by Shian Jeen
Watching this, Zhao Shu and Zhang Fu exchanged a glance, both leaped toward Huwang Xiao, wanting to pull his arms away from his head, and at the same time, attempting to suppress the terrifying energy wreaking havoc in Huwang Xiao’s body. But when they came in contact with Huwang Xiao’s arm, they were once again flung away by the overwhelming power inside Huwang Xiao’s body. This time, both were repelled much farther, slamming into the walls of the Xumi Temple.
It took some effort for Zhao Shu and Zhang Fu to get back on their feet.
All of a sudden, Huwang Xiao’s anguished howls stopped. Watching Huwang Xiao, Zhao Shu and Zhang Fu saw a red flame spread over him, wrapping Huwang Xiao’s body like a layer of protection. When this red flame emerged, Huwang Xiao’s meridians and flesh, that were damaged by the invading power, started to heal. As the red flame burned, a layer of thick callous membrane formed on the surface of Huwang Xiao’s skin.
Similar to a phoenix’s nirvana, reborn from the ashes, Huwang Xiao’s body started to exude a throbbing vitality. The glaring red devil patterns under his skin gradually receded and dissipated.
Zhao Shu and Zhang Fu looked at each other with shock at the baffling change happening before their eyes. But before they could relax, the red devil patterns resurfaced, accompanied by the scary power’s return. Huwang Xiao started to howl from pain, clutching his head.
A short while later, the burst of vitality appeared once more.
The red devil patterns disappeared.
The process repeated for a total of ten times.
After the tenth time, the red devil patterns truly subsided, while the vitality continued to radiate from Huwang Xiao’s body, vigorous, abundant, so powerful that both Zhao Shu and Zhang Fu lacked the vocabulary to describe the atmosphere.
Although he was standing there, Huwang Xiao gave off the feeling that he was a different person altogether.
Zhao Shu and Zhang Fu exchanged another doubtful glance, cautiously moving closer to Huwang Xiao.
“Sovereign, are you alright?” Zhao Shu asked, observing carefully Huwang Xiao’s expression and movements.
Huwang Xiao looked over, those scarlet eyes looking at them actually caused Zhao Shu and Zhang Fu to shudder when meeting them. However, very quickly, the scarlet redness in Huwang Xiao’s eyes receded.
“I am fine.” Huwang Xiao shook his head. He endured it!
Recalling the purgatory torture he experienced, a cold shiver ran through Huwang Xiao involuntarily. In the last hours, his meridians were ravaged, shattered, and then healed, time and again. This was more horrendous and harrowing than being skinned alive.
“Sovereign, are you… really alright?” Zhang Fu stepped up beside Zhao Shu, asking for confirmation once more.
Noticing the concern in Zhao Shu and Zhang Fu’s eyes, he smiled, “I’m alright, what could happen to me?” Not only there was no problem with his body, it felt even better than it had ever been.
Coming out from that ordeal, he noticed two things: his battle qi cultivation broke through to the peak of half-Saint, and second, the true essence in his dantian enhanced by leaps and bounds. His overall physical defense greatly surpassed the level of an average Saint realm warrior.
Seeing Huwang Xiao’s expression that carried a resemblance to his normal self, both Zhao Shu and Zhang Fu’s hanging hearts finally relaxed.
“Sovereign, that power earlier...?” Zhao Shu asked.
“Most likely a vestige of power that the Ghost King imbued into the ring when he refined it.” Huwang Xiao pondered the question and replied Zhao Shu.
Although it was merely a weakened strand of power left behind by the Ghost King, it nearly obliterated Huwang Xiao. If it weren’t for his strong willpower and passable spiritual force, with both black and blue dragons protecting his soul, he would have lost himself in the pain, dying in the process.
“The Ghost King’s strength actually reached such a terrifying level!” Zhang Fu lamented with envy.
A small amount of power that the Ghost King imbued into the Ghost King Ring many hundreds of thousands of years ago was enough to gravely injure them both, they could only try to imagine the extent of the Ghost King’s true strength. If it weren’t for the fact that a long time had passed, lessening the power, just now Zhao Shu and Zhang Fu would have ended up with more than simple grave injuries.
Subsequently, Huwang Xiao gave each of them a drop of Geocentric Buddha Elixir. Zhao Shu and Zhang Fu expressed their thanks and Huwang Xiao sent both of them out of the Godly Mt. Xumi. Taking their leave, both went into closed-door practice to heal.
