Chapter 319 - 1641-1650

Chapter 1641: Xiao Hei's Secret

Approximately half an hour later, Lin Huang looked at the severed carcass of the Dragon Python. He then recalled the innumerable God Weapon battle swords that were gliding around like a school of fish.

The Apocalypse Dragon Python's carcass hovered in the starry heavens, its body full of wounds both deep and shallow. What had finally killed it, however, was most certainly the wound on its vital parts, which had completely sliced it in two.

Naturally, a mortal wound like that had not been caused by just a single attack.

It was the result of Lin Huang releasing more God Weapon flying daggers, utilizing fully eight sword formations, and spending more than half an hour to finally kill it.

The Apocalypse Dragon Python was undoubtedly the most powerful opponent that Lin Huang had ever encountered.

As he sensed the Apocalypse Dragon Python's life force dissipating entirely from not too far away, Lin Huang suddenly raised his brows involuntarily.

This was because the Dragon Python's carcass was disintegrating gradually into grayish-black points of light. They swiftly consolidated together and transformed into a grayish-black cloud of mist that was merely the size of a soccer ball.

"This ought to be the Void's Origin Energy, right?" Lin Huang extended his hand with some curiosity.

The cloud of mist not only did not reject his advances but seeped into Lin Huang's body through his fingers.

Lin Huang did not sense any threat at all. He sent his consciousness into his body and discovered that the sphere of energy had immersed itself in the God Territory within him.

After using his consciousness to seek it out, countless memories began wildly surging into his mind.

Lin Huang finally opened his eyes again after a long time.

"So that's how it is… full Origin Energy contains everything there is to know about a Void…"

From the Apocalypse Dragon Python's memory, Lin Huang rapidly obtained all sorts of information about Origin Energy.

As long as he fully refined this mass of Origin Energy, not only would he obtain the Apocalypse Dragon Python's memory and inheritance, but he would also gain everything that it had ever accumulated. This included the Dao seals it had mastered, its sequence powers and Rule Bending Powers, its God Territory… it even included everything the Apocalypse Dragon Python had obtained from refining other Origin Energies in the past.

However, Lin Huang soon noticed something odd. After killing the Apocalypse Dragon Python, although a fatality notification had popped up from Xiao Hei, there was no notification at all about any rewards. There was not even a piece of the Apocalypse Dragon Python's card fragment.

"Why isn't there even a card fragment this time after I killed the Apocalypse Dragon Python?" Lin Huang directly asked Xiao Hei.

After a moment of silence, Xiao Hei very soon responded.

"You've already gained all of its Origin Energy, so there's no need for me to take a portion of its Origin Energy to create a card."

Lin Huang was stunned when he heard this, but he instantly realized what Xiao Hei meant.

"Do you mean to say that when you created cards previously, you converted a portion of the deceased's Origin Energy to do so?"

"Your understanding is essentially correct."

"So the level and quantity of the cards you can create is dependent on the Origin Energy that you take and has no actual connection with my combat strength?!" Something suddenly occurred to Lin Huang, and his expression immediately became rather peculiar.

Xiao Hei fell silent again for a moment but answered anyway a little while later.

"That is indeed the case. However, restricting the number of cards you can obtain per combat strength level is also to prevent you from exploiting the cards and relying too much on the cards' functions."

"So you've appropriated a great deal of the Origin Energy for yourself from the monsters I've killed?" The number of monsters Lin Huang had killed far exceeded the maximum number of cards he had obtained.

For each monster he killed, Xiao Hei would secretly take a portion of Origin Energy. However, only a small fraction of the Origin Energy was used to create cards for Lin Huang—most of it was hoarded by Xiao Hei.

This time, Xiao Hei fell into a long silence.

"Don't pretend you can't hear me. And don't think you can deceive me about this matter," Lin Huang prodded, seeing that Xiao Hei did not reply for a long time.

The Goldfingers—the stone tablet, Eternity Fire, Yin Yin, and the newcomer, the Gate of All Realms—were watching the drama unfold.

In reality, it was common for a Goldfinger to sneak benefits from its host. However, not very many of them had been caught red-handed.

"I do admit that I've appropriated a great deal of Origin Energy. However, my restricting your rewards is not because I wish to withhold any of the Origin Energy.

"Even if I only used one-tenth of the Origin Energy to create all kinds of card rewards for you, the number of cards you would obtain will be several dozen times over what you have now. That does not benefit your development in any way."

Lin Huang knew that Xiao Hei was telling the truth.

He had been prodding himself to become stronger all this while; to a certain extent, this was also because of Xiao Hei's restriction on the number of cards he could obtain.

Since the number of cards he could gain per level of combat strength was limited, he had no option but to elevate his combat strength quickly so he could obtain more card rewards.

If Xiao Hei truly did lift its restrictions—if it merely used one-tenth of the Origin Energy to make him all sorts of card rewards, as it had mentioned earlier—his motivation to elevate his combat strength would likely drop significantly. Moreover, there was a high possibility of him relying on the cards' functions and slacking in his personal cultivation. He was almost certain that he would definitely not have the ability he possessed now.

"I won't bring up what's already in the past. However, right now, I think we can apportion the ratio of Origin Energy all over again." Xiao Hei had admitted its problem, and Lin Huang did not want to dwell on the matter. He had brought up the Origin Energy issue not to blame Xiao Hei but to allocate the ratio of resources anew.

"No problem."

Xiao Hei agreed with alacrity, then suggested a ratio.

"I can allocate thirty percent to you. Given your current ability, I'm no longer worried that you'll exploit the cards."

"Let's make it fifty-fifty. It's fairer if each of us has half." It was not that Lin Huang wanted more, but he knew that Xiao Hei had appropriated Origin Energy in the past because the Origin Energy was most certainly beneficial to him. "I'll store my fifty percent with you for now and let you know when I need it. You can use it whenever you want. Also, there's no need to portion out the Origin Energy that you appropriated. It still belongs to you."

"Deal!"

Xiao Hei thought about it for a moment and very quickly agreed. After all, Lin Huang was currently making an extremely big concession with his current proposal. It knew that it would be very difficult for it to fight for an even higher ratio.

After the two had discussed the apportioning of Origin Energy, Lin Huang looked at the mass of grayish-black Origin Energy from the Dragon Python.

"What's the most powerful card you can create with this kind of lord-level Origin Energy?"

"I can create a Lord Elevation Card."

"What?!" Lin Huang's eyes widened, thinking he had misheard. "By using this card, one can directly elevate to become a Lord?!"

"Of course, it's not as easy as that. There's a caveat to be able to use it. One has to be ninth-rank heavenly god-level, and ranked no lower than Class 5.5 Pseudo Pure Spirit."

"There's no need to go through unification?!" Lin Huang still thought such a function was rather incredible.

"No. Unification will be achieved right away when the card is used. The user will directly elevate to become a Lord, and no raptors will be attracted."

"There aren't any side-effects?" Lin Huang questioned further.

"No. It's the same as a successful, normal unification."

Lin Huang's eyes lit up after hearing that. He was beginning to imagine what the scenario might be if he built an army of lord-level imperial monsters.

Chapter 1642: The Virtual Realm Cabin

"Is there any way to bring in items from the material realm?"

That was the main reason why Lin Huang had brought Xiao Hei into the virtual realm this time.

"After putting together the situation in the virtual realm and the information that the Gate of All Realms shared, it shouldn't be a problem."

As soon as Xiao Hei finished speaking, a card rapidly began to coalesce on Lin Huang's right palm.

He picked up the card and looked at it. "A Virtual Realm Cabin Card?"

Lin Huang checked the information on the back of the card.

This was a cabin that could exist in the virtual realm. The duration of its existence would depend on the cabin's interior capacity, how many items were placed inside, and the influx of Origin Energy.

With an influx of Origin Energy, the smaller the capacity of the cabin and the fewer the items, the longer the cabin would be able to exist.

Anything from the material realm could be stored in this cabin, except living beings.

Naturally, this meant living beings from the material realm, excluding Lin Huang's virtual body.

"Why is there a restriction on living beings?" Lin Huang could not help asking when he saw that particular caveat.

"Without this restriction, the Origin Energy required to build this cabin would be at least a hundred times more than what's currently needed."

Lin Huang nodded once he heard the explanation. "I think that's a pretty good restriction."

In truth, he had not given this much thought earlier; he was just asking a casual question. In reality, it would not affect him significantly whether or not the virtual realm cabin could contain living beings from the material realm. Moreover, even if the cabin were able to contain living beings, they would not be able to leave the cabin and enter the virtual realm.

"Does it require a lot of Origin Energy to maintain the cabin?" Lin Huang asked again.

"As long as you don't make the capacity of the cabin too extreme and store too many items inside, the daily consumption is practically negligible."

"That's good then." Lin Huang could finally be at ease.

He did not ask Xiao Hei about how to use the cabin, as it was clearly stated on the information on the back of the card.

In one move, Lin Huang teleported to a nearby planet that had not been damaged. He then crushed the Virtual Realm Cabin Card in his hand.

A second later, the card turned into countless golden points of light that rapidly formed into a small cabin in front of Lin Huang.

The exterior was the default form of the card and could be altered by the card user.

However, Lin Huang did not want to bother thinking about a concept, so he left it on the default setting.

The cabin looked as if it had less than ten square meters of surface area. This did not bother Lin Huang; he pushed the door open and went in.

Upon entering, he realized that the interior was even smaller—probably only six or seven square meters. The cabin could only hold one bed and a set of tables and chairs at most, and it would already be thoroughly cramped inside.

