1271-1280

Chapter 1271: A Call from the Club

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

After sending Buried Heaven off, Lin Huang began playing with the mask in his hands.

He was elated to see this golden mask that was shining under the sunlight.

The most important function of this god sequence relic that was named Thousand Face was to disguise. As long as one's size did not vary too much, there would not be any flaws in the disguise. Moreover, this god sequence relic could even deceive most heavenly god-level powerhouses.

Apart from that, as a god sequence relic, it had a rather great defense, especially for spiritual attacks and detections. It was immune to almost all spiritual attacks under high-level heavenly god-level. Not only that, it could block most Heaven Gods' spiritual detections. As long as he did not encounter any peak-level heavenly god-level powerhouses who mastered Spiritual secret skills or was born with spiritual ability, almost none of them would be able to see through the disguise coming from the mask.

"This is good stuff. With this mask, my activity range in the God Territory would no longer be limited to Shelters under grade-4. I can go to grade-4 and even grade-5 Shelters now. I'm mostly safe as long as I don't step into grade-6 Shelters with peak-level Heavenly Gods as their guardian."

Lin Huang merely played with Thousand Face for a moment, which he then kept it in his storage space. He clicked into the document that Buried Heaven sent him.

It was a document about the Great Heaven Territory. Naturally, the details could not compare with the information that Bloody found on the internet.

This document was close to being the most confidential document in God Territory's top organizations.

Not only were there rough star maps of the Great Heaven Territory, but there were also details about planets that had been explored, including the variety of species that appeared in the Great Heaven Territory. Everything was listed in detail.

"It's been 360,000 years since the Great Heaven Territory has been discovered. It opens every 100 years, so it's been opened for over 3,600 times by now. If 300 people entered every time it was opened, there should be a total of 1.08 million people who had explored it."

"After the exploration of up to a million people, the speculated data says that only less than 1/10 of the Great Heaven Territory has been explored?" Lin Huang was puzzled with this at first.

Theoretically, virtual god-level powerhouses had powerful mobility. With some dimensional tools, one could explore at least tens of planets within a month. Moreover, encountering Great Heaven Territory's local species would allow one to obtain any information about the Great Heaven Territory. The exploration rate should not be this low.

However, he found out the reason as he read further.

"There are so many species in the Great Heaven Territory? Was that guy a fanatic species collector?!"

There were hundreds of thousands of species in the Great Heaven Territory. There were up to ten thousand monsters alone.

Most of the monsters either had some unique bloodline, stunning potential or they were insanely powerful. In a nutshell, the monsters that he kept in the God Territory were not some gentle monsters.

He had caught one or two for a certain monster, and he brought in the entire tribe for some of them.

Since he died, the variety of monsters in the Great Heaven Territory had been reproducing. Throughout the up to a million years, although some tribes were eliminated through time, many tribes had evolved into a population. (The 360,000 years mentioned earlier was the duration since the Great Heaven Territory was discovered, not the duration it existed.)

Among those tribes, some monsters were born to be class-4 (quadruple mutated). Even though some of them were not class-4, they possessed powerful, unique bloodlines, which ability should not be underestimated.

Most of their combat strength was above virtual god-level. There were even True Gods and Heavenly Gods.

Those tribes' territorial range were distributed throughout most of Great Heaven Territory's areas.

Meanwhile, most of the tribes in the Great Heaven Territory were unfriendly to foreigners.

The reason being, the first batch of explorers who went in 360,000 years ago thought there were no powerful monsters in the secret zone. That resulted in them looting resources as they wished and harming the local creatures. It enraged the local tribes. Since then, killing foreigners was considered a glory for the various tribes in the Great Heaven Territory. They perceived the foreigners to be some foreign demons.

Throughout the tens of thousands of years since then, the death rate of the people who went in were 100% every time the Great Heaven Territory was opened. Lesser and lesser participants went in until a survivor escaped from the Great Heaven Territory and it was only then the people found out about the situation inside the Great Heaven Territory.

Later on, the God Territory had been trying to send people in to communicate with the locals in the Great Heaven Territory. The hostility only calmed a little during the past 100,000 years.

However, most tribes were still hostile toward foreigners. Although they would not start a fight as soon as they encounter each other, they would prohibit them from entering and refuse to communicate. The most they accepted was some supply trading.

The slow exploration progress of the Great Heaven Territory was mainly due to those tribes' unwillingness to cooperate and obstruction, causing the prohibition to explore in many places.

Lin Huang finally realized why Buried Heaven lent him Thousand Face.

"He sure is thoughtful! With Thousand Face, I can disguise myself as their local resident and retrieve information that the rest can't. Not only that, under Thousand Face's disguise, I'm almost free to invade anywhere I desire. There's a high chance that even some heavenly god-level guardians among some tribes can't see through my disguise."

Lin Huang proceeded to read further after finding out the reason for the painfully slow exploration.

Using about half an hour, he read through the document carefully. He then spent another ten minutes making sure that he did not miss anything.

He then began to conclude some of the matters that he should take note of.

No.1, apart from the local tribes that he could communicate with, there were dangerous species that existed on some of the planets in the Great Heaven Territory. They could not be communicated with normally, they had intense territorial consciousness and attack instinct. One would easily be attacked as soon as one stepped into the territory of such species.

No.2, there were Bug Tribes in the Great Heaven Territory and the population was unknown. However, the Bug Tribes were also the other tribes' common enemy.

No.3, someone found humans in the Great Heaven Territory, but nobody knew much about the human population in this world.

No.4, there's a certain chance that Great Heaven's inheritance and secret treasures were hidden in some major tribe's territory.

…

After coming up with the conclusions, Lin Huang compared them with the document. He only turned off the document's projection after making sure that everything was aligned.

As he was going to study deeper into the precautions of the conclusions that he came up with, his communication device vibrated all of a sudden.

"An unidentified number?" Lin Huang was suspicious.

It was an unidentified number that had sent a call request. Theoretically, he only had the communication ring for a couple of days. Nobody should know his number.

"Could it be some advertisement?" With doubts, Lin Huang decided to answer the call.

"Hi, Lin Huang."

Lin Huang could not help but squinted a little as soon as the person greeted. He had his full guard up now.

"Don't worry, I'm the mission issuer from the Club." The voice on the other side of the communication device sounded like it came from a synthesizer.

"Club? How did you guys get this number?" Lin Huang was suspicious.

"We know everything that we want to know," the person on the other side of the communication device gave a boastful answer. "Alright, let's cut to the chase. I have missions for you."

"Can I reject them? I am very busy lately. I remember that you guys said I have the definite freedom of choice when you guys asked me to join back then." Although Lin Huang joined this mysterious organization named Club after passing through the Stairway Tree, he had no sense of belonging to the organization. Since he was going into the Great Heaven Territory, he did not bother to put more onto his plate. Naturally, he chose to decline it directly.

"The two missions that I'm assigning to you are missions in the Great Heaven Territory," the person on the other side spoke directly.

"How do you guys know that I'm going into the Great Heaven Territory? Buried Heaven told me that only he and the seven Blood Sickle members know about this quota that was given to me. Is there a mole among the seven Blood Sickle members?!"

"We know everything that we want to know," the person on the other side gave the same answer that did not seem like an answer.

"Alright then…" Lin Huang was helpless toward such a rascal. He did not bother to beat around the bush with the person and asked, "What's the mission reward?"

"I can only tell you if you accept the missions. All that I can share with you now is that the rewards are handsome, you definitely won't be disappointed."

Lin Huang was finally interested after hearing that.

"What are the missions?"

"The first mission, retrieve the Heavenly Sword's scabbard."

"Second mission, bring a kid named Jin Wu out of the Great Heaven Territory."

Chapter 1272: Generous

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

After accepting the Great Heaven Territory's mission, Lin Huang went into closed-door cultivation once again.

He continued cultivating Seamless again during this round of closed-door cultivation.

The reason why he cultivated Seamless was that there would be a direct boost in his abilities with each telekinetic thread he obtained.

Although there was room for improvement for his Sword Dao as well, not only would he have to spend a great amount of time to break through level-6 which was Deity, he would have to find an opportunity for that breakthrough.

Fortunately, the cultivation speed of Seamless had gotten a few folds faster ever since he had ascended to imperial-level rank-9.

Compared to the additional 100 telekinetic threads per hour previously, it was currently 300 threads per hour.

He only cultivated for 12 hours on the first day. Nevertheless, he managed to gain 3,600 telekinetic threads. Hence, he had a total of 58,100 telekinetic threads.

The number of telekinetic threads he had had increased by heaps.

For six consecutive days, Lin Huang did not eat, drink, nor rest as he immersed himself in cultivating Seamless.

By the middle of the night on the sixth day, he had accumulated 100,000 telekinetic threads!

He was at the peak of Seamless' level-6 cultivation.

Lin Huang was finally, completely sure that the legend of Qi Muxiong controlling 108,000 telekinetic threads at the same time was not all that he had mastered.

The reason being, the peak of Seamless' level-6 was 100,000 telekinetic threads. Hence, the limit of the number telekinetic threads would be 300,000 threads once one had gotten to the next level, which was level-7.

Furthermore, according to the memory he had inherited, Qi Muxiong had actually cultivated Seamless to the peak of level-8. Following Seamless' level-8 description, he should have been able to control a million telekinetic threads.

