MONSTER PARADISE

1501 - 1520

After successfully hunting down his first heavenly god-level aberrant species, Lin Huang continued to heading deeper into the Heavenly God domain.

With this first hunting experience under his belt, he had become more proficient with borrowing the god sequence chains within his inner world.

On top of his Divine Telekinesis, which was comparable to that of Heavenly Gods, he had telekinetic God Weapons equivalent to god sequence relics, as well as the borrowed god sequence chains. With these three things compounded together, Lin Huang’s subsequent hunts for prisoners in the Heavenly God domain went smoothly.

His kill points were also steadily increasing.

Every time he completed a hunt, his points would skyrocket by a hundred points; those in second place with single-digit points were left far behind.

At first, everyone was shocked when they saw the name “Xiu Mu” suddenly earn 100 points. Many people even thought that he was just lucky and had encountered a weaker Heavenly God.

However, as Lin Huang’s points dramatically increased again and again, everyone finally realized that not only was this dark horse lucky, but he actually also possessed top-tier abilities.

The initial doubts that they had about Lin Huang quickly vanished without a trace.

Of course, there were still a small number of people who suspected Lin Huang of cheating.

However, outside the secret territory, the numerous Heavenly God team leaders who were watching the surveillance video could see every single one of Lin Huang’s battles very clearly.

Beginning with the first aberrant species, Lin Huang had overcome all obstacles in his path, directly confronting the heavenly god-level prisoners one by one and practically crushing them all, one after another. His performance thus far had utterly overshadowed the accomplishments of all other participants.

The several grade-7 organization team leaders watched, incessantly envious.

“Why do I feel as if he hasn’t utilized his full strength yet? He seems unperturbed no matter what kind of opponent he faces.”

“Do you guys think Xiu Mu possesses abilities equivalent to second-rank heavenly god-level?!”

“We’ll find out immediately whether or not he does have abilities equivalent to second-rank.” The Heavenly God team leader of God Capital stole a glance at Buried Heaven while keeping a poker face. “Given his current flight path, barring the unexpected, he’s probably headed for Evil Eye.”

When the Heavenly Gods present heard that, they hurriedly looked at Lin Huang’s route.

Evil Eye was no stranger to all of them.

Evil Eye was a genuine Abyssal creature; to be precise, it had been born an evil spirit type.

Outside the Abyss, the tribe it belonged to was often called the Giant Eyeball Monsters.

This was because their appearance was that of a huge eyeball that had been surgically removed, but with hundreds of fleshy tentacles that were still connected to its lower body.

Evil Eye was no exception. It was just inherently a bit stronger than its other tribemates and had been a quintuple mutation from birth.

Its forte was using illusions to mentally manipulate others, and it was even capable of controlling other living creatures.

After being captured by God Capital and imprisoned in this secret prisoner territory, Evil Eye had even caused mayhem once. It had silently taken control of hundreds of heavenly god-level monsters—several of which were at second-rank—and tyrannized the entire Heavenly God domain.

Only after God Capital discovered what was going on did they send people to beat it into submission.

After news of the incident involving Evil Eye filtered out, several True God geniuses from various major organizations, who possessed heavenly god-level abilities, set their sights on Evil Eye as a hunting target.

When the secret territory was opened during that time, several top-tier True God powerhouses participated in the hunt for Evil Eye.

In the end, the hunt had been a dismal failure, and even the True God genius from the Combat God Temple had been killed on the spot.

The rest of the geniuses had been rescued by the staff of God Capital.

After this battle, there was an extremely long period where no hunter dared to attack Evil Eye.

In the following tens of thousands of years, there were several geniuses who also made attempts at targeting Evil Eye, but these attempts all ended in disastrous defeats—some even paid for it with their lives.

From then on, Evil Eye had utterly become taboo in the secret prisoner territory, and no one dared to even think of attacking it anymore.

This time around, however, when the secret territory was opened, this dark horse Lin Huang had set his sights on that particular hunting target.

In reality, the reason Lin Huang had targeted Evil Eye was very simple. It was only because Evil Eye was conveniently on the route he was taking, and it happened to be nearby. Lin Huang was too lazy to make a detour to find another hunting target.

The numerous Heavenly Gods outside the secret territory did not know that Lin Huang had targeted Evil Eye because of an odd reason like this. They thought that Xiu Mu had known from the very beginning how powerful Evil Eye was and had planned to hunt it down from the start, only so he could prove that he was stronger than all the previous top-tier True God powerhouses!

Of course, Lin Huang had indeed heard the story about Evil Eye.

The information provided by Buried Heaven had explained matters regarding Evil Eye very clearly.

However, in Lin Huang’s view, this monster posed very little threat to him.

Lin Huang was also not aware that his decision had made Buried Heaven’s heart sink a little, from where he was on the outside of the secret territory.

Although Buried Heaven had always been confident in Lin Huang’s abilities, he was still not very optimistic about the outcome of this battle.

As Evil Eye was proficient in illusions and psychic-level techniques, cultivators with insufficient spirit strength would immediately fall prey to its manipulations and would be incapable of breaking free.

Although Evil Eye was only a first-rank Heavenly God, its spirit strength was comparable to that of a second-rank. With the additional compounded effects of two types of illusion-type god sequence chains, most second-rank Heavenly Gods with slightly weaker spirit strength would succumb to its power—what more Lin Huang, whose actual combat strength was only at first-rank true god-level.

However, Buried Heaven’s expression betrayed no hint of his thoughts.

This caused some uncertainty among the spectators who had originally wanted to start up another wager.

At this moment, the team leader of God Capital suddenly spoke up after hesitating for a moment.

“I’ll be the dealer for this fight; let’s start another round of betting!

“Those betting on Evil Eye to win, place your wagers by my left hand; those betting on Xiu Mu to win, place your wagers by my right hand…”

The numerous Heavenly Gods present placed their bets one after another, and just like before, most of them chose Evil Eye.

Nonetheless, due to Lin Huang’s stunning performance previously, the number of people who chose him increased visibly compared to before.

After almost everyone had finalized their bets, Buried Heaven stepped forward and once again took out his storage ring from earlier.

In this storage ring were not only the initial ten high-level god sequence relics that he had used as wagers but also all the wagered items that Buried Heaven had won during the first two games.

He picked the ring up with two fingers and placed it on Xiu Mu’s side without any hesitation.

This was not because he had confidence in Lin Huang. It was just that to him, even if he were to lose, he would be losing nothing more than ten high-level god sequence relics. As for what he had won from the previous two games, the worst that could happen would just be him returning everything. As Lin Huang’s team leader, he had never felt that ‘Lin Huang losing’ was an option, even from the start.

Inside the God Territory, Lin Huang sped along while checking the state of things within his body.

“I’ve hunted down seven Heavenly Gods, so seven more god sequence chains have been added within me. The number of rules has also increased dramatically by more than forty thousand types, making a total of more than eighty thousand types. My Divine Fires have become much stronger, and the area of the God Territory within me has expanded to more than five times its original size…”

This was different from with the Sword Servants, where only the rules that they had mastered were projected into Lin Huang’s inner world. Lin Huang’s hunt for Heavenly Gods was so he could directly plunder everything from the dead, including all the rules within their inner worlds, the power of their world wills, and even all the living things that were contained within their inner worlds.

It was just that Lin Huang was still unsure of how to advance to second-rank true god-level…

Following the route from the memories that he had acquired, Lin Huang quickly found his next target—Evil Eye.

He already had an understanding of Evil Eye from the information provided by Buried Heaven.

Although it was a first-rank Heavenly God, Evil Eye had been born as a quintuple mutated evil spirit type. Moreover, at first rank, it had already mastered two god sequence chains.

Evil Eye’s greatest forte was the two god sequence chains it had mastered—one was an illusion-type while the other was an enchantment-type. These two types complemented each other; not only could the effects be compounded perfectly, but they also made up for each other’s shortcomings. When both these sequence powers were compounded, the effect exceeded even the compounded effects of many second-rank Heavenly Gods’ god sequence chains.

This was also why Evil Eye had been able to control several second-rank Heavenly Gods when it had newly entered this secret prisoner territory.

However, even after Lin Huang had found out about this evil spirit type’s forte, he still chose not to bypass it. Instead, he continued to follow his original route and even included Evil Eye on his hunting list.

In fact, this course of action was rather baffling to the many Heavenly Gods outside the secret territory.

Some believed that Lin Huang had chosen Evil Eye as his target because he wanted to prove that he was more powerful than all the previous True Gods.

However, Buried Heaven did not think this was the case. He did not know Lin Huang on that deep a level, but he did have a general idea of the other’s personality. He knew that Lin Huang was not the kind of person who would do something unprecedented, just to make himself stand out. If he decided to do something, it was usually because he wanted to, which had nothing to do with how others perceived it.

This was also why Buried Heaven was more confused than the rest. Try as he might, he could not understand it—why would Lin Huang choose such a challenging hunting target?!

What was even more puzzling to him was the fact that Lin Huang had dared to challenge this Evil Eye. What on earth was he counting on?!

In the surveillance video, Lin Huang had swiftly intruded into Evil Eye’s territory.

As a being whose spirit strength was at second-rank heavenly god-level, Evil Eye had detected Lin Huang’s intrusion very early on.

If this had been the outside world, it would have been itching to attack Lin Huang ages ago.

However, there were rules in this secret prisoner territory. Heavenly god-level powerhouses were not allowed to attack participants first unless confirmed that they were the participant’s hunting target.

Evil Eye still had lingering fears from its last suppression by God Capital and naturally did not dare to cross the line. If the other party was merely passing through, and it took the initiative to attack them, that would only cause God Capital to send another powerhouse to suppress it.

However, Lin Huang’s intentions were very clear. After he had sensed Evil Eye’s location, he turned his flight path straight toward it.

Evil Eye could not help getting excited by this.

It could clearly determine that the other was targeting it.

One must know that it had been many years since it had last battled participants from the outside world. However, it still clearly remembered just how delicious the participant that it had eaten previously tasted.

At the thought of the delicacy that was the Divine Power within a Protoss’ body, it was so excited that it could not help its tentacles from swaying about.

Evil Eye had just gotten excited when it noticed that a figure had suddenly appeared not far in front of it. Fixing its gaze on the newcomer, it was shocked to see that this was the participant from just now.

As it could not take the initiative to attack, it could only suppress its excitement as it carefully took stock of the other party.

The strength of the other’s aura was only that of an ordinary ninth-rank True God and was nothing special. Based on his aura alone, he was practically the weakest of all the hunters who had challenged it.

Evil Eye speculated that the other was either extremely arrogant or had some special technique up his sleeve. However, it thought that the former was more likely.

At the same time that Evil Eye was sizing Lin Huang up, Lin Huang was also sizing it up in return.

Evil Eye was a giant eyeball with a sinister crimson pupil, about three meters in diameter, just floating in the air. Attached to the back of the eyeball was a large slab of scarlet flesh with hundreds of tentacles extending from it…

It was definitely a horrifying sight.

Moreover, Lin Huang could clearly sense that this Evil Eye in front of him had an aura strength that was much stronger than that of the Heavenly Gods he had previously hunted. In fact, its aura was practically almost as strong as that of a second-rank.

‘It seems the rumors are probably true but based solely on its aura, its abilities won’t be weaker than most average second-rank Heavenly Gods…’ Lin Huang made this deduction in an instant.

Sensing that Lin Huang’s energy was locked onto it, Evil Eye was overjoyed and launched an attack without hesitation.

Both of its pupils suddenly radiated red light, just like a scarlet full moon lighting up the night sky.1 The hazy red glow shone silently, illuminating an area that was several dozen kilometers in radius.

Lin Huang was not exempt from being enveloped within the glow…

Being locked onto by the other’s energy meant that the other party was targeting it, so Evil Eye had no hesitation in making the first move.

Initiating the first move under these circumstances was implicitly allowed according to the rules of the secret territory.

The rule of not being allowed to make the first move was only in effect when one was unable to confirm the participant’s intention, as the other party could just be passing by. Once the participant’s hunting goal was clear, however, the prisoner who was being targeted would be allowed to take action first.

The establishment of this rule was to mainly prevent bored fellows from mindlessly provoking the Heavenly God prisoners.

Those outside the secret territory witnessed Evil Eye suddenly attacking, while Lin Huang merely remained where he was without doing anything at all.

Numerous Heavenly Gods watching the fight felt their hearts sink.

Although many of them had bet on Evil Eye during the wager, most of them still hoped to see Lin Huang continuing to make miracles happen.

Even if he was not a member of their own organizations, it was still a good thing for the God Territory to have another gifted genius like this.

Most of them did not want to see Lin Huang killed here.

Despite that, all the Heavenly God team leaders also knew that if he failed to make the first move against Evil Eye, there would be practically no chance for him to turn the tables.

It would only be possible to break free from the illusions Evil Eye had put in place if the person’s spirit strength was stronger than Evil Eye’s.

“Xiu Mu hasn’t moved at all for the last three seconds. He’s obviously succumbed to the illusions. This battle has lost all its suspense,” the Heavenly God team leader of the Combat God Temple murmured colorlessly.

“Senior Buried Heaven, should we intervene now?!” The Heavenly God team leader of God Capital asked.

Buried Heaven frowned slightly. He had not expected that Lin Huang could not withstand even this first testing round.

Just when he was deliberating whether or not they should wait and see, in the surveillance video, Lin Huang suddenly raised his head and looked at Evil Eye.

“Is this your most powerful technique? It seems what I expected from you was a little too high.”

As soon as he said this, tens of thousands of scarlet gleams shot out from his sleeve cuffs and instantly engulfed Evil Eye.

In less than a moment, Evil Eye’s corpse—now resembling a puddle of pulverized meat—tumbled down from mid-air and onto the ground.

Two god sequence chains, as well as a massive number of Rule Bending Powers, began surging wildly into Lin Huang’s body, and the God Territory within him also started to expand once again…

The number of Rule Bending Powers soared from more than eighty thousand types to ninety thousand types almost instantly.

At this moment, Lin Huang sensed that the ninety thousand-plus Rule Bending Powers had begun to feedback a wave of special energy directed toward his own body and soul.

His Divine Fires surged again, and his Divine Power began to transform. Even his physical body and soul seemed to have been bathed in that surge of special energy, advancing to a new level.

By the time the transformation was complete, Lin Huang could clearly feel that he had become stronger once again.

“I’ve finally advanced to second-rank!”

Only at this moment did Lin Huang finally figure out the way to advance his levels as a True God.

“How on earth did he pull that off?!”

“I don’t know either. Did he succumb to the illusions and then break free of them, or did he not fall prey to Evil Eye’s illusions in the first place?!”

“His spirit strength can’t be that much stronger than Evil Eye’s, can it?!”

Outside the secret territory, the group of Heavenly God team leaders saw Lin Huang’s sudden counter-attack, and their faces were filled with shock. Even Buried Heaven was no exception.

They could not figure out at all why Lin Huang was not affected by Evil Eye’s illusions.

With Evil Eye’s spirit strength and the compounded effect of its two god sequence chains, the illusions that it created would affect even a lot of second-rank heavenly god-level powerhouses if they were not careful.

However, what they did not know was that Lin Huang’s spirit strength was stronger than Xie Lin’s, and his spiritual dimension was guarded by a spirit-type God Weapon that was comparable to a top-tier god sequence relic. (TN: We believe this is an author typo, and that instead of Xie Lin, it should be ‘Evil Eye’ as the Chinese character for ‘evil’ is the same as the character for ‘Xie’. However, we have opted to translate it as is.)

This made Lin Huang completely immune to all spirit-type attacks from low-rank Heavenly Gods.

Evil Eye’s illusions had indeed been unleashed, but the God Weapon had made Lin Huang directly immune to it.

Lin Huang remained where he was after Evil Eye activated its illusions, not because he had been caught in them but because he was distracted with checking the God Weapon’s immunity effect.

He found that when his spirit strength was close to third-rank heavenly god-level, the God Weapon was immune to all spirit-type attacks from first to third-ranks. Moreover, this function of the God Weapon would only continue to increase alongside his own spirit strength.

When encountering opponents like Evil Eye, whose only forte lay in psychic-type techniques, most others would not touch them with a ten-foot pole, but to Lin Huang, they were like a meal served to him on a silver platter.

Those in the outside world were baffled, but Lin Huang was in a very good mood.

Finishing off Evil Eye had Awwnot only allowed him to successfully advance to second-rank, but it had also allowed him to figure out the way to continue his advancement.

‘Turns out, my advancement depends on the number of rules within my inner world… At first-rank, more than thirty thousand rules were consolidated in one go, and I was only able to advance to second-rank when the number increased to ninety thousand. I don’t know how many rules are needed to advance to third-rank…’

Although Lin Huang grumbled about this in his heart, he was not at a loss, however.

Now that he knew what to do to advance his levels, there was no need to ruminate over specific numbers. Besides, all he needed to do was to continue hunting down Heavenly Gods and plundering the rules from their inner worlds. As long as the number was sufficient, his combat level would naturally increase.

He just had to let nature take its course.

After obtaining the memories from Evil Eye’s corpse—which had now turned into a pile of rotting flesh—and storing the body away, Lin Huang continued to head toward his next hunting target.

Outside the secret territory, Buried Heaven—who had once again won a fortune—put away his storage ring under the envious gazes of everyone else.

Quite a few people were still having a discussion regarding the exact technique Xiu Mu had used to avoid Evil Eye’s illusion attack.

Buried Heaven remained where he was with a neutral expression, not participating in any of the discussions because he also did not know what exactly Lin Huang had done just now.

However, this battle had finally eased all his worries about Lin Huang.

Being able to kill Evil Eye meant that Lin Huang’s abilities were already sufficient for him to run rampant among first-rank Heavenly Gods.

He did not need to worry about any slip-ups on Lin Huang’s part anymore.

No one placed any bets during Lin Huang’s next two hunts.

Lin Huang’s performance was still stable and strong, and any opponents he encountered were eliminated within seconds.

In the short span of less than a day, he had already hunted and killed ten first-rank heavenly god-level prisoners, accumulating more than 1,000 hunting points and leaving everyone else far behind.

The other participants in the secret territory had practically become numb to this.

