Chapter 1691: Dao-Level
Although Lin Huang had only obtained three Goldfingers, he was fairly satisfied with matters.
Once the Critical Hit Hammer had completed the digestion process and its function began formally taking effect, his abilities would gain another round of significant boosting.
This Goldfinger could be considered the perfect match for his Divine Telekinesis flying daggers.
With several hundred million flying daggers attacking en masse, even if there were only one chance in ten thousand for a thirtyfold critical damage hit, there would still be several dozen thousand flying daggers with the statistical probability of generating this thirtyfold critical hit effect.
Just this one Goldfinger alone made Lin Huang feel that this round of killing Raiders had been extremely profitable.
After putting away the nine corpses, he summoned the Gate of All Realms again.
He planned to begin a second round of harvesting so he could obtain another batch of True Spirits.
After stepping through the Gate of All Realms, Lin Huang emerged in the virtual realm once more.
As soon as he teleported over, he sensed intense battle fluctuations.
He probed with his Divine Telekinesis and discovered that, apart from Nine Snake and his eight team members, there were also over a dozen other figures present.
There were six auras that clearly belonged to the Abyssal Tribe. Out of these six auras, two were from upper-rank Lords, and four were from middle-rank Lords.
There were seven other auras—human, Protoss, and a member of the Dragon Tribe. One of the humans and the one member of the Dragon Tribe were upper-rank Lords, while the rest were all middle-rank Lords.
From the looks of things, Nine Snake and his team had disrupted the initial equilibrium after their arrival, and this had caused an uprising among the residents.
Lin Huang's Divine Telekinesis even noticed that there was a handful of remaining Bug Tribe beasts scattered across the battlefield; they were fleeing for their lives. Their numbers consisted solely of Heavenly Gods and True Gods. These were most likely the Bug Tribe fighters that had formed the Divine Magic Winged Bug Lin Huang had killed earlier.
Since Xiao Hei had captured the lord-level Bug Queens' True Spirits and turned them into card monsters, only these remaining Bug Tribe fighters had shown up in the virtual realm.
In their leaderless state, they could not even consolidate a bug formation.
Without a doubt, the True Spirits of these Heavenly Gods and True Gods were delicious delicacies to lord-level True Spirits.
As soon as the trillions of Bug Tribe fighters showed up, a group of Lords immediately devoured them.
When they had almost eaten all of the bug beasts, the Lords' True Spirits very quickly got into a free-for-all skirmish.
As a result, they had not noticed Lin Huang's arrival at all.
'I didn't expect there to be surprises still.' When Lin Huang saw what was happening, he felt happy all over again.
He had previously thought that there might be lord-level True Spirits remaining in this area since it had been the largest ancient battlefield for humans and the Abyss.
However, he had not expected such a startling number of them.
After ascertaining the number of True Spirits, Lin Huang did not bother continuing to watch them fight.
He shook his sleeves, and millions of God Weapon flying daggers shot out at lightning speed, enveloping the entire battlefield instantly.
In less than the time it took for a breath, True Spirits began to die one after the other, turning into Origin Energy spheres one by one.
Within ten seconds, the entire battlefield had fallen completely silent.
The twenty-two lord-level True Spirits that had just been fighting a fierce battle to the death were now all transformed into Origin Energy spheres of various colors.
As Lin Huang looked over these twenty-two Origin Energy spheres, the expression on his face was rather peculiar.
Of these twenty-two spheres, two had unusually powerful auras.
Although they were currently sealed, the faint auras that managed to seep out from the two Origin Energy spheres made Lin Huang's hair stand on end.
"What on earth is this?!"
Now that he possessed ultimate-rank Lord abilities, he could distinctly sense that the power of the energy contained within the two Origin Energy spheres most definitely exceeded lord-level!
Amid his confusion, the Soul-controlling Tablet suddenly spoke up.
"These two spheres ought to be Origin Energies that were converted from the True Spirits of regenerated beings."
"Is there anything special about the True Spirits of regenerated beings? Why is their Origin Energy so powerful?" Lin Huang was even more confused now and immediately pursued the matter further.
"You've come to the right person for answers, at least. One of the previous masters I served happened to be a regenerated being, so I'm familiar with such matters.
"A regenerated being's True Spirit is innately powerful. That's a prerequisite for becoming a regenerated being.
"After a regenerated being dies, their True Spirit retains its awareness of self when it returns to the virtual realm. This also allows them to advance faster than other True Spirits in the virtual realm, in terms of becoming more powerful. They're more acute at sensing the fluctuations of Dao seals and reincarnation gateways in the material realm.
"However, no matter how many times they're reborn or how powerful their abilities in any of their reincarnations, after they die, the True Spirits of regenerated beings possess only the abilities they attained in that particular life right before their deaths.
"After a regenerated being's True Spirit is destroyed, however, the resulting Origin Energy that they are converted into is the sum total of all the accumulated energies of every previous reincarnation of the host.
"There are two possibilities as to why these two Origin Energy spheres are so powerful they exceed lord-level.
"One—they've reincarnated multiple times, and their abilities in many of those lives were fairly powerful. Therefore, upon accumulation, their True Spirit's Origin Energy has exceeded lord-level in terms of power.
"The other possibility is that in one or more reincarnations, their combat strength exceeded lord-level, so their True Spirit's Origin Energy has now exceeded lord-level as well.
"Whichever reason it is, you've gained an incredible benefit.
"It's the equivalent of killing an upper-rank Lord and a middle-rank Lord, but obtaining two Origin Energies that exceed lord-level."
"You can tell who these two Origin Energies belong to?" Lin Huang asked in some surprise.
"That's not hard. After all, I'm an expert in God's soul." The Soul-controlling Tablet seemed to be purposely making an insinuation at the Brain of the Soul with this comment. It then continued, "The black one exuding dark red mist belongs to the middle-rank lord-level woman in the red robe. The purple one with its surface shrouded in faint red mist belongs to the upper-rank Lord named Scarlet Fox."
"Which one is Nine Snake's?" Lin Huang asked immediately.
He had no real reason to doubt the Soul-controlling Tablet's identification.
However, he initially thought that one of them ought to be Nine Snake's.
After all, Nine Snake possessed the most powerful abilities of the nine Raiders.
"The one with black mist shrouding its surface and a blood-red interior is Nine Snake's."
The Soul-controlling Tablet pointed it out without a pause.
Lin Huang looked at the Origin Energy sphere indicated. He did not think that this sphere was very much more powerful than the silver one.
As if it had noticed Lin Huang's doubts, the Soul-controlling Tablet continued.
"After a True Spirit dies, the Origin Energy's power isn't entirely connected to ability. It's mainly related to combat strength and God's soul's strength. As long as one's combat strength and God's soul are similarly powerful, the Origin Energy will be somewhere around that level as well.
"However, in the material realm, one's actual combat ability is tied to many external factors.
"It's like that upper-rank Lord named Nine Snake. His abilities are powerful mainly because he's a reincarnated being. He gained many benefits from the reincarnation dimension. Furthermore, he often battled different enemies in different worlds, which also allowed him to rapidly accumulate actual combat experience.
"In truth, his God's soul's strength and the number of Dao seals he mastered isn't that much higher than that of the other two upper-rank Lords."
"So that's what it is."
"At your current God's soul's strength, you'll be able to absorb these two minor dao-level Origin Energies, albeit with difficulty. However, my personal suggestion is that it's best if you absorb them only when you've elevated to peak ultimate-rank lord-level. After all, the chances of your God's soul's strength breaking through to lord-level and achieving minor dao-level within the immediate future are fairly low, but it's certainly possible for you to get to peak lord-level.
"Only absorb them when you've elevated to peak lord-level. For one, the burden on your God's soul during absorption will be far less taxing. For another, your absorption efficiency will also be much higher."
Lin Huang gave a slight nod, then asked curiously, "I've heard of dao-level before, but what's this minor dao-level that you've mentioned?"
"The level above lord-level is dao-level, which is divided into minor dao-level and major dao-level.
"Using three thousand Dao seals to establish your own Divine Dao is called minor dao-level. Using thirty-six levels of minor dao-level to consolidate Divine Dao twice—that's called major dao-level.
"That's why there's a saying in the universe that goes, "Three thousand minor dao, one hundred thousand major dao".
"Is there a level that's higher than dao-level?" Lin Huang's eyes lit up.
"There ought to be…" The Soul-controlling Tablet coughed twice in a slightly embarrassed manner.
"However, I've only heard about minor and major dao-levels. I've never seen powerhouses as strong as that before. As for anything higher, that would have to be a level that I previously couldn't reach."
"Alright, then…"
Lin Huang thought it was a pity, but he was still delighted.
This conversation with the Soul-controlling Tablet had not only allowed him to gain a great deal of new knowledge, but it had also given him even bigger hopes for the future.
Ultimate-level Lord was far from the limit.
The universe was certainly considerably more vast than that!
Chapter 1692: It's Time
In the virtual realm cabin, Lin Huang went into closed-door cultivation again.
This time, his main objective was to refine the Kingdoms of Nine Snake and the other Raiders.
In the cabin, days went by.
Lin Huang completely lost all concept of time as he immersed himself fully in the refining process.
