by Shian Jeen
This was proof of how much the Principal cherished his youngest disciple.
Huwang Xiao received the Mulberry Sword, giving his thanks, “Thank you, Master.”
After Huwang Xiao took the Mulberry Sword, Feng Yang joyfully went on, “This Mulberry Sword is imprinted with a set of sword skills I created from enlightenment. After you refine this Mulberry Sword, practice the Mulberry Sword Technique!” Then, his head looked over at Grand Elder Chan Yu, “Make an announcement to the galaxy, I’ve taken Huwang Xiao as my disciple, the ceremony will be held one month later. All families’ Patriarchs and Sovereigns are invited to bear witness!”
As the Black Warrior Institute’s Principal, him receiving a disciple was a big event. The entire Black Tortoise Galaxy’s big event, of course it couldn't be considered done with the slapdash just now. The worship ceremony had to be conducted on a grand scale.
1. Mulberry Sword (sāngmù jiàn) - The ‘sang’ refers to the same Fusang tree (aka mulberry tree) of another legend/novel where the three-legged crow perched on, growing in a land where there are ten suns.
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Very soon, news of the Black Warrior Institute’s Principal receiving Huwang Xiao as a personal disciple spread out, sending great waves in the galaxy. At the same time, Huwang Xiao’s final score in the new disciple assessment was also spread out.
Some were shocked, some felt envious, and others were jealous.
Of course, most people felt that Huwang Xiao ascended to great heights in a single bound, akin to a poor country bumpkin that suddenly befriended the emperor of an empire.
However, when the super forces’ ancestors found out that Huwang Xiao had merely cultivated for no more than thirty years, their momentary daze turned into strong envy toward the Black Warrior Institute Principal for receiving such a heaven-defying ‘treasure.’
Whereas the Wang Family that was still harboring a grudge against Huwang Xiao could only give up on any ill intentions.
“Ancestor, are we really going to forget this matter?!” Within a certain space, Wang Biaoyuan’s face displayed great unwillingness. But, just as the words left his mouth, he was sent flying by the Wang Family Ancestor with a sweep of palm.
Holding the side of his face as he climbed up from the ground, Wang Biaoyuan was stunned with disbelief as he looked at his Ancestor. As far as his memories go, his Ancestor had never hit him.
The Wang Family Ancestor’s eyes were cold glancing at him, “The Wang Family’s face has been shamed by you! If you have the ability, go defeat Huwang Xiao fair and square. Roll back to your place, and go into closed-door practice!”
About the same time the news of the Black Warrior Institute Principal receiving Huwang Xiao as a personal disciple spread out, another piece of news also spread—Wang Biaoyuan was beaten to a pulp by Huwang Xiao in the Hall of Heroes square, turning the Wang Family into a laughing stock in the eyes of other prominent families.
A God Realm master, one that had the legendary Indestructible Vajra Physique was beaten like a dog by a half-step God Realm, if this wasn’t a joke, then what was?
The schadenfreude from the other families caused the Wang Family Ancestors to lose a lot of face.
Wang Biaoyuan dared not make another sound seeing that his Ancestor was really upset, squirming away as quickly as possible.
“Huwang Xiao!” Every time he recalled the scene of himself being pummeled by Huwang Xiao in the Hall of Heroes’ square, Wang Biaoyuan’s eyes gleamed with venomous vengeance. This matter, he would absolutely not let this humiliation slide.
Defeat Huwang Xiao fair and square? In that case, he will defeat Huwang Xiao fair and square!
New disciples were subjected to competition assessment every three years, and at that time, new disciples were allowed to challenge each other.
“Huwang Xiao, three years later, I will defeat you in front of the Black Warrior Institute Principal and the entire institute’s disciples and Elders!” Wang Biaoyuan sneered, he would let his Ancestor and the whole galaxy understand that Huwang Xiao was nothing before him!
A soft light flashed in his hands, revealing a treasure map.
This treasure map was something he got three months ago. As long as he could find the pure metal essence indicated on the map, within three years’ time, breaking into Second Order God Realm or even mid or late-Second Order God Realm was highly possible!
