Chapter 941: Bug Tribe
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After speaking with Chan Dou for a while, Lin Huang did not stay in the Genius Union and logged out right away.
He spent a day practicing his sword skills in the hotel and only logged in again the next morning after breakfast.
The levels between checkpoints 63 to 72 on the Stairway Tree were filled with monsters with immortal-level rank-9 combat strength. The level of difficulty was different from the monster levels before checkpoint 63.
The strategy that people left behind was very simple: rush through without holding back.
However, bug guardians would appear as soon as one passed through half of checkpoint 63. According to the strategy, as soon as one passed through the 12 bug guardians defense individually, they would not encounter any bug guardians later on. The probability of the Queen Mother appearing was then extremely low.
Someone asked if they could form a team. The rest of the teammates could pass through as long as a few people stopped the bug guardians.
In reality, that would not work. The level of difficulty on the Stairway Tree would progress according to the number of players that entered.
If one person entered, he would encounter 12 bug guardians at the most. If two people formed a team, they would encounter 24 bug guardians at the most. A three-man team would encounter 36 bug guardians, and so on and so forth.
Moreover, these bug guardians would not attack based on personal reasons. Everyone would be assigned the same number of bug guardians to fight with. If someone in the team died, the number of bug guardians would not change. Instead, they would be allocated to the remaining team members.
Some even speculated that the number of Queen Mothers on this level would be affected by the number of players who entered. Naturally, nobody verified that because everyone stopped trying since they realized the level of difficulty would increase when they entered in teams.
Bloody began releasing Leech Pods as soon as Lin Huang stepped into checkpoint 63 to look for the bug guardians and the Queen Mother’s coordinates.
Lin Huang sat at the starting point, waiting for Bloody’s search results patiently. A monster appeared in his field of vision not long after he sat down.
It was a monster with many legs similar to a centipede with a body of at least ten meters long. Its upper body was raised two to three meters high while eight of its front legs looked like they were equipped with black spiked bayonets that were half a meter long. A layer of black shell extended from its head all the way to its tail and there was a black scythe on the end of its tail.
From the looks of it, it was a monster that lived to fight.
Before the monster attacked, Bloody was done casting parasites with his Leech Pods and commanded the monster to leave.
“There’s a Bug Tribe here?!” The stone tablet’s voice came into Lin Huang’s ears all of a sudden.
“What’s so odd about that? Weren’t those Combat Hornetdemons on checkpoint 56 earlier a Bug Tribe too?” Lin Huang did not find that peculiar.
“No, the Bug Tribe that you know is different from the one I’m talking about,” explained the stone tablet, “The Bug Tribe that I’m talking about is a galactic race. In this world, the Bug Tribe’s overall abilities are no less than a Protoss.
“The Combat Hornetdemons that you encountered on checkpoint 56 earlier were just a tiny branch of the Bug Tribe even hundreds of thousands of years ago. Furthermore, from the long course of evolution, the Combat Hornetdemons could basically be removed from the Bug Tribe branch.
“The real Bug Tribe’s a race that’s gravely predatory and destructive. In this world, anywhere the Bug Tribe passes by will turn into barren land. They swallow other beings and planets’ resources to strengthen their race continuously. They would do anything for the sake of expanding and for the longevity of their race.
“Just like most living things such as humans having a stable gene sequence, a tribe’s overall evolution depends mainly on reproduction to produce a variety in generations. They also use knowledge for the inheritance of civilization which is a long cycle.
“However, the Bug Tribe’s different from most beings when it comes to this. They have an extremely unstable gene sequence which causes mutation easily. Not only that, it’s a controllable mutation. Perhaps the genetic mutation of a Bug Tribe will create an evolution that’s on par with human evolution throughout hundreds of years after a battle has ended. Such a mutation makes them grow stronger continuously as well as gives them a formidable adaptive ability to the environment. They can survive in extreme environments that most beings can’t.
“The Bug Tribe has gone through billions of years of evolution. They’re just as powerful as the formidable Protoss in this world now. They’ve evolved to perfection individually. Almost every tissue and every part of the Bug Tribe fighters’ bodies were made to fight. They never need any external tools. To them, their body is the best weapon.
“Each Bug Tribe fighter has a powerful combat ability, defense and battle will. They have no pain receptors, so they can maintain extremely high battle power even if their bodies are severely injured. They’re fearless to fight anyone and they won’t stop until they’re dead.”
Lin Huang found the stone tablet’s explanation unbelievable. He thought that the Protoss was already powerful enough, so he did not expect the Bug Tribe to be just as mighty.
Lin Huang was even more interested in the Queen Mother now after listening to it. “Since the Bug Tribe’s so powerful like you said, wouldn’t it mean that the Queen Mother’s even more powerful?”
“There are many varieties in the Bug Tribe. This one on the Stairway Tree is only one of them. It’s called the Queen Mother species,” clarified the stone tablet further.
“If the Queen Mother evolves to its ultimate form, naturally, it’ll be extraordinarily powerful. It can even mass produce true god-level Bug Tribe fighters. However, this one on the Stairway Tree’s clearly a baby. It’s even been weakened a few times.
“Under normal circumstance, even a baby Queen Mother will be on true god-level. The Bug Servants that it produces would have a combat strength of at least virtual god-level and there would be at least hundreds of them. However, this one on the Stairway Tree isn’t even on imperial-level. The combat strength of the bug guardians didn’t only drop to immortal-level rank-9, but their grade also dropped and there are only 12 of them.” The stone tablet was clearly looking down on the weakened Queen Mother on the Stairway Tree.
“That’s already not bad. I could train it slowly if I really get the Monster Card.” Lin Huang was getting excited about the prospect of his battle loot. “If it’s not weakened, I’ll have to avoid it if I encounter it.”
“I’m in no place to comment about how powerful Xiao Hei actually is, but there’s something that I must remind you.” The stone tablet seemed to feel negative about this plan. “The Bug Tribe isn’t easily controlled.”
“The Bug Tribe master isn’t an individual but is the will of the bug horde. It’s an extremely compelling conglomeration of will. It essentially connected to each Bug Tribe member’s brain and consciousness.
“The Queen Mother is the node creature of the will of the bug horde, just like branches that are derived from a tree trunk. Under normal circumstances, it should be able to sense if the Queen Mother were to be controlled by another being.
“Of course, the Queen Mother has a powerful control ability as a node creature. The children that she gave birth to would take her orders no matter what, no questions asked. Hence, if you manage to control a Queen Mother, it would mean that you have yourself a Bug Tribe army. In a nutshell, risk and opportunity coexist in this situation.”
“How powerful is that will of the bug horde that you mentioned?” Lin Huang could not help but ask.
“It’s the top existence in the world whereby the level of life is far above the True Gods. It’s much more powerful than my master who, by the way, is dead.” It was Lin Huang’s first time hearing the stone tablet acknowledge someone as being more powerful than his ex-master.
“I’m not sure if the will of the bug horde will sense you changing the Monster Card. However, I’ll be able to sense it immediately if there’s anything unusual that happens during the change of Monster Cards. Just destroy the card if necessary,” Xiao Hei voiced its opinion.
“Sure, let’s do that then!” Although there were risks, Lin Huang was unwilling to give up on making the Queen Mother his target
Chapter 942: May I Know What Kind of Service Do You Need?
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
“Found it!” After close to an hour of searching, Bloody finally found where the Queen Mother was. It then marked the coordinates on the map.
Lin Huang enlarged the map but all he could see was a flatland.
“The Queen Mother and the 12 bug guardians’ coordinates are underground. It’s a complicated maze hive down there. There are a total of eight entrances and exits. Apart from the Queen Mother and her bug guardians, there are at least over three million Bug Tribe monsters in the hive,” Bloody explained immediately.
“Is the exit far from where the Queen Mother is?” Lin Huang asked.
“It’s some distance away. The nearest one is over 20 kilometers away and the farthest is over 100 kilometers away.”
“Eight entrances and exits…” Lin Huang frowned a little. He was worried that the Queen Mother would escape in the chaos when it found out that something was off.
“Actually, no matter how many entrances there are, they won’t be able to run because we’re fast enough. We can get to them before they can even respond.” Bloody knew Lin Huang was considering guarding the entrances, so it gave him the solution right away.
“You’re right.” Lin Huang nodded.
After summoning the Herculean King, Lin Huang headed straight to the entrance that Bloody pointed at.
They encountered many Bug Tribes along the way. Bloody cast parasites on the monsters while Bloody controlled them to leave Lin Huang alone.
Around ten minutes later, the Herculean King finally brought Lin Huang to the entrance of the hive.
The entrance was the closest one to the Queen Mother and her bug guardians among the eight entrances.
It looked like a naturally formed cave with an irregular shape. However, the narrowest entrance was over three meters and the widest was more than five meters wide.
Lin Huang recalled the Herculean King and summoned Grimace. He talked Grimace through the mission via voice transmission.
Seeing Grimace’s ignorant behavior, Lin Huang thought he would use material wealth to motivate him instead. “If you perform well this time, I’ll get you a demigod-level telekinetic weapon relic.”
“Deal!” Grimace had a change of expression immediately. Grinning, he was extremely friendly as he offered, “Boss, may I know what kind of service you need?”
‘Damn, the change of expression could win Grimace an Oscar!’ Lin Huang could not get used to Grimace’s sudden change of attitude. ‘Indeed, if you have money, you can make the devil push the millstone for you. People in the past were right about this.’
“Do you remember what I said?” Lin Huang asked while raising his brow.
“I do. Bring the Bug Tribe monsters out using illusion and minimize casualties as much as I can.” Although the minimization of casualties sounded odd to him, Grimace did not ask about it any further. He was not interested in the mission to begin with; he only agreed to it for the demigod-level telekinetic weapon relic. He would just follow Lin Huang’s orders.
After he was done speaking to Grimace, Lin Huang spoke to Bloody, “Bloody, assist Grimace in his mission. Try not to create conflict with the monsters in the hive.”
“Understood.” Bloody nodded in agreement. It had actually discussed this plan with Lin Huang yesterday. Since the delegation was done, the human and the two monsters began moving immediately.
Grimace opened a path before Lin Huang. An illusion forcefield was formed automatically around Grimace’s body, cloaking both Lin Huang and himself.
The inside of the cave was dark and damp, and there was a stench lingering in the air.
Lin Huang went further into the cave, following Grimace. The long cave entrance was winding and it gave him a feeling that they were walking down a slope towards the underground.
The deeper they went, the worse the stench became. The stench smelled like rotten eggs during the summer, disgusting Lin Huang.
After passing through a long path, they arrived thousands of meters below the ground. Grimace finally brought Lin Huang into a vast underground space which looked like an underground cave that was formed naturally. It was massive.
In his field of vision, Lin Huang saw tens of Bug Tribe fighters in deep sleep.
Grimace walked towards them nonchalantly while Lin Huang followed him immediately. The Bug Tribe fighters did not seem to notice the duo as they continued sleeping.
When they walked closer to one of the bug’s heads, it twitched its nose and looked at Lin Huang. Just when Lin Huang was ready to pull his sword to kill, it turned around and returned to its slumber.
“My illusion shields the outsiders’ sense of us. These bugs can’t see us, hear us, or smell us. That single bug just now must have a sensitive sense. It could felt the unusualness faintly but didn’t find out about us. There’s nothing to worry about.
“My illusion might be limited if we encounter monsters with a combat strength above imperial-level crimson gold rank, but it’s impossible for these low intelligence immortal-level bugs to see through my illusion. It’s impossible for them to sense us as long as we don’t activate any energy,” Grimace explained through voice transmission upon noticing Lin Huang looking at the bug with his guard up.
Nodding lightly, Lin Huang did not doubt Grimace’s ability at all. After all, Grimace could walk around immortal-level rank-9 monsters with the help of illusion when he was on immortal-level rank-9. Then, he managed to play a fool on the monsters on the same level, what more now that he was already on imperial-level crimson gold-rank.
The bug’s response earlier just made him panicked a little.
He was relieved after confirming Grimace’s illusory effect while following him deeper into the cave.
The wet ground began to turn sticky. Mugginess stuck on the sole of his shoes with every step he took.
They would see piles of yellow or green semi-transparent goo on the ground occasionally. You guessed it right. Those were a discharge of the Bug Tribe.
“It’s hard to imagine a tribe that has their shit all around is a tribe that’s as powerful as a Protoss,” Lin Huang could not help but comment.
“To be exact, these aren’t actually shit, or rather, they’re not complete shit.” The stone tablet could not help but reveal, “The secretion produces a massive amount of microorganisms that make the environment around more liveable for the Bug Tribe. In addition to that, the microorganisms will dissolve rapidly so there’s no need to get rid of them. The few piles that you saw earlier should have been discharged today.
“Also, the stench you smelled doesn’t come from the Bug Tribe’s secretion. It is the stench produced during the fermentation of the microorganisms.”
Lin Huang was speechless by the stone tablet’s pretty useless information. He still thought that gooey stuff was disgusting. To avoid vomiting, he put up a shield to block out his ability to smell directly.
“Go to the one on the second left when you come to the six forks in front.” At that moment, Bloody’s voice piped up all of a sudden. “You’ll reach your destination after going approximately five kilometers on the path. The Queen Mother and her bug guardians have yet to notice anything unusual, so we should be able to get them without them realizing!”
Chapter 943: Congratulations, You’ve Obtained Bug Tribe Queen Mother Card Pieces x2
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Grimace headed all the way, following the route Bloody had given him while Lin Huang followed a few meters behind him.
One must say that Grimace’s illusory forcefield was useful. Lin Huang was not attacked even once all the way to their destination.
Some bugs sensed the unusualness a couple of times, but they proceeded to sleep since they saw nothing after looking around.
Lin Huang had finally seen how the Queen Mother looked like from a distance when they arrived in the area of their destination. He revealed a shock expression.
The Queen Mother looked like a human child of five or six years old. She wore no clothes as her naked body curled up and hovered in the air. Her eyes were shut tightly and she seemed to be in a deep sleep.
The only difference from a human was her tailbone. There was a long, white tail that extended out with a white webbing that was connected to the end of her tail.
The webbing looked like it was made of countless gigantic spider webs. It was a solid structure made of various angles and it took up half of the cave.
There were white cocoons of all sizes around the web. Lin Huang glanced over to notice tens of thousands of them.
Just when he was observing the Queen Mother quietly, in her little girl-form, she opened her eyes out of the blue. Her black pupils rolled slightly until they landed two kilometers away from Lin Huang.
‘Are we busted?!’ Lin Huang was horrified.
At the moment, Grimace stopped walking. Seriously, he spoke to Lin Huang and Bloody through voice transmission, “That fella’s something else! She could see through my illusion. Plus, there’s a powerful spiritual energy that’s meddling with my illusory forcefield. She must be the one behind it.”
“The closer, the better. If the illusory forcefield is broken, Bloody will take care of the rest,” Lin Huang ordered Grimace. Then, he spoke to Bloody through voice transmission, “Start casting the parasites.”
Grimace nodded and brought Lin Huang forward.
Seeing that Lin Huang and Grimace were not retreating, black rays lit up in the Queen Mother’s eyes all of a sudden.
Grimace scoffed and grabbed Lin Huang’s arm to dash forward.
When they were almost 100 meters away from the Queen Mother, Grimace spat a mouthful of blood out suddenly and fell. “I can’t go on with the illusory forcefield…”
Before he even had the time to check on Grimace, Lin Huang noticed the 12 bug guardians around the Queen Mother lift their heads out of nowhere and glare at his direction.
Lin Huang responded immediately without even thinking. He recalled Grimace while crushing seven Monster Cards that he had been hiding in his sleeve with the other hand. He also crushed a Lucky Card and a Double Reward Card.
Lancelot, Killer, the Evil Dominator, the two knights, and the two Dark Crescent Snakes appeared before Lin Huang out of thin air.
“Kill the 12 bug guardians and that Queen Mother. Let Bloody take care of the rest.” The seven imperial monsters attacked without hesitation as soon as Lin Huang ordered them.
Lancelot summoned the 18 sword servants directly while he went after two bug guardians on his own. His servants formed a sword formation and went after another two bug guardians.
The Evil Dominator changed his appearance into Killer and went after two bug guardians with his sword.
The two knights merged with the Dark Crescent Snakes. Their combat strength skyrocketed to imperial-level white gold-rank right away as they went after three bug guardians.
Killer was left with the Queen Mother.
He sensed the Queen Mother’s threat. Although she looked like a child and her combat strength was only on immortal-level rank-9, he dared not be careless at all.
He showed his trump card as he dashed, not holding back at all.
Seeing Killer coming at her, a layer of black fluid began spinning on the Queen Mother’s body, forming a black armor. She held a black whip in her hand.
Surprisingly, the Queen Mother attacked before Killer even got to her. She swung the whip in her hand, and the lash created shadows in the air. Countless spiritual serpents came out from the end of the whip, blocking Killer’s way completely.
Killer lifted his sword and swung it over and over again. It collided with the whip shadows in the air.
The result of the collision was out of Lin Huang’s expectations. A tie?!
