1444 Rank-6

Using his innate talent and divine ability, Teng Ran had shed his shell and faked his death at the cost of losing his mortal form, one of his three forms, and returning to his python origin form.

After slithering out of the snake-tailed Virtual God's body in his python form, he did not try to run away.

His origin form being discovered meant that his feigned death was a complete failure, which unexpectedly made him calm down. 

"I'm curious—how did you find me? My feigned death was flawless." 

Lin Huang eyed the giant python in front of him but did not make any immediate moves. He observed the pair of bat-like wings on the other's back with interest. Although they were currently in a contracted state, they were undoubtedly a genuine pair of wings. 

"I have a probing-type god rule ability."

This was naturally a cover-up. He could not possibly explain to his adversary that he did not receive a fatality notification from his Goldfinger.

However, Teng Ran just nodded silently and accepted the statement. There were many probing-type god rules, so it was not surprising that there existed a special Probing God Rule that could detect his fake death. 

"I still have one more question. Are you actually at True God Limit, or at heavenly god-level?" Teng Ran brought up the question with a note of dissatisfaction in his voice. 

"Neither." The corners of Lin Huang's lips twitched up slightly as he replied. 

This response left Teng Ran completely stunned. If he was not at True God Limit, nor a Heavenly God, then was he a Lord?! He never once considered that the virtual god-level rank-6 that Lin Huang had been displaying this whole time was his real combat strength. 

"You've already asked two questions, but I'll give you the chance to ask one more." As Lin Huang spoke, four thousand telekinetic flying daggers floated in the air in front of him, all pointed directly at the giant python.

Seeing this, Teng Ran felt a chill run down his spine.

After a moment of careful deliberation, he asked his third question.

"Can we call it a truce?" 

Before Lin Huang could give him an answer, he hastily added, "The Thousand Snake Sect will surrender and even hand over all the items in our storage equipment as compensation, as long as you let the survivors leave safely. I admit that we have made a grave mistake, that we shouldn't have invaded this gravel world that has already been occupied by you."

Lin Huang gave a hearty laugh after hearing Teng Ran's words.

"First of all, I'm a native resident of this gravel world. What you and your people have invaded is not a world I have conquered, but my hometown.

"Secondly, does the Thousand Snake Sect have any right to negotiate a truce with us? If anything, the ones who should be negotiating with us are the Myriad Tribe Palace who are above you, right?"

Of course, he did not actually want to call it a truce. The proposition was only for the sake of temporarily saving his life. He still had to avenge his younger sister who was killed by them! 

Moreover, as Lin Huang pointed out, even if the Thousand Snake Sect and Lin Huang were to reach a settlement, it would be meaningless. After all, one word from the Myriad Tribe Palace, and the Thousand Snake Sect would have no choice but to obey their orders. Whether or not a truce could really be agreed was not something that could be decided by the Thousand Snake Sect.

"Therefore, the answer is—no!" 

As soon as Lin Huang said that, the four thousand telekinetic flying daggers once again turned into blood-colored lightning bolts and charged right toward the giant python incarnation of Teng Ran.

The bat wings on Teng Ran's back suddenly unfolded, and with an abrupt flap of his wings, he quickly retreated backward. His current speed was more than ten times faster than his human form, and was comparable to that of Lin Huang's telekinetic flying daggers. 

Lin Huang could not help raising his eyebrows. 

"As expected, his strength is on a different level when in his origin form." 

Many of the Protosses that he had killed previously all died in their mortal forms, as they did not even have the time to change their physical forms before they were annihilated within seconds. 

Some of them would directly enter the battle in their God's form, but very few would reveal their origin form. This was because once their origin form dies, they would die for good. 

However, meeting someone like Teng Ran, who initially went into battle with his mortal body before revealing his origin form, was a first for Lin Huang. He could clearly feel the huge difference in strength between Teng Ran's two different forms. 

In his origin form, Teng Ran clearly had a higher level of control over the rules. Lin Huang noticed that the current Teng Ran could even use Wind Elemental Enlightenment to slightly interfere with the trajectory of his telekinetic flying daggers. Although the effect was very subtle, compared to his previous state of complete inability to defend himself, he was definitely much stronger than before. 

"Looks like this fellow possesses the Wild Beast Teng Snake's Bloodline from the primeval epoch. The bloodline is very diluted, but the fact that there's even a trace of it left to this day, and that it hasn't been watered down to nothingness by other bloodlines, is already quite impressive," the voice of the stone tablet suddenly resonated within Lin Huang's body. 

"Teng Snake? What rank is it?" Lin Huang curiously asked. 

"Those who were considered Wild Beasts during the primeval epoch were all Pure Spirit rank-6, and they would achieve lord-level strength when they became adults," the stone tablet explained. 

"The rank that's above Supreme God rank-5 is pure spirit-level rank-6?!" Lin Huang had always surmised that there were more ranks above Supreme God rank-5, but he did not expect that today would be the day he found out that above Supreme God, there was still Pure Spirit. 

"It's a pity that the Teng Snake's Bloodline in this little gremlin's body is too faint and his other bloodlines are too muddled, or there would've been a slight chance that he could've become a Lord," the stone tablet said rather regretfully.

"Even if it wasn't diluted, he still won't become a Lord, because he'll die here today," Lin Huang took over the conversation. "We can't leave a single one of these invaders alive, or they'll just bring trouble to us sooner than later." 

If they completely wiped out these invaders, at least news would not reach the Myriad Tribe Palace until a year later. However, if even one of them were to survive and manage to escape back to the great world, the anomaly in the gravel world would be reported back to the Myriad Tribe Palace on that very day.

Even with a year's time, Lin Huang knew that he would not be able to elevate his strength to a level sufficient to fight the Myriad Tribe Palace. Even so, he could at least use that extra time to come up with other strategies.

However, if the Myriad Tribe Palace was to find out about the anomaly in the gravel world now, the entire gravel world would most likely be destroyed within the same day.

This was also the reason Lin Huang refused to negotiate with Teng Ran. Even if Teng Ran could guarantee that what happened here would not be reported back to the Myriad Tribe Palace, it was impossible to be sure that no one else would secretly leak the news. After all, just as how the flames of a fire cannot be swathed with paper, as long as an event has taken place, the day it comes to light will arrive sooner or later. 

The only rational solution was to silence them with death. This was also the safest approach.

The stone tablet did not say anything more. It just sensed the Teng Snake's Bloodline in Teng Ran's body and felt a little rueful about it. Even if Teng Ran had the full Teng Snake's Bloodline within him, if Lin Huang wanted him dead, it would not be able to prevent him from achieving that.

Although Teng Ran possessed a Pure Spirit bloodline within his body, it was too faint, and in reality it did not increase his strength by much—it only greatly increased his potential in wind elemental and water elemental attributes. 

Out of the eleven types of Control-level God Rule Power that he had mastered, six of them were of Wind and Water Elemental Enlightenment. 

However, Teng Ran himself did not seem to be aware that he had the Teng Snake's Bloodline within himself. In fact, he might not even know that he had an innate talent in Wind and Water Elemental Enlightenment. The sixty-seven God Rule Powers that he had cultivated were very disparate in nature, most of which had nothing to do with either wind or water elements, and a lot of time and energy had therefore been wasted in the cultivation.

If he had specialized in wind and water all these years, there might have been twenty or thirty Elemental Enlightenments that could have reached Control-level, or even broke through to complete-stage.