Chapter 151: Three Levels Of The Transcendents
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After the Virtual Eye closed, life for Daxi City citizens slowly returned to normal.
In the past few days, most of the monsters had been killed by Zhu Nian. Not even iron-level monsters were able to survive.
Lin Huang was lazy to go out so he had been training his sword skill every day in the hotel room.
There has been some discussion about this incident on the Heart Network and people now knew about Zhu Nian because of this incident.
Also, many of them had asked about the meaning of holy fire-level, immortal-level and the commander-level and chief-level monsters.
An anonymous user gave a detailed explanation about these combat abilities on the network. Lin Huang then realized the true extent of the combat ability of the Ghastly Clown that he had sealed earlier after reading through the post.
A transcendent was actually a general term used for the three levels ranked below demigod-level beings to indicate that one was beyond the levels of an ordinary human.
These three levels were the holy fire-level, immortal-level, and imperial-level respectively. The levels of the transcendent monster corresponding to these were commander-level, chief-level, and king-level.
Holy fire-level can be achieved when one's Life Power reached a certain level. One could then obtain tinder from killing commander-level monsters. Then, by igniting their Life Power, one could condense it into Life Fire.
When this happens, as long as their Life Fire did not go out, there would be a constant supply of Life Power to their body. Due to the changes in their Life Power, their lifespan would be increased five times beyond the limits of the lifespan of an ordinary person, up to 1800 years.
The condensation of Life Fire was actually a dangerous process.
If the body was unable to withstand the Life Fire during the transformation, their Life Power would be burnt by the Life Fire and they would either lose all their combat abilities or be burned to death.
The death rate of the advancement process was extremely high. 80% of people attempting to advance would die during this process and for the remaining 20%, half of them would lose their combat abilities and be turned into an ordinary person. Less than 10% would succeed in their advancement.
Upon upgrading to holy fire-level, the Life Fire had five colors which ranged from white, red, blue, purple, and gold.
Based on the colors of their Life Fire, the holy fire-level can be divided into five levels.
Zhu Nian was a rank-5 transcendent. That was why Lin Huang felt that his aura was stronger than all the other transcendents he had met.
Above the holy fire-level was immortal-level.
On this level, one would have to kill a chief-level monster and extract the monster's soul. Its soul would then be used as fuel that when condensed, would create a Life Lamp.
Only nine lamps could be made at most. Each of the Life Lamps represented 360 years of life. Adding nine Life Lamps could extend one's lifespan to a maximum of about 3,000 years. That was why it was known as the immortal-level.
Beyond that, would be the imperial-level.
To achieve this, one would have to kill king-level monsters and seize their Life Base to build a Life Palace…
After achieving these transcendent levels, one can then take it a level further and upgrade oneself to become a demigod.
Lin Huang could hardly imagine the abilities of the immortal-level and the imperial-level transcendents. Zhu Nian, who was only on the holy fire-level could kill millions of monsters with ease.
"Holy fire, immortal, imperial… I will achieve all these one by one and finally become a demigod!" Lin Huang was still focused on his goal.
Four days had passed. The time had come for Lin Huang to leave through the dimensional portal that he had booked earlier.
Early in the morning, Lin Huang hurried to the portal and joined the queue. There were already three people waiting in line.
The number of times that the dimensional portal could be used was limited, especially for long-distance trips. The destination had to be readjusted every time it was used. Lin Huang had to book it 12 days in advance.
If anyone did not arrive on time, their ticket would be burned.
Just as Lin Huang arrived, a middle-aged man who was slightly bald welcomed him.
"Hello, did you book your ticket for today?"
Lin Huang nodded his head. However, the man did not look like he was a staff here.
"Would you mind selling me the ticket? I have something urgent to deal with and I'm willing to pay five times the price." The middle-aged man looked anxious as if he really had something urgent to do.
"Sorry, I'm in a rush too." Lin Huang shook his head. He could not help as he wanted to return to foothold No.7A28 as soon as possible to avoid any further delays in his plans.
"I'm sorry for disturbing." The middle-aged man then turned back and sat on the chair that he was sitting on earlier.
Within a short while, another person came by and the middle-aged man immediately went up to him before returning again in disappointment.
Lin Huang saw what happened and knew that the man had something urgent to attend to. However, he could not offer the man any help. He then looked for a place to sit and waited patiently as the staff would begin work at 9 am.
Nine of them who had pre-booked a ticket for the dimensional portal had arrived.
When the 10th person arrived, a few of the people who wanted to buy tickets went up to him.
"There's still another 10 minutes before the dimensional portal opens. Those who are looking for a ticket can look for me. However, as for the price…" A short and skinny man said, staring at few of the people who stood in front of him. "The base price of my ticket is 530,000 credit points. The price starts at 10 times higher than the original price and each markup has to be at least five times higher, I will sell the ticket to the anyone who can offer the highest price."
"Scavengers like him did really exist in this world…" Lin Huang was speechless.
The original price was 530,000 credit points but that man now managed to sell it for about 16,000,000 credit points.
This was actually not allowed at the portal.
The portal had established rules to restrict this. One could only resell their ticket at most three times a year. Once they had exceeded the limit, they would be blacklisted and not be allowed to buy any portal tickets for three years.
Once the ticket was sold, the ticket scalper immediately left. Soon, the staff arrived and the middle-aged man who had bought the ticket immediately changed its destination. He had to spend an additional 100,000 credit points for the change.
At 9 a.m., the dimensional portal was finally open. The staff did a roll call at the portal and each time the destination changed, the dimensional portal will close temporarily.
Lin Huang was the sixth person to be called, right after the middle-aged man who was holding the resale ticket left.
"Ye Xiu!"
Lin Huang did not respond. It was only when the staff called his fake name a second time that he remembered that he booked the ticket under a fake name. He then stood up.
Upon verifying the ticket and his identity, the staff reset the destination and pushed the door. Lin Huang then walked over and…
Chapter 152: The Little "Beggar"
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
At foothold No.7A28, also known as Peaceful City.
Grade-A super-sized footholds usually had populations that ranged in the hundreds of millions.
Similarly, Peaceful City had a population of 280 million people and there were approximately 400 million of people if people who passed through the foothold was included.
Apparently, Peaceful City was able to accommodate a large number of people.
Before Lin Huang arrived at the A-grade foothold, he imagined how it would look like but when he arrived, he realized that it was vastly different from what he imagined.
He thought that there would be various skyscrapers and modern buildings but most of them were ancient buildings instead. On the contrary, there were only a small number of modern buildings there. There was an ancient tower, an ancient pagoda, and an ancient rampart. Most of the buildings retained their historical charm.
Even the houses of most ordinary residents had a historical feel to it. The houses sported red bricks and green tiles. It was a prosperous historic city.
Lin Huang had booked a hotel located in a high-rise building at the center of the foothold. He then checked into the hotel and went to his room on the 81st floor.
He went up the staircase to his room which was No.081029.
The room was spacious. The walls were completely made of transparent tiles. It was a special kind of artificial tiling with a crystal-like transparency which was both strong and ductile. Lin Huang could clearly see cities which were 10 kilometers away from him.
"It seems like it is good to stay on the upper floors, though." Looking down at the scenery, Lin Huang no longer thought of changing to another hotel.
There was also a big balcony facing south equipped with a set of balcony chairs and a table.
He sat for a while on the balcony, feeling the wind blow against him.
"The overall impression of the hotel is good." Lin Huang was satisfied with the hotel. He then went to the living room and began planning his schedule for the next few days.
The portal ticket he booked earlier could be used after 33 days. 12 days had passed and he planned to stay at Peaceful City for another 21 days.
Lin Huang was not going to stay idle during the 21 days. Ever since he found out that there were three transcendent levels ranked above gold-level, his resolve was more focused than ever.
After cleaning the living room, he began to practice Wildfire Sword skill from eight o'clock in the morning until 11 o'clock at night for several days. Putting aside time taken for his meals, he practiced for about 14.5 hours each day.
The number of sword skill pieces accumulated increased.
On the sixth day, he had accumulated 1000 Wildfire Sword pieces.
A notification from Xiao Hei finally came.
"You have accumulated Wildfire Sword sword skill pieces x1,000. It can be integrated into a Rare sword Skill Card. Would you like to integrate this card?"
"Integrate." Lin Huang immediately nodded his head.
Under normal circumstances, only 300 pieces were required to complete the integration of a Rare level sword Skill Card. However, for the Wildfire Sword skill, the notification to integrate was received only when 1,000 sword skill pieces were accumulated.
"Integrating Wildfire Sword skill pieces x1,000"
"Congratulations, you have gained a Rare skill - Wildfire Sword ."
Lin Huang immediately tapped open the Skill Card.
"Skill Card"
"Skill Card Name: Wildfire Sword"
"Rarity: Rare"
"Skill Type: Sword"
"Skill Level: Unavailable"
"Status: Available"
"Card Remarks: Passable"
"What Xiao Hei meant by 'skill level is unavailable' was that this skills is beyond gold-rank sword skills and is usable even when one is at the level of a transcendent." Lin Huang had familiarized himself with Xiao Hei's ambiguous descriptions after a period of time.
"Xiao Hei, I remember you telling me that as long as sufficient skill pieces were collected, Wildfire Sword can be upgraded to Epic level without the need for an Advancement Card. Now that I have a complete set of Skill Cards, does it mean that I'll obtain one skill piece each time I practice this skill?" Lin Huang was not sure how it worked.
"You won't obtain a new skill piece by directly using the Wildfire Sword skill. You must create your own moves based on Wildfire Sword's moves. If the newly created moves can pass the evaluation, you will then be given a new skill piece.
"What is the evaluation criterion?" Lin Huang immediately asked.
"It depends on whether it meets the Dao of the Sword. If it does, it'll pass the evaluation. Otherwise, it'll fail the evaluation."
"Dao of the Sword…" That term sounded mysterious.
He opened the Heart Network and started looking for information on this term. There was no exact description of this term found on the network.
He stopped right before he called Yi Zheng because his second identity would be revealed. He changed his mind and started practicing with his sword again.
He had spent the whole afternoon practicing with his sword. He was puzzled that he had not gotten even a single skill piece yet.
