Watching his disciple’s lukewarm response, the Ascending Moon Old Man’s annoyance rose and he widened his eyes to glare at Huang Xiaolong, “Fine, this old man is too lazy to say more.” His hands reached out to grab jug of Royal Pill Wine, snapping: “Drink!”
Intoxicating wine fragrance wafted out from the jug.
The Ascending Moon Old Man said that he was too lazy to say any more, yet while the master-disciple duo drank their fill, the old man continued to nag between mouthfuls of wine, claiming that Huang Xiaolong was someone with great luck and blessings, so he must spare no effort in searching for the Black Tortoise, White Tiger, and Vermillion Bird Divine Fires.
Huang Xiaolong could only nod his head the entire time.
A few hours later, Huang Xiaolong came out from the Ascending Moon Old Man’s courtyard. When he arrived at Shi Xiaofei’s courtyard, he found out from one of the maids that Shi Xiaofei had gone out early morning with Chen Ye’s daughter, Chen Lin.
Inwardly, Huang Xiaolong was thankful that he had gone to the Ascending Moon Old Man first, allowing him to escape a disaster.
Time seemed to fly by, in the blink of an eye half a month came and went.
Huang Xiaolong, Shi Xiaofei, and the Ascending Moon Old Man had stayed for more than half a month in the Royal Pill City, therefore Huang Xiaolong felt that it was time to return to the Black Warrior Institute.
But the Ascending Moon Old Man did not return with Huang Xiaolong and Shi Xiaofei. According to the old man, it wasn’t every day that he came to the Royal Pill City and so he wished to stay a little bit longer.
Naturally, everyone knew very well the real reason why the Ascending Moon Old Man wanted to stay a bit longer in the Royal Pill City.
Huang Xiaolong had no way about it if the old man wanted to stay in the Royal Pill City. After bidding farewell, he and Shi Xiaofei departed from the Royal Pill City toward the Black Warrior Institute.
In no hurry to get back, the two of them travelled at a moderate pace, cultivating along the way. They would stop for a day or two to rest when passing by some inhabited planets.
Two months later, Huang Xiaolong and Shi Xiaofei finally arrived back at the Golden Dragon Peak.
Not long after Huang Xiaolong and Shi Xiaofei returned, Eldest Senior Apprentice-brother Liu Yun and Third Apprentice-sister Qi Wen came over to the Golden Dragon Peak to congratulate Huang Xiaolong.
During the Alchemist Grandmaster Competition, Huang Xiaolong displayed his alchemy skills, using the Pill Refining Divine Beast Diagram to produce tribulation grade Exalted Divinity Pellets. The news had already spread throughout the entire Black Tortoise Galaxy. Both Liu Yun and Qi Wen had been stretching their necks long waiting for Huang Xiaolong to come back.
Liu Yun and Qi Wen were sincerely happy for their little Junior Apprentice-brother for winning the Pill King title in this term’s Alchemist Grandmaster Competition.
Liu Yun was beaming, “When Wang Na, that old witch, found out that Junior Apprentice-brother defeated Xiang Mingzhi and won the first place in this term’s alchemy competition, she was smashing cups all around. I heard she was angered to the point where she almost vomited blood!”
Qi Wen was also laughing, “That Jiang Family Patriarch destroyed his own yard after hearing the news. Worse still, he actually killed several of his guards due to anger!”
Huang Xiaolong laughed loudly, “Better still if that adulterous couple is angered to their deaths so we won’t have to feel disgusted seeing them anymore!”
All three burst into laughter.
“Too bad Master is still in death seclusion. If he knew that you won the first place in the Alchemist Grandmaster Competition, he’d be extremely happy!”
Huang Xiaolong nodded in agreement.
During their talks, Huang Xiaolong inquired from Liu Yun and Qi Wen regarding the latest news in the Black Warrior Institute, especially if that old witch Wang Na took any action.
Liu Yun shook his head, “Wang Na’s side did not make any suspicious movements. However, she seems to be in close contact with the demonic beast clan lately.”
“Demonic beast clan!” Huang Xiaolong’s eyebrow rose to his forehead.
Qi Wen clarified: “It’s the demonic beast clan’s Goldenbrow Beast King.”
At this, Huang Xiaolong’s eyes narrowed.
