1711-1720

Chapter 1711: You're Not Worthy

Lin Huang saw Witch's attack, but he did not stop her.

Clearly, apart from him and his group of imperial monsters, the remaining Lords did not notice Witch's trick.

Lin Huang only spoke with a light smile on his face when he saw that Witch had enchanted Shen Jue without him noticing at all.

"Sword 1 is my Sword Alliance's vice chief. It was me who decided the entrance sequence he mentioned earlier. To me, everyone in the God Territory is of the same kind. There's no difference in status among the grade-7 organizations. The entrance sequence has nothing to do with the strength of the organization at all. However, there must be a sequence for the entrance after all. Therefore, to be fair, I decided that those who arrive first will enter first, while those who arrive later, will enter later."

"Can it be that God King Jue thinks that God Capital is in a higher position compared to the other grade-7 organizations? And that everyone should wait at the door until your God Capital has entered before they do?"

Although the few of them from God Capital secretly thought that, they dared not nod in agreement under such circumstances.

Shen Jue wanted to go on and make a scene shamelessly. He wanted to humiliate Lin Huang.

However, he realized that he could no longer speak when he was about to open his mouth.

'What's happening?!' He panicked at that moment.

Not only could he not speak, he realized that he could not even move his fingers at all. It was as if his body had been taken over by something unknown. He had lost control of it entirely.

Shen Tu was waiting for Shen Jue to continue making a scene. However, seeing that he stood where he was and said nothing, he could not help but take over the topic while feeling confused.

"You're overthinking it, Chief Lin. God King Jue has always been straightforward. He doesn't mean anything ill by his words. The entrance sequence doesn't make a difference. Our God Capital isn't particular over such things."

At that moment, Shen Lu who was standing on the side started to stir up trouble.

"This humble one is Shen Lu, a saber cultivator. I heard that Chief Lin is a sword cultivator powerhouse. I've been itching for an opportunity to spar with you. I've finally met you today. My Saber Heart is trembling from seeing you. I can no longer hold back my desire to spar with you. I hope that Chief Lin can enlighten me!"

"What are you doing, Shen Lu?! Didn't I tell you repeatedly before coming that you can't raise such a ridiculous request on such an occasion?!" Shen Tu stopped him immediately.

However, people who were wise could tell from a glance that the two of them were just acting out a play.

To outsiders, Shen Lu had indeed always been a reckless man who loved challenges. However, on such an occasion, it was ridiculous to assume that he had made such a challenge request without Shen Tu's permission.

The crowd present knew that the few of them from God Capital must have discussed this before coming. They were here to stir up trouble.

"It's just a spar between a saber cultivator and sword cultivator. How can that be considered an unreasonable request?" Shen Lu continued acting like a stubborn saber fanatic. "I believe that, as a sword cultivator, Chief Lin should be excited to spar and exchange moves with a powerful saber cultivator, right? After all, there are not many pure sword cultivators and saber cultivators in this great world."

Lin Huang watched the scene play out in silence.

He had zero interest in Shen Lu.

He was even thinking to himself. 'Powerful saber cultivator? Are you talking about yourself? You sure are boastful.'

The crowd watching said nothing as well. Apart from the few of them from Death Sickle who were worried about Lin Huang, the rest were waiting to see how Lin Huang was going to handle this crisis.

In reality, things would be awkward regardless of whether he took Shen Lu's challenge or not.

It would be embarrassing even if he defeated Shen Lu.

When faced with such a situation, Lin Huang should not fight personally.

If there were other Lords in the Sword Alliance, they could take the initiative to accept the challenge on his behalf. It would not even matter who won.

However, as people looked around, there were many ninth-rank Heavenly Gods, close to 400 of them, but Lin Huang was the only one who had the aura of a Lord.

Just when everyone thought that Lin Huang would be forced to fight, a figure walked out.

It was a man covered in a black armor. A faint black mist lingered on his body.

"You're not worthy of challenging the Swordmaster."

As soon as he was done speaking, Lancelot's aura skyrocketed, revealing his lord-level cultivation directly.

"I'll fight in his stead!"

The many Lords present were taken aback. The intensity of the aura meant that this person was at least a middle-rank Lord.

Almost everyone had the same thought flashing through their heads—There was such an expert hiding in the Sword Alliance?!

Shen Tu could not help but frown. He did not expect a variable like Lancelot to appear.

He initially thought that, apart from Lin Huang, everyone else's aura was at heavenly god-level. When he got here, he thought that he would definitely succeed in stepping on the Sword Alliance to advance God Capital's status.

Never had he thought that someone from the Sword Alliance's camp had hidden his cultivation base.

Shen Lu's face was slightly pale. He was just a lower-rank Lord. Judging by the aura of his opponent, he knew that he was not Lancelot's match.

However, seeing that Lancelot had taken his sword out, he could only bite the bullet.

Lin Huang suddenly spoke when the two of them were about to fight.

"Be gentle. Don't kill him."

Lancelot paused slightly.

Shen Lu's eyes lit up. He did not expect the opponent to reveal such a flaw.

The saber gleam turned into a silver glow, flashing through the air at its highest speed.

However, the black-armored man before him vanished the next second.

"You're too slow."

A deep voice came from behind him.

Shen Lu had only felt a pain coming from his chest.

He lowered his head to look. There was a wound the size of a fist in the middle of his chest. He had no idea how or when it happened. It penetrated through his back.

The attack would have crushed his heart directly if it was even a few centimeters off target.

Shen Lu was stunned momentarily when he noticed that the wound on his chest was not recovering. He then abruptly realized that the attack from his opponent had drained all of the Divine Power and Odyl from his body.

"Are you alright?" Shen Tu seemed to have sensed something off. He flashed and arrived next to Shen Lu, supporting his unstable body.

"I'm fine. He held back." Shen Lu shook his head. He was already drenched in cold sweat.

If the attack earlier had hit his vital points, it would have easily taken his life. However, his opponent calculated the attack perfectly. He merely drained the Divine Power and Odyl in his body and stopped instantly after that.

Shen Tu saw what happened to Shen Lu's chest when he examined the wound from close distance. He instantly realized what had happened. He glanced at Lancelot in fear.

Lancelot said nothing and walked straight back to his seat as if what had happened just now had nothing to do with him at all.

Fright flashed through the eyes of the Lords in their seats.

The reason was that none of them had seen the trajectory of Lancelot's sword clearly.

It also meant that that sword alone could severely injure all of the Lords present.

'What's the background of this sword cultivator from the Sword Alliance exactly?!'

Almost everyone present had the same doubts in their minds.

Chapter 1712: Beaten Again

Shen Tu's face was ashen.

He did not expect that a guy like Lancelot would appear out of nowhere from the Sword Alliance.

His appearance had messed up their plans completely.

Seeing that Shen Lu's wound was not healing at all, he knew that Lancelot had held back.

It was enough to prove that his ability had far surpassed Shen Lu's.

He secretly speculated that he was most probably not Lancelot's match as well.

He would just humiliate himself if he continued to stir up trouble with him.

He peeped at Shen Jue who was standing still not far away. He secretly cursed him seeing that he was still standing motionless, 'This old thing must've been terrified by that sword move earlier.'

He thought that Shen Jue would make a scene by seizing the opportunity that Shen Lu was hurt. Then he could use him as a way out that would not be as awkward as how things were panning out now.

However, judging by Shen Jue's expression, he thought that he had been scared by the sword move, no longer daring to speak up again.

"I told you not to cause problems. Have you learned your lesson now?!" Shen Tu helped Shen Lu up to his seat after scolding him.

As long as he pushed all of the responsibility onto Shen Lu wanting to challenge the Sword Alliance, the humiliation would have nothing to do with him at all.

At least that was what Shen Tu thought.

However, the people who were here were part of the upper echelons of grade-7 organizations. None of them were fools. They saw through the trick that they were trying to pull, but none of them bothered to expose them.

Everyone was happy to watch God Capital being humiliated. Nevertheless, they just enjoyed the show. There was no need to fall out with God Capital over something like this.

Lin Huang said nothing. After all, the Sword Alliance had succeeded in humiliating God Capital.

On God Capital's side, Shen Jue, who had regained control of his body, had a grim look on his face. He took his seat following Shen Tu and Shen Lu.

"What happened to you? Why did you become mute all of a sudden?!" Shen Tu's face turned grim as soon as he took his seat. He asked Shen Jue through voice transmission.

Shen Jue glanced at Lin Huang's direction and glanced at the crowd behind him before speaking softly and carefully.

"I think there's more than one middle-rank Lord in the Sword Alliance. I was affected by a sneak attack. My body was being controlled, and I couldn't move at all."

Shen Tu's expression changed slightly. He did not expect that to be the reason.

What shocked him was the fact that he did not notice that someone had attacked Shen Jue at all.