No one could have predicted that a dark horse such as Lin Huang would be so powerful that he could crush the prodigies trained by other organizations. Even several top-tier True God contenders with abilities equivalent to Heavenly Gods had been suppressed to the point that they could not even lift their heads.

After hunting and killing ten first-rank Heavenly God prisoners, Lin Huang’s flight path once again aroused heated discussion among the many Heavenly Gods outside the secret territory.

“This route of Xiu Mu’s—he’s not trying to hunt down second-rank Heavenly Gods, is he?!”

“Looking at the direction he’s moving in, it seems he really is heading toward the domain of the second-rank Heavenly Gods!”

“Is it because he feels that first-rank Heavenly Gods aren’t challenging enough, so he wants to challenge stronger opponents?!”

“He was able to kill Evil Eye, which is enough to prove his abilities. I think it won’t be difficult for him to hunt down regular second-rank Heavenly Gods.”

“Judging from his previous performance hunting first-ranks, he probably still has a lot of energy left. I also want to see what exactly the limits of his abilities are.”

Surprisingly this time, in regards to Lin Huang’s decision, none of the Heavenly God onlookers raised any objections. Practically everyone was optimistic about the results of Lin Huang’s next hunt.

Given the figurative slaps in the face that they had received previously, the two team leaders of the Combat God Temple and God Capital did not voice any more opinions. No one was sure if they were inwardly optimistic about Lin Huang or not.

As everyone was unanimously optimistic about the outcome, the next wager could not be started.

Everyone stared at the surveillance video. Lin Huang had been traveling swiftly for more than an hour, and had finally entered the territory of the first second-rank Heavenly God.

After an intense battle that lasted for more than half an hour, he successfully finished off his opponent.

Lin Huang’s score increased by 200 points.

The Heavenly Gods who had been watching this battle were also debating about it.

This was because Lin Huang had only used one thunder god sequence chain from start to finish.

“Being able to kill second-rank Heavenly Gods is already not bad at all. It’s considered on par with the previous record of a successful challenge by the highest combat strength.”

“He relies entirely on the number of his telekinetic flying daggers to crush his opponents. This method is probably not that effective when going against a top second-rank powerhouse because there’s a high chance of it being restricted by the opponent’s speed or whatever other advantages they have.”

“The strength of Xiu Mu’s Divine Power, as well as the amount of his Divine Power, far exceeds that of an average True God, but no matter how strong he is in these two regards, there’s still a limit. After all, he’s only a True God. If he were to encounter an opponent who’s able to take him on, the odds of him losing are also very high. The longer the fight goes on, the more disadvantageous it is to him.”

While the numerous Heavenly Gods outside the secret territory were having their discussion, there was also uproar within the secret territory.

All the other contestants had been paying attention to the way Lin Huang’s points skyrocketed.

Practically everyone noticed when his score went up by 200 points.

“If his score went up by 200 points in one go, does that mean he’s successfully hunted down a second-rank Heavenly God?! Or did he kill two first-rank Heavenly Gods at the same time?!”

“This fellow has actually started hunting down second-rank Heavenly Gods already! It’s still only the first day since the secret territory has been opened!”

“Hey hey, do you have to be so desperate?! I was initially planning on staying uninvolved and just minding my own business, but now I’m a little embarrassed about slacking off because of you.”

“Is this fellow genuinely not cheating in some way?! Why have we never heard the name ‘Xiu Mu’ before this?!”

Naturally, Kylie and Bloody had also noticed Lin Huang’s performance on the leaderboard.

Kylie, clad in battle armor with a battle spear in hand, stood stock-still on the spot as she stared at Xiu Mu’s name on the leaderboard, making no movements at all for a long time.

Somewhere else, Bloody only briefly glanced at the leaderboard before putting the projection away, the corners of her lips quirking up slightly.

After Lin Huang had successfully killed a second-rank Heavenly God, the geniuses of the various large organizations could not sit still any longer.

Numerous True God peak powerhouses who had mastered Rule Bending Power to Fullness-level stopped warming up and familiarizing themselves with their surroundings. They began advancing into the Heavenly God domain one after another.

They knew that if they did not start killing Heavenly Gods now, they would be utterly left in the dust by Xiu Mu. They would have absolutely no chance if they tried to catch up with him later.

As for the many True God powerhouses who were below top-tier, they were starting to step up their game to kill True God prisoners. They were working hard to better their final hunting points so they could obtain a higher ranking.

Including Xiu Mu, there were no more than ten peak powerhouses. Even if they were unable to beat these individuals, it would still be good to get into the top ten. If this did not work out, getting into the top twenty would not be that bad either.

As for those below true god-level, many Virtual Gods did not really have much to do with the Gold Leaderboard.

However, they saw that the points for first place on the Gold Leaderboard had already reached four digits. Meanwhile, things were still in single-digit numbers over here on the Silver Leaderboard, and there was only a difference of several points between the top ten.

This ignited everyone’s fighting spirit.

After all, it was not the same as the massive difference in points on the Gold Leaderboard. The disparity in points over on the Silver Leaderboard had not yet widened to any considerable gap, and there were numerous top-notch powerhouses of similar ability, so the overall difference in ability was not very big. It was very hard to say who would take the top spot.

Outside the secret territory, the Heavenly Gods were enjoying the show.

Upon seeing that everyone’s competitive spirit had been fired up by Lin Huang, they all felt that this was a good thing.

The secret prisoner territory was inherently a stage for individuals to showcase their ability and bring glory to their organizations.

All the team leaders of the various large organizations hoped that the trial participants they had brought along would give a stellar performance. After all, these trial participants were the central force of the entire organization and also its future.

Lin Huang was unaware of the changes that his participation had brought about in this trial.

He continued, as usual, calmly looking for his hunting target. After completing the kill, he then looked for the next one. This process was repeated…

For killing all the second-rank Heavenly Gods, he used a thunder god sequence chain from start to finish and did not use any others.

Although he only used one god sequence chain, there were tens of thousands of telekinetic flying daggers imbued with Rule Bending Power. The highest number of them used even reached eighty thousand, with victory achieved through sheer numbers.

This also perplexed the Heavenly God leaders watching outside the secret territory.

On one hand, they were astounded by Lin Huang’s telekinetic control. On the other hand, they were also shocked by the strength of Lin Huang’s telekinesis and the abundance of his Divine Power. Meanwhile, some of the Heavenly God team leaders were stunned by Lin Huang’s wealth.

After all, god sequence relics used by Heavenly Gods were not cheap, and god sequence telekinetic weapon relics were even more valuable. Not only that, everyone could tell that this set of telekinetic weapons that Lin Huang used was not low-level.

There were even a few people who secretly speculated whether or not Xiu Mu might be a bastard son of either Buried Heaven or a Blood Sickle in Death Sickle.

In the secret territory, Lin Huang maintained an ongoing flow of killing second-rank Heavenly Gods.

For every second-rank Heavenly God that he killed, he could plunder about ten thousand types of Rule Bending Powers on average. After killing more than ten in a row, however, the Rule Bending Powers in his inner world had skyrocketed to more than two hundred thousand types, but his combat level was still not showing signs of a breakthrough.

He had been paying close attention to the number of rules in his inner world, all the way up until he killed the eighteenth individual. When the number of rules in his body increased to two hundred and seventy thousand, his combat level finally achieved a breakthrough.

He had advanced from second-rank to third-rank true god-level!

“Is it in increments of three?!” Lin Huang had a rough idea about the rules of his advancement.

When he evolved to true god-level in the beginning, there were more than thirty thousand rules within him. His advancement to second-rank used ninety thousand rules, and his current elevation to third-rank used two hundred and seventy thousand. Calculating based on this pattern, his advancement to fourth-rank should require eight hundred and eleven thousand rules.

With this calculation in mind, Lin Huang continued hunting.

However, his hunting targets also began evolving from second-rank Heavenly Gods to third-rank Heavenly Gods.

There was no particular reason for this, merely the fact that third-rank Heavenly Gods contained more rules within their inner worlds. Thus, it was more efficient to plunder them.

Realizing that Lin Huang’s movements were out of the ordinary once again, all the Heavenly God team leaders outside the secret territory shifted their eyes to his video projection once more.

“This flight route of Xiu Mu’s seems to be heading toward the domain of the third-rank Heavenly Gods…”

“This guy can’t possibly be thinking of killing third-rank Heavenly Gods, can he?!”

“He’s only mastered one god sequence chain and wants to kill third-rank Heavenly Gods. I’m afraid that’s going to be a bit difficult.” The team leader of the God Territory shook his head slightly, evidently not optimistic about Lin Huang’s behavior.

“At best, his abilities are at second-rank level. To kill second-rank Heavenly Gods, he relies entirely on the number of his telekinetic flying daggers to tire his opponents to death. If he wants to use the same tactic to kill third-ranks, I’m afraid that in the end, he’ll tire himself to death.” The team leader of the Combat God Temple also shook his head.

“It seems like no trial participant has ever challenged third-rank Heavenly Gods in the secret prisoner territory before, right?! Regardless of whether Xiu Mu succeeds in his challenge, just this attempt alone means he’s surpassed all the trial participants before him.” At this moment, the team leader of Xeno suddenly popped up to support Lin Huang.

“How do you know that Xiu Mu doesn’t have other trump cards to play?” Divine Clapnet’s team leader had a playful expression on their face. When they spoke, they even purposely glanced at Buried Heaven, who was not far away. Alas, they were unable to pick up any clues.

Out of the five major grade-7 organizations, four had already indicated who they were rooting for.

Seeing that many people were sneaking glances at them, the Heavenly God team leader of Precious Treasure Pavilion chuckled and spoke.

“I won’t share my opinion and offend people. If any of these trial participants were to evolve to lord-level one day, they’ll be a big customer of our Precious Treasure Pavilion. However, if all of you really want to keep arguing, I’m actually happy to be the host and open up a new round of bets.

“Let’s raise the stakes for this round and only accept high-level god sequence relics—three items to start with!

“Those who are interested are welcome to play.”

The moment the Heavenly God team leader of Precious Treasure Pavilion spoke, everyone fell silent.

These initial stakes caused the Heavenly God team leaders of several grade-5 organizations to shiver in their shoes. They did not even dare to speak, as all the high-level god sequences relics they had on them probably added up to only about three to five items.

As for the team leaders of the grade-6 organizations, they remained silent as well. For most of them, these were extremely cut-throat stakes.

As for the several grade-7 organizations, they too said nothing more.

It was not that they were unable to afford the stakes, but they were unsure whether or not they could win.

The two team leaders of the Combat God Temple and God Capital who had been humiliated by Lin Huang earlier were still slightly psychologically affected.

Although they had said that they were not optimistic about Lin Huang, they had a vague feeling in their hearts that this fellow probably had more trump cards to play. Perhaps he really might succeed in killing third-rank Heavenly Gods.

Although the team leaders of Xeno and Divine Clapnet said that they were optimistic about Lin Huang, their logic was also telling them that Lin Huang’s chances of winning this round were not high. He had probably never even thought about successfully killing third-rank Heavenly Gods and just wanted to give it a try.

As soon as the Heavenly God team leader of Precious Treasure Pavilion spoke, no one responded for a while.

After a long while, seeing that no one was saying anything, Buried Heaven finally reached forward and took out the storage ring from before.

“I bet that Xiu Mu will win!”

Everyone instantly looked at Buried Heaven.

However, the Heavenly God team leader of Precious Treasure Pavilion did not take the stakes from Buried Heaven, scanning the crowd over instead. “Does anyone bet that Xiu Mu will lose?! If there are none, this round of bets can’t be placed.”

Still, no one answered for a long while.

Even the team leaders of the several grade-7 organizations were avoiding the eyes of Precious Treasure Pavilion’s Heavenly God.

“If you all don’t take part, then don’t blame me.” The Heavenly God team leader of Precious Treasure Pavilion spread their hands toward Buried Heaven.

Upon seeing this, Buried Heaven took the storage ring back and did not speak anymore.

Many of the Heavenly God team leaders were secretly speculating about whether or not they had been fooled by Buried Heaven—or did Xiu Mu really have the ability to kill third-rank Heavenly Gods?!

Stitch was an evil spirit type born in the Abyss. When it was born, it was puny, and its form was a puddle of flesh the size of a fist. It did not even have teeth or claws and could be called the bottom-most organism of the Abyssal food chain.

It still vividly remembered that its ascension had originated from devouring a section of bone fragment during its childhood.

It was a section of bone fragment with Divine properties. Perhaps this fractured bone fragment had slipped out of the mouth of a random God, who was being hunted by a stronger existence.

The remnants of the Divine properties within the bone fragment allowed Stitch’s life form to miraculously transform during its childhood.

Not only did it completely break away from its original life form, but it also strengthened its inherent instincts.

It could swallow and transform the flesh of all living bodies, turning them into a part of its own body.

While this ability allowed Stitch to become stronger, it also caused its body to develop in increasingly aberrant ways.

Nine eyes of different colors and even different shapes grew from its head. It had plundered these eyeballs from other monsters and turned them into a part of itself.

Below its own head were several other pretty heads—men and women, Protoss, humans, and angels as well…

Meanwhile, there were dozens of wings of different shapes and sizes on its back.

Some had colorful feathers, and some had scales of various shapes. There were even some that resembled hairless bat wings…

In front of the bat wings, there were more than ten tentacles of varying thicknesses and forms.

Some were covered with sticky fluid, some were as smooth as jade, some had needles all over, and some had hidden poisons within…

Below the tentacles, there was a huge mouth full of fangs, dozens of them.

Further down were lower limbs of varying forms. There were forefeet and hind legs, but all of them had terribly sharp claws.

All its limbs and even the majority of its body structures, it had plundered.

On the whole, it looked like a toy that someone had randomly and even somewhat maliciously piled together.

Nothing on its body appeared to match at all, but the strange thing was that it could function perfectly.

Stitch had been locked up in this secret prisoner territory by God Capital for over ten thousand years.

However, as a third-rank Heavenly God, it had never been challenged by a trial participant.

Yet, on this day, it suddenly sensed a weak aura appearing within the boundaries of its territory.

“This aura… it’s only ninth-rank true god-level?”

“It can’t be a trial participant, can it?!”

“A trial participant is coming, a trial participant is coming…”

“A trial participant actually came to provoke us of their own accord, that’s just too interesting for words!”

“Which part of their body should we collect?”

Stitch was beyond excited, its several heads conversing with one another, shouting and making noise.

A while later, the trial participant finally arrived.

Stitch carefully sized up this intruder, filled with curiosity.

This was a male trial participant, his entire body enveloped in black robes. His face, barely visible below the brim of his hat, was unshaven. He looked somewhat dispirited.

It was Lin Huang disguised as Xiu Mu.

“He’s ugly. Don’t collect his head.”

“His hands look nice. Let’s collect his hands!”

“His legs are also quite long. Worth collecting!”

The several heads argued and discussed among each other.

This was also a habit that Stitch had. Each time it killed its prey, it would take at least one item from the other party as a war trophy for its collection and make it a part of its own body.

Once they saw Lin Huang choosing Stitch as his first hunting target, the Heavenly Gods watching from outside the secret territory were all talking about it as well.

“Stitch isn’t easy to deal with. Although it’s not that smart, among Heavenly God prisoners, its overall ability can be ranked in the first tier,” the team leader of God Capital commented by way of introduction.

“This is the legendary Patchwork Monster, right? I seem to remember this fellow mastered something like seven or eight god sequence chains but couldn’t put them to use freely,” the team leader of Combat God Temple enquired.

“Yes. It can rob other people of their god sequence chains. However, it can only use the power of three god sequence chains simultaneously at most. Also, its exploitation of sequence power isn’t very good. Its combat method leans toward overwhelming others by force.” The team leader of God Capital nodded.

“To an extent, the two of them restrict one another. This Patchwork Monster is skilled at hand-to-hand combat, and this can be restricted by Xiu Mu. On the other hand, this fellow’s patience seems endless. If Xiu Mu doesn’t have any big guns in hand, Stitch could very well wear him out.” The team leader of Xeno also expressed their opinion.

As the few of them were giving their comments, some people stole glances at Buried Heaven, trying to see how he would react. However, Buried Heaven remained as expressionless as ever, and his face gave nothing away.

In the secret territory, upon seeing Stitch, Lin Huang could not help but take stock of it for a moment.

He had seen his fair share of monsters, but this was the first time he was seeing such a peculiar Patchwork Monster like Stitch.

Various organs of different types were matched up together on the same body, with no sense of harmony whatsoever to look at.

However, the really strange thing was that this Patchwork Monster’s aura did not have any contradictions, anomalies, or chaotic areas, which gave others the impression that it was born like this.

“We’ve never seen a trial participant before!”

“We’ve decided to collect your entire body as a specimen.”

“Although you’re ugly, as the first trial participant who’s challenged us, you’re of great collectible value.”

“Trial participant, you should feel honored. We rarely collect whole corpses.”

“Yes. Under normal circumstances, we’ll only choose one or two of the prettiest body parts for our collection.”

“The remaining parts get thrown away!”

Several heads spoke in turn, and Lin Huang could not help being curious about whether each of his opponent’s heads was operating individually, or whether essentially only one brain was functioning, and these heads were all mere puppets.

The information about Stitch had been mentioned in the material sent over by Buried Heaven.

Although the information in the material was not detailed, it was sufficient for Lin Huang.

He knew that this monster could swallow up its opponents and rob them of the God Rule Power and god sequence chains within their bodies. He also knew that this monster had currently mastered eight god sequence chains already but could only simultaneously put three to use at most.

The reason why he chose Stitch as his first third-rank hunting target was because he felt that the number of rules within its body should be higher than that of an ordinary third-rank Heavenly God. Killing it would enable him to plunder more rules, and speed up his efficiency in advancing his combat strength.

However, in the eyes of the Heavenly Gods outside the secret territory, Lin Huang had undoubtedly picked a very tough opponent for himself.

Although Stitch’s IQ was not high, it had concrete power to display. No matter how one looked at it, Stitch was still a first-tier powerhouse amongst the third-rank Heavenly God prisoners.

Almost all the Heavenly God team leaders watching the battle felt that Xiu Mu had not made a wise move in choosing such an opponent.

After sizing up the Patchwork Monster briefly, Lin Huang launched his attack straight away.

