Chapter 1371: Carved Heart Pavilion
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
In the next few days, Lin Huang did not continue going to the ruins and secret zones in the Great Heaven Territory. Instead, he decided to relax, act like a tourist, and stroll around Heavenly Sword Planet.
Although he had not found Jin Wu, he had completely expected that; very quickly he put the matter behind him.
The travel itinerary sent by Great Heaven1 was very detailed. Both big and small tourist spots on Heavenly Sword Planet were clearly listed, including the recommendation ratings of three to five stars. There were also various food and specialty shops on the planet that were also marked with recommendation star ratings and detailed addresses for authentic local goods, as well as the normal price of items.
Lin Huang walked around with the two Sword Servants for a whole day, and they only managed to visit only one-fifth of the places on the itinerary.
The next morning, Lin Huang and the two Sword Servants came to a handicraft shop.
This shop was a five-star one recommended by Sword11; it was a place that sold sculptures.
All of the sculptures had been hand-carved by the proprietor and they were exquisitely beautiful.
According to the information provided by Sword11, the owner of the shop was just an ordinary person who did not have cultivation potential, but who gained insight into the meaning of Sword Dao through carving. Although it was only the most rudimentary entry-level stage of level-1 Sword Dao, it was also quite remarkable. One had to know that many sword cultivators who had elevated to transcendent level might not necessarily even understand level-1 Sword Dao.
Based on that alone, Lin Huang became interested in both the shop and the shop owner.
As soon as he arrived at the door of the shop, Lin Huang saw a wooden signboard. The three words "Carved Heart Pavilion" on the signboard were obviously carved by the shop owner.
From afar, Lin Huang had already felt that there was a faint inner meaning to it.
Although it was very shallow and light, it was indeed a character that could only be sculpted by a person who had grasped the meaning of Sword Dao.
"Carved Heart… This shop owner's manner of expression is certainly not small." Lin Huang smiled faintly and entered the shop with the two Sword Servants.
The store area was not large; it was an estimated 30 to 40 ping1.
Several large cabinets against the wall extended from the floor to the roof. The shelves inside were all full of palm-sized sculptures.
Most of these sculptures were a variety of monsters; a few were human beings, but none of the sculptures were repeats.
In addition to the cabinet against the wall, two large tables had been placed in the room, covered with black cloth, and used as display stands.
The sculptures on the tables were densely arranged, and they were no longer sized like the standard ones in the cabinet. Here, there were sculptures both big and small. The big ones were about half a meter high and the small ones were just the size of a thumb.
Lin Huang glanced at the sculptures on the tables with their varying heights and could not help raising his eyebrows.
"Boss, there are some pieces on these tables that you didn't carve, am I right?"
Lin Huang said this because he felt that most of the sculptures on the table did not have a sense of inner meaning like the shop owner's own carvings.
"Some of these are my early failures, some I collected from various places, and a small number of them were carved by several of my apprentices." The shop owner glanced up at Lin Huang, seemingly surprised by Lin Huang's perception.
Lin Huang glanced over the tables. Suddenly a sculpture caught his attention.
It was a three-legged Golden Crow with a height of almost 30 cm; the material used for the carving was ordinary ebony.
The carving on the Golden Crow was average. The main problem was that the lines were too rigid. It looked a bit like a novice's work, but what caused Lin Huang to feel puzzled was the faintest traces of inner meaning hidden within the sculpture.
If he had not mastered Sword Dao true meaning, it would have been difficult for him to even have sensed this inner meaning.
What puzzled Lin Huang even more was that the inner meaning was different from that of the shop owner.
He picked up the Golden Crow sculpture and examined it carefully. He then noticed that the base of the sculpture was inscribed with two words-—"Jin Wu"!
When he saw these two words, Lin Huang's mind received a mild shock.
He immediately initiated his Divine Telekinesis and scanned the sculpture carefully.
Under a Divine Telekinesis scan, the issues with this sculpture became more apparent. There were problems in the detailing. It gave off the feeling of a novice who had not learned to sculpt.
Other than that, however, Lin Huang did not sense anything.
Just as Lin Huang was about to question the shop owner, Yin Yin's voice suddenly came.
"The aura of this sculpture—Yin Yin feels that it is slightly familiar…"
"Is it related to Teacher Great Heaven?" Lin Huang asked quickly.
"Yin Yin doesn't know, she can't remember…" Yin Yin still did not give a definite answer.
Although he did not get the desired answer from Yin Yin, Lin Huang speculated that even if this object was not directly related to Great Heaven, it might be related to the "Jin Wu" whom the Club was looking for.
He glanced at the other wood carvings, then searched carefully again with Divine Telekinesis; there were no other sculptures similar to this one.
He then walked towards the shop owner with the Golden Crow sculpture.
"Boss, how much is this?"
The proprietor lifted his head to eye the Golden Crow that Lin Huang was holding, then glanced back to Lin Huang again. "If you want it, I'll give it to you for free."
"Why? Isn't it worth anything?" Lin Huang asked deliberately for the sake of getting more information.
"This was carved by a child two months ago when he was sitting in on my free class. For a novice to have carved something like in his first class shows he has quite a bit of natural talent. Unfortunately, after that free class he hasn't been here again," the store owner explained, "If you like it, take it."
"Can I ask for the child's particulars?" Lin Huang asked again.
"Why are you asking about this?" The shop owner looked at Lin Huang rather warily.
"I am a cultivator and I have been looking for an apprentice. After seeing this sculpture today, I think that this child may be the one I am looking for," Lin Huang used Sword11's pretext. When he had finished speaking, his figure slowly levitated from the ground, indicating his identity as a cultivator.
When the shop owner saw that Lin Huang's feet were floating off the ground, he was stunned for a while. It took a moment for him to gather his senses and ask rather diffidently, "You just need one look to know if there is cultivation potential?"
"One look is enough for me." Lin Huang nodded with a smile as he slowly descended to land on the floor.
"Then could you help me look?" The shop owner asked with some embarrassment. He was in his fifties but still dreamed of becoming a cultivator.
"You have chosen very well with your path of sculpting. Don't worry about cultivating," Lin Huang replied with a smile.
Although he did not get a clear answer, the shop owner understood the meaning behind Lin Huang's words. His face turned red and he did not dare pursue the matter further.
"I'll ask my apprentice, those who attended the free class should have had their details recorded."
When he finished speaking, the shop owner quickly contacted his apprentice and asked for personal information Lin Huang had requested.
"The child's name is Wu Hao; he is 16 years old. His address is Meteor Street…"
When he read out the address, the proprietor's face changed slightly.
"What's wrong?" Lin Huang noticed this and asked immediately.
"Meteor Street is a slum and it is very chaotic there…" The shop owner muttered softly after he finished, "No wonder he only came for the free class…"
"Thanks!" Lin Huang tossed the owner a Divine Stone and disappeared with the two Sword Servants.
Stunned, the proprietor stared in the direction where the three of them had stood before they disappeared. A moment later, he came out of his daze. When he saw the black Divine Stone in his hands, his eyes widened suddenly and his words became incoherent.
"This…this is…a Di- … Di-… Divine Stone?!"
Chapter 1372: Meteor Street
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Meteor Street sounded like a street name, but it was actually the general designation for all the streets in Heavenly Sword Planet's slum.
This area was named Meteor Street because many of the people living here had a life span as short as meteors—gone just like that.
Those who lived in Meteor Street were basically the lowest social strata of the planet.
Organized crime syndicates, gangsters, thieves, red-light districts, and shady underground businesses were the mainstays of this area.
Sword11 had thought of cleaning up the area previously but later discovered that these darker elements could not be completely eliminated. Even if he cleared the present Meteor Street, in a few years, another Meteor Street would spring up. Even if he led strike after strike against the area and punished the criminals with strict laws, at most it would just splinter the whole of Meteor Street into countless smaller Meteor Streets.
No matter how bright the sun, there would always be places where its light could not reach.
In the end, Sword11 had come around—as long as Meteor Street was within his control, there was no need for him to go all out.
The various crime bosses of Meteor Street were also smart people. They understood the present state of affairs and had caught on to Sword11's line of thinking. They actively gave in and never dared to do anything too overtly outrageous.
In this way, the state of affairs in Meteor Street was preserved.
After they left the Carved Heart Pavilion, Lin Huang appeared on Meteor Street with the two Sword Servants.
Lin Huang could not help frowning at the putrid smell that permeated the air.
At a glance, there were at least twenty or thirty pieces of garbage simply tossed onto the narrow streets.
Leftover lunch boxes, bloody toilet paper, used condoms, thick green sputum that stuck to the ground… Lin Huang even saw urine stains on several walls—judging by the height, they were clearly not left by dogs.
On the side of the road, men gathered in small clusters of twos and threes eyed the tall Sword302 with unrestrained lasciviousness. Some did not even bother to conceal their arousal and even deliberately stroked their crotches with their hands while they smiled at Sword302 in the most creepy fashion.
Sword302 was not fazed by the situation. With a faint smile, her long legs in their high heels moved forward a step.
The next moment, the faintest aura of Wind Elemental Enlightenment stirred.
An instant later, a violent wind sprang up over the whole street, blowing so violently that countless houses tottered on the verge of collapse.
