Monster Paradise

In a flash, almost two months went by.

Within this period, Lin Huang elevated from imperial-level rank-3 all the way to imperial-level rank-9 by consecutively using six Virtual God rank-9 Godheads as the main materials and a sea of Godheads from various ranks as supplements.

Initially, he took 20 days to elevate from imperial-level rank-3 to imperial-level rank-4. However, as his combat strength rose, the speed at which he refined Godheads accelerated, as did the speed of his level elevation.

Subsequently, it took him only 14 days to elevate from imperial-level rank-4 to imperial-level rank-5. After that, he merely spent 9 days elevating from imperial-level rank-5 to imperial-level rank-6 and 6 days to go from imperial-level rank-6 to imperial-level rank-7…

Altogether it took Lin Huang a total of 56 days to elevate from imperial-level rank-3 to imperial-level rank-9.

Perhaps for others, such rapid elevation might have resulted in a weak foundation. However, Lin Huang’s imperial-level was different from the rest. Refining one Virtual God rank-9 Godhead was the equivalent of building his foundation all over again. In other words, it was making his Life Palace sturdier, which made his foundation all the more stable.

Given that his physical constitution and spiritual resilience were already at Virtual God level, he was able to handle the stress that such elevation methods invariably put his body through. Two months of continuous rapid elevation had no side-effects on him whatsoever.

Naturally, Lin Huang was very careful. Every time he elevated up a rank, he would check his body over very carefully to make sure nothing had gone wrong. He only refined the next round of Godheads after making sure that everything was fine.

He finally stopped refining Godheads after he elevated all the way to imperial-level rank-9.

He did not get out of cultivation immediately either. Instead, he began checking his body carefully again.

“My body is already close to peak-stage Virtual God rank-9 while my strength and speed are at Virtual God rank-9 level already…” Lin Huang examined himself with care, finally turning his attention to his Life Palace.

His Life Palace, which was originally black, was now faintly imprinted with a dark-red divine pattern.

“Life Palace: Monster Paradise”

“Life Palace’s Territorial Range: Radius of 10,000 kilometers from the Life Palace possessor (potential for expansion).”

“Life Palace Ability 1: Within the Life Palace’s territorial range, the dead summoning beast’s soul will return to the Life Palace with its body reconstructed and revived. Those with a broken soul will have their broken soul pieces recalled and recovered.”

“Ability Restriction 1: Each summoning beast can only be revived 30 times within 24 hours. Their soul will disintegrate after 30 times and they won’t be able to return to the Life Palace (potential to grow).”

“Ability Restriction 2: Each summoning beast can only have their soul recovered 9 times within 24 hours. Their soul will disintegrate after 9 times and they won’t be able to return to the Life Palace (potential to grow).”

“Derivative Ability: If the Life Palace possessor dies within the coverage range, he can choose to use a summoning beast as a substitute in death. The summoning beast chosen as a substitute won’t be able to be summoned for 24 hours (potential to grow).”

“Remarks: The Life Palace possessor can only be substituted 9 times within 24 hours. He can only be substituted 3 times if his soul has disintegrated (potential to grow).”

…

“Life Palace Ability 2: Within the Life Palace’s territorial range, the Life Palace possessor and his summoning beasts would have a nine-fold boost in strength, speed, and spirit. The other summoning beasts would have a 30% drop in their strength, speed, and spirit (potential to grow).”

“Remarks: The Life Palace possessor can turn off the boost and the undermining effect as and when he wishes.”

…

Lin Huang’s Life Palace abilities had seen great improvement since its elevation from imperial-level rank-3 to imperial-level rank-9.

Not only were the territorial ranges widened, but there was also a significant improvement in the summoning beast’s number of revivals, substitution abilities, and ability boosts.

“My Life Power is much more powerful now but it still doesn’t seem to be at its peak…” Lin Huang sensed clearly that there was still room for improvement in his Life Palace.

It did not matter if he were elevating to virtual god-level or elevating directly to true god-level in future; he was still not at his maximum potential for elevation.

“Don’t tell me I need to elevate to imperial-level rank-10 to go any further?” Lin Huang mumbled softly.

“You should try and see if you can continue to elevate,” the stone tablet’s thick voice sounded all of a sudden, “Since you feel that your Life Palace isn’t at its peak yet, it’s definitely possible to elevate further.”

“But my Life Palace has stopped absorbing the remaining energy coming from the Godheads. Right after I elevated to imperial-level rank-9, I had a small amount of Godhead energy left behind. I tried making my Life Palace absorb it but there was no response as if it were already full,” Lin Huang raised his doubt.

The stone tablet fell silent for a moment, before suggesting, “Since you feel that it hasn’t reached its peak, it’s very unlikely that it’s full. I think you can try refining Godheads from Virtual God rank-1 to Virtual God rank-9. If that doesn’t work, then there are only two possibilities. One is that your Life Palace can still elevate further but there’s a specific condition attached to it. The other possibility would be there’s something wrong with your senses. However, the chances of the second possibility are fairly small. After all, you’re not a rookie who has just stepped onto the cultivation path.”

Lin Huang nodded. From the storeroom, he took out Godheads from Virtual God rank-1 to Virtual God rank-9 and tossed all of them into his body. He activated Divine Fire and proceeded to refine them.

Time flew by; two days passed. After the Godheads had been refined, Lin Huang repeatedly activated his Life Palace to absorb the energy. However, there was no response from the Life Palace at all.

“I’ve tried Godheads from Virtual God rank-1 to Virtual God rank-9, it doesn’t absorb any more energy…” Lin Huang looked helpless.

“Then there’s a high chance there’s a specific elevation condition. You’ll have to figure out exactly what it is on your own.” The stone tablet was out of ideas as well.

“Forget it, I’ll leave things alone for now.” Lin Huang set the issue aside decisively. He began discussing questions about further elevation with the stone tablet.

“I should have two choices for elevating to the next level when my Life Palace is fully elevated. One is to consolidate Godheads to get to virtual god-level. Another is to refine Divine Fire to directly get to true god-level. Which do you think is better?”

“If you would like to elevate your ability in a short period of time, elevating to True God would naturally be faster. However, if you’re considering development for the long run, I personally suggest elevating to virtual god-level first,” the stone tablet answered after thinking about it for a while.

“Given the stability of your Life Palace, you can certainly use it as a Godhead and refine your Divine Fire directly. However, think about it this way for a moment. Although you would save time by skipping virtual god-level and going to true god-level directly, it would waste what you’ve been accumulating for the past few years. Your elevation to true god-level would be no different from other True Gods.”

“However, if you go through virtual god-level before getting to true god-level, you would be the top powerhouse among the True Gods. Not only that, in the long run, you would have a higher chance of elevating to Heavenly God or even Lord-level in the future.”

“There’s another reason why I don’t suggest elevating to true god-level directly. The gravel world that you were in before had incomplete rules and denies True Gods from entering. For you, the difficulty of returning to the gravel world after elevating to true god-level would be very high. Even if you managed to return, you would be hindered by the rules of the world everywhere you go, unless you seal your combat strength below true god-level.”

Lin Huang fell silent for a long time after hearing what the stone tablet had to say.

He had considered those issues before as well. However, the gravel world’s impending crisis was getting closer; there were less than nine months left now. Naturally, he was anxious, which had resulted in him wanting to elevate his ability as soon as possible and thus neglect many details.

He had a sudden epiphany regarding the stone tablet’s words.

“I know what I should do now…”