With a shake of his sleeve cuffs, tens of thousands of telekinetic flying daggers directly transformed into tens of thousands of blood-colored lightning bolts that shot out.

Stitch was a monster skilled at close-quarter combat, and Lin Huang’s current persona was only a psychic, so he had to make the first move to avoid his opponent drawing him into close quarters.

However, Stitch’s dozens of wings vibrated almost simultaneously. Even the vibration frequency and amplitude of these wings of varying colors and shapes were completely different. However, the strange thing was Stitch’s flight speed was quite amazing. Even its agility far surpassed what Lin Huang had expected.

Wings rapidly vibrating, Stitch’s figure swiftly slipped through the dragnet set up by Lin Huang’s telekinetic flying daggers and actually managed to evade all the attacks.

Not a single one of the tens of thousands of flying daggers managed to strike its body.

Lin Huang was a little surprised by this outcome.

This was because, in the materials provided by Buried Heaven, there was no mention of the Patchwork Monster being capable of such speed.

It was not that Buried Heaven did not know about this, but when he was organizing this set of materials for Lin Huang and the others, it had not crossed his mind that someone might have the ability to kill third-rank Heavenly Gods. Hence, the introductory information for Heavenly Gods above second-rank was very superficial.

Outside the secret territory, as they watched Stitch easily dodge Lin Huang’s telekinetic flying daggers, many Heavenly God team leaders could not help but glance at Buried Heaven.

The team leader of God Capital asked straight away, “Senior Buried Heaven, in the materials you provided to Xiu Mu, was there detailed information on Stitch?”

“No.” Buried Heaven shook his head, expressionless. “I gave the same information to several True Gods. I didn’t expect that Xiu Mu would go hunt down a third-rank Heavenly God either.”

Upon hearing Buried Heaven’s words, everyone immediately felt that the chances of Lin Huang winning this battle had become much slimmer.

There were even several Heavenly God team leaders who were starting to regret not having placed their bets to start the wager earlier.

In fact, it was not just Death Sickle, but the few major grade-7 organizations as well that had given more or less the same information to their own respective trial participants.

This was because, in the secret prisoner territory, there was no precedent for killing third-rank Heavenly Gods.

They had not felt the need to give detailed information on Heavenly God prisoners of third-rank and above.

In the secret territory, after witnessing Stitch’s flight speed and agility, Lin Huang was only slightly surprised.

The information that Buried Heaven had given out on Heavenly God prisoners second-rank and above was very concise. Lin Huang had noticed this right from the beginning and had more or less guessed the reason behind it. Therefore, before locking onto Stitch as his target, he had mentally prepared himself.

He had immediately made the first move as soon as he arrived, because for one, in his persona of a psychic, he could not afford to be drawn into close quarters. For another, he was actually testing his opponent’s speed, agility, defenses, and other aspects as well.

Although he was slightly surprised that none of the tens of thousands of flying daggers hit his opponent, it was still within his expectations.

Now that the first round of testing had shown results, Lin Huang did not hesitate at all. From his sleeve cuffs, even more telekinetic flying daggers transformed into blood-colored lightning arcs and shot out.

Ten thousand, twenty thousand, thirty thousand… they accumulated to one hundred thousand and still continued to increase.

The Heavenly God team leaders outside the arena were shocked by this.

“There are already more than one hundred thousand flying daggers, and they’re still increasing. How much more can his Divine Telekinesis continue splitting?!”

“The attacking speed of those telekinetic flying daggers has increased as well. It’s reached the level of a third-rank Heavenly God psychic…”

“What I find most frightening is that he can control over one hundred thousand flying daggers and still infuse them with sequence power. This level of Divine Power consumption is massive. Logically speaking, no True God would be able to do this. I can’t figure out how he’s managed to do so!”

In the secret territory, the number of Lin Huang’s telekinetic flying daggers kept increasing until they reached one hundred and eighty thousand. Stitch was finally unable to dodge and was struck for the first time.

However, Lin Huang also noticed that the attack—which had been imbued with lightning sequence power and more than a hundred types of Rule Bending Power—had been blocked by one of Stitch’s wings. This was a dragon wing covered in scales, and the attack bounced right off without making even a dent in the monster’s defenses.

‘Not only is its speed amazing, but its defensive power as well. There are even several wings specifically equipped with defensive functions. Their defensive power should be superior to other parts of its body…’

Lin Huang continued quietly analyzing.

The truth of the matter was with his actual abilities at present, it would not be difficult for him to kill this Patchwork Monster, but his current persona was Xiu Mu. Moreover, there were countless monitors constantly trained on him, so there were many methods he could not use.

He also knew for certain that at this moment, many Heavenly God team leaders in the outside world were watching the live broadcast of his battle.

He could only look at things from Xiu Mu’s viewpoint and consider how he might win this battle.

In the void, close to two hundred thousand telekinetic flying daggers formed a giant net, enveloping Stitch again and again.

However, Stitch was slippery as an eel and kept dodging with lightning speed. Not only was it extremely fast, but it was also remarkably agile. Only as a last resort would it resist the attacks from the telekinetic flying daggers by using force.

After all, every single one of the telekinetic flying daggers contained sequence power. Although Stitch would not be injured if it were to be hit, it would still use up a lot of its Divine Power. Therefore, Stitch kept trying its best to avoid getting hit.

However, with hundreds of thousands of flying daggers in pursuit, it only had the energy to dodge and defend itself, and it could not find the opportunity to get close to Lin Huang at all.

Lin Huang also easily dodged the occasional long-range attacks launched by Stitch.

Just like that, both sides entered a stalemate where neither one could do anything to the other.

Lin Huang’s attacks did not manage to harm Stitch, and conversely, Stitch did not have the opportunity to attack Lin Huang up close.

On the surface, it seemed as if Lin Huang had managed to suppress Stitch.

However, the line of Heavenly God team leaders outside the secret territory was becoming less and less optimistic about the outcome of Lin Huang’s battle.

This was because Lin Huang’s combat method would consume huge amounts of his Divine Power and put a massive burden on his spirit.

Anyone could tell that the longer this battle dragged on, the slimmer the chances of Lin Huang winning.

This time, even Buried Heaven felt that it was impossible for Lin Huang to turn the tables.

This battle situation where neither could harm the other lasted for more than ten minutes, but the corners of Lin Huang’s mouth curved upwards almost imperceptibly.

‘So that’s it…

‘The seven heads each have their own role. One controls limb movement, one controls the flight of the wings, one controls defenses, one controls attacks, and one controls sight and other senses, while yet another one controls the consumption of Divine Power, and the last controls sequence and Rule Bending Powers.”

After more than ten minutes of investigation, he finally had sufficient understanding of his current opponent’s every aspect.

‘If I get rid of one of its heads, what will happen?’ Lin Huang wondered to himself, but in fact, he had already more or less guessed the answer to this question.

Outside the secret territory, the Heavenly God team leaders who were watching the fight were not optimistic about Lin Huang.

“It’s been more than ten minutes, and still not a single scratch on Stitch’s body. If the current state of affairs drags on, Stitch will still be fine even in ten days or half a month, but lasting for more than even an hour could prove to be a problem for Xiu Mu.”

“His telekinetic threads are certainly split into a great many strands, but his micro-level control over them isn’t quite up to par, and his attack method is too straightforward.” The speaker was a Heavenly God team leader whose main cultivation path was telekinesis. “Actually, even without an advantage in terms of speed, it wouldn’t be difficult to besiege a not-so-bright fellow like Stitch. However, even if he manages to hem Stitch in, his Divine Power will hardly be strong enough to subdue Stitch until its Divine Power is depleted.”

“Xiu Mu was just too arrogant and chose the wrong opponent. If he’d chosen just an ordinary third-rank prisoner as a target, he might still have had a chance of winning.”

“Do you all think it’s possible for him to turn the tables this round?” The team leader of Divine Clapnet glanced around and threw out the question with a smile.

Everyone shook their heads upon hearing this.

Only Buried Heaven and a few other people remained silent, not expressing any opinions.

At this moment, a Heavenly God team leader suddenly let out a low exclamation.

“The flight trajectory of his telekinetic flying daggers has changed!”

Everyone immediately directed their gazes back to the monitor screen where Lin Huang was, only to see via the surveillance video that the flight trajectory of the telekinetic flying daggers—which had been frenziedly hot in pursuit behind Stitch—was becoming complicated and strange.

Stitch obviously had not adapted to this sudden change, and the number of hits it took began to increase abruptly.

Unlike their previous formation resembling a school of fish, the flight paths of the nearly two hundred thousand flying daggers had begun to become erratic. Some moved swiftly, while others moved slowly as if they had all fallen into an odd rampaging state, which made it completely impossible for Stitch to predict their movements.

In less than two minutes, the Patchwork Monster was surrounded by nearly two hundred thousand flying daggers, and the area within which to dodge also began to shrink rapidly.

At the sight of this, the face of the Heavenly God psychic on the outside of the secret territory turned red. He had only made one comment, saying that Lin Huang’s grasp of Divine Telekinesis was not sufficient, and had ended up getting slapped in the face right the next second.

However, not many people paid any heed to his embarrassment, as almost everyone was staring at the surveillance video intently, wanting to know what would happen next.

Since Stitch was completely enveloped by the telekinetic flying daggers, its figure could no longer be seen from the monitor, but everyone outside the surveillance feed could still hear its furious howls.

Within the spherical space formed by the telekinetic flying daggers, Stitch tried to break free repeatedly but was blocked again and again.

It was like a trapped beast, struggling violently in alarm and fright.

For Lin Huang, however, the hunting for this prey was more than half completed.

His previous attacks had only been to test his opponent’s speed, agility, defenses, weaknesses, various body functions, and other information.

Now that the investigation was complete, it was time for the actual hunt.

‘Barring anything unexpected, its seven heads are probably its biggest weakness…’ Lin Huang manipulated thousands of telekinetic flying daggers and began to attack the seven heads of the Patchwork Monster in front of him. He had secretly endowed two of the flying daggers with the power of two god sequence chains.

Just as Lin Huang had anticipated, if he targeted the heads of the Patchwork Monster, the other would rapidly increase its defense mechanisms.

Various techniques were used as defenses in an attempt to thwart Lin Huang’s attacks and render them ineffective.

It had not been so obvious during the previous attacks, but right now, in this confined space, the Patchwork Monster was affected by its alarm and was increasingly protecting its heads undisguisedly.

As the telekinetic flying daggers approached, it dodged them with extreme speed, and several protective wings also went into defensive mode. It even stretched out its tentacles at the expense of injury to block the approaching flying daggers.

However, the trajectories of the telekinetic flying daggers were mysterious and unpredictable. Dozens of flying daggers searched for openings and broke through the Patchwork Monster’s defense line, among them a flying dagger with two levels of sequence power.

After dozens of flying daggers bypassed the Patchwork Monster’s heavy defenses, they went straight for its seven heads.

Just as the flying daggers were about to penetrate the seven heads, a thick layer of black scale armor suddenly appeared on the Patchwork Monster’s seven heads.

The next instant, dozens of flying daggers swept through the air.

After striking against the black scale armor, the flying dagger with two levels of sequence power was only slightly hindered before piercing through one of the heads and causing it to explode. However, the other dozens of flying daggers with only one level of sequence power were blocked by the layer of scale armor, leaving only white marks on the black scales in their wake, unable to break through any further.

Lin Huang had already anticipated this.

He just raised his brow slightly, wanting to manipulate the flying dagger with two levels of sequence power into causing more of the Patchwork Monster’s heads to explode.

However, right at this moment, the Patchwork Monster’s remaining six heads simultaneously made a whistling sound.

A terrifying sound wave was unleashed, forcibly blowing away all the flying daggers that had broken through.

Lin Huang felt some slight regret that he had not been able to go a step further.

Outside the secret territory, the Heavenly God spectators could not see what was going on inside the cage of flying daggers, but they could still hear the whistling sound that the Patchwork Monster made.

The sound was brutal, but it also seemed to have an element of agonized whining.

“Is Stitch injured?!” Someone could not help exclaiming.

“This sound doesn’t seem to be purely anger.”

“Xiu Mu can’t turn the tables again this time, can he?!”

In the secret territory, Lin Huang calmly looked at the Patchwork Monster who was standing opposite him.

‘What was the function of the head that exploded just now, I wonder?’

He soon found out the answer to this question when the nine eyes growing from his opponent’s head closed one after the other.

Lin Huang raised his brows slightly when he saw this. He knew that the other had lost its perceptual abilities.

Although he was not certain whether or not the other’s lost ability would be allocated to its other heads, his opponent was in a state where its perception was obstructed, at least for a short while.

 As long as he attacked before this ability could be transferred, he would have the upper hand in this situation.

In other words, Stitch, who had lost its perceptual abilities, had been put at a greater disadvantage.

It had been able to effectively dodge and defend itself from Lin Huang’s telekinetic flying daggers all this time by relying on its perception. Now that its perceptual abilities were gone, the efficiency of its evasive and defensive tactics would drop dramatically.

Lin Huang was obviously aware of this as well. After confirming that the other had indeed lost its perceptual abilities, he launched a second round of attacks without hesitation.

The cage—made up of nearly two hundred thousand telekinetic flying daggers—accelerated its whirling within the void, and tens of thousands of flying daggers transformed into blood-red lightning arcs, joining in to besiege Stitch.

Originally, Stitch had been able to avoid more than 90% of Lin Huang’s attacks by dodging them but after losing its perceptual abilities, more than 80% of the other’s attacks scored direct hits on its body.

The efficiency of Stitch’s defenses was originally well over 90%, and it could easily block most of the telekinetic flying daggers that pursued it. Now, however, the efficiency of its blocking had dropped to less than 30%. Seventy percent of the attacks easily bypassed its defense systems and directly attacked the remaining six heads.

The two telekinetic flying daggers with two levels of sequence power also found an opening and shot through, piercing two more heads easily…

Stitch let out another mournful howl as two more of its heads exploded, sounding even more desperate than before.

Outside the secret territory, the group of Heavenly Gods was astonished. They really wanted to know what exactly Lin Huang was doing to Stitch, but they could not see anything through the cage of telekinetic flying daggers. They could only use their imaginations to fill in whatever they could not see.

“This harrowing shriek clearly doesn’t seem like it’s nothing.”

“What on earth did he do to Stitch for it to screech so miserably?”

“Did he shove something up Stitch’s anus?”

“Does Stitch even have an anus?!”

…

With the destruction of two more heads, Stitch very quickly displayed the loss of more abilities.

Its wings began to retract one after the other, and its figure plummeted to the ground. Only a few of its wings still retained their defensive abilities, but they could no longer flap or fly.

Obviously, the head that controlled Stitch’s flight ability had been destroyed.

Besides that, Lin Huang noticed that its Divine Power had also become unstable.

Every time one of his own attacks hit Stitch, the strength of the Divine Power it exerted to defend itself was different.

At times, its Divine Power was easily breached by the telekinetic flying daggers, while at other times, it directly repelled them.

With the loss of its flight ability, Stitch’s dodging capabilities had been weakened to the extreme. Although Lin Huang’s telekinetic flying dagger attacks did not have a hundred percent success rate, it was well over 95%, and Stitch was, therefore, unable to avoid most of it.

On another front, Stitch’s loss of control over its Divine Power also caused its defense systems to start becoming unstable.

Lin Huang’s flying dagger attacks caused increasingly effective damage.

The increase of various disadvantageous factors made the scales of victory tilt in Lin Huang’s favor.

Within less than two minutes, Lin Huang’s telekinetic flying daggers breached Stitch’s defenses once more and pierced through another one of its heads.

With the destruction of this head, the god sequence chains and Rule Bending Power in Stitch’s body began to go haywire.

Knowing that it was now in desperate straits, Stitch began to ignore the barrier of telekinetic flying daggers, trying to forcefully break through the spherical area created by the telekinetic flying daggers and attack Lin Huang up close instead.

However, Lin Huang saw through its plan with just a glance, and there was no way he was willing to allow it an opportunity to carry out its intentions.

Whichever direction it moved, Lin Huang would boost the telekinetic flying daggers in that direction with the power of a second god sequence chain, forcing Stitch back.

Every time it tried to force its way through, it was helplessly forced back in turn. Sensing that not much Divine Power was left within itself, Stitch howled in despair.

Lin Huang’s figure floated in the air outside the spherical area formed by the telekinetic flying daggers, continuing to wait indifferently for the end of this fight.

He did not feel any sympathy for Stitch. After all, it was an evil spirit type from the Abyss.

Nevertheless, he still acknowledged Stitch’s abilities.

Outside the secret territory, the Heavenly Gods who were watching heard Stitch’s yowls again, but they had been slightly desensitized by now.

Excluding the first ten minutes or so, it had only been about twenty minutes since the fight had started. After Stitch had been trapped in the space within the telekinetic flying daggers, they did not even know how many wails it had let out by now.

Practically every howl sounded utterly miserable.

“Although I don’t know what exactly Xiu Mu did, I feel that Stitch is about to lose.”

“I feel the same way. Stitch is screaming so miserably.”

“This sound reminds me of my childhood and the Swine Beasts in the slaughterhouse who were still struggling, despite being bound and hung up from their hooves….”

“Now that you mention it, I think I haven’t eaten Swine Beasts in more than eight thousand years. Once I’m done with work in the next few days, I’ll have an all-pork feast!”

In the spherical space encaged by the telekinetic flying daggers, Stitch had basically become a moving target.

Although it had been forcing itself to move its body around, this was practically useless.

Blood-red gleams flashed rapidly in the void, leaving wound after wound on Stitch’s body.

Under the attacks of the telekinetic flying daggers, Stitch’s Divine Power was also rapidly being depleted.

Lin Huang did not ease up at all. He had no intention of giving the other party any chance to take a breather.

The telekinetic flying daggers poured down on Stitch like a torrential rainstorm.

In the short space of less than five minutes, not a single inch of Stitch’s body was left unscathed.

Another two of its heads had been destroyed one after the other, and only one final head remained.

This last head was in charge of its defense systems.

Stitch had lost all of its body functions and could not carry out even the simplest movements, completely becoming a stationary target.

Even so, Stitch still used its defensive wings, long since riddled with holes, to protect its last head.

