MONSTER PARADISE

1341-1360

Chapter 1341: Ranking No.1!

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

After passing the job of getting rid of all three BOSSes to Lin Huang, Unrivaled God, the other three and the rest of the competitors beat a hasty retreat.

 Apart from Lin Huang, the only ones who remained were Fallen Star and the other two members from Death Sickle.

 However, Fallen Star and the other two did not participate in the one-against-three battle. Instead, they watched on the sidelines. Only after making sure that all of the competitors had left the sensing zone did they speak to Lin Huang.

 “Xie Lin, we can’t make it apparent that we know you. Otherwise, we might be targeted by all of the other competitors. We hope you’ll understand.”

 “I know,” Lin Huang nodded.

 “We finally have a chance to speak to you alone,” Twin’s icy blue head on the left said while smiling.

 “You’ve pretty much secured the No.1 ranking in this Trial now!” Twin’s fiery red head on the right seamlessly continued the conversation, “Nobody can surpass you currently.”

 “Boss Xie Lin, I never thought your real abilities would be even more powerful than my expectations!” Destiny took over the conversation immediately, “You can participate in the Great Heaven Trial if you achieve the No. 1 spot! It’ll be a piece of cake for you to get the Great Heaven inheritance!”

 Lin Huang shook his head, smiling, “If it were really as easy as you say, that would be fantastic.”

 “Xie Lin, you’re a participant, which is different from us. If I’m not mistaken, the Competitive Trial being initiated has something to do with you?” Twin could not help asking. She had wanted to enquire about this a few days ago, although, in reality, she had already guessed the truth. She just wanted to hear the confirmation from the horse’s mouth.

 “Yes, I initiated the Competitive Trial.” Lin Huang did not deny it.

 “So that’s it. No wonder you’re the only candidate, Boss Xie Lin, while the rest of us are competitors!” Destiny had an epiphany.

 “Once this Trial ends, let us know if you need our help with anything,” Fallen Star said after falling silent for a moment, “You can look for us if you need help in the Trial later too.”

 “I will,” Lin Huang nodded, “However, apart from this Competitive Trial, the other stages for the Great Heaven inheritance are all designed for a single person. I don’t know what the assessment will entail for the later stages. I’ll contact you if I really need help.”

 “Are you confident about the stage after this?” Fallen Star asked again.

 “To be honest, no,” Lin Huang shook his head with a forced smile, “According to some information that I obtained, I more or less know that the stage afterward will be very difficult.”

 “Try your best then,” Fallen Star comforted, “It’d be great if you can get the Great Heaven inheritance. If you can’t, don’t force it. You only need to fight to the best of your abilities; leave the result to fate.”

 “That’s what I think too,” Lin Huang smiled while nodding.

 He never had been a sore loser. The main goal when he entered the Swordfiend Abyss was not for the inheritance, but to elevate his Sword Dao and ability, because he knew from the beginning that the Great Heaven inheritance was definitely difficult to obtain. Of course, if he really did manage to get the Great Heaven inheritance eventually, that would be an amazing extra reward.

 Fallen Star and the other two left, but only after chatting for some time with Lin Huang.

 Lin Huang then focused entirely on fighting the three BOSSes.

 Unlike Sword12 earlier, the abilities of these three BOSSes were similar to what Lin Huang had expected—roughly between 100 to 200 among the Sword Servants.

 Lin Huang did not use Sword Dao true meaning. Instead, he maintained his use of peak level-6 Sword Dao from the beginning until the end. He only defeated all three Sword Servants teaming up to fight him after one and a half hours of battle.

 “Candidate Xie Lin has defeated a BOSS, he has obtained 100 points!”

 “Candidate Xie Lin has defeated a BOSS, he has obtained 100 points!”

 “Candidate Xie Lin has defeated a BOSS, he has obtained 100 points!”

 Lin Huang raised his brows as he watched the three “global” announcements popping up. It felt like the same announcement had been repeated three times.

 Some competitors who were far away and had no idea what had happened thought it was strange.

 “That’s some special treatment alright! Three announcements for killing one BOSS?!”

 “Why did the “global” announcement pop up three times when Xie Lin killed a BOSS this time?! Can it be that the BOSS he just killed is special?”

 “Being a participant is really something else. Kill a BOSS and there are three announcements. Wouldn’t our screens be occupied if he killed three BOSS and nine announcements popped up?!”

 Only some of the competitors who knew what happened guessed the truth.

 “Three announcements at once—did he defeat three BOSSes at once?!”

 “Xie Lin is really something. We can’t even fight one BOSS and he defeated them one against three!”

 “I’ve always thought that Virtual Gods who got to the level of Unrivaled God and the rest would have reached their ultimate peak. Now that I’ve seen Xie Lin, I realize that I was too naive…”

 …

 Unrivaled God and the other three who were now far away from battlefield looked rather sour.

 The four of them knew very well that the three BOSSes who had come after them had personal abilities higher than all of them put together. However, the BOSSes had still lost to Xie Lin even though all three of them took him on at once. Clearly, Xie Lin had not depended on luck to defeat Unrivaled God’s group of four.

 Forbidden Lamella and Frontier might have felt somewhat dissatisfied earlier, thinking they might have been able to win if they had sufficient time to prepare and familiarize themselves with the sword formation, or even use a more powerful sword formation. However, upon consideration now, they realized that the disparity between their personal abilities and Xie Lin’s was far too great.

 Lin Huang knew that he would definitely be discussed this time but he did not care at all.

 “11 o’clock, 517 kilometers from where we are now. There’s a suspected Sword Servant who’s coming in our direction at high speed. He seems to have been attracted by the unusual phenomenon that was generated by the battle earlier. This fellow is a humanoid monster. His head looks a little like a red octopus and he has a beard on his chin that looks like multiple tentacles…”

 After defeating three BOSSes, Lin Huang did not linger around. With Warlord, he headed to the next destination.

 A few minutes later (everyone’s flight speed in the Trial space was significantly slower since they needed to travel through the interiors of many houses in their journey), Lin Huang met the octopus-head.

 After roughly half an hour of intense battle, Lin Huang defeated the fifth BOSS.

 He did not linger either but proceeded straight to the 6th target.

 Warlord had earmarked a total of 60 suspected Sword Servants as targets, while Lin Huang only had some 60 hours left. If he wanted to defeat all 60 suspected BOSSes, he could only spend an hour on each BOSS. That included traveling time, which made his schedule very tight.

 After defeating the octopus-head, Lin Huang fought the sixth target soon after. It was a monster that looked like a crocodile but walked on two feet just like a human.

 The crocodile’s abilities were very powerful—his ranking was Sword21. Lin Huang spent a full one and a half hours before achieving a final hard-won victory without using Sword Dao true meaning.

 After defeating Sword21, Lin Huang headed to the next target immediately.

 He fought one battle after another. In the space of the next two days, Lin Huang had to spend almost 39 hours without rest before he managed to defeat all 60 suspected Sword Servants that Warlord had targeted.

 In reality, all the 60 suspected Sword Servants were actually Sword Servants. Warlord had made no mistakes in his filtering. It was fortunate that none of the 60 were hunting targets of Unrivaled God and the others.

 Later on, Lin Huang spent almost 20 hours to hunt down the second round of suspected Sword Servant targets that Warlord had come up with. A push notification popped up when he defeated the 37th Sword Servant.

 “Congratulations to the participant and all competitors; all 300 BOSSes are defeated. This Trial ends ahead of time!”

 

 COMMENT

Lin Huang was not surprised when he saw the pop-up push notification. This was because he had seen announcements popping up several times throughout his two-day hunt about Unrivaled God and the rest successfully killing BOSSes.

 The Trial ended in advance approximately an hour before the official ending time. Of the 44 Sword Servants, apart from the 37 Sword Servants that Lin Huang had killed, it was obvious that Unrivaled God and the rest had killed the remaining seven.

 “Congratulations to the participant for defeating 279 Sword Servants and obtaining a total of 27,911 points. He is ranked No. 1 in this Competitive Trial!”

 “Congratulations to the candidate for becoming the champion of this Competitive Trial and achieving the qualifications for the final Trial!”

 Lin Huang finally looked serious after seeing the two notifications that popped up one after the other.

 
Chapter 1342: The Ten Palaces

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

A massive mountain sat in plain sight under the scorching sun.

 Lin Huang stood at the foot of the mountain, unable to stop from squinting as he looked up at its lofty peaks.

 He had not seen the sun throughout his ten days in the Competitive Trial space. Now that he had been suddenly teleported into a new Trial space, he was slightly uncomfortable.

 The mountain before him was massive. The area above the mountainside was almost entirely wreathed in clouds. Even Lin Huang could not tell just by looking how much more of the mountain there was above the clouds. He could only vaguely see a gigantic shadow.

 “A mountain…can the last trial be hiking?” Lin Huang also noticed that the entire mountain was covered in lush trees. If the assessment really did involve hiking, there must be obstacles in this dense jungle.

 As his mind was occupied with multiple thoughts, trying to figure out what the assessment was, a push notification popped up before him again.

 “The last Trial – the Ten Palaces!”

 “Golden Crow Mountain is the courtyard of the Great Heaven Palace. This is where the swordmaster’s bodyguards are stationed. It is also the usual domicile of Swords 1 to 10, under the command of the swordmaster, and is known as the Ten Palaces.”

 “Among the Ten Palaces, the First Palace is the highest while the Tenth Palace is the lowest. They are guarded by Swords 1 to 10 respectively. There are many God’s Servants (not necessarily Sword Servants) all over Golden Crow Mountain, all under the command of the ten bodyguards.”

 “As the participant’s combat strength is on par with Virtual God rank-9, all of the swordmaster’s bodyguards and the God’s Servants under them have an average combat strength of Virtual God rank-9.”

 “It has been detected that the participant’s Sword Dao has been elevated to True Martial Level (level-1 of Sword Dao true meaning). The swordmaster’s bodyguards and God’s Servants will have their Martial Dao level capped at True Martial Level in this round of the Trial.”

 “It has been detected that the participant has mastered preliminary God Rule Power. The swordmaster’s bodyguards and God’s Servants may use God Rule Power that is on the same level as the participant in this round of the Trial.”

 …

 “All of the participant’s techniques are allowed (excluding heavenly god-level techniques) in this round of the Trial. You may use god rule relics and other treasures of the same level. The swordmaster’s bodyguards and God’s Servants are entitled to the same treatment as the candidate.”

 …

 Lin Huang could not help but frown even more after reading all of the Trial rules.

 According to Sword12, even Sword10, the weakest among the ten bodyguards, had peak level-6 Sword Dao on the same level of intensity as Lin Huang’s Sword Dao true meaning attacks.

 In this trial, all the Sword Servants’ Sword Dao was now uncapped to True Martial Level, just like Lin Huang. This meant that their overall abilities would be boosted a full level.

 A Sword Servant’s ability at peak level-6 Sword Dao was already terrifying, what more the most powerful ten Sword Servants among the swordmaster’s bodyguards. Lin Huang felt he might not win even if he were to fight a swordmaster’s bodyguard who was using peak level-6 Sword Dao, let alone a swordmaster’s bodyguard whose Sword Dao was elevated to True Martial Level.

 The elevation of Sword Dao alone at this stage of the Trial had doubled the pressure on Lin Huang.

 Apart from Sword Dao, being able to use God Rule Power now would boost the Sword Servants’ abilities even further.

 In the previous Trial stage, apart from having their Sword Dao capped, Sword12 and the rest of the BOSSes were prohibited from using God Rule Power at true god-level ability. The main reason why Unrivaled God and the rest could defeat the Sword Servants was because of God Rule Power. If the BOSS could use God Rule Power too, Unrivaled God and the rest would probably not have defeated even a single Sword Servant.

 However, since the ten swordmaster’s bodyguards could use God Rule Power in this stage of the Trial, this was certainly bad news for Lin Huang.

 On a certain level, mastering God Rule Power was almost like being a True God. The differences lay only in the strength of the flesh and soul, as well as no Divine Fire within the body. One’s Divine Power quality was weaker, as well as one’s endurance. However, based on technique alone, it would be no different in nature than a first-rank True God.

 However, Lin Huang had not used God Rule Power at all when fighting the Sword Servants in the previous stage. The most he had used was Sword Dao true meaning.

 Another thing that concerned Lin Huang was that apart from the ten swordmaster’s bodyguards, there were God’s Servants under their command with powerful abilities.

 Even though these God’s Servants’ true abilities were nothing as powerful as the Sword Servants who ranked 200 to 300, their Martial Dao true meaning and God Rule Power would be sealed in this stage of the Trial. Even if their combat strength was capped at Virtual God rank-9, their overall ability would still be above most Sword Servants from the previous round.

 “I wonder how many God’s Servants there are and if they would create battle formations to surround me…” Lin Huang could not help frowning slightly at this point in his thoughts. To tackle the sword formation that Unrivaled God and the other three created, he had used most of his Sword Dao techniques. If these God’s Servants created battle formations, the strength of the formations could only be more powerful than the previous formation he had encountered.

 Lin Huang was not concerned with losing. He was worried that he would drain too much Divine Power when fighting the God’s Servants, which would affect his battle with the swordmaster’s bodyguards later on.

 However, the rules for this stage of the Trial were not entirely disadvantageous to Lin Huang. At least the fact that he could use god rule relics was an advantage.

 God rule relic armor was sufficient to defend against attacks that utilized God Rule Power and Sword Dao true meaning. The most one would suffer would be the draining of a great deal of Divine Power but no direct harm.

 Meanwhile, Lin Huang had Divine Power within his body as well as ten Life Wheels. The amount of Divine Power within him even surpassed most Protoss. Were he to be attacked by the swordmaster’s bodyguards eighty to a hundred times, the Divine Power in his body might not even be exhausted.

 However, the Divine Power within the swordmaster’s bodyguards, who also wore god rule relic armor, would most probably drain completely after being attacked 20 to 30 times at most.

 Lin Huang had the upper hand on that.

 Furthermore, the last rule mentioned that no techniques were prohibited.

 This was a great boost for the ten swordmaster’s bodyguards and God’s Servants’ overall ability because apart from Sword Dao, they could use other techniques as well. The ten swordmaster’s bodyguards who were under the command of a Heavenly God would have mastered unimaginable techniques apart from Sword Dao over such a long period.

 A rule like this was definitely a disadvantage to Unrivaled God and the others.

 To Lin Huang however, this was an ideal rule.

 One must know that he was a man with cheat codes. The existence of such a rule meant that he could use all of his Function Cards as long as their power was below heavenly god-level.

 To be frank, Lin Huang did not have much confidence that he could win this Trial without that last rule. However, that rule was the equivalent of putting a loaded gun in his hand.

 It did not mean that he could not use his Function Cards if the rule was not there. Lin Huang was unwilling to use them because he was afraid the Trial system would fault him for cheating. Under such circumstances, his previous efforts would have been wasted.

 However, he had no such concerns now. As long as he was willing, he could absolutely use his cheat codes publicly in the coming Trial.

 
Chapter 1343: Lin Huang VS God’s Servants

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Lin Huang ran at lightning speed through the dense jungle. He stepped on big trees and snapped them one after another, targeting the top of the mountain.

 According to the description of this stage of the Trial, Golden Crow Mountain was actually a self-contained world of its own with an extraordinary Space Rule. As long as the Ten Palaces were not visible, Lin Huang could not get to the top of the mountain even if he was to run for a million years at the fastest possible speed.

 In reality, the Ten Palaces were not located anywhere on this great mountain. The swordmaster’s bodyguard would only materialize with the Palace when Lin Huang defeated the God’s Servant under the command of that particular bodyguard.

 Beginning with the Tenth Palace, Lin Huang could only enter the next Palace for the challenge when the swordmaster’s bodyguard gave permission.

 To put it simply, the entire process would be thus: Defeating the God’s Servant under Sword10—the Tenth Palace materialized—obtaining Sword10’s permission (where Sword10 was either killed, defeated or battled into submission)—defeating the God’s Servant under Sword9—the Ninth Palace materialized—obtaining Sword9’s permit…and so on. Lin Huang would only be considered to have completed the final Trial when he obtained permission from Sword1 from the First Palace.

 Although this round of Trial did not restrict Divine Telekinesis at all, Lin Huang was only able to scan an endless sea of plants after sending out his Divine Telekinesis. He did not sense even a single monster.

 As such, he chose to run in the dense jungle. He even damaged it on purpose, making loud noises to activate the Trial as soon as possible, as well as accelerate the appearance of the God’s Servant.

 If it had been anyone else, the person would definitely be cautious, making as little commotion as possible to prevent being surrounded and killed by the God’s Servants. The person would then take the initiative to find the God’s Servants and defeat them one after another a step at a time.

 However, Lin Huang harbored no such concerns. Instead, he hoped that all of the God’s Servants could come at him at once. This way, he would save time and kill all of them in one go.

 His deliberate strategy of making a commotion worked very soon. In less than a minute, several overpowering auras appeared, heading in Lin Huang’s direction at high speed.

 “There are only four of them?” Lin Huang’s Divine Telekinesis picked up the auras as soon as they appeared. He could also clearly sense that the four people’s auras alone were above Sword12.

 It did not mean that their overall abilities were definitely more powerful than Sword12. It was the unsealing of Martial Dao true meaning and God Rule Power that gave them a direct, significant boost to their auras.

 As soon as the four auras appeared, Lin Huang halted immediately. Sword in hand, he waited patiently for the four of them to come.

 All four God’s Servants arrived almost simultaneously in the time it took for a few breaths.

 Lin Huang did not wait for them to attack; he swung his sword as soon as he saw the first person appear.

 He performed Thunder Eclipse at peak speed as soon as he attacked.

 A blood-hued sword gleam cut through the void like terrifying lightning. Not only it was charged with full force Divine Power, but it was also powered by Sword Dao true meaning and the God-slaying Power under God Rule Power.

 He did not hold back at all in his attack; he charged at full force.

 The newcomer apparently had not expected Lin Huang to attack directly, neither had he expected the attack to be so fast.

 A mere moment of being stunned, and he failed to dodge or defend himself.

 The blood-hued sword gleam sliced through the void like lighting and impaled the newcomer. His gigantic head with six eyes flew into the air.

 The muscular body that was running ahead stopped abruptly. It stood there, spurting blood for a moment before it collapsed onto the ground.

 Within a split second of contact, one of the four God’s Servants was killed.

 The remaining three stopped immediately and did not dare to approach any further. They had fear in their eyes when they looked at Lin Huang now.

