Chapter 981: A Demigod Has Fallen!
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Lin Huang only spent just over ten minutes to cross more than 2,000 kilometers.
Apart from being attacked by an imperial-level white gold-rank monster not long into their journey, no other monsters attacked them since then.
The reason being that he summoned the Destructive Divine Mammoth right away. Its terrifying imperial-level purple gold-rank combat strength and True Spirit aura echoed across the land. All the monsters trembled wherever the Destructive Divine Mammoth passed, including monsters on the same level. None of them dared to come looking for trouble.
The Python-belly Poisonous Frog sensed the Destructive Divine Mammoth coming into its territory from a distance. The aura that alarmed it also faintly sent a thrill down its spine.
"This terrifying aura must be that of a mythical-level quadruple mutated monster! It trembles deep in my soul even when it's hundreds of kilometers away!" Fear did not provide the Python-belly Poisonous Frog reason to retreat at all. Instead, it boosted its battle will. "There's a high possibility that I could break through to quadruple mutation as soon as I eat it and elevate to mythical-level! My combat strength might even break through and I might become a Virtual God!"
Sensing the Destructive Divine Mammoth advancing at a high speed, the Python-belly Poisonous Frog glared viciously at the silhouette that was moving rapidly in the range of its territory while drooling. Meanwhile, Lin Huang, who was next to the Destructive Divine Mammoth, was completely ignored.
Approximately two to three minutes later, Lin Huang and the Destructive Divine Mammoth finally arrived above the swamp where the Python-belly Poisonous Frog was.
Before Lin Huang could figure where the amphibian monster was, a bloody glow shot into the sky at a high speed, aiming at the Destructive Divine Mammoth's heart.
Even Lin Huang's eyes could not detect such an abrupt attack. All he saw was a red shadow that flashed through the sky and heard a rumble that sounded like thunder coming from where the Destructive Divine Mammoth was. The Destructive Divine Mammoth shot out like a cannon and went right through a few large mountains tens of kilometers away.
The attack that hit the spot made the Python-belly Poisonous Frog realize that its opponent's defense was more powerful than it imagined even before it could get excited. It was surprised that its attack did not break through the opponent's defenses. It just realized that its current opponent was much more impressive than it thought.
"It's worthy of being called a mythical-level monster!" Not only did the Python-belly Poisonous Frog not have any sense of failure, but it also became more enthusiastic now. The more powerful its opponent was, the more benefits it would obtain from devouring it.
It had never imagined what the consequences were if it were no match for its opponent since it had never lost any battle throughout centuries.
The Destructive Divine Mammoth had always been a defensive alpha among the True Spirits. It was hard for one to break through its defenses even if other True Spirits of the same level were to attack it, let alone a mere demigod-level Python-belly Poisonous Frog.
Any other imperial-level purple gold-rank or even mythical-level monsters would be killed or severely injured by the Python-belly Poisonous Frog's attack. However, to the Destructive Divine Mammoth, it was no different from an itch. It could not feel any pain, let alone be harmed by it.
Still, such a great impact pissed him off a little.
The Destructive Divine Mammoth stared at the Python-belly Poisonous Frog's direction as he stood up from the fallen gravel and shook the soil on his body off. His eyes were a little red with fury.
He was furious now!
The Destructive Divine Mammoth released a long shriek tens of kilometers away. He slammed its long trunk, and charcoal gray Life Power echoed like a whip, shooting across the sky towards the Python-belly Poisonous Frog.
Although the Destructive Divine Mammoth was not a monster built for speed, that did not mean that it had no speed-related technique.
The trunk whip was the fastest attack that would go furthest in his inherited memory.
Its attack speed was no slower than the Python-belly Poisonous Frog's attack earlier.
The Python-belly Poisonous Frog did not seem to expect its opponent to have such a quick reaction from so far away. It only snapped back to its senses when the charcoal gray trunk whip was coming near it. It hopped on both its rear legs and dodged the attack.
Unfortunately, it was too late. The trunk whip brushed through its body.
Under the terrifying attack, half of its body was hit by the compelling power.
The impact made its body shoot out, and it smashed into a mountain that was even further away like a cannonball.
Lin Huang did not see the Destructive Divine Mammoth's movements clearly. All he could see was a gray shadow flashing in the sky and a silhouette shooting out. He then saw mountains collapsing far away.
He had just heard the thud coming from the trunk whip attack when the mountains collapsed. Meanwhile, the sound of the mountains collapsing only came echoing a while later.
The Python-belly Poisonous Frog that was buried deep in the gravel had shock written all over its face. It had never thought that the opponent would not only have such stunning defense techniques but also be able to launch a terrifying attack too. The one attack alone almost smashed its body to smithereens.
"A mythical-level monster really is terrifying. It seems like it's hard to kill it without some effort."
By then, the Python-belly Poisonous Frog finally took its opponent seriously, treating him a powerhouse on the same level as it was although the Destructive Divine Mammoth was only on imperial-level purple gold-rank.
The Destructive Divine Mammoth knew that the Python-belly Poisonous Frog did not die although the attack sent it flying away. He appeared above the cliff the Python-belly Poisonous Frog was on in a flash. It stomped its foot in the air without even looking.
The entire mountain seemed to be suppressed by an invisible yet invincible power and turned into dust, disappearing into the ground. In the blink of an eye, it turned into a deep underground pit which was a couple of kilometers wide as if a meteorite had struck.
At that moment, a red glow shot out from under the deep pit.
The speed was a few times faster than the Python-belly Poisonous Frog's first attack. Moreover, the red glow coming from the attack this time was as glaring as the sun.
This time, the Destructive Divine Mammoth held both its legs high and stomped in the air once again.
An elephant's leg that looked like a giant pillar appeared in the air and blasted the ground.
Unsurprisingly, the red glow and the elephant leg collided hard.
A glaring golden glow lit up the epicenter of the collision as if hundreds of nuclear bombs had gone off at the same time. In an instant, the area within thousands of kilometers looked like it had changed from night to day.
All the monsters looked at the center of the battle in fear.
Even Lin Huang who was watching the battle was dragged into Ninetails Lynx's alternate dimension that it had been hiding in.
Meanwhile, an insane heat that was billions of degree Celsius high as a result of the impact spread hundreds of kilometers away from the core of the battle between the two monsters. Everything within that radius was destroyed.
The energy wave that came from the explosions was like gallons of water washing everything within 3,000 kilometers away together with petrifying wind pressure.
Countless plants were destroyed as if they had experienced a category-18 typhoon.
All monsters below imperial-level yellow gold-rank were killed by the impact within 3,000 kilometers. The imperial-level yellow gold-rank and imperial-level white gold-rank monsters also suffered different levels of injuries, except for the imperial-level purple gold-rank monsters which were barely affected.
The Destructive Divine Mammoth that was in the center of the battle stood sturdily midair while glaring dangerously somewhere beneath.
The Python-belly Poisonous Frog was still alive, but it was dying.
It had activated the Divine Power in its body for the attack earlier in an attempt to kill. However, it did not expect its opponent to fight it with Life Power as well as suppressing its most powerful attack. It had no choice but to insert more Divine Power, but the opponent's Life Power seemed to be endless. Eventually, the Divine Power in its body was worn out and it was completely defeated.
Because the Divine Power in its body was drained, it could only use its Life Power to defend itself forcefully during the explosions. However, it could not handle the impact that came from the explosion of Divine Power even though it had drained its Life Power.
Sensing his opponent's remaining aura, the Destructive Divine Mammoth stomped again without thinking twice.
The ground that had already turned into a deep pit collapsed tens of meters further.
Within the gravel that had been crushed into dust, the Python-belly Poisonous Frog which had completely lost its defensive ability turned into a pile of mush instantly.
Chapter 982: The Cultivation System's Fatal Flaw
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
"Congratulations, you've killed the Python-belly Poisonous Frog (Demigod-level). You've obtained Mythical-level Python-belly Poisonous Frog Monster Card Pieces x2"
Lin Huang only found out that the Python-belly Poisonous Frog was dead after hearing the notification from Xiao Hei.
"It's settled so soon?" Lin Huang came out of the alternate dimension and hovered above the deep collapsed pit. He retrieved the Python-belly Poisonous Frog's carcass that was smashed into a mush deep in the underground with his telekinetic threads.
Xiao Hei's notification came again just when he saw the tragic carcass.
"The system has detected a demigod's soul and a Godhead (broken). Would you like to retrieve them?"
"Retrieve them," Lin Huang confirmed.