This even reminded Lin Huang of the house on Earth he had rented with a few others after graduating from university back in the day. The partitioned room he lived in back then was similar to the size of this cabin.

Lin Huang looked around. There was nothing in the room at all except for a stone floor, four snowy-white walls, and a triangular roof.

He made some mental calculations. The highest part of the roof was approximately 3.5 meters. If he were to calculate using the surface area of the interior, the maximum capacity of this cabin at present was no more than 25 cubic meters.

He did not increase the capacity of the interior, nor did he alter the structure of the house. He merely opened the door and left.

From what he saw, the current surface area was fully sufficient for his needs.

If it were not enough, he could still change it when the time came. This was also a unique characteristic of the virtual realm cabin. The interior capacity of the cabin, its structure and exterior appearance, as well as the interior decorations, could be changed at any time.

"Let's return to the material realm and test this function then."

Lin Huang had barely finished speaking before the Gate of All Realms opened a Virtual Eye.

He stepped into it. When he reappeared, he was already in the material realm.

However, his real body was not on the Pfister Star but on the barren planet where his virtual body had arrived earlier.

After returning to the material realm, Lin Huang checked the time immediately. It was exactly the same as when his virtual body had left the material realm. Not even one second had passed.

He turned around and looked in the direction of the virtual realm cabin.

The Virtual Realm Cabin Card within his body that had become blurred and out of focus was suddenly illuminated by points of light. A moment later, the form of the Virtual Realm Cabin Card that he could see gradually began to solidify into being. It was exactly the same as the one in the virtual realm.

Not only could he see it, but even his Divine Telekinesis could perceive it.

However, he knew that it was a projection of the virtual realm cabin into the material realm. As the user of the card, only he could perceive it; others could not.

Lin Huang pushed the door open and went in right away. The interior of the house was exactly the same, with no changes whatsoever.

He retrieved a storage ring from his storage space. After placing some items in the ring, he put it on the floor. He turned around and left after opening the door.

"Let's go to the virtual realm again," Lin Huang told the Gate of All Realms.

Very soon, a Virtual Eye appeared before him. His virtual body consolidated immediately, which he then stepped into.

After passing through the Virtual Eye, Lin Huang's virtual body appeared in the virtual realm again.

He glanced at the cabin nearby, then pushed open the door and went in again.

Upon entering the house, he saw the storage ring on the floor right away. He picked it up and sent his Divine Telekinesis into it. Nothing was missing inside.

Lin Huang then tried taking out the items in the storage ring one after the other.

Divine Crystals, god sequence relics, minerals, herbs, monster carcasses…

He was able to retrieve every item he had brought from the material realm without being restricted by any of the virtual realm's rules at all.

Lin Huang even tried absorbing a Divine Crystal. There were no issues at all.

At this point, he was finally sure that the virtual realm cabin functioned perfectly.

"It's like a cabin in which time has stopped. If I have sufficient resources and cultivate inside for over a hundred million years, not even a second of the material realm's time would pass!" Lin Huang thought the virtual realm cabin was the most valuable treasure in cultivation.

Of course, the caveat was that he would not be interrupted by any Voids.

However, according to the memories he obtained from the Apocalypse Dragon Python, most of the Voids in the virtual realm could only move around within a specific area. They could not distance themselves from a particular region.

This was just like the Apocalypse Dragon Python that could not go too far from the Battlefield of the Dragon Abyss. He could only move around a few nearby star zones at most. Furthermore, he could not leave the Battlefield of the Dragon Abyss for too long, or he would be teleported back by force.

Lin Huang had some speculations about this unique characteristic of the Voids.

It was possible that the Voids were unable to leave the place where they had died or the place where their corpses were in the material realm.

However, such a restriction was not absolute.

According to the Apocalypse Dragon Python's memories, some powerful existences could break such restrictions. However, Lin Huang gauged that the only ones who could do that would be super powerhouses above lord-level.

Therefore, he was not worried about being disturbed when he cultivated in the virtual realm cabin. After all, the only Void nearby—the Apocalypse Dragon Python–had been killed by him.

If he were truly so unfortunate as to encounter a Void that could break this restriction, he would just have to admit defeat.

However, if that did happen and worse came to worst, it was only the destruction of a virtual body. Besides, the Gate of All Realms could currently create three virtual bodies per day.

Chapter 1643: Tenth-Rank Heavenly God-Level

After dispelling the virtual realm cabin, Lin Huang returned to the material realm again.

He had already thought about how he was going to elevate his ability over the next few days.

Just before the sky darkened into night, Hong Zhuang returned Zhan Zhuo's unlocked storage ring to Lin Huang.

He immediately checked through Zhan Zhuo's battle spoils.

After a cursory scan with Divine Telekinesis, the items in the storage ring caused Lin Huang to exclaim in admiration at how wealthy a lord-level powerhouse could be.

Zhan Zhuo had eleven Dao Weapons alone, as well as two lord-level dead bodies. He also had three sealed Origin Energy spheres, hundreds of inherited crystals, storage rings of various shapes piled high in a small mountain, as well as innumerable Divine Crystals and various minerals…

Lin Huang guessed that many resources in Zhan Zhuo's storage ring might not have come from the great world at all. It was very possible that they had been obtained from other Raiders in exchange and had come from other worlds or universes.

As for the three Origin Energy spheres, they were obviously lord-level. Zhan Zhuo must have obtained them from killing Voids in the virtual realm.

As to why Zhan Zhuo had not absorbed the spheres, Lin Huang speculated that either he had encountered a temporary bottleneck and could not absorb them, or he had intentionally kept them. Perhaps he wanted to use them as goods to trade for resources with other people.

After making a detailed inventory of Zhan Zhuo's loot, Lin Huang did not post the eleven Dao Weapons on Royal's auction. This was because he had previously calculated that the number of half-step Lords' God Territories he could get in exchange for selling Zhan Zhuo's ancient palace ought to be sufficient.

He retrieved the small mountain of storage rings inside and passed them all to Hong Zhuang again.

Whatever the ability of the original owners of those rings, he would let Hong Zhuang unlock them all first before he decided on what to do. It was still better than nothing, however small.

After seeing to all these matters, Lin Huang did not enter the virtual realm again, nor did he enter the Great Heaven Palace for closed-door cultivation. Instead, he waited patiently for the result of the ancient palace's auction.

At noon the next day, the alarm clock Lin Huang had set went off as soon as the twenty-four hours for the auction was up. He immediately took out his Royal Token and accessed the Royal auction page.

The auction showed that the ancient palace had sold for 1,274 half-step Lords' God Territories.

This number had far surpassed what Lin Huang required.

When he saw the auction results, his mood grew increasingly cheerful.

After confirming the transaction, the 1,274 half-step Lords' God Territories were entered into his account immediately and stored within his Royal Token.

He took out all of them right away and put them in his storage ring.

Now that he had possession of these half-step Lords' God Territories, Lin Huang did not delay any further.

He had Xiao Hei create another Virtual Realm Cabin Card and walked to the courtyard with it, then crushed it immediately.

The card turned into golden points of light again and consolidated into a virtual cabin that only Lin Huang could see.

He went inside, removed his storage ring, and placed it on the floor.

After opening the door and exiting, he had the Gate of All Realms create a virtual body for him. He then stepped into the virtual realm.

When he entered the virtual realm again with his virtual body, Lin Huang immediately saw the cabin in the nearby courtyard. He strode over, pushed open the door, and entered.

After picking up the storage ring on the floor, Lin Huang collected his thoughts and sat down with his legs crossed.

A moment later, after his mind was completely calm, he took out the half-step Lords' God Territories from the storage ring one by one and began to refine them.

Days passed in the virtual realm.

In no time at all, sixty thousand days had passed.

When Lin Huang refined the two hundredth and thirty-ninth God Territory, his combat strength successfully broke through to ninth-rank heavenly god-level. (During his elevation to eighth-rank, he had refined 17 extra God Territories.)

Just as he had expected, he could clearly sense that his heavenly god-level had yet to reach satiety, so he continued to refine more God Territories.

Nearly one hundred and twenty thousand days passed. When he refined the seven hundredth and fifty-first God Territory, his combat strength achieved another breakthrough, and he elevated to tenth-rank heavenly god-level.

At this point, Lin Huang finally sensed that his God Territory was full. He could no longer absorb any more half-step Lords' God Territories.

Only now did he descend into his mind and begin checking over the current state of his body.

His combat strength had elevated to tenth-rank heavenly god-level. After undergoing the baptism of combat strength elevation twice, his physical strength had officially achieved lord-level. Naturally, his God's soul's strength had also broken through to middle-rank lord-level.

Apart from that, his Godly Right had grown significantly stronger as well. The number of god sequence chains it could contain had increased to over fifty thousand. In his God Territory, the total number of god sequence chains had skyrocketed to at least one hundred and eighty thousand, while the number of god rules was immeasurable.

These two consecutive elevations in rank had undoubtedly increased Lin Huang's ability significantly.

However, he did not exit closed-door cultivation just yet, or halt his cultivation.

Instead, he looked at the unknown Divine Telekinesis visualization images.

He had set these aside earlier mainly because he genuinely did not have the time to visualize them. Even though time flow in the Great Heaven Palace had been accelerated ten thousand times, to Lin Huang, it was still insufficient.

However, the elevation of his combat strength this time had increased the strength of his God's soul to middle-rank lord-level. Without a doubt, his visualization speed was much faster now. Moreover, he had the virtual realm cabin, which was the ideal place for cultivation.