The two-level difference in combat strength did not give Killer any upper hand at all.
Clearly, although pseudo-mythical-level was only a step away from mythical-level, the difference in ability was huge.
After multiple collisions, Killer, who was on imperial-level crimson gold-rank, did not get anything out of the immortal-level rank-9 Queen Mother.
On the other side, Lancelot and the rest were close to the end of the battle.
Since Lancelot and the Evil Dominator were on pseudo-mythical-level, the two-level difference made it easy for them to kill the bug guardians.
Although the two knights were not on pseudo-mythical-level, their combat strength was on imperial-level white gold-rank after merging. Their ability was just as impressive as Lancelot and the Evil Dominator’s.
Meanwhile, the sword formation of the 18 sword servants had an overall ability that was on par with Lancelot. Killing two bug guardians was a piece of cake for them.
The first to finish the battle with the bug guardians was Lancelot. He took less than a minute to kill both of them. He glanced through everyone on the battlefield and joined Killer in the mission to destroy the Queen Mother without any hesitation.
The Queen Mother’s stress levels doubled when Lancelot joined the battle.
Initially, she was fighting Killer who had a similar overall ability with her and now another powerful opponent of the same level had advanced.
The Queen Mother looked around. Apart from her remaining six bug guardians that were still fighting, she was surprised to find that the other bug fighters were just watching aside and ignored the battle she was involved in completely!
Under Bloody’s parasitization, apart from the Queen Mother and the 12 bug guardians, the other bugs were actually under Bloody’s control.
The Queen Mother soon noticed the weird situation. She glanced at Lancelot and Killer that she was fighting with and eventually her eyes stopped on Lin Huang. After some observation, she ended up staring at Lin Huang’s left hand.
Bloody, who was in a cloud form, attached itself on Lin Huang’s left arm at the moment while controlling the battle.
Nobody knew how the Queen Mother figured out that it was Bloody who was the culprit. She flicked the whip hard to make Killer and Lancelot retreat. As she staggered hundreds of meters back, she lifted her head suddenly and released an ear-piercing chirp.
It sounded like a high-frequency buzz which was so high that it was almost beyond one’s audible limit.
Bloody spat a mouthful of blood out all of a sudden as soon as the sound blared. The bugs that it was controlling with its Leech Pods began to go out of control.
“She took out all of my Leech Pods!” Bloody gasped to Lin Huang through voice transmission immediately.
Lin Huang frowned upon noticing that the bugs around were regaining their consciousness. He knew they would be drowned in the bug horde if he dragged it on further, so he then summoned the Ninetails Lynx instantly.
The white little cat sat on Lin Huang’s shoulder, locking on its target as it glanced through the scene. It vanished in the next second.
“You’ve obtained Bug Tribe Queen Mother’s Card Pieces (Mythical-level) x2!
“Congratulations, you’ve obtained a complete Bug Servant Card (Pseudo-Mythical-level) x14”
In the next second, Xiao Hei’s notification rang in Lin Huang’s ears.
When the Ninetails Lynx returned to Lin Huang’s shoulder, the Queen Mother was not the only one that turned into card pieces but so did the few remaining bug guardians.
Chapter 944: It’s My Fault but I’m Not Owning Up!
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After killing the Bug Tribe’s Queen Mother, Lin Huang almost drowned in the bug horde that went chaotic. He depended on the Ninetails Lynx’s dimensional portal to escape the underground hive.
He logged out of the Genius Union as soon as he left the hive. As he sat on the couch in the living room of the hotel room, he began to summarize the battle.
‘I underestimated the Queen Mother’s ability. I didn’t expect it to not only break through Grimace’s illusion, but it even removed Bloody’s parasites. I was caught off guard. If I didn’t manage to summon the God Figurine’s Combat Soul in time, I’m afraid I wouldn’t have been able to kill it today.’
‘The Queen Mother’s combat power was out of my expectations as well. It didn’t die when both Lancelot and Killer attacked it. I shouldn’t be careless no matter what kind of enemy I encounter.’
After coming up with the conclusion, Lin Huang looked at the reward he had obtained this time.
There was no complete Queen Mother card even though the Lucky Card was activated. However, he had more of the bug guardians’ complete cards.
Among the dozen bug guardians that were killed, seven of them had turned into complete cards. With the Double Reward Card, Lin Huang obtained 14 pseudo-mythical-level bug guardian cards.
One must know that a pseudo-mythical-level monster’s individual ability was just as powerful as Lancelot and Killer who were on the same level.
Moreover, now that they had turned into Monster Cards, their combat strength was affected by Lin Huang whereby they were now on imperial-level crimson gold-rank. They were so much more powerful than they were on checkpoint 63 of the Stairway Tree now.
Lin Huang tapped on the bug guardian’s cards accordingly to look at the details.
“Monster Card: Unnamed
“Rarity: Pseudo-Mythical-level
“Monster Name: Queen Mother’s Bug Servant (Saber Warrior)
“Type of Monster: Saber Bug / Bug Tribe
“Combat Level: Imperial-level Crimson Gold-rank
“Major: Saber
“Major Skills: Bug Saber, Saber Dao’s Gene Extraction…
“Minor Skills: Bug Steps…
“Summon Authority: Activated
“Card Remarks: Passable.”
…
“Monster Card: Unnamed
“Rarity: Pseudo-Mythical-level
“Monster Name: Queen Mother’s Bug Servant (Firearms Warrior)
“Type of Monster: Firearms Bug / Bug Tribe
“Combat Level: Imperial-level Crimson Gold-rank
“Major: Firearms
“Major Skills: Biogun, Ultimate Fire…
“Minor Skills: Bug Steps…
“Summon Authority: Activated
“Card Remarks: Passable.”
…
‘Although I didn’t get any complete Queen Mother cards, 14 pseudo-mythical-level bug guardians aren’t bad either.’ Lin Huang put away all the 14 Monster Cards after looking through the card details. The reason he did not summon them was that he recalled the stench in the hive earlier. If the bug guardians that he summoned emitted the same stench, the other hotel guests on the entire floor would surely complain about him.
He proceeded to practice sword as soon as he put away the cards.
The monsters on the Stairway Tree would refresh daily, so he would have to wait until tomorrow to begin the second round of killing.
The sword skill that Lin Huang was practicing now was called the Buddha Killer. It was a pseudo-mythical-level sword skill that he had obtained from the Fallen God Land.
He had been practicing it for a couple of days on and off. All in all, he had put in more than 20 hours.
Even with the guidance of the Sword Spirit in his body, learning a pseudo-mythical-level sword skill was much slower than learning a legendary-level sword skill.
This was because not only were the sword skill card pieces lesser every time he practiced, but he also required many more card pieces for a pseudo-mythical-level sword skill.
Usually, a legendary-level skill would need at least 10,000 skill card pieces while the better ones would need more than 30,000 card pieces. Meanwhile, pseudo-mythical-level skills basically required more than 300,000 card pieces.
That was the reason why he had only learned two new pseudo-mythical-level sword skills at the moment after learning thousands of legendary-level sword skills. This was the third one that he was acquiring.
However, he had already accumulated over 200,000 Buddha Killer skill card pieces. He was confident that he could complete the cultivation of the third pseudo-mythical-level sword skill that day and turned it into a complete Skill Card.
Lin Huang practiced from nine something in the morning until past four in the afternoon. He was so immersed in practicing his sword skills, totally forgetting to check the accumulation of the card pieces.
When it was almost 4.20 p.m., a notification came from Xiao Hei out of the blue.
“Congratulations, you’ve obtained pseudo-mythical-level sword skill Buddha Killer card pieces x 300,000. Would you like to merge them into a complete Skill Card?”
“Yes!” Lin Huang answered without delay.
After a moment of silence, Xiao Hei’s second notification soon came.
“Congratulations, you’ve obtained a complete Sword Skill Card Buddha Killer (pseudo-mythical-level) x1”
Lin Huang looked at the time after he was done cultivating the third pseudo-mythical-level sword skill. Noticing that it was not the time for dinner yet, he began looking at the fourth pseudo-mythical-level sword skill in his memory.
…
Early the next morning, Lin Huang logged into the Genius Union right after he had breakfast.
As soon as he got to the Stairway Tree, Bloody began looking for the Queen Mother and bug guardians’ coordinates that had been refreshed.
Meanwhile, Lin Huang looked at the Genius Union internal news.
A headline soon grabbed his attention. The title of the article was ‘Why Did The Monster Horde Break During the Day on The Stairway Tree?’
Lin Huang clicked on the article which said that bugs rushed out of their hives all of a sudden yesterday morning and attacked the human foothold on checkpoint 63.
Many of the members were killed by the bug horde that came out of nowhere and fell back to checkpoint 1 on the Stairway Tree. After their deaths, some of them lost half of their points that they had been accumulating for years.
“The bug horde broke out at 9 a.m. yesterday. It was almost the same time I killed the Queen Mother and logged out.” Lin Huang roughly figured out the reason for the bug horde during the day. It should have been caused by him killing the Queen Mother.
The death of the Queen Mother caused the bug fighters to lose their minds and falling into chaos. Without the Queen Mother’s control, their destructive nature was revealed. Hence, they attacked the human foothold, causing a series of devastating events.
However, the author of the article had no idea about that. Instead, he came up with an analysis from his personal view and listed some possibilities. Unfortunately, he did not hit the point; it was far from the truth.
The author would not expect the culprit of the incident to be the death of the Queen Mother because even Chan Dou, the top powerhouse, did not possess the ability to kill the Queen Mother. The non-disputed opinion became the author’s blind spot, causing him to fail to get an accurate answer.
“Seems like it’s really my fault,” Lin Huang teased himself while grinning. He had no plan to own up to his mistake although it was him who caused it. “Since nobody knows about it, let’s make it a secret.”
Chapter 945: I Didn’t Know Everyone Love Fighting Monster Hordes
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
With the previous killing experience, Lin Huang’s second kill was very successful.
Bloody found the newly refreshed coordinates for the Queen Mother and bug guardians on the Stairway Tree.
Lin Huang used the old way of getting Grimace to open a path with his illusory forcefield.
However, the difference this time was that he crushed a Lucky Card and a Double Reward Card when they arrived two to three kilometers away from the Queen Mother without her even noticing Grimace. He then summoned the Ninetails Lynx directly.
The imperial-level purple gold-rank Ninetails Lynx had an ability that was nothing less than a demigod’s. It suppressed everyone as soon as it appeared.
With its suppression, Bloody did not even need to control with its Leech Pods. All of the bugs within a radius of 100 kilometers, including the Queen Mother, could not move at all.
Upon witnessing that, Grimace, who was standing before Lin Huang, could not help but have envy flash through his eyes.
The Ninetails Lynx stepped forward silently and disappeared all of a sudden. Almost at the same time, Lin Huang saw the Bug Tribe Queen Mother and the 12 bug guardians being sliced into pieces.
Before he managed to blink, he noticed that the Ninetails Lynx had returned to his shoulder without him even realizing. It licked its paws with its little pink tongue.
Until then, the Bug Tribe Queen Mother and the 12 bug guardians’ sliced bodies began to turn into pieces and faded a few kilometers away. Xiao Hei’s notification came into Lin Huang’s ears.
“You’ve obtained Bug Tribe Queen Mother (Mythical-level) Card Pieces x2!
“Congratulations, you’ve obtained Bug Servant (Pseudo-mythical-level) complete card x12
“Congratulations, you’ve obtained Bug Tribe Incubator(Mythical-level) x2”
Noticing the bugs becoming chaotic since they lost the Queen Mother, Lin Huang pressed down his urge to look at the Bug Tribe incubator card. He recalled Grimace and Bloody, then said to the Ninetails Lynx, “Bring me back!”
The Ninetails Lynx tapped on Lin Huang’s shoulder, and the human and the cat vanished from the hive in the next second.
Without the suppression of the Ninetails Lynx’s aura, the bugs that lost their Queen Mother fell into a complete frenzy and rushed out of the hive’s exits in madness.
Lin Huang, who had logged out of the Genius Union, sat in the living room of the hotel room and took out the two Bug Tribe incubator cards.
“What the hell are these two cards?” Doubtfully, Lin Huang began studying the cards.
There was a three-dimensional spider web with white cocoons hanging on it on the front of the both of the cards.
He recalled the similar web that connected the two Queen Mother’s tails when he saw that.
“So, this isn’t a part of the Queen Mother’s body…” Initially, Lin Huang thought that the web was part of the Queen Mother’s body. Now, it seemed like this item called an incubator existed in the name of the Queen Mother.
Lin Huang turned the card around and began to read the details.
“Special Item Card
“Rarity: Mythical-level
“Item Name: Bug Tribe Incubator
“Incubation Direction: Cold weapon
“Starting Level: Imperial-level Crimson Gold-rank (affected by the owner’s combat strength)
“Insertable Data: Various cold weapon battle data
“Starting Skill: Cold Weapon’s Gene Extraction, Bug Steps…
“Application Authorization: Passive.
“Card Remarks: Pretty good special item.
“Remarks: Only for the use of the Bug Tribe Queen Mother”
…
“Special Item Card
“Rarity: Mythical-level
“Item Name: Bug Tribe Incubator
“Incubation Direction: Hot weapon
“Starting Level: Imperial-level Crimson Gold-rank (affected by the owner’s combat strength)
“Insertable Data: Various weapon battle data
“Starting Skill: Hold Weapon’s Gene Extraction, Bug Steps…
“Application Authorization: Passive
“Card Remarks: Pretty good special item.
“Remarks: Only for the use of the Bug Tribe Queen Mother”
“Only the Bug Tribe Queen Mother can use these? So, I can’t activate these two cards before I get the complete Queen Mother card…” Lin Huang was speechless after he finished looking at the card details.
However, he roughly knew what the function of the two cards was. Those were indispensable special items to make a Bug Tribe army. He was determined to hatch Bug Tribe Queen Mothers with this.
Lin Huang only glanced through the 12 Bug Servant cards quickly and put them aside. Together with the 14 that he had obtained earlier, he had 26 pseudo-mythical-level Bug Servant cards now.
Looking at the current progress, he would be able to build a pseudo-mythical-level bug guardian army soon. However, the Bug Tribe Queen Mother’s complete card seemed far-fetched at the moment.
Lin Huang put the cards away and pushed his messy thoughts aside. He took out the wooden sword and began practicing his sword skills again.
On the checkpoint 63 of the Stairway Tree, a bug horde broke out again since Lin Huang had killed the Bug Tribe Queen Mother and her bug guardians.
Without the Queen Mother’s control, the hundreds of millions of Bug Tribe fighters streamed out of the underground hive like water. They headed down the branches below on checkpoint 63.
In less than an hour, Bug Tribe fighters of various forms took over half of the human foothold.
The people did not panic as they did before since they had experienced the same thing yesterday. They soon formed a defense, blocking the bug horde.
One must say that those who made it to checkpoint 63 of the Stairway Tree were the best of the best in the Genius Union. They had compelling personal ability whereby they basically had the ability to fight fairly with imperial-level black gold-rank powerhouses.
Compared to other checkpoints, the powerhouses on this checkpoint had high self-esteem.
Most people on any checkpoint below this would choose to avoid involving themselves if they encountered a monster horde. Only a minority of them who were desperate for points would stay at night to fight the monster horde.
However, the people on checkpoint 63 were cultivated by major organizations as candidates with the potential to get to the core circle. They did not lack any resources, hence, they were not desperate for points on the Stairway Tree and did things based on personal interest.
To most people on checkpoint 63, a monster horde during the day was something interesting.
One must know that they had never encountered a monster horde during the day since the climb from checkpoints 1 to 63. It was only natural for them to join the fun since this happened out of nowhere.
Many of them who were offline logged in immediately to fight the monster horde after hearing the news of the monster horde breaking out during the day.
Meanwhile, those powerhouses who were caught off guard on the first day of monster horde were in agony. Some of them were killed by the monster horde right away since they were unprepared. They could not even last for a minute and ended up being the laughing stock of their organization. They were eager to return and show their real ability off in the monster horde.
Lin Huang heard the news from the Heaven Alliance group chat. They were discussing the monster horde on checkpoint 63 enthusiastically. Some of the Heaven Alliance members were pumped up after hearing the news and logged in just to join the monster horde. They even sent live videos to the group chat.
The expression on Lin Huang’s face was weird after he read the messages in the group chat. “I didn’t know that everyone loved fighting monster hordes during the day. Very well then, I’ll kill the Queen Mother every day for all of your sadistic killing pleasure.”
Chapter 946: 16 Queen Mothers
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Checkpoint 63 of the Stairway Tree was crowded today.
There were usually very few people on this checkpoint. There were usually less than 80 people online during the day. However, due to the monster horde, there were more than 400 people online during the day this time.
The quiet checkpoint 63 where one normally would not bump into anyone else had become extremely crowded now.
Many major organizations formed teams to fight the bug horde eagerly. Some of the minor organizations on checkpoint 63 with few members formed teams too.
As they fought the bug horde, the power of hundreds of powerhouses skyrocketed together on the Stairway Tree leaderboard.
