Chapter 1374 - The Trial is Over
When Wu Hao saw Sword11 standing before him in person in Heavenly Sword Palace, he was so excited that he was virtually speechless.
One had to be aware that he grew up listening to legends about Sword11.
Naturally, as a young man who yearned to cultivate Sword Dao, he found it hard to remain calm when he saw Sword11, the “number one Sword Dao cultivator” of the Great Heaven Territory, alive and well and standing before him.
“Lord Swordmaster, this young man…” Sword11 was a little puzzled when he saw that Lin Huang had brought along the youth from the video call just now.
“Wu Hao, my apprentice,” Lin Huang introduced Wu Hao with a grin.
“App…Apprentice?!” Sword11 was stunned for a moment when he heard that. He had not expected that his swordmaster would have found an apprentice just by walking around town.
“Xiao Hao, say hello.” Lin Huang patted Wu Hao’s shoulder.
“Sword…Lord Sword11…” Wu Hao’s face turned slightly red and he did not dare to look at Sword11 directly.
“I remember you; you’re the teenager in the video just now. Your name is Wu Hao?” Although Sword11 had many doubts, he still took the initiative to smile and greet Wu Hao.
Wu Hao nodded quickly.
“All thanks to you. If you hadn’t appeared on the video call with him earlier, he might not necessarily have been willing to become my apprentice,” Lin Huang laughed.
“Lord Swordmaster praises me too much.”
Only now did Wu Hao notice how Sword11 addressed Lin Huang and a faint trace of uncertainty arose in his heart. He stole a glance at Lin Huang and directed a question at Sword11.
“Lord Sword11, are you and my master really fellow disciples?”
Sword11 looked at Lin Huang after hearing that.
“You can tell him the truth.” Lin Huang nodded.
Only then did Sword11 nod and explain the situation to Wu Hao.
“Lord Swordmaster and I are not fellow disciples—I am Lord Swordmaster’s Sword Servant…”
Even though he had not yet embarked on the path of cultivation, Wu Hao still understood what “Sword Servant” meant. Despite experiencing a sense of unreality after hearing Sword11 admit that he was merely a Sword Servant, he could also see that Sword11’s respect for his master was no pretense.
“Then my master really is very powerful?” Wu Hao thought for a moment and asked again.
“He succeeded in obtaining the inheritance of swordmaster Great Heaven and has taken his position as the new swordmaster. At the very least, in terms of Sword Dao, he is unparalleled.”
“How about compared to you?” Wu Hao quickly followed up.
“If we were at the same level, I certainly would not be any sort of opponent for Lord Swordmaster.” Sword11 knew how difficult the final Trial assessment was. Even though he had not fought Lin Huang, he could roughly estimate what Lin Huang’s abilities were like.
After hearing this personal evaluation from Sword11, Wu Hao finally looked at Lin Huang with the beginnings of hero-worship in his eyes.
“Now will you believe me?” Lin Huang asked, slightly disgruntled.
“Yes, I do believe you now. I know master’s Sword Dao is unparalleled!” Wu Hao quickly laughed apologetically, held up his fists, and started pummelling Lin Huang’s back diligently by way of massage.
“You little devil, in future put these thoughts of yours into your cultivation—that would be better than anything.” Lin Huang shook his head helplessly.
Disregarding Wu Hao’s diligence, Lin Huang started chatting with Sword11 again.
“Tomorrow is the last day of the Great Heaven Trial. It’s not safe for me to bring this young devil with me, so I’m going to leave him with you first to supervise his cultivation. I’ll come back to the Great Heaven Territory for him in half a year at the earliest; if I’m slow it will be around two to three years.”
“Master, are you leaving?” Wu Hao asked hurriedly.
“I still have some matters to deal with in the great world and my home, the gravel world.” Lin Huang glanced behind at Wu Hao. “I’ll sort out what I want to teach you and pass it to Sword11 in the next two days. When the time comes, he will help me to teach you.”
When he had finished speaking, Lin Huang looked at Sword11 again.
“Wu Hao’s situation is rather unique. His constitution doesn’t allow him to cultivate directly, so he can only take the path of Sword Dao Divinity…”
“Sword Dao Divinity?!” Sword11 stared at Lin Huang with wide eyes, as if he wanted to confirm whether or not Lin Huang was pulling his leg.
“He is very talented in Sword Dao,” Lin Huang said only this and did not elaborate further.
When Sword11 caught Lin Huang’s gaze, he knew that Lin Huang was not joking. As for what Lin Huang mentioned about Wu Hao being “very talented”, Sword11 knew that there was more to it than mere talent after he considered the matter carefully.
After all, Wu Hao had caught the eye of the new swordmaster and had been accepted as a disciple immediately. Given that Lin Huang had also confirmed that the boy could take the path of Sword Dao Divinity, it was sufficient to indicate that the little devil in front of him was something truly special.
Sword11 did not pursue the matter further. Lin Huang had not explained in detail but he had already indicated his attitude. Sword11 was in no hurry—after all, Wu Hao was going to stay with him. Whatever that was so special about him would be apparent sooner or later.