It was unclear how much time had passed when he finally managed to refine all nine Kingdoms completely.
On average, the short, burly, bald man and the other five middle-rank Lords had contributed approximately 80 Dao seals, which had given Lin Huang an increase of 483 Dao seals. His Dao tattoos had also shot up to over two million in number.
Nine Snake and the other two upper-rank Lords had added 2,728 Dao seals to Lin Huang's existing total, and his Dao tattoos had increased to over twelve million in number.
This brought the total number of Dao seals in Lin Huang's Kingdom to 4,618 and significantly increased his Dao tattoos to over 33 million.
It could be said that this had exceeded the limits for an upper-rank Lord.
However, this was merely the limit of the power that he was able to use within his Kingdom.
In reality, outside his Kingdom, his ability was still restricted by the strength of his God's soul.
Apart from being able to invoke the three million levels of Dao tattoo power from his three Dao seals, at most, he could only borrow the Dao seal power of the 1,000 Dao seals in his Kingdom to give himself a further boost of 1.8 million levels of Dao seal power.
As long as he did not encounter a top-notch ultimate-rank Lord, he could fight anyone at all.
However, if he descended into his Kingdom, the total number of Dao seals currently within it was enough to defeat all ultimate-rank Lords.
This round of ability boosting was something entirely within the realm of Lin Huang's expectations.
After refining the Kingdoms of the nine Raiders, he did not proceed with the absorption of the twenty-two Origin Energies.
Aside from the two minor dao-level Origin Energies, he fed the remaining twenty spheres to Xiao Hei.
This was because Xiao Hei needed Origin Energy to create various cards.
Lin Huang needed Xiao Hei's help to create a lot of Advance Cards and Combat Strength Upgrade Cards so he could elevate the imperial monsters under his control to a level where they could be useful.
Furthermore, to Lin Huang at present, lord-level inheritances were not of very much use to him, even if there were Sword Dao cultivators and Lords with cultivation paths that specialized in God's soul. For those that were truly useful to Lin Huang, Xiao Hei could also use a small amount of Origin Energy to create Inheritance Cards, so there was no need for Lin Huang to absorb all of the Origin Energies.
As for the two minor dao-level Origin Energies, Lin Huang decided to keep them for the time being.
He would use them when he was finally able to do so.
He was not in a hurry to elevate his ability at present anyway. The twenty Origin Energies that Xiao Hei had absorbed were sufficient to elevate all of his imperial monsters to Pure Spirit rank-6 Lords.
As soon as he returned from the virtual realm to the Demon Eye Star Zone, Lin Huang summoned Yang Ling and passed him the storage rings from Nine Snake and the other Raiders.
Yang Ling immediately sensed the anomaly when he received the dozen or more storage rings. With some curiosity, he scrutinized them.
"This batch of storage rings isn't from our great world, right?" Yang Ling asked off-handedly as he carefully checked the rings.
"They're from the universe." Lin Huang nodded with a smile.
Yang Ling paused what he was doing when he heard that, and raised his head to look at Lin Huang. "Raiders?"
"That's right." The smile on Lin Huang's face did not change.
"You handled all of them?" Yang Ling pursued the matter further.
"Not a single one was left." Lin Huang nodded again.
"Didn't they send any upper-rank Lords?" Yang Ling was rather puzzled.
Theoretically speaking, since a middle-rank Lord had been killed, there had to be upper-rank Lords among the investigators sent by the Raiders' headquarters. Yang Ling felt that Lin Huang's abilities were likely not enough to handle the investigators that the Raiders sent this time.
"Yes, three came. One of them had abilities that weren't bad at all," Lin Huang commented with a smile.
"You killed all three upper-rank Lords?!" Yang Ling looked utterly shocked.
"I happened to achieve a small breakthrough before they arrived. I can only say that they were unlucky."
Yang Ling was rendered speechless. After quite a while, he could not help asking, "What exactly is your level of ability now anyway?"
In reality, he had been wanting to ask this question for a long time and finally could no longer resist the urge.
"It's almost the equivalent of an ultimate-rank Lord." Lin Huang silently added, 'If I don't go into my Kingdom.'
"Your elevation speed in terms of ability is just too frightening for words," Yang Ling exclaimed involuntarily.
He could be considered someone who had witnessed Lin Huang's development as it progressed. When Yang Ling first met him, Lin Huang was only at bronze-level. He had seen Lin Huang's combat strength elevate significantly along the way until lord-level, encountering practically no bottlenecks at all.
All this time, Yang Ling had even suspected that Lin Huang's Goldfinger had a connection to the elevation of his combat strength.
After passing the storage rings to Yang Ling, Lin Huang wanted to let Lin Xin and the others out from his Kingdom.
After all, for the time being, the threat from the Raiders was resolved, and he felt much more at ease about their safety.
Moreover, under the Sword Servants' covert protection, nothing would happen as long as they did not offend any half-step Lords or Lords.
However, Lin Xin rejected his suggestion when he brought it up.
Her reason was very simple. She wanted to become more powerful and did not want to be a burden.
Lin Xuan, Xiao Mo, Chan Dou, and the rest also declined to return to the great world.
Lin Huang had previously been worried that they would be bored staying in his Kingdom, so he had selected a hive and duplicated it for them so they could kill time through combat training.
It turned out they had become rather addicted to killing monsters in the duplicate hive.
They could train their combat skills and elevate their combat strength as well—there was no need to waste time moving to another place.
The reactions of Lin Xin and the others actually surprised Lin Huang a little.
He guessed that most likely, the move back into his Kingdom this time had caused them some pressure as well.
Naturally, they felt that they ought to become stronger.
Even if they could not fight enemies of the same level as Lin Huang, at the very least, they would not hold him back, nor would they give him trouble.
Lin Huang had to admire this sort of attitude, however.
It was a good thing for one to have a desire to improve.
In truth, he had been concerned that Lin Xin and Lin Xuan might become too sheltered and over-protected under his aegis. However, for a time after that, he had also felt that as long as he was a sufficiently powerful guardian, it would not matter if his siblings were sheltered. Allowing them to have a stable life was by no means a bad thing.
However, from the looks of things, Lin Xin, Lin Xuan, and the others had never lost their enterprising spirit.
All along, they had hoped to be able to share the burden with Lin Huang. It was just that their abilities were not yet up to par.
Seeing that Lin Xin and the rest had made up their minds, Lin Huang chose to respect their decision.
He merely informed them that they could return to the great world any time they wished.
Lin Huang was smiling as he withdrew his consciousness from his Kingdom. The decision that Lin Xin and the others had made gave him a great deal of comfort.
After only a moment of letting his mind wander, Lin Huang soon communicated through his consciousness with the contract within him. He then spoke to his imperial monsters through voice transmission.
"All of you can stop gathering resources for now. Return to the Demon Eye Star Zone in the human world as soon as possible."
The smile on Lin Huang's face grew increasingly brighter after he sent the message. "It's time to build my lord-level rank-6 imperial monster army…"
Chapter 1693: The Return Of The Imperial Monsters
Within less than a day of Lin Huang sending the message, the imperial monsters returned one by one.
This included not just Tyrant, Thunder, and the others who were waiting for advancement and elevation—even Bai, Grimace, and those who had already elevated to the level of Pure Spirit Lords came back as well.
Naturally, what surprised Lin Huang the most was Bloody's return.
The group of imperial monsters gathered in the meeting room of the hotel.
Lin Huang smiled at Bloody, who was clad in a red dress, and commented, "I honestly didn't expect you to be able to come this time."
"Didn't you say there would be a surprise when I elevated to ninth-rank heavenly god-level? I wanted to see just what sort of surprise this is." Bloody's smile was bright and blossoming like a flower.
Lin Huang felt she was distinctly more feminine now compared to before.
"Don't worry. My surprise this time definitely won't disappoint all of you," Lin Huang answered, smiling.
To maintain the mystique of the surprise, he even intentionally asked Bai and the others, who had elevated to lord-level, to disguise their combat strength to ninth-rank heavenly god-level.
"Since you've elevated, that means Kylie has as well, right?"
Kylie was the only one absent from the gathering of imperial monsters this time.
Lin Huang could understand this. Given her current identity and position, it was indeed quite difficult for her to leave the Nephilic Judge Tribe.
"She elevated a day earlier than I did," Bloody said, grinning. "She wanted to come too. However, she's the Queen of the Nephilic Judge Tribe now, so she has to have a half-step Lord covertly guarding her wherever she goes. Since this gathering is our private meeting, after all, it would be extremely inconvenient to have an outsider along."
"It seems we'll have to visit the Nephilic Judge Star Zone when we have the time."
If he let Kylie cultivate on her own, it would definitely be extremely difficult for her to break through to lord-level within the immediate future. It might take a few years or even a few dozen years. After all, some Heavenly Gods would only dare to attempt a further breakthrough after staying at ninth-rank heavenly god-level for tens of thousands of years, or even several hundred thousand years.
Lin Huang felt that he might break through to dao-level in a few years.
At that point, it would be quite meaningless for Kylie and the rest to elevate to Lords.
His purpose for elevating his imperial monsters' ranks and combat strength this round was so they could catch up with him and take some of the burden off his shoulders.
