Chapter 1611: Maligned Even After Death
After killing the siblings Shen Yu and Shen Jue, Lin Huang randomly located a Death Sickle branch and submitted the missions. After that, he returned to the Devil Hunter Star Zone straight away.
As soon as he arrived at the Devil Hunter Star Zone, he immediately passed the storage rings he had obtained over the last few days to Hong Zhuang so she could unlock them.
Most of the great world's storage equipment technology was copied from the human world. The God Territory was no exception.
Even if the Goldfinger's capabilities had been significantly reduced, to Hong Zhuang—who had inherited Yang Ling's Goldfinger—unlocking dimensional equipment like this could more or less be considered the easiest task of all.
In less than half an hour, she had unlocked all thirty-four storage rings.
Throughout the entire process, Hong Zhuang did not once use her Divine Telekinesis to discover what exactly these storage rings contained.
She knew that her current position was awkward in the extreme. After all, the few occasions she had met Lin Huang in the past were probably not entirely pleasant as far as he was concerned. Now that she was under his protection, it was only natural that she wanted to show her worth.
She genuinely did not covet the items in the storage rings.
She knew that she would not lack for cultivation resources at all, now that she was staying in the Devil Hunter Star Zone.
Therefore, she did not so much as even glance at whatever these valuable storage rings might contain.
After receiving the unlocked storage rings, Lin Huang returned to his own courtyard.
Here, a quaint, antique house with three floors had been designated for his exclusive use.
In terms of interior size, it did not seem very big—the three floors only added up to three hundred square meters or so. In reality, however, this was a top-grade dimensional god sequence relic. It was just that the interior and exterior had been decorated to look like a Chinese villa.
Lin Huang entered the house and sat down on the sofa right away. He took out all thirty-four storage rings and placed them on the coffee table. He then began checking through them one by one.
As he did so, the expression on his face became increasingly peculiar.
This was not because he had gained very little—it was because the profits obtained from this round of missions were far too astounding!
Of the twenty-six targets he had killed, eighteen of them were ranked on the God Territory's Heavenly God Leaderboard. The eight of them who were not on the Leaderboard were either from major organizations or were members of major clans.
The value of the items in almost every storage ring far surpassed Lin Huang's expectations.
"I thought Shen Yu and Shen Jue were extra wealthy because they were direct Protoss descendants in God Capital. I had no idea even grade-5 and grade-6 elders would have such an extensive array of collector's items!"
Naturally, out of all the storage rings, it was the siblings' collections that were the most astonishing.
Lin Huang felt that the twins' net worth might even have surpassed some half-step Lords.
Since the Gemini auction did not require immediate payment per item, and a lump sum would be paid after the entire auction had ended, the siblings had not paid for the items they had successfully made a bid on.
In the twins' storage rings, Lin Huang saw not one, but two Dao Weapons and close to thirty Pseudo-Dao Weapons. There were also over two hundred top-grade god sequence relics… that was not even counting the staggering piles of Divine Crystals and various other energy crystals.
What shocked Lin Huang the most was that there was also a half-step lord-level God's Dead Body Puppet in Shen Jue's storage ring.
This seemed like it might be a treasure that God Capital had given the siblings as a life-saving measure. Unfortunately, at the auction earlier, Shen Jue had been killed instantly before he even had time to use it.
While Lin Huang returned to the Devil Hunter Star Zone and leisurely inventoried his loot, the entire God Territory was already in an uproar.
The news of the twins Shen Yu and Shen Jue being killed in Gemini by a half-step Lord spread like wildfire throughout the entire God Territory in less than half an hour.
One must know that the siblings were powerhouses who were high on the ranking list of the God Territory's Heavenly God Leaderboard. One was ranked No. 9, the other No. 11.
They could almost be considered peak entities among those at heavenly god-level.
However, these two powerhouses had been instantly killed. Not only that, they had been assassinated as a half-step Lord tried to intervene.
Rumor had it that the individual responsible was a half-step Lord saber cultivator.
The incident had even galvanized God Capital's Lords into action!
Furthermore, God Capital was offering a substantial reward for capturing the killer.
According to the rules of the God Territory, Lords and half-step Lords could not simply attack Heavenly Gods where and when they pleased.
This was also to prevent confrontations between those of ultimate combat strength within the God Territory.
After all, if conflict of this level broke out, the God Territory might end up with dead half-step Lords or even Lords. It would be an immense loss for the entire God Territory.
Furthermore, preventing Lords and half-step Lords from attacking Heavenly Gods was considered something of a safeguard for top heavenly god-level powerhouses. This would allow the God Territory to gain more half-step Lords and even Lords in the future.
In reality, to powerhouses who had mastered Dao seal power, combat sans the use of Dao seal power was child's play to them. No matter how many conflicts they had with each other, those were just minor flare-ups that would not harm the God Territory at all.
Although all the major organizations had an assassination list, the Lords or half-step Lords basically would not involve themselves personally.
This was also why there were many missions on Death Sickle's Gold Sickle missions list that remained uncompleted, even after so many years.
It was not that Death Sickle lacked capable individuals—it was that the handful of Blood Sickle members with the ability to complete these missions could not take part.
However, Lin Huang's emergence shattered this
trend.
As a Death Sickle insider, he completed the missions easily. Not only that, he made everyone else think that an outsider was interfering.
This was the real reason why God Capital's upper echelons were so furious.
They thought someone had broken the rules of the game—that a half-step Lord had personally stepped in and assassinated Shen Yu and Shen Jue.
Lin Huang, however, was completely unaware of the checks and balances that God Capital's upper echelons had imposed. He had borrowed the use of Saber9's attack at the time because, for one, his own inherent ability was definitely insufficient to counter the half-step Lord's attack. For another, he truly did wish to confuse everyone else to prevent them from connecting the incident to him.
However, he had not expected that his ploy would cause such a massive chain reaction.
Practically the entire God Territory was discussing the matter of Shen Yu and Shen Jue's death.
On the internet, many people were applauding Lin Huang's actions.
There was nothing new under the sun, and in this era of internet access, news spread with extraordinary rapidity. Shen Yu and Shen Jue had already been rendered notorious many years ago when their torturing and killing of slaves had come to light. Countless netizens had criticized them. Although God Capital had quickly suppressed the matter, many people still remembered it. Now that the twins were dead, their dark pasts were once more dragged into the open. Both were now being maligned on the internet.
Unfortunately, the siblings were unable to witness this.
As Shen Yu and Shen Jue's dark pasts were exposed, netizens very quickly discovered that the twenty-six individuals who were killed during this time all had skeletons in their closets.
The collective power of netizens was mighty indeed.
Within less than a day, the remaining twenty-four individuals' dark pasts were dug up one after the other.
Therefore, everyone started another round of flogging the dead on the internet.
Not a single one of the twenty-six individuals that Lin Huang had killed escaped this fate.
Chapter 1612: Buried Heaven's Return
After sorting out his loot, Lin Huang dropped by Death Sickle's headquarters and entrusted them with the handling and disposal of all the items he did not need.
After all, there were certain unique items among his battle spoils. If he gave them to Sword12 to handle, Sword12 might be targeted by people with ill intentions.
By comparison, it was much simpler to have Death Sickle dispose of all these items. After all, they were a top grade-6 organization, and they also had their own channels within the black market.
At the same time that he entrusted Death Sickle with the disposal of his loot, Lin Huang also requested their help in purchasing half-step Lord God Territories.
For the next few days, he was able to relax completely.
He was waiting for the outcome of Death Sickle's disposal of his loot, as well as the end result of the purchase of half-step Lord God Territories. He was also waiting for news from Virtuoso.
Three days went by just like that. Early in the morning of the fourth day, Lin Huang suddenly received a call request on his communicator.
When he raised his wrist for a look, he discovered it was Buried Heaven's number.
Once he clicked the answer button, the figure of a young man with white hair was immediately projected into the room.
"Have all of you returned from the Abyss?" Lin Huang asked as soon as he saw Buried Heaven.
"Yes, we've come back one by one over the last two days." Buried Heaven nodded. He was not surprised that Lin Huang knew about this. After all, Lin Huang's Xiu Mu identity had Gold Sickle-level authorization and could check on information about this expedition into the Abyss.
"How was it?" Lin Huang asked once more.
Naturally, he was not about to tell Buried Heaven that he and Virtuoso had gone into the Abyss as well and come out with significant gains.
"Overall, it wasn't bad at all." Buried Heaven already regarded Lin Huang as a peer when conversing with him. "This time when we went, the timing was a little more ideal. The Abyss is in its dormant season, so the powerhouses in the deep reaches were all in hibernation. The journey went very smoothly, and we were able to withdraw in a timely fashion as well…"
After a brief account of their journey, Buried Heaven realized he had gone slightly off-topic, so he immediately brought the conversation back on track.
"I contacted you this time because I'm going into closed-door cultivation, and it might take longer this time."
"Are you going to try breaking through to lord-level?" Lin Huang's eyes lit up. This was the level that he had targeted as well.
"Yes. I managed to obtain some good things from the Abyss this time, so I think this may be my chance for a breakthrough," Buried Heaven admitted generously; he did not hide anything.
From this, it was clear that he treated Lin Huang as someone he could trust. If it were anyone else, he definitely would not have admitted anything.