Despite that, it was all in vain. In less than a minute, Lin Huang’s telekinetic flying daggers easily tore through Stitch’s last line of defense and pierced through its last head.

At this moment, the fatality notification finally appeared in front of Lin Huang.

Almost simultaneously, he also felt several god sequence chains containing massive Rule Bending Power surging into his body.

This round of hunting had directly skyrocketed the number of rules in Lin Huang’s body by more than a hundred thousand types.

Even Lin Huang himself was a little surprised.

What he did not know was that while taking the limbs of others for part of its collection, Stitch would also devour their God Territories.

Now, however, all of Stitch’s hard work had ended up going to Lin Huang instead.

The two hundred and seventy thousand God Rule Powers in his body had increased to nearly four hundred thousand in one shot.

“Given this sort of effectiveness, I just need to hunt three or four more monsters for my combat level to increase again,” Lin Huang mused to himself.

Of course, he was aware that the main reason for the bountiful yield this time was because of Stitch’s uniqueness. Other third-rank Heavenly Gods would not be able to give him the same amount of benefits.

With a slight gesture of his fingers, the telekinetic flying daggers that had formed the spherical space quickly returned to Lin Huang’s sleeve cuffs.

With the spherical area gone, the numerous Heavenly Gods who had been watching the fight from outside the secret territory finally saw Stitch’s body, now riddled with holes until it was practically a sieve.

A glimpse at the tattered state of Stitch’s corpse was all it took for everyone to know that Stitch was as dead as one could get.

Although everyone had already anticipated this result from a few minutes ago, they still could not help being shocked when they actually got a look at Stitch’s body.

‘He really did it…’ Even Buried Heaven silently whispered in disbelief.

For someone at true god-level to kill a third-rank Heavenly God was not something that had never happened before in the history of the God Territory, but the select few who had managed to pull off such a feat had gone on to become Lords without exception.

As for this secret prisoner territory, Lin Huang was the first participant to successfully hunt down a third-rank Heavenly God.

The team leaders of God Capital and the Combat God Temple, as well as other organizations who had top-tier True Gods from their organizations participating in this trial, all had peculiar expressions on their faces.

Initially, they were extremely confident in the participants under their respective commands, firmly believing that they would be able to put up a stellar performance during this trial and show off to all the other organizations.

The top-tier True God powerhouses under their commands also possessed the ability to hunt down first-rank Heavenly Gods and could even go up against many second-ranks.

However, after seeing Lin Huang successfully hunt down Stitch, they knew that the individuals they had brought along this time had become mere foils.

It was useless! This was an absolute defeat in terms of ability.

None of them would be able to hunt down a third-rank Heavenly God the way Lin Huang had.

Lin Huang’s sudden appearance on the public radar had completely eclipsed everyone else’s brilliance.

On the Gold Leaderboard, Xiu Mu’s hunting points had suddenly skyrocketed by four hundred points, which once more attracted the attention of all the other participants.

One must be aware that Lin Huang’s name had been constantly at the top of the Gold Leaderboard, so even just a change of 1 point could be clearly seen by everyone—what more a surge of 400 points.

Upon seeing the 400-point change in his score, many people were taken aback at first but immediately came back to their senses.

The base points a True God earned for hunting down a Heavenly God was 100 points, and for each subsequent increase in the level of the Heavenly God being hunted, the hunting points obtained by the hunters would also be doubled. Therefore, starting at first-rank, the hunting points earned from low-rank to high-rank would be 100 points, 200 points, 400 points, 800 points…

“His hunting points went up by 400 points at once. Does this mean he hunted down a third-rank Heavenly God?!”

“It’s probably not from killing two second-rank Heavenly Gods at the same time. According to the rules regarding changes in hunting points, no matter how close the times between two hunts are, each increase in a hunter’s points will be displayed in succession. Even if Xiu Mu did hunt down two second-rank Heavenly Gods at the same time, his points should have increased by 200 points twice instead of 400 points at once.”

“An increase of 400 hunting points in one shot… Well, those top-tier fellows probably won’t be able to sit still at all now.”

Several top-tier True God powerhouses were indeed quite agitated by this.

Previously, when Lin Huang was hunting second-rank Heavenly Gods, they had already been forced to start hunting Heavenly Gods before they had even fully adapted to their new environment.

To some extent, Lin Huang’s actions at that time had already disrupted their hunting rhythm.

Currently, Lin Huang’s success in hunting down a third-rank Heavenly God had thoroughly caused quite a few people to be psychologically off-kilter.

Originally, several of them had thought that during this trial, they would hunt down a few Heavenly Gods and put up a sterling performance in front of the major organizations. If they had a chance, they would try to fight for the top spot on the Gold Leaderboard.

Now though, without a doubt, Lin Huang’s performance had drawn everyone’s attention. Moreover, having the ability to hunt down a third-rank Heavenly God meant that he had basically secured the top spot on the Gold Leaderboard. No one else had the ability to compete with him.

No matter how hard they tried, other top-tier powerhouses could only fight for second place at most.

Actually, in the beginning, everyone did not regard a dark horse like Xiu Mu as a competitor. However, at present, this fellow who had appeared out of nowhere had just displayed terrifying abilities that completely overpowered everyone else.

Several people were disgruntled, but they also felt helpless at the same time. They could only silently sigh over their bad luck at encountering a dark horse that had suddenly appeared on the public radar.

Many of those who were not top-tier powerhouses felt a sense of schadenfreude. They could fully imagine the faces of those peak powerhouses at this moment.

They could not compete for the first place anyway, so they were happy to watch the commotion.

They only came here to participate in the trial, but they had ended up witnessing the mighty rise of a powerhouse who defied all odds. The rewards were absolutely fulfilling.

After leaving this place, they would have a new hot topic to brag about to their friends.

Upon consideration, this had certainly been a worthwhile trip!

Lin Huang paid no heed to the leaderboard at all. After he had finished checking the state of things within his body, he immediately stored away Stitch’s hole-riddled corpse. Without lingering any longer, he swiftly headed in the direction of his next target.

The secret territory was only accessible for one short month, so he wanted to make the best of this time to increase his combat level as much as possible.

After successfully hunting down Stitch, he now had a general understanding of the third-rank Heavenly Gods’ abilities in this secret territory. He had also fully planned out his following course of action.

There was no need to hunt down first-ranks and second-ranks, as the number of rules that he could obtain from them was small. Heavenly God prisoners who were above third-rank were also excluded as there was no need for him to further expose his true power. Being able to hunt down a third-rank was already odds-defying enough as it was.

If it were not for the fact that True Gods capable of hunting down third-rank Heavenly Gods had previously emerged in the God Territory, Lin Huang would have even given up on hunting third-rank prisoners.

It was precisely because there were people before him who had already done it that Lin Huang displayed his strength up to this level.

What Lin Huang did not know was that all these predecessors had later gone on to become Lords, without exception.

His performance had already garnered the attention of all the top organizations in the God Territory.

Even the team leaders of the several grade-7 organizations outside the secret territory had reported the news back to the upper ranks of their respective organizations the moment he had successfully killed Stitch.

Of course, Buried Heaven had noticed the behavior of the grade-7 organization team leaders, but he was unable to prevent them from doing so.

In reality, he felt there was no need to stop them either.

He was more cognizant of Lin Huang’s background than anyone else, and he knew that Lin Huang was unable to join any other organization except Death Sickle.

This was because he was not a Protoss at all, but a human being.

Apart from Xeno, which took a neutral stance, every other grade-7 organization in the God Territory did not have a very cordial attitude toward humans.

God Capital was a pure blood organization and they even looked down on other Protoss who were not pure blooded, what more humans. The Combat God Temple had conquered human territory more than once and seized a lot of their lands. Divine Clapnet had even planted countless spies among humans and were monitoring their movements at all times. As for Precious Treasure Pavilion, to them, humans were just a type of tradable commodity.

Xeno took a neutral stance, but they were in no way friendly. They would cooperate with whomever they deemed profitable. They did have dealings with humans, but such individuals could only be regarded as business partners at most, and there was definitely no friendship between them.

Buried Heaven knew very well that it was impossible for Lin Huang to join any other organization.

This was because once his identity as a human was exposed, death would be the only option awaiting him.

In fact, for organizations other than Death Sickle, if they were to find out that Lin Huang was a human, most of them would consider Lin Huang a major potential threat and would even try to nip it in the bud.

This was because it was very possible that his existence might lead to the rise of humans in the great world.

The reason why Death Sickle had no such misgivings about this was actually related to a secret the organization had.

In reality, Death Sickle was essentially not a local organization from the God Territory but a branch of a certain organization in the universe.

Only a handful of people knew about this matter.

This was why it was possible for the Blood Sickles within Death Sickle to have a human in their midst.

This was also why Death Sickle could tolerate the existence of a human like Lin Huang.

Buried Heaven also knew of this secret and had therefore maintained a friendly attitude to Lin Huang since the beginning.

Although Buried Heaven was a bona fide Protoss, the secrets he had learned from Death Sickle had long since allowed him to see things from a perspective beyond race.

In his eyes, it did not matter whether Lin Huang was a human or not. The important thing was that he was a powerhouse with extraordinary potential.

Of course, Buried Heaven actually had his own little selfish motive.

He wanted to watch Lin Huang develop, then battle it out with him to his heart’s content!

It did not even matter who won or lost!

As he watched Lin Huang’s spectacular performance within the secret prisoner territory, he had a feeling that day was not too far away.

In the secret territory, having killed Sitch, Lin Huang proceeded with the hunt.

Unlike the other hunters, all of his targets after that were now third-rank heavenly god-level prisoners.

For the other participants in the secret territory, successfully being able to kill a third-rank heavenly god-level prisoner might have been a matter of luck. However, they saw Lin Huang’s hunting points skyrocket by 400 points a second and third time, respectively.

Only then did they understand that Xiu Mu did indeed possess such ability. He did not depend on luck at all.

The numerous Heavenly God leaders who were watching the battle outside could very clearly see for themselves and basically acknowledged that Lin Huang’s abilities were almost on par with the standard of a top third-rank Heavenly God.

However, they did not know that what they saw was, in reality, only what Lin Huang wanted to display.

In the secret territory, under the continued stimulus of Lin Huang’s achievements, the few top-tier True God powerhouses also began moving into the domain of the second-rank heavenly god-level prisoners, thus beginning a whole new challenge.

However, their hunts were far less successful than Lin Huang’s.

For one thing, they did not possess the ability to dominate their opponents. For another, the convicts in the secret prisoner territory held the geographical advantage. Almost every hunt was a mutual battle of wits and valor, which was extremely time-consuming.

Lin Huang aside, the fastest top-tier True God powerhouse to complete the killing of a second-rank heavenly god-level prisoner spent over five hours just to do it. This excluded the time spent tracking down their opponent and the time spent traveling.

Among the top-tier True Gods, there was even a rather unfortunate fellow who happened to encounter a second-rank heavenly god-level prisoner that managed to overwhelm him. After the intense battle of close to ten hours, he had no choice in the end but to flee in defeat.

While many participants were still cautiously hunting prisoners to obtain points, Lin Huang’s hunting points had long since shot up, leaving everyone far behind.

The number of rules and god sequence chains in his body was also skyrocketing as he went.

By the fifth day of entering the secret prisoner territory, the number of rules within Lin Huang had increased to over 700,000. He was getting closer and closer to a breakthrough to fourth-rank True God.

As usual, Lin Huang checked the number of rules that had increased within him after completing the hunting of a third-rank heavenly god-level prisoner. He put away the corpse and headed straight to where the next target was.

However, halfway through his journey, there was a sudden change of expression on his face.

The reason for this was because, within the sensing range of his Divine Telekinesis, he sensed two auras in the area where his target was located.

One of the auras was at third-rank heavenly god-level; that was clearly his target.

Meanwhile, the other aura was not strange to him. He had come face-to-face with that particular individual before entering the secret territory.

Lin Huang did not slow down, nor did he change his route; he continued hurrying along his intended path.

The Heavenly God team leaders outside the secret territory displayed various expressions.

Many were secretly looking at Buried Heaven.

This was because the individual that Lin Huang was about to encounter was none other than Virtuoso from Death Sickle.

None of the Heavenly God team leaders had noticed exactly when Virtuoso had headed to the Heavenly God domain.

Once Lin Huang had locked down his prey and his flight path had become clear, almost all of the Heavenly God team leaders only noticed—after they had checked to see who Xiu Mu’s target was— that there was now an individual who had appeared out of nowhere beside the intended prisoner.

What puzzled the team leaders even more was that Virtuoso was standing less than two meters away from that third-rank heavenly god-level prisoner, but Virtuoso had not been attacked.

It was as if the third-rank heavenly god-level prisoner could not see Virtuoso, completely ignoring their existence.

Such an odd state of affairs confused the entire group of Heavenly God team leaders.

Actually, everyone present had heard of Virtuoso and was aware that this individual’s talent and potential even exceeded that of Buried Heaven.

Not a single assassination mission that Virtuoso took on for Death Sickle failed. All the targets would mysteriously die, and even their manner of death was very seldom repeated.

However, nobody knew exactly what Virtuoso’s abilities were, nor had anyone ever seen their face. In fact, no one had any idea whether they were male or female.

Some grade-6 and grade-7 organizations had even attempted to investigate Virtuoso, but their efforts were to no avail.

Virtuoso was like a person who had appeared out of the blue; utterly no traces of their past could be discovered.

After some time, everyone gave up wasting time trying to investigate Virtuoso.

However, everyone was aware that Death Sickle had a mysterious individual like that with stunning potential—one who had extremely powerful potential to become a Lord.

Although the numerous Heavenly God leaders were not clear on Virtuoso’s background, they were familiar with what Virtuoso had done.

Virtuoso was merely a true god-level White Sickle member in Death Sickle, but he had killed over 20 Heavenly Gods.

Among this number were even a few second-rank Heavenly God powerhouses.

Therefore, nobody had much at all in the way of doubts about Virtuoso’s ability.

If Xiu Mu had not shown up out of the blue, Virtuoso was, without a doubt, the strongest contender for the No. 1 spot on the Hunter’s Gold Leaderboard.

Meanwhile, it was clearly no coincidence that Virtuoso had appeared next to Lin Huang’s hunting target out of nowhere.

Buried Heaven could not help frowning upon seeing Virtuoso suddenly appearing in the surveillance video.

Since the opening of the secret prisoner territory, it was also the first time he had openly displayed any sign of emotion in front of everyone present.

‘This Virtuoso fellow, I’ve warned them repeatedly, and still, they choose to do as they please…’

In the secret territory, Lin Huang and Virtuoso very soon encountered each other.

Lin Huang was not overly surprised to see Virtuoso calmly standing next to the heavenly god-level prisoner, who seemed to have no intention of attacking Virtuoso at all.

Lin Huang had heard of Virtuoso’s name in the early days when he first joined Death Sickle as Xie Lin.

He had even seen the pictures of the targets Virtuoso had killed, as well as the autopsy reports. All of them had died in strange ways. At the time, he had already known that Virtuoso possessed extremely odd abilities.

At the same time that Lin Huang was sizing up Virtuoso, Virtuoso was silently scrutinizing Lin Huang as well.

The heavenly god-level prisoner, on the other hand, was ignored by them both.

The strange thing was that the prisoner was still standing where he was, ignoring the duo so close to him.

“From the looks of it, you’ve been waiting for me?” Lin Huang took the initiative to break the silence.

“That’s right.” Virtuoso’s voice was still ambiguous in terms of gender. “I’ve been waiting for you for a long time…”

Lin Huang did not think Virtuoso had been waiting on him here for a long time. Virtuoso’s words seemed to imply that they had been waiting for Lin Huang outside the secret territory, or even much earlier than that.

“Here we are now. If you have anything to say, don’t beat around the bush.” Lin Huang had never been fond of talking to people who spoke with hidden meanings. “Whatever you want to do, just say so outright.”

“There are so many people watching out there, are you sure you want me to say it outright?” Virtuoso paused and said the last two words through voice transmission, “Xie Lin…”

Lin Huang’s pupils contracted slightly. He had not expected that Virtuoso would have unmasked his identity.

“Just tell me what you really want.”

Lin Huang was startled for only a moment, quickly recovering his composure. However, the expression on his face remained cold.

“If you want to know what I really want…” Virtuoso said with a hint of mockery, “You’ll have to play a game with me first.”

“Play a game with me first…”

As soon as Virtuoso started teasing him, tens of thousands of blood-red lightning bolts shot out from Lin Huang’s cuffs.

1

Dagger after God Weapon flying dagger transformed into blood-red lightning bolts that filled the sky and swept in an arc across the void, directly attacking Virtuoso from all directions.

“I’m definitely not in the mood for such things.” On that note of disagreement, Lin Huang made his move straight away.

Although the rules in the secret prisoner territory did not allow trial participants to kill one another, it was Virtuoso who had provoked him first after all. Lin Huang could not be blamed for retaliating.

Moreover, as long as neither was killed or disabled, they would not be held accountable.

Lin Huang was not planning on killing Virtuoso; he was only preparing to teach them a lesson.

Outside the secret territory, the group of Heavenly Gods was shocked when they saw Lin Huang’s sudden attack.

They had not expected the relationship between the two colleagues in Death Sickle to be this poor.

Many people sneaked glances at Buried Heaven. At this moment, Buried Heaven’s brows were furrowed. This was clearly a scene he did not wish to see at all, so much so that he had forgotten to control his facial expressions.

At this moment, the team leaders of the few grade-7 organizations were secretly delighted that Xiu Mu and Virtuoso were at odds with each other. This meant that the chances of one of them leaving Death Sickle would be a lot higher than they had previously expected. Right now, several people were already secretly plotting how to poach them from Death Sickle. It did not matter whether it was Xiu Mu or Virtuoso, getting either one of them would definitely be a steal.

Tens of thousands of telekinetic flying daggers poured down like torrential rain, but Virtuoso just stood there, motionless.

They did not dodge, nor did they display any kind of defensive techniques.

The next instant, their figure was utterly swallowed up by countless blood-red lightning arcs.

Upon seeing this, the spectators outside the secret territory were bewildered.

They could not figure out why Virtuoso had abandoned defending themselves and let Xiu Mu attack them.

