Within a minute, Lin Huang and the other two had completely looted Nine Gloom’s lair.
As for the two hundred-over interconnected Nirvana Trees that covered the area, they transferred them all into Lin Huang’s God Territory.
Once they had finished collecting the spoils of battle, the three of them did not linger, swiftly departing from Nine Gloom’s territory.
“The battle fluctuations have stopped…”
An Argus Bug Beast poked its head out of the ground, peering from a distance in the direction of Nine Gloom’s territory.
This creature’s territory was located closer to Nine Gloom’s, so it sensed the battle fluctuations between Nine Gloom and Lin Huang’s group almost right away. It was even able to distinctly sense the aftermath of the battle.
However, because Nine Gloom was such a powerful entity, it dared not risk probing with its Divine Telekinesis.
In the end, it finally could not restrain itself any longer and spread its Divine Telekinesis roughly about twenty minutes after the battle fluctuations had stopped.
When it saw the destroyed, desolate ruins that used to be Nine Gloom’s lair, the Argus Bug stared for a long time, not even blinking.
“W-What happened?!”
A moment later, it was more than absolutely certain that Nine Gloom’s aura had been utterly obliterated after it had scanned the entire area with Divine Telekinesis a few times.
“Someone killed Nine Gloom?!” As it came to this conclusion, a film of secretion resembling cold sweat seeped out of its carapace.
As Nine Gloom’s neighbor, it was naturally aware of how powerful Nine Gloom was. However, someone had still managed to kill such a powerful entity—one could imagine just how incredibly strong that individual was.
After dithering where it was for a while and making sure with Divine Telekinesis that there were no auras of other powerhouses around, the Argus Bug Beast finally made up its mind to head over and investigate Nine Gloom’s territory.
At that moment, apart from the Argus Bug Beast, several other monsters around Nine Gloom’s territory sensed the anomaly in Nine Gloom’s territory as well. They decided to visit the area too and see for themselves.
While these powerhouses were making their way to Nine Gloom’s territory, Lin Huang and the other two had long since left via teleportation.
The three of them stepped out of the Dimensional Whirlpool at an abandoned building in the inner world, which was located an extremely long way from Nine Gloom’s territory.
These were the return coordinates they had set before they embarked on their mission.
There were no heavenly god-level monsters around as this was a wasteland that spanned thousands of kilometers.
As soon as they stepped out of the Dimensional Whirlpool, Virtuoso retrieved a crystal from their space storage and activated the formation rune on it.
The next second, a virtually transparent barrier formed almost immediately, enveloping the entire building.
Under this barrier, the auras of all three of them were completely cut off from the outside world. They would not be sensed now.
“In our current condition, the two of us definitely can’t leave the Abyss. If we’re attacked on the way back, we’ll just be a burden to you,” Virtuoso put the formation crystal down and turned around, saying to Lin Huang, “So for the next few days, the two of us will have to temporarily stay here and recuperate. We’ll leave together when we’ve more or less recovered our ability.”
“Approximately how long will that take?” Lin Huang asked.
“I’m guessing at least ten days to half a month,” Saber9 was the first to answer this question, “The trump cards that we forcibly used earlier have definite repercussions. We need sufficient time to nurse our physical body and spirit so that the backlash won’t leave behind any unseen injuries.”
Beside him, Virtuoso nodded slightly, “We might need to trouble you to protect us for this period of time.”
“Of course!” Lin Huang agreed right away, “Let’s divide the loot first.”
Once he finished speaking, Lin Huang brought out all the loot he had collected earlier, including all two hundred-over Nirvana Trees.
“In this battle, even though the both of us did contribute our efforts, you’re the one who deserves the most credit. Not only that, you killed Nine Gloom,” Virtuoso said while bringing out the spoils they had collected, “If we go by contribution, the two of us actually have no right to take anything.”
Saber9, who was standing by, said nothing. He also brought out all of his loot and piled it onto the ground.
“The two of you killed Nine Gloom once each, respectively, and exhausted your trump cards as well.” Lin Huang in no way felt that he should take everything.
“Let’s do it this way. Apart from the Nirvana Trees, all the other loot is yours,” Virtuoso took a moment to think, then proposed a distribution plan, “You take half of the Nirvana Trees, while Saber9 and I share the remaining half. However, we won’t take them for free. We’ll trade you for them at the universe’s market price.”
“I agree.” Saber9 indicated his consent.
“Let’s not talk about market price. You can just divide the Nirvana Trees between you,” Lin Huang said generously.
“Do you know how much a Nirvana Tree costs in the universe?” Virtuoso’s tone was rather odd.
“How much is it?” Now that Virtuoso had brought the matter up, Lin Huang was rather curious.
“A heavenly god-level Nirvana Tree’s starting price at auction would be that of a top-notch god sequence relic,” Saber9 revealed, smiling.
Lin Huang was stunned when he heard this, upon which he hurriedly changed his mind. “I think it’s a great idea then, trading them at the market price…”
One must know that Virtuoso and Saber9 would get over a hundred trees if they were to share. The value would be on par with over one hundred top-notch god sequence relics.
Although Lin Huang was not petty, a profligate gesture like giving away over one hundred top-notch god sequence relics for free was something he would never be able to do.
