Chapter 1121: 7-vs-3
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
"As expected, it's futile killing that the Multi-eyed Worm." Although what happened was expected, Lin Huang felt rather helpless upon seeing the two bug monsters 'resurrected' perfectly.
The battle became a 3-vs-7 one again as soon as the Multi-eyed Worm and the Superbrain Worm resurrected. It was like a cycle that could not be broken.
However, the three God Figurine's Combat Souls were still in high spirits. They did not lose their faith just yet because the few bug monsters resurrected again and again. Lin Huang had already told them secretly that the number of the resurrections was limited to three to five times at the most.
The seven bug monsters began learning their lesson from the battle that they had lost twice.
They mainly targeted the Nightmare Tapir now because its dreamland was just too powerful. Even the Superbrain Worm, a monster with a compelling soul, was hit when it had its guards down. They had to be wary of the Nightmare Tapir's technique now.
To defend themselves from the Nightmare Tapir's attack, the Superbrain Worm performed a few divine skill techniques as soon as it was resurrected. It covered all of the bug monsters including itself.
Lin Huang was watching the battle aside. He faintly guessed that this should not be a defense technique, but was most probably divine skill techniques targeting the Nightmare Tapir.
As expected, a layer of white glow appeared on the seven bug monsters' bodies as if a fog was lingering around them while the Nightmare Tapir's pupils turned black. They were not dragged into the Nightmare Tapir's dreamland, and their movements were not affected at all. Instead, they attacked the Nightmare Tapir directly.
The Superbrain Worm, the control bug, and the Multi-eyed Worm performed a spiritual attack on the Nightmare Tapir at the same time. They ignored the Ninetails Lynx and the Destructive Divine Mammoth completely.
The Ninetails Lynx went after the three bug monsters in the attempt to stop them from attacking the Nightmare Tapir. However, it was blocked by the Dragnet Worm's white thread web that it spat continuously.
It mauled with its sharp claws continuously, hewing the web again and again. Unfortunately, it was slower than the rate of the Dragnet Worm spitting webs.
Since there was no need to catch the Ninetails Lynx's trajectory, all it needed to do was to protect the Superbrain Worm and the other two bug monsters. It dominated the battle against the Ninetails Lynx.
The Ninetails Lynx began its long-distance attack since it failed to break through. Sharp air blades appeared with its mauling, but they were blocked by the threads the Dragnet Worm was spitting out.
On the other side, the Destructive Divine Mammoth was stuck with two bug monsters. One was attacking him from far away while another was attacking him at close range.
The six-winged bug monster that was entirely green attacked the Destructive Divine Mammoth by relying on its upper hand in speed. The continuous attack that felt like a housefly buzzing around annoyed the Destructive Divine Mammoth to no end.
The other bug monster that looked like a toad attacked from a distance whereby it would shoot saliva-like arrows. Although its attack could not harm the Destructive Divine Mammoth, the impact of it surprised it. Moreover, the timing of each of its attack was perfect which made the Destructive Divine Mammoth retreat and fail to help the Nightmare Tapir.
Meanwhile, the last six-armed sword-legged sword cultivator bug monster did not participate in the battle. Instead, it fixed its eyes on the Nightmare Tapir far away from the battle.
Its six sword arms were integrating at a speed that could be seen with naked eyes. They became a bloody-red single arm. The single arm was also a sword arm, it was red as if it was soaked in blood.
As a sword cultivator himself, Lin Huang sensed the change in the bug monster's aura. He could not help but have a grim expression now.
"That sword looks powerful. It's almost on the brink of level-6 Sword Dao! Furthermore, this sword feels like it can attack one's soul directly." Lin Huang's pupils shrunk when he noticed that.
That sword really might be able to kill God Figurine's Combat Souls!
Without much hesitation, Lin Huang sent a sea of spiritual energy into the Nightmare Tapir's body.
The Sword Dao in the sword cultivator bug monster was rising. On the other side, the Nightmare Tapir's combat strength experienced a continuous breakthrough from the sea of spiritual energy that Lin Huang sent.
Within a short few seconds, it elevated from Virtual God rank-5 to Virtual God rank-6 and then proceeded to Virtual God rank-7.
The Nightmare Tapir swung its trunk and released a raging roar.
The loud noise spread like ripples on water. The three bug monsters spat a mouthful of blood out while their spiritual aurae plummeted.
The Nightmare Tapir attacked the Superbrain Worm and the other two bug monsters as soon as its spiritual energy rose by two ranks. When it was on Virtual God rank-5, its spirit was already no less than the Superbrain Worm and the rest. However, it was suppressed by the trio's combined attack. Its spirit surpassed the three bug monsters since its combat strength had been upgraded by two ranks. Naturally, it would not let go of the opportunity to fight back. It released a sea of spiritual energy out like a tsunami, suppressing the three bug monsters by force.
The sword cultivator bug monster sensed the Nightmare Tapir's combat strength elevation from far away. It saw the Superbrain Worm and the two other bug monsters being hurt, but it did not panic at all because it was confident in its sword.
Just when its sword was fully charged and it was about to swing it, the Nightmare Tapir turned its head all of a sudden and stared at it with its black pupils.
The sword cultivator bug monster charged with its sword without hesitation. A crimson sword glow lit up like a bloody river flowing in the air.
In the next second, the Superbrain Worm and the other two bug monsters were drowned in the river and crushed into mush.
The sword cultivator bug monster stood where it was without moving in its previous stance. It resembled a sculpture now.
"That sword strike was really powerful! It was almost at the brink of level-6 Sword Dao. Unfortunately, it encountered the Nightmare Tapir," Lin Huang could not help but exclaim.
No matter how powerful the sword cultivator bug monster's ability was, its spirit was still too weak. It was far below the Superbrain Worm and the rest, so it was hypnotized when it encountered the Nightmare Tapir who could suppress the Superbrain Worm and the rest. It did not even realize that it was hypnotized the second the Nightmare Tapir turned around.
When it was hypnotized, it saw the three bug monsters as the Nightmare Tapir. That was how Lin Huang witnessed it decimating the three bug monsters.
After getting rid of the Superbrain Worm and the other two, he hypnotized the sword cultivator bug monster again and released a long roar with its head thrown back before the three dead bug monsters could be resurrected.
A sound wave spread thousands of times faster than the speed of sound. It spread through the Dragnet Worm and the other two bug monsters' bodies. Without the ability to fight back, they turned into hypnotized puppets.
Just when the Nightmare Tapir was done with that, the Superbrain Worm and the other two bug monsters' carcasses had disintegrated completely and recovered.
Lin Huang, who was watching the battle from far away, could not help but smirk when he saw the three beasts being 'resurrected' again. He revealed a teasing smirk.
"It was 3-vs-7 before, but it's finally 7-vs-3 now."
Chapter 1122: The Trial Ends
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The Superbrain Worm, the control bug and the Multi-eyed Worm noticed that the other four bug monsters were hypnotized as soon as they were resurrected.
The Superbrain Worm sent its thought to the other two bug monsters' heads. In the next second, the three bug monsters released a spiritual wave at the four bug monsters that were being hypnotized at the same time in an attempt to wake them up.
Under the Superbrain Worm's lead, the spiritual wave spread out like an ocean wave. It pierced through the four hypnotized bug monsters' bodies.
However, the four bug monsters stood where they were without giving any response.
Clearly, the round of attempt was futile.
The Nightmare Tapir's spiritual energy had surpassed so much compared to the Superbrain Worm and the rest since it elevated two ranks up. Its hypnotization could not be shaken even though the Superbrain Worm and the rest worked together on the attack.
the Nightmare Tapir did not give them a second chance to their attempt, whereby he controlled the four bug monsters to attack the Superbrain Worm and the rest.
the Dragnet Worm and the rest of the three bug monsters that were hypnotized looked at the Superbrain Worm and the rest as if they were in a frenzy just like how they saw the Ninetails Lynx and other God Figurine's Combat Souls before. They could not wait to tear them into pieces.
The Dragnet Worm spat threads out one after another and constructed a web in the air. It went after the Superbrain Worm and the rest again and again. Although it did not manage to capture them, it brought great trouble to the three of them.
The bug monsters that looked like a toad spat arrows out like a machine gun, forcing them to dodge its attacks without even stopping for a second.
