Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

After killing the Queen Mother and pa.s.sing through checkpoint 63 on the Stairway Tree, Lin Huang had not logged into the Genius Union since then.

While he could block his combat strength on the Stairway Tree leaderboard, everyone could see it on the Stairway Tree checkpoints.

Everyone in the Genius Union would know that his ability surpa.s.sed Chan Dou"s if he was to go further up.

He was not interested to log into the Genius Union after all. Apart from practicing his sword skills every day, he was watching the news and waiting for Dynasty"s Royal Trials to begin.

He had acc.u.mulated pseudo-mythical-level sword skill card pieces throughout these few days and merged them into two complete cards. Therefore, he now possessed a total of seven pseudo-mythical-level sword skills including the Almighty Surgical Knife, the Killer, the Void Sword, the Instantaneous Slash, the Buddha Killer and the two a.s.sa.s.sination sword skills that he had recently mastered – Moonlit Night and Silent Snow.

In the Genius Union, checkpoint 63 on the Stairway Tree regained its usual order without Lin Huang killing the Bug Tribe Queen Mother. There was no bug horde during the day.

Since the halt of bug horde happened the next day the Genius Union announced the new rule, many people made the connection between the break out of the bug horde with the new rule.

Many people were discussing the topic on the forum.

The most popular one was a thread posted anonymously. The author gave a series of speculations that were very close to the truth.

The t.i.tle of the thread was ‘Was It A Coincidence or Did Someone Do It?”. These were the main points:

“The Genius Union announced the new rule the day before the bug horde on checkpoint 63 came to a halt. Was that a coincidence?

“Think about it guys. When did the Genius Union ever announce a new rule not because of the order was severely broken? This is the only time the Genius Union did that. You guys mustn"t have noticed that. The Genius Union announced a new rule out of nowhere, whereby one would pa.s.s through the checkpoint as soon as the player kills the final boss. The player no longer gains any benefits on the same checkpoint on the day itself.

“Some said they didn"t notice that at all. Some said maybe it was caused by new people coming in and stayed on the lower checkpoints of the Stairway Tree, killing the final boss over and over again while getting the attention of the Genius Union system. I"d like to ask if killing the final boss on the lower checkpoints continuously will affect the balance of the Stairway Tree system?

“Everyone knows that the two new rules that were announced were directed at Lin Xie. We were limited to a number of points daily and on each checkpoint because Lin Xie"s behavior in obtaining points had severely affected the balance of the Stairway Tree point system.

“Killing the final boss on the lower checkpoints were inefficient to affect the balance of the Stairway Tree system, so how was it supposed to get the Genius Union"s attention? The answer is that the Genius Union system doesn"t care about such a thing at all!

“The reason the Genius Union system announced the new rule was because of a new behavior that affected the balance of the Stairway Tree system. The behavior was someone killing the Bug Tribe Queen Mother on checkpoint 63 of the Stairway Tree!

“Many people had been asking before this. Why would bug hordes break out during the day on checkpoint 63? Many people concluded that it was caused by the G.o.d relic that came out of nowhere. However, I personally suspect that the so-called G.o.d relic was just a lie. Of course, I"ve no proof of that. I just want to voice my speculations here.

“I think the real reason for the bug horde was because someone killed the Bug Tribe Queen Mother. Once the Queen Mother died, the bugs would lose control and go wild. That was how the bug hordes came about.

“The bug hordes that broke out one after another during the day caused checkpoint 63 to lose its balance of order completely. That was the reason why the Genius Union announced the new rule that one would pa.s.s through the checkpoint as soon as the final boss was killed.

“Finally, I"d like everyone to think about it following my speculation. Did you realize that the bug horde stopped breaking out the next day when the rule was announced? Everything makes sense now. The fella who had been killing the Queen Mothers had killed the last Bug Tribe Queen Mother that could reap him benefits. He then stopped hunting for Queen Mothers, hence putting an end to the bug hordes.”

The comments in the thread were filled with a 50-50 mix of supporters and routers.