After both had left, Huwang Xiao began to look through the items inside the Ghost King Ring. Spreading his spiritual sense inside, what he found was a blood ocean!
Hovering above the blood ocean were a number of ghosts, but the strange thing was, instead of an intense ghost aura, these ghosts emitted a peaceful golden radiance. From those ghosts’ bodies, Huwang Xiao caught whiffs of vague fragrance.
The fragrance of spirit pellets!
Huwang Xiao instantly understood, those large ghosts hovering above the blood ocean were all Ghost King Dans! The Ghost King Dans that had taken shape! Furthermore, each Ghost King Dan manifestation had reached the Saint realm in cultivation. Although none reached mid or high-level, they were still stronger compared to giant ghost Feng Yang, averaging at late-First Order Saint realm.
Excited, Huwang Xiao took one of the Ghost King Dan manifestations out from the blood ocean. The instant the ghost was out of the spatial ring, detecting Huwang Xiao’s presence, it lunged toward him without hesitation. Huwang Xiao sneered, with a simple wave of his palm, he sent the ghost flying back.
If Huwang Xiao was still a peak late-Xiantian Tenth Order, he would have needed to exert a little more effort to subjugate this Saint realm ghost, but now, it was effortless. Huwang Xiao caught up with the ghost in a flicker, an Earthen Buddha Palm struck accurately on the ghost’s body. It’s body flew out in a different direction.
Without any suspense, a short while later, the ghost surrendered, its body shrunk in size until it was a thumb-sized round pellet.
The pellet was claret red in colour, with a lustrous gloss over the surface, projecting a vague shadow from within, the shadow of the ‘ghost’ earlier.
Not wasting any time, Huwang Xiao sat crossed-legged within the Ten Buddha Formation as he swallowed the pellet. Abundant surging energy filled Huwang Xiao like great waves, spreading throughout his limbs and body. Huwang Xiao concentrated all his effort into refining and absorbing the energy from the Ghost King Dan.
As he progressed, his Qi Sea started to evolve. The liquid battle qi in his Qi Sea began to condense like it was about to solidify, resembling diamond, reflecting soft sporadic glints of metallic golden.
The three mandates above Huwang Xiao’s Qi Sea were also shining with the same golden glints.
Strands of fiendish aura floated out from Huwang Xiao’s body, but they were quickly swallowed by the Ten Buddha Formation.
Two days and three nights later, Huwang Xiao opened his eyes. Finally, he had fully absorbed one Ghost King Dan.
“So it’s like this!” Huwang Xiao exclaimed to himself.
After refining a Ghost King Dan, Huwang Xiao finally understood why this legendary Ghost King Dan was said to be capable of helping half-Saints and peak half-Saints in breaking through to Saint realm.
Breaking through to the Saint realm was highly dependent on one’s battle qi cultivation and would be hard to achieve, nearly impossible. At the same time, one must have certain space law comprehension, and this Ghost King Dan contained the Ghost King’s enlightenment towards the space law. Refining and absorbing a Ghost King Dan would enable one to springboard on the Ghost King’s space law comprehension, therefore greatly increasing one’s chances of breaking into the Saint realm.
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However, even though the Ghost King Dan contained the Ghost King’s space law comprehension, it didn’t mean that one could brea
kthrough to Saint realm just by swallowing one or two Ghost King Dans. Saint realm territory was not that easy to enter.
Huwang Xiao swept a glance over the ‘ghosts’ floating above the blood ocean inside the Ghost King Ring, a rough estimate gave Huwang Xiao slightly over four hundred Ghost King Dans, if Huwang Xiao absorbed all of them, it would probably be enough to propel him into the Saint realm.
Thus, Huwang Xiao wasn’t anxious to start with them, instead, he carefully scanned every nook and cranny within the Ghost King Ring’s space. He found the Ghost King Dan, but what about the legendary Ghost King Sutra?
What bewildered Huwang Xiao was that his spiritual sense had explored up, down, and sideways around the space, yet he didn’t find any clue related to the secret cultivation skill.
In the next moment, Huwang Xiao’s eyes caught sight of the blood ocean once again. What about the bottom of the blood ocean?
When Huwang Xiao’s spiritual sense tried to explore the blood ocean, a dazzling light shot out and disintegrated Huwang Xiao’s spiritual sense. He had no way to check the bottom of the blood ocean.
