Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
At Lin Huang’s step forward, many Level-6 Demon Swords responded immediately in the Demon Sword Tomb and began quivering violently.
They quivered with excitement as they detected the aura of a living soul.
Deprived of their freedom, the presence of a living soul in their territory sent these Demon Swords into a frenzy. Once they managed to possess the intruder’s body, they would be able to turn them into a sword slave who could remove the Demon Swords from this tomb in which they had been sealed away for hundreds and thousands of years. From then on, they would be free to go around the world.
The next instant, countless Demon Swords fought each other to break free from the earth, slicing through the air and hurling themselves at Lin Huang with terrifying levels of Sword Dao. Some of their Sword Dao even materialized as faint, malevolent golems in the void.
Lin Huang could not afford to be overconfident when facing level-6 Demon Swords.
His will, strong as a True God’s, carried his half-step Sword Dao true meaning along in its tide and engulfed him; his terrifying aura blazed like the sun on a scorching day.
The Demon Swords detected Lin Huang’s Sword Dao and froze in the midst of their frenzied attack.
Yet, the Demon Sword auras that faded away triggered more Demon Sword senses.
In the distance, around a dozen Demon Swords started quivering violently, anxious and yet faintly hesitant as they struggled to free themselves from the earth to fight Lin Huang.
The Demon Swords that were already attacking did not retreat immediately. When they sensed Lin Huang’s Sword Dao, they hesitated only for a brief moment before their frenzied auras increased—the opposite of the responses from those Demon Swords below Level-6.
Lin Huang was not surprised.
If his half-step Sword Dao true meaning could be compared to the ruler of a powerful country, then those with Sword Dao below Level-6 could be said to be his ministers. As ministers, being subjected to Lin Huang’s rule was a given. However, these Level-6 Demon Swords were different. Using the same analogy, they could be compared to rulers of smaller countries around Lin Huang’s empire. Therefore, their refusal to be subjugated did not strike Lin Huang as surprising. Some of them had set their greedy sights on the empire; some had even thought about launching an assault and taking over the empire.
In the air, the six Demon Swords hesitated for a split second before a blood-red Demon Sword initiated an attack.
The Sword Dao manifested as a golem in the form of a blood-red Buddha statue. It extended its claws through the air, targeting the Sword Dao apparition on top of Lin Huang’s head.
With the Blood-red Demon Sword setting an example, the other five Demon Swords did not want to be left out either. Five other golems started attacking too.
Above Lin Huang, the Blood-red Vairocana apparition manifested by his Sword Dao suddenly shook violently. Countless spheres of red flame surged forth in succession.
Red fire swept over the bodies of the six golems in an instant. The lead golem—the blood-red one in the form of a Buddha statue—was the first to erupt in flames, followed by the five golems, all of which were set ablaze.
Once the golems had been engulfed by the red flames, they kept burning like ignited gasoline that could not be extinguished. The six golems struggled violently, to no avail. The flames burned brighter with every passing second, showing no signs of abating.
The second round of flames swallowed the six golems whole.
No longer could the golems be seen in the void, only six massive burning creatures dancing in a frenzy.
At the third cycle of flame, the frenziedly dancing, burning figures exploded one after the other, the noise of the explosion even louder than crashing thunder.
After the explosion died down, the giant burning creatures disintegrated into nothingness.
In the void, six Demon Swords trembled and immediately retreated to their original places, still trembling the whole time.
This time, they were not trembling in anticipation—they were terrified.
Noticing the six differently colored starbursts flying toward him, the corners of Lin Huang’s lips twisted up in a smirk.
“Seems like I don’t need my sword yet.”
After defeating the first wave of Demon Swords, Lin Huang took another step forward.
This time around, a total of eleven Demon Swords attacked him.
They flew at Lin Huang fearlessly like moths flying into flames, as though they were welcoming the Blood-red Vairocana apparition.
Next, Lin Huang took his third step and his fourth step…
His Vairocana apparition shook in the void and all the golems shattered into pieces.
