Chapter 1621: Buried Heaven's Unification
Buried Heaven's figure hovered in front of the black hole, like a particle of dust facing a giant black whirlpool. He appeared infinitely small in this vast starry sky.
However, his aura kept skyrocketing.
Within the blink of an eye, Buried Heaven seemed to transform into a ferocious, unrivaled beast even more terrifying than the black hole.
God sequence chains of various colors extended out of his body like tentacles. They were no longer invisible like they usually were to ordinary people but had materialized into actual chains.
As the god sequence chains extended, Lin Huang was finally able to see the number of god sequence chains that Buried Heaven had mastered—twenty-seven in total.
Compared with Lin Huang, this was not considered very many. However, in the entire great world, this number was already the ultimate limit.
After all, Great Heaven, who had dominated an entire era in the great world, had only mastered forty-two god sequence chains.
Although Lin Huang could control over ten thousand god sequence chains, most of them were borrowed and were not ones he had comprehended himself. In all honesty, the number of god sequence chains that he had comprehended was far less than Buried Heaven.
Lin Huang did not find it that impressive, but the six Blood Sickle members were clearly envious.
The more god sequence chains a Heavenly God had mastered, the more powerful the Dao seal would be after unification.
From this standpoint, Buried Heaven's foundation was enough to suppress most Heavenly Gods. They might elevate to become Lords, but Buried Heaven would undoubtedly be more powerful than the rest after elevation.
Furthermore, he would only become even more powerful after elevating to become a Lord.
The number of god sequence chains used in the first Dao seal would determine the maximum number of god sequence chains all the subsequent Dao seals could hold. In other words, two Lords who started with different numbers of god sequence chains would see an increasing disparity in their abilities as they consolidated more and more Dao seals.
Buried Heaven, for example, had consolidated a Dao seal that could hold 27 god sequence chains. If he consolidated two Dao seals, they would be able to contain 54 god sequence chains. However, if another Lord's Dao seal could only hold 9 god sequence chains from the start, then they would only have 18 god sequence chains when they consolidated two Dao seals. Even if the two Lords had the same combat strength, the gap between their abilities would only grow wider as the number of consolidated Dao seals increased.
Although the number of god sequence chains that Buried Heaven had mastered did not unduly surprise Lin Huang, he was still fully focused on watching the entire unification process without so much as a blink.
In the void, the god sequence chains moved threateningly in a frenzy as if they were completely out of control.
Amidst his uncertainties, Lin Huang saw a scene that shocked him even more.
The god sequence chains detached from Buried Heaven's body one by one and began coiling together in the air above his head. They seemed to be possessed of some form of sentience. The feeling they gave off was one of dissatisfaction each with the other and wanting to fight until a winner finally emerged.
"Is this normal?" Lin Huang could not help asking the Blood Sickle members.
"This is the first stage of unification—psychic communication," Gao Ming was the first to explain, "During this stage, the god sequence chains in the body gain a measure of intelligence. Therefore, they'll vie with each other, with none willing to surrender."
"This stage is also called the chaotic sequence period and is a very dangerous state. If one's God's soul is not strong enough to suppress the god sequence chains, the unification will fail right away," the Nine-tailed Fox off to one side added with a smile, "The best-case scenario would be one's God's soul being severely injured and losing their god sequence chains. If they're unlucky, their God's soul might be impaled by the berserk god sequence chains, resulting in immediate death."
"Shouldn't this be happening within his body? How come we can see it?" Lin Huang brought up the point that was puzzling him.
"It's happening in the God Territory within his body, certainly. We're only seeing the Heavenly Dao's projection," Gao Ming explained again, "The exact reason is unknown, but the great world's will appears to hope that this process will be noticed by the outside world. Therefore, it projects the process of the Lord's unification."
Very soon, Lin Huang saw Buried Heaven's God's soul drifting out and engaging the god sequence chains in battle.
The god sequence chains had transformed into mutated monsters of all kinds, releasing all sorts of different sequence powers.
Within a moment, half the nearby star zone had turned into a battlefield.
However, Lin Huang and the rest did not retreat. As this was just a projection, it would not interfere with reality.
Nevertheless, they could all fully witness the intense battle in Buried Heaven's God Territory.
The resilience of a combat cultivator was no exaggeration. Buried Heaven was completely fearless in the face of the multitude of sequence powers, inflicting heavy blows on them. Within half an hour, he had forced all twenty-seven god sequence chains to surrender.
Only at that moment did the god sequence chains gradually consolidate into line after line of Dao tattoos.
All twenty-seven Dao tattoos swiftly coiled together, forming a Dao tattoo in the void.
However, right at this moment, the Dao tattoo began frenetically radiating endless Divine Power.
At the same time, Buried Heaven's God Territory materialized before them at last. It was like a phantom galaxy suspended in front of them.
Before Lin Huang could ask, Gao Ming immediately explained right away.
"This is the second stage of unification—unification. Simply put, it's the god sequence chains turning into a Dao tattoo and consolidating into a Dao seal.
"This process is also the one that has the highest failure rate in Heavenly God unification. In the past, over 80% of individuals failed at this stage of unification.
"Since the process of consolidating god sequence chains into a Dao seal releases terrifying energy, it's a triple test of the individual performing the unification in terms of their physical body, their God's soul, and their God Territory.
"The energy released from consolidating god sequence chains into a Dao seal impacts the individual's God Territory first. At the same time that the God Territory is affected, there will be a measure of energy seeping out that will impact the individual's physical body and God's soul.
"If either the individual's God Territory, physical body, or God's soul is unable to withstand the impact, the unification will fail straight away."
Lin Huang kept nodding as he listened. He immediately thought of the nuclear fusion of hydrogen bombs on Earth.
The process of nuclear fusion was the collision of two atomic nuclei, causing polymerization and producing atomic nuclei with heavier substances. At the same time, it would trigger a large number of electrons and neutrons into releasing massive energy.
This process was exactly like consolidating god sequence chains into Dao seals.
It was also the first time Lin Huang realized that apart from a strong physical body and God's soul, one also needed a powerful God Territory to perform unification.
However, he was aware that he himself was unusual.
From the very beginning, his God Territory had been at imperial-level, which was already different from everyone else. From that time on, he could already refine and integrate the God Territories of others.
As for later on, he could already directly integrate massive amounts of half-step Lords' God Territory Shell Remnants after he had only just elevated to heavenly god-level.
However, for normal cultivators, the number of God Territories they could refine and integrate was limited. The intensity of the refining process was severely restricted as well.
Great Heaven was so powerful that he had dominated an entire era and mastered forty-two sequence chains. Yet even he only dared to refine nine ninth-rank Heavenly Gods' God Territory Shell Remnants from first-rank all the way to ninth-rank heavenly god-level.
That was the limit his God Territory could sustain.
Although Buried Heaven was powerful, the strength of his God Territory was certainly weaker than Great Heaven's.
Fortunately, the number of god sequence chains he had mastered was lower than Great Heaven's. Therefore, there was significantly less pressure during his unification.
Chapter 1622: Raptors
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Through the Heavenly Dao's projection, the scene inside Buried Heaven's God Territory was clearly displayed.
At the moment, the Dao seal that had been consolidated from the twenty-seven Dao tattoos was like an intensely blazing star suspended above the God Territory, radiating endless awe-inspiring power.
The glaring white light had almost spread to every corner of Buried Heaven's God Territory. Wherever it passed through, it left scorched earth in its wake.
Lin Huang could even see countless planets inhabited by living beings, all burning fiercely. Some even crumbled immediately. Almost all the living creatures in the God Territory were killed; none were spared.
"Does this happen to the God Territory of everyone who performs unification?" Lin Huang asked the handful of Blood Sickle members with some misgivings.
"This process is almost inevitable. Living beings will die, stars will collapse, and even galaxies will fall apart…" Gao Ming answered, nodding, "However, as soon as unification is completed successfully, time in the God Territory will revert to the moment before unification started. The destroyed galaxies will be restored to their original state, while the living beings that were killed will be revived where they were. Furthermore, all their memories of having died will be removed.
"The God Territory might seem the same as before, but in reality, once unification is successful, the entire God Territory will evolve to a new stage. Realms, rules, and sequences will be reconstructed, creating a fully complete internal circulatory system and forming an independent universe. Only then can the God Territory truly be called a Kingdom."
'It sounds very much like a system being upgraded and restarted…' Lin Huang thought to himself.
As the Dao seal released its energy, the God Territory within Buried Heaven's body became riddled with craters in the mere span of a few breaths. Practically none of the star zones remained whole.
Even the area of space around the entire God Territory was starting to quake, and cracks began appearing in the air.
Lin Huang and the others could clearly feel a terrifying energy wave being transmitted from Buried Heaven's body.
"The God Territory within his body can directly interfere with the material realm we're in?!" At this moment, Lin Huang finally became aware that the energy produced from the unification process was utterly beyond what he had expected.
Off to one side, Gao Ming could hear the misgivings in Lin Huang's question. He then immediately explained, "The energy produced from unification isn't energy from the Dao seal itself but from the consolidation of the Dao tattoos. During this process, the energy released from the Dao seal might be dozens, even hundreds of times more than what the Dao Seal itself inherently contains."