"Then let me convey my wishes in advance for a smooth breakthrough and a successful elevation to lord-level! You'll lead Death Sickle to new heights!" Lin Huang said with a mischievous smile.
"There's one more thing…" Buried Heaven paused, then continued, "The siblings Shen Yu and Shen Jue, as well as the twenty-four others on the missions board—they were all killed by you, am I right?"
"Yes." Lin Huang had submitted the missions anonymously.
However, the several Blood Sickle members, including Buried Heaven, would have the necessary authorization to check. If Buried Heaven wanted to, he would be able to look up the information, so there was no need for Lin Huang to conceal this fact.
"So what exactly are your abilities now?" Buried Heaven was aware of Shen Jue and Shen Yu's abilities. They were definitely the cream of the crop among the Heavenly Gods in the God Territory. However, Lin Huang had killed them both instantly; this puzzled Buried Heaven a little.
"Currently, I ought to be slightly weaker than you and King Kong," Lin Huang readily admitted, "I was able to kill the twins because I had the advantage of a sneak attack."
The latter half of what he said was true as well.
Buried Heaven fell silent for a moment and did not inquire further about Lin Huang's combat strength.
He had always thought highly of Lin Huang, but he had never expected that the young man would be able to reach this level in such a short time.
"This kind of ability is enough for you to protect yourself in the great world," he exclaimed softly.
"The caveat being, as long as I don't tempt death," Lin Huang added.
Buried Heaven was bereft of speech when he heard Lin Huang's addendum.
As far as he was concerned, Lin Huang assassinating Shen Yu and Shen Jue was absolutely tempting death.
"Just treat the entire matter as if it never happened. Death Sickle will take care of the aftermath, don't worry," Buried Heaven reassured Lin Huang, then resumed.
"I also looked at the consignment list you submitted; the gains were certainly substantial. However, I'm a little confused about the purchasing list. What do you want with so many half-step Lord God Territories?"
"I want to strengthen my God Territory." Of course, Lin Huang could not disclose that his elevation method was different from everyone else.
"Alright, then…" Buried Heaven did not pursue the matter any further. He knew that Lin Huang's answer was not the truth. "I have one that I'm unable to refine. I'll just give it to you. Later I'll have someone send it over to you along with the God Territories that have already been traded in."
"Thank you very much." Lin Huang gladly accepted the other's kindness.
Even though Buried Heaven had said nothing about it, Lin Huang knew that in the future, he would have to return the favor.
After ending the call with Buried Heaven, Lin Huang began to feel some anticipation about his impending breakthrough.
He was not exactly worried about Buried Heaven's elevation.
One must know that Buried Heaven could almost be considered No. 1 among all the Heavenly Gods in the entire God Territory.
If a powerhouse like that failed to elevate to lord-level, then hardly anyone in the entire great world would be able to become a Lord.
"If Buried Heaven elevates to lord-level, theoretically, Death Sickle would also be elevated to a grade-7 organization…" Lin Huang's thoughts drifted slightly, and he soon thought of even more things. "Will the existing veteran grade-7 organizations allow him to elevate?"
Although he was not sure what kind of protocols and balances the major organizations in the God Territory had, Death Sickle's rise would definitely affect the God Territory's original setup.
No one had any idea what attitude the several grade-7 organizations and some grade-6 organizations would take regarding this matter.
At this point, Lin Huang suddenly felt that Buried Heaven's elevation might not be as smooth as he had predicted earlier.
Naturally, Buried Heaven's individual ability was sufficient to elevate him. However, if there were external factors affecting him, then it would be hard to say.
One must know that back in the day, Great Heaven was even more powerful than Buried Heaven was currently. However, Great Heaven was also ambushed by Raiders when he was elevating to lord-level. In the end, he was unable to escape and died as a result.
After a moment of consideration, Lin Huang sent Buried Heaven a message advising him not to reveal his plans to go into closed-door cultivation to achieve a breakthrough before he had done so.
In the afternoon, the delivery person that Buried Heaven sent showed up.
Once Lin Huang had received the storage ring, he immediately checked through it.
There were six half-step Lord God Territories inside the ring.
One was a gift from Buried Heaven, while the remaining five were the ones Death Sickle had acquired for him through trading.
Of course, it was not that his resources were only sufficient to be exchanged for five half-step Lord God Territories. Rather, it was because he had requested that the half-step Lord God Territories be sent to him first. As for the rest of the resources, he could wait until all the items had been sold and then have everything delivered to him together.
"Virtuoso is so slow!" Lin Huang could not help sighing secretly as he looked at the storage ring he had just received.
A few days had passed, but there had been no news from Virtuoso. Lin Huang did not bother to hurry them either. He took the six half-step Lord God Territories currently in his possession and entered the Great Heaven Territory.
After all, it would take only a few days to refine all of them as the time flow within the Great Heaven Territory was a thousand times faster.
He would just go into closed-door cultivation for a few days when the God Territories from Virtuoso arrived.
After entering the Great Heaven Territory, Lin Huang greeted Sword1 and went straight into the Great Heaven Palace…
Chapter 1613: Elevating to Heavenly God-Level!
In the Great Heaven Palace, Lin Huang adjusted the time flow once more to be one thousand times faster than the outside world. He then brought his mind into a calm, meditative state and sat down cross-legged.
He retrieved the headless corpses of the twins Shen Yu and Shen Jue, then began refining the God Territories within their bodies.
In all honesty, he did not care how many god rules he could plunder from them.
Previously in the Abyss, he had already obtained over five thousand God Territory Shell Remnants.
The Eternity Fire had already devoured all the Abyssal energy remaining in this earlier batch of God Territory Shell Remnants.
Lin Huang's main objective in killing Shen Yu, Shen Jue, and the other twenty-four targets was actually to plunder resources and obtain the mission rewards. Plundering God Territories was just a habit.
After all, in order to trade for half-step Lord God Territories, one required a massive amount of resources.
What Lin Huang had not expected was that the net worth of all twenty-six people he had assassinated was far beyond anything he could have possibly imagined. The loot that he obtained from this round of assassination was enough to allow him to elevate to ninth-rank heavenly god-level.
Within merely half an hour, Lin Huang had fully completed the refinement of Shen Yu and Shen Jue's God Territories. The pair contributed a significant number of god rules—added up together, they numbered over two million in total.
He had already refined the God Territories of the other twenty-four targets one by one and plundered their god rules when he had been lying low in Gemini, waiting for a chance to carry out his assassinations.
None of the twenty-four targets possessed more than a million god rules each. When the god rules were all added up together, they came to a total of less than 15 million.
After refining Shen Yu and Shen Jue's God Territories, Lin Huang opened his eyes and glanced briefly at the two headless corpses in front of him. Casually, he produced two blood-red flames and immediately burned the bodies to ash in no time at all.
After disposing of the bodies, Lin Huang did not give them a second glance. Instead, he closed his eyes and resumed refining the five thousand and more Abyssal God Territory Shell Remnants within his body.
Time passed in the Great Heaven Palace.
When Lin Huang opened his eyes again, one week had already gone by.
The Godly Right in his body had already reached the maximum number of god rules it could contain, but he persisted and refined all five thousand-plus God Territory Shell Remnants.
As for the extraneous God Rule Powers, Lin Huang put all of them into the mainland area where the gravel world was.
By now, he had plundered many thousands of God Territories. There were complete gravel worlds or mini worlds in many of these God Territories; there were even a considerable number of living beings in existence.
Lin Huang had preserved everything. On some level, these living beings in the refined worlds were his all people. Essentially, this was no different from the gravel world.
It was just that he possessed a certain affection for the gravel world that he had grown up on, so he took special care of its inhabitants.
By the time his god rules had reached the limit of what his Godly Right could hold, Lin Huang's combat strength had finally elevated to full tenth-rank true god-level as well.
After he achieved this stage, he could clearly feel that his physical body and spirit strength had grown stronger once more.
He experimented a little and discovered that his body could now sustain twenty levels of compounded sequence power.
Theoretically, in this present state, he could break through to heavenly god-level entirely.
However, Lin Huang did not do that. Instead, he closed his eyes again and sent his mind into his inner world. He then began to visualize the nameless Divine Telekinesis visualization images.
Before going into the Abyss, by the time he had visualized the 80th image, he had reached the limit his God's soul could sustain. His visualization efficiency had plummeted.
Now, his combat strength had elevated to full tenth-rank true god-level. Not only that, his God's soul had been refined by the Immeasurable Calamity Fire, and his God soul's strength was at least a hundred times more powerful than before.
He felt that it was the right time to visualize this set of inheritances again.
Before elevating to heavenly god-level, he wanted to raise his God's soul's strength even further.
This was because he knew that each level of advancement was an opportunity for transformation.
The stronger his foundation, the better his transformation results would be.
Now that he was visualizing this set of inheritances again, Lin Huang was absolutely certain that it was progressing much faster than before.
Based on his current God's soul's strength, he would still need two years of outside world time to completely visualize the 81st to the 90th visualization image, despite time being sped up a thousand times.
However, he merely used around six years to fully complete the visualization this time. Less than two and a half days had passed in the outside world.
The visualization this time had gone so quickly because apart from his God's soul becoming stronger, his innate understanding had also increased after being refined by the Immeasurable Calamity Fire.