 Sensing the swiftly-fading vitality, Lin Huang glanced over the remaining three God’s Servants without even a look at the headless body.

 These three God’s Servants were not in normal human form.

 One could even say that they looked odd.

 However, this did not confuse Lin Huang. All Protoss had human forms but most Protoss were too proud to become somebody else’s God’s Servant.

 Being a God’s Servant would mean becoming a vassal and losing most of their freedom.

 Under normal circumstances, apart from a minority who would surrender themselves to a strong powerhouse to become a God’s Servant, most of the God’s Servants were forced to sign an agreement. They would usually die if they refused to sign it, therefore they had no choice but to surrender themselves.

 Lin Huang had no idea which category of God’s Servants the three of them were. However, he was quite sure that the abilities of these three were most probably below Sword10.

 There was a female among these three monsters.

 She looked a little like a mantis but had a dark-purple body. The lower part of her body above the waist was that of a human female; she even had breasts similar to a human female. The only things that differentiated her from humans were her arms that were similar to a mantis’ thorny legs. Below her waist were four long and curved insect legs. One could tell that they possessed explosive and powerful leaping force.

 One of the remaining two male monsters was a beast-man with a feline head, four big eyes and tiger stripes all over his body. The other one was a black dog beast with five heads and three tails.

 Lin Huang merely gave them a cursory glance and soon targeted the mantis lady.

 This was because she looked as if she had the weakest defensive ability.

 As soon as he locked onto his target, Lin Huang attacked again. The battle sword in his hand turned into blood-colored lighting again as it sliced through the void.

 He was still using Thunder Eclipse!

 He used this extreme speed technique in the hopes of killing his enemy as swiftly as possible.

 A blood-red gleam shot through the air like lightning, targeting the mantis lady.

 However, the mantis lady, who had seen her partner being killed, was prepared. She moved almost at the same time the lightning flashed. The four wings on her back fluttered slightly and she leaped with all four legs using God Rule Power. She dodged Lin Huang’s sword attack easily.

 The best way of using Thunder Eclipse was in a stealth attack. It was hard for one to launch a successful killing attack when the opponent was prepared.

 Lin Huang realized that his plan had failed since his attack had missed. He had merely considered that the mantis lady might have the weakest defense, but he had not expected her to have such terrifying speed of movement.

 It was not that he had not considered her speed of movement before he attacked. It was just that he assumed very few could dodge the speed of his Thunder Eclipse even when it was a head-on assault.

 The mantis lady’s speed obviously surpassed the peak of normal virtual god-level.

 “Is this a Speed God Rule?” Although Lin Huang was not sure what kind of god rule his opponent had mastered exactly, he was sure that she had used a Speed God Rule.

 After a moment of thought, Lin Huang shot a glance at the other two God’s Servants and soon made up his mind.

 The next instant, blood-red lightning lit up the sword blade again. However, this time, Lin Huang did not swing the sword. The blood-red lightning grew brighter and brighter; within the time it took for a few breaths, one could no longer look at it directly. It was like a red sun surrounded by countless blood-red electric arcs sparking in all directions.

 The mantis lady and the rest attempted to attack but they were blocked by the electric arcs. They did not dare to approach Lin Huang.

 Meanwhile, the initial sunny, cloudless sky above Lin Huang’s head was suddenly covered in dark clouds without anyone realizing it. These depressing dark clouds blanketed the entire sky, turning daylight into darkness immediately.

 Faint blood-red lightning flashed above the clouds.

 “I didn’t want to waste my Divine Power on this technique but fighting Speed God Rule is really annoying and you all can escape at a moment’s notice. To make sure you stay put, I’ve no choice but to use this sort of containment attack…”

 Lin Huang swung his sword again once he was done with his soliloquy.

 A glaring, gigantic sun exploded the moment he aimed the point of his sword at the mantis lady. It transformed into countless electric arcs and spread in all directions like a flood.

 At the same time, the blood-red lightning above the dark clouds in the sky rained down like a storm. They turned the entire space into a prison made of lightning!

Chapter 1344: Sword10

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

By the time he blood-colored lightning had faded, the three God’s Servants’ auras had vanished completely.

 Lin Huang glanced at the three carcasses, then closed his eyes where he was to activate the Divine Fire within him so as to replenish the Divine Power that he exhausted earlier.

 A moment later, he opened his eyes all of a sudden and stared at a spot not too far in front of him.

 A black palace had appeared right across from him without him realizing it.

 The palace was massive, suspended in midair. It looked as if it were completely fashioned from some kind of black metal.

 It was a lifeless thing but it gave Lin Huang a faint sense of oppression. However, when he probed deeper into it, he sensed nothing.

 “A god sequence palace relic…” Lin Huang, who had come into contact with Thousand Face before, immediately recognized that the palace before him was not some building, but a god sequence relic.

 Lin Huang felt slightly tongue-tied at seeing such an item. To him, such a thing was incredibly costly.

 Be it a god sequence relic, god rule relic, normal god relic or relic, generally, weapons and armor would be the cheapest. Telekinetic weapons were much more expensive, not to mention there were similar weapons which could be put together in a combo package. However, the most expensive were not telekinetic weapons nor combo packages but spaceships or buildings, because both used a great amount of material and the building process was tedious. Not only that, but they also took a great deal of time to make.

 A normal god sequence relic was at least 10,000 Divine Crystals (the equivalent of up to 100 billion Divine Stones but Divine Stones were not used for trading) in the God Territory. A god sequence telekinetic weapon relic would be at least hundreds of thousands of Divine Crystals. Meanwhile, it would be normal for spaceships and building god sequence relics to be sold for millions or even several dozen millions of Divine Crystals.

 Meanwhile, if Lin Huang were to add up all the Divine Stones that he had in his storage space and trade them for Divine Crystals, he would not even have 10,000.

 In his eyes, this palace in front of him was absolutely an item that only tycoons could afford.

 However, he also knew that he could not compare with how fast heavenly god-level powerhouses earned money.

 As Lin Huang was completely swallowed by envy, the black palace slowly descended from midair, crushing the plants on the ground into nothingness.

 The entire edifice landed accompanied by a rumbling sound like an earthquake and the palace’s door was pushed open slowly as if by an invisible force. It sounded ponderously heavy in the extreme.

 Very soon, the door was completely opened. Lin Huang could no longer look away from what lay behind the door.

 He felt a terrifying aura spreading forth from deep from within the door. The aura was weak at first, so weak that it was almost unnoticeable. However, it was skyrocketing every second, as if there were something frightening in this palace that was waking up quickly.

 Lin Huang’s heart beat faster and faster as he sensed the growing aura.

 “So powerful!”

 In just the time it took for a few breaths, the aura hit its peak.

 Just by sensing the terrifying aura alone, Lin Huang was sure that this was a powerful enemy he had never encountered before. This person’s ability was much higher than all of the opponents he had encountered so far in this Trial.

 Lin Huang forced his legs to stir and walked slowly to the palace after getting his breathing under control.

 His leaping heart eased a little every step he took and his emotions gradually calmed themselves as well.

 By the time he arrived at the palace entrance, his heart was beating normally again while his emotions had settled into a calm like still water.

 He stood at the entrance for a moment. Just as he was about to step through the threshold, he sensed an intense wave of approaching danger.

 Lin Huang squinted slightly and saw a colorless, formless sword gleam coming straight at his face.

 This was an attack of extreme speed, no slower than Lin Huang’s Thunder Eclipse. Not only that, but it was also unpredictable.

 However, Lin Huang did not even dodge it. His battle sword was already out of its scabbard and in his hand the minute he stepped forward.

 A blood-red lightning gleam shot forth like a spirit snake, no slower than the colorless sword gleam.

 The two sword gleams collided almost as soon Lin Huang stepped forward. As soon as the sword gleams faded, a fierce wind arose, flapping his clothes violently.

 However, he did not even blink, taking a second step while returning his sword to its scabbard and stepping through the door.

 Lin Huang did not turn his head when he heard the sound of the door being closed slowly behind him. Instead, he lifted his eyes to observe the environment that lay behind the door.

 This was a massive palace, the interior completely different from its dull exterior. Instead, it had a sumptuous, dazzling vibe. However, apart from several dragon pillars, there was nothing else in the entire palace. It was empty.

 The palace ceiling was over 30 meters high. Judging by what he saw, Lin Huang estimated the place was least 3,000 to 4,000 square meters in size.

 However, Lin Huang knew that this was just the size on the surface.

 There would always be dimensional formations inscribed inside of a palace god relic. Not only that, but there would also be space attribute materials within the construction material itself. The actual interior size of this palace was definitely several dozen or even several hundred times larger than it looked.

 Not only that, but this palace was also a god sequence relic that only a heavenly god-level powerhouse could activate. There was definitely a dimensional sequence rule inscribed. It would not be surprising if the interior could contain a planet; it might even be larger than that.

 “Over 300,000 years and finally someone’s managed to make it to the final Trial…” A voice suddenly drifted in when Lin Huang was studying the palace. A silhouette had appeared in the middle of the palace—he had no idea when.

 Lin Huang stared at the silhouette but discovered that the person did not look at all like what he was expecting.

 Initially, he thought that Great Heaven’s bodyguards might not necessarily have supreme charisma, but they would at least have a dignified appearance.

 However, this man before him who was supposedly Sword10 was a sloppy middle-aged man.

 He had chestnut-colored hair with a side fringe; it looked as if he had not washed his hair in a long time. The dark circles below his eyes were so intense they were frightening. His eyes were rather bleary; he looked like he was still half-awake or had indulged in too much debauchery. His voice sounded a little dispirited as well.

 Most importantly, he was short. He looked merely 175 meters tall.

 Although his aura was powerful, his entrance gave very little oomph.

 “Your response was not too shabby against that attack,” the sloppy man said while yawning, “If you had chosen to dodge, I would have shut the palace door right away. That would have been the furthest you could go. Fortunately, you chose to fight head-on. That’s more like it.”

 “Refusing the candidate’s entrance, does it fit the rule?” Lin Huang asked, raising his brows.

 “Theoretically, no,” the sloppy man was stunned for a second at the question. He then shook his head while smiling, “If you dodged my attack, the Trial system won’t announce that you failed the challenge. However, I could close the palace door, letting you think that you failed the challenge and thus choosing to be teleported away. If that’s the case, it would mean that you gave up the challenge yourself and lost your qualifications for the Trial. I can make you leave on your own without lifting a finger, isn’t that great?”

 Lin Huang was bereft of speech at the explanation.

 “Oh yes, let me introduce myself. I’m Sword10. It’s just like the thought that’s popped into your head right now, I’m the weakest bodyguard under the swordmaster.” Sword10 seemed not at all to mind the fact that he was the weakest. He even emphasized it on purpose.

 This soliloquy made Lin Huang speechless again.

 “You can say that my assessment is pretty simple. I’ll let you through as long as you satisfy me. However, I must tell you this unpleasant fact—I’m not an easily satisfied man…”

 
Chapter 1345: Rapid Speed Versus Rapid Speed

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

“Among the swordmaster’s ten bodyguards, I have the weakest combined abilities and miscellaneous abilities. I don’t like to learn only one thing and I’ve never been a fan of specializing in any specific path. However, I rank No.2 under the swordmaster on the number of sword skills I possess. I know a bit about all sorts of sword skills too.”

 “That swing of the sword you used earlier upon entry could be considered within the threshold of rapid speed. Let me see first how fast you are then!”

 Sword10 delivered his monologue and swung his sword without waiting for Lin Huang to respond.

 To an outsider, he seemed to have only swung his sword once.

 However, to Lin Huang, Sword10 had actually swung his sword up to a hundred times within the blink of an eye. As each swing had a subtle change that the naked eye could barely discern, it made it seem like these hundred or so sword swings were merely one swing. If there was a cultivator who had stellar vision here, even if he were not well versed in Sword Dao, he would have been able to see the battle sword in Sword10’s hand shudder for a fraction of a second at the moment he swung his sword. Up to a hundred shadows reverberated at minimal amplitude.

 Just this one swing proved to Lin Huang that Sword10’s Sword Dao basics were far ahead of him.

 This was not only about the speed of the swing but also extreme control while using rapid speed.

 At the very least, Lin Huang could not do what Sword10 had just done. He figured the most that he could conceal in one sword swing of a similar technique would be 50 sword swings. People would be able to clearly see there was more than one sword swing if he did more than 50.

 Up to a hundred colorless, formless sword gleams pierced through the air as Sword10 swung his sword. It was just as fast as the sword swing he had delivered at the door earlier, except that there were now a hundred times more sword gleams.

 Lin Huang did not mind that he could not do what Sword10 had just done. He picked up his sword and swung it over and over again. Dense sword shadows filled the void.

 One could say his technique was nothing in comparison with Sword10’s sword swing. Lin Huang knew that he was subpar in this aspect compared to his opponent; he did not bother to compare at all. Although he might lose in terms of skills, it would be enough as long as the actual combat results were not inferior to those of his foe.

 Furthermore, from an outsider’s point of view, Lin Huang’s sword swing was even cooler.

 To them, Sword10’s sword swing would be just a normal attack. However, Lin Huang’s sword swings looked like they were ghostly aftereffects. The visual impact was much more powerful than Sword10’s sword swing.

 Countless blood-red electric arcs spread out like spider webs. They soon collided with the colorless, formless sword gleams and exploded into blood-red fireworks that filled the heavens.

 Lin Huang seemed like he was in deep thought as he watched the blood-red fireworks exploding in the sky.

 Although Lin Huang knew that Sword10’s sword swing at the door earlier had utilized rapid speed, he had not managed to observe the exact specifics of the attack.

 However, he had finally figured out what some of it entailed.

 “It seems to be a wind attribute Elemental Enlightenment. The attack’s effect of rapid speed seems to come from Wind Elemental Enlightenment…”

 According to general classification, Elemental Enlightenment was actually a type of god rule power. However, unlike most god rule powers, the elements were a category with very clear rules. Therefore, someone took the elements out of the messy god rule power system and made them an independent system that people later called Elemental Enlightenment.

 In reality, following general classification from earlier days, all sorts of Martial Dao true meaning were considered god rule power as well. It was only later on that people grouped them into an independent system.

 Elemental Enlightenment powers usually came with very clear elemental features.

 In the technique that Sword10 executed, for example, the sword gleam that contained Wind Elemental Enlightenment not only inherited the wind’s rapid speed, but also its unique invisible feature.

 Right as Lin Huang finally understood the secret behind Sword10’s attack, Sword10, who was not far away, laughed all of a sudden.

 “Pure rapid speed Sword Dao technique, that’s rare!

 “If I’m not mistaken, there’s no Lightning Elemental Enlightenment. You’ve only imitated the lighting concept and created a rapid speed sword technique that’s similar to a lightning strike.”

 Lin Huang was not surprised that Sword10 had seen through the secret of Thunder Eclipse.

 No matter how his opponent suppressed his cultivation base, he was still a top heavenly god-level Sword Cultivator by nature and still possessed keen eyesight.

 Sword10 proceeded to speak before Lin Huang could confirm his speculations.

 “I’m a lazy person. Imitating Sword Dao to create sword techniques takes too much effort and time. I’d have to make mistakes and adjust over and over again. Meanwhile, my rapid speed is powered directly with Elemental Enlightenment, it’s much easier.

 “You must have seen that the sword swing earlier has a rapid speed effect resulting from Elemental Enlightenment. I’ve another sword technique that’s also rapid. It’s rather similar to your technique…” Truth to tell, Lin Huang could roughly guess what Sword10 was trying to do when he said that.

 “Let’s see which is more powerful—my rapid speed from Lightning Elemental Enlightenment or your rapid speed that imitates lightning!”

 Purple electric arcs began sparking from Sword10’s body after he said that.

 Purple electric arcs, easily seen with the naked eye, radiated from his body instantly. Even the silver battle sword that he was holding was soon enveloped in a layer of purple plasma.

 From far away, Lin Huang sensed the dangerous aura coming from the purple electric arcs. Lightning was the most powerful attack ability among all the Elemental Enlightenments. Techniques that came from such Enlightenment had terrifyingly powerful attacks.

 As Lin Huang had his guard up, Sword10 smirked lightly and suddenly charged, battle sword in hand.

 It was a thrust attack!

 Charged with Lightning Elemental Enlightenment, this technique was already at its peak; Sword10’s thrust attack boosted his sword’s speed even more.

 The extremely high-speed sword swing gave the illusion of being slow.

 It seemed as if Sword10’s sword swing was executed in slow motion, to the point that each image was crystal clear.

 All of a sudden, the sword point seemed to pause in midair and countless purple electric arcs surged wildly from it. They turned into overwhelmingly dense webs that charged toward Lin Huang

 Meanwhile, on the other side, Lin Huang seemed to have grown hundreds and thousands of arms in the blink of an eye. They were swinging hundreds and thousands of blood-red battle swords. With every sword swing, blood-red lightning sparked randomly as if a giant tree made up of hundreds and thousands of scarlet lightning was spreading its branches to the heavens.

 In the void, blood-red and purple occupied half of the sky respectively. They then expanded towards each other’s territory. The two colors intersecting dazzlingly in the air, continuously entangled.

 The entire palace interior was as bright as day under the dazzling red and purple gleams. Here and there the faintest hint of haze hung in the air.

 A long time later, both colors vanished gradually after the collisions, and the deafening thuds finally stopped.

 Lin Huang stood where he was, looking rather serious now.

 He had held almost nothing back throughout the two attacks earlier—at least he had not held back anything in Sword Dao. He had charged with Sword Dao true meaning and God-slaying Power, as well as all the Divine Power within him. Despite that, he had not managed to do anything to Sword10.

 Meanwhile, Sword10 was still faintly smiling. He seemed to have restrained his abilities still.

 “Your rapid speed has a great deal of room for improvement. Since you’re imitating lightning concept sword skills, if you can add on Lightning Elemental Enlightenment, this sword technique’s speed and power won’t even begin to compare with your current technique.

 “Of the ten bodyguards under the swordmaster, there are four who can perfectly integrate sword skills with Elemental Enlightenment. Sword2 is the top one among these, his rapid speed sword skill is integrated with Light Elemental Enlightenment. Both of us can’t compare with his sword speed. I’m not exaggerating at all when I say that you would be killed by him in one sword swing if you encountered him now!

 “Also, the two sword swings earlier were just warm-ups. My sword can be even faster than that!”

Chapter 1346: Sword10’s Approach

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

“The core of my rapid speed technique is wind attribute and lightning attribute Elemental Enlightenment. You’ve experienced two attacks previously, the next attack is the real sword swing at peak speed!”

