Monster Paradise

At nine in the morning, the Heavenly God team leader of God Capital opened the gates of the secret territory.

Hunters from more than twenty organizations stepped forward one after the other.

First up were a few grade-7 organizations; all the hunters from the grade-7 organizations entered the arena.

The Heavenly God team leader of God Capital looked over at the Death Sickle team.

“Senior Buried Heaven, please go ahead with your team.”

Since each person would be teleported to a different location, and the hunters were not allowed to plunder each other, the order in which they entered the secret territory was actually irrelevant.

Everyone else did not have any opinions about Death Sickle being the first to enter the arena after the grade-7 organizations, given it was one of the top grade-6 organizations, and Buried Heaven was leading the team this time around.

Lin Huang discreetly glanced in the direction of the Nephilic Judge Tribe, then followed the rest of the Death Sickle team through the gates of the secret territory.

As soon as he stepped through the gates, Lin Huang could clearly sense a dimensional force enveloping his whole body and pulling him into another space entirely.

By the time this feeling faded, he was already in a completely different area.

The dry, cracked ground in front of him showed absolutely no traces of life, not even a blade of grass.

He estimated that the temperature in the air was at least two hundred degrees Celsius. Together with the occasional waves of heat, it felt as if he were inside an air fryer.

Such a climate was obviously not suitable for the survival of regular living beings. Such a high temperature alone would be enough to turn most non-transcendents into dried meat.

A glance over the area showed there were barely any plants, let alone animals.

Lin Huang surveyed his surroundings once through, then activated his Divine Telekinesis.

After a while, he frowned slightly.

“This place is certainly a prison. The restrictions on Divine Telekinesis are so severe…”

After Lin Huang evolved into a True God, the strength of his Divine Telekinesis had transformed once again. Together with his diligent cultivation of Seamless, under normal conditions, the current strength of his Divine Telekinesis would have had enough range to cover a star zone.

However, in this secret prisoner territory, his Divine Telekinesis—which was comparable to that of a Heavenly God—was limited to a 30-kilometer probing range, and the strength of the suppression far exceeded that of even the Battlefield of the Dragon Abyss previously.

Seeing that his own Divine Telekinesis was already so severely restricted, he could guess the extent to which the other hunters’ Divine Telekinesis had been suppressed.

“Space-type rules have practically been prohibited…” Lin Huang secretly mobilized various Rule Bending Powers and quickly discovered that the Space Rules of this secret territory were also severely restricted.

After adjusting to this new environment, Lin Huang turned his gaze in a specific direction.

Earlier on, while probing with his Divine Telekinesis, two individuals had appeared within detectable range. Both of them were virtual god-level rank-9s, and the one who was closer was less than five kilometers away from him. (TN: This appears to be a typo on the author’s part; the two should be at ninth-rank true god-level, but we have opted to translate it as it is.)

This individual was a bald, well-built man of more than two meters in height. His muscles were so toned they looked terrifying.

Judging solely from appearances, it was very likely that he was a combat cultivator powerhouse.

“He looks very strong.” If Lin Huang were to compare the two individuals he had detected solely on the strength of their auras, this bald man within closer range was much stronger than the other individual.

Lin Huang quickly selected his hunting target. In just a single move, he appeared right in front of the bald man almost instantaneously.

What he had utilized was not Space Rule, but a speed type Light Enlightenment.

He had wanted to take this opportunity to hunt down some heavenly god-level powerhouses, but since his every move was being monitored, that would inevitably expose his abilities to a certain degree.

Therefore, he had no intention of hiding his power, but he did not intend to use his Sword Dao or his summoning beasts either.

The bald man saw Lin Huang suddenly appear, and an expression of evident shock showed on his face for a moment.

He was a combat cultivator, and the strength of his Divine Telekinesis was very weak. Within this prison, the detection radius of his Divine Telekinesis was less than one kilometer; it was far less than the range of one’s line of sight.

Therefore, every time the trial was held, he would wait for a hunter to approach him first.

This time around was no exception, but he had not expected that a hunter would come to him so quickly.

Sensing that Lin Huang’s aura was only at ordinary ninth-rank true god-level without the abnormal strength of a gifted genius, the bald man’s mouth curled up into a cruel smile.