"I'm still very far away from reaching Qi Muxiong's level." Lin Huang could not help but compare himself with Qi Muxiong. "Fortunately, my spirit is powerful enough since I've ascended to imperial-level rank-9. Level-6 isn't my limit."

Lin Huang did not perform a breakthrough right after he got to the peak of level-6. Instead, he rested where he was and ate some snacks. After he was done eating, he slept for a full 12 hours before he sat with his legs crossed again. Then, he adjusted his body to his peak and began constructing the path to Seamless' level-7 in his spirit.

Perhaps there was a great boost in his spirit as the construction went incredibly smoothly. He was completely done in half an hour.

As he employed Divine Telekinesis and began a circulatory cycle, he officially stepped into level-7 of Seamless.

The breakthrough in Seamless gave Lin Huang a clear sense whereby there was a boost in his Divine Telekinesis.

His spirit and Divine Telekinesis were already at the peak of Virtual God rank-9 when he ascended to imperial-level rank-9. This breakthrough had brought Lin Huang's Divine Telekinesis to True God standard.

"With the intensity of my Divine Telekinesis now, I should be able to control god rule telekinetic weapon relics. Although I won't be able to activate their God Rule Powers, the intensity should be enough to surpass ordinary god relics." Lin Huang did not waste any time after checking the changes in his telekinetic power. A short while later, he immersed himself in his spirit and began another round of closed-door cultivation.

The cultivation of level-7 Seamless was slightly slower than that of its level-6. He could only grow 200 telekinetic threads per hour.

However, Lin Huang chose to cultivate without resting. The number of telekinetic threads he had did not stop increasing by 4,800 each day.

Time flew by, and 21 days passed just like that.

Lin Huang only stopped cultivating after he had accumulated 200,000 telekinetic threads.

He did not stop because it was the limit of the number of telekinetic threads, he stopped because the Great Heaven Territory would open in three days.

After he had stopped cultivating, Lin Huang spent less than ten minutes eating some snacks and drinking some water. He then went to sleep.

His sleep went on for almost two nights.

It was one day before he was to go into the Great Heaven Territory when he woke up.

"Sleep sure is refreshing!" Lin Huang had never felt better after waking up from his sleep.

"Now I'll purchase some stuff before going into the secret zone. However, there's something I need to do before that," Lin Huang mumbled to himself as he logged in to Royal's trading page.

After clicking into the telekinetic weapon page, Lin Huang filtered the selection to only god rule relics and sorted the items based on their price from low to high.

Although that was the case, the trading conditions of the first telekinetic weapon that met Lin Huang's caused him to inhale sharply.

"3,200 Divine Crystals! We only accept Divine Crystals or expert-grade god rule sword relics."

"3,200 Divine Crystals means 32 million Divine Stones, and they don't take Divine Stones…"

Although the ratio of Divine Crystals to Divine Stones was 1:10000 based on their value, nobody would be willing to trade Divine Stones for Divine Crystals. Even if someone really needed Divine Stones, they would trade for them in blackmarkets. The ratio was at least 1:13000 or even more.

Lin Huang looked helpless. In order to purchase the earlier two god rule relics, apart from the equipment he had kept for himself, he had sold almost all of his god relics and demigod relics for Divine Stones. He only had some 20 million Divine Stones with him at that moment. He did not even have a single Divine Crystal with him. Even if he was eager to purchase the item, he could not even afford a god rule relic.

Out of curiosity, Lin Huang proceeded to look further down the page.

The number of telekinetic weapons on the page was very little after he had set the filter. There was only a total of 106 items.

The cheapest one cost 3,200 Divine Crystals. However, there were only three items that were priced below 4,000 Divine Crystals. Most of the remaining ones were priced between 4,000 to 7,000 Divine Crystals. The most expensive one was priced at 28,000 Divine Crystals.

Meanwhile, all of the telekinetic weapons on the entire page could either be traded for Divine Crystals or by following other trading conditions. However, none of them allowed the trading of Divine Stones.

Lin Huang thought about it after aborting his plan to purchase a god rule relic. He filtered the page again whereby he included low-grade items. He also changed 'god rule relic' to 'god relic'.

Changes took place on the page immediately.

The sorting settings of the marketplace was the same, and the price of the first telekinetic weapon that appeared was 340,000 Divine Stones.

There was an adequate amount of god telekinetic weapon relics whereby there were a total of 281 items.

Lin Huang glanced through the page and scrolled to the bottom.

The most expensive item cost 1.8 million Divine Stones. However, there was a remark on its trading condition, '20% discount if purchased with Divine Crystals'.

"Expert-grade items are all priced above 800,000. I already have a god telekinetic weapon relic, but I need at least two to three more sets to accumulate enough telekinetic threads. I need at least 2.4 million to purchase them…" Lin Huang did not place the order after thinking through it for a while.

Although he had enough Divine Stones to purchase god telekinetic weapon relics, he thought that it would be a waste. He could activate god rule relics now. Moreover, his enemies would at least be true god-level powerhouses from now on. He would only use the god relics a few times if he were to purchase them.

"It would be great if I could rent them…" Lin Huang's eyes lit up as soon as he mumbled that out loud.

As he projected his contacts page, he soon found a stranger's number he had acquired a month ago. He made a call.

A moment later, the call connected.

"You told me before that I could look for you at any time if I have questions about missions," Lin Huang said directly before the person could speak.

"Tell me," the synthesized voice responded briefly.

"I want three to four sets of god rule telekinetic weapon relics. It would be best if they're the same or of similar models. It's sufficient if the weapons add up to 200,000 to 300,000 pieces in total after being disintegrated," Lin Huang gave his conditions once and for all. He paused for a moment before continuing, "Rent them to me for a month, give them to me in advance, or deduct the cost from my rewards later on.

"With the way how you handle things, there's no need for you to worry about me running away with those god rule relics…"

Lin Huang gave a bunch of details to prevent the person from declining his request. However, the person responded before he was done speaking.

"Sure. Three sets of telekinetic weapons, they'll be your gifts for joining us. I'll send them to you later.

"Anything else?"

"No," Lin Huang was not expecting the person to agree to his conditions so simply. Not only that, but they were going to give them to him as gifts.

The person on the other side hung up after hearing Lin Huang's reply.

When Lin Huang heard that the signal had been cut off from the communication device, it came to his mind that he had not asked how and when he would receive the stuff. The person had not asked for his address as well.

As he was debating whether or not he should send a text to ask him, a message suddenly popped up on his communication device.

"The stuff has been sent, please take note of the items' arrival."

"Already sent? Where did they send it?" Lin Huang looked around left and right. The cultivation room was minimalistic whereby he could see everything in a single glance. Nothing popped up.

"Check your storage space," the stone tablet in Lin Huang's body said to him through voice transmission.

Lin Huang then looked in his storage space. He found three big, golden birds covered in flames flying around. It was as if they were playing in his storage space.

He was stunned to see that. He subsequently realized that they were simulated beasts that had been made from the telekinetic weapons.

"They're of fire attribute, the simulated beasts seem to be phoenixes…" Lin Huang's eyes lit up as he looked at them. Judging by their aura, they're ultimate-grade god rule relics. If I can bring out the God Rule Power in them, together with sufficient Divine Telekinesis, I bet I can kill a ninth-rank True God."

"They gave me three sets of god rule relics without even blinking, so generous!" Lin Huang finally realized that he seemed to have joined a terrific organization.

Chapter 1273: Four Quotas

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

After having got his hands on the three sets of god rule relic telekinetic weapons, Lin Huang purchased some food and water. He was finally done with all of the necessary preparations before he went into the secret zone.

He rested for the night. At approximately eight the next morning, someone knocked on his hotel room door not long after he had finished his breakfast.

Lin Huang knew that the Death Sickle had probably sent someone to pick him up.

A tall lady stood in front of him when he opened the door.

Her legs were so long that they could compare to Yi Yeyu's. Her skin was healthily tanned, and her red hair barely touched her earlobes. If one had to point out any flaws, it was her chest that was almost flat.

Lin Huang was taken aback a little when he saw the lady, it was his first time seeing another human ever since he had come to the great world.

However, the thought merely flashed past his mind. He immediately realized that the person was not human at all but a real Protoss. The human form he was seeing was just the mortal form of the person's three forms.

The lady took a good look at Lin Huang as well.

However, since Lin Huang was covered in the black robe and Thousand Face mask the Buried Heaven had given him, he was shielded from being detected from the outside. Hence, she could not sense anything about him at all.

Since she could not find anything, she did not bother to try. Instead, she spoke directly to confirm his identity.

"Are you Xie Lin?"

"That's me." Lin Huang nodded.

"Master Buried Heaven sent me to pick you up."

"Let's go then." Lin Huang had checked out of the hotel when he was having his breakfast.

The lady nodded and summoned a Dragnet Spider.

The Dragnet Spider was completely white, and it was so much more decent than the one he had seen before. He knew that such spiders came in many colors.

"To the headquarters," the lady ordered. Then, the little white spider waved its front crawls as if it was doing a fancy dance on her palm. Following that, a Dimensional Whirlpool appeared out of thin air.

The little spider then spat two spider webs that clung onto Lin Huang and the lady before they leaped into the Dimensional Whirlpool.

A moment later, when Lin Huang had just managed to stand still, he realized he was standing before a humongous building.

