by Shian Jeen
Internally, their own life energy was nourished, brimming vitality filled every part of their bodies.
The rain went on for an hour before Huwang Xiao finally stopped, a little short of breath. Popping a medicinal pellet into his mouth, he quietly initiated Instant Recovery to replenish his depleted battle qi.
To Elf Queen Kelly’s pleasant surprise, she immediately detected that the life force had stopped seeping out of the Tree of Life. Their race’s sacred tree was overflowing with life energy once more. Moreover, its life energy was even more vibrant and faster than ever before.
“On behalf of our elf race, I offer our deepest gratitude to Young Noble for his grace.” Elf Queen Kelly said to Huwang Xiao, a happy and sincere smile on her face, showing her heartfelt joy and gratitude.
Huwang Xiao reciprocated her smile, “Just a helping hand, moreover, I did it for the ten Life Crystals!”
Laughter rang out near the Tree of Life.
The Elf Queen invited everyone back to the hall and they all took their previous seats. After everyone was seated, the Elf Queen sent someone to bring the promised ten pieces of Life Crystal, handing them over to Huwang Xiao herself with both hands.
Looking at the ten Life Crystals in the Elf Queen’s hands, twinkling like stars and emitting a captivating abundant life energy, Huwang Xiao suppressed the delight in his heart and received the Life Crystals.
The Tree of Life was cured and the Elf Queen immediately ordered a celebratory banquet. Huwang Xiao agreed out of politeness, while the five experts also stayed to join in.
The banquet lasted several hours, until dusk. The evening sun disappearing on the horizon just as Huwang Xiao decided to take his leave, but Elf Queen Kelly was one step ahead of him, “It’s late, I’ve made lodging arrangements for the night. We have troubled Young Noble today, curing the Tree of Life must have exhausted Young Noble’s battle qi, please rest here tonight!”
The guests were stunned at the Elf Queen’s insistence.
Grand Elder Celine was shocked the most as she looked at their noble Queen with wide eyes. Their Queen had never, ever, invited any young man to stay overnight!
Five people shot envious looks in Huwang Xiao’s direction.
How many experts on the Ten Directions Continent admired the Elf Queen, but all failed to win the beauty’s heart. One example was Nine Dragons Temple’s Ao Shen.
But now, the Elf Queen herself had spoken of her wishes for Huwang Xiao to stay for the night! Anyone with a little bit brain could see that the Elf Queen held a favorable impression toward Huwang Xiao.
Huwang Xiao had a stunned expression on his face as he looked at Elf Queen Kelly. Two pairs of eyes met in midair, causing her heart to throb.
“Pardon me, I still have matters to attend to, and shall take my leave.” Huwang Xiao contemplated the invitation for a moment and refused decisively in the end.
The hall floor was nearly carpeted with fallen eyeballs due to shock. Grand Elder Celine especially never imagined that Huwang Xiao would decline their Queen’s invitation.
Quickly concealing the disappointment in her eyes, Elf Queen Kelly braved a faint smile, “Since it is so, I will send Young Noble out. The elf race will always welcome Young Noble to the Elf Forest.”
The Elf Queen could represent the entire elf race, her open doors to Huwang Xiao meant that the entire elf race’s doors were open to him. The meaning of her words so clear that it triggered another bout of envious looks that bordered jealousy.
At the end of the banquet, the other five guests bid their farewells and dispersed.
Huwang Xiao also bid his farewell and the Elf Queen insisted to send him out. On the way out, neither of them spoke, which made the atmosphere weird and ambiguous.
When both of them were out of the Elf Forest, Elf Queen Kelly finally spoke, “Young Noble, are you really going to the Nine Dragons Temple?”
Huwang Xiao nodded.
“Nine Dragons Temple’s Great Hall Master Ao Kun is very strong, recognized as the strongest person on the Ten Directions Continent. He’s said to practice an ancient Dragon Clan battle skill, the Dragon Killing Art. Be extra careful when you’re facing him.” Elf Queen Kelly advised.
“I know.” Huwang Xiao said. He vanished from view moments later under the blanket of darkness.
