Huang Xiaolong sat cross-legged inside the Sun Moon Residence, circulating the four divine fires. At the same time, from the void above him, the expected shimmering gray energy flowed out continuously.
At the current power of the four divine fire spirits, there were more thirty streams of gray energy, slightly thicker than an adult's thigh.
Those gray streams of energy were greedily absorbed by Huang Xiaolong's three supreme godheads, being converted into godforce.
In the blink of an eye, ten days passed by.
Huang Xiaolong sat in cultivation within the Sun Moon Residence, ignoring the outside world, but the Divine Dan City was boiling with news of him.
"What?! When that Highgod Advancement Tournament champion Huang Xiaolong was taking the Alchemist Grandmaster Union's alchemist assessment, he merely used a little more than an hour to refine a batch of Star Eclipse Heavenly Pills? Top grade at that!"
"Sun Yi wanted to make things difficult for him, but who would have thought Huang Xiaolong would succeed in the end. This is slapping Sun Yi squarely in the face, that old man's face was really thrown into the toilet this time!"
"The toilet? More like stuck on a donkey's ass!"
The details of Huang Xiaolong's alchemist assessment were spread out by the crowd present in the hall back then, and were talked about with fervor in every corner of Divine Dan City.
There were already quite a number of people who disliked the Fortune Gate's overbearing behavior, thus the mocking words directed at Sun Yi were even harsher.
Even those Fortune Gate disciples who arrived in the Divine Dan City to spectate the Grand Competition could no longer walk down the streets with their chests out and head held high.
Thirty streets away from Huang Xiaolong's Sun Moon Residence, inside another luxurious mansion, a domineering young man clad in a black brocade robe snorted in dissatisfaction hearing the gossip about Huang Xiaolong, "Pill refining using the Divine Beast Diagram? Manipulating star force? Merely some insignificant tricks."
This black brocade-robed young man was none other than Devil Son Mo Su who had rushed over from the City of Devils to participate in the Grand Competition.
The devil clan Grand Elder Mo Zhenru smiled faintly, "What Devil Son says is right, above that Divine Beast Diagram are the Hundred Divine Beasts Diagram, the Thousand Divine Beasts Diagram, and the most difficult Ten Thousand Divine Beasts Diagram. What that Huang Xiaolong displayed is merely the lowest grade of all. Compared to Devil Son's Thousand Divine Beasts Diagram, the gap is obvious."
A complacent curve tugged at the corners of Mo Su's lips, "My Thousand Divine Beasts Diagram has already reached the perfection stage. With just one short step, my technique could advance into the Ten Thousand Divine Beasts Diagram."
This was also the reason why Mo Su had a hundred percent confidence in winning the Grand Competition's first place.
Mo Zhenru continued, still with the same smile on his face, "Although the star force Huang Xiaolong can manipulate has a lot of benefits to an alchemist, it is still far from the Underworld River force that Devil Son can control!" The Underworld River force was of a higher grade than star force, thus it's usage in alchemy refining was even better.
Mo Su changed the topic all of a sudden, "I've heard that Wangu Ye has also arrived at the Divine Dan City. More importantly, several days ago, he and Huang Xiaolong traveled to the union headquarters together."
Mo Zhenru nodded, confirming Mo Su's words, "That is so, Devil Son. It wasn't only Wangu Ye, Wangu Yanhui is also here, but he did not register for the upcoming grand competition."
Mo Su spoke, "Huang Xiaolong does not pose any threat to me. Wangu Ye, however, is an opponent worthy of attention. Oh right, has that Fortune Gate chick, Li Lu, arrive yet?"
Mo Zhenru answered, "Li Lu has reached the Divine Dan City, it's just that no knows where she is. Even the Elder we placed inside the Fortune Gate couldn't get wind of it."
Mo Su's gaze turned gloomy, "Find her, use all means. It is imperative for her to be found before the grand competition." Speaking of Li Lu, a fire of desire flitted in Mo Su's eyes.