It only proved that the person who attacked Shen Jue was more capable than he was.

"It's impossible for two middle-rank Lords to appear out of nowhere. The only possible explanation is that they came from the universe. Our great world is Royal's territory. The Sword Alliance's upgrade to a grade-7 organization was endorsed by Royal. I suspect that this Sword Alliance is a secret pawn that Royal has planted in the God Territory," Shen Jue continued to speak of his speculation.

Shen Tu fell into complete silence after listening to those words.

At that moment, Sword 1 continued to welcome the organizations that arrived later into the venue.

"Nephilic Judge Tribe's Virgen Kylie, tribe leader Abbott… and guest elder Bloody are here for the celebration!"

Hearing Sword 1's announcement, the many people present had interested expressions on their faces.

The order of the name list was provided by the organizations themselves.

Under normal circumstances, the tribe leader should be ranked first.

There could be a few Virgens, so naturally their status was lower than the tribe leader.

To the Nephilic Judge, which was an ancient tribe, they would not allow for any mistakes in the rankings of identity.

However, the Nephilic Judge Tribe placed Virgen Kylie first this time, and the tribe leader second.

This was enough to indicate that Virgen Kylie's status was higher than the tribe leader.

The people could not help but speculate on the exact reason for this.

Many of them soon made the connection to the time when the Nephilic Judge Tribe had rejected the match-making efforts of the outsiders with regard to Virgen Kylie back then.

The reason they gave was that Virgen Kylie was still young and that they would not consider marrying her off for the time being.

Back then, many people thought that the Nephilic Judge Tribe wanted to settle this matter internally and wanted to marry Virgen Kylie off to a young, handsome talent within the tribe to cultivate an even more outstanding next generation.

However, it clearly did not seem like that was the case now.

Everyone coincidentally sensed that Virgen Kylie must have some hidden secrets behind her status!

Lin Huang had been staring at the entrance. It had been close to three years since he had last seen Kylie.

Although they had been in contact, and he had been hearing about how she had been doing from Bloody, it had still been close to three years that they had not seen each other.

The silver-armored Kylie stepped into the palace entrance with the Nephilic Judge Tribe delegation in tow. She instantly attracted the attention of everyone present.

Many men could not tear their eyes away from her figure.

Not only was her appearance beautiful, her aura was immensely heroic as well.

Bloody was actually right next to her. However, in the presence of Kylie, she appeared to be overshadowed. Given that she concealed her lord-level aura intentionally, it caused many people to overlook her.

Lin Huang could not help but smirk seeing that Kylie had not changed much.

Kylie glanced around the venue casually. She only locked eyes with Lin Huang for a moment and then looked away. She led the rest of the people from the Nephilic Judge Tribe to their seats.

Shen Tu stared at Kylie for a long time before finally looking away unwillingly.

After a moment of silence, he suddenly spoke in the presence of the crowd.

"The Nephilic Judge Tribe is considered an ancient pure blood tribe within the God Territory. Now that we've met today, I've noticed how valiant the Virgen is."

"My God Capital has countless handsome and talented men, as well as many top-notch pure blood direct descendants. Abbott, I think we can consider a marriage alliance."

Abbott, who had a head full of white hair, had a slight change of expression. However, he soon responded with a smile, "Thank you God Emperor for your kind intentions. However, the Virgen calls the shots regarding her own matters. I'm an old man now. I can't decide for her."

Abbott's reply clearly surprised everyone present.

Theoretically, given the fact that the Nephilic Judge Tribe was in an awkward position in the God Territory, they should have agreed instantly to a grade-7 organization taking the initiative to arrange a marriage alliance.

However, he rejected their overtures directly.

Shen Tu obviously did not expect such a reply from Abbott. He only snapped back to his senses after a moment of disbelief.

He then looked at Kylie with a smile.

"Virgen, since Abbott can't call the shots, what do you think?"

He secretly exerted pressure on Kylie with his lord-level aura when he spoke.

Suddenly, he sensed the pressure he exerted vanish instantly. At the same time, a terrifying pressure emanated from the direction of the Nephilic Judge Tribe.

It did not only target Shen Tu, but also enveloped Shen Jue and Shen Lu who were nearby.

Under its suppression, the three of them could not move an inch.

Never had they thought that they would meet another tough one.

"I'm not interested." It was only once Kylie's cold voice echoed in reply that the pressure finally faded away.

The crowd thought Shen Tu would act against the Nephilic Judge Tribe when they heard Kylie's response.

To their surprise, Shen Tu merely chuckled twice.

"Since the Virgen has no interest, let's forget about it."

The people who were waiting for a show to unfold had shock-filled expressions on their faces at the moment.

Was this still the Shen Tu they knew?!

Chapter 1713: Banquet

In reality, Lancelot, Witch, Bloody and the rest were only lower-rank Lords.

However, unlike the other lower-rank Lords in the universe, each of their Dao seals had been consolidated with over two million levels of Dao tattoo power.

In this great world, even the prodigy Buried Heaven could only use over 1,800 levels of Dao tattoo power from each of his Dao seals.

Without using the Dao tattoo power within the Kingdom, the ability of a Dao seal consolidated by Lancelot and the rest would be comparable to when Buried Heaven elevated to middle-rank Lord.

Not to mention the imperial monsters who had entered the virtual realm a few times and obtained substantial amounts of Origin Energy, and had basically consolidated two to three Dao seals. The number of levels of Dao tattoo power in the Kingdom had increased significantly.

Their ability could not be compared to the time when they had just been elevated to Lords.

Meanwhile, due to the limited resources in the great world, a middle-rank Lord would basically head to the universe when they obtained more than 20 Dao seals.

Take Shen Tu from God Capital for example. Although he was a middle-rank Lord, he had only consolidated 14 Dao seals. His ability should be roughly the same as the time when Lancelot and the rest had just been elevated to Lords.

Zhan Guang from the Combat God Temple was perhaps the most powerful powerhouse here, excluding the people from the Sword Alliance. Yet he had only consolidated 17 Dao seals. His ability was far weaker than the imperial monsters' under Lin Huang.

As Bloody's aura was only targeted at the three people from God Capital, she did not expose herself at all.

This caused the many people present to be confused as to why Shen Tu had suddenly become so amiable.

He was secretly cursing inside.

'The Sword Alliance might just be a branch that Royal set up. Forget it, there's a middle-rank Lord guarding them. Why does the Nephilic Judge Tribe, a dying organization, have such a terrifying guy hiding amongst them?!"

He did not think that the "middle-rank Lord " who had just released her aura from the Nephilic Judge Tribe's side came from the universe. He thought that the probability of the person being a veteran survivor from the ancient era was higher.

After all, the Nephilic Judge Tribe had existed for far too long. There were many among them who had been elevated to Lords in the previous eras. It was entirely possible that there were one or two of them who had survived until now, and had chosen to guard the tribe instead of heading out into the universe.

He could not help but peep at Kylie. He had a faint feeling that the veteran from the Nephilic Judge Tribe came because of this Virgen.

He did not notice that Shen Lu, who was sitting next to him, had almost fainted from Bloody's suppressive aura just now.

He had been severely injured by Lancelot and had had all of the Divine Power and Odyl in his body drained.

He had just sat down to consolidate some Divine Power and Odyl to heal his wounds. The pressure exerted by Bloody almost exhausted all of the Divine Power and Odyl that he had just accumulated.

Shen Jue, who was on the other side, was worried that the person who controlled his body would do it again. He sat motionless where he was obediently. He ignored whatever that was happening around him.

Many people noticed the odd reactions from the three people from God Capital.

However, everyone could not figure out the reasons behind their odd behavior. They only thought that the three had suffered a blow from Lancelot's actions earlier.

After the little drama between God Capital and the Nephilic Judge Tribe concluded, the banquet soon went on successfully.

Without God Capital stirring up trouble, the rest of the organizations dared not cause a ruckus in the territory of the Sword Alliance.

After all of the organizations entered, the media arrived as well.

The lowest grade of organization that joined this banquet was grade-5, and they ranked amongst the top grade-5 organizations.

All of the grade-7 organizations in the God Territory were here.

The scale and degree of luxury clearly exceeded Death Sickle's upgrade celebration ceremony significantly.

Lin Huang merely gave a short speech to start the banquet.

The members of the media finally caught sight of how the Sword Alliance's chief looked like.

Many of them were shocked as they recognized Lin Huang as the mysterious powerhouse that had been wanted by all the top organizations previously.

However, most of the media personnel present knew that the wanted order had been rescinded quietly earlier.

They guessed that it had something to do with the rise of the Sword Alliance.

After Lin Huang gave his speech, he got Sword 1 to take over the proceedings.

Although Sword 1 was not a Lord, he was the Sword Alliance's vice chief after all. Everyone did not dare to disrespect him.

Given that he was very experienced in handling such occasions, he quickly took control of the entire celebration.