“Would you like Divine Crystals or something else?” Virtuoso asked.
“I don’t want Divine Crystals. Let’s trade with other resources then. I haven’t figured out what I want yet, though,” Lin Huang said after giving it some thought.
“We owe you then. Tell me when you’ve thought of what you want. I’ll inform Saber9 at that point.” Virtuoso nodded.
“Alright!”
After the three of them had discussed things, they very soon divided up the loot.
Virtuoso and Saber9 each sat down cross-legged and began recuperating from their injuries.
Lin Huang watched for a while. After pondering for a little, he left behind a clone, then exited the building.
Virtuoso and Saber9 would need over ten days at least for their recovery this round. He could not possibly keep waiting here the entire time.
Apart from helping Virtuoso to obtain the castellan’s seal of Phantom City, Lin Huang’s purpose for entering the Abyss this time was to elevate his combat strength.
To do this, he needed to plunder a massive amount of Rule Bending Powers.
Furthermore, in the Abyss, there were massive numbers of heavenly god-level monsters that could be slaughtered. It was the perfect place for plundering.
After leaving the building where Virtuoso and Saber9 were recovering, Lin Huang used his Divine Telekinesis to search for heavenly god-level monsters nearby. He then began a gory massacre.
Within a mere day, he had slaughtered hundreds of mid-level and high-level Heavenly Gods. He successfully plundered over one hundred million Rule Bending Powers and over one thousand sequence powers, successfully elevating to ninth-rank true god-level.
After elevating to ninth-rank, Lin Huang could distinctly feel that this was not the end of true god-level yet.
After his elevation, he could still plunder more Rule Bending Powers by killing Heavenly Gods. His body had not yet reached satiety in its ability to contain Rule Bending Power.
Therefore, for the next few days, he chose to continue his plundering.
For one, he wanted to see how much Rule Bending Power his body could actually contain. For another, he wanted to know if there was a tenth-rank after ninth-rank.
Lin Huang ran into some small problems over the next few days.
The reason was that the powerhouses in the inner world soon noticed that heavenly god-level powerhouses were disappearing en masse. Some hid completely in the surface world, while some teamed up in groups.
However, this did not significantly affect Lin Huang’s hunting.
Very quickly, four days went by. The limit on the number of Rule Bending Powers that Lin Huang could plunder reached a new high.
He achieved another breakthrough in his combat strength once he obtained almost six hundred million Rule Bending Powers.
He had broken through from ninth-rank to a rank that nobody had ever reached before—tenth-rank true god-level!
After he had achieved a breakthrough in his combat strength, Lin Huang noticed that his body’s capacity for containing Rule Bending Powers increased once again.
For the next ten days or so, he continued hunting and plundering. However, he discovered that the efficiency of his plundering rapidly began to plummet.
There were fewer and fewer Heavenly Gods in the inner world.
Given that Heavenly God powerhouses had several times formed groups to fight him, and all of them had been consecutively massacred, almost all of the remaining Heavenly Gods had fled out of the inner world.
For almost ten days after that, the number of Rule Bending Powers he mastered merely broke through to 1.3 billion—far from even reaching his upper limits.
However, Saber9 and Virtuoso had now come out of their closed-door cultivation one after the other. Lin Huang had no choice but to stop his hunting.
Although they had spent close to half a month cultivating, the pair had yet to regain peak condition. They had recovered to around ninety percent at most.
However, both of them knew that they would need several times the duration they had spent to be restored to their peak. Therefore, they decided not to hold things up any further.
As soon as Lin Huang himself returned to the building, Saber9 and Virtuoso spoke almost simultaneously the moment they saw him.
“You’ve gotten more powerful again?!”
Although Lin Huang had hidden his combat strength, they were very familiar with his aura from the time they had spent together. Even if the change was very subtle, they were able to sense it.
“You’ve broken through to heavenly god-level?!” Saber9 could not help asking.
“It doesn’t really seem like he’s broken through to heavenly god-level…” Beside him, Virtuoso repudiated Saber9’s speculation.
“I’ve only broken through to ninth-rank,” Lin Huang explained, smiling.
He did not reveal the rest, which was that he had then broken through to tenth-rank.
The pair did not pursue the matter further after hearing that.
After all, whatever chance encounters Lin Huang ran into were his own private affair. They did not continue probing.
“How are you both?” In reality, Lin Huang could sense that the duo had yet to regain peak condition. He could also roughly guess why they were in a hurry to get out of closed-door cultivation. He only asked what he did to find out if they were prepared.
“We’re not in too bad a shape.” Virtuoso nodded.
“Yes, we can’t drag things out any further.” Saber9 nodded as well.
The expedition of conquest that the powerhouses from the great world were carrying out in the Abyss was just a small-scale operation that was impossible to maintain for an extended length of time. If Lin Huang and the others delayed any further, it would be hard for them to leave the Abyss when the lord-level powerhouses from the great world had left. If by chance, the three of them were targeted by half-step lord-level or lord-level powerhouses, they would not be able to leave at all, even if they wanted to.
“Let’s go then!” Lin Huang said nothing more
Virtuoso put away the formation crystal and summoned the Dimensional Whirlpool again. The three stepped into it, one after the other, without hesitation.