It was no wonder that Wang Biaoyuan had confidence in defeating Huwang Xiao. This pure metal essence was comparable to the innate spiritual embryo treasure that Huwang Xiao found previously. On top of that, Wang Biaoyuan’s Indestructible Vajra Physique was of the metal element. After refining this pure metal essence, his Indestructible Vajra Physique would be enhanced to an unimaginable degree.
While everyone was immersed in the shocking news of the Black Warrior Institute Principal receiving Huwang Xiao as a personal disciple, the star of the moment was cultivating inside a large palace-like manor in the center region.
This manor belonged to the Institute Principal, a compound spanning thousands of li, and the spiritual energy here was several times denser and purer compared to other places.
Sitting cross-legged inside the Xumi Temple, Huwang Xiao took out the Black Warrior Greater Strength Pellets he was rewarded, opened his mouth and swallowed a hundred pellets in one go.
If Gudu Leng, Wang Biaoyuan, Jiang Shaoze and the others saw this scene, they’d jump up in fright.
One of this Black Warrior Greater Strength Pellet contained extremely potent energy, an average disciple required at least one month to fully refine and absorb the effects of a single pellet. Even geniuses of Gudu Leng and Jiang Shaoze’s caliber only dared to take two or three pellets at once, but Huwang Xiao actually swallowed one hundred pellets in one go!
The instant the one hundred Black Warrior Greater Strength Pellets entered his body, Huwang Xiao immediately felt flows of pure cold energy gather into an energy tide, rushing to every corner of his body.
Neither panicking nor hurrying, Huwang Xiao ran the Asura Tactics, steadily refining these tides of energy and absorbing them.
Several hours later, he fully refined the effects of one hundred Black Warrior Greater Strength Pellets. Stopping to check his body’s condition, he immediately felt that his True Dragon Physique had grown more powerful and his soul grew noticeably stronger.
“You kid is a genuine strange creature that has never existed before!” Dragon Emperor Ao Taiyi couldn’t resist voicing out after seeing Huwang Xiao refine one hundred pellets in one sitting.
During his time, even he didn’t dare to swallow one hundred Black Warrior Greater Strength Pellets at once, moreover, refining them all in a mere five hours.
Even if one eats rice, it wouldn't digest so quickly. This kid was literally treating the Black Warrior Greater Strength Pellets as snacks!
“Old Dragon, what do you think about my Master’s strength?” Huwang Xiao asked. The ‘Master’ Huwang Xiao was referring to was, of course, the Black Warrior Institute’s Principal.
Dragon Emperor Ao Taiyi slightly paused before answering, “Very strong. Even at my peak strength, I may not be your Master’s opponent!”
May not be? That means there was a fighting chance. Just from this, one could imagine how strong Dragon Emperor Ao Taiyi was in his time, after all, the Black Warrior Institute Principal Feng Yang was the current strongest person in Black Tortoise Galaxy.
One hour later, Huwang Xiao continued swallowing one hundred Black Warrior Greater Strength Pellets.
Like this, three days passed peacefully while Huwang Xiao finished refining all one thousand pellets that he got from the first place reward.
One thousand Black Warrior Greater Strength Pellets refined in just three days’ time!
Dragon Emperor Ao Taiyi was already numb being rendered speechless.
An average disciple refined one pellet every month, twelve pellets in a year, taking a century to refine one thousand and two hundred pellets, and tw
o centuries’ time to refine over three thousand pellets!
After he was done with the Black Warrior Greater Strength Pellets, Huwang Xiao began refining the six hundred and eighty-nine God Realm beast cores that he harvested from the Deepwood Star, starting from the lower early First Order God Realm. This time as well he refined them in a batch of one hundred.
After that, it was the souls of the ghost creatures he killed, and this didn’t take long, for he only had a little over a hundred of these sealed souls.
Despite having yet to reach peak half-step God Realm, his strength took a great leap compared to the time before he entered the Deepwood Star.
Exiting the manor, Huwang Xiao decided to take a stroll outside. There was still two weeks’ time before the grand apprenticeship ceremony, taking advantage of this window, he wanted to take a look at the Black Tortoise World.
As coincidence goes, he ran into Institute Principal Feng Yang just as he was going out.