A tiny frown formed between Huwang Xiao’s brows. He resorted to the Eye of Hell, the eerie red glow shone on the ring and inside it, but it only managed to penetrate ten zhang down from the surface of the ocean, unable to see further down. In the end, after many attempts, Huwang Xiao could only give up for now.
‘It seems like I need to try after breaking into the Saint realm.’ Huwang Xiao speculated in his mind. He then put away the Ghost King Ring and took out the Supreme Ghost Flag he got when he defeated Feng Yang on his way to the Ghost King’s cultivation cave.
On the journey back, Huwang Xiao focused on improving his Godly Xumi Art, Asura Tactics, as well as having a good time, which indirectly caused him to neglect this Supreme Ghost Flag. After refining the Supreme Ghost Flag and using it as the core to arrange the Sea of Devils and Ghosts Array, not only could it trap the enemies, it could also eliminate them.
Huwang Xiao stood in the center of the Ten Buddha Formation after taking out the Supreme Ghost Flag. Slowly but surely, he erased the tool spirit inside the Supreme Ghost Flag using the Buddhism energy from the formation. When that was done, he extracted a drop of blood from his heart, dripping it onto the Supreme Ghost Flag, instantly, the thousands of devils and ghosts inside the flag came alive, shrill shrieks and howls echoed faintly from the flag. At the same time, the mysterious runes on the flagstaff glimmered in a dazzling light.
According to the method Feng Yang told him beforehand, Huwang Xiao swiftly suppressed the ghost aura boiling from the ghost flag while he branded his own soul mark on the flag.
One day passed.
Suddenly, a bright light shone from the ghost flag, lighting up the entire temple hall. As the light dimmed, the sinister-looking inscriptions of devils and ghosts slowly quieted down.
Seeing this, Huwang Xiao breathed out in relief.
After a day’s effort, he finally fully refined the Supreme Ghost Flag. Fortunately, he had first erased the tool spirit inside with the Ten Buddha Formation’s support, otherwise he might not be able to refine this Supreme Ghost Flag even if he used ten days to half a month’s time. Despite that, his battle qi and the true essence in his dantian were largely consumed in the process.
Hence, Huwang Xiao swallowed a drop of Geocentric Buddha Elixir and executed the Instant Recovery martial ability, shimmering blue lights sparkled around Huwang Xiao’s body. A few seconds later, his expended battle qi and true essence recovered.
‘I wonder how powerful it is…’ Huwang Xiao muttered curiously.
Huwang Xiao exited the Xumi Temple. Arriving in his own little yard, he raised the Supreme Ghost Flag in the air.
The Supreme Ghost Flag descended from midair, the bottom end of the flagstaff fixed to the center of the yard. Huwang Xiao ran his battle qi and the wicked, sinister devils and ghost drawings on the flag began to move, the mysterious runic patterns on the flagstaff started to glimmer. In that instant, monstrous ghost aura broke out like a flash flood out from the ghost flag. Accompanying the ghost aura were evils spirits and devils, one after another.
They appeared as if neverending. Each of them actually had the strength of a peak half-Saint ghost. At first, Huwang Xiao was stunned, and then shock turned into delight.
Though these devils and evil spirits only had the strength of half-Saints, they triumphed in number. A First Order Saint realm wandering or getting lost inside the array would lose their life, no doubt. Even if the enemy was a Second Order Saint realm warrior, the array would be able to contain them for some time, they would be unable to get out.
Furthermore, this Supreme Ghost Flag’s power could be enhanced, the more experts the ghost flag swallowed, the stronger it could become. After testing the Supreme Ghost Flag’s power for an hour or so, Huwang Xiao kept it away. Because Huwang Xiao was careful to limit the area within his yard, the rumbling ghost aura did not alert anyone in the Southern Hill Estate.
Finished with what he wanted to do, Huwang Xiao walked out of his yard toward the direction of the grand hall, but when he was passing by his younger brother Huwang Xiaohai’s yard, he heard sturdy blasts of punches hitting the air. His footsteps halted. With a direction change, Huwang Xiao stood watching from the entrance of Huwang Xiaohai’s yard.