His imperial monsters were also very willing to take on these burdens.
"Why did all of you come back this time?" Lin Huang looked at Bai and the others who had completed their advancement and combat strength elevation.
"I suggested it," Bai answered bluntly.
"To join in the fun." There was no emotion in Lancelot's voice at all.
"I just felt it's been a long time since we all gathered together. We've nothing to do anyway. I thought we may as well come back to visit our old partners and meet some new friends while we're at it," Grimace said, casting a surreptitious glance at Silver Armor, Nine Gloom, and the several Bug Queens led by Queen Mother Shasha, all of whom were sitting in a corner.
At his current level of ability, he could easily sense that the group of Bug Tribe beasts were all lord-level powerhouses.
The truth was, Grimace was not the only one—Bai, Charcoal, and the rest of their group had also noticed that the new additions were already lord-level.
Meanwhile, the newcomers such as Shasha and the others were rather curious about Lin Huang's several existing Queen Mothers and Bug Queens.
Lin Huang took the entire group of imperial monsters for a meal. After that, he opened the door to the Kingdom and had them all go in.
This time, their teleport destination was right in front of the Great Heaven Palace.
Lin Huang grandly led the group of imperial monsters into the Great Heaven Palace.
He then used Advance Cards and Combat Strength Upgrade Cards on them one by one.
In the palace, cocoons of various colors and sizes rapidly began forming.
Bai and the rest watched this familiar scene in silence; they did not interrupt at all.
It was not until all of the imperial monsters had completely transformed into cocoons that Bai could not help asking a question.
"There's a middle-rank Lord in that group of bug beasts?"
"Yes, there is. Its name is Xia Ke, a rank-5.5 middle-rank lord-level Bug Queen." Lin Huang nodded, smiling.
Bai and the rest fell silent immediately. Clearly, they felt the force of the pressure emanating from this newcomer.
"It's innately well predisposed, but it doesn't mean that it will always be more powerful than all of you." Lin Huang patted Bai's shoulder. "On the path of cultivation, the person you must compete with is yourself. There's no need to compare yourself with others."
Bai hesitated for a moment before speaking again.
"Actually, meeting up with everyone isn't our main purpose for coming back this time…"
"What's your main reason, then?" Lin Huang asked with a smile. He knew Bai's character and Grimace's even better. He was aware that they would not specially come back just to meet up for a gathering.
"We want to become more powerful!" Seeing that Bai did not continue his sentence, Grimace took the initiative and finished it off for him.
"We don't want to immediately become powerful with the help of the cards. We want to fight in actual combat to strengthen ourselves for real," Bai added.
"I don't mind becoming more powerful right away with the help of the cards," Grimace protested innocence immediately. "It'd be best to elevate me to ultimate-rank Lord instantly; I'd become powerful without even having to lift a finger."
"You wish." Lin Huang raised his eyebrows.
Xiao Hei had the ability to do this, but it would drain far too much Origin Energy.
Lin Huang felt that elevating his imperial monsters' abilities was something that could be done when necessary. However, under the current circumstances, there was no need to do so.
Grimace's abilities were fully sufficient for now. Elevating his combat strength again would be a complete waste of resources. Moreover, if they depended on Xiao Hei to elevate their combat strength every time, in the future, his imperial monsters might not be willing to work hard on cultivation.
If not for the fact that Lin Huang felt his imperial monsters' abilities were too far behind his own, he would not have had Xiao Hei do a collective elevation for them this time.
Naturally, Lin Huang knew that Grimace was only half-serious when he said this.
"A way to elevate your abilities quickly…" Lin Huang thought quietly for a moment. In reality, he had already been thinking about this matter. However, before this, he had not been sure if he wanted to carry out his plan. However, now that Bai and the rest had requested it, he felt he could satisfy their needs.
"Let's go outside and talk about this." Lin Huang accelerated the time flow in the Great Heaven Palace to be 10,000 times faster than the outside world, then led Bai and the rest back to the Demon Eye Star Zone.
Once he had returned to the hotel room, Lin Huang summoned Mr. Gate (the Gate of All Realms) immediately.
"Behind this door is a place called the virtual realm. You can enter using a virtual body, take part in battles, and obtain Origin Energy. However, only three people can enter per day. Furthermore, once you die, you can't enter for 24 hours…"
Actually, Lin Huang had initially thought about sharing the virtual realm with his imperial monsters.
After all, at their current level of ability, Bai and the others could hardly find any opponents in the great world.
By letting them into the virtual realm to hunt on their own, they could elevate their actual combat ability, for one. For another, they could also obtain Origin Energy.
Moreover, the virtual realm was within the boundaries of the great world, and most of the Lords were lower-rank and middle-rank. For Bai and the rest, they were actually the most ideal combat opponents.
However, Mr. Gate was currently limited to the creation of three virtual bodies a day.
In other words, only three imperial monsters could enter every day.
They would have to take turns.
Furthermore, as soon as Lin Huang entered to go into closed-door cultivation, it would occupy a slot as well.
However, to upgrade Mr. Gate any further, he had to refine other Goldfingers.
For the time being, there was no way to solve the entrance limit.
Chapter 1694: Entering The Virtual Realm For The First Time
"Is this the virtual realm? It doesn't look that different from the material realm." Charcoal, who had shrunk himself in size, perched on Bai's shoulder and looked around.
"Are you color blind, Little Charcoal?" Grimace had a snide smile on his face. "Can't you tell that the world is black and white?"
"You're the one who's color blind!" Charcoal retorted instantly.
"Then tell me, what's the color of my sock?" Grimace pulled up his right pant leg and revealed a sock with alternating yellow and red stripes.
Charcoal merely scoffed, "I don't want to answer your childish question."
"Stop wasting time. Let's quickly locate a target and finish the hunt as soon as possible," Bai interrupted the conversation between the two at once.
Grimace finally curbed his tongue. His Odyl rapidly began forming a star map in front of him.
Before they had come here, Lin Huang had shown the three of them the star map and gotten Grimace to record it.
"This is the Demon Eye Star Zone where we are right now…" Grimace circled a region on the star map that was similar to a closed eye. "This is the biggest Abyssal rift in the human world.
"Based on what master has said, he's already cleared this star zone cluster.
"If we want to hunt Voids, we'll have to leave the Demon Eye Star Zone cluster far behind and go to the other surrounding star zones. There might not be any suitable prey within close range."
"What are you trying to say?" Bai asked bluntly.
"We actually have a hidden choice…" Grimace's lips curled up in a slow grin. "We can go deep into the Abyss and hunt there!
"Although master didn't mention it, I'm pretty sure he didn't go deep into the Abyssal rift."
Bai fell silent for a moment.
Charcoal, on the other hand, agreed with the suggestion immediately, "I think that works. Instead of wasting time going to other star zones looking for targets, we might as well go straight to the Abyss. We might be able to kill over ten Voids in the Abyss in the time we spend looking for a Void in other star zones."
Bai hesitated for a moment but ultimately agreed in the end.
"We can go to the Abyss, but first, let's get this straight. The two of you must behave when we go in."
"That's fine by me," Grimace agreed right away and looked at Charcoal.
"Why are you looking at me? I always listen to Bai Bai." Charcoal's expression was that of an angelic little child.
After ascertaining their target, the three of them quickly made their way to the Abyssal rift.
As soon as they entered the Abyss, they distinctly sensed a malicious intent approaching.
"We seem to have been targeted by someone through Divine Telekinesis," Charcoal commented to Bai and Grimace. This advance notice was also for the other two to give instructions for what to do next.
"That proves we've found the right place." Grimace not only displayed no signs of panic, but he was also thrilled.
"Don't get reckless. This is the Abyss, after all." Bai was much more cautious.
Theoretically speaking, True Gods and Heavenly Gods would also enter the virtual realm after they died. However, if there were lord-level Voids in the surrounding star zones, they would end up being food.
This was also why most of the Voids Lin Huang had seen were lord-level.
Based on the information Lin Huang had provided, it was not hard to determine that most of the Voids in the Abyss ought to be primarily lord-level.
The reason was that there were many Lords inherent in the Abyss. Over the years, there must have been a considerable number of them who had died there.
A Lord occupied one single region, and each region ranged in size from several star zones to dozens of star zones. The Heavenly Gods and True Gods basically had very little space to live.
"The Divine Telekinesis strength is normal; it shouldn't be hard to handle." Grimace swiftly evaluated the opponent. After all, he was also a powerhouse who specialized in God's soul. He could roughly gauge the strength of an individual's Divine Telekinesis strength by mere contact. "Maybe I should try first?"
"We'll let you have the first target then, and we'll take turns after that. The three of us can fight one each in turn. If we run into something we can't handle alone, then we'll fight it together." Bai nodded slightly.
Grimace had no objections to this. He took a step forward and vanished on the spot.
When he reappeared, he was already hundreds upon thousands of lightyears away.
Grimace frowned imperceptibly as he studied the deformed monster, which looked like a skinned human with its entire body shrouded in black mist.
"What a truly hideous creature."
The skinned, deformed monster seemed to understand what Grimace had said. It was clearly quite enraged. With a shriek, it pounced at Grimace in a flash.
