Chapter 262: Ally with Sky Magi Sect?
Liu Liyang’s surrender was a big stride in Huang Xiaolong’s plan of swallowing the Blood Swallow School.
Liu Liyang was a Blood Swallow Sect Elder, one of the more influential ones, which gave him privy to many hidden secrets of the school. Although Chen Xiaotian had been investigating and following the Blood Swallow School, they were informations Chen Xiaotian was unable to get wind of.
For example, while cultivating the Undead Devil Physique, the Blood Swallow School’s Doyen Jiang Tianhua erred, causing damaging demonic energy to enter his body. Every year, there would be a day when his strength would fall to the weakest point. Or, the fact that Blood Swallow School’s Deputy Cui Ming and the Nine Fiend Sect Sovereign’s little concubine had illicit moonlight rendezvous, etc.
“Jiang Tianhua has a day every year when his strength falls greatly?” Huang Xiaolong asked.
“That’s right, Young Lord.” Liu Liyang reiterated, “However, this Subordinate doesn’t know which day exactly.”
Huang Xiaolong nodded, a somber, pensive expression on his face. A brief moment later he said to Chen Xiaotian, “Go spread rumours about the affair between Blood Swallow Sect’s Deputy Cui Ming and Nine Fiend Sect Sovereign’s little concubine. Remember, act with discretion.”
Chen Xiaotian was stumped but quickly recovered and acknowledged the orders, for Huang Xiaolong instructed him to pay attention to the reaction from Blood Swallow School and Nine Fiend Sect after the word had been let out.
As for Liu Liyang, Huang Xiaolong instructed him to stay at the Sky Magi Sect’s headquarters and keep a low profile, he was not allowed to show himself until he had successfully taken over the Blood Swallow School.
Since that day, rumors about the affair between Blood Swallow School’s Deputy Cui Ming and Nine Fiend Sect Sovereign’s little concubine spread. Just like what Huang Xiaolong predicted, the Nine Fiend Sect’s Sovereign, Hu Han, blew up in rage. In front of an assembly of Nine Fiend Sect disciples, he beheaded that concubine. After that, he made a public demand for Blood Swallow School Doyen’s, Jiang Tianhua, to hand out Deputy Cui Ming.
Cui Ming was Jiang Tianhua’s both left and right hands, there was almost no chance of Jiang Tianhua complying with the request. Hence, the Blood Swallow School and Nine Fiend Sect’s relationship became extremely tense, as if a bloody battle could break out at any moment.
Receiving the report of this result, Huang Xiaolong nodded with satisfaction inwardly, all he had to do now was to sit back and watch as the two tigers battled. While both sides were fighting, he would gain control over their Elders.
Amidst the intense battle atmosphere, Hu Han and Jiang Tianhua’s attention on Sky Magi Sect would slacken, which was advantageous to Huang Xiaolong’s plan to spread his control over both sides.
Two days later, Chen Xiaotian reported that a fight broke out between the Blood Swallow School and Nine Fiend Sect’s disciples, more than a dozen dead and injured. As time wore on, scuffles and fights between both sides’ disciples became more common and frequent. The conflict between the two forces escalated, while Huang Xiaolong immersed himself in secluded cultivation within the Xumi Temple.
Huang Xiaolong’s strength grew stronger with each passing day. Every day was filled with practicing the Godly Xumi Art, Asura Tactics, the Body Metamorphose Scripture, and he insisted on allocating time for the Ancient Puppetry Art, Soul Mandate, as well as the Asura Sword Skill’s Seventh Move: Death God’s Chain.
The most obvious improvement was in Huang Xiaolong’s Ancient Puppetry Art. Initially, he estimated he would need at least a year to break through to the second level, yet now, there were signs that he would be able to advance in two months’ time.
Once he entered the second level, his spiritual force strength would take a great leap, allowing him to easily brand six people with soul marks at once and significantly reduce his spiritual force recovery period to a mere day or two.
Not forgetting that his Eye of Hell’s attack power would also be enhanced due to his stronger spiritual force. At the Ancient Puppetry Art’s first level of spiritual force, casting the Eye of Hell spiritual attack on an enemy with similar strength would only bring about negligible effects, but this would change when his spiritual force entered the second level, the power of his spiritual attacks would pose a threat to his enemies.
