Ever since his Sword Dao reached True Martial Level, Lin Huang's speed in hunting down Saber Servants had increased considerably.
Five days ago, one match took him about an average of one hour, but he could now finish two matches in an hour instead. It was not that he could not finish his fights in a shorter time; he merely wanted to spend about half an hour per match to make sure that his opponent had gone all out. Only by doing so could he learn some useful tricks from his opponent.
After all, the set up in this stage of the tournament greatly restricted the actual strength of all Saber Servants, to the point where their Sword Dao could only be used if it was at True Meaning Level and below. If Lin Huang were to use his Sword Dao—which was now at True Martial Level—in his fight, it was almost certain that he would wipe out his opponent in just a second. The tournament would be pointless then as he would never be able to learn anything new from it.
However, Lin Huang's strength had still increased tremendously even though he had been suppressing his Sword Dao on purpose. This was because he did not need to have a strong will to power his Sword Dao anymore.
An average of only 20 minutes was needed in a battle with a Saber Servant whose serial number was over 100. As for those with serial numbers ranging from 30 to 100, an average of half an hour was needed. For those whose serial numbers were below 30, it would take Lin Huang at least an hour to finish each match.
Within the last two days, the most powerful Saber Servant Lin Huang had encountered had a serial number of 13. This Saber Servant, who was known as Sword13, forced Lin Huang to use his Sword Dao True Meaning after fighting for only 30 minutes. This Saber Servant even used his level-6 Sword Dao and was only defeated after fighting for nearly an hour with Lin Huang.
Apart from Sword13, Sword18 had also forced Lin Huang into using his Sword Dao True Meaning.
\"During the matches where I didn't use Sword Dao True Meaning, the strength of my Sword Dao should be ranked somewhere around the twentieth Saber Servant. Well, well, it seems that there's still much room for improvement...\"
Lin Huang's evaluation of himself was fairly accurate for the first part of his soliloquy, but the latter part could not help but seem as if he were belittling himself.
The comparison that he made about himself was actually a bit harsh.
After all, the 300-over Saber Servants under Great Heaven were all heavenly god-level powerhouses, so their actual Sword Dao level was at the level of Sword Dao heavenly rule. As a result, even though their Sword Dao was restricted to below True Meaning Level, their level of knowledge and experience with swords was not something that ordinary sword cultivators at virtual god-level could rival.
Lin Huang was already considered quite powerful, seeing that he still managed to get into the top 20 rankings even though all of his opponents' Sword Dao was at the same level as his, not to mention that they were heavenly god-level sword cultivators.
After all, Lin Huang had not even reached virtual god-level. If he somehow managed to reach heavenly god-level in a few years like these Saber Servants, it would not be surprising if he managed to place first in their midst, even after restricting his Sword Dao.
In the last two days, Lin Huang had challenged a total of 93 Saber Servants, and he had been on a continuous winning streak.
However, apart from Lin Huang, Unrivaled Combat God and other competitors had already begun to hunt for Saber Servants as well.
The competitor with the most number of hunts at the moment was Forbidden Lamella, who had prior experience defeating Saber Servants. So far, he had already defeated three Saber Servants.
Competitors with the second–most number of hunts were Unrivaled Combat Goduang and two other competitors. All three of them had defeated two Saber Servants each.
In addition to these four competitors, a group of five competitors, including Fallen Star, had also defeated one Saber Servant each.
However, Lin Huang could roughly speculate that those Saber Servants defeated by Unrivaled Combat God and the others were all ranked 200th and above. Some of these Saber Servants might even rank 250th and above.
As more and more Saber Servants were defeated by competitors, one would notice that the \"global\" announcement made by the system always addressed everyone as \"competitors\". Lin Huang was the only person who was addressed as a \"participant\" instead.
Almost every competitor noticed this anomaly, and all of them were convinced that Lin Huang was somehow different from the rest.
However, apart from the few competitors from Death Sickle, everybody else had never heard of the name Xie Lin before. Many people even started speculating about his identity.
Lin Huang paid no attention to any of this. All he cared about was to defeat as many Saber Servants as he could, non-stop.
After all, other competitors had already begun hunting for Saber Servants as well, and they had already defeated quite a number of them. However, from Lin Huang's point of view, each successful competitor meant that he would have one less chance to participate in actual combat. As a result, he would have fewer chances to learn new things too.
\"Currently, Unrivaled Combat God and the others have defeated a total of 14 Saber Servants, whereas I've defeated 182 Saber Servants. In other words, there are only 104 Saber Servants left. It seems that I'll have to hurry up and defeat as many more as I can.
\"Warlord, what are the coordinates of my next target?\" Suddenly the ground began to shake right after Lin Huang finished his question.
Feeling puzzled, Lin Huang did a quick scan of his surroundings. Soon, he realized that all the buildings around him were shaking, not just the one he was in.
'Don't tell me that there's an earthquake?!'
Lin Huang did not sense any source of Divine Power around him, so he knew that the shaking was not caused by a battle. That was why he initially thought it was an earthquake.
However, this thought had barely crossed his mind when he suddenly sensed a violent fluctuation of space.
The next moment, Lin Huang realized that he was in a completely different environment.
The building he was standing in was still there, but when he looked around, he noticed that the other buildings were not the same anymore.
\"What on earth happened? Did we just get teleported into a new place along with the building?\" Lin Huang came back to his senses and noticed that some faraway buildings also looked different compared to earlier.
Warlord nodded and said, \"I'm afraid so. I sense that the coordinates of the surveillance bugs released a few days ago are different now.\"
\"Are you saying that we're not the only ones who were teleported?! Don't tell me the coordinates of other competitors, as well as other Saber Servants, are different too?!\" Lin Huang made a bold guess.
As Lin Huang stared at a series of completely different buildings in the distance, a push notification suddenly popped up in front of him.
\"There are only three days left before the end of this Competitive Trial. In order to have a more definitive result for this Trial, the rules are now modified as below:\"
'1. The position of the participant, as well as all BOSSes and competitors, will undergo a random change every 24 hours.'
'2. The coordinates of the participant and all of the remaining BOSSes will be displayed. The coordinates of the participant will be displayed as a gold-colored dot, whereas that of the BOSS will be displayed as a red-colored dot.'
'3. The Trial will end as soon as the participant is dead or defeated. The competitor who successfully defeats or kills the participant will be the final winner of this Competitive Trial by default.'
'4. The Trial will also end if all BOSSes are dead or defeated. The participant or competitor who is ranked first on the leaderboard will then be the ultimate winner of this Competitive Trial.'
'5. In the eventuality where neither the participant nor all BOSSes are dead or defeated, a final decision will be made after 10 days. The participant or competitor who is ranked first on the leaderboard will then be the final winner of this Competitive Trial.'
'6. Competitors are allowed to form their own teams to hunt down the participant and the remaining BOSSes.'
'7. All players will have access to the GPS service. The coordinates of competitors can be located by searching for their names; their positions will be displayed as a white-colored dot. There is limited access to the GPS service, whereby each player can only use the search function three times, regardless of whether they are the participant or a competitor.'
'8. All BOSSes can now hunt freely with no restrictions. All BOSSes are no longer stationed at buildings and are free to hunt while on the move. All BOSSes will automatically recognize the participant and all competitors as hunting targets and will keep on hunting until its opponents are either dead or defeated. All BOSSes are prohibited from attacking each other, but they are allowed to hunt in groups.'
...