Monster Paradise

Lin Huang took a step forward and appeared right away on the skeleton bird beast’s back.

Upon seeing that, everyone thought it was the end for the skeleton bird beast, not just the skeleton bird beast itself.

Many of the onlookers even secretly lamented that this Dumb Bird had brought it upon itself by not being able to use its brains, even when trying to lie.

The next instant, however, everyone present saw the skeleton bird beast flapping its wings, bringing with it the mysterious black-robed man…

All that remained were a group of onlookers staring at each other.

“What happened? That black-robed man really bought into Dumb Bird’s nonsense?”

The place where the skeleton bird beast lived was not at all far from the inner world’s entrance and exit—less than five minutes away, in fact. It landed on top of a building, bearing Lin Huang with it.

Lin Huang looked at the sunken rooftop of the two or three-story building and realized that it was probably the skeleton bird beast’s nest where it normally lived. It had forced a perfectly good roof into the shape of a nest by sleeping on it.

“S-Senior, what do you need me to do?” Although it was over ten times bigger than Lin Huang, the skeleton bird beast was as obedient as a student before him.

After all, he had killed the eyeball monster with merely one blow, and its ability was not much more powerful than that particular eyeball monster.

“Eighth-rank true god-level…” From up close, Lin Huang sized up the skeleton bird beast, causing it to panic. “I supposed you’ve been staying in the inner world for many years now?”

“I-It’s…it’s been a few years.” The skeleton bird beast hesitated a little but nodded anyway.

“Excellent.” As soon as Lin Huang finished speaking, the pupils of his eyes turned pitch-black, and the skeleton bird beast’s body froze suddenly as well. Its crimson eyes also became pitch-black at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The way Lin Huang saw it, although the skeleton bird beast’s ability was average, it still had eighth-rank true god-level combat strength after all. Moreover, it had stayed in the inner world for quite a few years. Its knowledge of this world would certainly be much greater than that of the Silt Monster.

Therefore, he read the bird’s memory directly with barely any hesitation.

It had to be said that although this skeleton bird beast was not very intelligent, Lin Huang retrieved a great deal of useful information from its memory. A lot of it was on matters that the Silt Monster was unclear about, and there were even some things that the Silt Monster knew nothing about at all.

One particular piece of information was the one Lin Huang had wanted to discover the most.

It was information suspected to be about the founder of Phantom City!

In the skeleton bird beast’s memory, Lin Huang found a tale that appeared to be a legend.

In ancient times, there were three Almighties who spread cultivation methods and founded this inner world.

The three Almighties were, respectively, a fabulously wealthy massive golden dragon, a nine-tailed demon fox of unparalleled beauty, and a compassionate, enlightened eminent Tantric Buddhist monk.

However, apart from several stories within the legend itself, there was no further information about the three.

According to the skeleton bird beast’s memory, the current inner world did not have any specific masters. Instead, six ninth-rank true god-level powerhouses shared the work of keeping it under control.

‘Legend says that the three Almighties created the inner world, so there’s a chance the castellan’s seal is divided into only three fragments. Now that there are six individuals who share the duties of keeping the world under control at the moment, it’s highly possible that the castellan’s seal is with three of the six.’ Lin Huang quietly analyzed the possession of the castellan’s seal. ‘However, it can’t be completely ruled out that the legend was purposely created to conceal the truth—in reality, all six of them might possess a fragment of the castellan’s seal…

‘There’s also the possibility that none of these prominent six have any of the fragments. The six of them could just be decoys set up by the actual holder of the castellan’s seal…’

Even after some analysis, Lin Huang still could not come to a clear conclusion.

‘Although I can’t be sure who has the castellan’s seal, at least there’s a new clue…’

Lin Huang set his sights on the six inner world overlords. Even if they did not have the castellan’s seal fragments with them, he was sure that they definitely knew a great deal more information about the castellan’s seal.

However, Lin Huang did not intend to rashly contact these six individuals. He had other plans.

As the pitch-black color in his eyes faded, the skeleton bird beast gradually recovered its consciousness.

By the time it was completely clear-headed, Lin Huang was long gone from the top of the building.

“Where did he go?” The skeleton bird beast looked around but did not see Lin Huang anywhere. “What happened?”

It thought back carefully, but could not recall exactly what happened earlier. It faintly remembered a whirlpool similar to a black hole that seemed to have appeared beneath the black hood…

Since the skeleton bird beast really could not recall what happened, it did not bother with wasting its already limited brain cells. It shook its head, pushing the rather uneasy memory from before to the back of its mind.

In the inner world, two days went by in a flash.

Lin Huang arrived at the tallest building in the city’s central district at the agreed-upon time.

He took a seat at an open-air restaurant, ordered a drink, and patiently waited for Virtuoso and Saber9.

Two days ago, the three of them had agreed to meet under the tallest building here.

Although they had no idea back then that the phantom city had a surface world and an inner world, Lin Huang knew that Virtuoso and Saber9 would definitely come to this building in the inner world instead of the one in the surface world.

As expected, Saber9 appeared under the building not long later.

Lin Huang looked over at him. As if sensing his gaze, Saber9 turned to look in Lin Huang’s direction as well.

Noticing Lin Huang, Saber9 walked directly to the table he was sitting at without any hesitation. He then took a seat across from Lin Huang.

“What will you drink?” Lin Huang asked with a smile.

Saber9 peered at the coffee mug in front of Lin Huang. “The same thing you’re having will be fine.”

The waiter very soon served Saber9’s coffee, and the pair chatted as they drank. They did not mention the castellan’s seal at all.

Virtuoso had yet to arrive, so it did not make sense for them to talk about that now.

After they had chatted for a while, Lin Huang realized that he was finishing his coffee and could not help glancing at the time. “It’s almost the time we agreed upon. Will that fellow be late again, I wonder?”

Saber9 said in some irritation, “Instead of picking up their Primordium’s good habits, that fellow picked up all the bad ones!”

Fortunately, Virtuoso was punctual this time.

They arrived at 9 a.m. sharp.

They caught sight of Lin Huang and Saber9 immediately. Walking toward the both of them directly, they took a seat without ceremony.

“You’re punctual today,” Lin Huang commented with a quirk of his lips.

“Of course. I said I would get here at 9, so I got here at 9. I’m not late by even a minute!” Virtuoso replied, sounding very pleased with themselves.

“I wonder who it is who’s never been punctual even after agreeing on a set time,” Saber9 unceremoniously pulled the rug out from under Virtuoso’s feet.

Virtuoso directly ignored Saber9’s snub, directing his words to the two of them, “We’ll end the small talk here. Let’s get down to business.”

Seeing that Virtuoso had used serious matters to change the subject, Saber9 had to let things be.

“How did your investigations go these last two days? Tell me one at a time.” Virtuoso went straight to the point.