends of many Tribes even called the Bug Tribe a bug plague. In essence, they regarded the Bug Tribe as a type of calamity.
It did not matter what kind of sci-fi work Lin Huang had seen on Earth in his past life, the games he had played, or the knowledge he had obtained from being in contact with the gravel world later on. They all contributed to his distaste for the Bug Tribe.
His first thought was to kill all of the hives in the Ten Thousand Bug Maze.
However, he soon encountered a problem.
The material that the hive was made from could obstruct all sorts of energy transmission to a great extent. This not only included Divine Power and Odyl, but it also included the transmission of God's soul power and Divine Telekinesis.
Therefore, he could not control his telekinetic flying daggers so that they would penetrate through the hive and kill his enemies.
It was also a problem locating the Bug Tribe Queen Mothers in such a massive hive.
If he wanted to kill the Queen Mothers in the hive, he could only do it the hard way, which was to go deep into the hive and hunt for them one by one within the hive passages. This would definitely be an extremely time-consuming process.
Naturally, there was another way, which was to destroy everything, hive and all.
If the hive was crushed into smithereens, the Queen Mothers in the hive would not be able to escape, much less the rest of the bug beasts.
However, Lin Huang still had some reservations about that.
He really wanted to preserve the Ten Thousand Bug Maze. After all, he had his own Bug Tribe army. Furthermore, since the several Queen Mothers were creating more and more Bug Tribe armies, his original hive would be at full capacity soon.
The Ten Thousand Bug Maze in front of him was massive enough for the Queen Mothers under his control to use for a very long time.
Even if he obtained more Queen Mothers in the future, it should still be sufficient for their use.
Right as Lin Huang was at a loss, a tremor shook the hive, and a voice came from it.
"Senior, we're willing to surrender."
"Eh?" Lin Huang was rather surprised. He had not expected that the Bug Tribe would choose to compromise.
What he did not know was that after he had killed Nine Snake, the group of Queen Mothers in the hive had actually been discussing what to do next.
All of the top-ranking elite fighters in the entire hive had been killed in action.
The highest combat strength left in the hive was a lower-rank lord-level Queen Mother, a group of heavenly god-level Bug Queens, and around a dozen heavenly god-level Queen Mothers. The rest were old, weak, or infirm.
They knew very well that even if all of their remaining comrades were to go into battle, as far as this human male was concerned, he might very well be able to kill them all off with a single attack.
Resisting was futile. It would only increase their chances of dying.
What about escape?
They had already seen what had happened to Scarlet Fox and the rest. After observing and learning from the others' mistakes, they knew very well that running away would only hasten their deaths.
Therefore, after the discussion, the Bug Tribe finally made a decision—they would surrender!
This was because only surrender would guarantee them a chance of survival so their Tribe would be able to continue its legacy.
Lin Huang narrowed his eyes slightly and pondered for a long time after hearing the Bug Tribe's offer of surrender.
He definitely intended to accept their offer. After all, this would mean that he would be able to obtain a perfectly intact Ten Thousand Bug Maze.
He was now considering how he should deal with this group of Bug Tribe beasts after accepting their surrender.
A moment later, he finally nodded in agreement.
"Very well, I accept your surrender. Come into my Kingdom first, then."
The hive fell silent for a brief while, but it did not take them long to agree to this.
Lin Huang opened up his Kingdom, enfolding the dead bodies of the Raider team into it along with the Ten Thousand Bug Maze.
From any outsiders' point of view, Lin Huang had probably done this so he could have better control over the hive.
However, the truth was that he did not want Liu Fu to see what would happen next, even though he had no idea whether or not the man was still covertly watching his actions.
"Come out now, all Queen Mothers and Bug Queens rank-5 and above." Lin Huang's voice drifted above the hive after he saw that it had entered the Kingdom in his body. "I don't wish to see anyone left behind."
Not long after he spoke, the bug beasts began crawling out of the hive one by one.
Leading them was the lord-level Queen Mother.
Its upper body was almost the same as a human. Even to human aesthetic senses, it was definitely an enchantingly beautiful woman. However, although the faulds of its armor covered most of the area below its waist, its striped abdomen characteristic of the Bug Tribe was still visible.
