Chapter 1721: The Restriction Has Been Lifted?
Lin Huang was finally relieved when the unification stage with the highest mortality rate had passed.
Theoretically, the most difficult stage of unification was the third stage—Dao plundering.
However, Sword 1 was performing the unification in the Kingdom in Lin Huang's body.
If Sword 1 could not defeat the Raptor, Lin Huang would not mind intervening.
He was not worried that his intervention would cause any abnormalities in the unification.
After all, he could suppress the situation with this current ability if it really happened, since it was just the unification of a Heavenly God elevating to a lower-rank Lord.
The unification stage had been completed in Sword 1's God Territory, and the Dao seal had been officially consolidated, and had retracted its aura entirely. It hovered in the air quietly, integrating with the God Territory.
At that moment, the third stage, Dao plundering, had commenced.
In the God Territory, a Dimensional Whirlpool that was like a Virtual Eye was formed at a high speed.
A monster with a muscular body walked out of the Dimensional Whirlpool.
It was a monster that was over three meters tall. Its lower body looked a little like a praying mantis. It had four powerful insect legs that made it look like the monster had excellent jumping capabilities. There was no head on its upper body, with only a section of spine that seemed to be made of bronze. It had 12 delicate joints that were connected to sword arms.
The monster looked like a praying mantis monster that had been mechanically modified.
It was also Lin Huang's first time seeing such a monster. He did not know its name at all.
Sword 1 merely observed it momentarily, without a trace of emotions on his face at all. However, he clearly exerted more strength into his right, sword-wielding hand.
Lin Huang probed it with Divine Telekinesis. The praying mantis monster's aura was slightly more powerful than Buried Heaven's. It was clearly a lower-rank Lord with only one Dao seal. It was just that it had more Dao tattoos than Buried Heaven.
Lin Huang guessed that it should have a similar number of Dao tattoos as Sword 1 did.
After the mechanical praying mantis monster passed through the Virtual Eye, it locked onto its prey—Sword 1.
Almost without hesitation, its body instantly turned into an aftershadow as it jumped hard with its legs. It arrived before Sword 1 almost instantaneously.
Its 12 sword arms controlled 12 battle swords, slashing at Sword 1 from different angles.
Sword 1 would be dismembered if he was hit by the attack.
Sword 1's pupils could not help but constrict slightly the second he saw its movements. "So fast!"
Nevertheless, his body reacted instinctively.
While he retreated frantically, he swung his sword consecutively as he used the Odyl that he had yet to familiarize himself with to defend against the praying mantis monster's attack.
His attack was crushed in one hit as expected, but he had managed to dodge the praying mantis monster's first round of attacks.
Lin Huang saw the gap of abilities between the two of them from that one exchange.
Sword 1 was significantly weaker in terms of speed.
The praying mantis monster was clearly an expert in speed-type attack techniques. Its speed exceeded most Lords with one Dao seal.
Not only its movement speed, but its attack speed was stunning too.
Its 12 sword arms attacked almost at the same time without any delays in between. It could adjust its attack speed as it wished.
These two factors gave it excellent flexibility.
Although Sword 1 was no match for it in terms of speed, he had great movement skills to make up for it.
In terms of attack speed, his rapid attack technique was no slower than the praying mantis monster.
In terms of flexibility, the praying mantis monster was slightly more capable, but it was not to the point where it would have the upper hand in suppressing Sword 1.
On the application of Odyl, the praying mantis monster was clearly more familiar with it. It was extremely smooth.
Sword 1 was rather new to that aspect.
The disparity was obvious. That was the reason why it defeated Sword 1's few sword attacks easily.
However, Lin Huang did not think that it was an issue.
With Sword 1's Sword Dao comprehension, and his abundant battle experience in the past, he should be able to familiarize himself with the application of Odyl in no time.
Although Sword 1 was weaker than his opponent at the moment, Lin Huang did not think that he would lose.
After all, the two of them were battling in Sword 1's God Territory.
As soon as he familiarized himself with the application of Odyl, he should be able to master using the other god sequence chains in his God Territory rapidly.
Just when Lin Huang was still evaluating Sword 1's probability of winning, the battle between the two had moved on to the second round.
Since the first attack had failed to defeat Sword 1, the praying mantis monster tried applying Odyl that the opponent was unfamiliar with.
It began its frantic attacks without hesitation. It teleported continuously and took the initiative to attack over and over again.
Sword 1 changed his previous strategy of tackling speed with speed. He began to defend instead.
At the beginning, Lin Huang was frowning a little bit as he watched. The reason being that pure defense would only accelerate the exhaustion of Divine Power and Odyl. He might drain his Divine Power and Odyl completely right in front of his opponent.
However, Lin Huang soon realized that his worry was unnecessary.
Sword 1 was very skillful in his defense. He mainly dodged by using teleportation. He would only defend when he really could not dodge the attack.
Although almost each of his defenses would be crushed with one hit, he could always dodge the attack that broke through the defense.
Not only that, Lin Huang could see that he was becoming more and more familiar with the application of Odyl with each defense.
"This guy has such a firm mentality. He didn't forget to use his opponent to increase his familiarity in applying Odyl at such a time."
Fortunately, this Raptor did not seem to be very smart. It did not notice what Sword 1 was doing.
It kept attacking over and over again, adjusting its attack angle and speed over and over again.
However, it soon realized that its opponent's defense was getting more and more stable.
Lin Huang watched the defensive battle for over half an hour. He had also witnessed the entire process of Sword 1 mastering the application of Odyl.
At the moment, Sword 1, who figured that he had gotten familiar with Odyl, finally retaliated.
At the beginning, he was only using the Dao tattoo power that was available in his Dao seal.
The opponent would still break each of his attacks easily.
Slowly, he began to borrow the available god sequence chains in the God Territory in his body.
Almost over an hour later, he could finally fight a fair and even battle with the Raptor.
He even began to suppress his opponent now, after figuring out the Raptor's combat tendencies.
Lin Huang was finally relieved as he watched up to this point.
He knew that it was certain that Sword 1 would succeed in his unification.
Less than half an hour later, Sword 1 had finally killed the mechanical praying mantis monster.
The Virtual Eye in his God Territory faded quickly.
The integration of the Dao seal with his God Territory was completed thoroughly, as if the reset button on the entire God Territory had been pressed.
The God Territory seemed like it was going back in time. The planets that were destroyed during the unification had returned to their original orbits.
Even the living beings that died in the God Territory were reborn one after the other…
Sword 1's God Territory began to expand further, transforming into a legitimate Kingdom.
As Lin Huang waited for the changes of the projection of Sword 1's Kingdom to complete its transformation, he had a faint feeling that the Kingdom inside his body seemed to have had a layer of restriction lifted.
This time, he did not spread his Divine Telekinesis to search for the source of the feeling. Instead, he checked the changes within his body directly.
Very soon, he could not help but raise his brows slightly.
"The restriction of 3,000 Dao seals has been lifted?!"
Chapter 1722: Elevating to Dao-level
Lin Huang did not interrupt things when he saw Sword 1 standing where he was, taking the time to feel the changes thoroughly after elevating to Lord. He snapped his consciousness out of his body directly.
He glanced at his surroundings, and then got Mr. Gate to open the door to the virtual realm. His virtual body entered in a flash.
The virtual realm remained black and white. It was quiet without a sound.
Lin Huang scanned his surroundings with Divine Telekinesis. He did not sense any Voids. He then summoned a virtual realm cabin. He entered rather eagerly.
He was eager to verify whether the restriction on the 3,000 Dao seals in his body had been lifted.
After entering the virtual realm cabin, he sat with his legs crossed immediately. He began to simulate the god sequence chains that had yet to be converted into Dao tattoos in his Kingdom.
As expected, the god sequence chains that seemed to be encrypted previously began to revert to their usual state. They could be simulated once again.
Without hesitation, Lin Huang began a round of frenzied simulation.
He ran a reverse analysis on the god rules and sequences in the god sequence chains. After that, he replicated the entire process in reverse.
He converted the god sequence chains from the God Territories he plundered from others to his entirely.
It was unclear how many days had passed in the virtual realm cabin.
Lin Huang consolidated a million god rules and sequences again and began unification rather anxiously.
He was not anxious about the unification process. He was worried that the restriction from before would appear again to obstruct his unification.
However, the entire unification process went by smoothly.
Psychic communication, unification, Dao plundering. The three stages were completed extraordinarily well.
Many Voids coveted his Dao seal during the Dao plundering. Lin Huang killed them easily.
Just like that, he consolidated 3,001 Dao seals from the one million god sequence chains.
Watching the Dao seal that had just consolidated in the air, Lin Huang felt like he was in a daze at the moment. "Have I broken through to minor dao-level now?!"
