Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Once they had been teleported out from the Frost Territory, all the participants gathered at the entrance to the dimensional portal once again.
Out of eight thousand participants, more than seven thousand had returned. The survival rate had exceeded 90%, which was already very high.
Lin Huang glanced over; once again he saw many familiar faces. He also saw the two Sword Servants.
When Sword301 and Sword302 saw Lin Huang, they immediately approached him and used the telepathic bond between swordmaster and Sword Servants to communicate.
“Lord Swordmaster!”
“The two of you don’t look too bad, it seems you’ve profited a lot from this ruin,” Lin Huang laughed and teased them.
“We teamed up and hunted for some true god-level monsters. We had a better haul than expected,” Sword302 finished and asked Lin Huang somewhat uncertainly, “Lord Swordmaster’s aura seems to have gotten stronger but your combat strength hasn’t broken through to virtual god-level yet, has it?”
The reason she asked this was because if Lin Huang had broken through to virtual god-level, as his Sword Servants, their combat strength would have been elevated to true god-level. However, as of now their combat strength remained fixed at Virtual God rank-9 without any change.
“Hmm, I did improve a little. It shouldn’t take long to advance to virtual god-level.” Lin Huang nodded slightly and did not explain in any further detail.
As they were chatting, a figure glided over to them noiselessly.
Lin Huang turned his head and looked at the newcomer, who was wearing a black robe and a white mask on their face. It was obviously Virtuoso, who was ranked first on Death Sickle’s White Sickle Leaderboard.
“I’m Virtuoso, might I make your acquaintance?” Virtuoso initiated the conversation, addressing his words to Lin Huang.
Their voice sounded gender-neutral, which made it impossible to distinguish whether the speaker was male or female.
Only now at such close range did Lin Huang noticed that the mask Virtuoso wore was a simple white one made of some unknown material. Except for two red smears where the mouth was located, there were no eyeholes even.
Through the mask, it was impossible to make out any expression on the other’s face.
Lin Huang even suspected that it might have been an illusion when he saw the red lips curve up on the mask a month ago.
“Hello, I’m Huang Lin.” Although he was somewhat doubtful about the other’s purpose in striking up a conversation first, Lin Huang still gave his pseudonym with a smile.
“We are all fellow members of Death Sickle. I noticed that the three of you looked relatively unfamiliar, so I wanted to come over and get acquainted,” Virtuoso explained.
Despite saying this, Virtuoso seemed to have no intention of conversing with the two Sword Servants at all; he just glanced at them briefly.
“We just joined recently,” Lin Huang said with a smile.
“Good luck, I’m optimistic about you guys.” After Virtuoso finished speaking, they clapped Lin Huang on the shoulder and turned away.
‘What does Virtuoso want? Just to come over and say hello?’ Lin Huang could not understand what the other was trying to do.
Before, he had registered with Death Sickle as Xie Lin and had never had any interaction with Virtuoso beyond seeing their name on the White Sickle Leaderboard.
Lin Huang had made his appearance using the identity of Huang Lin, a cultivator who had come into contact with Death Sickle for the first time. Even Fallen Star and the rest could not recognize him.
Therefore, Virtuoso taking the initiative to come by and say hello puzzled him greatly.
He naturally knew that the other party had not come over because the three of them looked unfamiliar.
The Black Sickle members in Death Sickle numbered at least one million and the estimated number of those Virtuoso knew were very few. If he approached every member that he was unfamiliar with, he would have been exhausted.
Moreover, Fallen Star and the rest had accidentally revealed at one point that Virtuoso was an aloof, reticent person who basically ignored all the other members in Death Sickle.
Virtuoso’s move to initiate a conversation was also inconsistent with his image in Death Sickle.
Virtuoso’s behavior puzzled not only Lin Huang but Fallen Star and the others as well, who had noticed and could not help but glance in Lin Huang’s direction.
After this small incident, the participants of the major organizations quickly dispersed.
Lin Huang also returned to the Iron Fist Shelter with both the Sword Servants.
The instant he got to the hotel, Lin Huang took out a storage ring and tossed it to Sword301.
“This is my haul from the Frost Territory. In addition to the beast corpses, there is also loot from the monsters’ private possessions. Please help me sort it out.”
Sword301 took a look at the ring and was stunned for a moment. “Lord Swordmaster, you hunted down these third-rank True Gods yourself?”
“Yes, is there a problem?”
“No, nothing…” Sword301 quickly shook his head.
As of now, he and Sword302 had access to nine types of Rule Bending Power, but since the strength of their Divine Power was only at the level of a Virtual God, their overall ability was only equivalent to that of second-rank True Gods.
The monsters that both of them hunted together were basically second-rank true god-level prey. When they encountered third-rank monsters, they had no choice but to detour around them.
However, Lin Huang had hunted over twenty third-rank true god-level monsters on his own.
After he had handed the corpses and the rest of his loot to the two Sword Servants for sorting out, Lin Huang rented a top-tier cultivating room in the hotel and entered closed-door cultivation to begin integrating Divine Fire in earnest.
As time passed, the ten first-rank Divine Fires and the dark red Divine Fire within Lin Huang’s body slowly integrated day by day.
The color of the Divine Fire also changed daily.
As he watched the progress bar for the integration process going up every day, Lin Huang looked forward all the more to the transformation of his ability after he elevated to virtual god-level.
Twenty-eight days passed just like that. In all ten golden Life Wheels, the integration of Divine Fire was completed in less than ten minutes.
The initial dark red Divine Fire became fiery red, like a blazing piece of coal.
The very second the Divine Fire completed integrating, the ten Life Wheels moved at almost the same time and flew out of the Life Palace right away.
After leaving the Life Palace, all ten Life Wheels surrounded the Life Palace and began spinning wildly. Red Divine Fire surged out from them like a river and spurted toward the Life Palace.
In the blink of an eye, the entire Life Palace was engulfed by an endless sea of flame. No trace of it could be seen.
“Is this… condensing the Godhead?”
The scene in front of him had occurred entirely on its own once the integration of Divine Fire was completed. Lin Huang had no control over it at all; he could only observe from the sidelines as it happened.
The process of condensing the Godhead had begun; Lin Huang patiently waited to one side.
This time, the surge of Divine Fire lasted for ten days.
Lin Huang’s Life Palace finally collapsed completely, transforming into points of starlight.
Another ten days later, after being immersed in Divine Fire, these countless points of starlight gradually condensed into a black crystal the size of a thumb. A mysterious blood-red divine pattern was faintly visible on the crystal’s surface.
It was not until the Godhead was completely condensed that the Life Wheels stopped spurting Divine Fire. They turned into ten streams of light that submerged themselves into the Godhead.
Once the Godhead had been established, rings of Divine Power immediately spread out in all directions and into every corner of Lin Huang’s body.
At this moment, Lin Huang felt every cell in his body undergoing a violent metamorphosis, even down to the particles of his soul.
This transformation took three days and three nights to be fully completed.
When Lin Huang opened his eyes again, he felt as if he had been reborn.
“Finally, I have advanced to virtual god-level!”
