Thinking of his years of painstaking effort in order to collect over a thousand and two hundred herbs only for someone to appear and take his Nine Petals Spiritual Lightning Lotus at the final stage made Liu Zhuo's wrath and fury swirl like a catastrophic hurricane.
Before his voice fell, his figure had already disappeared from view. He had obviously gone after the thief using teleportation.
The Grand Elders on the scene, Tian Juaner, and the other disciples were still in a daze, each secretly exchanging a glance. Lastly, their gazes fell on the Grand Elder that was turned into a green ice statue, afraid and angered at the same time.
A peak late-Tenth Order Heavenly God Realm Grand Elder suddenly rose into the air, thundering in great anger, "Follow me and chase!" He was the first one to rush out from the pill refining chamber before flying up into the sky.
Seeing this, everyone quickly followed suit, leaving the chamber.
Huang Xiaolong rushed out with a grim expression as well. The group barely left the pill refining chamber when a booming explosion sounded high in the air above the Golden Dragon Mountain, akin to a lightning bolt of divine punishment.
This booming explosion nearly ruptured the eardrums of the weaker disciples below, causing their minds to go blank. Some of the inner disciples were knocked to the ground and spat blood due to internal injuries.
This was the terrifyingly destructive power of Ancient God Realm masters.
"Activate the Grand Formation, lock down the entire mountain!" The Golden Dragon Gate Chief roared from high above.
In that split second, the Green ice Hail Devil Bing Jiuyi's palm had arrived in front of Liu Zhuo, who panicked for a moment. He raised his arms to protect himself but was knocked backward several hundred li.
Below, lights rippled across the air and rushed skyward, covering the entire Golden Dragon Mountain. The Grand Elders had activated the grand formation.
The Golden Dragon Mountain Grand Formation had been continuously reinforced by generations of Ancient God Realm masters, reaching a very high level of power. Waves of energy that made one apprehensive started breaking out from underground.
"Haha, Liu Zhuo, the Nine Petals Spiritual Lightning Lotus is mine now. I don't have the time to play with you. I'll make sure to accompany you next time!" Bing Jiuyi laughed loudly. With one turn, he teleported away in an instant, out of the range of the Grand Formation, vanishing into thin air faster than one could blink.
Had the Golden Dragon Mountain Grand Formation completely activated, there might have been a chance of keeping Bing Jiuyi there, but the Golden Dragon Gate Grand Elders needed at least a few minutes to completely activate the entire grand formation.
Watching the Green Ice Hail Devil run away with his Nine Petals Spiritual Lightning Lotus, Liu Zhuo was even more furious. A sharp pain came from his chest and wah he coughed up a mouthful of blood.
The sound of thunder rumbled and a figure appeared next to Liu Zhuo. The new arrival was Song Chengli, the Golden Dragon Gate's Ancestor.
"What happened?" Song Chengli questioned in confusion looking at the Liu Zhuo's bloodstained robe.
Liu Zhuo briefly recounted what happened in his pill refining chamber to Song Chengli.
"Green Ice Hail Devil!" The Golden Dragon Gate Ancestor's face tightened, "Could it be…?"
This reminded Liu Zhuo of one matter, "That person could indeed be the same one who killed our Golden Dragon Gate Elders and core disciples before snatching the Black Flame Sea Emperor Beast, the same Ancient God Realm Green Ice Hail Devil!"
Song Chengli's brows were scrunched up, "Based in your exchange just now, what is the other side's strength?"
Liu Zhuo's voice sank, "Should be at peak early Second Order."
In truth, the Green Ice Hail Devil Bing Jiuyi was a mid-Second Order Ancient God Realm master, however, in his current condition, he was only able to display about two-thirds of his strength, which was why Liu Zhuo's estimation strayed slightly.
Song Chengli's frown deepened, if it really was as Liu Zhuo said, then the Green Ice Hail Devil's strength was higher than he expected. He, Song Chengli, had been cultivating for tens of thousands of years, yet his cultivation was only at mid-Second Order Ancient God Realm.
"Ancestor, what should we do next?" Liu Zhuo inquired.