"What the hell is the Dao of the Sword?" Lin Huang was in deep thought, stroking his chin. A thought suddenly flashed through Lin Huang's mind, "Dao of the Sword is required in order to upgrade a sword skill from Rare level to Epic level. The Epic level Great Sword Scripture that I possess should contain the Dao of the Sword…"
Lin Huang continued practicing the Great Sword Scripture instead of Wildfire Sword.
As he practiced the Great Sword Scripture , he felt a mysterious aura lingering around him. The feeling was unique, allowing him to feel every single detail when he practiced this skill. When he was practicing with this skill, even the dust in the air could be cut in half if he wanted to do so.
After practicing Great Sword Scripture three times, Lin Huang roughly knew what to do.
He then proceeded to practice Wildfire Sword repeatedly and carefully figured out every detail of the skill.
After practicing for a few hours, it was just over 12 a.m. before Lin Huang regained his senses.
Unexpectedly, he had accumulated about 10 Wildfire Sword skill pieces. He knew that he was on the right track.
He realized that it was already late at night and his stomach was growling. He only had one meal throughout the day, which was his breakfast at 7 a.m. - it had been 17 hours since his last meal.
"It's so late now. I'm so hungry… I wonder if there's anything to eat out there." Lin Huang lowered his head and looking down through the transparent tiles, he noticed that the street lights were turned off but he spotted a small area not far away from him with lights that were still lit. The place was crowded and it seemed like a night market.
He took a shower, changed his clothes and went down.
After leaving the hotel, he hurried to the night market.
"It seems like most people here like to hunt for food at midnight…" Lin Huang followed the smell of the food and found himself at a barbeque stall.
The owner of the stall was a short and fat 60-year-old man. His face was a smoky black and nobody could tell if he was born like that or if it was from being covered by the smoke from the coal.
On the barbeque rack, there were a few fist-sized steaks that were giving off a sizzling sound.
Lin Huang swallowed a mouthful of saliva as he caught a whiff of the steak.
"Boss, what type of meat is this?" One of the customers beside him asked.
The rest of them including Lin Huang immediately strained their ears to listen to the boss's answer.
"This is a fragrant swine. It's a new breed between a swine beast and a fragrant hog. It only became available in the market two years ago and is considered to be a new ingredient. That's why it costs relatively higher. Please bear with me…" The boss explained in details.
Peaceful City was an A-grade foothold that saw many hunters congregating there and many of them would look for food during midnight as they were probably busy the entire day and could only eat after nightfall. Of course, they would not care about how much credit points they were going to spend since credit points were merely a number to them.
At the barbeque rack, the smell of the steak grew stronger and the sizzling sound increased everyone's appetite.
The fat boss began to flip the meat with a pair of tongs.
All of a sudden, a black shadow flashed and the next moment, one of the steaks on the barbeque rack disappeared.
Lin Huang realized that the one who had stolen the steak was a child. He did not stop the child as he believed that the child would only do this from being too hungry.
However, one of the hunters beside him could not stand this and pulled on the child's collar.
He fell down and looked at the hunter who pulled at his collar with fear. He was holding the steak tightly, not willing to let go as he was afraid that others would snatch his steak away.
"Little beggar, you stole the steak in front of us. Do you actually think we were blind?" The hunter was about to punish the child but Lin Huang stopped him.
"He must be hungry." Lin Huang shook his head and smiled, "Boss, I'll pay for the steak that he took."
After paying with his credit points, Lin Huang squat in front of the child and told him, "Stealing is wrong. Where are your parents? Are you lost?"
The child did not look like a beggar. Despite his face and clothing being dirty, they looked like they were stained recently.
Listening to Lin Huang's words, he hesitated for a moment before nodding his head.
"Alright. After you finish your food, I'll bring you to the exit of the night market and wait for them there. They will surely pass by there when they go home." Lin Huang pulled him up and said as he looked at the steak that was already dirty, "Don't eat the one you're holding. I'll ask the boss to cook you another piece of steak."
He then turned to the boss and said, "Boss, two steaks, takeaway please."
Chapter 153: 327
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After buying two sets of steaks, Lin Huang gave one to the boy.
"The one you're holding is already are holding is already dirty when it touched the floor earlier during your fall. Throw it away."
The boy was holding the steak, hesitating for a moment.
"Come, give it to me." Lin Huang extended his hand.
The boy hesitated a little but still, he gave it to Lin Huang.
Lin Huang took it from him and threw it into the rubbish bin.
The boy stared at the rubbish bin and seemed like he was reluctant to throw it away.
"Alright, don't look at it anymore. You will get sick if you eat something dirty." Lin Huang patted the boy's shoulder. "If you're still hungry, I'll buy you more food."
He shifted his gaze as soon as he heard that, devouring the steak with pure bliss in his eyes.
The boy finished the steak after only two or three bites. He then lifted his head to look at Lin Huang's steak.
"Damn, so fast?" Lin Huang was shocked that he ate really fast.
He tore off part of his steak and gave the remaining half to the boy.
The boy started gobbling the steak down his throat.
Both of them walked for just a short while and the boy finished the second piece of steak. He raised his head and looked at Lin Huang again.
"You're not full yet?" Lin Huang was surprised.
The boy nodded his head.
"Alright. I'm not feeling that full as well, let's go look for some more food." Lin Huang did not feel full because he ate less than one-third of his steak. Then, they wandered around in the night market.
After walking for a while, the boy stood still in front of a stall.
Lin Huang took a look at it and realized that it was another barbeque stall.
"Does this little brat like grilled meat so much?" Lin Huang was kind of speechless. Still, he ordered two steaks for the boy and bought himself a few kebabs.
Both of them headed towards the exit of the night market as they ate.
Within a short while, the boy finished both his steaks. He looked like he was still hungry as he raised his head to look at Lin Huang once again.
Lin Huang had no choice but to give him two of his remaining meat skewers.
"You're like a bottomless pit." Lin Huang could only eat two of the fist-sized steaks that he ate earlier and yet, the boy did not feel full even after eating four of them.
As they walked along the street, the boy suddenly stopped in front of a room.
Lin Huang thought that he saw some food in the room. However, when he looked at it, he realized that it was the kitchen of a barbeque shop. They were slaughtering a swine beast in the kitchen.
The boy stared at the beast.
Lin Huang frowned, "Don't tell me you want to eat the raw meat."
He brought the boy along with him and bought him more grilled meat. Then, they walked towards the exit of the night market.
Lin Huang was already felt full as he had eaten so much junk food. However, the boy hadn't stopped eating since they met.
Lin Huang counted and realized that he had already eaten 16 steaks, not including the junk food that he had eaten. His appetite was abnormally good. However, he ate only meat and did not eat vegetables or fruits at all.
Lin Huang thought about the way he looked at the swine beast earlier. A thought suddenly crossed his mind, "Could it be? Is it possible that the adults only gave him raw meat at home?"
"What's your name?" Lin Huang suddenly thought of asking the boy's name.
The boy raised his head, looking at Lin Huang and spoke for the first time, "327."
"I'm asking you your name. What's the meaning of those numbers?" Lin Huang could not understand what he was talking about.
The boy then pointed himself with his finger and said, "327."
"Your name is 327?" Lin Huang frowned because somehow, it sounded like a code for something.
The boy nodded his head.
Lin Huang kept quiet for a moment. Normal parents would definitely not give their children a code name. He felt like prisoners were the only people who would usually be given a code name. This was an indication that the boy came from a troubled family.
The boy was about nine or ten years old. Lin Huang was worried to let him go home.
He hesitated for a moment, thinking about the fact that he would be leaving this place after 20 days. He worried about bringing the boy away from this place as well so he decided to stay there and wait patiently.
After waiting until slightly after 2 a.m., the night market gradually became quiet after most of the people had left.
They waited until the last street lamp switched off which was at about 3 a.m. However, nobody came to claim the boy.
Lin Huang looked at the boy helplessly and said, "I think you might have to follow me to the hotel for one night. We will go to the Union Government office tomorrow morning and see if we can retrieve your identity."
The boy nodded his head.
Lin Huang brought him back to the hotel room.
"You can go to bed after taking your bath." Lin Huang went to the bathroom and prepared the water for him to take his bath. He then took kid-sized pajamas from the hotel and placed it in front of the bathroom. "Put on these pajamas after bathing. I'll wash your clothes later and it should be dry by tomorrow."
The boy then took off his shirt and went to the bathroom. Lin Huang took his clothes and threw it into the washing machine.
"That is your room. I have put on some sheets on your bed. You can go to bed now." Lin Huang pointed at the bedroom.
The boy nodded his head and turned around to go to the bedroom.
Lin Huang hung the clothes up. Then, he went back to his room and slept.
The next morning, Lin Huang woke up at 8 am.
He was shocked the moment when he opened his eyes. The boy had changed back into his own clothes and stood at the head of the bed. Lin Huang had no idea how long he had been standing there.
"Little brat, you should not stand there next time. You can play in your room or the living room after waking up." Lin Huang sat up in bed and said.
Lin Huang knew why he was standing there now that he saw the boy was unwilling to leave.
"Are you hungry?" Lin Huang asked.
The boy nodded his head.
"Wait for me. Let me wash up first and we'll go downstairs for breakfast."
After about 10 minutes, Lin Huang was washing up and changed his clothes. He brought the boy to a buffet restaurant.
"Take whatever that you want to eat. Don't take too much. It'll be wasted if you can't finish it…" Once he finished the sentence, Lin Huang began feeling like what he said was totally and utterly unnecessary.
Lin Huang took an empty plate and took some food before he looked for a place for them to sit down.
The boy took an empty plate as well. After walking around at the restaurant, the boy finally took an entire plate of fried eggs and sat in front of Lin Huang. Lin Huang was amazed that the boy could build a stable stack of fried eggs that stood at a height of 20 centimeters.
Many of the people in the restaurant looked at him, expressing their dissatisfaction with the boy. Some of them even complained to the staff.
Within a short while, a waitress came.
"Mister, your child is going to waste food. We may have to give you a fine if he does."
"Don't worry. He's not going to waste your food." Lin Huang smiled and said, "Hey, show them."
The boy nodded his head and started to eat the fried eggs quickly. He had no idea how many eggs were there on the plate but he ate all of them in less than two minutes.
The waitress and the guests were all stunned.