After he was done visualizing the 90th visualization image, Lin Huang realized that his God's soul's strength had broken through the limit for Heavenly Gods. Although he had not reached lord-level yet, he supposed he was already at the level of a half-step lord.
As his God's soul became stronger, Seamless' separation of telekinetic thread accelerated again.
The automatic hourly separation had now increased to thirty thousand threads.
Seeing that he still seemed to have energy left, Lin Huang looked at the 91st visualization image.
He tried to visualize it for a little bit; it did not take him long to calculate the visualization speed. Given his current state, approximately a month would pass in the outside world for him to visualize all the way to the 100th image.
Lin Huang felt that this was an acceptable period of time. He then entered another round of closed-door cultivation and began to visualize the rest of the visualization images.
Eighty-one years passed by as he did so.
Although the time flow in the Great Heaven Palace was one thousand times faster, almost a month passed in the outside world still.
When Lin Huang opened his eyes again, he felt that his God's soul had once again become stronger.
He did not know if it had reached lord-level strength, but he could clearly sense that it was more than a few times more powerful than a month ago.
He did not continue trying to visualize the last eight images.
This was because he knew that it would take several dozen times, perhaps even several hundred times, longer. For now, he did not have that sort of time.
Now that he had pushed his God's soul's strength to its limit, Lin Huang finally let out a long sigh.
"After this, I'll just follow my original plan for my breakthrough."
A thumb-sized purple crystal appeared in his hand.
It was the God Territory Shell Remnant of a half-step Lord.
Lin Huang flicked his fingers and sank the crystal into his brow. He then activated the Divine Fire in his body to refine it.
This round of refinement was not considered very long—it only took around three hundred days or so to complete both the refinement and integration.
The moment the integration was fully complete, Lin Huang sensed waves of new energy emanating from his God Territory and feeding back into his body.
He observed carefully for a while before discovering that these were sequence powers issuing from countless god sequence chains.
Although he was familiar with sequence powers and had even successfully consolidated god sequence chains, Lin Huang had only borrowed sequence powers in the past. The cells in his body were still full of God Rule Power.
However, at this very instant, countless sequence powers started surging into every cell and particle of his body, beginning another round of cleansing his entire physical body as well as his God's soul.
He could clearly feel that his physical body was transforming. Even his God's soul was undergoing a further change.
His entire body was being continuously fortified—from each strand of hair on his head down to his skin, his bones, his inner organs, and every particle that made up his body.
The process lasted a full twelve days before finally coming to an end.
Lin Huang sensed things out carefully; he felt that he was now so powerful, he was practically invincible.
To test his limits, he rapidly began stacking and compounding layers of sequence power onto his fingertips.
Ten layers!
Twenty layers!
Thirty layers!
…
Eighty layers!
Ninety layers!
One hundred layers!
Once he had stacked and compounded one hundred layers, Lin Huang finally began to feel that his body was being burdened.
He did not go on, as he already had a rough idea now of his limits.
One must know that going from twenty layers to one hundred layers was not just a simple matter of fivefold multiplication.
Each additional layer of stacked and compounded sequence power would result in a surge of potential ability.
"Right now, I think I might be able to defeat Buried Heaven with one hand," Lin Huang mumbled softly, "Of course, the caveat is that he hasn't broken through to lord-level yet."
Lin Huang was only saying this, of course.
He knew that he was more powerful than Buried Heaven if he were to base this solely on the number of sequence powers he could compound. In that regard, he was even more powerful than Great Heaven, who had dominated an entire era back in the day.
However, he was not sure what would happen if he really were to attack.
After all, Great Heaven could massacre half-step lord-level powerhouses back then, while Buried Heaven had a record of battling half-step Lords as well.
"I genuinely would like to know how powerful a half-step lord-level powerhouse is!"
Chapter 1614: The Secret of the Great Heaven Palace
When Lin Huang successfully elevated to first-rank heavenly god-level, not only had his physical body broken through Heavenly God limits, but it had also reached a level comparable to that of a half-step Lord. His God's soul had broken through as well, officially crossing the threshold to lord-level.
Apart from that, the original limit of twenty god sequence chains that he could borrow had now increased to a hundred chains.
It could be said that he was invincible among Heavenly Gods now.
He even suspected that he might have the ability to fight a half-step Lord if he encountered one.
This was still based solely on brute force alone.
In terms of mastery and skill, all of his God Weapons had been upgraded due to his elevation.
His combat sword, combat armor, telekinetic weapons, and one of his offense and defense Soul Weapons—a total of four God Weapons—had successfully been elevated to level-4. They had directly leveled up from god sequence relics to Dao Weapons.
This set of equipment could fully raise his abilities by another level.
Apart from these personal changes, Lin Huang could sense many other changes as well.
His successful elevation had fully unlocked authorization for the Great Heaven Territory. He could now put the Great Heaven Territory into his God Territory and leave with it. The authorization to accelerate time by ten thousand times had also been unlocked.
Apart from that, Lin Huang's authority over Swords1 to 10 had finally been unlocked as well. Not only that, but he could also bring the Great Heaven Territory's living beings out of the Great Heaven Territory now.
After checking over the authorization for the Great Heaven Territory, Lin Huang soon noticed that the Great Heaven inheritance in his mind had finally been fully unsealed.
He immediately began an in-depth exploration.
Given that Great Heaven had been a supreme powerhouse who had dominated an entire era, his cultivation experiences were naturally a valuable reference.
Within these fully unlocked memories, Lin Huang very soon came across information that utterly shocked him.
"It seems the Great Heaven Palace isn't just a top-grade god sequence relic?!"
Great Heaven had deliberately sequestered this secret within the deepest reaches of his memory, and now it had finally been unsealed.
The Great Heaven Palace's real name was unknown. It was a damaged treasure that Great Heaven had obtained from a ruin in the universe.
These ruins were an ancient battlefield. It was said that there had been Almighties—entities above lord-level—who had died there.
Lin Huang had thought all along that the damage in the Great Heaven Palace was due to Great Heaven's unification. Only now did he find out that this treasure was already over 80% damaged when Great Heaven obtained it.
Not only that, the treasure's original form was a cauldron. It was Great Heaven who had camouflaged it into a palace, so the form had been in use until the present day.
"I've always said that a function like the time accelerator doesn't seem to be something that a god sequence relic could possess." Lin Huang had always thought the Great Heaven Palace's functions were too overblown. "Even if it contained Time Sequence, being able to accelerate time tenfold is already impressive enough. Not only that, it can affect the flow of time in the entire Great Heaven Territory…"
In the meantime, the authorization for accelerating time in the Great Heaven Palace had increased exponentially from one thousand times to ten thousand times now.
Lin Huang could not help wondering if it would affect the flow of time in his God Territory if he were to put the Great Heaven Territory in there. After all, his God Territory was much bigger than the Great Heaven Territory.
If he were able to do that, once the time flow was ten thousand times faster, he would be able to train up a significant number of powerhouses.
Lin Huang gave it a shot and attempted to move the Great Heaven Palace into his God Territory.
However, the attempt failed. The Great Heaven Palace's deeply slumbering weapon spirit transmitted a wisp of consciousness, indicating that it was unwilling to be moved out of the Great Heaven Territory.
"In that case, if I refine the Great Heaven Territory completely, that would be alright, wouldn't it?" Lin Huang asked in some frustration.
After a moment of silence, the weapon spirit gave its consent.
Lin Huang immediately began refining the Great Heaven Territory. It was only during the refining process that he discovered just how vast the Great Heaven Territory was. It even extended beyond the half-step Lord God Territories that he had just finished refining.
Furthermore, as there were many living beings, the benefits that the Great Heaven Territory brought to Lin Huang's God Territory were on par with those of a half-step Lord God Territory.
"Impressive—I can't believe this is equivalent to refining a half-step Lord God Territory," Lin Huang could not help exclaiming.
This time, the refinement process lasted more than four hundred days. It took even longer than refining the half-step Lord God Territories previously.
Refining the Great Heaven Territory had also caused the number of living beings in the God Territory within Lin Huang's body to increase more than threefold.
However, when the refinement process was complete, he felt something was lacking when he compared this with refining half-step Lord God Territories.
He tested the effects of using time acceleration and discovered that not only did the effect extend to the area outside the location of the Great Heaven Territory, but it also spread through his entire God Territory.
This was good news, no doubt about it!
Lin Huang thought for a moment, then retrieved a half-step Lord God Territory and proceeded to refine it.
Time passed. A year went by swiftly.
Lin Huang felt an obvious difference when refining this God Territory. He sensed his God Territory had really absorbed the nutrients.
"So it has to be a half-step Lord's God Territory?"
He still did not elevate, but he knew this was because his God Territory had not yet reached its limits.
Consequently, he retrieved another half-step Lord God Territory and began another round of refining.
Close to one year passed, and the second God Territory was now completely refined. Lin Huang's combat strength finally advanced a notch and elevated to second-rank heavenly god-level.
"The number of half-step Lord God Territories required for elevation has increased?! Judging from the situation, the number required might very well keep getting higher and higher…" Lin Huang had initially thought that once he had reached heavenly god-level, he could elevate a rank every time he refined a half-step Lord God Territory. From the looks of things now, he had been entirely too naïve.
After elevating to second-rank, he did not bother wasting time. He resumed closed-door cultivation to refine the remaining three half-step Lord God Territories.