The absurd change on Stairway Tree leaderboard grabbed the attention of all members on different checkpoints.
Knowing that a breakout of a monster horde on checkpoint 63 was rare, most of them were dumbstruck to see the skyrocketing points of the hundreds of people.
“What are these people doing? Why are their points skyrocketing during the day?”
“Were they triggered by Lin Xie?”
“Wait, their points are skyrocketing during the day. Did these people discover Lin Xie’s secret to obtaining points?!”
“I want Lin Xie’s secret to obtaining points too!!”
After some hot discussion in the forum, somebody finally revealed the truth. “There’s a bug horde on checkpoint 63 during the day. All of the big bosses on checkpoint 63, fighting the bug horde together.”
Another hot discussion broke out after the truth was revealed.
“They’re worthy of being called big bosses! They’re even fighting a monster horde during the day.”
“Why do I have the odd feeling of being envious of such reckless behavior?”
“I, too, am envious of them. I don’t usually feel like participating in fighting monster hordes at night. Could it be that the timing of the monster hordes breaking out has gone off?”
“Is this the Stairway Tree’s new activity? I want to join too!”
“I want to join this new activity too. Please promote this!”
The bug horde on checkpoint 63 lasted until the sky was almost dark. It was finally gone. The last defense on checkpoint 63 remained standing in the end.
However, a new round of monster horde came after less than ten minutes. This time, besides the bug horde, the monsters from checkpoints 67 and 71 joined too. The overall scale of the monster horde was twice as large as the one during the day.
“Again!? Is there something wrong with the Stairway Tree?”
“There are 24 hours a day and there’ve been 22 hours of monster hordes now. How are we supposed to go on?”
“Could it be the Stairway Tree system urging us to break through checkpoint 63 as soon as possible?”
Many of the members on checkpoint 63 were exhausted after fighting the bug horde during the day.
However, figuring that it might be the trick the Stairway Tree system was playing, most of them chose to stay fighting the monster horde. Even some of them who went offline logged in again.
The majestic monster army charged once again. Many powerhouses on checkpoint 63 bit the bullet and fought the monster horde head-on.
Naturally, Lin Huang had no idea that he had caused such a thing. He went to sleep directly after washing up as he was done practicing his sword skills until past 11 at night. He did not follow what was happening in the Genius Union.
If the Genius Union system had human emotions, it would definitely be complaining right now.
The fight on checkpoint 63 went on until 6 in the morning the next day. It was disastrous.
Among the 388 participants, only 31 people made it to the end. The rest were sent back to checkpoint 1 of the Stairway Tree.
Some of them climbed up again after they died and fell back to checkpoint 1. Some did not only make it back but even joined the monster horde fight again.
Among the 31 survivors, less than ten of them survived along the way while the rest clambered their way back from checkpoint 1.
The monster horde was finally gone as they watched the sun rising in the distance.
The bunch of powerhouses were either sitting or lying on the ground, no longer caring about their image.
“It’s finally over!”
“I know. I’m exhausted!”
“Damn it! I died in the monster horde. This is my first time dying on the Stairway Tree ever since joining the Genius Union.”
“Well, I’ve died twice and I’m not complaining.”
“I’ve never experienced such a tiring battle in my life. I have a sudden realization that it’s good to be alive.”
“Should we find out the reason why there’s a bug horde during the day in checkpoint 63 since there’s no monster horde now?” Someone suggested all of a sudden.
Everyone went silent upon hearing the suggestion.
A moment later, the chief of the Hong Alliance, Zhu Hong, broke the silence. “I think it’s a great suggestion. There’s definitely a reason why the bug horde broke out. We’ll have to log out in our current condition if another bug horde happens again two hours later. I think we should take a look since there’s no bug horde now.”
“I agree with Sister Hong’s suggestion. Instead of waiting for things to happen, we should take the initiative to tackle it.” The chief of the Tang Alliance, Zhang Xiaoshan, nodded to show his agreement. “We have approximately two hours to look around since there’s no bug horde now.”
“Of course, I’m not forcing everyone to participate in the investigation. After all, we’ve been fighting for over 20 hours, so everyone must be exhausted now.” Zhu Hong knew some of them were unwilling to participate. “Those who are joining, please raise your hand.”
Zhu Hong was the first to raise her hand while Zhang Xiaoshan was the second without thinking much. Some raised their hands later on. They were all members of the Hong Alliance and the Tang Alliance.
The chief of the Heaven Alliance, Chan Dou, had been offline. The deputy chief Jian Fei hesitated for a moment and raised his hand in the end. “I’m in, too!”
The other three from the Heaven Alliance raised their hands immediately upon seeing that.
Divine Alliance’s chief Zhong Liyan smiled and said while shaking his head, “I’m lazy to join, I’m too tired. I’ll head home to sleep.”
Since the four from Heaven Alliance raised their hands, the chiefs from two minor organization raised their hands too.
Just like that, Zhu Hong and the rest gathered 15 people into a group forcefully and headed towards the Stairway Tree’s main branch on checkpoint 63.
Around an hour and a half later, Lin Huang logged onto Genius Union after he had breakfast. He summoned Bloody to get the new Queen Mother’s coordinates again while he looked at the internal news on Genius Union’s website.
A headline title got his attention again.
‘The Big Bosses on Checkpoint 63 Are Crying!’
Lin Huang was not sure to laugh or cry when he clicked in and read the article.
What happened was that the bug horde broke out together with a monster horde, causing the monster horde yesterday lasted for 22 hours. Most of the people on checkpoint 63 who thought it was an activity created by the system were fighting forcefully for the entire day. The situation was horrible whereby only 31 people left among the over 400 who participated.
“Do they have to do that?” Bloody suddenly spoke as Lin Huang was done reading the news.
“I found a human team of 15 people. Because of them, the number of Queen Mother had a boost. I did a rough search earlier and already found a few. Including you, I’m speculating there should be 16 Queen Mothers on the Stairway Tree this time…”
“What?” Lin Huang could not help but stunned for a bit hearing the news, “Is that possible?!”
Chapter 947: 16 Consecutive Kills
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
“16 people would mean 16 Queen Mothers, so 100 people would mean 100 Queen Mothers…” Lin Huang’s eyes lit up when he heard Bloody’s investigation results, but soon he fell into deep thought. “I wonder why did they come into the monster stage. If they come in as a team every day, I’ll be able to kill many Queen Mothers and bug guardians, but how do I make them come in everyday?”
“It’s easy. Find something that’s irresistible to them and lure them in by putting it somewhere unreachable.” Bloody could not help but gave Lin Huang a suggestion in response to his soft mutter. “In that case, they’ll try to get that item every day.”
“Something that’s irresistible… A god relic should be a great choice.” Lin Huang soon had a plan in his head after hearing Bloody’s suggestion. “An unreachable place… The most unreachable place on checkpoint 63 should be where the Queen Mother is, deep in the hive.”
After coming up with the two most important points, Lin Huang figured how to implement this plan to bait right away.
Not long later, Bloody had located the coordinates of all the Bug Tribe Queen Mothers. As expected, there were a total of 16 Queen Mothers.
Lin Huang headed toward the first target immediately as soon as they located the closest hive.
When they arrived at the entrance of the hive, he used his old way again. He got Grimace to open a path with his illusory forcefield to get deep in the hive’s central zone. They stopped when they were two to three kilometers away from the Queen Mother and her bug guardians.
This time, Lin Huang did not summon the Ninetails Lynx right away. He summoned the Nightmare Tapir instead, telling it what he wanted through voice transmission.
The Nightmare Tapir nodded and hovered mid-air, emitting a squeal with its head up like the sonar roar of a whale. A circle of invisible sound wave spread out like water and soon covered the entire hive.
With the Nightmare Tapir’s imperial-level white gold-rank combat strength, he could even make imperial-level purple gold-rank monsters fell into a deep sleep with one roar, let alone these immortal-level rank-9 Bug Tribe monsters.
The Bug Tribe that was already sleepy fell into a deep sleep without any ability to fight back after hearing the Nightmare Tapir’s hypnotizing sound wave.
Lin Huang smirked and took out a god relic sword from the storage space in his Emperor’s Heart Ring.
It was a sword that was completely black. There was a faint, black mist lingering around it, giving people a terrifying feeling even from a distance.
In reality, the sword was not cursed or anything. The swordsmith must have made that intentionally to give it a cool appearance.
Lin Huang thought the sword was perfect as bait since many people on the Stairway Tree were talking about the monster horde incident during the day on checkpoint 63. With this item, it could coincidentally mislead the people, letting them connect the unusual turn of events on checkpoint 63 to the sword.
Lin Huang appeared next to the Queen Mother that was in deep slumber as he moved. He pierced the god relic sword into the ground before the Queen Mother so that only half of the sword was showing.
After setting it up, Lin Huang retreated almost three kilometers away and activated the video recording function in his Emperor’s Heart Ring. He did not speak during the course of the video recording. All you could hear was his soft breathing.
The video began with a glance through the situation inside the hive and panned where the Queen Mother and her bug guardians were. After the image was focused on the Queen Mother and the bug guardians, he zoomed in and focused on the black sword before the Queen Mother.
The image of the black sword lasted for less than a second. Then, Lin Huang got the Nightmare Tapic to wake one of the bug guardians up from its sleep. It opened its eyes slowly and soon stared at Lin Huang’s direction.
Lin Huang shook the video a little, then it became a black screen after that.
The bug guardian that noticed Lin Huang just got a look of him before it felt an intense hit of drowsiness. It fell asleep again without even being able to fight back.
After shooting the video, Lin Huang looked at the recording while standing where he was. He then walked to the Queen Mother and pulled out the black sword and put it away into his storage space after making sure the video was good to go.
He retreated two to three kilometers away before he crushed a Lucky Card and a Double Reward Card. He then summoned the Ninetails Lynx. In the next second, the Bug Tribe Queen Mother and the 12 bug guardians turned into pieces and disappeared.
Lin Huang heard Xiao Hei’s notification almost at the same time.
After recalling the Nightmare Tapir, Lin Huang projected the map of checkpoint 63. He pointed at the coordinates Bloody had marked; it was the area where the second Queen Mother was.
“Ninetails, bring us to the area directly. You don’t have to be accurate with the exact coordinates. Just bring us to the area.”
The Ninetails Lynx placed its claws on Lin Huang and Grimace’s shoulders. In the next second, including Bloody that was in Lin Huang’s sleeve, the human and the three monsters vanished from the hive.
What he had no idea about was that the bugs that were in deep sleep in the hive slowly awoke after the Nightmare Tapir disappeared for close to half an hour.
As the Ninetails Lynx brought them to the area near the second hive, Lin Huang found the entrance in less than two minutes. He went into the hive in the same way he always did.
When they arrived in the area where the second Queen Mother was, he did not summon the Nightmare Tapir this time. Instead, he got the Ninetails Lynx to attack directly. Immediately, it completed the harvest.
Lin Huang then told the Ninetails Lynx to send them to the area close to the hive where the third Queen Mother was.
After spending almost two and a half hours, Lin Huang finally killed 16 Queen Mothers and 192 bug guardians.
Apart from spending some time shooting the video in the first hive, he spent most of the time traveling from the entrance of the hive to the Queen Mother. Lin Huang completed the journey on foot due to the complicated hive structure and the Ninetails Lynx’s inability to teleport them to the exact coordinates since it had never been there.
He was not terribly pleased after completing the 16 consecutive kills and signing out of the Genius Union because the 16 Queen Mother kills did not get him any complete Queen Mother Monster Card.
“You’ve obtained Bug Tribe Queen Mother Card Pieces (Mythical-level) x32!
“Congratulations, you’ve obtained Bug Servant Complete Card (Pseudo-mythical-level) x384
“Congratulations, you’ve obtained Bug Tribe Incubator (Mythical-level) x4
“Congratulations, you’ve obtained Bug Tribe Genetic Optimizer (Mythical-level) x6
“Congratulations, you’ve obtained Gene Extractor (Mythical-level) x2!”
After glancing through the notification from Xiao Hei, Lin Huang took out the eight new cards and studied the details.
“Special Item Card
“Rarity: Mythical-level
“Item Name: Bug Tribe Genetic Optimizer
“Function: Performing genetic optimization on Bug Tribe fighters using the most compatible genes in the gene database following the direction of the chosen genetic evolution.
“Application Authorization: Passive
“Card Remarks: Pretty good special item.
“Remarks: Only for the use of the Bug Tribe Queen Mother”
…
“Special Item Card
“Rarity: Mythical-level
“Item Name: Gene Extractor
“Function: As long as there’s sufficient flesh, it can be used to extract the respective genes as well as detaching the gene the user desires and put it into the genetic database.
“Application Authorization: Passive
“Card Remarks: Pretty good special item.
“Remarks: Must be used in compliance with the genetic database.”
Chapter 948: A Thread That’s Straying Off Topic
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
When Lin Huang killed the 16 Queen Mothers at once, he caused a mob of bugs from the 16 hives to break out on checkpoint 63 of the Stairway Tree. A supermassive bug horde made up of more than five billion of bugs burst out.
The bug horde was like a flood pouring down the branches of the Stairway Tree.
The Zhu Hong team that was investigating the reason for the bug horde on the main branch of the Stairway Tree came in contact with the bug horde less than five minutes after it broke out.
Under the chaotic attack of the bug horde, the 15 team members braced the onslaught painfully for more than three hours. In the end, all of their Life Power was worn out and they were soon dead.
Less than five hours later, the other members on checkpoint 63 who were online were dead too. Apart from a minority of them who managed to hide in defense barriers, the rest of them were sent back to checkpoint 1.
The entire checkpoint 63 had fallen. Even the defenses of all the organizations on the branches were attacked by the bug horde in a frenzy.
The news of checkpoint 63 falling soon spread through the entire Genius Union.
People called it Doomsday.
On the front page of the Genius Union news was all about Doomsday. Everyone was talking about the same topic even in the forums.
“Did you hear? Checkpoint 63 has completely fallen! They can’t even log in now.”
“Yeah, I heard the scale of the bug horde was super scary this time. There were billions of monsters, and it surpassed the normal monster horde at night by folds!”
“I heard the team led by the chiefs of the Hong Alliance and the Tang Alliance has fallen too. Someone saw them on checkpoint 21.”
“That’s nothing. I heard that all the big bosses on checkpoint 63 are dead apart from those who didn’t log in and a minority of them who managed to hide behind the defense barrier in time. All of them fell back to checkpoint 1!”
…
Lin Huang was speechless when he read the popular thread in the forum.
He knew the monster horde would come after him for killing their Queen Mothers, but never had he thought that the number of Bug Tribe fighters would have multiplied as well. However, now that he thought about it, it made sense since there was an increase of hives.
People who experienced the bug horde complained in the forum, saying that everyone had died on checkpoint 63. One even posted a video of the bug horde breaking through their defenses.
In front of the defense barriers, Bug Tribe fighters crawled all over. Each and every one of them was attacking the defense under their feet insanely like they had lost their minds.
Everyone was worried as they watched the video. To their relief, the defense remained intact at the end of the video.
Lin Huang felt a little guilty after watching the video. “Will this bug horde traumatize the people?”
However, his guilt only lasted less than a minute. He then revealed a smirk. “So many of them are talking about the reason for the bug horde breaking out. I shall seize this opportunity to tell them the ‘truth’!”
Lin Huang set his account to anonymous status and created a thread entitled ‘The Truth of the Bug Horde Breaking Out on Checkpoint 63’. He then uploaded the video that he had recorded earlier.
After submitting it, he waited for almost ten minutes until the thread went through a review.
The thread grabbed the attention of many Genius Union members as soon as it appeared.
Many of them clicked on it suspiciously because there was no description in the thread. There was only a video. Everyone then watched the video directly and were shocked after finishing it.
The thread created a stir right away.
“This has to be fake! The Bug Tribe Queen Mother is a little girl? Who’d buy that?!”
“The Bug Tribe Queen Mother really does look like that. Although I’ve never seen the real thing, I saw the strategy for checkpoint 63 and there were photos. It’s almost the same as the one in the video.”
“The Queen Mother, her bug guardians, and the bug beasts are real. The details of the hive’s real too. This video’s legit. What I’m curious about is who took this video? The person went really deep into the hive.” It was the chief of the Hong Alliance, Zhu Hong, who posted that.
Zhu Hong used her personal account instead of going incognito. The forum went into a frenzy all of a sudden.
“Pleased to meet the goddess!”
“Sister Hong, please reply to me!”
“Please let me ride on your fame, Almighty!”
Another big boss replied to Zhu Hong’s comment, “Sister Hong, what do you think about this video?” The person who commented was the chief of the Tang Alliance, Zhang Xiaoshan, who had used his personal account to comment too.
People were agitated again as soon as Zhang Xiaoshan appeared. No matter if it was Zhu Hong or Zhang Xiaoshan, both of them were the top bosses in the Genius Union. They were in the top five among the people at the same level.
Zhu Hong replied when she saw that it was Zhang Xiaoshan who had asked the question, “It looks more like a prank, but we can’t rule out the possibility of it being authentic. What I want to know most is how did he go so deep into the hive?”