 As soon as Sword10 was done speaking, countless purple electric arcs began to radiate from the silver battle sword in his hand. However, the purple of the electric arcs soon faded into colorlessness very rapidly.

 Lin Huang’s pupils contracted slightly as he witnessed this.

 His opponent had very obviously integrated Wind Elemental Enlightenment and Lightning Elemental Enlightenment, which was why the lightning arcs in his Lightning Elemental Enlightenment were now colorless.

 As a result, it seemed as if Lin Huang was currently looking at a silver sword in Sword10’s hand with no trace of energy at all surrounding it. Of course, this was merely an illusion. His Divine Telekinesis and perception could clearly sense the energy waves coming from the battle sword that Sword10 held.

 It was definitely impossible that the integration of two types of Enlightenment would only have the effect of turning the electric arcs colorless. Lin Huang could almost guess that there would be a fairly good cumulative effect from the two Elemental Enlightenments.

 If not, Sword10 would not say that this was his fastest attack.

 Seeing that Sword10 had entered battle mode once again, Lin Huang did not dare to hold back at all.

 If he failed to defend himself against the attack, it was possible that he might be killed by Sword10 right away.

 The Divine Power within Lin Huang’s body surged forth unrestrained, as he utilized Thunder Escape in a sword swing that encapsulated his most powerful Sword Dao and God-slaying Power.

 To accelerate his sword speed further, Lin Huang had even activated Seraphic Speed—something that he had not used for a long time.

 This Seraphic Speed ability came from Kylie.

 To be exact, the Seraphic Speed that Lin Huang had retrieved from Kylie was not a Monster Skill, but a Life Seed Skill which was part of one of Kylie’s core abilities.

 As Kylie elevated in rank, her combat strength had increased as well, which meant that the Seraphic Speed within Lin Huang’s body had also undergone continuous transformation. When Kylie elevated to virtual god-level, this Seraphic Speed had evolved entirely into a divine ability.

 Not only that, but Kylie also belonged to the Nephilic Judge Tribe—one of the most ancient Pure Blood Protoss bloodlines.

 Even though her current combat strength was merely at the level of Virtual God rank-8, the effect of the core Seraphic Speed divine ability was similar to the effect of a true god-level god rule.

 With the support of Seraphic Speed, Lin Huang’s Thunder Eclipse had instantly surpassed the original limits of its speed.

 A blood-colored sword gleam flashed through the air; the speed of the electric arc was now many times faster than before.

 Sword10 could not help raising his brows upon seeing this. “Seraphic Speed?!”

 As a veteran heavenly god-level powerhouse, he had seen many divine abilities. A glance was all it took for him to identify that Lin Huang added the Seraphic Speed divine ability into his sword swing.

 Almost simultaneously as Lin Huang launched his attack, Sword10 sliced down with his battle sword. A colorless sword gleam charged with double Elemental Enlightenment surged out from the sword point.

 The next instant, blood-colored and colorless sword gleams both collided violently in the void.

 As the sword gleams collided, blood-colored and colorless electric arcs sparked wildly in all directions. They looked like countless electric snakes crawling distortedly everywhere.

 Oddly enough, the energy impact from the electric arcs and energy waves would vanish at once whenever they came into contact with the ground or the dragon pillars. No damage was done at all.

 This was not because the duo’s collision impact was weak. If the battlefield between the two was somewhere without Rule Bending Power limitations, the damage done in combat would spread as far as 10,000 kilometers.

 Each electric arc that sparked from this collision of sword swings could collapse mountains and evaporate seas, destroying everything it came into contact with.

 However, in this god sequence palace relic, mere true god-level power could not do anything to this place. It was even insufficient to activate the palace’s defensive system. The internal construction material itself was immune to the duo’s battle impact.

 Lin Huang was in the midst of battle and did not notice these details at all, otherwise, he would have been envious all over again.

 After that first clash of swords, he moved almost at the same time as Sword10.

 The sword speed collision between the two was of equal power, therefore this battle of rapid speed transformed into an even more intense collision.

 In the void, Lin Huang transformed into a blood-red electric arc and charged. Meanwhile, Sword10 vanished completely.

 With Wind Elemental Enlightenment support, Sword10 turned completely invisible.

 Meanwhile, Lin Huang had turned into a bolt of blood-red lightning.

 The two silhouettes collided wildly over and over again in the void.

 If one was to observe with the naked eye, they would only be able to see a blood-red lightning bolt flickering non-stop. It would pause for a moment each time as if it had collided with an invisible wall. Right after that, dazzling blood-red lightning would explode in all directions.

 This happened again and again, repeating almost several thousand times per second.

 It was like an intense battle between a raging blood-red thunder god and an invisible deity.

 Within a short four to five seconds, these high-powered collisions happened over 50,000 times.

 In reality, Lin Huang’s speed was subpar in comparison with Sword10.

 After all, Sword10 had the effect of double Elemental Enlightenment in his sword swing. Not only that, but he had also mastered this technique for many years. Meanwhile, Lin Huang’s Seraphic Speed divine ability was not a real god rule or Enlightenment power; he was still breaking in his divine ability and sword skills and had yet to reach perfection.

 The single collision earlier might not have been enough to identify any disparity. However, as the duo charged at each other using rapid speed, even if a sword swing was just a little slower, the cumulative attacks finally exposed the gap between Lin Huang’s rapid speed and that of Sword10.

 Cold sweat broke out on Lin Huang’s forehead as an invisible electric arc charged past his left hand and sliced through a little bit of his sleeve. The battle that had lasted less than five seconds paused all of a sudden.

 Suddenly, Sword10 retreated hundreds of meters away and stood there after sheathing his sword.

 “I could have severed your left hand with that attack earlier. It would end this way—your speed would drop further and you would be entirely dominated by my rapid speed. You would have lost your chance of turning the tables completely.” Sword10 had no intention of going after Lin Huang. Instead, he began chatting with Lin Huang, entirely at ease. “There’s a lot of room for improvement in your rapid speed.”

 “First of all, you don’t have a thorough understanding of your Seraphic Speed divine ability or how to use it effectively. You’re just using it to boost your speed. However, the Seraphic Speed divine ability can actually be a rogue element if you truly know how to use it. Not only it can accelerate, but it can also decelerate, change speed, enable explosive speed, enable rapid change of direction as well as space flickering… You haven’t broken in your sword skills and divine ability properly either. You’re completely at a beginner’s level…

 

 COMMENT

“In reality, as long as you familiarize yourself with how to fully utilize Seraphic Speed, you can absolutely offset the rapid speed gap between us. However, you’ll be at a dead-end when you encounter Sword2 later on.

 “There are only two ways for you to pass him. You can either elevate your Seraphic Speed divine ability to a god rule or gain understanding of a type of Speed Elemental Enlightenment. Otherwise, you won’t even be able to counter one attack from him.”

 Lin Huang had an epiphany at this point. He had finally discovered Sword10’s approach. Hurriedly, he asked, “You must be in the Succession Sect, am I right?”

 “Seems like you know about the Succession Sect and the Regression Sect.” Sword10 nodded slightly.

 “Sword12 told me about this,” Lin Huang explained.

 “That’s great, it saves me wasting words to explain.” Sword10 glanced at Lin Huang and continued, “Our rapid speed sparring will end here. I already know what level you’re at so we’ll move on to the next round!”

Chapter 1347: Force-type Attack

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

“Force-type attack is different from the extreme sword speed and agility required for rapid speed in that it aims for the ultimate charge in an attack. You would need extreme strength and force, even extreme usage of Divine Power…”

 Lin Huang was completely focused as he listened to Sword10’s explanation.

 Previously, he had never given these matters much thought. Although he knew that there was force-type cultivation direction in Sword Dao, his understanding of force meant fighting his opponent in the most unyielding manner! He thought that a force-type attack was swinging his sword with all his might and not holding anything back!

 Sword10 seemed to know what was going through Lin Huang’s mind. He continued, “Many people think that force-type attack means fighting without thinking. The assumption isn’t exactly wrong, but real force-type attack isn’t merely mindless combat.

 “To me, a real force-type attack should have extreme strength, extreme explosive ability, extreme physical capabilities, and extreme usage of Divine Power… It’s a combination of all these extreme elements; there should be no shortcomings whatsoever.

 “If only a single aspect reaches its peak, or there’s a clear flaw, that would not be considered a genuine force-type attack. At most that could be called a strength-type, explosive-type or Divine Power-type attack…”

 After Sword10 finished this earnest explanation, he looked at Lin Huang across the distance. “Next, let’s see what sort of level you’re at for your force-type attack!”

 As soon as he was done speaking, Sword10 withdrew the silver battle sword he held from its scabbard once more. Divine Power slowly spread from the sword hilt to the very tip of the blade. As Divine Power enveloped the blade of the sword completely, a layer of red flame surged up around it as well. At the same time, wispy blood-red sparks appeared

 Lin Huang only needed a glance to tell that that Sword10 had not only added Fire Elemental Enlightenment to his weapon, but he had also endowed it with Lightning Elemental Enlightenment.

 “The red Lightning Elemental Enlightenment seems to be different from the previous purple Lightning Elemental Enlightenment. The same type of Elemental Enlightenment probably has subdivisions of different functions and effects. He was using the purple Lightning Elemental Enlightenment earlier for rapid speed, which resulted in a boost to his sword speed. Now that he’s using red Lightning Elemental Enlightenment for a force-type attack, the effect might be different…”

 Lin Huang did not have a detailed understanding of Lightning Elemental Enlightenment. However, he knew that Sword10’s sword power would certainly be terrifying with the addition of both Fire and Lightning Elemental Enlightenments.

 In an instant, the battle sword in Lin Huang’s hand was also enveloped in blood-red Divine Power. With the addition of Sword Dao true meaning and God-slaying Power, the blood-red glow on the blade was even more intense than before.

 The blood-red glow very soon transformed into a state resembling flame and enveloped the entire blade.

 This layer of “red flame” was naturally not a real flame like that of Fire Elemental Enlightenment. Instead, Lin Huang used Charcoal’s Dragon Flame as a model and simulated the flame with Divine Power.

 “I definitely can’t fight his double Elemental Enlightenment attack with my God-slaying Power alone…” In his mind, Lin Huang was rapidly searching for skills and divine abilities that could be added to his force-type attack. He soon found the answer.

 The Superhuman Strength divine ability!

 The Superhuman Strength was a natural talent originally from Gong Sunying, who was born with this innate ability. However, when Tyrant elevated to virtual god-level and his Immense Strength skill evolved into Superhuman Strength, the Superhuman Strength natural talent integrated automatically with his Monster Skill to become a new Superhuman Strength divine ability.

 Tyrant had the Celestial Giant bloodline, which meant that Superhuman Strength—his core skill—was no less powerful than God Rule Power itself.

 The effect of Superhuman Strength on Lin Huang’s attack was very obvious.

 One could say that both combatants held nothing back in this attack.

 In the void, two red gleams lit up half the sky. One was rather dim, while the other was as bright as a flame; they lit up the palace so brightly that there were no shadows anywhere.

 The next instant, both red gleams transformed into two meteors and shot through the air, colliding with each other.

 The second the dim and the bright red gleams collided, dazzling red light was released. At that moment, the red gleam was even faintly tinged with white. Endless bursts of red light surged in all directions like flowing water, completely blanketing all the spaces within the palace in the blink of an eye, turning it into a blood-red edifice.

 If there were other living beings in this place, the residual red gleams of light emanating from the sword swings would instantly turn anyone below true god-level into dust…

 The collision of these two similar red gleams came to an end in no more than ten seconds. However, a glaringly bright red afterglow remained where the point of impact had been.

 Suddenly, a black silhouette shot out from the afterglow, landing hard onto the ground and stirring up a cloud of dust.

 “Let’s continue!” The silhouette slowly clambered up from the dust and stood up.

 All of a sudden, it moved again, stepping out of the dust-covered area.

 A figure in a black robe emerged; it was Lin Huang.

 Lin Huang did not seem to mind being defeated in this first round of combat. He drew himself up without hesitation and initiated battle again.

 Sword10 raised his brows slightly but did not say anything. He transformed into a stream of light again and charged at Lin Huang.

 In the void, the dim and the bright gleams collided over and over. As a result of the tremendous impact, dazzling red star-like sparks illuminated the air continuously.

 However, Lin Huang was repeatedly forced to retreat due to his opponent’s attacks.

 The first dozen or so times, Lin Huang was immediately sent flying. However, he was gradually starting to retreat less and less far away.

 By the time Sword10 sheathed his sword and exited the battlefield, Lin Huang had reduced the distance of his retreat to within ten meters.

 “Although I’m a Protoss with a naturally powerful physique that gives me a natural advantage in force-type attacks, if I compare myself to a genuine force-type powerhouse, there’s still significant room for improvement.

 “Of all those under the swordmaster, Sword3 is the person who has gone the furthest in force-type ability. Out of the ten of us bodyguards, he’s also the one with the most in-depth comprehension of force-type attacks.

 “He has the Celestial Giant bloodline, which means his strength, explosive ability and physique have surpassed even the Protoss. Given that he was able to cultivate using the Celestial Giants’ methods, he’s much more powerful in Divine Power usage compared to ordinary Protoss. You could say that he’s reached the peak in all aspects of force-type ability.

 “If he used no other technique except force-type Sword Dao to fight, at my ability level I would probably only be able to sustain three sword attacks from him at most. Even if I brought out all of my techniques, he would only need around ten sword attacks to kill me.

 “Going by your current force-type level, you might be able to take one sword attack from him…

 “If you’d like to take steps for a breakthrough in this area, overall, there are only two ways to go about it. You either achieve a breakthrough with your Superhuman Strength divine ability so it becomes a rule—or you can master another God Rule Power or Elemental Enlightenment that can be used in force-type attacks. An example would be the Fire Elemental Enlightenment; it would be quite effective if combined with simulated Dragon Flame…

 “Of course, everything I’ve mentioned is based on my personal understanding. They’re just some suggestions; they’re not necessarily correct. If you have ideas of your own, you can try them out and find a suitable breakthrough method that best suits you.”

Chapter 1348: Lin Huang’s Ridiculous Request

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

“The three main cultivation directions for Sword Dao are rapid speed, force-type, and ultimate dao-type.

 Rapid speed requires ultimate attack speed, force-type requires the ultimate output, while the ultimate dao-type requires the ultimate Sword Dao.

 Cultivators who go for the ultimate dao-type tend to elevate the level of their Sword Dao true meaning as much as they can. While they are still at the same rank of Sword Dao true meaning, they pursue the mastery of more sword skills and sword skills of a higher grade. Some even learn a great many effects and other divine ability skills that are helpful for Sword Dao.

 However, ultimate dao-type isn’t an easy path to master. Talent and hard work are essential; you can’t have one without the other. If you have insufficient talent, you might be several dozen or even a hundred times slower in cultivating sword skills compared to people with innate talent. Even if you’ve spent a great amount of time cultivating many sword skills, it’s difficult to actively use them all in actual battle. That’s why taking this particular path is a difficult journey for anyone who doesn’t have the talent. On the other hand, if one doesn’t work hard enough, having talent alone is just futile. No matter how prodigious one’s talent is, as long one’s foundation in Sword Dao isn’t strong enough or one hasn’t accumulated enough sword skills, it’s almost impossible to build something out of nothing and become a genuine Sword Dao powerhouse.

 “Since you’ve managed to get to the final Trial of the Great Heaven inheritance, this is sufficient proof that you have stunning talent and Sword Dao potential. However, I would only be able to judge where you’re at in Sword Dao through actual combat.”

 Sword10 spun the battle sword in his hand as he finished speaking, tracing a sword arc in the void.

 “Let’s spar with pure sword skills this round. We won’t use any God Rule Powers, Elemental Enlightenments, or any other skills. We’ll spare only with pure sword skills containing Sword Dao true meaning and the lowest level of Divine Power! What do you think?”

 Lin Huang agreed right away to what Sword10 suggested.

 He did so because this rule was beneficial to him. Although he had ample Divine Power in his body and Divine Fire to replenish it, he still had to face ten Sword Servants after all, not just Sword10 alone. Naturally, the less he needed to exhaust Divine Power the better.

 After agreeing on the rules of engagement, the duo soon went into battle mode.

 Naturally, this round of combat was not as colorful as the previous two.

 There was no ultimate speed, no clash of ultimate force, and no dazzling sparks coming from intense Divine Power collisions…

 There were merely battle swords imbued with Sword Dao that were swung with the lowest possible level of Divine Power.

 In the void, two silhouettes collided over and over again.

 Lin Huang attacked repeatedly in earnest; likewise, Sword10 did not dare to delay.

 Although this battle was less visually interesting than the two previous ones, if one were to talk about Sword Dao skill, then this was the climax of all three battles.

 If there had been other sword cultivators present, this third battle would definitely be the one that they would most willingly watch because they would be able to see the clash of tens of thousands of sword skills. Even if they only managed to assimilate one percent out of everything in the entire battle, that in itself was a significant amount of knowledge reaped.

 Lin Huang delivered blow after blow with all of the sword skills that he had ever learned.

 Meanwhile on the other side, Sword10 would always find ways to counter Lin Huang’s attacks.

 In the void, the two silhouettes leaped continuously, battle swords clashing again and again.

 However, over two hours later, Lin Huang had utilized all of the sword skills that he had ever learned in his life but had not even managed to graze the corner of Sword10’s shirt.

 Upon observing that Lin Huang had exhausted his sword skills, only then did Sword10 sheathe his sword back in its scabbard and initiate a retreat from battle.

 Lin Huang did not insist on continuing the fight after that.

 He knew very well that Sword10 had obviously mastered way more sword skills than he had.

 “There are two main issues in your ultimate dao-type attack.

 One is that you’ve mastered too few sword skills; another is that you’re lacking in the mastery of high-grade sword skills.

 Both these problems are why your Sword Dao true meaning is constrained by limits.

 Going by your talent and potential, once you’ve mastered sword skills in sufficient number and at a high enough grade, it might be possible for you to breakthrough to Sword Dao true meaning from Sword Dao and straight away achieve peak True Martial Level. However, your Sword Dao true meaning is only average at present.

 However, the good news is that you’re the participant in this Trial round. Therefore, the Sword Dao true meaning of the guardians in this round will be capped to the same level as when you were when you entered the final Trial.

 Even with that, however, your lack of accumulated sword skills is also your biggest flaw. I can even say without exaggeration that this might be the biggest obstacle for you in obtaining the swordmaster’s inheritance.

