Monster Paradise

Bai and the others easily dealt with the ninth wave of monsters, which finally enabled the Virtual Gods of the gravel world to see some part of Lin Huang’s true abilities.

This also stirred more people’s curiosity about the great world.

From what they could see, Lin Huang’s abilities had substantially increased after only a year in the great world, and he was practically unrivaled now he had returned to the gravel world.

Many people could not help but wonder if they would also experience such advancement if they made a trip to the great world.

However, what they did not know was that Lin Huang was able to achieve such a level of advancement primarily because he relied on conduits. With their beginner-stage virtual god-level combat powers, merely surviving in the great world for a year would be a problem.

After the ninth wave of monsters, two more waves of Sword Servants arrived at the Abyss Brink.

Guan Zhong’s brows creased slightly at the sight of dozens of unfamiliar faces with virtual god-level combat powers.

As the head of the Union Government’s Agency EA, he had within his grasp all intel and information on the entire gravel world. Even if it was impossible for the Union Government to gather data on all the Virtual Gods in the gravel world, at least 95% of all Virtual Gods had data records. However, there were no data records on any of the fifty or more people who comprised these two waves of reinforcements. Apart from them, there were about five or six people that he did not recognize even among the previous wave of reinforcements.

Even stranger was that these people seemed to know Lin Huang, and some of them even stepped forward to greet him.

With these doubts in mind, Guan Zhong turned his gaze to Dynasty’s camp. His eyes swept the area and he realized there were also nine people he did not recognize. He was quite sure that he had never seen any information in the database on these nine individuals.

After discovering this anomaly within Dynasty, Guan Zhong immediately informed Dongfang Bai about what he had found.

Dongfang Bai frowned after hearing that.

“How have you only just discovered this anomaly?”

“For one, Dynasty is an ally, so I did not pay much attention to the status of their camp. On the other hand, though, Lin Huang and Mr. Fu are over there and they can intercept my gaze easily, so I’m trying my best to avoid looking in that direction. I only glanced over briefly just now, and thought that there were only two or three unfamiliar faces who were Dynasty’s secretly-cultivated new recruits.”

“Do you think these unfamiliar Virtual Gods are Lin Huang’s subordinates?” Dongfang Bai asked.

“They might not necessarily be his subordinates, but there’s definitely a connection!” Guan Zhong pondered for a moment before continuing, “I even have my suspicions that these people may not be local residents of our gravel world!”

“Why do you say that?” Dongfang Bai asked, puzzled.

“I pretended to glance over there just now to observe, and the Emperor’s Heart Rings on these people’s hands are all black market goods. Most people may not be able to see the difference, but after doing intelligence work for so long, I can tell the difference between a black market item and a regular Emperor’s Heart Ring with just a glance.”

“So these people’s identities are fake?!” Dongfang Bai’s eyes widened slightly, and he turned to look in Lin Huang’s direction.

At this moment, Lin Huang also seemed to sense Dongfang Bai’s gaze and looked toward him.

When their eyes met, Dongfang Bai smiled and nodded at Lin Huang, then immediately looked away.

Lin Huang raised an eyebrow. “What an odd fellow.”

“Why don’t we take the initiative and just ask Lin Huang where these people are from?” Guan Zhong asked.

“Do you think he’ll tell the truth if he were really hiding some secret scheme?” Dongfang Bai shook his head.

“Then, what should we do now? There’s no conclusive evidence to prove that there’s something amiss with these people, so should we report it?” Guan Zhong asked again.

“Mention this to Old Jiang. Just tell him about your suspicions and see what he says.” Dongfang Bai contemplated for a while before deciding to just push this problem to Chief Jiang Shan.

Guan Zhong nodded. After returning to the tent, he immediately contacted Jiang Shan and told him about all the things that he found odd.

After hearing this, Jiang Shan pondered for a moment.

“I’ll sort this matter out.”

Just when the tenth wave of monsters arrived, Mr. Fu’s communicator suddenly rang. He opened the communication page and discovered that the caller was Chief Jiang Shan from the Union Government.

