1321-1330

Chapter 1321: Xie Lin Is Gonna Be in Big Trouble!

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Lin Huang could not help frowning when he saw the new rules.

Due to many previous "global" announcements, Lin Huang had realized that the terms "participant" and "competitor" were used differently. He knew that his identity had been exposed.

One of the reasons why he had not been targeted by other competitors all along was because they had a hard time locating his whereabouts. Secondly, they also faced difficulties finding the right people to team up with in hunting him down.

However, under these new rules, Lin Huang had now become the opponent of all the remaining competitors.

Any competitor who managed to kill or defeat Lin Huang would become the final winner of this Competitive Trial.

Not only that, but Lin Huang's coordinates had also been made accessible to everybody else. All other competitors would know Lin Huang's whereabouts without having to waste their GPS searches. This made it very convenient for other competitors to hunt him down.

Besides, competitors could also search for the locations of their teammates and form a powerful team to hunt down Lin Huang, who was the sole participant in this Trial.

Of course, apart from being hunted by countless competitors, another thing that frustrated Lin Huang was that the Sword Servants were now free to move about.

Back when the Sword Servants were not allowed to move around of their own free will, all Lin Huang needed to do was to just head toward the location that Warlord had pinpointed and hunt them down.

However, now that the Sword Servants could move around freely, this meant that Warlord could no longer lock down their positions anymore (his surveillance bugs would be directly destroyed by the Sword Servants). As a result, it was now much more difficult to hunt down a Sword Servant compared to previously.

However, the free movement of Sword Servants was not good news for other competitors either. After all, a Sword Servant's abilities were quite terrifying. If a lone competitor happened to encounter a Sword Servant, it was certain that he or she would be eliminated on sight.

After thinking for a while, Lin Huang came up with the following conclusion:

'In these three final days of the Competitive Trial, there are basically two things I need to do. First, I'll have to deal with those competitors who have decided to hunt me down in groups. Secondly, I'll have to spend quite some time locating the whereabouts of the Sword Servants before I can hunt them down.

'The first part isn't so difficult, as most of the competitors are weaklings. The real issue is the latter part. I have a feeling that it'll be much more troublesome than before."

While Lin Huang was still thinking about the fastest way to locate a Sword Servant, a series of heated discussions had begun among the remaining competitors.

"Just like I suspected, the participant is completely different from competitors like us! I'd always known there was something fishy about this Xie Lin guy!"

"This participant is being treated exactly like a BOSS! Not only can we pinpoint his location, but we can also hunt him down in groups. He's even on the leaderboard and ahead of us all as well! Don't tell me he's the ultimate BOSS?!"

"I think I understand now. This so-called participant is actually the ultimate BOSS whose identity has finally been exposed! No wonder he was able to defeat so many BOSSes!"

"Let's team up and kill Xie Lin! I'll be the final winner of this Trial once I kill him with my own hands!"

…..

Meanwhile, the members of Death Sickle were speechless when they saw the modified rules.

"Well, well, as expected of Boss Xie Lin! I never thought that he might be treated like a BOSS!" Destiny said in admiration, as usual being the ultimate Lin Huang fanboy.

"This fellow is indeed the one who gained access to the Great Heaven inheritance!" Twin's two heads blurted out at the same time.

"Being hunted down by groups of competitors is not something to be taken lightly. Unrivaled Combat God himself is already very powerful. If somebody like him were to form a team with other powerhouses, I'm afraid that even Xie Lin would have a hard time dealing with them…" Fallen Star was slightly worried about Lin Huang's current situation.

Just as she closed the push notification, a figure suddenly appeared in front of her.

"Unrivaled Combat God?!"

"Hope you're doing well, Fallen Star," Unrivaled Combat God, who was dressed in a white robe, smiled and greeted her with a wave.

"Did you… clone yourself?" After scrutinizing him for a while, Fallen Star realized that the person standing in front of her was not the real Unrivaled Combat God.

"This is an awesome technique called shapeshifting that allows a person to create his own avatar to appear at a specific coordinate. I learned about it when I was bored back in the day, and I never expected it to come in handy right about now," Unrivaled Combat God laughed and explained.

"Anyway, what brings you here?" Fallen Star only now realized that he had managed to locate her by wasting one of his search chances.

"I'm thinking of teaming up with you," Unrivaled Combat God directly informed her about the purpose of his visit.

"Why don't you team up with your members from the Combat God Temple?" Fallen Star asked doubtfully.

"Well, first of all, they're not as skilled in combat as you. Secondly, we've known each other for years. I agree that we don't know each other very well, but at least I know a bit about your personality, so I don't think there'll be much of a problem when we team up. So the first person I had in mind was you," Unrivaled Combat God said earnestly.

"You're planning to kill Xie Lin?" Fallen Star blurted out.

"Of course, that's my final goal. In the first few days, we can hunt down some BOSSes together and build up our teamwork skills. We can accumulate some points as well." Unrivaled Combat God had obviously come up with a plan.

"Who else did you have in mind besides me?" Fallen Star asked.

"Forbidden Lamella and Frontier," Unrivaled Combat God told her upfront, "Although I don't know them at all, I heard that they are quite skilled in combat. Besides, we have the same goal, so there shouldn't be a problem when it comes to working as a team. By the way, let me know if you have anybody else in mind, and I'll inform them after you'd located their whereabouts."

Forbidden Lamella and Frontier were ranked first and third respectively on the leaderboard, whereas Unrivaled Combat God was ranked second.

"If I were to join, that's already a total of four members on our team, not to mention the other competitors we might recruit. Xie Lin is on his own though. How will you decide who kills him?" Fallen Star asked again.

"It'll be a fair competition among all of us. Whoever thinks they can kill him can take a shot. Oh, by the way, I have one condition: fighting among group members is prohibited."

Fallen Star went silent after hearing that.

At the moment, she was worried about Lin Huang, but Unrivaled Combat God thought that she was considering whether she should join his team or not. Unrivaled Combat God did not say anything else but waited patiently for her answer.

After a while, Fallen Star shook her head and said, "I'm sorry, but I don't intend to join. I've indeed known you for quite some time, but I don't trust the other two competitors. I wouldn't want to be stabbed in the back. If you ask me, I don't think you should trust them completely either."

Unrivaled Combat God had never expected Fallen Star to make such a decision.

"I understand what you're worried about, but I still hope that you'll reconsider. You should know how powerful a BOSS is, given that you've defeated one yourself. The fact that Xie Lin managed to defeat nearly 200 BOSSes proves just how powerful he is. This team that I'm forming might be the only team that can kill him."

Unrivaled Combat God continued to try and persuade Fallen Star. The reason why he desperately wanted Fallen Star to join his team was not only because he acknowledged her abilities; he hoped to be on the same page with her so that he could keep the other two unfamiliar team members in check.

"I'm sorry, but as I said, I don't intend to join your team," Fallen Star rejected the offer once again, "Indeed, your team might have the highest success rate in killing Xie Lin, but I simply can't trust strangers to watch my back."

There was a brief moment where Fallen Star actually thought of accepting the offer. By doing so, she would be able to help Xie Lin when he was in dire straits. However, after thinking it through, she realized that she might end up being held hostage by Unrivaled Combat God and his team members instead. There was a possibility that they would use her to threaten Xie Lin. Therefore after some consideration, she let go of the idea of being undercover.

"Alright then. Since you've made your choice, I won't force the issue." After hearing the determination in her voice, Unrivaled Combat God knew that it was pointless to persuade her anymore.

Gazing at Unrivaled Combat God's gradually disappearing avatar, Fallen Star furrowed her brows and said, "Well, well, it seems that Xie Lin really is in big trouble this time!"

Chapter 1322: Lin Huang Who Was Treated Differently

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

The coordinates of the participant and the BOSSes were visible to competitors, but as the participant, Lin Huang was unable to see them. He could track neither the Sword Servants' coordinates nor his own location.

According to the new rules, the map of the Trial was now accessible to all competitors——the participant's coordinates would be displayed in gold whereas the BOSS' coordinates would be in red.

However, Lin Huang could not even access his map, let alone check the coordinates. This function was clearly not available to him at all.

He suspected that this might be Great Heaven deliberately raising the difficulty level of his Trial to avoid him defeating all the Sword Servants and finishing the Trial too early. This was perhaps also to make sure that he was not using the Sword Servants to shake off other competitors.

Seeing that he had no luck with the map, his only choice was to have an honest discussion with Warlord to find out how best to track down the Sword Servants.

"This Trial space is extremely restrictive toward Divine Telekinesis. The upper limit of one's Divine Telekinesis range is merely 1,000 meters. Under the restrictions, in any normal situation, you'd be able to monitor the entire trial space without being noticed as long as you send your surveillance bugs off into the sky to a minimum altitude of 1,000 meters. However, the problem now is that this trial space does not have a sky. The maximum gap between each building is around ten meters or so. It'll be too easy for your surveillance bugs to be discovered by Sword Servants who have strong senses."

"Previously, as long as you've discovered that your surveillance bugs have gone dead, it's easy to determine a nearby Sword Servant's position. It wouldn't matter if the surveillance bug was exposed and destroyed as well. However, it's different now. Sword Servants can move about freely, so even if a surveillance bug is destroyed, you wouldn't be able to detect the Sword Servant's location anymore. That's why we have to consider using other detection methods.