 Each of the swordmaster’s bodyguards has mastered at least 300,000 sword skills. Some of them have even mastered over a million skills. If you can conclude a battle within a short period of time, you’d naturally have no issues later on. However, as soon as you enter the exhaustion stage of the battle, it would take two hours at most for your combat style to be seen through completely.

 However, the biggest issue now is that this flaw of yours can’t be fixed within a short period of time…” Sword10 frowned hard.

 “So from your perspective, the chances of me obtaining the swordmaster’s inheritance are extremely low?” Lin Huang asked after a moment of consideration.

 “It’s not extremely low, it’s basically zero,” Sword10 said honestly.

 “There’s no need to even talk about other people; you definitely won’t be able to pass the battle against Sword1, the most powerful bodyguard under the swordmaster. Of all the ultimate dao-type powerhouses under the swordmaster, Sword1 is the most powerful of them all. He’s mastered at least a million sword skills. Not only that, but he’s also integrated all of the sword skills that he has mastered. Any kind of sword skill in this world he can counter immediately the next round, after engaging in battle just once.

 Sword1 looks down the most on Sword Dao cultivators with insufficient sword skills because to him, it’s proof that one’s Sword Dao foundation isn’t solid.

 As far as you’re concerned, there’s another worse piece of news—Sword1 is a loyal member of the Regression Sect.

 As a Regression Sect member, he’ll judge all candidates by the strictest and most difficult assessments.

 Even if you’re lucky enough to overcome all the other nine palaces, you absolutely won’t be able to get through the last one!”

 “You really have such low confidence in me?” Lin Huang said with a smile while scratching his nose.

 “It’s not that I don’t have confidence in you; I’m just telling you the facts that I’m absolutely certain of.” Sword10 sighed rather helplessly. “In reality, as a Succession Sect member, I, more than anyone else, hope that you can pass this and obtain the swordmaster’s inheritance. I hope that the swordmaster’s mantle can be passed down to his heir; I also hope that these 300,000 years of waiting can finally end… However, it’s a pity but I don’t see the possibility of you obtaining the swordmaster’s inheritance.”

 “Is there a time limit for this final Trial?” Lin Huang asked suddenly.

 “There’s no time limit. Moreover, since Golden Crow Mountain is within the boundaries of Great Heaven Palace and the swordmaster predicted that the final Trial might take a long time, the time flow is 1,000 times faster than the outside world.”

 “Since it’s been 300,000 years in the outside world, have all of you actually been guardians in here for 300,000 million years?” Lin Huang asked, eyes wide.

 “Theoretically, you could say that. However, we’re in hibernation most of the time. In the beginning, we’d still observe the trials in the Swordfiend Abyss—we would wake up to watch every time someone participated. However, we stopped checking as time went by. If you hadn’t managed to make it all the way to the final Trial, the ten of us wouldn’t have woken up at all.”

 “Since there’s no time limit, I have a ridiculous request to ask of you, Senior,” Lin Huang said with a smile before uttering his request, “I hope that Senior Sword10 will be my sparring partner!”

 

“Huh?!”

 Sword10 was dumbfounded.

Chapter 1349: 300 Days of Diligent Cultivation

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

After some gentle persuasion, Sword10 could not help but agree to Lin Huang’s ridiculous request.

 The main reason was that he knew very well that if he waited for the next candidate to show up, it might be another 300,000 years or even three million years.

 As a member of the Succession Sect, since 300,000 years ago he had been hoping for someone worthy to come and take over the swordmaster’s inheritance. Now that 300,000 years had passed, his hopes regarding the arrival of the swordmaster’s heir had become even more pressing. He really did not want to wait any further.

 Another reason was that he had been incredibly bored over these 300,000 years.

  It would not matter even if he spent time training Lin Huang and the lad failed to obtain the swordmaster’s inheritance in the end. At least Sword10 would have something to occupy his time for a while.

 If Lin Huang was ridiculously lucky and really did manage to obtain the swordmaster’s inheritance at the end of it all, then he and his old comrades could finally end their mission as guardians once and for all.

 After a brief moment of consideration, Sword10 agreed to Lin Huang’s request without much hesitation.

 …

 “Senior, earlier on in battle you already brought up the issues I had.

 “First would be rapid speed. The main direction of improvement that you suggested would be mastering speed-type God Rule Power or Elemental Enlightenment. At this moment, apart from possessing the Seraphic Speed divine ability, I have the light attribute skill (Divine Purification) and the lightning attribute skill (Lightning Lord). Therefore, my main cultivation direction in rapid speed should be the exploration and usage of the Seraphic Speed divine ability. Ideally I would be able to elevate it to a God Rule Power. Another direction would be going in-depth into the light and lightning attribute skills. It would be best if I could elevate them to Elemental Enlightenments.

 “Next would be the force-type attack. You mentioned that advancement in this direction would still take the form of God Rule Power or Elemental Enlightenment. I have the Superhuman Strength divine ability and the lightning attribute skill (Lightning Lord). There’s potential for elevating the Superhuman Strength divine ability into a God Rule Power; there’s also the possibility of elevating the lightning attribute skill to Elemental Enlightenment.

 “Lastly would be the ultimate dao-type attack. I definitely have mastered too few sword skills and I’m severely lacking in high-grade sword skills. In reality, however, I’ve obtained many sword skill inheritances, quite a few of them in the previous Trial, but I haven’t had the chance to assimilate them yet. Now that I have you to practice actual combat with, I should be able to accumulate many more sword skills very rapidly…

 “At the moment, I think as long as I’m given enough time, I should be able to improve these flaws that Senior Sword10 mentioned.” Lin Huang felt fully confident in himself.

 At least he had cheat codes for the learning of skills.

 “Tell me how you want me to spar with you.” Sword10 did not have confidence in Lin Huang but he did not crush his enthusiasm.

 “I’ll cultivate the ultimate dao-type attack first to remedy my unstable foundation.” Lin Huang wanted to seize the opportunity of having a sparring partner to digest all of the Sword Dao inheritances that he had obtained so far.

 He had actually prepared his plans very thoroughly in advance. Even if his cultivation in rapid speed and the force-type attack failed later on, causing him to lose out on Great Heaven’s inheritance, at least he would have some solid improvement in his Sword Dao ability.

 Sword10 had no objections to that. After all, the main factor in elevating divine abilities to God Rule Power or elevating elemental skills to Elemental Enlightenment was a thorough understanding of divine abilities and elements. Compared to other methods, one would see results faster by cultivating sword skills. He was not surprised that Lin Huang chose to do this first.

 After discussing the general direction of cultivation, Sword10 did not say much more but immediately went into sparring mode.

 Meanwhile, one by one, Lin Huang began to utilize the sword skills that he was unfamiliar with.

 The next few days had Sword10 completely in shock.

 He was a genuine Sword Dao genius as well, but Lin Huang’s speed in cultivating sword skills stunned him.

 The lad was clearly a beginner in almost all sword skills when he utilized them for the first time. However, he would basically master them on the second try and use them in a familiar manner by the third try, as if he had been training in those sword skills for dozens of years, even up to a century.

 Even Lin Huang himself was shocked. His sword training progress with Sword10 was much more efficient and effective than when he was training on his own. The improvement in his sword skills would skyrocket with each sparring session.

 For context, of all the sword skills that he was practicing currently, the lowest grade was legendary-level. There were also many pseudo-mythical-level and mythical-level sword skills.

 He would basically master legendary-level sword skills entirely after training with them just once. He only needed to practice pseudo-mythical-level sword skills three times; for mythical-level sword skills, at most, he needed only five practices to fully master them.

  In the first 24 hours of his training, he had mastered a total of 358 new sword skills.

 Over the next two days, this number settled to a steady 350 sword skills per day.

 Given how fast Lin Huang was picking up, Sword10 could find nothing to complain about at all.

 Although he knew that Sword1 could also perform similar feats of learning, Sword1’s combat strength was already at peak heavenly god-level by the time he was able to do that. Moreover, he had accumulated terrifying ultimate dao-type attacks which were sufficient for him to deconstruct the nature of most sword skills.

 However, Lin Huang was currently only a beginner in Sword Dao true meaning while his Sword Dao accumulation was nothing in comparison with any of the Sword Servants under the swordmaster. By managing to achieve such results, he had proved that he had terrifying talent and potential.

 Sword10 had initially not placed any great hope in Lin Huang. After witnessing how fast Lin Huang picked up sword skills, however, his dead hopes ignited once more and he became increasingly enthusiastic as a sparring partner.

 As time passed, the number of sword skills Lin Huang mastered increased rapidly.

 By the time 200 days had passed, Lin Huang had finally mastered 100,000 sword skills. That was almost ten times more than what he possessed before he entered the Great Heaven Trial.

 Not only had he entirely assimilated all of the sword skills that he had obtained in the Great Heaven Trial, but he had also assimilated many of the inheritances from the golden sword.

 Lin Huang could even clearly sense that his current Sword Dao was much more powerful than before.

 “Previously I kept putting off cultivating true god-level sword skills. Now it’s almost time to assimilate all of my true god-level sword skill inheritances.”

 Throughout around 250 days of cultivation, Lin Huang had been putting off the cultivation of true god-level sword skills. Now he finally decided to assimilate all of those inheritances.

 In this next stage of true god-level sword skill cultivation, Lin Huang’s progress slowed down significantly.

 Previously, for mythical-level sword skills, he usually only needed to practice them five times; he would master them after six or seven practices at most. However, for true god-level sword skills, he could basically only master each one after practicing up to a hundred times. Not only that, but his practice speed was also much slower than before.

 On the first day of his next stage of training, Lin Huang only managed to master two true god-level sword skills.

 Upon observing this, Sword10 made him rest for a day to relax his tense nerves.

 On the third day, Lin Huang began practicing true god-level sword skills once more. He finally completed cultivating three sword skills within a day.

 Since then, Lin Huang maintained a steady cultivation speed of three sword skills per day.

 Not only was there a significant elevation in Sword Dao true meaning through practicing true god-level sword skills, but Lin Huang could also clearly sense that his Sword Dao true meaning was advancing every day.

 After close to two months, Lin Huang had assimilated all of his true god-level sword inheritances.

 By then, his Sword Dao true meaning had elevated to full True Martial Level.

 Over 300 days cultivating with practically no rest had completely remedied Lin Huang’s flaw of his lack of mastered sword skills. Apart from that, he had also elevated his Sword Dao to full True Martial Level.

 After witnessing Lin Huang’s rapid advancement, Sword10 began to think that the lad really might have the qualifications to inherit the swordmaster’s position after all.

Chapter 1350: Making It Past the Tenth Palace

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

“My Sword Dao true meaning is at peak True Martial Level—my shortcoming in ultimate dao-type has basically been remedied. It’s rather meaningless to continue cultivating sword skills any further because, at such short notice, it’s quite impossible for me to break through from Sword Dao true meaning to the second level, which is the True Meaning Level.

 “In that case, let’s begin the cultivation of rapid speed next. We’ll begin with the utilization of the Seraphic Speed divine ability…”

 After a full day of sleep, Lin Huang got Sword10 to cultivate with him first thing in the morning for this next round of his training.

 Since he had such powerful innate ability and his pet monsters carried out many things for him, apart from Sword Dao, Lin Huang did not often utilize many of these skills at all.

 This was even more so for speed skills such as Seraphic Speed. As a result, Lin Huang was miles away from Kylie and the rest, as far as the usage of various Monster Skills and divine abilities were concerned.

 However, to force himself to explore the usage of rapid speed techniques such as Seraphic Speed, Lin Huang trained his rapid speed attack by having Sword10 use Elemental Enlightenment without holding back.

 Time passed by. Under Sword10’s repeated suppression, Lin Huang spent merely three days to get his Seraphic Speed divine ability to its peak.

 For a week or more after that, he trained his lightning and light elemental skills to their peak through rapid speed attacks.

 After this Lin Huang spent some ten days perfecting the integration of his lightning and light attribute elemental skills with Seraphic Speed divine ability and Thunder Eclipse.

 Although he had yet to elevate his Seraphic Speed divine ability to a God Rule Power and his lightning and light attribute elemental skills had yet to evolve into Elemental Enlightenment, Lin Huang’s current rapid speed level had surpassed that of Sword10.

 To advance his breakthrough, Lin Huang initially began using Seraphic Speed or Thunder Eclipse with a single attribute elemental skill added on. However, he did not achieve a breakthrough even after trying for close to half a month.

 Feeling helpless, Lin Huang had no choice but to temporarily set aside his cultivation in rapid speed; he began to elevate his ability in force-type attack.

 It had to be said that Sword10 was indeed an excellent sparring partner. His abilities in all aspects were very balanced.

 Lin Huang’s cultivation in force-type attack went on for over half a month. At the end of this time, he had at last perfectly integrated his use of Superhuman Strength divine ability with lightning elemental skill and sword skills.

 However, just like his cultivation in rapid speed, his Superhuman Strength divine ability had yet to evolve into a God Rule Power. Meanwhile, his lightning elemental skill had not yet elevated to Elemental Enlightenment either.

 Sword10 was astonished as Lin Huang had only spent less than 400 days to surpass him in all aspects.

 Whether it was rapid speed, force-type, or ultimate dao-type, Lin Huang currently completely dominated him. With the elevation of his Sword Dao true meaning, Lin Huang’s overall ability was over several times more powerful than when he had just entered the final Trial.

 “Your overall ability has already completely surpassed me now. You’ve spent less than 400 days to achieve this. To be honest, this is completely beyond my expectations.” Sword10 sheathed his sword in its scabbard. He knew that he was no longer of much use as a sparring partner now.

 “Your Seraphic Speed, Superhuman Strength, and light and lightning elemental skills haven’t had any breakthroughs in their nature. However, your overall abilities have been elevated so completely, it’s as if you’re a brand new person compared to before. With your current ability, anyone below Sword3’s level shouldn’t be an obstacle for you. However, the Trial will get more and more difficult for you from Sword3 onward.

 “My job as a sparring partner has ended; I can’t elevate you any further. However, your cultivation isn’t done just yet.” Sword10’s eyes gleamed faintly from his sloppy face. Even the dark circles under his eyes seemed to be less obvious than before. “Next, I’ll give you one last Trial mission.”

 Lin Huang looked at Sword10 in confusion. He had no idea at all what kind of mission Sword10 would give him.

 “Your mission is to make every guardian in the remaining rounds your sparring partner. Try your best to suppress them to learn from them. Also, before meeting Sword1, you must complete your breakthrough in rapid speed and force-type attack! Otherwise, you’ll have no chance of winning at all!”

 “I’ll definitely remember that!” Lin Huang nodded and agreed earnestly after he heard that.

 “Lastly, I’d like to give you a gift!” As soon as Sword10 was done speaking, in a flash, he suddenly appeared in front of Lin Huang.

 Lin Huang instinctively wanted to draw his sword, but he firmly suppressed this impulse.

 Sword10 extended his index finger and touched it to his own forehead.

 The next instant, a sea of sword skill inheritances flooded Lin Huang’s mind.

 This was a heavy load of inheritances; it even made Lin Huang briefly blank out for three seconds.

 When he snapped back to his senses, Sword10 had turned around and was walking back into the depths of the palace.

 He waved without even turning around. “I’ve lost this Trial, send him out!”

 Before Lin Huang could respond, the palace disintegrated immediately. It transformed into countless mosaic-like pieces, vanishing while flying into the sky…

 Lin Huang only felt a faint sense of melancholy at that moment. The next instant, his surroundings had reverted to dense jungle just like before.

 Everywhere there was lush greenery; there was no trace at all of the black palace; it was as if the palace and Sword10 had never been there.

 “Congratulations to the participant for making it past the Tenth Palace!”

 A notification box popped up, snapping Lin Huang out of his reverie.

 He did a scan with Divine Telekinesis but did not sense any living beings. Lin Huang did not proceed further after that. Instead, he stood where he was and spread his consciousness within him to see what inheritances Sword10 had left for him.

 He was shocked by what he found.

 “Damn! There are over 800,000 sword skills…”

 Sword10 left behind over 800,000 sword skills of all sorts. Moreover, the lowest grade was pseudo-mythical-level. There were over 8,000 true god-level sword skills alone while there were over 70 heavenly god-level sword skills.

 Only now did Lin Huang truly understand that none of the Sword Servants under Great Heaven were weak in their abilities.

 Judging by Sword10’s terrifying Sword Dao background, he could almost imagine that Sword10’s combined abilities would definitely be in the top ranks of the heavenly god-level powerhouses.

 Powerhouses with such rich accumulation of skills would grow even more powerful as time went by. However, they might not have Lin Huang’s immense talent and potential, to begin with. Therefore, under the restriction of rules, it was not surprising that Sword10 lost to Lin Huang.

 “Judging from my previous cultivation speed, I’d need a few years to completely digest this inheritance of his…” Lin Huang shook his head while forcing a smile.

 He would never forget Sword10’s generosity to him, however.

 Without these last 400 days of practice day and night with Sword10, the chances of him obtaining Great Heaven’s inheritance would be very slim. Even though he had greatly improved in his abilities now, he still did not have an absolute guarantee of obtaining the Great Heaven inheritance.

 “Oh that’s right, I forgot to ask earlier which of the bodyguards under the swordmaster are in the Succession Sect and which of them are in the Regression Sect,” Lin Huang mumbled softly in the direction of where the Tenth Palace had appeared earlier, “It’s alright though; I’ll just treat everyone as a sparring partner!”

 

Chapter 1351: To Me, You’re Just A Sparring Partner

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

As Lin Huang remained where he was to rest and regroup after exiting the Tenth Palace, the God’s Servants from the Ninth Palace had already quietly arrived.

 In less than half a minute, the ten of them formed a circle around him.

 Prior to entering the Tenth Palace, Lin Huang might have needed to expend some effort to deal with ten Virtual God rank-9 God’s Servants. Now, however, he did not even bother to give opponents of this level more than a glance.

 Seeing that the ten God’s Servants had formed a battle formation from which a phantom giant beast 1,000 feet tall had swiftly materialized, Lin Huang made no move to stop them at all.

 He gripped his sword by the hilt and swung it in a circular attack the instant the giant beast materialized fully.

 A ring of blood-red sword gleam spread like a ripple on the surface of water. It charged through the phantom giant beast and the circle of ten silhouettes.

 The next second, the giant beast on the verge of attacking stopped completely in its tracks, while the expressions of the ten God’s Servants in the circle utterly froze.