"Are you full now?" Lin Huang asked as he was eating his fruits.
The boy shook his head.
"Do you want another plate?" Lin Huang asked.
The boy nodded his head.
"The fried eggs are not enough. Please serve us another plate of fried eggs." Lin Huang requested.
"Sorry…" The waitress took a while to respond and left immediately.
Lin Huang noticed the boy's eating habits. It seemed like he was only interested in eating meat and eggs. He was pickier than the Fatty, Yin Hangyi.
Lin Huang brought him along to get some more food. The boy managed to eat all of the meat they had there. Lin Huang then left the restaurant together with him in satisfaction.
"All these years, I've never managed to eat enough food to justify the price I pay. Today, I finally did it!"
After having their breakfast, it was already 9.30 a.m. Lin Huang and the boy rode the Viridian Wolf and hurried to the Union Government's office.
Soon, they found the relevant department after one of the service staffs led them there.
The one who was in charge of registration was a middle-aged woman.
"What's your name?"
The boy hesitated for a moment and looked at Lin Huang.
"She is asking for your name." Lin Huang nodded his head.
"327."
"What?" The woman was puzzled.
"327." The boy repeated.
"I'm asking for your name." The woman frowned slightly.
"He's saying that his name is 327. I've asked him before yesterday. Aside from these numbers, he doesn't know how to speak." Lin Huang who was standing beside him explained.
The woman glanced at the boy and turned her head towards Lin Huang. "Then tell me, when and where did you find him."
"Yesterday at midnight, slightly after 12 a.m…" Lin Huang explained everything that happened in detail. "I brought him along and waited at the exit of the night market until 3 a.m. but nobody came for him and I had to bring him to my hotel to stay the night. We came here after having our breakfast."
"Where is his Emperor's Heart Ring?" The woman asked.
"No, he didn't have it with him when I found him." Lin Huang noticed this on the first night when he saw him.
"He has to go for facial recognition then. However, I have to inform you that facial recognition might not be able to accurately identify him. If his identity cannot be determined, you will have to register with us and bring the child with you. We'll contact you if his parents or guardian comes for the child." The woman explained.
"But I'm leaving this foothold in 20 days." Lin Huang frowned. "Can't the child stay here?"
"There are more than hundreds of children like him sent to our place each day. We don't have a proper place for him. I believe that you're a kind-hearted person. We have confidence in your abilities to take care of him if he were to follow you. If you are facing any financial problems, we'll financial compensate you…" The woman explained patiently.
"Alright. Let him go through facial recognition first." Lin Huang agreed.
Soon, a staff took the child away. After about 10 minutes, the staff and the child came out.
"Sorry, the boy's identity could not be identified by facial recognition." The staff told him the result of the test.
"Then the child has to follow you. Please register your name." The woman gave Lin Huang some documents to fill up.
"Alright…" Lin Huang was trapped because he could not just leave the boy alone and stranded.
Chapter 154: Sword Genius?!
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
He brought the boy back to the hotel. Lin Huang wondered how he was going to settle this problem.
The main problem was not the boy's huge appetite. It was that Lin Huang had no idea how he would explain this to Lin Xin.
He thought for a while and turned his head to look at the boy, "I shouldn't be calling you little brat all the time and it's also impolite to call you with a number. I should give you a new name."
The boy nodded his head.
"Alright. Your new name will be Lin Xuan."
After confirming the name, Lin Huang looked at the boy again, "I give you this name in hopes that you can become a dignified man in future."
The boy nodded his head, pointed at himself with his finger and said, "Lin Xuan."
"Yes, you are right. From today onward, your name is Lin Xuan." Lin Huang in turn, pointed at himself and said, "I am Lin Huang. From today onward, I'm your brother."
Lin Xuan nodded his head and pointed at Lin Huang, "Brother."
"I have a sister. Her name is Lin Xin. She is 13 years old. She is your sister." Lin Huang continued. "In 20 days, I'll bring you home and introduce her to you."
Lin Xuan nodded his head again.
"Lin Xuan, I will practice with my sword in the living room every day. Don't come near me because I'm afraid I might hurt you if I'm not aware that you are close by. If you're hungry, let me know and we'll go out and look for food." Lin Huang said.
Lin Xuan nodded his head. He seemed like he had thought of something. He hesitated for a while, looked at Lin Huang and said, "Hungry…"
"You're hungry already?" Lin Huang looked at the time. It was only slightly after 11 a.m. and it was indeed already time for lunch.
He immediately brought Lin Xuan to the buffet restaurant downstairs.
A huge variety of food was available during lunch compared to breakfast. There were various types of meat.
Lin Xuan took more than half an hour to eat his fill to satisfy his hunger, having already eaten almost all the meat in the buffet restaurant.
He brought Lin Xuan back to his room and Lin Huang began practicing with his sword in the living room.
Lin Xuan was initially resting at his room but after a while, Lin Xuan went to the living room and looked at Lin Huang who was practicing with his sword.
As he looked at Lin Huang, he began to follow Lin Huang's movements.
Lin Huang laughed at him. He did not bother, allowing him to learn.
It took Lin Huang for exactly one month to learn the Wildfire Sword skill. It was only then that he could gather a sufficient number of skill pieces to integrate them into a Rare Skill Card. If it was any other talented person, it would take them at least half a year to actually learn this skill so he was not too worried about Lin Xuan being able to master it.
However, after practicing his technique several times, he noticed that Lin Xuan began to use his hand as a sword, performing the complete Wildfire Sword stances. To top it off, there seemed to be a lingering charm in the way he practiced.
"Could it be? Is it possible that he's a sword genius?" Lin Huang sheathed his sword and stared at Lin Xuan's movement.
He was assured that he was a sword genius as he looked at Lin Xuan's movement. Lin Xuan had already mastered the Dao of the Sword. The sword skill that he was performing was not the Rare Wildfire Sword Skill that Lin Huang had been practicing. Instead, it was the Epic Wildfire Sword Skill.
Some of the movements that Lin Xuan did were different from the ones that Lin Huang practiced. Lin Huang confirmed that Lin Xuan did not blindly follow what he did but instead, derived completely different Epic Sword Skill stances.
After he finished practicing the whole set of sword skill, Lin Xuan stopped. He then returned to his senses. When he saw Lin Huang looking at his direction, he looked back at Lin Huang with doubt.
"Lin Xuan, the stances you were practicing earlier… Have you learned it in the past before?" Lin Huang asked.
Lin Xuan was confused so he shook his head.
"It's true! I have found a sword genius!" Lin Huang was excited. Lin Xuan only watched him practice Wildfire Sword several times and he could already perform the complete stance for an Epic Sword Skill.
He passed the wooden sword to Lin Xuan and said, "Come, show me one more time using this sword."
Lin Huang purposely bought the wooden sword so that he would not damage anything in the hotel's living room.
Lin Xuan took the wooden sword and started practice with the sword.
Lin Xuan moved aside when he saw Lin Huang resuming his practice which was actually stances he got from watching Lin Xuan earlier. After watching that for a while, he went back into his room, seemingly uninterested in it.
However, Lin Huang was inspired by Lin Xuan and the speed he accumulated skill card pieces had become faster.
He would usually get about 20 skill card pieces in a day. However, he had gotten more than 20 skill card pieces during the afternoon alone.
During dinner time, Lin Xuan walked out of his room and saw that Lin Huang was still practicing with his sword. He hesitated a little and still, he said, "Brother, hungry…"
"Alright. We'll go for dinner." Lin Huang looked at the time. It was about 5 p.m. now. He immediately put his sword away and washed his face. Then, he brought Lin Xuan to the buffet restaurant again.
Similar to the previous visit, Lin Xuan spent half an hour for dinner and finished all the meat in the restaurant.
They were about to leave when the hotel manager approached them, his face obviously sour.
"Mr. Ye, our restaurant is going to lose money if your child continues to eat like this. There are many other buffet restaurants out there and you need not visit this restaurant only. Maybe trying other restaurant's dishes will be good for the both of you." It was apparent that the manager was being selfish and said, "If you're not satisfied with our service, we'll compensate you."
"It's okay. I won't make things difficult. I'll look for some other buffet restaurant." Lin Huang felt that the hotel was quite uncomfortable and did not want to put the hotel staff through too much hassle.
"Thank you. I'm sorry for the inconveniences caused." The hotel manager apologized.
Again, he brought Lin Xuan back to his room and continued practicing with his sword.
It was 10 p.m. now. Lin Xuan did not mention anything about being hungry and had already fallen asleep.
Lin Huang practiced until 12 a.m. He then took a bath and went to bed.
The next day morning at around 8 am, Lin Huang opened his eyes and saw Lin Xuan standing in front of his room. He did not stand at the headboard anymore.
The first thing Lin Xuan said as soon as Lin Huang woke up was, "Brother, hungry…"
"Let me wash up first. We'll go for breakfast." Lin Huang and Lin Xuan went downstairs and headed to another buffet restaurant nearby.
Once again, many people were amazed by Lin Xuan's appetite.
Lin Huang and Lin Xuan tried almost all the buffet restaurants nearby in the following days.
Most of the buffet restaurants owners knew that there was a child with very big appetite as he could eat more food than the restaurant's daily sales within a day.
Lin Huang and Lin Xuan had been blacklisted by many of the buffet restaurants.
"We just got blacklisted by the 17th buffet restaurant." Lin Huang was not embarrassed. Instead, he was actually proud of his new brother's achievements.
The speed Lin Huang's could accumulate skill pieces grew faster and faster. The reason for this was because he began practicing his sword with Lin Xuan.
On his 19th day staying in Peaceful City, Lin Huang had finally accumulated 3,000 Wildfire Sword skill card pieces.
A notification from Xiao Hei finally arrived.
"You have accumulated Wildfire Sword skill pieces x3,000. They can be integrated into a Wildfire Sword Skill Card. Upon completing the integration process, your Wildfire Sword Skill Card can be upgraded from Rare to Epic. Would you like to integrate this card?"
"Yes!" Lin Huang was thrilled!
"Integrating Wildfire Sword skill pieces x3,000. Integrating Rare Wildfire Sword Skill Card."
"Congratulations, you have gained Epic Sword Skill - Wildfire Sword."
Lin Huang immediately tapped on the Skill Card to see the description.