“It’s actually easy for someone who has powerful spiritual energy. They can use an illusion to isolate themselves to do this,” Zhang Xiaoshan replied.
“Brilliant! I know roughly who posted this thread now that you say that.”
Many people asked who the person was as soon as Zhu Hong commented, but she did not reply.
Zhang Xiaoshan also disappeared as soon as Zhu Hong was gone.
However, people on checkpoint 63 soon began to analyze Zhu Hong’s comment.
“Sister Hong should be talking about the Divine Alliance’s Zhong Liyan. Chief Zhong’s a psychic and he has extraordinary spiritual power. It’s possible that he’s mastered illusion skills too. Looking at it now, on the entire Stairway Tree, he’s the only person who could possibly shoot the video so close to the Queen Mother.”
The people in the thread soon began to talk about the Queen Mother after the analysis.
“So, that’s what the Queen Mother looks like! It’s so cute.”
“I want to keep one!”
“Here’s a question. If you brought the Queen Mother home and had sex with it, would the children the Queen Mother gave birth to be a human or a bug?”
“There won’t be any children because you can always use precaution. Thank me later!”
“I’ve reported inappropriate content.”
As Lin Huang read the comments, the thread was straying off topic. Only a minority of people talked about the god relic sword, and he felt helpless.
“These people are just here for the fun. They don’t care about the reason for the bug horde breaking out at all.”
“It’s natural that they don’t care since it doesn’t concern them. They’ll definitely be desperate for answers if the bug horde spreads below checkpoint 63,” Bloody grinned while explaining, “Most people on checkpoint 63 who saw this video should have opinions about the god relic sword. It’s just that they didn’t comment on what they think. Be patient. We should be able to see how many people exactly show interest in the god relic.”
Chapter 949: Obtaining the Bug Tribe Queen Mother Card!
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Lin Huang had no idea that although the thread he posted was straying off topic, the video he posted had stolen the attention of many organizations on checkpoint 63.
Although Zhu Hong had said in the comment that it was surely a prank, she forwarded the video to the Hong Alliance group chat on checkpoint 63 to instruct them to form teams to investigate this as soon as she got off the thread.
Zhang Xiaoshan also began to gather people as soon as he closed the forum page.
Most of the other organizations began working too.
A majority of the people on checkpoint 63 could tell that the video was real because many of the details could not be staged. Although they had no idea how the person who shot the video managed to go so deep into the hive, they had little doubt about the authenticity of the video.
There were some organizations that hired professionals to conduct verification exercises. Naturally, the final consensus was that the video was authentic. No special effects were used in the video.
To verify the video source, Zhu Hong even went out of her way to contact Zhong Liyan, asking if it was him who had recorded the video. Naturally, Zhong Liyan denied it.
Some suggested that it might be Lin Xie because he was the only person on the Stairway Tree who could afford to get god relics with his points. However, after some investigation, they realized that all of the god relics were still there in the Stairway Mall. They then ruled out the suspicion on Lin Huang.
Although nobody could find the video source, the authenticity was verified. This caused the people on checkpoint 63 to think that the bug horde was related to the god relic that had appeared out of nowhere. This also proved the existence of god relics in the hive.
Many organizations began forming teams with the mission to obtain the god relic.
Since nobody could log into checkpoint 63 of the Stairway Tree because it was invaded by the bug horde, Zhu Hong of the Hong Alliance held a video conference call right away.
“Soldiers are valued by courage, not in numbers. This is the motto of our mission this time. Since it’s a stealth mission, we need people who have mastered stealth techniques, illusion skills, stealing techniques or those who are simply fast. Each team will have one person responsible for hiding, one for stealing the god relic and one more with detective techniques. Each team will have two to three people. Three is the maximum because the more people there are, the higher the risk of exposing ourselves.”
The Tang Alliance and the Divine Alliance carried out similar implementation whereby they formed a few teams that were skilled at carrying out stealth missions. Those who were great at battling and not suitable for stealth were excluded.
Naturally, Lin Huang received the messages that the deputy chief of the Heaven Alliance, Jian Fei, had sent in the group chat. It was definitive that he would not participate in such a mission. Eventually, the Heaven Alliance only managed to gather 11 people who formed four teams.
“The Heaven Alliance is almost done with their preparation. The other organizations are also almost ready.” Lin Huang was secretly elated. The Heaven Alliance alone had gathered 11 people, so there would be more than 16 people participating in the search tomorrow.
At past six in the morning the next day, the monster horde on checkpoint 63 of the Stairway Tree was nowhere to be seen.
Lin Huang was still in bed while the organization members who were participating in the search had logged into the Genius Union and began the congregation.
Apart from the major organizations including the Heaven Alliance and the Hong Alliance that managed to form four to five teams, a few other organizations gathered a couple of teams. Some of the minor organizations that had insufficient members came together and form a few teams themselves.
Before it was even 6.30 a.m., one after another, the 36 teams climbed onto the main branch of the Stairway Tree from different starting points.
Lin Huang only got out of bed when it was almost 7 a.m.
After washing up, and washing his breakfast down with a cup of coffee, he logged onto the Genius Union leisurely when it was almost 7.30 a.m.
Soon, Bloody was summoned and it found the teams sent from the various organizations.
“There are a total of 36 teams participating in the search this time. There are 91 people.”
“Only 91? That’s lesser than I expected.” Lin Huang raised his brow. “I thought there would be more than 100 people no matter what.”
“There are only two to three people in each team. It seems like they’re using our way of sneaking in, so they must’ve selected those who are great at stealth. It’s actually not bad for them to have gathered 91 people among less than 500 people.” Bloody figured out what was Zhu Hong and the rest’s plans by looking at the allocation of the team members.
“Moreover, the sky will turn dark in 11 hours. If we take our efficiency of ten minutes per hive yesterday as a baseline, the most we can clear today would be 66 hives. We must speed up to seven minutes and 15 seconds if we want to clear all 91 hives.”
“Understand. Then, let’s not chat unnecessarily as soon as we enter the hive. Just tell me which fork Grimace and I should head to directly.” Lin Huang nodded.
“Let’s begin with the first hive now. We don’t have to wait for the whole search to be done. My search won’t be affected in the hives.” Bloody stopped speaking and projected the map for Lin Huang. It then pointed out the coordinates of the first hive.
Lin Huang summoned the Ninetails Lynx and got it to send them to the coordinates immediately.
When they arrived at the entrance of the hive, he crushed a Lucky Card and a Double Reward Card.
He then summoned Grimace and told him the accelerated mission plan through voice transmission.
Grimace nodded and grabbed Lin Huang’s wrist.
“Turn second left at the first fork.” Grimace had disappeared from where he was while grabbing Lin Huang as soon as Bloody was done speaking.
They entered the first fork in less than two seconds.
“Turn first right at the second fork.”
“Turn third left at the third fork.”
“Then, at the fourth fork…”
In less than two minutes, Grimace brought Lin Huang to where the first Queen Mother was. The Ninetails Lynx killed her right away and brought Lin Huang and Grimace to the second hive later on.
Subsequently, Grimace grabbed Lin Huang along and dashed into the hive at full speed. The hunting efficiency experienced a few folds of improvement.
Initially, Bloody suggested speeding up the hunt to achieve one hive within seven minutes and 15 seconds, but now they had improved to doing so within three minutes.
Lin Huang only spent less than five hours clearing all 91 hives.
Only five teams among the 36 retreated to the starting point after noticing the unusualness in the area while the remaining 31 teams perished in the hives. None of their members survived.
Meanwhile, Lin Huang logged out of the Genius Union after he was done with the hunt. He did not care about the breaking out of the bug hordes on the Stairway Tree at all because he finally heard the notification that he had been waiting for when he was clearing the 53rd hive. He tamped his urge down and finished clearing all the 91 hives.
As he sat on the couch in the living room of the hotel room, Lin Huang tapped Xiao Hei’s notification box open with a shudder of excitement.
“Congratulations, you’ve obtained complete Bug Tribe Queen Mother Monster Card (Mythical-level) x2
“Congratulations, you’ve obtained complete Bug Servant Monster Card (Pseudo-mythical-level) x2,184
“Congratulations, you’ve obtained Bug Tribe Incubator (Mythical-level) x4
“Congratulations, you’ve obtained Genetic Database (Mythical-level) x2
“Congratulations, you’ve obtained Genetic Modification Editor (Mythical-level) x2
“Congratulations, you’ve obtained Biomaterial Decomposer (Mythical-level) x2”
…
“Yes! I’ve finally gotten the complete Bug Tribe Queen Mother card after working on it for so many days!”
Chapter 950: Another New Rule is Added
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
“Monster Card: Unnamed
“Rarity: Mythical-level
“Monster Name: Bug Tribe Queen Mother
“Type of Monster: Mother Bug / Bug Tribe
“Nickname: None
“Combat Level: Imperial-level Crimson Gold-rank / Virtual God (Immature)
“Major: Spear Dao, Lightning Element
“Major Skills: Bug Center, Breeding Mother, Genetic Evolution…
“Minor Skills: Bug Tribe Army, Total Control…
“Summon Authority: Denied (To be activated when you reach imperial-level)
“Card Remarks: Great personal ability but encouraged to be cultivated as an army.”
Lin Huang looked through the skills one after another and eventually had his eyes on the Bug Center.
“Bug Center: Special ability exclusively for high-tier Bug Tribe. A Bug Tribe that possesses such an ability will be able to hear the voice of the bug horde’s will. Only Bug Tribe members that possess such an ability can build their own quantum consciousness network to control the Bug Tribe army.
“Remark 1: The bug guardians will only possess an intelligence close to a human’s as well as having learning abilities under that premise when they’re connected to the Bug Center. The intelligence of bug guardians that aren’t connected to the Bug Center will be oppressed to its minimum whereby they will have almost zero self-consciousness. They will just be puppets that listen to orders blindly.
“Remark 2: The more bug guardians are connected to the Bug Center, the more powerful the Bug Center will grow and the more Bug Tribe fighters it can contain.
“Remark 3: The Bug Center can be taken away by other high-tier Bug Tribes that possess a Bug Center. It can be shared with other high-tier Bug Tribes that possess a Bug Center too.
“Remark 4: The Queen Mother can retrieve information from all the members in the Bug Center network. It can also control the information access of the other members as well as setting their intelligence level.”
…
The first thought Lin Huang had after glancing at the skill description was that the Queen Mother would renegade.
However, he realized that the skill was extremely crucial for the entire Bug Tribe army after reading the many remarks below. Without the skill, the bug guardians and the Bug Tribe fighters would just be a plate of sand. They would not be worthy of being called an army at all.
Moreover, after reading the skill remarks, Lin Huang noticed that the thousands of pseudo-mythical-level bug guardians that he got earlier were just a bunch of stiff battle puppets if they were not connected to the Bug Center.
The reason he did not summon the bug guardians was that he was worried about the stench on the bug guardians which would affect the other hotel guests. He could not help but crush a bug guardian card after reading the description of the Bug Center.
A ferocious bug guardian with six arms made of sabers consolidated before him.
He was relieved that there was no odor coming from the bug guardian.
When it was summoned, the bug guardian that was over three meters tall stood motionlessly where it was.
Lin Huang waved before its eyes and it showed no response as if it could not see.
“Speak. Just say something,” Lin Huang ordered.
The bug guardian looked at Lin Huang with its head held low and said nothing.
“Has its intelligence been oppressed so much that it can’t even master a language?” Lin Huang frowned deeply.
“This should’ve been installed in its settings to prevent bug guardians from other tribes from acquiring it and using it as a weapon or to obtain important information. Disconnecting them from the Bug Center would result in their intelligence dropping rapidly whereby they can’t even perform basic communication,” Bloody speculated.
After carrying out some tests, Lin Huang realized that the bug guardian could only take simple orders. Furthermore, it would attack a specific target with all its might when it was given a slightly complicated order such as ‘attack’. It would not be able to avoid the opponent’s attacks and carry out an effective defense at all.
“This is so backward. The upper hand of a pseudo-mythical-level is being compromised by its intelligence.” Lin Huang shook his head in dissatisfaction. “If they’re put in a battle, Bai could fight five to six of them alone at once.”
“Luckily, I’ve got the Queen Mother Card. Otherwise, those bug guardians would just be your puppets,” Lin Huang smiled while saying to Bloody.
“I might not be able to cast parasites on them since they’re on the same level as I am, which is pseudo-mythical-level.” Bloody was taken aback.
Lin Huang shook his head without saying much.
After all, he could not summon the Queen Mother yet and those bug guardians could not be connected to the Bug Center. They were pretty useless to Lin Huang now since they had such low intelligence. He could only put them aside at the time being.
After recalling the bug guardian card, Lin Huang looked at the few new cards that he had just obtained.
…
“Special Item Card
“Rarity: Mythical-level
“Item Name: Genetic Database
“Function: Database storing various genetic data
“Application Authorization: Passive
“Card Remarks: Good stuff
“Remarks: Must be used in compliance with biomaterial decomposer and gene extractor.”
…
“Special Item Card
“Rarity: Mythical-level
“Item Name: Biomaterial Decomposer
“Function: Decomposes flesh of living beings into various materials as well as separating gene fragments for genetic modification
“Application Authorization: Passive
“Card Remarks: Not bad
“Remarks: Can’t be used to decompose living beings.”
…
“Special Item Card
“Rarity: Mythical-level
“Item Name: Genetic Modification Editor
“Function: Modify living beings’ genes
“Application Authorization: Passive
“Card Remarks: Good stuff.
“Remarks: Must be used in compliance with biomaterial decomposer and gene extractor.”
Lin Huang put all of the cards away after reading the card details and realized that he could not activate them due to the authority restriction. He then began practicing his sword skills.
Meanwhile, it was chaotic in the Genius Union once again.
A bug horde had broken out on checkpoint 63 of the Stairway Tree like never before since Lin Huang had killed 91 Bug Tribe Queen Mothers.
This time, the big bosses on checkpoint 63 hid behind the defense barrier right away after learning their lesson earlier when they saw the bug horde sweeping toward them. With the experience from the day before, very few of them chose to stay to fight head-on this time.
Everyone clearly felt that the bug horde this time was even more terrifying than the day before whereby there were folds of increase in the number of bugs.
Can you imagine tens of billions of bugs in various forms occupying all the buildings with no gaps in between?
One must know that even those bugs which were smaller in size were over two meters long while the bigger ones were hundreds of meters long. Imagine the space that almost 30 billion of those monsters could occupy!
Almost every inch of the ground on the entire checkpoint 63 was covered with bugs. Even the defenses on all of the human residence buildings had bugs crawling all over them. Some even had layers of bugs writhing on them. It was chilling to watch.
Some people took videos and photos of the situation and posted them on the forum. People from other checkpoints began talking about it.
Lin Huang only found out about it when he looked at the Genius Union forum before he went to bed.
As he was reading a few minutes into the thread, a notice came from the Genius Union all of a sudden.
“Notice: A new rule has been added to the Stairway Tree system!
“A player will pass the checkpoint as soon as he kills the boss!
“Every Genius Union member will pass the checkpoint right away as soon as they kill the final boss in the monster stage of the respective checkpoint. The player will not obtain any benefits on the respective checkpoints after the final boss is killed.
“We hope everyone acknowledges this notice.”
Almost every Genius Union member who received the notice at midnight were dumbstruck.
“What happened? Why did such a notice appear like that?”
Lin Huang was the only one who realized that the system was directed at him again.
“Luckily, I’ve already gotten the Bug Tribe Queen Mother!”
Chapter 951: I Killed Another Queen Mother Since I Was Bored
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The new rule from the Genius Union that came out of nowhere broke the midnight peace. It was chaos on the forum all of a sudden.
“What happened? Why is there a new rule out of nowhere?”
“The two new rules earlier were caused by Lin Xie’s killing spree on the Stairway Tree. Could it be him who’s caused this again?”
“If someone’s really doing something, looking at the new rule, there should be someone killing the boss on some level. Killing the boss is much more difficult than passing through the level. Who is insane enough to kill the boss over and over again?”
“If someone’s killing the boss over and over again, I think the killing machine Lin Xie has the highest possibility of doing that.”
“Don’t look at Lin Xie so highly. Indeed, he’s pretty skilled at killing small monsters, but he’s on checkpoint 63 now. Do you guys know how scary the boss on checkpoint 63 is? That Bug Tribe Queen Mother could be a quadruple mutated monster while her 12 bug guardians have the ability that surpasses triple mutated monsters. It’s not that I look down on Lin Xie’s ability, but in reality, even Chan Dou the Fourth Prince would have to avoid those bug guardians if he ever encountered more than three of them.”
“Maybe a rookie on a lower checkpoint is killing the boss repetitively but we didn’t notice.”
…
Lin Huang realized that a minority of people suspected it was him who had caused this while most people ruled out the possibility of him doing it. A few big bosses on checkpoint 63 were analyzing how terrifying the Queen Mother and her bug guardians’ abilities were.
He received a message from Chan Dou on his communication device just when he was ready to sleep after closing the forum. “Is this new rule about you again?”
