by Shian Jeen
Hearing this, Huwang Xiao suppressed thought of calling out the Poison Corpse Scarabs.
As Huwang Xiao continued to move deeper into the Hailstone Forest, he had lost count of the number of demonic beasts he had killed along the way.
The sky gradually darkened.
Though there was no sunlight, night and day were still obvious.
Once night descended, the numerous hidden demonic beasts that were hidden during the day wandered out in search of food. Even for someone daring like Huwang Xiao, he inevitably reduced his speed and acted with more caution.
Due to the snow’s attribute of reflecting light, the entire forest seemed colder at night compared to daytime. It was deathly white, with a ghostly green glow.
Huwang Xiao was flying over the forest carefully when he suddenly stopped, “Gentlemen, you have been following me for so long but still haven’t decided to show yourselves?” Just as Huwang Xiao’s voice fell, several dark shadows appeared in front of Huwang Xiao.
Two of them were the armor shop owner and the shop worker.
He Liuhua chuckled as he stood in front of Huwang Xiao, “Little brother, we meet again. But I’m very curious, when did you notice us?” He was very curious about this. In their group of people, the weakest person was a Fourth Order God Realm, how did a mere Second Order God Realm actually detect their presence?
“Is that really important?” Huwang Xiao asked without any changes to his expression.
He Liuhua was stunned for a second before laughing loudly, “Right, for a dead man, this point is indeed unimportant.”
Ch.584
Huwang Xiao smiled kindly at He Liuhua instead of showing anger hearing those words, “You think you lot are capable of killing me?”
He Liuhua’s eyebrow rose as he watched the young man opposite him that didn't seem nervous at all. Doubt rose in his heart, did this kid possess some hidden trump card? This kid’s biggest trump card was probably the White Flame Divine Armor he sold to him, right?
‘If this kid is able to activate the White Flame Divine Armor’s Nine-nine Blazing Sun Formation, it can temporarily block a Seventh Order God Realm’s attack.’
He Liuhua snickered to himself thinking of this.
“You punk, if I were you, I would just obediently hand over all the valuables, spatial rings, treasures and whatnot, then you should get down on your knees to lick our toes, hugging our big thighs while begging us sincerely not to kill you.” The shop worker couldn’t resist chiming in, “Instead of putting on a brave act here, when in truth you’re cowering inside, pretending to be calm.”
When no one expected it, Huwang Xiao made his move. The Mulberry Sword under his feet flew out. Sword lights cut toward the opponents as if they were agile snakes.
“Look out!” He Liuhua shouted, and at the same time, his wrist turned, sending out a palm strike whistling through the air to scatter the torrent of sword lights. However, the miserable cry that rang told him that he was too late. Three of the subordinates that came with him had their throats and foreheads pierced through, resulting in their lifeless bodies plummeting to the forest below.
All these three subordinates were early Fourth Order God Realm warriors.
Seeing this, He Liuhua couldn’t contain his fury, “Damn punk, I had intended to let you die more comfortably at first, but now you’ll die without an intact corpse!” His fingers extended and a giant ringed-knife appeared in his hand.
“Howling Wolf Fang Knife!”
He Liuhua aimed the giant ringed-knife at Huwang Xiao with both of his hands, making a vertical slash down. Countless shadows of ferocious wolves pounced through the air, while the knife qi transformed into sharp spikes resembling wolf fangs that locked onto Huwang Xiao’s body from all directions, cutting off all routes of escape.
The rest of his subordinates also awakened from their shock, and each of them mustered their strongest attack, releasing it on Huwang Xiao.
Before any of their attacks even got close, a snow-white armor emerged on Huwang Xiao’s body, the White Flame Divine Armor. A layer of white flames danced on the armor’s surface, and simultaneously, nine bright fireballs flew out, hovering around Huwang Xiao from top to bottom.
When He Liuhua and his subordinates’ attacks reached Huwang Xiao, all of them were negated, the powerful energies dissipated into nothingness.
“White Flame Divine Armor!”He Liuhua was startled, but it quickly turned into elation. This damn kid really activated the Nine-nine Blazing Sun Formation on the White Flame Divine Armor!