Immediately, golden sigils appeared in Grimace's eyes. An instant later, the skinned, deformed monster's body suddenly froze where it was and did not move at all.
It had obviously been hit by Grimace's illusion.
Within a mere moment, the skinned, deformed monster's life force swiftly weakened. Eventually, its life force faded away completely, and it turned into a grayish-black Origin Energy sphere.
From beginning to end, Grimace had remained where he was.
He was the only one who knew what exactly had transpired in the illusion.
"Is this Origin Energy?" Grimace flung out his hand and grabbed the grayish-black Origin Energy sphere.
He could clearly sense that this human fist-sized sphere contained terrifying energy and a massive amount of information.
He hesitated for a second. Instead of absorbing it right away, he returned to Bai and Charcoal in a flash with the Origin Energy sphere in his grasp.
"So fast?!" Charcoal exclaimed involuntarily.
"The target was more or less what I had anticipated. It was only a lower-rank Lord with five Dao seals and mediocre abilities. It wasn't proficient in God's soul technique either, so it got hit by my illusion right away," Grimace gave a brief account of the battle earlier, "The one thing we need to beware of is not to be contaminated by Abyssal energy."
"Is this Origin Energy, then?" Bai gave a sidelong glance at the Origin Energy sphere in Grimace's hand.
"It should be." Grimace nodded. In actual fact, they had never seen what an Origin Energy sphere looked like. They only had a rough idea from Lin Huang's description.
"The energy it contains is truly very terrifying." Bai nodded slightly. "This thing will definitely elevate our combat strength very quickly. I wonder if there are any restrictions on its use?"
"It doesn't just contain energy; there's a great deal of information stored within it," Grimace corrected him from where he was standing to one side.
"Are those redundant memories or inheritance information?" Bai asked again.
"I think it might be both."
"Try refining it," Bai urged.
"I think that even if there's inheritance information in there, it won't be of very much use to me. I'm too different from that guy." Grimace shook his head. "I thought I'd keep it first and swap with both of you when you come across anything that's more compatible with my personality."
"I think that's a great idea," Charcoal expressed immediate agreement, "That way, we can obtain the inheritances we really want to a much greater extent, instead of obtaining a lot of inheritances that aren't useful to us."
"I think that's a feasible idea too." Bai nodded as well. "My suggestion is that we can first refine those that we think are most suitable for us and leave the rest. Not only can we trade among the three of us, but there's also Lancelot and the others after this. Later, there'll be the group that's currently undergoing advancement in the Demon Star Zone—we can exchange with all of them as well. When more people are involved, it'll be easier for us to obtain the inheritances we want most."
Bai only turned his head to look at Charcoal after watching Grimace put away the Origin Energy sphere. "You can take the next target."
"No problem." Charcoal immediately got excited and got into combat-ready mode almost at once.
Chapter 1695: Xia Ke Breaks Out Of Its Cocoon
In the material realm, Bai and the others stood where they were, momentarily dazed, before regaining their senses.
Although Lin Huang had told them beforehand that the flow of time in the virtual realm was quite abnormal, he could still see that Lancelot and Teng Ran's expressions were thoroughly confused.
However, the more puzzled one was Lin Huang.
"Didn't the three of you find any monsters to target?"
Lin Huang asked this because he sensed that the auras of all three did not seem to have changed much in terms of strength.
"We found quite a few. It's just that we didn't absorb the Origin Energy." After saying this, Bai brought up their idea of the three of them exchanging Origin Energy spheres.
After listening to what they had to say, Lin Huang approved as well, "I think that's actually even better. Using it to its full potential will allow for higher overall utilization of the Origin Energy.
"I have another idea. If there are any Origin Energy inheritances that aren't suitable for you, pass them to me. I'll feed them to Xiao Hei directly."
Bai and the rest had no objections to that.
After all, Xiao Hei could only create higher grade Advance Cards if it had stored sufficient Origin Energy.
They had now elevated to Pure Spirit rank-6, but they did not think that rank-6 was the ultimate end.
"After going in for a while, how do you feel?" Lin Huang asked with a smile.
"The virtual realm is truly an amazing place—there are many battles we can take part in!" Charcoal was the first to give an assessment as if the virtual realm were an instance dungeon in a game.
"There are a lot of powerhouses there. It also made me realize that lord-level is just a stop on the cultivation path, not the ultimate destination," Bai sighed ruefully.
Grimace, on the other hand, was all smiles. "It's an awesome hunting ground!"
"How long did you stay there?" Lin Huang inquired further into the matter since this was something he really could not gauge at all.
This was because even if they stayed in the virtual realm for hundreds upon thousands of years, only a moment would have passed in the outside world.
"We only stayed for less than five months, and we encountered a middle-rank Lord with around thirty Dao seals. We joined forces and almost defeated it. Unfortunately, that Death Fiend suddenly generated a burst of power and destroyed our virtual bodies…" Charcoal had barely finished speaking before Bai and Grimace's expressions turned somewhat grim.
"Death Fiend? You went to the Abyss?" Lin Huang frowned slightly.
"Not Death Fiend, Charcoal made a slip of the tongue. It was a Four-winged Fiend," Grimace corrected hastily.
"A Four-winged Fiend was able to cultivate to lord-level?" Lin Huang raised his eyebrows and looked at Grimace. "Or was it a middle-rank Lord?"
"We went to the Abyss," Bai admitted frankly.
"I forbade all of you from going to the Abyss because there are a great many powerhouses there. Furthermore, the Abyss is gradually entering its waking season, and it's an extremely dangerous period. Even though I currently possess the ability to kill ultimate-rank Lords, I still wouldn't dare go to the Abyss during this season whenever I liked. I've prohibited you from going because I'm worried that you might die there.
"However, the situation in the virtual realm's Abyss ought to be slightly better. At the very least, there won't be as many monsters. Not only that, since all of you entered using virtual bodies, even if you died, your consciousness would directly return to the material realm.
"Therefore, I won't prohibit all of you from going into the virtual realm's Abyss. However, keep in mind that as soon as you die, your hunt in the virtual realm will come to an end. You'll just have to wait for your turn again.
"You can see right now that only the five of you have completed advancement and elevation to lord-level. However, half an hour later, Tyrant and the rest will advance to Pure Spirit rank-6, and their combat strength will elevate to lord-level as well. You'll have to wait for at least ten days or so before it's your turn again.
"So my suggestion is to stay for as long as you can once you enter the virtual realm. As for whether or not you want to go into the Abyss, that's entirely up to you.
"I genuinely forgot about that group. I thought it would be Lancelot and the rest's turn tomorrow, and then it would be our turn again the day after tomorrow." Grimace covered his face with one hand.
"I told you not to provoke that Death Fiend, but you refused to listen…" Charcoal looked upset. "We could have just bypassed him and hunted more Voids."
"That guy's ability was only so-so. We would definitely have won if it hadn't generated that burst of power in the end!" Grimace was still somewhat dissatisfied. "It better not get killed by the other teams in the interim. We'll go back the next round and finish him off !"
"We're doing it again next round?!" Charcoal was clearly somewhat reluctant.
"Challenging powerhouses is also a way to cultivate." Surprisingly, Bai also approved of the idea.
"You'll just have to think it through carefully since whatever choice you make, you'll have to bear the consequences." Lin Huang did not offer any suggestions.
"The two of you can go for the second round tomorrow. You can choose another teammate from the imperial monsters that have elevated this round." Lin Huang looked at Lancelot and Teng Ran.
There were only two of them, one less than the required team of three.
Lancelot barely hesitated at all. "I choose Bloody."
Teng Ran, standing off to one side, had no objections.
He knew that as a veteran, Lancelot had a much better in-depth understanding of the others.
"That's a great choice." Lin Huang nodded, smiling.
Lancelot's choice this time was indeed very wise. Of all the imperial monsters under Lin Huang, Bloody was the one with the highest intelligence, perhaps even more so than Grimace.
It could even be said that her overall planning skills and other abilities had far surpassed Grimace.
With her as a teammate, they practically did not need to think at all. All they had to do was follow her.
Furthermore, Lancelot was a powerful striker, so he was not in need of a teammate with those sorts of abilities.
Therefore, Bloody was an excellent choice.
"You can try inviting Bloody. However, it's up to her whether she's willing to join you all or not," Lin Huang said with a smile, "If she disagrees, you'll just have to look for another teammate."
"I want to be in a team with Bloody too…" Charcoal muttered from where he was off to one side.
"Little Charcoal, you have me and Bai—isn't that enough?" Grimace turned his head and asked in all seriousness.
"Um…" For a moment, Charcoal did not know how to answer this question.
"Let me see the results of your hunting." After sorting out the second round of team members who would enter the virtual realm, Lin Huang turned to look at Bai and the other two.
The three of them immediately took out the Origin Energy they had stored in his Kingdom.
There were a total of twenty-seven Origin Energy spheres. Twenty-five of them were from lower-rank Lords, and two were from middle-rank Lords.
Lin Huang was satisfied with these results. The number of targets was fairly acceptable.
After all, the God's souls of all three had just broken through to lord-level very recently. Their Divine Telekinesis coverage was limited, so their efficiency in searching for Voids was much lower than his.
He gave the twenty-seven Origin Energy spheres a cursory examination. From the sense of the auras, most of the inheritances ought to be useful to the imperial monsters.