He began to talk about future collaborations with some organizations.

"You're making everyone envious by being a boss who does nothing." Buried Heaven, who appeared in a form of muscular hunk, walked over to Lin Huang with a glass of wine in his hand.

"Aren't you one as well?" Lin Huang clinked his glass with his.

"I'm not like you. You pushed your responsibility away." Buried Heaven shook his head while smiling. "I never had the right to decide anything from the beginning."

"Why? Are you not happy at Death Sickle? Do you want to join me?" Lin Huang raised his eyebrows and tried to poach him directly.

"It's not that I'm unhappy. Such problems exist in partnerships. When the upper echelons try to take charge, the people below them will have to pick sides." Buried Heaven shook his head.

"Fortunately, I wasn't a part of your upper echelons. I didn't notice such a problem," Lin Huang teased with a smile.

"In reality, the problem existed even while you were around, just that it wasn't as serious as it is now." Buried Heaven felt rather helpless. "Since Old Sun and the few others died, vacancies have become available in Blood Sickle, disrupting the balance as the different camps fight for authority. Given that I was elevated to Lord and Death Sickle was automatically upgraded to grade-7, the accumulation of these few matters caused all sorts of problems to surface."

"You walked too fast and stubbed your toe." Lin Huang suddenly thought of a classic saying.

"What?!" Buried Heaven was stunned. He then understood what Lin Huang meant. "That makes sense, but it's just so…"

"I just suddenly recalled that saying," Lin Huang laughed out loud.

"Do you have any solutions?" Buried Heaven asked the question anyway after a moment of hesitation.

"It can be resolved easily if you're willing to take charge." Lin Huang smiled as he looked at Buried Heaven.

However, Buried Heaven shook his head. "I won't stay in this great world for long. Moreover, I don't like having my cultivation held up by trivial matters."

"If you don't take over, the split between the few Blood Sickle members can't be eradicated." Lin Huang pointed out the main problem. "After all, their ability and talent levels are similar. Nobody is willing to let the other become their boss."

Buried Heaven fell into silence.

"I think you can take over things in a domineering manner. Solve the big problem first to stabilize Death Sickle's situation. After that, train a suitable successor from among the Heavenly Gods you already have. When the successor has been elevated to Lord, you can leave everything behind." Lin Huang said those words as if everything was that simple.

"Do you think training someone to become a Lord is as easy as cultivating a cactus?" Buried Heaven felt rather speechless.

"I'm just giving you an idea," Lin Huang said, as he smiled lightly.

He had just realized that training a Lord was actually a difficult thing. Otherwise, there would not only be seven grade-7 organizations in the God Territory, including the Sword Alliance.

Buried Heaven only left after chatting for a while.

Lin Huang glanced through the crowd and soon saw Kylie and Bloody, who were standing not far away…

Chapter 1714: Kylie's Plan

Kylie did not seem like she was planning to mingle at such an occasion at all. She had a cold and intimidating look on her face at all times. She would take a sip of her drink occasionally.

Bloody, who was next to her, looked petite and harmless. She seemed to be chatting about something with Kylie while holding a drink.

Lin Huang, who was walking over to the two ladies, soon attracted the attention of the crowd.

However, nobody assumed that they had known each other for a long time.

They thought that he was interested in this Virgen.

After all, Kylie indeed had the best appearance and charm among all those that were present.

Naturally, Shen Tu noticed him going over as well. He was secretly smirking inside, looking like he was excited to watch a show unfold.

'This guy surnamed Lin will definitely be beaten up later.'

Lin Huang picked up a plate of snacks from the table next to the two ladies and handed it to them. "This stuff is quite good. You guys should try some."

The two ladies were stunned, but soon picked up a piece each quickly and tried it.

"It's quite delicious." Bloody nodded continuously.

"Not bad." Kylie took a small bite and began to savor it slowly.

"This is a rose apple puff, a local delicacy. The filling is made using a type of rose apple that's the Pilgrim Star Zone's specialty. There's nowhere else that seems to cultivate this fruit. The pastry chef is a local as well. He's been making this snack for over 30 years…"

Lin Huang introduced the snack, seemingly engaging the two in a casual conversation.

Shen Tu, who thought that he would be treated to a show, froze at the sight of the harmonious scene of Lin Huang chatting with the two ladies.

'That hidden powerhouse didn't attack him?!'

While chatting casually, Lin Huang was speaking to the two ladies secretly through voice transmission.

"Did everything go well with your return to the Nephilic Judge Tribe?"

"It went quite smoothly. They're more than happy to have one more Lord to guard the Nephilic Judge Tribe," Bloody said with a smile, "They didn't enquire in detail regarding my breakthrough in combat strength."

"What about you? I suppose the Nephilic Judge Tribe has stopped giving you problems?" Lin Huang looked at Kylie.

"Basically nobody has dared to say anything since I elevated to rank-6," Kylie responded while smiling, "It's just that I have a half-step Lord following me around no matter where I go."

"It's been the same even after Bloody returned?" Lin Huang asked.

"They're worried that I'll kidnap their Virgen, so they're even more strict now," Bloody said angrily.

Lin Huang smiled when he heard that. He understood the Nephilic Judge Tribe's mindset.

"Did the Nephilic Judge Tribe agree to join Royal?" Lin Huang continued to ask.

"They only agreed after hesitating for many days."

"They're just a bunch of stubborn, old people. They want change, and yet they're afraid of change," Bloody commented harshly.

"It is, after all, an ancient tribe that has been passed down for a couple of eras. It's very difficult to change the many traditions that the older generation has passed down," Lin Huang expressed his understanding, "It's amazing that they're even willing to make changes for the tribe's development."

"When do you plan to head to the universe?" Kylie could not help but ask.

"When I've settled all the things here. I'll definitely need two to three months." Lin Huang thought about it before answering, "However, it won't exceed a year's time."

"Therefore, you guys should prepare for the future for the Nephilic Judge Tribe. Don't let the loss of a Virgen ruin the entire tribe. Come up with a solution for a smooth transition."

Bloody was Lin Huang's think tank, so it was impossible that he would leave her behind when he headed to the universe. When Bloody left, Kylie would be left alone with the Nephilic Judge Tribe. Lin Huang was worried about that as well.

Naturally, he wanted to bring both of them with him.

However, with Kylie's current standing in the Nephilic Judge Tribe, as soon as she left, it would definitely cause shockwaves within the tribe.

Kylie definitely did not want to see that happening.

Therefore, Lin Huang hoped that they could work together to find a solution to the issue.

"I have one dependent who is pretty talented. She was elevated to rank-5.5 after I was elevated to rank-6. I can get her to stay and replace me."

The dependents Kylie was talking about were the batch of Starlight Beasts she adopted from way back during her time in the gravel world.

"However, in order for her to control the group, she'll have to elevate to Lord first." Bloody looked at Lin Huang.

"Are you guys thinking of making her my imperial monster? To strengthen her combat strength?" Lin Huang instantly understood what they meant.

Clearly, the two ladies had discussed the plan.

"When we return to the Nephilic Judge Star Zone this time, we'll introduce her as Kylie's younger sister to the Nephilic Judge Tribe, and then we'll bring her back to the tribe. She's just a sixth-rank Heavenly God now. We'll try our best to increase her combat strength over the next few months. Naturally, you'll have to step in for the last stage," Bloody continued to say, "As long as her combat strength is elevated to lord-level before we leave, she should be enough to replace Kylie."

Lin Huang nodded immediately after a moment of thought. "This solution indeed sounds viable."

He really could not do that if this had happened in the past. After all, the chances of him obtaining a complete Monster Card was quite low.

However, there were no restrictions on Xiao Hei's authorization now. All he needed to do was to kill Kylie's dependent and he could get Xiao Hei to extract her True Spirit to turn her into a Monster Card.

It would be a piece of cake to elevate the Monster Card to lord-level.

The method was totally feasible.

"This drink is sweet, but it actually contains no sugar. The main ingredient is the juice squeezed from licorice… The licorice, after a rainy day, will secrete a type of cyclamate. This cyclamate gives it a sweet taste when consumed, but it's actually not sugar…"

On the surface, Lin Huang was talking about the green drink in his hand.

The crowd present noticed the harmonious scene unfolding on his side.

"So the Nephilic Judge Virgen is interested in talking about food and drinks."

"They look so happy. It seems like Chief Lin knows well how a girl's mind works."

However, some people were upset at this scene.

Shen Tu was secretly cursing.

'I was wondering why they were unwilling to become allies with my God Capital. It seems they already had their eye on the Sword Alliance's chief from the start. That old thing Abbott sure is vicious. And they were smart enough to fake the Virgen's cold demeanor. Even this fool surnamed Lin fell for it…"

Meanwhile, Abbott and the remaining Nephilic Judge Tribe elders, who were not far away, were quite upset.

