"From another island?" Huang Xiaolong was slightly caught off guard but swiftly nodded, "Yes."
"No wonder." The black-haired elder smiled understandingly. Following that, he briefly gave Huang Xiaolong some information about the Bloodwind Forest.
As mentioned before, the primeval forest he landed in was called Blood Phoenix. It had existed ever since the ancient times, no one really knew how long it had been in existence.
According to an old legend, long ago in the ancient times, a powerful blood phoenix died here, which was also the origin of the forest's name.
Due to the effect of the blood phoenix's blood, all the demonic beasts inside the Blood Phoenix Forest possessed varying degrees of blood phoenix bloodline. Naturally, after so long, its traces had become extremely faint.
This Blood Phoenix Forest was located on an island named Green Cloud Island, which, although small in comparison to a land surface in the Divine World, was still twice the size of the Black Tortoise Galaxy.
Two Black Tortoise Galaxies, yet it was only a small island!
The Blood Phoenix Forest took up about one-third of the entire Green Cloud Island, moreover, it was located in the most central part, which was why this forest was known throughout the island.
Around the perimeter of the Blood Phoenix Forest were several tens of thousands of countries, big and small.
Naturally, other than these countries, there was also a great number of sects. Amongst them, the strongest three were the Barbarian God Sect, the Great Whale Sect, and the Elephant Genesis Sect.
Huang Xiaolong's eyebrows slightly creased, he didn't expect he would ascend to this Green Cloud Island. If this was so, then outside the island would the sea!
Just an island was already so big, he couldn't even begin to imagine how large the sea was! What about after the seashore?
Huang Xiaolong asked this question to the black-haired elder.
The elder answered, "Outside the Green Cloud Island is the Endless Sea. I've heard the sea has four great mainlands; one is called the Fortune Mainland, another is the Eternal Mainland, then the Dark Elf Mainland, and the last one is the Primal Chaos Mainland."
Huang Xiaolong's heart quickened, the Fortune Mainland? Could this Fortune Mainland be related to the Fortune Gate of the lower realm? Otherwise, it was too much of a coincidence. And that Eternal Mainland, was it related to the Wangu Clan?
But the elder himself had never ventured out of the Green Cloud Island, thus what he knew wasn't a lot, and was unable to give Huang Xiaolong any detailed information about the four great mainlands.
Huang Xiaolong could only give up.
After this, the black-haired elder went to deal with the guards' corpses. After a while, when the three of them were about to leave, they invited Huang Xiaolong to accompany them, which he didn't refuse.
He was unfamiliar with this Blood Phoenix Forest, going with these three people made it easier for him to leave. Furthermore, he was alone in this new environment, befriending some forces would be beneficial to him later on.
Hearing Huang Xiaolong agreeing to travel with them, all three people rejoiced.
They had witnessed his strength with their own eyes. If Huang Xiaolong was with them, they need not worry about the more powerful demonic beasts attacking them.
The black-haired elder promised Huang Xiaolong that if he could ensure their safety until they were out of the Blood Phoenix Forest, they would definitely request their Fort Lord to heavily reward him once they were back to the family.
Toward the elder's promise of rewards and what-not, Huang Xiaolong didn't really care.
Although he couldn't yet manipulate the pure spiritual energy here and convert it into divine stones, his ability remained. As long as his comprehension toward the Divine World's laws deepened, he could endlessly condense the spiritual energy into divine stones.
At that time, he wouldn't be lacking in money.
On the way, Huang Xiaolong asked the three how they came about being attacked.
The black-haired elder sighed, recounting the events to Huang Xiaolong.
The three of them came from a force called Tie Family Fort. The elder's name was Yan Hai, a guard captain of the Tie Family Fort, whereas the young man and woman were Tie Mu and Tie Xinlan respectively.
The Tie Family Fort and the Zhou Family from a neighboring country were in-laws.
Three months ago, they traveled to the Zhou Family, but ten days ago, in order to shorten the traveling time on the way back, they took a shortcut. They had planned to cut through the outer edges of the Blood Phoenix Forest in order to reach the Tie Family Fort.
In general, demonic beasts rarely appeared on the outer perimeter of the forest, and even if demonic beasts roamed there by happenstance, it was always the weaker ones with strength comparable to low and mid-level Highgod Realm. Hence, they didn't expect to run into a late -Tenth Order Highgod Realm Giant Tiger Beast, the worst stroke of luck.
Yan Hai himself was a late-Tenth Order Highgod Realm; logically speaking, he shouldn't have ended up so miserable, but a demonic beast's physical power and defense were greater than a human cultivator's many times over. At a cultivation, a demonic beast could kill the human cultivator without breaking a sweat.
Those Seventh Order, Eighth Order, and Ninth Order Highgod Realm guards were too fragile before that Giant Tiger Beast.
What happened later needs no explanation. If Huang Xiaolong hadn't arrived just in time, the three of them would have ended up just like the dead guards.
Speaking of this, Yan Hai, Tie Mu, and Tie Xinlan still felt their hearts quicken from fear.
As the four traveled together, the words between them increased, especially the young man Tie Mu and his younger sister. The two of them circled around Huang Xiaolong, asking about this and that, greatly curios about him.
After all, judging from Huang Xiaolong's appearance, he didn't look old, somewhere in his twenties, not that much older than them. But, he was so powerful!
Yan Hai was just as curious about Huang Xiaolong's origins as the two. Clearly, Huang Xiaolong was just an early Tenth Order Highgod Realm cultivator, yet he could easily kill a late-Tenth Order Highgod Realm Giant Tiger Beast!
In Yan Hai's opinion, Huang Xiaolong's strength was incredibly close to a Heavenly God master.
The sky gradually darkened. Bright, glittering stars twinkled in the dark, velvet sky.
The sun in the Divine World was quite harsh, but when night fell, the starlight was brighter and more beautiful than the one in the lower realm.
The four of them stopped to rest for the night.
Since he now knew they were in the outer region of the Blood Phoenix Forest, Huang Xiaolong relaxed slightly, not as tense and cautious as he was when he had just ascended. After lighting a bonfire, he took out ten of the blade-fin fish he had killed earlier, roasting them over the fire.
However, when he took out the blade-fin fish, Yan Hai, Tie Mu, and Tie Xinlan exclaimed: "Bladeback Spiritual Fish!"
Then, Tie Xinlan looked oddly at Huang Xiaolong, "Elder brother Huang, you've been eating these Bladeback Spiritual Fish like this?! Yet you're still fine?"
Huang Xiaolong was confused, "I'm fine ah, why?"
Tie Mu explained, "Although these Bladeback Spiritual Fish are very tasty, their bodies contain a strange energy that even a Heavenly God would have trouble refining. If we eat them just like this, we will…!"
Tie Mu stopped abruptly, joining Tie Xinlan and Yan Hai. The three of them looked at Huang Xiaolong like he was a strange monster.
Huang Xiaolong simply said as a way of explanation "My physique is a little special, therefore I'm not afraid of the strange energy." As for what was special about his physique, Huang Xiaolong did not say.
The three people grew even more curious, but did not ask any more questions.
Early next morning, just as the sunlight began to brighten the sky, the four continued on.
Even though they were in the outer part of the Blood Phoenix Forest, it still took them over ten days to leave the forest, with many stops in between.
Their interaction during this time was quite harmonious, becoming more familiar. Huang Xiaolong also gained a certain understanding of the Tie Family Fort from them.
Although the Tie Family Fort wasn't a first rank force of the Green Cloud Island, far from the three great sects, it was considered a prominent force in the Bixin Country.