Lin Huang thought about it and gave a short reply while smirking. “Take a guess.”
“No wonder there are bug hordes on checkpoint 63 every day. You’re killing Queen Mothers like it’s a game for you. That’s insane!” Chan Dou sent a thumbs-up emoticon at the end of his message.
“You haven’t been logging in these few days. What have you been up to?” Lin Huang changed the subject.
“I’ve been shopping around black markets these few days. I have to live up to the act since I’m doing it,” Chan Dou replied, “I even asked Tan Lang to go to you a few days later.”
“No wonder he isn’t here. I’ve been waiting for him.”
“I’ll log in tomorrow at eight in the morning. Come log in too. Let’s settle the deputy chief thing.” Chan Dou sent another message.
“Eight in the morning? That’s a little early.”
“It’s all your fault! There are monsters all over the entire checkpoint 63 for more than 21 hours before it’s even 9 a.m. every day. We can only log in between 6 a.m. to 7 a.m.”
“Sure, eight it is.”
The next morning, Lin Huang woke up early. After breakfast, he logged onto the Genius Union leisurely.
“It seems to be way too early.” After logging in, Lin Huang raised his brow upon realizing it was only 7.23 a.m. “I can seize the opportunity to kill the last Queen Mother then.”
Lin Huang moved immediately as soon as he made up his mind. Bloody used less than two minutes to locate the Queen Mother.
Zhu Hong and the rest had yet to give up on looking for the god relic, so they came in teams earlier in the morning. Although there were fewer people compared to the day before, there were still over 70 of them.
However, with the new rule, Lin Huang would pass the checkpoint as soon as he killed one Queen Mother despite there being more than 70 Queen Mothers. He would not gain any benefits after killing one Queen Mother.
Lin Huang did not use the old way of getting into the hive this time. Instead, he made a grand entrance by summoning the Destructive Divine Mammoth. The Destructive Divine Mammoth suppressed everyone with its aura, and they ambled in without any obstacles.
Since he would pass the checkpoint after killing the Queen Mother, Lin Huang thought he of obtaining the 10 billion point limit for the day right away.
As the Destructive Divine Mammoth stomped its feet, the Bug Tribe monsters turned into dust. None of them even managed to get closer.
They only used approximately five minutes to get to the core zone of the hive.
The Queen Mother and her 12 bug guardians knew they were no match for the Destructive Divine Mammoth as soon as they saw it.
The 12 bug guardians and an insane amount of bugs dashed towards the Destructive Divine Mammoth. Meanwhile, the Bug Tribe Queen Mother disconnected its tail that was connected to the incubator and fled immediately.
Unfortunately, it underestimated the Destructive Divine Mammoth’s abilities.
The Destructive Divine Mammoth lifted both of its feet high and stomped onto the ground hard. A circle of black energy wave spread out rapidly. The bug horde, the bug guardians and the Queen Mother… Everything turned into dust instantly wherever the wave passed.
Xiao Hei’s notification came into Lin Huang’s ears at that moment.
“Congratulations, you’ve obtained complete Bug Tribe Queen Mother Monster Card (Mythical-level) x2!
“Congratulations, you’ve obtained complete Bug Servant Monster Card (Pseudo-mythical-level) x10!”
…
Lin Huang was stunned for a second when he heard the notification about him obtaining complete Bug Tribe Queen Mother Monster Cards. He had never thought he would be so lucky in that single kill to obtain complete Bug Tribe Queen Mother Monster Cards. He did not expect such a thing to happen when he came in this time. After all, he only got the complete Queen Mother Monster Card after killing up to a hundred Queen Mothers.
Lin Huang left the hive happily after getting two Bug Tribe Queen Mother Monster Cards and 10 billion points.
Not long after he left, the remaining bugs in the hive swarmed out as a bug horde.
As he returned to the Heaven Alliance residence on checkpoint 63, Lin Huang finally met their deputy chief, Jian Fei, for the very first time.
Although he had seen his photo before, he did not expect the real person to be fatter in real life.
‘I think he’s at least 300 pounds! He should be slaughtered and eaten during the New Year,’ Lin Huang thought to himself.
Naturally, Jian Fei recognized Lin Huang as the notorious No. 1 on the Stairway Tree leaderboard. He welcomed him immediately, knowing the reason why Chan Dou had gathered them today.
“Brother Lin Xie, I’ve heard so much about you. We finally meet.”
“Chief Jian, I’ve heard so much about you from the chief. It’s nice to finally meet you too.” Lin Huang was being polite as well.
“The chief isn’t here yet. Let’s go into the meeting room.” Jian Fei brought Lin Huang into the meeting room.
There were already eight people sitting in the meeting room. They lifted their heads to look at Lin Huang when he walked in.
The eight of them were the high management of the Heaven Alliance. Although their abilities were not the top in the Heaven Alliance, they were talented.
It was their first time seeing Lin Huang, so they were very curious about this young man who ranked No. 1 on the Stairway Tree leaderboard.
“Hi, everyone, my name’s Lin Xie,” Lin Huang introduced himself. Although everyone knew who he was, he had to show basic courtesy.
“Your combat strength…” A short-haired lady among the eight could not help but exclaim all of a sudden.
Jian Fei and the rest just realized that as well and they had shock written on their faces.
“Yes, I’m on immortal-level rank-7 now,” Lin Huang confirmed. He could not lie about such a thing since they were meeting face-to-face. Although he could use his disguise demigod relic to conceal that, he thought it was unnecessary.
‘What terrifying combat strength elevation speed!’ Although none of them said that out loud, they glanced at each other and knew everyone had the same thought in their heads.
Jian Fei introduced the eight of them to Lin Huang one by one before sitting down.
Since Lin Huang the rookie was there, the rest held back on their topics as it might be inappropriate. They began talking about the god relic that had appeared in the hive recently.
Lin Huang pretended not to know much about it and listened to them talking patiently. Finally, Chan Dou showed up when it was 8 a.m. sharp.
“Yo, everyone’s here. Does everyone know who Lin Xie is already?” Chan Dou strolled into the meeting room and walked straight to the main seat.
He did not chat much after taking his seat and went right to business. “I suppose everyone knows why I’ve gathered all of you here today.”
All of them nodded.
“I shall recommend Lin Xie officially to be deputy chief of our Heaven Alliance.” Chan Dou glanced through everyone. “Those who agree, please raise your hand. Those who don’t, please name the reason for your dissent.”
Chan Dou raised his hand as soon as he was done speaking and the deputy chief Jian Fei was the second to follow suit while chuckling. The remaining eight of them raised their hands as well. Nobody disagreed.
Lin Huang could not help but raise his brow. He could tell that Chan Dou was great at ruling.
“Alright, since its unanimous, let’s sign our names,” Chan Dou spoke and projected an appointment agreement. He projected it to Jian Fei after he signed his name.
Jian Fei did not hesitate and signed it right away followed by the remaining eight.
After everyone had signed it, Chan Dou walked to Lin Huang and projected the appointment agreement. “Please sign your name on the agreement.”
Lin Huang nodded and signed it.
After confirming that everyone had signed it, Chan Dou saved the document. He then put it away in the attachment and sent an appointment notice as the chief of the Heaven Alliance.
“Heaven Alliance member Lin Xie is officially appointed as the deputy chief of the Heaven Alliance effective today!”
The notice was sent to every Heaven Alliance member’s communication device. Besides those who were on checkpoint 63 of the Stairway Tree, all the Heaven Alliance members in the Genius Union received the notice almost at the same time.
“Huh? Lin Xie’s now a deputy chief? Didn’t he just break through to immortal-level not long ago?”
“No matter whether he’s on holy fire-level or immortal-level, getting to checkpoint 63 is proof of his ability.”
“I must admit that the killing machine has the ability to be where he is now.”
As the Heaven Alliance members were in a hot discussion, someone posted the notice on the Genius Union forum. The other organizations buzzed with the news as well.
“I think Lin Xie’s just on beginner-stage immortal-level now at the most. Is Chan Dou training the next Heaven Alliance chief?”
“It seems like the next Heaven Alliance chief has been decided.”
“I think Lin Xie won’t be anything less powerful than Chan Dou. As he grows, the Heaven Alliance will rise even higher!”
“With Lin Xie, Heaven Alliance’s No. 1 position is even more unshakable now.”
Although the meeting in the meeting room of the Heaven Alliance residence had ended, Jian Fei stopped both Chan Dou and Lin Huang who were going to log out of the Genius Union.
“Chief, it’s rare that you’re here today. Since the new deputy chief is here too, let’s discuss obtaining the god relic.”
Chan Dou turned to look at Lin Huang with a rather helpless expression on his face. After confirming that the breaking out of the bug horde was related to Lin Huang, naturally, he knew that the god relic was not real.
However, he did not expose Lin Huang instantly because he was not sure if Lin Huang was willing to reveal his abilities.
“Alright, let me explain.” Lin Huang took over the subject.
Jian Fei and the remaining people looked at him with an odd expression.
“The god relic’s fake. I took the video. It was just a prank,” Lin Huang told the truth without flinching at all.
“Huh?” Jian Fei and the rest were dumbstruck by what he said.
“If the god relic doesn’t exist, what’s up with the bug horde?” Jian Fei could not help but ask.
“That’s the side effect of the prank.” Lin Huang felt his lips becoming dry.
“Chief Lin, could you explain further about that?” One of them asked.
“Ugh, sure.” Lin Huang nodded rather helplessly. “In reality, I’ve been killing Bug Tribe Queen Mothers these few days. In turn, I caused the bug hordes.”
“Huh?!” Everyone was stunned hearing that.
Even Chan Dou was shocked when Lin Huang admitted that himself.
When it became awkward in the meeting room, a harried knock came at the door followed by someone opening the door subsequently. “Chief Jian, there’s a bug horde again!”
Later on, everyone saw the crowded bug horde attacking the defense barrier through the meeting room windows.
Chan Dou and the rest turned to look at Lin Huang.
“Um… I had time before coming to the residence, so I killed another Queen Mother since I was bored.”
Chapter 952: Deadly Ruins
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Deadly Ruins
After logging out of the Genius Union, Lin Huang, who was sitting on the hotel couch, felt relieved.
He thought he would be beaten up by Jian Fei and the rest if he told the truth. How could he have thought that everyone would say politely that it was great to know the truth?
However, he heard that Jian Fei died six times on the Stairway Tree on the first day the bug horde broke out while the other eight of them died at least three to four times.
Meanwhile, the other Heaven Alliance members who participated in the bug hordes died at least twice.
How could he have thought that his ability to kill the Queen Mothers like they were insignificant monsters to be so powerful? Even if Jian Fei and the rest were to attack him at once, they would be beaten and dragged on the ground.
Jian Fei and the rest would only dare to curse him secretly. They would not really do anything to him.
However, Lin Huang’s abilities truly shocked everyone.
Jian Fei and the rest thought that Lin Huang would only reach the level that the Five Princes, including Chan Dou, was on when he reached immortal-level rank-9. They never thought that although he was only on immortal-level rank-7, he would have surpassed the Five Princes. He even beat Chan Dou and became the well-deserved No. 1 powerhouse in the Genius Union.
Naturally, under Chan Dou’s order, the nine of them present chose to keep it a secret. They did not mention that to anyone, even keeping it from the other Heaven Alliance members.
After all, the more people knew, the more they would talk about it. It was hard to guarantee that nobody would slip it out.
As he looked through the Genius Union forum, the No. 1 hot topic was ‘Guess Who is The New the Heaven Alliance Deputy Chief?’.
The threads that were discussing the bug hordes these few days were pushed down to second place.
After reading the comments on the thread, Lin Huang was surprised that not many people raised questions about him being the Heaven Alliance deputy chief. On the contrary, most of them supported him.
“Look at the fame I’ve obtained from killing monsters!” Lin Huang forced a smile helplessly after reading those supportive comments.
Despite there being people questioning him, there were not many of them. The sceptics basically raised the same question: was Lin Xie’s combat strength not too low?
However, most people were alright with his low combat strength as long as he had sufficient abilities.
After quitting the forum, Lin Huang proceeded to practice his sword skills. He did not log into the Genius Union until the next day since he agreed to meet Tan Lang.
Naturally, no bug horde broke out on checkpoint 63 since he did not kill any Bug Tribe Queen Mothers.
Many people found it odd that the bud horde came to a halt all of a sudden after happening for a few days consecutively.
As a result, the halt of the bug horde became a hot topic on the forum. It replaced the topic of Lin Xie becoming the Heaven Alliance deputy chief the day before and got bumped up to become the No. 1 topic.
However, Lin Huang did not follow up on that.
After practicing his sword skills in the morning, he met Tan Lang at a seafood restaurant nearby for lunch.
Tan Lang seemed to be the same as usual, dressed in a black, slim-fit trench coat with the collar standing up. He was skinny as always. Apart from his aura that was slightly more powerful compared a few months ago, there seemed to be no changes in him.
However, Tan Lang was shocked when he saw Lin Huang. He could tell that Lin Huang’s combat strength was on immortal-level rank-7 as soon as he saw him.
“Isn’t the elevation rate of your combat strength terrifying?! I think it’s only been less than three months since we came out of the Fallen God Land, but you’ve already elevated by four ranks!”
“That’s just my luck!” Lin Huang laughed.
“I guess you’ll surpass me very soon,” Tan Lang teased while smiling.
“It won’t be that easy.” Lin Huang smiled while shaking his head.
“Oh yeah, I heard from Boss Chan that you’re now a deputy chief, eh?” Tan Lang asked rather curiously.
Although his combat strength had elevated to imperial-level, Tan Lang still respected Chan Dou and addressed him the same way.
“Yep, I was appointed yesterday. It’s just a title.”
“Congrats, congrats!” Tan Lang exclaimed while cupping his hands with a wide grin.
Although he knew that Lin Huang had become the deputy chief of the Heaven Alliance, Tan Lang did not mention anything about the bug hordes and the god relic in the Genius Union. Lin Huang had no idea if he was avoiding the topic intentionally or if Chan Dou had not told him.
They only began ordering after chatting for a while.
Tan Lang only began getting down to business when they were almost done with lunch.
“Boss Chan asked me to pick up something from you. He was so mysterious about it and didn’t even tell me what I’m picking up from you. He told me not to ask. He even asked me to drag our meeting on for a few days…”
Lin Huang took out the jade slip while nodding with a smile.
Mr. Fu figured that Lin Huang might have friends who needed those methods, so he made a few copies that were password-protected for him.
Lin Huang said while smiling showing the two-fingers wide jade slip to Tan Lang, “This is it.”
“A piece of jade?” Taking it, Tan Lang studied it for a while. He did not find anything after inserting his Life Power and spiritual power in.
“Are you sure this is what he wants?” Tan Lang could not help but begin suspecting that Lin Huang had made a mistake after his failed attempt to find out more about the jade slip.
“Don’t worry, this is it. There’s no mistake.”
“Why didn’t you just courier this?” Tan Lang complained while pouting. Subsequently, he recalled something all of a sudden. He turned and looked at Lin Huang to ask, lowering his voice, “Does Chan Dou have a lover here in Division 3? Is this a love token?”
“That’s what you said. I didn’t say that,” Lin Huang raised his brow and replied while smiling.
“I didn’t expect that that bushy brow would do something secretive like this. He even hid it from his brother, me!” Tan Lang smirked. “I’ll look for him for some hush-up money when I get back!”
‘Just wait for Chan Dou to beat you up if you do that!’ Lin Huang thought to himself.
After sending Tan Lang away, it was almost 2 p.m. when Lin Huang returned to the hotel.
He took out the wooden sword and proceeded to practice. He only looked at the Hunter Association forum for news when he was in bed at night.
A top headline grabbed his attention immediately.
‘More Than Half of the Demigods Died in the Deadly Ruins!’
The news was published at 10 a.m.. Lin Huang had not looked at the forum the entire day and only saw that more than ten hours later. He could not help but frown after clicking on the topic and reading the article.
According to the news, the ruins that opened in Division 1 was extremely dangerous. There were even living virtual god-level monsters in it. Only 58 among the 117 demigods who went in to explore made it out alive.
“Living virtual god-level monsters exist?!” Lin Huang was pretty surprised about that.
Theoretically, a ruins was usually a place with order that had completely collapsed. Nothing could survive in it, let alone breed new lives. Therefore, only spirits and undead monsters could survive in most ruins. However, due to the lack of order, it was almost impossible for those spirits and undead monsters to elevate their combat strength. It was even more impossible for them to grow to virtual god-level.
The Virtual Gods in this ruins must not have elevated at the latter stage. Instead, they existed before the ruins collapsed. There was a high chance that they were severely injured in wars and hid away, going through hibernation until now.
Those demigods had unintentionally interrupted them and woke them up during their exploration since the ruins opened.
Lin Huang winced slightly after closing the forum page. He was not interested in the ruins which was somewhere more than 50 demigods had died. It was not a place he could explore now.
However, the return of the demigods from the exploration of the ruins meant something else to him.
‘The Dynasty’s Royal Trials should begin soon!’