“Master.” Huwang Xiao stepped forward in greeting.
Institute Principal Feng Yang’s face was filled with mirth as he nodded, saying, “How are you progressing with refining the Black Warrior Greater Strength Pellets? Although they’re high-grade divine spirit pellets that can strengthen your physical body and cleanse your soul, you still cannot consume too many at once.”
It happened many times in the past where some new disciples overestimated their talents and swallowed fifteen pellets in one sitting. In the end, the potent energy was too much for them, nearly causing their bodies to blow up and die.
Hearing this, both Huwang Xiao and Dragon Emperor Ao Taiyi had an awkward sheepish expression on their faces.
“What’s wrong?” Noticing the oddity on Huwang Xiao’s face, he asked with concern.
“Erm, those Black Warrior Greater Strength Pellets, I’ve already finished refining them.” Huwang Xiao’s brain churned rapidly, and decided to answer honestly.
“What?! Y-You’re saying that one thousand Black Warrior Greater Strength Pellets, all of them, you refined all of them?! In fifteen days?!” Institute Principal Feng Yang looked at his newly received personal disciple with a dumbfounded expression.
“En, yes.” Huwang Xiao nodded. Originally, he wanted to say that those pellets were finished in three days, but decided against it. After all, it might be too overwhelmingly shocking.
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Watching Huwang Xiao nod his head, Institute Principal Feng Yang’s nerves twitched slightly despite his high shock tolerance.
One thousand Black Warrior Greater Strength Pellets in fifteen days! Thinking of this number, Feng Yang felt a bout of dizziness.
It took Feng Yang a while to gradually calm down, his eyes sparkling as he stared at Huwang Xiao, this new disciple of his. At this very moment, he finally realized the monstrous level of his youngest disciple.
Feng Yang’s face beamed with happiness, chiding Huwang Xiao with humor, “You kid, thankfully my shock tolerance is above average. If it was anyone else, you’d have frightened to them death! However, with your consumption speed, regardless which super forces in the galaxy, I’m afraid they’d be reduced to beggars by you.”
As Feng Yang was saying this, he took out a spatial ring, “There’s twenty thousand Black Warrior Greater Strength Pellet inside here, I'll give you all of it.”
Accepting the spatial ring, Huwang Xiao said, “Thank you, Master.”
Then, Feng Yang gave Huwang Xiao’s body a quick check, and after he made sure there was nothing wrong, he breathed out in relief. Of course, Huwang Xiao’s True Dragon Physique was hidden deeply, not even Feng Yang was able to see through it.
When Feng Yang heard that Huwang Xiao was planning to go out for a stroll, he said matter-of-factly, “I’ll tell Zhang Tianchuan to bring you around.”
Huwang Xiao hastily waved his hand, insisting that it wasn't necessary. That would be too conspicuous, he preferred not having other disciples pointing and whispering about him the entire way.
Since Huwang Xiao insisted that it was not necessary, Feng Yang dropped the subject and told his disciple about certain restricted areas of the Black Tortoise World, reminding Huwang Xiao to pay attention not to get close. These areas were dangerous even for high-level God Realm masters.
Huwang Xiao committed them to memory one by one before leaving the manor.
Watching Huwang Xiao’s disappearing figure, Feng Yang nodded to himself with a faint smile, this disciple’s talent far surpassed his estimation. Being able to receive such as disciple before he ascended to the Divine World gave him immense gratification.
As for Huwang Xiao, after leaving the manor, he casually toured the city, taking in the sights.
The Black Tortoise World was roughly the same size as the Cloudsea Mainland. And the whole Black Tortoise World was the Black Warrior Institute. As the Black Tortoise Galaxy’s top academic institute, as well as the top super force, it had a strict hierarchy. New disciples like Huwang Xiao who had just passed the selection assessment merely held the status of an institute’s outer disciple.
Above the outer disciples were the inner disciples, next were the elite disciples. Going further up were the institute’s Elders, Grand Elders, Institute Vice-Principal, and the Institute Principal at the top.
Therefore, sidelining Huwang Xiao’s identity as the personal disciple of the Institute Principal, he was one of the bottom rung outer disciples. In the Black Warrior Institute, outer disciples had neither status nor identity.