"Skill Card"
"Skill Name: Wildfire Sword"
"Rarity: Epic"
"Type of Skill: Sword"
"Skill Level: Unavailable"
"Status: Available"
"Card Remarks: Passable"
Lin Huang was excited for the entire afternoon after he obtained his second Epic Skill Card.
"It's great. I have completed advancing my sword skill before returning to Baqi City." Lin Huang was quite satisfied with his progress.
He had been practicing with his sword for many days before he finally got his second Epic Skill Card. He wanted to rest in the coming days.
On his 20th day staying in Peaceful City, Lin Huang and Lin Xuan went out to look for food. They began eating from morning until 10 o'clock at night. Then, they returned to the hotel.
The next morning on the 21st day, they checked out of the hotel. They then proceed to ride on the Viridian Wolf to the portal. At about 8.30 a.m., both of them arrived at the portal.
It was undeniable that an A-Grade foothold was huge as there were already hundreds of people waiting there when they arrived.
At 9 a.m., there were about 1,000 people waiting at the portal.
The staff at the portal started to get busy.
They went to the counter and Lin Huang bought him a portal ticket. Although he had bought a single ticket earlier, he was allowed to bring along other people as long as he bought another ticket for them with the same destination he was going to.
Maybe it was stricter at A-Grade footholds, possibly it was also because of the ticket prices which were expensive but Lin Huang did not see any ticket scalpers here.
It was slightly after 10 a.m. before Lin Huang finally heard the staff calling his name. He brought Lin Xuan along and walked towards the dimensional portal.
As soon as the staffs had set their destination, both of them quickly walked through.
The golden dimensional portal gradually closed behind them…
Chapter 155: Back Home
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Foothold No.7A12, also known as Qiantang City was the most popular attraction at Division7.
The beautiful scenery constantly changed according to the four seasons.
With blooming blossoms come forth spring,
Autumn dances in the moonlight beam,
Summer calls with whispering winds,
Of snow and frost, winter sings.
It was a poem written by a strong man to extol Qiantang City almost 700 years ago.
Lin Huang arrived at Qiantang City for the first time and this city gave him a good first impression.
Though he did not stay there for long, if Lin Huang was to settle down someday, Qiantang City would be his first choice.
"Let's see if I can apply for permanent residency in this city. If I could, it'd be good to stay here together with Xin Er." Lin Huang thought of this in his heart when he left.
The price of a house was no longer a problem to Lin Huang. However, it was not easy to get approval for permanent residency in an A-grade foothold.
Together with Lin Xuan, the both of them stayed at Qiantang City for two days. Then, they went back to Baqi City through the dimensional portal.
Upon their arrival at Baqi City, Lin Huang immediately removed the disguise that he had been wearing and reverted to his original look.
Lin Huang was worried that Lin Xuan could not recognize him after he had removed his disguise but Lin Xuan could not tell the difference. This made it quite convenient for Lin Huang as he could save his breath on the lengthy explanation he had prepared earlier. Both of them rode on the Alexandrian Eagle and returned to Wulin Town.
Lin Huang had left for about two months.
He initially planned to come back once he had upgraded to bronze-level. One month was enough for him but he had never expected so many things to happen. He knew that Lin Xin must be very worried about him.
His suspicions were correct as he could hear that Lin Xin running down the stairs the moment he opened the door.
"Brother!" She immediately pounced on Lin Huang the moment she saw him.
She hugged Lin Huang tightly, unwilling to let go of him. She was trying to hold back the tears she had in her eyes.
"I'm fine. Some incidents happened and that's why I'm late for a month." Lin Huang stroked Lin Xin's head, explaining what happened to her with a smile.
"I've been calling your number every day but I couldn't get through. I thought something bad had happened to you…" Lin Xin burst into tears.
"My Emperor's Heart Ring is not functioning well. I'll repair it soon." Lin Huang could only explain it this way.
His use of the Emperor's Heart Ring had been restricted when he encountered the Purple Crow. When the Purple Crow left, he created a fake identity for himself and the original Emperor's Heart Ring was kept in storage. To avoid attracting the Purple Crow's attention, he dared not contact Lin Xin using his Emperor's Heart Ring.
"Alright, stop crying." Lin Huang tried to comfort her.
It was only after a long while that Lin Xin released her hands and finally noticed the little boy who was standing beside Lin Huang.
"The child is…" Looking at the boy who was less than nine years old, Lin Xin asked doubtfully.
Lin Huang then explained everything to her.
"He is so pitiful. Brother, can we adopt him?" Lin Xin sympathize with the boy.
"If nobody comes looking for him, he has to stay here." Lin Huang explained.
"Alright, before his parents come, you can't ask him to leave the house." Lin Xin immediately switched sides.
"Hey, when did I ask him to leave?" Lin Huang pinched Lin Xin's cheeks and said, "I have given him a new name, Lin Xuan. Introduce yourself to him."
"Hello, my name is Lin Xin. I am your brother's sister." Lin Xin introduced herself to Lin Xuan, "I'm turning 14 soon. I'm older than you and you should address me as your sister. If anyone dares to bully you around here, I'll help you straighten them out!"
Lin Xin was very happy and said, "I finally have a little brother!"
"Brother, where's Lin Xuan going to sleep tonight?" Lin Xin suddenly thought of this.
"I'll put a small bed in my room. He can sleep in my room." Lin Huang just thought of this and realized that he should settle this problem first. "I'll go to Furniture City and buy him a bed as well as some food. Can you play with him first? If he gets hungry, give him some meat to eat. We'll eat some good food later during lunch."
"Alright, come home earlier. It's already 11 o'clock." Lin Xin looked at the time and said.
Right after Lin Huang left, Lin Xin played with Lin Xuan for a while.
"You will be full later if you eat meat now. I'll get you some sweets." Lin Xin walked to the kitchen and took out some sweets from the snack cabinet and placed them on the table. "Choose whichever ones you like."
Lin Xuan looked at the sweets and kept quiet.
"How about trying this? It tastes good." Lin Huang chose one of the colorful sweets and gave it to him. That was her favorite flavor.
Lin Xuan shook his head. He did not take the sweets but he turned his head towards the refrigerator instead.
"Are you sure you want to eat meat?" Lin Xin frowned.
Lin Xuan nodded his head.
"Alright, I'll get you some meat then." Lin Xin then took out a completely frozen steak from the fridge and placed it on the plate. Then, she stared at the steak awkwardly, "I didn't defrost the meat. If I put it in the oven directly it can't be fully cooked… What should I do?"
While she was still thinking about what she should do, Lin Xuan suddenly extended his hand and grabbed the frozen steak. Before Lin Xin could respond, he had bitten off a mouthful of meat.
Lin Xin was shocked, looking at Lin Xuan as he bit the frozen steak. After a long moment, she finally reacted and said, "This is still raw, you can't eat it! You'll get sick."
Before she could snatch the frozen steak away from him, Lin Xuan devoured the steak with just a few bites.
After he had finished eating the raw steak, he looked at the fridge again with a pitiful look.
"No, you can't eat raw food!" Lin Xin blocked the refrigerator and said, "If you want to eat, wait for brother to come back. He'll cook for you."
He stopped asking for food as he heard this.
After about 20 minutes, Lin Huang came home.
"I have ordered takeout. Lin Xin, please open the door later when the food is here. I'll set up the bed first." Lin Huang told her and went upstairs.
Lin Xin hesitated for a moment and she decided to go after Lin Huang.
Lin Huang went to his room and moved his bed. Then, he placed the small bed that he had just bought. As soon as he set up the bed, he saw Lin Xin was walking into his room.
"What happened? It looks like you have something to tell me." Lin Huang knew that she was a bit hesitant as he took a glance at Lin Xin.
"Brother… When Lin Xuan was with you, did he eat raw meat?" Lin Xin asked.
"No, he didn't. Why…" Lin Huang was stunned. When he heard this he frowned and asked, "Did he just eat raw meat?"
Lin Xin then told him what happened earlier.
After listening to this, Lin Huang suddenly recalled that he seemed like he was looking at food when he saw the swine beast that night.
Be it his abnormally huge appetite or his unusual code name, his talent at handling the sword or the fact that he ate raw meat, this little brat was indeed weird.
Lin Huang had no idea what kind of person he actually adopted but it seemed like Lin Xuan was not harmful and at the very least, he has not caused any harm to humans.
"I understand, I'll look after him." Lin Huang nodded his head and said, "Go downstairs and wait for the takeout delivery. I'll go down right after I fix this up."
After putting sheets on the bed, he heard Lin Xin shouting at him.
"Brother, the delivery man is here. You ordered so much!"
"Got it, I'm coming down." Lin Huang immediately went downstairs.
Two of the delivery staffs took turns bringing the meals from their car into the house.
"Are there any special guests coming to your house? You ordered so many dishes!" One of the delivery staff asked with a smile.
"Yes, I did order too much." Lin Huang immediately answered before Lin Xin could react.
Lin Xin took a glance at him and kept quiet.
Right until the moment the delivery staff left their house after bringing in all the food, she asked, "Brother, do we have guests coming later? Why did you order so much food?"
"You will see later." Lin Huang said while he asked Lin Xin to open the covers of the containers.
Three of them were sitting in front of the table, enjoying their meal.
After a short while, Lin Xin finally knew why Lin Huang ordered so much food. She was terrified at the rate Lin Xuan was eating.
"Eat slowly, nobody is going to snatch your food away." Lin Huang smiled.
Soon, Lin Huang and Lin Xin had finished eating. Lin Xuan then ate all of the leftovers. Lin Xin was stunned looking at his appetite.
"He has a big appetite…" Lin Xin told Lin Huang softly.
Lin Huang laughed and told her that Lin Xuan was blacklisted by 18 buffet restaurants.
After lunch, Lin Huang led Lin Xuan to his room. He pointed at the small bed and said, "That's your bed."
He then pointed at his own bed, "I'll be sleeping over there. Just tell me if anything happens."
Lin Xuan nodded his head.
Lin Huang then went downstairs and cleaned the kitchen. He sat on the sofa and searched for information on the Hunter Assessment.
He wanted to go for the Hunter Assessment before he was upgraded to the silver-level so he could get the license to become a real hunter.
