Monster Paradise

“Brother…”

Just as Lin Huang came out of the meeting room, he ran into Lin Xin who was standing there at the door.

Naturally, he knew that more than an hour ago Lin Xin had already been waiting here; he guessed that Huang Tianfu and the others had leaked the news of his return.

He had been unable to get away from the meeting room. Lin Xin had also not barged in to disturb the meeting in session; she had continued waiting outside.

Now that he was seeing Lin Xin again, Lin Huang noticed that her combat level was already at the utmost limits of imperial-level and the intensity of her aura was infinitely approaching virtual god-level.

“I haven’t seen you in a year and you’ve grown taller again.” Lin Huang smiled, reached out, and touched Lin Xin’s head.

A year ago, Lin Xin was just over 1.6 meters tall. One year later, she was already close to 1.7 meters. Her shoulder-length hair was tied up in a ponytail and the naivete in her face had also faded a great deal. She had blossomed into a tall, slim, graceful young lady.

Lin Xin did not say anything; tears kept welling up in her eyes.

“Look, I didn’t say anything, why are you crying?” Lin Huang smiled and looked at Lin Xin. After a year of not seeing her, this girl’s personality seemed much more stable; she had obviously experienced many things in this period.

“I’m not crying!” Lin Xin covered her eyes with her palm, surreptitiously wiping away the tears.

Her tears were gone but her eyes were still red.

“Fine, you’re not crying. It doesn’t count as crying until the tears fall to the ground,” Lin Huang said as he handed her a pack of tissue.

Lin Xin reached out and took the tissues, wiping the tears from the corners of her eyes. Only then did she look up at Lin Huang once more.

“Brother, I hope you’ve been well for the past year.”

Although she was outside the meeting room, she had not been able to hear what was going on in the meeting room because there had been a barrier. She had merely used her cognitive processes to infer that there were many powerhouses in the great world, and Lin Huang must have suffered a lot since he had left with combat strength below virtual god-level.

“It wasn’t too bad.” Lin Huang shook his head. “Although there are many powerhouses in the great world, I’m not one to simply make enemies for no reason. In fact, most of my time was spent on boring cultivation and running around. There weren’t many dramatic encounters. It’s not a novel where the protagonist will be hunted down for various reasons wherever he goes.

“On the contrary, you give the impression of having changed a lot this year. Not only have you reached the limits of your imperial-level, but your Sword Dao has also advanced to level-5… Well, it doesn’t seem like you’ve been lazy in your Sword Dao cultivation. I don’t know how your firearms cultivation has been going though.”

“I haven’t been lazy in my firearms cultivation either, alright?” Lin Xin said crossly, “I’m ranked on the Firearms Master Leaderboard.”

“Oh, let me take a look.” Lin Huang pulled up the leaderboard in front of him right away as he spoke. After a glance at it, his expression betrayed some astonishment.

Impressively, Lin Xin’s name was ranked first among the imperial-level firearm masters.

Lin Xin, who had been secretly observing Lin Huang’s expression, looked smug as she saw the astonishment on her brother’s face.

“Huh, not bad, you’re number one. Looks like you definitely didn’t slack off,” Lin Huang praised her with a smile.

“I can’t break through to virtual god-level so I can only spend my time practicing gun fighting techniques and sword skills,” Lin Xin muttered in a low voice.

“Can’t break through to virtual god-level?” Lin Huang was stunned to hear that. “Don’t you advance your combat levels by eating life crystals? If you go according to this method of advancement, in theory, you only need to replace the life crystal with something containing Divine Power, such as Divine Stones and Divine Crystals.”

“No, I’ve tried both Divine Stones and Divine Crystals, and there’s absolutely no response.” Lin Xin shook her head helplessly. “Mr. Fu asked me to try hunting virtual god-level monsters so I did that as well, but there was no response either after the hunt.”

“A situation like yours obviously means there are special conditions for advancement…” Lin Huang frowned slightly and thought for a moment. “Have you tried eating a Godhead?”

“Eating a Godhead?!” Lin Xin’s eyes widened when she heard that. “Don’t they say that even a True God would find it hard to destroy a Godhead? Can this sort of thing really be eaten?”

“Normally cultivators don’t eat life crystals either, but you’ve eaten who knows how many of them like peanuts,” Lin Huang could not help grumbling, “If you don’t want to try it, we’ll think of something else instead.”

“Then…let’s give it a try,” Lin Xin hesitated for a moment but nodded.

Lin Huang randomly retrieved a Virtual God rank-1 Godhead from his storage space and handed it to Lin Xin.

Lin Xin took the Godhead, her expression rather odd.

This Godhead was completely red with a few black striations. It looked a bit like a gem.

Lin Xin brought the Godhead in front of her and studied it for a while, then she closed her eyes and stuffed it into her mouth.

“If you can’t bite into it then don’t force yourself, and don’t swallow it directly,” Lin Huang hurriedly added.

He noticed the current expression on Lin Xin’s face was even odder. “You said that a little too late; it’s already slid down.”

“…” Lin Huang was speechless. “Don’t you feel like you’re choking?”

“No, the texture’s a bit like pudding. It immediately melted once I put it in my mouth and I accidentally swallowed it.”

“What pudding… I can’t even bite into this thing.” A virtual god-level Godhead could be said to be the hardest thing within a Virtual God’s body, harder than even god relics. Even if it was just a Virtual God rank-1, the Godhead in the body was so strong it could only be damaged by Rule Bending Power. For ordinary cultivators, it was naturally inedible.

That was why when Lin Xin described the Godhead’s texture as pudding-like, Lin Huang found it hard to imagine.

“Do you feel anything at all? Or do you have to spend some time refining?” Seeing that Lin Xin did not look as if she had eaten something unclean, Lin Huang asked again.

“It really seems to be working!” Lin Xin sent her consciousness into her inner world for a moment before responding. “The Godhead automatically disintegrated in my inner world. Not only is there a lot of Divine Power surging from it, but it’s also leaving behind a lot of inheritance memories. One Godhead doesn’t seem to be enough though…”

As soon as Lin Xin finished speaking, Lin Huang, who was standing to one side, immediately grabbed a handful of Virtual God rank-1 Godheads and brought them out.

“These Godheads ought to satiate you; it just depends on many you can eat.”

Lin Xin took the entire batch of Godheads, tossed them into her mouth one by one, and swallowed them quickly as if she were eating jelly beans.

She ate nine Godheads in a row before she stopped.

“It seems like it won’t be much longer. I can feel that the Divine Power within me is at saturation point; I need to go home and begin closed-door cultivation!”

After she finished speaking, she handed the remaining Godheads back to Lin Huang.

“Hold onto them yourself—what if you need them later?” Lin Huang did not take the Godheads; instead, he handed his sister a storage ring. “In addition to the rank-1 to rank-9 Virtual God Godheads in here, there are also some Divine Crystals. Go ahead and use them first for now.”

“Thank you, Brother!” After Lin Xin had thanked Lin Huang, she turned with a trace of urgency and departed in a great hurry.

She could not wait to advance to virtual god-level.

‘This girl—her constitution is really enviable.’ As he watched Lin Xin departing, Lin Huang could not help sighing in his heart, ‘I want to have this kind of constitution. Not only could I have eaten my way to lord level, but I would also definitely have already eaten my way to heavenly god-level!’