This caused Lin Huang to think about nuclear fusion again.
"If one's God Territory isn't strong enough and can't sustain this process, it will immediately collapse, causing the unification to fail," Gao Ming added.
At that moment, Buried Heaven suddenly gave a low groan. A trickle of fresh blood oozed from the corner of his mouth.
"When the energy from unification breaks through the God Territory's restrictions, it will impact the individual's God's soul and physical body. This is also the second most difficult stage in the unification process. If either one's physical body or one's God's soul cannot sustain this process and collapses, unification will fail."
"Then does this mean that if one's God Territory is strong enough, they can directly suppress the force coming from the unification process and prevent it from impacting their physical body and God's soul?" Lin Huang could not help asking.
"Theoretically, that should be the case." Gao Ming glanced at Lin Huang, then continued, "However, nobody has managed to achieve this yet. No one's God Territory has ever been so powerful that it can directly suppress the process of unification."
Lin Huang was not paying attention to the last part of Gao Ming's words. At the moment, he was wondering whether he could strengthen his God Territory sufficiently to completely suppress the energy released from unification if—at his current pace—he were to integrate more half-step Lords' God Territory Shell Remnants.
Buried Heaven, who was not too far off, had his eyes tightly closed, but he seemed to be very much aware of his current condition.
A layer of battle armor automatically began appearing on his body. At the same time, a golden glow lit up between his brows, protecting his God's soul.
These two pieces of equipment were clearly Dao Weapons.
Once this equipment appeared, Buried Heaven's aura very clearly calmed itself.
Not long later, the white rays of light released from the Dao seal suspended mid-air in his God Territory gradually began to diminish at last.
The expressions of the watching Blood Sickle members finally relaxed slightly.
"I think we can consider him as having made it through this stage," Nine-tailed Fox Hu Xian'er said with a smile.
Lin Huang was slightly relieved as well. He could sense that the crest of energy released by the Dao seal had passed and was beginning to wane.
Buried Heaven making it past this crest meant that half the unification process was already complete.
In a little while, the white glow radiating from the Dao seal faded entirely.
Buried Heaven finally opened his eyes and exhaled long and slow.
Without hesitation, he retrieved a handful of elixirs from his storage ring and gulped them down one after the other.
"The most difficult stage is coming up next!" Gao Ming said softly.
Lin Huang was stunned when he heard that.
His first reaction was to wonder, 'Didn't they say earlier that consolidation of the Dao seal had the highest failure rate—over 80%? Why is the next stage the most difficult one?'
However, he quickly revised this first impulse. The most difficult stage did not mean that it had the highest failure rate. This was because 80% of the candidates had not made it past the consolidation of the Dao seal. Therefore, less than 20% would make it to the next stage.
"What's the next stage?" Lin Huang could not help tilting his head and asking.
"The third stage of unification, which is also the last stage—Dao plundering!
"When a Dao seal has been properly consolidated through unification, it will attract the attention of raptors who covet and desire it."
"Raptors?" This was not Lin Huang's first time hearing this term. However, he had only heard it; he did not really understand what it meant.
"That's right. We're not sure where the raptors come from. We only know they don't belong to the material realm. Each raptor is unbelievably powerful. They only appear they sense a Dao seal, and they always show up without warning.
"These raptors will steal the Dao seal of the individual performing unification. The individual must defeat the raptor to officially gain control of their Dao seal."
"If the individual is defeated and the raptor takes the Dao seal, what will happen then?!" Lin Huang asked curiously.
"When an individual performing unification loses their Dao seal, they'll lose all of their cultivation abilities and become an ordinary mortal, if the consequences are light. Severe consequences would mean immediate death," Gao Ming explained patiently, "As soon as the raptors obtain the Dao seal, they'll refine it almost immediately and arrive in the material realm as a Lord. This would result in an utter catastrophe.
"I've read related records from historical data where a raptor in the ancient epoch took someone's Dao seal during unification. When the raptor arrived in the material realm, the Lords could not kill it immediately, and it was able to escape. It caused a terrible disaster. That raptor devoured many Heavenly Gods, half-step Lords, and Lords within a short few years, causing it to become extraordinarily powerful. In the end, the Almighties above lord-level had to take a hand before it was finally suppressed for good."
As he listened to this story, Lin Huang had already started pondering. In the event Buried Heaven failed his unification, and the raptor took his Dao seal, arriving in the material realm, Lin Huang wondered if he should show his hand and reveal his true abilities.
Just when Lin Huang was still turning the issue over in his mind, a change happened in Buried Heaven's God Territory.
Not far above the Dao seal, an irregular space rift began to form at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Within less than the time it took for a breath, the rift had expanded to the maximum. It looked like a malevolent eye.
Lin Huang was stunned when he saw the rift. 'Isn't that the Virtual Eye from the gravel world?!'
Chapter 1623: Buried Heaven Versus The Raptor
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Lin Huang was slightly dazed when he saw the space rift in Buried Heaven's God Territory. It was as if he had returned to the gravel world and was seeing the Virtual Eye opening in the heavens.
From the very beginning, he had already known the truth about why the gravel world had been invaded by the Virtual Eye. It was a result of the Emperor's Heart performing modifications to the gravel world in order to train the native residents.
Seeing the space rift that preceded the raptor's arrival, Lin Huang immediately understood that this must be the inspiration for the Emperor's Heart in creating the Virtual Eye.
The space rift above the Dao seal split apart like an eye opening.
In the black, fathomless void, a massive, muscled arm suddenly extended out of nowhere, reaching right through the space rift and into Buried Heaven's God Territory.
Immediately after, a head poked through as well.
The head had a face that looked human. It was bald, and there was a single eye on its forehead, while a huge mouth occupied almost half its face.
The creature's inky-black eye swept its gaze over Buried Heaven's God Territory and finally alighted on Buried Heaven. It opened its huge mouth, revealing a maw full of sharp, shark-like teeth.
"So this is the unification raptor…" Lin Huang mumbled softly. He did not verbalize the second part of the sentence, which was, "It doesn't look very powerful".
Off to one side, Gao Ming heard Lin Huang muttering and explained earnestly, "The raptor's form isn't fixed. The fact is, the people who performed unification—the ones we know about—encountered different raptors. None of them were the same.
"However, the one thing we're certain of is that the raptor has a specific connection to the individual. Almost all saber cultivators will encounter a saber cultivator-type raptor. Almost every sword cultivator will encounter sword cultivator-type monsters. Buried Heaven is a combat cultivator, so the raptor he's encountering this time is clearly a combat cultivator like him."
"What if it's someone like me, who is a sword cultivator and a psychic?" Lin Huang asked rather curiously.
"Ordinarily speaking, the raptor you encounter at that point will most likely be a sword cultivator-type monster. After all, sword cultivation is your main cultivation path. There were Lords in the great world who were in the same boat as you. In essence, they encountered raptors that cultivated the same path. There doesn't seem to have been anyone who's encountered a raptor that cultivated their secondary path," Gao Ming answered after giving this some thought.
During Gao Ming and Lin Huang's conversation, the raptor had fully emerged from the space rift and intruded into Buried Heaven's God Territory.
Only now were Lin Huang and the others finally able to see the monster's full appearance.
It was a one-eyed giant that was at least a hundred meters tall. It looked like a skinned, deformed human.
The surface of its body was enveloped in a layer of blood-red energy that did not give off the feel of Divine Power; it was another type of energy. An indeterminate aura radiated from its entire being.
Its single eye had practically never left Buried Heaven.
"What a powerful flesh-and-blood aura. You're definitely delicious. Just catching a whiff of the scent on you from far away has already increased my appetite…"
As the one-eyed raptor spoke, it extended its long tongue to lick its lips. It did not seem to care what an ugly, drooling spectacle it made.
"I've made up my mind. I'm going to devour you first, then refine your Dao seal!"
The one-eyed raptor had only just finished speaking when Buried Heaven attacked from his end.
Even though the raptor was unbelievably arrogant and aggressive, right now Buried Heaven did not fear it in the least.
One must know that this was his God Territory. He had full advantage on his turf.
Moreover, his Dao seal had already been consolidated, which also gave him absolute confidence in his abilities.
As Buried Heaven was illuminated by the Dao seal's light, a Dao tattoo that was exactly the same as the Dao seal formed on his forehead. At the same time, golden Odyl began flowing through his entire body.
At that moment, it was as if he had transformed into a golden-armored combat god.
Within the blink of an eye, his figure darted forward like lightning. Landing in front of the raptor, he landed a heavy blow on it.
He did not bother testing this blow at all; he launched into it full force.
A combat cultivator's physical body was already formidable. In addition, this basic punch had been compounded with all the sequence powers that Buried Heaven could borrow in his God Territory. In fact, its sheer power could be considered earth-shattering.
The six Blood Sickle members watched with wide eyes. Clearly, the force of Buried Heaven's blow was way beyond anything they had expected.
Even Lin Huang could not help raising his brows.
"He's compounded over one thousand eight hundred levels of sequence power… Is this the Godly Right's effect in his God Territory then?"
