Within less than a day of Lin Huang sending the message, the imperial monsters returned one by one.
This included not just Tyrant, Thunder, and the others who were waiting for advancement and elevation—even Bai, Grimace, and those who had already elevated to the level of Pure Spirit Lords came back as well.
Naturally, what surprised Lin Huang the most was Bloody’s return.
The group of imperial monsters gathered in the meeting room of the hotel.
Lin Huang smiled at Bloody, who was clad in a red dress, and commented, “I honestly didn’t expect you to be able to come this time.”
“Didn’t you say there would be a surprise when I elevated to ninth-rank heavenly god-level? I wanted to see just what sort of surprise this is.” Bloody’s smile was bright and blossoming like a flower.
Lin Huang felt she was distinctly more feminine now compared to before.
“Don’t worry. My surprise this time definitely won’t disappoint all of you,” Lin Huang answered, smiling.
To maintain the mystique of the surprise, he even intentionally asked Bai and the others, who had elevated to lord-level, to disguise their combat strength to ninth-rank heavenly god-level.
“Since you’ve elevated, that means Kylie has as well, right?”
Kylie was the only one absent from the gathering of imperial monsters this time.
Lin Huang could understand this. Given her current identity and position, it was indeed quite difficult for her to leave the Nephilic Judge Tribe.
“She elevated a day earlier than I did,” Bloody said, grinning. “She wanted to come too. However, she’s the Queen of the Nephilic Judge Tribe now, so she has to have a half-step Lord covertly guarding her wherever she goes. Since this gathering is our private meeting, after all, it would be extremely inconvenient to have an outsider along.”
“It seems we’ll have to visit the Nephilic Judge Star Zone when we have the time.”
If he let Kylie cultivate on her own, it would definitely be extremely difficult for her to break through to lord-level within the immediate future. It might take a few years or even a few dozen years. After all, some Heavenly Gods would only dare to attempt a further breakthrough after staying at ninth-rank heavenly god-level for tens of thousands of years, or even several hundred thousand years.
Lin Huang felt that he might break through to dao-level in a few years.
At that point, it would be quite meaningless for Kylie and the rest to elevate to Lords.
His purpose for elevating his imperial monsters’ ranks and combat strength this round was so they could catch up with him and take some of the burden off his shoulders.
His imperial monsters were also very willing to take on these burdens.
“Why did all of you come back this time?” Lin Huang looked at Bai and the others who had completed their advancement and combat strength elevation.
“I suggested it,” Bai answered bluntly.
“To join in the fun.” There was no emotion in Lancelot’s voice at all.
“I just felt it’s been a long time since we all gathered together. We’ve nothing to do anyway. I thought we may as well come back to visit our old partners and meet some new friends while we’re at it,” Grimace said, casting a surreptitious glance at Silver Armor, Nine Gloom, and the several Bug Queens led by Queen Mother Shasha, all of whom were sitting in a corner.
At his current level of ability, he could easily sense that the group of Bug Tribe beasts were all lord-level powerhouses.
The truth was, Grimace was not the only one—Bai, Charcoal, and the rest of their group had also noticed that the new additions were already lord-level.
Meanwhile, the newcomers such as Shasha and the others were rather curious about Lin Huang’s several existing Queen Mothers and Bug Queens.
Lin Huang took the entire group of imperial monsters for a meal. After that, he opened the door to the Kingdom and had them all go in.
This time, their teleport destination was right in front of the Great Heaven Palace.
Lin Huang grandly led the group of imperial monsters into the Great Heaven Palace.
He then used Advance Cards and Combat Strength Upgrade Cards on them one by one.
In the palace, cocoons of various colors and sizes rapidly began forming.
Bai and the rest watched this familiar scene in silence; they did not interrupt at all.
It was not until all of the imperial monsters had completely transformed into cocoons that Bai could not help asking a question.
“There’s a middle-rank Lord in that group of bug beasts?”
“Yes, there is. Its name is Xia Ke, a rank-5.5 middle-rank lord-level Bug Queen.” Lin Huang nodded, smiling.
Bai and the rest fell silent immediately. Clearly, they felt the force of the pressure emanating from this newcomer.
“It’s innately well predisposed, but it doesn’t mean that it will always be more powerful than all of you.” Lin Huang patted Bai’s shoulder. “On the path of cultivation, the person you must compete with is yourself. There’s no need to compare yourself with others.”
Bai hesitated for a moment before speaking again.
“Actually, meeting up with everyone isn’t our main purpose for coming back this time…”
“What’s your main reason, then?” Lin Huang asked with a smile. He knew Bai’s character and Grimace’s even better. He was aware that they would not specially come back just to meet up for a gathering.
“We want to become more powerful!” Seeing that Bai did not continue his sentence, Grimace took the initiative and finished it off for him.
“We don’t want to immediately become powerful with the help of the cards. We want to fight in actual combat to strengthen ourselves for real,” Bai added.
“I don’t mind becoming more powerful right away with the help of the cards,” Grimace protested innocence immediately. “It’d be best to elevate me to ultimate-rank Lord instantly; I’d become powerful without even having to lift a finger.”
“You wish.” Lin Huang raised his eyebrows.
Xiao Hei had the ability to do this, but it would drain far too much Origin Energy.
Lin Huang felt that elevating his imperial monsters’ abilities was something that could be done when necessary. However, under the current circumstances, there was no need to do so.
Grimace’s abilities were fully sufficient for now. Elevating his combat strength again would be a complete waste of resources. Moreover, if they depended on Xiao Hei to elevate their combat strength every time, in the future, his imperial monsters might not be willing to work hard on cultivation.
If not for the fact that Lin Huang felt his imperial monsters’ abilities were too far behind his own, he would not have had Xiao Hei do a collective elevation for them this time.
Naturally, Lin Huang knew that Grimace was only half-serious when he said this.
“A way to elevate your abilities quickly…” Lin Huang thought quietly for a moment. In reality, he had already been thinking about this matter. However, before this, he had not been sure if he wanted to carry out his plan. However, now that Bai and the rest had requested it, he felt he could satisfy their needs.
“Let’s go outside and talk about this.” Lin Huang accelerated the time flow in the Great Heaven Palace to be 10,000 times faster than the outside world, then led Bai and the rest back to the Demon Eye Star Zone.
Once he had returned to the hotel room, Lin Huang summoned Mr. Gate (the Gate of All Realms) immediately.
“Behind this door is a place called the virtual realm. You can enter using a virtual body, take part in battles, and obtain Origin Energy. However, only three people can enter per day. Furthermore, once you die, you can’t enter for 24 hours…”
Actually, Lin Huang had initially thought about sharing the virtual realm with his imperial monsters.
After all, at their current level of ability, Bai and the others could hardly find any opponents in the great world.
By letting them into the virtual realm to hunt on their own, they could elevate their actual combat ability, for one. For another, they could also obtain Origin Energy.
Moreover, the virtual realm was within the boundaries of the great world, and most of the Lords were lower-rank and middle-rank. For Bai and the rest, they were actually the most ideal combat opponents.
However, Mr. Gate was currently limited to the creation of three virtual bodies a day.
In other words, only three imperial monsters could enter every day.
They would have to take turns.
Furthermore, as soon as Lin Huang entered to go into closed-door cultivation, it would occupy a slot as well.
However, to upgrade Mr. Gate any further, he had to refine other Goldfingers.
For the time being, there was no way to solve the entrance limit.