While the both of them were attacking at close range, six-winged bug monsters and sword cultivator bug monsters were chasing after them.
The Superbrain Worm and the rest looked extremely clumsy while they were attacked by the four bug monsters.
Compared to the God Figurine's Combat Souls who had powerful bodies which were immune to those bug monsters' physical attacks, the Superbrain Worm and the rest only had mediocre bodies among Virtual God rank-9 powerhouses. They could not handle the attacks forcefully. All they could do was to dodge clumsily and retreat.
Before the Destructive Divine Mammoth and the Ninetails Lynx joined the battle, the Superbrain Worm and the rest had already been suppressed and fell into defeat.
However, the Destructive Divine Mammoth and the Ninetails Lynx did not want to play the cat-and-mouse game. They soon joined the battle.
The Destructive Divine Mammoth performed its usual brutal suppression whereby it stomped its gigantic feet in the air one after another.
Hovering in the air, the Ninetails Lynx appeared without anyone seeing it coming it the battlefield like a specter.
Not long after the two God Figurine's Combat Souls joined the battle, the Ninetails Lynx caught the Multi-eyed Worm's weakness and mauled it, tearing the air.
Pitch-black slices scratched the Multi-eyed Worm's body, slicing it into half.
As soon as the Multi-eyed Worm was killed, the other two bug monsters fell into an even more difficult situation.
Within a minute, the Superbrain Worm and the control bug were crushed into mush by the Destructive Divine Mammoth one after another.
In less than ten seconds after the three bug monsters were dead, their carcasses vanished and they were 'resurrected' again.
The Superbrain Worm changed its strategy when it was resurrected.
It performed its divine skill immediately, and a white rune halo appeared before it. It combined the control bug and the Multi-eyed Worm's spiritual energy into it.
As soon as the white rune halo lit up, the white glow that shot out of it was targeted at Lin Huang who was outside the battlefield.
Even Lin Huang figured its attack was aimed at him this time.
The white glow was alarmingly fast. Lin Huang did not plan to dodge since he knew that it was too late for him to do that. Instead, he had his eyes on the Ninetails Lynx that was not far away.
The Ninetails Lynx vanished from where it was and appeared on Lin Huang's shoulder. Lin Huang then vanished from where he was.
Almost at the same second, the white glow drowned the spot where Lin Huang had been standing earlier.
The Ninetails Lynx joined the battle again after leaving Lin Huang in the alternate dimension.
The Superbrain Worm's attack that was aiming for Lin Huang enraged the three God Figurine's Combat Souls.
In less than a minute, the Superbrain Worm and the other two bug monsters were killed once again. The Destructive Divine Mammoth seemed to be still in rage after killing the three bug monsters. It stomped its iron feet on the carcasses and turned them into three piles of mush.
A moment later, the carcasses disappeared again. the Superbrain Worm and the rest were resurrected again.
"This is the fourth time they've resurrected. They should have hit the limit anytime soon." Lin Huang had been keeping track of the number of times they resurrected.
This time, the Superbrain Worm was still determined. It had its target on Lin Huang again.
It moved its tentacles slightly and its divine skill was activated. Golden arrows shot out like a meteor shower.
The Ninetails Lynx saw that and glared at the Superbrain Worm in disdain before dragging Lin Huang into its alternate dimension again.
However, the golden arrows went into the alternate dimension as soon as the human and monster entered it. That was out of Lin Huang and the Ninetails Lynx's expectations.
The Ninetails Lynx brought Lin Huang out of the alternate dimension immediately. The up to a hundred arrows pierced out of the dimension too, they were locking on Lin Huang.
the Ninetails Lynx decided to stop dodging. It turned into a white glow and charged. The white glow sparkled hundreds of times in the air within a split second. The golden arrows exploded almost at the same time. Golden sparkes lit the air like fireworks, illuminating the sky.
After the Ninetails Lynx was done solving the crisis, the Superbrain Worm was the only bug monster that lived among the three.
In a flash, the Ninetails Lynx appeared above the Superbrain Worm's head. It mauled its egg-like head.
The Superbrain Worm's plan failed again, and the three bug monsters were killed on the spot again.
A couple of seconds later, the three bug monsters resurrected again. It was the fifth time the Multi-eyed Worm activated the skill. 13 of its eyes had exploded, and that was almost half of the eyes it possessed.
However, the Ninetails Lynx attacked the Superbrain Worm before it could do anything.
Black slices appeared in the air as a result of its mauling that came without hesitation. They were going after the Superbrain Worm.
To its dismay, it could not do anything as soon as they killed it.
The Superbrain Worm did not expect the Ninetails Lynx to not give it any opportunity to attack this time. It thought it could try other ways to kill Lin Huang, but it seemed impossible now.
It wanted to get the other two bug monsters to attack Lin Huang, but the Nightmare Tapir had already controlled the Dragnet Worm and the other three bug monsters to attack the Multi-eyed Worm and the control bug.
The Destructive Divine Mammoth joined the battle almost at the same time.
Since then, the Superbrain Worm did not get any opportunity to attack Lin Huang at all.
The round of battle went on for less than three minutes. The control bug, the Multi-eyed Worm, and the Superbrain Worm were destroyed one after another.
Lin Huang and the rest waited for over ten seconds, but the three bug monsters' carcasses did not vanish. They were sure that it was the limit to the Multi-eyed Worm's skill.
After getting rid of the three most troublesome bug monsters, the Destructive Divine Mammoth and the Ninetails Lynx soon killed the four bug monsters that were hypnotized.
By then, the battle had finally ended. Lin Huang thought it should be the end of the additional trial.
However, an inconspicuous charcoal gray bug monster came out of the main hive all of a sudden after some ten seconds of silence. The bug monster popped its head out of the hive and looked at Lin Huang.
Lin Huang felt he was being dragged into another dimension the moment they locked eyes. An eye that he could not see was watching him in the dark. He could sense the eye above his head, but he could not move at all as if he was imprisoned by the dimension.
However, a loud voice came out of nowhere at the moment, shaking the entire place.
Lin Huang felt he was falling at an alarming speed. Soon, he realized he was back where he was when he snapped back to reality.
"The trial has ended! We'll send you the results later." The male voice from before echoed abruptly.
Lin Huang looked at the time on his Emperor's Heart Ring with his head down. It was still 44 seconds before the 24-hour trial period should have ended.
"Didn't you say I had to fulfil the 24 hours?"
Chapter 1123: Club
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
One should usually stay on the 81st checkpoint for full 24 hours, but Lin Huang was kicked out of the trial space 44 seconds earlier before the trial ended officially.
He speculated that it was most probably related to that bug monster that had crawled out of the hive in the end.
Lin Huang realized he was on the top of the Stairway Tree when he was kicked out of the trial space. Although he was on the top of the tree, it was as large as a massive plaza to him.
He scanned through the plaza and soon saw a golden chest in the middle of the plaza not far away, so he walked toward it. He did not open it immediately when he arrived before the chest. Instead, he only observed it.
The chest did not look huge. It was just a similar size to a shoe box. It was completely golden with special sigils carved on it.
Lin Huang took a picture with his Emperor's Heart Ring to take a record of the sigils. He then reached his hand to the chest.
Full of curiosity, he opened the chest.
There was no special effect such as a golden glow throughout the process of opening the chest. There was no strange background music either. It was just like an ordinary box that was not locked, whereby he opened it like a piece of cake.
There was no treasure that he was expecting to find in the chest. There was only a golden card that looked like a greeting card lying at the bottom of the chest quietly. There was nothing else apart from that.
Lin Huang raised his brow when he saw the card. He stretched his arm out to grab the card at the bottom. He took the effort to see if there was anything covered under the card. However, he found out that he was overthinking it.
Full of doubts, Lin Huang unfolded the card in his hand.
There was only a single sentence written in black on it.
"Lin Huang, congratulations for passing the Club's trial. Would you like to be a part of the Club?"
Lin Huang was stunned to see his real name written on the card instead of Lin Xie. Clearly, his fake identity was not a secret to the Stairway Tree system.
Lin Huang put aside the matter about his identity being exposed and asked, "What's the Club?"
The sentence on the card disappeared the second he asked that. Another sentence was appearing.
"The Club is a special, secret organization founded to explore the unknown and go for the extreme. There are two conditions for picking Club members. Firstly, the member has to be human. Secondly, the member has to be a ridiculous genius."