There were a dozen over Queen Mothers who followed their leader out. All of them were in half-human, half-bug form.
This was not what they looked like in reality. Instead, knowing that Lin Huang was human, they had intentionally taken on this form.
There was also a group of fairly powerful rank-5 Bug Queens who came out of the hive together with the Queen Mothers.
These were the Queen Mothers' bug guardians. However, the highest combat strength in their midst was only a half-step Lord; most of them were only high-level Heavenly Gods.
In actual fact, the abilities of this group of bug guardians were already considered powerful in the great world. However, they were nothing compared to Lin Huang.
After that, the early intermediate-stage Heavenly God Bug Queens, as well as the Bug Queens and Queen Mothers that were not yet heavenly god-level, came out of the hive one by one as well.
Lin Huang was actually a little shocked to see how many of them there were.
There were over forty Supreme God rank-5 Queen Mothers alone. There was one lower-rank Lord and fourteen Heavenly Gods, while the remaining thirty-one were not yet heavenly god-level. The youngest of them all appeared to have been born very recently; it was only a first-rank True God.
There were even more rank-5 Bug Queens—over three hundred of them.
However, most of them had yet to achieve heavenly god-level. Apart from the Queen Mothers' group of bug guardians, the heavenly god-level Bug Queens had basically been killed on the battlefield earlier.
There were close to four hundred rank-5 bug beasts in total.
This was the number of the old, the weak, and the infirm that remained after the defeat just now.
Lin Huang could almost imagine how powerful this Bug Tribe had been before the battle earlier.
He felt rather glad that his unintentional action had resolved a massive threat to the great world.
Lin Huang observed the rank-5 bug beasts standing before him with their heads lowered. His eyes narrowed slightly, and his mouth twitched up in a faint smile.
He had already decided how he was going to subdue these bug beasts.
"If all of you wish to submit to me… then you should die once first…"
Hundreds of blood-red arcs shot out as the Bug Tribe beasts all displayed shocked expressions. The arcs pierced through the heads of all the Queen Mothers and Bug Queens present.
Lin Huang glanced at the hive, aware that all the other bug beasts in the hive were watching what was happening.
He casually gathered up the bug carcasses scattered all over the ground and put them away in his storage space. He then crushed the cards that Xiao Hei had just consolidated.
Close to four hundred Queen Mothers and Bug Queens suddenly reappeared, as if the group of newly slain Queen Mothers and Bug Queens had been resurrected.
Chapter 1689: Returning to the Human World
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After gaining control over the Queen Mothers and Bug Queens, Lin Huang let them all go. He had them lead him into the core of the hive, where he then assumed control over it and had Xiao Hei turn the core into a card.
If he had not subdued this group of Queen Mothers and Bug Queens, he might have needed to spend several months just to find the core.
However, to save Origin Energy, Lin Huang did not ask Xiao Hei to produce a simulation of the entire hive. Instead, he turned the hive's core into a card and assumed control of the core itself.
After all, as long as he controlled the core, it would be equivalent to controlling the entire hive.
When he had finished with these matters, Lin Huang had Xiao Hei transfer the contract relationships of all the Queen Mothers and Bug Queens to the hive's core, except for that of the lower-rank lord-level Queen Mother.
This way, they would no longer occupy his summoning quota.
Although Xiao Hei had entirely abolished the limit on Lin Huang's number of summoning cards, the more bug beasts he summoned, the greater the burden on Xiao Hei's functions.
Transferring the contract relationship to the hive meant less pressure on Xiao Hei.
Furthermore, at present, Lin Huang found it almost unnecessary to summon beasts below lord-level anymore.
The reason he had killed those Queen Mothers and Bug Queens, then turned them into Monster Cards, was only so he could assume total control of the entire hive.
After all, each Queen Mother and Bug Queen had a definite influence in the hive—they each had their own supporters. The more powerful their abilities and the higher their rank, the more influence they had in the hive.
If Lin Huang did not have complete authority over the hive and any of the Queen Mothers' combat strength elevated to lord-level, or any of the Bug Queens elevated to Pure Spirit, it would affect his control.
Therefore, he decided to turn all of them into Monster Cards to put an end to this risk once and for all.