“In the next two days, I’ll go through the sword skills from all the inheritances that I have obtained, sort them out, and transmit them to you. Then you’ll be able to pass these sword skills on to him. His body only has the strength of an ordinary person and the amount of information that can be processed by his brain at any given time is limited. You’ll need to pay attention to the amount of information that you pass on to him each time; don’t overload his mind.
“Also, in addition to sword skills, various kinds of theoretical knowledge should also be taught. I’ll organize a set of teaching templates. Fill in the content according to the template I will give you and teach him a variety of theoretical knowledge. Remember to carry out a theoretical knowledge examination every month. If he fails the examination, let him retake it.”
“Learning is learning, why do we need tests…” Wu Hao muttered in a low voice.
Lin Huang ignored the boy’s grumbling and continued, “There is also actual combat—you’ll need to make arrangements for him accordingly. Although he can’t cultivate and his body is weak, as long as he doesn’t die, you can arrange whatever you want for him within those limits. Since the medicine of the cultivation world can easily fix the physical bodies of ordinary people, it’s not a big problem if he happens to break an arm or a leg…”
“Broken arm and broken leg…” Wu Hao looked as if he were about to cry. “Master, am I still your flesh and blood?”
Even Sword11 began to look at Wu Hao sympathetically at the expression in his eyes.
“These are the three approaches I can think of at the moment. As for the rest, if you think that there is a need to add on, feel free to do so on your own.”
“Very well, then I will do as you say!” Sword11 readily agreed.
Since he had already found a successor for the swordmaster, Sword11’s ultimate goal in coming to the Great Heaven Territory had been achieved. Seeing that he had nothing much on his plate at present, assisting the swordmaster in teaching his apprentice could be regarded as something to do.
“Ah yes, there is one more thing. He also carves as a hobby. As long as it does not interfere with his study of Sword Dao, you don’t have to worry about it,” Lin Huang specifically reminded Sword11 again.
After settling the matters to do with Wu Hao, Lin Huang chatted with Sword11 for about half an hour more before he returned to the hotel with the two Sword Servants.
As for Wu Hao, he remained in Heavenly Sword Palace.
Early the next morning, Lin Huang transmitted the all sword skills that he had sorted out to Sword11. There were a total of 180,000 sword skills and the highest was only pseudo-mythical-level. He even specifically mentioned that the pseudo-mythical-level sword skills were to be taught last.
It was not that Lin Huang did not want to teach mythical-level sword skills to Wu Hao; he merely wanted the boy to establish a solid foundation first and avoid running before he could walk.
As for the basic teaching template, Lin Huang had created it from summarizing his previous teaching experiences at Martial Hunter College. He focused on Wu Hao’s traits to optimized the template.
After seeing to Wu Hao’s affairs, Lin Huang returned to the Great Heaven Palace early in the morning with the two Sword Servants.
This was already the last day of the opening of the Great Heaven Territory. Under the authorization of the Great Heaven Palace, Lin Huang checked the status of the participants.
Following Lin Huang’s instructions, the Great Heaven Palace quickly projected the participants’ details.
Of the 300 participants who entered the Great Heaven Territory a month ago, only 63 were left. The survival rate was over 20%.
Lin Huang was glad that the few from Death Sickle were still around.
Lin Huang also saw a few familiar faces—Unrivaled God, Forbidden Lamella, and the others were still alive.
However, Lin Huang had expected this. After all, the group with Unrivaled God and Forbidden Lamella were super geniuses cultivated by grade-7 organizations. In terms of overall ability, they almost certainly would have life-preserving techniques if they could remain stable in the top five positions of the Virtual God Leaderboard.
When he saw the familiar faces in the surveillance footage, Lin Huang could not help frowning slightly.
“Unrivaled God, Forbidden Lamella and the others all know that I won the Competitive Trial. When they return to the great world, I’m afraid that the first thing they’ll do is to inform the grade-7 organizations behind them about this matter. Even if they can’t be sure whether or not I managed to obtain the Great Heaven inheritance, I will still be included on several grade-7 organizations’ lists of people who should be closely observed.
“In addition to attracting the attention of the grade-7 organizations, this news may also lead to the Raiders targeting me. After all, I took over the inheritance of Great Heaven and the Lord who attacked Great Heaven previously would definitely be interested in me.
“From the looks of things, Xie Lin’s identity can’t be used any longer.
“The best way to make this identity disappear is to vanish after the closing of the Great Heaven Territory and let everyone think that Xie Lin died there. As long as Xie Lin died in the Great Heaven Territory, naturally, there won’t be any such thing as Xie Lin obtaining the Great Heaven inheritance.”
After careful consideration, Lin Huang completely dismissed the idea of returning to the great world with the other participants.
He did not return to the Great Heaven Territory at all until the next day. However, through the surveillance carried out by the Great Heaven Palace, he watched the 63 participants being teleported out one by one…