Monster Paradise

Two days later, a large number of participants gathered at the entrance of the Frost Territory first thing in the morning.

Because it was only opened to the public once every 120 years, even if the trial quota was 8,000 people, the number of applicants always exceeded the quota considerably.

Of the 8,000 places available, excluding members of the Combat God Temple and other members of the grade-6 and grade-7 organizations, usually, about 5,000 of the remaining application slots would be left.

Of the remaining 5,000 application slots, more than 80% were occupied by grade-4 and grade-5 organizations, with very limited places left for organizations of grade-3 and below.

Lin Huang and the two Sword Servants were members of the top grade-6 organization, Death Sickle, and had the privilege of directly entering the Frost Territory. They did not need to line up to apply.

Despite arriving early at around 8 o’clock in the morning, the entrance area to the Frost Territory was already full of people.

Lin Huang even saw quite a few familiar faces.

Divine Clapnet’s Forbidden Lamella, Xeno’s Frontier, Precious Treasure Pavilion’s Departed Feather, and Death Sickle’s Fallen Star…

Destiny and Twin were not there to represent Death Sickle.

However, someone in a black robe standing beside Fallen Star caught his attention. The individual was slender and Lin Huang could not tell whether they were a man or a woman. All he could vaguely see was a masked face under the brim of a hat.

When he looked at the person in the black robe, the individual in question also looked right back at him, and the blood-red lips on the mask pulled up slightly in an upturned arc.

“They’re smiling?!”

Lin Huang could clearly sense that the other party’s eyes were on him. What was even stranger was that the other party was obviously wearing a mask to fully hide their facial features, but he could see that they were smiling.

“Is that fellow Virtuoso?” Lin Huang took a rough guess based on some of the rumors he had heard before in Death Sickle.

Virtuoso was the first name on Death Sickle’s White Sickle Leaderboard. He had participated in more than 700 assassinations and never failed a single one. Death Sickle guarded his personal information extremely well and there were practically no leaks to the public.

Lin Huang even suspected that in the eyes of Death Sickle’s seven Blood Sickles, Virtuoso’s value ranked higher than that of Buried Heaven.

There was also a rumor within Death Sickle that Virtuoso might be the grade-5 genius of legend.

Before he entered the Great Heaven Territory, Lin Huang would have envied anyone who might be a grade-5 genius of legend. Right now, however, he felt nothing whatsoever.

Currently, under his command, he had Sword1 to Sword12 who were all grade-5 geniuses—fully twelve people in all.

Ignoring Virtuoso’s stare, Lin Huang walked towards the Death Sickle camp with the two Sword Servants.

His identity was now Huang Lin. He looked completely different thanks to Thousand Face’s disguising ability. With so many Black Sickles from Death Sickle present, he was not worried that an acquaintance might recognize him.

The Gold Sickle leader merely glanced at the tokens that the three held and let them pass. All three of them stood at the end of the camp and waited patiently for the ruins to be opened.

 A large number of grade-6 and grade-7 organizations had come this time; there were around a hundred people or so from Death Sickle alone.

Of the several grade-7 organizations, the Combat God Temple had sent the least people—less than 200. The biggest number of participants from the remaining grade-7 organizations was 300 people. It was not that the Combat God Temple had set a quota restriction for them, but the organizations themselves had set a limit of 300 members to curb bad behavior.

After all, these organizations also had access to many exclusive ruins and secret realms; it was not that they absolutely had to enter the Frost Territory. If they did not leave something for the organizations under grade-6, that would undoubtedly lead to a public outcry.

The members of the grade-6 and grade-7 organizations were all very calm.

The camp of the organizations under grade-5 was much more lively—after all, they rarely participated in such events.

“The girl who walked over to the Death Sickle team just now has really long legs—looks like they’d be about two meters right?!”

“What’s the use of her long legs? Is she as good-looking as Miss Fallen Star? Is she as capable as Miss Fallen Star? Our Miss Fallen Star is the fourth-ranked super genius on the Virtual God leaderboard! She’s a rare woman with beauty and brains!”

“If you’re talking about looks, I still think the angel lady from the Precious Treasure Pavilion is good-looking. Look at all the pairs of small wings on her back, they look so cute. I wonder how they would feel to the touch…”

…

At around 8:30 in the morning, the number of participants at the entrance to the Frost Territory had exceeded 10,000 people.

The total quota was only 8,000 places, but every time the ruin was opened, it was never certain how many people would show up from the grade-6 and grade-7 organizations. Therefore, the Combat God Temple would always reserve 1,000 places each time, and the remaining 7,000 were reserved for the grade-1 to grade-5 organizations.

If the total number of participating individuals from the grade-6 and grade-7 organizations was less than 1,000 or exactly 1,000, then the 7,000 people who successfully registered could enter the site. However, this situation had never happened. Generally speaking, the number of participants from the grade-6 and grade-7 organizations usually added up to about 3,000 people. Therefore, out of the 7,000 application slots, usually, only about 5,000 people were eligible to participate in the trial.

At close to nine o’clock, the person-in-charge from the Combat God Temple finally arrived.

It was a majestic, well-built man in golden armor.

Many people on the scene recognized him as soon as he arrived.

To Lin Huang, this person was no stranger. Previously when he was putting together information on the God Territory, he also had a simple collection of data on the several top organizations.

This person-in-charge from the Combat God Temple was named Gao Xiong; he was a pure-blood Protoss. His combat strength had reached the pinnacle of the ninth-rank heavenly god-level. His ability ranked fourth among the Heavenly Gods in the God Territory, almost on par with Buried Heaven.

It could be said that in the great world, this fellow was one of the strongest people below lord-level.

“In terms of ability, how does he rank among the Sword Servants?” Lin Huang asked the two Sword Servants beside him with some curiosity.

For his inquiry, he utilized the message transmission system used between swordmaster and Sword Servant; it was not possible for anyone to eavesdrop.

“A lot stronger than the both of us, but not as good as the seniors above Sword12,” Sword302 spoke first.

Sword301 next to her added, “If you only judge in terms of aura, it’s similar to the strength of Sword25’s aura. This person’s ability is estimated to be between that of Sword20 and Sword30.”

After hearing this Lin Huang nodded silently. To him, Gao Xiong’s ability being ranked under Sword 12’s was a given. After all, Sword12 was a grade-5 genius, which was comparable to the Bug Tribe Queen Mother.

His real intention in asking the two Sword Servants this question was not to find out Gao Xiong’s true ability but to find out how strong his Sword Servants had been in their heyday. Gao Xiong was merely a reference point.

Now he could confirm that as long as he had full control over the Great Heaven Territory, the abilities of the Sword Servants under his command would return to their peak state. It was enough to build a top grade-6 organization.

Gao Xiong of the Combat God Temple was also an impatient person. As soon as he arrived, he delivered a few simple sentences, then opened the entrance to the site.

The first round of entrants from the five major grade-7 organizations—God Capital, Divine Clapnet, Xeno, Precious Treasure Pavilion, and the Combat God Temple—took up almost 1,000 or so slots.

After that, it was the turn of the grade-6 organizations such as Death Sickle. A total of twelve grade-6 organizations made up the second round of entrants, occupying more than 2,000 places.

The remaining organizations—grade-5, grade-4, grade-3 and below—entered in order, and used up the remaining 5,000 places.

After closing the entrance to the ruin, Gao Xiong closed his eyes and sat down cross-legged. He did not even look at the remaining two thousand people.

After a group of staff in the Combat God Temple comforted some young people who failed to enter the trial, the heads of the organizations quickly dispersed, taking their members with them…