Through his inherited memories, Lin Huang had discovered that powerhouses who elevated to heavenly god-level by the usual methods could—within their God Territory—boost their Godly Right by using Rule Bending Power.
An example was Great Heaven, who had only mastered forty-two god sequence chains. However, from first-rank all the way to ninth-rank, he had integrated ninth-rank heavenly god-level God Territories when he first constructed his Godly Right and during every subsequent elevation. This had given his Godly Right a full eighty-onefold boost.
This meant that in his God Territory, he could allocate a maximum of 3,402 sequence powers when using his Godly Right.
As for Buried Heaven, he had mastered twenty-seven god sequence chains. He could compound one thousand eight hundred levels of sequence power in his God Territory because his Godly Right had clearly given him a sixtyfold boost.
Lin Huang's Godly Right, however, was completely different from theirs. His Godly Right's maximum limit was far beyond that of Buried Heaven and Great Heaven, and not just in terms of numbers. In his God Territory, he could freely borrow all of the sequence powers it contained.
If his God Territory absorbed a million or even ten million god sequence chains, then he could use a million or ten million sequence powers.
However, under normal circumstances, a Heavenly God's Godly Right would only work in their own God Territory. It could not be used in the outside world.
Only by consolidating a Dao seal, becoming a Lord, and making their Dao seal the vehicle of the Godly Right could the Godly Right be used in realms outside the God Territory. This would result in the Lord benefitting from the boost in their god sequence chains.
It was the equivalent of having one hundred million in fixed assets; if it could not be converted into cash, it could not be used at all. However, if one had one hundred million in cash, they could use it where and when they pleased.
That was the reason why the disparity in ability between Lords and Heavenly Gods could not be bridged.
Buried Heaven had yet to complete the entire process of unification. Naturally, his abilities could not be reflected in the outside world. Fortunately, the current battle was happening inside his God Territory. This was his turf, which meant he could allocate his Godly Right's boost as he wished. On top of that, he had successfully consolidated his Dao seal, so the flow of Odyl throughout his entire body right now made him no different from an actual Lord.
The punch he threw at the one-eyed raptor at that moment was undoubtedly the most powerful blow he had ever thrown in his life!
The heavy blow was imbued with a dazzling golden layer of Odyl and sent straight at the raptor's face. It was unbelievably fast.
However, just as the punch was about to strike the raptor's face, the raptor suddenly grinned at Buried Heaven. The next second, its hand shot out, transforming into eagle-like talons that stopped Buried Heaven's attack midway. With its other hand, it curled its fist and sent an even faster punch at Buried Heaven.
Boom!
The six Blood Sickle members had not even been able to see very much of the exchange of blows between the two when they heard the loud boom.
Dust and smoke rose from every corner of the God Territory after that, obscuring the figures of the two combatants.
Lin Huang was the only one who could see everything clearly, and he could not help but frown slightly.
"This raptor's physical strength is even more powerful than Buried Heaven's. Not only that, it's far more familiar with using its body than he is… I'm afraid Buried Heaven might have a difficult time in this battle."
Chapter 1624: Leave It Here
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Smoke and dust rose from every corner of Buried Heaven's God Territory.
This first clash between Buried Heaven and the raptor was extraordinarily spectacular.
However, Lin Huang was frowning slightly as he watched.
Buried Heaven's situation was not exactly ideal.
Whether it was physical strength, power, or speed, the raptor was still a cut above.
Furthermore, its battle style was based more on instinct. Even when encountering techniques that it had never seen before, it could react accurately in time.
As for Buried Heaven, even though he displayed great initiative and did not withhold any of his martial arts skills, he was gradually losing the upper hand. His tempo of battle was also beginning to be affected by his opponent.
Buried Heaven's expression was gradually becoming more serious as well.
From the very beginning, he had not made the mistake of underestimating the raptor. However, after they had exchanged blows, he realized that the raptor was more powerful than he had expected.
The six Blood Sickle members could only see the two fighting within the smoke and dust; they seemed to be equally matched.
However, Lin Huang saw what was going on more clearly than the rest.
The raptor's overall ability was certainly more powerful than Buried Heaven's, but its ability also had its limits.
Buried Heaven's advantage was that the God Territory was his turf. The drain on his Divine Power was minimal there.
As long as he stood his ground and fought steadily without making mistakes and did not allow his opponent to affect his tempo of battle, he would, in essence, be undefeatable.
The raptor was only able to remain in the material realm for a limited time. The longer the battle took, the more it would be at a disadvantage.
Lin Huang had initially thought that Buried Heaven would be aware of this logic.
However, he had never expected that Buried Heaven might fall prey to rashness right from the start, to where his battle rhythm now was affected by the raptor.
If this went on and the raptor gained full control of the tempo of battle, Buried Heaven would completely lose his chance to turn things around.
As a bystander, Lin Huang felt somewhat anxious for him as he watched.
However, Buried Heaven's physical body was currently in his God Territory at the moment. He could not sense anything in the outside world.
If not for the Heavenly Dao's projection, Lin Huang and the rest would not be able to see anything at all either.
Within the God Territory, the battle between the two combatants was growing increasingly worrying.
Buried Heaven was gradually beginning to lose the upper hand, to where the six Blood Sickle members could clearly see that something was off. They began an anxious discussion.
"Just now, it was very clear he held the advantage; why has the raptor gained control of the tempo of battle all of a sudden?"
"This raptor's ability is more powerful than Buried Heaven's, to begin with, and now it's seized control of the tempo of battle. If this goes on, I'm afraid Buried Heaven's unification will fail this time."
"It has nothing to do with how powerful the raptor is. Buried Heaven was too impulsive and gave his opponent an opportunity. The truth is, he's always held the advantage because that's his turf. He could defeat the raptor just by stalling it."
After all, the onlookers were able to see the situation in a much clearer light. The Blood Sickle members' estimation of the situation was roughly the same as Lin Huang's previously.
Unfortunately, Buried Heaven could not hear these discussions.
While the few of them were still in a heated debate, the first clash between the two in the God Territory came to an end at last.
Buried Heaven was sent flying by the one-eyed raptor's heavy blow, shattering dozens of planets.
The discussion among the Blood Sickle members stopped as soon as they saw what was happening in the projection. They stared at the projection with worry in their eyes.
Lin Huang was the only one who raised his brows.
Buried Heaven had lost this first encounter.
However, as far as Buried Heaven was concerned, this might just be a chance for him to regroup.
Lin Huang clearly noticed that while Buried Heaven seemed to have been sent flying, in reality, he had put up a defense at the very last moment and had not suffered any physical harm.
Furthermore, he had utilized the impact of his opponent's attack to exit the battlefield temporarily. Perhaps he wanted to buy himself some time to replay the battle mentally and find out what the issue had been in the previous encounter.
Lin Huang had always regarded Buried Heaven as a true powerhouse.
A true powerhouse not only had to have formidable abilities but also extreme mental fortitude.
Lin Huang felt that Buried Heaven possessed such qualities.
Just like Lin Huang had thought, Buried Heaven was indeed rapidly replaying the battle in his mind.
The truth was, he had succumbed to his opponent's blow on purpose.
He merely wanted to get out of this battle temporarily, so he could utilize the viewpoint of a bystander and see where his problem lay.
It only took a moment for his mind to replay the entire first round of battle.
He instantly realized his problem after watching the entire battle as an observer.
"I was in too much of a rush to defeat him…"
Buried Heaven grinned slightly after discovering the root of the issue.
He felt that in the next round of battle, he would definitely be able to emerge victoriously.
The raptor had no idea what Buried Heaven was thinking. It merely assumed that it held the upper hand.
It did not intend to give Buried Heaven a chance to recoup at all. Right after it had sent Buried Heaven flying, it leaped into the air and pursued its opponent's falling body.
The minute it caught up and was preparing to deal a heavy blow to the other party, it noticed Buried Heaven's calm smile as well as the kick that he had been preparing for some time.
In a flash, millions of golden rays shot from Buried Heaven's right toe, aiming straight for the one-eyed raptor's single eye.
The angle of the attack was extremely tricky; it was also swift, accurate, and savage!
The raptor immediately used its hands to block the attack.
It was then sent flying by Buried Heaven's kick.
Almost simultaneously, countless golden chains emerged like undulating boa constrictors, sweeping toward the raptor.
Buried Heaven had now fully understood that this was his turf and he possessed not just combat cultivator techniques.
He had consolidated these chains by invoking the use of his Godly Right's sequence powers.
He did not need the chains to cause any harm to the raptor. All he needed was for them to obstruct its movements just a little, which would be enough to affect the entire battle situation.
Watching as the raptor tried to free itself from the chains, Buried Heaven was in no hurry to take the initiative and engage in hand-to-hand combat.
Instead, he consolidated more chains to interfere with it, then looked for an opportunity to attack.
Within a few short seconds, he had already taken control of the entire tempo of battle.
"Things should be stable from now on." Lin Huang gave a slight nod.
Sure enough, Buried Heaven's performance was now completely different after adjusting his mindset.
The six Blood Sickle members—who had initially felt somewhat worried—were now overjoyed and their spirits lifted.
It was as if they could see that Buried Heaven's elevation to lord-level was not far off.