He knew that many talents and geniuses would be stuck at the limit of ultimate-rank lord-level and had failed to move forward since the beginning of time. There were even many who failed to complete the breakthrough to dao-level before they died.
He had been ready to be stuck at this plateau for a long time.
However, the fact that he had broken through this plateau seemed a little too easy.
He felt the flesh and soul particles in his body were going through a major transformation, as if some restriction had been lifted. Shock filled his face.
He did not expect that his physical body and God's soul would go through such changes just because he had consolidated an extra Dao seal.
He could clearly sense that he was becoming more powerful by the second.
Even the Nirvana Trees that were connected to his God's soul were thriving. They were sending the Origin Energy fragments from the death spring into Lin Huang continuously.
At the moment, Lin Huang could no longer care about the source of the energy. He shut his eyes tight and immersed himself in the elevation of his physical body and God's soul completely, feeling the changes within each particle of his body.
It was unclear how long had passed when the sense of elevation finally slowed down.
The transformation of the flesh and soul particles had finally come to an end.
Lin Huang snapped out of his state of immersion.
He was sure that he had stepped into dao-level. However, he had no idea exactly how powerful he was.
After all, he no longer had a reference point like when he was at the limit of ultimate-rank lord-level before. Now, he felt like he could kill hundreds of his old self within a second.
He realized that his physical body and God's soul had transformed into a whole new state. His physical body and blood cells had been entirely transformed into particles, so had his God's soul.
The two types of particles could be interchanged as he desired.
Not only that, he could sense that as long as a particle still remained intact, he would be immortal.
Such particles could absorb all sorts of energies from the universe automatically.
Including the Divine Power of all attributes, radioactive waves from all materials, all kinds of god rules, sequences and even rule power.
Lin Huang was even a little suspicious that his old self at ultimate-rank Lord might not be able to break through his current defense.
The reason being was that each of the particles in his body were covered by the natural Odyl radiating from the 3,001 Dao seals. The natural consumption of this was almost equivalent to nothing to the current him.
After sensing the changes in his physical body and God's soul meticulously, Lin Huang very soon noticed the over 200 Nirvana Trees that were still sending Origin Energy fragments into his body.
"What's happening?!" Lin Huang was dumbstruck when he saw the size of the Nirvana Trees.
The Nirvana Trees' initial size had already been comparable to a giant celestial body. Now, each of them had grown to the size of a galaxy. They were even bigger than many star zones in the great world.
The over 200 trees could be gathered into a tiny universe when they came together.
What surprised Lin Huang even more was that each of the Nirvana Trees' surfaces were covered by a layer of energy that looked like a golden mist. He examined them closely and found out that the mist consisted of Origin Energy particles coming from the death spring.
"I'm afraid the value of these Nirvana Trees is comparable to spiritual treasures now."
Watching the Nirvana Trees still generating Origin Energy fragments, Lin Huang checked the inheritance fragments that were inserted into his God's soul.
Through the scanning of his Divine Telekinesis, he found out that among the vast amount of inheritance fragments, there were many that exuded dao-level auras. He did a rough calculation and found that the quantity was close to one-ten-thousandth of the total amount. Though it was only one-ten-thousandth, the total number was a lot.
Lin Huang tapped a few of them and checked them out casually. They were minor dao-level inheritances.
Some could not even be considered inheritances. They were just some memory images.
Lin Huang put those inheritance fragments aside and began to check out the other changes in his body.
The few God Weapons in his body had transformed again.
When he was elevated to ultimate-rank Lord, the God Weapons had transformed into spiritual treasures.
He did not know which rank they had elevated to now.
Nonetheless, the God Weapons were covered in Dao tattoos. The aura exuded from them was significantly more powerful than those Nirvana Trees.
Lin Huang could almost imagine the effect of him using his Divine Telekinesis to control the God Weapon flying daggers.
He controlled the few God Weapons to hide their aura, reducing them to the strength of ordinary supreme-grade Dao Weapons.
Later on, Lin Huang examined his body thoroughly and then tried to use the Dao seals in his Kingdom.
As expected, the Dao seals that had been seemingly restricted previously, where he could not even borrow even one, could finally be used now.
Lin Huang borrowed them one by one carefully.
One, two, three…
Ten…
A hundred…
1,000…
3,000…
10,000…
20,000…
30,000…
30,001!
Lin Huang had finally tested his limit. 30,001!
That was the limit of Dao seals he could use outside his Kingdom. It happened to be tenfold of the number of Dao seals he could master.
He returned his consciousness into his Kingdom again and began to test the number of Dao seals he could use in the Kingdom.
However, he did not manage to test the limit this time. The reason being was that he could use all of the 43,161 Dao seals he owned in the Kingdom.
His combat ability had undoubtedly been greatly increased. It was completely incomparable to before.
Lin Huang was over the moon. Soon, he calmed his mind and was going to continue to analyze the god sequence chains to consolidate more Dao seals.
Just when he was going to try, he could not help but frown.
"What's happening?! Why can't I analyze them again?!"
Something that made Lin Huang speechless happened. The god sequence chains in his Kingdom were once again encrypted. He could not retrieve any information from them at all.
It was the exact same situation he encountered when he was elevated to the limit of ultimate-rank lord-level and wanted to consolidate the 3001th Dao seal.
Chapter 1723: Sword2 Got Out of Closed-door Cultivation
Lin Huang scanned through the hundreds of millions of god sequence chains in the Kingdom quickly with Divine Telekinesis. He realized that it was the same case as before; all of the god sequence chains and god rules were encrypted by an unknown power. They could not be analyzed anymore.
Feeling helpless, he could only give up on the plan to consolidate more Dao seals.
Although he had officially stepped into dao-level from the round of closed-door cultivation, and his ability had received a significant boost, he was quite pissed to be encountering the strange plateau again.
He was secretly speculating what the problem was exactly.
"I encountered the plateau before because I had reached the limit of ultimate-rank Lord-level. I was only a step away from stepping into dao-level. It was completely normal for the plateau to occur for such a major breakthrough point. But I've stepped into dao-level now, so why would the same situation happen again?"
Lin Huang began thinking about it from a different angle as his previous line of thought had been to no avail.
"The plateau being lifted just now seemed to be caused by Sword 1 consolidating the Dao seal in my Kingdom. Moreover, throughout the entire process of consolidating the Dao seal, there was a strange feeling in my Kingdom. It proved that his consolidation of the Dao seal might have a significant connection to my plateau being lifted."
"If I follow this logic, can it be that the lifting of the plateau encourages me to have others consolidate their Dao seals in my Kingdom and become Lords?"
Lin Huang made a rough guess.
Although he had no idea of the exact theory behind it, he deduced that conclusion following the logic of the earlier incident.
"Let's try that!"
Since he came up with that conclusion, it was only natural that he had to verify it.
It just so happened that Sword 1 was not the only one going into closed-door cultivation this time. Sword 2 to Sword 10 were all waiting their turn, which meant that he had nine chances to verify his speculation.
He left the virtual realm and went back to the material realm.
Lin Huang returned to his Kingdom immediately.
Seeing Sword 1 who had become familiar with his new powers, Lin Huang appeared next to him in a flash.
"Congratulations, you've finally broken through to lord-level successfully!"
"Lord Swordmaster…" Before hearing Lin Huang's voice, Sword 1 had not sensed his aura at all. He had only snapped back to his senses after being stunned momentarily when he saw Lin Huang standing in front of him. He bowed immediately, "Thank you Lord Swordmaster for training me!"
Although he had always respected Lin Huang, the person that he respected the most had always been Swordmaster Great Heaven. He had never expected that he would exceed Swordmaster Great Heaven one day.
"I've only given you a push. You managed to break through successfully primarily because of your talent and accumulation." Lin Huang patted Sword 1's shoulder.
"Lord Swordmaster, your aura…" Sword 1 could not help but raise his doubts anyway. He still could not sense Lin Huang's aura.
"Hmm?"
Lin Huang did not notice that his aura had almost been entirely integrated with the surroundings. In reality, he did not do it intentionally. It seemed to be a "special effect" that came with his elevation to dao-level.
He had only adjusted his aura after hearing Sword 1's reminder. He adjusted his aura to what a middle-rank Lord would have.
It was only now that Sword 1 could sense Lin Huang's existence.
"I had a tiny breakthrough earlier and didn't notice the abnormality that occurred," Lin Huang explained with a smile, "You can sense it now, right?"
"Yes, I can." Although Sword 1 said that, he was secretly guessing which level exactly the swordmaster was at now. His non-existent aura just now had exceeded the realm of his understanding.
"Sword 2 and the rest will be coming out of their closed-door cultivation sessions soon. Do you want to stay and watch their unification or would you like to return to the Pilgrim Star Zone?" Lin Huang asked.
"I'll stay. I can take this time to familiarize myself with being lord-level." Sword 1 made up his mind without hesitation.