After a moment of confusion, he connected the video request.

“What’s the matter, Xiaojiang?”

“Old Fu, I heard from Guan Zhong that there are many unfamiliar Virtual Gods who have appeared at the Abyssal Brink, and they seem to know Lin Huang. Do you know anything about this matter, sir?”

“Yes, I’m aware of this. These are reinforcements that Lin Huang brought back from the great world; there are more than two hundred of them in total.” Mr. Fu nodded; he had expected the Union Government to ask about this sooner or later.

“Over two hundred of them, and they’re all Virtual Gods?!” Jiang Shan was dumbfounded. Based on what he had heard from Guan Zhong just now, there were only around seventy unfamiliar faces.

“They’re all True Gods,” Mr. Fu corrected.

“Huh?” Jiang Shan thought he had misheard. “They’re all True Gods?!”

“Yes, there are more than two hundred of them and they’re all True Gods,” Mr. Fu confirmed once again.

Jiang Shan could only gape in shock, at a loss for words.

If Lin Huang had brought back more than two hundred Virtual God powerhouses, he might have suspected that Lin Huang was planning to overthrow the Union Government, or even get rid of the other top organizations, so that Dynasty would be the reigning monopoly.

However, since the individuals that Lin Huang had brought back were all True Gods, conversely, he did not harbor any such suspicions. This was because if Lin Huang really had wanted to make Dynasty the top organization, bringing back two True Gods would have been enough to eliminate all other organizations in the entire gravel world. There was no need for him to expend so much effort to bring back more than two hundred True Gods just for that.

“These True Gods… can we trust them?” Jiang Shan enquired after collecting his thoughts. “Could some organization from the great world be using Lin Huang to infiltrate our world…”

“These people are Lin Huang’s subordinates and they obey his every order. Also, according to what I’ve observed, there really is no problem,” Mr. Fu revealed another piece of information, which both he and Lin Huang had previously agreed they could disclose.

He and Lin Huang had already expected the Sword Servants to be noticed sooner or later. Lin Huang had no intention of concealing the identity of the Sword Servants anyway. If they were reinforcements that he had borrowed from an organization from the great world, the other organizations would always have worries in their hearts. However, if these were Lin Huang’s own subordinates, then everyone’s concerns would be reduced. At least Lin Huang himself was a local resident, and no one would want their own home to be destroyed or occupied.

“Can I have a few more words with Lin Huang?”

“No problem.” Mr. Fu turned the projection toward Lin Huang who was not far away.

“Lin Huang, are these people really trustworthy?” Jiang Shan asked him outright.

“They’re my people, so there won’t be any problem.” Lin Huang nodded.

“Then, I’ll ask you one last question. I hope you can answer me truthfully.” Jiang Shan’s expression was serious; after a moment of silence, he stared into Lin Huang’s eyes and asked, “Can I trust you?”

Lin Huang nodded slightly. “You can relax and trust me. This is also my home, so like all of you, I don’t want the peace of the gravel world to be destroyed.

“I only have two purposes in coming back this time. One is to resolve the crisis in the gravel world. The other is to bring my close friends and family with me when I go.

“There’s one other thing that you can rest assured about. I don’t have any plans regarding this world. Even though there have been quite a few problems in the development of the Union Government over the past eight hundred years, on the whole, the Union Government has done all that they could. If I were to become chief of the Union Government, I would certainly not be able to do what has already been achieved up until now.

“If I were to lead an organization, I might still be able to pull that off fairly well. However, if I were to become the ruler of a world, I’m very much aware that I wouldn’t be able to do it competently. In your position, you have too many things to worry about—not just matters concerning cultivators, but you also have to take into account the countless ordinary citizens…

“For myself, I want to focus more on my own development. I like exploring the unknown and I enjoy feeling myself becoming stronger as well as the excitement that every battle brings…

“I don’t believe that the great world is my final destination either. I want to go to an even more vast universe beyond the great world…”