"So far I've thought of two ways to avoid being detected by a Sword Servant. The first is by using long-range detection, which can directly detect living things within the range of 1,000 meters and even more. Exceeding the Trial space's restricted Divine Telekinesis detection range in this manner wouldn't be detected by others. The other option, on the other hand, is much more secretive than the surveillance bug, and the best thing about it is that it can conceal Divine Telekinesis. With that, even when it enters the Divine Telekinesis range of a Sword Servant, they wouldn't be able to sense it either.

"Now it's up to you to decide which method to go with unless you have other suggestions." Lin Huang glanced at Warlord. He was simply laying out his options, but the final decision was still up to Warlord.

"It's extremely difficult to completely conceal Divine Telekinesis. After all, these Sword Servants were once heavenly god-level powerhouses. Their Divine Telekinesis senses are almost true god-level, but my current concealment method can at most deceive a Virtual God rank-9," Warlock responded, straightaway rejecting the second option.

"As for long-range detection methods, I actually have some ideas. There are many obstacles in this Trial space that can easily interfere with most detection methods. The best option I can think of at the moment is a type of aura-detecting robot. Their sensing radius goes up to tens of thousands of meters and won't be hindered by buildings or objects. However, there's just one disadvantage of this robot's detection. It can only sense the strength of one's aura but is unable to directly sense the target. Since Sword Servants can move freely now, it'll be hard to determine if the sensed target is a Sword Servant or a competitor."

After listening to Warlord's comments, Lin Huang thought for a moment before coming up with another idea.

"How about this—since the robot can only sense the strength of one's aura, you can use your own feelings as a guide to filter them through. You can mark out those that you feel are deadly and dangerous, and you can just ignore those that only have a certain degree of threat."

The reason behind Lin Huang's suggestion was that Warlord's current combat power was at Virtual God rank-8, so going against a Virtual God rank-9 would be no problem at all. However, if he was to encounter a powerhouse from the God Territory's Virtual God leaderboard, his powers would be no match for them at all. If he had to make note of every competitor of a higher threat level—which would be everyone from the God Territory, the Great Heaven Territory, and all the Sword Servants—the total number of these three groups would already surpass 300.

Lin Huang did not want to waste any time on the competitors because most of them were too weak in his opinion, so he would not learn anything from them even if he dueled them.

If Warlord increased and further enhanced his sensing conditions, he would be able to filter out the competitors. Although there might be a possibility of eliminating some relatively weak Sword Servants, it would not be a bad thing for Lin Huang.

After all, there were only three days left in the trial and the Sword Servants were now mobile. Lin Huang felt that it was most unlikely for him to be able to kill all the remaining Sword Servants.

He had to deal with the powerful Sword Servants first because they put up a better fight, which increased his learning efficiency when dueling with them. Moreover, if time was not on his side, he could simply give up on challenging the weaker Sword Servants. Even if he still had extra time after killing all the powerful Sword Servants, he could then have Warlord expand his filtering conditions and select again so he could go another round.

Warlord immediately understood Lin Huang's underlying plan.

"Alright then, I'll screen out the higher threats first, and that should leave us with 104 Sword Servants. I'll filter another 60 from there, then we should be able to leave all the competitors out so we won't waste time. Once we're done with the first 60, I'll expand the filtering conditions, run through another round of screening, and you can start your second round of challenges."

"That's exactly what I was thinking," Lin Huang said with a satisfied nod.

Having obtained Lin Huang's approval, Warlord released his small robots without hesitation.

The small robots, the size of mosquitoes, flapped their wings and flew away in all directions.

Lin Huang also noticed that the small robots had radar-like heads and they had no features like a normal living creature would have.

"It will take some time to set up these aura-detecting robots. What should we do for the time being? Should we stay away from the other competitors?" Warlord asked.

"No, let's just find a place and wait. We can't say no to someone who volunteers themselves as a gift for us to obtain points." With that, Lin Huang swept his surroundings using Divine Telekinesis and quickly settled on a five-story building.

He leaped into the air and rushed straight toward the five-story building.

Seeing this, Warlord followed suit.

Lin Huang landed steadily with both feet on the top of the five-story building. He looked around before finally settling in a corner, lying down comfortably with his legs crossed.

Soon after he lay down, Lin Huang closed his eyes.

He was not sleeping, but merely closing his eyes to continue absorbing the Sword Dao he had obtained during this period.

With no other choice, Warlord sat down in the other corner, quietly guarding Lin Huang while tracking the small robots.

A few minutes passed but Lin Huang showed no sign of movement.

All the other competitors soon realized that the participant had been stationary for several minutes.

"Is Xie Lin baiting us now? How arrogant!"

"Xie Lin hasn't moved for five minutes now. No matter how self-confident he is, he can't possibly think that he can stand alone against several hundred others! Maybe he's been discovered by someone and is fighting now."

"Xie Lin's location is not far from me right now. I don't care if it's a trap or something, if I don't seize this opportunity, I might not have another chance in the future! I'll go over and have a look, then decide if I want to be involved after I size up the situation!"

…

Lin Huang's stop attracted the attention of many competitors. Those who were not too far away from him left straightaway and hurried in his direction for fear of missing something important.

Chapter 1323: Three Against One, We Have The Upper Hand!

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Although Lin Huang could not see anybody else's coordinates, he was absolutely certain that many people would be making a beeline straight for him right now.

As expected, the first wave of "visitors" came after he had lain down for some mere ten minutes.

Two people approached Lin Huang in the first wave of challengers. One of them had bull horns on his head while the other had the head of a sparrow. However, the duo seemed mistrustful of each other. Although they arrived almost at the same time, they had been keeping some ten meters away from each other.

The monster with the sparrow's head halted when he sensed Lin Huang's aura from far away. Instead, he shouted at Lin Huang when he was at the periphery of Lin Huang's 1,000-meter sensing range.

"Mr. Xie Lin, we're just here to watch. We have no ill intentions, neither will we attack you."

"Yes, I agree with him. We're just here to watch so we can learn. We won't attack," the monster with the bull horns added hurriedly.

Lin Huang's lips twisted into a mirthless grin. Of course, he did not believe in the duo's nonsense.

If they were really here to watch the battle, it was impossible that they would have arrived so hastily. Even though they were close by, there was no need for them to get here at the earliest opportunity. Furthermore, if they were just here to watch, there was no need for them to stop at the 1,000-meter sensing range, as one could sense the battle situation through the energy waves from 1,000 meters away. These two had crossed into the 1,000-meter sensing range so they could check out the strength of his aura.

The reason why the duo did not attack right away was that they sensed Lin Huang's life-threatening aura. They knew that it was sure death for them. Perhaps they did not expect that they would be the first to arrive, neither did they dare to attack first. It was easy for Lin Huang to guess what they were thinking. They just wanted to wait for more people to come, and then they would participate in killing him together with the rest.

'Since you guys are already here, you may as well just stay here,' Lin Huang thought to himself. Instantly his Sword Dao coalesced into two blood-red gleams, shooting toward the duo before they could retreat out of sensing range.

The duo's Sword Dao was at level-5; they received a shock when they saw the blood-red sword gleams coming at them. Although they could not tell whether or not Lin Huang had broken through to Sword Dao true meaning, they sensed clearly that his Sword Dao was at least at peak level-6, based on the aura coming from the sword gleams. They knew that they were no match for him.

The sword gleams Lin Huang had activated with his Sword Dao traveled as fast as the speed of light. They reached the duo almost at the very moment he had thought of attacking them.

The bull-horned monster and the sparrow-headed monster suddenly realized that the sword gleams they had sensed were now almost simultaneously in front of them.

Since they did not have the time to dodge the attack, they tried to block it immediately by raising their swords.

Both of them were depending on sheer luck to carry them through.

'Although Xie Lin is powerful, it's impossible that we can't block such an unplanned attack! As long as we manage to block this, we can seize the opportunity to escape!'

However, the sword gleams accelerated the next instant and pierced straight through the duo's battle swords, impaling them.

Two monster heads shot into mid-air. The headless corpses toppled to the ground while fresh blood spurted furiously.

"Participant has killed a competitor, +41 points were gained."

"Participant has killed a competitor, +37 points were gained."

Lin Huang had killed the duo merely by using Sword Dao. He had not drawn his sword; in fact, he had not even gotten up.

It was not that he underestimated his opponents, it was just that he could now immediately tell the strength of a person's Sword Dao with a single glance.

The duo's Sword Dao was stagnant at peak level-5. They were not even level-6; nobody could blame Lin Huang for his lack of enthusiasm in wanting to fight them.

In the current line-up of competitors, there were probably only a few at peak level-6 who might pique Lin Huang's interest a little. After all, achieving peak level-6 was considered to be already at the threshold of Sword Dao true meaning. Fighting with one of those people could give him actual battle experience. If he was lucky, he might even be able to learn a thing or two.

From the very beginning of the Trial, Lin Huang had had no intention of plundering other competitors. His priority upon entering the Trial space was to battle with Sword Servants in order to learn. If not for the announcement of the new Trial rules, which meant that it took time for Warlord to locate Sword Servants, he would not have stopped hunting Sword Servants at all, let alone waste time on competitors.