"So, was it you guys who set the checkpoints on the Stairway Tree? And one would only be eligible to join the Club after passing all checkpoints?" Lin Huang could not help but enquire further.
"Yes."
The words on the card changed again.
"So, how many members are there at the moment?" Lin Huang was curious. After all, he had gone through the difficulties on the Stairway Tree and was the only one in the gravel world that he was currently in who had broken through all the checkpoints throughout the hundreds of years.
"Not many. We only have 359 members at the moment."
"Only over 300 members in the entire great world?!" Lin Huang did not expect the number to be so low. Although he knew very well how hard it was to break through the Stairway Tree checkpoints, one must know that the great world connected to up to ten thousands of complete mini worlds. As for gravel worlds, there were millions or even tens of millions of them.
"No, it's in the entire universe."
The answer on the card shocked Lin Huang.
He had no idea how large was the universe exactly. He only knew that the great world was a part of the universe. "Are there only over 300 members in the entire universe?!"
Lin Huang only snapped back to his senses a long time later. He asked immediately, "So what are the benefits of joining this Club?"
"1. You can trade with other members and exchange resources.
"2. You can participate in the gatherings, exchanging things you've learned from cultivation.
"3. You can get the members to help you whenever you encounter some troubles."
Lin Huang jolted when he heard the third benefit and asked immediately, "What's the highest combat strength a member has in the Club?"
"That's confidential!"
"If I agree to join, what's my standard of ability in the Club?" Lin Huang proceeded to ask in a testing manner. He was playing with his words, asking about his ability instead of his combat strength.
"The weakest. Nobody is below you."
Lin Huang was shocked for a moment. "What do I need to do if I join it?"
"You don't need to do anything. All members are definitely free to do anything they want. You never have to log into the Club even if you join it. However, your name will be erased if you don't log in for a hundred years."
"What if I don't join it? What will happen to me?" Lin Huang asked again.
"Your memory about the Club will be erased."
"Are there no consequences?"
"No."
"Alright, I get it now." Lin Huang nodded and finally made up his mind after thinking to himself for a while. "I agree to join!"
A sentence that was written in black appeared on the card again.
"Lin Huang, congratulations for being an official Club member!" There was a 'x' inscribed at the right corner.
At that very moment, the greeting card he was holding in his hand turned into a golden glow just like stardust. It disappeared after penetrating his palm.
Just when he wanted to look into his body to see what had happened, a special message was imprinted in his head automatically. He understood all sorts of information about the Club now.
As he was digesting the information in his head, an announcement came into his ears before he was done reading. "Congratulations to the Deputy Chief of the Heaven Alliance, Lin Xie, for breaking through the 81st checkpoint on the Stairway Tree! He has broken the Stairway Tree's record and become the first person who has broken through all the checkpoints!"
The announcement was blasted on all the checkpoints on the Stairway Tree at the same time. All the online Genius Union members heard it loud and clear.
As the announcement came, three notifications popped onto everyone's Emperor's Heart Ring once after another.
Lin Huang's feat of breaking through the entire Stairway Tree struck discussions among many Genius Union members.
Every checkpoint on the Stairway Tree became crowded as almost everyone was talking about Lin Xie's achievement.
"Holy moly! He broke through the entire Stairway Tree!"
"Before today, I've always naively thought that nobody in this world would break through the entire Stairway Tree. Never have I thought I'd get a tight slap in the face so hard that you can hear the slapping sound…"
"I thought I was dreaming just now. I was just wondering why would I dream about Lin Xie considering that I'm a man. It turns out that I'm not dreaming!"
"I think I saw someone opening a bet this morning that the odds are 1:10,000 on Lin Xie breaking through the entire Stairway Tree. I'm wondering if the maker is still alive."
"Hey, commenter above, I'm the maker, and I'm still breathing. Indeed, I opened a 1:10,000 wager, but fortunately, nobody bet on that. Otherwise, I might have to pawn myself to pay the debts."
"Eh, are you sure you want to pawn yourself? You're not some hot chick with big boobs. Look at my disgusted face ﾍ(;´Д｀ﾍ)"
Chapter 1124: Rewards for Breaking Through
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
"Congratulations to the Deputy Chief of the Heaven Alliance, Lin Xie, for breaking through the 79th checkpoint and breaking the Stairway Tree record!
"Congratulations to the Deputy Chief of the Heaven Alliance, Lin Xie, for breaking through the 80th checkpoint and breaking the Stairway Tree record!
"Congratulations to the Deputy Chief of the Heaven Alliance, Lin Xie, for breaking through the 81st checkpoint and breaking the Stairway Tree record!
"Congratulations to the Deputy Chief of the Heaven Alliance, Lin Xie, for breaking the Stairway Tree record. You're rewarded with a Godhead (Virtual God rank-9)!
"Congratulations to the Deputy Chief of the Heaven Alliance, Lin Xie, for breaking the Stairway Tree record. You're rewarded with a Godhead (Virtual God rank-9)!
"Congratulations Lin Xie for breaking through all checkpoints on the Stairway Tree. You're rewarded with a soul marrow (first-rank True God-level)!
"Congratulations Lin Xie for breaking through all checkpoints on the Stairway Tree. You're rewarded with a World Tree Seed!"
…
"Congratulations, Lin Xie, for breaking through all checkpoints on the Stairway Tree. You've won a treasure draw! Would you like to draw your prize now?"
Lin Huang was stunned to see the last reward and could not help but chuckle. "A treasure draw, eh? Did it learn that from Xiao Hei?"
However, he was very experienced at drawing prizes. He crushed a Lucky Card and only pressed the 'yes' button after waiting for the card to integrate into his body entirely.
A three-dimensional question mark popped up on Lin Huang's Emperor's Heart Ring after he pushed the button.
The question mark began spinning quickly. It was so quick that Lin Huang could not catch it as various items were being swapped.
A red 'stop' button appeared before his eyes abruptly.
He stared at the projection for a long time. He only pressed the 'stop' button after confirming that he could not tell what item was being swapped before him.
The question mark turned into an item that looked like a giant hive the moment he pressed the button.
'What's that?' Just when doubt popped into Lin Huang's mind, a notification popped up on his Emperor's Heart Ring again.
"Congratulations for drawing a galactic hive, Lin Xie!"
"What?!" Lin Huang was stunned to see the notification. He had no idea that he could draw a galactic hive.
However, the item looked more like a blown-up bee hive. Its diameter was around a meter, and it was totally different from the galactic hive that he had seen before.
Just when Lin Huang was thinking of putting it away, the beehive-like galactic hive turned into a black glow and penetrated his body directly.
He gazed into his body immediately. As expected, the hive began growing rapidly after penetrating his body. Although it was not as big as the main hive that was comparable to Earth that he saw the last time, it was no smaller than the two moon-sized affiliate hives.
"I guess I can even kill people just by summoning this thing since it's so humongous!" He then looked at the other rewards after snapping back to reality.
Godheads were nothing new to him. He could refine it to elevate his combat strength.
It was Lin Huang's first time hearing about the soul marrow and the World Tree Seed. Although he went over vast knowledge back in the Hunter College, he had no idea what those two items were.
He took out the soul marrow which was a blue crystal that looked a little like a cerulean precious stone. However, it contained liquid and resembled a starry night that was flowing slowly inside.
Lin Huang could feel that this item contained endless spiritual energy.
"Stone tablet, what's this soul marrow?" Asking whenever he had question had always been a good habit of his.
"This thing is similar to a soul jewel but is different. Soul jewels can only be consolidated after a spirit-type powerhouse is dead. However, the soul marrow is created slowly by the remnant of spiritual energy from a specific environment after the powerhouse has died.
"If you must tell them apart, a soul jewel's energy is more overbearing and the density of spiritual energy is higher. Meanwhile, the soul marrow is milder and has powerful healing effect when one's soul is damaged," explained the stone tablet after thinking about it.
"That means Sister Mo Mo can use it." Lin Huang thought about Wu Mo as soon as he was done listening to the explanation.
After putting the soul marrow away, he took the World Tree Seed out. It was an inconspicuous gray seed the size of his little finger. There was a layer of tiny scaly patterns covering it, and it looked like an ordinary seed.
"This is… a World Tree Seed?!" The stone tablet's voice sounded a little shocked.