Huwang Xiaohai, with his upper body naked, revealing a firm muscular torso, was practicing a set of fist skill called Heart Burrowing Fist, a mid-grade Earth rank battle skill. With Huwang Family’s current reputation and strength, it was not difficult to have Earth rank battle skills.
Hearing the sound of footsteps, Huwang Xiaohai turned his head around, beaming when he saw Huwang Xiao. Stopping his practice, he called out: “Big brother!”
Huwang Xiao nodded while smiling, walking into the yard.
“I heard Dad and Mom say that you have a target of affection?” Huwang Xiao asked.
Hearing this question, Huwang Xiaohai’s face turned red, fidgeting awkwardly.
“What’s there to be shy about?” Huwang Xiao laughed at his younger brother. Huwang Xiaohai was already twenty this year, in Martial Spirit World, a young man would bring a bride home at the age of eighteen or nineteen.
“Come, let us brothers go out for a walk and drink some wine.” Huwang Xiao said.
All these years, other than practice, all Huwang Xiao did was to practice even more. He spent very little time accompanying his parents and even less time given to this younger brother of his.
“Yes, Big brother!” Huwang Xiaohai was very happy, sprinting off to put on clothes and stepped out of the Southern Hill Estate. Huwang Xiao did not call for any guards with them, they were just two brothers spending time together.
All in all, the time spent by Huwang Xiaohai in Duanren Imperial City was longer than Huwang Xiao by far. All year round, Huwang Xiaohai stayed in his yard, practicing, therefore he wasn’t familiar with the Imperial City outside the four walls of the Southern Hill Estate.
While walking, Huwang Xiao asked about Huwang Xiaohai’s practice, the problems he had, clarifying them to Huwang Xiaohai one by one. Even though Zhao Shu and Zhang Fu would occasionally guide Huwang Xiaohai, certain aspects of their battle qi comprehension were limited compared to Huwang Xiao. Listening to Huwang Xiao’s explanation, Huwang Xiaohai gained a deeper level of comprehension related to battle qi and his own cultivation.
The two brothers walked without direction as they talked, until an hour and a half later. Huwang Xiao stopped in front of a restaurant called Happy Monarch House. From its outside appearance, this Happy Monarch House looked elegantly decorated, the lively atmosphere inside could be felt where they stood.
“How about this Happy Monarch Restaurant?” Huwang Xiao looked at his younger brother.
The only two places he had been to in the past were the Unforgettable Intoxication Restaurant, where they had the Beauty Allure Wine, which he thought was not bad, and the other one was the Sapidity Wine House, which he vi
sited with Xie Puti to drink Sapidity Wine.
“I heard that this Happy Monarch’s Hometown Wine is quite good.” Huwang Xiaohai said.
“Hometown Wine?” Huwang Xiao added another question, “You were here before?”
Huwang Xiaohai shook his head, “I just randomly heard some of the estate guards speak about it.”
Huwang Xiao nodded, “Come on, let’s go in.”
The brothers walked in, went up to the first floor, searched for a table closer to the window and sat down. Calling the waiter over, they ordered some dishes and two jugs of Hometown Wine to see if it really was as good as the guards said.
Soon, the waiter brought their orders, filling the table with fragrant dishes and two jugs of wine.
Just when Huwang Xiao wanted to uncork the wine, they heard loud noises of discussion from the next table.
“Did you hear, this year’s Imperial City Battle’s first place winner was a young man named Huo Ping. This Huo Ping’s martial spirit is a top grade thirteen White Bear, just a young’un, twenty-two-year-old and already a Xiantian Second Order!”
“Some people say that this Huo Ping’s talent exceeds that year’s Young Noble Divine Dragon, Huwang Xiao.”
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Huwang Xiao couldn’t help smiling a little hearing the discussion on the next table and didn’t mind it in the least.
Huo Ping? Top grade thirteen martial spirit, White Bear, twenty two years old, late-Xiantian Second Order strength… ‘Indeed, his talent can be considered not bad.’ Huwang Xiao thought to himself.
Huwang Xiao didn’t mind the discussion on the next table, but hearing someone put a new guy, Huo Ping, on the same status as his Big brother, even saying that the kid’s talent was much better compared to his Big brother, Huwang Xiaohai was very much disgruntled in his heart.
Fire exploded in Huwang Xiaohai’s eyes, but just as he was about to stand up, Huwang Xiao pressed a hand on his younger brother’s arm, shaking his head,”Just a small thing, leave it.”