Monster Paradise

The next morning, Lin Huang disguised as Lin Xie and headed to a cafe less than two kilometers from Dynasty’s headquarters after breakfast.

After thinking about it yesterday, he decided to change the interview location here.

He was meeting Xu Qingya at 9 a.m. but she arrived when it was only 8.30 a.m. She was dressed professionally as usual in a navy blue suit with a white shirt inside. She looked very cool.

Xu Qingya was a little surprised to see Lin Huang arrive earlier than she did.

“I didn’t expect you to arrive so early, Mr. Lin. I thought I’d get here half an hour earlier and read the questions that I prepared yesterday again.”

“I took a stroll here after breakfast since I’ve cleared my day. There’s a welcome party at the Heaven Alliance this afternoon,” Lin Huang replied with a smile, “Take a seat. The coffee here is pretty good.”

Xu Qingya put her bag down and sat across Lin Huang.

She began the topic as if she was chatting with a friend after ordering a cup of coffee from the waiter. “Emperor City is so much safer than I imagined. In reality, I had the worst-case scenario in my head before coming yesterday, but I realized I was overthinking when I got here.”

“Most people have the same idea as you do, thinking that footholds run by underground organizations would be chaotic. In reality, the cities where most top underground organizations have a rather systematic order on the surface. They know that they can only attract residents and business investments if they run the footholds under their jurisdiction properly. If the city looks filthy, nobody would be willing to live there and invest.

“Of course, it might be filthy in the dark while seeming clean on the surface. It’s best that you stay indoors after dark in most of the footholds that are run by underground organizations. After all, people who choose to live in cities run by underground organizations aren’t exactly the kindest.”

The waiter served Xu Qingya her coffee just when Lin Huang was done saying that.

Lin Huang thought she would ask why he changed the interview venue at the last minute. Never had he thought that she would not ask about that. Instead, she asked about the normal residents which he mentioned earlier.

She took a small sip and spoke again, “Those normal residents who have no cultivation base and are living in the cities run by underground organizations that you mentioned earlier, Mr. Lin… What do they do for a living? Small businesses?”

“In reality, they’re similar to residents in other footholds. After all, underground organizations have businesses in all footholds whereby they need normal workers to run the businesses. Of course, there are those who do small businesses of all sorts as you said.”

“So, what’s the difference between the foothold where the Union Government and the Hunter Association are in?” Xu Qingya proceeded to ask.

“The difference is that there are more people participating in illegal activities. Furthermore, the underground organizations in the footholds usually choose to turn a blind eye. As long as they don’t stir things up and don’t do any harm to the underground organizations, they can do whatever they want.”

“This has to do with the structure of the population as well. Normal people who chose to live in such places either have criminal records with the Union Government or are really poor. These two kinds of people have a rather high possibility of committing crimes.”

The duo chatted about the residents for a while. Xu Qingya looked at the time when it was almost 9 a.m. and said to Lin Huang all of a sudden, “I had a random thought when I was sorting the interview questions out yesterday and decided to ask you anyway. Are you willing to live stream the entire interview? Of course, you can say no if you’re not comfortable with it. Just pretend that I’ve never said this before.”

“Live stream?” Lin Huang raised his brow and nodded without much hesitation. “Sure.”

“You sure are quick to agree to that. Don’t you need to consider it?” Xu Qingya said while grinning, “The biggest issue of live streaming would be that what you say will be seen by the public. I can’t edit it like I used to before.”

“So be it. It’s not like I’ve never been condemned before,” Lin Huang responded.

“Do you need some time to get ready?” Xu Qingya asked again.

“No need. You can begin now.”

“Then, I’ll turn the camera on now.” Xu Qingya turned into a professional host as soon as she started the live stream. She got right to the first question after giving a simple introduction about Lin Huang. “What are your thoughts about breaking through the entire Stairway Tree this time?”

“I don’t have any thoughts about it. In reality, it was just a normal trial, but the checkpoints are slightly more difficult. There’s nothing impressive about breaking through it,” Lin Huang replied and thought his answer was not exactly complete since he was on a live stream. He added, “If there’s really something that I need to tell you, it would be that I’m finally breaking through imperial-level soon.”

Not many people were watching the live stream at that moment. There were only some of Xu Qingya’s fans who were watching after noticing that she had gone live. There were only 20,000 to 30,000 online viewers.

Many people began commenting upon hearing Lin Huang’s response to the first question. ‘Lin Xie: No comment.’

Lin Huang and Xu Qingya saw the comments popping up, but they chose to ignore it.

Xu Qingya proceeded to ask the second question, “From what I know, apart from you, the highest checkpoint people in the Genius Union has gotten to at the moment is the 63rd checkpoint. Before you, the highest record on the Stairway Tree was the 72nd checkpoint. Do you think that the checkpoints after the 72nd were difficult?”

“They were alright…” Lin Huang thought his answer was rather perfunctory as soon as he said that so he added, “Indeed, the 80th and the 81st checkpoints had challenges of its own, especially the latter.”

At the moment, there were over 200,000 viewers watching the live stream. Comments began popping up again. ‘Lin Xie: It’s alright!’

“The next question is something that many Genius Union members are very curious about,” Xu Qingya asked the third question while smiling, “After you broke through the 81st checkpoint on Stairway Tree, did you make it to the top? Also, what exactly is at the top?”

“Indeed, I made it to the top of Stairway Tree,” Lin Huang confirmed with a smirk, “But I choose to keep it a secret about what exactly is there at the top. If you guys want to know, try your best to get there and see it for yourself. I don’t like spoilers, so I won’t spoil it for you guys here.”

There were over a million viewers watching the live stream when the third question was finished.

The same comments began popping up again. ‘Spoiler, please!’

The dense comments popping up covered the entire projected screen. They could no longer see Xu Qingya and Lin Huang’s faces.

Xu Qingya followed the questions that she had prepared yesterday and controlled the rhythm of the live interview perfectly. She knew her boundaries in all of the questions that she asked, and those were questions that the viewers were eager to know about.

Lin Huang could not get used to it in the beginning but became in sync with her gradually. He no longer gave the awkward answers that stifled the conversation like before.

The live stream of the duo went on for over an hour, and there were more than 100 million viewers watching the live stream now. Many cultivators who kept seeing Lin Xie’s name on their screens logged in with curiosity. They wanted to know who exactly this Lin Xie was.

However, a disharmonious comment popped up when it was almost 10.30 a.m. as the live stream went on.

“Lin Xie’s real identity is the Emperor of Dynasty — Lin Huang!”

In the next second, thousands of the same comments popped up and covered the entire screen.