"Do you know about the World Tree Seed?" Lin Huang asked immediately.
"Of course I do. Every human being in the great world knows this." The stone tablet felt its explanation was not quite descriptive enough, so it added, "Every living thing besides humans know this."
"It sounds like a very valuable treasure." Lin Huang's eyes lit up when he heard that.
"The World Tree Seed, obviously, is the seed of the World Tree. In reality, the World Tree isn't considered a plant, but a unique living thing created by time and space. It's similar to a heavenly god-level powerhouse's sequence chain. However, it's naturally made instead of having been refined. The main function of the World Tree is to consolidate the World Fruit. Each fruit is the equivalent of an ownerless gravel world."
"The fruit is a gravel world?!" Lin Huang thought it was ridiculous. "So, what's the function of those gravel worlds?"
"When one arrives on virtual god-level and builds their God Territory successfully, one can integrate their God Territory with the gravel world to strengthen their God Territory. The more gravel worlds are integrated, the more powerful the God Territory becomes. Especially after god order-level and god sequence-level, the more gravel worlds are integrated, the more powerful one's God Territory's rule power and sequence power would be."
"So, the World Tree is like a hen that lays eggs," Lin Huang concluded, "The god-level powerhouses needed to eat the eggs it laid for nutrition."
"Yes. Integrating the World Tree would be equivalent to owning a hen that lays eggs, whereby you don't have to spend money to buy eggs," the stone tablet explained using the same metaphor, "So, you'll only need to feed your hen and get it to lay eggs continuously."
"But in order for it to bear fruit that's like gravel worlds, I'll need a sea of resources to cultivate the World Tree. Am I right?" Lin Huang soon realized the key problem.
"Yes, that's the biggest disadvantage of the World Tree. It needs endless resources to be cultivated," the stone tablet admitted that while smiling.
"But it doesn't bring any disadvantages for you to cultivate it. All you need to do is to toss the seed in for integration when you build your God Territory. You won't need to feed it resources intentionally after that since it doesn't die or take your resources away on its own. It'll grow when you feed it resources. Otherwise, its growth will stagnate if you don't feed it. You can feed it resources when you really need to. As long as there're enough resources, it can grow a World Fruit within a few days."
"Is it that magical?" Lin Huang was a little motivated upon hearing that.
"The World Tree isn't a plan, but a cosmic wonder that's created by time and space. Don't treat it as an ordinary plant. Of course, it depends on you whether to integrate it or not. You can also sell it if it's trouble to you. Then, you should be able to get a good price for it."
"I'll think about it." Lin Huang did not make up his mind right away since he was still far away from elevating to virtual god-level.
It would take way too much resources to cultivate this thing, but it would bring many benefits if the cultivation was successful. Overall, there were pros and cons.
Chapter 1125: Lin Xie is Famous Again!
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After checking the rewards he obtained from the Stairway Tree, Lin Huang searched the entire plaza on top of the tree thoroughly. He only logged out after confirming there was nothing else there.
Just when he logged out, a couple of messages popped up on his Emperor's Heart Ring consecutively.
In just a glance, Lin Huang saw that they were sent by people he knew. Apart from Jian Fei and the rest from the Heaven Alliance, the siblings Yi Zheng and Yi Yeyu had sent him messages too. Clearly, all of them saw the notifications sent by Stairway Tree system.
The messages were basically congratulating him for breaking through the Stairway Tree. He sent a short reply to those messages.
The sense of exhaustion only kicked in when he was done replying. It had been over 60 hours since he last slept. Because he had to kill the monsters to break the checkpoints, he was in a tensed mode all the time. Finally, he could relax now.
Lin Huang did not fight the exhaustion that overcame him. Instead, he allowed himself to fall asleep.
In his deep slumber, he had no idea that the entire Genius Union was stirred because of his feat of defeating the entire Stairway Tree.
Not only did the number of online members on the Stairway Tree break the past record, but there were also countless topics created on the Stairway Tree forum. Almost all the topics on the first ten pages on the forum were about Lin Xie's breakthrough.
Even the forums including the Union Government, the Hunter Association, and the black markets were talking about Lin Xie.
The headlines on the media for the next day were changed as soon as they gotten the news. Lin Xie's name was the No. 1 topic on the social media sites that cultivators frequented.
Lin Huang only woke up past six next morning. After washing up, he realized Mr. Fu had called him last night. After checking the time, he did not call back because he thought it was too early.
He headed out for breakfast and went straight to the Emperor Palace. He only took the time to look at the news on the sites.
As soon as he launched the news page on his Emperor's Heart Ring, he saw the photo of him disguising as Lin Xie on the headlines. The title was 'The No. 1 Genius of the New Era — Lin Xie!'.
When he noticed that the number of clicks had surpassed 300 million, he realized he was famous again.
Had it been before, there would have been a aggresive debate about whether someone could be named the No. 1 genius.
However, now that the title was used on Lin Huang, there was not much opposition on all the social media sites and forums.
From Divisions 1 to 12, most people knew about the Genius Union as long as they came from cultivation clans or major organizations. They knew what kind of organization the Genius Union was.
Apart from the three core zones, the eligibility of entering the Genius Union was less than 1% even for those cultivation clans and major organizations' core members in the nine safety zones. Most of the young talents who were somewhat popular in the safety zones had insufficient ability to join the Genius Union. Therefore, being a Genius Union member, even just a normal one, would prove a person's ability.
As for the sockpuppet named Lin Xie that Lin Huang had been using, he had been a celebrity before he had even joined the Genius Union. Many people doubted him in the beginning due to his low combat strength. However, most people in the Genius Union were confident in his ability since he dismissed many doubts along the way. Those who loathed him had to admit that he had ridiculously powerful abilities since he broke through the 72nd checkpoint.
Some of the young talents in the safety zones who were not in the Genius Union were friends with the Genius Union members. Naturally, they would not dispute about Lin Xie since they basically heard the news about him from the Genius Union members.
Most of those who opposed him did not know much about him. In fact, some had never heard of the Genius Union. Those who claimed to have broken through a hundred checkpoints deleted their posts and went silent after seeing the content of the assessment.
The cultivators who did not know much about the Genius Union found out about it through the content of the Stairway Tree checkpoints on the Internet.
Many people began discussing and wondering how many checkpoints they could pass if they were to enter the Stairway Tree.
"I'm on immortal-level rank-9, but I think the most I can break through on the Stairway Tree would be over 30 checkpoints. I must admit that those who managed to break through the 63rd checkpoint are the real bosses (ó﹏ò｡)"
"I'm on immortal-level rank-7, but I don't think I can even pass the 29th checkpoint. That checkpoint is so difficult that I'm trembling ༼༎ຶᴗ༎ຶ༽"
"I'm on immortal-level rank-6. I don't think I can even pass the 23rd checkpoint, but I heard some of them from the Genius Union who have the same combat strength as me managed to pass more than 50 checkpoints (;´༎ຶД༎ຶ`)"
"I'm on immortal-level rank-3. I don't think I can even pass through the worm stage on the 4th checkpoint. I'm sorry. I'm a loser o(╥﹏╥)o"
…
After looking at the Heart Network, Lin Huang looked at the other social media sites and forums. He realized that almost all the topics were about him. He only read the threads with the most clicks. By then, it was past nine in the morning.
It was 9.08 a.m. when he closed the black market forum page. Lin Huang looked at the time before tapping the communication page open and calling Mr. Fu.
The call only rang for less than three seconds before the video call got through.
Mr. Fu wore a black top that looked similar to a traditional Chinese shirt. There were pale blue patterns printed on it, and he looked a little like an underground boss.
"My dear disciple, I heard you've broken through the Stairway Tree, eh?" Mr. Fu asked while smiling.
"Yes, I did," Lin Huang confirmed as if he had done something insignificant.
He thought Mr. Fu would ask him what kind of benefits he had obtained from his feat. However, Mr. Fu did not ask anything related to that.
Instead, he proceeded to say while smiling, "You're worthy of being my disciple. You deserve the title as the The No. 1 Genius of the New Era!"
Although Lin Huang had thick skin, he could not help but feel bashful when he was given such a direct compliment.
"Your combined ability is comparable to demigods since you managed to break through the Stairway Tree. So, what do you plan to do next?" Mr. Fu asked again.