It had been more than four months since he last registered himself at the Hunter Association. In fact, it was quite fast for an ordinary person to achieve bronze-level within four months. However, with sufficient Life Crystals, the speed he advanced was still quite ordinary. If he were to attend the assessment after he upgraded to silver-level, Lin Huang's leveling speed would be revealed during the combat test which is why he had to get his license before he upgraded to silver-level.
Chapter 156: Yang Ling's Reminder
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The assessment for Regular Hunters was held twice a year in June and December.
It was previously held only once a year in June. However, in the last hundred years, the number of candidates who registered for the assessment increased rapidly so they increased the number of assessments to twice a year.
One could register for the assessment directly via the network. However, they had to attend the assessment at a B-grade big-sized foothold.
It was now early November. Lin Huang planned to take a break since the assessment was one month away.
He arrived in this world back in June and had been very busy throughout the last five months. He had encountered transcendent monsters many times where other people would have probably been lucky to have only met them once in a lifetime. He was living quite an interesting life.
Despite the fact that the content of the Regular Hunter Assessment varied each year, with his bronze-level rank-3 combat ability, Lin Huang was confident that it would not be difficult for him to pass the assessment without disclosing his identity as an Imperial Censor. Therefore, he did not need to put in much effort into the assessment.
After some thought, the only thing he could do now was to stabilize his Life Power by using his Life Skills. After completing the Regular Hunter Assessment, he would be upgraded to silver-level immediately.
However, before this, he had one task to do.
Staring at the Emperor's Heart Ring on his left index finger, he hesitated for a moment. He then decided to call Yang Ling.
Yang Ling was the skinny man who made Lin Huang a fake Emperor's Heart Ring at Daxi City. The moment he saw the football, Lin Huang knew that he was also a traveler.
It rang for about 10 seconds and the communication device connected.
"What's up? Do you have any business for me?" Yang Ling's voice was heard from the communication device.
"How did you know that it's not because something is wrong with the Emperor's Heart Ring? How did you know that I called you to ask for help?" Lin Huang asked seriously.
"I'm confident with my skills," Yang Ling paused for a moment and said, "Tell me whatever you want. If not, I have something else I need to deal with."
"Emm…"
Lin Huang wanted to get closer to him since both of them were travelers from Earth. He wanted to know more about his travels. However, it was apparent that he had something more "important" to deal with so Lin Huang had to immediately tell him the purpose of the call.
"I actually wanted to ask, could you replicate an Emperor's Heart Ring? For example, my Emperor's Heart Ring can't be used for some complicated reasons and I need to replicate a new one with similar personal information but…"
Yang Ling interrupted before Lin Huang could finish his sentence, "Alright, I get it. You're looking for a Parallel Space Ring."
"Are you sure that's what I want? I haven't finished saying what I needed," Lin Huang was not sure if he understood what he meant.
"Alright, stop talking. I don't know which organization are you going to leave and I'm really not interested. You're looking for a new Emperor's Heart Ring that does not contain any information about the organization, except your own identity," Yang Ling concluded. What he said was exactly what Lin Huang was asking for.
"Yes, that's the one," Lin Huang nodded his head.
"I can do it for you. However, two prices are available for this ring - 100 Life Crystal and 200 Life Crystal," Yang Ling said.
"What's the difference?" Lin Huang frowned and asked.
"The ring that costs 100 Life Crystal contains only your personal information. However, you will lose the information registered at the Credit Bureau, Hunter Association, and other organizations. Also, you can no longer withdraw your credit points from your savings account at the Credit Bureau. Regarding the registration information, it will not be troublesome to register again at some of the organizations. However, if the organization is strict in verifying and examining the applicant's information, they will debug their database and remove the original information. This will cause your original information to be modified. At the same time, it might notify other registered organizations regarding the change of information."
"For the ring that costs 200 Life Crystal, I will completely replicate the Emperor's Heart Ring and remove the information that you do not want completely. All of your registered information will still be there and you can withdraw your credit points from your savings account. If you have large amounts of savings, I would recommend you to take this option," Yang Ling explained the details.
"Alright, I will take the one that costs 200 Life Crystal then," Lin Huang decided quickly. If he were to choose the former, he had to register at the Hunter Association again before attending the Regular Hunter Assessment. This might notify the Purple Crows.
"You only need to make a copy of your personal information and send me the information via an encrypted email," he said, and before Yang Ling finished his sentence, he added, "You should know that I will only accept Life Crystal. Don't convert it to credit points when you make your payment."
"I know. Don't worry," Lin Huang nodded his head.
"Send me your information now and I'll do it for you tonight. I'll send it to you right after I'm done. Since you are a regular customer, you won't need to pay for the postage," Yang Ling said.
"Please delete my personal information after you're done," Lin Huang reminded him before sending out the email.
"Don't worry. I have been doing this for years and I have never disclosed any of my customer's information. I will make sure that the information is permanently deleted without leaving any traces. I assure confidentiality with the hopes that I will have more returning business from all my customers," Yang Ling said to comfort his doubts.
"Alright," Lin Huang said and then sent him a copy of his personal information via the encrypted email.
After a moment, Yang Ling's voice was heard from the communication device again. "Which information do you wish to remove?"
"The information about the Purple Crows," he said, referring to the complete set of information that had been sent to Yang Ling. There was nothing Lin Huang could hide.
Yang Ling kept quiet for a moment and said, "Alright, I can do it for you. However, I have to remind you that the Purple Crow is not a simple organization. It will be better if you could destroy the original Emperor's Heart Ring at a place that you are unfamiliar with."
"Can't I keep it in my storage space?" Lin Huang asked.
"Even if you kept it in the storage space, they can still track your location through certain methods," Yang Ling explained.
Lin Huang broke out in cold sweat as he heard this. He kept his Emperor's Heart Ring in his storage space all the time and he thought his whereabouts could not be tracked. However, he was now sure that his location could in fact, still be tracked.
"Anyway... They won't track you if you are not an important person. I just wanted to remind you so that you are aware of it. Don't be too worried," Yang Ling added as he seemed to know that Lin Huang was worried about it.
"I know. I'll settle it soon," Lin Huang said. He was not going to keep the Emperor's Heart Ring with him after what Yang Ling had said.
"Oh yeah, is the delivery address the same as the address provided with your information?" Yang Ling asked.
"Yes," Lin Huang said and nodded his head.
"I will send it to you at that address then. Are you in a hurry? If you could wait for two to three months, I will choose a cheaper postage method and save some money," Yang Ling asked.
"I need it by December. I can actually pay for the postage, no worries," Lin Huang did not know that Yang Ling wanted to save some money. He needed it by then.
"It's fine. I said postage was included. Since you are in a hurry, I will use the fastest method. You will receive it within a week," Yang Ling said as he insisted on paying the postage fee.
"Thank you then," Lin Huang replied and smiled.
"As a final reminder, you should move from your location as soon as possible. Although I don't know how you escaped from the Purple Crows, your address has been disclosed. If they find out you're still alive, your family members will be in danger," Yang Ling warned before hanging up.
Chapter 157: New Emperor's Heart Ring
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After hanging up the call with Yang Ling, Lin Huang was thinking about the reminder asking him to move away from where he lived for his family and his own safety. Although he faked his death and successfully escaped from the Purple Crows, he had left traces of his personal details with them. There would not be a problem if nobody knew that he was still alive, however, if it was discovered, the Purple Crows would definitely come after him. The Purple Crow staff could enter small areas such as Wulin Town as they wished without restrictions or resistance from the government.
"I must get the residential permit to stay in a grade-A foothold or else Lin Xin wouldn't be able to transfer schools. If I'm not able to do that, it would be good to get the permit to temporarily stay in a grade-B foothold. At least there are quite a few transcendents thar resided in grade-B foothold. The people of the Purple Crow would be more cautious and will not intervene haphazardly," Lin Huang thought. He also considered asking Yi Zheng about the residential permission as soon as he got his new Emperor's Heart Ring. As he was a royal member, he would surely know more about the matter than Lin Huang did.
"Xin Er, I need to run some errands. I will be back soon," he called out.
Lin Huang left the house right after that. He changed his face before heading to the Credit Bureau. There was quite a queue at the bureau, and it took awhile until it was his turn.
There was a woman who looked a little older than 50 years old behind the counter. She looked at Lin Huang and asked, "What kind of service would you like?"
"A bank transfer, please," Lin Huang answered. He then looked for Yang Ling's account number on his communication device.
The woman frowned and reminded him as per bank policy, saying, "There are many frauds on the network nowadays. You young people shouldn't be transferring money to strangers, you should be more alert."
"Thanks for your reminder, I understand that," Lin Huang nodded.
"What is your relationship with the person that you are transferring the money to?" the woman asked.
"We are friends, I guess," Lin Huang answered.
"You should not trust those friends that you get to know from the network. They could be frauds," the woman reminded him again.
"We have met before," Lin Huang explained, quite annoyed with her constant prodding.
"Alright, that's better. What is the reason of the transaction?" the woman continued. She then followed the question with another piece of advice, and said, "If it's lending your friend money, try not to send too much or else you might not get it back in the future."
"Oh it's not lending money, it's a proper business," Lin Huang said, helplessly fending of the woman's interrogation. The woman was too passionate about matters not concerning her, he thought.
"Alright then, how much is it?" the woman finally asked.
"200 Life Crystals. Please do not send credit points, he only wants Life Crystals," Lin Huang said. He then took out all 200 Life Crystals and piled them on the counter.
It was rare for ordinary people to even see a Life Crystal piece. Now that there were so many complete Life Crystals lying on top of the counter, everyone was stunned. It took the woman behind the counter a moment to snap out of her daze.
"Would you like to send all of these Life Crystals out?" she asked immediately.
"Yes, there are a total of 200 of them. Please do not send out credit points, just transfer all these Life Crystals to his account," Lin Huang said again while he projected Yang Ling's account details before the woman.
"Give me a moment, I will have to count." The woman nodded and started counting the Life Crystals.
Soon she was done counting.
"200 pieces of standard Life Crystals. The system shows that all of them are complete, the woman said. The woman then nodded and said, "Kid, are you sure you want to send so many Life Crystals to your friend?"
"Yes. He is sending me my requested items while I send him the money. This is a business transaction,"" Lin Huang said and nodded.
