Although Huang Xiaolong had found more than four thousand golden beads, heaven and earth spiritual treasures like golden beads were never considered too much. Hence, Huang Xiaolong decided to search for more golden beads in other areas.
After some thought, Huang Xiaolong set his sights on moving closer to the distance of seven or eight li from the volcanic crater.
Although it was only a distance of two to three li difference from the crater, the waves of fire and unbearable heat were extremely terrifying. However, Huang Xiaolong estimated the extent of his safety by considering the combination of his True Dragon Physique and the four divine fires, and decided that he’d probably be fine.
Not forgetting his three supreme godheads, even if the fire poison were to seep into his body, it won’t be harmful to him.
Huang Xiaolong took a deep breath and flew closer toward the volcanic crater, and soon stopped when he reached the seven to eight li distance.
As he had estimated, despite the short two li, waves of fire here were far stronger; fire poison was so dense that they had taken the shape of snakes!
Even though these poisonous snakes were only as thick as an adult’s arm, one snake was capable of melting a whole mountain range.
Seeing this, Huang Xiaolong was more careful as he moved forward, pushing the four divine fires to the limit, devouring the fire poison snakes that attacked him. At the same time, his three supreme godheads’ godforce formed an ice element godforce which created an ice shield around him.
Although this ice element godforce shield was a little weak to defend against the fire poison snakes, it still managed to fence out some heat.
Huang Xiaolong no longer hesitated as his Archdevil Supreme Godhead’s suction force enveloped the lava on the ground in front of him. Immediately, one after another golden bead flew out from it.
However, the lava here was thicker and had greater resistance, therefore, it took a lot more effort to collect the golden beads in this area. Not to forget, Huang Xiaolong had to defend against the fire poison snakes as well, and his godforce was depleting at a rapid rate.
Huang Xiaolong started struggling to hold on after ten minutes had passed, despite his True Dragon Physique’s speedy recovery.
Barely twenty minutes had passed when Huang Xiaolong had to retreat to ten li distance boundary from the volcanic crater and swallow down a divine pellet to recover his godforce.
A few minutes later, Huang Xiaolong once again flew inwards for approximately twenty minutes to collect the golden beads, before he had to escape back to recover at the ten li distance boundary. He kept repeating repeating this whole routine again and again.
Although this method took more time, the harvest was bountiful. Three hours later, Huang Xiaolong had scoured all the areas within seven to eight li distance from the volcanic crater.
However, Huang Xiaolong was slightly disappointed. The number of golden beads that he had just collected was only slightly higher than before and did not meet his expectations. This time, Huang Xiaolong had found over ten thousand golden beads.
After taking this into consideration, Huang Xiaolong did not plan to explore any closer to the volcanic crater, hence he retreated to fifteen li distance to collect the golden beads. He then further retreated to twenty li distance from the volcanic crater.
It had taken Huang Xiaolong only one day to sweep through all of these areas. Looking at the setting sun on the horizon, there was a big smile on his face.
At this time, at fifty li area distance, Zhou Xu, Tan Lin, Chen Kai, and Sun Qiang were slowly searching for golden beads. All of them were wearing big smiles on their faces, as each of them had gotten a good harvest, especially Zhou Xhu and Tan Lin. Both of them had found fifteen to sixteen golden beads.
“It’s dusk now, we should leave and come back tomorrow.” Zhou Xu said to the other three with a smile, “If our luck for tomorrow is as good as today’s, we might be able to break the highest record.”
At night, their vision was limited and they could hardly see the ground. Therefore, they couldn’t continue searching for the golden beads, hence some people were already leaving.
Tan Lin looked at the armors on their bodies and smiled. "Our ancient fire element armors are really not bad, though we spent a good few hundred billion on them, it was worth it."
Their armors helped them to withstand the waves of fire as they entered the fifty li distance from the volcano. Otherwise, they would have struggled to get to this point just relying on their own strengths.
“I overheard someone saying that they saw Huang Xiaolong in the thirty li distance area,” Chen Kai added, “I wonder how he is doing?”
Zhou Xu sneered, “Just an idiot, he thinks the deeper he goes the more golden beads he could find? The amount of lava on the ground is much thicker closer to the volcanic crater, it’s ten times harder trying to find golden beads through that amount of lava. I’d say he probably found less than ten golden beads!”
“Ten? It’s already great luck if he could find even one!” Tan Lin snorted and went on, “Who can say for sure, maybe he didn’t even find a single golden bead, as the fire waves further inside are more intense, even for his True Dragon Physique. Maybe he’s already dead!”
“Senior Brother Tan Lin is right. Even the late-Tenth Order Ancient God Realm masters only dared to go as far as thirty li from the volcanic crater, but Huang Xiaolong actually went further beyond that, therefore, I refuse to believe that Huang Xiaolong could withstand the fire waves that even the late-Tenth Order Ancient God Realm masters couldn’t!” Sun Qiang laughed.
Right at this moment, a figure whistled through the air from behind them and the four of them turned to look who it was. They were rooted on the spot...
A person was flying in their direction at a very high speed—Huang Xiaolong!
Huang Xiaolong was soon right behind Zhou Xu’s group. He glanced at the four people as he flew past them.
Zhou Xu, Tan Lin, Chen Kai, and Sun Qiang’s eyes were a little dazed as they dumbly watched Huang Xiaolong fly away.
Just moments ago the four of them were talking about Huang Xiaolong meeting his demise, but now, not only he was alive, but had returned without a scratch?
"Even if he didn’t die, it doesn’t mean he found any golden beads inside." Tan Lin came back to his senses and sneered.
The four of them also flew back.
Huang Xiaolong spotted Li Lu, Wu Qian’er, and Luo Yunjie shortly after.
All three smiled when they saw him return. Li Lu’s hanging heart finally fell back to her chest.
"How is it?" Luo Yunjie anxiously walked towards Huang Xiaolong as he asked.
Huang Xiaolong understood Luo Yunjie’s question as he smiled and answered, "A lot."
Luo Yunjie took a guess, "About twenty?"
Huang Xiaolong laughed and left the answer hanging in the air; since Huang Xiaolong didn’t answer, Luo Yunjie thought, ‘is that admittance?’
“Damn—! You really found twenty beads? I used every method that I could possibly think of, yet only found three!” Luo Yunjie looked dramatically depressed.
Li Lu and Wu Qian’er looked at Huang Xiaolong with eyes slightly widened in surprise, neither of them thought Huang Xiaolong would find as many as twenty golden beads.
“Senior Brother Huang, you found so many golden beads, you should give each of us one.” Wu Qian’er joked.
“No problem.” Huang Xiaolong didn’t even hesitate when he answered.
One? Huang Xiaolong grinned inwardly. In one day, he had collected close to twenty thousand golden beads!
Wu Qian’er was merely joking, she didn’t expect Huang Xiaolong would really agree to give each of them one golden bead.
“Come on, let’s go back.” Huang Xiaolong smiled and said.
The group of four flew back to the Golden Wheel City.
Not far from them, Zhou Xu, Tan Lin, Chen Kai, and Sun Qiang looked upset. They had overheard Huang Xiaolong and Luo Yunjie’s conversation. Huang Xiaolong actually had found twenty golden beads!
Zhou Xu’s gaze swept around and spotted Guo Gang and his guards checking every leaving disciples’ spatial rings. A scheme formed in his mind.