"I'm planning to go into closed-door cultivation to advance all the way to imperial-level! I'll spend some time clearing what I have on my plate later on and head to the great world! After that, I'll head back to the gravel world before disaster strikes!"
Mr. Fu fell into silence for a moment and only spoke again a long time later, "Stay in the great world if you can't find any solutions to end the disaster."
He only opened his mouth when he wanted to say 'don't come back seeking for death'. However, he did not say it out loud as he was afraid that would backfire.
"I'll find a solution," Lin Huang promised with determination.
"If you're confident, then go ahead and do it!" Mr. Fu nodded while smiling and subsequently added with all seriousness, "But if you can't, don't force it."
Chapter 1126: Abundant Card Rewards
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After hanging up the call with Mr. Fu, Lin Huang looked into his body again.
Among the ten God Figurine's Combat Souls, the Shackle Serpent, the Creation Clock, and the Withered Flower had completed their evolution whereby they elevated all the way to Virtual God rank-3.
Out of all the remaining seven God Figurine's Combat Souls, the Nightmare Tapir had the highest combat strength which was Virtual God rank-6 (it was on Virtual God rank-7 in the battle earlier because of the Provisional Combat Strength Upgrade Card). The ones with the second-highest combat strength were the Ninetails Lynx and the Destructive Divine Mammoth that were both on Virtual God rank-4.
The Divine Sun Tree, the Enchanted Fairy, the Undead Styx, and the Death Butterfly were all on Virtual God rank-3.
Meanwhile, Lin Huang killed Virtual God rank-9 bug monsters a total of 23 times on the 81st checkpoint. He only used his spiritual energy once to elevate the Nightmare Tapir's combat strength from Virtual God rank-4 to the peak of Virtual God rank-6.
Lin Huang took the nine bug monsters' spiritual energy and gave them to the nine God Figurine's Combat Souls apart from the Nightmare Tapir.
Within a short few seconds, the combat strength of the nine God Figurine's Combat Souls skyrocketed all the way to Virtual God rank-6.
The spiritual energy from the bug monsters that were stored in Lin Huang's body was filtered by Divine Fire rapidly. It could be absorbed by the God Figurine's Combat Souls, and they did not even need to refine them like how they did for the soul crystals.
Moreover, the God Figurine's Combat Souls completed their transformation as soon as they reached virtual god-level. They did not need four hours of transformation whenever they were elevating their combat strength. They could absorb more spiritual energy like a piece of cake. They were like little pots that had been transformed into big buckets, whereby their capacity was upgraded tremendously.
Seeing that all ten God Figurine's Combat Souls in his body had elevated to Virtual God rank-6, Lin Huang penetrated the spiritual energy from the remaining 13 bug monsters into the God Figurine's Combat Souls' bodies to elevate their combat strength once again. The Nightmare Tapir, the Ninetails Lynx, and the Destructive Divine Mammoth had achieved Virtual God rank-8, while the Divine Sun Tree and the rest got to Virtual God rank-7.
After giving out all of the spiritual energy that was stored in his body, Lin Huang looked into the Sorcerer Goddess's blood. Wu Mo did not respond to him. She was clearly still sleeping.
Lin Huang took out the soul marrow and popped it into the Sorcerer Goddess's blood. Wu Mo's aura that was initially weak was now growing.
He waited for a while, but she remained sleeping as he sensed her aura stabilizing. He did not disturb her and soon snapped back to reality.
He looked into his body again and read Xiao Hei's notifications. Then, he began to calculate the rewards he had reaped from killing monsters on the Stairway Tree for the past few days.
Although he was not given any points on the 80th and 81st checkpoints, killing monsters gave him complete cards and card pieces. Moreover, Lin Huang used Lucky Cards and Double Reward Cards whenever he went through the checkpoints.
He looked at the complete cards he had obtained first. The truth proved that many complete cards fell from the checkpoints throughout the few days to the point that he could not see the end of the line when he opened the system notification.
"Congratulations, you've obtained complete Multi-eyed Worm Monster Card (Mythical-level) x2
"Congratulations, you've obtained complete Superbrain Worm Monster Card (Mythical-level) x2
"Congratulations, you've obtained complete Golden Bug Monster Card (Mythical-level) x2
"Congratulations, you've obtained complete Lady Black-stripe Monster Card (Pseudo-mythical-level) x318
"Congratulations, you've obtained complete Giant-bellied Spider Monster Card (Pseudo-mythical-level) x276
"Congratulations, you've obtained complete Scarlet-scimitar Bug Monster Card (Pseudo-mythical-level) x324"
…
"Congratulations, you've obtained complete Gigantic Heavy-armored Bug Monster Card (Legendary-level) x 26,512
"Congratulations, you've obtained complete Swift-winged Bug Monster Card (Legendary-level) x 28,356
"Congratulations, you've obtained complete Ten-Colors Bug Monster Card (Legendary-level) x 31,124"
…
"Congratulations, you've obtained Bug Tribe Airship (Mythical-level) x 12
"Congratulations, you've obtained Bug Tribe Bio-Battle Armor (Mythical-level) x 2"
…
Almost two hours later, Lin Huang finally read all of the records of the completed cards in the system.
There were six mythical-level cards and numerous pseudo-mythical-level cards. Altogether, there were over 30 types and up to 10,000 cards. There were also up to 1,000 types and over 30 million legendary-level cards.
Apart from that, there were all sorts of Item Cards.
There were 18 mythical-level items, over 1,000 pseudo-mythical-level items, and close to 100,000 legendary-level items.
Those were just complete cards.
Lin Huang knew very well that he might not have even gotten 1% of what he obtained if not for the Lucky Cards and Double Reward Cards he used.
He then looked at the card pieces that the system sorted out after going through the complete cards.
"You've obtained Control Bug card pieces (Mythical-level) x12
"You've obtained Six-winged Sword Bug card pieces (Mythical-level) x2"
…
"You've obtained Lady Black-stripe card pieces (Pseudo-mythical-level) x26,178
"You've obtained Giant-bellied Spider card pieces (Pseudo-mythical-level) x24,652"
…
"You've obtained Gigantic Heavy-armored Bug card pieces (Legendary-level) x5,302,898
"You've obtained Swift-winged Bug card pieces (Legendary-level) x5,809,614"
…
Due to the insufficient mythical-level and pseudo-mythical-level card pieces, he did lack enough to integrate them into Monster Cards. However, he had accumulated over 500,000 legendary-level complete Monster Cards from the card pieces alone.
Gawking at the sea of cards in his body, it was Lin Huang's first time being distracted by the insane amount of cards.
The dream of building an army was lovely, but the problem was that Lin Huang's summoning authority remained at 15 monsters at the moment.
Having ten million monsters aside, even if he had up to 100 million monsters, it was useless if he could not summon them.
"Xiao Hei, can't you release my summoning authority?"
"No. In reality, this authorization exists to protect you. Even though the system is just a medium, the contract between the host and imperial monsters are tied to your soul. If the authorization is released, it would be a great burden to the operating system. Another reason is that your soul will collapse as soon you release the authorization judging from the number of complete Monster Cards that you've accumulated."
Lin Huang had never thought that the summoning authorization served to protect him. He fell into a moment of silence after hearing that and asked again, "Is there any way to realize my plan of getting an army whereby I can summon tens of millions of bug monsters at the same time?"
"You'll need to find an item or living thing to replace you to bear the contract with all these bug monsters. I can transfer the authorization of these bug monster cards over. By then, you'll be able to control these bug monsters and create a real army as soon as you own the item or living thing that bears the contract."
"A bearer of the bug monsters' contract…" Something popped up in Lin Huang's head when he heard what Xiao Hei said. He proposed immediately, "Can I use the galactic hive?"
"Theoretically, it should be fine."
Lin Huang's eyes lit up when he heard Xiao Hei's response. "We'll try that then!"
Chapter 1127: Army-type Imperial Censor
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Considering that the galactic hive was so massive, Lin Huang did not summon it to avoid unnecessary trouble. Instead, he looked into his body again.
The gigantic galactic hive hung in the air, appearing massive even in his body.
Lin Huang initially thought it would be difficult for him to claim ownership on it. In the end, the contract was formed automatically when he stretched his hand out to touch it. A flood of information began gushing into his head automatically.
This galactic hive was merely the lowest level-1 hive whereby it could only contain 100 billion bug monsters at the most. He could sort out the hive's internal areas as he wished since he was the owner. There were also templates that he could use.
