Chapter 155: Golden Legend

After finishing the meeting, Lu Sheng utilized spatial positioning to arrive at Sector 21, specifically the exact spot he had departed from earlier.

His primary reason for returning here was to see if he could find any traces of the Mad God Cult.

This was something he had to investigate himself.

Although his subordinate monsters also possessed the ability to scout for intelligence, scouting was simultaneously a matter of analytical capability.

Lu Sheng held no great expectations for the analytical prowess of these subordinate monsters.

Perhaps sixth-tier monsters possessed decent analytical skills, but fifth-tier Blood-Sucking Mosquitoes were utterly incapable of any such analysis.

His main command to these monsters was simply to check whether there were any living people left in Sector 21.

Whenever they discovered a living person, they were to report it to him so he could come and take a look.

Ever since the previous evacuation event occurred, it was practically impossible for any human beings to exist throughout Sector 21.

Coupled with the massive wave of monsters brought by the beam of light, even if there were a few stubborn individuals determined to stay behind, they would already be dead beyond a doubt by now.

If anyone had survived, they were bound to be members of the Mad God Cult.

This was why Lu Sheng had instructed his subordinate monsters simply to search for living people.

Yet up until now, he had not received a single piece of information regarding the presence of any living person.

Since he was idling about at the stronghold anyway, he decided to take matters into his own hands and prepare a thorough search to see if he could discover any traces of the Mad God Cult.

Lu Sheng remained quite confident in his own abilities.

Even without any clues whatsoever, he still believed he would be able to uncover something.

While searching for traces of the Mad God Cult, Lu Sheng simultaneously checked his gains from the previous night.

There was no need to waste much time; he simply had to look at how many extra sixth-tier cards he now possessed within his body.

Yesterday, he had dispatched all his sixth-tier subordinate monsters, making it convenient to tally them now.

The result left Lu Sheng somewhat disappointed: after a night of hunting, the number of sixth-tier cards had only increased by about three hundred.

This could be described as pitifully meager.

One had to remember that previously, Lu Sheng could hunt around three hundred sixth-tier monsters in a single day while leading two to three hundred sixth-tier monsters.

Last night, however, he had released as many as eight thousand sixth-tier monsters, accompanied by various seventh-tier monsters and led by three eighth-tier monsters.

Yet the harvest was merely three hundred sixth-tier monsters.

It would be a lie to say Lu Sheng wasn't disappointed upon seeing this number.

Suddenly, however, he recalled that it seemed he hadn't commanded the monsters in combat last night.

Consequently, the sixth-tier monsters discovered by the Blood-Sucking Mosquitoes hadn't been hunted.

Presumably, for the majority of last night, his subordinates had likely wasted their time searching for monsters.

Thinking along these lines, Lu Sheng accepted this reality.

Lu Sheng immediately instructed the Blood-Sucking Mosquitoes to send over the locations of those monsters they couldn't handle.

He then transmitted these coordinates to the nearby or closest sixth-tier monster squads, ordering them to eliminate those high-tier monsters.

Soon, he received over three hundred reports from the Blood-Sucking Mosquitoes, meaning there were nearly three hundred sixth-tier monsters.

This made the figure somewhat more acceptable to Lu Sheng.

However, adding these up to a total of six hundred sixth-tier monsters actually accounted for half of all sixth-tier monsters in Sector 21.

Following a night of exploration, the Blood-Sucking Mosquitoes had already covered half of Sector 21, and before long, the entire Sector 21 would be under their surveillance.

Seen in this light, the strength of the monsters descending upon Sector 21 was consistently inferior to that of Sector 13.

Excluding the floating continent populated by Ice Werewolves, Sector 13 as a whole still possessed around three thousand sixth-tier entities.

Sector 21, on the other hand, had only a little over a thousand.

Lu Sheng did not disdain them; even a mosquito's leg was meat, but he decided that his next step would be to advance toward regions with higher hazard ratings.