Elf Queen Kelly stayed in the same spot for a long time before retrieving her gaze, returning to the Elf Forest behind.
After leaving the Elf Forest, Huwang Xiao made his way back to the Sacred Tiger City. In the Castellan Manor, he refined one piece of Life Crystal.
What disappointed Huwang Xiao was the fact that his cultivation practically did not budge an inch after refining the Life Crystal. Although Life Crystals were rare treasures, to someone like Huwang Xiao who had refined eight primordial divine dragons, possessing a perverse physique like the True Dragon Physique, the effects were negligible.
‘Looks like it won’t be possible to break through to Tenth Order Saint realm in a short time.’ Huwang Xiao thought to himself. After stepping into high-level Saint realm at Seventh Order, every small order breakthrough required several times more energy; to break through to Tenth Order Saint realm from Ninth Order where he was now, he’d probably need to refine three primordial divine dragons.
Inexplicably, Huwang Xiao thought of the Beast God Shrine.
Huwang Xiao decided to first stop by the Beast God Shrine before heading to Nine Dragons Temple to see if he could inherit the Beast God’s heritage, absorbing the Beast God’s power would greatly increase his strength. He had confidence in his current strength, but he didn’t have a full grasp of victory against Nine Dragons Temple’s Great Hall Master Ao Kun. After all, Ao Kun was hailed as Ten Directions Continent’s strongest person.
The next morning, Huwang Xiao left Sacred Tiger City, making his second visit to the Beast God Shrine.
Four days later, Huwang Xiao stood at the square in front of the Beast God Shrine, taking in the sight of the Shrine. Shrouded in a halo of mystery beneath the dazzling sunlight, it gave off an everlasting, ancient, and powerful aura. The Beast God Shrine stood proud and brilliant, creating a breathtaking scene.
Compared to the previous rowdiness during the beastmen tribes congregation, the surroundings were quiet, and under the quietness was a whelming silent pressure.
Huwang Xiao walked toward the shrine, one step at a time.
The Beast God Shrine was a towering structure that encompassed several li of land. Above its massive entrance was the symbol of a mythical beast that was exactly the same as the mythical beast head on the Beast God Scepter.
A thought struck Huwang Xiao and he took out the Beast God Scepter, holding it in his hand, yet the grand entrance remained closed without the slightest reaction.
Pondering the issue, Huwang Xiao channeled his battle qi into the Beast God Scepter, fully activating the seal inside the scepter and projecting all the mythical beast bloodlines contained within. In that split second, all the mythical beasts symbols above the massive shrine entrance burst out in dazzling light.
At that moment, the tightly closed entrance slowly opened by itself. After a while, the dazzling light dimmed and dissipated.
Holding the Beast God Scepter in his hand, Huwang Xiao stepped through the entrance, which closed itself behind him after he walked deeper into the shrine. Looking at the interior of the Shrine, its space was filled with large statues of different mythical beasts.
Those mythical beast statues looked like they were placed according to a certain array, and with a quick scan around, he calculated an even number of three hundred statues. Not one more, not one less.
While looking at the statues, Huwang Xiao arrived at the center of the hall.
At the center of the hall was a diagram of an array, bearing some similarities to the Ten Buddha Formation at the center of the Xumi Temple. The only difference was that Buddhism seals were used in the Ten Buddha Formation, whereas the symbols on this array were most likely ancient b
eastmen runes.
Huwang Xiao stood at the center of the array as he channeled his battle qi into the Beast God Scepter to stimulate the bloodline power contained within. When he did so, a powerful energy burst up from beneath the array.
Ch.477
Huwang Xiao was genuinely alarmed. The energy gushing up from below the array formation was far more powerful and turbulent than the energy coursing through his body when refining the primordial divine dragons!
Was this… the Beast God’s power?!
Huwang Xiao discovered that this overwhelming energy actually integrated perfectly with the bloodline power of the Beast God Scepter. At this point, the Beast God Scepter flew out of his hand, hovering high up in the shrine center, emitting a faint ruby luster that shrouded Huwang Xiao entirely.