Skyscrapers could be seen around the humongous building when one looked over. There were monsters of all forms traveling in the air, and it was crowded. The hustle and bustle was nothing below a grade-A foothold or more in the human world.

"Follow me." The lady did not even turn her head, and she walked straight toward the humongous building's entrance.

Lin Huang caught up to her immediately.

The duo walked through the door with one in front of the other as they entered the building.

There was a gigantic lobby behind the door. Monsters of all kinds crowded the place, there were strong and weak auras among them.

Lin Huang could clearly sense that many of them were on virtual god-level and true god-level. There were also two auras that terrified him. They were most probably the heavenly god-level powerhouse guards.

However, Lin Huang had not sensed any of them amidst the sea of auras until he had walked through the door.

The lady slowed down as she continued to walk toward the lobby. She turned her head to peep at Lin Huang, she seemed to want to see if he had revealed anything. However, she then looked away after failing to get anything out of him.

"We will meet at meeting room No.1 first."

The lady walked toward the left side of the lobby after saying that.

Lin Huang asked rather curiously when he caught up to her, "Are you one of the participants too?"

"Do I look like one?" The lady stopped walking and turned her head to look at Lin Huang. She asked as she raised her brows.

"You do," Lin Huang was stunned for a second to which he nodded and then responded expressionlessly. He almost forgot that he portrayed Xie Lin as a cold person.

The lady did not bother starting an awkward conversation after hearing Lin Huang had given her such a brief response. She proceeded to walk forward.

Lin Huang thought he would say something wrong if he talked more, so he decided not to speak at all.

The duo passed through the lobby and through a corridor before they finally arrived at meeting room No.1.

The meeting room was small, and it was merely 50 to 60 square meters big. There was a meeting table in the middle of the room.

Apart from Lin Huang and the lady, there was nobody else in the meeting room.

"The other two should arrive by 8:30, let's take a seat first," the lady said as she got herself a seat.

Lin Huang sat down two seats away from her.

The lady then projected her screen and began playing games. She ignored Lin Huang's existence completely.

On the other hand, Lin Huang began looking at the news.

Some ten minutes later, someone pushed open the meeting room door. Lin Huang turned his head to look, it was a young man who was so handsome that he looked flawless. He looked like he was in his early 20s.

"I thought I was the first to arrive, how's it possible that you're here earlier than me, Fallen Star? Don't you always have trouble waking up in the morning?"

"I had a mission this morning." The lady pouted in Lin Huang's direction without lifting her head. She continued playing her games while ignoring the rest.

"Eh, are you the one who got the fourth quota?" The young man seemed to only pay heed to Lin Huang's existence.

He walked toward Lin Huang as if he knew him and pulled a chair over to sit. He began observing Lin Huang from a close distance.

"Aren't you warm, wrapping yourself like that?"

The young man began chatting him up while smiling since he was unable to sense anything from him.

"No."

"Can you just sit still and not disturb anyone, Destiny?" The lady named Fallen Star lifted her head to glare at the young man.

"I'm just curious about him, aren't you?"

"It was Master Buried Heaven who appointed him the quota," Fallen Star responded coldly, "If you have any questions, ask Master Buried Heaven yourself."

Hearing the name Buried Heaven, the young man could not help but withdraw his neck. "I shall keep quiet…"

As soon as the young man finished speaking, two female voices were heard in unison coming from the door. It sounded like two little girls were talking.

"If we're not mistaken, he should be the mysterious man who killed Wine Ant Queen and Spider Empress two months ago."

A lady with two heads walked in as the meeting room's door was pushed open.

The lady with two heads looked around 12 to 13 years old. She wore a white dress.

"Is Twin right about that, sir?" the lady's two mouths asked at the same time as she chuckled.

As the lady gave her name, Lin Huang was sure that they were the participants who were going to join him in the mission, They were the top three on the Black Sickle Leaderboard.

They were Fallen Star, Destiny and Twin.

The three of them were also the outstanding virtual god-level powerhouses who ranked on the top of the Virtual God Leaderboard of the Gods Leaderboard.

Fallen Star ranked No.4 on the Virtual God Leaderboard, while Density ranked No.10. On the other hand, Twin ranked No.17.

"He killed the Wine Ant Queen and Spider Empress?" Fallen Star paused the game she was playing and lifted her head to look at Lin Huang in shock.

"I assume you guys checked the information exchange section even though you guys don't check the forum, am I right?" Twin's left head asked.

However, her right head replied immediately, "The thread on the information exchange section was deleted less than half a day after it was posted. It makes sense that they didn't see it. Also, the thread on the forum was deleted after it was posted for less than two days ago."

"You're talking about the thread on the information exchange section? I saw that, but I didn't click into it after seeing the title." Destiny pouted. "I thought the thread was deleted later on? It proves that it was fake even more."

"The person before us knows the best whether it's real or fake," Twin's both heads said at the same time.

Lin Huang could only nod lightly, seeing that the three of them were looking at him in unison. "I considered killing them, I used some tricks."

A gleam of shock flashed through Fallen Star's eyes hearing that.

Meanwhile, Destiny's face had an expression of shock as he was stunned.

Only the twin sisters who had guessed the truth were rather calm. However, excitement was written on their faces.

The doubt the three of them had was gone since Lin Huang himself had admitted that Buried Heaven was the one who had given him the quota.

The three of them were aware at that moment that the thread had been deleted not because it was fake. Instead, it was to protect the mysterious man before them.

Although Lin Huang had told them that he had used some tricks, the three of them were sure that he was way stronger than them. After all, no matter how many tricks the three of them used, they would not have been able to take the lives of the Bug Queens with the presence of hundreds of millions of Bug Tribe armies.

"Big brother, you're my big brother from now on! You must cover me in the secret zone!" Destiny held onto Lin Huang's arm with an exaggerated expression on his face.

"No matter how close you stay with him, he won't be able to cover you. No two people have ever been teleported to the same place by the Great Heaven Territory," Fallen Star said while pouting.

"It's okay. We can add each other's contacts, so we can keep in touch even after we get out of the Great Heaven Territory," Twin's right head said while smiling. Her left head agreed immediately, "That's right, let's keep in touch!"

Lin Huang did not have the heart to decline Twin's suggestion.

Twin and Destiny added Lin Huang's number immediately. Meanwhile, Fallen Star seemed to be holding onto her dignity whereby she sat still.

After adding both of them, Lin Huang turned his head to look at Fallen Star. "Let's add each other's contacts."

Fallen Star only nodded in agreement then.

A young man appeared in the meeting room without anyone noticing while the four of them were adding each other's contacts.

"It's rather crowded here."

The four of them turned their heads immediately to look at the source of the voice.

"Master Buried Heaven!"

Chapter 1274: The Opening of the Great Heaven Territory

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

"Please sit down," Buried Heaven invited, before taking his place at the head of the table. Lin Huang and the other three resumed their seats as well.

"I assume all of you are acquainted with each other?"

Seeing that they all nodded, Buried Heaven continued, "Then let's talk business."

"All of you should have already gone through the information sent to you on the known facts about the Great Heaven Territory, as well as some precautions that you need to take note of, so I won't waste time repeating it.

"Although your official mission in the Great Heaven Territory this time is to retrieve both the inheritance and the secret treasures, in essence, it's a test of survival. The real mission is for you to return alive. After all, the Great Heaven Territory is extensive; furthermore, nobody knows where the inheritance and the secret treasures are hidden. Whether you manage to retrieve them or not will depend greatly on luck.

"You will be randomly teleported into the Great Heaven Territory. It's highly unlikely that you'll encounter other participants, but we can't entirely rule out the possibility either. There are 300 people taking part in the hunt this time. Most of them are geniuses on the Virtual God Leaderboard; there's also a handful of supreme geniuses who have been secretly trained by the major organizations. We shouldn't underestimate them. If you do run into any of them, please be careful."

At this, Fallen Star and the others could not help glancing in Lin Huang's direction.

"As the teleportation is random, the chances of you being teleported to areas not on the map are fairly high. If you come across some unknown tribes or species, don't attack impulsively…"

Buried Heaven spent a few minutes more emphasizing several other points, before checking the time and standing up.

"It's almost time. I'll take you over there."

He shook his sleeve as he spoke and a little green thumb-sized snake flew out of it, landing on the meeting table.

Ling Huang was given no chance to react. All he had time to notice was that the little snake opened its mouth slightly before it swallowed him up completely—he was helpless to do anything about it.

If one were watching from the sidelines, one would be able to observe Lin Huang and his three companions shrinking rapidly as soon as the little snake opened its mouth. They turned into four tiny specks and were swallowed up.

Once the little black snake had devoured Lin Huang and his companions, it turned and returned to Buried Heaven's sleeve, quick as a flash.1

The next second, Buried Heaven abruptly vanished from the meeting room.

Lin Huang felt a little woozy. After a brief moment of darkness, he felt overcome by another round of dizziness.

Once he recovered his balance enough to stand properly and come to his senses, he realized that he was suspended in a starry sky.

A brawny bruiser of a man, about three meters in height, was standing next to him. The man's head was shiny and completely bald; however, he had a thick beard and was heavily muscled.

Lin Huang was startled for a moment before realizing that this was how Buried Heaven looked like in his videos online. This seemed to have been his public persona in the outside world all the while.