The group of them had not chatted for very long in the Demon Star Zone before Lin Huang sensed imperial monsters were breaking out of their cocoons one after the other.
As Lin Huang had anticipated, the first one to emerge from its cocoon was the Bug Queen Xia Ke.
It had previously already been at Pseudo Pure Spirit rank-5.5. In addition, its innate combat strength was middle-rank lord-level, and it did not use a Combat Strength Upgrade Card. Its elevation time, therefore, was the shortest of them all.
However, right as Xia Ke broke out of its cocoon, it suddenly sent Lin Huang a message through telepathic voice transmission.
Lin Huang could not help frowning when he saw the message it had sent.
Chapter 1696: Bug Horde's Will
There was only a single sentence in the telepathic voice transmission that Xia Ke sent.
"I sensed the prying of the bug horde's will during my elevation."
Lin Huang fell into a moment of silence after hearing that.
He teleported Xia Ke from the Great Heaven Palace to where he was.
Xia Ke, in the black bug shell, was clearly one-fold larger now. There were no changes in its combat strength. It was still a middle-rank Lord, but its aura was clearly more powerful than before.
"You said that you sensed the prying of the bug horde's will. What does that mean exactly?" Lin Huang ignored the fact that Bai and the rest were next to him and asked directly.
Xia Ke organized its thoughts before speaking, "The bug horde's will is our Bug Tribe's supreme will. Its authority is even higher than the Queen Mother's will. All Bug Tribe creatures are unable to disobey it."
"I sensed the prying of the bug horde's will, but maybe He was just glancing casually. However, as soon as He notices me, there's no way I will be able to disobey any orders that He gives me. That's the thing that I'm most worried about."
"Have you never sensed the bug horde's will prying or watching you in the past?" Lin Huang continued to ask.
"No." Xia Ke shook its head, "Only rank-5 Bug Tribe Queen Mothers are blessed by the bug horde's will once they are born."
"Then how did you know that it was the bug horde's will?" Lin Huang was rather confused.
"Because the will was extremely majestic. It gave me the feeling that I couldn't disobey it at all. It far surpassed the bloodline pressure coming from the Queen Mother that gave birth to me. Although it was just a glance, it gave me the feeling that it could tear the contract between master and I easily."
Xiao Hei suddenly spoke as well once Xia Ke was done speaking.
"I sensed that too. That unknown will was unusually powerful."
"Is it really possible for it to break our contract?" Lin Huang asked instantly.
"It's highly possible. After all, my ability is restricted by your combat strength. The strength of the contract I established for you is only enough to constrain dao-level powerhouses."
"This is a powerhouse above dao-level. It's entirely possible that it could tear apart someone else's contract."
Lin Huang squinted slightly and only spoke up after a moment of thought.
"If it's not an accident that you sensed the bug horde's will when you elevated to Pure Spirit rank-6, it proves that there's a high chance of Queen Mothers being noticed by the bug horde's when they elevate to Pure Spirit rank-6. Can I interpret things this way?"
Xia Ke nodded without hesitation. "The chances of Queen Mothers being noticed when they elevate would definitely be higher."
"You're from the Bug Tribe. What do you think the bug horde's will do as soon as it finds out about the Queen Mothers' elevation?"
Xia Ke fell into a moment of silence. It gave an answer soon after. "I've no idea what He exactly would do but, if He really noticed the elevation of the Queen Mothers, He definitely won't allow anyone to bind them with a contract."
"So, will He destroy the contract?" Lin Huang raised his eyebrows.
"Not only will He destroy the contract, but He will also send His wrath to punish the contractor." Xia Ke corrected him.
"What's the punishment?"
"I don't know, but it won't be as simple as destroying the contract." Xia Ke was sure.
Lin Huang nodded lightly and he looked at Bai and the rest.
They were listening as they stood aside. They heard the conversation between Lin Huang and Xia Ke loud and clear.
"Do you have any decent suggestions to address this situation?"
"My suggestion is simple. Just kill all the imperial monsters that might potentially be a hidden threat. Wouldn't it be the same if you used the extra resources on others?" Grimace was the first to speak while smiling. "Moreover, the slots to get into the virtual realm are limited. We won't have to wait as long in the queue if a batch of imperial monsters are gone."
What he said clearly crossed the line a little bit.
Even Charcoal who was standing next to him took a few steps to distance himself.
"You…"
Xia Ke was so mad that it temporarily could not speak up.
If not for the fact that Lin Huang was here, it wanted to hit Grimace directly.
"I think we can monitor the situation first. If there's really an issue, you can seal the imperial monsters back to their card forms and then come up with a solution later." Bai thought about it and gave his suggestion as well.
"I agree with Bai." Charcoal flapped its wings instantly and leapt onto Lin Huang's shoulder.
Its size had shrunk intentionally at this moment. It was approximately the size of a magpie currently.
Lancelot and Teng Ran did not voice their opinions at all. They merely listened as they stood to the side.
"I'm worried that it'll be too late if we wait for the issue to present itself. I think it's better to nip the problem in the bud immediately." Grimace persistently advocated his perspective.
Lin Huang glanced at Lancelot and Teng Ran. The two of them still did not seem like they were going to voice their opinions on the matter.
He turned his head to look at Xia Ke. "What do you think?"
"I'm not sure whether it was an accident that I attracted the attention of the bug horde's will, therefore, I don't know what exactly will happen when the Queen Mothers complete their elevation. However, I don't think you should decide to kill us just like that."
"I hope that you'll monitor the situation first, master. If something is wrong with the contract, seal us. I've no objections to that. You can figure out a solution to handle us when that happens."
Naturally, Xia Ke agreed with Bai's suggestion.
It could not think of a better way to go about things.
"Let's do it according to Bai's suggestion." Lin Huang made the final decision.
Xiao Hei's voice suddenly chimed in after Lin Huang had made up his mind.
"The bug horde's will showed itself again. He didn't try to destroy the contract. He retreated after leaving an imprint on Shasha."
Lin Huang could sense that Queen Mother Shasha had completed the elevation.
He immersed his consciousness into the Kingdom in his body and teleported Shasha before him directly.
Shasha, who had just completed the elevation, was stunned momentarily. It only snapped back to its senses when it saw Lin Huang and Xia Ke.
"Greetings, Master."
"Shasha, do you feel anything amiss after completing the elevation?" Lin Huang asked directly.
"The bug horde's will showed itself. He watched me for a moment and left a blessing imprint on me." An imprint was revealed on Shasha's waist as it spoke.
It was a complicated black sigil. It looked similar to a tattoo.
Lin Huang stared at it for a while, but could not make heads or tails of it.
"Do you know the exact effect of this imprint?" Lin Huang asked further.
Shasha did not lie. That was a good thing at least.
"It's just a blessing imprint. It's similar to the blessing that we were given when we were born, but more powerful," Shasha explained. "This imprint provides us longevity, a more powerful body and improves our chances of producing high-grade offspring… Those are the effects of the blessing."
Shasha looked like it was telling the truth, but Lin Huang did not trust it entirely.
"Is it possible that the bug horde's will can influence the Queen Mother's thoughts directly?" Lin Huang asked Xiao Hei secretly.
"The possibility is low, but we can't rule it out completely. After all, we don't know what kind of techniques and abilities the beings above Lord-level possess."
"As such, we can only observe if the remaining few Queen Mothers encounter similar things when they complete their elevation and make our judgment based on what they say." Lin Huang felt rather troubled.
He did not expect to have such a situation arising out of nowhere. He had initially been waiting happily for his lord-level imperial monster army to emerge from their cocoons.
Chapter 1697: The Imperial Monsters' Competition
As the Great Heaven Palace accelerated time by 10,000 times, the imperial monsters soon broke out of their cocoons one by one.
Lin Huang teleported them over as the few Queen Mothers completed their elevations one after the other.
After questioning them, he found out that they had encountered the same thing as Shasha did.
The bug horde's will left a blessing imprint on their bodies too.
Lin Huang did a detailed comparison by scanning them with Divine Telekinesis. The sigils of the imprints were completely different. Each imprint looked similar, but there were subtle differences.
The Queen Mothers had the same understanding as Shasha regarding the imprints. They thought it was a blessing imprint.
On the surface, Lin Huang could not see any problems in these Queen Mothers.
He checked them thoroughly with Divine Telekinesis again, but failed to find anything out of the ordinary.
Given that Xiao Hei did not sense any issues with the contracts, Lin Huang eventually decided to put the few Queen Mothers onto his watchlist for the time being.
He did not seal them into their card forms.
Instead, he got Xiao Hei to watch these Queen Mothers' cards' conditions at all times. As soon as it noticed anything off, it would seal them instantly.
To Lin Huang, no matter what the bug horde's will did, as long as nothing happened to the contract, these Queen Mothers would still be under his control.
Moreover, Xiao Hei would seal them as soon as any situation occurred. It would only take a second.
After settling the unforeseen circumstance that arose from the elevations of the few Queen Mothers, Lin Huang questioned and investigated the few Bug Queens, excluding Xia Ke for safety purposes.
In the end, the investigation result was that, apart from Xia Ke, all of the other Bug Queens did not sense the prying of the bug horde's will.