This round of closed-door cultivation went on for three years before Lin Huang finally managed to completely refine all three God Territories.
However, he still had not achieved a breakthrough. He remained stuck at second-rank heavenly god-level.
He could more or less sense that he should be able to elevate if he refined one more half-step Lord God Territory.
"It's true then—the number of half-step Lord God Territories required increases for every elevation in rank.
"One for first-rank, two for second-rank, four for third-rank… If the numbers keep doubling according to this pattern, I wonder if there'll be enough half-step Lords in the entire great world for me to kill." Lin Huang felt rather frustrated.
Naturally, this was just a joke.
One must be aware that in the entire great world, half-step Lords were the ones who had the highest combat strength, second only to Lords. They were respected entities in every major organization.
Whether it was in the God Territory, the human world, or in other tribes, fighting between Lords and half-step Lords was basically prohibited. The reason was that they were the ones with the highest combat strength in the great world. Losing even one would be a great loss for the entire tribe, equivalent to damaging their foundations.
If anyone with nothing better to do took it upon themselves to kill a half-step Lord belonging to any of the tribes, they would only end up becoming the tribe's common enemy. The entire tribe would pursue them.
This no longer had anything to do with which organization the half-step Lord belonged to.
Naturally, if they killed Abyssal creatures or the Bug Tribe's half-step Lords, the other tribes might applaud them for it.
There were only two ways for Lin Huang to obtain half-step Lord God Territories.
One was to go into the Abyss or enter the Bug Tribe's battlefield. Another was to trade a massive amount of resources for them.
He could not kill the half-step Lords in the God Territory because even Death Sickle might turn against him directly if he did so.
Chapter 1615: Returning To The Great World
When Lin Huang came out of the Great Heaven Palace, only a month had passed in the outside world.
Sword1, who had been guarding the door, immediately rose and hurried over to him.
Lin Huang nodded slightly at him, then walked down the steps. He extended his arms toward the two pure gold sculptures on both sides of the steps.
The bodies of both three-legged Golden Crows rapidly blazed up with pure gold flames.
The flames melted the metal on the surface of their bodies. They turned into two giant blazing birds that flapped their wings and rose into the air.
These two three-legged Golden Crows were archaic legacies. They were comparable to class-5 Supreme Gods. Furthermore, they possessed peak heavenly god-level combat strength.
If they were to join forces and fight together, their abilities might be on par with Sword1!
When Sword1 saw this, he realized immediately that Lin Huang's authorization had increased again. His spirits rose.
"I've refined the Great Heaven Territory into my God Territory. My authority over all of you is also completely unsealed now." Lin Huang looked at Sword1. "From now on, Swords 1 to 10 no longer have to guard the Great Heaven Palace. I'll bring all of you back to the great world."
"Lord Swordmaster may command us as you please." Sword1 immediately cupped his hands together in respect and spoke to Swords 2 to 10 through voice transmission.
The swordmaster's ten guardians all gathered at the palace a moment later.
"All of you will leave the Great Heaven Territory with me today. Once you've reached the great world, you can discuss arrangements for any specific matters with Sword12."
Once Lin Huang finished speaking, he said to Sword1, "Summon Sword11 and Wu Hao here."
Sword1 nodded slightly and contacted Sword11 right away.
Not too long later, the red-haired Sword11 brought a handsome young man to the palace.
"Lord Swordmaster!"
"Master!"
Both of them greeted Lin Huang as soon as they saw him.
Lin Huang shot a glance at Sword11, then transferred his gaze to Wu Hao and scrutinized him from head to toe.
Wu Hao was the disciple that he had accepted in the Great Heaven Territory. In fact, he suspected all along that this boy might be Great Heaven's reincarnation.
It had been over half a year since they last met. Wu Hao was taller now, close to 1.7 meters in height. His skin was considerably fairer compared to when they had first met.
Lin Huang could still remember when he first met Wu Hao; he had thought the boy seemed like a scared little creature. Looking at him again now, Wu Hao carried himself like an elegant young master. He did not seem flustered at all, even in the presence of so many seniors.
The only thing that had not changed was his raven-black eyes. They had always shone brightly, flashing with intelligence.
"Not bad. You've grown considerably taller, and your combat strength has improved significantly." Lin Huang could tell from a glance that Wu Hao's current combat strength was already at Virtual God rank-9. He was just half a step away from crossing the threshold to elevate to True God.
What surprised and delighted him the most was that Wu Hao's comprehension of Sword Dao had reached the level of Sword Dao true meaning. Not only that, he had made a leap from True Martial Level and advanced to the second level of Sword Dao true meaning—True Meaning Level.
He had suspected all along that the boy was Great Heaven's reincarnation. Now, upon seeing the outstanding progress of Wu Hao's Sword Dao, he was even more certain of that.
"You can participate in some actual combat now." Lin Huang patted Wu Hao's head.
"Master, where are we going?" Wu Hao asked in some curiosity.
"We're leaving the Great Heaven Territory today to go to the great world." Lin Huang did not plan on leaving the boy in the Great Heaven Territory.
Wu Hao's eyes lit up at this. Naturally, he had heard about the great world from Sword11 and the others and was aware that it was a world countless times larger than the Great Heaven Territory.
Young men had the instinctive desire to explore the vast universe.
"From now on, Swords 1 to 10 will be your teachers, just like Sword11. If I'm away, you can ask them any questions you might have." Lin Huang glanced at Sword1 and the rest.
Although Swords 1 to 10 had no idea who Wu Hao was, they felt an inherent kinship with him.
Moreover, he was the swordmaster's disciple. Naturally, they would not dare to neglect him.
Sword11 had no objections to Lin Huang's arrangement. The boy had long since exhausted most of his personal resources. Furthermore, the materials he used to instruct Wu Hao had basically been provided by Lin Huang; he was just instructing the boy on Lin Huang's behalf. Sword11 was very much aware that at his level of skill, he would only be able to be Wu Hao's teacher for a time.
Although he felt a measure of reluctance, he knew he would have to let the boy go when he grew up.
Wu Hao seemed to notice that Sword11 felt a little down. He comforted him through voice transmission, "Uncle 11, you'll always be my teacher. That won't ever change."
At that moment, Sword11's eyes became slightly wet.
Naturally, everyone present could hear Wu Hao's voice transmission loud and clear.
After all, he was just a Virtual God, while everyone else present was a peak heavenly god-level being.
No one said anything; they merely felt that this boy was very sweet. Sword1 and the others immediately liked him even more now.
"Alright, if there's anything that you haven't brought with you, I'll give you another five minutes to sort it out. We'll meet here in a moment." Sword1 and the rest did not move after Lin Huang finished speaking.
Sword11 was the only one who disappeared on the spot in a flash.
Meanwhile, Wu Hao moved closer to Lin Huang and asked, "Master, will we be coming back here in the future?"
"All of you can come back anytime you want." Lin Huang nodded.
Wu Hao nodded only after hearing that. He disappeared in a flash as well to pack his belongings.
In a short while, Sword11 came back first.
Not long later, Wu Hao managed to make it back in the nick of time.
Lin Huang did not ask the two what they had brought with them. Straight away, he gestured with his hand and activated the dimensional gateway.
With Sword1 in the lead, they went in, single file.
A moment later, the dozen over people appeared directly in the Devil Hunter Star Zone.
Sensing the dense population of the Pfister Star, Sword1 and the rest were rather stunned.
Apart from Sword11, it had been many thousands of years since the swordmaster's ten guardians had come into contact with outsiders.
Even Sword11 was moved. Although he had lived and mingled in the Great Heaven Territory for years, it had been several hundred thousand years since he had returned to the great world.
Wu Hao was the only one who looked excited and adventurous.
Ever since he started cultivating with Sword11, he had remained on the Golden Crow Mountain for this entire year or so. He had never returned to the Great Heaven Territory after that.
The Pfister Star he saw before him was much more lively and bustling than Heavenly Sword Planet, where he used to live. The population was on an entirely different level in terms of numbers.
Moreover, although the Pfister Star was not considered a flourishing territory in the human world, there were still tall buildings clustered everywhere.
The tallest building on Heavenly Sword Planet would be considered merely ordinary if it were placed here.
Wu Hao was not the only one who had never seen a place packed with tall buildings. Even a few of the swordmaster's guardians were also curious.
"These buildings are so tall. Are they all accommodations for powerhouses?" Sword8—her hair in two ponytails—could not help asking.
Lin Huang glanced at the girl. Throughout this year, apart from her ability being restored to its peak, her appearance had remained practically unchanged. She had been as tall as Wu Hao over a year ago, but Wu Hao was now a full head taller.
"No, they're just normal residential buildings," Lin Huang explained.
"I'll get Sword12 to show all of you around in the next few days so you can familiarize yourselves with this new environment."
While Lin Huang was speaking, he led them all into the Sword Alliance's territory.
Chapter 1616: I Would Be Able To Elevate All The Way to Ninth-Rank!
Sword12 stepped forward as soon as Lin Huang and the group entered the Sword Alliance.
In fact, he had sensed familiar auras the moment they teleported here.
"Lord Swordmaster, Master Guardians," Sword12 greeted.
"For the next few days, help them familiarize themselves with this new environment."
"Of course, Lord Swordmaster!" Sword12 responded immediately.
"Did anything happen during the month or so that I was away?" Lin Huang asked.
