It was a sunny morning on Little Devil Island. Although the name of the island was unpleasant, there were many monsters wandering around and it was lush with plants. The air in the morning was filled with the fresh fragrance of flowers. Lin Huang woke up at seven, stretched his body as he walked out of the tent and as he took a deep breath, he exclaimed, "The air is so fresh!"
After cleaning himself and snacks as his breakfast, Lin Huang kept his tent and summoned the Viridian Wolf. Riding on the Viridian Wolf, Lin Huang headed to the center of the island. He did not summon the Alexandrian Eagle as the island was not that big anyway. With the Viridian Wolf’s speed, he could arrive at his destination in half an hour. Since he had just woke up, he wanted to warm himself up by killing some monsters along the way.
After riding more than 20 kilometers in the jungle, all the monsters that he encountered along the way were easily killed using his sword. The Viridian Wolf did not even need to decrease its speed at all. Suddenly, he patted the Viridian Wolf’s back and it stopped running immediately. The silver ring on Lin Huang’s right middle finger was transformed into a modified SilverPhoenix16 and he held the gun in his right hand; it was the gun that he traded from the Purple Crows using his accumulated points in the past.
He recalled the Viridian Wolf, turned around and shouted at the tree behind him, "Who is that?!"
With the sensing circle, nothing within the radius of 300 meters could escape Lin Huang. He could sense that there was someone following him since a while ago. Although the sensing circle did not allow him to see the person’s face, he could sense the person’s height and body size. Lin Huang was sure that it was not Xia Yu.
"You are the only one who could tell that I’m following you." A muscular young man revealed himself. Lin Huang could tell that he was one of the participants who passed the third round of assessment. However, the man did not conceal his aura. Lin Huang could sense that the man was much stronger than he was.
After checking him out, Lin Huang noticed that there were three cross tattoos on the left side of his neck.
"Are you one of the heretics?"
"That’s right." The strong young man nodded. "I know your name, Lin Huang. You are the most outstanding one in the assessment. You managed to kill a mutated silver-level rank-3 monster when you were only a bronze-level rank-3. You probably have a powerful summoning monster. Am I right?"
"Since you already know that I do, aren’t you afraid that I'll summon my monster and kill you? I’m already silver-level now." Lin Huang smiled.
"Of course I am not afraid. Although you have concealed your aura, you are only a silver-level rank-1. You must have only leveled-up during the past two or three days. No matter how much Life Crystals you have, you won't be able to go to silver-level rank-2 in such a short period of time. Which probably means that the strongest summoning monster that you have would only be a gold-level rank-3. I am already gold-level rank-3." Although the muscular man seemed confident, he did not attack Lin Huang. He seemed to be afraid of Lin Huang’s summoning monster.
"So? Are you here to kill me or recruit me?" Lin Huang asked.
"Of course I'm here for the latter. We heretics are always the peacemakers." The muscular man laughed.
"If I reject your recruitment offer, you would definitely kill me. Isn’t that what the underworld organizations always do? Do you think that’s a peaceful solution?" Lin Huang said in a sarcastic tone.
"No, we don’t do that. We like to capture those who reject us and work on their minds until they become one of us." The man shook his head and laughed.
"So you mean brainwashing? You’re really different from the rest…" Lin Huang was speechless. "Why me?"
"It's not only you. All the kids who passed the third assessment in this area are our targets. You're the 36th person. From the progress, I believe me and my partner can capture all the targets before noon so that the Hunter Association would get nothing!" The man laughed.
"So you let the Hunter Association do the grunt work while you reap the harvest?" Lin Huang finally understood what the man was thinking, "However, there are less than 500 people who passed the third assessment. Even if you captured all of us, that would do little to your organization. Unless…"
The man's tone suddenly became serious, "Boy, you're asking too many questions."
Suddenly, he launched his attack by attempting to catch Lin Huang with his hands that had claws on them.
"Tyrant!"
Tyrant then appeared before Lin Huang and punched the man.
"Go away!" The man shouted, his held his fist tight and punched hard in Tyrant’s fist. Both of their fists collided and an intense wave was generated from their fists colliding, causing dust to fly everywhere.