However, just when the situation in the God Territory had improved and Buried Heaven was taking control of the battle, an abnormal wave of energy came from the nearby black hole.
Lin Huang sensed the anomaly at once and immediately looked in that direction.
He saw a Dimensional Whirlpool appear inside the black hole. It had almost completely integrated with the black hole so that it appeared as one with it and was extremely hard to see with the naked eye.
Right as Lin Huang looked over, he saw a fair, flawless palm extend itself from the Whirlpool. Imbued with immeasurable force, it hurtled toward the Heavenly Dao's projection of Buried Heaven's God Territory.
As soon as the palm appeared, the six Blood Sickle members instantly attacked without hesitation, intending to block the assault.
Thanks to the broken Dao seal's effect, the power of the six Blood Sickles' attacks far surpassed that of Heavenly Gods.
The attacks were compounded with over one hundred levels of sequence power.
The minimum was over four hundred levels, with a maximum of over seven hundred levels.
As the six joined forces, a vast and mighty momentum struck the massive palm in succession.
However, the palm breached the six Blood Sickle members' attacks one by one. Its speed merely decreased slightly; it was still determinedly heading in the direction of Buried Heaven's God Territory.
"Since you don't seem to want this hand anymore, you may as well leave it here!"
Lin Huang muttered softly as if he were talking to himself. An instant later, a long, narrow-bladed battle sword had appeared in his hand—when, no one could tell. He returned the sword to its scabbard slowly.
In the distance, a blood-red sword gleam had already swept over the massive palm.
The unstoppable palm halted its advance as if time had stopped that very instant.
Chapter 1625: Buried Heaven Elevates
The individual who had attacked so suddenly was clearly a Lord.
The six Blood Sickle members were not able to block the assault even though they had joined forces.
If the massive palm struck Buried Heaven's God Territory, it might wreck the God Territory altogether.
Once Buried Heaven's God Territory was damaged, the unification raptor would certainly escape.
Since the God Territory was Buried Heaven's turf, for the raptor, the only fair place to do battle was outside the God Territory.
As soon as the raptor escaped out of the God Territory, Buried Heaven would lose his home ground advantage.
Although his Dao seal had already consolidated, and he could invoke the boost from his god sequence chains outside his God Territory, the Divine Power within his body would not be inexhaustible like it was within his God Territory.
In his God Territory, at least he could exhaust the raptor to death. However, outside his God Territory, the raptor would most likely wear him down instead.
Furthermore, once the raptor escaped, Buried Heaven would have no choice but to follow it out. Once he did so, he would become the target of the Lord's attack.
That was why Lin Huang and the rest wanted to stop that massive palm.
Although the onslaught of the six Blood Sickle members was halted, Lin Huang made his move in the nick of time, stopping the enemy's attack.
In truth, he was rather unwilling to display his real ability in front of the six Blood Sickles. After all, he was not familiar with any of them. He knew nothing of their characters, nor did he know if there were any Raider spies among the six.
However, he had no choice. If he did not show his hand, there was a high possibility that Buried Heaven's unification this time would fail.
Within the Dimensional Whirlpool inside the black hole, the Lord powerhouse who had attempted the stealth attack withdrew its arm, turned around and made good their escape after the attack failed. They did not even retrieve their severed hand.
From that one clash alone, they knew that they were not Lin Huang's match. In fact, they feared that Lin Huang would kill them on the spot.
"It's certainly fleeing very quickly." Naturally, Lin Huang immediately sensed the other party escaping far away.
He did not pursue it either. For one, he was worried that the opponent might be creating a diversion—once he left in pursuit, another Lord would attack Buried Heaven. For another, he felt that he might not be able to catch up. The black hole inherently possessed a spatial distortion effect. Even if he followed the other via teleportation, the tiniest variance would result in the dimensional coordinates being completely different.
Lin Huang knew that it was only a matter of time before his true ability was revealed.
He could hide it for a time, but he could not hide it forever.
Compared to before, now, he no longer shied away from his identity being exposed. After all, he already possessed the ability to fight on equal footing with Lords.
Watching the severed hand hovering in the air, the six Blood Sickle members only snapped back to their senses a moment later. They all turned to look at Lin Huang.
They knew Lin Huang was a genius with astounding ability. After all, he had previously assassinated the twins, Shen Yu and Shen Jue.
However, in their eyes, this young fellow named Xiu Mu could only be regarded as a mere junior. At most, he was just a slightly bigger fish in the pond.
After all, no matter how powerful a Heavenly God was, their Godly Right would only be effective in their own God Territory. Outside the God Territory, it would be useless.
However, at that very moment, the six of them finally realized just how much of a mistake they had made.
Lin Huang had suppressed a bona fide Lord on his own!
If not for the fact that their attacks had been easily countered, the six might even have had doubts about the ability of the stealth attacker. However, they had attacked full force earlier, yet they had failed to stop their opponent by even a fraction.
Lin Huang, however, had not only stopped the stealth attack, but he had even severed the other's hand.
The disparity in ability was extremely obvious.
"Your cultivation base is at lord-level?!" Gao Ming could not help but ask.
Actually, this was the speculation of the remaining five Blood Sickles as well.
After all, the preconception they had was that only Lords could fight Lords.
"Not yet." Lin Huang shook his head. He did not mention exactly which rank he was at; he did not think this was necessary.
"How is that possible?!" Boundless Blood was in slight disbelief. "A Heavenly God's Godly Right can only be used inside their God Territory. The sequence powers they've mastered in the outside world won't gain a boost. Your attack earlier likely had over ten thousand levels of compounded sequence power. How is it possible that it wasn't a boost?!"
"Why do I need that? Can't I have mastered up over ten thousand types of sequence power?" Lin Huang retorted at once.
The six Blood Sickle members present thought Lin Huang was spouting nonsense.
One had to be aware that individuals with a normal heavenly god-level aptitude would need tens of thousands of years to master one god sequence chain. Even if it were a one-in-a-million talented genius, they would need hundreds of years at least to master a single god sequence chain. They would need tens of thousands of years to accrue mastery for over ten thousand god sequence chains.
Moreover, Lin Huang was a newly-emerged genius. According to Death Sickle's investigation, he might not be even a hundred years old. Naturally, he could not possibly have mastered ten thousand god sequence chains.
It was even more unlikely that he had already elevated to Lord!
The six Blood Sickle members rapidly calmed down when they remembered Lin Huang's identity information.
All six had practically the same speculation—Lin Huang must have used some special technique, such as borrowing an Almighty's power. That was how he had managed to stop the Lord's massive palm.
Indeed, logically speaking, that was the most reasonable explanation.
In addition, Lin Huang had also stopped a half-step Lord's attack previously during Shen Yu and Shen Jue's assassination, and the technique he had used then was very obviously not inherently his own.
This made the few half-step Lords even more certain of this point—Lin Huang had a powerful survival trump card left to him by an Almighty.
Only after they had thought this out did the Blood Sickle members come out of their shocked state and regain their composure.
Seeing that Lin Huang was stubbornly denying any use of an Almighty's technique, they did not pursue the matter further.
Lin Huang, on the other hand, had no idea what the Blood Sickle members were thinking. Since they had stopped asking, he also did not bother to explain further.
He extended a telekinetic thread and coiled it around the severed hand. He then put the hand away in his storage space.
Only then did he turn his head to watch the projection of Buried Heaven's God Territory.
The six Blood Sickle members did not speak any further. They looked over at the projection of the God Territory in silence and continued observing the fight.
In the God Territory, the battle between Buried Heaven and the raptor was becoming more and more intense.
Buried Heaven had also gotten increasingly into the zone and had taken control of the entire battle now.
Every attack was delivered full force without holding back.
Even in defense, he was only protecting crucial body parts.
He was like a mad demon now.
Lin Huang and the rest could not help exclaiming in admiration to themselves.
This was the best way to do battle in the God Territory. There was no need to worry about the drain on one's power or be concerned about getting injured.
On the other end, the Divine Power in the raptor's body was nearing critical levels.
When the raptor entered the material realm, it was restricted by the realm itself.
Before obtaining the Dao seal, they could not replenish their power from the material realm at all. The more they used the energy in their bodies, the more it would decrease.
The battle between Buried Heaven and the raptor lasted for almost three days and three nights before coming to an end at last.
The powerful raptor was finally drained to the point of collapse, and Buried Heaven slaughtered it in his God Territory.
After the raptor's death, Buried Heaven's Dao seal absorbed the raptor's true spirit automatically, making it part of the Dao seal itself.
Only then was Buried Heaven considered to have completed his unification.
A moment later, he strode out of his God Territory and his aura was now completely different.
Chapter 1626: Headquarters Was Attacked
"Buried Heaven, your successful unification can be considered something that we haven't managed to achieve. That's awesome!"
"You've become a Lord today—after this, you'll soar to new heights!"
"Congratulations—let's have a celebration party when we return to headquarters!"
…
The six Blood Sickle members immediately hastened forward to congratulate Buried Heaven.
Seeing that Buried Heaven was surrounded by Blood Sickle members, Lin Huang did not join them. Instead, he waited till they had finished chatting, and Buried Heaven was making his way over before he delivered his congratulations, grinning.