People who did not know better would think that the bug hive was made of a massive metal combining silicon materials. Even Lin Huang thought so before this. However, he found out that it was far from the truth after getting the information transfer of the hive. The galactic hive was more like an intelligent spaceship whereby its operation was very similar to a starship. It was even simpler than that. Moreover, the galactic hive even possessed a consciousness of its own.
What surprised Lin Huang the most was that a human-like him could connect with the bugs' consciousness through the hive, exploring the Bug Tribe's internal secrets. Naturally, since the hive was on the lowest level, he only had the lowest level-1 authority among the bugs.
To avoid exposing himself, Lin Huang dared not explore further. He merely took a rough look at it and made the hive download the information. He then got his consciousness out of the hive immediately.
He contacted Xiao Hei as soon as he completed the contract with the hive. "I've already completed the contract with the hive. Try transferring 20 bug monsters in and see if I can control them."
"I'll try." Xiao Hei spoke again a moment later as soon as he was done speaking, "The transfer is complete. I've also given the 20 Monster Cards' user authorizations to the hive. There are ten different types of bug monsters with two of them each, and all of them are on imperial-level yellow gold-rank."
Lin Huang peered into the hive immediately and soon sensed the 20 bug monsters that Xiao Hei had sent in.
He tried giving his order through the hive, and the 20 bug monsters rushed out of the hive right away.
The result surprised Lin Huang a little because it had exceeded his summoning authority.
After the 20 bug monsters left the hive, Lin Huang tried giving them a new order again. As usual, the bug monsters did what he ordered without hesitation.
After testing that in his body for a while, Lin Huang snapped back to reality and tried summoning them in the real world.
The bug monsters appeared in the Emperor Palace in the next second. Lin Huang tried giving some other orders again. Once more, the bug monsters remained obedient and did what he ordered.
The bug monsters were extraordinarily tame when Lin Huang did not order them to do anything. It seemed like they treated Lin Huang as their queen because he owned the hive.
They would follow when Lin Huang gave his order verbally instead of giving his order through the hive.
He only recalled all of the 20 bug monsters after testing some experiments Bloody suggested for more than two hours and confirming that the bug monsters were loyal. He looked into his body again.
"The bug monsters seemed to be loyal from all sorts of tests. At the moment, using the hive as the contract medium seems to be very successful. Xiao Hei, you can transfer the authorization of the bug monsters over now."
"Sure!"
Lin Huang saw purple cards transform into purple streams flowing into the hive as soon as Xiao Hei gave its short response. They were like meteors shooting across the sky. He would see streams of orange and purple intersecting each other occasionally. Those were the pseudo-mythical-level Bug Tribe cards.
After all of the streams penetrated the galactic hive, Lin Huang looked into the hive again and saw dense bug monsters in it.
He got the hive to pick a template randomly and sorted out the bug monsters. A thousand types of bug monsters became organized in the hive. Lin Huang, who had slight OCD, was at ease to see that.
He tried summoning a hundred bug monsters in his body, and his attempt was successful. He then summoned to 1,000 bug monsters, 10,000 bug monsters… All of his attempts were successful when he eventually summoned 10 million of them.
Even when there were so many of them, each bug monster would carry out the order without hesitation as soon as the command was given. They did not slack at all.
After confirming that everything was going well in his body, Lin Huang snapped back to reality and carried out experiments in the real world.
He started by summoning a hundred bug monsters to a million bug monsters. Everything went well. Fortunately, the Emperor Palace had ample space whereby it could even contain a million bug monsters.
Lin Huang did not summon any more. It was not because he was worried that the Emperor Palace could not contain them, but he knew it was unnecessary.
He put the entire Bug Tribe army away into the hive and released a long sigh. "I've finally completed the preliminary construction of my Bug Tribe army!"
Lin Huang became an army-type Imperial Censor after building the Bug Tribe army. Although it was just the preliminary stage whereby he did not put any mythical-level cards in and the bug monster cards' were limited to imperial-level yellow gold-rank due to his combat strength, there were still more than 30 million of them. They were sufficient to create a monster horde.
Lin Huang was unsatisfied with the fact that the bug monsters only had the upper hand in terms of quantity. He connected with the hive again and got it to transfer all of the bug formations that he had downloaded earlier into the bug monsters' heads.
He scanned through the bug formations himself by approximation, but he was not exactly satisfied with the bug formations that the hive downloaded from its level-1 authorization. He shared the bug formations with Bloody.
"Can you improve these bug formations?" Lin Huang only asked after waiting for Bloody to sift through them.
"It shouldn't be too difficult. These were modified from battle formations anyway. They're just more suitable for a Bug Tribe's physical structure. If you provide me with the detailed Bug Tribe monsters' information, I don't even need these bug formations as a reference and I can come up with bug formations myself." Bloody did not doubt its ability at all.
"I'll give it to you after I've sorted them out. As for the bug formations that I shared, use them as a reference if you can. After all, those bug formations have still been in use throughout hundreds of millions of years. There must be something that's worth learning. Take those that are useful, and toss those that are terrible," said Lin Huang while smiling.
"I'll study them. There are differences between theories and reality after all. The stuff that I come up with might not be useful in real battles." Bloody nodded. In reality, it was not looking down on the Bug Tribe's bug formations, but it was just trying to show its ability off.
Lin Huang became busy after communicating with Bloody. He turned the Bug Tribe's Monster Cars around and began to memorize their information.
He spent a full day to finally memorize up to 1,000 Bug Tribe monsters' information and share them with Bloody.
Chapter 1128: Has His Identity Been Exposed?
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After he was done sorting things out for a day, Lin Huang checked his Emperor's Heart Ring that he turned off for the whole day after delegating the remaining work to Bloody.
A missed call showed on his communication page. He tapped it open and realized it was from Jian Fei of the Heaven Alliance.
There was also a message, it was also sent by Jian Fei. There was only a short sentence, "Reply me when you see this."
Lin Huang did not look at other things and called Jian Fei's number right away.
Soon, Jian Fei picked up the video call and his chubby face appeared.
"Is there anything you need from me, Chief Jian?" Lin Huang asked directly upon seeing the video call connect.
"Deputy Chief Lin, have you elevated to imperial-level yet?" Jian Fei probed immediately.
"Not yet, but I'm doing the final preparations during these two days."
"That's great. Can you take a half-day to log into the Genius Union within these few days?" Jian Fei did not beat around the bush and requested right away. He knew that Lin Huang preferred to communicate straightforwardly.
"Since you broke through the Stairway Tree, many people in the Genius Union who didn't belong to any organization joined the Heaven Alliance. Some of the members from other organizations even withdrew from the organizations they joined initially and joined us instead. There are some good buds among them who we've already assessed. We hope that you can spend some time logging in before you elevate to imperial-level. Treat it as a welcome party for them. After all, those guys came for you, so I thought you could get together with them while you still log in."
"Sure!" Lin Huang agreed while nodding right away.
Although he suspected that Jian Fei was using his fame to recruit members, he wanted to see the Heaven Alliance grow. Chan Dou shared the same wish too.
"You guys can set the time, but it's best to do it within these three days because I'm almost done with my preparation to elevate to imperial-level."
"Sure, I'll inform you as soon as the arrangements are made." Jian Fei agreed right away. He then began to stutter, "There's s-something e-else… Many media representatives have been looking for me these past two days. They want to interview you."
Lin Huang glowered. In reality, he was unwilling to be interviewed by the media.
Most media would create topics and ask odd or sensitive questions. They would then exaggerate his words and stir things up just to attract attention. In reality, they did not care what kind of person he was exactly. They only cared about the attention they could get from his words and the number of clicks they could rack up.
Figuring that it might be the last thing he could do for the Heaven Alliance, Lin Huang nodded and agreed eventually. "I can accept being interviewed, but get Xu Qingya to do that. Let her be the one who interviews me for the second time, so those who missed the first interview can watch it when the second interview is released."
"Sure, I'll arrange the time with Xu Qingya and inform you by then."
Lin Huang shook his head while smiling after hanging up the call with Jian Fei.
In reality, Jian Fei was a benevolent person, but his intention of using one's fame was a tad bit too much. However, Lin Huang understood why he did that.
