Monster Paradise

The first round of battle where the Night Demon Firs and Dead Spirit Vines combined their attacks was intense, but it also ended very rapidly.

As the team moved on ahead, the same thing happened in the second and third rounds.

With Lin Huang’s Mirror, not a single attacking Night Demon Fir and Dead Spirit Vine could survive.

Virtuoso and the rest were feeling more and more stunned by the invincibility of this skill.

“Won’t this skill… drain your Divine Power?” Lan Ling finally could not help asking after she had observed for a while along the way.

“How could that be possible?!” Lin Huang thought her question was rather baffling, but he explained patiently anyway, “Every time Mirror defends against an attack, one-tenth of my Divine Power is drained. If my opponent’s attack contains spiritual power, Rule Bending Power or sequence power, I’ll drain one-tenth of their spiritual power, Rule Bending Power or sequence power.”

After listening to this explanation, Virtuoso and the rest thought this skill called Mirror was even more incredible.

Lin Huang could send his opponents’ attacks back at them just by draining one-tenth of his Divine Power.

This was the equivalent of doing practically nothing except holding up Mirror, and his enemies would have their powers drained.

The reason for this was because no matter what attack his opponent sent at him, the drain on Lin Huang’s side would forever be one-tenth of his opponent’s powers.

Saber9 fell into deep contemplation after hearing Lin Huang’s explanation; he was thinking of a way to counter Lin Huang’s attack. However, no matter how hard he thought, he could only come up with two ways of doing so.

One was for the power of the attack to exceed Mirror’s limit, which meant that it had to exceed ten times that of Lin Huang’s most powerful attack. He felt that perhaps even most ninth-rank Heavenly Gods could not achieve this.

The other way was to surround Lin Huang with a multitude.

Although a single person would find it hard to drain Lin Huang’s Divine Power, as long as there were enough opponents, they would be able to completely exhaust his Divine Power sooner or later.

Naturally, Saber9 was not wrong in his idea, but what he did not know was that the density of Lin Huang’s Divine Power far exceeded that of ordinary people. Draining the Divine Power within Lin Huang’s body like that would require many more individuals than Saber9 had anticipated.

As the team moved on in the fog, the number of rules that Lin Huang obtained also increased.

Within less than half an hour even, the number of rules within him had skyrocketed to tens of millions.

However, they seemed to be going deeper into the Demonic Fir Forest. The further they went, the higher the combat strength of the Night Demon Firs and Dead Spirit Vines. The frequency of Lin Huang and the rest encountering other monsters living in groups in the Demonic Forest increased as well.

Although Virtuoso and the rest began participating in combat, Lin Huang’s efficiency in obtaining rules only increased.

Over an hour later, the number of rules within Lin Huang’s body had broken through to one hundred million.

However, he was still only halfway to breaking through to ninth-rank.

He was extraordinarily excited. If not for Virtuoso and the rest being present, he would have stayed to hunt until his combat strength achieved another breakthrough.

Right in the midst of Lin Huang’s enthusiastic killing spree, Lan Ling’s voice suddenly came through.

“There might be a powerful Dead Spirit Vine approximately ten kilometers ahead…”

“Can’t you confirm the probe results?” Virtuoso asked immediately.

“It isn’t that—I didn’t detect the Dead Spirit Vine, but I detected trails similar to those left behind by Dead Spirit Vines slithering through,” Lan Ling paused, then continued, “Judging by the trails, this Dead Spirit Vine is at least three meters thick…”

Virtuoso fell silent after hearing what she said.

“Three meters thick?! Are you sure about that?” Lin Huang could not help asking. Even he thought that was quite unbelievable.

It must be noted that most of the Dead Spirit Vines Lin Huang’s group had encountered were merely as thick as an adult’s thigh, while the thickest one was as thick as a bucket. Basically, they did not see many that were half a meter in diameter. Naturally, everyone was doubtful when Lan Ling reported that the Dead Spirit Vine was three meters thick.

“I’m very certain about how thick it is!” Lan Ling added after that, “However, it also might be left behind by monsters such as boa constrictors.”

“If it’s really a Dead Spirit Vine of that size, its combat strength might be above ninth-rank. There’s a high possibility that it might be a half-step Lord as well,” Virtuoso said, glancing at Saber9 and Lin Huang.

Saber9 said nothing. Instead, he looked at Lin Huang.

Lin Huang noticed everyone looking at him and knew that they were waiting for him to voice his opinion.”I definitely can’t kill a half-step Lord. But… I think we can go check it out first. What if it’s not a half-step Lord?”

“What if it is, though?” Virtuoso asked Lin Huang.

“If it is, I have a way of escape.” Lin Huang was not particularly worried; at most, he could utilize a substitute for death so he would not die. “However, the chances of the rest of you dying will be very high…

“That’s not acceptable. Why don’t I go check it out first?” Lin Huang suggested again.

“Wouldn’t it be easier to just detour around it?” Tu Tong could not help commenting.

“Lan Ling merely detected suspicious trails on the ground. Even if it’s really a Dead Spirit Vine, we have no guarantee that it will linger in that area. Other areas might not be safe either. After all, such a massive Dead Spirit Vine is sure to have many Night Demon Firs protecting it—we have no way of knowing where the borders of their protected area lie anyway.

“Furthermore, the area under this Dead Spirit Vine’s protection ought to be massive. We can’t rule out the possibility that the phantom city’s entrance is within this area.”

The latter part of Lin Huang’s comment was also the reason for Virtuoso’s hesitation.

If not for this consideration, Virtuoso would definitely have let everyone detour without hesitation. He, too, was unwilling to take on a half-step Lord powerhouse.

Saber9 said nothing; he had realized this as well.

Seeing that Virtuoso was taking a long time to make up his mind, Saber9 finally spoke up.

“How about this—we’ll leave the two young ones here, and the three of us will go check it out first.”

He obviously meant Lan Ling and Tu Tong when he referred to ‘the two young ones.’ By now, he was treating Lin Huang entirely as a senior of the same level.

Virtuoso nodded only after Saber9 said this. “Let’s do that then.”

“Are you sure you won’t die if we encounter a half-step Lord?” Lin Huang looked at Virtuoso and Saber9. “If you’re not confident of that, then it’s better if I go on my own.”

“You’re underestimating us a little too much,” Virtuoso snapped, annoyed.

“My Primordium left me something for my survival.” Surprisingly, Saber9 was much more frank.

Although Virtuoso said nothing, they clearly had a similar method.

“That’s no problem then.” Lin Huang had no more objections.

Virtuoso turned around and looked at Lan Ling and Tu Tong. “Both of you stay here. We’ll contact you after we’ve done some reconnaissance.”

The pair nodded immediately. Although Virtuoso was not their master’s Primordium, Virtuoso was their master’s clone after all. They did not dare disobey an order Virtuoso had given.

Lin Huang led Saber9 and Virtuoso ahead after Virtuoso had given instructions to Tu Tong and Lan Ling.

Lan Ling watched the three of them disappear into the fog. After a long while, she said in a tiny voice, “Master also left us a survival method…”

Beside her, Tu Tong patted her shoulder. “We’ll just mess things up if we go with them. We’d better wait obediently here and see what they find.”