Obtaining the demigod's soul was the main purpose of his hunting demigods this time. As for the broken demigod's Godhead, he had no idea what he could do with it after retrieving it.
Looking at the memories he read from all the mini-worlds and the great worlds, it was possible to merge a Godhead, but Gods who elevated from the merging of the Godhead might not be able to elevate his combat strength forever. Therefore, not many people would want to merge others' Godheads, let alone a demigod's broken Godhead.
In less than half a minute, Lin Huang held two cards in his hand: a demigod's soul and a broken Godhead.
Putting the demigod's soul card away into his body, Lin Huang crushed the broken Godhead's card.
An irregular, thumb-sized, charcoal gray crystal appeared in his palm. He looked at the crystal with his face pinched. "What does such a broken Godhead do?"
"Perhaps this thing is useless to others, but it's useful stuff for you," said the stone tablet, smiling all of a sudden.
"Useful stuff? I don't want to merge someone else's Godhead, let alone merge this broken Godhead." Lin Huang was very confident about elevating to Virtual God, but merging someone else's Godhead was out of the picture.
"I'm not asking you to merge it but to refine it," explained the stone tablet while smiling.
"Refine it? What does this thing do after refinement?" Lin Huang was even more puzzled now.
"Do you think you can elevate to imperial-level successfully with your cultivation system?" The stone tablet did not answer Lin Huang's question. It asked him another question instead.
Lin Huang was stunned to hear the stone tablet's question.
He had never thought about that before. The reason being he would need over a month to visualize the three remaining God Figurines' Combat Souls before elevating to imperial-level. He needed time to cultivate the God Figurines too, so it would be at least two months later when he really elevated to imperial-level.
However, now that the stone tablet raised such a question, it made Lin Huang began to think hard about how he should elevate to imperial-level. He was frowning more and more as he thought about it.
"I can't inherit the Divine Fire if I take the imperial-level monster's Life Base… Which means I can't elevate to imperial-level with the current cultivation system."
Lin Huang began sweating upon realizing the issue and he asked the stone tablet immediately, "Do you have a solution to this?"
"In reality, the biggest crux of the problem with elevating to virtual god-level in your world's cultivation system is the imperial-level. It's actually a good thing that you can't elevate with the current system."
"I thought the incomplete world order that we have is the reason for lesser people elevating to Virtual Gods?"Lin Huang asked rather confusedly.
"An incomplete world order will only cause the failure to elevate to True Gods. The number of Virtual Gods is restricted to a certain level, but it's possible to elevate to Virtual Gods. Moreover, it's not that there are few people elevating to Virtual Gods in the current world that you're in. There are none at all," corrected the stone tablet.
"What's wrong with imperial-level? From what I know, most cultivation systems in other mini worlds and great worlds go through the forging of Life Palaces. They just have different names. But they can elevate to virtual god-level and true god-level, so they don't have any problem at all."
"Think about it properly. When do other cultivation systems forge Life Palaces?" asked the stone tablet while smiling.
Lin Huang thought about it carefully and frowned even deeper a moment later. "It's rather odd. Basically, all cultivation systems forge Life Palaces in the beginning stage of cultivation. Do you mean our cultivation system has gotten the sequence of forging Life Palaces wrong?"
"Indeed, the wrong sequence is the main reason." Noticing that Lin Huang figured out the problem, the stone tablet proceeded to explain, "The so-called Life Palace of yours is called a Life Base in the great world. The reason it's called a Life Base is that it's the foundation of the entire cultivation. Only with a sturdy foundation will your house be stable when it's built.
"In the great worlds, there was once an era called the Cultivation Era. During that era, humans were the most powerful race in the entire great world. Furthermore, the first step of almost all human cultivation in that era was to forge a Life Base. The first cultivation level was called the base building-level.
"The reason why humans in that era were powerful was that they forged a sturdy foundation as their first step. Since then, the cultivation system that was built later on grew more and more powerful. In the end, it cultivated countless powerhouses and conquered the entire great world."
"So, why did that cultivation system not become the main system in that era later on?" Lin Huang asked rather confusedly.
"Because there's a fatal flaw in that cultivation system, it took too long. A person would need at least millions or even tens of millions of years to grow to the top combat strength in the great world." The stone tablet's tone became a little awkward all of a sudden.
"What I'm trying to say is that most cultivation system nowadays place forging of the Life Base in the early stage because they were influenced by the Cultivation Era. Basically, all cultivation systems hardly rely on foreign items when it comes to forging the Life Base. Instead, they cultivate it slowly with their own ability. The Life Base that's forged that way is many times more powerful no matter the compatibility or growth compared to the Life Base that you take from others. Moreover, their Life Base will elevate following their level whereby it'll grow and evolve continuously. Eventually, it can be cultivated through divine force and transform from there.
"Your cultivation system has an ordinary quality since it's taken from other monsters. It's not even achieved a tenth of the growth and compatibility compared to other cultivation systems. Furthermore, it's too late to forge the Life Base. The lack of cultivation makes the consolidation of the Life Base into the Godhead impossible. Most importantly, the transformation of the Life Base is simply not there.
"It's possible to elevate successfully if the imperial-level purple gold-rank powerhouses in your world are willing to spend thousands or tens of thousands of years to absorb the divine force slowly and cultivate the Life Base, then break through when it's on the verge of transformation.
"However, you guys have gotten used to the cultivation method of taking whereby you kill demigod monsters and break through forcefully, relying on the Divine Power in the demigod monsters' bodies. This won't work at all! The Divine Power in the demigod's body is insufficient to consolidate into a complete Godhead. Plus, a Life Base that hasn't gone through sufficient cultivation can't take the impact of the Divine Power."
"So, are you suggesting that I consolidate the Life Base myself instead of taking the available Life Base in imperial-level monsters' bodies?" Lin Huang finally grasped what the stone tablet meant. "But what does that have to do with this broken Godhead that I have?"
"Let me ask you… Where did you get this broken Godhead?" The stone tablet asked while grinning.
"It's formed from those demigod monsters that failed to elevate to Virtual God."
"What is a broken Godhead converted from?"
"A Life Palace…" Lin Huang understood what the stone tablet meant right after he said that. "Are you saying that I can consolidate a Life Base with this broken Godhead as the material?"
"Not one, but a massive amount of broken Godheads. Use as many as your inner world can handle!" The stone tablet chortled out loud. "You could consolidate an invincible Life Base that's even more powerful than a Godhead!"
Chapter 983: Hunting Demigods
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Lin Huang peeped at the Destructive Divine Mammoth, not sure whether to laugh or cry after putting the Python-belly Poisonous Frog's tragic carcass away. He then put the Destructive Divine Mammoth back into his body.
To him, the poisonous frog's carcass that was now mush had no use to him other than getting Mr. Fu to turn it into food.
Lin Huang looked around the area that had completely turned into ruins. He hovered into the sky and flew north.
Xiao Hei retrieved the Python-belly Poisonous Frog's demigod soul and made it into a card. Naturally, Lin Huang could not read the memory in its head. All he could do was to find another imperial-level monster to acquire the other demigods' coordinates.
Lin Huang flew more than 2,000 kilometers north from the southeastern corner on the third layer of the Abyss Brink. It was still a burnt ruin in his field of vision. He did not even sense a single living thing's aura along the way.
It was his first time learning how powerful a demigod really was then.
"The impact of the battle collision alone destroyed everything within 3,000 kilometers. I don't see any imperial-level monsters that survived. A demigod's power is really terrifying!
"The collision of the Divine Power is the main reason for such great destruction. If that poisonous frog didn't use its Divine Power, the destruction as a result of the collision would only cover an area within 1,000 kilometers at the most. Also, not all monsters were killed by the battle impact. Many of the injured had fled. After all, they had no idea if another collision that was similar would occur again. Those that survived fled the impacted area as soon as they could," explained the stone tablet.
Until he flew 3,000 kilometers out, Lin Huang finally saw the border of the destroyed battleground. A scorched line extended towards the east and the west so far that Lin Huang could not see it with his eyes. The entire land looked like a painting that was half-burned and half-green.
Finally, Lin Huang sensed a living being's aura when he proceeded 1,000 kilometers up north.
At the same time he sensed the aura, the monster attacked.
A green gleam flashed through the sky like a whip coming at him.
Before Lin Huang could do anything, a white light shot through the sky. A little white cat appeared on Lin Huang's shoulder in the next second.