They had been staring daggers at Lin Huang as he stood beside Kylie.

The longer the three of them chatted, the grimmer their expressions seemed.

They had just joined Royal. With the backing of Royal, they had a more sophisticated outlook now. They currently no longer took a grade-7 organization from the great world like Sword Alliance seriously.

They were worried that Lin Huang might kidnap their Virgen.

Fortunately, Lin Huang did not continue chatting for too long. He walked away after flicking a Combat Strength Upgrade Card into Kylie's body.

Very soon, Kylie left early with Bloody with the excuse that she was feeling unwell.

Chapter 1715: Little Story of the Past

Just when Lin Huang had taken a few steps, after turning around, he saw a black-haired lady walking toward him.

The lady had black hair and black eyes; her features were profound. She also wore a black dress.

The intensity of her aura was clearly at lower-rank lord-level. Not only that, she gave Lin Huang the impression that she had just elevated not too long ago.

"Chief Lin, I've admired you for a long time. I didn't expect our first meeting to be during such an occasion." The black-haired lady walked over to Lin Huang with a glass of wine in hand.

Lin Huang tried to recall carefully, but could not for the life of him figure out who the person was.

It was only after seeing the doubt on his face that the black-haired lady introduced herself with a smile.

"I almost forgot to introduce myself. I'm Beth from Xeno."

"Hi, Miss Beth."

Lin Huang recalled that this person was Xeno's newly-assigned federal vice president.

He also recalled that, in the guest information that Sword 1 had sent over, this person was the only one who had no picture attached.

The reason was that Beth had been in closed-door cultivation for many years in order to break through to lord-level. Her information was not available on the internet at all.

She had only appeared again during recent months. Not only that, she returned to Xeno as a Lord. She was then elected as the vice president directly.

"Now that I think about it, our meeting was quite fated, Chief Lin." Beth took a small sip of the red wine.

"Fated?" Lin Huang was stunned. He was sure that he had never seen this lady before.

Beth extended a finger. A black mist spread out from her fingertip.

Lin Huang frowned as he sensed the aura of her Divine Power.

The aura was rather familiar indeed. After feeling the aura and running it through his memories quickly, he instantly remembered the imperial monster under him—Evil Dominator!

"You are…"

Without waiting for Lin Huang to finish speaking, Beth raised her eyes and whispered into Lin Huang's ear, "I'm Death Goddess who left behind an imprint on you back then…"

As soon as Beth was done speaking, she backed off while staring at Lin Huang with her beautiful eyes, waiting for his response.

"Your aura is a little different. Not only that, you're more powerful than her." Lin Huang had a rough estimate of what was going on with this person.

"To be exact, Death Goddess is a clone of mine. After I went into closed-door cultivation, I left behind a couple of clones to help me handle matters in the outside world. The Death Goddess was one of them. During the final two to three years of my closed-door cultivation, I recalled all of my clones as I had a feeling that I might be able to perform unification at any moment. Therefore, I absorbed all of my clones' experiences and memories. Thus, I found out about this part of her memory."

"I was wondering why she left an imprint behind when she wasn't going to stir up trouble with me. I should thank you, then." Lin Huang finally unraveled the entire story when he listened to her explanation up to this point.

When he killed Evil Dominator in the gravel world back then, a powerhouse named Death Goddess left an imprint on his body.

In reality, after arriving in the great world, he had been a little worried that Death Goddess would stir up trouble with him. The reason for that was because he was sure that the person was at least a high-rank True God, or even a Heavenly God. However, up until he removed the imprint, Death Goddess had not shown up at all. He was actually quite confused about this matter for some time.

Only now did he find out that Beth had recalled that clone, which was how he escaped a disaster.

"If I knew that you possessed such great talent and potential, I would've recalled my clones one to two years later," Beth said with a smile while covering her mouth.

Naturally, Lin Huang knew that she was just kidding.

If he considered things properly, he should actually thank Beth.

He killed the evil spirit type monster back then and obtained a gush of tinder from Beth's Divine Fire. That was how he managed to light his Divine Fire while only being at imperial-level, at the same time obtaining a cultivation foundation that surpassed everyone else.

Although the person had left behind an imprint on him with ill intentions, she did not do anything meaningful later on, nor did she influence his development negatively either.

Therefore, he held no ill-will toward Beth.

Moreover, given that she was now taking the initiative to tell him all this, she clearly had intentions of reconciling.

"No acquaintance is made without a fight, I guess." Lin Huang raised the wine glass in his hand.

Beth happily clinked Lin Huang's glass. "That's right. It's just a little story from the past."

Although she had been elevated to Lord, she could actually sense that she was not Lin Huang's match. She did not want to become enemies with Lin Huang. She took the initiative to make this clear as she was worried that Lin Huang would find out about the matter in the future, and that she was the mastermind behind it.

After clarifying things, she realized that Lin Huang really did not take the matter to heart.

Lin Huang felt warm from the chat he had with Beth.

It had been a short few years. The Primordium of an entity, whose clone had been enough to scare him and make him fearful in the past, now had lower ability than he did.

He also thought that fate was magical. He could not believe that he had such an encounter with Beth in the past, and that he was now seeing her Primordium on such an occasion.

Many saw the scene of the two chatting.

As the chat happened through voice transmission, the others could not hear the content of the conversation. They could only come up with their own guesses.

They thought Beth was carrying out Xeno's mission and talking business with Lin Huang.

"As expected, Xeno came prepared. I can't believe they're using beauty to seduce him?!"

"Xeno's newly assigned vice president is really something. Chief Lin seems to be very interested in her."

"I wonder what kind of collaboration will Xeno and Sword Alliance come up with. They seem to be happy from the way things are progressing."

…

Shen Tu had been secretly watching Lin Huang's movements.

He looked down on Lin Huang even more now that he saw him chatting with Beth for a long period of time.

"As I expected, he's a fool. He's helpless when it comes to women. When a man has money and power, he can have any woman he wants, no?! His flaw is too obvious. He's too timid in the presence of women…"

Lin Huang and Beth had no idea that they were being misunderstood by everyone at the scene, who believed that Xeno and the Sword Alliance were talking business when in actual fact they were chatting about some personal matters from the past.

Even the few people from Xeno were rather dumbstruck. There were already some organizations trying to find out their intentions in collaborating with the Sword Alliance.

However, they had not planned on entering a serious collaboration with the Sword Alliance, and had not given Beth any assignments in this regard.

Once Beth returned to the group, the president Link immediately asked through voice transmission, "What have you been talking about with Chief Lin?"

"Just some personal matters," Beth said rather helplessly.

The banquet was coming to an end when night fell.

The preliminary discussion on the collaborations with the various organizations was almost done. Lin Huang and Sword 1 sent the guests out in batches.

Most of the guests left directly, while some of them chose to stay in the Pilgrim Star Zone for a few days for vacation.

Sword 1 got the Sword Servants to arrange the accommodation for the guests that stayed.

After all, it was the Sword Alliance's territory. They had to do their best as the host.

After arranging all that, Lin Huang spared some time to contact Bloody, asking about Kylie's condition.

"She has found a safe place and has begun her breakthrough. I'll guard her at all times."

Bloody's reply was simple and short, but it made Lin Huang relieved.

Chapter 1716: In Full Swing

The media revealed the grand lineup of the Sword Alliance's banquet on that day itself.

Not only were there many photos, but also many videos as well.

Everyone was discussing it on the internet at the moment.

After all, those who participated in the banquet were the cream of the crop from grade-5 organizations at the very least.

Regular people were not worthy of participating.

Moreover, there were many bosses present at the banquet.

Aside from the top Heavenly God-level powerhouses ranked on the Heavenly God Leaderboard, many half-step lord-level and lord-level powerhouses attended.

Including God Capital, all of the leaders of the grade-7 organizations in the God Territory were there. None were absent.

It could almost be described as an unprecedented grand occasion in this era of the God Territory.

The netizens started a party on the internet and indulged in gossip.

The first thread that went viral was posted by a true god-level netizen—"The Sword Alliance's Chief and the Wanted Mysterious Man".

There was a sentence in the thread that went, "Don't you guys think that the Sword Alliance's chief looks a lot like that mysterious powerhouse called Lin Huang who was wanted by all organizations?!"

The thread soon started heated discussions among many netizens.

"I thought I was the only one who thought that way."

"I thought they looked a little alike when I saw his picture just now, but I didn't think too much about it."

"There's a high chance that they're the same person!"

"Did you guys notice that the wanted order from before has been silently removed?"

"Now that you said it, I suddenly realized that I really haven't seen that wanted order lately."

"Oh, my. It gets scarier the more I think about it!"

…

In the end, an anonymous netizen replied in a thread below.

"They're the same person. The Sword Alliance's chief is called Lin Huang as well. All organizations removed the wanted order because they found out about his identity."