Although he was an absentee leader, he would still occasionally ask about recent developments.
"The delivery person who came from Death Sickle the last time dropped by again two days ago. He gave me an encrypted ring, saying that the exchanges for the items you wanted have all been completed. Everything is in the ring. He also left a note inside," Sword12 answered and brought out two storage rings.
"There's another encrypted ring as well. A man in a mask delivered it over a month ago. He said his name was Virtuoso, but he didn't say very much more. He only asked me to tell you to inform him when you returned."
"Alright, I've got it." Lin Huang casually took the rings from Sword12. He already had a rough idea of what was probably in them.
The storage rings were encrypted because they had not been sent to Lin Huang directly but through someone else. It was not that Virtuoso or the delivery person from Death Sickle did not trust Sword12. It was just a regular procedure for items when a middle person was involved.
As for the encryption password, it would usually be sent directly to the receiver's communicator.
Lin Huang had not had the chance to check his communicator yet.
After assigning Sword1 and the others to Sword12, Lin Huang returned to his courtyard again.
He tapped on the communicator's contact page and soon found the passwords that Virtuoso and Death Sickle's delivery person had sent.
Lin Huang entered the two passwords into the rings accordingly and unlocked the two storage spaces.
Inside the ring that Virtuoso had sent were the God Territory Shell Remnants of five Abyssal half-step Lords. Not only that, the Abyssal energy in all five God Territory Shell Remnants had been cleansed—something Lin Huang had not expected at all.
It was very clear that the hundred over Nirvana Trees were insufficient to be exchanged for five cleansed and purified Abyssal half-step Lords' God Territory Shell Remnants. The only logical explanation was that Virtuoso had found someone else to handle this for them after obtaining the God Territory Shell Remnants.
"Virtuoso really is considerate." Lin Huang could not help giving a quiet sigh. In reality, he would have preferred if God Territory Shell Remnants were not cleansed, as the Abyssal energy was a rare delicacy to the Eternity Fire in his body.
After setting down the ring that Virtuoso had sent, Lin Huang checked the other ring.
There were many items in this second ring.
There were twenty-one half-step Lords' God Territory Shell Remnants alone, as well as a considerable number of various rare materials.
Lin Huang very soon saw the note that the delivery person had left for him.
He immediately picked it up to read.
The rough gist of the note was that Death Sickle had tried their best to collect half-step Lords' God Territory Shell Remnants for him. However, twenty-one was the most they could gather. It was probable that in the entire God Territory, there would not be half-step Lords' God Territory Shell Remnants on the list of commodities in the immediate future. This was because Death Sickle had purchased all of the available ones. The remaining exchange items had been traded for various rare materials to substitute for the God Territory Shell Remnants.
"All the half-step Lords' God Territory Shell Remnants on the God Territory market have been purchased?!" This piece of news was something Lin Huang was not expecting. However, after thinking it through carefully, he realized that it was nothing unusual.
Half-step lord-level powerhouses hardly had any opponents.
In all probability, since the founding of the God Territory, the number of deceased half-step Lords could likely be counted. Even if this were expanded to include the entire great world and the total number of deceased half-step Lords from every tribe were tallied up for every battle throughout history, it would not come to very many at all.
For Death Sickle to collect the God Territory Shell Remnants of over twenty half-step Lords within a month or so was already no small feat.
The number of God Territory Shell Remnants Death Sickle had managed to gather had completely surpassed his expectations—that was what Lin Huang felt, even. It was just that he now had a slight problem—how to gather more half-step Lords' God Territory Shell Remnants later.
Only when he had taken all the items out from the two rings and put them away in his storage space did Lin Huang turn on his communicator and call Virtuoso's number.
A moment later, the video call connected, and Virtuoso's figure was projected into his room.
"It's been over a month, and you're only contacting me now. How was it? Did you get the items?" Virtuoso was still wearing their mask, and their expression could not be seen. However, Lin Huang could tell from their tone that they were in a good mood at the moment.
"Yes, I did, thank you very much." Lin Huang nodded.
"I specifically looked for someone to cleanse them for you," Virtuoso added.
"Yes, I noticed. That was very considerate of you," Lin Huang expressed his gratitude again.
"That's all you have to say? Let me tell you, the value of these God Territory Shell Remnants has increased at least tenfold after the cleansing," Virtuoso emphasized.
"Actually… I do have a method of cleansing them," Lin Huang had no alternative but to be forthright.
"Alright. Apparently, I poked my nose in where I shouldn't have," Virtuoso said in a huff.
"Have you finished refining the Phantom City?" Lin Huang changed the subject rather stiffly.
"I have. I've also elevated to first-rank heavenly god-level now." Virtuoso sounded rather smug at this point. They thought that since Lin Huang had just elevated to ninth-rank true god-level, it was unlikely that he would advance to heavenly god-level in such a short time.
"Oh, I've elevated to second-rank," Lin Huang returned expressionlessly.
"What?!" Virtuoso was stunned when they heard this.
"I said I've elevated to second-rank heavenly god-level," Lin Huang repeated for emphasis.
"You only elevated to ninth-rank true god-level over a month ago, didn't you?" Virtuoso was completely bereft of speech. "You've advanced to heavenly god-level so quickly, aren't you afraid that your foundation won't be stable?!"
"My foundation is very stable. If I had enough resources, I would be able to elevate all the way to ninth-rank." What Lin Huang said was very true.
However, to Virtuoso, this was clearly bragging.
"I don't want to listen to you anymore. If there's nothing else, I'll hang up."
"Wait a moment." Lin Huang stopped Virtuoso, who was about to terminate the call.
"If you've got anything else to say, hurry up and say it!" Virtuoso snapped irritatedly.
"Do you know if there's any way to obtain a large number of half-step Lords' God Territory Shell Remnants?" Lin Huang asked.
"Why do you want so many half-step Lords' God Territory Shell Remnants for?" Virtuoso was getting more and more puzzled. "Oh, that's right, when I got out of closed-door cultivation a few days ago, I received news that Death Sickle has been gathering God Territory Shell Remnants lately. Were they helping you collect them, then?"
"Just tell me how to obtain them, that's good enough." Naturally, Lin Huang was unwilling to reveal his secret.
"How else would you go about it? You'd have to trade resources for them." Virtuoso was practically speechless.
"Of course I know that. What I mean is, do you know if there are any channels to do so?" Lin Huang persisted.
"What, aren't Death Sickle's channels enough for you?" The words were barely out of Virtuoso's mouth when they suddenly froze for a moment, then snapped back to their senses and stared at Lin Huang, eyes wide. "You've cleaned out the God Territory's resources?!"
"That's right… That's why I asked you about other channels," Lin Huang had no alternative but to admit it.
"You're really something!" Virtuoso gave Lin Huang a thumbs up; his feelings were convoluted.
"How do I say this? Things like half-step Lords' God Territory Shell Remnants aren't regular items. For one, the demand is very low, so not many people specifically supply these commodities.
"Not many people collect these things, even at the Club, so even if you send out a request there, you'll probably only be able to obtain a few. After all, compared to all those major organizations in the universe, the Club has too few members."
After they finished speaking, Virtuoso cupped their chin and pondered for a while.
"There's an organization called Royal here in the great world. It's a branch of Royal in the universe. It seems low profile in the great world, but its combined strength is actually on par with any grade-7 organization. It's said they have a special channel that can bring in resources from the universe and other worlds. That's why many major organizations collaborate with them. I think you could go talk to them."
'Royal?!'
If Virtuoso had not brought it up, Lin Huang would have almost forgotten that he also had Royalty status.
Chapter 1617: The Royal Market
Lin Huang's official arrival in the great world after resolving the crisis in the gravel world had, in fact, only been nine months ago or so—not even a year.
Most of his time had been spent in cultivation.
As for cultivation resources, most of them came from Death Sickle.
All this while, the resources he had obtained from Death Sickle via exchange had been sufficient for his needs.
Therefore, he had also never contacted Royal this entire time.
It was not until Virtuoso brought the matter up earlier that Lin Huang remembered his existing status as a Rank-A member of Royal.
From being a nobody in the gravel world to becoming Royal's elected Emperor, all this had come about because he had passed Royal's trial and became an official Royalty.
However, ever since he arrived in the great world, he had set aside this identity.
After ending the call with Virtuoso, Lin Huang took out Royal's identity token.
Based on the information that Virtuoso had provided, he now had a new understanding of Royal.
In the great world, Royal was just a branch; their headquarters were located in the universe.
All the major organizations in the great world knew about Royal's background. Although they were not certain what exactly Royal's standing was in the universe, they knew that Royal's branch was guarded by a Lord—more than one, in fact. That told them all they needed to know.
As a grade-7 organization with lord-level powerhouse guardians, Royal was very low profile in the great world. Royalties hardly ever stirred up trouble. Furthermore, most of them were outstanding suppliers of resources.
Businesses and auctions in the great world loved working with Royal.
Even grade-6 and grade-7 organizations of different tribes had established partnerships with them.
Virtuoso had suggested that Lin Huang go to Royal because the number of half-step Lords' God Territory Shell Remnants that he needed was just too high. After all, Lin Huang had snapped up all the available ones in the God Territory, and the amount still proved to be insufficient. Royal was perhaps the only channel in the great world that could provide him with enough half-step Lords' God Territory Shell Remnants.
