Monster Paradise

All participants were on time to submit their missions at nine in the morning. Li Lang noticed that Lin Huang had submitted his mission, so he greeted Lin Huang and headed to the staff. Looking at Li Lang take out the monster carcasses, Lin Huang could not help but stare. As he took out more and more carcasses, many of the participants were watching. The monster carcasses piled into a couple of hills, much higher than the rest. It looked like there were at least 10,000 monster carcasses.

Seeing that many of the monster carcasses were burnt, Lin Huang could guess how he had killed the monsters. A few staff spent more than an hour to handle the staggering number of carcasses. There were a total of 14,560 carcasses including gold-level rank-3 and complete gold-level ones. After finalizing the figures, Li Lang smirked as he walked over to Lin Huang.

”You kept many nuclear bombs with you, didn’t you?” Lin Huang raised his eyebrow when he saw Li Lang walking to him.

”Seems like I can’t hide it from you.” Li Lang smiled weakly in embarrassment. He had told Lin Huang that he was only left with five nuclear bombs earlier.

”I only kept two to myself for emergencies. I didn’t expect to use them.”

Yi Yeyu walked to them after she submitted her mission. All of the monsters that she had killed were holy fire-level. There were only more than 30 of them and it took less than two minutes for the staff to calculate them. She glared at Li Lang who was the center of attention, then regarded Lin Huang.

”What plan do you have after this ends?”

”It’s still a long way to go before I level up to holy fire-level. I plan to take a break while slowly leveling up to complete gold-level and to finish up some errands,” Lin Huang said, then he thought of something that he wanted to ask.

”Speaking of errands… Do you guys know where can I get dracaena?”

”Dracaena?! Why would you want that?” Li Lang’s eyes flew wide open.

Yi Yeyu frowned as she looked at Lin Huang. She knew very well that dracaena was a herb to increase the dragonkin characteristics in a monster with dragonkin. Although what its effects were minimal, as long as it was used in massive quantities, it could upgrade a sky dragon to a dragonkin. However, there was a limited amount of dracaena around. It was so expensive that one could easily cost more than a normal grade-5 relic. Too little dracaena would show no effect; one would need tens to hundreds of dracaena to see anything. Also, as each monster had different types of bodies, the chances of increasing the density of dragonkin blood would vary. A normal rich family would not spend their money on dracaena as it was expensive and risky.

”Nothing, just asking out of curiosity,” Lin Huang gave an excuse.

”There might be some in the troop warehouse but I’m not sure how many are there.” Yi Yeyu glared at Lin Huang.

”There might be more at the chambers of commerce in Division7. I can hook you up if you need, but you’ll need to pay for it yourself as it’s too expensive. I can’t afford to get them for you,” Yi Yeyu added.

”Thank you in advance.”

As they chatted, the calculation of the monster carcasses of all of the participants ended. Luo Li floated into the air and spoke, ”All the participants have submitted their monster carcasses and our staff has finished all the calculating as well as tallying the accumulated points. Master Yi will announce the results after he gets the report!

”Now everyone can leave the ruins following our staff’s arrangement. Don’t go too far away while waiting for the results patiently. If any of you are absent when we announce your name, the reward will be given to the next person, so I hope that doesn’t happen.”

After the announcement, Luo Li got the staff to manage the crowd while the three examiners took out a fan-like object and connected them together to form a circle. The circle expanded and formed a round, black door that rose from the ground and opened slowly. A bunch of the participants stepped into the door following the staff’s instructions.

”Is that one of the keys of the ruins?” Lin Huang asked as he queued.

”It should be a replica.” Yi Yeyu nodded.

”Shouldn’t the ruin key be exclusive? Why’s there a replica?” Lin Huang was surprised.

”Every dimensional ruin should have an original key but it can be replicated.” Yi Yeyu did not think it was strange.

”Isn’t it normal to get a replicated key? If there’s only one, what do we do if it’s lost?”

”So, that means if I activate the ruin key, I might encounter the Saint members in the ruins.” Lin Huang touched the ruins keys in his pocket and contemplated seriously.

”Luckily, I didn’t activate it…”

Soon the three of them entered the black door and were sent to the plaza at the Union Government headquarters in the White Capital. Coming back to the White Capital made Lin Huang think that he had come back to civilization. He was not used to seeing buildings after spending 20 days in the barren Volcano Hell. As he stepped out of the door, Lin Huang’s Emperor Heart Ring’s signal and network were activated. Before the activation could be completed, Yi Donglai appeared with the Demon Slayer Legion.

Luo Li and the other examiners approached Yi Donglai and gave him a palm-sized metal plate of an unknown material. Lin Huang guessed that the metal plate was something like a computer tablet. Yi Donglai looked at the results and browsed the crowd. After his scanning stopped at Yi Yeyu and Lin Huang, he started speaking, ”Congratulations for making it back safely! I shall not waste your time and announce the results now!”

”First prize goes to Lin Huang with 136,317 points.

”Second prize goes to Li Lang with 32,821 points.

”Third prize goes to Yi Yeyu with 10,287 points.

”Fourth prize goes to Shang Gong Hong with 10,133 points.”

…

The top ten participants were soon announced. Besides Lin Huang, the remaining nine people were all leveled up to holy fire-level. Li Lang had used his own way and got into top 2 while the rest had accumulated around 10,000 points each. While Yi Donglai announced the results, the activation of Lin Huang’s Emperor’s Heart Ring was complete. It vibrated a couple of times but he did not look at it.

”Let’s welcome the first prize winner, Lin Huang, up here,” Yi Donglai invited and nodded to a staff. The staff with the reward that was covered in red cloth stood next to Yi Donglai while Lin Huang walked towards him.

”This is your reward. Reveal it!” Yi Donglai smiled at Lin Huang. Lin Huang nodded and removed the red cloth. A red monster egg was placed inside a golden box. The monster egg was slightly bigger than an adult’s palm. It was red in color with plum spots as well as light spiral patterns. Lin Huang knew that was the phoenix egg that Yi Donglai had promised.

”It’s yours now.” Yi Donglai took the box from the staff and presented it to Lin Huang.

Just when Lin Huang was about to leave with the monster egg, Yi Donglai spoke again, ”Young man, don’t you want to say anything?”

Lin Huang was stunned, then he turned around.

”Thank you!”

He got down from the stage without turning his head after that. Because the monster egg was alive, he could not keep it in his storage space, so he covered the box and carried it with both hands. Many were envious of the box that he was holding.

The prize presentation went on after Lin Huang left the stage. As he returned to the crowd, he held the box with one hand while another started checking his Emperor’s Heart Ring. Lin Xin had called many times. Lin Huang thought it was strange as she would not disturb him whenever he was out. She would usually call once and if nobody picked up, she would wait for him to call instead of calling him again and again.

As the prize presentation was still going on, Lin Huang could not call her back, so he started checking his messages. His heart skipped a beat when he saw that many messages were sent by Lin Xin. He then started to read the messages. The first message shocked him.

”Brother, Xiao Xuan is missing…”