Monster Paradise

Coming out of the Ninth Palace, Lin Huang was in a joyful mood.

It had taken less than half a month for him to successfully elevate his Seraphic Speed divine ability to a Seraphic Speed God Rule. He had not expected this kind of progress.

He originally thought that it would possibly take him at least two or three months to finish it.

Lin Huang also knew that the main reason for his quick breakthrough was the extra effort from Sword9. Sword9 had put a lot of pressure on him for Lin Huang’s rapid speed sword skill. Before the breakthrough of his Seraphic Speed divine ability, he had been continuously suppressed by Sword9. It was only through the use of various Seraphic Speed divine ability techniques that Lin Huang had been able to remain undefeated.

Moreover, even after Sword9 had discovered Lin Huang’s objective, he had not quit but had continued to play the role of a sparring partner.

That was why when Lin Huang finally left the Ninth Palace, he had thanked Sword9.

Less than half a minute after exiting the Ninth Palace, the God’s Servants of the Eighth Palace arrived very quickly.

There were only two God’s Servants in this wave. Both were humanoid monsters and female.

Lin Huang originally thought that he would have encountered more and more God’s Servants, but after this round, he realized that the number of God’s Servants had nothing to do with the palace number—it was related to the personality of the palace guardian.

There were not many God’s Servants serving Sword10 because his personality was indolent and he did not really like others to do his work for him, whereas there were ten God’s Servants serving Sword9 because he liked the feeling of dominating others from a high position of superiority. The number of God’s Servants for Sword8 was even less than that of Sword10— Lin Huang guessed that it was highly probable that Sword8’s personality was one that did not really enjoy ordering others around.

Ling Huang despatched the two God’s Servants with a single blow. He did not need to wait too long before the Eighth Palace descended.

This palace looked as if it were constructed from bronze. Its style was rather quaint and unadorned; it even looked a bit old.

Lin Huang did not pay too much attention to all of this. After the door opened, he drew himself up and rushed in.

After he stepped across the threshold of the palace door, a big empty hall came into view.

The big hall seemed to be at least thousands of square meters in size and was completely bare of adornment or furnishing.

Lin Huang looked over his surroundings and silently wondered whether or not Sword8 would be an iron-fisted no-nonsense man without a shred of humor.

Very quickly, however, his eyes widened as he noticed a figure that suddenly appeared not too far away.

It was a petite girl who looked to be half a head shorter than his sister Lin Xin. She was also thinner than Lin Xin by quite a bit.

The iron-fisted tyrant of his imagination turned out to be a cute young girl, which left Lin Huang slightly dumbfounded.

“You’re…Sword8?”

Even though he knew that there could be no guardian other than Sword8 in this palace, Lin Huang could not help asking all the same.

The petite girl nodded faintly and a blush rapidly spread over her face. Even her breathing rate increased slightly.

‘Is she really that shy, or is it just for show?’ Lin Huang felt some slight suspicion stirring in his heart.

Although he had met a variety of people in recent years, this was the first time he had seen a young girl as shy as Sword8.

Moreover, among the three hundred over Sword Servants serving under Great Heaven, she was ranked eighth, which was a sufficient indicator that her ability was outstanding even within heavenly god-level ranks. Lin Huang felt that a person as shy as this could not possibly be for real.

As if she sensed the doubt in Lin Huang’s tone, the young girl added weakly, “I… I’m strong…”

“I believe that. After all, you’re ranked as Sword8.” Lin Huang nodded with a smile, but could not help asking after that, “Can I ask what your Sword Dao specialization is?”

“I mainly cultivate ultimate dao-type…” Sword8 had nothing to hide. After all, Lin Huang would find out later on when they fought; there was no need to be secretive. “I also know a bit of force-type and rapid speed sword skill.”

“Ultimate dao-type…”

Lin Huang raised his brows when he heard that; his ultimate dao-type was actually the strongest of his three cultivation directions.

“My level isn’t hard. As long as the person attempting to pass can hold out for an hour, they’ll pass this level.” Seeing that Lin Huang had not spoken for a long time, Sword8 hurriedly informed him of the rules for passing the Eighth Palace.

“Could we start now?” Seeing that his opponent did not seem to have any intention of fighting and also that she was a ‘little girl’, Lin Huang did not really want to launch a surprise attack first. As a result, he had no choice but to ask a question like this to give the other party time to prepare before battle.

Sword8 hesitated for a moment; she looked torn for an instant before asking softly, “You don’t want to chat for a while more to delay things?”

Lin Huang shook his head, unable to stop from chuckling—so that was how this girl was going to throw the game.

“Are you from the Succession Sect?”

“What sect?” Sword8 looked blank.

“Don’t you have a Succession Sect and a Regression Sect within the ranks of the Sword Servants? Don’t tell me you’re in the Regression Sect?” Lin Huang was a little surprised.

“Regression Sect?” The expression on Sword8’s face showed that she was completely at a loss. After thinking for a while and coming to no conclusions, she looked up at Lin Huang and asked, “Do Sword Servants have to join a sect? Which sect do I belong to?”

Lin Huang was left speechless. The girl seemed completely unaware of the existence of the sects within the Sword Servants’ ranks.

However, based on her reaction, Lin Huang could hazard two quick guesses.

Either the girl had superb acting skills, enough that he could not see any traces of subterfuge, or she was so innocent that other Sword Servants did not have the heart to drag her into either faction. As a result, she had no idea about the warring factions within the ranks of the Sword Servants.

For the time being, Lin Huang was still unable to judge whether the girl was the former or the latter.

“I’m just kidding, you don’t have to take it seriously.” Lin Huang did not want to continue going round and round on this topic with Sword8 and chose to gloss over it instead.

“Oh you were only joking; it scared me!” Only then did Sword8 feel relieved.

“I think we’ve had enough time to chat. If we continue any more, it will be too obvious that you’re throwing the game,” Lin Huang reminded his opponent that this was a Trial.

“I would have forgotten if you hadn’t mentioned it. If it’s too obvious that I’m throwing the game, Sword1 will scold me.” Sword8 smacked her head hard, finally seeming to remember what she was here to do. “Thank you for your reminder, you’re such a nice person!”

Lin Huang was speechless for a moment; he certainly had not expected that he would be given a ‘nice guy’ label during the Trial.

“Are you ready?” Sword8 asked Lin Huang, “If you’re not ready, I can wait for you a little bit longer.”

Lin Huang was rendered completely speechless by this little girl.

“I’m ready, go ahead and attack!”

As soon as Lin Huang finished speaking, he saw that Sword8 was suddenly wielding a battle sword. What surprised Lin Huang was that it had a broken blade. The original length of the long sword should have been least one and a half meters long, but the blade had broken off about a third of the way down. The fracture mark was clearly visible; what was left of the blade measured only about 40 centimeters, give or take.

“You don’t need to be surprised. My original weapon was a broken sword. I’m used to that, so now that I’m a guardian here, I set my weapon to be a similar broken sword.’

Lin Huang felt his heart sink a little when he heard that. If his opponent could get to the position of Sword8 using a broken sword, it was more than enough to indicate her real abilities were much higher than her current position.

This was because a broken blade could not possibly have a complete sequence rule.

Under normal circumstances, Sword Servants serving under Great Heaven were unlikely to use god sequence relics with incomplete sequence rules. This meant that Sword8 might have achieved her position under the circumstances during which her weapon lost its sequence rule power.

These thoughts flashed through Lin Huang’s mind. The next moment he saw that Sword8 had gripped her battle sword horizontally in one hand; she suddenly exerted a burst of power with both legs and her figure vanished right away…