Years ago, not long after he was promoted to an elite disciple, he left the Black Warrior Institute for the Wintry North World. On the way, he was ambushed by the Azure Dragon Institute Grand Elder Li Qingming, and later hunted by a demonic beast clan King.
After killing Li Qingming, Huang Xiaolong managed to escape the Beast King’s detection and pursue with Dragon Emperor Ao Taiyi’s help. Later, he investigated and found out the identity of that Beast King—Goldenbrow Beast King.
Stringing this information together, it seems that when he left the Black Warrior Institute that year, it was also Wang Na that old witch who informed the Goldenbrow Beast King. It wasn’t that Wang Na seemed to be in close contact with the demonic beast clan only recently, they had been in close contact a long time ago!
Recalling this, Huang Xiaolong immediately recounted what happened that year to Liu Yun and Qi Wen. Hearing this, both of them were stunned.
“If it is like this, it seems that Wang Na is plotting some insidious schemes with the demonic beast clan!” A sharp gleam flickered in Liu Yun’s eyes as he said this. If this was true, they had to be even more wary of Wang Na’s movements from now on.
Liu Yun and Qi Wen left after staying several hours at the Golden Dragon Peak. Before they left, Huang Xiaolong gave both of them one hundred Exalted Divinity Pellets each.
Two hundred Exalted Divinity Pellets was only a small amount from Huang Xiaolong’s three thousand, his reward for winning the first place in the Alchemist Grandmaster Competition. But when Liu Yun and Qi Wen received them, they were ecstatic.
One must understand, the Exalted Divinity Pellets were ranked first amongst sacred grade divine pellets; one pellet could almost enhance their physique as if they were born again. Strength improvement was a given, but most important of all, to peak late-Tenth Order God Realm cultivators like them, it greatly increased their chances of breaking through to Highgod Realm!
Though the increment was very little, to Liu Yun and Qi Wen, these pellets were precious treasures.
After seeing them off, Huang Xiaolong returned to the Nine Halls Bagua Formation.
It wasn’t because Huang Xiaolong was stingy that he gave Liu Yun and Qi Wen a hundred Exalted Divinity Pellet each. The herbs needed to refine them were too rare and difficult to find. Moreover, the current Huang Family was too weak, therefore he planned to have them consume the Exalted Divinity Pellets to increase their cultivation speed and strength.
Days went on as usual. Unknowingly, three years had passed.
In these three years, Huang Xiaolong remained on the Golden Dragon Peak, focusing solely on refining the rank six godhead and Buddha śarīra. With these two items, Huang Xiaolong’s strength increased by leaps and bounds, feeling a difference on a day to day basis.
The remaining Buddhism energy inside the Buddha śarīra had completely been refined by Huang Xiaolong in these three years’ time, propelling Huang Xiaolong to peak late-Seventh Order God Realm!
The peak of late-Seventh Order God Realm!
This speed made Liu Yun and Qi Wen, who would occasionally drop in to visit Huang Xiaolong, sigh in envy.
The Huang Family, Blessed Buddha Emperor Shi Fantian, Shi Xiaofei, Zhao Shu, Zhang Fu, and the rest also improved drastically in these three years’ time, fitting the idiom ‘to shed one’s mortal body and exchange one’s bones’.
All of Huang Xiaolong’s family members had entered high-level Saint realm.
Blessed Buddha Emperor, Zhao Shu, Zhang Fu, and several others were already late-First Order God Realm, whereas Shi Xiaofei’s progress was the most shocking of all with her awakened Pure Luminance Enlightened Buddha Physique. She had reached mid-Third Order God Realm.
Other than cultivation, Huang Xiaolong would go to the Black Warrior Institute’s Scripture Hall to study old records related to the Black Tortoise, White Tiger, and Vermillion Bird Divine Fires.
After three years of effort, Huang Xiaolong indeed found some breadcrumb clues about the Black Tortoise Divine Fire!
After organizing the information that he had collected over these three years, Huang Xiaolong came to a conclusion: the Black Tortoise Divine Fire was fond of water, extremely cold water! Hence, the Black Tortoise Divine Fire must be in a certain cold sea!
Still, this clue was too vague and the scope of the area was too large. Talking about an extremely cold sea, in the whole Black Tortoise Galaxy there were hundreds and thousands of them. It’d be impossible to go through them one by one. Huang Xiaolong needed more information to determine a direction, at the very least.
For instance, if he could pinpoint which world surface it was or the name of the sea, then the rest would be easy!