Fortunately, the wind died down after a short three to five seconds.
After the wind stopped, all the rubbish on the ground, including the trash bins overflowing with filthy water and the men by the roadside, had disappeared.
"Trash should be cleaned up," Sword302 said indifferently as she returned to Lin Huang's side.
Of course, Lin Huang could see that Sword302 had not killed anyone. She had merely used Wind Elemental Enlightenment to blow the men away with the garbage.
After that violent gust of wind earlier, he could clearly sense that the air of this narrow street was much fresher and cleaner.
Ignoring the hastily closing doors and windows on both sides of the road, Lin Huang led the two Sword Servants forward and they continued walking.
After they had passed five or six streets, Lin Huang finally found the house where the boy named Wu Hao lived. It was in the deepest part of a small alley that measured less than a meter in width.
This dark, damp alley was sunless for almost 24 hours a day.
Wu Hao's house was the innermost partitioned space; the area was about 10 square meters based on Lin Huang's visual inspection. The small window was crisscrossed with line upon line of rusty bars; none of the glass was intact.
The door of Wu Hao's room faced out and was wide open. The door was also rotten and broken; there was a fist-sized hole on it about the height of a man's shin, which seemed to be from someone's kick.
However, Lin Huang also noticed that the front of the house was clean and almost spotless as if someone had just tidied it up not long ago.
Based on his initial understanding of the child's situation, Lin Huang thought about it for a moment, left the two Sword Servants where they were, and walked toward the room alone.
In the open room, as Lin Huang had expected, there was only one bed and one table.
A teenager was sitting on the edge of the bed. He held a small knife and was quietly carving a piece of wood. The wood chips were scattered over a piece of newspaper on his desk.
Lin Huang recognized the prototype the boy had carved with just a glance. It was a dragon beast. Although there were not enough details yet, he could roughly tell that it was an Archaic Fire Dragon.
The teenager did not notice Lin Huang's arrival as he was focused on his carving. Lin Huang did not speak up to disturb him either. He stood quietly outside the door and watched the teenager carve the Archaic Fire Dragon into being.
It was almost noon by the time the teenager finally had the basic shape carved for the Archaic Fire Dragon he was holding.
He appeared to be a little tired. He put down the woodcarving and stretched. When he looked up, he saw Lin Huang at his door.
The teenager was startled when he saw Lin Huang.
However, he quickly calmed down, moved his fingers unobtrusively, and transferred the carving knife in his right hand into his palm to hide it. At the same time, he was on high alert and asked Lin Huang with a hint of warning in his voice, "Who are you looking for?"
Lin Huang noticed the teenager's slight movement. He smiled and took out the wood carving that he had obtained from the Carved Heart Pavilion. "Is this three-legged Golden Crow your work?"
The teenager's eyes narrowed slightly, not because he saw his woodcarving, but because he noticed that the woodcarving in Lin Huang's hand appeared out of thin air.
"You're a cultivator and I'm just an ordinary person. Just tell me what you want, don't beat around the bush." The teenager glanced in the direction of the window; he had already begun to plan an escape route in his head.
"Don't worry, I don't have any malicious intentions. It's just that when I visited the Carved Heart Pavilion earlier today, I saw your work by accident and thought it wasn't too bad, so I came to visit."
"Do you think I'm going to believe you? The lines of the sculpture are so ugly and the details are full of mistakes. A cultivator like you thinks that it's not too bad?" Based on the expression on the teenager's face, it was not clear whether he was questioning Lin Huang's aesthetics, or what Lin Huang had said.
"I didn't say that you carved well. What I thought was not too bad was the inner meaning left in the sculpture," Lin Huang explained somewhat helplessly.
He had not expected Wu Hao to be so suspicious. However, if one considered the environment the boy lived in, it was understandable.
"Don't coax me like I'm a kid," Wu Hao obviously did not believe in Lin Huang's statement. "Meteor Street's rules don't allow cultivators to do anything to ordinary people who aren't cultivators. Whatever your purpose is in looking for me, you've already broken the rules. If anything happens to me, Lord Sword11 will most definitely send someone to investigate it thoroughly!"
Although there was such a rule in Meteor Street, deaths happened in this area every day. There were at least hundreds of ordinary people who died for various reasons every year; Sword11 did not have the time to investigate each of these cases.
"Well, it seems that you won't believe whatever I have to say." Lin Huang was speechless for a while. "In that case, I'll find someone who can talk to you."
Wu Hao's muscles tightened as he stared at Lin Huang with a wary face. Just when he thought Lin Huang had other associates, Lin Huang dialed a number in front of him.
Within seconds the call was picked up and a figure projected itself in front of Wu Hao.
Wu Hao was stunned when he saw who the figure was.
"Sword…Sword11?!"
Chapter 1373: Would You Like To Be My Apprentice?
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
"Are you truly Sword11's Senior Brother?!"
After listening to Sword11's explanation, Wu Hao was 80% convinced of Lin Huang's identity, but he still had 20% worth of doubts left.
"If I really had wanted to do something to you, I would have done it already. I wouldn't need to waste my time standing by the door just to explain things to you, much less request Sword11 to make an appearance.
"Also, you don't need to wonder whether the Sword11 in the video projection was real or fake. In a moment I'll take you to Heavenly Sword Palace to see him personally."
At Lin Huang's words, Wu Hao was finally able to completely dispel of all his doubts.
Wu Hao also knew that the person before him was a cultivator; Wu Hao would not have been able to fight him nor escape from him. If Lin Huang genuinely harbored any ill intentions toward Wu Hao, he could have achieved them directly with a show of force—there would have been no need at all for so much explanation. Even if Lin Huang had forcibly kidnapped Wu Hao, not many people would have noticed.
As to whether the Sword11 he had seen was the genuine article or not, Wu Hao had also experienced a moment of uncertainty. However, when he considered it, no matter what the other party's intentions were, there was no need to set up such an elaborate deception for an ordinary slum-dweller like himself, much less find someone to impersonate Sword11.
There was one more detail that made Wu Hao absolutely certain that Lin Huang meant him no harm, namely, Lin Huang had stood outside the threshold of the door and had not tried to come in.
Growing up in a place like Meteor Street, Wu Hao had developed an extremely high level of vigilance since childhood. From his point of view, a person who approached himself for no reason must be plotting something.
That was why he had been fully on his guard when he first saw Lin Huang.
Now he was sure that Lin Huang meant him no harm, he finally put down the carving knife hidden in his palm.
"Come in and sit down," Wu Hao only remembered that he did not have a stool in his house after he finished speaking.
This did not bother Lin Huang at all. When he came into the house, he saw a row of sculptures by the window sill. He picked one up at random and studied it.
The sculpture that he had picked up was a Fire Ape.
This sculpture was only palm-sized but the details were much more defined than the previous three-legged Golden Crow. The overall lines of the carving were also much more aesthetically pleasing; there were almost no significant faults that could be picked out. Even the inner meaning contained within the sculpture was considerably stronger than what had been in the Golden Crow.
Lin Huang also noticed that the base of the sculpture was also engraved with two large words—"Jin Wu".
He used Divine Telekinesis to scan the rest of the sculptures and found that the words "Jin Wu" had been inscribed underneath all the bases. He then smiled and turned towards Wu Hao.
"You gave yourself a pseudonym?"
"Using my real name might get me into trouble," Wu Hao explained, "It's not a bad thing to be overly cautious."
Lin Huang wanted to say, "You are way too cautious", but refrained.
After he had confirmed that "Jin Wu" was Wu Hao's pseudonym, Lin Huang was almost 90% certain that this was the child named "Jin Wu" whom the Club was looking for.
When he first saw Wu Hao from the door earlier, he realized that this boy's Sword Dao had broken through to level-3—Illumination. However, there was no trace at all of a cultivator's aura within him.
This meant that this young man named Wu Hao had leveled himself up to level-3 Sword Dao in just over two months, merely through his carving.
Lin Huang himself knew how difficult it was to elevate his Sword Dao.
It had taken him more than a year to elevate to level-3 Sword Dao through conduits, daily sword practice, and frequent combat.
This child named Wu Hao was undoubtedly an ultimate genius in Sword Dao!
After he had confirmed Wu Hao's Sword Dao talent, Lin Huang could not help but be tempted by a thought.
"Would you like to be my apprentice and learn sword skills from me?"
Initially, the plan to take Wu Hao on as an apprentice was just an excuse. Lin Huang had wanted to see what kind of person the Club was searching for and what was so special about him.
However, after seeing Wu Hao's Sword Dao talent… What was the Club's mission anyway? Did it matter whether he carried it out or not?
"I forgot to introduce myself—my name is Lin Huang," Lin Huang added.
Wu Hao was surprised for a moment. Immediately after, however, he appeared to be troubled.
"If you have anything that you want to say, just say it." Lin Huang noticed Wu Hao's hesitation.
Wu Hao did indeed hesitate for a while but finally could not help speaking up.
"If you're Sword11's Senior Brother, why haven't I heard your name before?"
Lin Huang thought for a while. This question was not one that he could easily answer.
"I'll explain it in detail after I bring you to meet Sword11. If you're not yet prepared to apprentice with me right now, you can wait until you meet Sword11 before making a decision."
Wu Hao thought about it for a moment before he spoke again.