Now that many competitors were coming at him, Lin Huang was not killing them to obtain points, but to avoid trouble. He would not start trouble with the competitors intentionally. However, he had little choice but to kill those competitors who came looking for him. That was about it.

In reality, even Unrivaled God and the other sword cultivator powerhouses who had reached peak level-6 were much less interesting than the Sword Servants. This was because Sword Servants were supreme powerhouses who had mastered Sword Dao heavenly rule. Even if these Sword Servants were under Sword Dao restrictions, Unrivaled God and the rest could not top their understanding of Sword Dao. To Lin Huang, who had already achieved Sword Dao true meaning, the benefits of fighting them were much higher than fighting with Unrivaled God and the rest.

After eliminating the first wave of challengers, which was the duo, the second wave of challengers arrived in less than five minutes.

This time, there were three of them, and they seemed to have formed a temporary team.

After all, it had been less than half an hour since the new rules were announced. Given the rush, it was quite impossible for them to locate teammates from the same organization, or friends whom they knew. In short, it was difficult to organize a temporary team within such a short period of time.

Lin Huang guessed that this was a temporary team because the three members did not really watch each other's backs. Furthermore, they were in a mini formation of one person leading when they approached Lin Huang's sensing range.

The three competitors looked rather sick after realizing that nobody else was there apart from their tiny team. However, they were smart enough to not step into Lin Huang's 1,000-meter sensing range, stopping a few hundreds of meters away instead. They hid in a small building to watch from afar.

"Judging from the coordinates on the map, Xie Lin should be hiding some 1,200 meters ahead. However, based on what we can sense right now, there aren't any other auras around, and there's no battle impact either. We seem to be the first ones to have arrived," a short, brawny man said while pointing at the map.

As Lin Huang had disposed of the two monsters' carcasses from the first wave of challengers, the short brawny man thought that the three of them were the first to arrive.

"We can't be sure that nobody else is coming. Maybe Xie Lin's already killed the ones who showed up before us. Or maybe some of the other people are already here, but they're using some special techniques to conceal themselves that Divine Telekinesis can't pick up," added a monkey-faced monster beside the brawny man.

"That's why I said we didn't need to hurry here, but both of you refused to listen to me," the bloated monster next to them complained.

"Quit the nonsense, let's talk about business first." The short brawny man glanced at the two monsters interrogatively. "So what do we do now? Do we attack first and try for the prize? Or do we wait and decide after letting the rest be guinea pigs?"

"Since we're already here, let's just do it!" the bloated monster said with a laugh. "It's three against one, we have the upper hand no matter what."

"If you want to die, be my guest. This is a monster that might be able to kill up to a hundred BOSSes. Do you really think we can kill him with our combined abilities?!" the monkey-faced monster declined the suggestion immediately, "What sort of nonsense is this—we have the upper hand just because it's three against one!"

After the monkey-faced monster finished speaking, he glared at the short brawny man. "I'll withdraw myself from this temporary team if you're dumb enough to go with his suggestion. Have fun, the two of you. I don't want to die just yet!"

The short brawny man smiled and nodded. "Actually I'm of the same opinion. If the two of you decide to go ahead and attack, I'll withdraw myself from the team and leave. Fortunately, there's only one of us who's as dumb as that. It's two against one now; let's just watch and wait to see if there's an opportunity for us to sneak in."

"There are only three of us here, who's the dumb one you're talking about?" the bloated monster asked, feeling puzzled.

Chapter 1324: Powerful Enemies Approaching

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Lin Huang lay on the roof, patiently waiting for Warlord's aura-detection results.

Although the sensing range of his Divine Telekinesis was limited to 1,000 meters, he had Warlord beside him, and Warlord was an aura-capturing robot that could sense all living things' energy waves within a radius of 10,000 meters.

He was very aware that many competitors were hiding 1,000 meters or more from him, waiting for the opportunity to attack.

Lin Huang paid no attention to these people. One of the reasons was because the Trial space limited his Divine Telekinesis, which hindered him from accurately controlling any attack trajectory outside the 1,000-meter range. If it was really necessary for him to attack, he would have to kill his opponents one by one. Another thing was that he did not think it was necessary to kill them. These sneaky spectators might choose to retreat immediately after seeing him attack or they might choose to watch without attacking. Not all had ill intentions and not all would do what they came for.

Apart from the trio in the second wave of challengers, there were some 30 people surrounding Lin Huang who had arrived one after another within half an hour.

The latecomers did not clamor and attack directly like the duo from the first wave as they seemed to have sensed the aura of the other competitors hiding nearby. Instead, they learned to hide like the rest. Since nobody was attacking at the moment, no one was willing to be the first guinea pig to test Lin Huang's ability.

Another half an hour passed rapidly. There were over a hundred competitors surrounding Lin Huang and watching, but nobody dared to attack first.

Warlord, who was on the roof of the small five-story building, spoke to Lin Huang through voice transmission all of a sudden.

"Three very strong auras are approaching, one of them has an aura that's very close to a Sword Servant. The other two auras are only slightly weaker than hers."

In reality, among the hundred-over people surrounding them, there were some 30 people that Warlord sensed to be threatening. However, only just now had he finally sensed an aura that was close to that of a Sword Servant.

Lin Huang immediately looked at the coordinates that Warlord had marked out. There was curiosity on his face.

"Who will it be, I wonder?"

Judging by Warlord's feedback, this team of three should be the most powerful team to show up within the last one and a half hours. Lin Huang was also rather looking forward to having a strong team to start things rolling, after being observed by the others for one and a half hours. It would be a warning to the rest when he had disposed of the team.

As the team of three approached, many competitors sensed the trio's compelling auras. Some of them even recognized the group.

"They're from Death Sickle!"

"Death Sickle's Fallen Star is ranked No.4 on the Virtual God Leaderboard. Twin and Destiny next to her are also top 20 powerhouses on the Virtual God Leaderboard. Now all three of them are here, it's going to be quite a showdown."

Those who knew about Fallen Star and the other two were anticipating a fierce battle. Those who knew nothing about the three were excited too as they sensed the trio's intense auras.

However, nobody expected that the three of them would stop at a tiny building 1,000 meters away from Lin Huang. They did not go any further into his sensing range.

"Let's just stay here, we'll be sitting ducks if we go any further," Fallen Star said to her two Death Sickle companions, "We can't let on that Xie Lin is a member of Death Sickle. Otherwise, we'll become targets for the other competitors as well."

"Would it be alright for Twin at this distance?" Destiny, who was beside Fallen Star, asked immediately.

"Shouldn't be a problem. Although my Secret Communication Skill's accuracy is affected by Divine Telekinesis sensing range, we can see Xie Lin from where we are right now. We can speak directly at him," Twin's both heads nodded at the same time.

Meanwhile, Lin Huang finally got a good look at the faces of the trio who had just arrived. He was stunned to see Fallen Star and the rest, then shook his head with a faint smile.

"I thought it's a team that I could challenge, I didn't expect it to be Fallen Star and the other two…"

"Do you know them?" Warlord asked immediately.

Lin Huang nodded. "I do, we're from the same organization."

The minute he finished speaking with Warlord, Lin Huang heard Twin's voice in his ears.

"Xie Lin, we hurried here to tell you that your identity as the participant has been revealed to all competitors. Many are forming teams to kill you, including Unrivaled God and the rest. At the moment, Unrivaled God has pulled in Forbidden Lamella and Frontier to form a team and hunt you. Apart from Forbidden Lamella and Frontier, he might be gathering other members."

"We're not sure about Forbidden Lamella and Frontier's abilities, but Unrivaled God is at half-step Sword Dao true meaning. Not only that, but he's also already mastered a God Rule Power. In the God Territory, he's one of the few virtual god-level powerhouses who possess the ability to kill True Gods. You must beware!"

"We suggest that you try your best to not fight them head-on. After all, there are so many of them. Temporarily avoiding trouble isn't something embarrassing…"

Lin Huang showed no response when he finished listening to what Twin had to say. Everything he did was visible 360 degrees to over a hundred people at the moment. If he made any reaction at all to Fallen Star and the other two, they would become targets for the other competitors.

He knew very well why Twin had chosen to stay 1,000 meters away—she was using a secret method to communicate with him.

Lin Huang thought for a moment. He then turned his body slightly so that his back was now toward Fallen Star and the others, hinting that he had received their message.

As for what Twin said about Unrivaled God, not only was Lin Huang not concerned at all, he was rather anticipating it.

According to what Twin said, Unrivaled God was at half-step Sword Dao true meaning. Meanwhile, Lin Huang had achieved Sword Dao true meaning. Unrivaled God had mastered a type of God Rule Power, while Lin Huang mastered God-slaying Power. He did not think he would lose at all.

As for Forbidden Lamella and Frontier from Unrivaled God's team, Lin Huang was familiar with both names.

He had seen the push notification that popped up when the duo killed BOSS during the

"global" announcement earlier.

Furthermore, he had checked the leaderboard one and a half hours ago and noticed that the duo ranked first and third respectively.

Lin Huang knew very well that both these competitors had powerful abilities since they had managed to kill Sword Servants, no matter what their rankings were.