Lin Huang held onto his battle sword. With every step he took, he harvested Sword Dao Inheritance wave by wave. Yet, the need to unsheathe his sword never arose.
That is until he took his twelfth step.
In the void, nine spheres of flame erupted from his Blood-red Vairocana and shattered eight golems. However, one black golem remained standing.
The golem was covered in cracks but it did not disintegrate in the end.
The golem’s real form was a pure black Demon Sword.
The Demon Sword was surrounded by black fog, emanating monstrous malice.
“This sword…it seems like its malice has exceeded its Sword Dao…”
Upon seeing the inky-black one-eyed golem extend its hand once more, Lin Huang could not bear it any longer and unsheathed his sword.
It was a merciless slash.
His will to fight, along with his half-step Sword Dao true meaning and his God-slaying Power, was unleashed in full.
Within the void, the Blood-red Vairocana instantly transformed into a great shaft of Sword Energy that cleaved through heaven and hell.
A blood-red sword gleam impaled the one-eyed golem’s body. A blood-red ray of light appeared on the golem’s forehead and sliced downward to the golem’s feet.
Instantly the golem’s movements froze.
The blood-red ray from the sword gleam unleashed a red glow that seemed endless.
In the blink of an eye, the golem that was previously engulfed in pure black fog raised its head toward the sky and let out an anguished roar before being completely swallowed up by the red glow.
The black Demon Sword shot backward and clattered onto the ground, still trembling from the impact.
There was fear, but there was unwillingness too.
Despite that, it still transformed its Sword Dao Inheritance into starlight and presented it to Lin Huang.
After Lin Huang’s encounter with the black Demon Sword, every subsequent step in the Demon Sword Tomb became increasingly difficult.
On his thirteenth step, there were two black Demon Swords instead of one.
On his fourteenth step, Demon Swords that remained intact after receiving a blow from his Blood-red Vairocana increased to four.
On his fifteenth step, twelve Demon Sword attacked him at the same time. Only three Demon Swords were successfully intimidated.
On his sixteenth step, the Blood-red Vairocana lost all of its intimidation abilities. Lin Huang needed eleven continuous slashes of his sword before he managed to suppress all the Demon Swords.
On his seventeenth step, ten Demon Swords attacked him simultaneously. It took Lin Huang thirty slashes of his sword before he managed to suppress them.
On his eighteenth step, nine Demon Swords teamed up to attack him and each Demon Sword was at least ten times stronger than the black Demon Sword. Lin Huang used a total of a hundred and eight slashes before he could suppress them.
“I’ve only taken eighteen steps, and the level of difficulty is already at this stage…” Lin Huang raised his head to look at the Demon Sword Tomb which seemed to stretch on endlessly. Suddenly, he realized that he could not detect the Sword Dao of the Demon Swords in front of him anymore.
It was at this moment that a push notification reappeared in front of him.
“Congratulations, participant! You have passed the Great Heaven inheritance’s second test!”
“Total time used for this test was 58 minutes.”
“After deducting the time owed from the first test, your current time debt is 58 minutes.”
The push notification did not mention anything about remaining at this level after the test. After contemplating it for a while, Lin Huang understood why he could not continue his challenge after the test ended.
The first stage had been a battle on the level of consciousness, while this stage presented real clashes between Sword Dao.
Even if he died in the first test, his consciousness would just return to his body.
However, at this level, all Demon Swords beyond Level-6 were of True Martial Level. If he failed in his fight with the Demon Swords, he could die for real. Even if he did not die, his Sword Dao would be completely smashed and unable to regroup in time for a second fight.
The price of reviving himself or attempting to recover his damaged Sword Dao would be much greater than the first stage.
Great Heaven designed these checkpoints to select his heir. If the participants died, they died. Great Heaven would rather wait for the next participant and therefore, did not need to waste too many resources on them.
However, the next line that showed up in the push notification struck Lin Huang dumb.
“As the participant accessed Great Heaven Palace in a non-competitive state on his own, a Competitive Trial has now been initiated! The Competitive Trial is initiated to determine if the participant is able to fulfill the only qualification needed to initiate the last trial.”
