Monster Paradise

Somewhere in a study, Twin had just finished dyeing her hair with two different colors—icy blue for the head on the left and fiery red for the head on the right.

After reading the rules of the trial, her two heads started conversing closely.

Suddenly, however, both heads turned toward the window.

“We have a guest, it seems,” the left head with the icy blue hair mumbled as though she was talking to herself, “And here I was thinking about familiarizing myself with our surroundings while everyone’s cumulative scores are still equally low.”

“A person who pops up immediately after reading the rules of the trial is either terrifyingly strong or unbelievably stupid,” the red-haired right head sneered, “I think it’s more the latter.”

“Let’s test them out. If they’re very weak, we’ll just kill them. If they’re as strong as us or stronger, there’s no need to fuss either.” As the blue-haired head spoke, she began to form hand seals. “Remember, this is just the first day. If we overwork ourselves or get injured, it’ll be hard to get through the rest of the trial.”

“I was thinking the same thing.” A long sword about 160cm in length appeared in Twin’s right hand. There was not much difference between the length of the sword and her height.

The moment she finished her combat preparations, a red shadow sliced through the air toward her.

“The Abyssal Tribe. We have to watch out!” As the words escaped the blue-haired head, she extended her left palm, swiftly forming a hand seal.

The temperature in the entire study dropped rapidly. A layer of frost crept swiftly across the surface of the floor and up the walls, visibly becoming thicker even to the naked eye.

Outside the study window, water vapor suspended in the air condensed into puffs of icy white mist.

Further ahead, at the tail end of the icy mist, a translucent ice crystal blossomed like a gigantic flower bud opening and blocked the speeding red shadow’s attack.

The ice flower now measured about ten meters in diameter, cutting off the attacker’s path completely.

Icy white mist spewed from the flower’s petals and a terrifying chill swept across the sky towards the red figure.

Realizing that coming into contact with the freezing mist would be inadvisable, the red shadow slowed down and slashed at the gigantic ice crystal flower with his sword.

A red sword gleam cleaved through the flower like sunlight through a canopy of trees.

When she saw this, however, Twin’s blue-haired head twitched her lips up in a grin.

A swift alteration in her hand seals and both halves of the towering ice crystal flower began to bloom again. In the blink of an eye, they became two even bigger ice flowers with a diameter of twenty meters each. The flowers appeared more seductively vivid than the originals, their whiteness now tinged with a hint of blue. The overwhelming chill grew even more terrifying.

Seeing this, the red figure did not hesitate. Before the two flowers could release any more deadly mist, he cut through them again with his sword.

This time, the red gleam sliced the ice blossoms apart horizontally.

Once again Twin altered her hand seals and the two halved flowers bloomed once more. In a few seconds, they had now become four flowers. The four enormous blossoms were yet more vivid and seductive than the first two, and more visibly bluish rather than white. The icy fog that emanated from the flowres instantly deposited a layer of light blue frost over the houses within the vicinity of several thousand meters.

The red figure finally realized his mistake and ceased his attacks.

He could clearly sense the aura from the four ice crystal flowers—they were akin to four Rank-9 Virtual Gods blocking his path.

“If you dare attack again—even if you’re Shen Wushuang from Combat God Temple—you’ll find yourself in serious trouble this time!” the blue-haired head said indifferently, the barest hint of a smile playing about her lips.

The red-haired head, though, shook her head in disagreement. “Shen Wushuang wouldn’t be this stupid; he’s not weak either. With his abilities, he could’ve broken through this move with one swing of his sword. He definitely wouldn’t let it come to this.”

While the two heads engaged in their discussion excitedly, the red figure hovering in the void went to war with the four enormous ice crystal flowers.

The four bluish blossoms were not just able to spurt out icy mist, they could even spit out whip-like mist vines that snaked toward their opponent.

The lightest brush against the vines and ice crystals began forming on the red figure, slowly spreading over his entire body

In truth, it was not the spread that was slow, but the red figure using his Divine Power to suppress the attack.

The fight only lasted for around half a minute, by which time the attacking red figure had been reduced to his lowest, most vulnerable state. He sensed that things were not about to go well for him. After destroying a more few mist vines, he backed away and attempted to retreat.

“You want to escape now? Too late!”

Twin’s blue-haired head curled her lips into a mocking smile and her left hand immediately formed another hand seal

The next moment, the rapidly retreating red figure stopped short as the ice crystals on his body multiplied as fast as lightning.

“Another idiot who fell for the trick. He didn’t even notice the anomaly in his body.” The red-haired head nonchalantly loosened her grip on the sword in her right hand. She knew that this fight had come to an end.

The red figure had paused only for a short second. Yet, this was all the time it took for the four enormous ice crystal flowers to simultaneously spew out waterfalls of icy mist that swallowed him up completely.

Around ten seconds later, the icy mist dissipated. A bluish human-sized ice crystal sculpture crashed onto the frozen roof of a nearby building and shattered into a pile of ice crystals.

“So weak. He didn’t even last 30 seconds. What a disgrace to rank-9 Virtual Gods,” the red-haired head said scornfully with a touch of dissatisfaction.

“He must be a local sword cultivator from the Great Heaven Territory.” The blue-haired head snapped her fingers. The four gigantic ice crystal flowers suspended in the void disintegrated instantly into a sea of cold mist, dissipating in the air.

“If people of his level go to the God Territory, they wouldn’t even be in the top thousand among the Virtual Gods. If this is the standard of all the participants from Great Heaven Territory, Fallen Star might be able to become number one,” said the red-haired head, pursing her lips.

“You think too much. There are 3000 people in this trial after all, not including participants from the God Territory like us. The probability of us encountering the top ten from the Great Heaven Territory is only about one in three hundred, and the probability of meeting those beyond the top thousand is two out of three,” the blue-haired head explained seriously. “Despite not being as powerful as us participants from the God Territory, the top-ranked powerhouses in the Great Heaven Territory shouldn’t be too far behind us in abilities either.

“Moreover, those who will be competing against us aren’t just participants local to the Great Heaven Territory—there are also other organizations from the God Territory for us to consider. Just a mere Shen Wushuang from Combat God Temple is already an immovable obstacle. If Fallen Star is aiming at becoming champion, it definitely won’t be easy.”

“What about Xie Lin? Think he has a chance at getting number one?” the red-haired head asked.

“Don’t know. I haven’t seen him in action after all. Even if he was the one who killed the two Bug Tribe Mother Bugs, we don’t know the kind of tactics he employed. As to whether such tactics can be reused or if they’re allowed in this trial, we can’t be sure. The only thing for certain is that his overall abilities won’t be weak. Otherwise, Master Buried Heaven wouldn’t think so highly of him. As for whether he’ll be able to become champion…I really can’t say.”

“Alright, enough chit-chat. The waves of the match just now have probably alerted any nearby powerhouses. This is just the first minute after the trial started too. I don’t know about you, but I definitely don’t plan on getting eliminated so early.”

“Understood. Let’s lie low first and familiarize ourselves with the trial environment.” The red-haired head nodded vigorously.

With her two heads in agreement, Twin flitted into a small building nearby and followed the orientation of the rooms inside to escape into the distance…