Close to noon, the scorching sun was merciless. The great land was parched, as if every drop of moisture had been sucked out of it by the cruel sun.
In the main street, before the Nine Dragons City gates, a dozen unicorn mounts appeared. Billowy purple flames danced around these unicorns' hoofs.
Unicorns were the most popular mounts for imperial families in the Martial Spirit World, known for their speed and durability for long distance travel. However, even unicorns were segregated between high and low rank.
In general, unicorns with Xiantian realm strength would have yellow flames around their hoofs, only those that have reached Xiantian Tenth Order, close to breaking into Saint realm would have purple flames.
Where a Saint realm unicorn's flames would enhance from purple flames to black flames.
And these dozen unicorns had obviously reached Xiantian Tenth Order, carrying a group of humans. One of them was none other than Lei Hua, the Thunder Human King's son whom Huang Xiaolong had met in Vermillion City.
Lei Hua was walking behind a tall and burly middle-aged man with big eyes and bushy brows who exuded an air of authority and power. The middle-aged man was one of two Ten Directions Continent's human race kings, Thunder Human King!
The Thunder Human King, as one of two human race kings on Ten Directions Continent, naturally had an invitation sent out to him. However, the Thunder Human King and Ice Human King had always been at odds with each other, hence, each came with a group of subordinates.
Standing behind the Thunder Human King was his group of subordinate experts, however, despite having a dozen of people, only seven of them were Saint realm experts, while the rest were peak half-Saints.
In fact, the human forces on Ten Directions Continent were extremely weak, these seven Saint realm experts were all the Saint realm expert subordinates under the Thunder Human King.
Lei Hua and the human race experts were slightly overwhelmed looking at the towering city in front of their eyes.
They couldn't even describe how much grander and bigger the Nine Dragons City was compared to their Thunder City. Monstrous demonic qi surged quietly in the air, creating a silent pressure that felt like a great boulder in these humans' hearts.
"Let's go, enter the city." Thunder Human King snapped in a gruff voice. The unicorn mount beneath him immediately trotted toward the city gates with Lei Hua and the rest quickly chasing up.
Upon entering Nine Dragons City, the prosperous bustling streets awakened another bout of rueful feelings.
"Young Lord, this merging ceremony between the beastmen tribes and the demonic beast clans attracted so many people's attention, maybe that kid will also be here!" A Saint realm expert whispered to Lei Hua.
The kid he mentioned was none other than Huang Xiaolong.
The instant Lei Hua thought of Huang Xiaolong, murder exploded in his eyes. "It's best if it's like that, if I really run into that punk, I will crush his balls under my feet!"
The last time in Vermillion City, the Ape Deity Temple's Zhou Yunchu vented his frustration on Lei Hua after his arms were crippled and beast core shattered by Huang Xiaolong, nearly causing irreparable damage to his lower part. Although it wasn't crushed, it was fundamentally injured, not daring to touch women in recent days.
Then, Zhou Yuchu was killed, causing the wrath of the Ape Deity Temple's Master, Zhou Yunpeng, to befall on him. If it weren't because his father personally went to plead for mercy on his behalf, bringing the entire Zhu Family's several thousands of severed heads as an apology, he would have died under Zhou Yunpeng's hand as a companion in death for that Zhou Yuchu.
All this happened because of that damned kid!
When the Thunder Human King's group passed by a place called Sun Moon Restaurant, the group stopped.
"Let's eat something inside and rest for a little while." Thunder Human King said.
Lei Hua and the group of guards answered respectfully.
…
At this time, Huang Xiaolong, who had been in closed-door practice inside the Xumi Temple, finally exited.
From the Windless Tunnel in the Mystic Elephant Peak, Huang Xiaolong collected a lot of high-grade divine spirit pellets refined by the Ape Deity, Ape Deity Herculean Pellets.
In recent days, he had been swallowing these pellets while cultivating. Those Ape Deity Herculean Pellets' were refined by the Ape Deity Emperor using many precious herbs and elixirs belonging to the demonic beast clans in the ancient times, one of the ingredients being the beast core of a God Realm demonic beast master, containing abundant demonic essence energy.
The demonic essence energy belonging to a God Realm demonic beast master! This was a treasure the current demonic beast experts could only fantasize about in their dreams. Most likely, just a thin strand of the energy could bring unimaginable benefits to a Saint realm demonic beast expert.