Other than holing up in practice, Huang Xiaolong seized every chance to intercept the Blood Swallow School and Nine Fiend Sect’s Elders every time they ventured out of Black Demon City for tasksㅡthose who refused to submit were always killed on the spot, whereas those who surrendered and submitted were branded with a soul mark.
One month passed in the blink of an eye.
In this one month, other than Liu Liyang, the number of Elders from Blood Swallow School and Nine Fiend Sect who submitted grew to eleven, seven people from Blood Swallow School and four people from Nine Fiend Sect. Though the number seemed small, it was by no means a weak force.
At first, Huang Xiaolong planned to take control over Blood Swallow School before making his move on Nine Fiend Sect, but he had changed his mind, penetrating both sides simultaneously, speeding up the process of having Black Demon City under his control.
Due to Sky Magi Sect pouring oil over fire from the shadows, in this one month, the conflict between the Blood Swallow School and Nine Fiend Sect had become overblown to the point where one side couldn’t stand the sight of the other, akin to fire and water.
As for Huang Xiaolong, after having eleven Elders of these two forces submit to him, his power spread swiftly by pulling the same old trick of having these Elders invite Elders of Blood Swallow School and Nine Fiend Sect to a banquet, and subjugation them one by one.
Two months later, a total of twenty-three Elders from both the Blood Swallow School and Nine Fiend Sect submitted to Huang Xiaolong. The ones who refused amounted to six, all silenced on the spot by Huang Xiaolong.
With the twenty-three Elders and the Sky Magi Sect, Huang Xiaolong had control of half of Black Demon City’s power. Even if the Blood Swallow School and Nine Fiend Sect made a pact and turned their spearhead towards his side, Huang Xiaolong was confident that he could fight them on an even scale.
In the Xumi Temple, Huang Xiaolong swallowed a drop of Geocentric Buddha Elixir and stood at the center of the Ten Buddha Formation, practicing the Godly Xumi Art, as the Asura Tactics and the Body Metamorphose Scripture ran simultaneously inside his body. Above him, Buddhism energy, netherworld spiritual energy, and true dragon qi came down like a waterfall.
As Huang Xiaolong practiced, ethereal shadows of Buddha statues, Archdemons, and Primordial Divine Dragons appeared around him. The Buddhism energy, netherworld battle qi, and true dragon qi in his Qi Sea and meridians became denser, surging endlessly.
The night passed.
Huang Xiaolong stopped practicing at daybreak.
Two months passed, Huang Xiaolong managed to bring his cultivation infinitely closer to Xiantian Seventh Order from peak late-Xiantian Sixth Order. In another ten days, or half a month at most, he was confident he could make that breakthrough, and that included his Ancient Puppetry Art, which was at the peak of the first level.
In the Blood Swallow School’s great hall, the small-built Jiang Tianhua was sitting on the main throne-like seat with an ugly expression on his face. Just now, the Nine Fiend Sect’s Sovereign, Hu Han, ordered down that if the Blood Swallow School did not hand out Cui Ming, their Nine Fiend Sect disciples would kill every Blood Swallow School disciple they come across!
Wasn’t this the same as uprooting the Blood Swallow School? Extermination?
Hand out Cui Ming? If he really handed out Cui Ming, wasn’t that the same as having his dignity as a Doyen trampled? How would he govern the Elders in the future, how would they look at him? Moreover, Cui Ming was both his left and right hands, extremely loyal to him.
Jiang Tianhua grew angrier by the second as these thoughts swirled in his mind.
“Sovereign, that Hu Han is bullying us too much! He’s really acting as if our Blood Swallow Sect is a soft persimmon that they can mold as they like!” At this time, one of the Elders present in the great hall stood out clamoring.
“That’s true, Sovereign. If worst comes to worst, we’ll just fight them!” Another Blood Swallow Sect Elder echoed the sentiment. However, these two Elders were already subjugated by Huang Xiaolong.
The other Elders who submitted to Huang Xiaolong sang the same tune in front of Jiang Tianhua, they were ready to fight to the death with the Nine Fiend Sect
“Sovereign, how about we ally with Sky Magi Sect?” At this point, a tall, middle-aged Elder possessing excellent features suggested. And this middle-aged man was none other than Deputy Cui Ming.
“Ally with Sky Magi Sect?” Jiang Tianhua was surprised for a moment and then nodded slowly. In this situation, this was the only option available.