Sword12 stepped forward as soon as Lin Huang and the group entered the Sword Alliance.

In fact, he had sensed familiar auras the moment they teleported here.

“Lord Swordmaster, Master Guardians,” Sword12 greeted.

“For the next few days, help them familiarize themselves with this new environment.”

“Of course, Lord Swordmaster!” Sword12 responded immediately.

“Did anything happen during the month or so that I was away?” Lin Huang asked.

Although he was an absentee leader, he would still occasionally ask about recent developments.

“The delivery person who came from Death Sickle the last time dropped by again two days ago. He gave me an encrypted ring, saying that the exchanges for the items you wanted have all been completed. Everything is in the ring. He also left a note inside,” Sword12 answered and brought out two storage rings.

“There"s another encrypted ring as well. A man in a mask delivered it over a month ago. He said his name was Virtuoso, but he didn"t say very much more. He only asked me to tell you to inform him when you returned.”

“Alright, I"ve got it.” Lin Huang casually took the rings from Sword12. He already had a rough idea of what was probably in them.

The storage rings were encrypted because they had not been sent to Lin Huang directly but through someone else. It was not that Virtuoso or the delivery person from Death Sickle did not trust Sword12. It was just a regular procedure for items when a middle person was involved.

As for the encryption pa.s.sword, it would usually be sent directly to the receiver"s communicator.

Lin Huang had not had the chance to check his communicator yet.

After a.s.signing Sword1 and the others to Sword12, Lin Huang returned to his courtyard again.

He tapped on the communicator"s contact page and soon found the pa.s.swords that Virtuoso and Death Sickle"s delivery person had sent.

Lin Huang entered the two pa.s.swords into the rings accordingly and unlocked the two storage s.p.a.ces.

Inside the ring that Virtuoso had sent were the G.o.d Territory Sh.e.l.l Remnants of five Abyssal half-step Lords. Not only that, the Abyssal energy in all five G.o.d Territory Sh.e.l.l Remnants had been cleansed—something Lin Huang had not expected at all.

It was very clear that the hundred over Nirvana Trees were insufficient to be exchanged for five cleansed and purified Abyssal half-step Lords" G.o.d Territory Sh.e.l.l Remnants. The only logical explanation was that Virtuoso had found someone else to handle this for them after obtaining the G.o.d Territory Sh.e.l.l Remnants.

“Virtuoso really is considerate.” Lin Huang could not help giving a quiet sigh. In reality, he would have preferred if G.o.d Territory Sh.e.l.l Remnants were not cleansed, as the Abyssal energy was a rare delicacy to the Eternity Fire in his body.

After setting down the ring that Virtuoso had sent, Lin Huang checked the other ring.

There were many items in this second ring.

There were twenty-one half-step Lords" G.o.d Territory Sh.e.l.l Remnants alone, as well as a considerable number of various rare materials.

Lin Huang very soon saw the note that the delivery person had left for him.

He immediately picked it up to read.

The rough gist of the note was that Death Sickle had tried their best to collect half-step Lords" G.o.d Territory Sh.e.l.l Remnants for him. However, twenty-one was the most they could gather. It was probable that in the entire G.o.d Territory, there would not be half-step Lords" G.o.d Territory Sh.e.l.l Remnants on the list of commodities in the immediate future. This was because Death Sickle had purchased all of the available ones. The remaining exchange items had been traded for various rare materials to subst.i.tute for the G.o.d Territory Sh.e.l.l Remnants.

“All the half-step Lords" G.o.d Territory Sh.e.l.l Remnants on the G.o.d Territory market have been purchased?!” This piece of news was something Lin Huang was not expecting. However, after thinking it through carefully, he realized that it was nothing unusual.

Half-step lord-level powerhouses hardly had any opponents.

In all probability, since the founding of the G.o.d Territory, the number of deceased half-step Lords could likely be counted. Even if this were expanded to include the entire great world and the total number of deceased half-step Lords from every tribe were tallied up for every battle throughout history, it would not come to very many at all.

For Death Sickle to collect the G.o.d Territory Sh.e.l.l Remnants of over twenty half-step Lords within a month or so was already no small feat.

The number of G.o.d Territory Sh.e.l.l Remnants Death Sickle had managed to gather had completely surpa.s.sed his expectations—that was what Lin Huang felt, even. It was just that he now had a slight problem—how to gather more half-step Lords" G.o.d Territory Sh.e.l.l Remnants later.