"Then let me change my question. Between you and Sword11, who is stronger?"
"His combat strength is higher than mine, but I should be able to beat him if we're at the same combat strength." Lin Huang was telling the truth. With his current ability, even if he had met Great Heaven under circumstances where both of them had the same combat strength, he would definitely have been able to beat him, what more Sword11.
"I have another question…" Wu Hao stared at Lin Huang keenly. "I don't have cultivation potential—are you sure you want to take me as your apprentice?"
"No cultivation potential?"
Lin Huang used Divine Telekinesis immediately to scan Wu Hao's body, only to find that the child's soul was so severely damaged he could not sense the existence of various energies. To some extent, this was more serious than an ordinary person with no potential.
In this case, however, it was not completely impossible for Wu Hao to be able to cultivate. Lin Huang quickly found a cultivation method suitable for Wu Hao from within Great Heaven's memory.
"You don't have to worry about not having cultivation potential; I have a way that will allow you to be able to cultivate."
Wu Hao's eyes lit up when he heard what Lin Huang had to say. He quickly got up, walked to Lin Huang, and bowed to the ground. "This apprentice hails his master!"
"From today on, you are my first official disciple." Lin Huang nodded slightly and helped Wu Hao up.
The reason Lin Huang said "official disciple" was mainly because he used to be an instructor at Martial Hunter College and had many other students.
"There are some issues with your body that normally would make it impossible for you to cultivate. However, I know of a method that will allow you to embark on the path of cultivation. This method is called Sword Use Divinity!
"Simply put, you do not cultivate the body or the soul—you only cultivate the sword. Once your Sword Dao achieves Sword Dao true meaning, you can use directly Sword Use Divinity to consolidate your Godhead.
"For ordinary people, it's impossible to achieve Sword Dao just by cultivation of the sword. But for you though, it is possible…"
After a brief explanation, Lin Huang placed the tip of one finger on Wu Hao's forehead and transmitted an assortment of sword skills he had picked into Wu Hao's body.
After all, the boy was just an ordinary person and the amount of information that his brain could hold was limited.
Lin Huang only entered 10,000 sets of sword skills, ranging from ordinary to legendary.
"You can assimilate these sword skills slowly when you have the time," Lin Huang finished speaking and glanced around the room. "Now you can pack your things and follow me."
"Where are we going?" Wu Hao immediately responded.
"Sword11's Heavenly Sword Palace."
Chapter 1374: The Trial is Over
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
When Wu Hao saw Sword11 standing before him in person in Heavenly Sword Palace, he was so excited that he was virtually speechless.
One had to be aware that he grew up listening to legends about Sword11.
Naturally, as a young man who yearned to cultivate Sword Dao, he found it hard to remain calm when he saw Sword11, the "number one Sword Dao cultivator" of the Great Heaven Territory, alive and well and standing before him.
"Lord Swordmaster, this young man…" Sword11 was a little puzzled when he saw that Lin Huang had brought along the youth from the video call just now.
"Wu Hao, my apprentice," Lin Huang introduced Wu Hao with a grin.
"App…Apprentice?!" Sword11 was stunned for a moment when he heard that. He had not expected that his swordmaster would have found an apprentice just by walking around town.
"Xiao Hao, say hello." Lin Huang patted Wu Hao's shoulder.
"Sword…Lord Sword11…" Wu Hao's face turned slightly red and he did not dare to look at Sword11 directly.
"I remember you; you're the teenager in the video just now. Your name is Wu Hao?" Although Sword11 had many doubts, he still took the initiative to smile and greet Wu Hao.
Wu Hao nodded quickly.
"All thanks to you. If you hadn't appeared on the video call with him earlier, he might not necessarily have been willing to become my apprentice," Lin Huang laughed.
"Lord Swordmaster praises me too much."
Only now did Wu Hao notice how Sword11 addressed Lin Huang and a faint trace of uncertainty arose in his heart. He stole a glance at Lin Huang and directed a question at Sword11.
"Lord Sword11, are you and my master really fellow disciples?"
Sword11 looked at Lin Huang after hearing that.
"You can tell him the truth." Lin Huang nodded.
Only then did Sword11 nod and explain the situation to Wu Hao.
"Lord Swordmaster and I are not fellow disciples—I am Lord Swordmaster's Sword Servant…"
Even though he had not yet embarked on the path of cultivation, Wu Hao still understood what "Sword Servant" meant. Despite experiencing a sense of unreality after hearing Sword11 admit that he was merely a Sword Servant, he could also see that Sword11's respect for his master was no pretense.
"Then my master really is very powerful?" Wu Hao thought for a moment and asked again.
"He succeeded in obtaining the inheritance of swordmaster Great Heaven and has taken his position as the new swordmaster. At the very least, in terms of Sword Dao, he is unparalleled."
"How about compared to you?" Wu Hao quickly followed up.
"If we were at the same level, I certainly would not be any sort of opponent for Lord Swordmaster." Sword11 knew how difficult the final Trial assessment was. Even though he had not fought Lin Huang, he could roughly estimate what Lin Huang's abilities were like.
After hearing this personal evaluation from Sword11, Wu Hao finally looked at Lin Huang with the beginnings of hero-worship in his eyes.
"Now will you believe me?" Lin Huang asked, slightly disgruntled.
"Yes, I do believe you now. I know master's Sword Dao is unparalleled!" Wu Hao quickly laughed apologetically, held up his fists, and started pummelling Lin Huang's back diligently by way of massage.
"You little devil, in future put these thoughts of yours into your cultivation—that would be better than anything." Lin Huang shook his head helplessly.
Disregarding Wu Hao's diligence, Lin Huang started chatting with Sword11 again.
"Tomorrow is the last day of the Great Heaven Trial. It's not safe for me to bring this young devil with me, so I'm going to leave him with you first to supervise his cultivation. I'll come back to the Great Heaven Territory for him in half a year at the earliest; if I'm slow it will be around two to three years."
"Master, are you leaving?" Wu Hao asked hurriedly.
"I still have some matters to deal with in the great world and my home, the gravel world." Lin Huang glanced behind at Wu Hao. "I'll sort out what I want to teach you and pass it to Sword11 in the next two days. When the time comes, he will help me to teach you."
When he had finished speaking, Lin Huang looked at Sword11 again.
"Wu Hao's situation is rather unique. His constitution doesn't allow him to cultivate directly, so he can only take the path of Sword Dao Divinity…"
"Sword Dao Divinity?!" Sword11 stared at Lin Huang with wide eyes, as if he wanted to confirm whether or not Lin Huang was pulling his leg.
"He is very talented in Sword Dao," Lin Huang said only this and did not elaborate further.
When Sword11 caught Lin Huang's gaze, he knew that Lin Huang was not joking. As for what Lin Huang mentioned about Wu Hao being "very talented", Sword11 knew that there was more to it than mere talent after he considered the matter carefully.
After all, Wu Hao had caught the eye of the new swordmaster and had been accepted as a disciple immediately. Given that Lin Huang had also confirmed that the boy could take the path of Sword Dao Divinity, it was sufficient to indicate that the little devil in front of him was something truly special.
Sword11 did not pursue the matter further. Lin Huang had not explained in detail but he had already indicated his attitude. Sword11 was in no hurry—after all, Wu Hao was going to stay with him. Whatever that was so special about him would be apparent sooner or later.
"In the next two days, I'll go through the sword skills from all the inheritances that I have obtained, sort them out, and transmit them to you. Then you'll be able to pass these sword skills on to him. His body only has the strength of an ordinary person and the amount of information that can be processed by his brain at any given time is limited. You'll need to pay attention to the amount of information that you pass on to him each time; don't overload his mind.
"Also, in addition to sword skills, various kinds of theoretical knowledge should also be taught. I'll organize a set of teaching templates. Fill in the content according to the template I will give you and teach him a variety of theoretical knowledge. Remember to carry out a theoretical knowledge examination every month. If he fails the examination, let him retake it."
"Learning is learning, why do we need tests…" Wu Hao muttered in a low voice.
Lin Huang ignored the boy's grumbling and continued, "There is also actual combat—you'll need to make arrangements for him accordingly. Although he can't cultivate and his body is weak, as long as he doesn't die, you can arrange whatever you want for him within those limits. Since the medicine of the cultivation world can easily fix the physical bodies of ordinary people, it's not a big problem if he happens to break an arm or a leg…"
"Broken arm and broken leg…" Wu Hao looked as if he were about to cry. "Master, am I still your flesh and blood?"
Even Sword11 began to look at Wu Hao sympathetically at the expression in his eyes.
"These are the three approaches I can think of at the moment. As for the rest, if you think that there is a need to add on, feel free to do so on your own."
"Very well, then I will do as you say!" Sword11 readily agreed.
Since he had already found a successor for the swordmaster, Sword11's ultimate goal in coming to the Great Heaven Territory had been achieved. Seeing that he had nothing much on his plate at present, assisting the swordmaster in teaching his apprentice could be regarded as something to do.
"Ah yes, there is one more thing. He also carves as a hobby. As long as it does not interfere with his study of Sword Dao, you don't have to worry about it," Lin Huang specifically reminded Sword11 again.
After settling the matters to do with Wu Hao, Lin Huang chatted with Sword11 for about half an hour more before he returned to the hotel with the two Sword Servants.