As the acting chief, Jian Fei was eager to prove himself since there was Chan Dou, the charming Fourth Prince, before him and Lin Huang who was a ridiculous genius. He wanted everyone in the Heaven Alliance to see that he had the ability to hold the position as the Chief of the Heaven Alliance.
In reality, Jian Fei had pretty impressive abilities. He had proven his ability since he managed to take the position of deputy chief when Chan Dou was still there. However, it was difficult for any star to shine no matter what when there was Chan Dou, who was like a brilliant moon, and Lin Huang, a scorching sun, shining over him. He could only admit that he showed up at the wrong timing.
Lin Huang understood Jian Fei's mindset. If he did not achieve anything during his appointment as the chief, the members would condemn him. It would harm the Heaven Alliance's growth in the long run.
Although he was not fond of Jian Fei using him, for the sake of the Heaven Alliance, Lin Huang chose to conform to his arrangement without much hesitation.
Jian Fei sent him a message in the afternoon. The interview and the Heaven Alliance welcome party were set on the same day which was the day after tomorrow. The interview would be in the morning while the welcome party would be in the afternoon.
Lin Huang was satisfied with the arrangement because he would not have to spend two days doing both things.
After lunch, he took out the bizarre seed and began activating it by inserting Divine Power into it. Since it was not convenient for him to refine Godheads now, he found something else to do.
However, this bizarre seed was just like the last one. No matter how much Divine Power he inserted, it showed no response.
The next morning, Lin Huang was reading the news on the Heart Network and the other forums after breakfast.
All of a sudden, he saw a thread about him on a black market forum. The entire forum was stirred because of this thread. The title of the thread was 'Exposing Lin Xie's Real Identity'.
Lin Huang could not help but frown when he saw the title. He clicked on it immediately and frowned even harder after he was done reading it.
The author of the thread was anonymous. The person revealed that Lin Xie was also Lin Huang and that he was the Emperor of Dynasty!
Although the author did not give any solid evidence throughout the entire thread, the author clearly knew the truth.
Since he did not give any evidence, almost all comments below the thread were ridicule, saying that the person who posted the thread was just stirring things up for publicity. Meanwhile, there were tens of thousands of comments below. Less than 1% of them believed the thread.
Most of them had the same opinion: We will believe you if you give us solid proof.
The first thing Lin Huang felt was doubt when he read the thread. Not many people knew about his identity, but the author who wrote the thread was clearly one of them. However, Lin Huang was not too sure who that was.
The first name that popped into his head was Jian Fei, but he dismissed the guess right away.
Although Jian Fei loved stirring things up for fame, exposing Lin Huang as the Emperor of Dynasty would bring negativity to the Heaven Alliance. It might even make the newbies think twice about joining the Heaven Alliance. After all, most people loathed the underground organization in the entire cultivation world. As the Emperor of Dynasty, Lin Huang was one of the top underground bosses.
Apart from Jian Fei, he could not think of anyone else.
However, Lin Huang did not dwell on the issue. Instead, he began thinking about how to deal with it.
The first solution was to ignore it completely and pretend that he did not see it. Since many people did not believe it, the topic would soon pass if he ignored it.
The other solution was to seize the opportunity to reveal his identity whereby he would integrate both of his identities.
Although it would not bring him any benefit to admit it on his own, if he did not do it now, he would be in trouble if someone found evidence of him having two identities in the future.
Soon, Lin Huang made up his mind after some pondering.
Chapter 1129: Live Interview
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The next morning, Lin Huang disguised as Lin Xie and headed to a cafe less than two kilometers from Dynasty's headquarters after breakfast.
After thinking about it yesterday, he decided to change the interview location here.
He was meeting Xu Qingya at 9 a.m. but she arrived when it was only 8.30 a.m. She was dressed professionally as usual in a navy blue suit with a white shirt inside. She looked very cool.
Xu Qingya was a little surprised to see Lin Huang arrive earlier than she did.
"I didn't expect you to arrive so early, Mr. Lin. I thought I'd get here half an hour earlier and read the questions that I prepared yesterday again."
"I took a stroll here after breakfast since I've cleared my day. There's a welcome party at the Heaven Alliance this afternoon," Lin Huang replied with a smile, "Take a seat. The coffee here is pretty good."
Xu Qingya put her bag down and sat across Lin Huang.
She began the topic as if she was chatting with a friend after ordering a cup of coffee from the waiter. "Emperor City is so much safer than I imagined. In reality, I had the worst-case scenario in my head before coming yesterday, but I realized I was overthinking when I got here."
"Most people have the same idea as you do, thinking that footholds run by underground organizations would be chaotic. In reality, the cities where most top underground organizations have a rather systematic order on the surface. They know that they can only attract residents and business investments if they run the footholds under their jurisdiction properly. If the city looks filthy, nobody would be willing to live there and invest.
"Of course, it might be filthy in the dark while seeming clean on the surface. It's best that you stay indoors after dark in most of the footholds that are run by underground organizations. After all, people who choose to live in cities run by underground organizations aren't exactly the kindest."
The waiter served Xu Qingya her coffee just when Lin Huang was done saying that.
Lin Huang thought she would ask why he changed the interview venue at the last minute. Never had he thought that she would not ask about that. Instead, she asked about the normal residents which he mentioned earlier.
She took a small sip and spoke again, "Those normal residents who have no cultivation base and are living in the cities run by underground organizations that you mentioned earlier, Mr. Lin… What do they do for a living? Small businesses?"
"In reality, they're similar to residents in other footholds. After all, underground organizations have businesses in all footholds whereby they need normal workers to run the businesses. Of course, there are those who do small businesses of all sorts as you said."
"So, what's the difference between the foothold where the Union Government and the Hunter Association are in?" Xu Qingya proceeded to ask.
"The difference is that there are more people participating in illegal activities. Furthermore, the underground organizations in the footholds usually choose to turn a blind eye. As long as they don't stir things up and don't do any harm to the underground organizations, they can do whatever they want."
"This has to do with the structure of the population as well. Normal people who chose to live in such places either have criminal records with the Union Government or are really poor. These two kinds of people have a rather high possibility of committing crimes."
The duo chatted about the residents for a while. Xu Qingya looked at the time when it was almost 9 a.m. and said to Lin Huang all of a sudden, "I had a random thought when I was sorting the interview questions out yesterday and decided to ask you anyway. Are you willing to live stream the entire interview? Of course, you can say no if you're not comfortable with it. Just pretend that I've never said this before."
"Live stream?" Lin Huang raised his brow and nodded without much hesitation. "Sure."
"You sure are quick to agree to that. Don't you need to consider it?" Xu Qingya said while grinning, "The biggest issue of live streaming would be that what you say will be seen by the public. I can't edit it like I used to before."
"So be it. It's not like I've never been condemned before," Lin Huang responded.
"Do you need some time to get ready?" Xu Qingya asked again.
"No need. You can begin now."
"Then, I'll turn the camera on now." Xu Qingya turned into a professional host as soon as she started the live stream. She got right to the first question after giving a simple introduction about Lin Huang. "What are your thoughts about breaking through the entire Stairway Tree this time?"
"I don't have any thoughts about it. In reality, it was just a normal trial, but the checkpoints are slightly more difficult. There's nothing impressive about breaking through it," Lin Huang replied and thought his answer was not exactly complete since he was on a live stream. He added, "If there's really something that I need to tell you, it would be that I'm finally breaking through imperial-level soon."
Not many people were watching the live stream at that moment. There were only some of Xu Qingya's fans who were watching after noticing that she had gone live. There were only 20,000 to 30,000 online viewers.
Many people began commenting upon hearing Lin Huang's response to the first question. 'Lin Xie: No comment.'
Lin Huang and Xu Qingya saw the comments popping up, but they chose to ignore it.
Xu Qingya proceeded to ask the second question, "From what I know, apart from you, the highest checkpoint people in the Genius Union has gotten to at the moment is the 63rd checkpoint. Before you, the highest record on the Stairway Tree was the 72nd checkpoint. Do you think that the checkpoints after the 72nd were difficult?"
"They were alright…" Lin Huang thought his answer was rather perfunctory as soon as he said that so he added, "Indeed, the 80th and the 81st checkpoints had challenges of its own, especially the latter."
At the moment, there were over 200,000 viewers watching the live stream. Comments began popping up again. 'Lin Xie: It's alright!'
