Unlike the other hunters, all of his targets after that were now third-rank heavenly god-level prisoners.
For the other participants in the secret territory, successfully being able to kill a third-rank heavenly god-level prisoner might have been a matter of luck. However, they saw Lin Huang's hunting points skyrocket by 400 points a second and third time, respectively.
Only then did they understand that Xiu Mu did indeed possess such ability. He did not depend on luck at all.
The numerous Heavenly God leaders who were watching the battle outside could very clearly see for themselves and basically acknowledged that Lin Huang's abilities were almost on par with the standard of a top third-rank Heavenly God.
However, they did not know that what they saw was, in reality, only what Lin Huang wanted to display.
In the secret territory, under the continued stimulus of Lin Huang's achievements, the few top-tier True God powerhouses also began moving into the domain of the second-rank heavenly god-level prisoners, thus beginning a whole new challenge.
However, their hunts were far less successful than Lin Huang's.
For one thing, they did not possess the ability to dominate their opponents. For another, the convicts in the secret prisoner territory held the geographical advantage. Almost every hunt was a mutual battle of wits and valor, which was extremely time-consuming.
Lin Huang aside, the fastest top-tier True God powerhouse to complete the killing of a second-rank heavenly god-level prisoner spent over five hours just to do it. This excluded the time spent tracking down their opponent and the time spent traveling.
Among the top-tier True Gods, there was even a rather unfortunate fellow who happened to encounter a second-rank heavenly god-level prisoner that managed to overwhelm him. After the intense battle of close to ten hours, he had no choice in the end but to flee in defeat.
While many participants were still cautiously hunting prisoners to obtain points, Lin Huang's hunting points had long since shot up, leaving everyone far behind.
The number of rules and god sequence chains in his body was also skyrocketing as he went.
By the fifth day of entering the secret prisoner territory, the number of rules within Lin Huang had increased to over 700,000. He was getting closer and closer to a breakthrough to fourth-rank True God.
As usual, Lin Huang checked the number of rules that had increased within him after completing the hunting of a third-rank heavenly god-level prisoner. He put away the corpse and headed straight to where the next target was.
However, halfway through his journey, there was a sudden change of expression on his face.
One of the auras was at third-rank heavenly god-level; that was clearly his target.
Meanwhile, the other aura was not strange to him. He had come face-to-face with that particular individual before entering the secret territory.
Lin Huang did not slow down, nor did he change his route; he continued hurrying along his intended path.
The Heavenly God team leaders outside the secret territory displayed various expressions.
Many were secretly looking at Buried Heaven.
This was because the individual that Lin Huang was about to encounter was none other than Virtuoso from Death Sickle.
None of the Heavenly God team leaders had noticed exactly when Virtuoso had headed to the Heavenly God domain.
Once Lin Huang had locked down his prey and his flight path had become clear, almost all of the Heavenly God team leaders only noticed—after they had checked to see who Xiu Mu's target was— that there was now an individual who had appeared out of nowhere beside the intended prisoner.
What puzzled the team leaders even more was that Virtuoso was standing less than two meters away from that third-rank heavenly god-level prisoner, but Virtuoso had not been attacked.
It was as if the third-rank heavenly god-level prisoner could not see Virtuoso, completely ignoring their existence.
Such an odd state of affairs confused the entire group of Heavenly God team leaders.
Actually, everyone present had heard of Virtuoso and was aware that this individual's talent and potential even exceeded that of Buried Heaven.
Not a single assassination mission that Virtuoso took on for Death Sickle failed. All the targets would mysteriously die, and even their manner of death was very seldom repeated.
However, nobody knew exactly what Virtuoso's abilities were, nor had anyone ever seen their face. In fact, no one had any idea whether they were male or female.
Some grade-6 and grade-7 organizations had even attempted to investigate Virtuoso, but their efforts were to no avail.
Virtuoso was like a person who had appeared out of the blue; utterly no traces of their past could be discovered.
After some time, everyone gave up wasting time trying to investigate Virtuoso.
However, everyone was aware that Death Sickle had a mysterious individual like that with stunning potential—one who had extremely powerful potential to become a Lord.
Although the numerous Heavenly God leaders were not clear on Virtuoso's background, they were familiar with what Virtuoso had done.
Virtuoso was merely a true god-level White Sickle member in Death Sickle, but he had killed over 20 Heavenly Gods.
Among this number were even a few second-rank Heavenly God powerhouses.
Therefore, nobody had much at all in the way of doubts about Virtuoso's ability.
If Xiu Mu had not shown up out of the blue, Virtuoso was, without a doubt, the strongest contender for the No. 1 spot on the Hunter's Gold Leaderboard.
Meanwhile, it was clearly no coincidence that Virtuoso had appeared next to Lin Huang's hunting target out of nowhere.
Buried Heaven could not help frowning upon seeing Virtuoso suddenly appearing in the surveillance video.
Since the opening of the secret prisoner territory, it was also the first time he had openly displayed any sign of emotion in front of everyone present.
'This Virtuoso fellow, I've warned them repeatedly, and still, they choose to do as they please...'
In the secret territory, Lin Huang and Virtuoso very soon encountered each other.
Lin Huang was not overly surprised to see Virtuoso calmly standing next to the heavenly god-level prisoner, who seemed to have no intention of attacking Virtuoso at all.
Lin Huang had heard of Virtuoso's name in the early days when he first joined Death Sickle as Xie Lin.
He had even seen the pictures of the targets Virtuoso had killed, as well as the autopsy reports. All of them had died in strange ways. At the time, he had already known that Virtuoso possessed extremely odd abilities.
At the same time that Lin Huang was sizing up Virtuoso, Virtuoso was silently scrutinizing Lin Huang as well.
The heavenly god-level prisoner, on the other hand, was ignored by them both.
The strange thing was that the prisoner was still standing where he was, ignoring the duo so close to him.
"From the looks of it, you've been waiting for me?" Lin Huang took the initiative to break the silence.
"That's right." Virtuoso's voice was still ambiguous in terms of gender. "I've been waiting for you for a long time…"
Lin Huang did not think Virtuoso had been waiting on him here for a long time. Virtuoso's words seemed to imply that they had been waiting for Lin Huang outside the secret territory, or even much earlier than that.
"Here we are now. If you have anything to say, don't beat around the bush." Lin Huang had never been fond of talking to people who spoke with hidden meanings. "Whatever you want to do, just say so outright."
"There are so many people watching out there, are you sure you want me to say it outright?" Virtuoso paused and said the last two words through voice transmission, "Xie Lin..."
Lin Huang's pupils contracted slightly. He had not expected that Virtuoso would have unmasked his identity.
"Just tell me what you really want."
Lin Huang was startled for only a moment, quickly recovering his composure. However, the expression on his face remained cold.
"If you want to know what I really want…" Virtuoso said with a hint of mockery, "You'll have to play a game with me first."