Fallen Star and the other two members of the group were here as well. However, they did not seem at all surprised at Buried Heaven's appearance.

"Buried Heaven, it looks like you've been pretty free lately. You've even got the time to bring participants to the Great Heaven Territory's trial," a voice called suddenly from not too far away.

Only then did Lin Huang notice that their team was not the only one in this space.

There were at least 20 teams around. The person who had hailed Buried Heaven was from the team with the most people—a total of 13 members.

Lin Huang vaguely sensed that this individual seemed to have abilities on par with Buried Heaven, and, like Buried Heaven, was also a leader.

However, this same individual was very handsome. Clad in full golden armor that shone from head to toe, his gaze was coolly arrogant. Lin Huang could not help but mock him secretly.

'Does he think he's Gilgamesh1?'

"You really do talk a lot of nonsense, King Kong," Buried Heaven responded expressionlessly from where he was standing to the side.

Lin Huang's pupils contracted a little when he heard the name King Kong. Although the man's name was the same as the gorilla in the famous movie, this was not what Lin Huang was thinking about.

In the documents that Bloody had given him, there were mentions of this particular individual.

Like Buried Heaven, King Kong was one of the few peak heavenly god-level powerhouses in the God Territory who were closest to becoming Lords.

Despite his name, King Kong was not a combat cultivator specializing in melee weapons—rather, he was a genuine sword cultivator.

Lin Huang recalled very clearly that the organization King Kong belonged to was called God Capital. It was a grade-7 organization founded by a pureblood Protoss Lord.

King Kong was an elder in God Capital, a position that was on par with the few half-step Lords in the organization.

Clearly, this time, exploring the secret zone was important to God Capital as well.

"Sword and saber are irreconcilable. As a sword cultivator, Great Heaven always treated me as his most powerful opponent. It makes perfect sense that I'm here. You though, you're a combat cultivator, so why are you here looking for trouble?"

"I'll come as I please, what are you going to do about it?" Buried Heaven did not bother rising to the bait despite King Kong's needling.

"Hey, there's a new face on your team." King Kong swept a glance over Buried Heaven's group, his gaze stopping on Lin Huang, "He's bundled up securely enough already, do you still need to cast a shield layer around him, brat? All this mystery—don't tell me he's Death Sickle's secret weapon?"

Lin Huang had a shock when he heard this. Only now was he aware that Buried Heaven had secretly cast a layer of protection over him to prevent him from being detected by the Heavenly Gods. Even King Kong had not been able to discover who Lin Huang really was.

"I added a shield to prevent people like yourself from detecting him as and when you please," Buried Heaven retorted, not mincing words.

"Your straightforward character is what I like about you." King Kong did not seem to take offense to this at all. Instead, he said, grinning, "I think we would become great partners if you joined God Capital. We wouldn't have any opponents below Lord level. I don't know what's so good about Death Sickle when there aren't any Lords in the organization…"

"If you want me to join God Capital, that's fine by me. I'll be more than happy to take your place once you die," Buried Heaven interrupted King Kong, scoring a point verbally. This was not the first time King Kong had annoyed him with similar invitations.

"Hehe, I certainly don't want to die. Why don't you help me kill off one of God Capital's elders? You can join and take over his position…" King Kong's brazen suggestion about killing one of his own organization's elders in front of so many people shocked even the 12 God Capital participants behind him.

'What an insane bastard!' Lin Huang mentally labeled King Kong.

The conversation between the pair came to an abrupt end very quickly, thanks to Buried Heaven ignoring King Kong. The entire space finally settled back into its hitherto quiet state.

More and more organizations showed up as the time for the opening of the Great Heaven Territory drew nearer.

Lin Huang noticed that the few teams with a larger quota were grade-7 organizations guarded by Lords. Excluding the leaders, there were more than ten participants per team.

Almost all the other teams had less than five members. Only two teams had five members, while seven other teams, Death Sickle included, had four members. Most of the rest were small teams of two or three people; there were some ten teams that only had one participant each.

Clearly, the Great Heaven Territory's quota for the trial was not so easily obtained.

Everyone continued waiting; it was soon nine in the morning.

Precisely on the stroke of nine, an austere golden metal gate suddenly materialized out of thin air…

Chapter 1275: Unknown Planet

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

The metal gate was completely golden, its surface covered with mysterious divine patterns.

As the gate materialized fully, the divine patterns on it began to shift and change, looking like little snakes in various positions.

It only took a moment for the divine patterns on the golden gate to alter completely.

Once the divine patterns had stopped changing and the new design was fixed in place, a rumble sounded out of nowhere. At the same time, the gate seemed to be pushed open slowly by a pair of invisible hands, and the sound of heavy objects being dragged over the ground could be heard in the air.

In approximately the time it took for ten breaths, the gate was finally wide open.

Behind the gate, there was nothing but absolute darkness, certainly not the Dimensional Whirlpool that Lin Huang had imagined. The silence was absolute too as if nothing was there.

Just as Lin Huang experienced some doubt, King Kong, the God Capital elder who was standing nearby, spoke up suddenly.

"Let's go in!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the 12 participants from God Capital turned into 12 streams of light and made straight for the gate without hesitation.

Almost simultaneously, the team leaders of the several other lord-level organizations gave their orders.

One by one the participants changed into light streams and charged through the golden door one after another.

Meanwhile, Buried Heaven had yet to give the orders for the Death Sickle team. Lin Huang was not in a hurry either; instead, he observed what was happening at the gate.

As the light streams charged forward, they penetrated the darkness behind the gate and immediately vanished. Their auras could no longer be detected at all.

If not for the faint ripples undulating in the darkness behind the gate, Lin Huang would have never thought the gate possessed any sort of dimensional ability.

Only after all five of the lord-level teams had gone through did Buried Heaven nod at Lin Huang and the others in the Death Sickle team.

"Let's go in."

Without further hesitation, Lin Huang and his three companions turned into four light streams and charged through the gate with the participants of the remaining top grade-6 organizations.

The moment they crossed the threshold, Lin Huang felt as if he had plunged through the surface of water. Immediately, however, his five senses were all cut off. Sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste seemed to have been stripped away in the blink of an eye. Not only was he unable to activate his Divine Telekinesis, but even his sense of time was also obscured.

Lin Huang did not know how much time had passed before a light appeared before him suddenly.

The next instant, his senses and abilities all returned to his body.

He landed slowly on a large expanse of ground with deep fissures running through it.

A check with Divine Telekinesis revealed that this was a barren planet. To be exact, it was a dead planet with absolutely no living creatures.

Not only were there no animals, but there were also no signs of any living plants, insects, or even microorganisms.

However, Lin Huang could not help frowning a little.

This was because he had discovered quite a few vestiges of former habitation on this planet in the form of city ruins. Although the buildings were not tall, they had definitely been places inhabited by some group species.

"All life has been wiped out; even the mines have ceased functioning…" Lin Huang squinted a little. "The Bug Tribe is the only tribe that would do this!

"In other words, this planet that I'm currently standing on was once conquered by Bug Tribes…so there's a definite possibility that I'm currently within the territorial boundaries of a Bug Tribe." This was not good news for Lin Huang.

Heavenly god-level powerhouses existed in the Great Heaven Territory.

If the Bug Tribe army's Bug King or Bug Queen was a heavenly god-level powerhouse, Lin Huang would not be able to survive an encounter with them.

"I hope things aren't as terrible as I imagine…" In a flash, Lin Huang disappeared from where he was standing and reappeared in the middle of a ruined city.

While using Divine Telekinesis to do a close-range sweep of the area, he was also observing his surroundings.

"The hoof prints on the ground were obviously made by Heavy-armored Onyx Bugs; the blade marks on the ruined walls would probably have been made by the Demonic Sword-armed Mantis. The tunnels in the wall show burn marks; Devil Cannon Bugs were probably responsible for that…"

For Lin Huang, who had mastered the galactic hive and accessed the Bug Tribe Queen Mother's memory as well, most Bug Tribes were not unfamiliar to him. A glance was all he needed to ascertain which Bug Tribes had subjugated this particular city.

"Judging by the traces of battle remaining, the Bug Tribes that attacked were at virtual god-level combat strength. In other words, their Bug King or Bug Queen would have only been at the level of a Virtual God. Even if they were True Gods, they were most likely only beginner-stage True Gods." Lin Huang was more than a little relieved to have drawn these conclusions.

"Based on what's left, the extermination of life on this planet probably happened within the last half a year…" At this point in his speculations, Lin Huang could not help but frown again, "Bug Tribes only plunder a planet's resources and its life. They can retrieve any information they need from the planet's living creatures, there's no need for them to steal civilization documents. There should at least be some of those left behind here!"

"All I have to do is to find some civilization documents, and I should be able to confirm where exactly I am. If I'm lucky I might even get a star map right away…"

Lin Huang decided to stay on this dead planet to continue his explorations because he could not identify his location at all. The only thing he knew was that he was nowhere within the exploration zone, so the star maps that Death Sickle provided were no help at all.

If he were to leave now, he might search for a month and not be able to find a second planet with resources.

Furthermore, the Great Heaven Territory was only open to explorers for a month.

As he stood above the ruined city, Lin Huang spread his Divine Telekinesis for a thorough scan. A moment later, his frown deepened and his expression became more and more unpleasant.

While the Divine Telekinesis scan did not give him anything particularly valuable in terms of information, it allowed him to access many scenes that roused his ire.