Other than Huwang Xiao’s batch of new disciples, there were many more disciples from previous years that had yet to be promoted as inner disciples, hence, the Black Warrior Institute’s outer disciples had accumulated to a staggering several hundred thousand in number.
Flying in the air, one of the things Huwang Xiao noticed the most was the large number of outer disciples in white robes.
A while later, Huwang Xiao made his way toward the Supreme Harmony Hall.
Although Huwang Xiaoling won the first place in the assessment and had received the promised rewards, he had yet to receive his outer disciple identity slip and robe. This Hall of Supreme Harmony was the place where disciples came to collect their identity token and robes, as well as the place where tasks were given out.
Soon, Huwang Xiao could see a grand building nestled amongst a long mountain range from afar, built in the middle of a mountain about a hundred zhang from the ground.
A few minutes later, Huwang Xiao descended in the open square in front of the Supreme Harmony Hall. In the square, other than outer disciples, a large number of inner disciples were present, even some elite disciples could be seen flying over some distance away.
Because Huwang Xiao had yet to collect his outer disciple robe, he was still wearing the Beast God robe he had on long ago, hence, the moment he appeared in the square, his presence was eye-catching.
Ignoring the stares directed at him, Huwang Xiao calmly walked into the Supreme Harmony Hall.
“He should be one of the new disciples that passed through assessment, coming to collect his identity token and robe.”
“A disciple that has just passed through assessment is acting so arrogant? He must have gotten used to being arrogant outside, suffering from the illusion that he’s a remarkable genius!”
“It seems this punk has to be taught a lesson, so that he’s aware of reality, a half-step God Realm’s existence in the Black Warrior Institute is nothing but mud under our feet!”
Some disciples immediately felt Huwang Xiao unpleasant to their eyes watching the indifferent aloof expression on his face.
In general, the new disciples that had passed through the assessment would quiver with apprehension facing the old disciples and inner disciples, careful and cautious, not daring to even fart in front of them, which one of them behaved like Huwang Xiao, ignoring them as if they were invisible?
Almost immediately, an old-time outer disciple strode over to Huwang Xiao.
“It’s Senior brother Lin Sen!
Senior Brother Lin Sen is close to breaking into the God Realm. Within the outer disciples, his strength ranked within top ten. Ha, this new disciple is in for it!”
“Wait and see how this new disciple is going to cry for mommy in a while!”
The surrounding disciples moved closer in anticipation of a good show.
In the Black Warrior World, the Black Warrior Institute did not restrict disciples at the same level from dueling as long as no deaths occurred. This was also the main reason why this Lin Sen dared to make a move on Huwang Xiao.
Huwang Xiao was just about to step into the Supreme Harmony Hall when a tall, brawny young man approached him in a less than friendly manner. This young man’s arms were muscular and thick. Stopping in front of Huwang Xiao, the young man raised his arm and swung a punch at Huwang Xiao without a single word.
The force exuded by the fist was powerful and compact. Cutting through the air, it sounded like sharp friction between metal.
In the last two weeks, Huwang Xiao did take the time to familiarize himself with Black Warrior Institute’s battle skills, thus he recognized the battle skill this young man was displaying: a battle skill named Dynamic Fist. This battle skill was quite barbaric in nature. Upon reaching major completion, one punch could easily crumble a great mountain, snap steel kernel, and shatter a jade heart.
Huwang Xiao stood still, waiting for the young man’s fist to arrive in front of him. Then, he lifted his palm and executed a swift strike. This palm strike opened a space rift, air blasted from the force and the ground tremored.
Fear exploded in the old outer disciple Lin Sen’s eyes. He instinctively wanted to retreat, yet to his dismay, he discovered that he couldn’t move. He could only watch wide-eyed as Huwang Xiao’s palm hit his body.
Pa! A sharp crisp sound rang out.
Lin Sen was sent flying with a single palm strike from Huwang Xiao, his chest blasted open, crashing into a far corner of the square like a dead dog. In the next second, Lin Sen’s body rolled out of the square, falling down the hundred zhang mountain height.