Naturally, Lin Huang intended to take advantage of it.

After letting his mind submerge into his inner body, he soon began a new round of Divine Telekinesis visualization.

He spent twenty-seven years (approximately ten thousand days) visualizing the 103rd visualization image.

He then spent fifty-five years (over twenty thousand days) visualizing the 104th visualization image.

At this point, the strength of his Divine Telekinesis had also skyrocketed to the limits of middle-rank lord-level.

However, Lin Huang did not stop just yet but continued with his visualization.

He spent more than five hundred full days (over two hundred thousand days) to visualize the 105th visualization image.

He spent over a thousand years to finally complete the visualization of the 106th visualization image.

As for the 107th visualization image, Lin Huang merely glanced at it and completely abandoned any further attempts at visualization.

If he continued to visualize at his current God's soul's strength, he might have to spend over ten thousand years to complete the 106th visualization image successfully.

He felt that he could certainly wait until his God's soul had another breakthrough before proceeding with any more visualization.

He was fairly satisfied with the current strength of his Divine Telekinesis. After all, it was already at the peak of upper-rank lord-level.

After setting aside the visualization image, Lin Huang looked at the God's Figurine's Combat Souls within him again.

The combat strength of the ten original God's Figurine's Combat Souls had remained stagnant at ninth-rank true god-level.

There was no reason other than they were restricted by the God's Figurine's innate limitations.

Lin Huang stared at the ten God's Figurines and thought for a moment. After that, he soon made up his mind.

"Xiao Hei, elevate all ten God's Figurines to Pure Spirit!"

"Certainly. Let me have all of the Apocalypse Dragon Python's Origin Energy from previously, and supplement me with one more sphere of Origin Energy."

"Deal!" Lin Huang agreed with alacrity, then took out an Origin Energy sphere and gave it to Xiao Hei.

Lord-level Origin Energy was a class-6 material. To elevate from class-5 to class-6, he would need a grade-5 Advance Card, which was a class-5 material.

Furthermore, Lin Huang had requested to elevate ten God's Figurines and had not provided any other materials, so Xiao Hei would need to provide all of the Origin Energy.

Therefore, this deal was still relatively fair—in fact, Lin Huang had even taken advantage of it.

After all, his ten God's Figurine's Combat Souls were only class-4. They would need to elevate from rank-4 mythical-level to rank-5 supreme god-level.

A moment later, Advance Cards appeared one by one in Lin Huang's hands.

Lin Huang crushed them one at a time and inserted them into the ten Combat Souls' bodies, respectively.

Very soon, the ten Combat Souls elevated to Pure Spirit rank-6 one after the other.

After this, Lin Huang communicated with the Eternity Fire so it could imbue the ten original Combat Souls with God's soul energy.

After being infused with God's soul energy from the Eternity Fire, the ten Combat Souls' combat strength kept skyrocketing.

First-rank, second-rank, third-rank…

After a mere few minutes, they had elevated to ninth-rank heavenly god-level.

However, that was not the end of things yet. The God's Figurine's Combat Souls' combat strength merely paused at ninth-rank heavenly god-level for a moment, and then the next breakthrough occurred. They had been elevated to lord-level!

Many inherently Pure Spirit rank monsters were born as Lords. Even the weakest ones would automatically elevate to become Lords when they grew to adulthood.

However, the God's Figurine's Combat Souls were only dead bodies.

After elevating to Pure Spirit rank-6, their combat strength elevation only required that their God's souls be replenished.

Once their God's souls had been replenished to lord-level, they would naturally elevate to lord-level.

This was why Lin Huang had decided to expend Advance Cards to perform this round of elevation.

Compared to nurturing imperial monsters and Sword Servants, it was much faster to elevate his God's Figurine's Combat Souls and far more convenient.

However, the Eternity Fire halted the infusion of God's soul energy after elevating the ten God's Figurine's Combat Souls to lower-rank Lords.

Although the Eternity Fire could theoretically produce an infinite amount of energy, creating ten Lords at once was a great strain on it.

As far as Lin Huang was concerned, he could still make use of ten lower-rank Lords, albeit grudgingly.

He retrieved an Origin Energy sphere from his storage space to compensate the Eternity Fire.

After that, he sat down again with his legs crossed and began another round of visualization.

However, this time he visualized the True Spirit Guide instead.

He was preparing to completely visualize the ten Pure Spirit God's Figurine's Combat Souls into the forms that were in the True Spirit Guide…

Chapter 1644: I'll Kill You!!!

Upon his return to the great world from the virtual world, Lin Huang's ability had undergone yet another significant increase.

Not only had he elevated from eighth-rank to tenth-rank, but his abilities in all aspects had leveled up in a manner that could even be described as terrifying.

After a full day, the evacuation of the residents of the Pfister Star and the several other habitable planets in the Devil Hunter Star Zone was finally entering its last stages.

Lin Huang did a scan with his Divine Telekinesis; the Sword Servants were still busy.

After using Divine Telekinesis to sense out Sword1, Lin Huang communicated directly with him via voice transmission, "Inform the other Sword Servants to leave the Devil Hunter Star Zone and the nearby regions as soon as the evacuation is complete. Remember to bring Lin Xin and the others with you. There might be a lord-level battle later on; I'm not sure how far-reaching the impact will be."

Seeing that Sword1 wanted to say something, Lin Huang continued, "I know that all of you have powerful abilities, but when faced with a bona fide Lord, it still won't be enough. If you stay, that would only be more of a distraction to me."

He added after this, "I'm confident about this battle. You don't need to worry."

Only then did Sword1 nod. "This humble subordinate understands."

After finalizing these arrangements, Lin Huang thought for a moment, then sent his coordinates directly to his two allies from the Club—Epic Player and Steel Fist.

In reality, he did not really need assistance now. However, since he had requested their help earlier and they had agreed, he sent his coordinates over as promised.

Lin Huang did not enter cultivation mode after that. Instead, he waited patiently for the Raiders to come.

Sword1 and the rest finished evacuating the population of the entire star zone by the next morning. They took Lin Xin and the others along and departed far away from the Devil Hunter Star Zone.

Epic Player and Steel Fist arrived the next evening.

Epic Player's appearance was that of a young man in his early twenties. Tall and lanky with short blue hair, he was dressed in casual attire.

Steel Fist, on the other hand, was not quite what Lin Huang had expected—they turned out to be female.

She looked about twenty-five or twenty-six and was clad in form-fitting sports attire. Her shoulder-length hair was tied into a ponytail, and her skin bore a healthy tan.

Her limbs were long and elegant, and she had a good figure. At a glance, one could tell she worked out frequently and was the type who loved outdoor activities.

"Hello gorgeous, it's been a while!" Epic Player went forward to greet Steel Fist upon her arrival.

Steel Fist merely shot him a glance, then turned her head to look at Lin Huang.

"So you're Xiu Mu?"

She did a scan with Divine Telekinesis and discovered Lin Huang was the only person left on this planet, so naturally, he ought to be Xiu Mu—the one who had invited the two of them here.

"Yes, I am. Hello, Senior Steel Fist." Lin Huang maintained the necessary courtesies.

Although he might already be more powerful than both of them in terms of ability, his combat strength was not yet at lord-level after all. Moreover, he had joined the Club later than the two of them, and he was definitely younger than they were.

"Before I came here, I thought you were just bragging about having killed a Raider. From the looks of it now, you probably do possess that sort of ability," Steel Fist said bluntly; her personality had always been like this.

She had been suspicious of Lin Huang previously because there was an insurmountable gap between Lords and non-Lords. Moreover, his opponent was a Raider who had a Goldfinger. The level of difficulty in killing them would be even higher.

She had even suspected that Lin Huang was just bait for luring the Club members into a trap.

She had come this time because, for one, she had sufficient confidence in her abilities. Even if she could not fight the Raider, she could run away. For another, she was worried that Lin Huang might be telling the truth. If this turned out to be a genuine situation and Lin Huang was killed by the Raider, it meant the Club would lose a new member.

However, after seeing Lin Huang, her suspicions about him decreased significantly. At the very least, she had no doubts about his abilities now. This was because she could faintly sense danger signals emanating from his person.

She would only experience a feeling like this if she were facing someone no weaker, or even more powerful, than herself.

"Actually, I felt the same way you did. I was skeptical of his ability before I came here," Epic Player said with a smile after Steel Fist's comments.

"But after meeting him, I think it's probably true that he killed Mr. Gate."

Only then did Lin Huang realize that, just as he had mistrusted them initially, they had also been wary of him, keeping their guards up. They had been worried that he was merely bait the Raiders had set up.

"Seniors, since you both have admitted as much, I may as well be truthful. In reality, I had to think twice before asking for your help because I couldn't rule out the possibility that the Club might harbor Raider spies as well. I was worried that I'd be inviting trouble for myself. That's why I didn't send my coordinates to you right away," Lin Huang also expressed his thoughts on the matter.

"Aren't you worried now?" Epic Player asked playfully.

"Not at all," Lin Huang said, shaking his head with a smile.

"Is it because you feel we're reliable after meeting us?" Epic Player persisted.

Steel Fist looked at Lin Huang too, appearing rather curious about his answer to this question.

"It's because of another reason." Lin Huang smiled and shook his head.

He secretly added in his heart, 'Because my current ability is sufficient to handle every threat there is.'

He did not say it out loud because it sounded too pretentious and would not be very amicable to his two allies.