Lin Huang looked down and saw the imperial-level white gold-rank Jasper Boa that was attacking him with its tail sliced into pieces. It was now dead.
He shook his head and landed on the ground slowly.
Bloody came out of his sleeve and connected a tentacle to the Jasper Boa's head that was severed. After a while, all the information in the Jasper Boa's head that was still active was retrieved.
"A thousand kilometers to the north is the demigod-level monster, the Titan Boa's territory. The Ghastly Spider Lady's territory is approximately 3,000 kilometers west."
Lin Huang was familiar with the two monsters since they were in the monster guide.
The Titan Boa was a supreme giant monster. It had a colossal body and possessed imperial-level combat strength. When it turned into an adult, it would be at least tens of thousands meter long. This one in the Abyss Brink with demigod-level combat strength might be at least 50,000 meters long. Its body was even bigger than Tyrant's complete form.
The Titan Boa's gigantic form did not only mean that it had a terrifying ability, but it also had a scary defensive ability. Its combat technique was similar to the Destructive Divine Mammoth whereby they both suppressed their opponents with force.
However, this monster had a petrifying ability, the Star Engulf.
As soon as the ability was charged, there would be a scary engulfing force that surged from its mouth, sucking its opponents into an isolated space inside its body.
Meanwhile, the Ghastly Spider Lady had nothing to do with an arachnid monster at all. She was an undead monster that looked a bit like a female human. She had long hair with a beautiful face but appeared rather pale. The biggest difference compared to a female human was that neither did the Ghastly Spider Lady have human breasts, nor did she have genitals or hair that humans usually had. From far away, she looked like a drained dead body that had been soaked in water for a long time.
The reason the monster was called a spider lady was that her hair was her attack weapon. The attack mode was similar to how spiders hunted.
The Ghastly Spider Lady appeared countable times throughout history, but there was tons of information about her recorded in the monster guide.
Her hair had broad functions including cutting, piercing, tying, weaving webs, and setting traps. It could also be consolidated into a shield and a weapon for defense.
She also had powerful telekinetic power. Not only could she strengthen her hair with various techniques, but she could also give it an attribution ability.
Combining telekinesis and ghastly hair that she was born with, she gave them a comprehensive ability. Apart from slightly weak close-distance combat strength, she almost had no flaws.
Moreover, as she was born undead, the only way to kill her was to cut all of her hair. She would not die even if they still had a single strand of hair attached.
To Lin Huang, this monster was much more difficult to handle compared to the Python-belly Poisonous Frog due to its immensely powerful hair. Even if a strand of demigod-level Ghastly Spider Lady's hair was not as powerful as a demigod relic, it should be on par with a demigod relic when tens of them came together. One could imagine how difficult it would be to cut hundreds of thousands of such locks.
"Let's go for the Titan Boa first then." Lin Huang decided almost without hesitation after a while of comparing.
The Titan Boa was much easier to kill compared to the Ghastly Spider Lady.
After acquiring the Titan Boa's coordinates, Lin Huang continued his journey to the north.
A couple of minutes later, he saw a scary giant boa that looked like a massive mountain from far away. From guesswork, Lin Huang figured that this Titan Boa's body was at least 70,000 meters long.
"What a monster!" The monster's form was the top three biggest monsters Lin Huang had ever seen.
The Titan Boa sat there with its eyes shut, pretending to sleep. Although it did not seem to sense Lin Huang's existence, in reality, it sensed him coming when he was hundreds of kilometers away.
However, it did not take Lin Huang seriously no matter what his combat strength or form was. It did not think that this immortal-level human was coming for it. Instead, it thought Lin Huang was just passing by.
Finally, it could not take it when Lin Huang arrived 20 kilometers away and was still approaching it when he could clearly see the monster's existence. It opened its eyes and looked straight at Lin Huang.
The glance alone from the Titan Boa gave Lin Huang a suppressive demigod aura.
'Seems like it looks down on me completely!' Lin Huang forced a smile while shaking his head.
If he were some other immortal-level powerhouse, the overwhelming intensity coming from the glance alone was sufficient to kill.
However, to Lin Huang who possessed Divine Fire and God Figurines in his body, the Divine Fire would extinguish such a demigod-level spiritual suppression as soon as it came within a certain distance of his consciousness. It could not threaten Lin Huang at all.
"I can't believe it's using its spirit to suppress me when it's an expert in body combat. Let me show you the master who's really skilled in this!" Lin Huang smirked cunningly. "Come on out, Nightmare Tapir!"
Chapter 984: Die, Titan Boa!
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The Titan Boa was slightly stunned when its spiritual suppression did nothing to the immortal-level human before it. Although it was not a monster expert in spiritual skills, even an imperial-level purple gold-rank powerhouse among demigods could not ignore its spiritual suppression. It had killed imperial-level white gold-rank humans in the past in the same way.
However, it could clearly sense that the human before it ignored its spiritual suppression completely. He hovered into the sky like a tough coral in the wave of its spiritual suppression. He could not be affected at all.
In the next second, it saw Lin Huang summon a monster with an elephant trunk and the body of a leopard. The Titan Boa was shocked to sense the monster's aura.
It could sense that the monster's combat strength was only on imperial-level purple gold-rank, but there was an odd aura that caused it to be instinctively fearsome.
"The chill that strikes my spirit…" Soon, the Titan Boa noticed that the chill was a form of suppression that came from its opponent's level. "This fella is on mythical-level!"
Its eyes were filled with fear when it looked at the Nightmare Tapir.
Compared to the Python-belly Poisonous Frog, it dared not underestimate its mythical-level opponent.
The Nightmare Tapir with an elephant trunk and the body of a leopard was only less than three meters long. It was like a mere ant before it.
However, at that very moment, it treated the Nightmare Tapir as its deadly rival that it had never encountered before.
Thousands of meters away, the Nightmare Tapir's eyes turned completely black all of a sudden.
The Titan Boa jolted before it attacked without thinking twice.
Its body that was lying down shot out of nowhere. Its tail that was like a gigantic mountain range whipped through the air and appeared where the human and beast were in the blink of an eye, drowning the both of them.
The strong wind and energy wave coming from the end of its tail plowed a fan-shaped area which radius exceeded 800 kilometers on the ground. The trees and flowers within the entire area turned into dust.
The attack was practically the most powerful attack the Titan Boa could launch without using its Divine Power.
However, it was not elated at all despite having released all it had. Instead, it had a slight change of expression because it clearly sensed that its attack had landed on nothing.
"Where is he?" The Titan Boa sensed all the surrounding areas within its range of its territory with all its might in an attempt to detect Lin Huang's whereabouts.
Just when it sensed something, it jolted again and shot forward all of a sudden.
However, a sharp claw mauled its neck at the moment, leaving a few massive wounds that were at least 20 meters long on its neck.
Its scales with powerful defensive abilities seemed to have zero defenses against the opponent's sharp claws.
Bearing the pain, the Titan Boa turned its head to look at the Nightmare Tapir. Its initial shock calmed down a little.
If it were to dodge the attack earlier a millisecond later, its head might have been torn off and smashed into mush.
"You won't be that lucky next time," said the Nightmare Tapir through voice transmission while grinning coldly.
"I admit that you're powerful, but there's something that I have that you can't compare to." The Titan Boa released a deafening sound. "You have no Divine Power in you!"
"I can still kill you without Divine Power!" The Nightmare Tapir raised its head and whipped its elephant trunk as soon as it was done speaking.
The elephant trunk swept through the air like a whip. As if it were a giant scimitar that sliced through the air, everything it passed by was sliced into half.
The long whip arrived before the Titan Boa in a flash, going straight to its vital point.
The Titan Boa lashed its tail madly again without thinking twice. This time, it inserted almost half of its Divine Power into it.
The massive mountain-like snake tail collided with the long elephant trunk which diameter was less than 15 centimeters long.
At the moment, a golden flare that was as glaring as the sun lit up the collision point.
The golden flare was growing brighter just as its size was growing rapidly too. It grew into a sphere that was thousands of meters in diameter within a few breaths.
Eventually, the golden sphere did not seem to be able to withstand the rapidly expanding speed and exploded entirely. White light shot out all over the place.
In that second, the entire night sky was lit up. The area within thousands of kilometers turned into day.
Endless energy waves and wind pressure swept towards all directions with the collision point as the epicenter.
The area within 2,000 kilometers turned into ruins. All the plants turned into dust while most imperial-level monsters were either injured or killed. Only a minority of them managed to escape with their injured bodies away from the energy waves like rabid animals.
