After some gentle persuasion, Sword10 could not help but agree to Lin Huang's ridiculous request.
The main reason was that he knew very well that if he waited for the next candidate to show up, it might be another 300,000 years or even three million years.
As a member of the Succession Sect, since 300,000 years ago he had been hoping for someone worthy to come and take over the swordmaster's inheritance. Now that 300,000 years had passed, his hopes regarding the arrival of the swordmaster's heir had become even more pressing. He really did not want to wait any further.
Another reason was that he had been incredibly bored over these 300,000 years.
It would not matter even if he spent time training Lin Huang and the lad failed to obtain the swordmaster's inheritance in the end. At least Sword10 would have something to occupy his time for a while.
If Lin Huang was ridiculously lucky and really did manage to obtain the swordmaster's inheritance at the end of it all, then he and his old comrades could finally end their mission as guardians once and for all.
After a brief moment of consideration, Sword10 agreed to Lin Huang's request without much hesitation.
…
"Senior, earlier on in battle you already brought up the issues I had.
"First would be rapid speed. The main direction of improvement that you suggested would be mastering speed-type God Rule Power or Elemental Enlightenment. At this moment, apart from possessing the Seraphic Speed divine ability, I have the light attribute skill (Divine Purification) and the lightning attribute skill (Lightning Lord). Therefore, my main cultivation direction in rapid speed should be the exploration and usage of the Seraphic Speed divine ability. Ideally I would be able to elevate it to a God Rule Power. Another direction would be going in-depth into the light and lightning attribute skills. It would be best if I could elevate them to Elemental Enlightenments.
"Next would be the force-type attack. You mentioned that advancement in this direction would still take the form of God Rule Power or Elemental Enlightenment. I have the Superhuman Strength divine ability and the lightning attribute skill (Lightning Lord). There's potential for elevating the Superhuman Strength divine ability into a God Rule Power; there's also the possibility of elevating the lightning attribute skill to Elemental Enlightenment.
"Lastly would be the ultimate dao-type attack. I definitely have mastered too few sword skills and I'm severely lacking in high-grade sword skills. In reality, however, I've obtained many sword skill inheritances, quite a few of them in the previous Trial, but I haven't had the chance to assimilate them yet. Now that I have you to practice actual combat with, I should be able to accumulate many more sword skills very rapidly…
"At the moment, I think as long as I'm given enough time, I should be able to improve these flaws that Senior Sword10 mentioned." Lin Huang felt fully confident in himself.
At least he had cheat codes for the learning of skills.
"Tell me how you want me to spar with you." Sword10 did not have confidence in Lin Huang but he did not crush his enthusiasm.
"I'll cultivate the ultimate dao-type attack first to remedy my unstable foundation." Lin Huang wanted to seize the opportunity of having a sparring partner to digest all of the Sword Dao inheritances that he had obtained so far.
He had actually prepared his plans very thoroughly in advance. Even if his cultivation in rapid speed and the force-type attack failed later on, causing him to lose out on Great Heaven's inheritance, at least he would have some solid improvement in his Sword Dao ability.
Sword10 had no objections to that. After all, the main factor in elevating divine abilities to God Rule Power or elevating elemental skills to Elemental Enlightenment was a thorough understanding of divine abilities and elements. Compared to other methods, one would see results faster by cultivating sword skills. He was not surprised that Lin Huang chose to do this first.
After discussing the general direction of cultivation, Sword10 did not say much more but immediately went into sparring mode.
Meanwhile, one by one, Lin Huang began to utilize the sword skills that he was unfamiliar with.
The next few days had Sword10 completely in shock.
He was a genuine Sword Dao genius as well, but Lin Huang's speed in cultivating sword skills stunned him.
The lad was clearly a beginner in almost all sword skills when he utilized them for the first time. However, he would basically master them on the second try and use them in a familiar manner by the third try, as if he had been training in those sword skills for dozens of years, even up to a century.
Even Lin Huang himself was shocked. His sword training progress with Sword10 was much more efficient and effective than when he was training on his own. The improvement in his sword skills would skyrocket with each sparring session.
For context, of all the sword skills that he was practicing currently, the lowest grade was legendary-level. There were also many pseudo-mythical-level and mythical-level sword skills.
He would basically master legendary-level sword skills entirely after training with them just once. He only needed to practice pseudo-mythical-level sword skills three times; for mythical-level sword skills, at most, he needed only five practices to fully master them.
In the first 24 hours of his training, he had mastered a total of 358 new sword skills.
Over the next two days, this number settled to a steady 350 sword skills per day.
Given how fast Lin Huang was picking up, Sword10 could find nothing to complain about at all.
Although he knew that Sword1 could also perform similar feats of learning, Sword1's combat strength was already at peak heavenly god-level by the time he was able to do that. Moreover, he had accumulated terrifying ultimate dao-type attacks which were sufficient for him to deconstruct the nature of most sword skills.
However, Lin Huang was currently only a beginner in Sword Dao true meaning while his Sword Dao accumulation was nothing in comparison with any of the Sword Servants under the swordmaster. By managing to achieve such results, he had proved that he had terrifying talent and potential.
Sword10 had initially not placed any great hope in Lin Huang. After witnessing how fast Lin Huang picked up sword skills, however, his dead hopes ignited once more and he became increasingly enthusiastic as a sparring partner.
As time passed, the number of sword skills Lin Huang mastered increased rapidly.
By the time 200 days had passed, Lin Huang had finally mastered 100,000 sword skills. That was almost ten times more than what he possessed before he entered the Great Heaven Trial.
Not only had he entirely assimilated all of the sword skills that he had obtained in the Great Heaven Trial, but he had also assimilated many of the inheritances from the golden sword.
Lin Huang could even clearly sense that his current Sword Dao was much more powerful than before.
"Previously I kept putting off cultivating true god-level sword skills. Now it's almost time to assimilate all of my true god-level sword skill inheritances."
Throughout around 250 days of cultivation, Lin Huang had been putting off the cultivation of true god-level sword skills. Now he finally decided to assimilate all of those inheritances.
In this next stage of true god-level sword skill cultivation, Lin Huang's progress slowed down significantly.
Previously, for mythical-level sword skills, he usually only needed to practice them five times; he would master them after six or seven practices at most. However, for true god-level sword skills, he could basically only master each one after practicing up to a hundred times. Not only that, but his practice speed was also much slower than before.
On the first day of his next stage of training, Lin Huang only managed to master two true god-level sword skills.
Upon observing this, Sword10 made him rest for a day to relax his tense nerves.
On the third day, Lin Huang began practicing true god-level sword skills once more. He finally completed cultivating three sword skills within a day.
Since then, Lin Huang maintained a steady cultivation speed of three sword skills per day.
Not only was there a significant elevation in Sword Dao true meaning through practicing true god-level sword skills, but Lin Huang could also clearly sense that his Sword Dao true meaning was advancing every day.
After close to two months, Lin Huang had assimilated all of his true god-level sword inheritances.
By then, his Sword Dao true meaning had elevated to full True Martial Level.
Over 300 days cultivating with practically no rest had completely remedied Lin Huang's flaw of his lack of mastered sword skills. Apart from that, he had also elevated his Sword Dao to full True Martial Level.
After witnessing Lin Huang's rapid advancement, Sword10 began to think that the lad really might have the qualifications to inherit the swordmaster's position after all.