Seeing that Lin Huang was unwilling to say anymore, the two did not pursue the matter further.

After interacting for a while, Lin Huang became a little more familiar with both of them. He invited them into the courtyard and served them tea. The three of them sat in the pavilion and began chatting in a relaxed manner.

It was mainly Steel Fist and Epic Player asking Lin Huang how he had managed to offended the Raiders. They also asked for some details about the killing of Mr. Gate.

Lin Huang answered their questions one by one.

The three of them chatted in this manner for over two hours. Suddenly, Lin Huang's communicator began to vibrate.

He looked down and saw that it was a voice call from an unknown number.

After a moment of consideration, he answered the call anyway.

Once the call was connected, a voice that appeared to come from a synthesizer spoke before Lin Huang could ask who it was.

"I've found you! Lin… Huang…"

Lin Huang narrowed his eyes slightly. "Is this Spy?!"

This individual had not only managed to find out his number but had also called him by his real name. Lin Huang immediately thought of the Raider with the codename Spy.

"Don't hang up yet. I have a question for you."

Hearing the other fall silent, Lin Huang continued, "Were you the one who killed Yang Ling?!"

"So you were the one who wiped out Yang Ling's information! Over this period, his lady friend probably has been hiding with you all this time." Despite the synthesized nature of the voice, Lin Huang could hear the excitement in it. "All that looking high and low, and I stumble upon her whereabouts by sheer blind luck!

"Lin Huang, more and more I'm beginning to look forward to meeting you."

"I'm looking forward to meeting you too…" Lin Huang's tone suddenly turned icy, "And then I'll kill you!!!"

Chapter 1645: The First Round

After Lin Huang ended the call with Spy, Steel Fist and Epic Player looked at him.

"Was that Spy from the Raiders that you were talking to?" Steel Fist asked immediately.

"It was." Lin Huang nodded.

"Based on the information you provided, that fellow is indeed a bigger threat. Since he was able to find out your contact number and verify your real identity, it proves that he might be able to find out our real identities too. He might even be able to locate our coordinates through our communicators." Epic Player frowned slightly.

"If he's a middle-rank Lord, it'll be hard for us to kill him." As a close combat powerhouse, Steel Fist particularly disliked encountering this kind of opponent, who possessed showy abilities.

"Let me handle Spy," Lin Huang's tone was calm as if he were talking about something insignificant.

Although Epic Player and Steel Fist still had some doubts about Lin Huang being able to kill a middle-rank Lord, they could tell from the conversation between him and Spy earlier that both had an irreconcilable grudge. They did not delve further into the subject.

"Since he's already discovered your contact number and your real identity, it shouldn't be hard for him to locate your coordinates," Epic Player added. "I reckon it won't take him long to get here."

"I wonder how many people they'll send this time." Steel Fist looked serious; she could not relax at all.

"If they don't know that both of you are here, they probably won't send too many people. I anticipate that there'll only be three or four people at most," Lin Huang put forward his speculations, "But if the news that I requested your help has been leaked, they'll definitely send quite a few people—maybe even all the members they have. They certainly won't let a perfect opportunity to kill three Club members slip by!"

What Lin Huang said made Epic Player and Steel Fist look even grimmer.

All this while, they had never considered the possibility that there might be a mole in the Club.

After all, apart from Lin Huang, who was a new member, everyone had known each other for years.

However, they did not refute what he had said either. They were also not entirely sure whether or not there were any moles in the Club.

"We'll see when the time comes, but hopefully the situation won't be so dire." Epic Player sighed lightly.

Lin Huang poured the two of them more tea and began leading the conversation in a lighter direction.

In no time at all, it was already early next morning.

The stars had just risen on the Pfister Star's horizon when Lin Huang sensed powerful auras approaching the Devil Hunter Star Zone.

Epic Player and Steel Fist lifted their heads and looked in the same direction almost simultaneously. Their expressions were both extremely grave.

There were nine powerful auras!

Lin Huang had been right after all. If the Raiders had wanted to capture only Lin Huang, even if they were to take him alive, there was no need for all of them to make an appearance.

Both of them exchanged glances and read the message in each other's eyes—there was a mole in the Club after all!

Almost the next instant after all three sensed the presence of the Raiders, a series of formidable shockwaves surged through the void at practically the same time.

Epic Player and Steel Fist dodged immediately. In the blink of an eye, they appeared outside the Pfister Star's atmosphere.

Just when they had found stable footing, they realized that Lin Huang had not dodged at all.

At the same time, both of them saw a curtain of black light rising from the Pfister Star's surface. It spread across half the planet almost immediately and just happened to obstruct the direction the shockwaves were coming from.

"There are nine of them—he can't possibly defend himself against all of them!" Steel Fist muttered softly.

"This Xiu Mu fellow…" Epic Player looked extremely grim. He had never expected Lin Huang to do something so risky the minute he showed his hand.

This was an attack with the combined forces of nine Lords. Not only that, there were two auras that were clearly middle-rank Lords.

Even a middle-rank lord-level powerhouse would be forced to dodge an attack of such power.

However, right as they thought Lin Huang was definitely going to die, the nine shockwaves struck the curtain of black light at almost the same time.

A second later, Epic Player and Steel Fist's eyes widened. The shocked expressions on their faces seemed to have frozen in place.

'What did I just see?!'

The two of them had the same thought at almost the same time.

Only a moment later were they able to confirm that what they had seen earlier was not an illusion.

The nine shockwaves of various colors were immediately deflected when they struck the curtain of black light.

Not only was the black light curtain not perforated, but the entire Pfister Star remained intact and whole.

"What kind of defense technique is that?!" Steel Fist and Epic Player were immediately dumbfounded.

On the other end of things, the nine Raiders who had attacked looked even more stunned.

When the nine of them saw Lin Huang using the curtain of light to envelop the Pfister Star earlier, they all thought that Lin Huang was signing his death warrant.

They could almost imagine what would happen next. The curtain of black light would shatter the moment the shockwaves hit it, and the entire planet would be crushed into dust, including Lin Huang.

However, what they had imagined was completely different from reality.

The nine of them had the same reaction when they saw the shockwaves being deflected—they thought they had been ensnared in an illusion.

However, they immediately realized the truth a second later.

This scenario was by no means an illusion—it had actually happened!

Seeing that the deflected shockwaves were going to reach them in merely the time it took for a breath, all of them braced to take the impact head-on.

Suddenly, the man leading the team and another middle-rank Lord shouted a warning at the same time, "Get out of the way!"

Both of them had obviously sensed the peculiarity of the deflected shockwaves.

All nine Lords hastily scattered immediately in an attempt to avoid the incoming shockwave attack.

However, at this point, a black kitten the size of a human palm appeared out of nowhere. Its nine tails were proudly raised high like swaying serpents, while its black eyes were full of disdain.

As soon as the kitten appeared, the nine Lords sensed that their bodies had frozen in place.

The two middle-rank Lords freed themselves from this restraint at the first possible moment and immediately attacked the kitten. Clearly, they realized it was the kitten that was causing this mischief.

However, the black kitten merely shot them a glance and vanished instantly, rendering their attacks futile.

At this point, the shockwaves had already approached. Of the remaining seven Lords, only three managed to forcibly free themselves from their unseen bonds, barely dodging the shockwave attacks.

However, the other four Lords were killed instantly.

Just this one encounter alone had caused their side to lose half of their members.

The three lower-rank Lords who had barely escaped felt themselves break into a cold sweat over their entire bodies. If they had not broken free of their spatial bonds at the very last minute, they might not have been able to escape death.

The middle-rank Lords were pale. They had not expected Lin Huang's abilities to be this powerful.

Naturally, this encounter had been clearly witnessed by Epic Player and Steel Fist, who were hovering in the air.

They were utterly dumbstruck; even after a few minutes, they could not recover their composure.

When the two of them had first met Lin Huang, they sensed faintly that Lin Huang's abilities were not weak at all. However, they had never expected him to be this powerful.

Just one attack earlier, and he had easily disposed of four lower-rank Lords. The two of them, at least, could not do this.

"This fellow is really ruthless!" Epic Player could not help exclaiming.

"We underestimated him…" Steel Fist did not know what she was supposed to say now.

Chapter 1646: Pure Spirit "Imperial Monsters"?!

As Lin Huang petted the Ninetails Lynx that had landed on his shoulder, he looked toward the distance in the direction the Raiders were coming from.

He was quite satisfied with the results of this first clash.

After all, this Ninetails Lynx was only a lower-rank Lord with a level-10 Dao seal. It was extremely difficult for it to use its space barrier abilities to restrain middle-rank lord-level powerhouses. Moreover, it was attacking nine Lords at once this round, so it made sense that some were able to break free. Furthermore, the three lower-rank Lords who had broken loose all had powerful abilities and more than six Dao seals.

However, the Ninetails Lynx seemed to be rather dissatisfied with the result. It sat on Lin Huang's shoulder, its pitch-black eyes staring at the two middle-rank Lords in a somewhat unfriendly manner.

If these two Lords had not attacked it, the three lower-rank Lords would not have been able to break free of their restraints so easily.

"A rank-6 imperial monster?!"

The appearance of the Ninetails Lynx attracted Steel Fist and Epic Player's attention immediately.

The two of them could only roughly gauge its ability, but they did not pick up on the fact that it was one of Lin Huang's Combat Souls.

This was because, ordinarily speaking, nobody would cultivate their God's Figurine's Combat Souls to lord-level in a fit of idleness. If they had the resources, it would be far better to utilize those resources themselves.