It now appeared that this classification of hazard levels was quite reasonable.

Even the card tiers of the monsters brought by the beam of light scaled directly with the hazard level—the higher the hazard level, the greater the strength of the monsters.

Once Sector 21 was conquered, he would lead his monster army to attack Sector 8. Bordering Sector 13, besides Sector 21, were Sectors 16, 23, and 8.

Among them, Sector 8 had the highest hazard rating, naturally placing it at the top of Lu Sheng's attack list.

People always said that food should be eaten one bite at a time, starting with the less tasty parts and saving the best for last.

Lu Sheng, however, did not think that way; he preferred to eat the good parts right away.

This would prevent any unexpected accidents from cropping up during the step-by-step process.

He detested the existence of accidents and would do his utmost to prevent them from occurring.

The dispatched squads continued to advance, and the Blood-Sucking Mosquitoes were steadily covering Sector 21.

For the moment, Lu Sheng had no real leads; within the entire Sector 21, perhaps only the altar atop the Altar Mountain held a sliver of attraction for him.

At the time, its assistance to him had been quite substantial.

Back then, no one had been able to take the altar away.

Lu Sheng was now rather curious whether he could take this altar with him.

His comprehension of the Law of Space had deepened considerably by now; perhaps he still had a chance to move this altar with its special functions.

If he wanted to do something, he would just do it. With Sector 21 being so vast, finding the Mad God Cult relied purely on luck.

If he truly wanted to conduct a carpet search, he had no other method besides relying on his subordinate monsters.

As for whether the Mad God Cult might have been wiped out, Lu Sheng deemed it unlikely.

Thus, Lu Sheng simply decided to head over to Altar Mountain first to take a look.

Riding the White-Flames Blue-Scaled Bird, he flew at high speed through the sky.

The speed of a sixth-tier White-Flames Blue-Scaled Bird was already incomparable to what it had been before.

Landing on the familiar Altar Mountain, Lu Sheng walked straight up to the altar.

He reached out and channeled the power of the Law of Space, beginning to affect the surrounding space.

Imprisoning the entire space, his spatial energy acted like an invisible giant hand that tightly grabbed the altar and continuously pulled upward.

Initially, Lu Sheng hadn't held out much hope, but as the altar vibrated, a trace of joy surfaced in his eyes.

"It seems this is actually possible!"

Without hesitation, he decisively unleashed his full strength, exerting the power of the Law of Space to its absolute limit.

Under this operation by Lu Sheng, the entire altar began to vibrate violently.

The ground itself began to shake in tandem.

Lu Sheng's expression gradually grew solemn. He had already exerted his full strength, but the altar merely vibrated and showed no intention of shifting.

Yet Lu Sheng could sense that it was just a tiny bit short.

Lu Sheng was certainly not willing to give up halfway like this, so he poured an even greater amount of force into the exertion.

Protruding veins surfaced on his forehead, and his resolute gaze remained free of distractions.

As Lu Sheng strained, the ground shook even more violently.

It felt as though the entire Altar Mountain was quaking.

Different movements began to occur around the altar's location.

A circle of cracks appeared around the perimeter of the altar.

The soil surrounding the altar gradually split apart, and the entire altar showed signs of rising.

Seeing this, Lu Sheng felt a surge of excitement and continued to unleash the power of the Law of Space with all his might.

Wielding power of this magnitude consumed a considerable amount of energy.

If he were still at the seventh tier, Lu Sheng might have exhausted his stamina by now.

However, he was now at the eighth tier, and the energy sea within his body was continuously producing energy to replenish the consumption incurred when wielding the laws.

Although the output of energy exceeded the generation rate, he could maintain this intensity for quite some time longer.

This was the sheer might of reaching the eighth tier.

And so, Lu Sheng locked horns with Altar Mountain and the altar.

Today, he was determined to claim this altar; if once wasn't enough, he would try a few more times.

Charging in and out of the enemy lines seven times was not entirely out of the question either.