Chapter 953: Master Chan is the Best!
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After killing the Queen Mother and passing through checkpoint 63 on the Stairway Tree, Lin Huang had not logged into the Genius Union since then.
While he could block his combat strength on the Stairway Tree leaderboard, everyone could see it on the Stairway Tree checkpoints.
Everyone in the Genius Union would know that his ability surpassed Chan Dou’s if he was to go further up.
He was not interested to log into the Genius Union after all. Apart from practicing his sword skills every day, he was watching the news and waiting for Dynasty’s Royal Trials to begin.
He had accumulated pseudo-mythical-level sword skill card pieces throughout these few days and merged them into two complete cards. Therefore, he now possessed a total of seven pseudo-mythical-level sword skills including the Almighty Surgical Knife, the Killer, the Void Sword, the Instantaneous Slash, the Buddha Killer and the two assassination sword skills that he had recently mastered – Moonlit Night and Silent Snow.
In the Genius Union, checkpoint 63 on the Stairway Tree regained its usual order without Lin Huang killing the Bug Tribe Queen Mother. There was no bug horde during the day.
Since the halt of bug horde happened the next day the Genius Union announced the new rule, many people made the connection between the break out of the bug horde with the new rule.
Many people were discussing the topic on the forum.
The most popular one was a thread posted anonymously. The author gave a series of speculations that were very close to the truth.
The title of the thread was ‘Was It A Coincidence or Did Someone Do It?”. These were the main points:
“The Genius Union announced the new rule the day before the bug horde on checkpoint 63 came to a halt. Was that a coincidence?
“Think about it guys. When did the Genius Union ever announce a new rule not because of the order was severely broken? This is the only time the Genius Union did that. You guys mustn’t have noticed that. The Genius Union announced a new rule out of nowhere, whereby one would pass through the checkpoint as soon as the player kills the final boss. The player no longer gains any benefits on the same checkpoint on the day itself.
“Some said they didn’t notice that at all. Some said maybe it was caused by new people coming in and stayed on the lower checkpoints of the Stairway Tree, killing the final boss over and over again while getting the attention of the Genius Union system. I’d like to ask if killing the final boss on the lower checkpoints continuously will affect the balance of the Stairway Tree system?
“Everyone knows that the two new rules that were announced were directed at Lin Xie. We were limited to a number of points daily and on each checkpoint because Lin Xie’s behavior in obtaining points had severely affected the balance of the Stairway Tree point system.
“Killing the final boss on the lower checkpoints were inefficient to affect the balance of the Stairway Tree system, so how was it supposed to get the Genius Union’s attention? The answer is that the Genius Union system doesn’t care about such a thing at all!
“The reason the Genius Union system announced the new rule was because of a new behavior that affected the balance of the Stairway Tree system. The behavior was someone killing the Bug Tribe Queen Mother on checkpoint 63 of the Stairway Tree!
“Many people had been asking before this. Why would bug hordes break out during the day on checkpoint 63? Many people concluded that it was caused by the god relic that came out of nowhere. However, I personally suspect that the so-called god relic was just a lie. Of course, I’ve no proof of that. I just want to voice my speculations here.
“I think the real reason for the bug horde was because someone killed the Bug Tribe Queen Mother. Once the Queen Mother died, the bugs would lose control and go wild. That was how the bug hordes came about.
“The bug hordes that broke out one after another during the day caused checkpoint 63 to lose its balance of order completely. That was the reason why the Genius Union announced the new rule that one would pass through the checkpoint as soon as the final boss was killed.
“Finally, I’d like everyone to think about it following my speculation. Did you realize that the bug horde stopped breaking out the next day when the rule was announced? Everything makes sense now. The fella who had been killing the Queen Mothers had killed the last Bug Tribe Queen Mother that could reap him benefits. He then stopped hunting for Queen Mothers, hence putting an end to the bug hordes.”
…
The comments in the thread were filled with a 50-50 mix of supporters and routers.
Some supported the thread because the speculations were totally logically while those who doubted them asked a realistic question, “Who could kill the Bug Tribe Queen Mother alone on the Stairway Tree?”
Everyone knew that even Chan Dou, one of the Five Princes, could not do that.
Someone asked the anonymous author directly in the thread who he thought could possibly do such a thing.
This was the author’s reply: “Looking at the ability of all the members on the Stairway Tree that we know, nobody could’ve possibly done it. But if you insist that I give a name, I’d say that it’s most possibly Lin Xie.”
The author’s response caused a stir once again.
“Author, just admit that you’re Lin Xie himself. You posted this thread just to brag!”
“Verification checked: The author’s Lin Xie’s fangirl!”
“You’re parading Lin Xie’s name so highly. How about Chan Dou, our Master Chan?”
“I support Master Chan. He’s handsome, plus he has long legs and powerful ability!”
“May I ask the commenter above me if Lin Xin is handsome? Are his legs long? Is his ability powerful?”
Lin Huang saw the thread too and replied with Lin Xie’s account, “I support Master Chan. He’s the most handsome, has the longest legs and the most powerful ability!”
Chan Dou saw Lin Huang’s response too and replied, “Thanks for your support, my Master Deputy Chief.”
Zhu Hong from the Hong Alliance must have been bored, so she posted below, “I think I smell some serious PDA going on here…”
The interaction of the trio caused a stir in the forum again.
…
Time flew by and three days passed since then.
As Lin Huang was having breakfast, he finally saw the news that he desired when he clicked into the Hunter Association forum.
The headline of the Hunter Association forum was ‘The Once-in-A-Decade Royal Trials is Beginning Soon!’
Lin Huang smirked after reading the news. “It’s officially beginning on the 5th of May. It’s the 28th of April today, so that’s one week away. I’ll do some preparations beforehand these few days.”
After breakfast, Lin Huang logged into the Stairway Mall again.
He picked two demigod-level telekinetic weapons he had his eyes on initially and put them into his shopping cart.
The two telekinetic weapons were ultimate demigod relics. One cost five billion points, so they added up to 10 billion points. As the deputy chief of the Heaven Alliance, he could enjoy a 40% discount, so he only needed to pay six billion points.
Lin Huang had always wanted demigod-level telekinetic weapons. However, he could not use them at the moment. He bought them beforehand mainly for Grimace and the Imp who had mastered telekinesis.
Apart from the two telekinetic weapons, Lin Huang picked a demigod puppet that cost 18 billion points.
The puppet was for Grimace as well. Only Bloody and Grimace, who possessed Supreme Intelligence, could master such a complicated tool completely within a short period of time by. Grimace’s telekinetic power was the perfect fit with a puppet-type battle weapon. With such a puppet, Grimace could fight face-on even if he were to encounter an imperial-level purple gold-rank powerhouse.
Enticed by the 40% discount, he spent a total of 16.8 billion points on the three items.
After summoning Grimace and the Imp, Lin Huang distributed the three new pieces of equipment.
“The both of you will have a telekinetic weapon each,” Lin Huang said and delivered the demigod puppet into Grimace’s hands. “This is your reward for helping me in the hives throughout the past few days.”
The Imp was envious as he watched while Grimace’s eyes light up.
After recalling the two imperial monsters, Lin Huang purchased all 11 pseudo-mythical-level sword skills and three mythical-level sword skills. They cost a total of 128 billion points but he only paid 76.8 billion points with the 40% discount.
Hence, he spent almost half of his 200 billion points which in turn, tampered with his plan to purchase demigod-level soul crystals to elevate his remaining five Combat Souls to imperial-level purple gold-rank.
He planned to put his remaining Stairway Tree points aside for a rainy day so that he would not be able to trade god battle sword and god armor relics that he desired with the god relics that he possessed.
Chapter 954: The Royal Trial Has Begun!
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Time sure flew. A week soon passed.
Lin Huang thought the token he had would attract covetous members from Dynasty whereby they would send people to take it away from him. He was prepared to fight anytime, but it had been peaceful for the past week. Nothing happened at all.
He wondered if something had happened to Dynasty that caused them to not put the extra effort in to get the token back.
He did not log into the Genius Union for the past week. He was basically doing three things every day: eat, sleep and practice sword skills.
He managed to merge the card pieces into two complete pseudo-mythical-level sword skills.
Early morning on the 5th of May, Lin Huang returned to the hotel room after breakfast. He then took out the Dynasty trial token from his Emperor’s Heart Ring.
The token was completely golden and was almost half the size of a palm. The word ‘Dynasty’ was imprinted in the middle of it with complicated sigils around it.
According to the notice Dynasty posted, the trials would officially begin at 9 a.m.
However, the sigils on the token glowed with a golden stream that lit up when it was 8.30 a.m. It was like lava flowing slowly. Approximately 20 minutes later, the beam lit up all of the sigils on the token and spread towards the ‘Dynasty’ word.
When it was 9 a.m. sharp, the golden stream flowed all over the ‘Dynasty’ word, lending a bright golden ray to surround the entire token. It was like a mini sun hovering before Lin Huang.
Even he could not help but narrow his eyes.
He witnessed the golden ray expand rapidly and transform the small token into golden double doors that were approximately three meters tall.
The golden ray only faded away quickly as soon as the doors were completely formed.
Lin Huang was puzzled when he noticed that the golden doors were still shut after the golden ray faded. However, he soon found out that there were two palm dents in the middle of the two doors.
“Do I press my palms on those dents?” Lin Huang stepped forward in puzzlement and pressed both of his palms on the dents.
Soon, two golden rays shot out of the dents and covered both of his palms.
At that moment, Lin Huang heard a lady’s voice in his ears.
“The verification of candidate has begun…
“The candidate’s current location is No. D000857142.
“Rank-D
“Recording candidate’s identity…
“Name: Lin Huang
“Gender: Male
“Age: 18
“Combat Strength: Immortal-level Rank-7 (Candidate’s cultivation system is eligible for the trial).
“Qualification Assessment: Grade-A
“Assessment Result: Passed preliminary selection, official qualification – Rank-D
“Binding of trial token has begun… Binding successful!
“Candidate, are you to going into the trial space now?”
“Yes.” Lin Huang nodded without any hesitation.
In the next second, the golden rays that were initially covering both of his palms spread all over his body and covered his entire being in it.
Lin Huang, who turned into a sphere of golden ray, penetrated the closed golden doors right away and vanished. A moment later, the golden doors disintegrated and disappeared.
As his body was covered in the golden ray, Lin Huang felt like he was riding on a high-speed rail and moving swiftly with it.
It only took a moment before it stopped. The golden ray before his eyes faded slowly and was then replaced by a dense jungle.
Lin Huang turned his head to look around. Trees and bushes covered his field of vision. Even the sunlight above his head was covered by the dense trees. The jungle seemed a little dim because of that.
There were different smells around, including the earthy scent of the soil and the fragrance of flowers.
Lin Huang felt lost at that moment. He had zero ideas about the trial conditions here and it was an open-style environment as he glanced around.
“Do I kill monsters in this trial since I’m put in such an environment?” He speculated that that would most likely happen.
At that moment, he just realized that the golden token had returned to his hand without him even realizing it.
A page was projected from the golden token all of a sudden as soon as he spoke. There were rows of information displayed.
“The trial setting: unlimited hunting.
“The trial condition – kill every living thing that you see!
“There are two identities in the trial setting. One will be the convict while another will be the candidate.
“You’ll obtain points according to the convict’s combat strength that you kill.
“Single kill point system: 1 point for imperial-level black gold-rank, 3 points for imperial-level crimson gold-rank, 10 points for imperial-level yellow gold-rank, 30 points for imperial-level white gold-rank, 100 points for imperial-level purple gold-rank.
“You’ll obtain all of the points the candidate possessed if you kill one.
“Candidate can crush the trial token as a sign of surrender. He or she would then be sent out of the trial space. The points will be awarded to the candidate who witnesses the surrender and is the closest to the person who surrenders.”
…
“Trial candidates: 10,000 people. Convicts: 100,000 people.”
“Trial Period: 1 month.
“The candidate who survives the trial and obtains the highest points will win a Dynasty citizenship.
“Last warning: this trial isn’t a virtual game. Dying in the trial means death in reality. Please use the trial token when necessary.”
“There are 10,000 people participating in this?!” Until then only did Lin Huang realize that there were so many people in this trial space apart from himself and the people from Dynasty.
“Convict… Looking at the description, the convict stated shouldn’t be monsters but humans.” Lin Huang calmed himself down and began focusing on the information provided. “So, candidates kill continuously in this trial to obtain points. Not only are the convicts preys, but so are the other candidates too.
“Looking at the description of the condition, all of the convicts seem to be on imperial-level. The lowest one would be on imperial-level black gold-rank while the highest would be on imperial-level purple gold-rank. Furthermore, the ratio of convicts to candidates is 10:1. Also, a candidate who survives at the end of the one-month trial meets the prerequisite to winning the final eligibility. It shows that the candidates in this trial aren’t the predators, but the prey.”
Lin Huang narrowed his eyes slightly. “The condition didn’t mention that collaborating is prohibited. Those organization members who participate in this trial would most likely choose to collaborate in the hunt with people from the same organization. Although I’ve no idea what’s up with the convicts, I think they should be collaborating in groups. If people don’t come from the same organization, there might be teams with many people in it.”
Lin Huang did a detailed analysis of the conditions. Clearly, this trial was much more difficult than it appeared to be. If one were to read the description of condition on the surface, he would most probably die if he went after the convicts without thinking much about it.
Lin Huang summoned Bloody calmly after reading the conditions. “Bloody, as usual, show me the map.”
Chapter 955: The Skinny Man and the Big Guy
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After Bloody had released the Leech Pods for less than ten minutes, it then said to Lin Huang all of a sudden, “I’m afraid it’s hard for the Leech Pods to get wide coverage of the place.”
“What’s wrong?” Lin Huang asked.
“Many of the Leech Pods are killed when they’re spread less than 1,000 kilometers away. There are many living things in this space that have formidable sense and alertness,” Bloody explained while feeling helpless.
It was the first time that Lin Huang could not get a complete map from Bloody. Seeing its gloomy expression, he did not panic at all. Instead, he rubbed Bloody’s head affectionately. “Then, let’s not try getting the map. It’s unfair to other people for us to always use a map. Let’s participate in the trial like everyone else and see if we can get first place.”
The radius of Lin Huang’s territory expanded to seven kilometers wide since he elevated to immortal-level rank-7. Using his senses, he detected no living thing within the territory coverage.
He stood where he was and thought for a moment. Instead of asking Bloody which way to go like he usually would, he summoned Lancelot instead.
Lancelot, who had elevated to imperial-level crimson gold-level, had expanded the radius of his territory to 40 kilometers. That was more than five folds of what Lin Huang possessed.
Lancelot habitually took out some dried vegetables as he was summoned. Just when he was ready to munch on it, Lin Huang snatched it away.
He turned to look at Lin Huang pitifully.
“If you do a great job, I’ll give you a month’s worth of extra snacks,” Lin Huang offered and tossed the snack pack to Lancelot.
Hearing there was a snack reward, Lancelot nodded immediately. “What’s the mission?”
“Determine which direction in your coverage has living things and how far they are.”
Lancelot put away his dried vegetables unwillingly. He opened his eyes again after shutting them for merely a moment. “I see four human-form beings. They’re most probably humans.”
“How far away is the closest to us?” Lin Huang asked.
“Approximately 19 kilometers. He’s at our 2 o’clock,” Lancelot spoke and turned his body toward the direction where the human was.
“Lead the way. Let’s check it out.”
Lancelot nodded and dashed while Lin Huang followed close behind him.
However, as they were halfway there, Lancelot said to Lin Huang through voice transmission out of the blue, “He noticed us and is running away!”
“Is he that alert?!” Lin Huang raised his brow, feeling surprised. “Go after him!”
Lancelot charged at his top speed upon hearing that order and dashed toward their target.
Lin Huang used the pseudo-mythical-level Wander God flying method, following close behind Lancelot. He did not lose sight of him at all.
…
A silhouette was racing the tree branches at high speed.
It was a skinny man who seemed sick. The skin on his face was so shriveled that he looked like a corpse with sunken cheeks. His slender arms were all bones and were half the size of a normal adult’s.
One would wonder how long since he had last washed the torn clothes he was wearing which were a mottled color. His obvious ribs and sunken abdomen could be seen through his shredded clothes clearly.
One could barely tell what he was wearing on his bottom. It was a pair of jeans which was completely covered in soil and dirt. The lower part of his jeans was heavily damaged. It had been chopped off so much that it looked more like a pair of capri pants now.
Further down was a pair of bare feet. There were no socks or shoes on those bony feet.
Although he looked like a refugee who had been suffering in a famine for a long time, he had a smirk at the edge of his lips at the moment.
“I didn’t expect to have such great luck to be luring two pieces of meat this day! I should be able to enjoy a feast.” As soon as he was done speaking, he pulled a piece of talisman out of nowhere. The sigils and seal script began lighting up as soon as he inserted his power.
“Big guy, I’ve brought two pieces of meat to your territory. Get ready,” said the skinny man to the talisman that lit up.
“Great! Seems like I’ll be able to feast today!” A thick voice came from the talisman.
