Huang Xiaolong arrived under the huge cycad tree and his hands enveloped with battle qi to claw at a cycad fruit. His left hand received the falling cycad fruit, then he brought it to his mouth and bit into it.
Instantly, ambrosia nectar filled Huang Xiaolong's mouth, and when he swallowed, warm energy flowed into his veins and meridians.
He quickly sat down and ran through the Asura Tactics to refine the energy from the cycad fruit.
As he refined the cycad fruit, Sixth Order netherworld battle qi started to surge, rolling and crashing in his meridians. At the same time, Huang Xiaolong felt faint traces of the cycad fruit's spiritual energy nourishing all the muscles, bones, and internal organs of his body, strengthening them and making them firmer.
One black and one blue dragon floated around Huang Xiaolong as the netherworld spiritual aura gushed down on him.
After he had broken through to the Sixth Order, the speed at which his martial spirits devoured netherworld spiritual energy had increased once again.
Night passed.
Rays of sunlight shining down from the mountain peaks fell on Huang Xiaolong's body, warming him.
Withdrawing the twin dragons back into his body, Huang Xiaolong stopped running the Asura Tactics cultivation technique and got up. Both fists suddenly punched out at a cave wall twenty meters away and left a foot deep mark.
The cave wall shook and loose rocks tumbled down.
This result caused his eyes to light up in excitement-- this cycad fruit was truly something special. Just one night of cultivation had increased his physical power significantly and when attacking, the explosive power of his muscles and tendons had become a lot stronger.
If he continued to cultivate this way, by just relying on his physical body and its explosive power, he was already a level stronger when compared with warriors of the same level.
As he lowered his hands, Huang Xiaolong looked around the cave and noticed that the little violet monkey was refining the cycad fruit's energy while seated on one of the tree's branches. The little guy was a puzzle: no matter what type of beast core it swallowed, it didn't need to spend time refining them, but when it came to wondrous fruits like the Yang Fruit and cycad fruit, it did need to spend time refining them.
But, if it wasn't so, the little guy would be too much of a monster.
Seeing that the little monkey was still refining the cycad fruit, Huang Xiaolong did not disturb it and he walked some distance away to a spacious spot and called out the Blades of Asura and began to hone his Tears of Asura skill.
Time slowly passed this way.
Another month passed quickly.
In the past month, Huang Xiaolong spent most of his time practicing in the underground cave; during the day, he focused on the Asura Sword Skill and the Asura Demon Claw, but at night, he swallowed a cycad fruit and cultivated his Asura Tactics and the Body Metamorphose Scripture.
Occasionally, Huang Xiaolong would leave the cave with the little violet monkey to hunt demonic beasts together.
Huang Xiaolong had been swallowing a cycad fruit to aid his cultivation every day and after one month of nourishment, all his body's muscles, bones, and internal organs were stronger by more than a fold compared to a month before
Furthermore, in the last couple of days with the assistance of the cycad fruit, he had finally advanced to mid-Sixth Order.
Mid-Sixth Order!
In general, people who possessed grade ten martial spirits needed to cultivate for a year to a year and a half before they could reach mid-Sixth Order from early Sixth Order. Huang Xiaolong, however, only used three months' time to advance.
In the past thirty days, there had been a little more than a hundred fruits on the cycad fruit tree, yet Huang Xialong and the little violet monkey consumed more than half of the fruits.
On this particular day, while Huang Xiaolong was sitting cross-legged under the cycad tree, cultivating, footsteps of people entering the cave could be heard.
Huang Xiaolong was alerted and he stopped practicing.
And at this point, the voices were loud enough for Huang Xiaolong to hear.
"That cycad tree really grows in this underground cave?"
"It shouldn't be wrong. According to the Treasure Mirror's indication, that cycad tree should be in this cave! The nice scent we smelled earlier is definitely the cycad fruits' fragrance!"
The group of footsteps grew closer and louder.
From the voices, the newcomers were likely to be two people.
Huang Xiaolong stood up, and the little violet monkey scurried down the tree trunk and leaped onto Huang Xiaolong's shoulder; on its little face was a wary expression as it looked in the direction of the underground cave's entrance.
Not long after, two twenty-something-year-old young men arrived.
Both men wore light black-colored clothes and on their chests were the pattern of a mystical bird, showing that both men were disciples of the same sect.
On arriving at the underground cave, both men were surprised to see Huang Xiaolong and the little violet monkey. Apparently, they didn't expect to find anybody here, not to mention a little child and a monkey.
However, when they noticed the giant tree behind Huang Xiaolong, their eyes shone brightly, filled with mad ecstasy.
"Cycad tree!"
"There really is a cycad tree in this underground cave!"
One of them of broke out in loud laughter, "Haha, Wu Gan, I've already said the Treasure Mirror was right! The cycad tree is here in this underground cave and with these cycad fruits, we will be able to breakthrough to the Seventh Order!"
"You're right and at the end of the year's outer disciples' sect competition, we will be able to get in the top three!" responded Wu Gan, the thinner and taller one as he laughed loudly.
Both of them were talking and laughing, totally ignoring Huang Xiaolong, who looked like a harmless child and the little violet monkey.
In their eyes, these cycad fruits were already theirs.
Huang Xiaolong kept silent the entire time. He watched them with interest: from their clothes, he guessed these two should be the disciples of Nine Phoenix Valley from the neighboring kingdom, the Baolong Kingdom.
The Nine Phoenix Valley was quite a powerful force in the Baolong Kingdom and could be considered as one of the kingdom's top forces.
After laughing for a while, Wu Gan and the other disciple finally stopped and turned their attention to Huang Xiaolong.
"What do we do with this kid?" Wu Gan asked, "How did he get here? Did he get separated from his family's elders and arrived here by accident?"
The other Nine Phoenix Valley disciple, Chen Yun, sneered, "Why care about how this kid came here? No matter what, this secret can not be leaked; the cycad tree bears a hundred fruits or so every year and with these fruits, within ten years, our cultivation can reach the Eighth Order!" After he said that, he walked towards Huang Xiaolong.
Ten meters away from Huang Xiaolong, Chen Yun unsheathed his long sword as he looked at Huang Xiaolong, saying, "Kid, initially your luck wasn't bad to actually find this place, and from the looks of it, you have eaten quite a number of cycad fruits, how was the fruit's taste? Delicious? Too bad you bumped into us, and now everything here belongs to us!"
"And the only thing left for you is to die!"
The long sword in Chen Yun's hand suddenly stabbed at Huang Xiaolong's throat.
"Don't worry, with just one sword strike, you won't feel any pain!"
Just when the long sword in Chen Yun's hand was about to stab into Huang Xiaolong's throat, it stopped midway. Chen Yun's face stiffened as he looked on with disbelief: the tip of his longsword was pinched in between two fingers.
While he was still stunned, Huang Xiaolong flashed and disappeared. A cold light blade edge slashed past.
Chen Yun's body remained rigid still as both of his eyes slacked and slowly dimmed, then his body fell to the ground.
"You're right-- just one sword strike, it won't be painful." Huang Xiaolong said; his expression cold.
Chen Yun's body fell to the ground and only then, did blood start to seep out from his throat.
"Chen Yun!" Not far away, Wu Gan shouted when he saw his comrade tumbling to the ground. By this time, Huang Xiaolong had already started moving in his direction.
"You!" Wu Gan's expression changed for the worse; full of fear, he stepped back unconsciously. Till this very moment, he still couldn't believe that Chen Yun actually died at the hands of the ten-year-old child before him.
Like him, Chen Yun was a peak late-Sixth Order!
Note:
Baolong Kingdom – Savage Dragon Kingdom.