Driven by this conviction, the altar ultimately compromised.

It surrendered just as Lu Sheng was about to be wrung dry.

It was reeled in by Lu Sheng and deposited into his sub-dimension.

As for the true appearance of the entire altar, Lu Sheng finally got a clear look at it.

Aside from the visible portion on the surface, the lower section extended downward for nearly a hundred meters. It was pitch black overall and covered densely with mysterious runes, identical to the ones on the surface.

As the altar was uprooted, a man-made sinkhole appeared on the peak of Altar Mountain.

It was a pitch-black pit whose bottom could not be seen at a single glance.

Having successfully moved the altar, Lu Sheng was quite satisfied.

This invisible contest could be considered his victory.

Lu Sheng intended to place this altar upon the floating continent.

This could also be considered a foundation-level treasure.

Since it could elevate the quality of one's natal card, it was, by any measure, another path to strength for people.

However, he was in no rush; he would simply place it there when he returned after conquering Sector 21.

While his subordinates were busy capturing Sector 21, he planned to head over to the location where the Mad God Cult had previously opened the other-world passage to check the situation.

He wanted to see if he could find any clues.

Mounting the White-Flames Blue-Scaled Bird, he flew at high speed through the sky, heading toward the location of the rocky plains.

His current position was relatively close to the rocky plains; otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to witness that great battle last time.

Looking at the previous location from afar, the crack that had once torn across the sky had already been repaired.

It looked no different from the surrounding sky.

Lu Sheng flew at low altitudes along the perimeter of the rocky plains.

After circling several times, he didn't spot even a single clue.

This left Lu Sheng somewhat disappointed.

However, noon was fast approaching.

By noon, the sixth-tier perfection-grade Blood-Sucking Mosquitoes he was cultivating would mature.

At the same time, there was another joyful piece of news.

With Lu Sheng continuously supplying law stones, a pair of Blood-Sucking Mosquitoes he had handpicked had successfully cultivated the Law of Devouring to the second layer, enabling them to advance to the seventh tier.

This meant he could now cultivate seventh-tier Blood-Sucking Mosquitoes.

......

Meanwhile, various factions of all sizes within Sector 13 had also received the news transmitted by the World-Extinguishing Alliance.

The general gist was that the World-Extinguishing Alliance had just been established, and those willing to defect and pledge allegiance should come over quickly, as there were numerous opportunities and bounties to be had.

There were no flowery words whatsoever; the reputation carved out by Lu Sheng was the finest signboard.

For Sector 13, this could be considered a blockbuster shell.

The major factions remained silent, while the minor factions cheered.

Truth be told, the major factions did not wish to see the World-Extinguishing Alliance rise to power, nor did they want anyone lording over them.

Yet, thinking of Lu Sheng's terrifying strength, they didn't dare to make any moves, not even daring to say too much.

They were terrified that Lu Sheng would grow displeased and send his subordinates to annihilate them.

If the strength displayed by Lu Sheng hadn't been so terrifying, these factions certainly wouldn't have been able to sit still and would have gone to "greet" the World-Extinguishing Alliance.

Unfortunately, there were no ifs.

Right now, the only thing they could do was maintain their silence.

On the other hand, quite a few people from minor factions felt that the World-Extinguishing Alliance seemed promising and wanted to join it. The reputation Lu Sheng had forged was simply too resounding, and these were undeniable facts that no one could refute, no matter how much they wanted to argue.

The recruitment drive by the World-Extinguishing Alliance held the greatest attraction for lone wolves and small groups.

They were also the ones who went in the largest numbers.

Because of a single decree from the World-Extinguishing Alliance, the entirety of Sector 13 came alive.

A massive number of travelers appeared across the land.

Whenever these people met, they would ask: "Are you also going to join the World-Extinguishing Alliance?"

.........

Time flowed on, and noon arrived swiftly.

Lu Sheng's consciousness had already entered the sub-dimension.