As he put the talisman that was becoming dim away, the skinny man sped forward at an accelerated speed.
…
Two silhouettes followed the skinny man five to six kilometers behind. They were Lin Huang and Lancelot.
“He accelerated all of a sudden!” Lin Huang could sense the person with his Territory skill now.
“He seems to have found his partner. He’s guiding us to that person,” Lancelot replied through voice transmission.
“Go after him. See what kind of trick he’s playing.” Lin Huang smirked slightly. He used his Divine Telekinesis to sense for a bit as soon as the person entered the range of his territory.
Although the person looked like a corpse, the skinny man was clearly very alive. Lin Huang sensed the vitality in the man’s body. However, his combat strength was nothing to shout about since he was only on imperial-level black gold-rank.
Such a level of combat strength was nothing to Lancelot. Even the Herculean King could kill with a single slap.
As for the man’s assistant, Lin Huang would treat him as a buy-one-free-one promotion.
Perhaps to other candidates, this trial area was extremely dangerous. The candidates’ combat strength was only allowed to be on immortal-level after all. Even if one had an ability that was as powerful as Huang Wuji of the Five Princes, people on immortal-level rank-9 would lose more than they would win whenever they encountered an imperial-level yellow gold-rank powerhouse. They would have to flee far away if they were to encounter imperial-level white gold-rank or imperial-level purple gold-rank powerhouses, let alone others.
However, to Lin Huang, this area was a place for rookies.
The highest combat strength of a convict in this trial space was only imperial-level purple gold-rank. No matter how powerful the convict’s ability was, it was impossible for the convict to defeat his God Figurine’s Combat Soul. Hence, he was not stressed at all.
The skinny man stopped after less than ten minutes of pursuit.
Lin Huang and Lancelot caught up to him in less than three seconds. They stood still less than 20 meters away from the skinny man who stood with a big guy, rooted to the ground. Instead of running, they began observing Lin Huang and Lancelot.
The big guy was over three meters tall. However, like the skinny man, he was also thin although not as gaunt as the skinny man. One could clearly tell that the big guy had been suffering from starvation for a long time just like the skinny man. They were both malnourished. His combat strength was higher than the skinny man’s which was on imperial-level crimson gold-rank.
Their eyes were almost sparkling when they saw Lin Huang. Unable to help themselves, they began drooling in extreme desperation for food.
However, both of them calmed down when they saw Lancelot. They looked at each other knowingly. It was clear that they could tell Lancelot was an imperial monster.
Just when Lin Huang was ready to ask a question, the two silhouettes before them began moving all of a sudden.
The big guy dashed toward Lancelot while the skinny man raced toward Lin Huang at an even higher speed.
Chapter 956: The Prison’s Food Source
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Clearly, it was not their first time doing such a thing, so they moved after exchanging looks having distributed the specific tasks.
Realizing that Lin Huang was an Imperial Censor, both of them had a simple strategy.
The big guy would take down the imperial monster Lancelot who had the same combat strength as he did, which was imperial-level crimson gold-rank, while the skinny man would attack the Imperial Censor Lin Huang whose combat strength was only immortal-level rank-7.
To them, the battle would officially end as soon as the imperial monster was held back for a moment while the Imperial Censor was destroyed within a short period of time.
Alas, dreams were always beautiful but the reality was cruel.
As they fought, the big guy and the skinny man’s dreams were crushed completely.
Just when Lin Huang was going to pull his sword out, Lancelot flashed his trump card right away. Ten of thousands of black swords appeared in the air in an instant and transformed into a two-headed boa thousands of meters long. It swallowed both of them, opening its huge jaws.
“Keep one of them alive!” Lin Huang shouted immediately.
The main reason he chased the skinny man was to ask for information, not to obtain points.
Under Lancelot’s Sword Manipulation attack, Lin Huang heard a brief devastating shriek in the air and soon, the entire world fell into complete silence.
As the black swords faded one after another, two bodies appeared. The skinny man had lost his life and turned into a corpse.
Although the big guy was still alive, he was unconscious. His body seemed to be torn apart.
“Bloody, go for it,” Lin Huang said while looking in the big guy’s direction.
Bloody hovered over to the big guy and extended two tentacles. One went for the big guy’s head while another went for the skinny man who was already dead.
A moment later, the big guy opened his eyes after Bloody recalled its tentacles.
Seeing Lin Huang and Lancelot standing before him perfectly fine while the skinny man’s corpse lay limply on his left, the big guy wanted to run, but he realized he could not move at all.
“Don’t even try. Running is futile,” Lin Huang said to the big guy while grinning.
Bloody cast its parasite on the big guy but his consciousness was not wiped. His body was in Bloody’s complete control. Unable to get up to run, he would need Bloody’s permission to even move a finger.
“Now, let’s play a game. This game is called ‘I’ll ask and you’ll answer’. First question, who are you?”
“I…” The big guy wanted to curse, but he realized what he said would become the answer to the person’s question. “I’m the convict of this prison.”
“Prison?” Lin Huang was rather puzzled.
“Yes, this enclosed space’s a prison. There are convicts like me in this prison,” explained the big guy against his own wishes.
On the other hand, Lin Huang raised his brow. “So, this Royal Trials made a prison its trial venue. What a great way to save money! Who put you guys in there?” Lin Huang was curious about that.
This time, the big guy answered the question willingly, “Who else? Of course, it’s those people from Dynasty.”
“What’s the reason for you being captured here?” Lin Huang asked again.
“Because I love eating human bone marrow.” The big guy smiled while observing Lin Huang. “Do you know what kind of bone marrow is the most delicious? It’s the kind where you chop off the person’s limbs when he’s still alive and smash a hole in the bone after slicing the flesh away slowly. Poke a straw in and suck it directly while the human warmth is still swimming in the bones. It’s like drinking tea. You’ve got to enjoy it slowly. After you’re done with the first limb, go for the second one. Don’t cut them open at once, or else, the bone marrow will turn cold…”
“Seems like you deserve to be put in prison.” The big guy stopped talking as soon as Lin Huang spoke.
Bloody knew that Lin Huang did not want to hear that kind of story, so it made the big guy shut his mouth right away.
“Next question, what’s with this trial?”
“Such a trial happens every decade or so. There’s no fixed period for the trials to begin. It happens every 20 to 30 years if it’s short, and up to 100 years if it’s long,” the big guy told the truth without being able to control himself. “Each trial’s a joyous festival to us because we can hunt for candidates as we like for the entire month. They become our limited food source.”
“Cannibalism?” Lin Huang just grasped the meaning of the way the two men had looked at him earlier.
“It’s very normal to do that here. There’s no food or water in this space. The people from Dynasty only send food and water once a year while we’ll have to fight for other resources on our own. To us, the candidates are undoubtedly the best food.”
Hearing what the big guy said, cannibalism was a norm, not his personal habit.
Initially, Lin Huang was hesitant to kill people who had nothing to do with him. However, now it seemed like those people in this space had completely lost their conscience.
“So, why don’t you guys kill and each other? From what I know, there are a total of 10,000 people in this prison,” Lin Huang pointed out.
“Because Dynasty has a condition whereby there have to be at least 10,000 people in this prison. Apart from this special period when they carry out such a trial, if the population dips below 10,000 people on a normal day, they’ll clear everyone in this prison without any exceptions. We must guarantee the population so that we can live.”
“So, everyone follows the rule just like that? What if someone loses their mind and carries out a massacre to drag everyone down?” Lin Huang raised a brow inquisitively.
“There are three chiefs in this prison who are the top among the imperial-level purple gold-rank powerhouses. There are more than ten regional chiefs under the three chiefs. All of them have imperial-level purple gold-rank combat strength. Together with the deputy regional chiefs, there are at least three to five imperial-level purple gold-rank powerhouses managing each region. A person who has lost his mind will be reported right away whichever region he’s from, and he will then become food. Everyone’s more than happy to report such a person because the person who’s reported will be given food.”
“There are chiefs and regional chiefs who take care of different regions, and there’s a reporting system as well.” Lin Huang was a little speechless that the convicts here had come up with such a simple social structure.
“Do you guys have the map of this prison and the distribution of population?” Lin Huang asked again.
“I don’t, but the regional chiefs and chiefs should have.”
“I suppose you should know the map in this region and the distribution of population.”
“Yes, basically the area within 300 to 400 kilometers,” confirmed the big guy.
“I’ve retrieved the information.” Bloody took over the conversation.
“Alright, my questioning ends here.” Lin Huang nodded at Bloody. He turned around. As he moved two to three steps away, the big guy’s head exploded right away. He slumped on the ground as a headless body.
Bloody extended its tentacles into the two corpses and soon found two communication talismans.
“They have some Emperor’s Heart Rings and ancient relics where they live. Should we go for it?”
“Of course, those are the loots!” Lin Huang exclaimed like he deserved it.
Chapter 957: A Plot to Bait
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
“According to their memory, there are 42 convicts within 400 to 500 kilometers. There are 11 of them on imperial-level black gold-rank, 23 imperial-level crimson gold-ranks, and 8 imperial-level yellow gold-ranks. There are no imperial-level white gold or purple gold-ranks,” Bloody came up with the data and spoke subsequently, “Figuring that killing them one by one would waste too much time, I thought of a way to attract them to us instead.”
“I was thinking of the same issue earlier. Killing them one by one’s too slow. Moreover, those fellas have high alertness. They wanted to run away as soon as they noticed something off.” Lin Huang nodded. “Tell me what you have in mind.”
“Aren’t they lacking food? I have hundreds of immortal-level rank-9 people in my parasitical army. We could use them as bait.” Lin Huang had a rough idea of what Bloody was planning as soon as he heard that.
After some detailed discussion, both of them began carrying out the baiting plot.
Bloody handed the communication talisman it had found from the skinny man over to Lin Huang. “The first target — Ge Nan.”
Lin Huang took the talisman and inserted Life Power into it. Then, the script and sigils on the talisman lit up rapidly.
Bloody spoke as soon as Ge Nan picked up. Its voice sounded exactly like the skinny man’s. “Boss Ge, I have a piece of excellent news.”
“Be specific.” A voice came soon from the other side.
“Sure, I’ll tell you right away.” Bloody looked at Lin Huang and smiled before proceeded to speak, “I found a team of over 20 candidates.”
“Skinny Monkey, you do know the consequences if you deceive me, don’t you?” said the talisman after a moment of silence.
“Boss Ge, how would I dare to deceive you? I wouldn’t dare even if I have 18 guts!” Bloody was on-point with the skinny man’s tone. Even Lin Huang flashed it a thumbs-up, looking rather surprised.
“It’s only been less than an hour since the trial has begun and you’re telling me that there are more than 20 candidates forming a team. How is that not a lie?” The voice sounded rather mad. “The candidates are sent in randomly each trial. It’s been less than an hour since the trial started. Don’t talk about gathering a team of 20. The chances of two candidates who know each other meeting are so low.”
“Was it Tao Peng who asked you to lie to me so that he could attack me?”
“It’s really not what you think. I really saw a team of candidates. There are more than 20 of them. I’m also curious about how they managed to gather so fast,” Bloody proceeded to explain with the skinny man’s voice, “If you don’t believe me, just pretend that I never contacted you. I’ll look for somebody else. I provided this piece of information because I know I can’t finish all of the flesh, so I thought of sharing with someone else. It doesn’t really matter who I share it with.”
The person fell into a moment of silence before speaking again, “How much do you want?”
“Three of them,” Bloody requested.
“No, you’ll only get one.”
“We’ll both take a step back to meet in the middle. Give me two!”
“One and a half!”
“One and a half then.” Bloody sounded a little unwilling.
“Give me the address.”
“I’ll send it to you right away.”
“Also, this will only be a secret between you and me. I don’t want a third person to know about it. If you tell someone else about it, I guarantee that you won’t get anything!”
“Understood.” After hanging up with Boss Ge, Bloody turned to say to Lin Huang, “Second target — Zhao Kui.”
Bloody spoke using the skinny man’s voice again as soon as the talisman was connected.
“Boss Zhao, I’m Skinny Monkey. I’ve got great news for you. I called you as soon as I got the news.”
“Oh, it’s Skinny Monkey. What’s up?” A casual voice came from the other side of the talisman.
“I found a team of candidates with more than 20 people.” Bloody lowered its voice.
“The trial has just begun. Are you sure you got it right?”
“Definitely. How could I be wrong about candidates? All of them have soft flesh like a little girl. I’m drooling just looking at them.” Bloody copied the skinny man’s style completely while Lin Huang, who was listening aside, was speechless.
The person fell into silence for a moment before replying, “How much do you want?”
“I want three.”
“Three is too much., I’ll give you two at the most,” Zhao Kui bargained right away, “I’m bringing my people there. I’ll need to share with them.”
“Sure. You’re such a straightforward man, Boss Zhao. I won’t bargain with you further,” Bloody said casually, “I’ll send you the address later.”
After ending the call with Zhao Kui, Bloody lifted its head and said to Lin Huang, “Next one — Shen Hong.”
The talisman in Lin Huang’s hand soon lit up once again.
Just like that, Bloody contacted six imperial-level yellow gold-rank people and spread the news about the bait. Apart from one who insisted on not believing it about the team and called Bloody a liar, the rest agreed to bring people there. After all, a team of candidates was extremely tempting. It was food that was hard to come by.
However, the five of them realized that the rest were also recruiting while they were doing so.
Ge Nan was the first to contact Bloody with the talisman to question it after finding out. Bloody gave a bunch of excuses while Ge Nan ended the call, enraged.
After Ge Nan, there were another two who questioned it. Naturally, Bloody gave the same excuses.
Although they were angry, the few of them who found out that the skinny man had spread the same news to others did not cancel their plans to come up with their hunting teams. Instead, they moved faster in the attempt to complete the hunt before everyone else.
The person, who was initially skeptical, contacted Bloody immediately to ask for the address after hearing the others arranging the hunt. He decided to believe the news eventually.
Bloody asked for two bodies, and the person agreed on one and a half after some bargaining. It then sent the address over.
“Six imperial-level yellow gold-ranks… Each of them will bring at least 10 people or even more. We’ll have at least 60 convicts this round.” Lin Huang’s eyes lit up radiantly.
“This is the first reward. The subsequent ones will be even higher. Those imperial-level yellow gold-rank people will definitely have their ways of contacting imperial-level white gold-rank people or even ways to contact the regional chiefs. After killing the regional chiefs, our reward will be boosted even more.” Bloody had already formed a complete plan of their move after this.
After spreading the news out with the communication talisman, Bloody picked 25 immortal-level rank-9 human parasitical puppets from the pet space.
Lin Huang blended in as well and did not even recall Lancelot. He wanted the convicts to think there was an Imperial Censor in the team, enhancing the authenticity of the team.
As it was done with the arrangements, Bloody hid in Lin Huang’s sleeve while he moved forward, leading the team. Patiently, they waited for the fishes to be hooked.
Chapter 958: Ge Nan and Li Li
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Since hanging up the call with the skinny man, Ge Nan frowned as he lay in his bed. He had a blanket covering the part below his waist while his upper body was completely naked.
“That brat Skinny Monkey’s mischievous. He daren’t go against my word in the past and now he’s spread the news of the candidates right after promising not to tell anyone about it.”
“Perhaps he’s out of his mind from the hunger. After all, it has been 50 years since Dynasty opened this Royal Trials. I guess it’s been 50 years since he had any food. It’s normal for him to contact a few others so that he can get more food,” A lady lay naked next to Ge Nan. She glided her fingers with nails that were painted red along Ge Nan’s tummy and headed southward tenderly.
Ge Nan held onto that soft hand without saying anything for a while. “Are you trying to suck me dry, you little devil?”
“Don’t you want that, you handsome thing?” whispered the lady softly into Ge Nan ear as she leaned closer to him.
Ge Nan felt ticklish and his body responded to the lady’s irresistible words.
Noticing the changes in Ge Nan’s body, the lady snickered and sat on top of him. Her busty breasts bounced and she leaned forward toward him while seducing him. “Are you sure you don’t want it?”
Ge Nan gulped and took a deep breath in to calm himself down. “Oh no, I really can’t do it now. Let’s finish our business first and talk about this later.”
“This is business too,” said the lady while pouting.
“Come on. Stop teasing me,” Ge Nan patted the lady’s butt cheekily. “Skinny Monkey spread the news across. The person who moves faster will have the highest opportunity to get the entire team of candidates. We must gather people now. We can’t afford to lose any more time.”
“Hmph!” The lady shifted away from Ge Nan discontentedly. Slyness flashed through her eyes. “I want one more body then!”
“Sure, you can have anything you want.” Ge Nan shook his head helplessly.
Getting up from the bed, Ge Nan slapped the lady’s butt again. “Get dressed now and follow me. I can’t get you anything if you don’t go with me. Or you could just stand there. That’s better than nothing.”
The lady got up to put her clothes on reluctantly.
When the duo was dressed, they headed to the appointed place immediately. There were already 12 people waiting for them when they arrived.
“Boss Ge, Sister Li…” The bunch of people greeted them.
