Lin Huang's head was clouded with thoughts as he watched the monsters that were rushing out of the Virtual Eye like a flood.
This round of assessment had reached a point where it was getting ridiculous.
If monsters streamed out for 24 hours continuously, it would mean that he would have to protect the foothold round the clock without stopping.
Judging from the current number of monsters and frequency, even a demigod-level powerhouse's Life Power would be drained in less than ten hours. If not for the Divine Fire in his body that was supplying endless energy for his God Figurine's Combat Souls, there was no way that he could bear it for 24 hours.
Moreover, looking at the pattern of the Virtual Eye at that instant, there would be more than just one demigod-level monster emerging during the last four hours. Even if he had sufficient Life Power, a demigod-level powerhouse might not be able to push through the last four hours. Under normal circumstances, only virtual god-level powerhouses might have hopes of passing this checkpoint.
This confirmed what Lin Huang was thinking earlier even more. Perhaps the person who designed this checkpoint on the Stairway Tree never wanted anyone to break through.
Lin Huang looked at the sky again as he shook off all sorts of thoughts that were bothering him.
Since earlier, he noticed that he had not been gaining any points despite the Divine Sun Tree killing the monsters on the checkpoint.
However, this gave him another benefit. The Divine Sun Tree could slay monsters endlessly and replenish his spiritual energy. Moreover, the killing would give him complete Monster Cards and Monster Card pieces.
In other words, apart from not obtaining any points on the Stairway Tree, he had at least 20 chances to kill monsters and receive the rewards.
The deal was a great one for Lin Huang. After all, he could only obtain ten billion points at the most each typical day.
Time flew by, and another four hours passed.
Just as Lin Huang expected, all of the monsters in the third batch were on imperial-level yellow gold-rank.
He was sure of his speculation earlier after seeing imperial-level yellow gold-rank monsters swarm out of the Virtual Eye one after another.
"Just like I expected, the monster's combat strength will increase by a rank every four hours. If that's the case, demigod-level monsters will definitely come out in the last four hours."
Hundreds of monsters would come out of the Virtual Eye each second, but none of them escaped the Divine Sun Tree's flames.
All the monsters began burning as soon as they stepped out of the Virtual Eye. They then turned into ashes within a few breaths. There was no exception.
With Lin Huang supplying endless energy, the Divine Sun Tree was not tired of killing at all because it could clearly sense its spiritual energy being replenished every time he killed. It was getting closer and closer to breaking through his combat strength.
The massacre soon passed for four hours, and the fourth batch of monsters finally came.
The batch of monsters experienced an increase in their combat strength. After the imperial-level yellow gold-ranks, imperial-level white gold-rank monsters now raced out.
However, such a boost in combat strength was nothing to the Divine Sun Tree at all. It shook its branches lightly and the imperial-level white gold-rank monsters would be ignited without exception and turn into ashes. Perhaps, their time of death was merely one to two seconds slower than the imperial-level yellow gold-rank monsters before.
At that point in time, half of the 24-hour protection period had passed and the Divine Sun Tree never let any of the monsters go at all.
However, Lin Huang had yet to relax. He was not worried about the first 20 hours. He was bothered about what would come out in the last four hours.
Time flew by and two to three hours passed again. Just when Lin Huang thought they were steadily dealing with this monster horde, a tremor came from the Divine Sun Tree.
"Is it… elevating to virtual god-level?!" Lin Huang merely sensed it when he noticed something off and he knew what was happening. The Divine Sun Tree had killed so many monsters that it had accumulated enough spiritual energy to elevate to virtual god-level. That was beyond Lin Huang's expectations.
However, Lin Huang was delighted to see that.
After recalling the Divine Sun Tree, Lin Huang glanced through the other eight God Figurine's Combat Souls apart from the Enchanted Fairy. He had his eyes fixed on the Death Butterfly, so he summoned it.
The little blue butterfly that was smaller than half a palm flew slowly into the sky. It looked so harmless and even looked kind of cute.
However, such a cute thing turned the imperial-level white gold-rank monsters into skeletons with merely a light flap of its wings. The skeletons then turned into ashes and disappeared.
It seemed like everywhere it flew through became hell.
Even Lin Huang was shocked and terrified every time he watched the Death Butterfly attack.
It would take a life away each time it attacked, and death would always be the result. It was even more overbearing and ridiculous than the Divine Sun Tree's flames.
At least, the Divine Sun Tree's flames would take some time to kill the opponents, but the Death Butterfly killed without anyone even seeing it advance. Every living thing would turn into skeletons and ashes.
Seeing Death Butterfly attacking, Lin Huang recalled what the stone tablet had said before. The Death Butterfly had a weaker combat ability compared to the other True Spirits that mastered the Death Rule. Lin Huang could not help but feel curious about how powerful the other True Spirits that mastered the Death Rule were.
Over an hour soon passed after he summoned the Death Butterfly. The fifth batch of monsters finally approached.
As Lin Huang expected, this batch of monsters all had imperial-level purple gold-rank combat strength.
However, none of the monsters could do anything when the Death Butterfly was around.
All the imperial-level purple gold-rank monsters turned into skeletons as soon as they stepped out of the Virtual Eye. They turned into ashes completely less than a second later. The entire process was no slower than killing the batch of imperial-level white gold-rank monsters earlier.
Lin Huang waited for the four hours to pass slowly. The wait was agonizing. He had finally come to the last four hours of the 24-hour protection period.
He slowed his breathing down while looking at the changing Virtual Eye in the sky without blinking.
Approximately half a minute passed. The monsters that were coming out of the Virtual Eye were all on imperial-level purple gold-rank just like before. None of them were on demigod-level.
Lin Huang glanced down to check the time. After confirming that the time was right, he looked even more puzzled now.
The time passed by on the 80th checkpoint of the Stairway Tree.
Lin Huang waited for almost an hour. The monsters that were coming out of the Virtual Eye had imperial-level purple gold-rank combat strength. It remained the same as it had been four hours before.
"So, I guessed it wrongly?" Lin Huang mumbled to himself softly.
Just as he said that, a powerful aura extended out of the Virtual Eye. He quickly lifted his head to look.
"This aura… It's clearly a demigod-level monster!"
A gigantic monster stretched one of its pitch-black claws out of the Virtual Eye. The claw was completely covered in a layer of black scales. The nail on the claw was 20 to 30 meters long.
The Death Butterfly was going to attack it before it could get out of the Virtual Eye. However, Lin Huang stopped it from doing so.
"There's no rush. We'll wait for it to come out. It might retreat its claw immediately if you attack now."