Monster Paradise

Death Sickle’s headquarters, inside Buried Heaven’s office.

Buried Heaven blocked the room off from the outside world as soon as he got there.

“What exactly are these Raiders, travelers, and reincarnated beings that you and Zhan Zhuo were talking about earlier?” Although Buried Heaven had heard Zhan Zhuo speaking about many secrets earlier, he did not really understand what exactly these entities known as Raiders, travelers, and reincarnated beings were.

“Right now, I can’t explain any of this to you in detail. Moreover, the more you know, the more problems you may bring down upon yourself.” Lin Huang had no intention of elaborating much further. “I can only tell you that the Raiders are an evil organization. Any and all outstanding genius powerhouses are their targets. This group of people will do anything to become more powerful. I even know of Raiders who are willing to wait for tens of thousands of years to be able to gradually get close to their target, disguising themselves as their victim’s best friend just to plunder a treasure they possessed.”

Buried Heaven felt a chill run down his back when he heard this. After a moment of silence, he could not help asking a question.

“Do you really intend to fight these fellows on your own? If it’s like you said—that the other Raiders possess abilities on par with Zhan Zhuo or are perhaps even more powerful than him—I don’t think you’ll be able to go up against them at your current level of ability.”

“My current abilities aren’t powerful enough to go up against them, that’s true. However, my abilities will elevate. Not only that, I’m not alone.” In reality, Lin Huang had already roughly put together a counter-strategy.

“Why didn’t you get the Combat God Temple fully involved?” Buried Heaven asked again, “As long as you turned Zhan Zhuo over to Zhan Guang, the Raiders’ first target would definitely be the Combat God Temple. The Combat God Temple would have had to think of a way to deal with the Raiders, no matter what, when the time came.

“Furthermore, the Combat God Temple is a veteran grade-7 organization in the God Territory. Given their reputation and the right price, it would be no trouble at all to get Lords from the other grade-7 organizations to help. They might even be able to contend with one or two Raiders.”

“If I did turn Zhan Zhuo over to the Combat God Temple alive, the end result would more likely be the Combat God Temple coming to an agreement with the Raiders. They’d give Zhan Zhuo back instead of fighting them.” Lin Huang shook his head at that. “A middle-rank Lord is just too powerful a threat. The Combat God Temple wouldn’t make an enemy of a middle-rank Lord just for one Zhan Zhuo.”

“That’s true. The great world’s resources aren’t sufficient to support a middle-rank Lord’s cultivation. Most of the Lords in the major organizations head to the universe after consolidating a level-7 or level-8 Dao seal, what more those middle-rank Lords who consolidate level-10 Dao seals.” Buried Heaven nodded slightly, frowning.

“I’ll find my own solution to this matter of the Raiders. If I really can’t handle them, I can always hide,” Lin Huang continued after that, “You and Death Sickle shouldn’t involve yourselves with this anymore.”

Buried Heaven looked a little displeased, but he knew what Lin Huang meant.

Lin Huang was a lone ranger. If he were truly unable to fight the Raiders, he could still go on the run. However, Death Sickle was an organization with many members. If they were really targeted by Raiders, they would not be able to escape.

“In the next few days, you need to quickly announce the news of your elevation to lord-level and make Death Sickle a grade-7 organization as soon as possible. Once Death Sickle becomes a grade-7 organization, they’ll be in the limelight, at least for the immediate future. Under the circumstances, the Raiders won’t risk becoming a public enemy of the God Territory by openly attacking Death Sickle.

“As for Old Sun, don’t continue with your investigations. Let me handle it. I’ll definitely avenge him for you.

“Also, there has to be a spy who leaked the coordinates for your unification. Not only that, it must be one of the seven Blood Sickle members. There might even be more than one spy.

“Whether Old Sun was killed by the spy or not, the remaining six of you need to be on your guard,” Lin Huang issued a reminder.

“I know.” Buried Heaven was still frowning.