One should know that Xiu Mu’s attack was probably able to kill even third-rank Heavenly Gods.

“They really didn’t think that Xiu Mu would pull back at the last minute, did they?!”

“Virtuoso can’t have been killed off so easily, right?”

“For Xiu Mu’s current attack, his telekinetic flying daggers have been compounded with two levels of sequence power, which is sufficient to slay even third-rank Heavenly Gods. Virtuoso was hit without defending themselves whatsoever. There shouldn’t be any doubt about the results.”

While the group of Heavenly Gods was heatedly discussing this, Lin Huang frowned slightly.

He could sense that his attack had failed.

Not a single flying dagger had managed to hit Virtuoso. Strangely, however, his Divine Telekinesis sensed that Virtuoso still remained standing where they were, not having moved an inch.

‘Is this a special sequence power?!

‘

Logically speaking, rule-type attacks would definitely hit their target unless the other party used Rule Bending Power to dodge or defend themselves.

If even his telekinetic flying daggers with their compounded two levels of sequence power could not hit his opponent, the only logical explanation was that the other party had used sequence power to dodge the attack.

As for his Divine Telekinesis sensing that Virtuoso had not moved, that could only mean that their sequence power possessed the special function of being able to confuse one’s Divine Telekinesis.

Although not a single one of Lin Huang’s attacks managed to land on his target, he did not give up right away, continuing instead to manipulate the telekinetic flying daggers to keep attacking.

“Don’t waste your energy.” Virtuoso’s voice drifted leisurely through the countless flying daggers surrounding them. “Even if you run out of Divine Power, this kind of attack can’t cause me any harm.”

As soon as Virtuoso said that, they slowly stepped out as though all the telekinetic flying daggers were nothing to them.

Only then did Lin Huang notice that although all the telekinetic flying daggers pierced straight through Virtuoso’s body, they did not cause them any harm.

Outside the secret territory, most of the Heavenly God team leaders did not understand what they were seeing.

The few people who did were staring at Virtuoso with wide eyes.

“So it’s Obscured Sequence…”

“Who would have thought that there really is someone who’s mastered this kind of legendary sequence power!”

“I initially thought that this Xiu Mu fellow was already invincible enough. I never expected Virtuoso to be even more complicated?”

Buried Heaven’s current expression was as unpleasant as it could get. Of course, he knew what sequence power Virtuoso had mastered, but he had not expected Virtuoso to use it publicly like that.

However, right at this moment, on the monitor screen, Virtuoso turned their head all of a sudden and flashed a bland smile at the surveillance camera. “What’s about to happen next involves private matters and isn’t for public disclosure. For now, you can watch other people’s performances.”

As soon as Virtuoso said that, they snapped their fingers, and the screen immediately froze on Virtuoso’s masked face.

“Switch Xiu Mu and Virtuoso’s screen to other monitoring angles!” The team leader of God Capital hurriedly dialed a number.

“There’s no way to switch. All the nearby monitors have malfunctioned!” The voice of a staff member came from the other end of the communicator.

“How could this happen?! How long will it take to be repaired?!” The team leader of God Capital asked frantically.

“We have no idea. At the moment, we aren’t sure where the fault is. We’re still investigating the monitors one at a time. We can’t be certain how much time exactly is needed to repair them either.”

Upon hearing this reply, the expression of God Capital’s team leader became really grim.

This was the first time the monitors in the secret prisoner territory had malfunctioned.

The staff members of God Capital had indeed been somewhat caught off guard.

In the secret territory, Virtuoso switched off the monitor screen before turning their head to look at Lin Huang. “It’s just the two of us left.”

As soon as they said that, they seemed to have recalled something, glancing at the prisoner. “I almost forgot. There’s a third party here.”

Lin Huang frowned slightly. “What did you do?!”

“Nothing much, I just used a little trick to temporarily block the monitor.” Virtuoso’s tone was mild. “In which case, you can demonstrate your abilities without having to hold back, and you don’t need to worry about your identity being exposed either.”

“I think you might have mistaken me for someone else.” Lin Huang still wanted to continue hiding his identity. After all, he was still unable to trust what the other party had said about blocking the surveillance monitors to the outside world.

“Have I?” Virtuoso’s eyebrows rose under their mask. “You also have another name, Xie Lin. Of course, I even know that this isn’t your real name. Your real identity is human. Your main cultivation path is Sword Dao; telekinesis is just your supplemental path.

“Not only that, but I also know something even Buried Heaven from Death Sickle doesn’t—you’re an Imperial Censor who can control the Protoss!”

Virtuoso’s words caused Lin Huang’s expression to darken. He could almost imagine the consequences if the Heavenly God team leaders in the outside world were to hear these words.

“You can relax; since I’ve come out with it, of course, I’m absolutely certain that no one else can hear what I’ve just said,” Virtuoso added.

“I’ve already said that you’ve mistaken me for someone else.” Lin Huang still chose to deny it. After all, he could not be certain if the monitors had really been blocked or not.

“Forget it. Whether or not I’ve mistaken you for someone else, it isn’t important.” Virtuoso understood as well that Lin Huang did not believe what they had to say. They, too, could not be bothered to continue wasting time on this subject. “My request still stands. Play a game with me.

“Don’t say no too hastily. As long as you pass, you’ll win a prize. I believe that you’ll be satisfied with this reward.”

“The rules of the game are very simple. All you need to do is to defeat it.”

Virtuoso pointed at the third-rank Heavenly God prisoner who had been standing motionlessly to one side all this time.

“But I must let you know you that I’ve made some modifications to this creature, and it’s far stronger than before. If you don’t fight it seriously, you might very well die at its hands.”

As soon as Virtuoso said this, Lin Huang noticed the prisoner slowly raising its head, its body already unleashed in combat mode. Scarlet eyes stared right at him. Simultaneously, a terrifying aura emanated from its body.

This was an Obsidian Dragon-being from the Abyss; under normal circumstances, they even looked somewhat human when viewed from a distance. The scales on their bodies were extremely fine, and if one did not look closely, this might appear similar to human skin. The only difference between themselves and humans was that they had a tail.

However, Obsidian Dragon-beings in combat mode were a different matter altogether.

Their bodies would expand to more than three meters in size, and the two eyes on their heads would split into four. The scales covering their bodies would revert to their original black rhombus-shaped structure. The shape of their bodies would also drastically mutate, their heads appearing similar to that of four-eyed monitor lizards with black scales.

Although this prisoner before him was already in combat mode, it also displayed obvious anomalies.

Lin Huang’s sensing indicated that the aura around this prisoner was extremely dangerous, akin to a star on the verge of exploding.

The strength of the prisoner’s aura practically broke through third-rank limits in an instant, then climbed all the way up. In the span of several breaths, it had surpassed fourth-rank and continued advancing toward fifth-rank.

Lin Huang also noticed that, even for his opponent, whose inherent physical body strength was in no way inferior to that of its dragonkin, its body was being pushed to its limit step by step, and wisps of black blood were starting to leak out from the cracks between the scales covering its body.

Although Lin Huang did not know the exact method that Virtuoso had used, he knew that this was definitely a technique that forcefully extracted one’s potential. This type of technique would typically have severe repercussions.

Judging by this Obsidian Dragon-being’s current state, if it were released from Virtuoso’s technique, its physical body was likely to disintegrate straight away. Even worse, its soul might be immediately be dispersed as well.

“This fellow…” Lin Huang’s pupils narrowed slightly. He no longer had time to pay attention to Virtuoso anymore.

This was because the deadly aura emanating from this monster in front of him was already occupying his full attention.

Without waiting for his opponent’s aura to reach its peak, Lin Huang could not help seizing the initiative to make his move first.

One hundred thousand telekinetic flying daggers shot out from his sleeve cuffs, transforming into one hundred thousand blood-red lightning arcs that rained down on his opponent.

The Obsidian Dragon-being did not dodge. As it saw the countless blood-red blades shooting toward it like lightning, it suddenly opened its mouth, inhaled a long breath of air, then suddenly let out an earth-shaking roar.

“ROAR!”

Circular sound waves spread out in all directions along with the bellowing. Those sound waves were even imbued with levels of sequence power, turning everything to dust wherever they passed.

Under the impact of the sound waves, countless telekinetic flying daggers were sent shooting backward, crumbling all over the ground.

The attack of the telekinetic flying daggers, which had always worked in the past, was easily overcome by his opponent just like that.

Lin Huang frowned slightly. “Its consciousness seems to have already descended into chaos, but it can still perform such precise functions, and its timing is so precisely…”

He could not help but glance at Virtuoso, who was not far away.

It was impossible to tell whether Virtuoso was happy or sad under their mask, but their tone sounded relaxed. “Oh dear, you’ve discovered it so quickly.

“I forgot to mention just now. As I’ve done things that can’t be disclosed to its body, its consciousness has descended into a state of chaos, and it’s unable to fight normally. Therefore, I can only control its body and take over the work in this battle.”

Initially, Lin Huang had only been guessing; he had not expected that Virtuoso would reveal the truth so easily.

This Obsidian Dragon-being was only a puppet.

Logically speaking, he should definitely first get rid of Virtuoso, the mastermind, without having to waste time on the puppet.

This idea also flashed through Lin Huang’s mind, but he instantly rejected it.

On one hand, the previous round of test attacks had already shown that his opponent would not be so easily dealt with. Until now, he was still unclear as to what method it had used to render his telekinetic flying daggers useless.

On the other hand, Virtuoso had already said that as long as he won this game, he would get some benefits in return. If such a good thing did exist, naturally, he was not about to pass it up.

However, this puppet under Virtuoso’s control was truly a lot stronger than Lin Huang had expected.

“I’ve already said that I’ve hijacked the monitors. Rest assured that you can fully use your abilities without worrying about anything at all,” Virtuoso continued after that, “Look at me. I’ve revealed my cards, and I’m not worried about being seen by the monitors.”

Despite hearing Virtuoso’s voice, Lin Huang remained unmoved.

In fact, he knew that it was possible that there really was a problem with the monitors, otherwise, Virtuoso would not display this kind of ability.

One should know that the puppet Virtuoso was currently controlling was strong enough to go up against fifth-rank Heavenly Gods. This kind of power was already beyond all logic, even beyond the level that could be described by the word “genius”.

This was so extraordinary that even a Lord would not be able to resist capturing it for a round of dissection.

However, Lin Huang still chose to proceed cautiously. Unless it was a last resort, he still did not wish to reveal his true abilities.

From his cuffs, even more telekinetic flying daggers shot out, surging toward the Obsidian Dragon-being like a wave.

One hundred thousand!

One hundred and fifty thousand!

Two hundred thousand!

…

Three hundred thousand!

The number of telekinetic flying daggers skyrocketed to a grand total of three hundred thousand but still had no effect on the Obsidian Dragon-being.

Thousands upon thousands of attacks did not even break through its defenses.

“You’re completely wasting your Divine Power like this, and wasting your time and mine.” Virtuoso was evidently very dissatisfied with Lin Huang’s current performance. “With this level of attack, even if I don’t control it to defend itself, you won’t be able to break through its defenses either.

“Pull out your sword and show your true abilities!”

By the time Virtuoso finished speaking, they had already controlled the Obsidian Dragon-being to forcefully break through the circle of telekinetic flying daggers, swiftly approaching where Lin Huang was.

Lin Huang did not panic, and he still was not planning on pulling out his sword.

Telekinetic flying daggers shot out of his cuffs again like a school of fish.

This round, the blood-red lightning bolts were becoming sharper.

However, the Obsidian Dragon-being still under Virtuoso’s control did not dodge and continued forcefully breaking through.

Blood-red lightning bolts compounded with three levels of sequence power flashed past the Obsidian Dragon-being’s body, slicing through and leaving traces of black blood on its scales…

“At least this round of attack is starting to shape up, but if you want to force it to retreat, that’s not enough!” Virtuoso continued shouting imperiously.

The figure of the Obsidian Dragon-being was getting closer and closer…

However, Lin Huang still maintained the same output, looking as if he had no intention of compounding an extra level of sequence power.

This continued until the Obsidian Dragon-being was in front of him, brandishing its heavy fists and preparing to burst open Lin Huang’s head.

A cold expression flashed in Lin Huang’s eyes. Suddenly, he raised his hands, and in a motion that seemed slow but was, in fact, swift, he tapped a finger on his opponent’s heart.

A blood-red gleam beamed faintly from his fingertips.

The next instant, it was as if the Obsidian Dragon-being had been hit by a wave of massive force, and its body shot backward for dozens of kilometers, smashing through several mountain peaks…

Although Lin Huang had released this attack from his fingertips, he had actually used Sword Dao heavenly rule compounded with four levels of sequence power.

Under normal circumstances, a direct hit would have been enough to cause severe damage to a fifth-rank Heavenly God.

“Your attacks are finally starting to take shape,” Virtuoso commented loudly. Not only was there no trace of surprise in their voice, but they even sounded slightly delighted.

Obviously, they had already anticipated Lin Huang’s abilities.

Lin Huang had deliberately waited for the Obsidian Dragon-being to get close to him before launching this attack, in order to deceive the monitors.

After all, he still did not fully believe Virtuoso’s claim that they had manipulated the monitors.

However, Virtuoso, who was at close range, had seen everything clearly. To be precise, they did not actually see the attack but rather sensed it.

As Lin Huang’s attack had been directly released into the Obsidian Dragon-being’s body from his fingers, nothing extraordinary could be noted visually—only a flash of red light could be seen at most.

Virtuoso was less than a hundred meters away from the two combatants, so they were able to sense even the most subtle of changes.

Although Lin Huang’s attack had revealed his aura for only a moment, they still sensed it.

Not only did they sense his Sword Dao heavenly rule, but they could even clearly name all the god sequence chains LinHuang had utilized in this attack.

Crimson Lightning! Sun! Starburst! Godslayer!

Such a violent attack was enough to severely wound a fifth-rank Heavenly God powerhouse.

However, Lin Huang—who had released the attack—was not happy in the slightest at the moment.

This was because he could clearly sense that the Obsidian Dragon-being had withstood his blow and was not dead.

Not only was it still very much alive, but its aura had not even been weakened in the least.

The Obsidian Dragon-being crawled out of a pile of rubble within the sensing range of Lin Huang’s Divine Telekinesis.

The fist-sized wound penetrating through its chest healed quickly at a speed visible to the naked eye.

This anomaly made Lin Huang frown slightly.

In fact, ordinarily speaking, the damage caused by rule-type powers could not be healed by Enhanced Regeneration-type divine abilities or powers.

That is unless the opponent possessed Rule Bending Powers of similar strength, in which case they would be able to use their own Rule Bending Power to counteract the Rule Bending Power attached to their wound.

In other words, as Lin Huang had used Sword Dao heavenly rule compounded with four levels of sequence power—which would be equivalent to the compounding of five levels of sequence power—the other party would also need to possess the ability to compound five levels of sequence power to counteract the sequence power attached to its wound.

The wound could only be healed after canceling out the sequence power that accompanied it.

However, the Obsidian Dragon-being’s combat power was only third-rank, and it had only mastered three god sequence chains.

Even if it had become stronger due to the modifications made by Virtuoso, only its physical strength and Divine Power would be enhanced at most; it was impossible for it to suddenly master a few more god sequence chains out of nowhere.

Even so, the other had easily counteracted his compounded five levels of sequence power. This made Lin Huang glance at Virtuoso, who was standing outside the battlefield.

If the Obsidian Dragon-being was not the one who had nullified Lin Huang’s sequence power, then it could have only been done by its manipulator, Virtuoso.

This made Lin Huang all the more apprehensive of Virtuoso.

This time, however, Virtuoso did not outwardly admit that they had done anything. Instead, they just smiled and said to Lin Huang, “This is the way it should be. Show your true strength, don’t conceal it anymore.

“There’s a time limit on how long I can manipulate the monitors. The longer you drag this game out, the greater the possibility of your abilities being revealed.

“Therefore, I suggest that you unleash your full strength and quickly end this game.”

Lin Huang could tell that Virtuoso was basically semi-threatening him with these words.

The meaning behind his comment was very clear—if you continue dragging things on like this, I can only stop manipulating the monitors.

Lin Huang frowned slightly. After internally weighing the pros and cons, he came to a quick decision. “In that case, I’ll do as you wish.”

As soon as he finished speaking, more telekinetic flying daggers shot out from his cuffs.

The initial two hundred thousand flying daggers dramatically increased in numbers.

Three hundred thousand!

Four hundred thousand!

Five hundred thousand!

…

One million!

One million telekinetic flying daggers transformed into red lightning bolts, illuminating the entire void.

Dagger after telekinetic flying dagger trailed red electric arcs across the heavens, resembling a wave of blood-red snakes erupting in the sky.

The Obsidian Dragon-being had only just planted itself firmly on the ground when it saw blood-red lightning bolts shooting down from the sky, eclipsing the whole of the heavens like the arrival of a thunderstorm on Doomsday.

If it had any self-awareness left, it would have been completely shocked by this scene.

However, it was merely a tool. Under Virtuoso’s control, its figure fled into the distance at top speed.

There was no reason for this, other than these millions of telekinetic flying daggers were all imbued with the same sequence powers as the previous one released from Lin Huang’s finger.

There were five levels of compounding—Sword Dao heavenly rule, Crimson Lightning, Sun, Starburst, and Godslayer.

It might not have been a big deal if it was just a single blow, but the Obsidian Dragon-being’s body would not be able to withstand millions of such attacks at all.

If this were the outside world, the Obsidian Dragon-being would definitely not be able to escape such an attack no matter how fast it was, because regardless of its speed, it would not be able to cross the distance of a star zone in an instant.

In this secret prisoner territory, however, the detection range of everyone’s Divine Telekinesis was severely restricted, which gave the Obsidian Dragon-being a chance of survival.

As long as it fled out of the detection range of Lin Huang’s Divine Telekinesis, it would be able to completely take care of this threat.

Of course, Lin Huang also became aware of Virtuoso’s scheme immediately, and countless telekinetic flying daggers surrounded the Obsidian Dragon-being from various angles and routes.

The Obsidian Dragon-being’s speed was indeed incredible, to the point it was almost on par with a sixth-rank Heavenly God.

Even so, Lin Huang’s flying daggers were faster. In just two blinks of an eye, they had caught up to the Obsidian Dragon-being and had even blocked off all its escape routes.