Lin Huang had never expected that his status as a Royalty would come in handy at such a time.
Using his Royal identity token, he was able to log into the Royal market very quickly.
After glancing at the list of goods, Lin Huang did a direct search for the keywords "half-step Lords' God Territories".
An instant later, the list changed to show only the God Territory Shell Remnants of half-step Lords.
Lin Huang glanced through the list. There were not many—only twenty-eight available in total.
He then looked at what trading for them required. None of them could be exchanged for Divine Crystals; they all required cultivation resources or Pseudo-Dao Weapons.
Lin Huang felt rather frustrated. Death Sickle had traded in just about all of his battle spoils. Apart from the two remaining Dao Weapons, all the Pseudo-Dao Weapons had been exchanged for rare materials.
Moreover, he could not trade in those materials either, as they were for his imperial monsters to elevate from Class-5 supreme god-level to Class-6 Pure Spirit.
Although he had said that he wanted the imperial monsters to be independent, he also knew that it was hard to obtain some of the rarer materials. If the imperial monsters were to collect these themselves, they probably might not be able to gather all the necessary materials to elevate to Class-6 even after hundreds and thousands of years.
He even somewhat regretted not checking out the Royal market sooner.
At least he could have obtained this batch of God Territories first and then given Death Sickle the remaining loot to trade. That way, Death Sickle would have been able to get around twenty half-step Lords' God Territory Shell Remnants in exchange. By doing that, he would have obtained at least twenty God Territories, but he would have considerably less rare materials.
After looking through the trade-in list for a while, Lin Huang felt rather aggravated.
However, he quickly noticed the auction option on top of the page. "Auction?"
After pondering for a moment, he clicked on it.
There was a stunning array of items up for bids; Lin Huang was dazzled by just the sight of them.
However, he merely gave everything a cursory glance, then searched for the keywords "Dao Weapon".
Previously, he had given Death Sickle practically all his loot for disposal. He had only retained Shen Yu and Shen Jue's two Dao Weapons and their half-step Lord's Dead Body Puppet.
He had kept the half-step Lord's Dead Body Puppet so he could use it to mask his actual abilities.
As for the two Dao Weapons, he did not intend to keep them for his own use.
His four God Weapons had now been elevated to Dao Weapons, which were good enough for him.
Besides, one of the Dao Weapons was a saber, and the other was a suit of battle armor.
Lin Huang could not use the saber. As for the suit of battle armor, its function was a repetition of his own God Weapon battle armor.
One of the reasons he had not given these to Death Sickle for trading in was because the value of his other battle spoils was considerable—enough to be used in exchange for the materials he desired. Therefore, he was not in a rush to sell them. For another, he was also worried that Death Sickle would not be able to get a good price for them.
However, now that he had access to Royal's trading channel, he felt that he could definitely put them on the market now.
After typing in the keywords "Dao Weapon", hundreds of related pieces of auction information appeared on the list. They were all about various types of Dao Weapons.
Lin Huang went through these pieces of information one by one. After scrolling for a long time, he finally gained some insight into Dao Weapons.
In reality, Dao Weapon was just a general term. Weapon-type Dao Weapons were usually called Dao Weaponry, while armor-type Dao Weapons would usually be called Dao Armor… Furthermore, Dao Weapons were divided into grades, namely low-grade, intermediate-grade
and expert-grade from low to high.
Low-grade Dao Weapons would usually be inscribed with single-digit Dao tattoos and would not exceed ten tattoos in total.
Intermediate-grade Dao Weapons would usually be inscribed with anywhere from between ten to a hundred Dao tattoos.
Meanwhile, expert-grade Dao Weapons would have anywhere from one hundred up to one thousand inscribed Dao tattoos.
There was also a handful of supreme-grade Dao Weapons with more than one thousand Dao tattoos inscribed. As there were so few of these, they were not considered an official grade.
In all honesty, Lin Huang did not even need to think about it to know that the two Dao Weapons he had were low-grade ones.
If they were intermediate-grade or expert-grade, they would certainly not have come into Shen Yu and Shen Jue's possession.
He took out the two Dao Weapons and checked them with Divine Telekinesis.
The sword was inscribed with only two Dao tattoos. However, apart from Dao tattoos, there were also many engraved divine patterns.
As for the suit of battle armor, it had three Dao tattoos inscribed and was also engraved with many divine patterns.
It had to be said that the quality of both Dao Weapons was lower than Lin Huang expected. Among low-grade Dao Weapons, they could only be considered ordinary goods.
Lin Huang checked out two or three Dao Weapons of similar quality to see the final price they had fetched in the auction.
He then uploaded pictures of both Dao Weapons.
His condition for trade-in stated, "Will only accept half-step Lords' God Territory Shell Remnants".
As for the starting bid, Lin Huang filled in "50 half-step Lords' God Territory Shell Remnants" for both Dao Weapons.
This number was actually the final successful bid that other people had used to purchase Dao Weapons of similar quality.
Although the market price of half-step Lords' God Territory Shell Remnants and Pseudo-Dao Weapons were similar in the great world, Lin Huang knew that if price were the sole consideration, then Pseudo-Dao Weapons possessed higher value. After all, Pseudo-Dao Weapons were in higher demand, while half-step Lords' God Territory Shell Remnants were hardly in demand under normal circumstances.
Therefore, Lin Huang set 50 half-step Lords' God Territory Shell Remnants as his starting bid.
As for the auction period, Lin Huang filled in "Ten days".
He knew that the serious bidders who frequented Royal's auction would come on almost every day to check on item information. Even if they were busy and unable to log in for a few days, they would certainly log in whenever they had the time. In reality, it did not matter very much if he set the auction period for ten days or even a month because the ones who would bid were always the same group of individuals.
Finally, Lin Huang wrote a quick note in the "Remarks" section.
"Remark: All half-step Lords' God Territory Shell Remnants from every tribe will be accepted, including those of the Bug Tribe and the Abyssal Tribe. There's no need to cleanse them."
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Chapter 1618: Elevated Sword Dao—Complete-Stage Heavenly Dao!
After listing his items for auction on Royal's page, Lin Huang did not intend to waste the ten days. Instead, he entered the Great Heaven Palace once more.
He adjusted the time flow to be 10,000 times faster than the outside world and began another round of closed-door cultivation.
Of course, Lin Huang's main objective was to refine the twenty-six half-step Lords' God Territory Shell Remnants that Death Sickle and Virtuoso had contributed.
This time, his closed-door cultivation took over nine thousand days or so.
At the end of it, he had completely refined all twenty-six half-step Lords' God Territory Shell Remnants.
His combat strength had also soared all the way from second-rank to fifth-rank heavenly god-level.
As he had anticipated, the number of half-step Lords' God Territories needed for refining doubled every time he elevated a rank.
He only had to refine 1 God Territory when he elevated to first-rank, then 2 for second-rank, 4 for third-rank… all in all, it would require 256 to elevate to ninth-rank.
Furthermore, this was only the number of half-step Lords' God Territory Shell Remnants required to elevate from eight-rank to ninth-rank. If he started counting from first-rank to ninth-rank, he would need a total of 511.
If one Dao Weapon could only be exchanged for 50 half-step Lords' God Territory Shell Remnants, then he would need 11 Dao Weapons to be able to obtain enough half-step Lords' God Territory Shell Remnants to elevate to ninth-rank.
When Lin Huang opened his eyes, he did not feel at ease in the least.
Although he seemed to be elevating faster than other people at the moment, he required a hundred or a thousand times more resources than they did.
After pushing these convoluted thoughts to the back of his mind, he checked through the changes that had taken place.
His physical body and God's soul's strength had seen significant advancement. His Divine Telekinesis was also considerably more formidable.
Most importantly, the number of god sequence chains that he could borrow had skyrocketed from 200 to 1,600.
"I think I should be much more powerful than many half-step Lords now," Lin Huang roughly gauged his ability. However, he did not think that he could call himself a half-step lord-level powerhouse at the moment.
After thoroughly checking over his current status, his expression soon became rather odd.
"I can't believe that a genuine sword cultivator like myself is currently being held back by Sword Dao cultivation…"
Since he had been busy elevating his combat strength, he had barely spent any time at all practicing his swordsmanship for the past half a year. As a result, his Sword Dao had been stagnant at level-2 of Sword Dao heavenly rule—Heavenly Heart.
Although he had reached the pinnacle of Heavenly Heart quite some time ago, he had not been able to experience a breakthrough.
"It hasn't even been a day in the outside world, and the auction will only end in another nine days. In the Great Heaven Palace, that would be more than ninety thousand days." Lin Huang had no intention of wasting the remaining nine days. "I'll seize the opportunity to focus on cultivating my Sword Dao then."
It did not take Lin Huang very long to list out, one by one, all of the Sword Dao inheritances that he had obtained. He then began to practice by simulating them in his mind.
Days passed in the Great Heaven Palace.
Lin Huang began simulating the Sword Dao inheritances one after the other, starting with mythical-level, then going to supreme god-level (including Rule Bending Power), and onto Pure Spirit (including sequence power).
There were not only inheritances he had obtained from the many sword cultivators in the Great Heaven Territory, but also endless inheritances from the Sword Scripture.
After all his Pure Spirit sword skills had been simulated for practice, a Sword Dao general outline consolidated swiftly in his mind.