"Alright, so you would like to send Life Crystals, not Life Crystals pieces or credit points right?" The woman confirmed again.
"Yes, he only accepts Life Crystals," Lin Huang nodded.
"Sure, I'll do that for you now," she replied. Awhile later, the woman nodded at Lin Huang and said, "The transaction is complete."
Just when the woman informed Lin Huang, he received a message from Yang Ling, "I have received the money, I will send out your stuff tonight."
"Thank you, Aunty," Lin Huang said and left. When he got home from the Credit Bureau, he saw that Lin Xin was teaching Lin Xuan how to play the Gun Master. He then started to practice Army Attack Tactics in the living room. Ever since he levelled-up to a Bronze-level. He had never trained his Army Attack Tactics anymore. However, the sword skill had been up to it's own rotation plans. The Life Power in his body was now pretty stable. If he was to properly train for 10 days to half a month, he would definitely master the skill.
Lin Huang stopped his training when it was dinner time, and he ordered some takeaway again. Lin Xuan had a big appetite, and what Lin Huang cooked would not have been enough for Lin Xuan. Soon, the food was delivered. After dinner, Lin Xin helped Lin Huang clean up the kitchen.
"It's not good that we order takeaway everyday. I must think of a way to solve the problem of Lin Xuan's big appetite…" Lin Huang mumbled to himself while he cleaned up.
Lin Xin who was next to him heard him suddenly stopped washing the dishes. She seemed to have recalled something and said, "Brother, there was this barbecue machine that was very popular on the network. My friend has one at home. It can contain a lot of food and it's easy to use. You can even put an entire pig monster in and the machine would peel its skin and cut it into pieces before the barbecue began, automatically. All you have to do is put the seasoning in one hour later and it would be ready 10 minutes after that."
"Is there really such thing?" Lin Huang's eyes lit up.
"Yes! I've tried it at her place, and it tasted really good," Lin Xin nodded.
"Let's get one then." Lin Huang decided immediately.
Two days later, the outdoor waterproof barbecue machine arrived. It was big, so Lin Huang placed it in the garden on the fourth floor. He had many monster bodies in his space storage ring, all he would have to do was put one monster in the machine. The issue about Lin Xuan's food was solved.
For the entire week, Lin Huang spent most of his time in training his Army Attack Tactics. The Life Power in his body was stabilized sooner than expectation. He was ready to breakthrough to a White Silver-level at any moment, so to prevent that, he finally gave himself a break. On the eighth day, he received the new Emperor's Heart Ring Yang Ling sent him. He put it on immediately. He then found out that all of his personal details, including his 300 billion credit points were still in his account with the Credit Bureau. The only change was that his registration with the Purple Crows was no longer there. He was much relieved.
However, he soon found out that he had many missed calls and messages when he opened the contact page. Most of them came from Lin Xin, she had called him more than 30 times and sent many messages. Fatty had called him thrice, two missed calls from Yi Yeyu and one from Yi Zheng. For messages, Fatty had sent him quite a few, two were from Yi Yeyu and one from Leng Yuexin. Lin Huang then read the messages one by one.
Fatty informed Lin Huang that he had to leave to Baqi City as he had something to settle at home, and he could not wait for Lin Huang anymore. Yi Yeyu sent two messages, one which read 'So you've spread your wings now and you're not picking up my calls anymore?' while the other one was 'Haven't heard from you for a month now, are you dead?'. But, the message from Leng Yuexin was simple, and it read, 'I am back in Division7.'
The first message Lin Huang replied to was to Leng Yuexin, "That's great. I was staying in Fog Canyon, and there was no signal. I have just gotten back today."
He replied Yi Yeyu next, "I wouldn't die so easily. I was in Fog Canyon, there was no signal in there. Is there anything I can do for you?"
He replied Fatty next, "Alright then, go settle your stuff. I have just came back from Fog Canyon today."
Yi Yeyu requested to do a video-call with Lin Huang immediately, and he picked up the call after sitting down on the couch.
"So you're really alive, I thought you were dead," Yi Yeyu said as she checked Lin Huang out through the video.
"Such a genius like me wouldn't die so easily," Lin Huang laughed, "Anything?"
"Can't I call for nothing?" Yi Yeyu glared at Lin Huang.
"Of course you can, anytime anywhere," Lin Huang nodded.
"I heard you've been to Fog Canyon. Something happened there earlier so I wanted to confirm if you were really alive," Yi Yeyu told Lin Huang the real reason she was calling.
"What happened in Fog Canyon?" Lin Huang asked, doubtful.
"Many people died there recently, and they said it was done by a mutated sword slave. There were a groups of White Silver-level hunters attempting to kill the monster but they were all killed. Later on, many Gold-level hunters went in but none found the monster," Yi Yeyu explained.
"I didn't know about that, neither did I see such a monster," Lin Huang said with raised eyebrows.
"It's great that you're doing good," she said, with a concerned look on her face. Just when she was going to hang up the call, she recalled something, "Oh yea, something happened to the Fatty, the guy who was close to you. Since you just came back today, I guess you haven't heard about it."
"What happened?" Lin Huang was stunned. Although Fatty said he had something to do at home, he did not tell Lin Huang what exactly happened.
"His father was sick, and he passed away. As a friend of his, give him a call. That's all, I'm hanging up," Yi Yeyu said and hung up the phone right away.
"Fatty's father passed away?" Lin Huang frowned. He forgot about the residence permit in grade-A and grade-B footholds matter than he wanted to ask. After hesitating, Lin Huang called Fatty. Fatty only picked up awhile later, and he looked exhausted in the video.
"Are you okay, Fatty? I heard about what happened from Yi Yeyu," Lin Huang asked immediately.
"I'm good," Fatty forced a smiled and shook his head.
"Where are you now? Baqi City?"
"No I'm at my hometown. We just buried my dad's body a few days back…" Fatty shook his head.
"I recalled uncle looked good the last time we saw him, how did he…" Lin Huang thought it was strange.
"He was exhausted. He didn't know when to rest, and he abused his body with work. His lost of Life Light was tens of times faster than ordinary people, but he didn't tell us about that. It was too late when we found out," Fatty said softly and he had tears in his eyes as he spoke.
"I have nothing on hand these few days, I will come and pay my respects," Lin Huang suggested.
"It's alright, the Regular Hunter assessment is starting soon in December. Since you have stayed in Fog Canyon for so long, you must have levelled-up to a Bronze-level by now. You should prepare yourself. Too bad I can't be joining anymore. All the best to you. Do try to pass during the first assessment…" Fatty said as he knew that Lin Huang was joining the assessment.
"Alright then, don't think too much. Rest," Lin Huang said. He did not really know how to comfort Fatty, but tried what he knew to ease the pain. After he hung up, Lin Huang let out a sigh. Fatty's rather was just an ordinary person but he sacrificed most of his life to food just because of his passion. Although it was not right that he abused his body, his passion for food was admirable.
"Hopefully fatty would get back on his feet soon. If he inherited the passion and persistence with food from his father, he will definitely be an outstanding Food Hunter in the future…"
Chapter 158: Did the Head Examiner Slip His Tongue?
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The first thing Lin Huang did after receiving the new Emperor's Heart Ring was register himself so he could participate in the Regular Hunter assessment. Time passed quickly and before he knew it, a week went by with Lin Huang spending most of his time resting. Besides that, he also practiced Army Attack Tactics for a couple of hours every day to keep his skills sharp. The training was not to upgrade his abilities but rather to avoid his body from getting lazy so he practiced every day to keep up his momentum.
It was half a month before the assessment would start and was almost time to depart. Lin Huang spoke to Lin Xin and Lin Xuan that night at dinner.
"I will head to foothold No.7B24 in two days to join the Regular Hunter Assessment. The assessment itself will take about one month and the journey back and forth would take more than 20 days. So, it looks like I'll be away for almost two months," he explained.
"Brother, will you be able to come back before the year end?" Lin Xin asked. She seemed really upset.
"That shouldn't be a problem. The Hunter Association would take that into consideration that as well. As soon as the assessment ends, I should have sufficient time to get back home," Lin Huang nodded.
"Lin Xuan, listen to your sister, tell her when you're hungry. Don't leave the house on your own. If you need to head out, follow your sister," Lin Huang said to Lin Xuan. Lin Xuan nodded.
"Xin Er, I have many monster carcasses with me, I'll transfer them to your storage space. Don't just eat meat like Lin Xuan does, get some vegetables and fruits as well. I'll transfer you some credit points…" Lin Huang then transferred the monster carcasses and credit points to Lin Xin as he said.
"Don't worry about spending the money, buy all the things that you need to buy…" he continued.
Lin Xin did not say a word and all she did was to nod. She knew that the Regular Hunter Assessment only happened twice a year. If Lin Huang missed this round, he would have to wait until June of next year. On the next day, Lin Huang headed to Baqi City after lunch and bid farewell to Lin Xin and Lin Xuan. He checked into a hotel at the central plaza of Baqi City. He stayed there to wait for the Demonic Crystal Spaceship which would depart the next morning.
After a nights rest in Baqi City, Lin Huang took the spaceship to foothold No.7B24 the next morning. The journey to the foothold would take 11 days and thankfully it was a smooth one. However, there were many passengers on the spaceship. Most of them look like they were hunters too, perhaps also participating in the assessment. On the 11th day at noon, the spaceship arrived at foothold No.7B24 in the north of Baqi City.
Foothold No.7B24 was also called Beixuan City. There were more than 180 B-grade footholds in Division7, and foothold No.7B24 was one of the earliest ones to be established. It was huge, covering an area of more than 11,000 square kilometers. The permanent residents numbered at 16 million people with a five million strong population of people who came in and out of the city. It was considered a crowded foothold compared to other B-grade footholds.
After he disembarked the spaceship, Lin Huang arrived at a hotel that was located nearby the Hunter Association. He had booked the hotel room before he departed. He then registered himself at the reception. It was three days before the assessment, and Lin Huang planned to adapt himself to the environment for the next couple of days. After a short rest in the hotel room, he started practicing Fatal Tactics .