"A rank-6 imperial monster with a main cultivation path in spatial rule. That's rare." Epic Player looked envious.

As a clone of a reincarnated being, he had obtained a few fairly excellent imperial monster cubs from his Primordium and had raised them himself as well. The one with the highest combat strength was already at lord-level too. However, compared to the Ninetails Lynx on Lin Huang's shoulder, there was a big gap in their abilities.

A single direct confrontation had killed almost half their members in one attack, but the remaining Raiders did not give up on their pursuit. Instead, they immediately entered the Devil Hunter Star Zone and arrived in the starry sky not far from the Pfister Star.

"Lin Huang, it seems we've truly underestimated you." The leader was a man with the codename Black Mountain.

His build was stocky, and he was over three meters tall. He only gave Steel Fist and Epic Player a glance before turning his gaze toward Lin Huang, who was on the Pfister Star.

In a flash, Lin Huang disappeared from where he was and reappeared next to Steel Fist and Epic Player.

"It's not that you've underestimated me; it's that you've overestimated yourselves," Lin Huang replied calmly.

He merely gave the middle-rank Lord leader a glance, then turned his gaze toward the other middle-rank Lord.

He was a man of very ordinary appearance with an inconspicuous face; he was not even one point eight meters tall. He looked thoroughly harmless.

"You must be Spy, yes?" Lin Huang's tone grew colder.

The man lifted his head, and the smile on his face became increasingly bizarre. He then spoke in a synthesizer-like voice, "That's right, I'm Spy who killed Yang Ling. Give me Yang Ling's girlfriend, and I'll allow you a quick death."

"Unfortunately, I don't intend to give you a quick death!" Lin Huang turned his gaze from Spy and looked at the team leader again.

"Are these all of the Raiders in this great world?"

"Almost." Black Mountain gave a bland smile. "What—are you going to kill us all?"

"I'm certainly planning on it," Lin Huang answered bluntly.

"You're young in years but certainly not small in your boasting." As soon as Black Mountain finished speaking, he signaled one of the lower-rank Lords with a glance.

The lower-rank Lord moved his fingers slightly. No one knew at which juncture he had managed to set up Divine Telekinesis threads that twined around Steel Fist and Epic Player's arms, pulling them away from Lin Huang.

At the same time, the other two lower-rank Lords advanced on Steel Fist and Epic Player, respectively.

Lin Huang watched this happening, completely expressionless, but did not try to prevent it.

In reality, he had already noticed the lower-rank Lord's maneuvers earlier and had guessed their battle strategy.

They wanted to separate his allies from him, then muster the two middle-rank Lords to dispose of him first.

All they had to do on Steel Fist and Epic Player's side was to stall them, preventing them from coming to his rescue.

"The abilities of the two aides you've summoned here are indeed quite excellent, but unfortunately, they can't help you now." A ferocious grin appeared on Spy's face.

"You're not really thinking the two of you can definitely take me out, are you?" Lin Huang remained extremely calm. He did not betray any traces of the anxiety and fear that ordinary people would have when facing two middle-rank Lords.

"You restrain that cat; I'll get rid of him," Black Mountain told the nearby Spy, not bothering to conceal his words. He was not worried about Lin Huang hearing him. After all, to him, Lin Huang was already a dead man.

However, Lin Huang smiled when he heard that.

"I think you've made a mistake about one thing. What I've reared…isn't just a mere cat."

As soon as Lin Huang finished speaking, the remaining God's Figurine's Combat Souls appeared almost simultaneously.

These were the Divine Sun Tree, Enchanted Fairy, the Destructive Divine Mammoth, Nightmare Tapir, Undead Styx, Withered Flower, Creation Clock, Shackle Serpent, and Death Butterfly!

Each of them was a lower-rank Lord with a level-10 Dao seal.

This was the result of Lin Huang spending countless years visualizing in the virtual realm. Only then were the ten God's Figurine's Combat Souls able to consolidate level-10 Dao seals and achieve lower-rank lord-level.

Even middle-rank Lords Black Mountain and Spy had a change of expression when they saw the ten God's Figurine's Combat Souls appearing all at once.

The two battlefields nearby also rapidly became aware of the anomalies happening on this end.

The three lower-rank Lords looked rather pale. After all, the Ninetails Lynx had displayed its abilities earlier for all to see, and the three of them had almost been killed.

Meanwhile, Steel Fist and Epic Player's faces bore rather strange expressions.

Both of them had initially been worried about how long Lin Huang would be able to face down the two middle-rank Lords on his own. Now they saw that Lin Huang did not just have one aide in combat—he had an entire group of them.

'That aura strength—all ten of them are rank-6 monsters!' Epic Player could not help secretly exclaiming to himself.

He had reared imperial monsters before, and could tell at a glance that Lin Huang's God's Figurine's Combat Souls were all terrifying Pure Spirit rank-6 entities.

Steel Fist, on the other hand, could not identify the imperial monsters' ranks, but she could clearly sense that the aura of these "imperial monsters" was no lower than her own.

'No wonder this fellow was so confident from the start.'

Although a lower-rank Lord with ten seals had not yet elevated to middle-rank lord-level, they more or less possessed the ability to fight a newly-elevated middle-rank Lord.

"I'll stall these imperial monsters—you look for an opportunity to kill him!" Black Mountain changed his strategy right away.

As a combat cultivator, he had more powerful defensive abilities. Under these circumstances, it was natural that he was more suited to drawing fire from the "imperial monsters".

If he allowed Spy to draw fire from the "imperial monsters" instead, Black Mountain was slightly worried that all ten of them would finish Spy off before he himself managed to kill Lin Huang.

Clearly, Spy was aware of this as well. He did not put forward any objections.

Lin Huang's expression remained calm as if he were not really bothered about whatever battle strategy his opponents were going to use.

As soon as he gave his order, the God's Figurine's Combat Souls immediately went into action.

The Destructive Divine Mammoth led the way, lumbering toward Black Mountain with its steel hooves…

Chapter 1647: Yang Ling?

Although the Destructive Divine Mammoth was massive, it did not slow it down at all.

It reached Black Mountain in no time and its steel hooves lashed out without holding back.

Black Mountain did not dodge when he saw what was happening.

He was a bona fide combat cultivator who would not retreat at all when encountering opponents with powerful physical bodies. This was the pride of every combat cultivator.

Faced with the Destructive Divine Mammoth's steel hooves, he attacked with both fists, throwing heavy punches.

Two forceful beams of black and yellow light enveloped in layers of Dao seals collided with a loud, resonating boom.

An instant later, rings of Odylic Force shockwaves imbued with god sequence power rippled outward. Wherever the shockwaves passed, countless planets exploded one by one.

In the end, even the Pfister Star was not spared. The impact completely shattered it into cosmic dust.

As the two combatants clashed, the Destructive Divine Mammoth's body was sent flying backward. It only managed to stop after being flung back a hundred kilometers or more in the star-filled heavens.

In comparison, Black Mountain had merely been thrown back less than ten meters.

The disparity in ability between the two was very evident.

However, Black Mountain's expression was rather grim.

Although he held the upper hand during this collision, he could clearly sense that his attack had not breached the Destructive Divine Mammoth's defenses at all.

One must know that he had held nothing back earlier—the attack was practically full-force, without the boost of a trump card.

However, the assault had not made a dent in the Destructive Divine Mammoth's defenses at all.

Furthermore, there were still nine more monsters of similar ability in his opponent's camp.

This encounter made him wonder for the first time whether or not he had made the right decision in spearheading a team to kill Lin Huang.

Amid Black Mountain and the Destructive Divine Mammoth's mighty collision, Spy, on the other end, was targeted by the other God's Figurine's Combat Souls.

The Ninetails Lynx attacked first, disappearing from Lin Huang's shoulder directly without so much as an overt move. A second later, it appeared behind Spy, slashing out with its sharp claws.

In the void, layer upon layer of spatial blades attacked, surging toward Spy like an all-encompassing net.

Spy's sense of danger immediately skyrocketed. Hurriedly, he fled.

These waves of assault were no ordinary spatial blades but terrifying attacks compounded with level-10 Dao seals.

However, right as Spy moved, Withered Flower's frost and Creation Clock's time freeze were unleashed at almost at the same time.

Although he was prepared for the Ninetails Lynx's time freeze abilities, he was caught off guard by the attacks from the other two Combat Souls.

Under the effects of two sets of restraining powers compounded with level-10 Dao seals, Spy's body froze involuntarily for a fraction of a second.

At that very instant, his figure was completely swallowed up by countless waves of spatial blades.

Lin Huang stared fixedly in the direction of Spy's besieged figure. The countless God Weapon flying daggers in his sleeves were at the ready.

That was to prevent Spy from escaping this fatal scenario.

However, a moment later, Lin Huang frowned hard.

He could sense that the Ninetails Lynx's attack had failed.

The countless spatial blades did not seem to have hit anything concrete.

'He escaped?!' Lin Huang was suspicious.

He had clearly sensed earlier that Withered Flower's frost and Creation Clock's time freeze had scored hits on Spy.

Spy had definitely been struck by the attacks. Even if he had only been restrained for a second, he would not have been able to escape the Ninetails Lynx's net of spatial blades.

Lin Huang's brain kept churning as he thought of all the various possibilities.

A moment later, an image of Virtuoso's body becoming insubstantial suddenly appeared in his mind.

"Could it be that this fellow has a technique similar to an obscuring technique?"