 One to two seconds later, the giant beast’s head fell onto the ground. The physical form that had just materialized disintegrated completely into fragments that filled the sky.

 On the other side, a thread of blood appeared on the necks of the ten God’s Servants in a circle. Their heads slowly toppled from their necks. The headless bodies fell onto the ground one after the other, completely losing their life force.

 From the beginning until the end, Lin Huang had not unsheathed his sword. His previous slash had been delivered with the sword still in its scabbard.

 Lin Huang could not help muttering softly as he watched the ten bodies rapidly fade into nothingness.

 “It’s unfortunate that they hadn’t materialized into physical bodies. Otherwise, I might still be able to plunder some loot…”

 After killing the ten God’s Servants, Lin Huang waited where he was for less than ten seconds before a dazzling golden palace slowly descended from mid-air.

 This palace was completely golden in color and its exterior was magnificent beyond measure. At a glance, it gave the impression of being much more luxurious than Sword10’s palace.

 A moment later, the palace door—which was carved with dragon relief sculptures—opened slowly.

 Lin Huang had very little hesitation when he saw that; he hurried in immediately.

 This time, he was not attacked upon entry. After stepping through the door, the entire palace hall was displayed before his eyes.

 Compared to the magnificence outside, the interior of the palace was decorated even more exquisitely. Not only it was dazzling, but the ceiling and windows were also adorned with countless precious stones of various colors.

 There was a giant chandelier hanging from the domed ceiling. A glance was all Lin Huang needed to tell that this giant chandelier which weighed at least several hundred pounds was completely created from Divine Crystals. He even had the urge to cut it down and put it away in his storage space.

 “This chandelier of mine isn’t too shabby eh? It weighs a total of eight hundred and thirty-three pounds. The lampshade is completely forged from Divine Crystals. The lamp wicks are made from the fire elemental truth core left behind by a fire attribute heavenly god-level powerhouse after his death. I put in a lot of work to gather these nine wicks…”

 A youthful silhouette walked slowly toward Lin Huang.

 It was a young man in a white suit. He appeared to be in his early 20s and his looks were such that no one could nitpick about them.

 His charisma was extraordinary. He was the kind of fellow who would be instantly noticed even if he were standing in a group of good-looking men.

 He was a wealthy young master—not one born into a rich second generation, but one from an ancient family who had passed through many generations and still remained strong.

 The expression on his face and in his eyes when he looked at others contained a lingering, faint superiority. Deep in his bones, he was sure that he was more distinguished than the rest.

 At the same time as Lin Huang was checking him out, he was checking Lin Huang out too.

 “Only mastered one type of God Rule Power and no Elemental Enlightenment at all…” Sword9 was clearly unsatisfied with Lin Huang after giving him a once-over. “Was Sword10 so desperate that he had to cheat to this extent?”

 “Why don’t you try me and find out whether Sword10 cheated or not?” Lin Huang did not take what Sword9 said seriously. If the circumstances called for action, he preferred not to talk.

 “I’m just describing the facts I’ve observed. The energy waves on your body have already told me a great deal.” Sword9 glanced at Lin Huang. “I’ve no idea what Sword10 told you in the last round or how much he bent the rules for you to be this confident.

 “What I want to tell you is that I’m different from Sword10 who is in the Succession Sect. I’m in the Regression Sect. I definitely won’t allow any participants to cheat in my round.

 “There are only two ways to pass me. One is to defeat me! The other is to display talent and potential that astonishes me, as well as abilities that I approve of.

 “To be honest, I don’t expect much from you, but I hope that you don’t perform too terribly later on, otherwise, I’d look down on Sword10. After all, you’re someone that he chose. For Sword10’s sake then, you’d better give it your all. Try your best not to lose too disgracefully.”

 “You’re just a sparring partner, why do you spout so much rubbish?!” Lin Huang could no longer hold back what he had been thinking.

 Sword9 was stunned when he heard that. When he snapped back to his senses, a faint smirk of mockery played about his lips.

 “So that’s what Sword10 told you; no wonder that you’re so confident.”

 He had clearly misunderstood. He was under the impression that to give Lin Huang confidence, Sword10 had told Lin Huang that everyone else was merely a sparring partner.

 Hearing that, Lin Huang immediately realized that Sword9 had misunderstood. However, he did not bother to explain.

 He drew his battle sword from its scabbard and attacked, using God-slaying Power and Lightning Elemental Power within Divine Power as well as the rapid speed Thunder Eclipse. Although he had not added on Seraphic Speed divine ability and Light Elemental Power, the attack was already at peak speed.

 In the blink of an eye, Sword9 saw a blood-red electric arc charging straight through the air toward his face.

 Lin Huang’s sword speed gave him quite a shock.

 The rapid speed of the attack made him revise his opinion of Lin Huang’s abilities in a flash.

 “You’re showing off rapid speed with me?!” Sword9 scoffed and immediately launched a counter-attack.

 His main cultivation direction was rapid speed, so his attainments in rapid speed were several times more powerful than Sword10.

 When he swung his battle sword, a perfect integration of Wind Elemental Enlightenment and wind attribute sword skills cut through the air together with the blade. A colorless sword gleam collided with the blood-red sword gleam instantly in the void, resulting in an explosion of dazzling scarlet sparks.

 ‘Such a quick strike! This fellow’s comprehension in Wind Elemental Enlightenment is obviously a cut above Sword10!’ Sword9’s ability was more powerful than Lin Huang had expected. However, that did not make him want to quit. Instead, he became more excited now.

 ‘Perhaps I can use him to complete my breakthrough in rapid speed!’

 At that moment, Sword9’s voice drifted over from opposite him.

 “That attack wasn’t too shabby but it was just about on par with Sword10’s level. If you want to pass my round, this sort of attack is far from adequate!”

 “You really spout a lot of nonsense!”

 Lin Huang ignored Sword9 and swung his sword for another attack. However, he added Seraphic Speed divine ability to the initial foundation; the sword swing was at least three times faster than before.

 Even Sword9’s eyes lit up seeing upon seeing this attack.

 He hesitated no more and countered Lin Huang by swinging his sword again…

Chapter 1352: I Do Not Consent To The Pass that You Have Announced!

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Of the ten bodyguards under Great Heaven, Sword10 was the one who had learned everything but not specialized in any particular direction. Meanwhile, Sword9 had trained exclusively in rapid speed.

 Apart from Wind Elemental Enlightenment, he was also an expert in a speed type god rule. Not only that, but the direction of his Sword Dao cultivation was also more focused on rapid speed. Over 70% of the sword skills he had mastered were of the speed variety.

 Despite Lin Huang giving it everything he had using Seraphic Speed divine ability, lightning and light attribute skills as well as rapid speed sword skill Thunder Eclipse, he was barely able to follow Sword9’s speed.

 As Sword9 had his body imbued with Wind Elemental Enlightenment, he was physically invisible to the naked eye in the battle.

 In the void, all that could be seen was a dark red electric arc that flashed continuously as if it were fighting something invisible.

 With every impact, the blood-red electric arcs surged everywhere along with countless colorless sword gleams that shot in all directions.

 Although Lin Huang was being suppressed to a small degree, he was just barely able to catch up to Sword9’s level by using the Seraphic Speed divine ability in various versatile ways.

 Initially, Sword9 thought that Lin Huang’s rapid speed would be similar to that of Sword10. However, he soon found out that Lin Huang’s rapid speed level was almost on par with his.

 Time and again he switched the rapid speed sword skills that he was using in an attempt to disqualify Lin Huang as the heir by defeating him. However, he discovered that Lin Huang was extremely familiar with the use of the Seraphic Speed divine ability and as slippery as an eel. From the beginning until the end, he was not able to so much as graze the corner of Lin Huang’s clothes with his attacks.

 In a mere flash, a day passed by.

 Sword9 felt the entire day was unbearable. Lin Huang’s rapid speed was certainly not up to Sword9’s own level, but his doggedly determined effort and slippery tactics meant that Sword9 was not able to take advantage of him at all.

 Although Sword9 felt rather reluctant, Lin Huang’s performance had actually achieved the passing standard. After all, for the whole day, as guardian of this round of the Trial, Sword9 had not been able to do an iota of damage to Lin Huang.

 Abruptly he retreated rapidly. Just as he was about to retire from the battlefield, sheath his sword in its scabbard, and announce that Lin Huang had passed the round, he saw that Lin Huang had put on a burst of speed to close the distance and was now swinging his sword for an attack.

 “What the…”

 Sword9 was furious; his original intention of letting Lin Huang pass this round of the Trial completely dissipated.

 ‘You ungrateful brat, I initially wanted to pass you but since you yourself don’t want to leave this level, don’t blame me!’

 Sword9 cursed silently and charged into battle again with fire in his eyes.

 The battle lasted for three days and three nights. It was a battle of speed versus speed; both fighters displayed their rapid speed abilities to the full.

 After three days had passed, Sword9 was feeling more and more aggrieved as he had not even managed to so much as graze Lin Huang at all. Although Lin Huang had not managed to attack him either, he was still extremely aggravated.

 However, Lin Huang obviously felt differently. By the fourth day, he felt that he was getting more and more familiar with the usage of the Seraphic Speed divine ability. He even had a vague feeling that his Seraphic Speed divine ability might breakthrough any time to become a god rule.

 After four continuous days of fighting and not being able to do anything to Lin Huang still, Sword9 felt this impasse was a complete waste of time. He had initially been triggered by Lin Huang, but after three days of venting his rage, the entire battle had become meaningless.

 However, he did not try to retreat directly from the battle this time. Instead, he addressed Lin Huang.

 “The battle between us has already lasted for four days…”

 “Stop talking nonsense, keep on fighting!”

 Lin Huang already knew what Sword9 was going to say so he interrupted him right away. After all, it had not been easy for him to find a suitable opponent for rapid speed. Moreover, his own rapid speed was on the verge of a breakthrough; it was only natural that he was unwilling to halt the fighting.

 “You…” The veins on Sword9’s forehead twitched in his fury. He calmed himself down by taking a few deep breaths before continuing, “I already have a rough understanding of your abilities over these four days of observation. Although you’re still lacking in many ways, you’re not too bad in terms of talent and potential; on this point, I am at least grudgingly satisfied. Therefore, I’ve decided to acknowledge your ability and let you pass the Ninth Palace.”

 Initially, Sword9 thought Lin Huang would cease attacking after hearing that. He certainly had not expected Lin Huang to continue swing after swing with his sword, giving Sword9 no chance at all to retreat from combat.

 “I don’t consent to pass this level!” The next second, Sword9 heard Lin Huang say something that utterly shocked him.

 What the hell?! This little brat was declining the opportunity to pass the level?!

 Sword9 was stunned for a while; he could not understand the workings of Lin Huang’s brain at all.

 “Senior, you said that I’m lacking in many ways—I think so too. Therefore, I’ve decided to learn and train here with you. I’ll only go to the next palace when I’ve completely remedied my shortcomings.” Lin Huang looked at Sword9 with a smirk. “I don’t want to lose in the next palace because of what I still lack.”

 “You…” Sword9 had not expected Lin Huang to use his own words to silence him.

 “Please don’t be miserly with your teaching, Senior. I’ll do my best to learn and correct my flaws.” Lin Huang’s words caused Sword9’s refusal to die on his lips before he could even open his mouth.

 The actual underlying meaning of what Lin Huang said was, ‘Just accept the fact and be my sparring partner! You have no say in when the sparring session will end; I’m calling the shots!’

 Lin Huang had already laid out the situation verbally. Sword9 no longer had the strength to rebel; he had no choice but to bite the bullet and continue being Lin Huang’s sparring partner.

 Time passed in a flash; a week sped past rapidly.

 Throughout the week, Sword9 had become completely numb. He had more or less guessed why Lin Huang had been unwilling to pass this level; he also knew that the lad was treating him as merely a sparring partner. However, there was nothing that he could do about it.

 There was no way he could eject the participant by force if the participant was unwilling to leave. He had no choice but to be an emotionless sparring machine.

 On that day, Lin Huang was practicing his sword skills with Sword9 as usual.

 Suddenly, in his mind, he felt as if something had pierced through a paper window. An instant later, a massive volume of information regarding Seraphic Speed divine ability automatically surged into his brain. All of this information took Lin Huang only an instant to comprehend.

 The next second, his Seraphic Speed divine ability had automatically elevated into a Seraphic Speed God Rule.

 Lin Huang sent his sword swinging; the speed of this attack surpassed the original limit of his speed. He was more than a few times faster than before, if not more.

 Sword9’s danger senses screamed a warning at him suddenly, but by then it was too late for him to counter the attack. He could only watch the sword coming straight at his neck.

 However, the sword gleam deviated suddenly the next second. Before Sword9 could track the new trajectory of the sword swing, a small piece of the collar on the left side of his neck had been nicked off.

 Sword9 only snapped back to his senses after seeing Lin Huang sheathe his sword back into its scabbard. He also noticed the piece of white cloth that Lin Huang was holding between the two fingers of his left hand.

 “You’ve lost.” Lin Huang grinned at Sword9.

 Sword9 sheathed his sword expressionlessly and retreated hundreds of meters away. “Congratulations, you’ve passed the Ninth Palace.”

 “Thanks!” Lin Huang clasped his fists together while smiling at Sword9. He put away his battle sword and strode out of the palace.

 

Chapter 1353: You Are Such a Nice Person

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Coming out of the Ninth Palace, Lin Huang was in a joyful mood.

 It had taken less than half a month for him to successfully elevate his Seraphic Speed divine ability to a Seraphic Speed God Rule. He had not expected this kind of progress.

 He originally thought that it would possibly take him at least two or three months to finish it.

 Lin Huang also knew that the main reason for his quick breakthrough was the extra effort from Sword9. Sword9 had put a lot of pressure on him for Lin Huang’s rapid speed sword skill. Before the breakthrough of his Seraphic Speed divine ability, he had been continuously suppressed by Sword9. It was only through the use of various Seraphic Speed divine ability techniques that Lin Huang had been able to remain undefeated.

 Moreover, even after Sword9 had discovered Lin Huang’s objective, he had not quit but had continued to play the role of a sparring partner.

 That was why when Lin Huang finally left the Ninth Palace, he had thanked Sword9.

 Less than half a minute after exiting the Ninth Palace, the God’s Servants of the Eighth Palace arrived very quickly.

 There were only two God’s Servants in this wave. Both were humanoid monsters and female.

 Lin Huang originally thought that he would have encountered more and more God’s Servants, but after this round, he realized that the number of God’s Servants had nothing to do with the palace number—it was related to the personality of the palace guardian.

 There were not many God’s Servants serving Sword10 because his personality was indolent and he did not really like others to do his work for him, whereas there were ten God’s Servants serving Sword9 because he liked the feeling of dominating others from a high position of superiority. The number of God’s Servants for Sword8 was even less than that of Sword10— Lin Huang guessed that it was highly probable that Sword8’s personality was one that did not really enjoy ordering others around.

 Ling Huang despatched the two God’s Servants with a single blow. He did not need to wait too long before the Eighth Palace descended.

 This palace looked as if it were constructed from bronze. Its style was rather quaint and unadorned; it even looked a bit old.

 Lin Huang did not pay too much attention to all of this. After the door opened, he drew himself up and rushed in.

 After he stepped across the threshold of the palace door, a big empty hall came into view.

 The big hall seemed to be at least thousands of square meters in size and was completely bare of adornment or furnishing.

 Lin Huang looked over his surroundings and silently wondered whether or not Sword8 would be an iron-fisted no-nonsense man without a shred of humor.

 Very quickly, however, his eyes widened as he noticed a figure that suddenly appeared not too far away.

 It was a petite girl who looked to be half a head shorter than his sister Lin Xin. She was also thinner than Lin Xin by quite a bit.

 The iron-fisted tyrant of his imagination turned out to be a cute young girl, which left Lin Huang slightly dumbfounded.

 “You’re…Sword8?”

 Even though he knew that there could be no guardian other than Sword8 in this palace, Lin Huang could not help asking all the same.

 The petite girl nodded faintly and a blush rapidly spread over her face. Even her breathing rate increased slightly.

 ‘Is she really that shy, or is it just for show?’ Lin Huang felt some slight suspicion stirring in his heart.

 Although he had met a variety of people in recent years, this was the first time he had seen a young girl as shy as Sword8.

 Moreover, among the three hundred over Sword Servants serving under Great Heaven, she was ranked eighth, which was a sufficient indicator that her ability was outstanding even within heavenly god-level ranks. Lin Huang felt that a person as shy as this could not possibly be for real.

 As if she sensed the doubt in Lin Huang’s tone, the young girl added weakly, “I… I’m strong…”

 “I believe that. After all, you’re ranked as Sword8.” Lin Huang nodded with a smile, but could not help asking after that, “Can I ask what your Sword Dao specialization is?”

 “I mainly cultivate ultimate dao-type…” Sword8 had nothing to hide. After all, Lin Huang would find out later on when they fought; there was no need to be secretive. “I also know a bit of force-type and rapid speed sword skill.”

 “Ultimate dao-type…”

 Lin Huang raised his brows when he heard that; his ultimate dao-type was actually the strongest of his three cultivation directions.

 “My level isn’t hard. As long as the person attempting to pass can hold out for an hour, they’ll pass this level.” Seeing that Lin Huang had not spoken for a long time, Sword8 hurriedly informed him of the rules for passing the Eighth Palace.

 “Could we start now?” Seeing that his opponent did not seem to have any intention of fighting and also that she was a ‘little girl’, Lin Huang did not really want to launch a surprise attack first. As a result, he had no choice but to ask a question like this to give the other party time to prepare before battle.

 Sword8 hesitated for a moment; she looked torn for an instant before asking softly, “You don’t want to chat for a while more to delay things?”

 Lin Huang shook his head, unable to stop from chuckling—so that was how this girl was going to throw the game.

 “Are you from the Succession Sect?”

 “What sect?” Sword8 looked blank.

 “Don’t you have a Succession Sect and a Regression Sect within the ranks of the Sword Servants? Don’t tell me you’re in the Regression Sect?” Lin Huang was a little surprised.

 “Regression Sect?” The expression on Sword8’s face showed that she was completely at a loss. After thinking for a while and coming to no conclusions, she looked up at Lin Huang and asked, “Do Sword Servants have to join a sect? Which sect do I belong to?”

 Lin Huang was left speechless. The girl seemed completely unaware of the existence of the sects within the Sword Servants’ ranks.

 However, based on her reaction, Lin Huang could hazard two quick guesses.

