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.