He arrived at the territory specifically used for cultivating Blood-Sucking Mosquitoes.

Following continuous breakthroughs, the range of his sub-dimension had already expanded to ten thousand kilometers, leaving many barren tracts of land where he didn't even know what to do with them.

Recalling the multitude of low-tier cards he held that had no real use, Lu Sheng simply cordoned off a space and dumped all those cards inside.

In an instant, a massive horde of monsters appeared within his sub-dimension.

That region instantly became lively due to the sudden emergence of countless monsters.

Lu Sheng cared little about what they would eventually evolve into if left to develop freely.

The only drawback was the lack of trees, so Lu Sheng intended to pull some in from the outside world.

It seemed that a certain forest outside looked rather nice.

Since the Blood-Sucking Mosquitoes hadn't fully matured yet, Lu Sheng simply made a trip out.

Exerting his spatial powers to the limit, he continuously uprooted the trees in the forest beneath his feet and thrust them into his sub-dimension.

Those towering ancient trees were handled like radishes in Lu Sheng's hands, easily pulled up from the earth.

The earth trembled; the trees in the external forest grew scarcer while the trees within his space grew increasingly dense.

After pulling up trees for a while, a massive sinkhole appeared in the ground alongside the uprooting of a giant tree.

The moment the sinkhole appeared, Lu Sheng caught a fleeting glimpse of two figures flashing past in a blur.

What was that?

Driven by curiosity, Lu Sheng decided to go down and take a look.

Beneath this forest lay an underground world.

The entire underground world was not dark; crystals embedded in the walls emitted a bright white light, illuminating the subterranean realm.

Numerous individuals dressed in red and black attire lived here.

Everyone moved in an orderly fashion, diligently performing their assigned tasks.

Suddenly, they felt a series of continuous vibrations, highly rhythmic.

It didn't quite feel like an earthquake, and the members of the Mad God Cult looked upward with a mixture of confusion.

Though unsure of the cause, they knew the disturbance was originating from the surface.

Even Yan Bufa, who was drinking tea and chatting with Cao Minghua, the leader of the wasteland bandits, looked up toward the ceiling with a strange expression.

"Brother Cao, what do you suppose is going on? Could there be some powerful monster up above?" Yan Bufa asked with some doubt.

Cao Minghua had no idea what was happening either, and could only shake his head: "I don't know."

Just as the two men were filled with doubt, a massive hole suddenly burst open right above their heads.

A large volume of dirt tumbled down from above, prompting the two to cry out in alarm as they scrambled to dodge.

When the dust and smoke cleared, a figure suddenly descended from above.

The three of them locked eyes, and the air seemed to congeal.

The scene was chillingly quiet.

Yan Bufa looked at the excitement in the other person's eyes and felt an ominous premonition.

He exchanged a glance with Cao Minghua, and Cao Minghua understood tacitly.

Before Cao Minghua could make a move, however, the person opposite them spoke up.

"I didn't expect to find you guys here." Lu Sheng flashed a row of pearly white teeth, his smile looking radiant, albeit tainted with a somewhat bloodthirsty flavor.

Cao Minghua frowned: "Who are you?"

"That doesn't matter," Lu Sheng said, stepping closer step by step. "If you really want to know, go ask King Yama."

Yan Bufa glared at Lu Sheng: "Such an arrogant little brat, I'm afraid you haven't figured out the situation!"

As he spoke, Yan Bufa moved, preparing to take Lu Sheng down.

Lu Sheng blinked: "Eighth-tier? I thought it would be seventh-tier at most."

"It seems you lot have profited quite a bit from doing wicked deeds."

Yan Bufa sneered: "Wicked deeds? Only the strong are qualified to judge the weak. Are you qualified?"

"I'd say I am, wouldn't you?"

With a flash, Lu Sheng appeared directly behind Yan Bufa.

Yan Bufa watched the person in front of him vanish instantly, followed immediately by a voice ringing out right behind his back. This eerie phenomenon made his hair stand on end.