Not only that, after transferring the contracts of multiple rank-5 bug beasts and the hive's core, Lin Huang had the Queen Mothers decree that all the other bug beasts in the hive must establish a new contract with the hive's core within the next few days.
This would ensure that he would have control of all the bug beasts in the entire hive. There would be no chances for betrayal at all.
After completing all these matters, Lin Huang put away his Kingdom and let the hive out.
Standing before the colossal hive, he considered for a while. In the end, he decided not to conquer the other hives once and for all.
According to the memories Shasha (the lower-rank Lord Queen Mother) had shared with him, apart from the Ten Thousand Bug Maze, there were still three super hives in the great world.
The Queen Mothers of two of these hives were Shasha's twin sisters. Both were half-step Lords.
The last hive had Queen Mothers that were peak heavenly god-level twins. They were Shasha's two daughters.
These three super hives all had lord-level bug guardians protecting them.
In scale, those hives were as massive as the Ten Thousand Bug Maze.
Lin Huang thought it over once more but still abandoned the idea of trying to capture Shasha's family in the end.
First of all, he had little interest in half-step lord-level Queen Mothers, much less the twins who were only heavenly god-level.
Naturally, if the twins elevated to become Lords, he did not mind making a trip to establish a contract with the two of them.
Secondly, Shasha had taken the initiative to surrender, so he had been able to swiftly establish a contract and assume control of the hive.
If the Queen Mothers of the three other hives refused to surrender regardless, then he would have no choice but to destroy them together with their hives at that point.
If he wished to keep the entire bug horde intact, he would need to spend a couple of months playing hide-and-seek with the Queen Mothers in the hive.
After settling the matter of the hive, Lin Huang summoned the Gate of All Realms and stepped directly through it.
This time, he did not return to the Ricky Star but to the human world.
He emerged right away in the Demon Eye Star Zone in the human world.
1
The Demon Eye Star Zone was so named because this super star zone made up of hundreds of star zones of various sizes had the biggest Abyssal rift in the human world.
From afar, the entire super star zone looked like a gigantic closed eye.
Furthermore, this dangerous area was also an exceptionally flourishing location, second only to the core zone of the human world.
Lin Huang was planning to establish a branch of the Sword Alliance in this region.
This was because land in the core zone was scarce and expensive, and practically every star zone was already occupied by major organizations.
Although he was powerful, he could not bring himself to occupy someone else's territory by force.
However, the Demon Eye Star Zone was different. Criminal elements and good people mingled; danger and opportunities coexisted. Practically every day, organizations were destroyed, and new organizations were built up.
The most flourishing star zone in the Demon Eye Star Zone was called Heaven Island.
In this star zone, the three most prosperous and bustling planets had been respectively established by three grade-7 organizations—Daluo Temple, Leiyin Temple, and Sanctuary.
1
On the surface, these planets appeared to be the territory of the three Saints. In reality, the seven sects had also established branches on these three planets.
In a flash, Lin Huang appeared on the Eastern Cruise Planet in Heaven Island.
This was Leiyin Temple's territory. Temples could be seen everywhere.
There were not just humans on this planet, but many other Tribe members as well. Lin Huang also sensed the aura of many Protoss.
This proved that humans were still very tolerant.
They did not display hatred or hostility toward other Tribes.
Lin Huang strolled around for a bit before he found a hotel where he could stay.
In the hotel room, he let Sword1 and the others out from his Kingdom.
"Lord Swordmaster, has the crisis been resolved?"
Sword1 asked as soon as he saw Lin Huang.
"Yes, it has." Lin Huang nodded while smiling.
However, Sword1 and the team still looked somewhat gloomy.
The Sword Servants knew very well that with their current abilities, they could not help their swordmaster. In fact, they were even beginning to slow him down.
Lin Huang could tell what his Sword Servants were thinking and patted Sword1's shoulder. "All of you have actually helped me a great deal. What's more, there are many matters later on that I'll need your help with."
Lin Huang then brought up the matter of establishing a branch of the Sword Alliance. After that, he held a discussion with the entire group of Sword Servants until nighttime, setting out the preliminary plans for the formation of another Sword Alliance.
For one, he wanted to found a Sword Alliance in the great world to complete Great Heaven's dying wish. For another, he wanted to set up a bigger territory so the people in the gravel world could better establish themselves.