In the next second, the many mythical beast statues placed in the hall also burst out in a dazzling light, spewing out whorls of energy from their mouths that looked like spheres, a total of three hundred of them.
These energy spheres then landed on Huwang Xiao’s body. Their scorching heat burned him as if they wanted to melt his body to nothing! While this was happening, the powerful Beast God power gushing out from the array drilled madly into his body as well.
Throwing hesitation out of his mind, he quickly sat down cross-legged, running the Asura Tactics faster than ever before, cycle after cycle, refining and absorbing the Beast God energy gushing from the array and the energy spheres from three hundred mythical beast statues.
Even so, both of those energies were too ferocious. Despite his freakish True Dragon Physique, he felt his body expanding, stretching out. Pain shot through his nerves. If it wasn’t for his True Dragon Physique and experience from refining eight primordial divine dragons, the very instant both energies touched his body, he would have exploded and died!
Time trickled by, a day passed.
Finally, the tearing pain gradually subsided. As he ran the Asura Tactics at a manic speed, the Beast God power and the mythical beast’s energy spheres continued to fuse with every part of Huwang Xiao’s body. He then noticed the change in his Qi Sea; his battle qi began to transform, influenced by the Beast God’s power, and his True Dragon Physique was being tempered, becoming tougher. The same was happening to the true essence in his dantian.
Two days passed
Huwang Xiao felt like he was bathing under the warm sunshine, enveloped in the eternal brightness.
Half a month passed.
A faint ruby red glow enshrouded Huwang Xiao, the same faint ruby red glow emitted by the Beast God Scepter. Behind Huwang Xiao emerged, one after another, shadows of mythical beasts.
In the beginning, it was only a dozen or so, but the shadows increased as time passed, reaching an even three hundred. Together with these shadows, some images and memories appeared in Huwang Xiao’s mind.
By the time one month had passed, the mythical beast shadows behind Huwang Xiao had grown more vivid and real, the Beast God aura exuding from his body was more powerful, spreading out in every direction.
On this day, the dazzling light from the array dissipated all of a sudden, followed by the three hundred energy spheres from the mythical beast statues’ mouths. The faint ruby red light from the Beast God Scepter high above the hall also dimmed, retreating back into the scepter as it slowly descended.
Huwang Xiao opened his eyes and stretched out his right arm to catch the Beast God Scepter. Only at this moment did he feel a true bloodline connection with the Beast God Scepter, truly becoming a part of him, of one body.
He put the Beast God Scepter away, allowing it to submerge under his skin. With a thought, a ruby red light exploded from his body as shadows of mythical beasts flew out from within him, proof that Huwang Xiao and the Beast God Scepter had merged together, that he had received the previous generation Beast God’s heritage from refining the Beast God power, becoming a bona fide beastmen tribes’ Beast God!
It could be said that for the current Huwang Xiao, merely relying upon the Beast God power residing in him, even without the Beast God Scepter itself, it was sufficient to deter all beastmen tribes’ experts. Moreover, the pressure from the Beast God power in his body was much stronger than the Beast God Scepter.
He slowly checked his internal condition.
Receiving the Beast God heritage and refining the Beast God power actually propelled his cultivation to rise all the way to late-Ninth Order Saint realm! Between shock then delight, he focused on the latter.
Initially, he didn’t have full confidence in being able to defeat the Nine Dragons Temple’s Ao Kun, now however, his confidence was overflowing! As long as that Ao Kun had yet to breakthrough to God Realm, Huwang Xiao had absolute certainty that he could defeat him relying on his own strength!
His purpose in going to the Nine Dragons Temple wasn’t as simple as ‘requesting’ them to hand over the Lion Tribe’s Jesse. Huwang Xiao wanted to subjugate the Nine Dragons Temple!
With the Nine Dragons Temple under his control, taking over the remaining two temples would be more or less effortless. Subduing the demonic beast clans’ three main forces inevitably meant that he had the whole lot of them under his command. Adding the beastmen tribes’ forces, he was one step closer to conquering the entire Ten Directions Continent.