"Have the Golden Dragon Mountain Grand Formation be active at all times. Also, lock down the entire Golden Dragon Gate, investigate this matter carefully." A light glimmered in Song Chengli's eyes as he gave out several instructions in one breath. He had the feeling there was something strange about this incident, but couldn't put his finger on it.
"Yes." Liu Zhuo complied.
However, even after a whole month of investigation, the Golden Dragon Gate failed to find anything out of the ordinary. In the end, they could only withdraw the lockdown, their sect couldn't be cut off from the outside world for an indefinite period.
The Golden Dragon Gate being on lockdown was a variable Huang Xiaolong missed in his calculation, but he could only wait, continuing with his previous routine of going to the library during the day and cultivating at night.
During this month, Huang Xiaolong's cultivation improved further, bringing him a step closer to mid-Fifth Order Heavenly God Realm. The vexing matter was that no matter how much spiritual energy he absorbed from grade four spiritual vein for his Heaven Splitting Tenet, he was unable to break through to the third stage.
'It's time to set off to the Nefarious Devil Tribe territory, I'll leave tomorrow.' Huang Xiaolong planned in his head.
Since the Golden Dragon Gate had withdrawn the lockdown, he decided to depart to the Nefarious Devil Tribe territory tomorrow to look for the Gold Cores as soon as possible. He wanted to complete the task and get the points to enter the Golden Dragon Sacred Temple so he could take a look at the golden dragon pearl!
Huang Xiaolong left the Golden Dragon Mountain early next morning as decided.
…
"Grandfather, that kid has left the Golden Dragon Mountain." Sun Jinqiang received report of Huang Xiaolong's departure in the shortest time. He quickly ran to see Liu Qingyang with a smile on his face, asking, "When are we making a move?"
Liu Qingyang smiled faintly, "There's no hurry, wait until he's off the Dralion Island shores. He's going to the Nefarious Devil Tribe territory, after all, we'll have plenty of chances to deal with him."
"Yes, Grandfather is right." Sun Jinqiang nodded his head in agreement.
Huang Xiaolong boarded a flying ship from the Golden Dragon City, taking a little over ten days to reach the Joyous Sea City.
There was no flying ship that went straight to the Nefarious Devil Island where the Nefarious Devil Tribe lived. Huang Xiaolong's best option was to take a flying ship to the nearest island, the Big Cloudy Island.
The Big Cloudy Island was a small man-made island built by the Berserk Lion Sect and Golden Dragon Gate, where demonic beasts were allowed to roam free, the ideal training ground for both forces' disciples.
Based on Huang Xiaolong's speed, he needed ten more days of flying to reach the Nefarious Devil Island from Big Cloudy Island.
Counting from the day he boarded tu3 flying ship, two weeks had passed.
Huang Xiaolong chose to fly straight to the Nefarious Devil Island instead of resting of the cities built by the two forces on the Big Cloudy Island.
Once he was away from the island, Huang Xiaolong stopped worrying about exposing his identity, hence letting the little cow out from the Godly Mt. Xumi space.
"Oh Mama, I nearly died from suffocation." The moment the little cow was released from the Godly Mt. Xumi space, it dramatically sucked in the sea air, clamoring loudly.
Huang Xiaolong slapped its cow head, "How can that suffocate you to death?" Then he grinned mischievously, "Your muscles must be stiff, I'll give you a chance to loosen them a bit."
Since leaving the Dralion Island, Huang Xiaolong already discovered that Sun Jinqiang's group had been tailing him until now.
The little cow scoffed, "Just that few flies, does it need me and my mighty cow legs?"
"It's considered good if you can kick something, don't be so picky." Huang Xiaolong chuckled.
Huang Xiaolong just finished persuading the little cow when a complacent sneer sounded. In the next second, several figures appeared in midair. Sun Jinqiang and his group of core disciples were flying straight at Huang Xiaolong.
Although Sun Jinqiang was wondering when this Tang Hong took in a cow mount, he did not linger on the question. He looked at Huang Xiaolong and laughed sinisterly.