Monster Paradise

Due to his use of Epiphany Cards, Lin Huang’s comprehension of sword skills was now several times faster than in the Great Heaven Trial previously, and the number of new sword skills he mastered exceeded 3,000 almost every day.

After almost a month, the total number of sword skills he had mastered soared from the original 200,000 to 300,000.

Under normal circumstances, mastering 300,000 sword skills basically meant advancing to Sword Dao true meaning Level-3—the threshold of the True Self Level.

However, Lin Huang was not able to achieve a breakthrough.

He was also aware that since breaking through to Sword Dao true meaning required opportunity, there was little sense in continuing to cultivate his sword skills. Therefore, he turned his cultivation direction toward Rule Bending Powers instead.

He crushed Epiphany Card after Epiphany Card and started a new round of cultivation.

The urgency of the situation was partly because of the upcoming invasion of the great world.

Another reason was that he had discovered his strength was still far removed from the top-tier True Gods.

Among the True Gods of the great world, the Crow God’s ability was at intermediate to high level, not far from the top-rank True Gods. Even so, the Crow God of legend had still mastered one hundred and eight Rule Bending Powers.

Of course, Lin Huang was also aware that the Crow God had not cultivated all one hundred and eight Rule Bending Powers to an extremely high degree, otherwise he would be ranked among the top True Gods.

The Crow God’s apparent mastery of one hundred and eight Rule Bending Powers was probably mostly on a surface level.

Even so, however, the number of Rule Bending Powers that the Crow God had mastered still made Lin Huang envious.

This was also why he had immediately devoted himself to the cultivation of Rule Bending Power after his Sword Dao breakthrough was unsuccessful.

However, what Lin Huang did not know was that during his closed-door cultivation, many things had happened in the outside world.

On the second day of Lin Huang’s retreat into closed-door cultivation, the Union Government issued a notice about Purple Crow, declaring that the organization had colluded with the great world’s Crow God in his failed attempt to invade the entire gravel world.

Once this news broke, all the cultivators were in an uproar.

Practically every cultivator knew that Purple Crow was one of the top dark organizations and its members had done many unsavory things. However, no one had ever thought that they would team up with the great world powerhouses so these enemies could attempt to invade the gravel world.

Purple Crow’s actions immediately stirred up public outrage.

Just minutes after the Union Government released their notice, the Hunter Association and Dynasty issued a condemnation of Purple Crow and joined the faction calling for the organization’s eradication

Seeing that the three giants within the organizations had come forward to express their views, the other organizations—both large and small—quickly followed suit and joined the faction condemning Purple Crow.

In no time at all Purple Crow became an object of infamy and was spurned by all the cultivators.

On the same day that the Union Government issued their condemnation, they gathered a group of Virtual God powerhouses and headed straight to Purple Crow’s lair.

The Hunter Association and Dynasty also prepared their respective virtual god-level teams and joined the punitive expedition.

On Dynasty’s side, there were even two Sword Servants who joined the ranks denouncing Purple Crow.

There were a total of 37 people in the three virtual god-level teams. The lowest level of combat strength was second-rank Virtual God, and the highest was naturally the two Sword Servants who had suppressed their cultivation bases. Both of them were at ninth-rank virtual god-level.

With such a team, it only took less than ten minutes and very little effort to raze Purple Crow’s headquarters to the ground.

As for the people in the building, naturally, none of them survived.

The Union Government led a team to clear out Purple Crow’s headquarters; within the next few days, the major organizations joined the Purple Crow extermination extravaganza.

In just three or four days, almost all the branches of Purple Crow had been eradicated. The only thing was that many people heard in advance about Purple Crow being besieged and fled before their own branch could be suppressed.

In the half-month or so that followed, the major organizations actively participated in the siege of Purple Crow, trying to get a share of the spoils.

After the enthusiasm in suppressing Purple Crow had died down, the Union Government and the other organizations began to resume their explorations of wastelands and ruins, continuing to hoard resources frantically in preparation for battle.

Meanwhile, Dynasty and Misery continued to search for where the remaining members of Purple Crow were hiding and eradicated them through overt and covert approaches respectively.

