The 55th checkpoint on the Stairway Tree was the fourth human gathering point. When Lin Huang was still a blue flame-level, he had almost given his all to reach this checkpoint.
He had not logged into his account for about two months and had never used the points he collected. However, he was still ranked first on the leaderboard.
All the members of the Genius Union could see the name who ranked first on the leaderboard light up the second Lin Huang logged in.
All of a sudden, the Genius Union that had gone quiet for almost a month became active.
"He disappeared for two months, and now, Lin Xie has finally logged in!"
"I wonder if Lin Xie is going to collect more points this round!"
"Do you think that he"s still on the 21st checkpoint? Starting from the 56th checkpoint right until the 60th checkpoint, the monsters on any of these levels will be on immortal-level rank-7 to rank-9. Lin Xie"s combat strength is only on blue flame-level regardless of how strong he is. Do you think that a blue flame-level is capable of dealing with the monster horde that consists of immortal-level rank-7 to rank-9s with ease?"
"You"re right. Although two months have pa.s.sed and he has leveled up to purple flame-level, it"s less likely that he"s capable of doing so."
Of course, Lin Huang had no idea that the people were discussing him. After logging into the Genius Union, he did not dive headfirst into the challenge. He headed directly towards the foothold of the Heaven Alliance.
The 55th checkpoint on the Stairway Tree was one of the checkpoints with the most intense compet.i.tion among all other organizations because most of their combat strength was on immortal-level rank-7 to rank-9. There were many formidable challengers there. Despite the challengers on the 63rd checkpoint being much stronger, the number of challengers on that checkpoint was less than a hundredth of those on the 55th checkpoint.
On the 55th checkpoint of the Stairway Tree, the number of members from the Heaven Alliance alone had exceeded 1,500. Of course, the Heaven Alliance was the organization with the most number of challengers on this checkpoint. The Hong Alliance ranked second, and the number of challengers who lingered at this checkpoint was more than 900. There were about 800 members from the Tang Alliance that took third place.
There were a total of 268 genius organizations in the Genius Union. As one reached the 55th checkpoint, it was pretty easy to determine who the strong and the weak ones were.
Those that managed to get into the first echelon would, of course, be the Heaven Alliance, the Hong Alliance, the Tang Alliance, and the Divine Alliance. They had more than 500 members on the 55th checkpoint. 11 organizations got into the second echelon, and they had more than 100 members on the 55th checkpoint. The number of challengers was slightly higher at the third echelon as there were about 50 of them. There were more than 20 of them who managed to reach the 55th checkpoint. Next would be the fourth echelon with only a few of them who were capable of getting to the 55th checkpoint. It was the echelon with the most members -- about 180 of them. Lastly, it would be the genius organizations that occupied the lowest level in the hierarchy. None of the members managed to reach the 55th checkpoint, and there were about ten such organizations.
Of course, the Heaven Alliance was known to be the strongest genius organization in the Genius Union, not because of the number of people they had. Most importantly, it was because of the existence of the dominant challengers.
Excluding Lin Huang, there were 18 supreme geniuses from the Heaven Alliance, 15 of whom were on immortal-level rank-9. The other three were on immortal-level rank-7 or rank-8. Their abilities were sufficient to kill an imperial-level.
Despite the Hong Alliance ranking second based on their overall abilities, they only had 12 supreme geniuses. There were only 7 of them who were on immortal-level rank-9 which was less than half the number from the Heaven Alliance. As for the Tang Alliance and the Divine Alliance, the number of supreme genius they had was much lesser; there were less than ten of them.
Simply because the Heaven Alliance had completely revealed how powerful it was on the 55th checkpoint, most people no longer dared to offend the members.
This was different from what had happened on the previous checkpoints whereby the challengers from the Divine Alliance dared to provoke them as the latter did not seem to be much weaker than the Heaven Alliance"s members.
As Lin Huang walked towards the foothold of the Heaven Alliance, he encountered challengers from various genius organizations.
He was mentally prepared to be challenged, but nothing happened at all. Many people were watching him, and each of them saluted him with their glances. None of them came to block his way.
"Could they have given up on challenging me as they know that I"ve used up all the points and there"s nothing they can get from me?" Lin Huang guessed.
In fact, the truth was that the Heaven Alliance was immensely powerful on the 55th checkpoint.
The Heaven Alliance had the most number of people at this checkpoint, occupying the three largest branches on the Stairway Tree. Three immortal-level members guarded the three footholds.