The moment Yan Bufa sensed someone behind him, he tried to whip around.

Yet, a sharp piercing sound suddenly rang through the air.

The next instant, he felt his neck grow light, and the world before his eyes slowly faded into darkness.

Lu Sheng unleashed a blade forged from concentrated spatial energy, instantly sending Yan Bufa's head flying.

The might of the Dimensional Slash did not stop there; after decapitating Yan Bufa, it continued straight down into the ground.

Carving a path of destruction all the way downward, a bottomless pit appeared in the earth.

This was a new method of utilizing spatial power that Lu Sheng had recently researched.

The Law of Space was formidable, but one had to develop and explore its usage methods independently.

Previously, perhaps due to his limited mastery of the Law of Space, he had been unable to manifest power directly related to offense.

Now, however, he was capable of condensing spatial energy into a physical substance and launching it outward.

At the same time, he could also craft various items related to spatial power.

For instance, he could construct a spatial cage; as long as he didn't lift it and the trapped individual lacked the capability to break it open, that spatial cage would persist indefinitely.

There were numerous other application methods, and his offensive maneuvers had grown remarkably bizarre.

As long as he could see his target and the distance wasn't too excessive, he could instantaneously manipulate the space surrounding the target to forge a weapon and strike them.

Employing spatial power of this sort still consumed a considerable amount of energy, with the consumption scaling according to the distance and the spatial area manipulated.

The energy consumed by the Dimensional Slash just now was by no means small.

Though its destructive power was indeed impressive, Lu Sheng knew clearly that its might still could not compare to his Law of Might.

This was partly because his mastery of the Law of Space was not yet thoroughly refined.

Attacks forged through the Law of Space could go beyond the initial surface layer, layering infinitely like nesting dolls.

One layer enveloping another would amplify their destructive might infinitely.

However, Lu Sheng was currently incapable of even condensing two layers of space; he could only conceptualize such an attack.

To truly bring that fantasy to fruition, he needed to continue elevating his strength.

Cao Minghua froze in place upon seeing Yan Bufa dispatched in an instant.

Then he looked at Lu Sheng's face, which was calm beyond measure.

Though it looked completely normal, Cao Minghua couldn't help but feel a rising tide of terror.

Lu Sheng raised his gaze to look at Cao Minghua. With a wave of his hand, the space around the bandit leader suddenly ruptured.

Cao Minghua instantly felt the space surrounding him tearing at his flesh.

The next second, a searing pain shot through half of his body.

Followed by a crisp "rip."

His entire body was torn in two, and with his very last breath, he witnessed his own gruesome state.

The horrifying wound filled his heart with ashes.

His final thought was: There's no saving this!

The wound on the corpse was extremely jagged, as though it had been forcefully torn apart.

Feeling the energy within his body get more than halfway drained in an instant, Lu Sheng fell into contemplation once again.

It seemed that directly attacking the spatial coordinates occupied by living entities consumed significantly more energy.

Even so, it remained immensely powerful.

The moment space tore apart, any living being situated within that sector of space would be put to death.

The torn space revealed the void world within, but within a mere fraction of a second, the entire space mended itself.

Eliminating two eighth-tier experts with such ease felt somewhat surreal to Lu Sheng.

The opponents hadn't even possessed the ability to resist; Lu Sheng almost thought he was bullying a first-tier monster.

In a daze, Lu Sheng finally understood.

It wasn't that the enemies were too weak—he was simply too strong!

Having dispatched his opponents, Lu Sheng surveyed the labyrinthine tunnels of the underground world and summoned six hundred sixth-tier monsters.

These were the sixth-tier monsters he had harvested thus far.

He ordered these monsters to slaughter everyone in the underground world without exception.

As for himself, he returned to the surface to continue uprooting trees. Since the two powerful bosses had already been dealt with, his subordinates would relay any unforeseen developments from below.

