178: That doesn't make sense!

"Ming Shuo."

"Your subordinate is here."

"For the next few days, you only need to wait inside the Nether God Temple. These areas will likely be investigated by other King Ranks. When that happens, adapt accordingly. Also, inquire about the situation of the You Clan nearby."

"Your subordinate understands."

"Underworld Two, you stay here to support Ming Shuo, pretending to be a native Nether Spirit. Take this soul orb. If any squad leader reaches the King Rank threshold, help him advance to King Rank. Don't let external King Ranks act too presumptuously."

"As you command."

An Elementary region with only one King Rank would be too shabby.

Once war breaks out, the King Ranks of the You Clan might take advantage of the situation to retaliate.

Speaking of which, Ming Shuo is lucky; the surrounding territories belong to the Ming Clan, meaning they work under the same boss. Aside from one king-rank soul pearl, there is nothing else worth being coveted by his 'colleagues.'

"Nether One is temporarily inconvenient to show himself. He should recuperate in the Nether Domain Space first."

After giving these instructions, Lin Chuan recalled Nether One into the Nether Domain Space.

When the bone blade merges with Nether One, it can be stored, but if it is separate, it cannot be stored at all.

For the next period of time, he does not plan to enter the Netherworld; he will wait and see how things unfold.

He needs to wait for the countermeasures from the two Netherworld Clans before making any further plans.

Furthermore, the conditions for Old Hei to advance to Monarch Rank are already mature; he only needs to be fed energy crystal fruit to level up his star Rank.

However, the further along he gets, the more energy crystal fruit he requires.

It's not that he lacks Spirit Stone, but rather that he is limited by Old Hei's digestion speed, which is equivalent to eating Spirit Stone as a meal.

Converting this, each meal costs thousands of Spirit Stone.

An ordinary Monarch Rank would probably burst from eating that much.

Currently, Old Hei is estimated to be short of 200 energy crystal fruit before he can advance to nine stars.

At the current speed, it will take at most twenty days, and as the star Rank increases, the time might even be shorter.

By that time, Xia Siye will probably also have reached Gold Rank.

Back then, when Lin Chuan said Xia Siye would be Gold Rank, he would be Diamond Rank—he wasn't joking... Three days later.

"Rumble, rumble, rumble..." Inside the Academy Secret Realm, bursts of thunder could be heard again.

"Damn it! Is this never-ending? Another King-level Nether Beasts advancing?"

The teachers of the academy cursed under their breath.

Two King Rank advancements within a single week—how many years had passed since such a strange thing last occurred?

Lin Chuan walked out of the room and saw Xia Siye in the living room.

"Finished cultivation?" Lin Chuan greeted him with a smile.

"Yeah, my concentration was broken. I couldn't help it; the commotion outside was too loud," Xia Siye said helplessly.

He had originally planned to attempt advancing to Gold Rank in the past couple of days, but now he might have to wait another week or so.

"Haha..." Lin Chuan gave an awkward laugh.

No one knew better than him what was causing the commotion outside.

The one advancing this time was Underworld Three.

The original Underworld Three had fallen while intercepting Ming Shuo. The current one was a squad leader promoted later, lagging far behind the other captains.

Unexpectedly, he caught up from behind, fighting even more desperately than the other captains. In almost every battle, he fought one against many, succeeding or dying trying, vowing to defend the honor of his designated number.

It seemed that ever since the naming convention proposed by Nether One was established, the team had changed.

The result was good: the first three captains to advance to King Rank were precisely the first three designated numbers.

The remaining captains were also close to reaching the King Rank threshold, only lacking a king-rank soul pearl.

Just then, a knock came from outside the door.

Before Lin Chuan could open the door, a figure appeared directly in the living room.

Who else could it be but Xia Yuan?

Lin Chuan: ...

"Oh, you're both here? Lin Chuan, why didn't you go to the Netherworld? Another King Rank advancement is happening!"

Xia Yuan wore a mischievous smile.