Although he was a workaholic, he did not want to miss the important moment when his brothers performed unification.
Moreover, under the 10,000 times of accelerated time in the Great Heaven Palace, Sword 2 and the rest should have digested the inheritances the swordmaster gave them completely.
"I'll give you a lord-level inheritance. Study it when you have the time." Lin Huang lifted his hand and stretched out a finger as he spoke.
A blood-colored gleam flashed through the air instantly like an electric arc. It penetrated Sword 1's brows.
Sword1 did not manage to react at all, and he sensed that the inheritance had integrated with his God's soul.
He shut his eyes to focus immediately. He began to read the copy of the inheritance.
Lin Huang had prepared the lord-level inheritance earlier. It was also customized to each Sword Servant together with the inheritance for unification.
In reality, he thought Sword 1 and the rest might not have a cultivation direction after they had successfully elevated to Lords.
The copy of the inheritance could prevent them from taking many wrong paths when they got to lord-level.
Seeing Sword 1 get into cultivation mode, Lin Huang waved to envelope Sword 1 in a layer of transparent defense modified with Mirror.
Although he was right next to him, and it was quite impossible for any accidents to happen since Sword 1 was in his Kingdom, he thought he would do that as an additional safety measure and provide Sword 1 another layer of defense.
After setting up the defense, instead of interrupting Sword 1, he sat where he was with his legs crossed quietly, patiently waiting for the second Sword Servant to perform unification.
Approximately half a day later, a commotion erupted from the Great Heaven Palace again.
Sword 2 had come out of closed-door cultivation.
Lin Huang scanned him with Divine Telekinesis. Sword 2's aura was no weaker than Sword 1's before unification. Clearly, it had been a fruitful closed-door cultivation session.
With merely a thought, Lin Huang teleported him over.
At that moment, Sword 1 snapped out of his cultivation state when he sensed Sword 2's aura.
He saw the transparent protective layer before him as soon as he opened his eyes.
The next second, Lin Huang removed the protective layer directly.
Sword 1 nodded slightly at Lin Huang to indicate his gratitude, and then turned his head to look at Sword 2.
Sword 2 looked at Lin Huang first and bowed to him. "Lord Swordmaster."
He then turned his head to look at Sword 1. Sensing the changes in his aura, he was shocked and happy. "You made it?!"
"Yes, I have." Sword 1 nodded with a smile. "You'll definitely make it too."
"I'm counting on your blessing." Sword 2 smiled and looked around before asking, "Did you perform unification here just now?"
He could faintly sense the remnant aura in the surroundings.
"That's right." Sword 1 nodded.
"I'll do it here too. I think this is a feng shui treasured land!" Sword 2 laughed out loud. "Even if I fail and end up being buried here, I should be able to bless my descendants."
Sword 1 was speechless now. "Can you say something more auspicious?"
"I'm just kidding to ease my nerves." Sword 2 chuckled.
"There's no need to worry. The intensity of your aura is no weaker than Sword 1's before his unification. He almost didn't encounter any obstacles throughout the entire unification. You should be fine," Lin Huang comforted him. "All you need to do is to get rid of your stray thoughts and focus everything you have on the unification."
Sword 1 walked forward and passed the soul jewel and battle sword he had used during the unification to Sword 2. "These two Dao Weapons are amazing. Remember to hand them over to the rest when you're done."
Lin Huang was blushing a little when he saw the embarrassing scene. He could not help but emphasize to them:
"I'll get each of you a complete set of Dao Weapons when you're done with the elevation."
Chapter 1724: Verifying His Speculation
The unification of the rabbit-headed man Sword 2 was a success as well. The number of god sequence chains he mastered was 31. It was only two fewer than Sword 1.
The difficulty of his unification process was no lesser than Sword 1. However, he passed through the stages relying on his stunning speed and explosive agility.
At the same time Sword 2 elevated to Lord, Lin Huang sensed the plateau in his body being lifted again.
"As I thought, my hypothesis was correct!" Lin Huang's eyes lit up.
He had found the way to continue consolidating more Dao seals.
"So all I need to do is get more people to consolidate Dao seals and elevate to Lord continuously in my Kingdom. With that, I can unlock the encryption of the god sequence chains over and over again, consolidating more Dao seals."
Although he could not understand the theory behind it, all Lin Huang needed to know was that his hypothesis was correct.
After elevating to Lord, Sword 2 merely familiarized himself with his increased strength while looking at Sword 1 in excitement.
"Let's spar?"
Naturally, Sword 1 was up for the challenge.
"Sure, I also want to check out my real combat capabilities."
Sword 2's rabbit ears turned a little red from the excitement. As soon as Sword 1 agreed, he exerted strength into his legs and vanished directly from where he was standing in a flash.
His main cultivation direction was extreme speed. The inheritance that Lin Huang had given him contained many extreme speed techniques.
Now that he had been elevated to Lord, there was a qualitative transformation of his speed. Given his increased confidence, he could not help but try to challenge Sword 1.
What he did not know was that Sword 1 had obtained another inheritance after elevating to Lord from Lin Huang.
Although he had only studied it for half a day, his understanding of combat was completely different from before.
Though he could not compare to Sword 2 in terms of speed, Sword 1's attack speed was no slower than his. Not only that, his defense remained flawless.
Lin Huang merely glanced at Sword 1 and Sword 2's conditions and he could already tell that Sword 1 would win.
He only had a one-word comment regarding the current Sword 1—stable.
That one word alone summed up the reason why Sword 1 was basically undefeatable.
Although Sword 2 had the upper hand in terms of speed and explosive agility, he was clearly not on the same level as Sword 1 judging by the overall progression of the battle.
It was as Lin Huang had expected.
After adapting to Sword 2's speed, Sword 1 very soon started seizing his opportunities to retaliate.
The frequency in which he took the initiative to attack was less than one-fifth of the time Sword 2 attacked but, each time he attacked, it would strike where Sword 2 was most uncomfortable. He disrupted Sword 2's battle rhythm over and over again.
Very soon, Sword 2 was dominated by Sword 1.
He could hardly showcase his speed and explosive agility as the battle went on.
The entire battle lasted less than 20 minutes. Sword 1 took over the rhythm of the battle completely, while Sword 2 lost unsurprisingly.
Lin Huang did not leave. He watched the entire battle.
It was not that he did not want to consolidate new Dao seals in the virtual realm. Mr. Gate could only make seven virtual bodies everyday. He had given six slots to his imperial monsters, which was why he could only enter the virtual realm once each day.
He could only wait for the next day if he wanted to enter the virtual realm to consolidate Dao seals again.
"Again!" Sword 2 was unwilling to yield. His pair of rabbit eyes were a little bloodshot from rage.
Sword 1 merely smiled and accepted the challenge.
He had finally broken through to lord-level. In this great world, his opportunity to fight against opponents of the same level would only decrease. Now that there was a battle opportunity sent to his doorstep, it was only natural that he would not let it slip by easily.
Lin Huang shook his head slightly as he watched the two fight again.
This time, Sword 2 lost even faster. He lasted less than 15 minutes before being defeated.
"Again!" He was still unwilling to yield.
Although he had never defeated Sword 1 before, the two spars he had since elevating to Lord-level were the two battles that he lost within the shortest span of time within his personal record. Not only that, he lost terribly in front of the swordmaster.
Sword 1 agreed as usual, but Lin Huang interrupted them.
"Don't rush into challenges just yet. Take the time to think about how you lost the previous two battles carefully. You'll only improve if you review the experience before challenging him again, otherwise you'll just be defeated in even worse ways."
Lin Huang was also worried that Sword 1 would crush Sword 2's confidence, so he stopped them.
Sword 1 understood Lin Huang's intentions instantly. "Calm yourself down and figure it out. You'll only lose faster when you're so emotional."
Sword 2 calmed down immediately after hearing what the two said.
He sat with his legs crossed in the air and began to mentally replay the two battles from before. He did not overlook any of the details.
Not long after Sword 2 started doing so, Lin Huang suddenly lifted his head to look toward the direction of Great Heaven Palace.
Sword 3 had exited closed-door cultivation!
With a thought, Lin Huang teleported Sword 3 over to where the three of them were.
Sensing Sword 3's aura, Sword 2 snapped out of his state of concentration instantly.
The aura of the tall elephant-headed man with a single arm had far surpassed the intensity he had before entering closed-door cultivation. He was close to the edge of unification.
"Lord Swordmaster." He merely bowed lightly toward Lin Huang then nodded at Sword 1 and Sword 2 respectively before beginning unification directly.
Lin Huang was not worried about him.
This guy was trained in force-type. His strong points were physical body and strength. His overall ability was no weaker than Sword 2. Judging by his physical strength alone, the success rate of his unification would only be higher than Sword 2.
That was the truth.
After obtaining Lin Huang's inheritance, Sword 3 was even more stable than before.