They did not have a blessing imprint left on their bodies, nor did they experience anything unusual.
Lin Huang guessed that it was perhaps because Xia Ke was the first to elevate, thus gaining the attention of the bug horde's will. Clearly, a Pure Spirit rank-6 still did not deserve the bug horde's will's attention.
Not only that, he could tell that as beasts of the same rank, which was rank-6, a Queen Mother's status was much higher than that of the Bug Queens.
Lin Huang thought about it carefully. He could understand why the Queen Mothers' status was higher.
Queen Mothers had a certain chance of breeding offspring that were a rank higher than they were.
Theoretically, a rank-6 Queen Mother might give birth to a rank-7 offspring. Although the chances were extremely low, it was not impossible.
Moreover, even in the universe, a rank-7 being could definitely be considered as somewhat heaven-defying.
After handling the Bug Tribe's emergency, all of the imperial monsters in the Great Heaven Palace had broken out of their cocoons and completed their advancement and elevation.
Lin Huang's lord-level rank-6 imperial monster army had finally been established.
He began to check the Monster Cards one after the other.
"Monster Card: Bloody"
"Rarity: Pure Spirit"
"Monster Name: Wise Goddess"
"Type of Monster: Super Wisdom-type"
"Nickname: The Wise One of the Era"
"Combat Level: Lower-rank Lord (level-1 Dao seal)"
"Major: Intelligence"
"Major Skills: Perfect Parasitism, Total Control, Heart of Knowledge, Inheritance Duplication…"
"Minor Skills: Memory Administration, Immortal Tinder, Consciousness Transfer…"
"Summon Authority: Activated"
"Card Remarks: Please spare no efforts in cultivating this!"
…
"Monster Card: Tyrant"
"Rarity: Pure Spirit"
"Monster Name: Genie Combat Saint"
"Type of Monster: Celestial Giant Tribe"
"Nickname: Combat Saint"
"Combat Level: Lower-rank Lord (level-1 Dao seal)"
"Major: Combat God Dao, Martial Dao, Combat Cultivation"
"Major Skills: Combat Saint Technique, Galactic Power, Combat God Ax…"
"Minor Skills: Immortal Being of the Galaxy…"
"Summon Authority: Activated"
"Card Remarks: Please spare no efforts in cultivating this!"
…
Bloody, Tyrant, Thunder, Bloody Robe, Fiend, Imp, Witch, Death Knight, Fallen Knight, Warlord, Herculean King, Bing Wang, Eclipse Boa, Dark Crescent Snake, Killer, Evil Dominator, Abyssal Fountain (Symbiotic Creature of the Abyssal Fountain), Nine Gloom (Silver-armored Nine Gloom) as well as Shasha, Xia Ke and the bunch of Bug Tribe beasts…
Lin Huang looked at the cards one by one.
None of the Mythical-level rank-4 and Supreme God rank-5 Monster Cards from before were left behind. All of them had been elevated to Pure Spirit rank-6. Not only that, apart from Kylie, all of the remaining members had been elevated to lord-level.
Naturally, Lin Huang only got Xiao Hei to consolidate a Dao seal for them.
The imperial monsters would have to do the rest on their own.
After all, consolidating a Dao seal would drain a great deal of Xiao Hei's Origin Energy.
Moreover, Lin Huang had helped his imperial monsters to cross the most difficult hurdle. He did not want his imperial monsters to slack off and get lazy.
The imperial monsters guessed what Lin Huang had in mind. After all, they would have to gather materials to elevate each time before. If not for the fact that they were slowing him down too much, he would not be in such a rush to skip the step of getting them to gather materials.
Lin Huang glanced through the many imperial monsters present. He was planning to give them some pressure.
"Since everyone is here today, I'd like to be frank about something.
"The resources that I provided to elevate everyone to lord-level is almost the limit I can bear at my current level."
"You guys will have to depend on yourselves for the next combat strength elevation."
"Also, the resources required for your elevation to the next rank, which is rank-7, will be tens or even hundreds of times more than the amount used this time. I'm not sure if I can gather enough resources to elevate all you guys by then when we get to that stage."
"I'll be honest now. If the resources are insufficient at that point, then I'll most probably prioritize elevating those who have a higher level of combat strength."
"Also, I'm aware that your combat strength has just received a boost at this moment, and that you're quite proud of yourself, but I'll let you in on a secret—Lord-level is far from the end."
"Above the lord-level, there is the minor dao-level, major dao-level and levels that are even higher than those."
"I'm not sure how far I can go, but I hope that you guys can work hard enough to keep up with me."
…
They thought that they were invincible since they had just been elevated to Lords, but instantly felt pressure by Lin Huang's words.
When they looked around again and realized they all had the same combat strength and that they were on the same starting line, the pressure they felt became even greater.
Although they knew what their master said was to add a sense of pressure on purpose, they understood that they definitely required even more resources to elevate to rank-7. If their master really had insufficient resources at that point, then he could only choose to elevate a portion of his imperial monsters.
If their performance was not as outstanding as the other imperial monsters, they might stay at rank-6 forever.
To the imperial monsters who had just felt how powerful Pure Spirit rank-6 was, that was definitely something that was hard to accept.
Moreover, there were more levels above lord-level. To most of the imperial monsters present, it was like a bombshell had been dropped on them. They had not been aware of this previously, and a sense of ambition was slowly growing within them…
Lin Huang was secretly relieved seeing the imperial monsters beginning to develop a competitive mentality.
'As I thought, only competition can boost their will to fight!'
Chapter 1698: The Application of the Pure Golden Blood
"You guys don't have to worry too much about obtaining resources."
Lin Huang looked at them and calmly told them about the virtual realm.
"From now on, I'll send three of you into the virtual realm each day to hunt Voids and obtain Origin Energy. You can absorb the Origin Energy you obtain if you deem it suitable for you. If it's not suited to you, you can swap it with others."
"As there'll be three in a group each time, you guys can come up with your own teams. Also, I've given the slots today to Bai, Charcoal and Grimace. The second team that will go tomorrow will be Lancelot's team."
"Therefore, after all the teams have entered once, you guys will follow the current order in the future to enter for the second, third cycles…"
"If one of the team members of the team that's supposed to go in has an emergency or cannot make it, you guys can discuss with the other teams to propose a change in the order of entry. Of course, the member who had something come up must communicate with the other two members to reach an agreement beforehand."
"Also, I'll inform all of you in advance if I need to use the virtual realm. The team that is supposed to go in will have to delay their turn to the next day."
"You guys can ask Bai, Charcoal and Grimace regarding the exact situation regarding the virtual realm."
"You guys can discuss the swapping of Origin Energy too."
"Lastly, I want to tell you something that might upset you guys a little. I'll be taking 30% of the Origin Energy you guys obtain in the virtual world." Lin Huang mentioned the distribution ratio after explaining the rules roughly. "I'll tell you the reasons why I'm taking a portion."
"Firstly, you guys are actually taking up my hunting slots to enter the virtual realm. If I didn't give you the slots, I could go into the virtual realm three times a day. Not only that, my hunting efficiency is much higher than yours."
"Secondly, Xiao Hei requires a huge amount of Origin Energy to make all sorts of cards, which includes the accumulated energy required to create the higher level Advance Cards later on. Most of my share of the Origin Energy will eventually be used on you guys."
"My personal suggestion to you guys would be that, after you've obtained Origin Energy from the hunt, you should consider prioritizing keeping the Origin Energy that suits you and the Origin Energy that's suitable for swapping. Let me handle the Origin Energy that's not suitable for trading."
Indeed, Lin Huang suggested taking a share from them because, after giving these slots to enter the virtual realm to the imperial monsters, it would mean that Xiao Hei would lose its source of Origin Energy replenishment.
After taking that into consideration, Lin Huang had been repeatedly thinking about a solution and eventually decided to "exploit" the portion of the deficit from his imperial monsters.
Most of the imperial monsters were quite dumbstruck when they heard about the arrangement in the beginning.
It was not that they were unwilling. It was just that they did not understand why Lin Huang would suddenly come up with such an arrangement.
However, they thought it made perfect sense after hearing his explanation.
"I have a tiny request before you all start teaming up." Lin Huang's lips curled into a smirk. "I need all of you here to provide me with a drop of your blood essence."
Lin Huang did not elaborate on this matter any further.
Although they did not understand why exactly Lin Huang wanted their blood essence all of a sudden, none of them objected. They went forward one by one to provide their blood essence.
Bloody did not ask when she saw that Lin Huang was unwilling to tell them the reason. She went forward as well to give her blood essence.
Lin Huang only spoke again after gathering all of the imperial monsters' blood essence, "Alright. That's all I have to say. All of you can pick your teams now. Report your teams to Bloody when you're done."
"Regarding the order of teams going into the virtual realm, let's follow the sequential numbering of the teams. Bai's team will be No. 1, and Lancelot's will be No. 2. Whichever team that reports to Bloody first will be No. 3. That'll be the order."
Lin Huang came up with such an arrangement with the goal of preventing them from wasting too much time picking their teams.
Although it did not actually make much difference by nature if it was done a few days earlier or later, everyone would have been occupied with thoughts of fighting for the first place. They were unwilling to be placed further behind in the sequence.