If Spy had really mastered such an ability, he might actually be able to evade the Ninetails Lynx's attack even while under restraint.

This was just like Virtuoso—although their body had been put under restraint, they could still use their obscuring skills.

As soon as their body became illusory, almost all attacks on the material plane could do nothing to them.

Not long later, the Ninetails Lynx's spatial blades dissipated, and Spy was still where he was, completely unharmed.

He flashed an irritating smile at Lin Huang. "The survival technique I used earlier was retrieved from Yang Ling's memory. I must say that it's pretty useful."

"You're dead meat!"

Lin Huang's killing intent soared.

What Spy said made him recall that Yang Ling had indeed possessed such a technique. It seemed as if it turned his body into something digital to dodge material attacks.

However, Spy's words also enraged Lin Huang. Previously he had not been sure all along whether Yang Ling was really dead or not. After all, he had only learned the news from Hong Zhuang's story and had not seen any concrete proof. Now that Spy had mentioned extracting something from Yang Ling's memory, he was now fundamentally sure that Spy had really killed Yang Ling.

"I love seeing that expression on your face—so desirous of killing me and yet totally helpless." Spy's smile grew more and more savage. "I don't mind telling you that since mastering Yang Ling's technique, even an ultimate-rank Lord might not be able to kill me. You're just too inexperienced…"

At that moment, the Ninetails Lynx abruptly attacked again.

However, it did not use spatial blades this time but a spatial bind.

Withered Flower and Creation Clock attacked simultaneously as well.

As the three binding techniques struck Spy, Shackle Serpent—which had concealed itself in the dark—launched an attack.

Countless black shackles wrapped around Spy's limbs and neck.

"I've told you it's useless…"

Spy's laughter stopped abruptly because he sensed that the Dao seals in his body had been disconnected. Not only that, the god sequence powers, Rule Bending Powers, and even the Divine Power within him were vanishing.

"Wh-What's happening…"

Spy was now in a complete state of panic.

Now that it had elevated to lord-level, Shackle Serpent's sealing abilities were no longer restricted to merely Divine Power. Dao seals, god sequence chains, Rule Bending Powers, Divine Power, God Territories, and all kinds of god skills and divine abilities… it could seal off just about anything.

Although the sealing duration for a lower-rank Lord sealing off the abilities of a middle-rank Lord was extremely short, it was enough for Lin Huang.

A second later, countless blood-red electric arcs shot like lightning out of Lin Huang's sleeves.

Over ten million God Weapon flying daggers surged through the air. The Sword seal imbued over fifty thousand levels of sequence power crushed Spy's body to dust immediately.

"An ultimate-rank Lord might not be able to kill you, but that doesn't mean I can't," Lin Huang commented indifferently as he looked in the direction of Spy's dissipating body.

However, as soon as he finished speaking, something odd occurred at the spot where Spy's body had dissipated. A figure rapidly began to form at a speed visible to the naked eye…

"Eh?" Lin Huang raised his brows and looked confused.

Xiao Hei's push notification had popped up, stating that he had successfully killed Spy.

Naturally, Spy could not possibly be still alive.

Now there was a body consolidating—what on earth was happening?!

Lin Huang did not rashly launch into an attack, halting the God's Figurine's Combat Souls' attacks as well.

A moment later, the figure finally consolidated fully.

Lin Huang was stunned when he saw its face.

"Yang Ling?!"

Although Yang Ling looked much more mature now and his physique was more muscular, Lin Huang recognized him at a glance.

Chapter 1648: Yang Ling's Revival

"I genuinely never thought that you'd be able to kill Spy."

Yang Ling's expression was also full of astonishment as he stared at Lin Huang.

After that, he unhurriedly fashioned a set of illusory garments and put them on. It was not the first time Lin Huang had seen him naked anyway.

Lin Huang could tell that the person in front of him was really Yang Ling. However, this was not his actual physical body but a digital projection.

"Hong Zhuang told me you had been killed by a Raider and that your connection with your Goldfinger had been completely wiped. What's going on now?" Lin Huang was rather confused about Yang Ling's current state.

Yang Ling sighed when he heard Hong Zhuang being mentioned. After a brief moment to settle his emotions, he began relating what had befallen him.

"I wasn't killed at all. Theoretically, it could be considered being captured alive…

"After sending Hong Zhuang off the other day, I digitized my consciousness as I knew I was no match for Spy. After that, I separated my consciousness into nine layers from the core to the surface, setting a password for each layer to seal them off. The deeper the layer, the harder the password. I set a group of passwords on the last layer—the core—that would definitely change randomly.

"I knew that given Spy's character, he would certainly try to decode them. That's because all along, he's wanted to surpass me in every aspect. I left passwords that ranged from easy to difficult, firstly to prevent him from becoming humiliated and angry at being unable to decode the password and immediately destroying my consciousness data. For another, I wanted to buy myself more time to stay alive.

"I knew very well that with Spy's intelligence, he would easily discover my plan. However, I was also aware that he would most certainly take up my challenge and fall into my trap.

"Apart from setting up passwords, I'd also made other preparations for my return. One of them included Spy's death. I made his death a trigger condition. As soon as he died, my consciousness data would automatically be unsealed.

"Now that you've killed him, you've successfully triggered the conditions for my revival.

"Simply put, that's the entire process. As for the disconnection from my Goldfinger, that ought to have been caused by my consciousness being sealed. We'll talk about the details later after we get back."

After Yang Ling had given a quick summary of what had happened to him, he immediately switched to the topic which concerned him most. "Oh yes, is Hong Zhuang alright?"

"She's doing pretty well." Lin Huang nodded slightly. "After you were captured alive, she located me approximately four months later, and I set her up safely in the Devil Hunter Star Zone. A few days ago, in anticipation of the Raiders showing up, I arranged for her, Lin Xin, and the others to move to another star zone. They have peak lord powerhouses guarding them now, so their safety is definitely guaranteed."

"That's great." Yang Ling could at least finally be fully at ease.

"You should stay in digital form for the time being. We'll talk more after I settle these fellows." Lin Huang could tell that Yang Ling was still in his digitized form. His body was not a materialized physical entity but a virtual projection.

If not, he would have been pulverized by the aftermath of the battle between the Destructive Divine Mammoth and Black Mountain earlier since his cultivation base was not yet at heavenly god-level.

Yang Ling nodded and turned his head to look at where the Destructive Divine Mammoth and Black Mountain were.

At his current level of eyesight and Divine Telekinesis strength, he could not catch any of the battle proceedings at all.

He could only rely on his eyes to see the sparks from the encounter.

Although he was only a digitized form now, he could faintly sense the shockwaves rippling from the collision between lord-level powerhouses. The terrifying aftershocks even interfered slightly with the digital world.

Lin Huang merely transmitted a thought, and all ten God's Figurine's Combat Souls joined in to besiege Black Mountain.

At that moment, Black Mountain was endlessly bemoaning his current predicament mentally. When Lin Huang had killed Spy earlier, he already had decided to pull out from the battle.

After all, he knew Spy's abilities.

Although Black Mountain was a combat cultivator with powerful defense abilities, Spy had far surpassed him in terms of survival abilities.

However, Spy, who had claimed that even ultimate-rank Lords could not kill him, had been disposed of by Lin Huang in less than ten seconds.

Black Mountain was not even really able to fathom how Spy's digitized physical body had been decoded.

That made him even more fearful of Lin Huang now.

'We can consider this hunt an utter failure this time.'

Black Mountain gave Lin Huang a long, hard look and merely hesitated for a moment before he made up his mind.

His opponent had ten imperial monsters. If the battle continued, Black Mountain would exhaust his Divine Power sooner or later.

Moreover, the other two people on Lin Huang's side had abilities that were close to middle-rank lord-level.

Meanwhile, on Black Mountain's side, apart from himself who still could fight, it was only a matter of time before the three remaining lower-rank Lords were killed.

If he did not pull out now, he might not have the chance to do so later.

Black Mountain did not even spare a glance for his three partners. He forced the Destructive Divine Mammoth, Divine Sun Tree, and the other Combat Souls back with an attack, then immediately retreated as fast as he could.

As a combat cultivator, the speed of his retreat was really quite astonishing.

When Lin Huang saw what Black Mountain was doing, his mouth twisted in a sneer of disdain.

A second later, a black kitten blocked Black Mountain's way. Beside the kitten was a dark blue butterfly flapping its wings.

"Move!"

Black Mountain did not slow down; he charged right at the two little creatures.

Naturally, the Ninetails Lynx was not used to his temper. It slashed continuously with its sharp claws, and countless spatial blades surged forth torrentially like a violent storm.

A ferocious gleam flashed through Black Mountain's eyes. He made no move to dodge at all. Instead, he used his Dao seal to raise a heavy shield in front of his body to counter the spatial blades that were raining down on him.

He did this because he knew that the other imperial monsters behind him would catch up if he stopped for even a second. At that point, he would only be surrounded by more imperial monsters.

That was why he was willing to risk injury and meet the Ninetails Lynx's attack head-on.

Only by breaking out from the circle of imperial monsters that surrounded him would he stand a chance of survival.

He did not even spare a glance to see how the battle was going for his three partners. To him, all three were just cannon fodder for attracting the attention of Lin Huang and the others.

The heavy shield was soon dented and scarred from being slashed by the spatial blades. Some spatial blades even pierced through the shield's defensive layer, slicing bloody wounds on Black Mountain's body.