His unification went much smoother than Sword 2's.
Sword 2 could not help but chuckle softly when he saw the damage Sword 3 suffered on his physical body was much lighter than his during the unification process. "A crude man whose brain is made of muscle!"
Lin Huang sensed a further unlocking of the plateau in his Kingdom from Sword 3's successful elevation to Lord.
The three consecutive experiments confirmed his previous hypothesis completely—In order to consolidate more Dao seals, he would have to get more people to perform unification in his Kingdom.
As soon as Sword 3 completed his elevation, Sword 2 instigated him to challenge Sword 1.
"No. 3, you should spar with No. 1 to familiarize yourself with your increased strength."
Sword 3 did not think further and simply looked at Sword 1.
Naturally, Sword 1 knew what Sword 2 was thinking. Nevertheless, he did not say no either. He nodded at Sword 3. "Let's spar. It's indeed been a long time since we did so."
Sword 3 said nothing and charged forward directly after grabbing his sword.
The battle between the two soon broke out in the air.
It was much more interesting than the battle between Sword 1 and Sword 2.
Sword 3 was adept in the extreme force-type. Surprisingly, Sword 1 chose to fight him with force.
Naturally, it only seemed like he was doing that. In reality, Sword 1 had used more skills than Sword 3 did.
The battle lasted over three hours before Sword 3 was finally defeated.
"You must've gone easy on him, right?" Sword 2 said to Sword 1 while looking pissed.
Sword 3 lasted much longer than he did against Sword 1. It proved that Sword 2's ability was weaker than Sword 3.
"I didn't, I only changed the mode of response. I didn't fight him with anything that would suppress him," Sword 1 said while shaking his head.
He then turned to look at Sword 3. "Once more?"
Sword 3 nodded lightly and attacked without hesitation.
This time, Sword 1 changed to a more stable mode of response. He was using a defensive counter-attacking stance this time around.
Approximately half an hour later, Sword 3 was defeated again.
He chose to halt the challenge after being defeated twice. He walked to the side in silence and began to mentally replay the two battles.
Witnessing that, Sword 2 said nothing anymore and began to mentally replay the battles with his eyes closed.
Within half an hour, Lin Huang lifted his head again toward the Great Heaven Palace's direction. "Xiao Ba?"
It was Sword 8 who got out of closed-door cultivation this time.
Chapter 1725: New Discovery
Among all of the Sword Servants under Lin Huang, the one who had the highest potential was actually not Sword 1, but Sword 8.
She was pure and had the least distracting thoughts. That was the best quality for cultivation.
She was Great Heaven's favorite Sword Servant in the past. He doted on her like a sister and had never forced her to cultivate.
That had resulted in her mischievous character. She did not take cultivation seriously.
Therefore, her ability was incomparable to Sword 1's, and even worse than Sword 2's and Sword 3's.
Since Lin Huang taken over the Sword Servants, he had been burying his head in work almost all the time. He had tasked Sword 1 with managing the Sword Servants' matters. Therefore, he did not focus much on Sword 8.
However, Sword 8 got his attention when she exited closed-door cultivation this time.
"The intensity of this girl's aura…"
He could never have expected that Sword 8, who had just exited closed-door cultivation, would have an aura that was more powerful than Sword 1's.
Lin Huang was in a daze momentarily before he snapped back to his senses. With a thought, he teleported Sword 8 over.
Sword 8's appearance did not change much. She still looked very much like a little girl who had yet to hit puberty.
"L-Lord Swordmaster…" Her character remained shy and timid.
Lin Huang nodded with a smile. "It seems like your closed-door cultivation was quite fruitful this time."
"Yes." Sword8's voice softened instinctively when she saw Lin Huang walking toward her. "There are many things that I didn't use to understand in the past. I understand them now after receiving the inheritance that Lord Swordmaster gave."
At that moment, Sword 1 who was standing to the side spoke up as well, "In reality, Xiao Ba's talent is better than ours. It's just that she just can't settle down."
Sword 1 did not criticize Sword 8 for slacking in cultivation in front of Lin Huang. Instead, he merely said that she was often distracted.
Lin Huang actually knew his Sword Servants' characters very well. He did not mind that. "I think Xiao Ba's character is pretty great. It'd be better if she's braver."
Sword 8's cheeks blushed a little.
At the moment, Sword 3 handed the battle sword and soul jewel to her.
Sword 8 looked at the two Dao Weapons in her hands and was stunned momentarily.
"You'll have to use them during the unification process later. Familiarize yourself with them first." Sword 1 who was standing aside explained, "When you're ready, you can perform unification right away."
"Do I do it here?" Sword8 looked around.
"Right here." Sword 1 nodded. "Sword 2, Sword 3 and I did our unification here too."
"Don't worry about us. We won't be affected by your unification," Lin Huang added.
Sword 8 only nodded and appeared in mid-air not far away in a flash.
After familiarizing herself with the application of the two Dao Weapons a little, she began the unification process without hesitation.
As soon as the first stage, psychic communication, began, Lin Huang aside, Sword1, Sword2 and Sword3 stared at the god sequence chains that were spreading out of Sword 8's body.
There were 36 god sequence chains. It had even exceeded the number of god sequence chains Sword 1 had mastered.
Not only Lin Huang, even the other three did not expect that.
"Has this girl been hiding her ability all this time?" Sword 2 could not help but ask Sword 1 and Sword 3.
Sword 1 and Sword 3 fell into silence as the both of them had no idea about the matter as well.
Lin Huang spoke right at this moment, "No, she was indeed not as powerful as you guys previously. However, she seemed to have had a major breakthrough during the closed-door cultivation session this time."
If Sword 8 hid her ability, Lin Huang would definitely sense it.
After all, with his ability, even an ultimate-rank Lord could not deceive him with a concealing technique.
There was only one possibility why he had not sensed it, which was that Sword 8 only became more powerful during the closed-door cultivation session.
Watching the 36 god sequence chains, the three of them remained stunned for a long time.
Lin Huang, on the other hand, noticed that Sword 8 seemed to have elevated half a rank from the closed-door cultivation session this time. She was at rank-5.5 now.
He did not think that it was the inheritance he gave her that caused Sword 8's elevation. The reason being was that his inheritance did not come with such a function. He figured that Sword 8 might have been at rank-5.5 initially, or rather incomplete rank-5.5. Since obtaining the inheritance he gave, she triggered something in her body unintentionally, restoring her to a complete rank-5.5 now.
It also explained why even though she was at rank-5 before, just like everyone else, her level of talent was clearly higher than the others.
Sword 8's elevation was a success as well. She went through even the most difficult Dao plundering stage easily.
Initially, everyone was a little worried that she could not defeat the Raptor. After all, her combat ability was much weaker when compared to Sword 1, Sword 2 and Sword 3.
However, the way she fought the Raptor shocked them. She almost suppressed the Raptor throughout the entire battle.
The Dao plundering stage was easier for her than it was for Sword 1.
Since Sword 8 elevated to lord-level, Sword 2 attempted to lure her into challenging Sword 1 in the name of familiarizing herself with her newfound lord-level powers.
However, Sword 8 shook her head directly to reject his suggestion.
Her elevation unlocked the plateau in Lin Huang's Kingdom further.
It had once again verified Lin Huang's previous hypothesis.
After that, Sword 4 and the rest performed unification one after the other within the next two days.
From Sword 1 to Sword 10, all of the Sword Servants had successfully performed unification and had all been elevated to Lords.
They returned to their initial jobs quietly instead of boasting.
Meanwhile, Lin Huang had ten extra Dao seals. The total number had reached 3,010.
After that, he was stuck at the plateau again.
He did not panic at all when he hit the plateau this time around.
The reason being was that he had already found out the way to resolve this plateau.
The ten experiments had proved his prior hypothesis completely.
In order to continue consolidating more Dao seals, all he had to do was to get people to perform unification in his Kingdom.
After confirming that, Lin Huang informed the imperial monsters under him about that.
He told them to enter his Kingdom first when they were going to consolidate Dao seals in the future.
Over the next few days, Bai was the first one who entered Lin Huang's Kingdom to consolidate Dao seals.
It was his fourth Dao seal this time.
The unification went extraordinarily well. After all, he had prior three experiences.
After sending Bai out of his Kingdom, Lin Huang entered the virtual realm immediately to start a new round of Dao seal consolidation.
This time, he realized that he could continue to analyze more god sequence chains after consolidating one Dao seal.
Without hesitation, he began a new round of analysis.
Later on, he successfully consolidated the second, third and fourth Dao seal.
After the fourth Dao seal was formed, the god sequence chains were encrypted again.
"Bai consolidated his fourth Dao seal in my body, which unlocked four Dao seals for me." Lin Huang deduced a new hypothesis. "If that's the case, I'll be able to unlock more Dao seals if Lords with more Dao seals consolidate Dao seals in my Kingdom?"