Many netizens replied to the thread, attempting to ask for more information, but the anonymous netizen did not reply further.

Within half an hour of the thread being posted, an insider revealed that the Sword Alliance's chief was called Lin Huang!

This had become the first hot topic of the night.

Meanwhile, the second hot topic was—"Who is That?"

As there were many powerhouses who hardly appeared in the media, many netizens had no idea who they were. It had prompted the most frequent question that everyone asked once the photos and videos were revealed—"Who is That?".

Among those, Lancelot was the one that most people asked about.

The reason was because some media personnel who were present leaked the videos of Lancelot beating Shen Jue in one hit.

Many knew about Shen Jue from God Capital. They knew that he was a veteran Lord from God Capital, and that he was even the current God Emperor Shen Tu's senior.

Therefore, Lancelot's performance placed him in the limelight.

However, not many could answer that question.

Only an anonymous netizen replied to that, "This person is called Lancelot. He's the Sword Alliance's chief's confidant. His details are unknown, and he's suspected to be a middle-rank Lord from the universe."

There was no other information apart from that.

The netizens did not really want to give up at the beginning. They wanted to find out more.

However, they could only give up since they could not discover anything. They shifted their attention to someone else.

Apart from Lancelot, the person who was asked about the most was Xeno's Beth.

Unlike Kylie, who had been the subject of news on the internet before, it was the first time Beth had appeared in public after many years.

She had a unique charisma about her. Not only that, she was Xeno's vice president. She was mysterious and powerful. Naturally, she attracted the attention of the netizens easily.

"I've never heard about this beauty named Beth before. She was elected as Xeno's vice president directly. There's obviously something fishy about this!"

"Perhaps she is in an affair with Old Man Link o(*￣3￣)o"

"Whether that's true or not, her ability is definitely powerful enough to be able to sit in this position."

"Which one of you jerks will find out about it?!"

…

Very soon, someone answered that anonymously.

"Beth is a super genius who ranked top three on the Heavenly God Leaderboard when she was a Heavenly God. Many people might not remember her now, but she rose to fame before Buried Heaven and King Kong did. However, she suddenly vanished over 7,000 years ago, and there has been no news about her since then. She only reappeared a few months ago, and her combat strength has broken through to lord-level. As she was Xeno's core member before, Xeono made her the vice president directly after her return."

The person who replied was clearly an insider.

"So she's a lord-level boss. We've been rude!"

"As I thought, Old Man Link doesn't deserve her…"

"A capable beauty, I love her already!"

"Sister Beth, please marry me!"

…

After Beth, the person who was being asked about a lot was Sword 1.

Many female accounts posted threads to ask, "Who is that handsome man standing next to the Sword Alliance's chief?!"

In reality, the men and women who attended the banquet were quite good-looking.

However, Sword 1 managed to attract all of the ladies' attention among all the men present.

Lin Huang was handsome himself. Based on his own aesthetic sense, he rated himself 95 points.

However, the impression he had when he first saw Sword 1 was, "He's more handsome than I am!"

Sword 1 was not the kind of soft, feminine man that many ladies liked. He was the handsome and cool kind of man.

As many ladies asked about that, someone soon answered them anonymously.

"Sword 1, a Sword Servant under Lin Huang and Sword Alliance's current vice chief. His combat strength is at the ninth-rank heavenly god-level. We have no precise information about him. Judging by his aura, he's only half a step away from breaking through to lord-level. His ability should not be below King Kong and Peerless Overlord."

"So my husband is called Sword 1!"

"I've made up my mind to cultivate Sword Dao and to join the Sword Alliance!"

"Sister, you don't have to cultivate Sword Dao in order to join the Sword Alliance. Cultivators of other Daos can apply to join as well."

"Who said that I'm cultivating Sword Dao to join the Sword Alliance? I'm doing that for my Sword 1!"

…

Sword 1 had never thought that he would gain many female fans overnight.

Since the topic "Who is That?" started, the identity of most of the people at the banquet were eventually uncovered by the netizens.

The Lords' and half-step Lords' pasts were exposed.

Naturally, some of this information was true, and some of it was fake.

The netizens did not care though. They took each story seriously.

"I don't care. If I think the threads I read are the truth, then they're the truth."

"God Capital's God Emperor Shen Tu wet his bed when he was 30. True!"

"God Capital's God King Shen Lu can't get hard. True!"

"God Capital's God King Shen Jue likes young men. This is definitely true!"

…

They discovered many things about all of the organizations. The Sword Alliance was the only one that nobody could find anything about.

The most they found out was that Lin Huang was a human, and that he might have the backing of a major organization in the universe.

However, there was no useful information about his Sword Servants like Sword 1, nor anything about his imperial monsters like Lancelot.

Many were making up stories on the internet, but they were soon criticized by someone from Divine Clapnet.

"The tens of thousands of members from Divine Clapnet have been gathering information for over a month, and we didn't find any information about these people from the Sword Alliance. You guys sure are amazing at making up stories!"

Chapter 1717: Buried Heaven Snapped

The Sword Alliance's fame increased again after the banquet.

Lancelot defeating God Capital's Shen Lu within a second was the equivalent of stomping on God Capital's reputation.

Although Shen Tu and the rest from God Capital were extremely pissed, they could only bite the bullet in silence. After all, they were the ones who had sent themselves to the opponent's doorstep to be humiliated.

Moreover, it was not only Lancelot; the Sword Alliance had a mysterious powerhouse who easily suppressed Shen Jue.

They had at least two powerhouses with middle-rank lord-level ability guarding them. God Capital really could not afford to offend them.

Furthermore, they speculated that the Sword Alliance had Royal's backing in the universe. They dared not take revenge on the Sword Alliance.

In the cultivation world, countless sword cultivators were anticipating joining the Sword Alliance.

After all, it was called the Sword Alliance, and the chief Lin Huang was a sword cultivator. Naturally, countless sword cultivators were keen to join them.

It was a grade-7 organization with a sword cultivator leader. If one could join them, they would definitely obtain many good-quality Sword Dao inheritances.

Many sword cultivators were inspired by Lancelot's sword attack.

He was a lord-level supreme sword cultivator; a supreme powerhouse who defeated Shen Lu of God Capital within a second.

If he could give them some pointers, they would definitely benefit significantly!

Apart from sword cultivators, there were many saber cultivators who applied to join as well.

Sword cultivators and saber cultivators aside, there were many female cultivators who applied.

Many of them came for Sword 1's good looks. Naturally, a portion of them came for the chief Lin Huang.

The applications Sword 1 received daily nearly filled up his mailbox.

Lin Huang allowed him to share all of the mails to the other Sword Servants, getting the 300 or so Sword Servants to oversee the preliminary selection.

Later on, Sword 1 to Sword 12 would conduct the second round of selection.

After the two rounds of selection, they would send the successful applicants to Sword 1, who would conduct the final selection.

Initially, Lin Huang thought he would get the 12 Swordmaster's bodyguards to go into closed-door cultivation as soon as possible after the banquet ended so that they could break through to lord-level as soon as possible.

However, seeing the millions of applications daily, he could only put that plan aside.

Sword 1 and the rest did not have many complaints.

It would not matter if they entered into closed-door cultivation a few days later.

As they went through the applications, the Sword Servants very soon reported the millions of applications everyday were just going along with the trend.

Lin Huang had only noticed that a viral trend had started on the internet in the past few days.

Everyone would show off the application they sent to the Sword Alliance.

The most viral thread even obtained hundreds of millions of likes.

Apart from some cultivators without an organization, there were some people who already belonged to an organization among the applicants. Some of them were the upper echelons of some top organizations. Even they were going along with the trend.

Even Xeno's vice president Beth showed off the screenshot of her mail application. She even mentioned Lin Huang and the Sword Alliance's official accounts.

Lin Huang replied helplessly, "Even if I dare to accept you, is Xeno willing to let you go?"

Xeno's official account soon gave a weak reply, "We wouldn't dare… (scared emoji)".

Although the trend increased the Sword Servants' workload immensely, Lin Huang and the Sword Alliance's official accounts did not stop them. They would even interact with them occasionally.

Lin Huang and Sword 1 knew very well that they were just having fun. The trend would only last a few more days at most, and it would blow over after that.

The netizens who were joining this trend showed that they felt positively about the Sword Alliance at least.

Though the trend was ridiculous, it increased the Sword Alliance's popularity.

Though the other grade-7 organizations were envious of the Sword Alliance's popularity, there was nothing that they could do. God Capital had been humiliated on the spot, and the remaining organizations dared not poke the hornets' nest.

Furthermore, the Sword Alliance was at the peak of their fame at the moment. No matter what the other organizations did, it would be difficult for them to attract the attention of the netizens.

Within those few days, things had been heated among the upper echelons of Death Sickle. They had been fighting.