…
From a distance, Lin Huang, who hovered mid-air, saw that the Titan Boa's eyes had turned completely black long ago. The Divine Power in its body experienced a tremor, and its aura fell away a while later.
He could not help but swivel his head to look at the Nightmare Tapir next to him. "What exactly did he dream about?"
"Fighting me," replied the Nightmare Tapir, turning its head and smiling.
"Close-distance combat?'
"Yes."
"Aren't you lousy at close-distance combat?" Lin Huang asked in confusion.
"It thought I'm good at it, so I made it think so on purpose. I made my close-distance combat ability super powerful." The Nightmare Tapir could not help but chuckle out loud. "Not only do I have the Ninetails Lynx's speed and claws, but I also have a defensive ability on par with the Destructive Divine Mammoth. It was beaten up real good."
"Oh wow, that's so powerful!" Even Lin Huang could not help himself and gave the Nightmare Tapir a thumbs-up.
He could only wonder if he would be invincible if the Nightmare Tapir integrated all nine True Spirits' most powerful abilities into his body in his dream.
The remaining Divine Power in the Titan Boa's body went through another tremor when the duo was chatting. A moment later, its aura dropped rapidly and it was soon dying.
The Titan Boa looked devastating in the dream world.
It laid in the ruins while its body had hundreds of thousands of wounds like it had been cut with a sharp blade. There was no flesh in pristine condition from its head to its tail as if it went through slow slicing execution.
Its scales and tough flesh did not seem to be able to defend it at all. Each wound on its body was at least tens of meters long. Its red flesh could almost be seen from its scales that were torn open. Some wounds were so deep that they went into its organs.
The cuts were bleeding continuously with no sign of healing. Blood spilled from the Titan Boa's mouth like a stream.
"I lost…" There was no yielding in its voice.
"This is the toughest battle I've ever had in my life. It's also the battle in which I was suppressed entirely. The power and defensive ability that I'm proud of were like babies to you. Even my most powerful ability, the Star Engulf, can't do anything to you.
"Although I never underestimated you since the beginning, never had I thought that a mythical-level would be so much more terrifying than I imagined!"
"I think there's something that I must tell you." The Nightmare Tapir that was hovering mid-air looked at the Titan Boa in a condescending way. It finally spoke, "I'm not on mythical-level. I'm on a level that's even higher than mythical-level!"
However, the Nightmare Tapir kept something a secret. It was still a child now.
"Is that so? I didn't lose in vain then…" The very last wisp of breath in the Titan Boa finally faded when it learned the 'truth'.
"Congratulations, you've obtained a complete Titan Boa Card (Legendary-level) x2!"
"The system has detected a demigod soul and Godhead (broken). Would you like to retrieve them?"
Chapter 985: Secret Skill – Stealthy Snake
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Lin Huang was rather surprised to see Xiao Hei's notification about acquiring a complete Titan Boa Monster Card.
Under normal circumstances, the chances of obtaining a complete Monster Card from killing a monster was extremely low.
According to Lin Huang's past experience, the chances of it occurring was definitely much lower than 1%. Sometimes, he might only obtain a few hundred complete Monster Cards after killing millions of monsters.
However, he obtained a complete card after killing the second monster.
"Seems like my luck's great today!" Lin Huang put away the gigantic monster carcass into his storage space after retrieving the demigod soul and Godhead.
On the other hand, the Nightmare Tapir shared the memory it had retrieved with Bloody.
"How is it going? Do we have the other demigod monsters' coordinates?" Lin Huang only asked Bloody when he saw the Nightmare Tapir detach its elephant trunk from Bloody's head.
Bloody nodded in confirmation. "Almost there. Apart from the two that we've killed, there should be another 14 demigod-level monsters on this layer. The one that's closest to us is the Ghastly Spider Lady that I told you about earlier. It's approximately 3,500 kilometers from us in the southwest. Apart from that, there's a Ghoul Lynx at least 5,000 kilometers north."
The Ghoul Lynx was a spirit monster. There were not many recordings of it in the monster guide because most people who saw such a monster were dead.
This monster was immune to most physical attacks. One could only harm it on a spiritual level. However, it was an expert in soul-type of attack techniques, illusions, and hypnotization.
"They're hard to handle no matter if it's the Ghastly Spider Lady or the Ghoul Lynx." Lin Huang fell into silence for a moment. "Let's go for the one that's closest to us. Plan the route, Bloody."
"Alright." Bloody soon plotted the route. "We're heading west now. After killing the Ghastly Spider Lady, we'll head northwest, then go north. If we follow this route, the Ghoul Lynx will be our last prey."
"Sure!" Lin Huang had no objection. To him, there was no difference whoever they killed first.
After all, he did not plan to spare any of the remaining 14 demigod-level monsters.
After putting the demigod soul and the Godhead away as well as recalling the Nightmare Tapir into his head, Lin Huang made his way to the Ghastly Spider Lady's territory with Bloody.
Approximately 20 minutes later, they arrived at the Ghastly Spider Lady's territory. Lin Huang crushed a Lucky Card and summoned his chosen fighter to go against the Ghastly Spider Lady — the Ninetails Lynx.
He only had three imperial-level purple gold-rank monsters with him at the moment. They were the Destructive Divine Mammoth, the Ninetails Lynx, and the Nightmare Tapir. The rest of them were on imperial-level white gold-rank and while they might be able to fight demigods, they could not suppress them easily. As for the three God Figurines that he had just obtained, he had yet to visualize them until now since their Combat Souls had yet to be consolidated.
The Destructive Divine Mammoth, the Ninetails Lynx, and the Nightmare Tapir were the only ones that he could use at the moment.
Theoretically, among the three God Figurines' Combat Souls, the Nightmare Tapir should be the most suitable to fight a monster like the Ghastly Spider Lady.
The Nightmare Tapir was the best expert in dragging his opponent into dreamland without them realizing and draining him to death there.
No matter how intricate the Ghastly Spider Lady's ability was, she would be controlled by the Nightmare Tapir in the dreamland. There was no way that she could turn the tables.
One reason Lin Huang chose the Ninetails Lynx was that the latter was eager to fight after watching the Destructive Divine Mammoth and the Nightmare Tapir's battles earlier. On the other hand, he wanted to watch the fight against the demigod-level powerhouse himself. He had not witnessed the fight between the Nightmare Tapir and the Titan Boa earlier.
What he had no idea about was that the Nightmare Tapir could actually pull him into dreamland to watch the fight. Since he did not mention it, the Nightmare Tapir did not know that he intended to watch it.
The Ghastly Spider Lady locked her sights on Lin Huang who was coming at her at a rapid speed. In reality, she noticed this human who intruded her territory when he was hundreds of kilometers away.
Her hunting instinct taught her patience, so she waited for her opponent to reveal his flaws in order for her to kill it in one blow.
However, what puzzled her was that this human, whose combat strength was obviously only immortal-level, did not show any flaws at all. Even though he was moving at a high speed, he still maintained his high alertness, ready to take any attack from all directions at any time.
"This human's an expert. It's too bad his combat strength is too weak. If he has the same combat strength as I do, I'm afraid he'll be a difficult opponent." That was the first impression the Ghastly Spider Lady had of Lin Huang.
She smirked when she noticed Lin Huang advancing to her soon.
A couple of strands of hair were waving like they were living things. Gradually, they faded and turned invisible. They were like poisonous snakes hiding in the dark, slithering their way to Lin Huang.
There was no sound or trace left behind everywhere they passed.
That was her assassination secret skill, the Stealthy Snake.
Such a secret skill attack was not only invisible, but it also blocked out the ability to sense one's territory.
The Ghastly Spider Lady had killed countless preys with this secret skill. Up until the moment they were dead, many preys had no idea what attacked them.
Lin Huang frowned suddenly when he was still more than 20 kilometers away from the Ghastly Spider Lady.
Using his Divine Telekinesis, he found out that there were over 30 strands of hair that could not be seen with the naked eye coming toward his direction rapidly. What surprised him was that even his Territory skill did not sense the hair. It did not sense anything out of the ordinary.
"It seems like this is a powerful one. Without my Divine Telekinesis, I'm afraid I'd have been dead right now." Lin Huang summoned the Ninetails Lynx right away. He knew he could not go up against such a demigod-level attack without having his trump card to boost his combat strength.
"Do you sense the invisible hair?" Lin Huang asked through voice transmission.
