"An immortal! This is an immortal!
Huang Tian, the Lord on High—might without end!"
Seeing Huang Tian kill the giant octopus with ease, every player on the Deserted Island grew excited. The piety and reverence on their faces deepened, and fanatic zeal shone in their eyes.
"Ding~ Instance error, instance error! An unknown existence has been detected invading the instance world and causing massive chaos. Now executing the Final Judgment procedure!"
All at once, that familiar mechanical electronic voice sounded, startling everyone.
"Final Judgment?"
"Don't tell me some other monster is about to descend?"
"That giant octopus just now was only the greatest boss of the Deserted Island instance. Joy Paradise surely has more than one desperate-rank instance. So is an even stronger monster about to appear?"
"Huang Tian, the Lord on High, has power without bounds. What of ten monsters, or a hundred?"
"Don't jinx us! If a hundred octopus monsters really show up, I'll beat you to death!"
As they spoke, the whole world seemed to give a shudder. Then, at the horizon, heavy clouds rolled, and wisps of cloud turned to streaming fire and sprayed in all directions.
"Roar!"
With that roar, a giant two-winged dragon thrust its head out. Its scales were blue-black. Its wings spread wide and covered half the sky. As the wings beat, wild wind poured down from the high heavens and the sea surged into waves. When it opened its mouth to breathe, flame rolled in and out with the breath.
"Boom!"
Behind the flying dragon, a giant stretched out a foot and trod the streaming clouds apart, revealing a vast body. The upper body was bare, the skin bronze. The right hand gripped a wolf-tooth club a hundred meters long, and the air about it bristled with menace.
Bzz~
With the appearance of the flying dragon and the giant, dozens of monsters surged out from every quarter of heaven and earth. There were yakshas with faces blue as indigo and hair red as cinnabar, great axes in their hands; three-headed hounds whose whole bodies burned with fierce fire; and eerie phantoms of insubstantial form, cackling heh-heh—
All the monsters stared at Huang Tian, who stood in the sky shedding immortal light, and roared again and again. The shrieking sound churned the sea and shook the vast sky. Countless fish dove in panic, and the flying clouds scattered before it!
Whoosh~
A roaring wind blew onto the Deserted Island. The trees swayed and rustled; the grasses bent at the waist and bowed low; sand and stones rolled up into the air; dust and sand swept in like a sheet. Zhou Heng and the others hastily raised their hands to shield themselves, fear and unease rising in their hearts.
"So many monsters!"
"Not one of them looks any weaker than the octopus from before—"
Boom! Rumble!
Continuous peals of startling thunder rang through the sky. Dozens of monsters crossed the long sky, making for the Deserted Island. Flames, lightning, breaths of frozen rivers—all manner of attacks slammed toward Huang Tian like a flood, a step ahead of the monsters themselves!
Faced with attacks that could easily overturn the whole island, Huang Tian stirred his will. Beneath his feet, two fish appeared out of empty air.
One was dark black, one plain white.
The black was like deepest night; the white was like first snow.
They joined head to tail, twined, parted, twined again, and turned without end.
They spun faster and faster. In the blink of an eye, they became a yin-yang Taiji Diagram.
The moment the Taiji Diagram appeared, the flood rushing in from all around froze at once, unable to advance the slightest fraction.
The Taiji Diagram then grew and spread at speed—one cun, one chi, one zhang—
It grew larger and larger, until it even covered the sky!
It turned slowly, giving off an ancient Dao resonance and a majesty that could suppress every quarter. Overawed by that majesty, the monsters halted where they stood, a trace of fear showing on their faces.
Yet under Joy Paradise's command, however afraid they were, they had no choice but to steel themselves and charge on. At that very moment, the Taiji Diagram covering the sky pressed downward and trapped them within the diagram.
Within the Taiji Diagram, yin and yang turned. The two qi flowed like millstones: the upper stone was heaven, the lower stone was earth, and the yin-yang fish were the mill's core. With each revolution, the stones drew several fractions closer.
