Monster Paradise

To be considered a True God, one had to have ignited Divine Fire and also have achieved an understanding of the existence of God Rule Power or Elemental Enlightenment.

Because Divine Power within the body was refined by the Divine Fire, the quality of Divine Power possessed by true god-level powerhouses far outstripped that of Virtual Gods. Once that was combined with God Rule Power and Elemental Enlightenment, it became an irrefutable universal truth.

Therefore, a Virtual God challenging a True God would be as hard as scaling the heavens.

Apart from a very few peak virtual god-level genius powerhouses who had mastered God Rule Powers or Elemental Enlightenment and could, therefore, challenge True Gods, other Virtual Gods would not stand a chance of winning an encounter with a True God.

Lin Huang dared to challenge True Gods for a very simple reason.

He also had Divine Fire within him; once his Divine Power had been refined by the Divine Fire, it was comparable in quality to that of a first-rank True God. Besides, he had also mastered many God Rule Powers and Elemental Enlightenments, and he was adept in Sword Dao true meaning.

Even though his combat strength was only at grade-10 Imperial-level, in every other aspect, he was by no means inferior to a low-rank True God.

After elevating to grade-10 Imperial-level, the first thing Lin Huang did was to begin hunting for True Gods.

There were still two days left for both the trial and for the period of accessibility to the Frost Territory; he wanted to take advantage of these final two days to elevate to virtual god-level as soon as possible.

It was a good thing that Warlord had listed down true god-level monsters as well during his search for virtual god-level ones. At the time, the reason for this was to avoid those areas as much as possible—who knew that the information would turn out to be so useful right now.

In less than a second Warlord had plotted out the best hunting route based on the low-rank True Gods on the list.

After less than ten minutes, Lin Huang located his first true god-level prey.

This was a Portly Snowman, which looked utterly adorable and even rather cute.

However, the truth was that it was a true god-level frost spirit, and its powers were not to be taken lightly.

It stood around five meters tall. In appearance, it was like the snowmen that children would build on snowy days, except that it had two legs and was considerably larger.

Portly Snowmen were adept in the use of Frost Elemental Enlightenment, particularly arcane attacks. Because they were frost spirits, they were able to utilize a great many Frost Elemental techniques at will without the need for a cool-down period.

However, while they were experts in offensive techniques, techniques were not the only thing they were extremely proficient in.

The truth was, all Portly Snowmen were equipped with terrifying defenses. These defenses were not like rigid those of the Frost Giants; rather, the Snowmen’s bodies were capable of absorbing a substantial amount of physical and energy attacks, thereby minimizing the actual damage to themselves as much as possible.

Besides this, Portly Snowmen were like the Frost Giants—also equipped with considerable strength. Among monsters of the same level, the Portly Snowmen’s strength was considered to be of a superior standard.

If any poor soul naively assumed that the Snowmen were only expert in offensive techniques and not in close-quarter combat, they would die very horribly indeed.

Looking down at the Portly Snowman below from high up in the sky, Lin Huang knew that the other had been aware of his presence from early on.

Portly Snowmen might not have aggressive tendencies but it did not mean that they were not territorial.

This particular Portly Snowman had not immediately attacked Lin Huang and Warlord when they had encroached into its territory, partly because it sensed that both the intruders were not yet at true god-level and they did not present a very great threat. Another reason was that the Snowman had determined both the newcomers were merely passing through and had not come specifically to hunt it down. This also had to do with the fact that Lin Huang had not immediately displayed any violent intentions.

However, the intruders had now closed the distance to the point where they appeared directly in the Snowman’s line of sight. This proximity immediately stirred the Portly Snowman’s territorial guarding instincts. It reassessed the two newcomers’ intentions and confirmed that the pair were heading straight for it.

Once it had ascertained that Lin Huang and Warlord were intruders, the Portly Snowman’s initial adorable demeanor suddenly underwent a change. Its eyes turned blood-red as if scarlet ink had been dripped onto them. Its smiling lips lifted high, its wide mouth dominating half its face and opening to reveal a maw full of sharp crystalline teeth.