Over the next few days, Lin Huang verified his new hypothesis with Grimace and Lancelot, one after the other.
The unification of the two imperial monsters gave him the opportunity to consolidate eight Dao seals.
Until now, the total number of Dao seals he had consolidated had increased to 3,022.
Lin Huang could see the way forward to elevation in the future.
"If I invite many ultimate-rank Lords to consolidate Dao seals in my Kingdom, wouldn't I be given the opportunity to consolidate thousands of Dao seals at once?! If I could invite a hundred ultimate-rank Lords to consolidate Dao seals in my Kingdom, wouldn't I be able to consolidate 100,000 Dao seals and achieve major dao-level directly?"
Chapter 1726: Extraordinarily Glamorous on the Outside
For the next few days, Lin Huang gave Sword 11 and Sword 12 the inheritances first. After they went into closed-door cultivation, they soon succeeded in the unification.
After the two of them got out of their closed-door cultivation sessions, Lin Huang spent some time customizing a set of Sword Dao inheritances for the 25 Sword Servants: Sword 13 to Sword 37.
The 25 Sword Servants entered closed-door cultivation together.
Lin Huang did not have high expectations for this batch of Sword Servants.
After all, they were merely at Pseudo Supreme God rank-4.5. With their levels of talent and potential, it was very difficult for them to elevate to Lords.
He thought it would be considered pretty good if more than 12 of them were elevated successfully.
Under the 10,000 times accelerated timeflow in the Great Heaven Palace, the 25 Sword Servants got out of closed-door cultivation and performed unification one after the other.
The final result was rather pleasing to Lin Huang.
Among the 25 of them, 18 were elevated to Lord-level successfully. Seven of them failed their unification and could only become half-step Lords.
The reason why the success rate was so high was because Lin Huang secretly helped a couple of Sword Servants in the last stage of Dao plundering.
Regarding the seven of them who failed, they failed in the second stage, which was unification.
Some had a God Territory that was less powerful, while some were lacking in physical strength or the strength of their God's soul.
Lin Huang could not help those who were innately lacking.
He could only protect them at the last moment to save their lives, making them half-step Lords.
The seven of them were regretful and vexed. They knew that they failed because of their own shortcomings.
Lin Huang could only comfort them, "There might be methods to elevate from half-step Lords. Perhaps someone in the universe will have a way to mend damaged Dao seals, elevating half-step Lords to Lords."
"You guys don't have to stop just yet. You should continue cultivating in preparation to mend your Dao seals."
In reality, Lin Huang had the Flawless Card that could repair their Dao seals. However, he was not going to tell them that for now.
The reason being was that, as soon as he told them that, the Sword Servants might not care if they could succeed in their unification or not; they could elevate to Lords even if they failed. In that case, there was no need for them to spend so much effort in cultivation.
With the couple of failed unifications, those Sword Servants who had yet to perform unification would definitely feel the pressure, and would work harder in their cultivation.
Regarding the function of the Flawless Cards, Lin Huang would only tell them before heading to the universe.
The seven Sword Servants who failed their unifications made Lin Huang realize that failed unifications would not unlock the plateau in his Kingdom further.
After the rank-4.5 Sword Servants performed their unifications, Lin Huang spent some time sorting out the remaining Sword Dao inheritances and sent the remaining rank-4.5 Sword Servants into the Great Heaven Palace where the flow of time was accelerated by 10,000 times.
Approximately half a month later, all of the Sword Servants had performed their unifications one after the other.
With Lin Huang's help, among the remaining 331 Sword Servants, 91 of them elevated to lord-level successfully.
If not for the fact that Lin Huang helped them in the last stage of Dao plundering, less than 20 of them would have been able to break through using their own ability.
Most of those who failed were stuck at the unification stage.
Only less than 20 of them found themselves stuck at the first stage of psychic communication.
Although only less than one-third of them had successfully been elevated to Lords, Lin Huang knew very well that it was a pretty good result.
For those who failed their unifications, Lin Huang made them cultivate into half-step Lords.
However, he did not tell them about the Flawless Card for now.
Among the 368 Sword Servants, 121 of them successfully elevated to Lords, which gave Lin Huang the opportunity to consolidate 121 Dao seals.
On the imperial monsters' side, 11 of them performed unification again to consolidate Dao seals, which gave Lin Huang an additional 37 Dao seals.
The number of Lin Huang's Dao seals increased to 3,158.
Compared to the time when he had just consolidated 3,001 Dao seals and had been elevated to minor dao-level, his ability did not undergo a qualitative transformation.
However, he knew that as the number of Dao seals increased, it was only a matter of time before the qualitative transformation would happen.
Seizing the opportunity, he refined all of the upper-rank Lords' and ultimate Lords' Kingdoms that he had yet to refine previously.
As he had yet to elevate to minor dao-level at that point, 3,000 Dao seals was the limit that he could use. Even if he was in his own Kingdom, he could not borrow even one additional Dao seal from the Kingdom. Therefore, he had not wasted time refining them.
Now that he had been elevated to minor dao-level, the restriction on his Godly Right had been lifted.
Not only outside the Kingdom, the number of Dao seals he could borrow was tenfold the number he personally mastered. In the Kingdom, he could use even more Dao seals. He had not even managed to test the limits within the Kingdom.
The round of refining 211 upper-rank Lords' and eight ultimate-rank Lords' Kingdoms boosted close to 80,000 Dao seals in his Kingdom. The total amount reached 121,163.
In reality, the number of Dao seals had exceeded the limit of minor dao-level.
However, Lin Huang realized there he could still use all of the Dao seals in his Kingdom. 121,163 Dao seals were still not the limit he could use.
In other words, theoretically, he could fight major dao-level powerhouses within his Kingdom.
Nevertheless, he did not think that he actually had the ability to fight if he really were to encounter a major dao-level powerhouse.
If he really did encounter one, he figured he would most probably be killed by the person directly before his Kingdom had even arrived.
However, this round of refining gave Lin Huang a new way of elevating his combat ability.
He required an outer force to unlock the restriction of consolidating Dao seals.
He could only take things slowly with this method.
He hypothesized that there was still a long way to go from 3,000 to 10,000 Dao seals.
The only Dao seals he could borrow came from the Kingdoms that he refined.
There were over 120,000 Dao seals, yet it had still not reached its limit.
There was ample room for an upgrade by elevating with this method of increasing his Dao seals.
"It seems that I can refine more Kingdoms to increase the number of Dao seals I can use in my Kingdom. I wonder what's the limit of this method…"
Lin Huang returned to the material realm after stepping out of the virtual realm cabin. He began to worry about resources.
Apart from necessities, he had exchanged all of the spoils that he obtained earlier for Kingdoms and refined them.
He looked like an extraordinarily extravagant grade-7 organization's leader with powerful abilities on the outside but, in reality, he could not even afford an extra low-grade Dao Weapon.
Even the over 300 Sword Servants would have to take turns to use the two low-grade Dao Weapons, the battle sword and soul jewel, for their unification.
From Sword 1 to Sword 368, the Dao Weapons were used over 300 times.
Fortunately, the Sword Servants were bonded to Lin Huang by a contract. They had an innate respect for him, so they would not gossip about him.
If the Sword Alliance's new members who had no contract with him saw that, they might have criticized him and quit.
"This has to change. I must think of ways to make money. If this goes on, it's going to be difficult to even operate the Sword Alliance." Lin Huang rubbed his temples hard.
He needed the resources to trade for Lords' Kingdoms. Aside from that, the Dao Weapons that he promised to the Sword Servants would cost a significant sum. Moreover, he needed a lot of money for the Sword Alliance's operations as well…
It was Lin Huang's first time worrying about money since stepping on the path of cultivation.
Chapter 1727: Huang League
300 to 400 people sat in the Sword Alliance headquarters' meeting room in the Pilgrim Star Zone.
Since the Sword Alliance was founded, this was the meeting with the most participants.
None of the Sword Servants were absent.
"I got everyone to be here today mainly to divide and restructure a portion of the Sword Alliance's departments, which might involve you guys. Take this opportunity to voice out any opinions and suggestions that you might have. We'll discuss it together."
Lin Huang nodded at Sword 1 after he gave a brief opening speech.
Sword 1 nodded affirmatively and took over the discussion.
"I'll get down to business directly."
"The first item is the restructuring of the Heavenly God League."
"As many of you have been elevated to Lords lately, it would be rather odd for you to stay in the Heavenly God League. Therefore, I've discussed matters with the Swordmaster to set up an individual department for all of the Lords. The temporary name of the department would be the Huang League. If you guys have a better name, you may suggest one. We can change it if there's a suitable one."
"Sword 2 will be Huang League's team leader, and Sword 3 will be the deputy team leader. I won't be reading out the name list. All of the lord-level Sword Servants will be joining the Huang League automatically."