The monsters were trapped in the gap between the stones. Whether their bodies were a hundred zhang or only tens of meters across, within the mill they all became exceedingly small.
Roar~~
One turn of the Yin-Yang Millstone, and the flesh and blood of the many monsters was ground open. Roars of terror rose one after another.
The flying dragon's wings were reduced to powder. The giant swung its fists to hammer the millstone, only to be ground into meat paste. The yakshas raised their great axes to hack, but the axe-heads were shattered by the rebound instead. The three-headed hounds spewed blazing flame from their mouths, yet the moment the flame appeared, the yin and yang qi scattered it into nothing.
Even the phantoms without form or substance were crushed beneath the stones. A single turn, and they became sheets of gray mist, dissipating until nothing of them remained.
The Taiji Diagram spun at furious speed, faster and faster, heavier and heavier, until it ground every monster to flying ash and crushed them into nothing!
Swish~
In mere moments, no sound remained within the Yin-Yang Millstone. The black and white fish swam one last time, then melted away and dispersed. Between heaven and earth, not a monster's shadow remained. All was quiet. Only the sound of the rushing sea could be heard, and a gentle wind. Huang Tian stood high in the sky, his expression as composed as ever. Pale wisps of cloud drifted about him and scattered on the wind.
"How is this possible!"
On Canxing, in the Shenwei Federation, inside a villa in the countryside, Chang Zhenxuan's face was dark, his eyes full of disbelief.
"The bosses of fifty-eight desperate-rank instances, all together, and they still lost—and they couldn't even last a single move. Impossible. Absolutely impossible! I must be dreaming!"
He shot up from his chair, gasping in great breaths.
Since obtaining the Instance Book and founding Joy Paradise, he had never been as terrified and powerless as he was now.
In the past, he had styled himself an immortal god walking the mortal world. Anyone who offended or defied him was thrown into Joy Paradise to undergo instances in a frenzy. Within ten days or half a month, the monsters in the instances would kill them, and he would watch the sight of their deaths over and over, pleased beyond measure.
But now, looking at that "immortal" in the Deserted Island instance, he could not help a stir of dread. He knew nothing of this immortal. If it could step out of the instance world and find him, then he was certainly dead.
"No. He shouldn't be able to do such a thing. If he truly could, he would never have needed to descend upon the Deserted Island. Couldn't he have come straight before me and killed me?"
At that thought, he let out a long breath of relief, then frowned again and murmured, "Only... there are actually immortals and gods in the world? Why have They never manifested before mortals until now, so that I knew nothing of it?
And on Canxing, the only legends that circulate are of immortals such as Heavenly Venerable Yuanshi, Taishang Laojun, and Nüwa. What god is Huang Tian, the Lord on High? Why have I never heard of him?"
Even as he pondered, a calm voice suddenly sounded by his ear. "Found you, little rat!"
His scalp went numb in an instant!
Every hair on Chang Zhenxuan's body stood on end. Cold sweat seeped down his back. Only one inconceivable thought flashed through his mind: that Huang Tian, the Lord on High, had walked out of the instance world!
The next moment, a powerful will struck straight into his brain. He blanked in an instant, and his body swayed.
Whoosh~
Outside the villa, a great formation suddenly rose, cutting the villa off from the houses around it. At the same time, inside the villa, tens of millions of savage wind blades, fireballs filling the sky, innumerable ice spears, and thunder and lightning boiling like the sea all slammed at once toward Chang Zhenxuan, who had sunk into a daze!
This was what one calls a saturation attack!
"Boom! Rumble!!!"
In an instant the entire villa collapsed. Rubble, dust, roof beams, and glass churned together, and billowing yellow smoke surged into the sky!
