Monster Paradise

“You’re displaying obvious killing intent toward me, but why?” Lin Huang carefully scrutinized the other with some curiosity. “Not only that, you seem rather familiar to me…”

Lin Huang quickly searched through the memories in his mind. After a while, he finally recalled a similar monster in a memory from four years ago.

“One-eyed, wears a conical bamboo hat, uses a sword…” The way the monster looked in his memory gradually superimposed itself over the one-eyed monster in front of him.

“I vaguely remember now,” Lin Huang said slowly, staring at the one-eyed monster in front of him, “You were the first Life Fire monster from when I elevated to a transcendent—the Regal Sword Killer whom I killed four years ago!”

The reason for Lin Huang initially not remembering was that in his memory, he had killed this monster a long time ago, and he had subconsciously left out the monsters that he had slaughtered. Moreover, the other’s physique and build had undergone significant changes, so he did not recognize it right away.

Now, though, his recollections were gradually becoming clearer.

Lin Huang compared the aura of the monster from his memories with the aura of the one-eyed monster in front of him. Although its aura had changed a great deal, he was still rapidly able to locate similarities between them. He also became more certain of the other’s identity.

Not only was this one-eyed monster standing before him his first Life Fire monster from when he evolved to holy fire-level, but because he had killed it, he had obtained a complete Monster Card—Regal Sword Killer.

However, Lin Huang looked at the one-eyed monster in front of him with increased astonishment.

“I’m baffled. I was sure that I had killed you back then. How did you survive?”

Lin Huang was absolutely certain that he had completed a successful kill because Xiao Hei had clearly sent a fatality notification at the time, and he had even obtained a complete Monster Card.

Even if his opponent did possess revival-type divine abilities or powers, as long as he did not fully complete the kill, there was no way Xiao Hei would send out a fatality notification.

Nonetheless, the fact remained that he had obtained the Regal Sword Killer Monster Card, which served to prove that he had genuinely killed the other party.

As this logical paradox circled around in Lin Huang’s mind, he suddenly thought of another possibility.

Maybe the other really did die, but after Xiao Hei confirmed its actual demise, something unknown brought it back to life again.

At this point in his ruminations, Lin Huang looked at the one-eyed monster in front of him with gleaming eyes. He very much wanted to know how the other had resurrected after being certified as dead.

The one-eyed monster evidently also noticed the change in Lin Huang’s gaze. Initially, the scrutiny that it received had clearly been one of slight puzzlement. Now, however, Lin Huang looked at it as if he had discovered something of interest, and was eager to dissect it and obtain its secrets.

The one-eyed monster swallowed. It did not like Lin Huang eyeing it in such a fashion—such scrutiny made the monster feel like a slab of meat on a chopping board, which made it shudder. It tried struggling a bit, but its limbs and neck were still firmly secured, with no way of breaking free.

It watched the corners of Lin Huang’s mouth slowly turning up, his lips moving to utter a few words, “Look up and look into my eyes.”

As if it had no control over its body, the one-eyed monster raised its head and looked into Lin Huang’s eyes.

Those dark-blue eyes were as deep and unfathomable as a starry sky.

The next second, the huge scarlet eye of the one-eyed monster rapidly turned a deep shade of blue, as if it had frozen over.

The Control-level god rule “Brain-read” immediately set to work.

The progress bar of Brain-read slowly went up, and Lin Huang waited patiently.

After about a minute, the one-eyed monster’s memories had been completely read and obtained.

Lin Huang quickly scanned through this chunk of newly-acquired memory, searching for the secret that he most wanted to know—how the other had been resurrected after being certified as dead.

Before finding the answer to this question, Lin Huang managed to read, within the monster’s memories, the whole process of the monster hunting down and killing the Union Government’s three waves of troops.

It had created illusions with Water Elemental Enlightenment and confused all the members of the troops, then followed behind them like a cat-and-mouse game, killing them off one by one.

Even the short reports of the troops’ safety came as a result of being deliberately bewitched by the one-eyed monster’s illusions, which made them cut off the communication signals of their Emperor’s Heart Rings the moment they sent the messages.

The monster’s purpose in doing so was actually very simple—it wanted to create a mystery that attracted more explorers to come and investigate, providing more prey for itself.