It was a Rare close combat skill, utilizing most of the muscles and bones in his body. With every hit, Lin Huang could clearly feel like he was familiarizing himself with his own body. Now that his Army Attack Tactics was level-8, combining that with Fatal Tactics would heighten its strength. He had been practicing the skill for almost 20 days now... It was not clear if it was the effects of Army Attack Tactics or something else. Although he had only been practicing for a couple of hours every day, the rate he accumulated skill card pieces did not decrease.
On the next day, Lin Huang had accumulated 600 Fatal Tactics skill card pieces by the afternoon. A notification from Xiao Hei popped up.
"600 Fatal Tactics skill card pieces have been detected, would you like to combine them into a Rare Skill Card - Fatal Tactics ?"
"Yes," Lin Huang replied. He did not expect he would be able to obtain a complete skill card before the assessment even started.
"Consuming Fatal Tactics skill card pieces x600"
"Congratulations, you have obtained a Rare Skill Card - Fatal Tactics "
Lin Huang looked at the new skill card immediately.
"Skill Card"
"Skill Name: Fatal Tactics"
"Rarity: Rare (Epic)"
"Type of Skill: Close combat skill"
"Skill Level: Unknown"
"Status: Available"
"Remarks: With the upgrade in strength from Army Attack Tactics being more than level-6, this skill is comparable with an Epic combat skill."
"Card Remarks: Not bad"
He could not help but to laugh when he saw the remarks. He did not expect his limited training to give him a close combat skill card that was comparable to an Epic card. Initially, he practiced the close combat skills without any expectations since he excelled in sword skills. He did not train to accumulate skill card pieces but to adapt and prepare himself for the assessment. That was why he only trained for a couple of hours and rested for the remainder of the day.
It was a great surprise that he managed to obtain a new skill card before the assessment started. As long as Army Attack Tactics was at level-6 or more, one could draw strength that was comparable with an Epic-level combat skill. Now that his Army Attack Tactics was already at level-8, his combat strength would be much more powerful. It was as if he had obtained an Epic combat skill out of the blue.
"That's great, I can just fight with my bare hands if I encounter any small monsters in the future. There's no need for me to bring out my sword all the time," Lin Huang laughed to himself.
On the third day in Beixuan City, Lin Huang woke up before seven in the morning. After breakfast, he headed straight to the Hunter Association. The official opening hours was 8 a.m. but it was not even 7:15 a.m. when Lin Huang arrived. Still, there were many people already waiting at the entrance. There were many scammers among the crowd, and they were selling assessment booklets. There were quite a number of people getting scammed by these crooks.
One scammer came to Lin Huang and pointed at the project page in front of him and said, "Young man, we have the latest assessment booklet, it has the latest content of the assessment. Would you like to get one?"
"It's okay," Lin Huang shook his head. He had heard about such booklets before but it was his first time seeing them. However, he knew that the booklet had information from the past assessments that the scammers had put together. It was not related to the current assessment at all.
The Regular Hunter Assessment had different content every year, and it was impossible for the contents of the assessment to be leaked before the assessment started. The scammers were there to scam participants who did not know the rules. Seeing Lin Huang being so sure of himself, the scammer knew that Lin Huang had seen the assessment rules before this so he stopped bugging him. The scammer then left and began looking for other participants.
Many were scammed, and Lin Huang stood speechless as he watched. However, those who purchased the booklet must have had a lack of confidence in their own abilities and were not sure if they would pass the assessment. Some of them were just trying their luck so they bought the booklets anyway knowing that it would not help them in the assessment.
There were more and more people at the entrance, and more people were scammed. Lin Huang had no idea how much the booklet was sold for but looking at the number of people who purchased them, he could tell that the scammers had made quite a large sum of credit points. There were at least 10,000 people at the entrance of the Hunter Association at 8 a.m.
Suddenly, the door opened and a tanned middle-aged man walked out. Everyone was silent as he walked out.
"My name is Xu Jinpeng, I am the head examiner for the preliminary assessment," the tanned man introduced himself. After a brief pause, he continued, "I would like to announce that the preliminary assessment has ended!"
Everyone was stunned by what he had just said, including Lin Huang. "Did the head examiner slip his tongue, maybe he meant 'started' instead of 'ended'?" Some people muttered in panic. Almost everyone present had the same thought rush through their minds.
"Now I'll announce the participants that have been disqualified…" The head examiner Xu Jinpeng began to read out names one by one, "Wang Xiaopeng, Zou He, Ye Haoxuan…"
"This is ridiculous!" A few of them voiced out after the first few names were called out. Xu Jinpeng looked up and proceeded to read off his list.
"I'm not buying this! If you're disqualifying me, you must give a reason that makes sense!" A guy from the back shouted. One of the scammers who was selling booklets suddenly appeared next to the tanned man and said in a loud voice, "From today onwards, the names that were read out loud are blacklisted from the Hunter Association, and you won't be able to join any association within the next three years!"
The man then waved to the other two scammers and left. Many were confused at first but soon, they began to understand what was happening.
"They are Hunter Association staff who pretended to be scammers… That would mean that... The preliminary assessment was meant to disqualify the participants who purchased the booklets," Lin Huang concluded as he finally understood what had happened.
Almost half an hour, the head examiner Xu Jinpeng finally finished reading off the disqualification list. There were more than 1,100 people that were disqualified. Xu Jinpeng looked up and looked around. He then said, "I believe some of you know why these people were disqualified. The scammers who were selling the assessment booklets are our staff. Those who were disqualified were the ones who purchased the booklets."
"Firstly, we find that not reading the assessment rules before coming to the assessment is a grave negligence to the programme. Such people lack responsibility and don't care about the consequences since they're not even willing to perform the most basic due diligence. We, at the Hunter Association, are the complete opposite of that. No matter what the consequences may be, we'll do our best to complete the task at hand."
"Second, they knew that the information in the booklet is fake but yet they purchased it anyway. This is equivalent to knowing that a piece of news is fake but yet they still try their luck and convince themselves to believe that it is real. Such people lack will, and are easily manipulated. We don't need people like this.
"These two reasons are the foundations of the preliminary assessment. If anyone disagrees with it, you are welcome to file your complaints," the man said casually with a nod. What Xu Jinpeng said made everyone speechless.
"Aside from those who were on the list, those who arrived after 8 a.m... Congratulations, you have been disqualified as well. He added, "I don't think you need me to tell you the reason."
"The rest made it into the first round of the assessment. You can now pass through the door behind me into the Hunter Association and join us for the the next round."
Chapter 159: Tip: Weed
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The preliminary round of the assessment started silently and ended in silence with direct result announcements. Lin Huang now knew that the Hunter Association was quite unpredictable.
"It seems like I must treat this seriously or else I might be disqualified as well…" Lin Huang was finally getting serious about the assessment.
Due to the assessment, the Hunter Association was not opened for business. Lin Huang and the rest walked into the hall from the entrance, and it was empty. There was a short man standing at the information counter in the middle of the hall. The man was less than 1.7 meters, and he had a mustache. He was also wearing a black suit and tall hat with a black walking stick.
"My name is Zhuo Lin, the head examiner for the second round of assessment. First, I would like to congratulate all of you who got through this on the first try," he said to them. Zhuo Lin then looked at the people and raised an eyebrow, "I can't believe that there are still 10,000 people, Old Xu disappointed me… It seems like I'll have to decrease that number below 50% in this round…"
Although he said the last sentence in a whisper, all the participants heard him loud and clear. Everyone was getting anxious.
"Don't worry about what I said," Zhuo Lin stroked his mustache with a sinister look on his face. "Compared to the other head examiners, I'm considered quite gentle. I've never liked violence."
"Isn't that even scarier…" Lin Huang thought to himself.
Many had puzzled looks on their faces. Apparently, they had the same thoughts as Lin Huang. However, some innocent participants were relieved because they believed what the head examiner said.
"The content of assessment that I have prepared is very gentle," Zhuo Lin proceeded. After a quick look around, he said, "It's very simple. We're doing a treasure hunt."
"Hunting for treasures is a basic skill hunters should possess, and it is not limited to Treasure Hunters only. Normal hunters should possess detective and searching skills for items and people. Through this process, many of your abilities will be upgraded and strengthened. This is why we are doing a treasure hunt."
Everyone opened their eyes wide so that they did not miss anything important.
"This is what I want all of you to find," Zhuo Lin said loudly. He then took out a black crystal from his storage space and held it up high.
It was a black crystal size of a thumb and it seemed muddy. It also did not look like a valuable crystal. However, many frowned at its size. An item that was the size of a thumb would be hard to find even if it was placed in a common home. It would take a lot of time to look for it.
"Since we have too many people here and we have limited time, I won't be passing this around. Come closer to look, do not touch it with your hands. You're only allowed to look with your eyes." As Zhuo Lin instructed the participants, he took out a jewelry stand and placed it on the stand. He then stood aside. Many rushed to the stand to observe it immediately.
Lin Huang did not move forward. From where he stood, he activated Boundless Vision to observe from a distance. He could see clearly as if it were in front of his face. The black crystal did not look like a mineral crystal, and it did not have the structure of a crystal as well. It seemed more like an amber resin or plastic. Of course, Lin Huang could not be sure about the information as nobody was allowed to touch it. Half an hour later, all the people had seen it at a close distance. When they were not many people around, Lin Huang stood closer and observed the crystal with Boundless Vision . He did not see anything new.
"Alright, since you guys have observed it, you should know what it is by now," Zhuo Lin kept the item. "Now, I'm to tell you what the mission objective is."
The crowded hall suddenly became silent as everyone was afraid that they would miss an important bit of information. They stared at Zhuo Lin without blinking. After all, many of the head examiners in the Hunter Association had the bad habit of not repeating anything they said. If they missed anything, they might not get actual information without risk of being sabotaged if they were to ask other participants.
"The mission is simple. Find the black crystal that I showed you," Zhuo Lin smirked while he looked at the anxious faces of the participants'. He seemed to be enjoying himself.
"The test field includes the entire area of Beixuan City. The item is located inside the city, and don't waste your time looking for it outside the city. I have placed 5,000 pieces of this crystal within the city. As there are more than 11,000 of you who passed the first round of assessment, more than half of you here will be disqualified."
"The assessment time will be 48 hours. Within 48 hours, you will pass the assessment if you come to me with the black crystal that is exactly the same as the one I showed you."