In fact, a human like Huang Xiaolong wasn't supposed to be able to refine the demonic essence energy inside the Ape Deity Herculean Pellet, but Huang Xiaolong's True Dragon Physique could be considered as a dragon's body. Therefore, there were no issues for him to refine those Ape Deity Herculean Pellets.
Taking the pellets while cultivating helped Huang Xiaolong increase his strength by a good margin, inching him closer to peak late-Ninth Order Saint realm.
Not only did those Ape Deity Herculean Pellet contain the demonic essence energy of a God Realm demonic beast, there was also the insight into the time law, which paved Huang Xiaolong's foundation before his breakthrough to God Realm.
Exiting from closed-door practice, Huang Xiaolong summoned Ao Kun, Lei Ge, the Tiger Tribe Patriarch Chuck, Snake Tribe Patriarch Danny, and other to see him.
Receiving Huang Xiaolong command for the beastmen tribes and demonic beast clans' merging ceremony, Chuck and the other Patriarchs had led their subordinates over to the Nine Dragons City early on.
When everyone had assembled, Huang Xiaolong inquired the recent news and situation around the Nine Dragons City. Tomorrow was the day of the ceremony, Huang Xiaolong needed to ensure that everything was foolproof.
Ao Kun, Lei Ge, Chuck, and the rest each took turns, reporting to Huang Xiaolong the area they were in charge of.
"Any movements over at the Deities Templar's side?" A sudden feeling made Huang Xiaolong ask the question.
"This subordinate discovered that Deities Templar has been in contact with the Cosmos God Cut, Distinct Void Door, White Phoenix House, and also Sin City." Ao Kun replied, "However, we don't have any details about their plans.'
Huang Xiaolong nodded, unperturbed. "Deities Templar, Cosmos God Cult, Distinct Void Door, White Phoenix House, and Sin City's experts have probably snuck into Nine Dragons City by now. Order all three temples' disciples and hall masters to pay more attention. If someone causes trouble inside the Nine Dragons City, regardless of who they are, encircle and kill them. Make sure they're dead!"
Deities Templar joining hands with Cosmos God Cult and the rest was something within Huang Xiaolong's expectations, thus he wasn't surprised in the least.
"Yes, Liege Lord Beast Bod!" Ao Kun and everyone present replied in unison.
"Are there any Patriarchs who received an invitation and did not come?" Huang Xiaolong asked.
"All of them are here." It was Lei Ge who answered.
Huang Xiaolong was surprised at this, all of them actually came.
"You all also need to pay attention to these Patriarchs, if any of them is discovered to be communicating with any of the Deities Templar's side forces, there's no need to report to me, capture all of them immediately!" Huang Xiaolong ordered.
Another loud murmur of assent rang in the hall.
In the end, Huang Xiaolong instructed a number of tasks to them before excusing them.
After everyone left, Huang Xiaolong stood up and decided to take a walk outside and have a drink while inspecting the city's situation.
Before leaving, Huang Xiaolong called the Violet Spirit Devourer Monkey. Hearing Huang Xiaolong saying that they should go out and have some drinks, he was of course overjoyed.
"Big brother, I heard rumors saying that Sun Moon Restaurant's Sun Moon Wine is the demonic beast clans' holy wine, its fragrant scent can be smelled from ten li away." The Violet Spirit Devourer Monkey's lips were smacking as he said this.
Huang Xiaolong laughed watching him, "Is that so, then let's go. Us brothers haven't seen each other for twenty years, we'll drink our fill today!"
Both of them left the Nine Dragons Temple, walking toward the Sun Moon Restaurant.
A short while later, they arrived at the destination: Sun Moon Restaurant.
The ground floor was full when Huang Xiaolong and the Violet Spirit Devourer Monkey entered. Judging from the looks of it, their business was booming.
"Come on, up to the first floor." Huang Xiaolong said, and both went up.
There were some empty tables and less clients on the first floor. Taking a glance scan around, Huang Xiaolong was stumped to find some old acquaintances. On the first floor, at a table close to the window, sat Elf Queen Kelly and Grand Elder Celine.
Whereas in another corner sat an acquaintance he met in Vermillion City, Thunder Human King's son, Lei Hua.