In a bedroom on the second floor of a two-story building, the pink sheet on the bed was stained with blood. On it was a ruined fabric doll with only half its head intact, also covered in blood.

Someone had clearly been dragged off the bed, as the bloodstains extended from the bed to the ground. The gory trail ended at the doorway in a huge pool of blood.

Lin Huang could almost imagine the scene—a little girl of five or six between a bug beast's jaws, being dragged to the door before being eaten.

The kitchen on the first floor of another three-story building was a shambles. Pots and dishes were overturned and broken on the floor, with traces of dried oil still to be seen on the tiles. That would probably have been soup that was spilled.

Dark blood seeped through the remaining oil stains on the floor.

In a building not far away, the bookshelves in one of the studies had been completely wrecked. The floor was full of torn books and bloodstains.

There was a little photo frame in one of the crevices under the ruined study table. The glass on the frame was broken, but the picture inside was still intact.

It was a photograph showing a family of four.

The man of the house looked like he was in his early 30s. His face was covered with stubble, and a little boy of four or five was sitting on his lap making a funny face. The lady next to him had a gentle smile on her face as she carried a swaddled infant in her arms. The baby was smiling up at its mother.

Chapter 1276: An Awkward Situation

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

This was a planet that had once been inhabited by humans!

Lin Huang furrowed his brow the moment when he saw the photograph.

He had not thought too much about it when he initially noticed that the buildings were styled in the manner of human architecture. This was because most buildings in the God Territory had been inspired by human designs.

Furthermore, none of the previous trial participants had ever come across any human encampments during past explorations of areas in the God Territory.

Although Lin Huang had speculated that there might be humans residing in the Great Heaven Territory, never had he imagined that he would be directly teleported into one such area.

From a Divine Telekinesis scan for the number of ruined buildings that still remained, Lin Huang could roughly estimate that there had been at least three billion people on this planet.

This was close to half of the Earth's population, not to mention countless animals and plants that had been eaten and killed by the Bug Tribes. Not a trace of them remained.

Although this was not Lin Huang's first encounter with the Bug Tribes, it was the first time he truly understood the threat they posed.

However, Lin Huang's thoughts were simultaneously going wild inside his head.

"The inhabitants of this planet were all human; it could very well mean that this was a gathering point for humans. So there's a high probability of humans inhabiting other living planets nearby. Judging from the Bug Tribes' frequent campaigns over the decades and centuries, this war between humans and the Bug Tribes might still be going on in some other planet nearby."

This made it even more imperative for him to find a star map.

After some brief consideration, Lin Huang summoned a Bug Tribe Queen Mother.

As soon as the order was given, a massive number of Bug Tribe armies swarmed forth to cover the entire planet once again.

This time their mission was not to kill but to search for information on the planet's civilization.

Over 100 million bug hordes took merely a couple of minutes to cover every corner of the entire planet.

Some ten minutes later, a Queen Mother in a white dress who looked like a little girl turned her head to speak to Lin Huang.

"We found an underground laboratory that's still functioning. We should be able to find quite a bit of information there."

"Give me the coordinates!" Lin Huang exclaimed hurriedly, "Ask them not to damage anything in there."

A couple of minutes later, Lin Huang and the Queen Mother arrived at the coordinates where the entrance to the underground facility was located.

The great metal door at the entrance had been ripped apart during the war. Lin Huang and the Queen Mother hurried inside.

This underground laboratory had collapsed long ago. However, the Bug Tribe fighters sent by the Queen Mother had cleared a path for them.

Lin Huang led the Queen Mother into the laboratory's control center without encountering any obstacles along the way.

Part of the control center had actually collapsed as well. Fortunately, the machines at the central control unit were not damaged; even the holographic projector had been preserved in its entirety.

The main control unit was huge, like supercomputers on earth. Lin Huang was unable to figure out how to operate it even after staring at the hundreds of buttons on its console for a long time. Feeling helpless, he had no choice but to summon Grimace.

Usually, Lin Huang would get Bloody to handle such tasks whenever she was with him. Now that she was not here, he could only seek help from Grimace, who also possessed Supreme Intelligence.

Once Grimace was summoned, he fell to studying the machine without saying much of anything.

Some ten minutes later, Grimace finally figured out the basics of how to operate the machine.

"We're very lucky that there's still internet access on this planet. What would you like to look for?"

"Information about this planet—the star maps of the surrounding areas, the bigger the coverage and the more detailed, the better. Information about other living planets nearby, and also related information on the war with the Bug Tribes…"

Lin Huang gave Grimace a list of some of the things that he wanted to know most of all.

A 3-D holographic projection appeared in the middle of the room all of a sudden as Grimace operated the machine.

The projection was of a starry sky that Lin Huang was unfamiliar with.

"This machine seems to be connected to the entire star zone's internet. The blinking light on the star map is the planet that we're currently on."

"What do the colors of the labels mean?" Lin Huang immediately asked. He saw that many planets on the star map had been color-coded and marked with various symbols.

"Red means planets that are currently at war; green means living planets inhabited by a single tribe; blue means planets inhabited by other harmless tribes. A red cross means planets that have been destroyed; a black skull means planets that have resident Bug Tribe armies, and a red skull means planets with powerful enemies in residence…"

Lin Huang noticed that the planet that he was currently on had been marked with a red cross. Not only that, but a few dozen planets close by were also marked with red crosses. From afar, the red crosses looked like a sea of red dots.

Looking up in another direction, Lin Huang saw hundreds of black skulls and a couple of red skulls.

"The planet we're on is between the Bug Tribe armies and planets inhabited by Bug Tribes. The only way to return to the safe areas marked by the green dots of light would be to pass through the Bug Tribe armies. This planet has only undergone several hundred years of development; the dimensional portals only support two teleportation points. Both the planets that the dimensional portal connects to are currently war zones. Furthermore, we have to make sure that the dimensional portals still work. Even if they do, we have no way of ascertaining if the dimensional portals between the two teleportation points are in good condition."

"Can you find out the overall ability of the current invading Bug Tribes?" Lin Huang asked quickly.

"The war is led by three high-level Heavenly Gods. There's also a recently elevated Heavenly God Queen Mother from the Bug Tribe. Apart from them, there are three true god-level Queen Mothers, over 20 peak-stage True God Bug Kings and bug guardians. There are eight virtual god-level Queen Mothers…"

"At the moment, the Heavenly Gods have yet to fight; they're just taking a back seat for now. They're on the several red skull-labeled planets on the star map. There are also three true god-level Queen Mothers, peak-stage True God Bug Kings and bug guardians, as well as high-level True God Bug Tribe elites in the areas marked with black skulls. We can't be sure exactly which planets they're on."

"A recently elevated Heavenly God Queen Mother…no wonder the Bug Tribes started a war out of nowhere!" After hearing Grimace's information, Lin Huang, who had a certain understanding of how the Bug Tribe was run internally, immediately realized why war had broken out.

The emergence of a Queen Mother elevated to Heavenly God meant that the entire Bug Tribe could produce heavenly god-level Bug Tribe fighters.

The war was initiated to provide the Heavenly God Queen Mother with better food so she could produce heavenly god-level powerhouses.

Moreover, members of the Bug Tribe could elevate their combat strength and levels through eating. Eating massive amounts of good-quality food could help the Heavenly God Queen Mother to elevate her combat strength further.

However, judging by the information Grimace provided, the war was clearly still in its preliminary to middle stages. It had not yet come to the final stages where the Heavenly Gods and high-level True Gods officially joined the battle.

Even if that were the case, the current situation showed that the Bug Tribe had the upper hand.

"Of the Bug Tribes already in the war zone right now, what's the most powerful Bug Tribe's combat strength? Can you find out?" Lin Huang asked again.

"The Bug Tribe has only sent out intermediate-stage True Gods for the moment. The ones with the highest combat strength are several class-4 sixth-rank True God Bug Kings."

"Quadruple mutated sixth-rank True Gods…" Lin Huang frowned again.

A Bug Tribe with such combat strength was a definite threat to his life. It was quite impossible for him to win even if he used all his trump cards.

His most powerful technique was his God's Figurines' Combat Souls but their combat strength was only at virtual god-level rank-9. At most, their ability was on par with second-rank True God Bug Kings. Even if he were to use the Provisional Combat Strength Upgrade Card, the most he could do would be to elevate three ranks, which was about par ability-wise with that of a fifth-rank True God Bug King.

At true god-level, just one rank made a huge difference in one's abilities.

"It would be a bit of a hassle to bump into those Bug Kings but there's nothing else to be done. The trial only lasts for a month; I can't be wasting my time…" Lin Huang soon came to a decision.

Chapter 1277: Devil Sword Bug

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

After reading through the documents that he needed, Lin Huang got Grimace to filter through all the documents in the entire laboratory and send them to his communication ring. Only then did he leave the underground laboratory.

As he returned to the surface, Lin Huang had the Queen Mother recall the Bug Tribe armies. He then summoned Thunder and hurried to the dimensional portals with Grimace.

Thanks to Thunder's incredible speed, Lin Huang arrived at the coordinates where the dimensional portals were within ten minutes.

"Both dimensional portals look like they're working fine. However, we've no idea if both teleportation points on the other side are functioning." Grimace stared at the dimensional portals for a while before he said to Lin Huang, "I suggest we test them out with something else to see whether the teleportation is successful."