Lin Huang only left after he had chatted for a while with Buried Heaven regarding matters in Death Sickle.

Upon his return to the Pfister Star in the Devil Hunter Star Zone, Lin Huang had Hong Zhuang unlock Zhan Zhuo’s storage ring at the first available opportunity.

He then put Zhan Zhuo’s ancient palace up for bid on Royal’s auction site. The requirement for trading was still half-step Lords’ God Territories regardless of type. As for the auction period, it would only be listed for 24 hours.

The Raiders might hunt him down at any time. This timeframe was the longest he could wait.

After he settled these matters, he went to Sword1 and had him organize the Sword Alliance’s members so they could begin evacuating all of the Pfister Star’s residents.

Lin Huang had already told Buried Heaven not to resist and to just tell the Raiders where he was if they went to Death Sickle and demanded to know his whereabouts.

It was only a matter of time before the Raiders would find this place. As soon as the war began, anyone below lord-level would basically die.

Initially, Sword1 wanted to ask for more details. However, seeing that Lin Huang was unwilling to explain further, he refrained in the end. He had a vague feeling that this had to be related to the Raiders. Sword1, who had all along been supremely confident in his own abilities, was aware of how terrifying the Raiders were. He also knew that he could not be of much help until he elevated to become a Lord.

After returning to his courtyard, Lin Huang sat down on a stone bench in the pavilion. He turned on his communicator and looked for Virtuoso’s name on the message page.

After staring at Virtuoso’s name and pondering for a little while, he composed a message and sent it.

“I’ve been targeted by Raiders.”

A moment later, a sudden video call request came in from Virtuoso.

As soon as Lin Huang connected the call, Virtuoso’s masked figure was projected into the pavilion.

“What happened?! How did you manage to offend the Raiders out of the blue?”

“I killed one of their members. They’re likely to catch up with me soon,” Lin Huang said with a chuckle.

“Are the Raiders in this world so weak?” Virtuoso was rather confused. “From what I know, they usually won’t recruit members below lord-level.”

“I killed a Lord,” Lin Huang explained. He did not really mind revealing a little bit of his ability in front of Virtuoso. This was because, in a few days, he would be elevating his abilities again.

Virtuoso was clearly stunned for a second. They asked immediately, “What level is your combat strength now?!”

“I’m currently at eighth-rank.” Lin Huang did not hide the fact.

“So fast?!” Virtuoso exclaimed involuntarily, “A Goldfinger that can elevate your combat strength at lightning speed… I’d like to have one too!”

Virtuoso was obviously under the mistaken impression that the abilities of Lin Huang’s Goldfinger focused primarily on combat strength elevation.

“To be able to kill a Lord at eighth-rank—you’re quite something,” Virtuoso complimented.

“Don’t just keep flattering me; help me think of a solution,” Lin Huang said, smiling, “If I can’t resolve this current threat, it’s very likely I’ll be a cold corpse in a few days.”

“I think you can probably get those few fellows from the Club to help,” Virtuoso suggested after some thought.

“Out of those three people in the Club, are any of them middle-rank Lords?” Lin Huang asked immediately.

He was not actually afraid of most of the Raiders’ members. The ones he was worried about were that grade-2 member and the one named Spy, who was suspected to be grade-2 as well.

“This I’m not too sure about, but my guess is no. Middle-rank Lords generally go to the universe instead of staying here.” Virtuoso shrugged, then looked at Lin Huang. “Are you sure there’s a middle-rank Lord among this world’s Raiders?”

“There’s definitely one for sure, and there’s another who might be.” Lin Huang did not hide this from Virtuoso.

Virtuoso fell silent for a moment after hearing that, cupping their chin in their hand. Only after a long moment did they lift their head. “If you’re really not able to handle them, you’d better run. Head to the universe— with your current abilities, you’ll more or less be able to protect yourself anyway.”

“…”

Lin Huang was rendered speechless upon hearing this suggestion.