"The first mission for the Huang League would be arranging at least two people to guard the Swordmaster. Sword 2 and Sword 3 will select the bodyguards everyday. All you have to do is take turns following their arrangement. If something comes up, inform Sword 2 or Sword 3 at least a day before so that they can replace you with another bodyguard. Don't swap your duty positions on your own. The reason being is because Sword 2 and Sword 3 will take the two assigned bodyguards' cultivation direction into consideration. Usually, there'll be a higher level of efficiency when the two bodyguards are assigned to work together. I hope everyone will be responsible for the Swordmaster's safety."
Lin Huang felt rather speechless as he listened to the mission's contents.
He thought, 'I'll be responsible for my own safety. You guys take care of yourself."
In reality, he did not want a bodyguard. However, he could deny Sword 1 who insisted on arranging that for him.
Lin Huang could only compromise. He agreed that the bodyguards could follow him around only when there were outsiders present. When there were no outsiders present, he did not need any bodyguards with him.
Most of the lord-level Sword Servants were unusually excited as they listened to the mission's contents. That was the job of the previous Swordmaster's bodyguards. Before this, there were only ten bodyguards for the Swordmaster.
"The second mission for the Huang League would be for everyone to carry out the Swordmaster's orders unconditionally."
"The third mission, which is also a short-term mission for the time being, is for all Huang League members to be sent into Royal's instanced dungeon to obtain resources one by one before heading to the universe. You guys can team up on your own. However, before teaming up, I'd suggest that you guys take into account each other's strengths and how it would complement the team."
"I'll send the details of the missions to Sword 2 and Sword 3 later. They will make the necessary arrangements."
"There's something that I would like to say here. Among the spoils you obtain from Royal's instanced dungeon, everyone will have to submit 30% to the Sword Alliance."
"The Sword Alliance requires a lot of funds for operations and development. Moreover, most of the rewards that you guys obtain later on will be traded from the spoils that you submitted."
"The fourth mission…"
…
After going over the matters regarding the Huang League, Sword 1 then changed the subject to the Heavenly God League that had been divided.
As there were over a hundred Sword Servants who had been elevated to Lords and moved to Huang League, the Heavenly God League had lost many of its group leaders.
Lin Huang had thought about this with Sword 1 and decided to restructure the Heavenly God League completely.
"As the league has lost many group leaders, we've decided to restructure the entire Heavenly God League."
"On the Heavenly God League's side, Sword 11 and Sword 12 will still be the captains."
"Sword 11 and Sword 12, you guys will be guarding the Heavenly God League. Under normal circumstances, the Huang League will not assign any missions to the both of you."
"The team leaders will be all of the 247 half-step Lords present. All of the Heavenly Gods will be divided equally to join the 247 teams."
"Also, all team leaders, please do not showcase your half-step Lord's combat strength outrightly. Try your best to disguise your aura at ninth-rank heavenly god-level. By doing that, we can prevent spies from other organizations from spreading the news of our Sword Alliance having many half-step Lords."
"After the meeting ends, you guys can choose your own teammates, but you can't force them to join you."
"Also, there'll be Royal's instanced dungeon mission for the Heavenly God League. The requirement is the same as the Huang League, where you're required to submit 30% of your spoils."
…
"Apart from the Huang League and Heavenly God League, there's a new intelligence department that has been newly-founded."
"The name of this intelligence department is Heavenly Network."
"For the time being, Lin Xin, Yang Ling and Hong Zhuang would be the department heads. Those who are adept in intelligence work are welcome to join."
"Also, if any of your subordinates are skilled in intelligence work, you can recommend them to the three department heads as well."
The Sword Servants looked at Lin Xin and the other two when they heard that.
Naturally, they knew of the Swordmaster's sister. Yang Ling and Hong Zhuang who had been staying at the Sword Alliance's headquarters were no strangers to them as well.
It was just that they had no idea what Yang Ling and Hong Zhuang's roles were in the past.
Now they finally knew that the two of them were in the intelligence field.
Those Sword Servants who were skilled in intelligence work were a little excited now.
"If there are any team leaders in the Heavenly God League who are skilled in intelligence work, they can transfer to the Heavenly Network as well. You'll have the privilege of getting the members under you to join. After all, the Heavenly Network has just been founded, so there's currently a major talent shortage." At the moment, Yang Ling could not help but speak up, "There's one thing that I'd like to say. Our Heavenly Network's main direction is internet data browsing. There's no spy-related work, so the inherent risk is low. Currently, we need people to conduct information trades with other organizations' intelligence departments. We warmly welcome those who have related job experience."
Sword Servants among the crowd raised their hands one after the other as soon as Yang Ling was done speaking.
Great Heaven had trained talents in this field before. There were some ten people among the Sword Servants who were skilled in intelligence work.
Lin Huang and Sword 1 did not want to force them to join the Heavenly Network. Therefore, they gave them the opportunity to choose on their own.
Very soon, Yang Ling recruited 13 team leaders. Sword 1 would get them to discuss the details on their own later.
The meeting went on.
Approximately about half an hour later, the Sword Servants left after the agendas regarding them had been discussed.
Sword 1 and Lin Huang were the only ones left in the meeting room.
"Anything else?" Lin Huang asked.
"Hunt and Mysterious Item Pavilion contacted our branch in the human world. They would like to collaborate," Sword 1 said softly.
"Sure. We can develop the branch in the human world." Lin Huang agreed to that directly.
Hunt and Mysterious Item Pavilion were top grade-6 organizations among the humans. To the Sword Alliance, it was good that they were willing to collaborate.
"Do you think we can give in a little bit on the collaboration agreement since they're the same kind as you, Lord Swordmaster?" Sword 1 could not really decide on such matters.
"No need to. Just do it as we usually do." Lin Huang waved. "It depends on their effort as to what they'll get."
"Also, the headquarters has basically been settled now. Should we maintain what we have at the branch in the human world or do we start recruiting to expand further?"
"Let's recruit new members. There should be many worthy successors among the humans." Lin Huang decided without hesitation. "I'll get Bloody to draft a development plan for the branch within these two days. Please make the necessary arrangements."
Chapter 1728: The Branch in the Human World
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The Sword Alliance's development could be said to be in full swing throughout these few months.
They had exceeded three million official members. Among them were over tens of thousands of Heavenly Gods.
As they did not openly accept registrations like Death Sickle and the Combat God Temple did, the total number of members they had could definitely not be compared with those two organizations.
However, the number of Heavenly Gods they had were on par with the veteran grade-7 organizations such as God Capital and the Combat God Temple.
Regarding the number of Lords and half-step Lords, there was no need to compare that with the rest of the organizations.
The reason being was that they would be a total bully for doing so.
Given that the Huang League and Heavenly God League had entered Royal's instanced dungeon to obtain a huge amount of resources, the Sword Alliance's financial crisis was lifted entirely.
The Sword Alliance's headquarters could finally be considered to have stabilized in the God Territory.
The different collaborations with the other organizations in the God Territory were progressing steadily.
On the other side, the Sword Alliance's branch in the human world had three Lords guarding it. They were Sword 4, Sword 5, and Sword 6.
One-third of the members from the Heavenly God League were assigned there to assist the three of them in managing the branch's affairs.
After stabilizing the operations of the branch, the Sword Alliance soon announced the recruitment notice for new members.
A heated discussion broke out in the entire cultivation world among humans as soon as the recruitment notice was published.
Only a small number of top organizations among the humans knew that there was a Sword Alliance founded in the God Territory.
Regarding the information about the Sword Alliance, fewer humans knew about it.
Even fewer people knew that the Sword Alliance's Chief, Lin Huang, was actually a human.
Meanwhile, in the recruitment notice, they revealed Lin Huang's human identity directly.
Naturally, that created a stir.
"A human founded a grade-7 organization in the God Territory?! Can you guys use your head before you come up with stories? Will the grade-7 organizations in the God Territory agree to this? What makes you think that a human deserves to found a grade-7 organization in the God Territory?"
"This recruitment notice is so exaggerated. Although the internet we have here is different from the God Territory's, it's not impossible for us to find news about what goes on in the God Territory. As long as someone inquires, they can even find out what color Lin Huang's underwear is."
"Let's report this deceiving advertisement. Let's wait for it to be banned."
"Let's sit down and wait for the insiders from the God Territory to expose the truth."
…
It was a one-sided criticism on the internet. Almost all of the netizens thought Lin Huang's story was made up and that there was no organization called the Sword Alliance in the God Territory at all.
There were a small number of insiders who exposed information about the Sword Alliance, and the netizens treated them as the internet ghostwriters the Sword Alliance hired to make up stories.
This went on until the organization Hunt among the three Saints and the seven sects reposted the Sword Alliance's branch's recruitment notice.
Only a small number of netizens began to suspect that it was real.