Black Mountain did not pause at all. He did not even fight back only because he wanted to reserve enough Divine Power to escape.

Just as Black Mountain's figure approached the Ninetails Lynx, Death Butterfly abruptly stirred its wings from beside the kitten.

An instant later, a colorless, formless wave began to ripple outward.

The already heavily damaged shield began to collapse inch by inch under the rippling of the wave.

The moment Black Mountain's muscular frame was exposed, his body appeared to be sliced by countless thin blades and began spurting copious amounts of blood…

Chapter 1649: Killing Another Middle-rank Lord!

Black Mountain did not slow down at all—in fact, he completely ignored the wounds on his body.

He was a combat cultivator, so his physical body was more resilient than ordinary Lords. Death Butterfly's attack seemed terrifying, but in reality, it only caused him superficial wounds rather than any actual damage.

After taking the brunt of this attack with his physical body, Black Mountain bypassed the Ninetails Lynx and Death Butterfly, his body entirely covered with blood.

Although both the creatures were within arms' reach, he still did not retaliate by attacking them.

This was because he knew even a second's delay might cause him to be trapped by the encircling imperial monsters.

Although he had never before in his life experienced this injustice of being unable to fight back despite being attacked, Black Mountain chose to use reason to suppress his fury.

He knew very well that he might die here if he made even the slightest mistake.

What he did not notice was that just as he bypassed the two imperial monsters obstructing his way, Lin Huang's mouth curled up in a faint smirk.

A second later, Black Mountain saw blood-red arcs of light surging toward him in quick succession.

His mind instantly panicked because he had seen this move previously—in fact, Spy had been killed by this technique.

'Do I brace for it, or do I dodge?'

Both choices flashed through Black Mountain's mind for only a moment before he twisted his body aside without hesitation.

The reason he chose to dodge so decisively was that his body was instinctively sending out furious warning signals.

If he met this attack head-on, even if he were not killed, he would definitely be severely injured.

In truth, his instincts were not wrong. Although Lin Huang had currently only mastered a level-1 Sword seal still, this level-1 Sword seal was not compounded with ten thousand levels of sequence power like before, but with over fifty thousand levels.

This attack exceeded most middle-rank Lords with twenty seals in terms of power—more so even than many middle-rank Lords with thirty seals.

The instant Black Mountain moved, he did not dare stop. Instead, he diverged from his current direction and tried to escape.

When he lifted his head, he saw countless bloody-red arcs raining down on him like a torrential storm.

He switched directions again without hesitation.

However, the other end was also blocked by blood-red arcs like a sky full of stars.

Naturally, Lin Huang was the one who attacked first.

The ten million or more God Weapon flying daggers were like a giant hemispherical wall that covered the entirety of the starry heavens, blocking Black Mountain's way forward.

Black Mountain scanned with Divine Telekinesis and realized it impossible for him to keep forging ahead.

He steeled himself and turned around right away, charging in the direction of the several God's Figurine's Combat Souls.

The way forward was blocked, so he could only escape by turning back.

He was also taking a gamble!

He was betting on Lin Huang not having more telekinetic flying daggers, or not being able to control more telekinetic flying daggers.

However, he did not see that the instant he turned around, Lin Huang's smile became more pronounced.

Ignoring the Ninetails Lynx and Death Butterfly's fresh wave of attacks, he passed the two of them again.

At that moment, the remaining eight God's Figurine's Combat Souls arrived in succession.

Divine Sun Tree compounded ten levels of Holy Fire Dao seal, its branches lashing at Black Mountain's body.

This attack practically caused Black Mountain to feel that his physical body had reached its capacity for enduring high temperatures. Even as a middle-rank lord-level combat cultivator, his body was shriveling. It felt as if all the moisture and fat content in his body were being squeezed out by the intense heat.

Enchanted Fairy's assault hit him a moment later.

That terrifying chill—way below zero degrees celsius—could even freeze time and space.

Frost climbed up Black Mountain's body immediately. Even the speed of his movement slowed down.

At that moment, Creation Clock attacked as well.

It utilized a time-stopping skill, and added the power of pausing time—as strong as shackles and compounded with a level-10 Dao seal—to Black Mountain's body.

Black Mountain's body suddenly ground to a halt. When he saw Shackle Serpent appear, however, his pupils contracted suddenly.

This was the "imperial monster" that had immobilized Spy's body earlier when he had been killed.

Black Mountain roared in fury and forcibly shook off Enchanted Fairy and Creation Clock's layers of restraints.

The instant Shackle Serpent attacked, Black Mountain's body expanded to several times its size. He threw heavy punches with both fists in Shackle Serpent's direction.

At that moment, the Destructive Divine Mammoth trumpeted and lashed out with two feet at Black Mountain's fists, taking the brunt of the attack.

However, the Destructive Divine Mammoth was sent flying thousands of kilometers away when it collided with the attack.

Lin Huang raised his brows when he saw Black Mountain's body enveloped in vital blood energy, eyes spurting blood-red flames.

"He used a fire element Dao seal to ignite vital energy, blood, and Divine Power?"

In terms of strength alone, that earlier punch was at least six or seven times more powerful.

After sending the Destructive Divine Mammoth flying with one hit, Black Mountain did not continue fighting. Instead, he launched into the air with both legs and fled several times faster than before.

His initial speed was already very swift. Now that it had increased several dozen times, apart from the Ninetails Lynx, the rest of the God's Figurine's Combat Souls could not catch up with him.

The Ninetails Lynx had not been able to do anything to Black Mountain when it had joined forces initially with Death Butterly; now, on its own, it was doomed to fail.

However, Lin Huang did not intend to let Black Mountain go just like that.

He shook his sleeves lightly, and blood-red electric arcs shot out in quick succession.

In an instant, they had amassed to over ten million in number.

They surged toward Black Mountain again, intercepting him and immediately blocking his way, forcing him to turn back.

The God's Figurine's Combat Souls caught up in pursuit once more.

The Ninetails Lynx, which was the first to arrive, cast a spatial bind without hesitation. It knew its attack had a limited effect on Black Mountain, so it chose to use its control skills to prevent him from escaping again.

However, Black Mountain—having ignited his vital energy, blood, and Divine Power—had increased more than a level in terms of ability. In an instant, he had freed himself from Ninetails Lynx's spatial bind.

He was intending to flee again when the Destructive Divine Mammoth attacked in a rage.

It was livid at being sent flying in the attack earlier.

It displayed almost one hundred and twenty percent of its power in this attack, charging toward Black Mountain.

Black Mountain threw a punch again, and the Destructive Divine Mammoth was sent flying once more.

However, the distance was clearly less this time. It only shot back some two hundred kilometers.

After being momentarily impeded by the Destructive Divine Mammoth, Black Mountain was surrounded again by the remaining nine God's Figurine's Combat Souls.

Under the continuous siege from Divine Sun Tree and the rest of the Combat Souls, Black Mountain rapidly became exhausted from fighting back.

He kept his gaze fixed on Shackle Serpent to prevent himself from falling victim to its technique. As for the other Combat Souls, he countered them as much as possible, trying his best to reserve Divine Power for his escape.

Black Mountain's several attempts to break free were futile. However, the God's Figurine's Combat Souls could not do anything to him even after taking turns to attack him.

Both sides fell into a stalemate.

Now that the battle on Steel Fist and Epic Player's side was in its last stages, Lin Huang finally stopped merely watching from the sidelines.

It was not that he was deliberately toying with Black Mountain. He was just using him as a means of gauging the current abilities of his ten God's Figurine's Combat Souls.

At this point, he had basically seen everything necessary, and he already had an idea of their capabilities.

It was useless for the battle to continue like this.

Lin Huang finally took a hand in the proceedings.

Dozens of telekinetic flying daggers found their way through the fighting to the scene of battle where Black Mountain and the God's Figurine's Combat Souls were.

Black Mountain immediately became nervous and did not dare to delay any further.

To Black Mountain, the pressure from the thirty-odd telekinetic flying daggers far exceeded the pressure from all ten God's Figurine's Combat Souls taken together.

The reason was that he knew Lin Huang was his most powerful enemy here.

Although he did not quite understand why Lin Huang did not activate all of his telekinetic flying daggers at once, he did not dare underestimate him in the least.

He did his best to dodge whenever he saw the telekinetic flying daggers coming. If he were unable to evade them, he threw heavy punches to knock them aside.

After several rounds, the thirty or more telekinetic flying daggers had failed to gain even an inch of ground.

Right as Black Mountain was considering how he might find an opportunity to escape, he suddenly felt a tightening around his four limbs.

A second later, even his neck was entwined by threads.

He panicked. Only after a careful scan with Divine Telekinesis did he discover that his limbs and neck were now bound by telekinetic threads.

He had not noticed this earlier at all.

He tried hard to struggle free, but he could not move at all.

One must know that Lin Huang's Divine Telekinesis strength was already at peak upper-rank lord-level.

As soon as they saw Black Mountain's body abruptly stop as if he were tied up and dangling in midair, the God's Figurine's Combat Souls immediately knew that it was Lin Huang who had done that.

This time, Shackle Serpent finally found an opening to attack. It was the first to launch an assault and did not hesitate at all.

Black shackles began forming out of thin air on Black Mountain's body.

As the black shackles appeared, Black Mountain could only sense his Divine Power fading rapidly, including even the secret skills he used in the battle earlier. His body reverted to its original form.

At the same time, he realized that he could no longer sense the Dao seals within his body, his god sequence chains, his God Rule Powers, or even his God Territory.