As the days passed, the number of Elemental Enlightenments that Lin Huang mastered every month increased, bolstered by the effect of the Epiphany Cards.

In the blink of an eye, three months had gone by and Lin Huang had mastered another ten Elemental Enlightenments—an increase of more than twice his usual.

He did not come out of closed-door cultivation; instead, he dialed Huang Tianfu’s number.

“How is the situation in the outside world these past few months?”

“These three months have been calm. Except for the hullabaloo during the eradication of Purple Crow, all the major organizations have resumed their original status quo. Under our joint efforts with Misery, the remaining members of Purple Crow who escaped have now been completely dealt with.

“There hasn’t been much happening at the Abyss Brink either. All the major organizations now have people keeping a close eye on it; if there’s even a whisper of trouble we’ll know.

“The exploration of the ruins and wastelands and the acquisition of resources are also going very smoothly. Except for the first month when most of the Virtual Gods participated in the elimination of Purple Crow when progress slowed down slightly, things have gone back to normal.

“However, there’s something that I think I had better let you know. The Union Government might have become aware of the existence of the Sword Servants. While participating in the siege of the Purple Crow headquarters, Sword168 made a move. Although his actual combat strength was concealed at that time and he restrained himself, he was still noticed.”

“If they know, then they know.” Lin Huang no longer cared about whether or not the Sword Servants’ identities were revealed. “It will be fine as long as they are not too high-profile.”

“Is there anything happening over in Misery?” Lin Huang asked again.

“Apart from when Zhi Ji called me once previously to discuss the suppression of Purple Crow, we have not been in contact since. After the Union Government and the others withdrew from the siege, the people of Misery disguised themselves as members of Dynasty to participate in seeing to the aftermath. Any outsiders all thought that the follow-up matters were taken care of by Dynasty; Misery’s role was not revealed.

“I don’t know much about the situation afterward on his side, and there’s been no news about Misery on the Internet. For any specifics, it’s best that Your Majesty asks Zhi Ji directly.”

Lin Huang nodded. “Oh yes, has Lin Xin come out of closed-door cultivation?”

“No, Mr. Fu checked last month and she is still in normal closed-door cultivation.”

“How about Xiao Mo? Is there anything out of the ordinary on his side?” Lin Huang was still not completely at ease about the Crow God situation.

“Xiao Mo has been in closed-door cultivation since he came back three months ago. He hasn’t come out or contacted me,” Huang Tianfu returned.

“Then there should be no problem…” Lin Huang muttered in a low voice.

“Your Majesty, when are you going to come out of closed-door cultivation?” Huang Tianfu could not help asking.

“I’m not sure yet…” Lin Huang was still not satisfied with the improvement in his abilities over the last three months and he was reluctant to exit closed-door cultivation like this. “I may still need some time.”

After hanging up the call with Huang Tianfu, Lin Huang chatted with Zhi Ji for a while about Misery.

Aside from participating in the punitive expedition against Purple Crow, everything on Misery’s end was also calm.

Once he had ended the call with Zhi Ji, Lin Huang frowned slightly. His frustrations did not stem from the outside world, but from within himself.

Currently, his combat level could improve no further; of all the main approaches he could use to increase his abilities, the only remaining avenues open to him were advancement in Sword Dao true meaning and the mastery of more God Rules and Elemental Enlightenments.

However, even if he used Epiphany Cards, elevating his Sword Dao true meaning and mastering the various Rule Bending Powers would still require a great deal of time.

Right now what he lacked most was time.

One and a half years had passed out of his previously anticipated three years, and the invasion of the great world could happen at any time. Even if the invasion did not begin until a year and a half later, based on his current cultivation progress, any improvements that a year and a half could make in his abilities would be insufficient to satisfy him.

“Xiao Hei, besides the Epiphany Card, are there any other cards that could speed up my cultivation and also be compounded with the Epiphany Card?” Lin Huang could not help asking.

“There are several, but the one that best suits your current situation would be the Item Card—Time Cabin.”