As for whether he was confident to go one against three, he could not guarantee that he would definitely win. He could only say that he did not think that he would lose.

Time continued ticking on, and Lin Huang remained lying on the roof as usual.

Fallen Star and the other two knew that Lin Huang must have received their message seeing that he had turned around in the beginning. However, he remained still even after a few minutes.

"What's happening? Did he not get the message?" Fallen Star frowned a little; she was quite worried. Every minute Lin Huang stayed, the chances of Unrivaled God and the rest arriving grew higher.

"I don't think so, I'm very confident in my Secret Communication Skill. Furthermore, he turned around after hearing my voice transmission earlier. He was clearly hinting that he heard us," Twin said with certainty.

"I think Boss Xie Lin must've heard us. I'm guessing he's staying put because he's not going to avoid the fight," Destiny voiced his speculation.

As the three of them were discussing secretly, Warlord, who was on the roof where Lin Huang was, alerted Lin Huang through voice transmission suddenly.

"An extremely powerful aura is approaching at high speed! This aura is even more powerful than the lady earlier. It's an aura close to that of a Sword Servant!"

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Chapter 1325: Let's Fight For Real!

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Lin Huang sat up right away as soon as Warlord was done speaking. His action immediately drew the attention of many of the competitors.

"What's happening? Why did he sit up all of a sudden?!"

"Is it because he saw Fallen Star's mini team?"

Amid everyone's confusion, very soon someone sensed a powerful aura approaching.

"Someone is coming!"

"This aura is terrifying, I'm afraid it's on par with a BOSS!"

The incoming person did not bother hiding his powerful aura at all.

Even Fallen Star and the other two looked serious as they sensed the incoming aura.

Initially, Fallen Star thought it was Unrivaled God who was coming. However, there was only one person approaching. Not only that, although the aura intensity was on par with Unrivaled God, it was also completely different from Unrivaled God's.

'Who can that be?!'

Almost everyone who sensed the aura had the same thought.

As everyone was wondering, a silhouette entered Lin Huang's Divine Telekinesis sensing range and revealed himself before the competitors.

It was a young man whose body was as muscular as a leopard. He looked to be in his mere early 20s, with lightly tanned skin and fiery-red short hair.

From head to toe, he looked exactly like a human. He did not have characteristics of any other tribes.

Almost everyone present immediately recognized that he was a Protoss. However, everyone looked puzzled as his face was unfamiliar to them.

It seemed like all competitors from the God Territory and Great Heaven Territory looked puzzled as soon as they saw him.

The red-haired young man leaped on top of another five-story building approximately 50 meters away from Lin Huang and observed Lin Huang from a distance.

Only then did he glance around him and announce confidently with a smile, "Let me introduce myself, I'm Forbidden Lamella!"

"So you're Forbidden Lamella." Lin Huang did not doubt his opponent's identity at all. After all, among all the competitors, one could count on one hand the people who possessed such a powerful aura. With his abilities, there was no need for his opponent to steal Forbidden Lamella's identity.

"Unrivaled God said that your abilities are above us so he invited me to hunt you with him. I considered the invitation for a bit; I didn't decline," Forbidden Lamella directly disclosed this secret, which stunned everyone, "However, considering that I'm nearer to you than he is and I'm rather impatient, I thought I would come first and test your abilities. If you're so powerful that I'm no match for you, I can only fight you when Unrivaled God and the rest are here. If your abilities are less than mine, I'm more than happy to kill you and win this Trial directly."

"You're certainly straightforward." Lin Huang continued lying down. "Aren't you afraid that I kill might you before they come? To stop you guys from forming a team?"

"If you're really that powerful, I can only accept my destiny," Forbidden Lamella grinned while his consciousness had already activated his Sword Dao. He charged at Lin Huang, using his hand as the sword, sparking over a hundred golden sword gleams in the air.

Everyone watching was dumbstruck at his attack.

Even Fallen Star watched intently without a single blink, her expression deadly serious.

Lin Huang continued lying down as he watched the sword gleams that filled the sky, coming at him from different angles. He merely chuckled as he lifted his hand to point a finger into the air.Read more chapter on NovelFull

The next instant, blood-red sword gleams coalesced from thin air. They filled the sky too and attacked even more rapidly.

Many of the onlookers could not help letting out shocked exclamations.

Only now did many of the competitors realize the gap in their abilities compared with Lin Huang and Forbidden Lamella.

Those who joined the Trial were sword cultivators. Naturally, they sensed the golden and blood-red gleams that filled the sky. Almost all the sword gleams were accompanied by terrifying Sword Dao aura.

Apart from a minority including Fallen Star, most of them knew very well that they could not defend themselves against a sky full of sword gleams.

What was even more discouraging was that the duo attacked at the speed of light. Not only could they not follow the sword gleam trajectories with the naked eye, but even their Divine Telekinesis also could not react fast enough.

Most of them merely saw the golden and blood-red glows appearing and colliding in the next instant.

Dazzling golden and red sparks exploded in the air one after another like flourishing fireworks.

The explosions sounded as if there were tens of thousands of thunderclaps echoing through the areas hundreds of kilometers away. All of the spectators felt intense shockwaves in the buildings beneath their feet.

The strings of red lanterns hanging at the corners of the little buildings were blown horizontal by the strong winds from the energy impact.

What made the spectators even more speechless was that the fight was clearly just a test match for the two combatants, but it had already caused such a shocking effect.

This led many of the spectators to abort their previous plan of seizing the opportunity to attack Lin Huang.

They knew very well that the duo's abilities were on a different level compared to them. They would be going to their deaths if they decided to even try an attack.

The three members of Death Sickle looked shocked as well.

Lin Huang's attack had stunned all three of them.

"I've always thought that his power came from some other techniques, not Sword Dao. I never imagined that his Sword Dao was so powerful!" Twin exclaimed.

"He deserves to be called Boss Xie Lin; I'm guessing his Sword Dao is already halfway to Sword Dao true meaning." As a peak level-6 Sword Dao powerhouse, Destiny could naturally sense the Sword Dao levels of the two combatants.

"That's right, we can see Sword Dao true meaning's form from the attacks alone," Fallen Star agreed, nodding slightly. Her eyes betrayed a complicated mix of emotions. She had always thought that Lin Huang was powerful due to a combination of abilities, but that he was below her level in Sword Dao. She only realized how wrong she was at this moment.

Lin Huang did not use Sword Dao true meaning in this attack. Instead, he suppressed his Sword Dao to half-step Sword Dao true meaning. If he was to use Sword Dao true meaning, Forbidden Lamella might have already been ground to a pulp.

From the start, Lin Huang had no intention of killing Forbidden Lamella. It was hard enough to encounter an opponent who could teach him a thing or two. It would be a complete waste to kill Forbidden Lamella before wringing dry his knowledge of Sword Dao.

Lin Huang even planned to drag out the battle until Unrivaled God and the rest arrived. He wanted to see if the few of them could enlighten him further on Sword Dao if they were to fight him together.

However, Forbidden Lamella had no idea what Lin Huang had in mind at the moment. He did not even know that Lin Huang had suppressed his Sword Dao. He believed that, like him, Xie Lin had achieved half-step Sword Dao true meaning but had yet to break through.

"To be honest, I was a little concerned before attacking because I thought my opponent this time might've already achieved Sword Dao true meaning. But I can rest easy now." Forbidden Lamella said in relief, "Since your Sword Dao is still at half-step Sword Dao true meaning just like me, I don't need to fight this battle alongside Unrivaled God at all."

A battle sword coalesced in Forbidden Lamella's hand as soon as he was done speaking.

It was a black and gold battle sword, wide at the blade and over ten centimeters longer than a regular sword. The blade was the color of flame-gold, while the handle and the spine of the blade were inky-black.

With the infusion of Divine Power, the sword blade was soon suffused with a layer of gold flame. At the same time, Forbidden Lamella seemed to have been ignited, his entire body covered in golden fire.

"Now the warm-up is over, let's fight for real!" A deep yet husky voice drawled from the humanoid golden flame.

Chapter 1326: How Can They Swing Their Swords So Fast?!

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Forbidden Lamella, who thought he would definitely win after the initial exchange of blows, went all out immediately. He activated all of his Divine Power to maximum capacity, eager to defeat Xie Lin before Unrivaled God and the rest arrived.

On the other side of him, Lin Huang had finally stood up. A silver battle sword appeared in his hand.

The sword blade was soon enveloped in a layer of dark red Divine Power that surrounded a core of colorless Sword Dao. Lin Huang looked like a peerless sword of destruction himself. However, what differentiated Lin Huang from Forbidden Lamella was that he had no Divine Power cloaking his body at all.

His entire body was covered in a physical black cloak while his head was buried deep within the hood. With the addition of the black mask covering his face, nobody could recognize which tribe he belonged to at all.

Many spectators saw that Lin Huang's Divine Power only covered his battle sword; they secretly thought Xie Lin was being too reckless.

God rule relics were prohibited in this Trial, which was why everyone's armor was merely ordinary god relics. God relic-level armor could provide no defense whatsoever under Xie Lin and Forbidden Lamella's terrifying attacks.

This was also the reason why Forbidden Lamella was willing to expend Divine Power to protect his body and enhance his defenses.