That very instant, he finally realized why Spy—who had claimed that even ultimate-rank Lords could not kill him—had been killed.

In that split second, he felt utter despair.

He knew that he was finished.

An instant later, he saw the attacks of the "imperial monsters" coming at him in succession, and his consciousness went dark immediately.

He did not even know which attack finally killed him.

Chapter 1650: Die, Babble!

Lin Huang put away Black Mountain and Spy's corpses and turned his head to look at the other battlefield.

The fight between the three Raiders, Steel Fist, and Epic Player was coming to an end.

Two of the three Raiders were severely wounded.

A lady assisting in the battle was clearly a cultivator whose main path was God's soul and Divine Telekinesis.

She had been using telekinetic flying daggers to interfere with Steel Fist and Epic Player. Not only that, she would launch spirit attack maneuvers every now and again.

Lin Huang immediately guessed the other party's identity. She was most probably Babble, the one who had invaded Death Sickle and killed Sun Zhan.

Of the team Black Mountain had brought this time, this lady was the only one whose main cultivation path was God's soul.

As if she sensed that the other fight over there had ended, Babble glanced at the battlefield on Lin Huang's end and saw him weighing her up. Not only that, Black Mountain, Spy, and the other two middle-rank Lords were nowhere to be seen.

A layer of cold sweat suddenly sprang up on her back. She took only a moment to come to a decision and abandoned both her teammates without hesitation, beating a rapid retreat to try and escape the battlefield.

At that moment, the corners of Lin Huang's mouth curled up in a faint smirk.

If the other party had not tried to run, it would have been rather impolite for him to interfere. After all, she was Steel Fist and Epic Player's enemy.

However, now that she was fleeing, it gave him an excuse to attack.

It was not for the sake of plundering one more Goldfinger, but because she had killed the people in Death Sickle's headquarters. Lin Huang felt that bringing her corpse back to Death Sickle would be a more fitting final destination for her.

If she had not fled and had ended up being killed by Steel Fist or Epic Player, it would have been awkward for him to ask for the body.

Babble moved at full speed. She only wanted to be able to escape the battlefield before the others noticed and then summon the dimensional portal.

However, before she had retreated less than a thousand kilometers away, a voice drifted to her ears.

"Where are you going?"

As soon as the voice finished speaking, a black cat appeared elegantly before her, blocking her way.

Its nine tails undulated like snakes, swaying in the starry sky.

At the same time, Babble felt herself pausing abruptly. Her body seemed to be restrained by an invisible force.

It was exactly like when they had just landed on the Devil Hunter Star Zone earlier.

'A spatial bind?!'

Babble felt a sudden chill in her heart, and her pupils suddenly turned pitch-black.

A second later, the Ninetails Lynx's body shuddered suddenly, and the spatial bind was removed, just like that.

"Interesting!" Lin Huang raised his brows as he watched.

She had actually controlled the Ninetails Lynx for a second using a God's soul secret skill. One must know that the Ninetails Lynx's current God's soul's strength was already at peak lower-rank lord-level.

In terms of Dao seal level, the Ninetails Lynx had reached level-10, while Babble had only consolidated a level-7 or level-8 Dao seal at most.

After freeing herself from the spatial bind, Babble did not dare to stop in her bid for escape. The reason was, she knew that Lin Huang had more than one "imperial monster". Not only that, Black Mountain had been killed by this group of "imperial monsters".

She did not have sufficient confidence to confront enemies that even the two middle-rank Lords, Black Mountain and Spy, could not defeat.

However, she did not have Black Mountain's speed. She had not fled very far before she encountered a combined attack from a few of the God's Figurine's Combat Souls.

The Ninetails Lynx that Babble had controlled attacked in a rage. Its sharp claws slashed out, sending countless spatial blades surging toward Babble like a net.

Almost simultaneously, Death Butterfly attacked as well. Its wings stirred slightly, and an invisible death wave spread through the starry heavens, fanning out toward Babble.

This was followed immediately by attacks from the Destructive Divine Mammoth and the other Combat Souls.

Babble's pupils turned pitch-black again, and black blood began trickling from her eyes.

She released another God's soul attack that rippled through the starry sky like waves of water.

The attack stunned almost all the God's Figurine's Combat Souls into a trance as it passed them.

However, when the God's soul attack reached Nightmare Tapir, Nightmare Tapir suddenly released a shriek.

Babble immediately spat out a mouthful of blood. At the same time, the remaining God's Figurine's Combat Souls regained their senses.

Lin Huang clearly sensed the full process of the God's souls colliding this time.

Nightmare Tapir already possessed the combat strength of a peak lower-rank Lord, and its God's soul's strength was peak lower-rank Lord as well. However, it specialized in God's soul power and was able to wield its God's soul attacks to yield middle-rank lord-level results.

In reality, Nightmare Tapir and Babble were on par with each other in the earlier collision between God's souls.

However, Babble had too many targets to attack, so the strength of her assault was reduced. Thus, she was injured by Nightmare Tapir's counterattack.

If they were to fight one on one, Lin Huang felt the chances of Nightmare Tapir defeating Babble would be fifty-fifty.

Although this woman, Babble, was only a lower-rank Lord, her overall abilities were by no means very much weaker than Spy's earlier.

Lin Huang attacked mercilessly. At the same time, he found it rather amusing to see his God's Figurine's Combat Souls being repeatedly embarrassed.

Dozens of electric arcs resembling blood-red lightning shot out from his sleeves.

Sensing the incoming threat, Babble did not dodge. Instead, she used the same skill, turning her head to look directly at Lin Huang.

Her black pupils bled without stopping as her God's soul attack surged toward Lin Huang.

Her idea was simple. Since she was unable to escape from the encircling "imperial monsters", she would directly attack the imperial monsters' master. Even if she failed to kill Lin Huang, the master, injuring him severely could increase the chances for her escape.

However, Babble released a devastating shriek a second after she released the God's soul attack.

At the same time, her eyes immediately burst, eye sockets becoming two bloody holes.

Her God's soul attack had backfired instantly.

After all, Lin Huang currently possessed God's soul strength at peak upper-rank lord-level. He was only half a step away from becoming an ultimate-rank Lord. Not only that, he had a spirit-level God Weapon in his God's soul's space that could increase the strength of his God's soul.

Babble attacking head-on with a lower-rank Lord's God's soul strength was utterly ineffectual.

Right as Babble shrieked in agony, her God's soul nearly shattering, a blood-red electric arc flashed through the air and pierced right through the middle of her brow.

The several God's Figurine's Combat Souls looked at Lin Huang with mixed emotions on their faces.

The ten of them had surrounded Babble and attacked but failed twice. However, with just a single blow, Lin Huang had killed this powerful spirit cultivator.

After using Divine Telekinesis to retrieve Babble's corpse and put it away in his storage space, Lin Huang glanced over in the direction of the other battlefield.

Steel Fist and Epic Player's fight had come to an end in quick succession, with the two lower-rank Lords being slaughtered on the spot.

Their battle appeared to have taken a long time, but in reality, less than ten minutes had passed.

It felt much longer because the battle on Lin Huang's side had ended far too rapidly.

After putting their acquired loot away, Steel Fist and Epic Player approached Lin Huang. Their faces bore extremely complicated expressions as they looked at him.

Although they had not seen the full proceedings of Lin Huang's battle when the two of them had been fighting, they had taken moments to observe. Therefore, they had caught the instance when Lin Huang had killed the two middle-rank Lords and Babble.

Having discovered that the new Club member had such terrifying abilities, they were not too sure what to say at the moment.

Lin Huang, however, initiated the conversation when he saw how awkward both of them felt.

"Thank you so much for your aid. If there's anything you need help with in the future, I'll definitely help out if it's within my power to do so."

"Don't say that. The two of us didn't help at all. We're just here to freeload off the loot." Epic Player gave a wry smile.

"With your abilities, you don't need our help at all. I don't understand why you asked both of us to come." Steel Fist looked as if she had been stunned by a blow.

"I didn't know their exact abilities after all, so I asked for your help just in case," Lin Huang only disclosed part of the truth. He did not tell them that his abilities had skyrocketed after he had requested their presence.

Although the answer sounded a little like prevarication, the two of them believed it regardless.

"What are your plans after this? Are you going to the universe?" Steel Fist could not help but ask.

"I doubt I'll be leaving the great world for the foreseeable future. There are still a great many things I need to settle here." Lin Huang shook his head.

"Which means to say we can still be in contact?" Epic Player said with a smile.

"Of course, we're colleagues at the Club." Lin Huang smiled and nodded.

"Speaking of colleagues…" Steel Fist's expression turned a touch colder. "I think there's an eighty percent chance that brat Cunning Rabbit is the Raider spy!"

"What eighty percent chance—it's one hundred percent that it's him!" Epic Player scoffed, "Otherwise, how would the Raiders know to send all their members to hunt the three of us?!"

The two of them had already found out from Lin Huang that he had only sent the three of them a request for help.

Cunning Rabbit was the only one who had not replied.

Therefore, Cunning Rabbit had to be the one who had leaked the information to the Raiders.

"Does Cunning Rabbit have a permanent address?" Lin Huang looked at Steel Fist and Epic Player with a beatific smile.

"I know of a foothold he uses, but I'm not sure if there's where his permanent residence is," Steel Fist replied with a smile.

"I think we can pay him a visit and surprise him." Lin Huang looked at the two of them with a smile.

"I think we can do that!"

"I think it's a great idea too!"