Taking a deep breath to calm himself, Huwang Xiao then exited the Beast God Shrine.
Catching a last look at the ever mysterious and ancient Beast God Shrine, Huwang Xiao’s silhouette flickered into a blur, disappearing from sight.
‘It’s been more than a month, the Nine Dragons Temple is probably annoyed from all the waiting.’ Huwang Xiao smirked inwardly as his figure whistled through at breakneck speed toward the demonic beast clans’ territory.
However, the human race territory stood between the beastmen tribes and demonic beast clans. Therefore, to reach Nine Dragons Temple, Huwang Xiao had to pass through the human race lands.
Two days later, he arrived at the first human territory on the Ten Directions Continent.
The sunlight was slightly hazy as Huwang Xiao stood before the city gates of a human governed city, staring at the city name written in ancient characters: Vermillion City.
“Vermillion City.” Huwang Xiao was dumbfounded and speechless for a second. Recalling the young man Zhu Yu he met more than a month ago in the Elf Forest, he was none other than the Zhu Family’s disciple. The same Zhu Family that ruled this Vermillion City.
He laughed self-mockingly wondering if he’d run into that Zhu Family’s disciple, Zhu Yu? Throwing the random thoughts at the back of his mind, Huwang Xiao walked toward the city gates following the crowd.
The Vermillion City, although slightly subpar in comparison to certain imperial cities on Snow Wind Continent, was still grander than royal cities on a kingdom level. The streets were packed with people hurrying about, from humans, dwarves, to those from the demonic beasts clans, sea tribes, and even beastmen could be spotted.
This was Huwang Xiao’s first visit to a human governed city on the Ten Directions Continent, there was novelty in everything he saw in the Vermillion City.
But he also noticed an obvious attitude amongst the humans. When a human came across a beastmen or demonic beast clan member, they would hasten to give way just like how commoners would give way to the nobles deemed more superior than themselves.
This made Huwang Xiao’s heart feel uncomfortable.
Although he had taken the position as the new Beast God, at his core, Huwang Xiao was of the human race.
While he was minding his own business walking along the street, a commotion happened not far in front of him. Other pedestrians exclaimed in fright, quickly running to the sides, giving way.
Huwang Xiao looked over, watching several demonic beast young men in peculiar robes riding on a Flaming Beast and dashing through the street in his direction, raising a trail of dust behind them. In the blink of an eye, they were thirty meters away from Huwang Xiao.
At this point,
all other pedestrians, especially of the human race, had fled to the sides of the street, leaving one sole figure at the center of the street.
The leading demonic beast young man had no idea if the human standing still on the street was dazed due to shock or fear, but a sinister grin emerged on his face. Exerting more pressure on the mount beneath him, the Flaming Beast let out a roar and charged at Huwang Xiao even faster.
The Flaming Beast ridden by the several young men was gigantic, four meters in height on thick-muscled legs. Moreover, the Flaming Beast mount had reached the Xiantian realm. An average Xiantian realm expert would either die or be crippled if they managed to survive a collision with this meat tank.
Huwang Xiao sneered watching everything. When the mount was ten meters away from him, a fierce tempest rose, blowing the several young men and the Flaming Beast off the street, whirling them to the air before plummeting to the ground from a ten-meter height.
Strong trembles shook the street from the crash and zig-zagged crack lines appeared on the street’s surface.
A short while later, the several demonic beast young men crawled out from underneath the Flaming Beast’s corpse. All of them covered in dust from head to toe, caught between anger and fear looking at Huwang Xiao.
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Vermillion City’s Castellan Manor.
The main hall inside the Castellan Manor was filled with festive cheers. On the main host’s seat sat a suave looking young man, and this young man’s every action spoke of the upper-class nobility.
One could detect lightning fluctuations around this young man, thin threads of lightning flashed at random. He was the Thunder Human King’s son, Lei Hua.
In the seat a little further down from Lei Hua was the Vermillion City’s Castellan, Zhu Family’s Patriarch, Zhu Mingcan. Other than Zhu Mingcan, the Zhu Family’s Elders were all present without exception.
