The Sword seal fragment in Virtuoso’s hand looked somewhat familiar to Lin Huang.
This was a dark gold-colored piece of paper the size of a human palm, and there were black sigils shining faintly on it. However, this piece of paper appeared to be incomplete, as if it had been torn off by someone.
Lin Huang’s eyes widened. This item was almost identical to the One Page Sword Scripture within him, except that its torn shape was slightly different.
“Why, have you seen it before?” Virtuoso was also slightly surprised upon hearing this. Based on what Lin Huang said, he seemed to have seen it before. (TN: Author appears to be referring to Lin Huang’s comment in the previous chapter, “Are you telling me that this thing is a Sword seal fragment?!”)
“I guess I have.” Lin Huang answered vaguely. He concealed the fact that he already had a Sword seal fragment within him.
Seeing that Lin Huang did not want to elaborate further, Virtuoso did not delve deeper into this topic either.
“I have a question. If it’s the same for sword cultivation, and elevation to lord-level is through Sword Dao, will the condensed Sword seals have any differences in terms of strength?” Lin Huang was extremely curious about Dao seals and could not help but ask such a question.
“Yes, of course.” Virtuoso smiled and nodded.
“The stronger the foundation of a person’s cultivation, the stronger the condensed Sword seal will be.
“It’s actually very simple logic. A Sword seal condensed from nine god sequence chains will never be stronger than the one condensed from hundreds of god sequence chains.
“Sword Dao is essentially a type of Rule Bending Power. In fact, there aren’t any fundamental differences between Sword Dao heavenly rule and god sequence chains.
“Of course, the difference lies in the fact that each person’s condensed Sword Dao heavenly rule is unique because it’s impossible for two people to cultivate exactly the same sword skills. Even if you take things back to the very beginning and hypothesize that two apprentices cultivate the exact same sword skills, their inborn talent and comprehension would definitely not be identical. Moreover, their comprehension of different types of sword skills would never be the same either.
“It’s these various factors that form the uniqueness of Sword Dao heavenly rule and determine the strength of Sword Dao heavenly rule, as well as the strength of the Sword seals that follow.
“In short, if you don’t want to be crushed by other Lords after becoming one yourself, lay a solid foundation.” After Virtuoso finished explaining, they added a concluding statement.
“I have another question.” Lin Huang could not help but ask. “After lord-level… is there really a higher level?”
After deliberating for a moment, Virtuoso answered, “Let me put it this way, becoming a Lord is only the first step to becoming a powerhouse.
“Of course, for most people, lord-level is the final point, as well as the highest point in life. But for some people, the remaining journey is still very long…” When Virtuoso said the last sentence, they deliberately looked at Lin Huang.
“May I ask what the combat level of your Primordium is?” Again, Lin Huang could not help asking.
“This is confidential for the time being.” Virtuoso shook their head and refused to provide an answer. “Because there’s no point in telling you.”
At this reply, Lin Huang smiled in embarrassment and did not continue probing.
After taking the Sword seal fragment from Virtuoso and agreeing on when they would enter the Abyss, Lin Huang chatted with Virtuoso for a while. It was basically him asking questions and Virtuoso answering them. Only when Virtuoso told him that the block they had placed on the monitors was about to lose its effect soon, did Lin Huang finally end the conversation reluctantly.
After the two of them exchanged their numbers, Virtuoso quietly left.
After Virtuoso left, the Obsidian Dragon-being soon recovered its willpower.
Lin Huang also quickly re-entered hunting mode.
Outside the secret territory, when the monitor screens were restored, the group of Heavenly Gods only saw Lin Huang fighting against the Obsidian Dragon-being.
“Where’s Virtuoso?”
“Did the two of them fight or not?!”
“I really want to know what just happened…”
Several Heavenly Gods quickly opened up the Gold Leaderboard to check and saw that Virtuoso’s name remained on it. Only then did they completely banish the thought, ‘Has Virtuoso been killed by Xiu Mu,’ from their minds.
Although Buried Heaven did not know what exactly had happened, seeing that Lin Huang remained intact and Virtuoso was still on the Leaderboard, he let out a long sigh of relief.
One was the almighty reincarnate, and one was the invincible genius.
Something bad happening to either of them was an outcome he did not want to see.
Inside the secret territory, Lin Huang quickly and successfully killed the Obsidian Dragon-being. After storing away its corpse, he continued hurrying toward his next target.
Although the encounter with Virtuoso was only a small interlude of ten minutes or so, Lin Huang now had a much deeper understanding of this world compared to before.
Perhaps Lords were the most powerful beings in this great world, but there were countless great worlds in the universe, most of them stronger than the great world he was currently in.
In the universe, Lords were just slightly stronger cultivators. There were stronger beings than Lords.
In the universe, those preeminent overlords might even have hundreds or thousands of Lords working for them.
He had originally thought that he was already quite powerful, to have been able to kill Heavenly Gods. However, after his conversation with Virtuoso, Lin Huang knew that this world was a lot more vast than he had imagined!
Setting aside his unruly thoughts, Lin Huang increased his determination to become stronger.
This was because only by becoming stronger would he get to see the vast world out there!
Outside the secret territory, several individuals from the group of Heavenly Gods soon discovered the change in Lin Huang.
“Have you all noticed that Xiu Mu’s combat style seems to have become a lot steadier?”
“I feel it too. During the previous hunts, he seemed to be forcing his opponents to exert themselves to their fullest. Only when his opponents displayed their full strength would he dispose of them. But now the battles are a lot more concise and efficient, and it seems like he’s trying to use the least number of telekinetic flying daggers to kill his opponents.”
“I’ve also noticed that he’s picking up on his opponents’ every flaw and going after every single one of them to inflict maximum damage! His grasp of timing is much stronger than before.”
“These changes are likely to have been brought about by Virtuoso!”
Buried Heaven had actually noticed the change in Lin Huang right from the start. In the beginning, he had been slightly concerned, worried that Virtuoso had done something to Lin Huang. However, gradually, he began to feel that this kind of change was not a bad thing, and it might even be good for Lin Huang.
Only Lin Huang himself knew that the reason behind his change of combat style was because he now understood that becoming stronger was not just about elevating his combat level.
Putting his heart and soul into experiencing each battle, seizing upon every detail of the fight, and learning from his opponents was also one way to become stronger.
As long as he worked hard enough, even if his opponent were weaker than himself, he would be able to gain something from every battle.
He even felt somewhat that he had rediscovered the kind of enthusiasm he had had when he first began the path of cultivation.
Another two days passed quickly in the secret territory.
Through each hunt, Lin Huang plundered rules from the inner worlds of the Heavenly God prisoners and soon raised his number of rules from 400,000 to 810,000, successfully elevating to fourth rank.
However, he had no plans to change his hunting targets, and still set his sights on third-rank Heavenly Gods.
His apparent combat level was ninth-rank true god-level, after all. Normally speaking, being able to hunt third-rank Heavenly Gods at this combat level was already quite impressive.
Although hunting fourth-rank Heavenly Gods would allow him to plunder rules much more speedily, to avoid attracting more attention, he still decisively chose to give up on that.