The reason the monster hunted down humans was not due to its enmity with Lin Huang either. It was so that it could learn human sword skills, and it just so happened that there were sword cultivators among all three waves of the Union Government’s explorers.

As for the others, they had become innocent funerary objects to accompany these several sword cultivators in death.

The Union Government’s mystery of its disappearing troops was now solved, and Lin Huang was not very surprised by this result. The moment he saw this one-eyed monster using Water Elemental Enlightenment to create illusion clones, he had already guessed that there was an 80% chance it was the murderer.

Having the ability to create illusions meant that it also had the ability to take down the Union Government’s troops.

Setting aside the case of the Union Government’s disappearing troops for the time being, Lin Huang continued to hunt for the answer that he sought.

In short order, he located the scene that he most wanted to see.

The wind howled over the deathly silent Elam Island.

In the sky, moonlight calmly streamed down from two full moons—one red and one purple.

At midnight, under the black soil, at the very position of the Regal Sword Killer’s ruptured heart, a faint golden light appeared.

On the entire island, black-colored death energy began wildly flowing backward from the wound on the Regal Sword Killer’s chest into the golden light emanating from its heart.

During all this, the Regal Sword Killer’s body was also undergoing extraordinarily drastic changes.

By the time it was four or five in the morning, the worry-inducing blackness over the entire island had completely dissipated.

When the first rays of sunlight shone down upon the island at dawn, the corpse of the Regal Sword Killer buried under the mud slowly opened its single scarlet eye…

“What was that golden light in its heart?” The dark-blue color of Lin Huang’s pupils faded, and his gaze shifted downward, stopping at the center of the monster’s chest.

He pondered for a moment, then quickly conjured up his God Weapon battle sword to hand.

During this time, the one-eyed monster had also fully recovered consciousness.

“You’re also a sword cultivator, so I’ll pay you my last respects!” As soon as Lin Huang finished speaking, he thrust the point of his sword forward. The long, narrow blade instantly pierced through the one-eyed monster’s chest, once again ripping its heart apart.

Just when Lin Huang was about to bring his sword down to slice open the other’s chest and dig its heart out, the one-eyed monster’s body rapidly disintegrated. It dissipated in the air, turning into points of black-colored starlight that streamed into Lin Huang’s body.

When the black starlight touched Lin Huang’s body, for a moment, he contemplated whether or not to dodge. However, he did not sense any threat from the starlight, so he gave up on evasion.

He sank part of his consciousness into his body and checked the whereabouts of the starlight. He saw that the starlight headed straight to his card slots after entering his body, and all of them went into a specific card.

Lin Huang took a closer look. To his surprise, he found that this was the Regal Sword Killer card.

Just when the last of the black starlight was about to penetrate Lin Huang’s body, a beam of golden light suddenly sprang out from within the black light, turning into a lightning arc that pierced straight through the point between Lin Huang’s eyebrows.

It happened so quickly that Lin Huang had no time to react. He immediately checked to see where the golden light had gone.

He saw the golden light crash into his spiritual dimension like a meteor, heading straight for his Sword Soul, and finally entering the battle sword—formed from the Sword Heart—in his Sword Soul’s hands.

After that, the golden seal tactics on the blade lit up again, and line upon line of golden divine patterns that resembled living creatures began to drastically transform at a speed visible to the naked eye, shifting around before finally consolidating into a more complex yet quaint seal tactic.

Lin Huang felt dizzy just looking at the seal tactic.

After the new seal tactic had formed, the golden light on the surface of the blade gradually disappeared, then slowly resurfaced on both sides of the sword hilt like relief carvings.

At that moment, Lin Huang suddenly sensed that his Sword Dao true meaning was getting increasingly stronger. In just the blink of an eye, he broke through his bottleneck at True Meaning Level peak-stage right away, reaching a whole new level!

The three levels of Sword Dao true meaning were True Martial level, True Meaning level, and True Self level.

Lin Huang had been stuck at True Meaning Level for quite some time now. He had even used the Time Cabin Card but still had not been able to achieve a breakthrough.

He had never expected that he would get his breakthrough at a time like this.

Amid Lin Huang’s amazement, a notification tone suddenly came from Xiao Hei.

“Congratulations, the mythical-level rank-4 Monster Card, Regal Sword Killer, has evolved and advanced to supreme god-level rank-5!”