“Impossible!”
Shrieks of rage came from the countless regenerating vines. Within the blink of an eye, they consolidated into the silver-armored Nine Gloom again. Under his helmet, his eyes were now scarlet in the extreme.
“That giant shield I formed was compounded with eighteen levels of sequence power. Given the number of sequences you’ve mastered, it ought to be impossible for you to shatter it!”
Nine Gloom said this because he was utterly unable to figure out how Lin Huang could deliver such a powerful attack.
Although he had no way of finding out Lin Huang, Saber9, and Virtuoso’s exact combat strength, he had more or less figured out the number of sequence chains the three had mastered, based on the previous battle.
He also knew that Saber9 and Virtuoso had been able to kill him earlier because they had utilized unique methods for their trump cards. Therefore, those could not be considered part of their inherent power.
However, Lin Huang—who was right in front of him—had merely elevated his combat strength and breached Nine Gloom’s defenses just like that, relying only on his own abilities.
To Nine Gloom, this was unimaginable.
That was because, theoretically, this sort of provisional combat strength elevation technique could only elevate the amount of one’s Divine Power and its intensity. It could not give someone mastery over more sequence chains.
If an individual had only grasped comprehension of one sequence chain, even if they could temporarily elevate their combat strength from first-rank heavenly god-level to ninth-rank heavenly god-level, they would still only have mastery over one sequence chain. The number of sequence chains would not increase.
However, judging from both Lin Huang’s attacks, he did not appear to have elevated only his combat strength. The number of sequence chains he mastered had increased as well.
“Theoretically, what you said is correct,” Lin Huang responded, smiling faintly, “However, that’s based on your cognitive limits.”
Lin Huang’s mastery of sequence chains did not come from however many sequence chains he could grasp and comprehend. It actually depended on how many sequence chains his physical body and spirit strength could sustain, because he could borrow all the sequence chains his sword servants had mastered.
When he was still only at ninth-rank true god-level, he could sustain a limit of thirteen god sequence chains (twelve sequence chains including Sword Dao heavenly rule). Now that he had elevated to first-rank heavenly god-level, this number had tripled to become thirty-nine sequence chains.
Based on pure numbers alone, this was at least twice what Nine Gloom had mastered.
Such compounding of sequence power was not a simple math equation.
Each time a level of sequence power was mastered, it had the advantage of being able to offset flaws that were difficult to remedy in other areas.
“The number of sequence chains I’ve mastered is far beyond what you expect!”
Lin Huang smiled at Nine Gloom, who was frantically forming shield layers.
He knew that his opponent was buying time to create more such shield layers. Furthermore, this time, the massive shields had a completely different form from the last round. They were embedded into the ground and seemed to be a deflection technique.
This did not bother Lin Huang at all. He patiently waited until Nine Gloom had formed over a hundred shield layers. Only then did he ask, smiling, “Are you done layering your defenses this round?”
Lin Huang charged forward with his sword again as soon as he finished speaking.
This move was still a stab, but it was completely different from his attack earlier.
The sword gleam thrust forward almost gently. It pierced through the multiple layers of massive shields as easily as slicing tofu.
It did not make any great noise or commotion. It merely left a gash smaller than a thumb on all the shield layers.
When the sword gleam finally pierced through all the hundred-over layers of massive shields and impaled the silver-armored Nine Gloom right between his brow, all the shields did not collapse. They remained as they were.
Only a moment later, when Nine Gloom’s aura dispelled completely, did all the giant shields gradually vanish once their source of Divine Power had been lost.
Upon seeing that, Saber9 could not help exclaiming, “That attack of his is already bordering on the threshold of Heavenly Dao.”
There were three levels to Sword Dao heavenly rule—Heavenly Sword, Heavenly Heart, and Heavenly Dao.
Even a heavenly god-level sword cultivator would be in the top tier among Heavenly Gods once he crossed the threshold of Heavenly Dao. A single sequence chain alone would have an attack effect comparable to over ten levels of compounded sequence power.
This was where the strength of sword cultivators and saber cultivators lay.
However, Virtuoso noticed something else. “The way he combines and applies the various sequence powers doesn’t look as if he’s only just mastered them at all.