It made sense that a couple of Blood Sickle members were jealous of the Sword Alliance taking all of the fame.

After all, Death Sickle was a grade-7 organization that had just been upgraded two to three months ago. However, they did not enjoy the similar popularity and fame from the upgrade.

Everyone was giving their opinions, and everyone thought their plans were the best.

One day, Buried Heaven finally could no longer hold back and called all the Blood Sickle members to the meeting room.

Everyone was present at 9am.

Buried Heaven, who was in the form of a young man, projected the viral topics that countless netizens had been discussing recently.

The Blood Sickle members looked at the various threads discussing the Sword Alliance. They had no idea what Buried Heaven was trying to do.

"Are you envious?" Buried Heaven glanced at everyone present.

They kept their silence and said nothing.

They were definitely envious, but they could not say so out loud.

"Do you guys know why the Sword Alliance enjoys the benefits of all sorts of news and traffic when they were upgraded to grade-7, while our Death Sickle didn't despite upgrading to grade-7 as well?"

The couple of Blood Sickle members lifted their heads to look at Buried Heaven. Indeed, they could not understand why that was the case.

Death Sickle organized a banquet as well when they were upgraded, and also invited all the organizations. Although they did not have as many participants as the Sword Alliance's banquet had, it was still a large-scale banquet. Not only that, the number of media groups that came to report was no lesser than those who went to write about the Sword Alliance.

However, the discussions around Death Sickle only went on for two to three days. It was not worth mentioning at all compared to the Sword Alliance, who had been trending on the internet for more than a month.

"Because we're a pile of dust!" Buried Heaven did not care that he was humiliating the senior members at all.

The Blood Sickle members instantly looked terrible.

"Since Death Sickle upgraded to grade-7, all of you insist on having your own opinion on each major decision we make. You guys fight among each other every time, afraid that you'll receive less credit or lose authority! Not only that, you guys fought for Gold Sickle membership quotas, started your own gangs, and got Death Sickle's members to take sides. What the hell?!"

"Buried Heaven, you gathered us out of nowhere just to tell us this?" Boundless Blood asked with an unfriendly expression on his face.

He was one of Death Sickle's founders. He was the most experienced one. Buried Heaven was only considered a junior in his presence. Naturally, he was rather pissed that he had been scolded by a junior to his face.

"Senior Boundless, do you want Death Sickle to grow larger and stronger? If you do, then please, all of you, be patient and let me finish. If any of you feel that your personal interest is more important than Death Sickle's, you may leave now. I won't stop you."

What Buried Heaven said shut Boundless Blood up directly.

The Blood Sickle members all looked terrible, but none of them got up to leave.

Buried Heaven glanced around the room and only started speaking again after waiting for a moment.

"Seems like everyone still hopes for Death Sickle to grow stronger. At least we have the same vision."

"Do you know why the Sword Alliance is so outstanding?"

That question got everyone's attention immediately.

"You guys know that I'm quite close with Lin Huang. Therefore, I've discussed this issue with him, as well as the problems our Death Sickle has."

"I think he's right. He managed to point out the biggest difference between the Sword Alliance and Death Sickle—The current Death Sickle has no backbone!"

"While Death Sickle was still a grade-6 organization, although the seven Blood Sickle members had their own gangs, the seven of us still formed the backbone of the organization when we came together."

"However, since Old Sun and the rest died, the initial balance has been disrupted. Everyone started to fight for power. Especially since Death Sickle became a grade-7 organization, the infighting got worse."

The couple of Blood Sickle members fell silent when they heard his words.

"Today, this Blood Sickle member would give an order. Tomorrow, another Blood Sickle member will give another order. The subordinates have no idea who to listen to."

"It's been close to three months since Death Sickle upgraded to grade-7. Let me ask you guys this—Have you come to a consensus on how you'd like to develop Death Sickle in the future? It's good enough even if there's only one direction that all of us have come to a consensus on!"

"It's been almost three months, and we're still stuck in the same chaotic state from when we upgraded to a grade-7 organization back then. We're in an even worse mess than we were in three months ago."

"Do you know how many things the Sword Alliance has done since they upgraded to a grade-7 organization?!"

Although the Blood Sickle members were unwilling to admit it, they knew what Buried Heaven said was the truth.

"What do you need us to do, then?" After a long silence in the meeting room, Gao Ming was the first to speak.

"Firstly, rectify the mess. The few of you must clarify your responsibilities. Distinguish who takes care of what clearly. Don't intervene in everything. You guys wanting to be a part of everything is making it difficult for our subordinates to work."

"Secondly, formulate a detailed follow-up plan for the organization's development. You guys must reach a consensus on this. Don't come up with your own plan and then refuse to yield to each other. Use the plan that's the most effective and beneficial for Death Sickle's future development. Announce to the public that it was Blood Sickle who came up with the decision."

"Thirdly, catch up with the publicity. Try your best to draw attention and news traffic, even if you have to ride on the Sword Alliance's fame. We must recruit newcomers to join us."

"Fourthly, start collaborations with the outside world. Start discussions on which organization to collaborate with, and what kind of collaborations Death Sickle should engage in…"

Chapter 1718: Great Expansion

Lin Huang and team had been busy recruiting new members for a few days after the upgrade banquet ended.

Throughout the entire week, the Sword Alliance had received millions of applications, and the numbers showed no sign of slowing down at all.

Fortunately, apart from a small number of the over 300 Sword Servants who were out on their own missions, the rest had joined the assessment team.

In reality, it was not only the Sword Servants; Lin Huang dragged Lin Xin and Lin Xuan into the assessment team.

Almost nobody in the entire Sword Alliance was idle.

Although many applications were obviously just people following the trend, there really were just too many applications. Lin Huang and the rest's workload was heavy.

Even after going through many rounds of filtering, throughout that one week, there were hundreds of thousands of applicants who passed Sword 1 and Lin Huang's assessment criteria, becoming official members.

Some of them showed off the screenshot of their approved applications on the internet when they received the news that they passed.

That behaviour sparked yet another viral trend.

Almost more than half of the hundreds of thousands of people posted their screenshots.

Therefore, "Did You Manage to Join the Sword Alliance Successfully?" became the new hot topic.

In less than half a day after that topic went viral, another strange trend appeared on the internet.

A bunch of people who failed their applications showed off their screenshots of rejection.

Another topic that was even more viral began to trend—"Have You Been Rejected by the Sword Alliance Today?"

There were even more netizens who posted the screenshots of them being rejected by the Sword Alliance. There were tens of millions of people who posted them.

The strange trend made even more netizens begin to send their applications to join the Sword Alliance.

For most, their goal was actually just to participate in the screenshot trend.

However, this increased the pressure of everyone at the Sword Alliance even more.

Not only did the millions of daily applications not decrease a week later, it had shot up to tens of millions of applications daily now.

Lin Huang was not sure whether to laugh or cry about that.

Noticing the insane workload, he thought about it and decided to make an appeal on the social media platforms.

"Thank you all for your love and interest in the Sword Alliance. We're receiving tens of millions of applications daily. I know that many of you are sincere in joining, but many passionate netizens have joined in the fun as well. This has caused a major increase in workload to us. Throughout the past few days, all of us have pretty much been inundated running application assessments all day."

"Let me suggest a little something here. Before applying, think about what you want or hope to gain from joining the Sword Alliance. Can the Sword Alliance give you what you want? If you think we're suitable for you, then send over your application. If not, you can totally go for other organizations. After all, there are many other outstanding organizations in the God Territory that you can choose from."

"I don't accept your suggestion."

"Tens of millions of applications daily is too little. Let us all apply and break a hundred million applications!"

"I don't care if the Sword Alliance suits me or not. I want to apply no matter what. The melon that's forcibly plucked before it's matured isn't sweet, but it sure is thirst-quenching."

"It doesn't matter if the Sword Alliance can give me what I want. The Sword Alliance has Sword 1, and that's the most important thing!"

"I want to apply. Don't stop me!"

…

As soon as Lin Huang posted the thread, countless comments were posted rejecting his suggestion.

He had never expected that his thread to halt the trend would backfire.

Throughout the next few days, the applications to join the Sword Alliance multiplied again.

The highest number of applications had exceeded 50 million per day.

The people at the Sword Alliance were speechless now. Lin Huang did not dare to speak up again.

He could only get everyone to remain silent so that the trend would pass faster.

As the Sword Alliance was recruiting new members in full swing, the other organizations that were envious rode on the fame and began to recruit their own as well.

Grade-7 organizations like the Combat God Temple and Xeno relaxed their recruitment requirements and increased their membership benefits.

Death Sickle, on the other hand, issued new policies consecutively. They made some adjustments to the organization's structure, and then joined the recruitment war as well.

Among the grade-7 organizations, God Capital was the only one who did nothing.

In reality, they were envious, but their pride did not allow them to lower their recruitment requirements.