Although the gravel world was currently in Lin Huang's Kingdom and resources were much more abundant than before, there was still a definite disparity when compared with the great world.
Lin Huang also hoped that more talented geniuses would emerge from the gravel world.
This was because as far as he was concerned, the more powerhouses produced in his Kingdom, the more powerful his Godly Right would become. Even if these powerhouses left his Kingdom, they would still essentially be his people. As they became more powerful, it would still result in a reciprocal effect for his Kingdom.
Lin Huang was anxious to train up more Lords from his Kingdom.
He had even considered using Combat Strength Upgrade Cards to elevate Sword1 and the rest directly to Lords. However, Xiao Hei had vetoed his suggestion at once.
Cards like the Combat Strength Upgrade Card and the Advance Card could only be used on Monster Cards.
After pondering for a moment, in the end, Lin Huang gave up on the idea of converting Sword1 and the rest into card monsters.
If he converted them into card monsters, their contract relationship with Lin Huang's Kingdom would be automatically be dissolved. In other words, even if he elevated them to Lords, it would not strengthen his Kingdom at all. Therefore, it would be useless to convert them into card monsters.
For another, Lin Huang certainly could not bring himself to kill Sword1 and the rest, even if doing so would merely translate them into another form of existence.
Chapter 1690: Three Goldfingers
After seeing his Sword Servants off, Lin Huang set up barriers in the hotel before he began making an inventory of the spoils he had obtained from his earlier battle.
First on the list were the nine bodies of the Raiders' investigators. There were three upper-rank Lords and six middle-rank Lords. Unfortunately, Cunning Rabbit was not among them.
It was not clear whether his identity as a spy had been exposed and he was afraid of retribution from the Club, or for some other reason, but Cunning Rabbit had not come to the great world with Nine Snake and the other investigators this time.
However, Lin Huang had committed his codename to memory.
If not for this spy, the Raiders might not have taken notice of Lin Huang for a very long time.
Now that the Raiders' team of nine investigators had been completely wiped out, the Raiders' headquarters in the universe would certainly have made note of Lin Huang's name, even if he was under Royal's protection.
Lin Huang had initially intended to stay under the radar as long as he could and try to develop himself further while trying his best to avoid being noticed by the Raiders.
After all, there were many powerhouses among the Raiders and no lack of terrifying entities above Lord-level.
Even though Lin Huang possessed the abilities of an ultimate-rank Lord, he was still afraid of this organization.
After removing the equipment and storage rings from the nine corpses, Lin Huang checked through the bodies carefully, then extracted the Kingdoms from all of them.
Only after doing all this did he begin to examine the Goldfingers he had managed to plunder.
Regretfully, out of the nine, only three possessed Goldfingers.
The reason was that only three of them were travelers.
Nine Snake, the most powerful of them all, was not a traveler. Instead, like Virtuoso's Primordium, he was a reincarnated being.
As for the rest, they were reincarnated beings and regenerated beings.
Even Silver, the upper-rank Lord, was a mechanoid.
Respectively, the three Goldfingers came from the short, burly, bald man, the white-robed Priest, and the plump man who was the most powerful damage dealer.
The short, burly, bald man's Goldfinger was a drop of golden liquid.
He had named it Pure Golden Blood.
As for its effects, it integrated blood from various sources, extracting the body's energy from within the blood itself to strengthen his physical body.
The more types of blood integrated, and the higher the rank and level, the more effectively the physical body could be strengthened.
For Lin Huang, this was actually quite useful.
Currently, his physical body was his weakest aspect.
Although he had refined Black Mountain's Goldfinger, the Tiny Golden Man, his current physical strength was only upper-rank lord-level.
After understanding the information on the Pure Golden Blood, Lin Huang did not take long to come up with how he subsequently wished to operate it and utilize it.
The second Goldfinger came from the white-robed Priest.
His Goldfinger was a golden particle of light which he had named the Holy Light.
The sense that the Goldfinger gave off to Lin Huang was one of nothingness.
He observed it with Divine Telekinesis for a while and realized that it was actually a photon.
He did not know what mysterious changes had occurred to transform it into a Goldfinger.