As for Chang Zhenxuan, many formless wind blades cut through him first, turning his body into fine mince. Then fireballs and lightning blasted him charred black, into a puff of bone ash. The bone ash rose and scattered together with the smoke and dust filling the sky—
Only after several minutes did the smoke and dust of the whole villa fully settle. On the spot, nothing remained but a heap of ruins, and a book giving off a soft glow.
Huang Tian's spiritual-power avatar stepped out of the void. He raised a hand in a beckoning gesture, and that completely intact book drifted into his hand.
"Ding~ Original book master detected dead. Forcibly binding a new book master! As book master, your task is to continually compose and create new instances, and to recruit players to enter them—"
Hearing the mechanical electronic voice by his ear, and the so-called "forced binding," Huang Tian's expression did not change. He waited quietly.
Thirty seconds passed in the snap of a finger. The Instance Book in his hand suddenly shuddered, turned into a point of light, and drifted into his body.
At almost the same moment, Zhou Heng and the others in the Deserted Island instance, and the players undergoing other instances, all found their vision blurring. When they opened their eyes again, they realized they had actually returned to the real world!
"Huh? Wasn't I being chased by a two-headed fiend? How am I suddenly back?" someone asked in alarm.
"Why did this instance break off all of a sudden? Did something major happen to Joy Paradise?"
"An evil specter nearly killed me. Thank goodness! Thank goodness I'm somehow back on Canxing!"
"Could the Master of Joy Paradise have had a change of heart? Seeing I have elderly above me and little ones below, he decided to set me free?"
Many players were utterly at a loss, exceptionally dazed.
Only Zhou Heng and the others who had entered the Deserted Island instance could more or less guess the truth.
"It was Huang Tian, the Lord on High! He killed that Master of Joy Paradise—or at the very least, defeated him! That is how we escaped the sea of suffering that is Joy Paradise!"
"Great Heavenly Venerable, your divine abilities are boundless!"
"Thank you, Immortal Lord, for saving my life. This believer will set up a spirit tablet and offer incense in worship day and night!"
The players were beside themselves, some even weeping with extreme joy.
"I survived! I survived!" Zhou Heng stood in his bedroom, eyes bright, excitement impossible to hold down, and howled it aloud!
He paced quickly about the room, swinging his fists, joy written all over his face. At last he stopped by the window and opened it. The sky, lead-gray before, had cleared of dark clouds. The warm, brilliant sun showed itself, and a magnificent rainbow arched across the horizon.
He drew a deep breath. The corners of his mouth lifted. He opened his arms and let out a delighted laugh. "Oh!!"
"You upstairs, stop the noise! Disturbing people—you hear?" Downstairs, a woman in an apron stuck her head out and looked up, speaking with open displeasure.
Zhou Heng gave two awkward laughs. "Sorry, sorry. I was just too happy."
At his words, the woman raised the spatula in her hand, waved it in the air, and gave a snort. "You young people just can't control your emotions. Restless. Far too restless."
Zhou Heng laughed despite himself and shook his head. Unwilling to argue, he simply braced both hands on the windowsill, lifted his eyes to the distant sky, and looked at the warm sunlight, the pale drifting clouds, and that arc of rainbow color. He felt that everything was so beautiful.
He gazed, entranced, for a good while. Then he thought of his good friend Wang Yue, and regret rose in him. "Only a few days short. If you hadn't taken it upon yourself back then to make Joy Paradise's information public, you would surely be alive now too, free of Joy Paradise, just like me—"
Yet he did not know: had Wang Yue not staked his life to put up that post, the Brain of Light would not, for the time being, have discovered that Joy Paradise existed. And if that were so, none of these players would have known when they might be freed—
While all the players were either astonished, dazed, or wild with joy, Huang Tian had already withdrawn his spiritual-power avatar.
Dorm 208.
"With little effort, I have gained another oddity. Not bad."
A smile on his face, he said, "Now it is time to continue cultivating. I broke through to the Soul realm before, and some spiritual medicine and spiritual materials still remain. If I take them, stepping into the Yang Spirit realm will not be hard."