Although the White Flame Divine Armor’s Nine-nine Blazing Sun Formation could withstand a Seventh Order God Realm master’s attack, the formation itself required divine grade spirit stone to activate. What did this mean? It meant there were divine grade spirit stones in this kid’s possession!
He Liuhua’s eyes twinkled brightly like stars and his hands stopped attacking, merely looking at Huwang Xiao with a mysterious grin on his face, “Heh, damn kid, you still don’t realize, do you? That I placed a ban on the White Flame Divine Armor. As long as I activate this ban, you will receive a backlash from the White Flame Divine Armor and be split into pieces by the armor itself. You will suffer excruciating pain, so much that you’ll wish you were dead.”
Huwang Xiao issued a cold snort in reply. He arrived in front of the armor shop worker in a flicker, slashing out with the Mulberry Sword.
“White Phoenix Cut!”
Numerous rays of sword qi gathered, cutting down from high altitude.
That shop worker was petrified with fear, but he still thrust the long spear in his hand toward Huwang Xiao in an attempt to block the falling sword.
He Liuhua was even more enraged watching this. He didn’t expect Huwang Xiao to continue attacking recklessly knowing about the ban on the White Flame Divine Armor. Did this punk think he was bluffing?!
“Courting death!” He Liuhua began to move both his hands, forming some strange obscure signs and flicking out a mysterious shining symbol.
Right at this moment, Huwang Xiao’s sword had sliced the shop worker’s long spear in half, and continued down, splitting the shop worker into halves starting from the middle of his head.
A thin red blood line emerged to the surface of the shop worker’s skin from his forehead all the way down to his groin area. In the next instant, the shop worker’s corpse exploded into pieces, genuinely dying without an intact corpse.
“You, you’re still fine?” He Liuhua dumbly looked at Huwang Xiao, he had just activated the ban that he placed on the White Flame Divine Armor, why didn’t the kid suffer a backlash?
Huwang Xiao looked over his shoulder at He Liuhua like he was looking an idiot: “What do you think?”
Huwang Xiao’s gaze drove He Liuhua crazy, he felt a maddening impulse to tear Huwang Xiao into pieces with his bare hands. His eyes spat fire, yet he really did not understand how Huwang Xiao could’ve erased the ban on the White Flame Divine Armor.
This was something impossible with Huwang Xiao’s Second Order God Realm strength. Could it be… there were other masters at his side? However, they had been following Huwang Xiao for some time before appearing, He Liuhua was sure there were no other masters with Huwang Xiao.
Then again, whether there was any master by this kid’s side was no longer important. The ban on the White Flame Divine Armor was erased, and the kid was in possession of divine grade spirit stones, enabling him to activate the Nine-nine Blazing Sun Formation, a defense he had no way of breaking!
The question now was, should he withdraw or not?
In the short span of time where He Liuhua struggled to decide, Huwang Xiao’s figure flickered to his front. In the next moment, a giant divine dragon enlarged in He Liuhua’s pupils, emitting a dragon might that dimmed heaven and earth. Enveloped by this overwhelming pressure, He Liuhua felt his breathing stop in an instant, to the point where he couldn’t even utilize the time and space laws.
Fear filled his eyes, all of his attenti
on was on the enormous five-clawed golden dragon right in front of him. ‘This, this… a Highgod Realm master?! There was actually a Highgod Realm master by this kid’s side!’
Dragon Emperor Ao Taiyi glowered icily at He Liuhua, and one of his claws extended out. Before He Liuhua could react, he was already caged between Dragon Emperor Ao Taiyi’s powerful claws. With a slight pressure, He Liuhua’s body burst into pieces.
His tragic wail jarred the rest to their senses as fear pierced through their hearts. He Liuhua’s subordinates screamed, turned around, and fled for their lives.
Unfortunately, just as they turned around, Dragon Emperor Ao Taiyi spat out dragon flames from his mouth, drowning these people in a sea of flames, incinerating them into embers before they could even issue a scream.
At the end of everything, Dragon Emperor Ao Taiyi’s jaw opened in a big yawn, smacking his dragon mouth, “No fun at all, this kind of small shrimps also need to trouble this old man, too degrading for my status.”