"Congratulations, boss Buried Heaven, for succeeding in your unification and becoming a Lord! Don't forget to protect me, boss."
"You little rascal…" Buried Heaven smiled and scrutinized Lin Huang for a while. He noticed the anomaly in Lin Huang's aura as well but was still able to vaguely sense his combat strength. "Given the current progress of your cultivation, it won't be too long before you're at this level.
"Don't rush into things after achieving ninth-rank. Build your foundation and only break through when you're confident," Buried Heaven added, "I have a feeling that your ability might far exceed mine after you become a Lord. When that time comes, it won't be me protecting you anymore."
Clearly, Buried Heaven had no idea that a Lord had attempted a stealth attack outside his God Territory earlier, nor was he aware of Lin Huang's true ability. He genuinely thought that right now, he could protect Lin Huang.
The expressions on the faces of the six Blood Sickle members were rather odd. In their minds, they were thinking that this young fellow's background was much more complicated than Buried Heaven had imagined. He had an Almighty above lord-level protecting him. Why would he need the protection of a low-level Lord who had just elevated?
Lin Huang did not intend to reveal his abilities for the moment. He nodded with a smile. "Alright, when I become a Lord in the future, I'll protect you!"
The two of them chatted for a little bit before Buried Heaven was dragged away by the Blood Sickles for the celebration party. They invited Lin Huang along as well.
Initially, Lin Huang wanted to decline since he was not familiar with the Blood Sickle members. However, after giving it some careful thought, he realized that nobody had mentioned the Lord's attempted attack earlier. He felt that he should find some time to tell Buried Heaven about it.
The Lord had attempted to attack during Buried Heaven's unification, but this did not mean they would not try again after Buried Heaven's elevation to lord-level.
Everyone went through the dimensional portal and returned to Blood Sickle's Shelter right away.
However, everyone sensed something odd right after they went through the dimensional portal.
The guardian half-step Lord's aura was gone. Not only that, there was no trace of any life force in Death Sickle's headquarters.
Lin Huang did a sweep with Divine Telekinesis. Everyone in Death Sickle's headquarters was dead!
Buried Heaven and the six Blood Sickles looked grim. Evidently, they had just discovered the situation at headquarters.
Buried Heaven vanished right away in a flash. The next instant, he appeared in the cultivation room on the highest floor of headquarters.
Lin Huang and the rest hurriedly followed suit.
Subsequently, Lin Huang saw a middle-aged man quietly sitting on a meditation cushion in the cultivation room. His head was sunk low, and any signs of vitality were completely absent.
Lin Huang immediately identified the man; he was one of the seven Blood Sickle members, Sun Zhan of the Heavenly Ape Tribe.
According to the information Death Sickle had made public, Sun Zhan was a combat cultivator and the powerhouse with the most powerful physique in Death Sickle. Of course, this was based on the rankings before Buried Heaven had elevated to lord-level.
"Old Sun!" The Blood Sickle members exclaimed involuntarily.
"Don't get close yet. Check with Divine Telekinesis to see if someone's left any sort of booby trap on him." Lin Huang immediately stopped them, seeing that they were about to hurry forward and lift the body.
It was not that Buried Heaven and the other Blood Sickle members had not thought of this; it was merely that concern had made them lose their heads.
In comparison to Buried Heaven and the rest, Lin Huang was the least familiar with the deceased. In fact, it was his first time seeing Sun Zhan. Naturally, he was also the most vigilant.
The others halted immediately upon hearing Lin Huang's reminder. They began carefully checking the deceased over with Divine Telekinesis.
They only went forward a moment later after finding nothing amiss.
"There are no traces of battle, and Old Sun doesn't have any wounds on him," Gao Ming said after checking the corpse, "It should be that his God's soul was obliterated right away by a lord-level powerhouse."
"It has to be the same group of people as that fellow who launched a stealth attack at Buried Heaven," Hu Xian'er said venomously.
"What? Someone tried to launch a stealth attack at me?!" Buried Heaven's expression was full of disbelief.
"During your unification, a Lord tried a surprise attack. He wanted to damage your God Territory. However, Xiu Mu stopped him…" Gao Ming gave a brief summary of what had happened.
Buried Heaven looked at Lin Huang with an utterly astonished expression.
"You severed the Lord's hand?!"
"I've got some special techniques." Lin Huang did not deny anything, but neither did he admit that he possessed this level of ability.
The six Blood Sickle members were now even more certain about their previous speculation when they heard this. Lin Huang had to have borrowed the technique that an Almighty had left for him.
"Can you show me the hand?" Buried Heaven asked.
Lin Huang immediately retrieved the severed hand and passed it to Buried Heaven.
Buried Heaven took the severed limb and sent his Divine Telekinesis into it. A second later, there was a low grunt, and the hand tore free from Buried Heaven's grasp. It then charged in Hu Xian'er's direction as if it had come alive.
However, at that moment, Lin Huang extended a few Divine Telekinesis threads and entangled the hand in them. He then pulled it back forcefully.
"If you dare try moving again, I'll obliterate you!"
Lin Huang's battle sword came out of its scabbard once more. The point of the sword lightly rested on the back of the hand and pierced down about a centimeter or so. Blood began oozing from the severed hand. It seemed to be able to understand Lin Huang's threat and did not dare to move again.
Nearby, Hu Xian'er was still in a state of shock. Earlier, she had thought she was going to die.
The others were staring at Lin Huang in amazement.
At that moment, Buried Heaven spat out a mouthful of blood. He gave Lin Huang an inscrutable glance after coming back to his senses, then said, "This person's abilities are more powerful than mine. Although he's also a low-level Lord, he's definitely consolidated more Dao seals than I have. He's mastered at least five thousand god sequence chains."
As to how Lin Huang had managed to sever the hand, Buried Heaven did not pursue the matter further.
"For now, we'll leave the suppression of the hand to you; in a few days, when we need it, we'll come to you then.
"From the looks of things now, Old Sun's death and the attempted attack on me ought to be related. Moreover, it's no surprise that the same group of people is likely responsible. That's because it can't possibly be a coincidence—two such events happening at the same time." Buried Heaven did not dwell further on the issue of the hand.
"They sent two Lords to suppress Death Sickle. That's unbelievably brazen." Boundless Blood's eyes narrowed slightly.
"The attack might not really be directed at Death Sickle," Lin Huang could not help speaking up at that point, "They might have a personal grudge against Buried Heaven, or Old Sun and the rest of you Blood Sickle members. Killing everyone in Death Sickle might just have been in passing.
"It's also possible that they targeted some other Death Sickle members rather than all of you…" Lin Huang thought of the Raiders when he said that.
"Of course, I'm just stating other possibilities; they're not necessarily correct," Lin Huang added.
"The things you've mentioned are certainly possible," Buried Heaven was the first to agree.
"Right now, my thoughts on the matter are that we should look at Lords specializing in God's soul cultivation first. That's the biggest lead. Secondly, we should look for a Lord who has recently had his hand severed. The hand Xiu Mu severed isn't something that can be regenerated within a short time. The third thing is that the Lords who attacked might not have come from the God Territory but from somewhere else. We can check the God Territory's entry records for Lords. Lord-level powerhouses have to report to the authorities when visiting other territories…"
Buried Heaven rapidly sketched out his investigation plan.
Chapter 1627: A Suspected Killer
As soon as Lin Huang returned to the Devil Hunter Star Zone, he activated the communication transfer function on his communicator and transferred it to Sword1's communicator. He also authorized access for Sword1 to enter and exit the Great Heaven Territory freely.
Furthermore, he let Sword1 know that if he received news from Death Sickle or any other important information, he could come into the Great Heaven Territory and knock on the door of the Great Heaven Palace.
After making these arrangements, Lin Huang entered the Great Heaven Palace again and went into closed-door cultivation.
As for the matter of Death Sickle's headquarters being attacked, he did not participate any further in subsequent discussions.
In reality, his presence did not really matter since Buried Heaven and the Blood Sickle members were there.
In terms of resources and connections, Death Sickle most certainly had more of them than he did.
Lin Huang did not want to waste his time by joining in.
Of course, if they needed his help with anything, he would not say no either.
Since the two Death Sickle incidents, all he wanted now was to become as powerful as possible.
This was because he felt that it was only a matter of time before he was noticed by Raiders.
He even suspected that he might already have been targeted by Raiders.
Inside the Great Heaven Palace, Lin Huang sat down cross-legged and began to list out, one by one, the methods for making himself more powerful.
"First of all, for my combat strength, I'll need 256 half-step Lords' God Territories to elevate from eighth-rank to ninth-rank. Although there are an extra 17 God Territories left from elevating to eighth-rank previously, I still need 239 more to elevate. In the interim, it will be extremely difficult to obtain so many half-step Lords' God Territories. All I can do is obtain more resources later on to trade for half-step Lords' God Territories.
"Secondly, my Sword Dao is already at a critical boundary. Whether or not I can go a step further and break through from Sword Dao heavenly rule to Sword seal will depend on chance. Looking at things now, the possibility of achieving a breakthrough in the short term isn't very high.