God Capital had always recruited pure blood Protoss only.

That was definitely something that couldn't be changed.

Meanwhile, most of the pure blood Protoss in the God Territory who thought highly of themselves as pure blood had basically already joined God Capital. Most of them who did not join were those who disagreed with God Capital's philosophy.

On a certain level, as long as God Capital was not open to accepting non-pure blood Protoss, it was difficult for them to recruit new members on a large scale in this great world.

Also, organizations such as the Nephilic Judge Tribe that operated as a tribe could only watch as the other organizations recruited members in a frenzy.

Apart from marriage, it was basically impossible for a tribe like them to recruit members from the outside world through other methods.

Moreover, a conservative tribe like the Nephilic Judge Tribe valued the bloodline legacy more.

The outstanding bloodline had basically been bred within the tribe.

Those who were married off or who had married another tribe were those whose bloodline was not exactly pure.

Therefore, the outsiders who joined as a son-in-law or daughter-in-law would not excel in the Nephilic Judge Tribe.

It had caused a vicious cycle. Many talented young people with potential were unwilling to marry into the ancient tribe.

Naturally, their obsolete concepts had restricted their development.

Such restrictions could not be solved by having a lord-level Virgen at all.

The vital thing was to change their concepts. Their entire tribe needed to gladly welcome change instead of refusing to adapt to the times.

…

The number of applications finally began to drop after the people at the Sword Alliance had been busy for half a month.

Lin Huang and the rest were finally relieved when they saw the number of applications dropping.

It had been almost a month, and the number of applications had finally dropped below a million applications daily.

Lin Huang could remove himself from the operation entirely and got Sword 1 to handle the remaining application filtering process.

Throughout the month, he began feeling the side-effects of the operation. He would now feel sleepy whenever he saw applications…

However, the Sword Alliance had gained many new members throughout the month.

Most of them were sword cultivators and saber cultivators. There were also many female cultivators.

Though they went through many rounds of filtering, the number of new Sword Alliance members had increased by over 800,000 people.

Among them were over 3,000 heavenly god-level powerhouses.

Although the number was not worth mentioning at all compared to organizations such as the Combat God Temple and Death Sickle, compared to the Sword Alliance from before, it had undoubtedly expanded at least thousands of times over.

Bloody had done background checks for the over 3,000 heavenly god-level newcomers one by one before passing them eventually.

After passing the assessment, they joined the Sword Alliance's Heavenly God League directly.

Lancelot and Killer would train them.

Meanwhile, as there were too many members below the heavenly god-level, Bloody could not run a detailed investigation on their backgrounds one by one.

Lin Huang used Leech Pods directly to run a mass investigation.

Among the 800,000 people, over 1,000 of them were spies from all sorts of organizations.

He used Leech Pods to control them to forfeit themselves automatically and leave.

The other members did not find it strange that those people quit on their own.

The reason being was that they knew many had applied just for fun.

However, they did not know that those who had applied just for fun had been eliminated in the first round of the filtering process.

Chapter 1719: Sword 1's Unification

All the affairs were moving forward accordingly on the Nephilic Judge Tribe's side.

Nobody knew that the Virgen who had been frequently participating in the formal affairs during this period of time was not Kylie herself, but one of Bloody's clones.

Meanwhile, Bloody's clone who was disguised as Kylie had a subordinate with her—Kina, Kylie's dependent.

Kina was the dependent that Kylie had mentioned to Lin Huang before. Her rank was at Pseudo Pure Spirit rank-5.5, while her combat strength was at sixth-rank heavenly god-level.

Under Bloody's arrangement, not only had Kina joined the Nephilic Judge Tribe successfully, she had recognized "Kylie" as her sister now.

She had even become the Nephilic Judge Tribe's Virgen whose status was only second to Kylie.

As Nephilic Judge Tribe's "Virgen Kylie" moved things along, the Nephilic Judge Tribe soon came to an agreement for an in-depth collaboration with the Sword Alliance.

Everything went better than what Bloody expected.

Meanwhile, Kylie had turned into a giant cocoon. She had begun her journey of elevation to lord-level.

Bloody was standing guard by her side.

…

The people at the Sword Alliance had not been able to stay idle at all.

The assessment for new members was ongoing.

Although Lin Huang had got himself out of it, he had merely rested for less than two days before becoming immersed in the Sword Alliance's tasks again.

The reason for that was the in-depth collaboration discussions with the Nephilic Judge Tribe and Death Sickle had entered the negotiation stage.

Due to the negotiations, Sword 1 got Sword 2 to take over the new members' assessment entirely.

Though Sword 2 was unwilling, he could only take it with a frown on his face.

For over one week, Lin Huang and Sword 1 spent most of their time in all sorts of video conferences.

It was going alright at Death Sickle's side. However, the Nephilic Judge Tribe only signed the agreement after it had undergone over ten different versions of amendments.

The negotiation with the Nephilic Judge Tribe was very tough. If not for Bloody, who helped to amend the terms and mediated things with Kylie's status, it might not have been signed even half a month later.

Apart from in-depth collaborations, the collaborations the Sword Alliance had with the other grade-6 and grade-7 organizations were developing gradually.

They had more intel and trading channels now.

…

Time flew and over a month had passed.

The Sword Alliance had been established in the God Territory for three months now, and they were finally getting things on track.

They had exceeded a million members. Among them were over 4,000 Heavenly Gods.

They would still have new applications everyday, but the number had reduced to over 10,000 applications per day.

As Yang Ling had created a smart filtering program, the applications that Sword 1 received was actually less than one-tenth of the applications sent. It reduced his workload significantly.

Lin Xin and the rest were excused from the filtering process of new members with the help of the smart filter program Yang Ling created.

Though that was the case, they vented their frustrations to Lin Huang.

"Brother, I feel like puking whenever I see emails now…" Lin Xin looked wronged.

"Don't ask me to do such a thing again." Lin Xuan looked quite terrible too.

"Please exclude me as well." Chan Dou looked cold.

"You can get me to fight, but administrative work isn't for me." It was Xiao Mo who said that.

"Just pretend that I'm illiterate from now on." It was Huang Wuji who said that.

Lin Huang took some time to comfort the few of them and promised that they would never be given administrative work again. He then sent them back into the Kingdom in his body to continue grinding the Bug Tribe instance dungeon.

Meanwhile, the imperial monsters like Bai and the rest entered the queue again to go into the virtual realm for cultivation as soon as they were excused from the administrative work.

All of them were unwilling to delay their cultivation for even a second.

Apart from those who had yet to complete their missions, Lin Huang got the rest of the Sword Servants to join the Heavenly God League.

Each of the Sword Servants after Sword 38 was a team leader who led a Heavenly God Squad of nine to ten people.

Sword 13 to Sword 37 were the commanders.

Each of them led over ten Heavenly God Squads.

Sword 11 and Sword 12 were the captains.

In the beginning, some of the new members from the Heavenly God League were upset about the group arrangements. They wanted to challenge the team leaders, but were subdued easily.

After all, the Sword Servants were at ninth-rank heavenly god-level now. Not only that, sword cultivators were experts in attacking after all.

Even if they were fighting someone who had the same level of combat strength, it was hard for them to meet a worthy opponent.

Moreover, some of these Heavenly Gods who had joined the Sword Alliance only had low to middle-rank combat strength. Barely over one-tenth of them had high-rank combat strength.

There was only one who was at ninth-rank.

This person was a rogue sword cultivator before. It was almost the limit to which he could cultivate. Though they had the same combat strength, his ability could not compare with the Sword Servants who had trained with the system.

After initiating the challenge, he lost to Sword 38 within a minute.

Seeing that he was defeated directly, those who wanted to challenge the team leaders dismissed their plan immediately.

Lin Huang did not assign Sword 1 to Sword 10 to the Heavenly God League. Instead, he handed the ten of them the Sword Dao inheritances tailor-made for the Swordmaster's bodyguards that he spent some time to prepare previously. After that, he sent the ten of them into the Great Heaven Palace, accelerating the time flow to 10,000 times faster.

One must know that Lin Huang had consolidated over 200 Sword seals.

This meant that he had created his own methods in the over 200 Sword Dao cultivation directions.

The Sword Dao he cultivated included Great Heaven and the Sword Servants' inheritances. He knew very well of each Sword Servants' capabilities, and which paths they were suited for in terms of cultivation.

Since Sword 1 and the rest obtained the inheritances, they immersed themselves in it quickly. Like a sponge soaked in water, they were absorbing the nutrients in the inheritances madly.

In the inheritances Lin Huang gave them, he chose at least three cultivation directions for each of them.

They could consolidate Sword seals no matter which direction they took and elevate themselves to lord-level.

Among them, it was Sword 1 who had the most comprehensive cultivation in Sword Dao, and he was given 12 different directions to consolidate Sword seals in the inheritances Lin Huang had customized.