Mo Zhenru nodded, complying with Mo Su's order.
Another three days passed.
Huang Xiaolong, who had been cultivating for the past two weeks inside the Sun Moon Residence, finally stopped and opened his eyes.
It had been two months since he exited the Hellion Tower. Compared to the time he left, Huang Xiaolong's godforce increased by a tiny bit again, however, there was still a distance from touching the peak early Seventh Order Highgod Realm.
Huang Xiaolong made a calculation based on his current cultivation speed and estimated that he could probably advance to peak early Seventh Order Highgod Realm before the competition.
After ending his cultivation session, Huang Xiaolong began studying that Heaven Splitting Tenet he obtained on the Hellion Tower's twelfth floor.
Although the Heaven Splitting Tenet manual was cryptic and difficult to decipher, too profound for the current Huang Xiaolong, he had gained a bit after some days of studying.
This Heaven Splitting Tenet was actually a flesh, soul, and godhead cultivation technique; a fabled supreme three in one cultivation technique!
In all his years of cultivation, even though he read every book in the three institutes' libraries, this was the first time Huang Xiaolong came across something like this. A cultivation technique that enabled the user to enhance their body, soul, and godhead at the same time!
Forget other benefits, just this one point was enough to earn this Heaven Splitting Tenet the title of greatest priceless treasure.
According to what was written in the technique manual, all lifeforms in the universe were made up of a combination of various energies, which were categorized into three states; gaseous, liquid, and solid.
The Heaven Splitting Tenet was based on swallowing solid-state energy to enhance one's own flesh, soul, and godhead!
Such as weapons, armors, ores and irons, etcetera. All were consumable.
Naturally, not everyone could cultivate this technique, the minimum requirement was a Highgod Realm cultivation.
'Weapons, armors, ores, and irons?' An idea flashed in Huang Xiaolong's mind. There were mountain high piles of weapons, armors, ores, and irons inside the Xuanji and Hailstone Treasures that he hadn't found any great use for. Right now, he could use them to cultivation this Heaven Splitting Tenet.
Once he made up his mind, Huang Xiaolong took out a large number of weapons and armors, cultivating in accordance to the Heaven Splitting Tenet.
In a short amount of time, different kinds of energy began floating out from those weapons and armors, entering Huang Xiaolong's body, soul, and godhead.
Roughly five to six breaths later, that pile of weapons and armors crumbled to nothing, disappearing from the world.
All of these weapons and armors Huang Xiaolong experimented with were created with top iron and ores from the Divine World, yet after absorbing their energies into his body, he did not sense any difference.
Thus, this time, he took out several hundred weapons and armors.
Outside, another day gave way to the night.
By the time the number of weapons and armors Huang Xiaolong had 'swallowed' reached a hundred thousand, he finally felt a tiny improvement in his flesh, soul, and godhead.
This improvement, however, caused Huang Xiaolong to shake his head.
Cultivating in this manner was too slow for his taste.
Based on his current freakishly strong body, soul, and godhead, only refining heaven grade divine artifacts would have a visible result.
Thus, at night, Huang Xiaolong activated the four divine fires to absorb the shimmering gray energy to cultivate his godforce, whereas during the day he would refine and absorb the energies coming from the myriad armors and weapons that were piled up like stretches of mountains inside the Xuanji and Hailstone Treasures.
Despite the great number of weapons and armors, with Huang Xiaolong's absorbing speed, both treasures' supply of weapons and armors was emptied out in half a month's time.
Huang Xiaolong then took out the five-footed cauldron he got from the Lightning God's dwelling. After a long time of deliberation, he finally decided against refining it.
This Lightning God cauldron was still useful for him during the preliminary and semi-final stages of the grand competition.
Putting away the Lightning God cauldron, Huang Xiaolong got to his feet, deciding to visit the Divine Dan City's weapon and armor trading market, as well as take a stroll around the city for a change of scenery.