The Ninetails Lynx nodded. "This stealthy technique isn't too shabby. There's a unique shield layer on the surface of the hair that blocks out a large chunk of the sensing ability of the Territory skill. Unfortunately, the hair occupies space no matter how small it is. In the range of my territory, anything in the material world that occupies space can't escape from me."
It saw through the structure of the shield on the hair in one glance.
Lin Huang was completely relieved when he heard what the Ninetails Lynx said. He was thinking of getting the Nightmare Tapir to fight again if the Ninetails Lynx could not sense the hair. The Nightmare Tapir could pull the opponent into dreamland so that there was no way it could fight at all.
At least 30 strands of hair slithered less than 100 meters from Lin Huang using the Stealthy Snake when the human and cat were just done talking.
The little cat returned to Lin Huang's shoulder, seeming like a white shadow that flashed in the air.
At that moment, Lin Huang's Divine Telekinesis just sensed that the 36 strands of hair that were attempting to attack him were now sliced into pieces.
The Ghastly Spider Lady that was 20 kilometers away let out a deep groan. The pair of eyes on her pale face shifted slowly. She was now staring at the little white cat on Lin Huang's shoulder 20 kilometers away.
She flashed her white teeth with a devilish smile. "So, he has an assistant."
Chapter 986: She Becomes Bald but No More Powerful
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The missed hit made the Ghastly Spider Lady shift her attention to the Ninetails Lynx on Lin Huang which was even more threatening.
The Ninetails Lynx looked at her from far away too.
As they locked eyes, the Ghastly Spider Lady clearly noticed that her soul was shaking. At that moment, she realized that it was on a higher level of suppression.
"It's on mythical-level?!" The moment the Ghastly Spider Lady was stunned, the Ninetails Lynx on Lin Huang's shoulder disappeared again.
Almost at the same time, a white streak appeared before the Ghastly Spider Lady without warning.
It was too late when she noticed that. Before she managed to do anything, the white streak had pierced through her body.
In the next second, the white streak appeared hundreds of meters behind the Ghastly Spider Lady, revealing itself gradually. It was the Ninetails Lynx that had been on Lin Huang's shoulder earlier!
Lin Huang only noticed that the little white cat on his shoulder was no longer there when he saw it appear behind the spider lady.
By then, he had arrived less than five kilometers from the Ghastly Spider Lady. He was stunned when he saw her naked body sliced into tens of pieces. He recalled something all of a sudden and spoke to the Ninetails Lynx through voice transmission immediately, "She's an undead monster. You must cut all of her hair off to kill her!"
The Ghastly Spider Lady's body was healing rapidly at a speed that could be seen with the naked eye as soon as the voice transmission was heard.
Her head turned 180 degrees directly, and her black eyes on her pale face glared deadly at the Ninetails Lynx. Her long hair began dancing like snakes.
"Die!" A devastating shriek came from the Ghastly Spider Lady's throat.
Clearly, she was extremely furious that she was attacked. She had gone into a frenzy, not caring whether the opponent was on mythical-level at all.
At the same time that she shrieked, her long hair swept towards the Ninetails Lynx like an ocean wave.
Her black, long hair turned into bunches of black threads and swept through heaven and earth. It was like flood flushing out of a broken dam.
Nonetheless, the Ninetails Lynx was fearless, its eyes turned a little red as it charged like a white streak again.
Not only did the white streak not run away, but it also entered the flood formed by the black strands of hair.
The white streak was sparkling mid-air. At the same time, sharp air blades formed from the white streak attacked the hair again and again.
The bunches of black hair was like hair being cut whereby they broke off easily wherever the scimitar-like sharp blade passed by.
None of the hairs managed to touch the white streak at all.
"Didn't they say that the Ghastly Spider Lady's hair is as powerful as a demigod relic?" Lin Huang began to suspect whether the information recorded in the monster guide was true. According to his observation, the Ghastly Spider Lady's hair seemed to be no different from an ordinary human's hair whereby it was easily snipped off.
"The information in the monster guide should be verified," Bloody voiced its speculation, "There should be two reasons why the hair can be cut so easily."
"One is that the Ninetails Lynx is extremely powerful, and its attack contains the slicing of space. The second reason is that the Ghastly Spider Lady's hair's attribute isn't the highest defense mode at the moment, but is her most powerful attack mode."
In the short couple seconds of battling, the Ghastly Spider Lady who had a third of her hair gone realized that her opponent was much more powerful than she imagined. She calmed down gradually.
"No, I'll definitely lose if this goes on!"
She noticed that her opponent would cut a great amount of her hair easily whenever it mauled her with its claws. Although she had no idea how it did it, she knew that she would be defeated sooner or later, so she changed her strategy immediately.
Her black hair scattered all of a sudden and turned into thin threads. They swept towards the Ninetails Lynx from all directions.
In the blink of an eye, the Ninetails Lynx seemed to have fallen into a trap whereby it was covered completely by countless strands of hair. Furthermore, its space was shrinking.
"Let's see how you're going to run!"
A sense of disdain flashed through the Ninetails Lynx's eyes when it noticed that.
In the next second, it flashed away while the prison made of the long hair suddenly became empty.
The Ghastly Spider Lady jolted upon realizing that the Ninetails Lynx was gone.
Almost at the same time, the Ghastly Spider Lady's head was left with a round and naked scalp. She looked similar to a middle-aged man who suffered from baldness.
Yes, she was bald.
However, no, she did not become more powerful. Instead, her aura was dropping rapidly.
The Ninetails Lynx's attack almost made her lose two-thirds of her hair.
Lin Huang was not sure to laugh or cry when he witnessed that mid-air. The Ninetails Lynx had made its opponent bald! It was clear that the cat had done that on purpose.
Perhaps because she thought the top of her head was a little chilly, so the Ghastly Spider Lady could not help but touch her head. Her expression turned terrible when she found out that she was bald.
Her pallid face was even paler now. The expression on her face was gravely ferocious. Clearly, she was extremely mad.
"I'll kill you! Kill you! Kill you!"
Anyone could not help but have goosebumps when the devastating shriek that reflected despair spread hundreds of kilometers away into the night.
The Ghastly Spider Lady fell into a complete frenzy later on. She lost her calm and ditched her strategy entirely. She consolidated her remaining hair into a long whip, even inserting Divine Power into it while lashing everything around her madly.
The Ninetails Lynx did not bother to fight her and dodged with sparkles continuously. It even had the time to grab Lin Huang and send him into the alternate dimension to prevent him from feeling the impact.
The Ghastly Spider Lady was even more enraged now that the Ninetails Lynx could still take care of others under its attack. She increased the frequency of her lashes.
However, apart from destroying everything within hundreds of kilometers, her attack did not even touch a hair on the Ninetails Lynx.
By going into a rage, the spider lady revealed all of her flaws to the Ninetails Lynx.
The flaws that kept spilling made the Ninetails Lynx assault her scalp over and over again.
When it attacked for the sixth time, it removed the very last strand of hair behind the Ghastly Spider Lady's head.
By then, the Ghastly Spider Lady became completely bald. Her shiny scalp reflected the bright moonlight.
The Ghastly Spider Lady, whose hair was completely removed, looked like she had turned into a rock. She stood frozen where she was while her eyes lost spirit slowly and all signs of life were fading rapidly.
Xiao Hei's notifications came one after another on Lin Huang's side.
"Congratulations, you've obtained complete Ghastly Spider Lady Card (Legendary-level) x2!
"Congratulations, you've obtained demigod soul crystals (Pseudo-mythical-level) x2
"The system has detected a demigod soul and a Godhead (broken). Would you like to retrieve them?"
Chapter 987: Bai Agrees to Elevate
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Before hunting the Ghastly Spider Lady, Lin Huang used a Lucky Card intentionally but never had he expected that complete Ghastly Spider Lady Monster Cards would come out. Besides that, there were even demigod soul crystals.
After retrieving the Ghastly Spider Lady's demigod soul and Godhead in her body, Lin Huang put the carcass away and said to Bloody in his sleeve with his head down, "Where to next?"
"There's a Golden Venom Silkworm 6,800 kilometers in the southwest."
"Let's go!" Lin Huang hovered into the sky directly after putting the Ninetails Lynx away and headed straight southwest.
Past 10 a.m. the next morning, Lin Huang finally returned to the second layer from the third layer of the Abyss Brink.
He had spent the entire night killing all 16 demigod-level monsters in the Abyss Brink.
With the effect of the Lucky Cards and Double Reward Cards, his night full of reward was pretty handsome. He obtained a total of six compete Monster Cards, four demigod soul crystals, four demigod relics, 32 demigod souls, and 32 broken Godheads.
