Monster Paradise

“The Raiders are a group of extremists formed by travelers. The purpose of this group is very simple, which is to rob other travelers’ Goldfingers to strengthen themselves. Of course, apart from other travelers, there are some in their midst who also target certain geniuses who have not fully grown up, using special means to plunder their divine abilities, skills, talents, and qualifications…

“The most terrifying thing about this group is that almost every member has unbelievable abilities and there is nothing they won’t stoop to in order to achieve their goals.

“I’m very confident in my own abilities already but if I were to encounter a Raider who is of the same rank in combat power as myself, I would not dare say for certain that I would have a 100% chance of winning.

“As far as I know, even though the Raiders are few in number, there are just a handful of them in the great world that we are in. However, there are many more even stronger Raiders outside the great world and some of them may even have abilities that are above Lords…”

…

Lin Huang shared the information that he had learned about the Raiders with Sword1.

“That’s all I know about the Raiders.”

“Thank you! The information you’ve provided already includes many things that I wanted to know!” Sword1 nodded slightly, the expression on his face displaying little emotion.

Lin Huang had initially felt that it was not a good idea to invade the privacy of others, but he still could not help asking curiously, “Are you asking about the Raiders because it has something to do with Senior Great Heaven?”

He had already discovered from Sword1 that Great Heaven was a traveler like himself, so it was highly probable that the other party’s inquiry about the Raiders was related to Great Heaven.

Sword1 was silent for a moment. He seemed to be hesitating over whether or not to tell Lin Huang about this matter, but he soon made a decision.

“You have already passed the Inheritance Trial. Although you have not officially accepted the Inheritance, you are already considered the swordmaster’s heir. There’s no harm in telling you about this matter.” After Sword1 finished speaking, he paused for a moment as if he were thinking about how to word his next words before he continued, “The swordmaster’s death is most likely related to the Raiders…”

Sword1’s words immediately puzzled Lin Huang, “Wasn’t Senior Great Heaven’s death because of a failure in Dao unification?!”

“The Dao unification failure is true. But this happened because a lord-level powerhouse launched a surprise attack at him during Dao unification and severely injured him, which led to the failed Dao unification,” Sword1 frowned slightly and explained.

“You mentioned just now that it’s most likely related to the Raiders—so none of you know who the assassin was?” Lin Huang asked again.

“We don’t know.” Sword1 shook his head helplessly. “The other party attacked from the void, and immediately severed space-time and cause and effect after the attack. They even blocked the pursuit of the Dao unification raptor.”

“Under normal circumstances, even Lords would never dare to interfere during Dao unification because contaminating cause and effect will produce karma. It may cause karmic fire to engulf the body and while the disintegration of the Dao tattoo is a trivial matter, in serious cases it may even lead to death. However, the person who attacked was able to sever cause and effect…”

“So you all suspect that the Raiders did it?” Lin Huang nodded slightly and asked after a slight pause, “Senior Great Heaven had crossed paths with the Raiders before when he was still alive?”

“Yes!

“When the swordmaster was newly elevated to true god-level, he met a woman. The two were together for more than three years. According to the swordmaster, those days were like an alliance made in heaven.

“One day, out of the blue, the woman said that she had in her possession a key to a ruin, which was a legacy from a deceased Heavenly God. She invited the swordmaster to explore it with her and he agreed without hesitation.

“Unexpectedly, on the second day after entering the ruin, the woman revealed her malevolent true face and assembled several True Gods to assassinate the swordmaster.

“She said that she was a Raider and her purpose for getting close to the swordmaster was to plunder the Goldfinger within him. To gain the swordmaster’s trust, she spent more than three years laying her plans to kill him.

“She had prepared the ruin for killing the swordmaster way beforehand. It was a closed ruin that could only be entered by those below heavenly god-level and could only be accessed within 24 hours of the first day it was opened. The ruin would be closed automatically afterward and no one could get in or out until a month later when it reopened and teleported all the participants out together.

“To kill the Sword Master, the woman paid a huge sum of money to hire five high-rank True Gods. One of them was even a ninth-rank True God.

“According to the Sword Master, it was the hardest month of his entire life. He was pursued by this group of people every single day. While he fled, he cultivated and waited for the opportunity to fight back.

“It took almost a month of utilizing the power of his Goldfinger to kill all the assassins. However, he discovered that the woman had used some special means to escape before the ruin opened again.

“Two days later, he came out of the ruin and tried to find the woman, but discovered that all information related to her seemed to have been erased by someone.

“Later after he achieved heavenly god-level, the swordmaster assembled a large number of Sword Servants. He did not give up searching for information about the woman, but he never found anything…

“Three years before the swordmaster’s Dao unification, the woman suddenly appeared outside the Great Heaven Palace and said that she wanted to see the swordmaster. I recognized her and was about to capture her alive but the swordmaster stopped me. He met her alone, but she walked out of the Great Heaven Palace in less than ten minutes. I asked the swordmaster whether or not to kill her and he answered that it was just a clone so it was not necessary. On that day itself, the swordmaster asked me to abandon the mission of looking for this woman.

“After a few months, without meaning to, the swordmaster and I ended up talking about this woman. I asked him what was her intention when she initiated the visit; the Sword Master said that she wanted to pull him into the Raiders but he refused. I wanted to ask more about them but the swordmaster kept silent. He also warned me not to look for any more information about the Raiders.

“Although I did not continue to search for information about the Raiders, the moment the Sword Master was attacked during Dao unification, the first word that came to mind was “Raider”. The first face that flashed into my head after that was the woman who came to visit that day.

“My instinct tells me that the attack on the Sword Master is tied to her!”

After he listened to Sword1’s story, Lin Huang was silent for a moment before he spoke again.

“Senior Great Heaven asked all of you to not continue searching for the Raiders to protect all of you. If his death is truly related to the Raiders, the more you seek the truth, the closer you will be to danger. This is probably why he arranged for you to be guardians of the last stage of the Trial so that all of you wouldn’t be able to leave this Trial space…”

Sword1 fell silent as well; he had not expected that the swordmaster’s arrangements for himself and the rest to act as guardians would have another layer of meaning to it.

After a long silence, he still said insistently,

“We must find the murderer and make her pay the price!”