As for Wu Hao, he remained in Heavenly Sword Palace.
Early the next morning, Lin Huang transmitted the all sword skills that he had sorted out to Sword11. There were a total of 180,000 sword skills and the highest was only pseudo-mythical-level. He even specifically mentioned that the pseudo-mythical-level sword skills were to be taught last.
It was not that Lin Huang did not want to teach mythical-level sword skills to Wu Hao; he merely wanted the boy to establish a solid foundation first and avoid running before he could walk.
As for the basic teaching template, Lin Huang had created it from summarizing his previous teaching experiences at Martial Hunter College. He focused on Wu Hao's traits to optimized the template.
After seeing to Wu Hao's affairs, Lin Huang returned to the Great Heaven Palace early in the morning with the two Sword Servants.
This was already the last day of the opening of the Great Heaven Territory. Under the authorization of the Great Heaven Palace, Lin Huang checked the status of the participants.
Following Lin Huang's instructions, the Great Heaven Palace quickly projected the participants' details.
Of the 300 participants who entered the Great Heaven Territory a month ago, only 63 were left. The survival rate was over 20%.
Lin Huang was glad that the few from Death Sickle were still around.
Lin Huang also saw a few familiar faces—Unrivaled God, Forbidden Lamella, and the others were still alive.
However, Lin Huang had expected this. After all, the group with Unrivaled God and Forbidden Lamella were super geniuses cultivated by grade-7 organizations. In terms of overall ability, they almost certainly would have life-preserving techniques if they could remain stable in the top five positions of the Virtual God Leaderboard.
When he saw the familiar faces in the surveillance footage, Lin Huang could not help frowning slightly.
"Unrivaled God, Forbidden Lamella and the others all know that I won the Competitive Trial. When they return to the great world, I'm afraid that the first thing they'll do is to inform the grade-7 organizations behind them about this matter. Even if they can't be sure whether or not I managed to obtain the Great Heaven inheritance, I will still be included on several grade-7 organizations' lists of people who should be closely observed.
"In addition to attracting the attention of the grade-7 organizations, this news may also lead to the Raiders targeting me. After all, I took over the inheritance of Great Heaven and the Lord who attacked Great Heaven previously would definitely be interested in me.
"From the looks of things, Xie Lin's identity can't be used any longer.
"The best way to make this identity disappear is to vanish after the closing of the Great Heaven Territory and let everyone think that Xie Lin died there. As long as Xie Lin died in the Great Heaven Territory, naturally, there won't be any such thing as Xie Lin obtaining the Great Heaven inheritance."
After careful consideration, Lin Huang completely dismissed the idea of returning to the great world with the other participants.
He did not return to the Great Heaven Territory at all until the next day. However, through the surveillance carried out by the Great Heaven Palace, he watched the 63 participants being teleported out one by one…
Chapter 1375: Returning To The Great World
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
God Territory, Blood Sickle Shelter, Death Sickle headquarters.
A white-haired young man sat in the main seat of the conference room, brows tightly knit. He had preserved an attitude of silence for a while.
Three people including Fallen Star stood before the conference table; they did not dare make a sound.
The three of them had just returned from the Great Heaven Territory, bringing with them the news that Lin Huang had failed to return from there.
"I think that Boss Xie Lin might not necessarily have died in the Great Heaven Territory. He may be still participating in the Great Heaven Trial, so he might not be teleported out at the same time as us." Destiny was Lin Huang's die-hard fan. He firmly believed that Xie Lin would not just die like that. Seeing that the young man sitting in the main seat had not spoken for a long time, he mustered up his courage and spoke his mind.
The white-haired young man looked up and glanced at the three people. "Alright. The three of you may go back first. I know everything that I need to know."
"Yes, Sir Buried Heaven!" The three of them responded and quickly left one after the other.
Buried Heaven did not leave the conference room but looked down at a name in his address book—Xie Lin.
"He initiated the Competitive Trial, defeated the joint forces of Unrivaled God and a few others, took first place in the Trial, obtained the Trial qualifications for the Great Heaven inheritance that no one has activated for more than 300,000 years… You, someone who's produced miracles time and time again, would you really die just like that in the Great Heaven Territory?"
Buried Heaven was not certain whether he was murmuring to himself or Lin Huang.
…
Half a month passed by quickly.
Everyone in Death Sickle had no doubts that Xie Lin had died in the Great Heaven Territory.
Even Destiny, who had always believed that Lin Huang had not died, no longer brought up the "Xie Lin might still be participating in the Inheritance Trial" excuse.
Buried Heaven, who had his suspicions about whether Lin Huang was still alive or not, also did not hold out any hopes for Xie Lin's survival.
However, early in the morning of this particular day, Buried Heaven was having a meeting with several Gold Sickles when he suddenly received a message from a strange number.
"Iron Fist Shelter, 120 meters from the entrance of the Death Sickle branch, storage cabinet 0613, password 9527. Something that you want is in it."
Buried Heaven just glanced at it briefly, and then his gaze immediately seemed to be glued to the message.
Although this message was not signed and was from an unfamiliar number, Buried Heaven noticed the words "Iron Fist Shelter" immediately.
That was the shelter where Xie Lin accepted the mission involving the Bug Tribe Queen Mother!
In Buried Heaven's mind, his first instinct was that this had been sent by Lin Huang.
This was because not many people had his personal number, aside from a few Blood Sickles and a few Gold Sickles with whom he had good relations, as well as a handful of extremely outstanding juniors such as Xie Lin and Fallen Star.
"The rest of you carry on; I have to deal with something that came up last minute." After he had confirmed that the sender of the message was most probably Xie Lin, Buried Heaven acknowledged the several Gold Sickles that were present before standing up immediately. He summoned a small green snake and teleported away.
In the meeting room, the several Gold Sickles present looked at each other.
This was the first time they had seen Buried Heaven leaving half-way through a meeting.
After a few minutes, Buried Heaven appeared at the front door of the Iron Fist Shelter's Death Sickle branch.
He glanced around and quickly located a locker not very far away.
In a flash, he appeared in front of the locker, his gaze swiftly identifying locker 0613.
Without hesitation, he entered the password provided in the short message.
Once the password was entered, he heard a click and the locker door sprang open automatically.
Inside was a small palm-sized package.
Buried Heaven reached in to retrieve the package, opening it on the spot.
Inside was a small thumb-sized sheet of metal. When he saw the object, Buried Heaven's eyes lit up suddenly.
"You're still alive!"
He had given Lin Huang this piece of metal before the Great Heaven Territory opened. It was meant for recording information about the inheritance.
Buried Heaven stowed the sheet of metal in his storage space. Without hesitation, he summoned the green snake again and disappeared on the spot.
When he reappeared, he had already returned to the Death Sickle headquarters.
Instead of going back to the conference room, however, he went directly to his palace.
Buried Heaven made sure the gates of the god sequence relic palace were securely fastened and all the multiple layers of locks were fully disarmed. Only then did he take out the sheet of black metal he had retrieved earlier and carefully enter Divine Telekinesis into it.
After a brief moment where his eyes were dazzled, he found himself in an unfamiliar starry sky.
He saw an imposing man wielding a sword in one hand. With just one effortless swing of the man's blade, before Buried Heaven's very eyes, the entire galaxy and its myriad stars shook violently.
An instant later, the entire galaxy fractured and disintegrated into two halves, as if someone had sliced a sheet of white paper in half with a sword
Buried Heaven looked down at himself; somehow—he did not know when—he had been sliced apart at the waist without realizing it. As soon as the world went dark in front of his eyes, his consciousness returned to his body.
When his consciousness returned, he was soaked through with cold sweat, gasping laboredly for breath.
"Can this really be achieved at heavenly god-level?!"
Even though Buried Heaven knew that Great Heaven—an unprecedented genius who dominated an entire era—would be stronger than him, he never expected the gap in their abilities to be so astoundingly great.
If he had really encountered Great Heaven, he would have been killed instantly!
Buried Heaven gave a helpless, bitter smile.
Just a casual sweep of the other's blade had rendered him completely defenseless.
It took him quite a while before he calmed down from the shock of the attack earlier.
"You're even able to take over the inheritance of a fellow like this—what kind of monster are you, Xie Lin?"
…
Lin Huang had long since departed the Iron Fist Shelter.
To avoid being remembered, he had stayed in the Great Heaven Territory for more than half a month and had only just arrived a day ago in the God Territory with 68 Sword Servants.
Since the identity of Xie Lin could no longer be used, he wore the Thousand Face mask and altered his face again for this visit.
He went to the Iron Fist Shelter first thing while the Sword Servants scattered and hid in the other grade-3 or grade-4 Shelters around the Iron Fist Shelter.
Lin Huang contacted Yang Ling once more the minute he arrived at the Iron Fist Shelter. This time he was making a large order—not only did he need to create a new identity for himself, but he also had to create a fake identity for each of the 68 Sword Servants.
Yang Ling was speechless at suddenly receiving such a big order.
After resting in the Iron Fist Shelter for a night, Lin Huang took Sword301 and Sword302 to a grade-4 Shelter and prepared to carry out the next phase of the plan.
Including his time in the Great Heaven Territory, he had been away from the gravel world for almost half a year. Improving his abilities was becoming a much more pressing matter.