Huwang Xiao was speechless. On the other hand, what Dragon Emperor Ao Taiyi said was the truth. As a Highgod Realm master, coming out to kill several Fourth Order, Fifth Order and a Seventh Order God Realm warrior was indeed degrading for his status.
After resolving He Liuhua and his subordinates, Huwang Xiao continued flying into the deeper part of the Hailstone Forest. The deeper he ventured, the more extreme the frigid cold became. Two days later, when he was almost at the center of the Hailstone Forest, he had no choice but to use the White Flame Divine Armor to resist the cold energy.
One month later, Huwang Xiao finally reached the center of the Hailstone Forest.
The snow at the center of the Hailstone Forest was no longer pure white but whitish with a tinge of green that seemed to turn violet at the edge. At the center of the forest, one couldn't even hear the sound of wind!
That’s right, not even the sound of a gentle breeze existed. It wasn't that there was no breeze or wind, but reaching up to this point, the wind itself was frozen in place by the coldness.
Not only that, Huwang Xiao keenly sensed that in the center of this Hailstone Mainland, even time seemed to move much slower. A coldness that could even affect the time flow, one could imagine the terror of this frigid cold.
After entering the center area of Hailstone Mainland, Huwang Xiao raised his vigilance even higher and took extra care with every step. Prior to entering this area, he had already come across several Eighth Order and Ninth Order God Realm demonic beasts. If it weren’t for Dragon Emperor Ao Taiyi, he would have breathed his last early on.
According to Dragon Emperor Ao Taiyi, the location of the treasure was close by. However, not long after Huwang Xiao entered the center area, noises of people flying at high speed and talking reached his ears.
There were actually people who entered this deep into the Hailstone Forest?
Barely a second after Huwang Xiao concealed himself, six figures arrived where Huwang Xiao stood. Seeing these people’s clothing, Huwang Xiao was slightly surprised, for three of them were garbed in the Black Warrior Institute’s Grand Elder robes, while the other three had the emblem of an azure dragon.
“They’re from the Azure Dragon Institute.” Dragon Emperor Ao Taiyi cautioned.
Ch.585
Azure Dragon Institute!
Hearing Dragon Emperor Ao Taiyi’s reminder, Huwang Xiao’s eyes narrowed to thin slits. Never did he imagine that he would run into people from the Azure Dragon Institute here, moreover, they were together with people from the Black Warrior Institute as well.
What were the Black Warrior Institute’s Grand Elders doing with people from the Azure Dragon in this deep part of the Hailstone Forest?
While these thoughts raced passed Huwang Xiao’s mind, the six figures flew far away, disappearing in the hazy snowing sky.
Only then did Huwang Xiao emerge from his concealment.
“These six people’s strength is not bad,” Dragon Emperor Ao Taiyi commented. “That tall thin one from the Azure Dragon Institute is the strongest one amongst them, infinitely close to the Highgod Realm.”
“Infinitely close to a Highgod Realm!” Huwang Xiao was astonished. Although he had guessed that all six people were very strong, he didn’t expect the tall thin man from the Azure Dragon Institute to be so powerful.
Close to a Highgod Realm? That meant peak late-Tenth Order God Realm.
Then a thought occurred to Huwang Xiao, “How does my Eldest Senior-Apprentice brother’s strength compare to this person?”
“Your Eldest Senior-Apprentice brother is also a peak late-Tenth Order God Realm, however, even among them, there is a distinction between strong and weak.” Dragon Emperor Ao Taiyi continued, “This person’s strength is slightly higher than your Eldest Senior-Apprentice brother.”
This judgment was a little hard for Huwang Xiao to accept; this person was stronger than his Eldest Senior-Apprentice brother?
Dragon Emperor Ao Taiyi went on, “Black Tortoise, Azure Dragon, Vermillion Bird, and White Tiger. Amongst these four galaxies, the Azure Dragon is the strongest of all. In every Highgod Advancement Tournament, it has always been the Azure Dragon Institute that held first place, moreover, among the names of the top ten, half of them would be Azure Dragon Institute disciples.”
“What Highgod Advancement Tournament?” Huwang Xiao was a little confused. This was the first time he had heard of this Highgod Advancement Tournament.