The Snowman’s body expanded considerably as well; in less than the time it took for a breath, it had grown to over ten meters tall.

Although he had seen the descriptions of Portly Snowmen quite some time ago in the monster guide, Lin Huang was still rather shocked now that he was personally witnessing the Snowman’s transformation up close.

“I wonder if those people on the Internet who keep fussing every day about wanting to have a Portly Snowman as a pet would still want to do so after seeing this,” he muttered with a tinge of dark humor.

The minute he finished speaking, he discovered that a pale white mist was starting to coalesce around his body and he could clearly feel that the temperature of the air was plummeting rapidly.

“Not even a greeting and it’s already making a move?” Lin Huang spat out a curse, but his hands did not slow down their movements in the least.

A dark red sword hilt appeared in Lin Huang’s palm out of thin air. A second later, a thick, wide silver blade rapidly materialized into being.

The blade sliced through the air. Gale-force winds howled continuously and the mist surrounding Lin Huang’s body dispelled in an instant. The temperature of the air—which had plummeted so rapidly earlier—quickly rose again.

In fact, the white mist that the Portly Snowman had generated just now was a type of Frost Elemental Enlightenment divine skill—Frost Wave.

This particular divine skill appeared in the form of a mist that could rapidly lower the temperature of an entire area to slow down an enemy’s movements.

If the enemy lingered within the Frost Wave for too long, they might even be frozen into an ice statue.

However, this recent attack of Lin Huang’s had been imbued with Wind Elemental Enlightenment. It immediately dispelled the Frost Wave and got him out of his predicament.

Upon seeing its attack being dispelled so easily, the Portly Snowman was stunned for a moment.

From what it had sensed previously, the auras of these two tiny things were not yet at true god-level and were no match for its power.

It had originally thought that the Frost Wave would finish off both the intruders and turn them into ice statues.

It had certainly not expected that in one move they would dispel an attack imbued with Frost Elemental Enlightenment.

The Portly Snowman’s brief moment of being stunned gave Lin Huang an opening, however.

As this was his first encounter with a true god-level opponent, Lin Huang did not dare to act recklessly. Now that he had found a weak point in his opponent’s defenses, naturally, he would not let this chance slip by so easily.

In an instant the shape of his sword blade changed, becoming long and narrow. The next second, a sword gleam streaked across the heavens like a blood-red electric arc.

The Portly Snowman several hundred meters away did not even have time to react before it was decapitated by the blade.

Lin Huang had not held back anything in this attack; he had combined Sword Dao true meaning with Lightning Element—Instant Flash, the Fire Elemental God Rule Power—Tattooed Demon, and God-slaying Power.

With the amplification effect of four Rule Bending Powers combined, one attack was sufficient to snuff out the Portly Snowman’s life.

Before the Snowman’s head could tumble to the ground, the monster’s aura had already completely dissipated.

Its massive corpse rapidly crumbled into a gigantic pile of snow.

Lin Huang had not expected to be able to kill a first-rank True God; this caused him inexplicable delight.

This was the first time that he had killed a True God on his own; it was also the first time that he sensed just how powerful he was at present.

“I was able to kill a first-rank True God so easily; I don’t know whether the upper limit of my abilities is at second-rank or third-rank…”

After spending a few minutes to retrieve the Divine Fire from within the Portly Snowman’s corpse, Lin Huang tossed it into his inner world.

Once the white Divine Fire entered Lin Huang’s inner world, it transformed into a stream of light that flowed into one of the Life Wheels. To be more precise, it flowed into one of the Life Lamps and began slowly integrating with the dark-red Divine Fire within the Lamp.

“Given this current speed, it will take almost a month to fully integrate…”

Based on what he sensed of the Divine Fire’s integration speed, Lin Huang could roughly determine how long a full integration would take.

He swept a glance over the nine Life Wheels; it became increasingly clear what steps he should take next…