As for Lin Huang, not using Divine Power meant that for defense, he relied solely on the god relic cloak that he wore. Without Divine Power as a buffer for his body, any injuries he suffered would be many times worse compared to Forbidden Lamella.

Many people also speculated that Lin Huang might have battle armor below his cloak. If so, it was probably a double layer god defense relic, which could explain why he was unwilling to expend more Divine Power.

In reality, apart from the rare, extremely risky situations Lin Huang encountered which made him put on battle armor beforehand, he was basically armor-less on normal days.

He had certainly put on battle armor at the beginning of this Competitive Trial before he challenged the first Sword Servant. However, after learning about the Sword Servants' abilities after a few consecutive battles, he had removed his armor completely. Since then, he had never put it on again.

Of course, there was a minority who agreed with what Lin Huang was doing. They thought it was wise not to waste Divine Power in such battles.

In a situation where both parties were on equal footing, the battle might last a long time. The higher the expenditure of Divine Power, the shorter the battle would be.

Naturally, Forbidden Lamella cared nothing about Divine Power exhaustion. He was a Protoss; the Divine Power within him was innately much more powerful than most of the other tribes. Apart from that, he had a backup team. His teammates Unrivaled God and the rest should arrive soon.

However, it was a completely different case for Xie Lin. He was alone. Not only did he have to face Forbidden Lamella's challenge, but he might also need to face a joint team of Frontier, Unrivaled God and the rest. There were probably more powerhouses watching undercover, waiting for the opportunity to attack.

Virtual Gods of any other tribes had limited Divine Power, which naturally included Xie Lin. Forbidden Lamella was not his only opponent; he would need to take later battles into consideration. It made sense that he could not simply splurge his Divine Power however he wanted.

The competitors that were watching had a lot on their minds. However, what Lin Huang had in mind was nothing so complicated.

He merely thought that Forbidden Lamella's ability was insufficient to hurt him so it was unnecessary for him to waste Divine Power in protecting his body.

On the roof, the duo readied their swords and stared at each other for a moment. Their auras were growing quickly.

Lin Huang kept his Sword Dao restrained to half-step Sword Dao true meaning. He did not use his God-slaying Power. However, the Divine Power within him was in full force. After all, his opponent was not a weak one.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Forbidden Lamella, who was enveloped in a golden glow, gave off an even greater aura. Not only had he activated the Divine Power in his body at full force, but his powerful will also held back none of his half-step Sword Dao true meaning.

In the time it took for just a few breaths, the auras of both silhouettes on top of the little five-story building reached their peak.

The next instant, both silhouettes moved almost simultaneously.

The spectators could only see two ferocious gold and red glows colliding immediately as if they had broken through the limits of space. The glows separated and collided again right away. This repeated over and over…

At the clash of the two battle swords, gigantic dazzling gold and red suns exploded in the air. They lit up the area within a hundred kilometers as if it were daylight.

All of the buildings quaked intensely from the clash between swords as if mountains were moving.

The strings of red lanterns hung on the awnings were all slanted horizontally as if from gravity.

Although there were impenetrable houses shielding them, the spectators retreated thousands of meters away, watching the battle from a distance.

If they were to suddenly activate Divine Telekinesis at such a time, they would only be harmed by the Sword Dao. Therefore, despite being within the range of Divine Telekinesis, some could only watch the battle with the naked eye. For those who retreated further away, their view of the battle was not much different from that of virtual god-level powerhouses as long as their line of sight was not obstructed. Furthermore, it was much safer compared to watching from within the battlezone.

In reality, most spectators were watching like they might a show. Only a handful of people including Fallen Star and Destiny could track the duo's movement trajectories with their eyes. There were even fewer people who managed to see the duo's attacks clearly. Fallen Star was possibly the only one among the hundred-over spectators who could do that.

Fallen Star kept her head lifted, watching the duo's battle without blinking.

She learned something almost every second.

"How can they swing their swords so fast?" Twin's icy-blue head could not help but asked all of a sudden. As a non-sword cultivator, she had limited knowledge about sword cultivators. However, what surprised her was that the fiery-red head next to her was also shaking her head in puzzlement. "I haven't the faintest idea how they're doing it."

Twin looked at Destiny and Fallen Star.

Fallen Star was almost entirely immersed in watching the battle. She watched, head lifted and eyes fixed; she did not hear the sisters' conversation at all.

As Destiny could not see the duo's attacks clearly, he did not have his full attention on the battle. He explained right after hearing the sisters' question.

"I've heard that one can control their Sword Dao with their mind alone as soon as they achieve Sword Dao true meaning. Sword Dao will reach wherever the thought can reach, as they say. Furthermore, those who are at half-step Sword Dao true meaning possess similar abilities. Although it's not as powerful as those who have achieved Sword Dao true meaning, their Sword Dao can reach wherever their will can direct. Naturally, it's much faster than us swinging our swords!"

In reality, Destiny had only heard about this, so the explanation was not entirely accurate.

"Sword Dao will reach wherever the thought can reach" referred to the use of pure Sword Dao alone. If one were to add Divine Power into the equation, it would cause a change of nature in Sword Dao and have a significant effect on one's speed. Just like Lin Huang and Forbidden Lamella at the moment—not only they were using Divine Power, they were using battle swords as their medium. Apart from that, they used their swords to battle directly. It made sense that their attack speed was affected, to where it was far removed from the standard of "sword Dao will reach wherever the thought can reach".

It was just that to other sword cultivators, the duo's attack speed was so fast it was terrifying.

Within a few seconds, the duo had clashed up to a million times.

Forbidden Lamella demonstrated all the sword skills and techniques that he had learned over hundreds of years. However, they failed to harm Lin Huang at all.

Although all the techniques that Lin Huang utilized were less powerful than Forbidden Lamella's, he managed to counter all of Forbidden Lamella's techniques with just a few basic sword moves. He did not even use any sword skills; it seemed effortless.

Forbidden Lamella was not the only one who could not understand this; even Fallen Star thought it was puzzling as she watched the battle.

'How is he doing that exactly? He's just simply launching an attack and he can counter Forbidden Lamella's exquisite sword tricks. It could be a coincidence if he only did it once or twice. But he's used the same way of countering over a million times now…can it be that this fellow's Sword Dao has moved to the next level?!'

Forbidden Lamella was also getting irritated. Initially, he thought that he would dispose of Lin Huang quickly. However, throughout the fight, he realized that Lin Huang's Sword Dao comprehension seemed to have surpassed his own significantly. Although they were both at half-step Sword Dao true meaning, Lin Huang's Sword Dao overpowered his. This was what he was most unwilling to accept as a sword cultivator.

However, Forbidden Lamella was not about to surrender so easily. Upon seeing that Lin Huang's body was not protected by Divine Power at all, a thought flashed through his mind. He could not help grinning.

Chapter 1327: God's Form

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Forbidden Lamella retreated quickly after forcing Lin Huang to back off with a swing of his sword. He retreated hundreds of meters away immediately and landed on top of a four-story building.

Seeing that, Lin Huang did not go after him. He thought Forbidden Lamella was going to showcase some unique technique. He decided to see what was going to happen and if there was anything worth learning.

However, he saw Forbidden Lamella swinging his battle sword from far away after retreating, and the space filled with sword gleams again.

This time, tens of thousands of sword gleams coalesced. Golden sword sparks covered the sky like stars.

'Since you're concerned about exhausting your Divine Power, I'll exhaust your Divine Power on purpose!'

Direct resistance was the only way to counter Forbidden Lamella's strategy this time. His goal was simple. He did not want to defeat his enemy; all he wanted to do was to drain his opponent's Divine Power.

He knew very well that as a Protoss, the amount of Divine Power he possessed was innately greater than most members of other tribes. Moreover, Lin Huang was most likely not a Protoss. If they were to compete purely based on whose Divine Power would be exhausted first, Forbidden Lamella definitely had the upper hand. All he had to do was completely drain all of Lin Huang's Divine Power and he would win the battle.

Although winning in such a manner was no glorious thing, having ample Divine Power was an advantage he was born with. Using one's innate advantage to defeat one's opponent in a real battle was a very normal thing; he was not burdened by it.

Many of the people who were watching the battle understood immediately what Forbidden Lamella was planning to do.

"Nice one! But it's quite shameless."

"If they were to compete based on whose Divine Power was exhausted first, the Protoss definitely has the upper hand. I thought Forbidden Lamella wouldn't stoop to using such an underhand trick."

"Even if he loses after draining Xie Lin's Divine Power, this fellow Forbidden Lamella is just laying the groundwork for the team that's on the way. Xie Lin's situation is even tougher now…"

Naturally, Lin Huang saw through his opponent's motives.

Initially, he thought his opponent was going to pull out some major move. Never had he thought his opponent would play so dirty.

However, Lin Huang had no plan of letting Forbidden Lamella do as he wished.

Theoretically, the most direct way of countering this trick was to exhaust his Divine Power to fight his foe, but Lin Huang chose a completely different way of handling things.

Suddenly, he swung his sword. A red glow shot forward, as thin as a hair and almost invisible to the naked eye. It penetrated layers of golden sword gleams at a terrifying speed, slicing directly at Forbidden Lamella's neck.