If the dimensional portals on the other sides were damaged or malfunctioning due to some other reason, the teleported items might be sent into some unknown void. They might even be torn apart immediately by the dimensional portals.

Lin Huang thought about it and asked the Queen Mother standing beside him to summon two lowest grade bug beasts and have them step into a portal each.

After putting in sufficient Divine Stones for activation, both dimensional portals were up and running almost

simultaneously. A moment later, the Queen Mother that looked like a little girl turned her head to say to Lin Huang, "One of them died instantly while the other is still alive. However, since it's too far away, I can only sense faintly that it's still alive but nothing else."

Bug Tribe Queen Mothers' sensing range for the Bug Tribe fighters under them far surpassed Divine Telekinesis coverage. This had something to do with the bugs' willpower, as well as the Bug Tribe's physiological structure. However, once out of range, Queen Mothers could only detect whether their fighters were still alive, and nothing more.

"Which was the successful portal?" Lin Huang asked quickly.

"The one on the right."

"We have to also make sure that the teleportation distance and the coordinates are the same," Grimace reminded Lin Huang, lightly tapping his fingers on his walking stick twice.

Only now did it occur to Lin Huang that even though one bug beast had survived, there was a chance it had been teleported to an unknown area.

"Can you sense the distance?" he asked the Queen Mother.

The Queen Mother closed her eyes and opened them a moment later. "Approximately 14 light-years away."

Lin Huang projected the star map immediately and looked at the teleportation distance that was marked on the map. "That should be correct. The coordinates on the star map show that the two teleportation points are 11.8 and 14.3 light-years away from this planet that we're currently on. The teleportation point of the dimensional portal on the right is exactly 14.3 light-years."

Grimace cupped his chin and thought for a moment. Suddenly he turned to the Queen Mother and asked by way of confirmation, "You can't get any information at all about that planet?"

The Queen Mother nodded. "The distance is far beyond the limits of my capabilities. I can't send or receive any information, I can only sense whether my heir is still alive."

Grimace raised his brows and looked at Lin Huang. "We only know that particular planet is currently at war based on the documents we retrieved from the laboratory earlier. How many Bug Tribes there are, what their combat strength is, how many powerhouses there are on the human side, and which stage the war is at…we have no information on any of these.

"It's possible that we might encounter a sixth-rank True God Bug King if we were to gatecrash the war. Moreover, judging by the amount of red and black dots on the current star map, the Bug Tribe seems to have the upper hand in this battle. So I suggest that it's best if you teleport yourself there disguised as a member of the Bug Tribe.

"Use your Bug Tribe identity to gain whatever intel you can and remove the disguise when there's a suitable opportunity to come into contact with humans. Then you can fight as a human."

Lin Huang thought about it for a while and decided to take Grimace's suggestion.

"Then I need to look for a humanoid Bug Tribe. Otherwise, it will be difficult to move around."

After a discussion with Queen Mother, Lin Huang finally decided on his disguise —a Devil Sword Bug.

The Devil Sword Bug was a class-3.5, which would be the equivalent of pseudo-mythical level in Monster Card ranking.

Although it was a member of the Bug Tribe, the Devil Sword Bug's form was completely humanoid. Not only was it a biped, but it had no exoskeleton, unlike other Bug Tribe species. Instead, it had muscles similar to that of humans. However, there were obvious differences as well. This particular bug beast species had two sharp swords for arms as if someone had tied a sword onto each arm. The Devil Sword Bug's head was also that of a bug beast, similar to a praying mantis' triangular head.

After disguising himself with Thousand Face and making sure that the Queen Mother and Grimace could not detect any flaws, Lin Huang then began adjusting his combat strength.

To avoid any attention, he adjusted his combat strength to Virtual God rank-3—a mere cosmetic adjustment that did not affect his actual abilities. This was a result of some discussion with Grimace. The reason for such an adjustment was that there were countless Virtual Gods within the invading Bug Tribe. This combat strength was rather low, but it was not the lowest; he would have much more freedom to act compared to a Virtual God rank-1. Even if there was intel accessible only with higher combat strength, he would not attract much attention even if he were to elevate his combat strength by two ranks.

After adjusting his combat strength, Lin Huang asked Grimace, the Queen Mother and Thunder to make sure that his disguise was flawless. He then recalled Grimace, the Queen Mother, and Thunder back into their cards, and stepped into the dimensional portal alone.

A moment later, Lin Huang felt briefly woozy. In the blink of an eye, his surrounding environment around was now completely different from a few minutes ago.

Despite this new environment being as barren as the one before, it did not have the deathly stillness of the previous planet. In fact, Lin Huang could clearly hear the sounds of battle in the distance as violent forces clashed against each other.

The bug beast that had been teleported over earlier was not able to be recalled by the Queen Mother since it was too far away. It was just standing nearby, staring blankly at the dimensional portal since it had not received any orders from the Queen Mother.

It was clearly stunned when it saw Lin Huang and skittered over clumsily as it sensed a familiar aura.

Lin Huang waved and recalled the bug beast back to the hive directly.

Sensing a great deal of Divine Telekinesis nearby, Lin Huang activated his Divine Telekinesis without worrying too much.

Although Lin Huang's Divine Telekinesis intensity was only Virtual God rank-3 on the surface thanks to Thousand Face's disguise, his real detection range was much further.

His Divine Telekinesis range was close to the level of a True God so it did not take him long at all to gauge the situation at hand.

80% of this planet had been conquered by the Bug Tribe. Meanwhile, humans and a few other tribes occupied several major cities. These cities were certain to have powerhouses guarding them. Not only that, but many survivors had also gathered within the cities to steadfastly defend them against the Bug Tribe's attacks.

"Looking at the current war situation, the cities' defenses shouldn't be breached all that soon. However, there's no chance of me getting into human cities under such conditions…"

Lin Huang was happy that the humans were working with other tribes. However, he felt a little troubled at the same time, as this meant that he could not enter the cities.

He made a decision after thinking it through for a moment.

"I can only take one step at a time. In the meantime, I'll look for intel from the Bug Tribe."

Chapter 1278: The Bug Tribe's Group Chat

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Just as Lin Huang was wondering how to contact other Bug Tribes to retrieve intel, a virtual projection box suddenly popped up in front of him.

'What's that?'

Lin Huang had put away his communication ring earlier to disguise himself as a member of the Bug Tribe; this projection box clearly did not come from there.

Lin Huang took a closer look—the projected content looked rather like a group chat. There were constant new updates on various pieces of information. He was familiar with the language that the group chat was using; they were written in the characters of the Bug Tribe's tongue.

He had mastered the bug language automatically after obtaining the Bug Tribe Queen Mother. It was also one of the functions of his Goldfinger, Xiao Hei, which allowed him to master all Monster Cards' languages and characters automatically.

Lin Huang eyed the projection box doubtfully. Very soon, his triangular head took on a confused expression.

"Is this the Bug Tribe's group chat?"

Although he had obtained Bug Tribe Queen Mothers and many Bug Tribe Monster Cards, this was his first time encountering the Bug Tribe's internal communication system.

The projection box before him was similar to the group chats that humans used back in the gravel world.

New messages kept scrolling up on the group chat; this was apparently a live conversation among different Bug Tribe members.

Lin Huang made up his mind to become an observer and read the conversations coming from all these multiple Bug Tribe members in silence.

"This planet sure is tough. It's been almost a month and we still haven't conquered it!"

"There's nothing that we can do. The few remaining cities all have True Gods guarding them. Not only that, but their ability's also quite powerful. Especially that Nangong guy; I heard he's a human class-4 genius and his combat strength is at sixth-rank True God level. That's on par with a Bug King."

"We can only drain them since we can't defeat them. After all, we outnumber the humans. No matter how powerful that Nangong guy is, once his Divine Power is all drained off, he's finished."

"Judging by our current progress, I think we'll need at least a month to clear this planet completely."

…

Lin Huang observed quietly for a while and realized that the bug beasts sending out these messages seemed to be of a similar intelligence level. They were completely different from ordinary Bug Tribe fighters.

Just as Lin Huang started to have some doubts, a message popped up suddenly. Unlike the black bug characters in all the previous texts, this one was in red.

"Stop chatting, take charge of your stations and your underlings. The Queen Mother's just given an order—we attack in half an hour!"

The entire group chat became dead silent as soon as the red message popped up.

Lin Huang came to a realization at that point. "No wonder they have high intelligence. I'm guessing these are bug guardians and commanders that are at least triple mutated."

Triple mutated Bug Tribes had intelligence on par with ordinary humans. If that was the case, everything made sense.

"The sender of the red text should be the quadruple mutated Bug King!" Lin Huang was able to make a rough guess at the identity of the bug beast that had sent the text. "I can't believe I accidentally tapped into a high-level group chat."

However, the mention of an attack in half an hour caught Lin Huang's attention.

"Perhaps if I follow along with this attack, I might be able to come into contact with the humans here."

Lin Huang levitated into the air after a moment of contemplation and headed for the Bug Tribe that was nearest to his Divine Telekinesis sense earlier.

He suppressed his flight speed to the level of a rank-3 Virtual God. It took him some ten minutes to finally arrive at the location where he had sensed the Bug Tribe.