Even Lin Huang who was standing behind Tyrant covered his mouth and nose with his sleeve. Then, a bang was heard and the man flew 10 trees away and fell to the ground while Tyrant remained standing. Lin Huang was stunned at how powerful Tyrant’s punch was. He knew very well that if he was punched like that, he would have died after crashing into the trees. However, since the man was higher leveled than Lin Huang, perhaps he would not die so easily.
"Tyrant, see if he’s dead. If he’s isn't, don’t kill him, I need to talk to him." Lin Huang said to Tyrant. Tyrant nodded and walked towards the man. A few moments later, Tyrant came back with the man and placed the man on the ground. He was dying, the golden armor on him was destroyed by Tyrant’s punch. If it was not for the layer of protection, he would have died instantly.
However, he might not be able to live long anyway.
"You're not silver-level rank-1…" The man looked at Lin Huang in hatred.
"I never said that I was. It was you who assumed it." Lin Huang shook his head.
"An Imperial Censor who has a double mutated summoning monster and also happens to be a genius… You are worth dying to…" The man said and vomited blood.
It was obvious that his organs were damaged from Tyrant’s punch earlier. He would not live any longer.
"I have a question for you." Lin Huang squat down.
"I won't tell you anything, don’t waste your time." The man looked away instead of looking at Lin Huang."
"You have no say in that." Lin Huang said as he summoned the Ghastly Clown.
"Isn’t this clown the one who appeared in Daxi City earlier?" The man knew about the appearance of the Ghastly Clown clown in Daxi City, he was shocked to see it with Lin Huang, "Who are you?!"
"Clown, control him." Lin Huang frowned, he did not expect the man to recognize the clown.
A mask was formed in the clown’s hand. After putting the mask on, the clown’s face was transformed into the man’s face.
"Are there more assessment locations that have been invaded? How many of them have been invaded?" Lin Huang asked the questions in his mind.
"Among the 180 locations in Division7, we have invaded 63 of them."
"What is your intention? Is it really to take away all the talents?" Lin Huang asked again.
"Yes, to cultivate them into members of our organization."
"How did you guys get into the assessment?" Lin Huang could guess the answer to this question but he was not sure.
"We have spies in the Hunter Association who helped us with our IDs in the assessment location. Our aura was sealed by an immortal-level human and there are also experts who helped us cover our organization tattoo and other marks that might reveal our identity."
"How many of you are here in this location, what are their abilities?" Lin Huang proceeded to ask.
"There are a total of 11 of us, one holy fire-level transcendent and 10 gold-level rank-3 hunters.
Lin Huang was shocked at the answer, he did not expect a holy fire-level transcendent to participate in this. The head examiners of the assessment were only gold-level, even Mu Lan who ranked No.4 on the Gold Hunter leaderboard might not be able to fight a holy fire-level transcendent.
"Does the same apply to the other locations?"
"Yes, it's always led by one holy fire-level manager with a team of 10 to 12 gold-level rank-3 hunters.
After hearing what he had to say, Lin Huang was sure that the Hunter Association was at a loss.
"Where do you guys keep the participants that you manage to capture?" Lin Huang was wondering about that.
"In the dark pseudo-prison. The dark pseudo-prison is a one-time relic that imitates the five-star relic, the dark prison. It can capture creatures who had lost their consciousness but once the creatures were released, it would disappear. All of us have one of them with us when we go on this mission."
From what the man explained, Lin Huang could tell that the man would make someone unconscious and place them into the dark pseudo-prison. He then noticed that there was a black cage on the man’s waist, he thought it was an odd accessory. Picking up the cage, Lin Huang asked, "Is this the dark pseudo-prison that you're talking about? How do I release the people in there?"
"Yes, there’s a spiral Life Pattern on the cage. All you’ll need to do is to insert your Life Power and follow the pattern three times."
"When you've completed your mission, how do you leave the assessment location?" Lin Huang could guess the answer as well but he wanted to know more.
"The leader would use a one-time dimensional portal and meet us at…." The man vomited blood again and started to cough. Lin Huang looked at the Ghastly Clown next to him, the clown shook its head. Lin Huang knew that there was no way that he could ask further.
After coughing vigorously, the man spat out a mouthful of blood and died. The mask on the Ghastly Clown's face disappeared.
"Sigh, I almost got their meeting point and time…" Lin Huang shook his head and sighed.