Not the slightest hint of fear could be seen in his gaze as he looked at Lin Huang; in fact, it was as if he were looking at a lamb waiting to be slaughtered.

“How unlucky that I was the first one you ran into, little brat. You can only blame yourself for your bad luck.” The bald man grinned.

“I think you might be confused as to who’s the one with bad luck here.” Lin Huang smiled faintly.

“What an arrogant little brat!”

As the bald man spoke, his body began to transform drastically at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Blood-red hair rapidly sprouted from his originally bald head, like a living creature emitting the stench of blood into the air.

His body also expanded rapidly—in the blink of an eye, he had shot to more than ten meters in height. His muscles bulged to the point of turning reddish-purple, and the surface of his skin condensed into a thick layer of horned scales.

His spine had undergone an even more drastic transformation. As a result of such intense physical expansion, half of his spine now protruded through his skin, turning into a centipede-like purplish-black carapace that covered most of his back. Even his tailbone had extended to more than ten meters past his feet, turning into a long bone-spur tail.

When he witnessed this, Lin Huang finally understood the reason for this individual’s imprisonment here.

“An Abyssal Protoss…”

An Abyssal Protoss was the result of a Protoss being corrupted and degenerated by Abyssal energy.

The Protoss were a proud race and had always regarded these Abyssal Protoss who had been corrupted by Abyssal energy as enemies. An organization made up of pure-blooded Protoss, such as God Capital, would detest them even more and would kill every one of them on sight. The fact that this bald man in front of him was alive and locked up in this prison meant that it was highly likely he had been sent here by an organization other than God Capital.

Lin Huang had attracted the attention of many spectators outside the secret territory the very moment when he and the bald man had encountered each other.

“So early on, and someone has already encountered Ba Lin. That’s such terrible luck that it’s positively terrifying!”

“Although Ba Lin’s strength is average, his defenses aren’t something that an ordinary ninth-rank True God can get past. To do that, one must have at least Control-level mastery of their rules. However, Control-level rules are only capable of breaking his defenses; it would still be difficult to actually kill him. That little brat is probably going to fail…”

“If I remember correctly, I think this little brat is a newcomer in Death Sickle?” As soon as someone said that, the numerous Heavenly Gods present turned their gazes toward Buried Heaven.

Buried Heaven’s expression was calm; he clearly had no intention of making any comments.

In the face of Buried Heaven’s silence, the rest immediately had all kinds of speculations. However, most of them felt that this newcomer’s abilities were probably nothing impressive.

“Why don’t we make a wager on this fight?” Someone suddenly suggested.

“I’m betting on Ba Lin with two mid-level god sequence relics!”

“I’m also betting on Ba Lin with one high-level god sequence relic!”

More than a dozen Heavenly Gods participated in the wager, and most of them bet on Ba Lin.

Seeing that there were more than ten people still who were not participating, the dealer shouted, “Does anyone else want to place a bet?!”

“Ten high-level god sequence relics…” Buried Heaven had quietly appeared next to the gambling area. “I’m betting on Xiu Mu.”

At the sight of Buried Heaven handing over ten god sequence relics to the dealer, a great many individuals instantly turned pale.

After all, Buried Heaven was the only person present who knew anything of the newcomer’s abilities.

Furthermore, he had wagered ten high-level god sequence relics right off, and it was obvious that he had not done so for the sake of Death Sickle’s dignity. He had to have been absolutely certain to place such a large bet.

The dealer’s face also paled slightly at the sight of the wager that Buried Heaven had handed over to him. He smiled obsequiously at Buried Heaven as he said, “Sir Buried Heaven, we’re just playing around; there’s no need for you to place such a large bet.”

Buried Heaven stared at the dealer wordlessly.

After a while, seeing that Buried Heaven refused to take the items back, the dealer had no choice but to accept the wager.

“Is there anyone else who wants to wager? If not, I’m closing the bets.”

As soon as he said that, several Heavenly Gods joined in. They all followed Buried Heaven in betting on Lin Huang, but they did not wager much.

Once everyone had finished placing their wagers, the dealer immediately closed the betting.

Everyone present looked toward the video feed, waiting for the final results of this fight…