All that Forbidden Lamella saw was Lin Huang swinging his sword. Just as he was trying to track the sword gleam's trajectory clearly, that hair-fine sword gleam had already reached him.

Forbidden Lamella was entirely unable to dodge in time. The hair-fine blood-red gleam pierced through the golden Divine Power that enveloped his entire body.

The next instant, a bloody trail appeared on Forbidden Lamella's neck…

The minute the will driving the sword gleams dissipated, all the golden sword gleams that filled the sky exploded in midair before they could touch Lin Huang.

It seemed as if countless golden fireworks were exploding in the night sky, bathing the houses within several hundred kilometers in a sheen of dazzling gold.

"What happened? Why did Forbidden Lamella's attack go out of control suddenly?"

Most of them did not notice the bloody trail on Forbidden Lamella's neck.

A minority did, and were shocked; some were even in disbelief.

"Forbidden Lamella is dead?!"

After all, the battle with Lin Huang had gone on for a good amount of time and looked completely fair and aboveboard. However, one slash and Forbidden Lamella was now dead.

Lin Huang was the only one who looked expressionlessly at where Forbidden Lamella's "corpse" was.

"Stop hiding. If you're really dead, there should be a "You've killed the competitor" push notification popping up in front of me already.

"If you're not confident in yourself, then just back down already and fight alongside with Unrivalled God and the rest when they get here."

At Lin Huang's mocking words, Forbidden Lamella could stand it no longer.

"Who are you calling not confident?!"

The golden flames around Forbidden Lamella's "corpse" was burning even brighter now, a faint black mist beginning to waft forth.

At the same time, Lin Huang noticed that Forbidden Lamella's body seemed to be growing in size within the flames. His aura was growing even more powerful and violent.

"Xie Lin, don't you think you can talk to me so condescendingly just because you defeated that one attack of mine!"

Forbidden Lamella's voice was much rougher now with a low, indistinct humming under it.

"You're just an ant in my eyes!"

As he spoke, the flames around Forbidden Lamella blazed up full force.

The next instant, he charged towards Lin Huang furiously, his steps causing spiderweb-like cracks on the tiles of the roof, his body transforming into a stream of golden light.

Lin Huang moved almost simultaneously. He swung his long sword, which was completely enveloped in dark red Divine Power, leaving behind a trail of blood-red sword gleam.

The two silhouettes collided the next second.

Lin Huang caught a faint glimpse of a blurred face within the golden flames the moment their swords clashed.

Forbidden Lamella's face seemed to have grown scales.

Not only that, Lin Huang realized that the back of Forbidden Lamella's sword-wielding right hand was also covered in a layer of scales.

The scales bore a rough resemblance to dragon scales. As the flames licked over them, they shone bright gold like heated metal.

In the air, both gold and red Divine Power exploded right after the collision, transforming into a giant golden-red sun. This giant sun was even bigger and more dazzling than all the previous collisions.

The gigantic gold-red sun then exploded in all directions, forcing Lin Huang and Forbidden Lamella to retreat. However, Lin Huang retreated twice as far away as Forbidden Lamella.

Lin Huang stared silently at Forbidden Lamella's retreating body through the exploding sparks, feeling the soreness in his arm.

"His strength is almost double now, while his speed is more than that at the very least. Although his Sword Dao hasn't grown stronger, the density of his Divine Power seems to have boosted up…"

At present, Forbidden Lamella's ability was very obviously at least a level higher than before.

"Is this the God's form of the Protoss' three forms?"

It was Lin Huang's first time seeing a Protoss in this particular form. However, it was not hard for him to figure out that it was Forbidden Lamella's God's form used in battle.

The Protoss had three forms—the mortal form was their daily one, while the God's form was their energized battle form. Meanwhile, their origin form was the original form they were born with, which was typically very unusual.

When Forbidden Lamella used his God's form, every aspect of his body was almost completely elevated to the level of a True God. If God Rule Power was not a consideration, Forbidden Lamella could absolutely take on a first-rank True God with his current ability.

Many spectators from far away noticed Forbidden Lamella's unusualness as well.

After all, many of them had dealt with Protoss before while some of them were Protoss themselves. Naturally, they recognized at a glance that Forbidden Lamella had activated his God's form.

"Forbidden Lamella's aura is as powerful as a True God when he activates his God's form!"

"See as if that sword attack earlier must have been pretty powerful, judging by how far Xie Lin's retreated. I wonder if the tables will turn?"

Most of the spectators had lost their confidence in Lin Huang now that Forbidden Lamella had activated his God's form.

However, Forbidden Lamella's performance did not frighten Lin Huang at all. Instead, he was excited.

'Finally, you're something that I can anticipate.'

Chapter 1328: You're Treating Me as A Sparring Partner?!

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Forbidden Lamella's abilities were already at peak virtual god-level. Now that he had activated his God's form, his abilities were boosted even further. Even though he did not have God Rule Power, he was almost like a True God in every other aspect.

If they were to compare all physical bodily aspects, Forbidden Lamella was slightly superior to Lin Huang.

Meanwhile, Lin Huang's Sword Dao was more powerful than Forbidden Lamella's. That was his advantage. Although he had restricted his Sword Dao to the same level as his opponent, his Sword Dao basics, experience and consciousness were more powerful than Forbidden Lamella.

Upon comparison, in reality, it was hard for one to predict who would win or lose.

The reason why Lin Huang was excited when he saw Forbidden Lamella using his God's form was mainly that he had felt no pressure at all battling with Forbidden Lamella earlier. Now, he was finally put under pressure.

He figured he would only be able to assimilate whatever Sword Dao comprehension that he had yet to absorb if he were put under pressure.

In the air, the red and gold sword gleams collided repeatedly.

Lin Huang enveloped only his battle sword in Divine Power, just like he had earlier. Meanwhile, the flames on Forbidden Lamella's body were several times fiercer than before. Compared to the fair match previously, Forbidden Lamella was oppressively forceful at the moment. Almost every collision sent Lin Huang flying.

Seeing that Xie Lin had seemingly become the weaker opponent, many of the spectators began thinking to themselves.

Initially, they had been shocked by Lin Huang's ability. Some of them were uncertain about if they wanted to pursue their goal of attacking him, while some even chose to give up on the thought of fighting him directly. However, now that they saw Forbidden Lamella was even more powerful, they discovered that Xie Lin was not as terrifying as they imagined. As such, they began entertaining all kinds of thoughts.

Some daring ones were even thinking about whether or not they could snatch Forbidden Lamella's prey from under his very nose.

After all, whoever killed Xie Lin would become the final winner of this trial right away. Being the final winner meant that the trial would end very soon and everyone would be teleported out. Therefore, they would not have to worry about Forbidden Lamella's revenge.

Only the few members from Death Sickle were worried about Lin Huang.

The might that Forbidden Lamella demonstrated had shocked them. If Forbidden Lamella alone was hard for Xie Lin to handle, he might not have any chance of winning at all when Unrivaled God came.

"I'm afraid Xie Lin might be at risk in this battle…" Twin's icy-blue head could not help exclaiming. Although she did not cultivate Sword Dao, she could read the battle situation.

"This Forbidden Lamella's Sword Dao isn't as powerful as Xie Lin's but I'm afraid all aspects of his body might be at True God-level already. It might be difficult for Xie Lin to win." The fiery-red head nodded right away in agreement.

"Maintaining God's form drains Divine Power immensely. I think the only way for Xie Lin to win is to drain his opponent's Divine Power." Fallen Star frowned slightly; she too had lost confidence in Lin Huang now. "However, even if he manages to defeat Forbidden Lamella, there will be Unrivaled God and Frontier later…"

Destiny was the only one still rooting for Lin Huang the underdog.

"If Boss Xie Lin weren't conserving his Divine Power for the battles later on, this guy named Forbidden Lamella wouldn't be a match for him at all!"

The gold and red sword gleams continued exploding in the air.

The strong winds caused by Divine Power collisions sounded like giant beasts howling at each other ferociously. The tiny buildings beneath the spectators' feet seemed to quake.

Although Lin Huang was at a disadvantage throughout all of these attacks, the battle intent in his eyes did not fade at all. Instead, it kept growing.

He performed different sword techniques each time; some of them were not even complete techniques. In reality, he was continuously integrating the sword skills that he had learned before and trying them out on Forbidden Lamella.

However, as his mastery of each of these skills was high, all of them seemed to be complete techniques. As a result, nobody could tell anything was out of the ordinary.

However, Forbidden Lamella slowly began noticing that something was off, even as he continued fighting Lin Huang.

After all, he was a sword cultivator whose Sword Dao was at peak level-6. Not only that, but he had also been fighting Lin Huang for quite some time now.

"Damn it, you're treating me as your sparring partner?!"

Lin Huang did not mind that his opponent had seen through his motives.

"Yes, what else did you think? It's rare enough that a sparring partner turns up on my doorstep, it makes sense for me to seize this opportunity to practice!"

Lin Huang was telling the truth. In reality, Forbidden Lamella had not piqued Lin Huang's interest to practice at all until the latter had transformed into his God's form. He had not immediately killed Forbidden Lamella because he wanted to see what sword skills Forbidden Lamella possessed.Read comics on our webnovel.live

He had only treated Forbidden Lamella as a proper sparring partner after the latter had transformed into his God's form.