Only when he had taken all the items out from the two rings and put them away in his storage s.p.a.ce did Lin Huang turn on his communicator and call Virtuoso"s number.

A moment later, the video call connected, and Virtuoso"s figure was projected into his room.

“It"s been over a month, and you"re only contacting me now. How was it? Did you get the items?” Virtuoso was still wearing their mask, and their expression could not be seen. However, Lin Huang could tell from their tone that they were in a good mood at the moment.

“Yes, I did, thank you very much.” Lin Huang nodded.

“I specifically looked for someone to cleanse them for you,” Virtuoso added.

“Yes, I noticed. That was very considerate of you,” Lin Huang expressed his grat.i.tude again.

“That"s all you have to say? Let me tell you, the value of these G.o.d Territory Sh.e.l.l Remnants has increased at least tenfold after the cleansing,” Virtuoso emphasized.

“Actually… I do have a method of cleansing them,” Lin Huang had no alternative but to be forthright.

“Alright. Apparently, I poked my nose in where I shouldn"t have,” Virtuoso said in a huff.

“Have you finished refining the Phantom City?” Lin Huang changed the subject rather stiffly.

“I have. I"ve also elevated to first-rank heavenly G.o.d-level now.” Virtuoso sounded rather smug at this point. They thought that since Lin Huang had just elevated to ninth-rank true G.o.d-level, it was unlikely that he would advance to heavenly G.o.d-level in such a short time.

“Oh, I"ve elevated to second-rank,” Lin Huang returned expressionlessly.

“What?!” Virtuoso was stunned when they heard this.

“I said I"ve elevated to second-rank heavenly G.o.d-level,” Lin Huang repeated for emphasis.

“You only elevated to ninth-rank true G.o.d-level over a month ago, didn"t you?” Virtuoso was completely bereft of speech. “You"ve advanced to heavenly G.o.d-level so quickly, aren"t you afraid that your foundation won"t be stable?!”

“My foundation is very stable. If I had enough resources, I would be able to elevate all the way to ninth-rank.” What Lin Huang said was very true.

However, to Virtuoso, this was clearly bragging.

“I don"t want to listen to you anymore. If there"s nothing else, I"ll hang up.”

“Wait a moment.” Lin Huang stopped Virtuoso, who was about to terminate the call.

“If you"ve got anything else to say, hurry up and say it!” Virtuoso snapped irritatedly.

“Do you know if there"s any way to obtain a large number of half-step Lords" G.o.d Territory Sh.e.l.l Remnants?” Lin Huang asked.

“Why do you want so many half-step Lords" G.o.d Territory Sh.e.l.l Remnants for?” Virtuoso was getting more and more puzzled. “Oh, that"s right, when I got out of closed-door cultivation a few days ago, I received news that Death Sickle has been gathering G.o.d Territory Sh.e.l.l Remnants lately. Were they helping you collect them, then?”

“Just tell me how to obtain them, that"s good enough.” Naturally, Lin Huang was unwilling to reveal his secret.

“How else would you go about it? You"d have to trade resources for them.” Virtuoso was practically speechless.

“Of course I know that. What I mean is, do you know if there are any channels to do so?” Lin Huang persisted.

“What, aren"t Death Sickle"s channels enough for you?” The words were barely out of Virtuoso"s mouth when they suddenly froze for a moment, then snapped back to their senses and stared at Lin Huang, eyes wide. “You"ve cleaned out the G.o.d Territory"s resources?!”

“That"s right… That"s why I asked you about other channels,” Lin Huang had no alternative but to admit it.

“You"re really something!” Virtuoso gave Lin Huang a thumbs up; his feelings were convoluted.

“How do I say this? Things like half-step Lords" G.o.d Territory Sh.e.l.l Remnants aren"t regular items. For one, the demand is very low, so not many people specifically supply these commodities.

“Not many people collect these things, even at the Club, so even if you send out a request there, you"ll probably only be able to obtain a few. After all, compared to all those major organizations in the universe, the Club has too few members.”

After they finished speaking, Virtuoso cupped their chin and pondered for a while.

“There"s an organization called Royal here in the great world. It"s a branch of Royal in the universe. It seems low profile in the great world, but its combined strength is actually on par with any grade-7 organization. It"s said they have a special channel that can bring in resources from the universe and other worlds. That"s why many major organizations collaborate with them. I think you could go talk to them.”

"Royal?!"

If Virtuoso had not brought it up, Lin Huang would have almost forgotten that he also had Royalty status.