The six complete Monster Cards were two Titan Boas, two Ghastly Spider Ladies, and two Ghoul Lynxs.
Although they were all demigod-level monsters, due to the restriction of Lin Huang's combat strength, they were just like Bai and the rest whereby their combat strength was only on imperial-level yellow gold-rank.
Lin Huang also obtained 16 cross-ranking rewards. Since he had killed demigods, he would receive 80 card draws each time he killed one. With the Double Reward Cards, he obtained a total of 2,560 draws.
Lin Huang summoned Bai when he returned to the land where Tyrant and the rest were elevating.
Bai was rather puzzled when he saw the three golden eggs. However, he soon sensed the aura that he was familiar with inside the eggs. Tyrant and the rest were in there!
Lin Huang only explained upon seeing Bai glaring at the golden eggs, "I elevated Tyrant and the other two to mythical-level since I've gathered sufficient materials for them."
A sense of envy flashed through Bai's eyes when he heard that, but soon he hid his emotions.
"You don't have to be envious because I've gathered the materials for you too. You can elevate now." Lin Huang took out the materials one after another while speaking.
"You can't summon me after I elevate, can you?" Bai asked.
"It's alright. That'll just be temporary," Lin Huang explained while smiling, "I've found a way to elevate to imperial-level, so I should complete the elevation soon."
Bai fell into silence for a moment before asking again, "Your Combat Souls… Are they much more powerful than us?"
It was Lin Huang's turn to fall into silence when he heard the question. He nodded a while later. "There are three of them who can kill demigods now while the remaining four should be able to fight demigods face-on."
"I get it now. Let's elevate then." Bai nodded firmly after hearing the answer.
"Let's begin then." Lin Huang handed the materials to Bai one after another for the integration following the instructions on the cards.
The integration process was extremely torturous, especially integrating the demigod blood and demigod soul. The expression on Bai's face was so distorted that he looked like something else now.
Usually, it only required the integration of a ton demigod blood and ten demigod souls. However, the instruction at the back of the card said the more, the better.
Bai integrated a total of three tons of demigod blood and 32 demigod souls. He said nothing throughout the entire process whereby he stood where he was while blood gushed out of the pores all over his body.
Even Lin Huang, who stood aside, was frowning hard when he saw this grisly scene. He did not stop Bai. Instead, he crushed five Advance Cards.
Bai's pain finally faded when the five Advance Cards turned into five golden glows which penetrated his body. Just like Tyrant and the rest, his body began turning into a golden egg too.
Lin Huang released a long exhale of relief upon seeing Bai enter the elevation mode. "This round of elevation is finally done."
Since he had completed the core goal of elevating the four imperial monsters, Lin Huang turned his head and looked at the two God Figurines' Combat Souls beside.
He then summoned all four of his imperial-level white gold-rank God Figurines' Combat Souls.
The Divine Sun Tree mastered the Fire Rule. Everything would be inflammable when it elevated to its peak in order to strengthen itself.
The Enchanted Fairy mastered the Ice Rule. It could freeze the entire world from revolving when it was elevated to its peak.
The Undead Styx mastered the Spirit Rule. When it elevated to its peak, it could turn any living thing into its loyal worshippers as it wished, building countless undead armies. It could also retrieve countless inheritances from the numerous souls and own them.
The Withered Flower mastered the Life Rule. It could revive the dead on a large scale when it elevated to its peak. It could also engulf all living things in the world and turn it into a dead, barren land.
All four Combat Souls had abilities no less than the Ninetails Lynx and the rest. It was just that they were one rank lower in terms of combat strength.
Initially, Lin Huang could not decide which Combat Soul he should use the two demigod soul crystals that he had obtained from auctioning the god relic Ba Huang on. However, he had obtained another four during the hunt this time, so it was sufficient now.
After summoning the four God Figurines' Combat Souls, he took out four demigod soul crystals and threw them towards the four Combat Souls that grabbed the demigod soul crystals without thinking twice and swallowed them.
The God Figurines' Combat Souls completed their breakthrough merely over ten minutes later. All of them had elevated to imperial-level purple gold-rank, and their aura was just as strong as the Destructive Divine Mammoth.
Lin Huang made the Undead Styx stay to guard the premises as he put the three God Figurines' Combat Souls away.
He began practicing on his own.
The Undead Styx had hundred thousands of imperial-level armies in its body whereby it had close to 200 imperial-level purple gold-rank powerhouses alone. Even if it did not fight by itself, the hundred thousand-strong armies were sufficient to fight two to three demigods. Furthermore, it was under the premise of no battle formation.
In reality, Lin Huang got Bloody to share all of its battle formation knowledge to the Undead Styx ever since it formed its undead army. What he had no idea about was how well the Undead Styx mastered the battle formation now.
…
Two white-robed people rushed through the second layer of the Abyss Brink, ignoring any monsters' aura around completely.
In reality, there was nothing that they should worry about since both of them were imperial-level purple gold-rank powerhouses. They did not hide their aura at all. All of the monsters along the way would hide when they sensed the duo's aura. They were afraid that they would be discovered.
The most powerful monster in the second layer of the Abyss Brink was only on imperial-level yellow gold-rank after all. Picking a fight with anyone whose combat strength was two ranks higher was definitely asking for death.
"We've searched through the few usual hunting zones on the second layer, but we didn't find Lin Xie's trace at all. Could he not be in the hunting zone?"
"There are only two possibilities. He's either in the hunting zone or he's gone to the third layer."
"Why did he even come to the Abyss Brink if he's not going for the hunting zones?"
"Who knows? We can only search following the map. We can't let go of even a single zone!"
Chapter 988: God Bless
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Two white silhouettes, one tall and one short, were flying north at high speed in a dense jungle in the northeast of the second layer of the Abyss Brink.
"This is the last zone. If we can't find Lin Xie here, it means that he has either gone to the third layer or he's left the Abyss Brink," said the tall one without any expression on his face.
"I think there's one more possibility." The short one had disdain written all over his face. "That brat named Lin Xie might not even come to the Abyss Brink at all. The news that we got might be fake since the beginning."
"This possibility is low." The tall one shook his head expressionlessly.
"So, what do we do if we don't find him in the last zone?" asked the short one, "It's been two days and one night since we last rested."
"We can only search the third layer if we can't find him in this layer." The tall one could not help but frown as he spoke.
"I think this is a complete waste of time," the short one objected immediately. "He's on immortal-level. He's not stupid. How is it possible that he'd go to the third layer? Wouldn't he be looking for death if he does that? We'll forget it when we're done searching through the second layer. Why should we torture ourselves?"
"Master asked me to team up with you on purpose because he knew you'd give up fast. Don't you ever think of slacking…"
"Stop!" The short one spoke through voice transmission and interrupted the tall one from speaking further.
"What?" The tall one looked confused.
"Shh!" The short one made a shushing gesture and pointed to his right.
"Do you see something?" The tall one spoke through voice transmission this time.
"Someone set up an illusion in the canyon on the northeast side. I'm suspecting it might be Lin Xie." The short one became a little excited now.
"Let's go take a look." Both of them hid their aura immediately as soon as the tall one was done speaking. They lowered their flight and rushed toward the zone the short one detected.
Lin Huang, who was practicing his sword skills in a canyon more than 100 kilometers away, smirked all of a sudden. "They're finally here."
Yesterday, when Lin Huang returned from the third layer of the Abyss Brink, Bloody found out about these two imperial-level purple gold-rank men in white robes since its Leech Pods filled the entire the second layer of the Abyss Brink.
When Bloody informed Lin Huang about the duo's whereabouts, he connected the dots to the two people who had captured Chan Dou and were wearing white robes too. He suspected that they were the same people. How could he have known that that they would be coming for him now?
Lin Huang summoned the Nightmare Tapir. "Don't kill them yet. Remember to read their minds. Find out which organization they're from and where they brought Chan Dou to. Is he still alive? Also, find out how many demigods are there in their organization and where their headquarters is."
The Nightmare Tapir nodded. Sensing the duo approaching at high velocity, it raised its head and flipped its trunk instantly while releasing an ear-splitting shriek.
The screech spread a hundred times faster than the speed of sound. It reached the two white-robed men in the blink of an eye.
The two white-robed men slowed down all of a sudden.
"Did you hear that?" asked the short one.
"I did. I wonder what kind of monster's shriek was that?" The tall one nodded.