Lin Chuan feared neither heaven nor earth, but surely he wouldn't dare mess around during a King-level Nether Beasts advancement!

"Haha..." Lin Chuan knew exactly what Xia Yuan meant. He resisted the urge to pull out a video and scare him to death!

"Siye, come out with me later. We're attending an auction."

"An auction?" Xia Siye asked, puzzled.

"That's right. The inner city has been going crazy lately. The Su Family somehow acquired a batch of Yao Beasts with King Rank Potential and invited many Families to participate."

Xia Yuan's eyes were excited. Who could refuse the temptation of contracting a Yao Beast with King Rank Potential immediately upon advancing?

He estimated he wasn't far from advancing to King Rank.

Next would be Xia Siye, who was about to advance to Gold Rank, and it was the perfect time for him to choose a contracted beast.

"Cough, cough..." Lin Chuan nearly choked.

These Yao Beasts were all released by him.

These past few days, Underworld Eleven had become an honored guest of the Su Family, being provided with delicious food and drink—it was extremely comfortable.

The main reason was the Su Family's shock. They inspected the twenty-plus Yao Beasts one by one for several days before daring to confirm that they truly possessed King Rank Potential.

Furthermore, to be safe, they paid a significant premium and randomly bought three of them, giving them to Su Family disciples with matching attributes to contract.

All contracts succeeded, and no abnormalities were found.

As for the attributes, they were excellent, all being top-grade.

This made the Su Family even warier of the power behind Underworld Eleven. There had been absolutely no prior news about such methods.

Could it be that they had drifted over from other cities?

Even though the Su Family initially only planned to invite a portion of the Families, especially those with Pseudo King Ranks or Monarch Rank Peak experts.

However, this news was too explosive and spread rapidly among the high-level powers in Xuanwu City.

The Su Family simply started selling tickets—truly worthy of a commercial Family.

Besides those invited, anyone wishing to attend had to first spend one thousand Spirit Stone to buy a ticket. This was enough to filter out a large portion of people.

Of course, the ticket fees would also be shared.

Thus, an auction covering most of the high-end powers in Xuanwu City was set to take place tomorrow night.

"Lin Chuan, what's with that expression? Do you want to go take a look too?"

Xia Yuan said with a smile.

"However, you seem to have already contracted three beasts, right? You're still far from Monarch Rank..."

Xia Yuan was just about to say he was still far from Monarch Rank, but then he accidentally checked Lin Chuan's Rank.

Gold Rank Six Stars?

Holy crap... It hasn't even been a month yet!

Isn't it supposed to get harder to increase star Rank the higher you go? Why does Lin Chuan completely defy logic?!

"You're Six Stars?" Xia Yuan couldn't help but ask.

"Yeah," Lin Chuan replied casually.

Advancing star Rank was only slightly faster, nothing to fuss about.

"No, didn't you just advance to Gold Rank?"

Xia Yuan asked, unwilling to give up. This wasn't scientific!

Furthermore, why did Xia Siye next to him look so calm?

It was as if he, a Diamond Rank Peak expert, was the only one making a fuss?

Little did he know that Xia Siye had personally witnessed Lin Chuan advancing from Silver Rank Six Stars to Gold Rank in a single week... It was truly as simple as eating and drinking, unlike himself, who needed closed-door cultivation just to advance to Gold Rank!

"It's been a month already. If I don't advance to Diamond Rank soon, the Yao Beasts will attack us, right?"

"Right..."

Right my ass!

Finally, Xia Yuan was dumbfounded and simply stopped trying to investigate further.

Seeing Xia Siye calmly drinking tea next to him, Xia Yuan figured he must have been thoroughly numb for a while.

"So, are you going or not?" Xia Yuan asked before leaving.

"Hmm... Yes, why wouldn't I go?"

Lin Chuan originally intended to refuse, but on second thought, he decided to interact with this group of patsies—no, this group of big bosses.

He would treat it as scouting ahead of time... And, well, if there were any elements harmful to Xuanwu City, Lin Chuan could preemptively eliminate such scourges!!!