After Hunt reposted the notice, within two minutes, the Mysterious Item Pavilion reposted it as well.
Later on, a couple more grade-5 and grade-6 organizations that were collaborating with the Sword Alliance reposted it too.
The trend on the internet began to change.
"What's happening? Why did Hunt and Mysterious Item Pavilion's official accounts repost that?!"
"Are they mocking them on purpose?"
…
Almost at the same time, some netizens who inquired about the matter from the God Territory received replies one after the other.
"There really is a new and rising grade-7 organization in the God Territory called the Sword Alliance."
"The Sword Alliance's chief is called Lin Huang. He's a human Lord."
"The Sword Alliance is the most popular organization in the God Territory. They have over 10,000 heavenly god-level members and they are on par with the remaining veteran grade-7 organizations in the God Territory."
…
Some people posted screenshots of the God Territory's replies on the internet.
At first, most of them still did not believe it.
As more and more evidence emerged, soon there were more insiders who revealed the information.
The trend on the internet had finally changed.
"So the Sword Alliance is real, and Lin Huang is also real… So the Sword Alliance we have here is really just a branch?"
"Crap, is this Sword Alliance an imitation?"
"Did they give it the same name just to ride on their coattails?"
"This organization is gutsy. Aren't they afraid that the real Sword Alliance from the God Territory would send someone over to slap them?"
…
Since they found out about the Sword Alliance's existence, that Lin Huang was real and a human, most of them still thought that the Sword Alliance in the human world was definitely an imitation.
After all, similar incidents had happened in the human world before.
Lin Huang and Sword 1 were not sure whether to laugh or cry when they learned of the humans' reactions.
As they discussed it, they used the Sword Alliance's account in the God Territory to post a thread to verify the authenticity of their branch in the human world.
The netizens finally ceased their suspicions when someone posted a screenshot of the thread on the human world's internet.
"The Sword Alliance is real, Lin Huang is real, and this branch is real as well. What are you guys waiting for? Let's apply to join them immediately!"
"I thought we'd see a show of someone being humiliated today. In the end, I'm the one feeling embarrassed."
"After gossiping the entire day, it turns out everything is real after all."
"I have a question. Even if this Lin Huang is a Lord, the other grade-7 organizations in the God Territory have Lords too. How could they just allow Lin Huang to found a grade-7 organization in their God Territory?"
"Maybe they can't beat Lin Huang?" Someone replied to that instantly.
Later on, an insider revealed, "God Capital wanted to stir a ruckus at the Sword Alliance's upgrade banquet, but they were humiliated on the spot. Also, Lin Huang isn't the only Lord in the Sword Alliance. There's someone called Lancelot who is suspected to be a middle-rank Lord."
As more people revealed information about the Sword Alliance and Lin Huang, everyone was getting more and more curious about them.
Many netizens had learned to use VPN to browse for the Sword Alliance and Lin Huang's information on all the social media platforms in the God Territory.
1
The Sword Alliance's popularity had just passed not long ago on the internet on God Territory's side.
Many viral threads were found quickly. Among them included threads with detailed notes of the entire process of how the Sword Alliance rose, which were made by some of the organization's supporters.
After reading those threads, the people in the human world suddenly realized that the news that was exposed earlier was merely the tip of the iceberg.
This Sword Alliance and its chief Lin Huang were much more powerful than what they had imagined.
Very soon, someone had posted a detailed thread with notes on the internet on the humans' side.
After reading the thread, everyone finally realized that there was really someone of their own kind who had been wandering in the foreign land, the God Territory, and hiding his identity just to avoid being killed. He achieved lord-level with his own ability and overthrew his enemy—the Myriad Tribe Palace, a top grade-6 organization in the God Territory—who had annihilated his native land. Later on, he founded a grade-7 organization—the Sword Alliance—with a group of Protoss friends upon the ruins of the Myriad Tribe Palace.
Most of the human cultivators admired Lin Huang after learning his story, while a small number of them felt regretful.
They thought if Lin Huang teleported to the human world directly back then, then there would be one more grade-7 organization among the humans.
Lin Huang's story was quickly spread among the humans.
Many cultivators were inspired after reading the story.. They sent their applications to join the Sword Alliance's branch in the human world.
Chapter 1729: Mr. Fu Returns
Time flew by, and over a month had passed.
The Sword Alliance's headquarters in the God Territory was thriving. The branch in the human world had also begun to take shape.
The Sword Alliance's financial crisis had been solved earlier and, as Lin Huang promised, he got each of the Sword Servants in the Huang League a set of Dao Weapons.
Lin Huang even went to the human world and visited the three Saints and the seven sects of the human race.
All of the media channels were fighting to report about it in the human world.
It resulted in the Sword Alliance going viral in the human world again.
The Sword Alliance's branch among the human race recruited over 300,000 new members.
Although that was insignificant in the God Territory, it was still considered a pretty great start.
At the Sword Alliance's headquarters, not only had the Huang League been established, but the new department, Heavenly Network, as well.
Under Lin Xin, Yang Ling and Hong Zhuang's guidance, the Sword Alliance constructed a massive information network.
They were primarily collecting information at the moment, but Yang Ling boasted that it was only a matter of time before this network would become the information center of this great world.
As the Sword Alliance's development had been stabilized in all aspects, Lin Huang had become a boss who did nothing.
He had placed Sword 1 in charge after all, while all the departments also had a person-in-charge appointed, with Bloody as their adviser.
He was not worried about the future of the Sword Alliance's development at all.
No matter what, Sword 1 would inform him in advance if there were important occasions that required him to show himself. Sword 1 would prepare the rest on his side. All he had to do was to show up for the occasion.
Meanwhile, Lin Huang would enter the virtual realm every day to refine the inheritance fragments that the Nirvana Trees had sent over from the death spring. He obtained significant information about the universe from those fragments.
"So the great world is actually so small…"
Before this, Lin Huang had heard of the concept of the universe. It was an ocean with many great worlds that were connected to each other.
Only once he saw the memories of those powerhouses from the universe did he truly discover how vast the real universe was.
The great world that he was in was just an insignificant speck of dust compared to it.
In the universe, there were countless specks of dust like this.
Most living beings could not leave these specks of dust throughout their lifetimes.
One day, Sword 1 sent a message not long after Lin Huang left the virtual realm.
"Lord Swordmaster, please come to the small meeting room on the top floor."
"What happened?" Lin Huang replied instantly.
Sword 1 basically would not disturb him unless it was something important.
Therefore, the first reaction Lin Huang had was to think that an issue had occurred.
"You'll find out when you get here," Sword 1 replied immediately.
That confused Lin Huang a little.
Whenever he needed to show himself, Sword 1 would always tell him the information directly. Not only that, he would get into the details, worried that he would miss out on anything.
However, he asked him to go to the meeting room first this time?!
Lin Huang did not ask further after seeing Sword 1's reply. He appeared in the meeting room in a flash.
As soon as he arrived at the meeting room, he saw a familiar figure standing at the window.
Although it was the person's back, the expression on Lin Huang's face softened instantly. "Master?!"
The man at the window turned around and smiled at Lin Huang. He took a good look at him. "Your appearance hasn't changed much, kid, but the air about you has. You really look like a chief now."
"You've aged at least ten years compared to before, master," Lin Huang teased while chuckling.
"I have a beard now. Does it make me look very old? I'll shave it off later."
This person was Lin Huang's master who had seen him grow—Mr. Fu.
After Mr. Fu elevated to second-rank true god-level three years ago, he felt his cultivation progress begin to slow down. Thus, he bid farewell to Lin Huang and traveled alone.
In reality, there was a Sword Servant secretly following and protecting him throughout those years. He would report to Lin Huang on Mr. Fu's condition on a regular basis.
However, Mr. Fu had never returned throughout those three years.
He had finally returned now.
"You've really grown a lot throughout the three or so years that I've been away." Mr. Fu got Lin Huang to sit down and could not help but exclaim, "I thought no matter how stunning your talents were, you'd require at least 30 to 50 years to stand out in the great world. I thought it'd be perfect for me to return to help you in 20 to 30 years."
"Never would I have thought that I would hear about your name in the human world after a short three years." Mr. Fu had joy filling his eyes. "I only found out that the Sword Alliance had been elevated to a grade-7 organization when I saw everyone on the internet talking about you and the Sword Alliance."
Naturally, Lin Huang knew that Mr. Fu had been staying in the human world throughout the three or so years, burying himself in travels and cultivation.
Due to the restriction and isolation of the human world's network, Mr. Fu did not know much about what had happened in the God Territory.
It was only during the recent month that Lin Huang's name had surfaced among the cultivators in the human world, as the Sword Alliance began to develop their branch in the human world and recruit new members.
Mr. Fu had seen that information and verified that it was him. Only then did he contact the Sword Alliance's branch.