Forbidden Lamella flew into a towering rage as soon as Lin Huang gave him the definitive answer from the horse's mouth.

It was a moment before he was able to snarl, "Treating me like a mere sparring partner? In your dreams!"

His aura suddenly flared up terrifyingly as he finished speaking.

Sensing the change of aura, Lin Huang looked faintly bemused.

"Is that…God Rule Power?!"

In reality, Lin Huang had expected this, as it was not easy at all to defeat a Sword Servant. Forbidden Lamella defeating three Sword Servants proved that he possessed power that surpassed virtual god-level, even if the Sword Servants were ones who ranked at the very bottom.

Moreover, there were indeed a handful of Protoss recorded in history who could use God Rule Power when they were at virtual god-level; this was no secret.

Lin Huang also knew that Unrivaled God from the Combat God Temple possessed God Rule Power.

Meanwhile, since Forbidden Lamella's accumulated points were higher than Unrivaled God's, it made absolute sense that he possessed God Rule Power.

Apart from Lin Huang, many spectators present also sensed the aura of God Rule Power right away.

After all, they were all outstanding Virtual God powerhouses. They came into contact with True Gods occasionally so it made sense that they were familiar with God Rule Power.

Low murmurs were heard among the spectators.

"As I expected, this fellow's mastered God Rule Power!"

"This guy's points are even higher than Unrivaled God's. He killed more BOSSes than Unrivaled God too, isn't it a given that he's mastered God Rule Power?"

"Do you guys think Xie Lin's mastered God Rule Power too?" After all, given Lin Huang's previous battle results, their speculations were to be expected.

On top of a three-story building, the golden Divine Power flames that enveloped Forbidden Lamella faded slowly, revealing a body covered with golden scales.

His sword-wielding right hand was no longer a human hand; it was more like the talons of a dragon.

Even stranger was that the black-and-gold battle sword was slowly being enveloped in a layer of black flame. Although it was only a thin layer of flame, somehow it felt a few hundred times more dangerous than the golden flame from before.

As soon as the black flame appeared, the temperature within the radius of several hundred kilometers went up at least ten degrees celsius.

There was no flame on Forbidden Lamella's body at all but he gave everyone the illusion of a fire god arriving in the world. Even his silhouette looked elusive from the extreme heat distortion.

"So this fellow's God Rule Power is a type of flame?" Lin Huang raised his brows as he watched. One might have a layer of skin burnt off if they came into contact with this sort of God Rule Power.

One could only defend themselves against God Rule Power with power of the same level.

Since his opponent had revealed his God Rule Power, Lin Huang did not dare delay any further. His blood-red God-slaying Power gradually enveloped the blade of his sword.

As soon as his God-slaying Power surfaced, Lin Huang's inherent killing intent skyrocketed. He seemed to have transformed into an ultimate god of slaughter, which was shocking.

At the same time, almost all the spectators sensed that the surrounding air seemed to be much thinner now, and vaguely suffocating.

Chapter 1329: Unrivaled God Has Arrived!

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

God Rule Power was the fundamental reason why the disparity between true god-level and virtual god-level was so wide, and why it took incredible amounts of effort to bridge the gap.

God Rule Power was, in essence, an elementary Rule Bending Power.

The so-called Rule Bending Power was a special power that could interfere with the material world directly.

For instance, gravity on earth was directed towards the ground; this was a type of rule. If the rule was changed, whereby gravity was directed towards the sky, seawater would pour down while people would float. The entire world would be completely different.

To a certain degree, Rule Bending Power could not be fought. Just as the flora and fauna on earth would be affected by earth's gravity eventually, as long as they were on earth and within the parameters of such a rule, this fact would not change.

God Rule Power was a completely different type of power altogether.

If a person mastered a God Rule Power by which anyone would be turned into a rock whenever he set eyes on them, the person being stared at would turn into a rock as soon as he was glanced at. It did not matter how much Divine Power, strength, speed, or Telekinesis power the person possessed. This was how compelling God Rule Power was, to where it did not matter how powerful or weak the person who had mastered it was.

The God-slaying Power that Lin Huang possessed was a god rule under the Kill Rule. It belonged to an attack subset of god rule which was particularly suitable for combat.

The terrifying thing about this type of god rule was that one would die soon as one suffered a cut from the God-slaying Power, even Gods. Even if one merely had a bloodless nick on one's skin, the God-slaying Power would destroy both the victim's body and soul.

Naturally, this only held true if the person who was being slashed had not mastered any God Rule Powers.

If they had, the God Rule Powers would offset each other.

However, not all God Rule Powers could kill the opponent directly like the God-slaying Power. Many God Rule Powers could not kill the opponent immediately.

This was like Forbidden Lamella's God Rule Power. It was called the Divine Lamella Fire and was a god rule under the Fire Rule.

A living thing's skin would quickly turn into black flaming scales as soon as the Divine Lamella Fire's God Rule Power made contact. These scales would absorb energy in the host's body automatically. They would spread throughout one's entire body, exuding extremely high heat. These flaming scales would not only harm the flesh, but they would also burn one's soul, causing intense torment.

When the Divine Lamella Fire spread over the epidermis, it would soon sink into the subcutaneous layer of skin before spreading through the flesh and organs, then the bones and the brain…the flaming scales would spread within and without a person's body.

Eventually, not only would the infected victim die of extreme burns, their body and soul would go through a change of form from the Divine Lamella Fire. They would turn into a monster with black scales all over their body and become the Divine Lamella Fire's slave.

Naturally, Lin Huang had no idea what Forbidden Lamella's God Rule Power was called, neither did he know what kind of ability such a God Rule Power came with.

However, fire-type God Rule Powers usually involved extreme heat. Once one had come into contact with it, even if they possessed God Rule Power as a defense, it was a very unpleasant experience.

Even Lin Huang had to be on guard.

As soon as their God Rule Powers surfaced, the duo could be considered to have shown their trump cards.

The spectators around watched with wide eyes. It was the first time that most of them had had the opportunity to watch a battle that was close to true god-level.

"No wonder Xie Lin and Forbidden Lamella managed to defeat the BOSSes; they've both mastered God Rule Powers!"

"If that's the case, could Unrivaled God and the rest of them who defeated BOSSes have mastered God Rule Power too?"

The competitors who were watching debated heatedly among themselves. They all thought that Lin Huang and Forbidden Lamella had managed to defeat BOSSes because they had mastered God Rule Powers.

On Death Sickle's side, Twin and Destiny could not help but turn their heads to look at Fallen Star. After all, she had also defeated a BOSS.

Noticing the duo's stare, Fallen Star shook her head expressionlessly.

"I haven't mastered any God Rules."

"So how did you defeat the BOSS?" Destiny asked immediately.

"I used all of my trump cards and with a little bit of luck, I was fortunate enough to win that battle," Fallen Star answered very straightforwardly. Noticing that the duo was still staring at her after she was done speaking, she added rather helplessly, "In reality, I've encountered three BOSSes before. The second one was the weakest, but I spent over 30 hours before I finally won by the barest margin.

"As for the other two, I wasn't in their league at all. The first one dominated me entirely after a few rounds of combat. Fortunately, I managed to retreat and escape the room that he was guarding. He didn't come after me. The third one emanated a life-threatening aura after merely releasing his Sword Dao. I'd just taken half a step into his sensing territory, so I retreated without hesitation."

As the Death Sickle members were chatting, Lin Huang and Forbidden Lamella had already begun a new round of battle not so far away.

The red and black sword gleams in the air collided at even more terrifying speed.

Half the sky was soon filled with glaringly bright sparks of blood-red and inky pitch-black.

The energy from the collision between the two sword gleams sliced sword marks onto the roofs and walls of the surrounding little buildings. Some of the marks were merely a few centimeters in length while others were a couple of meters long. However, all were etched deeply into the surfaces.

Many of the watching competitors were terrified when they saw the sword marks.

Even if they were to swing their swords at full force, they might not be able to leave such deep marks on those houses. Not only that, but these sword trails were also merely an effect of the energy produced from the duo's battle.

Most of the spectators retreated even farther away after seeing the sword marks, worried that they might be affected by the battle impact. If they were unlucky enough to be struck by any of the resulting energy bursts, they might be killed instantly.

The red and black sword gleams collided in midair over and over again. Endless thunder-like booms reverberated to and fro.

The strong whistling sound from the winds caused by the energy impact was like the howling of a million demonic armies from hell.

Under the gale-force winds that blew from every direction, the rows of lanterns hanging on the building awnings would swing here and there, as if the gravity in the area was constantly changing direction.

The houses had not stopped quaking since the beginning of the battle. Given that many of the houses had been scarred by the sword marks left behind from the energy impacts, it felt more like an earthquake now than before.

Due to his advantage in strength and speed, Forbidden Lamella was still in top form.

However, Lin Huang was slowly reaching his peak state.

As both of them were using God Rule Power, Lin Huang was slightly more serious than before as he was unwilling to come into contact with the Divine Lamella Fire.

He moved much more than before as well compared to earlier. Even his sword swings were more serious than before.