Within five minutes, all of them had come up with their teams.
Bloody had also given the sorted list to Lin Huang.
He listed down the sequence and dates and made the information public to indicate his fairness.
All of the teams jotted down the dates their team would be going into the virtual realm instantly.
"You guys can stay in the Demon Eye Star Zone for the time being. You can do whatever you want as long as you make it back in time to enter the virtual realm officially."
Lin Huang gave them their freedom after he was done speaking.
The imperial monsters surrounded Bai, Charcoal and Grimace immediately and began to ask about the virtual realm.
Lin Huang flashed and returned to the Great Heaven Palace.
The first thing he did when he returned to the Great Heaven Palace was to adjust the time flow. He then sat with his legs crossed and dripped the blood essence onto the Goldfinger Pure Golden Blood one by one.
The function of the Pure Golden Blood was to absorb different varieties of creatures' blood and extract their energy to strengthen the host's physical body.
The more types of blood that were integrated, and the higher the rank and combat strength of the creatures, the better the effect of strengthening his physical body.
The quantity of blood did not really matter, as the Pure Golden Blood only needed a drop of blood to extract its primary substance. After doing that, it could duplicate the substance on its own.
Lin Huang had already thought about how he would use it as soon as he obtained the Goldfinger earlier.
After all, he had many imperial monsters under him. Although Bai and the rest only had lower-rank lord-level combat strength, their current rank was Pure Spirit rank-6.
The nutrients in their blood essence might have surpassed many ultimate-rank Lords.
As Lin Huang expected, after the Pure Golden Blood absorbed the first drop of blood essence, his physical strength began to undergo a new round of strengthening.
The level of his peak upper-rank Lord's physical body began to loosen.
After absorbing the third drop of blood essence, Lin Huang's physical strength finally broke through again, stepping into the realm of ultimate-rank Lord.
As the Pure Golden Blood continued absorbing the blood essences, Lin Huang's physical strength skyrocketed.
In the end, after absorbing all of the blood essences, his physical strength grew to peak ultimate-rank lord-level, just shy of the upper limit.
Initially, physical strength had been his biggest shortcoming. However, his physical strength had now surpassed the strength of his God's soul.
In reality, this result was not really what Lin Huang had expected.
He initially thought that, even if he absorbed all of the blood essences, the physical strength boost coming from the Pure Golden Blood would be limited. After all, Bai and the rest only had the combat strength of lower-rank Lords. He had previously estimated that it would be good enough if his physical strength could break through to ultimate-rank Lord. He did not anticipate that he would break through all the way to peak ultimate-rank Lord at all.
"This round of strengthening is pretty great." Lin Huang was very satisfied with the overall results that far exceeded his expectations.
The truth had proved that the Goldfinger Pure Golden Blood's effect was much more powerful than he initially thought.
Under the accelerated time flow in the Great Heaven Palace, merely a moment had passed before Lin Huang returned to the Demon Eye Star Zone.
The imperial monsters were still surrounding Bai's team to ask about all sorts of information regarding the virtual realm.
Lin Huang was the only one who knew that he had become much more powerful after that fleeting moment in time.
As the disparity between the imperial monsters' abilities and his were too vast, they did not sense any changes from him at all.
Chapter 1699: Upgraded to Rank-S
Over the next few days, one after the other, the imperial monsters entered the virtual realm everyday to hunt for Void beasts.
Bloody joined Lancelot and Teng Ran's team on the second day. After the hunt ended, she created a clone to return to the Nephilic Judge Star Zone.
Given her current identity and status, although Kylie was definitely safe with the Nephilic Judge Tribe, Bloody was still a little worried about leaving her alone with them for long periods of time.
Bai, Grimace and a small number of imperial monsters left the Demon Eye Star Zone after getting out of the virtual realm.
However, most imperial monsters chose to stay.
Lin Huang would obtain a 30% share of the Origin Energy collected by the imperial monsters' daily. Although it was not much, it was better than nothing at all.
He did not remain idle over the past few days either.
He received the Nine Snake team's storage rings that had been unsealed from Yang Ling.
The items in there had far surpassed Lin Huang's expectations.
Among them, Nine Snake's collection was the most shocking.
As a reincarnated being, Nine Snake could not refine Goldfingers.
However, there were three Goldfingers in his storage ring.
Clearly he had obtained these after killing travellers, and had not had the opportunity to trade them.
Lin Huang checked the three Goldfingers. Almost all of them were of the lowest grade and had mediocre functions.
He placed them into the Gate of All Realms to refine them.
After spending a few days refining them, the number of virtual bodies the Gate of All Realms could create increased to six.
Lin Huang increased the daily allocations for the imperial beasts to enter the virtual realm from one team to two.
Apart from three Goldfingers, Nine Snake's storage ring contained all sorts of reincarnated beings' tools and medicines.
Even Lin Huang coveted some of these tools and medicines.
However, these were exclusively for reincarnated beings. Others could not use them at all.
Not only that, some of the tools and medicines could only be used in the reincarnation dimension.
Lin Huang could not get into the reincarnation dimension, and therefore could not use them.
He could only post them on Royal's auction to sell them.
He did not have to worry about people bidding on them by mistake since he included a remark stating that these items were exclusively for reincarnated beings.
There were many powerhouses in Royal, which meant that there were definitely entities such as travellers and reincarnated beings.
In reality and in the universe, reincarnated beings, travellers and regenerated beings were not a secret to powerhouses at the lord-level and above.
Though Lin Huang could not use the reincarnated beings' tools and medicines, there were other more valuable items in Nine Snake's storage ring.
There were tens of Dao Weapons alone.
Moreover, most of them were expert-grade Dao Weapons. There were even two supreme-grade Dao Weapons.
To Lin Huang who possessed God Weapons, these were valuable items that could be traded.
The person who had the second most valuable collection was the upper-rank Lord, Scarlet Fox.
Scarlet Fox was a regenerated being, which was probably why he knew some of the ancient secret zones and ruins that outsiders were unaware of.
There were hundreds of Dao Weapons in his collection.
However, these were mostly intermediate-grade Dao Weapons, amounting to a total of about 60 intermediate-grade Dao Weapons.
There were over 20 low-grade and expert-grade Dao Weapons.
There was one supreme-grade Dao Weapon.
Apart from Dao Weapons, there were other luxury items such as precious stones in his storage ring as well.
These were not just accessories. Most of them were engraved with complicated sigils and could boost one's capabilities to an extent similar to that of Dao Weapons.
Lin Huang was not too sure whether they were gifts he received or if they were items he planned to give away as gifts.
There were hundreds of these luxury items. He speculated that the price of each luxury item was on par with some of the Dao Weapons.
The one who had the third most valuable collection was not the upper-rank Lord, Silver, but rather the middle-rank Lord, the mummy-like man.
He was a regenerated being too.
The number of Dao Weapons in his storage ring was only second to Scarlet Fox. There were over 80 Dao Weapons.
However, most of them were intermediate-grade Dao Weapons. There were only five expert-grade Dao Weapons.
Lin Huang also received a surprise gift from his storage ring.
There were over a hundred bottles with a variety of lord-level beings' blood essence.
Lin Huang immediately thought of feeding the Pure Golden Blood again.
There were no surprises to Lin Huang on what the remaining Raiders had in their storage rings. The value of their contents was similar to what he had anticipated.
The one that disappointed him the most was Silver's storage ring.
As an upper-rank Lord, apart from a Goldfinger, there was almost nothing that Lin Huang could use in his storage ring.
He thought there would be mechanoids who would be interested in those items if he auctioned them on Royal's auction.
The Goldfinger, on the other hand, was of the lowest grade. Lin Huang gave it to the Gate of All Realms to absorb without much hesitation. After that, the Gate of All Realms could create seven virtual bodies daily.
After briefly sorting out spoils, Lin Huang posted the items that could be sold on Royal's auction.
He evaluated the valuable ones and decided that they could only be traded with upper-rank Lords' and ultimate-rank Lords' God Territories.
Those that were not valuable could be traded with middle-rank Lords' and upper-rank Lords' God Territories.
Naturally, he did not forget to include the remark—There was no limit to the type of God Territories. Bug Tribe and Abyssal ones were also acceptable.
As he was not in a hurry, Lin Huang set the auction duration to last a month.
The next morning, after doing an inventory of the spoils and posting more of them on the auction, his Royal Token suddenly vibrated.
He thought something had gone wrong with his trades, so he took out his identity token immediately.
However, a call request popped up directly as he spread his Divine Telekinesis over it.
Lin Huang looked at the name. It was Liu Fu.
He was stunned for a second, before he clicked the answer button shortly after.
The next moment, Liu Fu's image projection appeared not far from Lin Huang.
"Congratulations, Brother Lin Huang!"
Liu Fu congratulated him with a smile on his face as soon as his image was projected.
"From today on, just like me, you're a Royal Rank-S member."
In reality, when Lin Huang saw Liu Fu's name on the call request, he had already guessed that he would be calling about this. Nevertheless, he was still slightly surprised.
"Is the Royal Rank-S evaluation that easy?"
It had only been less than three days. Not only that, nobody came looking for him for assessments of any sorts.