Lin Huang's combat strength had been stagnant at grade-9 Imperial-level; he did not feel that he had reached the critical point even after so long.
Initially, he had no idea what to do. However, after accepting the Great Heaven inheritance, Lin Huang had finally found a solution to the problem.
It was not that Great Heaven's inheritance memories contained a similar situation; it was the way Great Heaven dealt with problems that allowed Lin Huang to find an answer.
Since he had not arrived at the critical point for a breakthrough after so long, he would continue to refine more Godheads until the critical point could be sensed!
Chapter 1376: The Mysterious Club
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Three days later, Lin Huang got a brand-new fake identity.
He was not the only one; all the 68 Sword Servants also had new identities in the God Territory.
Since the Sword Servants had long since exhausted their various cultivation resources, Lin Huang let them register as reserve members at different branches of Death Sickle.
The main reason for him choosing Death Sickle was that among the major organizations, they were the most accommodating and had the least rules. As far as generosity in promotion channels and resource rewards went, they were also one of the top choices.
Another important reason was that the secret zones and ruins in the great world with slightly more abundant resources were basically all occupied by major organizations. There were also many high-level secret zones and ruins that were jointly monopolized by the top organizations.
If they did not join any of the organizations and ran about the great world as independent adventurers instead, Lin Huang and the Sword Servants would not be eligible to enter 90% of the secret zones and ruins.
Once they had joined an organization, they would also be eligible to participate in its internal transactions. If they wanted to buy something, the price would be much cheaper compared to the prices in the black market.
It was precisely for these reasons that the first formal command Lin Huang gave to the numerous Sword Servants was to join Death Sickle and obtain as many resources as possible without exposing their true abilities.
After all, if a lot of virtual god-level newcomers appeared whose strength was comparable to Unrivaled God, it would surely attract the attention of Death Sickle's upper levels.
As for how to keep their true abilities hidden, Lin Huang advised them not to accept tasks that were too difficult.
As for Lin Huang himself, he had not been idle for these three days. He had collected a lot of information about secret zones and ruins.
Apart from preparing for his hunt for Godheads, he was also preparing to hunt for True Gods after his elevation to virtual god-level.
Three days passed by. Lin Huang's new identity was named Huang Lin, which was a homophonic of his name in reverse.
However, less than three minutes after he put on his new identity ring, a message prompt suddenly sounded.
Lin Huang had not had the time to enter the number of any of his contacts. Nobody except Yang Ling could possibly know this new identity's number.
Thinking that the message might have been sent by Yang Ling, Lin Huang quickly opened the message to check it.
However, one glance at the message contents and his eyebrows knit together in a frown.
"Congratulations on your success in obtaining the Great Heaven inheritance. By the way, how are you doing with the two missions in Great Heaven Territory?"
The message came from a sender named "The Club".
Looking at the message, Lin Huang's first reaction was that his fake identity had been betrayed by Yang Ling. Yang Ling was likely to be a member of the Club.
However, when Lin Huang thought about it carefully, Yang Ling was considered his friend. Based on his character, if he were really a member of the Club, Yang Ling would have at least greeted Lin Huang if he wanted to reveal his identity.
After a moment of thought, Lin Huang sent a message to Yang Ling.
"Do you know about the Club?"
After a moment, Yang Ling replied within seconds.
"Their people contacted me some time ago and invited me to join them, but I refused. Why? They're in contact with you?"
"They just sent a message to my new number. It's been less than three minutes since I put on the communication ring…"
After Lin Huang had sent this message, Yang Ling was quiet for a while. After some time, a video call came through.
Lin Huang noticed that this video call was a little special. It had the words "encrypted communication" written on it in red capital letters.
He pressed the answer button without any hesitation.
In the video call, Yang Ling wore a white shirt on his upper torso, which made him look very neat.
Although he was still thin, his face was a lot more ruddy, and he looked much healthier than when he had been in the gravel world.
"How much do you know about the Club?" Lin Huang asked immediately when Yang Ling appeared on the call.
"I don't have much information about this organization. It should be a fairly new one. I haven't heard of it before. It's highly likely that it was established after I went to the gravel world.
"A few days after I returned to the great world, they approached me and wanted to invite me to join them, but I refused.
"I started investigating them. It took almost a month, but there was not much progress. I only found the bare minimum of information.
"At present, the only thing that I know is that this is an organization formed by various super-geniuses. In this organization, there are not only travelers but also reincarnated beings and reborn beings…"
"Reincarnated beings? The kind in Infinite Worlds-style novels like God Room?" Lin Huang's eyes widened. (TN: "Infinite Worlds" is a genre in which one must experience multiple worlds one after the other in order to achieve a goal. This genre originated with the Chinese web novel "Infinite Horror" which was introduced in 2007. Its popularity triggered a large number of follow-up novels, one of which is "God Room".)
"Something like that." Yang Ling nodded.
"Regenerated beings, as in reincarnation?" Lin Huang asked again.
"Yes." Yang Ling nodded again.
"Do these people truly exist?" Lin Huang had some doubts.
"They do; I used to know several regenerated beings in the past. Being regenerated isn't that difficult in and of itself either. As for reincarnated beings, I've encountered them once. It's just that their God Room has a different name, and its function is more powerful than in the novel."
"There really are reincarnated beings…" Lin Huang had not expected this at all. "I thought that was only something novels made up."
"We can all reasonably exist as travelers; why should their existence be a surprise?" Yang Ling's expression looked as if that made all the sense in the world.
"Well, what you said makes sense," Lin Huang could find no way to refute this statement.
"Even if these people do exist though, how did the Club find them?" Lin Huang wondered about this; he did not really understand how it worked.
"I don't know the specifics, but my guess is that their founder, or one of the founders, has the ability to identify our abilities or our treasures. They may not even need to be in contact with us or see us. As long as we fulfill a specific triggering circumstance they've set, they will be able to discern our identity over a long distance and ignore any disguises."
Yang Ling's speculations caused Lin Huang to fall silent for some time.
He thought about it for a while and finally had to admit that Yang Ling's theories were most likely correct.
"As for how they obtained your new number, I suspect it may also be related to their ability to identify us," Yang Ling continued, "I would never disclose any of my customers' information. You ought to be very clear about this by now.
"That's all the information I've managed to find on the Club. I wasn't able to achieve a breakthrough in the follow-up investigation later—plus, I had things that needed to get done so I didn't continue wasting further time on it," Yang Ling explained, spreading out his hands.
Lin Huang was silent for a moment. He was wondering whether or not to tell Yang Ling that he had joined the Club, but in the end, he decided to keep that information to himself.
After he ended the call with Yang Ling, Lin Huang stared at the strange number on the communication page for some time before he replied to the message.
"I've retrieved the scabbard of the Heavenly Sword. But I'd like to know—what do you intend to do with it?"
Lin Huang did not deny that he found the child named "Jin Wu"; he simply did not mention it at all
.
"If we can repair it, then we'll repair it. If we can't repair it, we will absorb it," the other party replied within seconds. They did not seem to treat this as a secret.
Upon seeing this answer, Lin Huang knit his brows together in a frown. They sounded a bit like the Raiders.
"I have another question. What is the relationship between the Club and the Raiders?" Lin Huang asked directly.
After this message was sent, it took about three or four seconds before the other party replied.
"In a nutshell, it can be considered a hostile relationship."
At this reply, Lin Huang finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Chapter 1377: Transaction
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The enemy of the enemy was considered a friend. After ascertaining the relationship between the Club and the Raiders, Lin Huang decided to trade the Heavenly Sword's scabbard with the Club.
The scabbard had been completely destroyed. Yin Yin had also said that it was already of no use to her and Lin Huang was free to dispose of it at will.
For Lin Huang, this object served only two purposes—it could be traded or Xiao Hei could absorb it as material.
Considering the degree of damage to the scabbard, even if it were given to Xiao Hei to absorb, it would not make much of a difference.
Therefore, the course of action which would yield the most benefits was naturally to trade it in at the Club in exchange for other useful resources.
Early the next morning, Lin Huang put on Thousand Face and ate breakfast with his new identity, after which he took Sword301 and Sword302 and appeared in a café.
This kind of coffee shop in the God Territory was quite obviously copied from the human world.
This was a coffee shop in name, but in reality, there were all kinds of drinks, most of them sweet. There were very few who came here for the coffee; most people ordered sweet drinks.
When he heard Lin Huang ordering a cup of black coffee in addition to two cups of sweet drinks, the proprietor looked at him rather oddly. He also specifically made a point of emphasizing to Lin Huang, "Sir, there is no sugar added."
When some of the nearby customers heard this, they could not help glancing at Lin Huang.
Lin Huang and the two Sword Servants sat under an umbrella in the open air for a while. By the time Lin Huang had finished his drink, it was already almost nine o'clock.
A figure suddenly appeared by the table where the three of them sat. "Do you mind if I sit here?"
At the voice, all three people, including Lin Huang, were stunned for a moment. None of them had sensed the other party's approach at all.
Lin Huang immediately looked up at the newcomer. The individual in question was a young man who looked like he was about 27 or 28 years old. He was tall and thin, clad in a black suit and a fedora, and had a dark red walking stick in his right hand.