"It seems to be coming from that canyon." The short one seemed timid now.
"No matter what it is, the highest its combat strength will only be is imperial-level yellow gold-rank. Monsters of a higher combat strength can't enter the second layer at all." The tall one remained calm.
"Oh yeah, I forgot about that." The short one was relieved now.
The duo soon passed through more than 100 kilometers and arrived deep in the canyon.
An ungulate monster with black scales all over and a horn on its head lay on the ground of a cave. It was breastfeeding two of its babies.
"It's a… Midnight Unicorn?!" The tall one raised a brow when he saw that creature.
"It seems like that fella set this illusion up. We've wasted our efforts again." Disappointment remained all over the short man's face.
"Our luck's awesome! The Midnight Unicorn is a rare spirit-type monster that's expert in illusions. It happens to have two babies, so we'll have one each." The tall one killed the mother monster quickly as he was speaking. He grabbed the two baby monsters and passed one of them to the short one.
"None for me. I'm not a fan of keeping pets," the short one rejected right away. "What do we do now? We're already done searching the last zone, but we didn't find any traces of Lin Xie."
"What else can we do? We can only go to the third layer. We can't go back without even taking a look at the third layer. Am I right? Or do you think that you can get away from Master's questioning?"
The short one fell into silence for a moment and eventually nodded unwillingly. "Let's go to the third layer then, but you'll search on your own if want to do it at night. I'm going to sleep."
"Sure, let's take a rest tonight. Let's take a look at the third layer together tomorrow," the tall one agreed directly.
…
Lin Huang began observing the two white-robed men when they appeared before him.
The tall one was skinny. He was at least 1.9 meters tall like a bamboo stick. His skin was rather fair. He seemed to have taken on an unhealthy pallor as if he had been staying indoors for a long time without getting any sunlight.
The short one was obviously less than 1.7 meters. Perhaps, he was only 1.6 meters at the most. He was plump and tanned while the pores on his nose were huge with many blackheads.
The white robes they were wearing were pure white without any labels. Lin Huang only found two Emperor's Heart Rings on them; they had nothing else.
After he was done observing them, the Nightmare Tapir transferred all of the information it had retrieved to Bloody.
"How is it? Are they the ones who took Chan Dou?" Lin Huang asked immediately upon seeing Bloody looking at him.
"Yes," Bloody confirmed.
"Is Chan Dou still alive?"
"He's still alive, but this is so much more complicated than we imagined!" Bloody had no idea how to put it into words. "They're from an organization called God Bless. It's not a new underground organization, but it's been hiding under the radar for over 800 years. They've even joined the organizations founded by the Union Government and the Hunter Association. Their people have penetrated the higher management of organizations including the Union Government and the Hunter Association… Apart from the Union Government organization, they've occupied almost all the major underground organizations' higher management."
"I'll transfer the memory after I've arranged them. Take a look for yourself." Bloody extended a tentacle that slithered to Lin Huang's forehead after speaking. A sea of information rushed into his head rapidly.
Lin Huang only opened his eyes a long time after Bloody recalled its tentacle. He was frowning hard.
"No wonder these people dare to capture the direct descendants of the Chan Clan who have demigods guarding their clan. They basically control all the major organizations in this world."
"It should be them who attacked Master that time! Only they could do it. They used the Union Government name to set the trap for Master and destroyed the evidence perfectly."
"Now, the most troublesome thing is that there's no way we can identify who is from God Bless and who isn't," Bloody voiced the biggest existing conundrum.
Lin Huang, who had just digested the new information in his head, looked serious now.
Making enemies with God Bless was no different from making enemies with all the organizations in the world.
Chapter 989: Herculean King, Quadruple Mutated
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Lin Huang found out from the two white-robed men's minds that Chan Dou was still alive, but the duo had no idea where he had been sent to.
The God Bless organization was massive whereby there were a couple of branches in each safety zone and each branch in the same zone served different purposes. The white-robed men only knew what was happening at their branch, but they knew nothing much about the other branches and the headquarters. They did not even know where were the exact locations of those branches and headquarters.
Although Lin Huang found out about the location of their branch as well as there being a demigod there from the duo's memory, he did not plan to alert the enemy just yet.
Bloody shared the same opinion.
"Looking at the current situation, it's easy for us to destroy this branch that we know of. However, the people from God Bless will be even more cautious as soon as the branch is destroyed. It will only bring our further investigation a bigger obstacle, so we can't do anything to this branch just yet."
"I think so too, but the current issue is that we can't obtain more information to deepen the investigation if we don't drop by this branch."
"We don't have to do the investigation ourselves," Bloody said and looked at the two white-robed men who were still wandering in dreamland. "We can send two spies in."
Lin Huang's attention shifted to the two white-robed men. He stared at them for a while and turned his head to ask the Nightmare Tapir, "Can you do it?"
"It shouldn't be a problem. I can imprint a part of me in their bodies. As soon as they fall asleep, I can retrieve the information from their heads no matter the distance. Furthermore, nobody will find out about that including themselves," said the Nightmare Tapir, nodding, but he raised a question, "But there's one problem. Many things they experienced in the dreamland can't be explained properly. If we let them go just like that, there'd be many loopholes when someone were to question them. They'd find out about it sooner or later. I'm afraid they'd know we did something to them by then."
"Tell me about what they went through. I'll make you a new script." Bloody took up the responsibility.
Bloody saw everything in their heads a moment later. "I get it now. I might need your help to delete the beginning portion of their memory. Start from the Midnight Unicorn illusion they saw when they came to the canyon. Change it to them seeing a male Midnight Unicorn which ran away when it saw them from far away."
…
Soon, two days had passed. The two white-robed men returned to the second layer of the Abyss Brink from the third layer.
"I've already told you that he's definitely not on the third layer. We wasted two days for nothing," the short one complained, feeling irritated.
"It seems like Lin Xie has left the Abyss Brink," the tall one ignored the short one's complaint while speaking to himself, "Since he's not on the second and third layers, I think we should take a look at the first layer."
"Go by yourself. I don't have the time to play along with you. I'm going back to report myself now." The short one did not bother the tall one and rushed to the exit of the second layer right away.
The tall one frowned slightly. Seeing the short one disappearing from his field of vision, he followed, feeling helpless.
Over half an hour later, the duo got out of the second layer exit of the Abyss Brink one after another. They returned to the land.
Just when they returned, the duo summoned a Dimensional Portal and stepped into it.
…
In Division 3, Magical Sky City.
In a tall office building, there was a well-lit office with three transparent membrane walls.
An old, gray-haired man in a ponytail who was sitting at a meeting table was looking at the two white-robed men standing before the office table through the frameless glasses on his nose bridge.
One of the two white-robed men was short and the other, tall.
The tall one was at least 1.9 meters tall. His skin was unhealthily pale.
The short one was less than 1.7 meters tall. His skin was tanned, and one could see the pores on his nose from a couple of meters away.
The old man placed his elbows on the table while crossing both of his hands as he listened to the two men talking.
"Do you mean the both of you have browsed through the second and third layers of the Abyss Brink but you didn't find any trace of Lin Xie?"
"Yes, boss. We didn't only browse through the hunting zones this time. We also went through every inch of the land from the south to the north, from the east to the west, but we didn't find Lin Xie,' added the short one.
The old man did not look at the short guy. Instead, he turned his head to look at the tall one and asked, "You didn't miss out any place?"
The tall one nodded. "Yes, we didn't miss out an inch on the second and third layers."
"So, you didn't browse the first layer?" The old man frowned slightly.
The short one nudged the tall one next to him with his elbow. "See, I told you that we should browse the first layer, but you insisted that it's impossible for Lin Xie to go to the first layer and you said we must come back to report ourselves right away."
"You…" The tall one was enraged to hear that. Just like that, the short one turned the tables around!
"Never mind. It doesn't matter if you didn't browse through them. Indeed, it's pretty impossible that Lin Xie would go to the first layer." The old man waved to stop the duo's fight.
"Alright, both of you may leave now. Be on standby and don't go too far. There will be a mission soon."
"What mission, boss?" the short one asked rather curiously.
"Something from the Purple Crow. Don't ask about the detail. I'll tell you guys by then." The old man waved to get them to leave directly.
…
Lin Huang had been staying in the second layer of the Abyss Brink. He had been guarding the four golden eggs while practicing his sword skills every day.
At midnight on the ninth day, one of the golden eggs finally hatched.