Some supported the thread because the speculations were totally logically while those who doubted them asked a realistic question, “Who could kill the Bug Tribe Queen Mother alone on the Stairway Tree?”

Everyone knew that even Chan Dou, one of the Five Princes, could not do that.

Someone asked the anonymous author directly in the thread who he thought could possibly do such a thing.

This was the author"s reply: “Looking at the ability of all the members on the Stairway Tree that we know, n.o.body could"ve possibly done it. But if you insist that I give a name, I"d say that it"s most possibly Lin Xie.”

The author"s response caused a stir once again.

“Author, just admit that you"re Lin Xie himself. You posted this thread just to brag!”

“Verification checked: The author"s Lin Xie"s fangirl!”

“You"re parading Lin Xie"s name so highly. How about Chan Dou, our Master Chan?”

“I support Master Chan. He"s handsome, plus he has long legs and powerful ability!”

“May I ask the commenter above me if Lin Xin is handsome? Are his legs long? Is his ability powerful?”

Lin Huang saw the thread too and replied with Lin Xie"s account, “I support Master Chan. He"s the most handsome, has the longest legs and the most powerful ability!”

Chan Dou saw Lin Huang"s response too and replied, “Thanks for your support, my Master Deputy Chief.”

Zhu Hong from the Hong Alliance must have been bored, so she posted below, “I think I smell some serious PDA going on here…”

The interaction of the trio caused a stir in the forum again.

Time flew by and three days pa.s.sed since then.

As Lin Huang was having breakfast, he finally saw the news that he desired when he clicked into the Hunter a.s.sociation forum.

The headline of the Hunter a.s.sociation forum was ‘The Once-in-Decade Royal Trials is Beginning Soon!"

Lin Huang smirked after reading the news. “It"s officially beginning on the 5th of May. It"s the 28th of April today, so that"s one week away. I"ll do some preparations beforehand these few days.”

After breakfast, Lin Huang logged into the Stairway Mall again.

He picked two demiG.o.d-level telekinetic weapons he had his eyes on initially and put them into his shopping cart.

The two telekinetic weapons were ultimate demiG.o.d relics. One cost five billion points, so they added up to 10 billion points. As the deputy chief of the Heaven Alliance, he could enjoy a 40% discount, so he only needed to pay six billion points.

Lin Huang had always wanted demiG.o.d-level telekinetic weapons. However, he could not use them at the moment. He bought them beforehand mainly for Grimace and the Imp who had mastered telekinesis.

Apart from the two telekinetic weapons, Lin Huang picked a demiG.o.d puppet that cost 18 billion points.

The puppet was for Grimace as well. Only b.l.o.o.d.y and Grimace, who possessed Supreme Intelligence, could master such a complicated tool completely within a short period of time by. Grimace"s telekinetic power was the perfect fit with a puppet-type battle weapon. With such a puppet, Grimace could fight face-on even if he were to encounter an imperial-level purple gold-rank powerhouse.

Enticed by the 40% discount, he spent a total of 16.8 billion points on the three items.

After summoning Grimace and the Imp, Lin Huang distributed the three new pieces of equipment.

“The both of you will have a telekinetic weapon each,” Lin Huang said and delivered the demiG.o.d puppet into Grimace"s hands. “This is your reward for helping me in the hives throughout the past few days.”

The Imp was envious as he watched while Grimace"s eyes light up.

After recalling the two imperial monsters, Lin Huang purchased all 11 pseudo-mythical-level sword skills and three mythical-level sword skills. They cost a total of 128 billion points but he only paid 76.8 billion points with the 40% discount.

Hence, he spent almost half of his 200 billion points which in turn, tampered with his plan to purchase demiG.o.d-level soul crystals to elevate his remaining five Combat Souls to imperial-level purple gold-rank.

He planned to put his remaining Stairway Tree points aside for a rainy day so that he would not be able to trade G.o.d battle sword and G.o.d armor relics that he desired with the G.o.d relics that he possessed.