This Sword Dao general outline had a core of over thirty thousand Pure Spirit sword skills, millions of supreme god-level sword skills as its frame, and more than ten million god-level sword skills to flesh it out, as well as hundreds of millions of transcendent sword skills as its outer covering.
As soon as the Sword Dao general outline had consolidated, Lin Huang did not even have time to amend and streamline it before his Sword Dao achieved a breakthrough right away. It elevated from level-2, Heavenly Heart to level-3, Heavenly Dao!
After this Sword Dao breakthrough, Lin Huang did not stop. He merely glanced at it and resumed amending his Sword Dao general outline.
Days passed in the Great Heaven Palace, as well as in the outside world.
When Lin Huang opened his eyes again, twenty-one days had passed in the outside world.
He had never thought that this round of closed-door cultivation would take so long.
After looking at the progress of his Sword Dao, he felt satisfied.
Although his Sword Dao had not yet achieved a breakthrough and he still remained at Heavenly Dao level, he had already come to complete-stage Heavenly Dao.
Only an opportunity separated him from a Sword Dao breakthrough and the consolidation of a Sword seal.
This period of closed-door cultivation also gave him a complete understanding of what a sword cultivator would have to do in order to become a Lord.
It was very simple; all one had to do was to consolidate a Sword seal.
Of course, this was easy to say, but in reality, not many people could do it.
Lin Huang knew very well that he would be able to do so, and it would work.
However, he had no intention of going down this path since someone else had already done it. Even if he were more powerful than other sword cultivators, it was difficult for him to surpass the essential gap in abilities.
He wanted to use his method to achieve complete-stage in all aspects that nobody could surpass, and then go onto become a Lord!
It was not until he came out of the Great Heaven Palace that Lin Huang discovered twenty-one days had passed in the outside world.
The amount of time needed for this round of closed-door cultivation had taken far longer than he had anticipated.
Once he returned to the Devil Hunter Star Zone, he checked his Royal identity token immediately.
The auction had already ended eleven days ago.
When he saw the amount of the final bid, Lin Huang was clearly stunned for a moment.
"The bidding went up to such a high price?!"
The final bid for the saber Dao Weaponry was 112 half-step Lords' God Territory Shell Remnants.
The battle Dao Armor's final price was even higher—127 half-step Lords' God Territory Shell Remnants.
Lin Huang doubtfully looked at the God Territory Shell Remnants within his identity token; the exchanges had been fully completed.
The traded items from both the Royal market and the auction would be stored in both parties' identity tokens respectively. There were no extra logistics procedures required. This was also a Space Rule inherent in a Royal identity token.
Both batches of God Territory Shell Remnants had been automatically moved into Lin Huang's identity token eleven days ago upon completion of the trade.
With doubts in his mind, Lin Huang looked through them with Divine Telekinesis. It only took a moment for him to understand why two such low-quality Dao Weapons could be sold for such a high price.
Among the total of 239 God Territory Shell Remnants, seventy percent of them were from Abyssal half-step Lords, while thirty percent of them were from Bug Tribe half-step Lords.
None of them had been cleansed…
Lin Huang could even faintly smell a pungent stench of blood and a disgusting reek. Clearly, some of these half-step Lords had been killed very recently.
Abyssal God Territory Shell Remnants were hardly worth anything as they were contaminated by Abyssal energy. Cleansing them required considerable effort. Furthermore, only Lords and powerhouses above Lords had the ability to cleanse half-step lord-level Abyssal God Territory Shell Remnants.
As for the Bug Tribe's God Territory Shell Remnants, nobody wanted them as they were just too incompatible.
Bug Tribe powerhouses obtained god sequence chains by inheriting or plundering them, so the interior of their God Territory was extremely disorderly. The expulsion rate from God Territories of other living beings was very high; they were also highly difficult to refine and integrate.
Compared to other God Territories of the same rank, refining Bug Tribe God Territories of that rank might well take several dozen times longer or more. Not only that, the Bug Tribe God Territories might be expelled as well. Not only would one be unable to strengthen their personal God Territory, but it might also cause problems for their own God Territory.
However, none of these things were problems for Lin Huang at all.
Chapter 1619: Elevated to Eighth-Rank!
After putting Royal's identity token away, Lin Huang tapped open his communications page.
Very soon, he saw two missed call requests. One was from Lin Xin half a month ago. Another one was from eighteen days ago; it was Sword12 who had called.
He did not call back right away. Instead, he opened up his message page and checked it.
As expected, he saw the messages that Lin Xin and Sword12 had sent. There was also a message from Buried Heaven, as well as an unfamiliar number.
With some curiosity, he tapped on Lin Xin's message first.
Only after reading the message did he breathe a sigh of relief.
Initially, he thought Lin Xin might be calling him about some urgent matter. It turned out she was entering the Battlefield of the Dragon Abyss with Xiao Mo and the rest and only wanted to inform him of this.
Lin Huang then opened the message from Sword12.
It was nothing too urgent either. Sword12 was merely informing him that he had sorted everything out for Sword1 and the others. Sword12 also mentioned that he had turned over everything regarding the Sword Alliance to Sword1, and he would now be assisting Sword1 instead.
Lin Huang had anticipated that such a thing might happen.
From Great Heaven's inheritance memories, he had realized that Swords1 to 10's functions were more complicated compared to those of the other Sword Servants. Apart from guarding the swordmaster, they were also involved in combat, as well as managing and coordinating all the other Sword Servants. All of that was included in their job scope. Naturally, the girl—Sword8—was excluded.
As for the Sword Servants after Sword11, they were actually only combat personnel.
Lin Huang had previously assigned Sword12 to be responsible for the Sword Alliance as he had been training Wu Hao back then, and Sword12 had the highest authority among the Sword Servants. Sword12 had no inherent work experience of this kind, so he was thrown entirely into the deep end with something far beyond his skills. Since the swordmaster had requested it, he had no choice but to take up the task regardless.
Now that Sword1 and the others had taken over, he was more than happy to be a backseat boss.
After reading over Sword12's message, Lin Huang thought about it and decided to send a brief reply back to him.
After that, he glanced at the topmost message, which was from Buried Heaven. He skipped it for now and opened the message from the unfamiliar number.
The communicator he had was different from mobile phones on Earth in that there were hardly any messages that were advertisement-related.
When Lin Huang saw the stranger's number, the name that flashed through his mind immediately was, without question, Yang Ling. However, on second thoughts, he remembered that Yang Ling was now dead.
He opened the message with some misgivings.
Only after quickly glancing over the message was he able to ascertain the sender. It was not Yang Ling but Sword1.
This unfamiliar number was Sword1's new communicator number in the great world.
Sword1 was not the only one; in fact, Swords 1 to 10 all had their own respective communicators.
Sword1 had sent the message to give Lin Huang a brief update on their current situation.
He and the other swordmaster's guardians had taken over management of the Sword Alliance. Sword12 remained a member of the management team, but no longer had any real authority.
Sword1 also gave a brief description of the future development plans he had drawn up for the Sword Alliance.
Apart from that, he also indicated to Lin Huang that whenever the swordmaster was out, he had to have guardians with him at all times—at least two each time. His position required a show of prestige, after all.
Lin Huang was rendered slightly speechless upon reading this, but he did not directly reject it. Naturally, he knew that Sword1 meant well.
After reading Sword1's long message, Lin Huang gave it some thought, then replied as well.
He suggested promoting Sword11 and Sword12 to become swordmaster's guardians.
After all, be it ability or prestige among the Sword Servants, both were imminently qualified.
Sword1 replied almost immediately after the message was sent.
"I'll arrange it accordingly. Lord Swordmaster does not need to worry."
Only after replying to Sword1 did Lin Huang look at the message from Buried Heaven.
It had been sent just a day ago.
Upon opening it, he only saw two brief sentences.
"I'll officially perform unification in ten days' time. If you'd like to witness the ceremony, you can come and watch."
The message came with a star map attached that had coordinates marked on it.
It had to be said that Buried Heaven trusted Lin Huang implicitly.
The process of a Heavenly God's unification for elevating to become a Lord was very risky. The slightest mistake might see one forever doomed.
Under normal circumstances, one would only invite one's closest friends to witness a Heavenly God unification ceremony.
Furthermore, the ceremony's coordinates were secret and not disclosed to the public.
This was to prevent any disruptions when one was performing the unification.
One must know that if by chance the unification failed, the most minor consequence would be the individual failing to consolidate their Dao seal and being unable to elevate to lord-level forever. The worst-case scenario was that their Dao seal would collapse, and they would immediately disintegrate into smoke and ash.
Lin Huang knew that one of the reasons Buried Heaven had invited him was because he trusted Lin Huang. For another, he thought highly of Lin Huang, so he had specially given him an opportunity to observe the ceremony.
After all, Lin Huang would certainly have to elevate to lord-level in the future, so he would have to go through the unification process as well.
"He sent this yesterday, so I still have nine more days." Lin Huang checked the date and replied to Buried Heaven right away.
"I'll definitely be there! Let me express my wishes in advance that Master Buried Heaven will succeed in this unification and become a Lord!"
Buried Heaven replied immediately as well after Lin Huang replied.
"Thank you!"
After closing the communications page, Lin Huang scanned his Royal identity token with Divine Telekinesis to check the number of God Territories within. He then came up with a rough time estimate.
