Monster Paradise

Lin Huang spent less than twenty minutes killing all the Fiendish Swamp Monsters along the way, plundering millions of Rule Bending Powers.

If not for the consideration that he was still a part of Virtuoso’s team, he would most certainly have killed all the Fiendish Swamp Monsters in the area instead of only killing the Fiendish Swamp Monsters along the way; none of them would have been spared. After all, these were monsters that gave him EXP and they were hard to come by.

After leaving the Fiendish Swamp Monsters’ territory, the team continued moving forward.

Lan Ling used her spell probe, again and again, attempting to locate the unusual place that Virtuoso had mentioned. However, her efforts were of no avail.

As they had Lin Huang with them, they passed through the monsters’ gathering areas one after the other without any difficulty.

Despite this, their progress was not exactly swift.

After all, their senses were impeded. Not only that, there was danger almost everywhere in this swamp area.

After passing by a monster-gathering area, Lan Ling initiated a new round of probing.

She opened her eyes a moment later. “There’s a Demonic Fir Forest ahead of us…”

She glanced at Lin Huang after saying that and hesitated a moment before asking, “Do we go around it?”

The last time she asked that question had been when they had encountered the Fiendish Swamp Monsters.

As if worried that Lin Huang might not understand the situation, she added, “The situation in the Demonic Fir Forest is rather complicated. Apart from the Demonic Firs having inherently powerful territorial instincts and extremely powerful offensive capabilities, there are many tribes that live in symbiosis with them in the Demonic Fir Forest—for instance, the Dead Spirit Vines, Fish Apes, Lightning Snakes, and so on…”

Lin Huang’s eyes lit up when he heard that.

As far as he was concerned, the more monsters there were, the more rules he could plunder.

One must know that he had reaped an abundance of EXP before hunting the Fiendish Swamp Monsters. Subsequent rounds after that had gotten him less than one-third of the EXP he had obtained from killing the Fiendish Swamp Monsters.

Now, upon hearing that there were many types of monsters in the Demonic Fir Forest, his first thought was that this was the perfect chance to gain a massive amount of EXP. Naturally, he would not let such an opportunity pass him by.

“Let’s just go in.” Lin Huang glanced at Virtuoso beside him after saying that. “What if the phantom city’s entrance is in this forest? We’d miss it if we detour around it.”

He said this intentionally as he was worried that everyone would opt for going around it.

However, what he said made some sense.

If the entrance to the phantom city was within this Demonic Fir Forest, they would completely miss it if they made a detour around the Forest. It would also mean that their journey into the foggy swamp was all for naught.

Virtuoso had initially chosen to explore this area, as they suspected that it might be the phantom city’s entrance.

“Let’s go in then.” Virtuoso pondered for a while but still nodded in the end.

The rest made no objections after Virtuoso had spoken.

After all, Virtuoso was the one who had formed the team. The main objective for them gathering in the Abyss was to help Virtuoso obtain the castellan’s seal of Phantom City.

After confirming that they would not detour around, Lin Huang once again blazed the trail. Leading the team, he flew into the Demonic Fir Forest area up ahead.

The Demonic Fir was a type of plant monster. Actually, ‘Demonic Fir’ was the general overarching name for an entire category. There were many types of different Demonic Firs that fell under this category, and all of them had different names.

The monsters in the foggy area’s Demonic Fir Forest were called Night Demon Firs.

This type of monster had a very unique characteristic—they were basically in a state of deep slumber during the day. During the day, even if people passed through the whole of the Demonic Fir Forest, they might not be attacked by even one Night Demon Fir. As long as their bodies did not touch the Night Demon Firs, and they did not make any loud noises, they basically would not wake the trees.

However, the Night Demon Firs would fully come alive at night.

Nighttime was party time for all Night Demon Firs; it was also their time for hunting.

They would extend their branches and use their blade-like leaves to shred apart any intruders that approached their territory.

However, the most frightening thing about the Demonic Fir Forest was not the Demonic Firs themselves, but the monsters that were living in symbiosis with them.

There might be powerful beings hiding among those monsters.

Lin Huang could not help being stunned when he saw the Night Demon Firs before him.

Although he had already read the information about the Demonic Firs much earlier on, he had not expected them to be so massive when he set eyes on them in person.

Each of these Firs had a diameter of over two meters. They were so tall that their tops were in the clouds.

At the same time, Lin Huang heard startled gasps near him.

“So big!” This exclamation came from Lan Ling.

“So thick!” This was from Tu Tong.

Lin Huang’s thoughts took a slightly perverse turn when both exclamations came together.

However, at that moment, the several Night Demon Firs within their field of vision moved almost simultaneously.

Countless branches whipped out like lightning, the leaves on the twigs unfolding like blades.

If this attack had struck them, Lin Huang’s entire group might have been sliced into countless lumps of meat immediately.

However, since they had come prepared, they were naturally not caught off guard. As soon as the Night Demon Firs attacked, they reacted at once.

Lin Huang’s finger stabbed out, and a black mirror coalesced in front of him.

This time, he did not shield the rest.

He did this mainly because earlier, he had been too enthusiastic when he was hunting the Fiendish Swamp Monsters and did not give the rest the opportunity to showcase their skills. It was Virtuoso who suggested that he give Lan Ling and Tu Tong some opportunities for combat.

In subsequent battles, therefore, he had intentionally not taken special care to protect both of them.

Furthermore, the Night Demon Firs did not have stealth techniques, and their abilities could not be considered overwhelming. For Lan Ling and Tu Tong, these were the best combat opponents to practice on.

Naturally, he did not have to protect Virtuoso and Saber9.

Therefore, Lin Huang only protected himself when he raised his shield this time, ignoring the rest.

The several Night Demon Firs whipped their branches around maniacally as if they were dancing in the dark.

However, any branches that came at Lin Huang were flung back in a strange manner when they struck the black mirror in front of him. The fully-unfurled leaves on the branches were now aimed at the Night Demon Fir instead, wildly attacking it.

The Night Demon Fir was not an inherently intelligent monster. By the time it realized something was wrong, it was too late.

In an instant, countless leaves collided with the branches. Within less than half a second, the massive tree was left with a short, bald trunk stump jutting out from the ground, less than 18 centimeters high.

If there had been any onlookers who did not understand the reason for this, they might have been astonished and wondered why this Night Demon Fir had committed suicide.

Did it not have the confidence to live just because it looked too ordinary?

The battle on Lin Huang’s side ended in no time at all. The entire process had taken less than half a second.

However, Virtuoso and the rest were still in combat.

After disposing of the Night Demon Fir that had attacked him, Lin Huang checked on the situation with the rest. He then turned his eyes away and closed them to feel the Rule Bending Powers surging into his body. A moment later, he suddenly opened his eyes, and there was a slight gleam in them.

This Night Demon Fir had provided a substantial amount of rules, only slightly less than Fiendish Swamp Monsters of the same combat strength.

This stirred up Lin Huang’s hunting spirit, causing it to blaze once again.

“These trees are all EXP!”