Ge Nan took a glance at the people. “Since everyone’s here, let’s go!”
He waved and led the team of people towards the coordinates Skinny Monkey had provided.
As they were approximately 40 kilometers away from the coordinates, Ge Nan sensed their target in the range of his territory.
“Found them!” Initially, he was worried that the information Skinny Monkey had given might be wrong. Now that he sensed the target, the doubt he had all vanished. “A total of 26 people and an imperial-level crimson gold-rank summoning beast. Looking at the current situation, we should be the first team to get here. We’ve got pretty great luck.”
Ge Nan could not help but peep at Li Li who was next to him as he spoke. He was secretly relieved that they did not delay much.
“I’ll handle the summoning beast. The rest of you will fight two people each. Li Li, you’ll handle the rest.” Ge Nan completed the assignment as soon as he identified the exact location of the target. “Remember to do it quickly and don’t drag it out. Zhao Kui and the other few teams might come anytime. We must finish the fight before they arrive!”
“What if we don’t manage to end the fight in time? Do we fight with Zhao Kui and the rest?” A fierce gleam flashed through Li Li’s eyes. Zhao Kui had raped her before. The reason she had gotten together with Ge Nan who loved her dearly was in the hopes that he could kill Zhao Kui one day.
“Don’t fight with anyone no matter which team they come from.” Ge Nan glanced at Li Li. Naturally, he knew what she was thinking about. “Our main mission this time is to hunt the candidates in order to obtain more food. If another team comes later, there might be a second and a third team coming after that. By then, it’ll be much more difficult for us to get food.”
“What if they attack us just for the sake of food? Do we not fight as well?” Li Li asked while feeling hesitant.
“If something like that really happens, I’ll inform the regional chief.” Ge Nan remained rational.
Li Li glared at him sourly but she chose to keep quiet eventually.
She was a wise lady. She never liked quarreling with men. She knew men’s weaknesses very well too. She knew when to fight for what she deserved, to get the men to compromise with her willingly. She knew that although Ge Nan loved her, he was not an idiot who would follow whatever a lady said. That was what she liked the most about him.
“I know what you have in mind. I, too, want to kill Zhao Kui, but this is not the right time,” Ge Nan spoke through voice transmission secretly, “As soon as I find the right timing, I promise you that I’ll kill Zhao Kui to avenge you!”
Li Li calmed down a little after hearing Ge Nan’s voice transmission.
Indeed, now was not the best time to punish Zhao Kui.
Ge Nan was relieved that he calmed Li Li down. In reality, he was worried that Li Li would embarrass him earlier. Although their relationship was not a secret, it was a shame to be embarrassed in front of his bunch of juniors. Fortunately, Li Li stopped the nonsense in time instead of embarrassing him.
“Since we’re here, attack at once as soon as we get there instead of beating around the bush!” Ge Nan led the team and dashed towards the team of candidates that was less than 40 kilometers away from them as soon as he was done speaking.
It only took a moment for Ge Nan and the gang to get to the team of candidates.
“Attack!” Ge Nan shouted as soon as they met without uttering anything else. The bunch led by Ge Nan sped toward Lin Huang and the rest.
However, a little white cat appeared on Lin Huang’s shoulder at that moment. In the next second, it disappeared from Lin Huang’s shoulder and in less than 0.1 seconds, it appeared on the other side of Lin Huang’s shoulder. It squatted there while licking one of its front paws.
Meanwhile, Ge Nan and the 13 of them turned into headless bodies. Their bodies were dismembered into a few parts too.
As the parasitical puppets were collecting the loots, Bloody was done retrieving information from the 14 heads.
Bloody shook its head helplessly, looking at Li Li’s eyes that seemed like she did not die in peace. “What a poor thing, but you can die in peace now because I’ve avenged you. The fella who took your virginity and raped you many times died 15 minutes ago.”
After shutting Li Li’s eyes, Bloody passed the head to one of the parasitical puppets. “Retrieve all the loots before burying it.”
Chapter 959: Acting Skills That’re Off The Charts!
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
In less than half an hour since Bloody spread the news to bait, disguised as the skinny man, six different teams of convicts came one after another. All of them were killed before they managed to attack efficiently.
“A total of six rounds with 87 people. There are 7 people on imperial-level yellow gold-rank, 51 imperial-level crimson gold-ranks, 29 imperial-level black gold-ranks.” Bloody shared the data. “Looking at these people’s memories, none of them could contact the regional chief directly and none of them have the regional chief’s coordinates. However, there are a few imperial-level yellow gold-rank people who knew imperial-level white gold-rank and imperial-level purple gold-rank powerhouses. We’ve confirmed that those people have the contact information of the regional chief and his deputy.”
“Also, there isn’t much stuff on these 87 people. They only have some armors and weapons, but they don’t have any storage equipment. I’ve gotten my imperial-level parasitical puppets to search the place they stayed in. The search should be done within half an hour.”
“We’ll just wait then and carry out the next plan after we’re done with the search.” Lin Huang nodded.
The armors and weapons that the convicts had were just ancient relics, so they were worthless to Lin Huang. What he desired the most was storage equipment such as Emperor’s Heart Rings that were put away where they lived. Although those local convicts could not open them, he could unlock them when he got out of there.
One must know that many candidates died in every trial. Although those geniuses who participated in the trial including the Princes from Dynasty had a low combat strength of mere immortal-level, they would definitely have many resources in their storage equipment. They might even have some unique treasures.
After waiting for over half an hour where they were, Bloody’s parasitical puppets brought back the loots one after another. They handed over the temporary storage rings that did not require any password to Bloody one by one.
Bloody was satisfied with the loots they acquired this round after calculating. “We’ve obtained 137 storage rings, 26 other storage equipment, and some other miscellaneous stuff.”
“So, what do we do next?” Lin Huang nodded and asked.
Bloody took out Ge Nan’s communication talisman and handed it over to Lin Huang. “There’s a person named Shi Qiang in the contact book whose combat strength’s on imperial-level white gold-rank. He was put in this prison the same day as Ge Nan was. They’re very close. He’s a great breaking point. Most importantly, he knows where the regional chief lives.”
“Got it.” Lin Huang took the communication talisman.
As the talisman lit up, Bloody disguised as Ge Nan’s voice. “Brother Qiang, something happened. Li Li’s dead!”
“What happened?” The person on the other side of the talisman sounded rather shocked.
“A bunch of candidates attacked us earlier and I managed to escape, but Li Li and the rest were killed. I want to take revenge!”
“Please calm down and tell me the details. The bunch of immortal-level rank-9s attacked you and Li Li? Were there many of them?” Shi Qiang proceeded to ask.
“There were at least 100 of them. I’ve no idea how they managed to gather. Theoretically, it’s only been more than an hour since the trial officially began. The probability of two candidates who know each other and meeting is low, let alone 100 of them. This bunch of people might have cheated in their own way,” Bloody proceeded to speak, “Furthermore, the key isn’t the number of people. They have an Imperial Censor among them with a couple of imperial-level yellow gold-rank imperial monsters. Each of them has an ability on par with mine.”
“They should be members from some major organization since they managed to gather 100 people in the beginning. They must’ve used some special item for this trial.” Shi Qiang’s voice soon came. “The Imperial Censor that can control imperial-level yellow gold-rank imperial monsters whom you mentioned is most probably the seed player that’s fighting for the Protoss quota from a major organization. These people are putting in so much effort to obtain the Protoss quota.”
“Brother Qiang, I’m suspecting that they’ve killed the imperial-level yellow gold-rank people around. I tried contacting Tao Yu and Ji Dong, but I couldn’t find them.”
“It can’t be…” Shi Qiang was in disbelief when he heard that. “Give me a minute. I’ll get someone to contact them.”
Not long later, Shi Qiang’s voice came again. “We’ve basically confirmed that there are five imperial-level yellow gold-ranks around your area with whom we’ve lost contact. There are some imperial-level crimson and black gold-ranks with whom we’ve lost contact at the same time. We haven’t confirmed the number at the moment.
“It seems like this team of candidates have formidable ability and high speed! You’re fortunate that you managed to escape alive.”
“I might’ve been dead if they didn’t attack Li Li first.” Bloody sounded bummed. Its acting skill was off the charts.
“Stop blaming yourself. Find a safe place and hide. I’ll assemble my people here and attack those candidates.” It was clear that Shi Qiang had completely fallen for the lie Bloody came up with.
“Brother Qiang, I’d like to join too. I want to avenge Li Li!” Bloody proceeded to showcase its best act.
Shi Qing fell into silence for a moment before nodding. “Alright then. but you must promise me not to act on impulse and follow my orders!”
“I promise!”
“I’ll send you the assembly point later.” The communication talisman dimmed as soon as Shi Qiang was done speaking.
“Your acting skill’s getting better.” Lin Huang gave Bloody a thumbs-up.
“It’s actually easy to act. I have Ge Nan’s memory, so I know his speaking habit and tone. In addition to the experience of playing other six characters before, I got into character easily this time.” Bloody smiled as it spoke. “But the main reason Shi Qiang believes in me is because of the close relationship he has with Ge Nan. Instead of saying he believes in me, it’s more like he believes in Ge Nan. I merely used his trust.”
“I was thinking that you put too high a number when you mentioned over 100 people and I wondered if he would suspect that.” Lin Huang nodded with a smirk. “Never had I thought that he’d find a reasonable explanation for how the 100 people gathered around based on the trust he has for Ge Nan.”
“Indeed, I didn’t have any explanation for that, so I mentioned that I had no idea how so many people gathered at the beginning of the conversation.” Bloody nodded too.
“So, now we’ll wait for Shi Qiang’s news. We’ll attack once we have the assembly time and coordinates instead of waiting for them to come.”
Everything Shi Qiang said was included in Bloody’s plan. Even the revenge it mentioned at the end was to obtain the assembly coordinates so that they could initiate the attack.
Approximately half an hour later, Shi Qiang sent the assembly time and coordinates over. It was clear that he already gathered his men.
“Assembly time — 11.30 a.m. Assembly point — Shadow Canyon entrance…”
Chapter 960: I’m Behind You Guys
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The Shadow Canyon was approximately 150 kilometers away from where Ge Nan lived.
The reason this place was called Shadow Canyon was because of its unusual magnetic field that caused dark clouds to form above the canyon all year long. There was hardly any sunlight; the place seemed to be eternally hiding in the shadows.
Due to the special magnetic field, the area within the canyon would weaken detective abilities such as the Territory skill. Even imperial-level purple gold-rank powerhouses would find that their territory was heavily interfered with or even blocked if they were to investigate this area from tens of kilometers away.
Shi Qiang picked this place as the assembly point on purpose to prevent exposing their trail of the hunt this time, preventing any candidates from escaping.
At approximately 11.20 a.m., Shi Qiang arrived at the entrance of the Shadow Canyon. He was ten minutes early.
More than 40 people gathered at the entrance. Their combat strength ranged from imperial-level black gold-rank to imperial-level yellow gold-rank, and most of them were talking to familiar faces. Upon seeing that Shi Qiang was there, they greeted him with a smile. Some of them began voicing their doubts after greeting him.
“Brother Qiang, could you tell us exactly what’s going on?”
“Brother Qiang, does this have something to do with the candidates since you’ve gathered so many people this time?”
Shi Qiang glanced through the people there. He had greeted at least 50 people. The bulk of them were present although there were still 11 of them who had yet to arrive. Looking at the time, he did not rush things since there were still ten more minutes to the agreed time.
“Don’t worry. I’ll tell you what’s happening when everyone is here.”
The other ten arrived one after another not long later.
Two imperial-level white gold-ranks were the last to arrive. They did not seem to want to be there earlier than the agreed time.
However, Shi Qiang frowned slightly after the two arrived because his good buddy Ge Nan did not make it.
“Old Shi, I guess everyone’s here, hmm?” asked a bald man, glancing at the time and raising his brow. He was one of the two imperial-level white gold-rank people who arrived last.
“One more person isn’t here yet…” Shi Qiang shook his head. “But he’s the one who provided the information anyway, so we can talk about the mission first.
“It’s Ge Nan who provided the information this time. Perhaps some of you know him. He contacted me this morning all of a sudden, saying that a team of candidates attacked him. He told me that he might not be the only one who was attacked. From my investigation, indeed, there are five other imperial-level yellow gold-rank powerhouses in his area who have lost contact. They might’ve been killed by the candidates.
“According to the information he provided, there are more than 100 people among this bunch of candidates. There’s an Imperial Censor who is leading them, and he has a couple of imperial-level yellow gold-rank summoning beats.”
“More than 100 candidates?! How is it possible that they gathered so fast? I thought it’s only been half a day since the Royal Trials began.” The bald man raised a question, “How could you believe this kind of ridiculous news?”
“That’s not entirely impossible. After all, the Royal Trials are connected to hundreds of worlds if not 1,000 at the moment. Maybe they’re connected to some huge organization from some massive world that’s willing to spend on training Dynasty members.”
“To some major organizations, it’s easy for them to get a god-level or even true god-level group dimensional portal to transport them to the targeted coordinates. Moreover, an immortal-level Imperial Censor who can cross ranks and control imperial-level yellow gold-rank imperial monsters must be the best of the best among Imperial Censors. If I’m in the high management of that organization, I’d be willing to spend to train such a person.” The other man with almond-shaped eyes who was standing beside him offered a different opinion. He had a combat strength of imperial-level white gold-rank, which was the same as the bald man.
After expressing his opinion, the man with the almond-shaped eyes looked at Shi Qiang. “But, Old Shi, are you sure you can trust that information provider called Ge Nan?”
“Don’t worry. He won’t lie to me,” Shi Qiang said very firmly. He was even willing to share the reason why he trusted Ge Nan.
“Alright then. Since you said that, there’s nothing more I’d like to ask,” concluded the man while spreading his hands.
“From what you said, I suppose this team of candidates should be moving around. So, how do we locate them?” The bald man did not dwell on the question earlier and asked another question.
“That’s the hunting plan that I’m going to share.” Shi Qiang nodded. “I’ve already informed some of the imperial-level yellow gold-rank powerhouses who are around the area where the attackers were. They’ll inform us as soon as they’re attacked. Apart from that, the three of us will lead a team each to search in this area. As soon as any team finds the target, they must inform the other two teams immediately. Our top priority is to kill the entire candidate team instead of wanting the reward to ourselves because we’ve no idea what other techniques that Imperial Censor has.”
It was almost 11.50 a.m. after they were done with the discussion.
Shi Qiang frowned slightly. It had been almost 20 minutes since the agreed time passed, but Ge Nan had yet to arrive.
“Ge Nan isn’t here yet. Maybe something’s really wrong.” The bald man looked at the time and could not help but mutter to himself.
“Maybe he’s stuck. Let me call him.” Shi Qiang took out the communication talisman. The call was picked up immediately as soon as he dialed Ge Nan’s number.
“Ge Nan, are you coming or not?! It’s almost 20 minutes past the agreed time!”
“I’m sorry. Ge Nan isn’t coming.” A young man’s voice was heard on the other side of the talisman. It was clear that it was not Ge Nan.
“Who are you?!” Shi Qiang was stunned to hear that unfamiliar voice and demanded immediately. However, he already knew the answer as soon as he asked the question.
“I suppose you’ve already guessed who I am,” said the young voice with a smile.
“Where’s Ge Nan? What did you do to him?” Although he guessed the answer to the question, Shi Qiang wanted to confirm if what happened was really as bad as he thought.
“I activated his communication talisman, so what do you think?” asked the voice on the other side.
Shi Qiang looked extremely aghast to hear that.
There were only two possibilities when the communication talisman was activated. One was that the owner of the talisman had wiped his own seal away while the other was that the owner was dead and the seal had faded on its own.
Clearly, it was impossible that Ge Nan would wipe the seal away from his talisman. Only the second possibility remained.
“Where are you? Do you dare to reveal your coordinates?” Shi Qiang held his fists tightly and asked while clenching his teeth.
“I’m at the canyon behind you guys. Now, the question is, do you guys dare to come in?” retorted the young voice, “If you guys don’t dare to do that, I’ll come to you guys instead.”
Shi Qiang was stunned for a moment, but he did not fall for it. “Then, you can come to us. Don’t worry. I won’t kill you so easily. I’ll break every bone in your body and leave you to die slowly in sheer agony.”
“Save your nursery-level threat.” The young voice sounded fearless. “But since you asked me to come to you, I’ll fulfill your wish then.”
A silhouette walked out of the canyon entrance before the voice was even done speaking.
The people present were stunned to see the person’s face.
There was only one person who looked younger than 20 years old. A monster that looked like a scimitar-toothed cat with an elephant trunk ambled beside him.
“Keep the three imperial-level white gold-ranks for interrogation and kill the rest.” The young man extended his hand and patted the head of the monster with the elephant trunk.
The monster lifted its trunk up high and let out a screech as waves that were tenfolds faster than the speed of sound rippled out.
All of the convicts collapsed wherever the waves spread out. Shi Qiang and the other two imperial-level white gold-rank powerhouses were the only one standing where they were. They had completely lost focus in both their eyes.