This Goldfinger's function was also very extreme.
The photon could convert all kinds of energy into the form of light, which would then give them the properties of light. This included Divine Power, Odyl, and even Abyssal energy… the Goldfinger could absorb and convert them all.
It could be considered a highly unconventional Goldfinger.
Lin Huang felt that this Goldfinger was an extremely simplified version of the Eternity Fire within him.
Practically all of this Goldfinger's functions could be fulfilled by the Eternity Fire.
As far as Lin Huang was concerned, it was of no use to him at all.
After setting the Holy Light aside, Lin Huang looked at the third Goldfinger—the one from the plump Lord.
This Goldfinger was a metal hammer the size of a human palm.
It was dark purple and covered with sigils.
Lin Huang casually picked it up and checked it out with his God's soul. He could not keep the hint of a smile from showing on his face.
"This is good stuff!"
Despite having plundered so many Goldfingers from the Raiders, this was the first time he had given an evaluation like this.
Although the Goldfinger was shaped like a hammer, it was not a weapon.
Its function was to generate random critical hits.
However, this Goldfinger was actually not very useful in the initial stages of utilization.
In the first stage, its effect could range from 0 to 10 times the damage.
The critical index might very well randomly appear as 0, 0.1, 0.01, 0.001… any of these were possible.
In other words, not only would the Goldfinger not generate a critical hit, but it would also weaken or even nullify the user's attack. It could weaken the strike to one-hundredth or one-thousandth of its regular damage or even reduce the damage to absolute zero.
Furthermore, the smaller the index, the higher the probability of this happening.
Therefore, at this stage, the Goldfinger was a massive resource sink.
When it got to the second stage, its effect would increase—it would now range from 1 to 20 times the damage.
At this stage, the Goldfinger would finally stop being such a massive resource sink.
The plump Lord had cultivated this Goldfinger to stage three.
Its current effect was 2 to 30 times the damage.
In other words, critical hits of at least two times the damage would be generated in each attack, with the maximum effect being thirty times the damage.
That was why the plump Lord's ability to deal damage was the most powerful among the six middle-rank Raider Lords.
Having this Goldfinger in his possession completely dispelled Lin Huang's initial disappointment at only being able to obtain three Goldfingers.
This Goldfinger had only boosted the plump Lord's close-range damage-dealing abilities by just a little.
However, with Lin Huang, it was an entirely different story.
Each of his hundreds upon millions of Divine Telekinesis flying daggers would be boosted with critical hits.
Hundreds upon millions of Divine Telekinesis flying daggers all attacking en masse—just the thought of it was terrifying.
Most importantly, this Goldfinger still possessed space for continued upgrades.
All he had to do was to refine more Goldfingers.
This also piqued Lin Huang's interest in hunting Raiders.
Setting the two other Goldfingers aside, Lin Huang immediately began refining the hammer-shaped Goldfinger.
With the Goldfinger's cooperation, he completed the refining process in less than ten minutes.
Lin Huang then turned his attention to the drop of Pure Golden Blood and rapidly refined this second Goldfinger as well.
As for the "Holy Light", he gave the matter some thought and ultimately decided to feed it to the "Critical Hit Hammer".
After all, this item was too extreme. If he gave it to Lin Xin, it might cause her cultivation path to deviate.
After the Critical Hit Hammer integrated with the "Holy Light", it immediately went into deep sleep mode.
Lin Huang had not anticipated this at all. If nothing else, the critical hit effect he wanted could not be achieved while the Critical Hit Hammer was in deep sleep. He had no choice but to wait for it to finish digesting.
He then checked on the status of the drop of Pure Golden Blood in his body and discovered that it did not clash with the Tiny Golden Man. Not only that, it was rapidly strengthening his physical body.
Not very long later, Lin Huang's initial ordinary upper-rank lord-level physical strength elevated all the way to peak upper-rank lord-level.
However, it stopped at upper-rank lord-level and refused to elevate any further.
Lin Huang raised his eyebrows lightly. This was entirely within the realm of his expectations.
After all, the short, burly, bald man's physical strength had only been peak upper-rank lord-level before receiving a complete boost.
Furthermore, Lin Huang had already decided on how to elevate his physical strength after this.