 Either the girl had superb acting skills, enough that he could not see any traces of subterfuge, or she was so innocent that other Sword Servants did not have the heart to drag her into either faction. As a result, she had no idea about the warring factions within the ranks of the Sword Servants.

 For the time being, Lin Huang was still unable to judge whether the girl was the former or the latter.

 “I’m just kidding, you don’t have to take it seriously.” Lin Huang did not want to continue going round and round on this topic with Sword8 and chose to gloss over it instead.

 “Oh you were only joking; it scared me!” Only then did Sword8 feel relieved.

 “I think we’ve had enough time to chat. If we continue any more, it will be too obvious that you’re throwing the game,” Lin Huang reminded his opponent that this was a Trial.

 “I would have forgotten if you hadn’t mentioned it. If it’s too obvious that I’m throwing the game, Sword1 will scold me.” Sword8 smacked her head hard, finally seeming to remember what she was here to do. “Thank you for your reminder, you’re such a nice person!”

 Lin Huang was speechless for a moment; he certainly had not expected that he would be given a ‘nice guy’ label during the Trial.

 “Are you ready?” Sword8 asked Lin Huang, “If you’re not ready, I can wait for you a little bit longer.”

 Lin Huang was rendered completely speechless by this little girl.

 “I’m ready, go ahead and attack!”

 As soon as Lin Huang finished speaking, he saw that Sword8 was suddenly wielding a battle sword. What surprised Lin Huang was that it had a broken blade. The original length of the long sword should have been least one and a half meters long, but the blade had broken off about a third of the way down. The fracture mark was clearly visible; what was left of the blade measured only about 40 centimeters, give or take.

 “You don’t need to be surprised. My original weapon was a broken sword. I’m used to that, so now that I’m a guardian here, I set my weapon to be a similar broken sword.’

 Lin Huang felt his heart sink a little when he heard that. If his opponent could get to the position of Sword8 using a broken sword, it was more than enough to indicate her real abilities were much higher than her current position.

 This was because a broken blade could not possibly have a complete sequence rule.

 Under normal circumstances, Sword Servants serving under Great Heaven were unlikely to use god sequence relics with incomplete sequence rules. This meant that Sword8 might have achieved her position under the circumstances during which her weapon lost its sequence rule power.

 These thoughts flashed through Lin Huang’s mind. The next moment he saw that Sword8 had gripped her battle sword horizontally in one hand; she suddenly exerted a burst of power with both legs and her figure vanished right away…

Chapter 1354: Terrifying Ability Unrelated to Appearance

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

“So fast!”

 Lin Huang’s pupils narrowed slightly. Sword8’s attack was no slower than Sword9 in terms of speed and Sword9 had specialized in rapid speed.

 In the blink of an eye, Sword8’s figure was already in front of Lin Huang.

 Just as Lin Huang swung his sword to intercept the attack, he saw blue veins suddenly bulge out aggressively on Sword8’s sword-wielding right hand and her muscles rapidly swelled up. Her arm, originally only about 50 centimeters in length, expanded to over a meter long in the blink of an eye. Her arm and its knotted muscles were as thick as Tyrant’s, if not even more so.

 Even more bizarre, however, was that her sword speed did not increase—in fact, rather strangely, it seemed to slow down slightly.

 The instant he saw this unusual change, Lin Huang seemed to sense something. He had initially readied his sword for a Thunder Eclipse attack against his opponent, but he abruptly switched from attack mode to defense instead. The blood-red sword gleam in front of Lin Huang condensed into a looming mountain over a hundred feet high.

 “Mirror·Unmovable Mountain!”

 Like the thunder touch from the rapid speed sword skill, Mirror was the general designation for Lin Huang’s defensive-type sword skills. The name came from the Dark Mirror Monster Skill.

 This series of defensive-type sword skills were purely Sword Dao skills, however, and had nothing to do with Dark Mirror.

 The truth was that from the moment he entered the Trial until now, aside from skills that could directly assist in his sword skills, Lin Huang had not utilized any of his other Monster Skills at all.

 For one, his main purpose in entering the Trial was to improve his Sword Dao ability, so he had avoided the use of abilities that had nothing to do with Sword Dao. For another, he had not yet encountered an opponent strong enough to force him to use skills unrelated to Sword Dao.

 Much earlier during the Competitive Trial when he first encountered Sword23 and Sword29, Lin Huang had been defeated, escaping from the room guarded by the two of them. Even then he had maintained the attitude that this was a Sword Dao battle, and had not used any divine abilities and skills unrelated to Sword Dao.

 Right as Lin Huang changed his tactics, the gleam from the battle sword in Sword8’s hand had already reached him.

 The next moment, with a loud noise, the black gleam that extended from the broken sword collided with the huge red mountain in front of Lin Huang.

 The point of impact where the black sword gleam and the red mountain had collided instantly turned deepest black. At the same time, Lin Huang also saw cobweb-like fissures on the surface of the Unmovable Mountain.

 Less than half a second later, the Unmovable Mountain that Lin Huang had expended such massive amounts of divine power to build collapsed completely under the assault of the black sword gleam.

 At the same time, Lin Huang felt a terrifying wave of titanic force traveling through his sword blade; the next instant he was sent flying like an uncontrollable artillery shell.

 ‘In one move she instantly switched from rapid speed to force-type…so the force-type has the momentum and attack power that’s close to that of her rapid speed.’ Lin Huang immediately discerned his opponent’s attack methods.

 He had not expected that Sword8’s little bit of force-type would turn out to be such a terrifying level of skill.

 Sword8’s rapid speed was almost at Sword9’s level, but what one had to remember was that Sword9 specialized in rapid speed. In this force-type attack, Sword8’s strength and attack power had completely exceeded Sword10’s by way more than a level and had exceeded Lin Huang’s current attainments in force-type by more than a hair.

 ‘This lass’s overall skill level is clearly much higher than Sword10. If she isn’t lying, her rapid speed sword skills should be higher than mine…’ For Lin Huang, this was not good news.

 “On no, I’ve used too much strength!”

 Sword8 gave a sudden shocked exclamation from the other side upon seeing Lin Huang flying backward.

 Lin Huang did not know whether to laugh or cry when he heard that.

 He was not sure if his opponent’s words were sincere or if they were intended as mockery.

 He flew back a distance of several dozen kilometers before he felt the force of impact decreasing. Only then did Lin Huang use his feet in the air to break his momentum. After sliding several dozen meters through the void, he finally stabilized himself.

 “Hey, are you okay?”

 At that moment, Sword8’s voice was heard suddenly and her figure appeared less than 100 meters in front of Lin Huang.

 Lin Huang looked at her, fully alert.

 “I’m okay.”

 “I’ll use a little less strength, otherwise you won’t be able last for an hour,” Sword8 suggested.

 “No need, you can use the normal level that you used just now,” Lin Huang shook his head and rejected the proposal.

 “But… I only used seventy percent of my strength, which is not my normal level…” Sword8’s voice was a little faint. “So should I use seventy percent or a hundred percent?”

 “A hundred percent,” Lin Huang was slightly stunned for only a moment before he answered, “I need enough pressure so I can find an opportunity to break through.”

 “Okay; you mustn’t die.” Sword8 was worried.

 “Don’t worry, I won’t,” Lin Huang responded, expression blank.

 After a brief conversation, the two resumed fighting.

 Despite being fully psychologically prepared, the ensuing battle was much more difficult than Lin Huang had expected.

 As Sword8 said, she had not used her full strength earlier. She had held back, not only in force-type but also in her rapid speed. In reality, her rapid speed sword skill level was higher than that of Sword9. Lin Huang could not gain an advantage with his rapid speed either.

 What dumbfounded Lin Huang the most was not his opponent’s overwhelming skill in force-type, but her overwhelming rapid speed sword skill.

 Sword8 had mentioned previously that her main cultivation direction was rapid speed; she was not lying at all.

 Lin Huang’s rapid speed was the strongest of his three Dao Sword paths, but Sword8’s rapid speed was more than a level above his own.

 She was skilled in at least one million types of sword skills; in terms of usage and depth of various sword skills, she was even better than Sword10.

 Originally Sword10 had mentioned that if he ever encountered Sword1, Sword1 would find a way to counter all of his sword skills. Lin Huang felt the exact same way now that he had met Sword8. No matter what sword skills he used, his opponent countered them easily.

 If Lin Huang’s Sword Dao had not elevated to ultimate True Martial Level and Sword8’s Sword Dao had been capped at early-stage Martial Level according to the Trial rules, he would have been defeated long ago.

 In the battle with Sword8, Lin Huang was overwhelmed by her in almost every way. He only managed to get through it by virtue of his slightly stronger rapid speed and even stronger Sword Dao.

 The battle continued for countless rounds to the point; Lin Huang could not even tell how much time had passed.

 Suddenly, Sword8 sheathed her weapon and retreated from the battlefield.

 “It’s been an hour—you’ve qualified!” Sword8 beamed at Lin Huang happily; the impression she gave was as if she had been the one who passed the level.

 “Thank you!” On the contrary, Lin Huang’s face showed no trace of jubilation. He merely nodded and asked Sword8, “Can you be my sparring partner for a few more days?”

 “Okay, okay! No one has played with me for a long time!” Sword8 did not hesitate; with a very happy expression, she agreed.

 “Then let’s continue!”

 
Chapter 1355: I Like The Number Eight

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

While fighting against Sword8, Lin Huang was almost continuously dominated by her in battle.

 Sword8 seemed small and harmless, but once she was in battle mode, it was as if she were a whole other person. She transformed into someone extremely ferocious, focused, and even intelligent.

 Indeed, she was not only very skilled at using brute force but in battle mode, she was also very good at analysis. She could decipher most of Lin Huang’s moves. Even the few rare moves that she was unable to crack, she could always find a way to counter them when Lin Huang used them for the second or third time.

 Lin Huang was practically certain that of all the sword cultivators he had encountered in so many years, Sword8 was the most terrifying in terms of natural talent and potential.

 As for why she was ranked eighth, Lin Huang speculated there might be two reasons.

 One possibility was because she used a broken sword, and the weapon had no advantage compared to Great Heaven’s other bodyguards. The other possibility might be related to her mentality. To a certain extent, Sword8’s mentality was still immature, and her mind seemed to have stayed at the developmental level of a small child.

 Great Heaven’s bodyguards were ranked on their overall abilities, and mentality was one part of the whole package. Sword8 was very much not up to par on this particular point, which might have also contributed to why her overall abilities were only ranked in eighth place.

 Previously when Lin Huang and Sword10’s practice had ended, Sword10 had also mentioned that Lin Huang’s overall ability should be sufficient to get him past all the stages below Sword3.

 After encountering Sword9, Lin Huang had made a breakthrough in his Seraphic Speed divine ability and his rapid speed sword skill had skyrocketed, improving his overall strength.

 Logically speaking, it was unlikely that he would encounter any great obstacles for the stages below Sword3.

 However, Sword8’s performance really surprised Lin Huang right from the start because he was overwhelmed in practically all aspects. Except for his slight advantage in rapid speed, Sword8 was stronger than Lin Huang in almost all other aspects of Sword Dao.

 After regaining his equilibrium though, Lin Huang had worked out why Sword10 had not mentioned anything about Sword8.

 Although Sword8 was extremely powerful, her temperament was such that it was very likely she would have suppressed her true abilities and let all the participants pass her level.

 Lin Huang, however, had now encountered a Sword8 who had unleashed her full abilities at his request; she was also a powerhouse whose abilities might even exceed Sword4.

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 Lin Huang and Sword8’s practice sessions passed by day after day.

 Under the tremendous pressure exerted by Sword8, Lin Huang’s use and expansion of the different Sword Dao paths such as rapid speed, force-type, and ultimate dao-type improved daily.

 It took him less than a week to complete in-depth integration of different Sword Dao types. His rapid speed sword skill was no longer purely rapid speed, and his force-type was no longer merely force-type—he could now command a combination of various types at will.

 Lin Huang could now use ultimate dao-type sword skills with force-type and could also perfectly switch between force-type and rapid speed. He had also learned how to perfectly integrate rapid speed sword moves with force-type, and ultimate dao-type (in reality, the different approaches in the cultivation of various Sword Dao paths were not completely independent).

 …

 On the fourteenth day of practice with Sword8, Lin Huang finally elevated his grasp of the lightning elemental attribute, and he mastered a force-type Lightning Elemental Enlightenment—Heaven’s Punishment.

 Then again, perhaps there might just have been too much pressure exerted on his force-type.

 On the thirty-third day, Lin Huang’s Superhuman Strength divine ability finally transformed into the Superhuman Strength God Rule.

 At this point, Lin Huang’s force-type abilities had finally advanced to the same level as Sword8.

 His force-type was on par with Sword8, and his rapid speed was slightly stronger than hers. This elevated Lin Huang’s overall ability to Sword8’s standard.

 Although Sword8 still held a strong advantage in ultimate dao-type, Lin Huang’s Sword Dao was more powerful, which made up for his disparity in that path.

 Lin Huang, who had been relying on the Seraphic Speed God Rule to contend with Sword8, finally had the ability to confront her head-on.

 Lin Huang had initially thought he would make up for his shortcomings in ultimate dao-type by utilizing the pressure brought about by Sword8’s ultimate dao-type.

 He did not expect that she would walk out on him after less than a day of practice.

 “I don’t want to play anymore. It’s no fun now.” All this while Sword8 had been happy to serve as a sparring partner because battles with Lin Huang were very comfortable.

 At first, she had completely dominated Lin Huang in combat; later on, his abilities had improved but the pleasure of battle was still there. Now, however, Lin Huang wanted to practice his new sword skills with her, and his initial lack of proficiency with many of these new skills had led to a decline in the overall smoothness of battle. Sword8 did not think that there was any fun in this sort of fight, so she abandoned her role right away.

 Lin Huang smiled and nodded; he did not say much.

 After all, this girl had practiced with him for more than 30 days and had even helped him to gain two breakthroughs in force-type that upgraded his overall ability by an entire level. This ‘sparring partner’ had definitely filled the role very satisfactorily; there was no need to demand anything further.

 “Then we’ll stop playing,” Lin Huang said as he sheathed his sword. His gaze softened as he looked at Sword8. “Thank you, lass!”

 “What are you thanking me for? I should be the one thanking you!” Sword8 also put her sword away and smiled at Lin Huang. “Thank you for playing with me. I haven’t had such a good time in ages.”

 “I have a question; you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.” Before he left, Lin Huang suddenly remembered one of his doubts. “With your abilities, you should be ranked higher among Great Heaven’s bodyguards, shouldn’t you? Why are you ranked eighth?”

 “Because I like the number eight. I told Lord Swordmaster that I wanted the name Sword8 and no one was allowed to try and take it from me. Lord Swordmaster agreed.” Sword8’s expression was entirely matter-of-fact and she did not seem to see anything wrong with her approach.

 “Oh, so that’s what it is…” Only then did Lin Huang realize he had been over-thinking things previously.

 “What about your abilities then? Which rank should you actually be?” Lin Huang asked again.

 “I can’t defeat Big Brother Sword1, and I can’t defeat Bunny. I’ve beaten Big Nose a few times, but I know he deliberately let me win. The rest can’t beat me,” Sword8 thought about it and gave her answer.

 “Who is Bunny? Is that Sword2? Big Nose is Sword3?” Lin Huang asked curiously.

 “Oh no, I’m done for now! I promised Bunny that I wouldn’t say their nicknames in front of outsiders…” After Sword8 heard Lin Huang’s inquiry, she realized she had said something that she should not have, and hastily covered her mouth.

 “What nicknames? I didn’t hear anything.” Lin Huang smiled.

 “Yes, you can tell them that you didn’t hear anything!” Sword8 nodded quickly.

 “…”

 “Lass, you take good care. I’ll go on to the next stage now,” Lin Huang called to Sword8 and turned to leave, but he stopped in his tracks when he heard Sword8’s shout.

 “Wait a minute!”

 “Is there anything else?” Lin Huang asked, rather surprised.

 “Your overall abilities are okay, but your ultimate dao-type is still a little weak. I’ll give you some sword skills as a present,” Sword8 said and skipped in front of Lin Huang.

 She then stood on tiptoe, reaching toward his forehead to tap the tip of her finger against it.

 A massive amount of Sword Dao Inheritances instantly flooded Lin Huang’s brain.

 After Sword8 pulled her hand back, Lin Huang briefly probed the information that she had transmitted and immediately widened his eyes.

 Sword8 had transmitted had more than 1.6 million sword skills, which was twice the inheritance of Sword10!

 The key thing was that she had not only mastered a large number of sword skills, but she had also honed her use and expansion of sword skills far beyond Sword10. No wonder this girl was terrifyingly powerful in ultimate dao-type.

 “Thank you!” Lin Huang thanked her again.

 “You’re welcome. If you have a chance in the future, just come and play with me.” Sword8,who had retreated over ten meters away, waved at Lin Huang.

 “If there is a chance, I definitely will!” Lin Huang nodded slightly. Only then did he turn and walk in the direction of the palace door.

Chapter 1356: Sword3

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

After exiting the Eighth Palace, Lin Huang had originally thought to practice with Sword7 and the others for some time before meeting Sword3. He was striving to elevate his overall abilities to yet another level.

 As it turned out, he could not help taking just a single day to pass all the stages from Sword7 to Sword4.

 There was no reason other than Sword-7 to Sword4—the four guardians he had encountered one after the other—had not been able to pressure him at all. He had not even needed to use his full power to easily defeat the four of them.

 Less than twenty-four hours after leaving the Eighth Palace, Lin Huang welcomed the arrival of the Third Palace.

 Lin Huang knew from Sword10 that the abilities of Sword1 to Sword3 were not at the same level as the swordmaster’s bodyguards from the previous stages.

 Therefore, Lin Huang was excited but slightly nervous about his upcoming opponent.

 However, when he saw the Third Palace slowly materializing in the void, Lin Huang was so stunned he took a while to regain his senses.

 “This is obviously not a palace, is it?!”

 The shape and style of the Third Place were a far cry from Lin Huang’s expectations because what was forming in the void was not a palace, but a huge green sphere.

 To be precise, it was a planet full of lush green vegetation…

 Lin Huang visually inspected the planet for a moment; its size looked similar to Earth.

 As he was wondering where the Trial would take place, a giant bronze gate suddenly appeared near him.

 The gate was hundreds of meters high and covered with mysterious patterns.

 The moment Lin Huang looked toward the gate, it opened as if pulled by some invisible force.

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 Lin Huang knew that this was probably an invitation from Sword3.