Lin Huang's senses did not pick up any energy fluctuation emanating from within the man. It was as if this stranger were just an ordinary person.
The expressions of the two Sword Servants were also rather odd as they studied the man in the suit.
One had to be aware that the two Sword Servants had both been heavenly god-level powerhouses previously. Even though their combat strength was now restricted to the level of Virtual God rank-9, if they happened to meet another powerhouse who was also at heavenly god-level, it was not difficult for them to determine their opponent's approximate combat strength even if the other person's aura remained concealed. However, the person standing in front of them was no different from an ordinary person.
Even so, neither Lin Huang nor the two Sword Servants regarded the other party as just an ordinary person.
This stranger had appeared without warning at just the right time and he had requested to sit with them when there was an empty table beside theirs. This confirmed that he was the one they would be conducting this transaction with.
"Please sit down."
After seating himself with a smile, the man in the suit glanced at the two Sword Servants. He took off his hat, revealing a head of short black hair, and smiled at Lin Huang.
"Huang Lin, right? You can call me Solid Ebony."
This was obviously not the other party's real name—however, he had also addressed Lin Huang by the pseudonym he had acquired just recently.
"Hello," Lin Huang nodded and greeted him.
"May I see the condition of the goods first?" After briefly introducing himself, Solid Ebony got straight down to business without any additional small talk.
"Here?" Lin Huang raised an eyebrow and looked at the other party with an odd expression.
Solid Ebony smiled and nodded. "Relax, other people can't see or listen in on what's going on here."
Only after the other party mentioned this did Lin Huang notice that he could no longer sense the aura of the two Sword Servants.
Both of them were sitting next to him at the table, so close that he could have reached out and touched them. However, they seemed to be just two illusory projections.
He sent a mental transmission to the two of them; neither responded.
"What did you do to them?" Lin Huang's brows furrowed slightly.
"I didn't do anything; it's just simple space-time isolation," Solid Ebony finished and added, "We are the ones who are isolated, they are okay. Can we carry out our transaction now, with peace of mind?"
Solid Ebony managing to do this without Lin Huang being aware of it was something completely beyond Lin Huang's comprehension.
However, once he had ascertained how powerful the other was, Lin Huang actually felt relieved.
Without further hesitation, he brought out the scabbard.
When he saw the completely charred and broken scabbard, the expression on Solid Ebony's face finally displayed emotions other than a smile.
Lin Huang recognized the look on the other's face—the man was stunned and speechless.
"It's been destroyed to this extent…" Solid Ebony sighed helplessly.
He only needed a glance to confirm the object was genuine, but the degree of damage was far beyond anything he had expected.
"I can't do anything about that, it was already like this when I got it." Lin Huang shrugged helplessly.
"That raptor really went all in…" Solid Ebony muttered in a low voice.
"Maybe take a closer look?" Lin Huang handed the scabbard over to Solid Ebony. He was not worried that the other would grab it and run off.
Solid Ebony hesitated for a moment, but he did finally take the two broken chunks of carbonized material.
After a careful inspection, he sighed, "It's totally destroyed; it can only be used as material now…"
Putting the scabbard on the table, Solid Ebony looked up at Lin Huang.
"This scabbard definitely can't be repaired, even its spirit has dissipated. Apart from absorbing it as material, I can't think of any further uses for it. What's your selling price?"
"What is Senior willing to pay?" Lin Huang was reluctant to give an initial offer as he had no idea of the current market rates for Goldfingers.
Solid Ebony thought about it for a moment. "You're a newcomer and I wouldn't feel good about taking advantage of you. I'll bear the loss and trade it for a God Weapon."
"A God Weapon?" Lin Huang looked puzzled.
Solid Ebony noticed Lin Huang's uncertainty.
"A God Weapon is a type of tool which possesses the quality of being able to develop alongside its users. If one is a sword cultivator, one could visualize it as a sword. When its sword-form is fully matured and settled, it can sustain the user's power entirely without any losses, operating as an extension of your body like a bone that has grown within you since childhood.
"In addition to this symbiotic nature, the God Weapon also has development potential. It will be affected by the energy intensity within the host's body. When the host body's energy intensity increases, the power of the God Weapon and its sustaining capacity will elevate as well. You can start using it now all the way up to lord-level or even longer, without changing weapons.
"Based on just value alone, a God Weapon is no less powerful than a Dao Weapon used by a Lord."
"What about in terms of price?" Lin Huang brought the discussion back to the main point.
"Uh… It takes a certain amount of time to nurture, so in terms of price, a God Weapon will be cheaper than a Dao Weapon," Solid Ebony froze for a moment, but he answered honestly regardless.
"Apart from ordinary weapons, what else can be visualized? Can a God Weapon be used as armor? How about as a telekinetic weapon?" Lin Huang asked again.
"Battle armor and telekinetic weapons are possible. But if you're thinking about equipment with complex structures such as warships or palaces, then that won't be possible."
"Since this is the case… ten God Weapons," Lin Huang bluntly quoted the price that he wanted.
"This is daylight robbery! You're also a traveler—you should know that even if this scabbard is used as material, it's also only of limited use to a Goldfinger's advancement," Solid Ebony rejected Lin Huang's offer outright, "Three weapons, that's my bottom line!"
"Eight weapons!" Lin Huang negotiated.
"Five. That's the highest price that I'll tolerate!" Solid Ebony amended his highest offer from earlier.
"Six weapons!" Lin Huang negotiated once more.
"Deal!" Solid Ebony slammed his hand on the table happily.
"Huh?" Lin Huang was stunned for a moment at this. "Why do I feel like I'm losing money on this?"
"If I didn't take pity on you because you're a newcomer, no one would barter six God Weapons in exchange for such material," Solid Ebony said brusquely; it was uncertain whether he was happy or figuratively bleeding at the moment.
Chapter 1378: God Weapon
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
"Before the official transaction, please take a look at this information on God Weapons. If you find it acceptable, we will trade. If it's unacceptable to you, I will see if there are any other suitable items for the transaction."
Solid Ebony projected a set of complete information about God Weapons which described in detail their advantages and disadvantages, as well as how to activate them and the skills required to use them.
Lin Huang used Divine Telekinesis and scanned the information. He read through it quickly and finally obtained a general understanding of God Weapons.
Theoretically, as Solid Ebony had mentioned, a God Weapon could indeed be upgraded to a Dao Weapon or an even higher level.
However, this item had a considerable flaw. If it was nurtured under normal circumstances, it would develop very slowly.
However, it had a characteristic that could make up for this defect to some extent.
This was its symbiotic nature.
A God Weapon's symbiotic nature allowed it to develop with its host as if it were part of the host's body. An increase in the host's combat strength would cause the God Weapon to synchronously transform as well.
Therefore, the best time to activate a God Weapon was at virtual god-level. Any earlier would be no use anyway because only Divine Power could activate it.
However, if the host elevated to higher than virtual god-level, then the God Weapon would stay in a restricted state after being activated, losing its ability to synchronously transform. It could only be slowly nurtured within the body until it had fully adapted to the host. Only then would it be fully activated and have its symbiotic nature restored.
The higher the combat strength, the longer the nurturing period for the God Weapon. That was why this sort of item was completely useless for powerhouses at heavenly god-level or lord-level. It was better to earn more money to buy equipment rather than taking the time to nurture a God Weapon.
As for the God Weapon's two advantages—its development potential and the ability to sustain energy within the body without loss—most people ignored them after seeing how long the nurturing period was.
Another reason why many people gave up on God Weapons was that the development of the God Weapon depended entirely on the development of the host.
If the host could not elevate to the level of a Lord, then the God Weapon within them could only be used at heavenly god-level as a god sequence relic. If the host could not even break through to heavenly god-level, then the God Weapon could only be used at true god-level as a god rule relic.
Although the market price for God Weapons was not as high as the Dao Weapons used by Lords, it was still comparable to the most expensive god sequence relics.
Not many people could afford to spend that kind of money, and even if they could, they would still weigh the options on whether it was worth spending such an amount on their juniors at home.
Aside from that, the symbiotic nature of the God Weapon also had a small flaw—bonding.
Once the God Weapon was activated, only the host could use it. It could not be traded or inherited.
Even if one wanted to sell it for resources, unfortunately, it could not be done.
The God Weapon would neither recognize an owner nor accept any energy input other than that of the host. Moreover, it could be recalled by the host anytime, anywhere. Even if the host did not actively recall it, beyond a certain distance, the God Weapon would automatically return to the host's body.
In a nutshell, if one had spent money to buy a God Weapon, it was equivalent to throwing water away. The money spent would never come back.
Even if the host wanted to pass the God Weapon down to their own flesh-and-blood heir after death, that would be impossible because after the host died, the God Weapon would automatically die as well.
…
After reading through all the advantages and disadvantages, Lin Huang bowed his head and thought about it for only three to five seconds before he made a decision. "Let's trade!"
In his view, the God Weapon's shortcomings would not affect him.
He was very certain that as someone who owned a Goldfinger, it was only a matter of time before he elevated to lord-level.
Therefore, this was the equivalent of pre-ordering several lord-level Dao Weapons in advance.