"Thirdly, the maximum number of god sequence chains that I can borrow is already at twelve thousand eight hundred chains. If I want to increase that number, I have no choice but to use combat strength to achieve a breakthrough. Of course, in the long run, I need time to comprehend those borrowed god sequence chains and transform them into my own. However, I can't strengthen my ability by comprehending god sequence chains from scratch. I can definitely wait on this until I've elevated to ninth-rank or tenth-rank.
"Number four—there's still room for improvement in my Divine Telekinesis. I still have the last eight images of the unknown Divine Telekinesis visualization set that I haven't visualized yet. This is a way for me to elevate my abilities at present.
"Number five—the God's Figurine's Combat Souls' strength is lagging far behind my current abilities. This is actually also something that can be elevated. However, should I refine a new batch of half-step Lord dead bodies or use Advance Cards right away to elevate the original God's Figurines? For now, I haven't figured that out yet…
"The sixth thing would be elevating the imperial monsters' abilities. They'll mainly have to rely on themselves for this. After all, I can't help with elevating their combat strength. I'll help when they need to advance a level. However, apart from Advance Cards, it's quite impossible to expect them to accumulate materials. I'm guessing that for rare elevation materials, I'll still need to find a way to gather them…
"Number seven—there's room for improvement in the Sword Servants' abilities as well. The swordmaster guardians like Sword1 and Sword2 in particular; they have the ability and the accumulated experiences necessary to break through and become Lords. However, this can't be rushed. I still need to give them enough time to prepare themselves. For the rest of the Sword Servants, their potential has almost been exhausted. Not many of them will be able to elevate to lord-level…"
Lin Huang analyzed every aspect of his current situation.
After a moment of thought, he calmed his mind and began to visualize the 101st unknown Divine Telekinesis visualization image.
He chose to strengthen his Divine Telekinesis since this was the fastest way for him to elevate at present and would not cost him anything extra. All he had to do was to invest time and effort.
Very soon, Lin Huang entered a visualization state.
Time passed, day by day, in the Great Heaven Palace.
In the outside world, three days had passed.
However, in the Great Heaven Palace, it had been over thirty thousand days.
Lin Huang—who had been sitting, legs crossed, like a piece of deadwood—finally opened his eyes today.
After spending over thirty thousand days, he had finally visualized the 101st image successfully.
When he opened his eyes, the first thing he did was check the date. When he realized he had only used thirty thousand days or so, he felt quite happy.
This was because he knew that the visualization would become increasingly difficult after the 100th image. Based on his estimation, if he had tried this when his Divine Telekinesis was not at lord-level yet, he would need over three hundred thousand days to visualize just the 101st image. In other words, approximately a month would pass by in the outside world.
Now, however, the efficiency of his visualization had increased significantly.
He could clearly sense that his Divine Telekinesis had also become more powerful.
"It looks like the origin of this set of visualization images might not be so simple after all." Lin Huang had only now realized that the improvement in his Divine Telekinesis brought on by the visualization images had far surpassed his expectations.
Seeing that Sword1 had not come to awaken him, Lin Huang decided to quiet his mind again and seize the time to visualize the 102nd visualization image.
Six days went by in the outside world.
In the Great Heaven Palace, however, over sixty thousand days had passed, since time was accelerated ten thousand times.
When Lin Huang opened his eyes again, he had already visualized the 102nd visualization image.
He only needed a cursory check to discover that his Divine Telekinesis strength was now at peak lower-rank lord-level.
He had initially supposed that his Divine Telekinesis strength would elevate to lower-rank lord-level after visualizing all one hundred and eight visualization images. However, he now discovered that this had been achieved even though he had only visualized the 102nd image.
"If I continue the visualizing, don't tell me my Divine Telekinesis strength might achieve a breakthrough to middle-rank lord-level?!" Lin Huang was rather astonished.
Seeing that there was still no news yet from Sword1, Lin Huang calmed his mind again and continued to visualize the 103rd visualization image.
However, this time, he had only been visualizing for a few days before a series of knocks sounded on the door of the Great Heaven Palace.
Lin Huang immediately came out of his visualization state.
"It looks like news has probably come from Death Sickle."
He gestured, and the door of the Great Heaven Palace opened. Sword1 was standing there, clad in a long green robe.
"Lord Swordmaster, news has come from Buried Heaven. I've already informed him that you'll reply to him in a little while."
"Alright."
Lin Huang nodded slightly and strode out of the Great Heaven Palace.
A moment later, the two teleported back to the Devil Hunter Star Zone.
Lin Huang returned alone to his courtyard and called Buried Heaven's number.
In just a little while, the video call connected. Buried Heaven's white-haired, youthful figure projected into the courtyard.
"How is the investigation going?" Lin Huang asked right away, without bothering about niceties.
"We've located someone whom we suspect might be the owner of the hand you severed." Buried Heaven paused and took stock of Lin Huang. "But I need you to bring the severed hand over to verify it."
"Not a problem. Where do we meet?" Lin Huang agreed readily.
"Let's meet at headquarters," Buried Heaven said, a ferocious gleam flashing through his eyes, "After that, we'll both go and pay a visit to the Combat God Temple!"
Chapter 1628: The Combat God Temple's Temple Master
Kratos Star Zone was a galaxy supercluster with a diameter of over 180 million light-years.
If it were viewed from sufficiently far away, the shape of this star zone looked a little like a battle-axe.
This was also the location of the Combat God Temple's headquarters.
It was Lin Huang's first time setting foot on this star zone. It was also his first time at the Combat God Temple's headquarters—the Combat God Shelter.
Looking at the massive palace in front of him that seemed to be built for giants hundreds of meters tall, Lin Huang was somewhat bereft of speech.
The door alone measured at least five hundred meters in height.
"The Combat God Temple's headquarters is a Dao Weapon left behind from the ancient epoch. It's said to be the palace of the Giant King of the ancient epoch's Giant Tribe," Buried Heaven explained off-handedly as if noticing Lin Huang's confusion.
Both of them made their way slowly to the door. A warrior in silver armor, who was guarding the door, quickly went to announce their arrival.
A moment later, the warrior returned and said to them respectfully, "Please follow me."
Led by the silver-armored warrior, Lin Huang and Buried Heaven made their way into the palace.
After all, this was the Combat God Temple's headquarters. It would be imprudent for them to invade the place before they had ascertained the facts of the matter—that would be equivalent to a complete falling out with the God Combat Temple.
Therefore, Buried Heaven led Lin Huang through the usual visitation procedures.
Right after they stepped into the Combat God Temple, many people in the palace turned their gazes toward them.
Not many were able to identify Lin Huang as Xiu Mu, but almost everyone recognized Buried Heaven.
Of course, Buried Heaven was not using his youthful Primordial form right now, but the muscular form that he displayed to the outside world.
In the crowd, countless people whispered among themselves.
"Is that fellow Buried Heaven?"
"Why is Buried Heaven here at the Combat God Temple?"
"I heard a rumor a few days back that Buried Heaven succeeded in unification and elevated to become a Lord."
"I saw the gossip thread online too. What's strange is that Death Sickle didn't deny it, nor did they give a definitive answer."
"I think that's got to be fake news. If I were Death Sickle's upper echelons and Buried Heaven really did successfully undergo unification to become a Lord, I'd trumpet it with a foghorn everywhere I went. I'd want everyone in the entire God Territory to know. What's there to hide?!"
"That's right. Death Sickle has been so low-key lately. It doesn't look as if they have a new Lord."
Naturally, Lin Huang and Buried Heaven heard the gossip among the crowd as clear as could be.
Lin Huang felt rather puzzled. He had thought the news about Buried Heaven's elevation to lord-level had been circulated much earlier. That was because good news like this would usually be announced right away. Furthermore, it was also considered a boost for Death Sickle's reputation.
"The news of your successful unification hasn't been announced?" Lin Huang asked rather doubtfully through voice transmission.
"Not yet." Buried Heaven shook his head. "As soon as it's announced, we'll have to temporarily shelve the investigation. That's because the God Territory gaining a new Lord is no small matter. All the major organizations would take turns to congratulate us, and we'd need to host a banquet out of courtesy and invite them… It would be at least half a month before things settle down."
Lin Huang immediately understood Buried Heaven and the few Blood Sickle members' points of view.
The longer the two cases dragged on—the attempted attack on Buried Heaven, as well as the massacre at Death Sickle's headquarters—the more difficult it would be to find the murderer.
Buried Heaven and the others had prioritized investigating the truth over Death Sickle's honor to find the perpetrator as soon as possible.
The warrior in silver armor led Buried Heaven and Lin Huang through the crowd. They ascended a floating staircase and soon came to a cultivation room.
"Please go in, both of you."
The two opened the door and went in. Lin Huang realized that the cultivation room was completely bare. There were no furnishings; even the walls, ceiling, and floor were like those of the most rudimentary unfinished house.
There was only a woolen blanket on the floor in the middle of the room. An old man with white hair sat upon it, cross-legged.
Lin Huang identified the man at a glance. This was the Combat God Temple's current Temple Master—Zhan Guang!
Lin Huang had seen his picture on the internet more than once.