“It’s normal that you’ve never heard of it.” Dragon Emperor Ao Taiyi explained, “Every one thousand years, the Vientiane Divine World Surface would conduct a Highgod Advancement Tournament in the lower world surface as a form of selecting and cultivating great talents from the Black Tortoise, Azure Dragon, Vermillion Bird, and White Tiger galaxies. There are rewards for the first one thousand places, the enormity of the rewards is not something you can imagine.”
A glimmer of light flickered in Huwang Xiao’s eyes, this was news to him. He didn’t know that the Vientiane Divine World Surface held a Highgod Advancement Tournament every thousand years.
Dragon Emperor Ao Taiyi continued saying, “From the first place to the tenth place, they are rewarded with divine grade spirit stones, divine armor, and divine artifacts. The divine armor is much more durable than the ones you’ve seen, definitely not the fart of a White Flame Divine Armor that you are wearing right now. The second place and third place also have these rewards, but other than these, there are many higher grade rewards.”
Huwang Xiao was listening attentively when Dragon Emperor Ao Taiyi suddenly stopped speaking, prompting Huwang Xiao to ask, “What other rewards?”
“Take a guess.” Dragon Emperor Ao Taiyi deliberately left Huwang Xiao’s curiosity hanging.
Huwang Xiao smiled wryly, “How would I be able to guess?”
Satisfied, Dragon Emperor Ao Taiyi continued, “The first place, second place, and third place could have a powerful Vientiane Divine World Surface’s master direct infusion of Godforce into them!”
“Direct infusion of Godforce!” Huwang Xiao’s eyes widened in shock.
“That’s right,” Dragon Emperor Ao Taiyi nodded, “Eight out of ten peak late-Tenth Order God Realm warriors can directly break through to Highgod Realm after the infusion of Godforce!”
Direct breakthrough to Highgod Realm! Huwang Xiao’s breathing grew heavy.
This was too terrifying.
How many monstrous geniuses existed in the lower world galaxies? How many great talents were stuck at peak late-Tenth Order God Realm, unable to make a breakthrough to Highgod Realm? But, if they could get a spot within the top three in the Highgod Advancement Tournament, they had an eighty percent chance of breaking into Highgod Realm after the Godforce infusion.
“Needless to say, a Highgod Realm master does not have the ability to infuse Godforce into another person, therefore the ‘God master’ from Vientiane Divine World Surface performing the inculcation would definitely be someone with a cultivation higher than the Highgo
d Realm. As for what realm they might be at, that I do not know. Other than that, the first place winner has a high chance of being granted by the same ‘God master’ a divine law of their own comprehension!”
Divine law! Huwang Xiao was flabbergasted.
“Correct, after advancing to Highgod Realm, the time and space laws will evolve to become a higher grade ‘divine law’.” Dragon Emperor Ao Taiyi explained, “If one can be bestowed a divine law by the ‘God master’ it would greatly benefit their future cultivation in a way they never imagine. This is thousand, a million times better than Godforce infusion, divine armor, divine artifact, or divine grade spirit stones.”
Huwang Xiao nodded silently in agreement, great waves of shock roaring in his heart.
Highgod Advancement Tournament!
First place!
A short while later, his eyes shone with firm determination.
No matter what, he had to win this Highgod Advancement Tournament's first place. Whether it was for his parents, family, or himself, he absolutely must win first place!
Only then would he have an eighth-tenth chance of breaking into the Highgod Realm and receive that powerful God master’s divine law, reaching higher and further in his cultivation path.
“So, kid, are you tempted?” Dragon Emperor Ao Taiyi needled Huwang Xiao: “Do you want to win the first place?”
Huwang Xiao laughed, “Of course! Who doesn’t wants to win the first place?”
Dragon Emperor Ao Taiyi said, “Not that I underestimate you, although your talent is indeed excellent, your chances of winning the first place in the Highgod Advancement Tournament are not very high. In every tournament, the number of disciples taking part from all four galaxies surpass a billion, each and every person is a strong and talented genius in their own right, the weakest cultivation would be Ninth Order God Realm, even that can only be considered cannon fodder!”