Fortunately, Bug Tribe soldiers below the level of guardians and commanders possessed low intelligence. None of them suspected Lin Huang's identity even though they sensed his arrival. Instead, they cleared a path for him since they sensed that he had high combat strength.

This allowed Lin Huang to blend into the Bug Tribe easily. What was even more fortunate was that the entire group was comprised of a mixture of armies. There were hundreds of different Bug Tribes; Lin Huang did not seem out of place when he mingled with everyone.

He was not nervous at all as he was among bug beasts of all forms in the Bug Tribe army.

He glanced around; he sensed no aura that surpassed virtual god-level.

It was a piece of cake for him to annihilate troops of over 10 million Bug Tribe fighters on his own. He would not even need to summon his imperial beasts.

As Lin Huang glanced over the bugs, it did not take him long to notice a human city not far away. It was less than 60 kilometers from where the Bug Tribe army was currently.

Ten minutes passed by in the blink of an eye.

There was a sudden update in the 'group chat' that Lin Huang was observing.

A message in gold text came through.

"Inform the troops we will attack in three minutes!"

"This message is probably from one of the true god-level Queen Mothers!" Lin Huang immediately guessed who had sent the gold texts.

Based on the overall battle situation, each of the three true god-level Queen Mothers was responsible for overseeing the wars in at least a few dozen planets. This meant that their attention would be split between all of these various places.

Despite that, the Queen Mothers coordinated the efforts of the Bug Tribe army confidently and effortlessly.

The Queen Mothers' orders would only go to the Bug Kings leading the troops and the Bug Tribe commanders. They would naturally make the necessary arrangements to realize the Queen Mothers' orders.

A voice sounded in Lin Huang's ears as soon as the Queen Mother sent the message.

"Get ready, we attack in three minutes!"

Seeing that all of the bugs around him were standing up one after the other, Lin Huang realized that the order was not solely directed at him.

'That wasn't voice transmission, so it ought to be the Bug Tribe's message delivery system. The message would be heard by everyone; what a highly efficient technique.'

In less than half an hour of being disguised as a bug, Lin Huang had witnessed two different yet highly efficient communication techniques. This had completely overturned the original assumptions he had made about the Bug Tribe.

Initially, he had thought that most Bug Tribes were of low intelligence. The reason why they were powerful was because of their massive numbers and the fact that they could devour everything. However, if one could infer the whole from a single instance, this meant that the Bug Tribe possessed high intelligence which was on par with that of humans.

Humans had invented communication tools, while the Bug Tribe had invented its own 'group chat'. Humans had come up with voice transmission techniques, while Bug Tribe had their very own message delivery system. Furthermore, their system was much more efficient and detailed than human voice transmission.

Clearly, the Bug Tribe had been continuously learning and evolving.

Lin Huang abandoned his sense of superiority and suppressed his aura to avoid being exposed.

As soon as the three minutes of preparation were up, a gold text appeared in the group chat.

"Charge!"

Almost simultaneously, Lin Huang heard an order in his ears.

"Go!"

As soon as the order came, almost all the Bug Tribe members stopped what they were doing and charged at the nearby city!

Tens upon millions of Bug Tribe armies surged toward the human city like a flood.

Meanwhile, Lin Huang kept a low profile in the great mass of bug beasts and followed the army into the city.

Chapter 1279: The War Begins

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Tough City was the name of the human city.

Lin Huang only realized that the city wall was much higher than he imagined as he arrived outside the city with the bug beasts.

The city wall was about 100 meters tall. Apart from the fact that it was made up of a tremendous amount of metals and beast bones, many barriers and formations were shielding it.

Even a true god-level powerhouse might not be able to damage it with all of his might.

Lin Huang could almost imagine how much effort was put into this city wall when it was built.

He lifted his head to look above the city wall. Dense human troops were standing neatly. Many of them wore armors of different colors and models. They were not trained soldiers, but they were standing in a neat formation.

All of them were looking at the Bug Tribe armies that were already standing in a formation in all seriousness.

Just when Lin Huang was thinking of how the war would begin, a new order came into his ears.

"Execute a long-distance attack, get ready! Aim your attacks at the targets, which are the humans on the city wall!"

A commotion came among the bugs as soon as the order came.

A moment later, Lin Huang saw a couple of tribe members gathered together.

They were Bug Tribes that were experts in long-distance attacks.

"Defence, set up a formation to protect the long-distance attack tribes!"

Almost at the same time, the Bug Tribes wearing thick armors and shields gathered around the long-distance attack tribes.

As soon as the commotion broke out among the Bug Tribes, the humans on the city wall had taken the initiative to attack.

Lin Huang heard someone shouting on the city wall from far away, "Archers, firearms masters, gunmasters and Element Masters will take the first wave of attack!"

In the next second, Lin Huang saw countless arrows containing Divine Power, bullets and all sorts of elemental skills raining down like a storm.

Lin Huang ran immediately and hid under a Giant Beetle's tummy without hesitation.

To be honest, this wave of attack could not harm him at all.

However, he who had disguised himself as a Bug Tribe had no plan of exposing himself at the moment. He could only use the Giant Beetle as his shield to avoid this wave of attack.

As soon as human's first wave of attack came, the Bug Tribes fought back immediately.

The Flame Cannon Bugs spat gigantic fireballs one after another above the city wall.

The Ice Psybugs consolidated icicles in the air and shot them out with their tails.

Meanwhile, there were Arrow Sting Bugs that looked something like porcupines shot the poisonous stings on their bodies like arrows.

…

The Bug Tribe's attack techniques were fancy. Even Lin Huang who was hiding under the Giant Beetle thought it was eye-opening.

"I can't believe there are so many tribes among the Bug Tribe to be experts in long-distance attack!"

There were many casualties on the Bug Tribe's side during the first round of battle.

Countless arrows, bullets, cannons, and elemental attacks landed on all sorts of Bug Tribes. Slightly above 70% of them were hit during this round of battle. Many of them whose ability was subpar were eliminated directly. A portion of them was injured from the attacks. Only a minority of them suffered no injuries.

Meanwhile, on the human side, the attack impact that they suffered was nothing minor. However, very few of them were killed during this round of attack.

Most of the Bug Tribes who passed through the high city wall after attacking had their power taken away by all sorts of formations and barriers. Many attacks even vanished before they hit anything. Even if they did hit something, 70% to 80% of impact and speed were taken away, which lost its threat.

The humans were well prepared for this battle.

Lin Huang who was still hiding under the Giant Beetle tummy was secretly relieved when he saw that.

Although it was not the gravel world, the humans in the city were of his kind after all.

A new order came into Lin Huang's ears as the fire went on for some ten minutes from both sides.

"Excluding the long-distance attack group, everyone attacks!"

A commotion went on among the Bug Tribes as the order came. A sea of bug beasts flew into the air and charged above the city wall directly.

Only a minority of bug beasts that were not good in flying chose to charge beneath the city wall.

The Bug King's order had a certain force on the ordinary Bug Tribes, there was no way that they could go against the order. However, Lin Huang was not a real Bug Tribe, but an imposter. Although he received the order too, there was no stress on him.

Seeing the formation waves that appeared faintly above the city wall, Lin Huang knew that this wave of Bug Tribes would be in an unfavorable situation again.

He withdrew his head obediently again and proceeded to hide under the Giant Beetle's tummy. He waited for the Giant Beetle to run with its clumsy, thin legs patiently.

It was not that the Giant Beetles could not fly. They had wings too, but their flight technique was worrying. They could not deviate their directions most of the time as soon as they started flying. No matter what kind of obstacles they encountered, they could only smash into it. Therefore, unless they were running for their lives, the Giant Beetles rarely flap their wings.

As the Giant Beetles were merely one-third on their way, a sea of bug beasts had flown above the city wall.

Just like what Lin Huang expected, the countless bug beasts slowed down from the formations and barriers as they passed above the city wall. They became sitting ducks.

Naturally, the humans on the city wall would not let go of such an opportunity. This time, almost everyone on the city wall attacked. They attacked with all sorts of techniques at the Bug Tribes that were slowed down.

The first wave of Bug Tribe fighters that went first became sitting ducks directly. Almost all of them were killed instantly.

The Bug Tribes at the back reacted immediately when they noticed something was off. However, they did not retreat. Instead, they treated their kind in front as their shields while they proceeded to attack at the city wall.

Although they slowed down significantly, there were so many of them after all. Apart from the major casualties on the first impact, the death rate after that dropped significantly.

Seeing that the Bug Tribe soldiers did not stop approaching, the humans felt the stress on their side.

"Go, squads!"

As the order came from the human's side, up to a hundred human squads charged from above the city wall. The members of the squads were high-level Virtual Gods. They were like arrows shooting into the bug hordes.

Compared to the Bug Tribes being slowed down, up to a hundred human squads seemed to not have been affected by the barriers and formations at all.

While one was advancing and another was dropping, it was like up to a hundred tigers pouncing at the lambs.

The Bug Tribes' stance was messed up instantly. The sitting ducks that were initially charging towards the city wall were killed one after another.

As if up to a hundred whirlpools appeared among the tsunami-like bug hordes, their order was disrupted now.

"Amazing comeback!"

Lin Huang could not help but exclaimed when he saw that.

"The great formation of up to a hundred billion in number the Bug Tribes came up with were disrupted by some 1,000 people like a piece of cake!"

However, Lin Huang could not help but frown under the disguise in the next second. He thought of a problem all of a sudden.