After all, as a job seeker on Earth in the past, you would have to go through at least one round of interview after sending in your resume before being selected. The company would only get them to start working after meeting the job seeker and deeming the person suitable for the job.
However, there was not even an "interviewer" from Royal for the Rank-S evaluation this time. Lin Huang thought that the process was a little too easy.
"Was it easy? Royal's headquarters receives tens of hundreds of applications to upgrade the members to Rank-S almost every year. There might not be even one person who passes the application over tens of years." Liu Fu looked at Lin Huang with a smile.
"The passing rate is so low?" That fact indeed surprised Lin Huang.
"What do you think?" Liu Fu continued, "Your application passed so quickly because I recorded the entire battle between you and Nine Snake's team. Your ability, talent and potential were shown completely. After the superiors saw it, they passed your evaluation unanimously. Nobody voted against you."
"Aren't they worried that the video might be fake? Shouldn't they at least send someone to verify the applicant's ability?" Lin Huang raised his doubts anyway.
"Firstly, I recorded that battle video as a Supervisor. I used tools exclusive to Supervisors to record the video. The video was saved immediately, and was recorded into Royal's network database directly. The video can't be edited."
"Secondly, I saw the entire battle with my own eyes. The superiors asked about you as well. I'm a Rank-S member, so I have a certain amount of credibility in Royal. I wouldn't lie for the sake of a newbie. Moreover, some of these entities would be able to tell if I'm lying at glance."
"To put it simply, your brute force proved your qualifications. You even surpassed the average Rank-S member's standard. Therefore, it was easy for your application to be approved."
Liu Fu explained in detail.
"What's the difference between a Rank-S and Rank-A member?" Lin Huang stopped dwelling on the difficulty of being upgraded and asked about something else instead.
"The difference is quite significant. Rank-S members are considered to be Royal's core members. There's a great upgrade in your authority, as well as all sorts of rights."
"Rank-S members can apply for resource subsidies annually. There are also the convoy quotas. Convoys will enjoy Rank-A member's treatments in Royal. The number of affiliate organizations under you increases too. The authority relative to that has been upgraded as well. Also, you won't have to pay any handling fees to participate in Royal's auction…" Liu Fu said a bunch of things. "I won't go into the specifics. You can check the details and description yourself."
"To put it simply, Rank-S members are Royal's biological sons, while members below Rank-S could only be considered their illegitimate children."
Chapter 1700: Kylie's Decision
After hanging up on Liu Fu, Lin Huang checked his current account authorization status instantly.
"Member: Lin Huang"
"Gender: Male"
"Authorization level: Rank-S"
"Qualification Assessment: Grade-S+"
"Combat Strength: Lower-rank Lord-level"
"Affiliate Organizations: Dynasty (Two-Star), Misery (Two-Star)"
"Remarks: He killed Raider's peak upper-rank lord-level powerhouse Nine Snake with his lower-rank lord-level combat strength."
…
As expected, his personal information page was altered to Rank-S, and there was an update on his related information as well.
He looked at the exact contents of the Rank-S authorization status in detail. He found out that it was indeed as Liu Fu said, Rank-S members were almost considered to be Royal's biological sons.
Firstly, Rank-S members could conduct trades of all kinds in Royal without having to pay the handling fees.
This authorization perk was not only useful in Royal, but was also applicable to all of Royal's affiliate organizations. As long as it was registered under Royal, he would not have to pay their handling fees.
To Lin Huang, this was the perfect time to use his new Rank-S authorization status.
He could seize the opportunity to list a bunch of items on the auction. The Rank-S authorization would save him the handling fees.
Not to mention, the money-saving authorization perk was only considered an insignificant benefit among the many authorization perks included in the upgrade.
Among all of them, Lin Huang thought that the most practical perk was the one that gave him complete access to all trial zones.
He could not help but compare it to the description of his previous authorization status.
"Rank-A Authorized Member: Access to any grade-0 to grade-3 trial zones, 30 grade-4 trial zones, ten grade-5 trial zones and ten great world trial zones."
"Rank-S Authorized Member: Unlimited access to any trial zones (a small number of forbidden areas are excluded from this clause)."
One must know that the trial zones were either ruins or secret zones. In reality, it was equivalent to one instanced dungeon.
It would mean that Lin Huang had countless instanced dungeons available for him to grind. The resources he could obtain would not be limited to the great world he was currently in.
Even the authorization status for the members of his affiliated organizations received a qualitative upgrade.
"Rank-A Authorized Member: Access to any grade-0 trial zones, 80 grade-1 trial zones, 20 grade-2 trial zones, ten grade-3 trial zones, three grade-4 trial zones, one grade-5 trial zone and one great world trial zone."
"Rank-S Authorized Member: Unlimited access to trial zones of any grades, any great world trial zones and most public trial zones in the universe."
Theoretically, the treatment Royal provided was enough for their Rank-S members to train and cultivate a batch of lord-level subordinates.
Lin Huang thought for a moment and registered the Sword Alliance as an affiliate organization under him.
Considering that Sword1 and the rest were at the heavenly god-level, he registered the Sword Alliance as a grade-4 organization.
After passing the Royal headquarters' assessment, he could send anyone and everyone from the Sword Alliance into the trial zones' instanced dungeons that best suited their levels.
Lin Huang glanced through the remaining authorization perks. Very soon, he saw one that he was interested in—the convoy authorization.
Rank-S members could set up their own convoys.
The total quota of such convoys was ten. As soon as the setup process was completed, all his convoys would possess Royal's Rank-A membership identity. They would enjoy all of the Rank-A member authorization perks that Royal provided.
Rank-S members could add, change or remove a convoy as they wished, as long as the quota requirement was met.
Seeing this authorization perk, Lin Huang thought of Bloody and Kylie first.
The both of them would possess Royal's Rank-A membership identity if he assigned them a convoy quota. He could totally grow the Nephilic Judge Tribe as an organization under him.
He only dwelled on this thought for a second before telling his idea and the information regarding Royal to Bloody and Kylie via telepathic voice transmission.
Later on, he proceeded to examine the remaining authorization perks.
"Resource subsidies…" Lin Huang soon noticed an authorization perk that had not existed prior to this.
"Rank-S members can apply for an annual resource subsidy once per year. They can choose a subsidy with a value equivalent to a supreme-grade Dao Weapon…"
"The subsidy authorization perk can be accumulated and stored without being claimed over the course of many years. The value of the subsidy would stack cumulatively…"
"This means if someone sets it aside and doesn't claim it for tens of thousands of years, they can apply to claim a subsidy that's equivalent to tens of thousands of supreme-grade Dao Weapons?!" Lin Huang widened his eyes.
One had to say that Royal was generous indeed.
A Rank-S member's annual benefit was comparable to a supreme-grade Dao Weapon.
To his surprise, this benefit could even be accumulated.
However, when he thought about it carefully, Lin Huang figured that such a reward would be inconsequential to other Rank-S members.
The reason being that, as Liu Fu had said, most Rank-S members in Royal were at the dao-level.
There were only a few members who were below the dao-level.
A supreme-grade Dao Weapon would look pretty valuable from the perspective of a lower-rank Lord.
However, to dao-level powerhouses, supreme-grade Dao Weapons would not interest them at all.
When he thought up to this point, Lin Huang instantly understood the reason why Royal set up a subsidy system that could accumulate over time.
To Lin Huang, the accumulation would not mean much either.
It had only been a few years since he started cultivating. Tens of thousands of years aside, he even had no idea what level he would be at after cultivating a hundred years from now.
Naturally, he would choose to claim it every year.
Apart from resource subsidies, there was another reward that made Lin Huang happy.
The reward he would receive from being upgraded to Rank-S was a dao-level item.
Just when Lin Huang was thinking about what kind of dao-level item he should pick as his upgrade reward, Kylie and Bloody seemed to have arrived at a conclusion from their discussion and replied to his telepathic voice transmission.
"We've decided to accept the convoy quotas."
Kylie sent a couple of voice transmissions consecutively.
"I only came to this decision after much thinking. At first, my concern was that I couldn't decide things for the Nephilic Judge Tribe as I wished. The reason being that they might not be willing to become dependent on Royal. However, what Bloody said makes sense. I'm also one of the Nephilic Judges. I can try my best to change the Nephilic Judge Tribe's fate.
"This is the only Nephilic Judge Tribe left in this great world. There are only a mere hundreds of individuals left, and their fertility rate is extremely low. Although it's a top grade-6 organization that looks majestic from the outside, in reality, they're barely scraping by among all the other organizations that are their equals".
"Perhaps getting them some backing is the best choice to change the entire tribe's fate. Although it sounds demoralizing to depend on Royal and become an affiliate organization, this great world is Royal's territory after all. All grade-7 organizations are protected by Royal. It doesn't make much difference for us to become an affiliate organization."
"Moreover, the abundant resources Royal provides could get the Nephilic Judge Tribe out of their current predicament…"
Lin Huang thought about it and replied to Kylie via voice transmission.
"Do you want to make the Nephilic Judge Tribe an organization under you when you receive the convoy status? You guys can decide that yourselves. If you're certain that you want to do that, I'll give you and Bloody full authority regarding management in the future. I won't intervene."