"There should be enough time…" He gave this some thought, then set a date reminder on his communicator.
After that, he did not waste any more time but teleported straight back to the Great Heaven Palace in a flash.
After entering the palace, he adjusted the time to be 10,000 times faster than the outside world again. He then retrieved the half-step Lords' God Territory Shell Remnants one after the other…
Time went by in the Great Heaven Palace.
As Lin Huang had expected, the refining of all the God Territories was extraordinarily successful.
It did not matter if it was the Bug Tribe's chaotic half-step Lords' God Territory Shell Remnants or the half-step Lords' God Territory Shell Remnants contaminated with Abyssal energy. There was no hindrance to his refining process at all.
This round of closed-door cultivation went on for over eighty-five thousand days.
During this time, he fully refined a total of two-hundred and thirty-nine half-step Lords' God Territory Shell Remnants.
His combat strength elevated from its initial fifth-rank heavenly god-level all the way to eighth-rank heavenly god-level.
Sensing the number of god sequence chains that he could borrow had skyrocketed to twelve thousand eight hundred chains, Lin Huang had a vague feeling that he might possess sufficient ability to challenge a Lord now.
He raised his brows after looking at the time on the communicator.
"Eight and a half days have passed in the outside world."
This was not too far from what he had anticipated—perhaps a little slower, that was all.
Lin Huang stood up immediately and spent a few minutes familiarizing himself with his massive increase in both power and his God's soul's strength. He did not go in-depth, nonetheless, and opened the doors of the Great Heaven Palace.
Since he had given Buried Heaven his word that he would be present at the ceremony, of course, he was not going to break his promise.
Moreover, watching Buried Heaven performing unification would be beneficial to him.
In the future, he would definitely have to do the same to become a Lord. Watching another's unification procedure could be considered a preview of what he would be doing.
Lin Huang did not waste even a second and teleported out of the Great Heaven Palace. On the way, he activated the spatial dimensional gateway and hastened to the coordinates marked on the star map.
Chapter 1620: Meeting Blood Sickle Members For The First Time
In a vast, silent sky full of stars, a giant black hole invisible to the naked eye rotated slowly.
It was mercilessly devouring everything around it—stars, meteorites, dust, and even light…
Right now, however, a figure stood before this black hole, seemingly unaffected by gravity at all.
If one were to observe from up close, they would see that this was a "young man".
He looked to be thirteen or fourteen at most and was less than 1.6 meters tall, but he had a head of short white hair.
He hovered before the black hole's great mass just like that. His hands were in his pockets, and his eyes were slightly lidded as if he were waiting for something.
Not too far from the white-haired "young man" stood six figures of various shapes and sizes.
If any senior Gold Sickle members from Death Sickle were here, they would be able to identify these six as Death Sickle's Blood Sickle members.
Six out of the seven Blood Sickle members were present. Clearly, they were guarding Buried Heaven's unification ceremony to prevent anyone from interfering.
When Lin Huang traversed the void and showed up, the six Blood Sickle members immediately had their guards up.
Fortunately, from quite a distance, Lin Huang had sensed the presence of seven people and had revealed himself. Otherwise, he might really have been attacked by the six Blood Sickles.
Sensing Lin Huang's arrival, Buried Heaven slowly opened his eyes and nodded at him.
Lin Huang nodded slightly in response, then turned his head to study the six Blood Sickle members.
He had never seen the Blood Sickles before. However, judging from the intensity of their auras, all six were half-step Lords. Furthermore, among half-step Lords, they would be considered powerhouses.
Meanwhile, the six Blood Sickle members were weighing Lin Huang up as well.
Over the course of this year, they had naturally heard many stories about Lin Huang, this exceptional newly-emerged genius. Whether in his identity as Xie Lin or Xiu Mu, he had left behind a stunning record of battle exploits in Death Sickle.
Not long ago, Lin Huang had anonymously accepted twenty-six missions. They knew about his consecutive killing of the geniuses on the Heavenly God Leaderboard in the God Territory, as well as how he had managed to successfully assassinate Shen Yu and Shen Jue despite a half-step Lord attempting to stop him.
Right now, this young man had finally appeared before them.
Naturally, the Blood Sickle members could not help giving him a second look.
However, the more they studied him, the more apprehensive they felt. In fact, a moment later, their expressions revealed bewilderment.
Although Lin Huang had concealed his aura instead of letting it show through, powerhouses did not need to sense a fully released aura to gauge the standard of their opponent—just a trace would do.
The six Blood Sickle members only had one word come to mind after sensing the aura emanating from Lin Huang's person—impenetrable!
Due to this peculiar feeling, two of the six could not help but try probing with Divine Telekinesis.
Naturally, the probe attempts ran into a snag.
Lin Huang's current God's soul's strength was already at the level of a regular Lord. Not only that, he had a spirit-type Dao Weapon within him that easily blocked any attempts at Divine Telekinesis probes from the outside world.
The two Blood Sickle members who could not resist probing had both their strands of Divine Telekinesis snuffed out easily by the Dao Weapon.
After the failure of their attempts, the two gave an involuntary exclamation at practically the same time.
After the remaining four asked about it via voice transmission, they could not help trying to probe as well. They encountered the same issue.
All six Blood Sickles were looking at Lin Huang in an increasingly odd manner.
Naturally, Lin Huang had sensed the six of them probing one after the other. However, it did not particularly bother him; he then took the initiative to greet them.
"Xiu Mu greets the six Blood Sickle seniors!"
"Young Xiu Mu, we've heard many things about you throughout this year, and now we're finally able to meet you in person today." The first person to greet Lin Huang was a tall, thin old man. He was fully three meters tall and then some, while his body was as gaunt as a withered corpse. His skin was pale, and he looked almost bloodless.
Although Lin Huang had never met any of the Blood Sickle members before, Death Sickle's Gold Sickle authorization gave access to a limited amount of information regarding the seven Blood Sickle members.
The man in front of him was one of Death Sickle's founders. His name was Boundless Blood.
He had been born into the Blood Protoss Tribe, which was considered a major tribe in the God Territory, and had a large population.
"Truly, the younger generation has surpassed their elders!" The second person to speak was a long-legged woman of alluring beauty.
Her body was almost no different from that of a human. However, several flame-like red tails undulated beneath her skirt.
Lin Huang recognized at a glance that this was the only female among the seven Blood Sickle members—Hu Xian'er of the Nine-tailed Fox Tribe.
The Nine-tailed Fox Tribe had been considered prominent for a time in the God Territory. At their peak, they had been regarded as one of the most powerful tribes in the God Territory. However, they had experienced a significant decline since then.
The rest of the Blood Sickles did not speak, but Lin Huang saw one of them nodding slightly at him.
This was a saber cultivator who was roughly about the same height as Lin Huang. In appearance, he looked no different from a human, with no distinguishing features to set him apart from an ordinary human being.
It was only after Lin Huang had been promoted to Gold Sickle-level and obtained authorization to look at information about the Blood Sickles that he found out there was a human among the seven Blood Sickle members. The man standing before him was evidently this individual.
Although only a few brief pieces of information were disclosed, Lin Huang knew that this Blood Sickle was called Gao Ming, and he was a saber cultivator.
Lin Huang was aware that the reason he had been able to progress so smoothly as a human within Death Sickle was in no small part due to Gao Ming.
It was because of Gao Ming—a human within the Blood Sickles—that such a massive organization in the God Territory like Death Sickle had never discriminated against humans. Furthermore, they had always accepted human members.
Lin Huang nodded back at Gao Ming as well, indicating that he knew the other's identity.
As for the anomaly they sensed from Lin Huang's being, the Blood Sickles did not ask about it.
Every supreme genius possessed inherently matchless destinies and incredible luck. These were things others might envy but never achieve.
In reality, the six Blood Sickles had vaguely guessed that Lin Huang might have a soul-type Dao Weapon on him.
Very soon, the Blood Sickle members came forward one by one to chat for a while. The atmosphere was not as awkward as Lin Huang expected. He had initially expected that since the Blood Sickle members had higher status and were all half-step Lords, they would definitely be haughty in front of him, a mere junior. However, this was not the case. They seemed to sense that his ability was no weaker than theirs. All six Blood Sickle members did not treat him as a junior, nor did they put on airs.
"When selecting a venue for the unification ceremony, is there anything particular that one must pay attention to? Why did Buried Heaven choose this place?" After they had become a little more familiar with each other, Lin Huang soon brought up his concerns.
From a long way off, he had already sensed the giant black hole behind Buried Heaven. As he had heard a great deal about black holes during his past life on Earth, he still regarded this celestial phenomenon with some awe.
"The process of unification releases massive amounts of energy, and one also has to battle raptors. It would cause destructive harm to the entire star zone. Naturally, one can't select a region with a dense population," Gao Ming explained, "Moreover, there's an advantage to performing unification near a black hole. It can absorb massive amounts of energy waves, which will significantly lower the possibility of being sensed by other powerhouses."
"I see. So that's why." Lin Huang had evidently learned something.
After that, he asked some questions about unification, and the Blood Sickle members answered him one by one.
Several hours passed by in this manner.
When they sensed Buried Heaven's aura beginning to emanate from him, Lin Huang and the others immediately stopped talking and turned in Buried Heaven's direction.
They knew that Buried Heaven's unification was about to begin!