Monster Paradise

”Congratulations to the Deputy Chief of the Heaven Alliance, Lin Xie, for entering the 73rd checkpoint and breaking the Stairway Tree record!

”Congratulations to the Deputy Chief of the Heaven Alliance, Lin Xie, for entering the 73rd checkpoint and breaking the Stairway Tree record!

”Congratulations to the Deputy Chief of the Heaven Alliance Lin Xie for entering the 73rd checkpoint and breaking the Stairway Tree record!”

As soon as Lin Huang stepped onto the 73rd checkpoint, every active Genius Union member received the same three messages whether they were online or not. The messages were about Lin Xie breaking historical record.

The three messages that were like full-service notification in games were sent by the Stairway Tree system to all active members as soon as Lin Huang broke through the checkpoint without any exceptions.

Lin Huang’s mind-blowing feat spread all over the Genius Union. The entire union was stirred.

One must know that everyone thought that the 72nd checkpoint was the final destination when Lin Huang arrived on the 73rd checkpoint. Whoever managed to make it to the checkpoint was already deemed to have achieved a grand victory. After all, there were only four people in history, including Lin Huang, who had ever arrived at the checkpoint.

Everyone in the Genius Union knew how powerful Lin Xie’s ability was. Furthermore, he might even be Chan Dou’s successor. However, almost nobody thought Lin Huang could broke through the 72nd checkpoint of the Stairway Tree today.

Now that he had broken through the impossible limit in the form of the checkpoint, everyone was floored.

”The Monster Killer has broken the record. Holy shit!”

”I must admit that the Monster Killer totally slayed today!”

”Everyone thought he was cheating when he obtained eight million points back then. When he obtained 100 million points, people still insisted that he cheated. When he obtained 100 billion points, the voice of doubt faded. He hardly logs in now, but he broke through the checkpoint that nobody has ever passed in a hundred years. Lin Xie has proved himself again and again that he doesn’t need to cheat at all!”

”From today onwards, the most powerful young generation is no longer the Five Princes. There’s only one name, and that name is Lin Xie!”

…

On the 21st checkpoint of the Stairway Tree, Yi Zheng was standing at the assembly point while looking at the first name on the projected leaderboard. His emotions were stirred.

”What? Are you envious of him?” Yi Yeyu walked to him from behind and tilted her head while asking with a smile.

”A little,” Yi Zheng admitted while smiling with a nod.

”We kind of watched him grow up.” Yi Yeyu also lifted her head to look at the first name on the leaderboard.

”To be exact, we can testify for his growth,” Yi Zheng corrected her.

”Who would’ve thought this insignificant little guy would grow so powerful?” Yi Yeyu shook her head while smiling. ”Not only is he the No. 1 powerhouse of the young generation, but he’s also the Emperor of Dynasty.”

”Whether he’s the No. 1 powerhouse of the young generation or the Emperor of Dynasty, these identities won’t be the last of him. He will go further and grow even more powerful.” Yi Zheng knew very well that Lin Huang would not just stop there.

”Brother, until which checkpoint do you think he will get to?” Yi Yeyu could not help but probe.

”I think he’ll get to whatever checkpoint that’s available on the Stairway Tree,” Yi Zheng added after he was done speaking, ”Of course, he might not succeed today. He might do so tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, or next month… If I have the talent and ability that he does, I’ll definitely do whatever I can to pass through all the checkpoints on the Stairway Tree.”

Just when Yi Zheng and Yi Yeyu were discussing, the other Genius Union members were talking about a similar topic too.

Compared to the time when very few people thought Lin Huang could pass the 72nd checkpoint, now most people thought he might advance even further. The question was that nobody was sure which checkpoint he would get to.

A minority of them was not on board with that. They argued that there was absolutely no reference about the checkpoints later on compared to the 72 checkpoints before. Without any references and strategies, everything was a completely new discovery. The difficulty of breaking through the following checkpoints would be relatively multiplied.

In fact, just like what these people expected, Lin Huang had no reference since nobody had ever gotten to that checkpoint before. He had no idea what was coming for him.

As soon as he entered the dense jungle on the 73rd checkpoint, Lin Huang realized he could no longer activate his Territory skill. He could not even spread his Divine Telekinesis and had lost all his detective techniques altogether.

Feeling helpless, he summoned Lancelot and got him to be the herald, opening the path for him.

Although Lancelot only possessed imperial-level yellow gold-rank combat strength, his ability was nothing less than imperial-level’s. With his powerful defensive skill such as the Dark Mirror, he could handle most threats on the Stairway Tree.

Lin Huang noticed that something was a little off after following Lancelot for a couple minutes.

”It’s a little strange that we haven’t encountered any monsters on this checkpoint. We haven’t even encountered any obstacles at all. Looking at the speed, we’ll break through the checkpoint after this.”

”This is a maze stage,” Bloody spoke all of a sudden.

”A maze?”

”I just noticed that there are a few trees that are exactly the same as the ones before us. At first, I thought they’re just trees that look alike, but later on, I noticed they aren’t the only ones,” Bloody voiced its observation.

”I then tried releasing four Leech Pods. Using me as the center point, they flew straight toward four directions, namely the front, the back, the left and, the right. However, I sensed that the four Leech Pods began to deviate from the original route as they flew less than ten meters away. They only deviated a little at first, but it got worse. They’re circling at a specific point in the end.”

”Although they’re circling where they are, the surroundings where the four Leech Pods are observing are changing, providing an illusion. If not for my ability to sense their exact location, I might’ve been deceived by the illusion too.”

”So, we’ve been in an illusion as soon as we stepped into this checkpoint?” Lin Huang squinted and instructed Lancelot to stop moving.

Lin Huang looked around his surroundings. He did not see anything out of the ordinary within his field of vision. Since he could not use his Divine Telekinesis and Territory skill, it was hard for him to realize it even if he really was in an illusion.

An idea popped into his head, and he summoned the Nightmare Tapir directly.

As soon as the Nightmare Tapir was summoned, there was some chirping not far away. The Nightmare Tapir looked around, swinging its long trunk and opening its mouth.

In the next second, the images around it were sucked into the Nightmare Tapir’s muzzle like a tornado.

When the illusion was removed, the real surroundings were revealed.

It was a dense jungle, but not a typical one because there were no trees or bushes in this dense jungle. There were only white mushrooms with black human faces.

These mushrooms were of various sizes whereby some of them were two to three meters tall and some were only the length of a finger. The only similarity was that the faces on these mushrooms seemed to be asleep at the moment.

”So, was it these mushrooms that performed the illusion earlier?” Lin Huang looked shocked.

”I think they’re the Demonic Mushroom from the abyss. It’s an evil spirit type of monster that’s an expert at casting illusion and hypnotization!” Bloody explained, ”But these are just the stems, which are equivalent to clones. The main stem must be hiding.”

”I don’t think there’s such monster in the monster guide, is there?” Lin Huang asked in confusion.

”Indeed, there’s no such record in the monster guide. I saw it once in some other documents unintentionally,” Bloody explained in response.

”Let’s go then! Onward to the next checkpoint.”

Since the illusion had been removed, Lin Huang thought he would not waste any more time clearing these mushroom clones. All he wanted to do was to break through this checkpoint as soon as possible to see what was next.