"Now that the battle is so intense, there must be countless True Gods watching. I'm afraid it might be difficult for me to remove my disguise to enter the city. Forget it that the Bug Tribes might find out about me but as soon as humans find me, they would most probably think that I'm a spy for the Bug Tribe. Even if I managed to prove that I'm human, I bet they won't believe me. After all, there were spies controlled by the Bug Tribe before…"

Chapter 1280: Ridiculous Operation that Came Out of Nowhere

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

The attack and defense battle above the city wall went into climax less than three seconds since it began.

The Bug Tribe armies were in a frenzy to pass through the city wall, but they were disrupted by the formations and barriers that the humans had set up beforehand.

As they picked up their pace and attempted to break their defense by force, they were ambushed by the human elite squads.

The over 100 squads were made of high-level Virtual Gods. Each squad was made of 10 to 15 people, they formed mini battle formations. Clearly, they had rehearsed this for a long time. Each battle formation's power was on par with a Virtual God rank-9 expert. Some were even more powerful than that.

Although there were many Bug Tribe fighters, most of them were beginner-stage and intermediate-stage Virtual Gods. There were less than 1/5 high-level Virtual Gods among them.

Under the ambush, the human squads were like a sharp knife dipping into oil, messing up the charging Bug Tribe armies.

The throngs of Bug Tribe fighters were no match for the ambush squad's attacks at all. Before any of their Virtual God rank-9 and true god-level powerhouses made it here, the human battle formations clearly would not stop killing their kinds.

Although they had a great upper hand in their quantity, the Bug Tribe did not get any advantages out of the two consecutive battles.

As the battle was getting intense in the air, the Bug Tribe armies on land had finally arrived beneath the city wall.

At the moment, countless sparks lit up above the city wall all of a sudden. Fireballs fell onto the ground one after another like a meteor shower.

Just when the fireballs exploded as they touched the ground, the ground beneath the city wall lit up all of a sudden. Within a few breaths of time, hundreds of meters around the outer ring of the city wall turned into a sea of fire.

Faint Divine Power and Cursed Power were spreading in the fiery flames. The sea of Bug Tribe fighters was ignited instantly, the flame could not be extinguished.

The bug beasts released devastation shrieks in the flame. As they rolled around in pain, they were then turned into carcasses with no flesh.

"Vampire Fire…"

Even Lin Huang did not expect humans to do that.

The Vampire Fire was a cursed divine skill. The casting of such inhibition skill required Divine Fire from a True God's body and 99 Virtual God's flesh.

Although Lin Huang had no idea of the casting conditions, he knew very well that it was maleficium.

The humans must have sealed the maleficium in the secret skill crystals and buried them underground. They then used a stealth barrier to shield the trap, so that the enemies could not find out about it with Divine Telekinesis.

As soon as the Bug Tribe fell into the trap, they would use fire skill to detonate them.

However, judging by the fire coverage beneath the city wall, the humans buried at least ten secret skill crystals that were sealed with Vampire Fire underground.

Lin Huang almost fell into the trap as it came out of nowhere. Fortunately, his Divine Telekinesis had always been active. He covered his body with Mirror as soon as he sensed the threatening fiery flame on the ground.

Meanwhile, the Giant Beetle that he was hiding under was not as fortunate. Just like the other Bug Tribe fighters around, it was lit instantly and turned into a carcass during the struggle.

In less than 20 breaths of time the Vampire Fire was lit, almost all Bug Tribes that stepped into the fire coverage turned into carcasses.

Fortunately, the Giant Beetle was huge even when it turned into a carcass. It did not expose Lin Huang who was hiding under it.

To avoid any attention, Lin Huang adjusted his aura with Thousand Face to nothingness as he continued to play dead under the Giant Beetle's tummy.

Under the Mirror's shield, the Vampire Fire merely took away a little bit of his Divine Power.

One must say that playing dead gave Lin Huang a better opportunity to observe the entire battleground.

On the ground, the bug beasts that were moving forward stopped due to the Vampire Fire's obstacle. Most of them chose to stand where they were to wait for the flame to extinguish. Meanwhile, a minority of them flew directly to join the battle above the city wall.

Meanwhile, the battle above the city wall was getting more intense.

Although the attacks on the ground were disrupted, the Bug Tribe had finally gotten back to their pace in the battle of the sky.

Many Virtual God rank-9 powerhouses rushed to the areas where the human squads were and stopped the killing coming from the human battle formations. Even some beginner-stage True Gods joined the battle and attacked the human squads.

As soon as Bug Tribe sent their True Gods, the humans too sent theirs to the battlefield to fight the Bug Tribe's True Gods.

Within three minutes the war began, True Gods were sent in. The battle situation on both sides elevated once again!

Lin Huang had been following the battle situation, as well as waiting for the opportunity to come in contact with humans.

As the Vampire Fire had no support of Divine Power, after the first round of impact since they broke out, they extinguished completely in two minutes.

Although the humans wanted the fire to go on a little longer, they were helpless since they could not provide for this divine skill from a distance away.

Since the fire extinguished, the Bug Tribe armies on the ground soon arrived under the city wall.

Lin Huang suppressed his urge to hide under another bug and chose to observe hiding under the Giant Beetle's carcass. The reason being he was unsure whether the humans would have a second round of technique breaking out.

However, the humans seemed to not have prepared anything similar to the Vampire Fire.

The humans did nothing until the bunch of Giant Hammer Bugs began slamming the city gate.

However, looking at the faint, dense formation patterns on the black, metal gate, Lin Huang knew that it might be difficult to break it.

The impact of the tens of Giant Hammer Bugs' attacks was nothing less than meteorites hitting the ground as they came with a sea of Divine Power. However, Lin Huang could only see the faint water wave-like patterns rippled on the barrier after the gate was slammed for up to 10,000 times. There was no crack at all.

Seeing that, the Bug Tribe sent their only three true god-level Giant Hammer Bugs to join in the team to break the city gate. There was finally some progress.

One must know that even though the three true god-level Giant Hammer Bugs were low-level True Gods, their attacks were nothing less than an intermediate-stage True God. Furthermore, their attacks came with powerful penetration and impact. They had an upper hand in breaking a defense compared to an intermediate-stage True God.

However, there were finally some cracks on the formation after the true god-level Giant Hammer Bugs slammed the gate for up to 10,000 times together with the over 30 Giant Hammer Bugs.

"Are they trying to defend by force to buy time?" Lin Huang was rather doubtful.

Although there were hundreds of layers of defense formations and many more that integrated with the city wall, the city gate would break sooner or later if they allowed the Giant Hammer Bugs to attack like that. It was only a matter of time.

Therefore, Lin Huang could not figure out what the humans were planning to do.

Judging by the few rounds of battles earlier, the humans should have a great military adviser planning the entire war, whereby many details were taken into consideration. Theoretically, the city gate being attacked should be included in the planning.

Time passed by on the battlefield.

The battle above the city wall was insanely intense while banging noise came beneath the city wall as the Giant Hammer Bugs slammed the gate continuously.

Initially, the Bug Tribe attempted to send out crawling tribes to crawl over the city wall.

However, not only the humans had splashed some greasy lubricant on the city wall, gravitational formations and other strange barriers were set up to stop any flying, causing the entire city wall to not be able to climb over. It was so thorough that the closer one flew within the areas of the city wall, the more obstacles there were.

It resulted in the Bug Tribe armies on the ground resorting to watching the battle on the ground while waiting for the Giant Hammer Bugs breaking the gate.

Some ten minutes passed in a blink of an eye.

The tens of Giant Hammer Bugs finally broke one-third of the barrier on the gate. Judging by the progress, the Bug Tribe army should be able to break the gate and enter some 20 minutes later.

Suddenly, the gate opened.

Before the Bug Tribe managed to react, tens of squads made of high-level Virtual Gods charged from the gate and began killing the bug beasts on the ground in battle formations.

The tens of squads had the ability more powerful than the up to a hundred squads in the sky. The formation leaders were Virtual God rank-9 powerhouses whereby there were more than 30 people in each squad. The battle formation's power could fight a fair match with a first-rank True God.

As the over 30 squads charged, a muscular hunk of over two meters tall charged too.

He wore a golden armor on his body and a helmet. There was a gigantic black shield on his back.

Lin Huang recognized instantly that the equipment on him was not some ordinary god relics, but a whole set of defense god rule relics. The shield too was a god rule relic.

Judging by the double-layer defense from the two-piece god rule relics, they were expensive.

However, the hunk did not participate in the battle. Instead, he stopped as he arrived at the gate. He turned around with his back facing the Bug Tribe army, took out something from his storage space and pasted them on the gate.

"What is he doing?"

Countless Bug Tribes were confused to see that.

Lin Huang was stunned at first, he could not hold it but laughed out loud when he saw what the hunk pasted on the gate.

It was only natural of him who had learned the divine patterns that it was a stack of formation talismans in the hunk's hand. There were all sorts of defense formation patterns imprinted on them.

The hunk's doing was to restore the defense formations that the Giant Hammer Bugs had damaged on the gate earlier before everyone.

Lin Huang had tears in his eyes from the laugh as he watched the hunk pasted formation talismans on the city gate one after another.

"Who the hell thought of that?! That's some ridiculous operation that I wouldn't be able to come out with even if I racked my brain!"