Moreover, he could activate the God Weapons perfectly on his own without having to spend much time to nurture it. His combat strength had yet to reach virtual god-level, but he had Divine Power within him and could directly activate the God Weapons at any time.
As for the bonding, Lin Huang had no intention of selling equipment with development potential like this. He merely felt some slight regret that it could not be inherited.
"If it were someone else, it would be hard to say, but this transaction is definitely profitable for you," Solid Ebony laughed and said, "You can activate them immediately after bringing it home. You don't need to spend time nurturing them at all. Just let the God Weapons follow you as you advance in combat strength.
"Moreover, you've obtained the Great Heaven inheritance, which is enough to show that you have the qualifications to elevate to lord-level. By then all six God Weapons will have advanced to become Dao Weapons and their value will no longer less than that of a complete Goldfinger."
"Senior, you think too highly of me. Right now I just want to elevate to virtual god-level as soon as possible." Lin Huang smiled modestly.
Being praised by a possible lord-level senior who said that Lin Huang had the potential to advance to lord-level made Lin Huang very happy in his heart, although he also knew that the compliment from the other party was based on the desire to facilitate a transaction.
The two chatted a little more and Solid Ebony finally took out the six God Weapons.
The inactive God Weapons looked like silver liquid metal spheres about as big as a thumb.
The six metal balls were suspended above Solid Ebony's palm, just like six silver drops of water, each quietly and slowly rotating without interfering with the others.
Lin Huang did not waste time in any more niceties and immediately passed the two blackened pieces of carbonized scabbard to Solid Ebony.
Solid Ebony flicked his fingers and the six God Weapon metal spheres lined themselves up in orderly fashion as if they were alive, slowly floating until they were in front of Lin Huang. They formed a circle and began slowly rotating around, using the center point of the circle as an axis.
When Lin Huang reached out to receive the silver metal spheres, both broken pieces of the charred, carbonized scabbard also flew up on their own and into Solid Ebony's hands. He did not check them further but put them away.
Lin Huang checked the God Weapons in his hand and confirmed that there was nothing wrong before putting them away. Solid Ebony waited patiently on one side and said nothing.
After the transaction was completed, the two chatted for a while.
Solid Ebony took the initiative to ask for Lin Huang's contact information.
"Leave me a way to get in touch with you. You can contact me in the future if you have any Goldfingers that you don't want. Also, if you run into any trouble, I can help you if I have the time. It's not free, however; you will have to pay for it."
Lin Huang did not refuse; accumulating more contacts was never a bad thing.
After exchanging contact information, Solid Ebony did not linger on and disappeared immediately after saying goodbye.
Just as Lin Huang watched him vanish, he sensed the auras of the two Sword Servants. Quickly, he looked toward Sword301 and Sword302.
"Lord Swordmaster, what's wrong? Is there something on my face?" Sword302 asked, baffled.
"Just now after the man in the suit arrived, both of you felt nothing out of the ordinary?" Lin Huang asked.
"What man in a suit?" Sword302 looked puzzled.
Beside her, Sword301 also looked puzzled.
"Just now a man in a black suit came over here…" Before Lin Huang finished speaking, he suddenly remembered something and quickly dived into his space storage to check.
After a moment, he breathed a sigh of relief.
Six small silver spheres floated quietly within the space storage.
Fortunately, the God Weapons were not fake…
"A man in a black suit? I didn't see him." Sword301 shook his head.
"Forget about it." Lin Huang waved his hand. Both the Sword Servants' memories of Solid Ebony seemed to have been erased. There was no point in saying anything more.
He glanced at the time, preparing to get up and leave, but he was stunned after seeing what time it was.
"Nine o'clock sharp?!"
He remembered very clearly that his transaction with Solid Ebony took at least 20 minutes, but it was still nine o'clock, fixed at the point in time when he had just met the other man.
That was to say, during the twenty-plus minute transaction between the two of them, there had been no time flow in the outside world, at least for the twenty minutes that Lin Huang had been able to sense.
"Is this the effect of space-time isolation…" Lin Huang suddenly remembered the phrase Solid Ebony had used—"It's just simple space-time isolation… We are the ones who are isolated."
In other words, not only did the two Sword Servants not remember Solid Ebony's arrival, they did not even realize that Lin Huang had been missing for more than twenty minutes.
Chapter 1379: Senior, You Are Such A Nice Person
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Lin Huang had already thought about how he would distribute the six God Weapons.
One would be molded into a war sword, one into battle armor, and one into a set of telekinetic weapons.
The three remaining weapons he would leave to Lin Xin.
As to how far Lin Xin could nurture the God Weapons, he did not harbor any great expectations. Anyway, these were the three extras that he had. Even if they were only cultivated to the level of god rule relics, he would not be distressed. As long as his own three weapons were nurtured into Dao Weapons, he would have profited considerably from his deal with Solid Ebony.
In the room, Lin Huang took out three God Weapon metal spheres and placed them in front of him.
Activating a God Weapon was actually very simple. The host only needed to infuse it with a certain amount of Divine Power and the weapon would go into a state of semi-activation. It would then tap into the source of Divine Power on its own and actively absorb the Divine Power within the host.
This process usually lasted two or three days.
After the God Weapon had completely absorbed Divine Power to the point of saturation, the host could then begin to mold the God Weapon.
One only had to use one's mind to communicate with the God Weapon to mold it into the required form, which was simpler than molding clay figures.
Molding clay figurines still required the use of one's hands; molding a God Weapon only required mental communication for it to transform into whatever its host wanted.
Only after successful molding would the God Weapon be considered as having become an actual concrete object.
Once the God Weapon possessed a concrete form, the final step was to establish a deep connection between itself and the host.
The host needed to give certain authorizations to the God Weapon so that the host and the God Weapon could be linked in divine ability, divine skills, and other skillsets.
For example, after a sword cultivator obtained a God Weapon in the form of a sword, they would link their God Weapon with their Sword Dao as well as various sword skills along with any Rule Bending Powers related to said skills, with Elemental Enlightenment, and so on.
Lin Huang was clear about this. The first object that he was going to activate was a battle sword.
He took a God Weapon and put it in his palm, quickly beginning to infuse Divine Power into it.
The dark red Divine Power flowed continuously into the silver metal sphere in Lin Huang's palm, connected to the sphere by hundreds upon thousands of gaseous strands.
This process lasted for less than three minutes and the silver metal sphere gradually became the same dark red as the Divine Power within Lin Huang's body.
The moment the color of the metal sphere became the same color as Lin Huang's infusion of Divine Power, the God Weapon suddenly lifted away from Lin Huang's palm, turned into a dark red stream of light, and flowed into Lin Huang's chest.
Lin Huang immediately sent his consciousness into his body. He wanted to see what happened during the process of God Weapon activation.
After the dark red stream of light entered Lin Huang's body, it quickly made its way into the Imperial Palace of his inner world.
After it flew around the Imperial Palace, it collided with one of the Life Wheels.
Lin Huang waited for a while and realized that the aura of the God Weapon was becoming weaker and weaker until finally, it became still.
The whole process took only ten seconds.
"What's going on? Why has it suddenly gone inert? Shouldn't it be automatically absorbing Divine Power like crazy?"
The situation happening within Lin Huang's body was obviously different from what had been described in the information he had been given.
If it were not for the fact that he could sense the God Weapon was still there, Lin Huang would have wondered if the Divine Fire in the Life Wheel had burned it up.
After he had waited for a while and confirmed that the God Weapon had become inert, Lin Huang had no choice but to withdraw his consciousness from his inner world.
"What happened? Did I make a mistake?"
With this uncertainty in mind, Lin Huang picked up the second God Weapon metal sphere.
He was going to try again.
This time, he was even more careful.
He became very cautious about even the infusion of Divine Power. After a few minutes, the second metal sphere also turned into a dark red stream of light and went straight into his inner world.
Then… it also picked a Life Wheel and burrowed into it.
After a while, exactly like the previous one, all movement ceased.
Lin Huang was speechless.
"Did Solid Ebony sell me fake goods?!"
He was beginning to suspect that there was a problem with the God Weapons that Solid Ebony had sold to him.
With this skeptical attitude, he decided to try one last time.
After confirming once again that he had done nothing wrong in the previous two steps, Lin Huang picked up the third God Weapon metal sphere.
He repeated the same steps and did exactly what he did before.
After a while, he still got the same results.
The third metal ball also went inert in the third Life Wheel.
After he failed to activate the God Weapons three times in a row, Lin Huang could not help but send a message to Solid Ebony.
"Senior Solid Ebony, I just tried to activate the God Weapons. I tried three times and failed."
As soon as he sent his message, Solid Ebony sent through a video call request.
After the call connected, Solid Ebony said immediately, "Logically speaking, at your level of combat strength, it's impossible for the God Weapons not to activate. Tell me about your activation process in detail and let me see if I can identify what the problem is."
"I infused Divine Power into the God Weapon and in about three minutes or so, it automatically went into my body as a stream of light. After that…" Lin Huang described the whole process in detail.
"There's no problem in the initial stages, it's normal for God Weapons to enter Life Wheels. After all, your Life Wheel is the source of the Divine Power within the body. But based on what you've described, the state of the God Weapon after it entered the Life Wheel is actually its restricted state."
"This sort of stillness means it's in a restricted state?" Upon hearing what Solid Ebony had to say, Lin Huang suddenly realized something.