Once he achieved Yang Spirit, then with all his various means, he could still contend with a seventh-rank True Immortal with ease!
And with strength of roughly the seventh rank, even in this Age of Oddities, he could be called extremely powerful.
After all, though an oddity's properties might be very strong, the person who controlled the oddity was not necessarily strong at all.
Take Chang Zhenxuan. With the Instance Book in his hands, the instance worlds he composed were such that even an ordinary cultivator of the Golden Core or Soul realm who entered would be hard-pressed to escape death—and that was only the Instance Book just getting started.
The more instances he composed, the more monsters he could control, and the stronger they would be. In time, the instance worlds might even give birth to monsters rivaling True Immortals!
But the man himself, up to now, was still only an ordinary person with a mortal body of flesh. Even if his strength were to improve later, it would never keep pace with the speed at which the instance monsters grew. The threat was not great.
Especially now: an ordinary knife, a single bullet, could take his life.
The weakness was far too obvious—
"Little Light, while I cultivate, continue to monitor the world. The moment you discover an oddity, report to me at once—unless I am in the middle of charging a barrier and breaking through a realm."
"Yes, Master!" the Brain of Light answered at once.
In the turn of an eye, several more days passed.
At the Oddity Management Association Special Training Base, in a clean, bright room, Liu Qingqing and Zhou Dongqiang sat facing each other. She was all smiles.
"Congratulations. You've passed the month-long special training. As of now, you are officially a member of our Oddity Management Association!"
Zhou Dongqiang's face lit with excitement. "Thank you."
"No need for thanks. You've earned it." Liu Qingqing smoothed her hair. "Oh, right. Over this past month, we studied your fishing rod carefully, and we've finally determined the cost of using it."
"What is it?" For a moment Zhou Dongqiang felt uneasy. He had already used the fishing rod quite a few times. If the cost was too great—
"Don't be nervous. The cost is very small." Liu Qingqing said with a smile, "Each time you use the fishing rod, one hair falls out. Hair that falls will not grow back. Once it has all fallen out, you will never be able to use this fishing rod to fish again."
Zhou Dongqiang's eyes went wide. "Th-that's all?"
A fishing rod that could fish all things, and the cost of using it was losing hair?!
"That's all." Liu Qingqing said with certainty. "Don't assume the cost of using every oddity is great. Remember this: oddities follow no rules. Don't use our way of thinking to guess at them."
Zhou Dongqiang nodded thoughtfully, then asked, probing, "Then, the fishing rod—will it be returned—"
"Headquarters has already approved it. The fishing rod remains yours to use." Liu Qingqing said, "But you may only use it at headquarters. After all, no one knows what the rod might fish up. At headquarters, even if you fish up some dreadful monster, the combined strength of everyone can deal with it."
"That's only natural," Zhou Dongqiang said hastily. If they really had him take the fishing rod outside to "fish," he wouldn't quite dare, either. He had not forgotten being bitten by a wolf-shaped creature he had once fished up—
"Also, now that you've finished special training and become an official member, a veteran member will take you out on a mission to get some experience." Liu Qingqing said as she rose. "The veteran taking you into the field this time is me. As it happens, there's been a bit of a disturbance over in Qiju City. Come with me, and we'll go look into it."
Zhou Dongqiang rose with her and asked curiously, "Was an oddity discovered?"
"Very likely." Liu Qingqing said as she walked, "On the outskirts of Qiju City, there have been man-eating, blood-drinking incidents. Several vagrants in a row had their blood sucked dry. Only a human skin was left where each one had been."
Zhou Dongqiang drew a light breath. "Only a human skin? This most likely has to do with an oddity."
Liu Qingqing nodded, then suddenly stopped. "There's another matter we also need to look into. Though I expect this one won't turn up much."
"What is it?"
"A humanoid oddity is suspected to have appeared. This oddity is named Huang Tian, the Lord on High!"
Chapter 237