“I’ve a slight feeling that what he’s just displayed might be far from the limits of his true abilities.”
Saber9’s pupils contracted slightly at this point. He glanced intently at Virtuoso, then fixed his eyes on Lin Huang again, his expression inscrutable.
Even though Nine Gloom had still resurrected after being killed three times in a row, Lin Huang did not panic in the least. He merely waited patiently for Nine Gloom to finish regenerating.
Lin Huang did not seem to mind at all what kind of methods Nine Gloom still had up his sleeve. No matter what, he could still suppress him with brute strength.
“I’m pretty sure you can’t sustain this state for too long, can you?” Nine Gloom took the initiative to talk to Lin Huang again even before his body had fully consolidated, “However many times you kill me, it’s no use—I can regenerate. All I have to do is to hang on until this state of yours comes to an end; sooner or later, the three of you will become my trophies!”
“Oh, really?” There was a hint of derision in Lin Huang’s tone, “Even if your substitution technique really has some connection to all of the Nirvana Trees here, you can only die and resurrect 300 times.
“Even if you factor in the time I wait for you to resurrect and set up your defenses, I’d only need three to five seconds at most to kill you each time. Even if we calculate it as five seconds per resurrection, I’d only need half an hour at most to kill you 300 times.
“Furthermore, I can sustain this state for more than half an hour…”
The first time Lin Huang had killed Nine Gloom earlier, Xiao Hei’s push notification had popped up, notifying him that he obtained a Nirvana Tree card fragment. He was confused for a moment but immediately realized that Nine Gloom was using a substitution technique. Furthermore, it was connected to the Nirvana Trees.
Lin Huang had not bothered to expose Nine Gloom’s secret earlier as it did not really matter. However, when Nine Gloom brazenly pretended to his face that he could not be killed, Lin Huang could not stand it any longer. Therefore, he chose to reveal his insights into the true facts of the matter which he had gained from the very beginning.
Nine Gloom went dead silent as soon as Lin Huang said this.
He had never expected that Lin Huang would see through his technique.
Virtuoso and Saber9, who were watching off to one side, finally came to a sudden realization.
In truth, Virtuoso had already speculated about this possibility when he saw that his trump card had not killed Nine Gloom. However, such a substitution technique was rare and unusual. Not only that, almost all of Nine Gloom’s substitution techniques were different. Therefore, Virtuoso could not be absolutely certain.
They only confirmed their earlier speculation when Lin Huang made his revelation.
Saber9, on the other hand, genuinely had no idea what technique Nine Gloom had been using all this time. He had not considered that Nine Gloom might be using a substitution technique either. However, although he had never come in contact with this type of substitution ability, he had heard of it. Once Lin Huang revealed the truth, he immediately understood.
When Nine Gloom saw that his greatest secret had been exposed, his confidence immediately plummeted.
Initially, he had thought that he would be able to bluster at the three of them and get them to retreat after discussing terms.
Never had he thought Lin Huang would expose him right away.
An incredibly powerful technique like substitution also had severe limitations.
In reality, he was not connected to each of the three hundred-over Nirvana Trees at all. At his current spirit strength, he had already reached his limit connecting to only eleven trees. In other words, including his own life, he only had twelve lives.
At present, he had already been killed five times consecutively by Lin Huang, Saber9, and Virtuoso.
At the rate Lin Huang had killed him off—as fast as slicing and dicing vegetables— Nine Gloom felt that he would truly die at Lin Huang’s hands in merely half a minute.
All kinds of thoughts flashed through Nine Gloom’s head at lightning speed. After weighing things up again and again, in the end, he chose to surrender.
“How about this—we come to a compromise. All of you want the castellan’s seal. I can give it to you and release you from my God Territory as well. However, in return, you’re not allowed to attack me any further! When you obtain the complete castellan’s seal, you can’t obliterate my existence either.”
That was as far as he could go in terms of compromise.
Even Virtuoso and Saber9 were rather swayed when they heard this.
However, Lin Huang outright rejected this proposal. Without hesitation, he slashed down with the battle sword in his hand.
“After we kill you, we can obtain the castellan’s sea tool!”