Zhan Guang opened his eyes when the two of them entered, then locked his gaze on Buried Heaven. Only after observing him for a good while did he venture, "So you really have succeeded in unification and elevated to become a Lord, young fellow. I knew I wasn't mistaken in you."
"Senior Zhan Guang, you praise me too highly," Buried Heaven said respectfully.
Zhan Guang was a veteran Lord. Even the few Blood Sickle members from Death Sickle would have to address him as their senior.
"This is…" Zhan Guang then turned his gaze to Lin Huang. It was not long before he discovered that there was something odd about the young man.
"This humble junior is Xiu Mu. It's a pleasure to meet you, senior." Lin Huang went forward and offered his greetings.
No matter what, they were still not enemies for now and should not skip the usual formalities.
Zhan Guang scrutinized Lin Huang again and realized that he was still unable to read this young man. He could not help exclaiming, "The younger generation has certainly surpassed the old!
"Please take a seat." Zhan Guang casually brought out a teapoy and arranged the tea service, taking his own time. "Peerless told me there's something important that you'd like to speak to me about in person? What is it exactly?"
The Peerless mentioned was the Combat God Temple's Peerless Overlord, whose rank was on par with Buried Heaven.
"During this junior's unification, a Lord attempted a stealth attack on me…"
Buried Heaven took his seat directly across from Zhan Guang; Lin Huang followed suit and sat beside Buried Heaven.
"Such a thing actually happened?!" Before Buried Heaven could finish speaking, Zhan Guang paused in the middle of what he was doing. Frowning, he asked, "Do you suspect that this was someone from the Combat God Temple?!"
Buried Heaven did not answer this question. Instead, he continued, "Almost the same time as the attempted assault on me, Death Sickle's headquarters was attacked. Old Sun, who was standing guard, was killed. Besides him, there were also five hundred and thirteen lives lost. Nobody was spared."
Zhan Guang's expression was one of utter shock when he heard this. "Old Sun, the combat cultivator?! How did he die?"
"There were no traces of battle at all in Death Sickle's headquarters, nor did Old Sun have any wounds on him. His God's soul was instantly obliterated," Buried Heaven explained.
"This must have been done by a Lord whose main cultivation path is God's soul!" Zhan Guang said with certainty, "None of the four Lords from the Combat God Temple are experts in God's soul techniques, let alone specializing in God's soul cultivation."
"I know that. However, it's impossible for there not to be a connection between the two attackers. It's just too much of a coincidence." Buried Heaven nodded.
"So what you're saying is that the Lord who tried to attack you is from the Combat God Temple. And he collaborated with another Lord to destroy your headquarters?" Zhan Guang looked at Buried Heaven with a displeased expression.
Although he had always thought well of this junior sitting in front of him, Zhan Guang would definitely turn violent if Buried Heaven dared to slander the Combat God Temple.
"I only suspect this is so; nothing has been confirmed yet." Buried Heaven stared right back at Zhan Guang as well. He had no intention at all of backing down.
The two of them locked gazes for a long time before Zhan Guang finally spoke, "Tell me the reason for your suspicions. If it's not legitimate, I'll have no choice but to ask you to leave."
"A few days back, the Combat God Temple discovered the battlefield of a Lord. Your Lords were preparing to explore it. However, there was someone who cited closed-door cultivation as a reason and declined to join in…" Buried Heaven abruptly changed the topic of conversation as soon as he finished speaking. "The Lord who attempted to attack me was wounded."
"Are you suspecting that it was Zhan Zhuo who tried to attack you?" Zhan Guang's eyes narrowed slightly at this point. "What means do you have to verify your suspicions?"
"He left behind a severed hand," Buried Heaven stated very calmly.
Chapter 1629: Meeting A Raider For The First Time
Zhan Gang fell silent.
Buried Heaven had the stealth attacker's limb. As soon as the limb approached its body of origin, it would immediately sense this. It was a reaction that could not be faked.
If the individual responsible for the covert attack really was Zhan Zhuo, he would be exposed as soon as he met Buried Heaven.
Zhan Guang had no intention of shielding the murderer. It was just that he felt Buried Heaven's request to verify whether or not Zhan Zhuo was the perpetrator would not look good for the Combat God Temple's reputation.
"What if he's not the perpetrator?" Zhan Guang finally broke the silence after a long while.
"I'll publicly apologize to the Combat God Temple, as well as compensate Zhan Zhuo with a Dao Weapon," Buried Heaven said unhesitatingly. Clearly, he had prepared his mitigations before he came here.
"If he really is the perpetrator, though, I hope that the Combat God Temple will seek justice for myself and Death Sickle." Buried Heaven stared fixedly at Zhan Guang, waiting for his response.
Zhan Guang pondered for a moment, then nodded. "If he is truly the attacker, the Combat God Temple definitely won't shield him. Not only that, we'll give Death Sickle our full support to help find the wretch who destroyed Death Sickle's headquarters!
"As a member of the God Territory, attacking a person performing unification in the God Territory violates the God Territory's joint pact. Slaughtering a grade-6 organization's entire headquarters makes them a public enemy of the God Territory!"
"Senior is wise!" Buried Heaven complimented immediately.
"If something's not right with Zhan Zhuo, he'll definitely sense something is off if I asked him to come here. He might even flee straight away. I think it's best I take you over to see him." Zhan Guang gave this some thought and took a sip of tea before standing up.
Lin Huang and Buried heaven immediately got up as well. They followed Zhan Guang and left the cultivation room.
As soon as they stepped out of the door of the cultivation room, Zhan Guang summoned a Dimensional Whirlpool with a flick of his wide sleeve and led the other two into it.
A moment later, they exited the Dimensional Whirlpool.
The three of them had arrived directly on another planet.
This was a barren, desolate place. Lin Huang did not sense any traces of life force at all. He only saw an ancient palace not too far away.
Zhan Guang arrived in front of the great palace in just a few steps. He pounded on the door heavily with his fist.
"Zhan Zhuo, Buried Heaven from Death Sickle wants to ask you about something."
However, despite knocking for quite a while, the massive doors of the palace remained closed.
Lin Huang and Buried Heaven glanced at each other. Both of them felt that the chances of Zhan Zhuo showing his face were low.
He most likely would pretend that he was away to avoid this meeting.
However, after knocking for a long time without a response, Zhan Guang decided to shout at the top of his lungs.
"Zhan Zhuo, I'm here today to give you the chance to explain yourself. However, if you refuse to see us today and Buried Heaven and his people make trouble for you later, the Combat God Temple won't intervene on your behalf. Also, according to the God Territory's joint pact, the Combat God Temple will join forces with the other grade-7 organizations to aid in your capture!"
Lin Huang had never expected Zhan Guang to go this far.
Initially, he thought that at most, Zhan Guang would only bring both of them here and would not bother whether Zhan Zhuo was willing to see them or not. After all, Zhan Zhuo was part of the Combat God Temple. Even if Zhan Guang could not display favoritism openly, there was nothing that they could do if he privately decided to let Zhan Zhuo get off scot-free.
However, Buried Heaven did not seem surprised. Evidently, he knew Zhan Guang's character very well. This was also why he had met with him directly in person and confided in him about what had happened to Death Sickle.
After Zhan Guang's shout, the door of the ancient palace finally opened a moment later.
"Come in."
A voice came from within the palace.
Lin Huang was expressionless, but Buried Heaven frowned slightly.
Zhan Zhuo's ancient palace was clearly a Dao Weapon.
If they went in, they would be in his territory altogether.
Zhan Guang turned his head to glance at Buried Heaven and Lin Huang. He seemed to notice Buried Heaven's hesitation. "Don't worry, I'm here after all."
As soon as he finished speaking, he took the lead and entered the ancient palace.
Buried Heaven did not hesitate any further. Following behind Zhan Guang, he went into the palace with Lin Huang.
As soon as the three of them stepped inside, the door of the ancient palace closed with a loud thud.
They walked straight through into the deeper recesses of the palace and saw a young man sitting upright on a prayer mat.
This man's appearance was extremely eye-catching. His countenance was handsome, his eyes were like stars, and he gave off a sense of standing out from the common crowd.
Lin Huang immediately looked in the direction of the young man's right hand. The limb was whole.
However, this did not explain away anything. For Lords, physical regeneration of the body was a simple task. However, Lin Huang had not just simply severed the attacker's hand; he had also severed a quantity of Odyl. If this was a regenerated hand, Odyl could not possibly circulate smoothly in the short term.
Obviously, Buried Heaven and Zhan Guang also looked at Zhan Zhuo's hand at once.
"I've been in closed-door cultivation for the last few days. Is there something I can help both of you with?"
Zhan Zhuo did not even ask Buried Heaven who Lin Huang was at all.
However, although Zhan Zhuo did not so much as glance at him, Lin Huang sensed that he had surreptitiously used Divine Telekinesis to look him over.
Buried Heaven took a step forward and said bluntly, "A few days back, was it you who attempted a covert attack on me during unification?!"
Beside them, Zhan Guang raised his brows when he heard that. He had not expected Buried Heaven to be so straightforward.