 He did not hesitate and stepped through.

 The next moment, as if he had passed through a portal, a lush, dense forest met Lin Huang’s gaze.

 Lin Huang looked around. The vegetation here was abnormally large, at least dozens of times more so than the vegetation on Earth.

 Each of the trees was terrifyingly thick and strong, growing to over hundreds of meters in height. Even the weeds on the side of the road were slightly taller than Lin Huang, who was 1.8 meters tall.

 ‘Has my body shrunk, or are the plants here just giant-sized?’ Lin Huang could not help wondering.

 Just then, a majestic figure appeared not far in front of him.

 Sensing the figure’s appearance, Lin Huang immediately collected his thoughts and looked toward the other party.

 Upon seeing how the newcomer looked, Lin Huang could not help being more than a little stunned.

 The newcomer was a one-armed man. He only had a left arm; his right had been severed at the shoulder.

 What caught Lin Huang’s attention, however, was not the severed arm, but the man’s head.

 Although the newcomer’s body seemed completely humanoid, the head above the neck was that of a sinister elephant.

 To be precise, this head was seventy percent similar to that of a mammoth.

 The man seemed sinister because he had a long scar on his face that ran from his forehead down through his left eye and all the way to the left corner of his mouth.

 The man’s left eye was silvery-white, without pupil or iris. Since his scar connected to the corner of his mouth, his entire mouth seemed skewed to the left.

 As for the man’s remaining right eye, although it was not very large, anyone could tell from his gaze that he was a true powerhouse.

 As for the copiously scarred elephant’s trunk, it helped Lin Huang officially connect Sword8’s ‘Big Nose’ with a real person.

 ‘Big Nose is Sword3, so Bunny should be Sword2…’

 “Participant, if you’ve made it to this stage, it means that your abilities aren’t too bad.” Sword3’s voice sounded hoarse and oppressive; to Lin Huang, the sound seemed to be of the same frequency as rumbling thunder.

 “I don’t think they’re good enough,” Lin Huang shook his head as he evaluated himself.

 Sword3 was stunned for a moment. ‘Why are you stealing my lines?!’

 “I pulled Sword8 into helping me with a period of special training. What I gathered from her is that my overall abilities aren’t as powerful as yours, much less those of Sword2 and Sword1. At my current level, my chances of obtaining the Great Heaven inheritance aren’t high,” Lin Huang continued.

 “It seems you have a clear perception of yourself.” Sword3 nodded slightly.

 “At this level, I may have to trespass on your hospitality for a while, Sir,” Lin Huang said frankly.

 “You’re planning to use me to achieve a further breakthrough?” Sword3 was still expressionless, his attitude unreadable. “It depends on whether you have the ability to achieve a breakthrough!”

 “Sir, all you have to do is to make a move and I will try my best.” Lin Huang smiled faintly.

 Sword3 did not continue talking. By nature a taciturn person, even if he met the swordmaster’s other bodyguards, he would not say much. His attitude toward strangers was cold; for him to speak two sentences to Lin Huang was already difficult.

 A battle sword slowly coalesced in Sword3’s left hand, inky-black with a straight, narrow blade.

 The sword was nothing eye-catching, but Lin Huang immediately sensed the extreme menace emanating from it in Sword3’s grasp.

 His opponent’s Sword Dao might not be as strong as his own due to Trial restrictions, but Lin Huang felt an extreme sense of danger as Sword3 wielded his weapon.

 This sense of danger usually only manifested under one specific circumstance—when his opponent was powerful enough to kill him.

 It took only an instant for Lin Huang to determine that Sword3’s overall abilities were at least one level higher than his own. If he was even just slightly careless in this trial, it was likely that he would be killed right away by his opponent.

 ‘So powerful!’

 Lin Huang felt himself starting to breathe hard, but he quickly adjusted his state of mind and grasped his battle sword. His Sword Dao rose sharply.

 Just as Lin Huang’s Sword Dao reached maximum capacity, the violent aura surrounding Sword3 also rose to its peak.

 In the dense jungle, both figures disappeared on the spot almost at the same time.

 The next instant, a soaring blood-red gleam and a gray gleam collided in the void.

 A second later, the blood-red gleam shattered in full momentum, and a black figure shot backward like a cannonball. It crashed into the ground dozens of kilometers away, smashing a deep crater into the earth several kilometers in diameter. (The damage was minimal because the Space Rule and the stability of materials on this planet were much higher than in the gravel world.)

 Lin Huang slowly clambered up from within the deep crater. His right forearm and three of his five fingers had all been fractured after his opponent’s attack. Fortunately, his possession of the Divine Regeneration skill meant that these small injuries were healed instantly.

 He examined his arm and found that it had been completely mended. Lin Huang then looked up at the void in the direction where Sword3 was standing and narrowed his eyes slightly.

 Lin Huang had already seen the combination of rapid speed sword skill and force-type in his opponent’s attack earlier.

 Sword3’s rapid speed was slightly weaker than Lin Huang and almost on par with Sword8. In force-type however, Sword3 was more than a level stronger than himself.

 ‘Based on the information Sword8 provided, this fellow is stronger than her, but not so strong to the point where she has no chance of winning. So basically, of the three Sword Dao paths, it’s highly probable that Sword3 is only stronger than Sword8 in one of them. At present, he seems to be more than a level stronger than Sword8 in force-type—which means he shouldn’t be that much better than Sword8 in the other two aspects… Otherwise, even if he decided to go easy on her, if one were to compare notes, it’s unlikely that Sword8 could beat him

 .’

 Having determined that his opponent’s main cultivation direction was in force-type, Lin Huang felt slightly more relieved.

 If Sword3’s main cultivation direction was in ultimate dao-type, and his force-type—more than a level stronger than Lin Huang—was merely secondary, then Lin Huang would be utterly overwhelmed.

 Lin Huang maintained a serious expression even as several million inferences flashed through his mind in the blink of an eye.

 ‘Even if his main cultivation path isn’t ultimate dao-type, Sword3’s abilities in that aspect shouldn’t be too much weaker than Sword8. That is to say, he’s stronger than me in both force-type and ultimate dao-type…

 ‘This stage of the Trial can’t be taken lightly at all!’

Chapter 1357: Making It Past the Third Palace

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

The battle with Sword3 was Lin Huang’s most stressful one so far.

 Not only was Sword3 overwhelmingly strong in force-type, but even his ultimate dao-type was at the same level as Sword8; Lin Huang was completely crushed.

 If not for his rapid speed advantage in addition to his Sword Dao true meaning being stronger than his opponent, Lin Huang would probably not have had any leeway to retaliate at all.

 After being defeated in their first head-on exchange, Lin Huang chose to use either rapid speed to dodge or ultimate dao-type to counter Sword3’s attacks as much as possible, instead of going head-to-head or being on the defensive.

 Most of the time, it was Sword3 who scored hits on Lin Huang. Occasionally when Lin Huang managed to find a lapse in the tempo of his opponent’s attack, he would use rapid speed sword skill to counterattack. However, due to the strength of Sword3’s ultimate dao-type, even if his speed was not as good as Lin Huang’s, his defensive sword skills were such that Lin Huang could get nowhere.

 On Lin Huang’s part, occasionally he was unable to dodge in time and even if he tried to parry, he would suffer some minor injuries. Fortunately, these small injuries healed almost instantly as a result of Divine Regeneration, so they had not affected Lin Huang’s abilities at all.

 As time went by, Lin Huang searched every day among the inheritances he had obtained for sword skills that might help him deal with Sword3. He also tested them out one by one.

 Under the pressure that Sword3 brought to bear, the number of sword skills that Lin Huang accumulated every day continued to expand. His learning speed was also a little faster than when he had been fighting against Sword10.

 It took only around two hundred days for the total number of sword skills that Lin Huang had mastered to soar from over 100,000 to 200,000.

 Lin Huang originally thought that when the number of sword skills that he mastered had reached 200,000, his Sword Dao would have a breakthrough again. However, his Sword Dao true meaning was now at the upper limits of True Martial Level and he could not achieve any further breakthrough.

 Even if there had been an increase in the number of sword skills that he had mastered, without a breakthrough in Sword Dao true meaning, Lin Huang could not achieve a transformative upgrade in his overall abilities.

 Sword3 seemed to sense Lin Huang’s condition. Seeing that Lin Huang continued to use him to practice his sword skills, Sword3 finally could not help commenting.

 “Your inability to achieve a breakthrough in Sword Dao is no longer a matter of skill accumulation but the lack of opportunity for a breakthrough. That’s why it has remained at True Martial Level. It won’t do you much good to continue wasting your time learning more swords skills.

 “I suggest you temporarily set aside your ultimate dao-type and seek breakthroughs in the other paths!”

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 Sword3 merely reminded Lin Huang of this and did not elaborate further.

 To be honest, Lin Huang knew why his Sword Dao true meaning had not achieved a breakthrough. He originally thought that he would just bank on Sword3’s abilities to accumulate more sword skills, and when the accumulation far exceeded what was demanded for a breakthrough, he would be able to forcefully break the Sword Dao barrier.

 ‘It’s like a river blocked by a dam. If the dam doesn’t collapse, I’ll let the river water accumulate until it’s higher than the dam so it will naturally overflow. Accumulating skills to that sort of level might not be something that can be achieved within the next two hundred days though.’

 Lin Huang, who originally wanted to fight a protracted battle, felt that Sword3’s reminder made some sense.

 In actual combat, mere brute force was not the solution to the problem; it was necessary to use brainpower as well.

 ‘This time I might be able to charge through recklessly, but what will I do if I encounter something that I can’t charge through in future?’

 After considering this, Lin Huang began to think about other countermeasures.

 ‘I’m facing a temporary block in elevating my ultimate dao-type so I’ll set that aside first. I want to make further breakthroughs, so I should start with my rapid speed sword skill and force-type. But Sword3 isn’t able to put pressure on me any longer in rapid speed. So for now, I can only start with force-type…

 ‘Force-type…’ Lin Huang murmured silently in his heart. The first thing that flashed through his mind was an image of roaring thunder and crackling flames—and then his eyes suddenly lit up…

 ‘Among all the various elemental powers, it’s relatively easy to use Lightning and Fire Element skills to produce force-type effects. Currently, the only force-type rules that I have mastered are the Superhuman Strength God Rule and Heaven’s Enlightenment from the Lightning Element. If I want to elevate further, I can start with other Lightning or Fire Element skills.

 ‘My initial Lightning Lord skill came from Kylie. Among my summoning beasts, however, aside from Kylie who has mastered Lightning Element skills, there’s also Thunder. Those with Fire Element skills include Charcoal, Bloody Robe, and Inferior Imp…’

 Lin Huang glanced at his character panel again. The monster skill slot page listed all their main skills; there were only twenty-three in total.

 ‘Divine Telekinesis, Holy Power, Divine Regeneration, Divine Strength, Divine Defense, Divine Disguise, Divine Witchcraft, Elemental Immunity, Leech Pods, Absolute Control, Divine Purification Light, Revival, Immortal Warrior Body, Vampire Particles, Lightning Lord, Dark Mirror, Doll Forbidden Skill, Punishment, Knight, Integration, Mechanical Building, Mechanical Recovery, Evil Blood Substitute.’

 In his early immortal-level stages, Lin Huang had 30 Monster Skill spaces. After he elevated to Imperial-level, his Monster Skill spaces had already been increased to 50, but he had not filled in the blank skill grid.

 This was mainly because Lin Huang was strong enough, and there were no Monster Skills that he particularly wanted to acquire so he simply left the skill grid blank. When he really needed to use a specific skill, it was still not too late to extract it.

 “Xiao Hei, I want to specifically extract Charcoal’s Demon Flame, Bloody Robe’s Hellish Fire, Inferior Imp’s Abyssal Black Fire, and Thunder’s Lightning God.”

 “Are you sure you want to use a grade-3 card for a card draw chance X80?”

 Under normal circumstances, the card draw chance used to redeem a Skill Extraction Card should have been 10 times. However, because the function of the Skill Extraction Card was randomly selected, when Lin Huang required a specific extraction the expenditure of card draw chances also doubled. For four specific draws, he needed to expend 80 card draw chances.

 Lin Huang was no stranger to these rules and nodded right away.

 “Confirmation!”

 The next moment, Xiao Hei’s notifications came very quickly one after the other.

 “Successful extraction!”

 “Congratulations to the host on obtaining the monster skill Demon Flame.”

 “Congratulations to the host on obtaining the monster skill Hellish Fire.”

 “Congratulations to the host on obtaining the monster skill Abyssal Black Fire.”

 “Congratulations to the host on obtaining the monster skill Lightning God.”

 After glancing at his four newly acquired Monster Skills, Lin Huang’s sword skills suddenly changed and he quickly began to integrate these four Monster Skills into Fire and Lightning Element sword skills.

 Days passed. Perhaps because he had previously mastered Lightning Elemental Enlightenment, Lin Huang only took thirteen days to advance Lightning God to Lightning Elemental Enlightenment—Lightning God.

 After that, it took him another 28 days to finally transform the Fire Element skill Demon Flame into Fire Elemental Enlightenment—Demon Flame.

 At that point, Lin Huang’s force-type finally elevated to the same level as Sword3.

 As soon as the disparity in force-type was lessened, Lin Huang’s overall ability was no longer weaker than Sword3.

 Although Sword3 still had a great advantage in ultimate dao-type, Lin Huang’s Sword Dao made up for this part of the disparity.

 Moreover, the elevation of his force-type changed Lin Huang’s combat mode from retreating and parrying to going head-to-head.

 Since Lin Huang’s overall ability had advanced to the same level, the pressure that Sword3 put him was also much less.

 Lin Huang chose to go head-to-head with Sword3 repeatedly for further breakthroughs.

 Sword3 also continued to cooperate, playing the role of a sparring partner.

 Because the pressure was much lower, Lin Huang’s breakthrough progress was also much slower.

 Thirty-one days passed, and he finally elevated his Monster Skill, Hellish Fire, to Fire Elemental Enlightenment—Hell.

 The moment that Fire Elemental Enlightenment—Hell coalesced, Lin Huang’s battle sword had just clashed with the dark blade in Sword3’s hand.

 This time, however, they were no longer evenly matched.

 In the void, the strong blood-red and grey gleams collided violently. The gray gleam only resisted for a moment before retreating and was finally ripped apart by the blood-red gleam. Almost at the same time, Sword3’s elephant-headed figure was sent flying backward from the gray gleam…

 This was the first time in nearly three hundred days that Lin Huang had made him retreat.

 Sword3’s figure smashed uncontrollably into a deep crater more than 20 kilometers away, sending up a cloud of dust from the ground.

 He did not suffer much damage, however. The physique of a Wild Beast’s Bloodline was far more fearsome than a True God’s Body.

 Sword3 shook his head, slightly dizzy, and climbed up from the crater.

 After he levitated into the air, he had no intention of fighting with Lin Huang any further. Instead, he put away the sword he was wielding and said to Lin Huang,

 “You’ve passed my level.”

 “Thank you, Sir!” Lin Huang clasped his hands together lightly and also sheathed his sword. As he was looking around to find the portal so he could leave, a bronze gate appeared less than ten meters in front of him and slowly opened on its own.

 Lin Huang did not hesitate and walked straight toward the door…

Chapter 1358: Bunny

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Looking at the Second Palace that was rapidly materializing before his eyes, Lin Huang could not help raising his brows.

 The Second Palace also looked nothing like a palace; it was a shabby little log cabin. From the outside, it was about 70 to 80 square meters at most and looked like it had been abandoned for at least two or three decades.

 ‘It’s supposed to be a palace, why make it look like that?’

 Lin Huang was convinced that the Second Palace had not looked this way originally, otherwise, the seller would not have been able to find a purchaser at all.

 As Lin Huang continued his silent criticism, a squeaky noise suddenly sounded.

 He immediately looked toward the source of the sound, and the small wooden door of the cabin slowly opened.

 “Although the house is different, the formula is rather familiar…”

 Lin Huang smiled and walked straight toward the cabin as naturally as if he were visiting an old neighbor. Without any hesitation, he crossed the threshold of the small wooden door.

 Lin Huang was not surprised to see a vast expanse of grassland inside the door.

 After all, this was a Trial arena. If it was really a small log cabin that had less than 80 square meters of space, the two of them would not be able to unleash their abilities at all once they began fighting.

 The world behind the small wooden door had cloudless blue skies and lush grass extending as far as the eye could see.

 Lin Huang took a deep breath. The scent of flowers and grasses filled his lungs, putting him in a joyful mood.

 Almost simultaneously, however, Lin Huang sensed a figure gradually materializing not far away.

 He lifted his head and stared straight ahead. Someone was standing there on a big stone that was about half a meter high.

 To be precise, it was a man with a rabbit’s head. He was not tall; the impression he gave was that of a teenager wearing a bunny mask.

 Lin Huang knew that the man’s head was real, however.

 This was a rabbit-headed man with clean white fur.

 He looked to be only about one point six meters tall, not including his ears, which were furry and very long—more than forty centimeters or so.

 Taken together, from the soles of his feet to the tips of his ears he was almost two meters in height.

 Because his ears were so long, however, he appeared shorter.

 Not only did he look short, but he also seemed thin and frail.

 On the surface, this fellow did not seem threatening at all. As he stood on that half-meter high rock surveying Lin Huang from high ground, his two scarlet eyes showed not the slightest emotion.

 ‘This fellow should be the Bunny that Sword8 mentioned…’

 Lin Huang was not surprised by Sword2’s physical appearance. When Sword8 had let slip the nickname “Bunny” previously, he had already guessed. Moreover, he had also seen the elephant-headed Sword3 earlier.

 “Being able to pass Long Nose’s level means that you probably possess some solid capabilities. He’s not the sort of character who goes easy on participants,” the rabbit-headed man said with a smile after weighing Lin Huang up thoroughly.

 “Senior Sword3 is indeed the strongest opponent that I have ever encountered.” Lin Huang nodded with a smile.

 “That’s a bit of a premature declaration; I’m stronger than him.” Sword2 shooked his ears.

 “…”

 Lin Huang then remembered that this man in front of him was a powerhouse who was ranked higher than Sword3.

 “I mainly cultivate rapid speed sword skill.” Sword2’s battle sword slowly coalesced in his hand. It was a thorn-like blade that looked like a tree branch and the point of the blade was almost as thin as the tip of a needle. A hint of playfulness showed in his scarlet eyes. “If you can get through one day with me, I’ll consider you to have passed this stage.”