The next second, the Obsidian Dragon-being was completely engulfed by the endless blood-red lightning bolts.

It had no time to even make a sound before it was completely shredded to pieces by the countless blood-red sword gleams.

This time, Lin Huang did not give Virtuoso a chance to heal the Obsidian Dragon-being.

However, after ripping apart the Obsidian Dragon-being’s body, he frowned again.

This was because Xiao Hei still had not sent him a fatality notification.

Lin Huang thought about it for a moment, then switched the target of his attack without any hesitation. Countless lightning bolts transformed into a single blood-red lightning dragon, which then turned around and charged directly toward Virtuoso.

Despite that, Virtuoso just stood where they were without dodging or defending themselves, allowing the blood-red lightning bolts to swallow them up.

Lin Huang had put his all into this attack, but the moment the dragon’s head came in contact with Virtuoso’s body, he already knew the result.

This was because he could clearly sense that his telekinetic flying daggers had not hit anything.

To be honest, he had expected this.

Once the lightning dragon completely pierced through Virtuoso’s body, Virtuoso patted their chest and exclaimed in exaggerated tones, “I was really scared by that attack just now. How frightening, I almost thought I was done for!”

“That was just an illusion; how could you be killed?” With a slight flick of Lin Huang’s cuffs, the countless telekinetic flying daggers spun around and returned to him, disappearing into his sleeve cuffs.

“You saw through me so quickly. This is admittedly a little beyond my expectations…” Virtuoso was startled for a moment, obviously rather surprised.

“When did you become aware of it?” Virtuoso asked with a smile, showing no trace at all of becoming angry from embarrassment at their secret being exposed.

“I had an inkling when I attacked you for the first time,” Lin Huang said frankly, “But I was only able to confirm this fact after killing that fellow just now.”

Lin Huang glanced in the direction of the Obsidian Dragon-being as he spoke. It was already beginning to reform its physical body from a state of nothingness. However, Lin Huang only briefly glanced at it before turning his gaze away, completely dismissing it as a threat, and continued speaking.

“To be honest, even though I know I was caught up in your illusion, I still haven’t figured out exactly which god sequence chain you used, to be able to trick me so stealthily.”

“It’s not that I can’t tell you…” Virtuoso laughed. “But you’ll have to get through this game first.

“It’s meaningless for me to tell you now because if you don’t pass this challenge, you’ll die here.”

Lin Huang glanced at the Obsidian Dragon-being again. “Is it necessary for us to continue this game? Every time I kill it, you just revive it. Unless your plan all along was to tire me to death?”

“I’m not that ludicrous.” Virtuoso shook their head slightly. “It’s merely that you haven’t found the right method of getting through this challenge.”

Upon hearing that, Lin Huang sank into a prolonged contemplative silence.

Seeing this, Virtuoso also stayed silent so they would not disturb Lin Huang’s thoughts.

In the distance, the body of the Obsidian Dragon-being swiftly consolidated itself again… into two bodies.

From one, it had now become two…

Since Lin Huang had seen through their illusion, Virtuoso did not bother to conceal it anymore.

Lin Huang sensed an anomaly within the detection range of his Divine Telekinesis and could not resist looking up for a quick glimpse. When he saw the two Obsidian Dragon-beings, he could not help but be stunned for a moment.

Before the two Obsidian Dragon-beings could make a move, two telekinetic flying daggers shot out from Lin Huang’s cuffs, taking out one monster each.

Before the two Obsidian Dragon-beings could even fully react, their heads exploded almost simultaneously, turning them into two headless monsters that were standing upright.

Since there was no use in shredding them to pieces, Lin Huang chose to conserve his Divine Power altogether, using only two flying daggers to deal with them.

Since blowing their heads apart and shredding them into pieces gave the same end result, he did not need to waste his Divine Power.

Even though he had killed the two Obsidian Dragon-beings in the time it took to snap his fingers, Lin Huang knew that the game was not over yet, because Xiao Hei still had not sent him any fatality notifications.

Two more heads began to rapidly grow back on the two headless corpses at a speed visible to the naked eye.

What was even more unusual was that the two figures had multiplied into four without Lin Huang realizing it.

When his Divine Telekinesis sensed that the number had increased again, Lin Huang lifted his head for a glance once more, then turned his head toward Virtuoso. “There’s no end to this, is there?!”

Virtuoso laughed without saying a word.

They chose to observe without saying anything, wanting to see how Lin Huang would deal with the upcoming crisis.

Every time an Obsidian Dragon-being was killed, their numbers would double. The longer Lin Huang dragged it out, and the more times he killed these Obsidian Dragon-beings, the greater the threat he would face.

Once more, two telekinetic flying daggers shot out from Lin Huang’s cuffs like a whirlwind. Together with the two previous flying daggers, they attacked the four Obsidian Dragon-beings.

The four Obsidian Dragon-beings were still lackluster in performance, and collectively had their heads blown apart again.

The next second, however, the heads of the four Obsidian Dragon-beings regenerated. Not only that, but their numbers doubled from four to eight.

Despite this change, Lin Huang’s attention was not fully on the Obsidian Dragon-beings.

His Divine Telekinesis surged forth in all directions like a tide, exploring all the nooks and crannies around him, not forgoing even below ground.

However, even after searching carefully several times, he found nothing.

“I can’t find any flaws…” Lin Huang frowned slightly.

Based on the hint in Virtuoso’s previous comment, he suspected that the key to breaking the illusion did not lie in the Obsidian Dragon-beings, so he had expended no small amount of effort probing his surroundings.

He had spent over ten minutes searching five or six times within the detection range of his Divine Telekinesis—which covered an area of several hundred kilometers—but he still could not find any weaknesses in the illusion.

By now, the Obsidian Dragon-beings had multiplied to more than ten thousand in number.

Even if Lin Huang had previously not paid much attention to the threat posed by the Obsidian Dragon-beings, he had to take them seriously now.

However, he still had not given up on finding a way to end this game.

“Virtuoso said that I haven’t found the right method for passing this challenge, but they could be deliberately trying to bamboozle me. Let’s forget about what they said for now; finding their real motive is the key to solving this problem.

“As soon as they approached me, they said they wanted me to play a game with them. Throughout the game, the one thing they’ve been doing repeatedly is forcing me to use even stronger abilities… including the number of Obsidian Dragon-beings that currently just keeps increasing…”

After a painstaking investigation, Lin Huang finally found a clue to beating this challenge.

A blood-red battle sword rapidly coalesced in front of him.

Lin Huang did not notice, but the moment the battle sword coalesced, Virtuoso’s eyes locked onto him intently.

Sword hilt in one hand, Lin Huang compounded Sword Dao heavenly rule with six levels of sequence power.

Crimson Lightning! Sun! Starburst! Godslayer! Obliteration! Deathly Stillness!

These six god sequence chains were all from the Sword Servants of the Great Heaven Palace.

Using six borrowed god sequence chains was actually quite a burden on Lin Huang, even though he was currently at third-rank true god-level.

Six types of sequence power with the addition of one type of Sword Dao heavenly rule were equivalent to compounding seven levels of sequence power.

This attack of Lin Huang’s was as dazzling as an exploding sun.

The crimson rays illuminated the entirety of the heavens, turning them bright as day. Within the radius of the surrounding ten thousand-plus kilometers, it looked as if a luminous blood-red sun was shining in the sky.

As Lin Huang’s blade sliced down, the blood-red rays lighting up the whole of the sky flared even more brilliantly. Even Virtuoso, who had been watching the battle, could not help shutting their eyes from the brightness.

The blinding red light lasted for several full minutes before it gradually faded. The tens of thousands of Obsidian Dragon-beings all turned into black ash that scattered in the wind.

Right at this point, Lin Huang felt as if some kind of layer had suddenly shattered before his eyes.

He zoned out for a moment before discovering that he was still standing where he had been, while Virtuoso, expression as infuriating as before, was standing opposite him not too far away.

Next to Virtuoso, the Obsidian Dragon-being stood motionless and expressionless, as if it had never moved at all in the first place.

Before Lin Huang could say anything, Virtuoso spoke up once again.

“Many people think that the god sequence chain I’ve mastered is the Obscured Sequence. Actually, the god sequence chain that I’ve mastered is called Fabrication. Not only can I switch between illusion and reality, but I can also create false images.”

Virtuoso merely left it at that without providing any further explanation. However, they could still be considered to have kept their promise by telling Lin Huang the name of the god sequence chain that they had mastered.

“Let’s reacquaint ourselves with each other, then. The Club—reincarnated being Xu Bin.” Virtuoso extended a hand to Lin Huang…

“Reincarnated being…”

These individuals known as reincarnated beings were part of a special profession selected by something called the Lord System. They traveled back and forth between various planes and universes to complete missions assigned by Lords, as well as to exchange various resources.

As a traveler, Lin Huang was naturally aware of the concept of reincarnated beings.

When he was in college, there was a time when he had read online literature. That period had really been the golden age of online literature, and he had read all kinds of novels. He had read more than a hundred works from the infinity genre at the very least, so he was no stranger to the mechanics of reincarnated beings from these novels. (TN: The infinity genre is mainly found in Chinese novels. It typically involves stories where characters are repeatedly summoned into alternate or virtual spaces separated from the real world and are made to complete certain tasks, such as missions, puzzles, or survival games.)

“Is it really like in the novels?” Lin Huang could not help asking as he looked at the Club identity page that Virtuoso projected.

“More or less,” Virtuoso replied vaguely as if they did not want to dwell on this topic any longer.

“Okay…” Lin Huang was not very satisfied with this answer. “Why didn’t you just tell me you were a member of the Club, instead of deliberately stirring up trouble like this?”

“I just wanted to test your abilities a little. If your abilities were no good, then there wouldn’t be any need for me to tell you my identity,” Virtuoso said boldly. They paused for a moment before directing their words toward Lin Huang again, “I’ve already introduced myself, so won’t you introduce yourself too?”

“My apologies, it’s just that this is my first time meeting a reincarnated being.” Lin Huang smiled as he introduced himself, “The Club, traveler, Lin Huang.”

He emulated the other and projected his own Club identity page.

“As I thought, it really is you.” Virtuoso did not seem surprised.

“You know who I am?” Lin Huang was slightly confused.

“I’ve heard about you before.” Virtuoso nodded slightly. “The total number of people in the Club is relatively small, and the frequency of newcomers being recruited is also very low. You’re the one and only newcomer in nearly thirty thousand years, so naturally, you would have attracted everyone’s attention.”

“The only one in nearly thirty thousand years?” Lin Huang stared at Virtuoso with wide eyes. This was the first time he had heard about this, but he was also a little curious. “What about you?”

The reason he asked this question was that according to the information he had obtained from Death Sickle, Virtuoso was not that old—only a little over a hundred years old.

“Haha… this identity I have as Virtuoso is just a reincarnated clone of mine in this great world,” Virtuoso replied with a smile. “My Primordium joined the Club more than two hundred thousand years ago.

“I was thinking that since I was in the same great world as you, we could take this opportunity to get to know each other. When you joined Death Sickle as Xie Lin previously, I actually already suspected that it might be you, but before I could confirm this, you disappeared.

“Fortunately, you reappeared and joined Death Sickle again as Xiu Mu. This proves that the link between our fates is still not over yet…”

This last comment made Lin Huang shiver when he heard it.

“Since you joined the Club more than two hundred thousand years ago, you’re my senior.” Lin Huang cupped his hands in front of himself in obeisance and said courteously, “This humble junior acted too irreverently a while ago.”

It was hard for him to imagine just how strong someone was who possessed a Lord System and had lived for more than two hundred thousand years. Although the other had not said anything, Lin Huang guessed that their Primordium was most likely a lord-level powerhouse, or even stronger.

“Don’t call me ‘senior’. I’m me, and my Primordium is my Primordium. Both our consciousness are independent of each other. Moreover, my own combat level is not that much higher than yours.” Virtuoso smiled and shook their head. “If you want to address someone as ‘senior’, you can do that when you meet my Primordium in the future. You don’t have to do that with me.

“Everything I just told you is actually a secret. Buried Heave,n as well as the upper tiers of Death Sickle, don’t know about my identity as a reincarnated being. All they know is that I’m a powerful reincarnation.”

At this point, Virtuoso suddenly said, “We’ve veered way off topic with our chatting, so let’s get back to the matter at hand.

“I actually had another reason for testing your strength besides wanting to get to know you.”

Lin Huang raised his eyebrow slightly. To be honest, he had been a little puzzled over this. If the other had just wanted to get to know him, there really was no need to attack him to that extent.

“I want to invite you to join my team to go on a trip to the Abyss.” After saying that, Virtuoso added, “The real Abyss.”

Lin Huang could not help being stunned when he heard this.

It was not as if he had never encountered an Abyssal creature before, and he had even entered several secret zones and ruins related to the Abyss. However, he had never been to the real Abyss.

He was also aware of how terrifying the real Abyss was. Not only were there countless lord-level monsters in its depths, but there were also slumbering beings who were stronger than Lords.

He did not think that he was powerful enough at all in his current state to go wandering around the Abyss.

“Can I decline this offer?” Lin Huang immediately rejected the other party’s invitation without hesitation.

“Can’t you even let a person finish speaking first?” Under their mask, Virtuoso’s expression was most certainly one of extreme exasperation.

“Alright, please go on.” The expression on Lin Huang’s face clearly said, ‘Go ahead and say your piece, since I’ll end up declining anyway.’

“I need a certain item from the Abyss to elevate to Heavenly God. That item is inside the body of a high-rank Abyssal Heavenly God, and I must personally retrieve it. I’ve been making preparations for the past few years so I can form a team to help me complete this matter.”

“Can’t you just request for help from some Heavenly Gods?” Lin Huang asked, raising his brows.

In his opinion, to solve a matter like this, they just had to bring a group of high-rank Heavenly Gods to help out, or they could simply ask Buried Heaven to go with them. There would be practically no Abyssal Heavenly Gods that they could not handle.

“Due to certain restrictions, I can only ask help from True Gods at most,” Virtuoso shook their head rather helplessly as they explained.

“Does this count as a job change mission given to you by a Lord?” Lin Huang could not help smiling as he asked.

Virtuoso just stared blankly at him for a moment, then nodded their head. “I guess you could say that.”

“You said you wanted to form a team. Besides me, who else have you invited?” Lin Huang inquired again.

“One of them is my friend’s clone, a ninth-rank saber cultivator who’s also a member of the Club. Another two are disciples who trained under my Primordium; one is a combat cultivator while the other is a spell caster, and they’re both also ninth-rank. Including you and me, there will be five of us,” Virtuoso explained.

“Let me just outright voice my concerns then. If we ever get targeted by a Lord or a being greater than a Lord, do you have a way to get us out of there?” If this were someone else, Lin Huang would not have even asked such a question because it was impossible that a True God would have the ability to escape alive from a Lord’s grasp. However, Virtuoso’s Primordium had exceptional strength, and they were also a highly-experienced reincarnated being, so they might really possess a means to escape from a Lord.

Upon hearing this question, Virtuoso was silent for a moment but finally nodded. “Initially, I wasn’t actually planning on exposing a trump card such as this, but since you asked, I think it’s better that I be honest. I do have a space-time flying shuttle in my possession. It was personally refined by my Primordium, and it can allow us to escape from the Kingdom of a Lord.

“You probably don’t fully understand how things work in the Abyss. Although the borders are not very clear, the distribution of monsters is different at different depths of the Abyss. Lords and Heavenly Gods aren’t within the same depth.

“Furthermore, in the Abyss, once various types of powers are released from the body, they will be extremely weakened. Unless a lord-level powerhouse or someone even stronger than that attacks, the energy fluctuations will not be transmitted very far. Even when top-tier Heavenly Gods collide, the fluctuations from the battle usually can only be sensed within the range of a hundred kilometers. Beyond this distance, no one will know that a battle was taking place.”

“What will I gain if I join?” Lin Huang pondered for a moment, then asked.

Although he had been prepared to decline the offer at first, Virtuoso’s explanation had dispelled much of his worries. Furthermore, he had been thinking about the fact that after leaving this secret territory, he would still need to hunt down more heavenly god-level monsters to increase his combat level, and most secret zone ruins did not have that many Heavenly Gods for him to hunt.

Based on Virtuoso’s description, the Abyss indeed sounded like a good place to gain experience.

“Your cultivation is in Sword Dao and Telekinesis, so I can give you a Soul seal fragment first as a down payment. You can also consider it an apology for attacking you just now. After we’re done and are out of the Abyss, I’ll give you a Sword seal fragment as well,” Virtuoso stated their conditions for this deal.

“Soul seal? Sword seal?” Lin Huang was utterly confused; he had absolutely no idea what these two things were that Virtuoso had mentioned.

Seeing Lin Huang’s expression, Virtuoso immediately understood that he did not know what Soul seals and Sword seals were, and promptly explained, “You’ve probably heard that for Heavenly Gods to evolve to Lords, they need to consolidate Dao seals, right? These so-called Soul seals are the Soul Dao Dao seals consolidated and formed by Lords who are soul cultivators, while Sword seals are the Sword Dao Sword seals consolidated and formed by Lords who are sword cultivators. (TN: We believe that this was a typo on the author’s part and it should be Sword Dao Dao seals instead of Sword Dao Sword seals, as the pinyin for the Chinese characters of ‘Sword’ and ‘Dao’ are both spelled as ‘dao’. However, we have opted to translate it as is.)

“Dao seal fragments are the remnants left over after a Lord dies and their Dao seals fall to pieces. Although the Dao contained in these fragments is incomplete, they can still be interpreted, and a large amount of Dao power still remains within them.

“Every piece of Dao seal fragment is a priceless treasure to Heavenly Gods and half-step lord-level powerhouses alike. Heavenly Gods can increase their mastery over god sequence chains through interpretation of the Dao seal fragments and may even obtain a complete inheritance, while half-step lord-level powerhouses can absorb the Dao power from within and advance to become Lords.”

Hearing this, Lin Huang was inevitably a little intrigued.

His Sword Dao was only at the beginning stages of Sword Dao heavenly rule, so he guessed that it would be highly unlikely for him to advance further in the foreseeable future. If he obtained a Sword seal fragment, he might be able to greatly speed up the progress of his sword cultivation.