Lin Huang was walking on the first branch where the reception of the Heaven Alliance was.
Earlier, he had logged out as soon as he reached the 55th checkpoint, so he had never been to the Heaven Alliance"s foothold on this checkpoint. Of course, he had to meet them now since he was here.
In just a short while, Lin Huang arrived at the bubble leaf where the reception was. The building could be clearly seen through the semi-transparent white bubble.
After confirming that he was at the right place, Lin Huang took a step forward and pressed his palm against the surface of the bubble.
A couple of moments later, a small door that was about two meters tall was activated, and Lin Huang strode towards it.
The moment as he entered the dimension of the leaf, a tall and young lady welcomed him.
"Mr. Lin, please come with me."
Lin Huang was stunned, but he immediately followed her.
"Did you guys know that I was coming?"
"Yes, we knew right after you logged into the Genius Union. Soon after, you headed towards the Heaven Alliance"s foothold. The Surveillance Mosquito captured it," she said while sizing Lin Huang up.
"Where are you bringing me to?" Lin Huang could roughly guess the answer, but he wanted to verify it.
"To meet the guardians." The lady"s answer was as he expected.
The guardians were the three immortal-level rank-9 supreme geniuses on the 55th checkpoint. Each of them guarded one foothold on the 55th checkpoint, hence they were called the guardians.
"Who"s the guardian here?" Aside from Chan Dou, Lin Huang had no idea what the names of the rest of the supreme genius were. He heeded no attention to information like this.
"It"s Master Feng Yi."
"Feng Yi?" Lin Huang knew nothing about this person.
The lady kept quiet after that and did not explain any further.
Lin Huang did not bother to ask as well since there would be no difference regardless of who the guardian was.
After a short while, Lin Huang followed the lady, and the both of them arrived at a door.
"You may enter..." It seemed like the lady had something else to say, but she ended up keeping mum.
Lin Huang frowned as he noticed this and he pushed the door open.
As he entered, Lin Huang realized that the room was small with an area of less than 30 square meters. There was a towering book cabinet along the wall and a st.u.r.dy man who had his back facing him. He was standing in front of the book cabinet as if he was looking for something.
"Have a seat," the man said without turning his head around as if he heard Lin Huang"s entrance.
Lin Huang did not say anything as he sat down on the sofa placed on the side of the room.
After several moments, the man took a book from the book rack and turned around. He then put the book on his desk and started studying Lin Huang.
After studying him, Feng Yi then said without any facial expression, "Lin Xie, let us know if there"s anything you need from us. Chan Dou has told us all about you." n.o.body could ascertain if he were pleased or upset by his voice.
Lin Huang thought that he would make small talk with him first. Unexpectedly, he was so straightforward.
"Let me be frank with you. I need the complete details for the levels after the 55th checkpoint, including the information after the 63rd checkpoint," Lin Huang told him his real intention.
Feng Yi frowned but soon, he maintained a neutral expression.
"I can send you the information starting from the 55th to the 63rd checkpoints. As for the information after the 63rd checkpoint, only the chief and the deputy chief have the authority to send that to you. I don"t have sufficient authority over that."
"It"s okay. I"ll have the details from the 55th to the 63rd checkpoints then. I"m not urgently in need of the information after checkpoint 63. I"ll get it from the chief later on when I"m free." Lin Huang nodded.
He was not surprised. Many organizations treated the information about the Stairway Tree after checkpoint 55 as private and confidential. The information for the checkpoints after checkpoint 63 would, of course, be top secret.
"I"ve sent you the information. It belongs to the Heaven Alliance"s internal database. You"re not allowed to reveal it to others or send it to the rest of the Heaven Alliance"s members that are below the 55th checkpoint. You have to keep it with you. Of course, the doc.u.ment itself has been protected. You aren"t granted any authority to forward it to others."
Feng Yi had solid multi-tasking skills. Before Lin Huang could even finish his words, the file had already been sent.
"He"s really an impetuous fellow," Lin Huang thought to himself.
"Is there anything else that you need?" Feng Yi asked.
"No, thank you!" Lin Huang shook his head, getting up from the sofa as he was about to leave.
As he took a few steps forward and was about to reach the door, Feng Yi"s voice was suddenly heard coming from the back.
"Are you coming back to attempt the 63rd checkpoint?"
Lin Huang stopped, turning around and looking at Feng Yi. "No, I"m not. I"m logging in to collect points, but I"ll try and see how far I can go at the next login."