"The next question is something that many Genius Union members are very curious about," Xu Qingya asked the third question while smiling, "After you broke through the 81st checkpoint on Stairway Tree, did you make it to the top? Also, what exactly is at the top?"
"Indeed, I made it to the top of Stairway Tree," Lin Huang confirmed with a smirk, "But I choose to keep it a secret about what exactly is there at the top. If you guys want to know, try your best to get there and see it for yourself. I don't like spoilers, so I won't spoil it for you guys here."
There were over a million viewers watching the live stream when the third question was finished.
The same comments began popping up again. 'Spoiler, please!'
The dense comments popping up covered the entire projected screen. They could no longer see Xu Qingya and Lin Huang's faces.
Xu Qingya followed the questions that she had prepared yesterday and controlled the rhythm of the live interview perfectly. She knew her boundaries in all of the questions that she asked, and those were questions that the viewers were eager to know about.
Lin Huang could not get used to it in the beginning but became in sync with her gradually. He no longer gave the awkward answers that stifled the conversation like before.
The live stream of the duo went on for over an hour, and there were more than 100 million viewers watching the live stream now. Many cultivators who kept seeing Lin Xie's name on their screens logged in with curiosity. They wanted to know who exactly this Lin Xie was.
However, a disharmonious comment popped up when it was almost 10.30 a.m. as the live stream went on.
"Lin Xie's real identity is the Emperor of Dynasty — Lin Huang!"
In the next second, thousands of the same comments popped up and covered the entire screen.
Chapter 1130: My Name is Lin Huang, I'm Also Lin Xie
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Xu Qingya had a slight change of expression after seeing the comments on Lin Huang and her. She had been avoiding this topic since the beginning. Never had she thought that this would happen in the live stream.
"There are people who love stirring things up during live streams. Please turn off the comments. Out of sight, out of mind."
However, Lin Huang waved while smiling as soon as Xu Qingya said that. Although he did not expect this to happen in the middle of the live stream, he was not exactly surprised. "Since somebody brought it up, I'll seize the opportunity to explain it today."
Xu Qingya was stunned to hear his response. She never thought Lin Xie would reply to the topic. In reality, ignorance was the best solution to handle such a thing. The more you attended to it, more people would talk about it.
What happened next shocked Xu Qingya to the extent that her jaw dropped.
Lin Huang turned to the direction of the video camera and said in all seriousness, "In reality, my real name is Lin Huang, the very same Lin Huang who is the Emperor of Dynasty. Lin Xie is just my disguise."
The comments exposing his identity stopped flooding the screen as soon as Lin Huang admitted that.
Xu Qingya was completely shocked. The 100 million audience members who were watching the live stream were dumbfounded. None of them expected to see such a major revelation from watching the live stream!
"Wait, what? Did he admit it himself?"
"Lin Xie is Lin Huang, the Emperor of Dynasty?!"
"Was that an illusion?"
"I don't think it's April's Fool today, is it?"
…
"Mr. Lin, you…" Xu Qingya did not expect that at all. Although she was experienced, she had no idea how to go on with the live stream now.
Meanwhile, Lin Xie removed his disguise and transformed into Lin Huang slowly.
Xu Qingya was confused when she saw that unbelievably young face before her.
"I changed the interview venue to Emperor City last minute yesterday so that I could use this interview to reveal my real identity." Lin Huang turned to look at Xu Qingya. "I'm sorry that I didn't discuss this with you prior to that."
Xu Qingya adjusted her emotions quickly. "Mr. Lin, since we're talking about your identity, I won't avoid the topic. I believe the thing that the audiences who are watching the live stream are most eager to know would be the reason you disguised yourself to join the Genius Union. Could you explain that?"
"I didn't only start using the fake identity as Lin Xie when I joined the Genius Union. In reality, I've been using this identity from the first day I stepped into Division 3 and before becoming the Emperor of Dynasty. The main reason is that I got into some trouble when I was in Division 7. For my safety and my sister's, I got fake identities for her and myself. For the next few years, we could only use our fake identities to live an unbothered life."
"Can I ask what kind of trouble you are referring to?" Xu Qingya proceeded to ask.
"I offended a few underground organizations directly and indirectly. They include the Purple Crow, the Saints, Leib Lab, and God Bless that was a hot topic earlier.
"Many people should know about my history with the Purple Crow. I was forced to join their training camp and I escaped by faking my own death. Other than that, I've killed more than one of the Saint members. I unintentionally walked into one of Leib Lab's biological modification bases and killed their people.
"As for God Bless, I killed a human trafficker who trafficked underaged kids three years ago. I've only found out a few months before that the trafficker's mother was one of the four God Bless God's Messengers."
"So, you've almost offended all of the top underground organizations that have business in Division 7?" Xu Qingya was flabbergasted.
"You can say that." Lin Huang smiled while saying helplessly, "I don't know why I always encounter them no matter where I go. The underground organizations have come to me more than once, but fortunately, they're always the ones who died.
"Before I left Division 7, my combat strength had just broken through to holy fire-level. To be honest, I couldn't protect myself. However, the people from Leib Lab came knocking on my door. They even went to Hunter College in the White Capital. To me, there's nowhere in Division 7 that's safe, so I had to change my name and leave Division 7 far away. I didn't even dare to bring Xin Er with me because I was afraid that I wouldn't have the ability to protect her if I encountered danger. Therefore, I got her to assume another identity and she stayed at Hunter College to study.
"Meanwhile, I headed to Division 3 with my new identity alone. I came to know people from the Yao Clan a few days after I arrived in Division 3 and got invited to join the Genius Union later on. Most people from the Genius Union should know what happened to me after that."
Lin Huang shared his past casually. Although he sounded calm, Xu Qingya knew that what he experienced was much riskier than he described.
It was a little hard for her to imagine what kind of experience he had to have for underground organizations that killed mercilessly to come knocking at his door.
Most viewers who were watching the live stream respected Lin Huang for his past since they had no guts to fight underground organizations. However, not only did Lin Huang kill an underground organization member, but he also offended many underground organizations and they came knocking at his door many times. Nonetheless, he managed to survive and even became the No. 1 genius of the new era and the top underground boss.
"Does your sister know about underground organizations knocking at your door?" Xu Qingya could not help but ask.
"She does, but she pretends to be tough because she doesn't want me to worry."
"Did she advise you not to offend the underground organizations for your safety?" Xu Qingya asked again.
"No, she knows me well. Firstly, she knows she can't stop me. Secondly, she agrees with what I'm doing. There are things that you can't ignore once you've encountered them."
"You guys might not have ever seen what those underground organizations are capable of doing. I've witnessed it more than once.
"I've seen people from the Saints severing a head and chopping off their genitals, then shoving it into their mouth. They then used a metal rod to pierce through the headless bodies from their lower body all the way to their necks like they're roasted ducks.
"I've seen God Bless performing genetic modification on living people in their lab. They distorted the people's bodies, grow many eyes on their bodies, and sprout more heads and even fangs like monsters. They had scales and wings. They turned into monsters that had lost their minds and all they knew was to fight."
Lin Huang's description made many loath the underground organizations even more now.
Xu Qingya could not help but raise a doubt that she had, "Since you've seen so many evil doings of underground organizations, why did you agree to take the position as the Emperor of Dynasty, Mr. Lin?"
"No matter how powerful a person's ability is, it's limited. I've been thinking of building an organization of my own when I realized that and Dynasty happened to look for me.
"Of course, I actually had many concerns before agreeing to Dynasty being their Emperor because I personally have a bad impression on underground organizations. However, Tianfu convinced me that although Dynasty is an underground organization now, it doesn't have to be one in the future.
"I've also considered that it would be a good thing if we can turn an underground organization into a neutral organization and stop the wickedness.
"I've been working towards this direction with Tianfu and the rest ever since I was appointed. We want to turn Dynasty into a neutral organization. I've even executed many members who've committed multiple felonies. For someone who has committed crimes before, I won't let them go on missions on their own every time. There'll be a supervisor with them.
"We even abolished all of Dynasty's original regulations and announced a brand new set. You can take photos of the new regulations after this interview has ended. I don't mind making it public.
"I personally hope that everyone doesn't deny Dynasty for our past mistakes. Whether Dynasty will really become a neutral organization or not, we welcome everyone to monitor us since so many are watching. We believe that time will tell."