“Can we change it to two Sword seal fragments instead?” Lin Huang could not help asking.

“What do you think these are—cabbages sold at the side of the road that you can pick and choose? I only have one Sword seal fragment. If I had two of them, I definitely would have given them to you. I’m not even a sword cultivator, so there’s no use in me keeping them. Although you won’t benefit from a Soul seal fragment as much as you would with a Sword seal fragment, it can still indirectly increase the strength of your Divine Telekinesis, and if you’re lucky, it’s not impossible for you to obtain a telekinesis-type inheritance.” Virtuoso was feeling slightly exasperated.

“Alright, I guess. Soul seal it is, then.” Lin Huang’s tone was laced with obvious disappointment. “Can you make the Sword seal fragment your down payment, though? I’m fine with getting the Soul seal fragment after we’re out of the Abyss.”

“Alright,” Virtuoso readily agreed and retrieved the Sword seal fragment.

Lin Huang looked curiously at the item that Virtuoso produced, but the moment he saw it, his eyes widened and his face filled with shock. “Are you telling me that this thing is a Sword seal fragment?!”

The Sword seal fragment in Virtuoso’s hand looked somewhat familiar to Lin Huang.

This was a dark gold-colored piece of paper the size of a human palm, and there were black sigils shining faintly on it. However, this piece of paper appeared to be incomplete, as if it had been torn off by someone.

Lin Huang’s eyes widened. This item was almost identical to the One Page Sword Scripture within him, except that its torn shape was slightly different.

“Why, have you seen it before?” Virtuoso was also slightly surprised upon hearing this. Based on what Lin Huang said, he seemed to have seen it before. (TN: Author appears to be referring to Lin Huang’s comment in the previous chapter, “Are you telling me that this thing is a Sword seal fragment?!”)

“I guess I have.” Lin Huang answered vaguely. He concealed the fact that he already had a Sword seal fragment within him.

Seeing that Lin Huang did not want to elaborate further, Virtuoso did not delve deeper into this topic either.

“I have a question. If it’s the same for sword cultivation, and elevation to lord-level is through Sword Dao, will the condensed Sword seals have any differences in terms of strength?” Lin Huang was extremely curious about Dao seals and could not help but ask such a question.

“Yes, of course.” Virtuoso smiled and nodded.

“The stronger the foundation of a person’s cultivation, the stronger the condensed Sword seal will be.

“It’s actually very simple logic. A Sword seal condensed from nine god sequence chains will never be stronger than the one condensed from hundreds of god sequence chains.

“Sword Dao is essentially a type of Rule Bending Power. In fact, there aren’t any fundamental differences between Sword Dao heavenly rule and god sequence chains.

“Of course, the difference lies in the fact that each person’s condensed Sword Dao heavenly rule is unique because it’s impossible for two people to cultivate exactly the same sword skills. Even if you take things back to the very beginning and hypothesize that two apprentices cultivate the exact same sword skills, their inborn talent and comprehension would definitely not be identical. Moreover, their comprehension of different types of sword skills would never be the same either.

“It’s these various factors that form the uniqueness of Sword Dao heavenly rule and determine the strength of Sword Dao heavenly rule, as well as the strength of the Sword seals that follow.

“In short, if you don’t want to be crushed by other Lords after becoming one yourself, lay a solid foundation.” After Virtuoso finished explaining, they added a concluding statement.

“I have another question.” Lin Huang could not help but ask. “After lord-level… is there really a higher level?”

After deliberating for a moment, Virtuoso answered, “Let me put it this way, becoming a Lord is only the first step to becoming a powerhouse.

“Of course, for most people, lord-level is the final point, as well as the highest point in life. But for some people, the remaining journey is still very long…” When Virtuoso said the last sentence, they deliberately looked at Lin Huang.

“May I ask what the combat level of your Primordium is?” Again, Lin Huang could not help asking.

“This is confidential for the time being.” Virtuoso shook their head and refused to provide an answer. “Because there’s no point in telling you.”

At this reply, Lin Huang smiled in embarrassment and did not continue probing.

After taking the Sword seal fragment from Virtuoso and agreeing on when they would enter the Abyss, Lin Huang chatted with Virtuoso for a while. It was basically him asking questions and Virtuoso answering them. Only when Virtuoso told him that the block they had placed on the monitors was about to lose its effect soon, did Lin Huang finally end the conversation reluctantly.

After the two of them exchanged their numbers, Virtuoso quietly left.

After Virtuoso left, the Obsidian Dragon-being soon recovered its willpower.

Lin Huang also quickly re-entered hunting mode.

Outside the secret territory, when the monitor screens were restored, the group of Heavenly Gods only saw Lin Huang fighting against the Obsidian Dragon-being.

“Where’s Virtuoso?”

“Did the two of them fight or not?!”

“I really want to know what just happened…”

Several Heavenly Gods quickly opened up the Gold Leaderboard to check and saw that Virtuoso’s name remained on it. Only then did they completely banish the thought, ‘Has Virtuoso been killed by Xiu Mu,’ from their minds.

Although Buried Heaven did not know what exactly had happened, seeing that Lin Huang remained intact and Virtuoso was still on the Leaderboard, he let out a long sigh of relief.

One was the almighty reincarnate, and one was the invincible genius.

Something bad happening to either of them was an outcome he did not want to see.

Inside the secret territory, Lin Huang quickly and successfully killed the Obsidian Dragon-being. After storing away its corpse, he continued hurrying toward his next target.

Although the encounter with Virtuoso was only a small interlude of ten minutes or so, Lin Huang now had a much deeper understanding of this world compared to before.

Perhaps Lords were the most powerful beings in this great world, but there were countless great worlds in the universe, most of them stronger than the great world he was currently in.

In the universe, Lords were just slightly stronger cultivators. There were stronger beings than Lords.

In the universe, those preeminent overlords might even have hundreds or thousands of Lords working for them.

He had originally thought that he was already quite powerful, to have been able to kill Heavenly Gods. However, after his conversation with Virtuoso, Lin Huang knew that this world was a lot more vast than he had imagined!

Setting aside his unruly thoughts, Lin Huang increased his determination to become stronger.

This was because only by becoming stronger would he get to see the vast world out there!

Outside the secret territory, several individuals from the group of Heavenly Gods soon discovered the change in Lin Huang.

“Have you all noticed that Xiu Mu’s combat style seems to have become a lot steadier?”

“I feel it too. During the previous hunts, he seemed to be forcing his opponents to exert themselves to their fullest. Only when his opponents displayed their full strength would he dispose of them. But now the battles are a lot more concise and efficient, and it seems like he’s trying to use the least number of telekinetic flying daggers to kill his opponents.”

“I’ve also noticed that he’s picking up on his opponents’ every flaw and going after every single one of them to inflict maximum damage! His grasp of timing is much stronger than before.”

“These changes are likely to have been brought about by Virtuoso!”

Buried Heaven had actually noticed the change in Lin Huang right from the start. In the beginning, he had been slightly concerned, worried that Virtuoso had done something to Lin Huang. However, gradually, he began to feel that this kind of change was not a bad thing, and it might even be good for Lin Huang.

Only Lin Huang himself knew that the reason behind his change of combat style was because he now understood that becoming stronger was not just about elevating his combat level.

Putting his heart and soul into experiencing each battle, seizing upon every detail of the fight, and learning from his opponents was also one way to become stronger.

As long as he worked hard enough, even if his opponent were weaker than himself, he would be able to gain something from every battle.

He even felt somewhat that he had rediscovered the kind of enthusiasm he had had when he first began the path of cultivation.

Another two days passed quickly in the secret territory.

Through each hunt, Lin Huang plundered rules from the inner worlds of the Heavenly God prisoners and soon raised his number of rules from 400,000 to 810,000, successfully elevating to fourth rank.

However, he had no plans to change his hunting targets, and still set his sights on third-rank Heavenly Gods.

His apparent combat level was ninth-rank true god-level, after all. Normally speaking, being able to hunt third-rank Heavenly Gods at this combat level was already quite impressive.

Although hunting fourth-rank Heavenly Gods would allow him to plunder rules much more speedily, to avoid attracting more attention, he still decisively chose to give up on that.

In the void, a three-headed monstrous bird howled miserably as it frantically fled.

Large areas of the scales and feathers on its body were scorched black. Not only that, even one of its heads was gone.

If Lin Huang were here, he would probably have been able to identify that this monstrous bird being hunted down was called a Three-headed Owl. It was an aberrant species from the Abyss.

This type of bird could fly extremely fast, and its body stance and motions were like those of a demon. It moved silently and unpredictably, and its forte was assassination techniques.

Additionally, each of its three heads had individually mastered a type of Rule Bending Power from birth.

Usually, these types of Rule Bending Power were strength-type, illusion-type, and toxin-type.

Several extraordinary such Three-headed Owls could evolve into Heavenly Gods and condense Rule Bending Power into god sequence chains.

This Three-headed Owl being hunted down was one that had evolved into a Heavenly God.

Evidently, this battle had also caught the attention of several Heavenly God team leaders outside the secret territory.

“I seem to remember that initially, God Capital procured a batch of Three-headed Owls for experimental purposes, right?” The team leader of Xeno suddenly broached the subject.

“I remember this incident too. In the beginning, because of this, the price of Three-headed Owls shot up exorbitantly then. Many people headed into secret zones and ruins related to the Abyss especially to capture Three-headed Owls alive,” the team leader of Precious Treasure Pavilion immediately chimed in as well. “At the time, we were wondering why God Capital was suddenly interested in Three-headed Owls, even purposely keeping dozens of them for research. We only found out later that the Owls were bought to be experimented upon.”

“From the looks of it now, those experiments most probably failed.” The team leader of Divine Clapnet smiled and glanced at the team leader of God Capital. It was rare enough to encounter an opportunity for a dig at God Capital, so of course, they were not about to pass it up.

The rest of the team leaders from the other organizations did not dare to speak, but most of them were secretly rejoicing.

God Capital had always taken pride in its pure blood. In fact, most of the God Territory organizations currently did not approve of this concept. What made individuals from God Capital even more unwelcome was the fact that its members were almost always flaunting their sense of superiority wherever they went.

Watching the team leader of God Capital being roasted right now, most of the team leaders from the various organizations present were feeling particularly invigorated.

As for the matter discussed by the several grade-7 organizations, most of the Heavenly God team leaders present understood it to some degree.

Ten thousand years ago, a researcher in God Capital was suddenly inspired to experiment on monsters like the Three-headed Owls. The reason was that the three heads of the Three-headed Owls were born with the inherent ability to master three different types of Rule Bending Power.

The researcher conceptualized, therefore, that if they forcefully elevated Three-headed Owls to heavenly god-level, would it be possible for this monster to master three god sequence chains straight away at first-rank heavenly god-level.

If this experiment succeeded, based on the biological characteristics of the Three-headed Owls, they could further study how to bypass and break through the strength limits of body and soul to master multiple god sequence chains.

However, this experiment failed right from the very start.

After all the Three-headed Owls had successfully condensed a god sequence chain, they either elevated straight to heavenly god-level or were stuck at true god-level, unable to break through. Some of them also experienced an acceleration of their aberration after being forced to condense a second god sequence chain, and exploded to death.

As for three god sequence chains—not a single Three-headed Owl had successfully condensed even two god sequence chains at first-rank heavenly god-level.

After thousands of experimental failures, God Capital ultimately gave up on this experiment for lack of a better option.

As for the remaining experimental subjects, they were naturally tossed into the secret prisoner territory.

“The little princess from Nephilic Judge Tribe is performing quite well.” The team leader of God Capital changed the subject right away, as it was Kylie, the little princess of the Nephilic Judge Tribe, who was hunting down this Three-headed Owl. “I heard that several of our dashing young talents have gone forward to propose to her?”

The Nephilic Judge Tribe team leader’s smile held a touch of awkwardness. “It’s true.”

“Her abilities are truly something else. She can be regarded as a top-tier True God.” The team leader of the Combat God Temple nodded in satisfaction. “I heard that kid Zhan Kuang seems to be interested in her.”

“It’s not just Zhan Kuang. From what I know, there are many prodigies who adore this little princess.” The team leader of Divine Clapnet smiled. “Although there are several of them who haven’t expressed it yet, I anticipate that after this trip to the secret territory, they’ll definitely make a move.”

According to the insider information Divine Clapnet had received, many organizations actually had set their sights on Kylie.

Some top-notch True God prodigies had not expressed their intentions yet, wanting to see for themselves whether this little princess was a phony or if she was genuinely that powerful.

However, during this trip to the secret prisoner territory, Kylie had already demonstrated top-notch prodigy-levels of strength.

It was anticipated that several prodigies, who were originally watching from the sidelines, would take action soon.

Listening to the others’ discussion, the team leader of Nephilic Judge Tribe merely laughed along without sharing his opinion.

They were clearly aware that this little princess had no intention whatsoever of marrying; when it came to the Nephilic Judge Tribe, she did not have much of a sense of belonging either.

How to convince her to marry was still a big problem.

In the secret territory, clad in silver armor with faulds, Kylie was unaware that the outside world was talking about her.

From the moment she entered this secret prisoner territory, she vented all her emotions through hunting.

This three-headed monstrous bird before her was the prey that had given her the most emotional catharsis since entering the secret territory.

Although there was hardly any expression on her face, her every blow revealed her displeasure.

Although this Three-headed Owl could not be regarded as the most powerful amongst the first-rank Heavenly Gods in the secret prisoner territory, its overall abilities could be considered top-notch.

Normally, when it encountered other prisoners it could not afford to antagonize, it could hide or run away.

However, in front of Kylie, it had nowhere to retreat. It could neither hide nor escape.

Once electromagnetic induction was turned on, all its escape methods were useless in front of Kylie. In terms of speed, it did not have any advantages over her at all.

Since their initial encounter, the Three-headed Owl had been subdued into a state of subjugation all this while, to the extent it could not even lift its head.

The god sequence chain it had mastered was a type of toxin, but in front of Heaven’s Punishment—the god chain Kylie had mastered—it was broken down by lightning straight away.

The small remaining part that had not been broken down was also isolated outside its body by Kylie’s electromagnetic screen, which contained sequence power, making it hard to enter.

What was even more preposterous was the fact that Kylie was also wearing a full-body god sequence relic outfit.

From the crown on her head to her earrings, and necklace, to her battle armor and faulds, as well as the battle spear in her hand, her rings, then the high heels on her feet… All of them were god sequence relics.

Therefore, in front of this little princess from the Nephilic Judge Tribe, the only option that remained for the Three-headed Owl was to be pulverized.

The god chain, Heaven’s Punishment, was extremely lethal to begin with, and it was a sequence that resulted in extreme agony.

Every time Three-headed Owl was hit, it was no different from being tortured.

Each time it howled, it was due to the excruciating pain emanating from the depths of its heart.

Therefore, before it was hit more than twice, it knew that it was no match for Kylie and turned to flee.

However, it had not expected to be unable to escape.

This was because this woman was faster than it was…

Kylie gave chase with the battle spear in her hand. With each attack from her spear, purple-red lightning burst from the spear tip, turning into countless lightning arcs that descended upon the Three-headed Owl.

After being chased like this for over twenty minutes, in the middle of its miserable howls, the Three-headed Owl’s last head exploded in the lightning arc. It turned into a headless scorched corpse and collapsed onto the ground…

Watching this scene unfold, many Heavenly Gods outside the secret territory secretly thought, “What a savage!”

After successfully elevating to fourth rank, to avoid attracting even more attention, Lin Huang kept his sights on third-rank heavenly god-level prisoners as his hunting targets from beginning to end.

After all, there were only a few like Stitch, who contained large quantities of Rule Bending Power inside their inner worlds. The majority of the third-rank prisoners he had slain only allowed him to plunder fifteen thousand to twenty thousand types of rules.

As the domains of the Heavenly God prisoners were far away from each other, most of his time was spent on traveling, and the number of Heavenly God prisoners he killed every day was usually between twelve and fifteen.

At this rate of plundering, it took him a whole week before he managed to obtain enough rules to advance to fifth-rank true god-level.

As he was limited by the distance between the domains of the Heavenly God prisoners and was also unable to use Space Rule and sequence to teleport—coupled with the fact that his hunting targets were still third-rank heavenly god-level prisoners—his killing efficiency did not increase by much after his combat level had advanced.

The Heavenly God team leaders outside the secret territory saw that he was becoming more adept at hunting.

It was just that after numerous times, they did not feel surprised anymore.

Several Heavenly God team leaders were even discussing why Lin Huang was not challenging more difficult targets.

“I thought that after Xiu Mu familiarized himself with hunting third-rank Heavenly God prisoners, he would continue challenging himself and try hunting fourth-ranks. But it’s been a week, and he seems to have no intention of trying at all.”

“I don’t really understand either. Why did he give up on challenging fourth ranks straight away? Looking at the character he’s displayed previously, it shouldn’t be like this.”

“Maybe he feels that hunting third-ranks is a more efficient way to obtain points, in order to secure first place on the Gold Leaderboard. After all, the prize for first place on the Gold Leaderboard is still a fairly tempting prospect.”

“I don’t think that he’s the kind of person who gives up a challenge for points and rankings. Moreover, he still has a clear advantage in points. Even if he delays for two or three days, he’s still unlikely to be overtaken by the person in second place. Spending half a day to attempt this challenge once won’t affect his ranking at all. There has to be another reason for him not to challenge the fourth-ranks.”

“Why are you guys complicating things so much? Perhaps he just feels that he isn’t strong enough to challenge fourth-ranks and has simply given up.”

There were even people who directed their questions straight at Buried Heaven, enquiring as to what Lin Huang’s true abilities were.

Buried Heaven only smiled and responded with, “I’m not sure either.”

The Heavenly God team leaders were tired of watching Lin Huang hunt, so they finally began shifting their attention to other trial participants.

Many of the trial participants were completely oblivious to the fact that although the trial had already progressed to one-third of the way through, they were finally being noticed for the first time.

However, in comparison with Lin Huang, the others’ performances were not as satisfactory.

Most of them hunted ninth-rank True Gods, and there were basically no highlights; the Heavenly God team leaders nearly fell asleep while watching.