Lin Huang put the wooden sword in his hand away immediately hearing the cracking of the shell. He looked at the few golden eggs and soon realized that it was the Herculean King's golden egg that was cracking.
The crack seemed to have formed automatically. It was just a hairline crack in the beginning at only over ten centimeters. Soon, it turned into the size of a thumb while its length expanded to hundreds of meters. The crack spread out, and there were more and more cracks.
Approximately half an hour later, cracks of all sizes filled the entire egg. All of a sudden, countless golden rays shot out of the cracks. Subsequently, the entire shell broke and turned into pieces. The tens of thousands of eggshell pieces turned into golden dots sparkling in the air. It looked like stars in the night sky.
Lin Huang saw the giant golden ape covered in the sparkles. The giant ape opened its eyes slowly as if it was waking up from a deep slumber. At the moment, the golden dots went through a tremor out of the blue. They turned into a golden stream and penetrated the giant ape's chest.
After a long time later, the golden gleam faded completely. The giant ape stepped forward, shrinking with every step it took.
Its height shrunk to three meters when it appeared before Lin Huang.
With the help of a bonfire, Lin Huang saw the Herculean King's transformed appearance.
His long hair was short now. He looked more like a human when he was standing up. The biggest difference was that many parts of his body were covered with a layer of golden armor. He even had an exquisite golden headband on his head and golden flames burned in his eyes.
'The Monkey King bar is the only thing you're missing to be the Monkey King!' Lin Huang thought to himself upon seeing the Herculean King's transformation.
Chapter 990: The Imperial Monsters that Hatched
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Lin Huang sensed clearly that the Herculean King's aura was much more powerful than before. It was at least 100 times more powerful now.
The golden flames in the Herculean King's eyes faded slowly when he saw Lin Huang.
He walked to Lin Huang before speaking, "Master, you must take care of yourself when we're not around."
"I will. Don't worry. You guys just wait for me to elevate to imperial-level." Lin Huang patted the Herculean King's arm. "Your new style isn't too shabby. You're quite handsome!"
The Herculean King smirked when he heard the compliment. His body turned into orange pieces before he could say anything more as he converted into an orange card before Lin Huang quickly.
Lin Huang extended his hand and the card was drawn to his palm.
The card was completely orange with the Herculean King's image on it. He was waving at Lin Huang in there.
Lin Huang smiled and flipped the card over to look at the details.
"Monster Card: Herculean King
"Rarity: Mythical-level
"Monster Name: Super Strength Battleape (Fire attribute)
"Type of Monster: Demon God-type (Pure Blood) / Ancient era Mighty Ape Tribe)
"Nickname: None
"Combat Level: Imperial-level Yellow Gold-rank
"Major: Martial Dao
"Major Skills: Superhuman Strength, Undefeatable Warrior, Unbending Will, Unrestrained Divinity…
"Minor Skills: Demon God Armor, Demon God Shield…
"Summon Authority: Denied (To be activated when you reach imperial level)
"Card Remarks: The second Monster Card that you can show off.
"Demon god-type…"
Seeing that description on the card, Lin Huang recalled the introduction of such a tribe in his memory of the great world. During the ancient era, the demon god and god's blood were the two major tribes of almost of the same rank. They were glorious.
The reason they were fallen later on was mainly because the demon gods needed to maintain pure bloodline in each subgroup while most subgroups had low reproduction. Eventually, that caused the tribe members to drop and soon they were fallen.
Putting away the Herculean King's card into his body, Lin Huang gave his undivided attention to practicing his sword skills. He waited for the remaining three golden eggs to hatch patiently.
In the next afternoon, the second golden egg hatched when the sun was glaring the hottest in the middle of the sky.
It was Charcoal that hatched from the golden egg this time.
Charcoal's body shrunk to approximately 30 meters, but its appearance was at least a grade higher now.
The current Charcoal had shiny scales all over its body like a coat of piano shellac that reflected Lin Huang's image clearly. The scales were like shiny black mirrors.
Not only had it shrunk, but its body was also slenderer now. It lost the clumsiness it had before and seemed rather elegant now.
Although it did not look as suppressive as before, Lin Huang clearly sensed that the aura the current version of Charcoal had was so powerful that it was terrifying.
Charcoal disappeared just when Lin Huang saw it hatch out of the shell. It then appeared before Lin Huang, rubbing its head against him. Lin Huang staggered from the slight scare.
He did not see the dragon's trajectory of movement at all which shocked him a little. "His speed's a few folds faster than Kylie before she elevated!"
He patted Charcoal's head. "Your strength's different from before now. Please behave."
"Hehe, I'm more powerful now! Soon, I'll be able to fight." Charcoal grinned.
"It's still far away from that. Stay in your sealed form patiently." Charcoal's body began to turn into a card as soon as Lin Huang was done speaking.
Lin Huang flipped the card in his hand directly to look at the detailed information on the back.
"Monster Card: Charcoal
"Rarity: Mythical-level
"Monster Name: Demon Flame Dragon (Fire attribute)
"Type of Monster: Dragonkin (Pure Blood) / Ancient Era Demon Dragon Tribe)
"Nickname: Flame Lord
"Combat Level: Imperial-level Yellow Gold-rank
"Major: True Dragon Dao
"Major Skills: Evil Flame, Dragon Power, Dragon Breath, Draconic secret skill, Dragon Realm, Dragon Flame…
"Minor Skills: Elemental Immunity, Divine Regeneration, Physical Reflection…
"Summon Authority: Denied (To be activated when you reach imperial level)
"Card Remarks: Trainable!"
Lin Huang proceeded with his sword practice after putting Charcoal's card away.
On the morning of the 11th day, Lin Huang heard the cracking of an eggshell when he had just washed up and was having a snack.
He looked up and saw a crack that was so subtle that it was almost invisible to the naked eye on the giant golden egg which was so colossal that it was touching the sky. Since he had experienced the same thing twice, Lin Huang proceeded to munch on the dried meat in his hand while waiting for Tyrant to break out of the egg patiently.
Almost 20 minutes had passed when he finished his breakfast in leisure. By then, Tyrant finally hatched from the egg.
Tyrant's height that was over 30,000 meters tall was shrinking rapidly. He only stepped out and appeared before Lin Huang when he shriveled to approximately two meters tall.
"Master."
Lin Huang began taking a closer look at Tyrant that looked almost similar to a human now.
He was over two meters tall with huge muscles bulging all over his body while his skin was its usual bronze color. He had blonde hair now while his pupils were black. The beard on his face was cleanly shaven. He looked like a handsome hunk who was 25 years old at the most.
The once-dark gold armor that was attached to his body was pitch-black and it flaunted his body even more now.
Lin Huang sensed the explosive power coming inside of Tyrant's body unquestionably. Although he was only two meters tall, his real flesh was tens of thousands of meters tall. His power was condensed in each cell of his body.
"Not bad! You're much more powerful now."
Tyrant smirked while scratching the back of his head, feeling bashful.
"I'm sorry that I'll have to seal you guys for a while. I'll release all of you as soon as I've elevated to imperial level." Lin Huang patted Tyrant's shoulder.
Tyrant's body soon began to fade and turned into a card.
Lin Huang looked at the back of the card in his hand right away.
"Monster Card: Tyrant
"Rarity: Mythical-level
"Monster Name: Genie Combat God
"Type of Monster: Archaic-type (Pure Blood) / Celestial Giant Tribe
"Nickname: Combat God
"Combat Level: Imperial-level Yellow Gold-rank
"Major: Combat God Dao, Martial Dao
"Major Skills: Combat God Technique, Combat God Power, Combat God Rage, Combat God Ax…
"Minor Skills: Divine Regeneration, Physical Immunity…
"Summon Authority: Denied (To be activated when you reach imperial level)
"Card Remarks: Trainable!"
Lin Huang put the card back into his body after reading Tyrant's card description. He turned his head and looked at the last golden egg far away for a while before glancing away.
"Bai won't complete his elevation so soon. The materials he digested were a few times more than the standard amount so it will delay the digesting time," Bloody explained while smiling upon noticing Lin Huang's behavior.
"I know." Lin Huang nodded.
He said nothing more. In reality, he was rather worried that Bai would elevate abnormally. The reason being was that he had asked Xiao Hei a couple of days ago if there would be any side effects if Bai used too many integrated materials. Xiao Hei said that the material amount recommended by the system was the best suggestion. Too much or too few might cause the elevation to fail.
Time passed by and another week passed. It was the 18th day since Lin Huang entered the Abyss Brink.
Early in the morning, he finally heard a soft crack.