 Lin Huang did not respond to Sword2’s remarks. From the moment he entered the Second Palace, his intent had not only been to pass this level but also to find a sparring partner to enhance his abilities.

 Sword2 grasped the hilt of his weapon in his right hand, bent his knees and leaned forward, already in attack stance. Before he made his move, he grinned at Lin Huang, revealing two gleaming white front teeth.

 “Are you ready?!”

 “Bring it on!”

 The silver blade in Lin Huang’s hands had also coalesced into being. His aura began to rise sharply and in barely a breath, it reached its peak.

 The moment Lin Huang answered, Sword2 suddenly disappeared on the spot.

 The stone under Bunny’s feet slowly crumbled and turned into powder, the entire half meters’ worth of it.

 ‘So fast!’

 Lin Huang’s pupils suddenly contracted. His eyesight and Divine Telekinesis had yet to capture his opponent’s movements, let alone his opponent’s movement trajectory.

 Almost at the same time Sword2 disappeared, Lin Huang suddenly felt an extreme sense of danger to one side of him.

 Without any hesitation, he immediately initiated the Seraphic Speed God Rule and moved like a flash. His figure instantly appeared hundreds of meters away.

 Even so, as he planted his legs firmly, he still found a slash about 20cm long on the left waist of his robe.

 “You’re still a little too slow!” Sword2 stood where Lin Huang had originally been standing, grinning and showing his two front teeth before suddenly disappeared once more.

 Lin Huang quickly dodged again…

 In just half an hour, Lin Huang’s black robe had more than ten slashes on it.

 In terms of rapid speed sword skill, his abilities were far below that of his opponent.

 Under this extreme pressure, however, Lin Huang began striving for a breakthrough once more.

 He was no longer relying solely on Seraphic Speed to dodge but was merging Lightning Element skills with his ultimate dao-type Thunder Eclipse, trying to achieve a breakthrough in Elemental Enlightenment.

 In the next half hour, the number of sword slashes on his black robe increased from 16 to 107.

 Fortunately, he possessed sufficient Divine Power and God Rule as well as Divine Regeneration skills, so he did not suffer substantial damage.

 The next day was arguably the worst for Lin Huang in terms of being thoroughly schooled.

 Throughout the day, he was constantly taking a beating. Sword2 managed to slash Lin Huang’s black robe more than 2000 times, but Lin Huang barely found an opportunity to attack. All day he delivered less than 10 slashes in total, but could not even brush the cuffs of Sword2’s sleeves at all.

 As soon as the twenty-four hours were up, Sword2 cheerfully sheathed his sword and moved to the side.

 “It’s been twenty-four hours. According to the conditions that I mentioned earlier for passing this stage, you’ve qualified. Congratulations, you’ve successfully made it past the Second Palace!”

 As usual, Lin Huang did not accept this result.

 “Senior Sword2, I hope that I can stay and practice for a while.”

 After hearing this, Sword2 was silent for a moment. “You must consider this carefully. If you give up your chance to exit this level now, you must beat me or be strong enough to make me admit defeat before you can pass.”

 “I know the rules.” Lin Huang nodded with a smile. “Let’s continue!”

 Seeing that Lin Huang had made up his mind, Sword2 said nothing further. The thorn-like blade coalesced in his hand again, and he vanished once more…

Chapter 1359: Making It Past The Second Palace

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Lin Huang’s battle with Sword2 could be described as extremely difficult, to the point where he felt he should completely retract what he said about Sword3 being the strongest opponent that he had ever encountered. Sword2 was much more difficult to deal with than Sword3.

 Sword2 completely overwhelmed Lin Huang with rapid speed sword skill alone. Although Lin Huang knew that his opponent’s force-type was not as good as his, he had no chance to unleash his capabilities

 Every day his robes were slashed to rags by Sword2 and he bled copiously. If not for Divine Regeneration, Lin Huang reckoned he would not be able to last even a day. The amount of blood he shed daily was enough for him to die two or three times.

 Under this kind of pressure though, his rapid speed Sword Dao was taxed to the limit. It only took six days for him to complete a breakthrough in Lightning Elemental Skill and successfully master Lightning Elemental Enlightenment—Instant Flash.

 Even so, Lin Huang was still outclassed in rapid speed sword skill.

 Sword2’s speed was like the speed of light and his rapid speed sword skill had been cultivated to the ultimate peak; he was so swift that all his opponents gave up hope.

 Even though he had achieved another breakthrough in rapid speed, Lin Huang still could not track Sword2’s movements or the trajectory of his attacks. It certainly did not feel any easier than before.

 Fortunately, after his breakthrough in rapid speed sword skill, Lin Huang’s speed of movement markedly increased. This reduced his daily injuries considerably and the number of new blade scars on his body was reduced by about 80% every day.

 Just like that, the days passed by. Even though he still could not track Sword2’s movements, Lin Huang chose to fight to the death nonetheless.

 After another twelve days, Lin Huang was finally able to elevate the Divine Purification Light skill obtained from Kylie to Light Elemental Enlightenment—Sun Shadow.

 The moment he mastered Sun Shadow Enlightenment, Lin Huang suddenly found that he could track Sword2’s movements albeit with great difficulty; this made him ecstatic.

 Sword2’s approaching attack came in the form of a white gleam shooting toward Lin Huang like an arrow of light. Lin Huang’s Sun Shadow Enlightenment suddenly activated and his whole body transformed into little specks of blood-red particles that dissipated to one side and then re-formed hundreds of meters away.

 “Sun Shadow?!” Sword2 was shocked when he saw that. As a powerhouse who had practiced several kinds of Light Elemental Enlightenment, he recognized at a glance the Enlightenment that Lin Huang had used. “It seems you’ve made another breakthrough.”

 “I can finally somewhat follow Senior’s movements.” Lin Huang grinned.

 “Really?” Sword2’s ears moved slightly and the smile on his face bore a hint of playfulness.

 The next moment, he vanished again.

 This time, however, his movements were no longer a straight line as before—instead they were erratic. His voice also seemed to come randomly from all directions.

 “Can you still follow my movements now?”

 “Uh…”

 Lin Huang was more than a little speechless. His opponent only needed to add in ultimate dao-type movement skills and Lin Huang was once again unable to track him. Soon though, he came up with a counter-measure in his mind.

 “Xiao Hei, extract Thunder’s skill—Phoenix!”

 When Thunder advanced to Legendary Level, it awakened its bloodline powers in the dual attributes of wind and fire. In addition to having mastered lightning attributes, it had also mastered many wind attribute skills.

 “Host, you have extracted the skills of the Thunder card twice, this is the third time.”

 “The third skill extraction requires expending twice the number of card draws of the second extraction, and the expenditure of the designated draw is also twice that of the second designated draw. In other words, to extract the skill “Phoenix”, it will require the expenditure of 80 card draw chances!”

 “Are you sure you want to use 80 card draw chances?!”

 Earlier when he extracted his four previous skills, Lin Huang had only used 80 card draw chances. Now, the extraction of a single skill required the expenditure of 80 card draw chances. This caused Lin Huang untold amounts of pain.

 Although Goldfinger’s asking price was exorbitant, Lin Huang nodded without much hesitation.

 “Confirmed!”

 After mastering the Phoenix skills, Lin Huang began a new round of advanced practice.

 Another eighteen days passed by in no time at all and Lin Huang’s advanced skill bar kept skyrocketing. Under the fearsome pressure brought on by Sword2, his Phoenix Monster Skill had finally advanced to become Wind Elemental Enlightenment—Heavenly Roc.

 With another breakthrough achieved in rapid speed, Lin Huang was finally able to keep up with Sword2.

 Although he was slightly inferior to Sword2 in terms of movement speed and blade speed, Lin Huang was now at least on the same level. He was also already able to track Sword2’s movements and trajectory of attack.

 Without the absolute advantage in speed, Sword2 was slightly stronger than Sword8 in force-type but far inferior to Sword3 who specialized in force-type.

 In ultimate dao-type, although Sword2 was much stronger than Lin Huang, he could not do anything to Lin Huang anymore.

 “This Trial will end now.” After Lin Huang had mastered Heavenly Roc, his fierce battle with Sword2 lasted for less than an hour before Sword2 voluntarily retreated from combat and sheathed his weapon.

 The battle had entered a stage of true stalemate. Sword2 could not do anything to Lin Huang, and Lin Huang could not do anything to him. There was no sense in continuing. Moreover, his duty as a sparring partner was now complete so naturally, there was no need to continue wasting time.

 “Thank you, Senior!” Lin Huang also sheathed his sword in its scabbard and thanked Sword2.

 “No need to thank me. As a member of the Succession Sect, it’s my good fortune to encounter a participant like you.” Sword2 finally expressed his stand.

 “Senior, you praise me too highly.”

 “I have to say, you have the most terrifying talent and potential of all the Sword Dao cultivators I have ever seen. Even when the swordmaster was at the same level as your combat ability, he was far inferior to you in terms of comprehension speed. Never have I ever seen anyone who could master Elemental Enlightenment so quickly…”

 Sword2’s words made Lin Huang blush slightly.

 It was not because his mastery of Elemental Enlightenment was fast; rather, it was because he had a conduit. To quickly master the various Elemental Enlightenments, he had secretly used the Epiphany Card.

 Under the extreme pressure of Sword2’s rapid speed sword skill, the cultivation effects that the Epiphany Card brought were doubled. Three consecutive Epiphany Cards allowed him to achieve three Elemental Enlightenments in succession in just over a month.

 This was the reason that he could grasp God Rule Power and Elemental Enlightenment so quickly when he faced Sword3 and Sword8 previously.

 In the early stages of his encounter with Sword10, Lin Huang had realized that his own abilities were not enough to obtain the Great Heaven inheritance. To maximize the benefits of this Trial, he had chosen to use the Epiphany Card to enhance his ability as much as possible. Even if he failed to obtain the inheritance in the end, at least the gains from the Epiphany Card were very tangible.

 Moreover, to be precise, the Epiphany Card did not interfere with the fairness of the Trial.

 The improvement of Lin Huang’s abilities was through the strength of his own unremitting efforts. It was not a bonus from any external factors.

 Even Lin Huang had not expected to reach Sword2’s level, much less pass this stage.

 “With the talent and potential that you’ve displayed, if the swordmaster were still alive, I think there would be a high probability of you being accepted as a disciple.” Sword2’s comment was already highly positive, but after that, his ears suddenly drooped. “The swordmaster has fallen, however, and if you want to obtain his inheritance, you have to follow the rules.

 

“According to the rules, only those who have passed the assessment of all Ten Palaces can obtain the inheritance of the swordmaster. You’ve passed through nine of the Ten Palaces, and it seems like you’re just a step away. The truth is, the last step is the most critical and the most difficult.

 “As a diehard loyalist of the Regression Sect, Sword1 will not allow participants to obtain the swordmaster’s inheritance so easily…”

Chapter 1360: You and The Swordmaster Are Of The Same Kind

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

“You should have noticed by now that all the guardians below Sword3, except for Sword8, used at most only one type of rule power during the Trial…”

 When Sword2 mentioned this, Lin Huang immediately realized something. “You mean, their powers were restricted?”

 “Naturally! The ten bodyguards under the swordmaster are all ninth-rank powerhouses. All of them have mastered nine complete god sequence chains. If those sequences are subdivided into God Rule Powers or Elemental Enlightenment, there would be at least ten or more of them.

 “However, the highest level of combat strength that the swordmaster’s chosen heir can have is only Virtual God rank-9. At Virtual God level, those who have mastered God Rule Power or Elemental Enlightenment in advance are few and far between. That’s why certain restrictions have been imposed for the final Trial of the Ten Palaces. Those under Sword3 are only allowed to use one kind of rule power.

 “Of all the guardians, Sword8 was the swordmaster’s most beloved bodyguard, so he lifted the restrictions on the multiplier effect of ultimate dao-type on rule power for her. She was also allowed to become a minor BOSS below Sword3. Of course, this is also because the swordmaster understood her personality and knew that she would not hinder the participants.

 “As for myself and Sword2, we are the two difficult stages in the trial. Under the restrictions on rule power, we can only use three kinds of rule power at most. Also, the multiplier effect of our ultimate dao-type on rule power is completely unrestricted.”

 “So in reality you only used level-3 rule power?!” Lin Huang was shocked when he heard that. “But the speed of your rapid speed sword skill is much faster than my rapid speed sword skill amplified with level-4 rule power!”

 “That’s the multiplier effect of ultimate dao-type sword skills. The effect is almost the same as the multiplier of level-2 rule power,” Sword2 explained with a smile. “Isn’t the speed multiplier of your ultimate dao-type close to the effects of level-1 rule power?”

 “When Sword3 fought me, he also only used level-3 rule power?!” Lin Huang quickly followed up with another question.

 Sword2 nodded slightly.

 “What about Sword1? Are there fewer restrictions on his authority than for all of you?!”

 “Yes. As the final guardian of the Ten Palaces, Sword1 is authorized to use level-6 rule power. But the good news is that his level-6 rule power is limited to three of each power for rapid speed sword skill and force-type respectively. From this perspective, he is not as good as you currently, whether it be in rapid speed sword skill or force-type.

 “The problem is that Sword1 mainly cultivates ultimate dao-type. Even under circumstances where his Sword Dao is restricted, his sword skills are extremely terrifying under the multiplier effects of rapid speed sword skill and force-type.

 “Not only that, but he is also a die-hard Regression Sect member; he won’t go easy on anyone for this last level.

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 “There are only two ways to go for you to obtain the swordmaster’s inheritance.

 “One is to defeat Sword1!

 “The other is not to admit defeat no matter how much you’ve been beaten up; continue until he approves of you!”

 The second option sounded truly awful…

 Lin Huang was secretly cursing in his heart.

 “Finally, regardless of whether you can successfully obtain the swordmaster’s inheritance or not, you’d better receive my inheritances first.” As he finished speaking, Sword2 hopped and appeared in front of Lin Huang. He did not pay attention to Lin Huang’s objections but put his finger on Lin Huang’s forehead and transmitted all his Sword Dao inheritances into Lin Huang’s brain.

 “Even if you fail the final Palace, if you can get out alive and pass on my inheritances, that would be a good thing too.” After transmitting his inheritances, Sword2 withdrew his finger. “Although the relevant memories of the Trial will be erased if you fail, the memory inheritances given voluntarily will not be erased.”

 “Thank you, Senior!” Lin Huang thanked Sword2 while he bowed slightly.

 After saying farewell to Sword2, Lin Huang quickly reappeared in the dense forest of Golden Crow Mountain.

 He remained where he was and immediately began to probe his memory.

 Sword2 had mastered more than 2.1 million sword skills (above pseudo-mythical level), far exceeding even Sword8.

 Just as Lin Huang finished checking his new inheritances, there was a sudden violent dimensional fluctuation from the void.

 In front of Lin Huang’s astonished gaze, a blood-red palace quickly formed in the void and slowly descended onto the ground.

 “What’s going on? Shouldn’t I be fighting God’s Servants first? Why the sudden jump in the normal flow of things?”

 From the Tenth Palace to the Second Palace, every time before Lin Huang had seen the actual palace itself, there would be God’s Servants attacking first. Regardless of the number, there would always be a wave of them. Every time a God Palace appeared, it would be after he had defeated the God’s Servants. When he came out of the Second Palace though, Lin Huang did not see a single God’s Servant; the God Palace automatically appeared.

 Aside from being completely blood-red, this God Palace seemed to be nothing special.

 As the blood-red palace touched the ground, Lin Huang’s nose twitched slightly—he smelled a very faint scent of blood.

 Just as he was doubting himself, the doors of the blood-red palace suddenly opened slowly.

 Without any hesitation, Lin Huang grinned and strode right through.

 After he entered the palace, Lin Huang began looking around and evaluating his surroundings.

 The interior decorations of the palace were not extravagant; they were normal.

 The unique thing was that most of the items were red.

 No matter if it was the walls, the load-bearing columns, the dome, or the chandelier, the main color was red, differing only in the various shades of it.

 Even if there were some other colors, they were only embellishments.

 “He really must love red…” Lin Huang could not help muttering to himself quietly.

 It was at that moment that a voice came from not far away.

 “I am a Blood Demon and I naturally like the color red. However, the interior of this palace is decorated this way not because I like it, but to restrain my desires…”

 Lin Huang lifted his head and looked toward the source of the voice. It was a very handsome man who looked to be only 25 years old or so. His facial features were as perfect as if they had been sculpted.

 Just by height and appearance alone, this was a man who would rate full marks by most people’s standards of attractiveness.

 Since coming to the gravel world, Lin Huang had seen many handsome men and beautiful women in recent years. This fellow before him, however,, had an absolutely flawless face.

 This was also the first time that Lin Huang willingly admitted there were men more handsome than himself.

 “This is the method given to me by the swordmaster. Being in contact with red for a long time will raise my threshold of sensitivity to the color.”

 Sword1 did not immediately make a move to attack when he appeared; instead, he talked about mundane things with Lin Huang.

 While Sword1 was talking, his eyes stayed on Lin Huang, weighing up the latter carefully.

 “Your name is Lin Huang?”

 “Yes.” Lin Huang nodded slightly. The other party was in no rush to attack so he was not in a hurry either.

 “I’ve watched your battles; your performance has indeed been amazing.” Sword1 gave him a good evaluation.

 “You’ve seen it all?” Lin Huang was a little surprised.

 “Yes; from the moment you entered the Swordfiend Abyss to you making it past the Second Palace just now, I have watched every battle.” Sword1 nodded slightly. “All the Trial sites of the swordmaster are under surveillance. As the guardian of the last level, I have the authority to allocate and monitor the surveillance. But the other gatekeepers do not know about this.”

 “…” Lin Huang was speechless for a while. He had not expected that he would be spied on by the other party throughout his trial.

 “To be honest, it initially surprised me, the way you achieved insight after insight, mastering new Rule Bending Powers again and again in such a short time because it is something that even the swordmaster could not do. Then I suddenly realized that you and the swordmaster are of the same kind…”

 Hearing that, Lin Huang groaned in his heart.

 ‘Did he notice that I cheated with an Epiphany Card?!’

 What did it mean when Sword1 said that he was of the same kind as the swordmaster?! Was Great Heaven also a traveler?!

 “I don’t quite understand what you mean, that I’m of the same kind as the swordmaster…” Lin Huang maintained his composure. “Is that a compliment?”

 “I mean it literally.” Sword2 smiled faintly, and stared keenly into Lin Huang’s eyes, “Are you are also a traveler?!”