In each previous collision, he had retreated hundreds of meters away. Now, however, he retreated less—maybe only about a hundred meters, about on par with the distance of Forbidden Lamella's retreat.

However, only Forbidden Lamella knew himself that it only looked as if he had the upper hand. Xie Lin was still using him to practice his sword skills. Although he was slightly more serious now, nothing much had changed—Lin Huang was still controlling the tempo of battle. No matter how hard Forbidden Lamella tried, Lin Huang did not seem to be treating him like a real opponent who required one's full effort to stay alive during combat.

In reality, Forbidden Lamella was unaware that Lin Huang was not purposely underestimating him. It was merely that Lin Huang had treated all of his opponents as sparring partners since his Sword Dao had elevated to Sword Dao true meaning, even if his opponent was a Sword Servant under Great Heaven in the top 20 rankings. He would only use actual techniques to defeat his opponent when he was almost done learning everything about the opponent's Sword Dao.

The reason that Lin Huang did not kill or defeat Forbidden Lamella after learning about his level of Sword Dao was that Lin Huang was still waiting for Unrivaled God and the rest to arrive. He wanted to see what the effect would be if they were to fight him together and how much pressure they would give him. Moreover, Warlord's detection results were still pending and he was bored anyway. A sparring partner to study new sword skills from was a good thing.

Some ten minutes into the duo's intense battle, Lin Huang heard Warlord's voice transmission in his ears all of a sudden.

"There's a team of three approaching. The trio's aura intensity is almost on par with Forbidden Lamella!"

Lin Huang raised his brows at that.

Unrivaled God and the others had finally arrived!

Chapter 1330: Come Fight Me Together

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

The three silhouettes that Warlord had picked up on soon came into the sensing range of many of the spectators, including the three members from Death Sickle.

"Unrivaled God and the rest are here!" Fallen Star's expression changed slightly. She was very familiar with Unrivaled God, identifying him almost as soon as he stepped into her sensing range.

"The other two—if I'm not wrong, the man should be Frontier while the other lady is most probably Departed Feather who's ranked No.5 on the leaderboard," Twin voiced her speculations even though she had never heard of the duo.

"Both of them should be like Forbidden Lamella—Sword Servants who were secretly trained by grade-7 organizations. The thing is, I'm not sure if they're from God Capital, Divine Clapnet, Xeno or Precious Treasure Pavilion," Fallen Star frowned a little as she spoke.

"The Combat God Temple already has Unrivaled God, there's no need for them to train another secret Sword Servant. As for God Capital, those pureblood fellows who are so proud of their bloodline aren't into training Sword Servants," Twin took over the conversation, "If I'm not mistaken, Forbidden Lamella, Frontier and Departed Feather should be from Divine Clapnet, Xeno, and Precious Treasure Pavilion respectively. I'm just not sure who belongs to which organization though."

"Together with Unrivaled God, that's four against one. That's outrageous!" Destiny was indignant on Lin Huang's behalf.

Even he had confidence in Lin Huang, he did not think that Lin Huang could win if the four joined forces.

After all, to Destiny, it looked as if Lin Huang was expending a lot of energy to take on Forbidden Lamella at the moment.

"This is the inheritance of Great Heaven, the No. 1 Sword Servant among the Heavenly Gods in the God Territory! Everyone is desperate to gain his inheritance as long as they're a Sword Servant. Moreover, the purpose of this Trial is for the competitors to challenge the participants so the participants can achieve the Trial quota. Let's not talk about four against one; even if it's four hundred against one, it's still in line with the Trial rules."

Twin did not feel there was anything unfair about this. By achieving the Trial quota Xie Lin had proved his ability. This Trial was just to test whether or not he was really worthy. If not, it made sense that he would be replaced. After all, Great Heaven, who had dominated other heavenly god-level powerhouses for an era, would definitely wish for his heir to be the most powerful contender.

"So what should we do now? Do we help?" Destiny looked at Fallen Star.

"Unless we really have to intervene, we try to stay out of things as much as possible. As soon as we show our hand, Xie Lin's identity as a Death Sickle member would be completely exposed. At that point we might become the other competitors' common enemy," Fallen Star said, shaking her head, "However, if they're going to kill Xie Lin, we'll just have to break cover and stop them. The best would be if we can convince Xie Lin to surrender and give up on his Trial quota. With the potential that Xie Lin is showing at the moment though, as long as he's alive, even if he doesn't achieve the level of a Lord, at the very least he'll be another Buried Heaven. We can't give up on him unless it's a very last resort."

As the three Death Sickle members were discussing ways of handling what might happen later, Unrivaled God and the duo had already come into Lin Huang's sensing range, finally revealing themselves in front of everyone.

Unrivaled God was dressed in white, his sleeves fluttering in the wind.

With him were another man and a lady.

The man wore a denim jacket over a white t-shirt and faded jeans. He had dark brown hair that came to his shoulders. His expression was somewhat dissolute, giving the impression that he was a rock-and-roll youngster.

Meanwhile, the lady had blonde hair, a curvaceous figure, and was clad in silver armor. She wore a silver necklace on her fair neck and a pair of black hoops in her ears. Her nails were painted blue. Her left little finger and middle finger were adorned with a ring each, and she wore a ring on her right index finger as well.

"I think that lady is definitely from the Precious Treasure Pavilion. Look at her, she sparkles from head to toe," Density said to Fallen Star and Twin softly.

The two ladies ignored him.

Twin was observing the few adornments that the lady wore, while Fallen Star was frowning slightly. She could sense that this lady's abilities seemed to be above her own level.

Sensing Fallen Star's scrutiny, the lady glanced in her direction but looked away immediately after.

Unrivaled God merely nodded slightly when he saw Fallen Star. He then looked over to where Lin Huang and Forbidden Lamella were.

Meanwhile, the long-haired man paid no attention to the people around him. As soon as he stepped into view, his eyes were fixed on Lin Huang.

The three of them did not immediately join in the battle. Instead, they stood on top of a five-story building while observing the fight between Lin Huang and Forbidden Lamella from not too far away.

However, the appearance of the three created an immediate stir amidst the crowd.

Nobody knew who the other two were, but almost all the members from the God Territory knew who Unrivaled God was.

He was No. 1 on the God Territory's Virtual God leaderboard and was also the No. 1 Sword Servant among the virtual god-level powerhouses in the God Territory.

"Unrivaled God is really here! Seems like what Forbidden Lamella said earlier about joining forces was true after all."

"The man and lady who arrived with Unrivaled God won't be any less powerful than Unrivaled God and Forbidden Lamella, I fear."

"I think Xie Lin will lose this time no matter how powerful he is."

"If it's an issue for Xie Lin to handle one opponent now, he'll definitely lose if it's four against one."

The battle between Lin Huang and Forbidden Lamella was still going on in midair.

Unrivaled God and the other two who were observing the battle had not yet joined in. The three of them were focused on watching the battlefield. To be exact, they were focused on watching Lin Huang.

"This fellow is very powerful! His sword comprehension is obviously higher than Forbidden Lamella's given that their Sword Dao intensity is the same," the initially careless Frontier said in all seriousness.

"He's very powerful indeed, he's controlling the entire tempo of the fight," Departed Feather who was in silver armor nodded lightly as well, "If not for the advantage in strength and speed, I'm afraid Forbidden Lamella would've been defeated early on."

"That's not the reason why Forbidden Lamella hasn't been defeated yet," Unrivaled God shook his head while frowning a little, "If I'm not mistaken, that fellow's purposely waiting for us to fight him."

Lin Huang's shout came all of a sudden as soon as Unrivaled God finished speaking.

"Are the three of you done watching? Come fight me together when you've seen enough."

He did not bother masking his shout at all, so all the watching competitors heard it loud and clear. They were speechless.

Never had they thought that Xie Lin would initiate a challenge to Unrivaled God and the other two at such a time.

"Is he out of his mind?!"

"He must be lying! If he really can fight four people on his own, why didn't he kill Forbidden Lamella first and get rid of one burden?!"

"Is he full of himself just because he defeated so many BOSSes?"

…

"Xie Lin, you're a little too full of yourself," Frontier, who had shoulder-length long hair, yelled back right after hearing Lin Huang's shout, "Your Sword Dao comprehension is stronger than ours but this Trial isn't purely a test of Sword Dao."

"Whether or not I'm full of myself, you guys are going to fight me together anyway, right?" Lin Huang smiled at Unrivaled God and the other two, "I'm just being honest; you might actually be able to defeat me if you take me on together."

Including Forbidden Lamella, all four of them understood the underlying meaning of what Lin Huang had said—"If you don't fight me together, it's impossible for you to defeat me".

Frontier and Departed Feather's expressions were sour. After all, they were top Sword Servants secretly trained by grade-7 organizations. It was a little embarrassing that they had to join forces to take on a single opponent right now.

However, Unrivaled God's expression displayed nothing out of the ordinary. He messaged the duo through voice transmission though.

"We all know how powerful the BOSSes in this Trial are. Since this fellow's managed to defeat so many BOSSes, he's definitely not revealing the extent of his abilities at the moment. Don't be triggered or puzzled by what he said, just be prepared to fight at a moment's notice. The best would be to discover any of his flaws and go in for the kill!"