The person who obtained the second most inheritances was Sword 8. She had the most talent and potential among all of the Sword Servants. Lin Huang picked nine ways for her to elevate to Lord.

This girl had the purest heart among all of the Sword Servants. To Lin Huang, she might even surpass Sword 1 and go further on the path of cultivation.

It was not discrimination for Lin Huang to do so. Instead, he curated it according to everyone's actual situation.

For instance, the Sword Dao Sword 10 cultivated only had three directions at most to consolidate Sword seals if he were to go further. In order to consolidate more Sword seals, he would have to rebuild his foundation all over again and cultivate more sword skills. Therefore, the inheritances Lin Huang gave him only contained the methods to consolidate three Sword seals.

Naturally, the Sword Servants knew that the inheritances each of them obtained were different. However, they had no idea the difference would be so great.

Lin Huang had also taken the effort to inform them not to share the inheritances they received with the other Sword Servants. The reason being was that each of them had different requirements. The inheritances he provided were customized to each of them. Them sharing amongst each other might result in them misleading one another, holding up each others' cultivation.

Under the 10,000 times accelerated time flow, within half a day, Lin Huang sensed Sword 1's aura fluctuation.

Without any hesitation, he directly teleported Sword 1 from the Great Heaven Palace to the barren star zone in his Kingdom.

He did not teleport him to the God Territory because a Lord's unification would create too big of a commotion.

It would still be fine if there were only one or two people performing unification. If ten people were to do that consecutively, people would definitely notice the abnormality of the situation.

It was within Lin Huang's expectations that Sword 1 would be the first one to perform unification.

In reality, he had been in the state where he had half his foot in unification this entire time. It was just that he could not find the exact direction that he wanted to venture toward for years. Therefore, he had been staying stagnant in the state prior to unification.

When he received Lin Huang's inheritances, he had actually only glanced at the 12 directions that Lin Huang chose for him and quickly picked out one that he had the most confidence in; that he would succeed in during the unification. He then began to absorb the information madly.

Within ten years, he had digested the inheritance of the chosen direction and began the unification process automatically…

Chapter 1720: A Strange Feeling

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Lin Huang suddenly had a strange feeling as he watched Sword 1's God Territory project out automatically and the god sequence chains spread out of his body.

The faint strange feeling came from deep within the Kingdom in his body.

The feeling was indescribable, like something in the Kingdom had been awakened by something. It also felt a little bit like something was beginning to crack…

He spread his Divine Telekinesis instantly in an attempt to discover the source of the strange feeling. However, the effort was to no avail after he scanned his Kingdom over ten times.

He could only let it go and continued to watch Sword 1's elevation in silence.

When the 33 god sequence chains spread out of Sword 1's body, they seemed to control entirely. They began to show their fangs and claws as they fought against each other.

They even manifested into mutated beasts and started a chaotic battle.

Lin Huang was a little shocked to see the number of Sword 1's god sequence chains.

He had always thought that Sword 1's ability would be similar to Buried Heaven. He might even be slightly weaker.

Now it seemed the number of Sword 1's god sequence chains at the heavenly god-level was clearly more than Buried Heaven possessed. Buried Heaven had only consolidated 27 god sequence chains.

As he thought about it carefully, Lin Huang very soon realized his misjudgement in the past.

Sword 1's Sword Dao attainment was shocking. Among everyone Lin Huang knew, the reserve of sword skills Sword 1 possessed was only second to him and Great Heaven.

In reality, it made sense that the number of god sequence chains that Sword 1 consolidated exceeded Buried Heaven with the background he possessed.

Watching the god sequence chains' manifestations fighting, there was no change of emotions in Sword 1's eyes at all.

He had watched this scene play out more than once. Moreover, the inheritance of information Lin Huang gave him had related memories as well.

He did not panic at all as he removed the battle sword from its scabbard. He swung it at the beast that was manifested by a god sequence chain closest to him.

'What a firm attack!' Lin Huang could not help but exclaim secretly when he saw Sword 1's performance.

He was the one that he worried about least among all Sword Servants. It was not because he had powerful abilities, but mainly because he had a very firm character.

Lin Huang could even say that it was not an exaggeration to call Sword 1 the calmest guy among everyone he knew.

With his background and accumulation, he could have performed unification much earlier. However, he had always thought that he was lacking something, which resulted in him not having sufficient confidence to break through successfully. That was why he delayed things until now.

Fortunately, the wait was worth it. He received Lin Huang's inheritance of information that gave him enough confidence to do it.

Within 20 minutes, Sword 1 had subdued all of the god sequence chains. He began the second stage of unification.

However, the second he completed the psychic communication stage, Lin Huang suddenly lifted his head and looked into the distance again. He looked deep into his Kingdom.

The moment when Sword 1 completed psychic communication, he clearly felt that the strange feeling had intensified. Not only that, the feeling seemed to have multiplied in strength. It was tens of times more powerful now.

Lin Huang spread his Divine Telekinesis to look for it again, but it was still to no avail.

The feeling felt as if it appeared out of thin air and without a trace.

He could only let it be and continue to focus on Sword 1's unification.

The second stage of unification was the consolidation of his Dao seal. This was the stage that Lin Huang was most worried about for Sword 1.

The reason being was that, during the process of unification, a terrifying energy would be released when the god sequence chains integrated into the Dao seal.

Sword 1 had six more god sequence chains compared to Buried Heaven. The difficulty of unification would definitely be higher than Buried Heaven.

However, he remained calm and activated a white pearl to protect his God's soul.

It was a Soul Weapon, which was a low-grade Dao Weapon that Lin Huang lent him.

He borrowed it because Lin Huang would basically auction spoils such as Dao Weapons on Royal's site.

His God Weapon was bonded with his God's soul, so he could not lend him that.

This Soul Weapon was the gift God Capital gave the Sword Alliance recently.

Lin Huang took it out to let the Sword Servants use it during unification. There was only one, so they could only take turns.

It was not that Lin Huang was stingy and unwilling to buy a Soul Weapon of a higher grade.

With the strength of their God's souls, they could only activate low-grade Dao Weapons forcibly. They could not use Dao Weapons of a higher grade at all.

It was quite impossible for the low-grade Dao Weapon to be damaged during the process of unification, judging by the intensity of their unification. It was perfect for them to take turns using it.

Naturally, there was no guarantee that their God's soul would be affected at all during unification, even with this Soul Weapon.

They were not Lords after all. They had no Odyl in their bodies. They could only activate the most basic defense function.

Under the Soul Weapon's passive defense, it could only absorb 50% of the Odylic Force impact.

After protecting his God's soul, Sword 1 grabbed a handful of Divine Crystals from his storage ring so that he could replenish his drained Divine Power at any time.

Lin Huang had the urge to laugh when he saw that.

This guy was really cautious to the point that he was worried that his Divine Power would be insufficient.

As the stage of unification began, the 33 god sequence chains tangled themselves rapidly. They consolidated into Dao tattoos in the air at a high speed.

A moment later, the Dao tattoos gathered into a big, dazzling sun. The glaring golden glow was growing, spreading toward Sword 1's entire God Territory, releasing a terrifying amount of energy.

The instant the Dao seal took shape, the terrifying energy began to collide Sword 1's God Territory, God's soul and physical body.

The planets were destroyed one after the other in Sword 1's God Territory.

Planets aside, even the stars and black holes began to burn intensely…

Lin Huang could even feel the remnant energy from the unification penetrating his God Territory.

He was finally relieved when he saw no odd fluctuations coming from Sword 1's God's soul under the Soul Weapon's protection, and that the cracks that had appeared, instead of spreading further, were continuously being restored on its own at a speed that was visible to the naked eye.

As long as things remained in balance, and he held on until the unification stage ended, he would get through this process.

Lin Huang had been waiting patiently.

Sword 1 on the other hand was as firm as a log.

He would begin to absorb Divine Crystals to replenish the Divine Power in his body without them draining too much. He would maintain at least 90% of his Divine Power capacity at all times.

Not only was the Divine Power restoring his physical body quickly, it was also pouring into the Soul Weapon continuously.

He did not show any panic at all though the God Territory in his body was heavily damaged.

He had been tossing the God Territory Shell Remnants from his storage ring into his God Territory to refine them and to replenish what he had lost.

Fortunately, the stage of unification did not last long. Within ten minutes, Sword 1's Dao seal had been consolidated entirely. The release of energy was weakened.

At the same time, Lin Huang could clearly feel that the strange feeling deep in his Kingdom had grown tens of times more powerful than before.

He probed by spreading his Divine Telekinesis again. As he expected, it was still to no avail.

He began to speculate that this feeling should have come from Sword 1's unification. However, he could not figure out what it was exactly.. He merely had a faint feeling that the answer might be revealed when Sword 1's unification ended.