"The information says that if the host's combat strength is at true god-level or above true god-level, the God Weapon will be restricted. If there's Divine Fire within the body, does that mean activation won't work either?"
"Of course it won't work. If there is Divine Fire in your body, then the Divine Power in your body will naturally be filtered by the Divine Fire. It is different from the Divine Power of a Virtual God.
"This is given in the information because when ordinary people ignite Divine Fire, their combat strength will naturally elevate to true god-level. The person who wrote the material may not have expected a situation in which someone has ignited Divine Fire but has not yet elevated to true god-level.
"To be precise, the God Weapon cannot directly detect the level of the host's combat strength. It senses this through the progress of energy within the host's body.
"Regardless of whether it is rank-1 or rank-9, as long as there is no Divine Fire within the body, the Divine Power of a Virtual God will not be filtered and transformed by the Divine Fire. It is classified as the most basic Divine Power. The primitive form of a God Weapon can only directly absorb this sort of basic Divine Power. If we classify it according to Divine Power ranking, this basic Divine Power is also known as primary Divine Power.
"After being filtered by the Divine Fire within a True God's body, however, the Divine Power undergoes a fundamental change. According to Divine Power ranking, it is classified as a mid-level Divine Power. Although you are not a True God, you have Divine Fire in your body which also filters your Divine Power. This means that your Divine Power is also mid-level Divine Power.
"Divine Power that is mid-level and above cannot directly be absorbed by the God Weapon."
"So for now I can only nurture my God Weapons and wait for them to adapt to the mid-level Divine Power within my body?" Lin Huang looked helpless. He had not expected that he would make such a mistake. He had initially quite happily thought that he could directly activate the God Weapons.
"There really is no other way…" Solid Ebony shook his head after a moment. "However, you can ask around the Club—maybe someone's Goldfinger might have the ability to aid in advancing God Weapons, then you can directly elevate your God Weapons to the second stage. If you can find someone who has this ability, I can come forward to help you negotiate the price. After all, I also have a certain responsibility in this matter."
The suggestion that Solid Ebony put forward made Lin Huang's eyes light up.
A single item advancement card could solve his problem.
"Let me compensate you with another God Weapon. Although it was unintentional, I still inadvertently cheated you. But I only have this last one on hand; I don't have any more." After a moment of silence, Solid Ebony took the initiative to offer Lin Huang some compensation.
Lin Huang was stunned when he heard that; he then nodded hurriedly. "Senior, you are such a nice person!"
Chapter 1380: Come, Let's Go For Supper!
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After he ended his video call with Solid Ebony and confirmed that the problem was not with the God Weapons but himself, Lin Huang once again sent his consciousness into his inner world.
He sent a probing thread of telekinesis into the Life Wheel and retrieved a God Weapon metal sphere. He realized that although the sphere had turned a dark red color, it had lost all of the previous liveliness and fallen into an inert state.
"There is no way a primitive God Weapon can absorb a true god's mid-level Divine Power. If I elevate you to rank-2, that should work," Lin Huang murmured to himself as he held the dark red metal sphere between two fingers.
"Xiao Hei, redeem an item advancement card!"
Lin Huang did not hesitate at all; once he had an idea, he acted on it. "Let's try one first and see if it works."
As soon as he finished speaking, a golden card materialized in his hand.
After Lin Huang crumbled the card between his fingers, the item advancement card transformed into a golden stream of light that flowed into the thumb-sized God Weapon.
After a while, the initially inert dark red metal sphere suddenly lit up as if it were being heated to a higher temperature, and began to shine as red as magma.
Its aura, which had hitherto been dormant to the point of almost dying out entirely, began to rise sharply at a rate visible to the naked eye.
Time ticked past; Lin Huang stared mesmerized at the transformations occurring in the metal sphere.
In the beginning, the sphere changed from dark red to bright red. Its color became more and more dazzlingly bright until finally, it was almost like a small sun and difficult to look at directly.
The whole process lasted for about three hours, and the color of the little sun hanging in the air finally began to gradually fade.
It took about ten more minutes before the red glow completely dissipated, revealing the form of the God Weapon.
The God Weapon, now elevated to rank-2, was no longer in its previous sphere form—it looked more like a dark red cloud.
To be precise, it looked like a living cloud.
It was in the void, its shape changing randomly like a thick mist.
Lin Huang carefully used his consciousness to touch it and found that its shape was completely malleable. There were no obstacles at all as if the object were part of his palm.
By controlling the cloud, he changed it into several different forms one after the other. After he had familiarized himself with how to manipulate it, Lin Huang began the phase of carefully controlling and molding the cloud into the shape he desired.
"The sword that I want needs to be able to utilize rapid speed, force-type, and ultimate dao-types simultaneously, so the form must be able to alter itself. Also, it needs to be able to withstand the force from Sword Dao true meaning, various types of God Rule Power, and any influx of Elemental Enlightenment…"
One by one, the requirements for the blueprint were added. The dark red cloud elongated under constant turbulence. It took more than half an hour before the cloud ceased its roiling, having finally formed a concrete object.
Lin Huang was dumbfounded when he saw the final result.
What materialized in front of his eyes was merely a dark red sword hilt.
There was absolutely no blade to be seen!
"What happened? Did I ask for too much and cause the actualization to fail?"
Nursing some doubts, Lin Huang reached out and took hold of the sword hilt.
Amid the uncertainty in his mind, the front half of the hilt began altering rapidly, forming a narrow silver blade.
"This is…" Lin Huang made a random swing with the weapon. A faint sword gleam flashed out at extreme, almost ultimate speed.
As he observed this, he vaguely sensed something.
The next moment, the blade suddenly transformed again—this time, into a massive sword.
Lin Huang made yet another swing with the blade. The sword gleam was unparalleled to where Lin Huang vaguely felt that his power had slightly increased.
"So that's what it is!" Lin Huang had finally figured out how to use this weapon. "It's not that there's no blade—it's that the blade can change according to what I want.
"I only need to have a rough outline in mind, then it will automatically complete my idea and form the most suitable blade according to the energy pathways."
Lin Huang had not expected that the final God Weapon would turn out like this.
He had originally thought that having two or three changes of form were enough, but it had never occurred to him that the God Weapon would surprise him in such an unexpected but good way.
After taking some time to wield his new sword and play around with it, Lin Huang nodded in satisfaction.
"Every time the blade materializes, it looks like a turbulent cloud. I'll name you Nebula then."
After he had named his God Weapon war sword, Lin Huang thought for a moment, then transformed it into a more commonly seen war sword.
"In future, I'll just keep it in this initial form; no need to let others know I have a sword that can change its form arbitrarily. Anyway, even if the form changes in battle, others can only see two or three different forms at most."
After returning the sword to the Life Wheel, Lin Huang retrieved the two remaining God Weapon metal spheres.
After considering for a moment, he took out one of his three remaining God Weapons.
"The God Weapon that Solid Ebony gave me as compensation should be available in two days. If I leave three for Lin Xin, I can use another one to build a piece of soul equipment…"
After infusing Divine Power into the God Weapon that he had just brought out, the fourth God Weapon quickly fell into an inert state like the previous three.
Lin Huang crushed three item advancement cards and three golden streams of light flowed into the three metal spheres in front of him.
More than three hours passed by very quickly; the three God Weapons completed their advancement at almost the same time.
Lin Huang divided his consciousness into three parts, taking hold of each of the God Weapons separately and started a new round of molding.
For his battle armor, Lin Huang mainly needed physical defenses, but he still added a soul defense function as well.
As for the telekinetic weapon, Lin Huang's requirements were variable because the number of his telekinetic threads was constantly increasing. He also had specific requirements for the various combinations of telekinetic weapons.
There was also the newly added last piece of soul equipment. Lin Huang's idea was to craft it into an item with multiple functions which increased soul strength, possessed soul defenses, and could disguise soul aura…
The battle armor took less than 20 minutes to form and was the first to take concrete shape.
After that, it took almost an hour for the soul equipment to be ready.
The telekinetic weapon took the longest—Lin Huang needed about two hours to form it into a concrete object.
By the time the last piece of God Weapon was finally formed, it was already dark outside.
After staring at God Weapons almost all day, Lin Huang felt weary in both body and soul.
"At least it's all done!"
Although he was very tired, Lin Huang was very happy.
The four God Weapons had not only been successfully activated, but they had also been elevated to rank-2 right away as a result of the item advancement cards.
A rank-2 God Weapon was not only capable of absorbing a True God's mid-level Divine Power, it could also carry within it and utilize God Rule Power, Elemental Enlightenment, and Sword Dao true meaning. It was already the equivalent of a God Rule Weapon.
Moreover, it was a God Rule Weapon tailored for himself!
"The full set of equipment is ready. I can bring these God Weapons with me for practice today when I go out to hunt for Godheads!" Lin Huang could not wait to try out his God Weapons. However, as soon as he looked up, he saw that the sky outside the window was completely dark. He glanced at the time; it was seven o'clock in the evening. Only then did he realized that he had been busy all day.
Hearing a growl from his stomach, Lin Huang immediately put aside his plans to test the equipment and called the two Sword Servants.
"Qu Hao, Ran Xia, come! Let's go for supper!"