"The Sword Alliance has only been developing for less than half a year here. We've been focusing on the one in the Pilgrim Star Zone. Only once things were stable did we develop the branch in the human world to train some human talents. Therefore, we only started to recruit members at the branch in the human world last month."
Lin Huang gave a simple explanation.
"To be honest, I suspected that it was fake news when I first saw it. I was only less skeptical when I looked through the threads online these past few days and saw the reposts from a few organizations like Hunt and Mysterious Item Pavilion. Later on, I got a guy from the black market to ask around and confirm that the news was real." Mr. Fu was indeed slow when it came to receiving news.
"The internet also says that you've been elevated to Lord? Is that true?" Mr. Fu asked as if he was gossiping.
"I guess." Lin Huang coughed twice.
In reality, he had surpassed lord-level now.
Mr. Fu had a completely different understanding of what he said. He thought Lin Huang meant that his combat strength had yet to reach lord-level, but that he already possessed lord-level ability.
"Actually, there's one thing that I don't understand," Mr. Fu raised another doubt, "Why did those grade-7 organizations in the God Territory allow you to establish the Sword Alliance? Don't tell me they want another grade-7 organization in the God Territory to share their resources? None of them sent Lords to suppress you?"
Lin Huang smiled when he heard that question. "Suppress me? They would need to have the ability first."
Mr. Fu had a rough understanding of what happened after hearing that.
It was not that the grade-7 organizations in the God Territory had allowed the Sword Alliance to rise. Instead, they were lacking in abilities and could not do anything about them. They could only watch the Sword Alliance rise in prominence.
"Is the Myriad Tribe Palace you destroyed the organization behind the Thousand Snake Sect you mentioned before?" Mr. Fu continued to ask.
"That's right. The Thousand Snake Sect invaded the gravel world over and over again on the Myriad Tribe Palace's orders." Lin Huang nodded. He did not tell him about the secret behind the Myriad Tribe Palace.
After all, it was futile even if he told Mr. Fu about that. It would only worry him.
"Have you cleared them out entirely?" A ferocious gleam flashed through Mr. Fu's eyes.
"I've cleared all of them out, including the Thousand Snake Sect." Lin Huang nodded.
"That's great." Mr. Fu was relieved now.
Chapter 1730: Liu Fu's Invitation
Mr. Fu's return was undoubtedly great news.
In reality, Lin Huang was not the happiest one when they heard the news of his return; rather, Lin Xin and Lin Xuan were.
After reuniting with him, Lin Xin held onto Mr. Fu's arm and asked him not to leave.
Lin Xuan, who was usually cold and quiet, revealed a rare smile.
Bai and the other imperial monsters were also over the moon to see the old master return home.
Mr. Fu felt pretty good seeing so many familiar faces.
Although he had never stopped cultivating over the past three years, his combat strength had only elevated by a rank. He was at third-rank true god-level now.
He was considered the person with the lowest combat strength among the group, yet everyone loved and respected him.
Lin Xin and Lin Xuan had elevated to ninth-rank true god-level much earlier thanks to the vast amount of resources they accumulated throughout the years.
Chan Dou, on the other hand, had been elevated to heavenly god-level.
Not to mention the imperial monsters that were already on lord-level now.
It was not about him being Lin Huang's master, but rather that his image as a senior had been rooted in their hearts since the beginning.
"Not bad, not bad. All of you have had significant growth." Mr. Fu did not have any jealous thoughts.
Although everyone had surpassed him in terms of combat strength, he was happy.
Three years ago, he resolutely chose to leave as he was worried that he would lose his will to cultivate further if he stayed by Lin Huang's side.
Now seeing these juniors around Lin Huang remain in high fighting spirit, having not lost their determination to improve themselves, it showed that Lin Huang had not spoiled them.
He knew that if he were to stay, he would be at least ninth-rank true god-level now. However, he did not regret the choice he made.
After all, one would make countless choices throughout one's lifetime. One should move on after making up their mind about it and move on to doing it.
There was no need to look back and regret.
…
Since Mr. Fu's return, Lin Huang could clearly feel that the atmosphere at the Sword Alliance's headquarters was much more upbeat now.
Even Lin Huang was feeling very relaxed for no reason.
He could not help but secretly exclaim that the Sword Alliance finally felt like home with a senior like Mr. Fu around.
Over the next few days, Lin Xin clung onto Mr. Fu, afraid that he would run away once again.
She was still worried even though Mr. Fu promised repeatedly that he would not leave.
Shee would drag Xiao Mo and Lin Xuan to the courtyard Mr. Fu was staying in.
Very soon, Lin Huang returned to his initial routine.
He spent most of his time immersed in the virtual realm cabin, refining those Origin Energy fragments the Nirvana Trees sent out.
When he returned from using the virtual realm cabin a couple of days later, he suddenly sensed a rather familiar aura arriving in the Pilgrim Star Zone.
He appeared before that person in a flash.
"Liu Fu?" Lin Huang was quite surprised to see that it was Liu Fu. "What is it that requires you to come all the way here instead of just informing me through the Royal Token?"
"This isn't my Primordium. It's just a clone," Liu Fu explained with a smile.
"You've broken through?"
Lin Huang instantly noticed that the clone's aura had actually exceeded that of a Lord. It was clearly more powerful than Liu Fu's Primordium before.
"Your senses are so sharp. I can't believe you noticed that." Liu Fu did not seem to expect that Lin Huang managed to tell from a glance. "I've just broken through today. My Primordium is still stabilizing his cultivation base."
"Congratulations! You're a dao-level master now," Lin Huang teased while smiling.
He was on dao-level too so, naturally, he did not fear Liu Fu.
Liu Fu did not think too much about it and merely said with a smile, "I'm only on the minor dao-level. I'll be a real master when I achieve the major dao-level one day."
"Are there many minor dao-level powerhouses in the universe?" Lin Huang could not help but ask.
He did not seem to see many people who had met dao-level powerhouses from the inheritance memories that he had obtained from the Nirvana Tree.
Among the small number of dao-level powerhouses' inheritance memories, there were purely cultivation methods. There were no memories regarding this aspect.
"Not many, but not little as well. You should know that the universe comprises countless great worlds, and each great world has an astronomical number of living beings within. The total number of those countless astronomical numbers would make up the number of living beings in the entire universe."
"When the number is this great, no matter how low the probability of cultivators breaking through to the minor dao-level, there would still be many of them."
"However, as the universe is extraordinarily vast, dao-level powerhouses are scattered around. It's very hard for such cultivators to run into each other, which is why even more people think that there are only a few dao-level powerhouses in the universe."
"I see." Lin Huang kept nodding as he listened.
He suspected that there were only a few dao-level powerhouses as there were hardly any recordings about other dao-level powerhouses from the inheritance memories he obtained from the Nirvana Trees.
He had only found out about the truth after listening to Liu Fu's explanation.
"With your level of talent and potential, it's only a matter of time before you achieve minor dao-level," Liu Fu comforted.
"Why did you make a clone and come here this time?" Lin Huang circled back to the main subject.
"I'm hosting an upgrade banquet to hype things up," Liu Fu added, before saying, "To put it bluntly, I want my new and old friends to see that I've broken through past lord-level!"
"Indeed, you should let everyone know." Lin Huang nodded while smiling.
"I came here this time to invite you to join the upgrade banquet."
"Sure, I'll definitely be there," Lin Huang agreed to his request directly.
"Here is the invitation." Liu Fu handed over a black card as he spoke. There were golden words engraved on it. "Crush it on the day. A dimensional portal will open automatically and send you to the banquet venue."
"There's such an advanced invitation card?" Lin Huang took the invitation card from Liu Fu's hand. He began to think of what gift he should get Liu Fu.
Liu Fu could not help but speak after handing the invitation to Lin Huang. "I thought that you wouldn't stay long in this great world since the last time we met. It's been half a year, and you're still here. Are you unwilling to leave, or are there any other reasons for this?"
"There are some matters that I haven't settled." Lin Huang gave a perfunctory answer.
Liu Fu shook his head, feeling a little helpless. "I suggest that you head out to the universe soon. With your current ability, it's hard for you to obtain enough cultivation resources in this great world. Meanwhile, there are opportunities and resources everywhere in the universe."
"Also, report yourself to Royal's headquarters as soon as possible when you get to the universe. You're a Rank-S member, so you can claim a welcome gift…"
"Focus on your cultivation and try your best to break through to dao-level. Don't waste time on things that aren't important."
Lin Huang knew that Liu Fu was advising him out of kindness. He merely listened quietly and nodded his head every now and then.
Close to half an hour had passed by the time Liu Fu was done speaking.
He then bid farewell to Lin Huang. The clone that landed in this great world faded away directly.
Lin Huang stood in the air where he was while fiddling with the black card in his hand. He was thinking whether he should put heading to the universe on his agenda soon.