He could always head back down to handle things later if needed.

After stripping the entire forest bare of its trees, Lu Sheng returned to his sub-dimension.

At that moment, the Blood-Sucking Mosquitoes had also reached maturity.

Controlling his spatial powers, he casually crushed those Blood-Sucking Mosquitoes to death.

Sixth-Tier Perfection-Grade Blood-Sucking Mosquitoes: 5,700.

First, he consumed 20 to upgrade a pair of Blood-Sucking Mosquitoes to the seventh tier—this pair had already cultivated the internal laws to the second layer, which was why they were eligible for the upgrade.

Next, he began upgrading his Space-Time Ants.

He first threw in one hundred Blood-Sucking Mosquitoes as secondary cards, achieving a 10% upgrade success rate.

This meant he needed one thousand sixth-tier perfection-grade Blood-Sucking Mosquitoes.

As long as they could be upgraded, Lu Sheng cared little about this quantity.

He casually tossed them in and selected the upgrade option.

The one thousand Blood-Sucking Mosquito cards shattered on the spot, transforming into points of light that fused into the bodies of the Space-Time Ants.

The next moment, a pillar of golden light pierced the firmament.

Since Lu Sheng's true body was inside the sub-dimension, this beam of golden light manifested solely within the sub-dimension.

Had it occurred in the outside world, it would have inevitably drawn the attention of an untold number of people.

Lu Sheng had intended to wait until the golden beam vanished, but abruptly, he felt his consciousness pulled by an invisible force.

The next second, his consciousness manifested within a blue ocean.

Feeling this brand-new vessel, he felt a profound sense of novelty.

Looking at the scene before him, he was somewhat at a loss, wondering why he had appeared here.

Before he could make a move, the entire blue ocean suddenly surged with agitation.

The blue ocean before him abruptly split in two.

A colossal stone monument, stretching so high its peak could not be seen, descended from the heavens and arrived before Lu Sheng.

The surface of this stone monument was wreathed in a wisp of gray gas, and a multitude of mysterious runes adorned its body.

Every single rune seemed endowed with life, slowly meandering across the stone tablet.

Once the monument appeared, it fell completely still, lending the scene an eerie atmosphere.

Just as Lu Sheng prepared to step forward and examine it, he lost consciousness entirely and blacked out.

Following that, a human silhouette emerged from within Lu Sheng's conscious form.

It was a blue silhouette, whose features revealed nothing more than a vague human outline, completely concealing any identifiable characteristics.

He looked at the stone monument before him and clicked his tongue in wonder: "To think there would actually be a Chaos Monument in this universe. Who would have thought? It's a pity it's ultimately a low-dimensional product; it has no effect on me."

"Still, it's useful for this fellow." The silhouette gazed at Lu Sheng, who had collapsed onto the ground, and then extended a hand toward the monument ahead.

"Hand it over, won't you? Don't force me to resort to violence."

The stone monument trembled violently once, and two strands of golden laws flew out from within its body, their sluggish motion conveying a sense of profound reluctance.

However, the silhouette seemed thoroughly dissatisfied with the monument's behavior. In a blink, its form vanished from the spot and reappeared right in front of the tablet.

Lifeless though the monument was, at that moment it looked as though it were shaking in its boots.

Another strand of golden laws shot out from within it, and all three laws swiftly flew toward Lu Sheng, who lay unconscious on the ground.

The sluggish pace from just moments ago had been nothing more than an illusion.

The silhouette curled its lip: "Chaos Monuments are all gluttons for punishment. They won't behave unless they take a beating."

If I weren't bound by cosmic laws, I'd have torn you apart piece by piece and fed you to this kid.

"Scram!"

At that moment, the Chaos Monument seemed to comprehend human speech, vanishing from this place in the blink of an eye.

Meanwhile, the silhouette re-entered Lu Sheng's body, and the consciousness of Lu Sheng that had manifested here gradually dissolved into nothingness.