Although several top-tier hunters were hunting first or second-rank Heavenly Gods, their battles were extremely difficult. The shortest battle still took more than two hours to complete; the longest battle even lasted for a full day and night.

If this had been in the past, no matter how long these battles lasted, they were still marvelous in the eyes of the Heavenly God team leaders.

After all, True Gods crossing levels to hunt Heavenly Gods was an extraordinary feat in itself.

However, this time the Heavenly God team leaders were frowning while watching.

After witnessing Lin Huang’s crushing successes, there was a clear sense of contrast, and this group of top-tier hunters was a lot weaker compared to Xiu Mu.

Lin Huang hunted down third-rank Heavenly Gods as smoothly as moving clouds and flowing water. Not a single unnecessary move was made throughout the entire process. Moreover, one battle lasted for half an hour at most, and he could complete a hunt in approximately twenty minutes most of the time.

In comparison, the hunts of other top-tier powerhouses were a lot more awkward.

Of course, there were a few trial participants below the top-tier levels who drew attention as well.

An example was Bloody.

Amongst the True God hunters, Blood could be regarded as one of those with the lowest combat level.

This was because, in order to showcase the strength of their younger generation, the trial participants sent by the major organizations to take part in the secret territory hunt each time were essentially their strongest geniuses.

Those at virtual god-level were basically all Virtual Gods rank-9. Those at true god-level were basically all at ninth-rank as well.

Bloody was the only eighth-rank participant among the True Gods.

Originally, the Nephilic Judges were quite reluctant to give the slot to Bloody, because if she did not perform well, she would bring shame to the Nephilic Judge Tribe.

It was Kylie who strongly contested this, saying that if they did not allow Bloody to participate, she would not take part either.

Only then did the Nephilic Judge Tribe give Bloody a slot.

Bloody was not considered strong among the many True God geniuses since she was only at class-4.5 Pseudo-supreme God-level, whereas there were at least dozens of participants who were Supreme God rank-5s.

However, her performance was very outstanding, even comparable to that of several top-tier powerhouses.

After entering the secret prisoner territory, she did not immediately proceed to hunt down ninth-rank True Gods. Instead, she turned to the eighth-rank prisoner domains and spent a whole two days controlling more than ten eighth-rank prisoners. On the third day, she finally brought along more than ten of these eighth-rank parasitic bodies and began attacking ninth-rank prisoners.

While she was besieged by a group of eighth ranks, she then searched for an opening to parasitize them.

After that, she took three days to control ten ninth-rank prisoners before leading the group to slaughter their way into the domains of first-rank Heavenly Gods.

In the past five days, she had already defeated seven first-rank Heavenly Gods.

She had also succeeded in controlling two of them.

What the Heavenly God team leaders in the outer world did not know was that Bloody actually could control all seven of them but she intentionally acted three times as if she had failed at controlling them, just to reveal the limits of her parasitic power to avoid others being afraid of the consequences.

Even the team leader of Nephilic Judge Tribe bought it. This was because their impression of Bloody was that her abilities had always been poor, and Kylie was always protecting her. Her performance this time had already exceeded their expectations by leaps and bounds.

There were even a few Heavenly God team leaders who began to discuss Bloody.

“That purple-haired girl from the Nephilic Judge Tribe is pretty good. Although her combat strength is a bit weak, she’s actually mastered god sequence chains, and it’s a control-type god sequence chain which can control first-rank Heavenly Gods!”

“The limitations of this power are a bit too low. It’s reached its limits after controlling only two first-rank Heavenly Gods. It’s rather a pity…”

“This type of control power is generally related to psychic strength. Although it can only control two first-rank Heavenly Gods now, it still has the potential to be strengthened further. After all, this girl’s combat level is only at eighth-rank true god-level. When she elevates to heavenly god-level, her spirit strength will also undergo a round of transformation, and her psychic strength will greatly increase then. Being able to control ten Heavenly God puppets is far stronger than average Heavenly Gods of the same rank.”

Evidently, Bloody’s acting skills had successfully fooled all the Heavenly God team leaders who were watching the battle through the screen.

In fact, if it were not that she had to meet up with Lin Huang, based on Bloody’s cautious habits, she would definitely have given up on trying to enter the Heavenly God domain to hunt. She would have continued keeping a low profile to prevent herself from being noticed.

She had entered the Heavenly God domain because from the beginning, she had discussed the matter with Lin Huang and agreed to meet him there.

Moreover, the meeting point that she and Kylie had decided upon was also in the Heavenly God domain.

In a flash, five days passed by just like that.

Bloody and Kylie successfully managed to meet in the Heavenly God domain.

Currently, Bloody had gone through half a month of hunting and had elevated to ninth-rank True God. The number of ninth-rank Heavenly Gods she could control had also grown from two to three.

As the hunting rules had stated that group hunting was prohibited in the secret prisoner territory, the duo worked out a way of hunting in the manner of playing touch ball.

Every time they encountered a target, one would be responsible for attacking, while the other would watch the battle from the sidelines.

However, once the prey revealed its weakness, the other person would take over the attack.

On the surface, it seemed as if they were fighting over the target; in reality, they were aiding each other, breaking the target’s tempo of battle.

This fighting technique that the two ladies displayed became a topic of discussion among the Heavenly God leaders who were watching outside the secret territory.

“This touch ball technique is… amazing!”

“That purple-haired girl is so accurate with her timing! Every time she controls her puppets to attack, it’s always at the opponent’s weakest point.”

“The most important thing is that it seems like she’s really competing for the target every time she attacks. If I didn’t know that they’re best friends, I’d genuinely believe that she’s fighting to snatch away the prey.”

“I think we can let the participants do it like this too in the future.”

As the group of Heavenly God leaders continued their heated discussion, the expressions on the faces of God Capital’s Heavenly God leaders were rather unpleasant.

The rule set by God Capital had been broken and in front of so many people. To God Capital, this was not something to be proud of at all.

In all honesty, they could not determine that the way Bloody and Kylie played was collaboration. Instead, it looked as if the two girls were fighting to snatch the other’s intended prey.

However, the duo’s hunting efficiency had increased more than several times by doing so. Not only that, they were practically invincible in the first-rank Heavenly God zone.

The rate at which their hunting points increased was rapidly catching them up with the top three participants.

The performance of the two girls caused a lot of discussion among the Heavenly God leaders outside the secret territory.

“If I’m not wrong, that purple-haired girl must have combined a simplified battle formation, where three puppets are equivalent to one person. The three puppets’ ability isn’t a simple matter of compounding either.”

“Little Princess Kylie is performing pretty well too. She must have known the purple-haired girl for a long time. This sort of tacit understanding can’t be developed in a mere short period.”

After a full day of major battles in the secret prisoner territory, both girls headed straight to the domain of the second-rank Heavenly God prisoners early the next day and began a new round of hunting.

The first target the duo chose was a Demonic Eight-Eyed Ape.

This Demonic Ape had mastered two god sequence chains—Superhuman Strength and Vajrapani. It had prodigious strength and unparalleled defenses; it was also an expert in close-quarter combat.

Its overall ability could be considered top-tier among the second-rank Heavenly Gods.

In reality, the two girls had chosen this hunting target not to kill it but to test the waters.

For one, Bloody wanted to find out the limits of her battle formation consisting of three first-rank Heavenly God convicts. For another, Kylie wanted to find out how far her most powerful attack could go.

With these goals in mind, the two girls invaded the Demonic Eight-Eyed Ape’s territory.

The ape did not beat around the bush either; the battle started immediately.

Bloody controlled the battle formation consisting of the three convicts and took the initiative to charge at the Demonic Eight-Eyed Ape. Meanwhile, Kylie watched the battle from the sidelines just like before.

The giant shadow of a blood-red ape consolidated in the air and collided with the Demonic Eight-Eyed Ape.

The collision of the two massive silhouettes, one black, and one red, caused Divine Power to surge in all directions.

It seemed as if they were evenly matched, but as soon as the collision happened, Bloody knew a direct attack would not win the battle.

Judging by the pressure coming from the battle formation, the opponent had the upper hand in terms of suppression.

On second thought, Bloody immediately controlled the battle formation and changed her modus operandi of battle.

She retreated far away at once from the massive energy surging from her opponent, offloading the majority of the force of the attack.

Seeing that the giant ape shadow had not settled down yet and that the Demonic Eight-Eyed Ape wanted to seize the opportunity to go after it, Kylie could not help making her move.

Her spear stabbed holes through the void, which turned into hundreds of purplish-red lightning arcs that blocked the Demonic Ape’s way.

As soon the giant ape shadow finished offloading the impact not too far away, Bloody took control and sent it charging at the Demonic Eight-Eyed Ape to prevent the monster from changing its battle target.

Kylie’s attack earlier was clearly not to snatch the target away, but to help Bloody.

This time, it was obvious to anyone not blind.

Fortunately, Bloody managed to draw the Demonic Eight-Eyed Ape’s attention back to herself, while Kylie also became aware of her own mistake. She stopped attacking and did not participate in the fight.

The group of Heavenly God leaders watching outside the secret territory also did not say anything.

The leaders from God Capital merely frowned and said nothing either.

The battle in the secret territory surprised nobody.

The giant ape shadow was suppressed by the Demonic Eight-Eyed Ape throughout the close combat between the two gigantic monsters.

Bloody had been controlling the giant ape shadow to avoid a head-on collision. She destroyed the attacks with her agility and countered the threats one after another. However, her attack did not cause any substantial harm to the Demonic Eight-Eyed Ape.

The battle lasted for almost three hours, but she decided to give up in the end.

Meanwhile, Kylie, who had been watching the battle from the sidelines, immediately began the second stage of combat.

She showcased her upper hand as soon as she began fighting.

She dominated her opponent with her speed and agility while she dodged all of its attacks with ease. Not only that, due to her extremely swift and stealthy attacks, most of her blows managed to hit the Demonic Eight-Eyed Ape.

Ray upon ray of purplish-red lightning shot out at different angles and in various forms. However, they merely caused a little bit of external injury at most every time they struck the Demonic Eight-Eyed Ape. These wounds recovered almost immediately.

Although Kylie had a massive advantage in speed, she was defeated by her opponent’s defenses. Her attack power was even weaker than Bloody’s battle formation shadow, and she could not cause any effective harm to the Demonic Eight-Eyed Ape at all.

Nevertheless, Kylie was unwilling to give up and tried for close to two hours, even though she knew she could not break through its defenses. In the end, she had no choice but to abandon her attempts.

However, the Demonic Eight-Eyed Ape had been enraged by the duo and was not planning on letting them leave just like that. One must know that it had been disturbed for over five hours for no reason by the both of them taking turns to attack it.

Although it had the advantage over Kylie and Bloody in terms of strength and defenses, it was far inferior to Kylie where speed was concerned.

Kylie flapped her wings and flew away immediately after putting Bloody and the three convicts away in her God Territory. It took her only less than three minutes to shake off the Demonic Eight-Eyed Ape that had been pursuing her.

Despite the two girls being unsuccessful in this battle, they had still attracted the attention of many Heavenly God leaders outside the secret territory.

Some even sympathized with them, thinking that they had picked the wrong opponent.

However, some of the Heavenly God leaders could tell that the two girls had deliberately provoked the Demonic Eight-Eyed Ape on purpose.

On the surveillance camera, Kylie released Bloody from her God Territory after shaking off the Demonic Eight-Eyed Ape on her heels.

Although this battle had been a failure, they did not give up at all. They continued heading towards their next target while beginning to review the earlier fight…

Lin Huang felt that the time spent hunting in the secret prisoner territory went by very quickly.

By the time he elevated to sixth-rank True God, it was already the last three days before the secret territory closed.

He had not actually forgotten the main reason for entering the secret prisoner territory this time. It was just that he had not been able to find a particularly opportune moment to meet up with Kylie and Bloody.

Since he could sense his summoning beasts’ coordinates at all times, his choice of hunting targets throughout this half-a-month seemed random, but in reality, he was heading closer to where the two girls were.

Bloody and Kylie could also sense where Lin Huang was; as they hunted, they too were approaching closer in his direction.

On the second day after Lin Huang elevated to sixth-rank True God—which was also three days before the secret territory closed—he suddenly chose a prisoner located close to the border of the first-rank and second-rank Heavenly God domains.

Kylie and Bloody picked a second-rank Heavenly God prisoner close to the border at almost the same time as well.

The two territories were less than six hundred kilometers apart.

Very soon, the Heavenly God leaders outside the secret territory noticed this unusual situation.

“The target that the little princess from the Nephilic Judge Tribe picked is so close to the one Xiu Mu chose!”

“Those two girls won’t encounter Xiu Mu face-to-face, will they?!”

“They’re too close to each other. There’s a high possibility of them sensing each other as soon as the waves from the battles spread. I wonder if Xiu Mu will go investigate out of curiosity.”

“It doesn’t really matter even if they encounter each other. All the participants know the hunting rules in the secret prisoner territory. The possibility of Xiu Mu attacking the two girls is low.”

Although most people believed that Lin Huang would not attack the duo, the Nephilic Judge Tribe team leader still displayed a rather unpleasant expression.

He would not be as worried if Kylie were to encounter any other top-tier True God powerhouses apart from Xiu Mu and Virtuoso.

However, she was unfortunate enough to encounter Xiu Mu this time—an unbelievable genius whose ability could completely crush third-rank Heavenly Gods.

Although the rules said that attacking participants was not allowed in the secret territory, the lines were very blurred.

The organizers would turn a blind eye on the participants as long as nobody was killed or incapacitated.

Moreover, Xiu Mu also had his battle with Virtuoso as precedence. It would not be surprising if he attacked other participants.

The group of Heavenly God leaders was still discussing this topic outside the secret territory.

Meanwhile, Kylie and Bloody had arrived in the domain where their target was and had initiated combat.

The battle between the two girls and the second-rank Heavenly God prisoner had only just begun for less than twenty minutes before Lin Huang arrived where his target was as well. He began hunting a third-rank Heavenly God prisoner.

In reality, the three of them already knew they had arrived at this distance from each other, even without using telepathic voice transmission.

The three of them did not display anything out of the ordinary, behaving as usual.

In the surveillance monitors, it seemed as if they were not aware of each other’s existence at all.

As usual, Lin Huang overwhelmed his opponent just as he had done on previous occasions, taking only twenty minutes or so to kill his prey.

However, after killing his opponent and storing the monster carcass away, he suddenly lifted his head and stared toward the distant sky.

There were streaks of faint purplish-red lightning illuminating in the clouds in that direction.

This gesture caused the Nephilic Judge Tribe leader watching outside the secret territory to have a moment of tension.

The rest of the Heavenly Gods watching the battle were staring at the surveillance screen as well, not wanting to miss a single thing.

A couple of seconds later, Lin Huang moved in a flash, swiftly heading in the direction of the purplish-red lightning streaks.

“As expected, they’ve been discovered…”

Someone among the Heavenly God team leaders could not help sighing.

It took Lin Huang merely the space of a few breaths to cross the distance of over five hundred kilometers.

When Kylie was still fighting the second-rank Heavenly God prisoner, he revealed himself completely, standing upright in the void less than a hundred meters from the battleground.

Bloody immediately looked up at him, her expression guarded and vigilant. Her acting skills were perfect.

Lin Huang merely glanced at her without a word.

However, Kylie, who was currently fighting, was clearly a little distracted.

She was actually not acting at all; she was genuinely distracted by sensing Lin Huang’s aura near her again.

“Being distracted during a battle is a cardinal sin,” Lin Huang reminded her immediately. “Don’t mind me. I sensed the energy waves and thought I would stop in on the way to check it out.”

Although he said this, Lin Huang had no intention of leaving at all. Instead, he crossed his arms and watched the battle, sitting in the void with his legs crossed.

Kylie hurriedly focused after hearing Lin Huang’s reminder and put herself entirely in battle mode.

Outside the battleground, Bloody was watching Kylie’s fight while keeping her guard up at Lin Huang.

“Who are you?”

Bloody’s acting skills were perfect. As Xiu Mu had only risen to prominence since entering the secret territory, by all normal logic, she certainly would not know who he was. Moreover, as the best friend of the Nephilic Judge Tribe’s little princess, it even made sense for her to not know anyone else, other than a few top-tier True Gods.

“Xiu Mu from Death Sickle,” Lin Huang disclosed his identity and looked at Bloody with a smile. “I’ve seen the both of you outside the territory—the Nephilic Judge Tribe’s little princess and her best friend.”

Bloody’s face turned pale upon hearing Lin Huang’s identity; it seemed that she was shocked by his name. However, she remained stern as she spoke, “Good that you know then. You’d better not plot anything against us!”

Lin Huang displayed both his hands while smiling, implying that he had no intention of attacking.

However, Bloody clearly did not let her guard down, still looking rather displeased.

“Girl, I heard the little princess is getting married?” Lin Huang asked, testing the waters while smiling.

“No, that’s fake news!” Bloody denied right away. In reality, she said this on purpose for the benefit of the many organizations that were watching through the surveillance video. “Sister Kylie isn’t impressed by stupid men like you! She’s going to elevate to Supreme God rank-6 and dominate all you supreme geniuses!”

“Oh, I see…” Lin Huang cupped his chin, looking like he was in deep thought.

Outside the secret territory, after hearing Bloody’s comments, the numerous Heavenly God leaders realized immediately that Kylie herself had no intention of getting married.

The Nephilic Judge Tribe team leader looked rather embarrassed. Naturally, he knew of Kylie’s aspirations. However, he was just like the upper echelons of the Nephilic Judge Tribe and thought that she did not possess such ability. Only by marrying her off would the Tribe benefit most of all.

The Heavenly God leaders saw the awkward expression on the Nephilic Judge Tribe leader’s face and felt even more certain that the arrangements for marriage were against Kylie’s will.

Although some organizations did not mind that and felt that what she wanted did not matter as long as the marriage happened, other organizations felt that a forced marriage would bring hidden misfortunes with it. They began considering whether or not they should abandon their plans for proposing marriage.

What everyone did not know was that right under the surveillance cameras, Lin Huang had crushed five Supreme God rank-5 Advance Cards secretly and imbued them into Kylie’s body. This would help her break through the most important hurdle and successfully elevate to sixth-rank Supreme God…