"I have no idea what you're talking about." Zhan Zhuo's eyelids twitched as he looked at Buried Heaven, his expression quite displeased. "Have you considered the consequences of accusing a Lord like this?"
"Oh, really?" Buried Heaven turned his head to nod at Lin Huang. "Bring it out."
The minute Buried Heaven gave the word, Lin Huan retrieved the severed hand from his storage space.
Almost as soon as the severed hand was taken out, it began struggling intensely, eager to go to where Zhan Zhuo was.
However, several of Lin Huang's telekinetic threads secured it in a death grip, forcibly suppressing it.
Zhan Guang's brow furrowed tightly when he saw what was happening. Although he had already been mentally prepared, feeling that Buried Heaven would not have come here without a strong case, he still found it hard to accept the evidence of his eyes—that the severed hand was clearly Zhan Zhuo's.
"Do you have any other explanation for that?" Buried Heaven stared at Zhan Zhuo coldly.
Zhan Zhuo did not answer the question, nor did he continue feigning ignorance by asking what the hand was. Instead, he turned his head to look at Zhan Guang. "You shouldn't have come."
"Covertly attacking an individual during unification is behavior that violates the God Territory's joint pact!" Zhan Guang's expression was severe."Why did you do that?!"
"The God Territory's joint pact?" Zhan Zhuo gave a snort of laughter. "Why would I bother obeying a child's game?"
Zhan Zhuo had completely revealed his true colors now. His gaze had finally settled on Lin Huang as well.
"I never thought that we'd actually manage to lure you here, even though we were just attacking to test the waters."
Lin Huang's heart sank when he heard that. "You're a Raider?!"
Zhan Zhuo smirked suddenly. "I was merely guessing just now, so I used that simple sentence to test you. Who would have thought that you would betray yourself?"
Lin Huang frowned.
Only travelers were aware of the Raiders' existence. His question earlier had completely exposed his identity as a traveler.
"You've not lived this life in vain, seeing that you'll have two Lords as your burial companions." As soon as Zhan Zhuo finished speaking, the hand seals that he had been secretly performing within his sleeves suddenly took effect.
The relief carvings on the bronze pillars in the palace seemed to come alive. Every single one of their auras was lord-level!
Chapter 1630: The Raiders' Creed
Buried Heaven and Zhan Guang frowned when they saw what was happening.
"Zhan Zhuo, are you out of your mind?!" Zhan Guang realized that Zhan Zhuo was going to kill him as well.
"I already said you shouldn't have come." Zhan Zhuo turned his head to look at Zhan Guang, his eyes set with killing intent. "After you brought them here, you could have just given an obligatory show of courtesy and left after you knocked and the door didn't open. You should have just let them figure something out. But no, you had to make threats, demanding I open the door so you could force me into confronting them."
"Senior Zhan Guang, you needn't indulge in wishful thinking anymore. From the moment this fellow opened the palace door, he already knew that his deeds would be exposed. From that instant as well, he never intended to leave any of us alive." Lin Huang did not use voice transmission; his voice resounded through the great palace.
"You're absolutely right," Zhan Zhuo admitted frankly after hearing what Lin Huang said. "I began setting up the palace ever since you teleported here. I opened the door because I had completed my preparations. What a pity all of you were so foolish as to step right into my carefully-prepared trap."
One by one, the relief-carved monsters on the bronze pillars came alive and materialized in the palace. There were a full twenty to thirty of them, and the intensity of each of their auras was obviously lord-level.
Buried Heaven and Zhan Guang's expressions were rather odd. Both of them could clearly sense that the monsters' auras were very similar to that of the unification raptors.
These dozen-over monsters soon split into three groups and charged at Lin Huang and the other two, respectively.
When Zhan Guang saw this, he did not hold back any longer.
He made a sweep with the Dao Weaponry spear in his hand, aiming at the monsters surrounding him.
On the other end, Buried Heaven was frowning hard. He wanted to go to Lin Huang's rescue, but he was blocked by several monsters.
Although he had roughly guessed that Lin Huang had severed Zhan Zhuo's hand using his own inherent abilities and not some unique technique, he did not dare guarantee that his speculations were correct.
If Lin Huang had indeed previously used the trump card that an Almighty had left for him, then what he faced now under the current circumstances was certain death.
However, the next instant, Buried Heaven saw dozens of blood-red gleams shooting out from Lin Huang's sleeves. They shot through the air like dozens of lightning bolts.
A moment later, the monsters charging at Lin Huang all toppled to the ground and did not get up again.
Not only that, even the monsters that surrounded Buried Heaven and Zhan Guang all fell to the ground.
When Buried Heaven took a closer look, he realized that all the monsters' heads had been instantly impaled, and their God's souls removed.
"This is your carefully prepared setup?" Lin Huang took a step forward and asked Zhan Zhuo calmly.
The flying daggers he used earlier were his elevated Dao Weapon-rank telekinetic god weapon. Each of the daggers had up over ten thousand levels of compounded sequence power.
One could say that the power of each attack far surpassed Zhan Zhuo's inherent full-force attack, what more the relief-carving combat spirits he had conjured up.
For a moment, it was difficult for Buried Heaven to regain his composure. Although he had guessed long ago that Lin Huang's abilities might be astounding, Lin Huang's attack earlier had startled him a little.
He could clearly sense that if he had been attacked by any of the flying daggers earlier, there was a very high chance that he would have been killed instantly.
Nearby, Zhan Guang was dumbfounded.
He had never expected that the heavenly god-level junior Buried Heaven had brought along possessed such terrifying ability—he was powerful enough to suppress Zhan Guang himself. Zhan Guang had no idea what to say at the moment.
Zhan Zhuo's expression, on the other hand, was not very pleasant.
Initially, he had thought he would win through numbers by draining the three's Divine Power. He had never expected that the first phase of his setup would be destroyed completely in just the first encounter.
Although he had intentionally given Lin Huang's abilities as high an estimate as possible, Zhan Zhuo could not believe he had still underestimated him.
"It's too early for you to celebrate yet."
Zhan Zhuo gave a cold snort. Lin Huang and the other two could clearly sense that more auras were rapidly awakening in the shadows all over the palace.
The auras were similar to the twenty-over monsters, but they had doubled in number now.
When they sensed the monsters' auras again, Buried Heaven and Zhan Guang were finally able to confirm that these monsters were unification raptors.
They did not know what method Zhan Zhuo had used to summon so many unification raptors and seal them within the relief carvings of the ancient palace. What he had done subsequently was merely to unseal the carvings and release these raptors.
In reality, the unification raptors were not very powerful in terms of ability. The most powerful one had only mastered less than two thousand god sequence chains. Most of the others had only mastered a thousand or so god sequence chains, which was on par with a new Lord who had just succeeded in unification.
The trouble was that there were far too many raptors.
If Lin Huang had not intervened earlier, Buried Heaven and Zhan Guang would definitely have been sucked into a grueling battle that drained large quantities of their Divine Power.
A subsequent second round would certainly have exhausted them to death.
However, Lin Huang was now a variable within the ancient palace.
The second round of monsters rapidly emerged from the relief carvings on the walls of the ancient palace and surrounded Lin Huang and the other two.
Buried Heaven and Zhan Guang looked tense. There were over a hundred unification raptors surrounding them this time. Just the sheer numbers alone were enough to cause them psychological stress.
However, Lin Huang remained calm. He shook his sleeves, and over a hundred telekinetic flying daggers turned into blood-red streams of light that traveled through the palace like fishes swimming.
It was the mere work of a moment before the hundred or so unification raptors toppled to the ground. Their wounds were in the same place—the flying daggers had directly impaled their heads.
After that, the bodies gradually blurred, then vanished.
"If that's all you have, stop wasting time continuing to fight. Surrender your partner willingly, and I'll make sure to give you a quick death." Lin Huang withdrew the telekinetic flying daggers and turned his head to look at Zhan Zhuo.
From off to one side, Zhan Guang spoke as well, "Stop persisting in the error of your ways!"
"Do any of you know the nature of the raptors?" Zhan Zhuo suddenly asked with a smirk.
Lin Huang and the other two thought it ridiculous of Zhan Zhuo to ask such a thing out of nowhere.
"The world the raptors inhabit is called the virtual realm. What we know as raptors are actually the resident living beings of this virtual realm," Zhan Zhuo explained, heedless of anyone but himself.
"Do you know what the virtual realm is?" he asked again.
Lin Huang, Buried Heaven, and Zhan Guang had even more misgivings now. They could not figure out what Zhan Zhuo was trying to say at all.
"The virtual realm is the reflection of the material realm. The size of the material realm will be the size of the virtual realm. It's not just the whole universe—it stretches even beyond that…
"All of you are just ants with no idea of how vast this world truly is. The boundless great world that you see is essentially a speck of dust.
"Death Sickle, the Combat God Temple, the God Territory… What of them, they're just dust within the dust!
"To us Raiders, every living thing, every item, all the power, all the worlds—in fact, everything that there is—they're targets for plundering as long as they bring us benefits!
"To me, the three of you will forever be mere targets to be plundered!
As soon as Zhan Zhuo finished speaking, three 'Virtual Eyes' opened in the vault of the heavens. They were like living eyes staring at Lin Huang and the other two.