"I will be waiting in this hall for the next 48 hours. As soon as you find the item, you can pass it to me at any time you want. Even if it is in the middle of the night, just come to me. Don't worry about my sleep," he explained.
Zhuo Lin finally told them all the details of the second round of assessment. Many of them were frowning when they heard this. To find a crystal that was the size of a thumb in a B-grade foothold was like looking for a needle in a haystack. It was more difficult as they would now have to complete it within 48 hours.
"There's something that I must emphasize. The 5,000 pieces of black crystals have my personal markings etched on them. So if you would like to replicate your own, I'm advising you not to do it. If I find out that any of the crystals do not belong to me, you will be blacklisted and will not be able to join any hunter assessments for the next three years," Zhuo Lin warned.
"Sir, can't you give us a tip? Otherwise, wouldn't this all be based on our luck?" A female participant asked. Many of them wanted to ask the same question but none of them had the courage to ask. All of them then looked at Zhuo Lin.
"Of course there's a tip, and it's simple - Weed," Zhuo Lin said cheerfully. He then looked at the time and said, "It's 8:51 a.m. now, let's round it up at 9 a.m. Within 48 hours, which is before 9 a.m. the day after tomorrow, those who manage to get the crystal into my hand will pass this round of assessment."
"I have given you all the information you need. If you have other questions, solve it yourself. Now, I shall announce the official start of the second assessment!"
All 11,000 participants rushed out of the Hunter Association as Zhuo Lin spoke. After everyone had left, the head examiner of the first assessment walked into the hall.
"That's quite a crowd, what kind of mission did you give them? They seemed to be rushing," Xu Jinpeng asked while smiling.
"Weed," Zhuo Lin laughed as he said.
"Oh no, why did you do that. What if none of them passed the assessment?" Xu Jinpeng asked. He was shocked and sympathetic to the candidates because knew what Zhuo Lin meant by weed.
"We won't have any new members this year then," Zhuo Lin laughed again.
Chapter 160: Weed Technology?
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The tip for the second assessment was 'Weed'. Many of them rushed to the areas with weeds after they headed out of the Hunter Association. After all, they were only given 48 hours and based on their numbers, slots in the next round of the assessment were limited to whoever found a black crystal. The mission was simple, whichever candidate managed to find a crystal they would pass the assessment.
For the past couple of hours, many residents saw peculiar scenes of people looking for stuff in the weeds. Many young people were engrossed in the hunt for the crystals in the weeds. They did not only look for it in public areas, but many invaded private properties too. Usually, digging up the weeds would be a good thing but once they found out that the black crystal was not where they were looking, they would leave a mess behind. Many of the government cleaning staff were angered by their behavior.
Some people took videos and uploaded them to the network with the rumors that there were treasures in Beixuan City and some unknown organization was looking for the treasures. Many saw and believed in the rumor and joined the treasure hunt as well. The city was suddenly crowded with people. However, some of the participants did not dig out the weeds around them.
Once the mission was out, Lin Huang knew that it would not be that simple. The tip, 'Weed' was definitely the weeds growing on the land around them but if that was the case, there would be no meaning to the assessment. There were 5,000 pieces of black crystals around, as long as they head out and searched the area, the probability of finding it was quite high. However, such digging did not require any detective skills.
As he watched the rest running around the place, Lin Huang browsed through the Heart Network searching for any information with the keyword 'Weed'. He wanted to know if there was another meaning to this word. However, he did not find any unique definition of the word after browsing through a couple of pages. He frowned and entered the keywords 'Beixuan City' and 'Weed' as he wanted to see if there was any relation between the two keywords. To his dismay, all he saw were rumors about treasure in the city that were uploaded by the people.
Lin Huang shook his head. As he proceeded to browse through the network, one bit of news caught his attention.
"Weed Technology in Beixuan City, a company specializing in the development of cleaning utensils…"
"Weed Technology?" Lin Huang raised an eyebrow as he looked up the company. He did not find much information about the company after doing some searching. It was a small company with less than 20 people. It developed a variety of cleaning agents and tools, and they did not even have their own factory. That was all that he managed to find on the network.
"Seems like I'll have to do a site inspection," Lin Huang smirked. It was 9:40 a.m. when Lin Huang appeared at the entrance of the Weed Technology site with his features hidden so he would not raise any suspicions. He now looked like a middle-aged man in his 40s, and he looked serious with an 80% similarity to Xu Jinpeng, the head examiner of the preliminary assessment. With his clean black suit, he looked intimidating.
The security guard of the company was an old uncle, and he did not hesitate when he saw Lin Huang. The old man got up and said, "May I know who you are?"
"I'm from the Reviews Board, and I would like to see your boss."
The Reviews Board in this world was similar to Audit Board on Earth. However, the jurisdiction of the Reviews Board was wider. Aside from accounts, they also looked into product safety, waste pollution and so on. Most of the companies were very respectful to people like the staff of the Review Board.
"Hold on please," the security guard said as he dialed a number to the reception. After the call was hung up, the door opened. Lin Huang walked in with confidence. Since he was on the Review Board, the security guard did not dare to check his ID as he did not want to offend Lin Huang. Just when he stepped into a door, he was welcomed by a lady in his 30s.
"Hi, I am Bai. I am the boss' secretary. May I know how I should address you?"
"By my surname, Xu," Lin Huang used the head examiner's surname as well.
"Mr. Xu, our company has undergone a review two months ago. Since you are here, was there a problem with the first review?" Secretary Bai asked doubtfully.
"It's the end of the year and we do spot checks. We randomly decided to review your company. Don't worry, just bring me to your boss," Lin Huang replied firmly with a short answer, as a Review Board member would.
"As our company hasn't been busy these past few days, my boss is usually late to the office. Please take a seat in the meeting room, I will get him here as soon as possible." Secretary Bai escorted Lin Huang to the meeting room and left after serving him some tea.
While he relaxed in the meeting room with the tea, Lin Huang thought about what he would do when the boss was here. 10 minutes later, a plump middle-aged man opened the door to the meeting room, sweating profusely.
"I'm sorry to keep you waiting, please follow me to my office."
Lin Huang nodded and followed the man to his office on the second floor. He sat on the couch before the man, without so much as a request.
Secretary Bai placed a cup of tea on the table and left, closing the door behind her.
"Erm, Mr. Xu, may I know what this review is about?" The plump boss looked at Lin Huang while wiping away his sweat.
Lin Huang smirked as a mask was being made on his hand with Mask - Control . He then placed the mask on his face, and he now had the boss' face over his own. The man was in shock.
"Tell me your name," Lin Huang asked his first question.
"Zhang Peng," The boss answered without hesitating.
"What's your family like?" Lin Huang asked.
"I'm divorced with two kids. My son is 11 and my daughter is eight," Zhang Peng did not stutter or put up a fight.
"What's your relationship with Mrs. Bai, your secretary?"
"We are secretly a couple, and she has a husband," Zhang Peng answered honestly.
After asking two personal questions, Lin Huang confirmed that he had full control of Zhang Peng. He then asked what he really wanted to ask.
"Where can I find the black crystal in your company?" Lin Huang showed him the image that he took of the crystal earlier.
Zhang Peng looked at the image and shook his head, "I've never seen such thing."
Lin Huang frowned as he heard Zhang Peng's answer.
"He's the boss but he doesn't know about it, maybe he's not related to the 'Weed' that the head examiner was talking about?" Lin Huang thought.
He then proceeded to ask a couple of questions that were related to the crystal but Zhang Peng could not answer him. It seemed like he completely had no idea what that black crystal was.
"If he has no idea, could it be related to his staff?" Lin Huang questioned himself but he refused to give in. After some thinking, he summoned the Demonic Dandelion Vine. The shrunken Demonic Dandelion Vine looked like a bloody baby snake wrapped around Lin Huang's left arm.
"lnfect all the staff in this company with parasites and get them to bring me the black crystal," Lin Huang instructed the Demonic Dandelion Vine.
Soon, a purple flower grew out of the vine and more than 10 leech pods were spread onto the targets' bodies. Lin Huang then noticed that all of them standing up from their seats and wandered around aimlessly. The hosts had lost their purpose. If any of them knew about the black crystal, they would not look like that.
"Alright, release the hosts." After observing the scene, Lin Huang was sure that this company had nothing to do with his assessment. The word 'Weed' in the company name could have just been a coincidence. He walked to the window, and while he was considering whether he should remove the mask before leaving, Secretary Bai knocked on the door.
"Boss, there's somebody here for you. He said he's from the Review Board as well…" As she said the words, she looked at Lin Huang curiously. All she could see was the back of his head.
Through the window, Lin Huang could see the person who was stopped by the security guard. It was a familiar face.
"Bai Yan?" Didn't he become a Copper Hunter straightaway with his special pass? Why did he join the assessment again?" Lin Huang raised his eyebrow with his lips slightly parted.
Meanwhile, Zhang Peng who was sitting at the table spoke, "Tell him that I'm busy today, I don't have the time to see him. Ask him to come some other day."
Secretary Bai was stunned but she left anyway. Soon, Bai Yan left unwillingly after the security guard told him to.
Lin Huang then walked to Zhang Peng and said, "You'll feel sleepy now and you'll want to fall asleep. You'll fall into a deep sleep in 10 seconds. When you wake up, you'll only remember that the people from the Review Board had completed the review and you will forget the rest…"
Awhile later, Zhang Peng fell asleep on the table. It was the first time Lin Huang found out how powerful the mask was. Not only could it control one's behavior, it could even alter one's memory and the alteration was non-reversible even if the user lost control. After removing the mask, Lin Huang left Zhang Peng's office.
When he got to the first floor, Secretary Bai approached him immediately, "How was it, Mr. Xu?"
"The review has been done. There's no issue, I shall be making a move now," Lin Huang nodded.
"The man earlier said he was from the Review Board as well, is he your colleague?" Secretary Bai could not help but ask.
"How is it possible that a Reviews Board staff member is less than 20 years old? It's obvious, didn't you notice?" Lin Huang asked her back, "Next time if you see anyone who says they are from the Review Board, don't forget to check their ID. If it's fake, call us and report it."
Lin Huang left as soon as he finished speaking. Secretary Bai was confused. She then recalled that she did not check Lin Huang's ID…