The reddish-golden glow from the elephant carvings emitted a bright light that reached all the four corners of the square. At the same time, there were faint sounds of undulating cries, as if they were coming from the devils in hell, or a sea of ghosts.
Surreal images of hell flashed above the battle stage consisting of devils, Asuras, and ghosts.
But these images disappeared moments later, so did the faint cries, and the reddish-golden lights shining from the divine elephant carvings. The square's surroundings once again returned to their calmness, as if nothing had happened.
In the meantime, Huang Xiaolong's group had reached the Golden Wheel City.
Once the group was back at the Golden Wheel City's residence, Huang Xiaolong was summoned by Golden Brow Ancestor and Blood Knife Ancestor. When he reached their courtyards, he noticed that Sky Sword Ancestor, Myriad Flames Ancestor, and even Black Ice Ancestor were also present along with his two Masters.
"Darling disciple, you won the first place in this term's Four Mainlands' New Disciples Battle. Tell your master, what reward do you desire? Master will promise whatever is within my capacity!" Blood Knife Ancestor stated crisply.
Clearly, Blood Knife Ancestor was in a joyful mood, as he was calling Huang Xiaolong his darling disciple.
Huang Xiaolong could only smile as he was speechlessness.
Golden Brow Ancestor also joined in the fun, "Even if you want all of the beauties from Vientiane World, your Master Blood Knife will grab them for you."
Blood Knife Ancestor was dumbfounded for a second, then laughed loudly and agreed, "That's right, that's right."
Sky Sword Ancestor and Myriad Flames Ancestor also laughed at Golden Brow Ancestor's joke. As usual, Black Ice Ancestor wore her deadpan sullen expression on her face.
Cold sweat trickled down Huang Xiaolong's forehead Thankfully Li Lu and Yao Chi were not there, or he'd probably be kneeling on giant durians as a punishment?
"Your disciple would like to enter the Fortune Divine Kingdom's library." Huang Xiaolong made his request after pondering. Since Blood Knife Ancestor and Golden Brow Ancestor had offered, wouldn't it be a waste of their love if he did not request anything from them. The Fortune Gate had another library, but the technique manuals kept inside it were more common. Whereas those kept inside the Fortune Divine Kingdom's library were more profound and consisted of techniques cultivated by generations of Fortune Gate Ancestors and Gate Chiefs. Moreover, it also consisted extremely precious records of cultivation insights written by generations of Fortune Gate Ancestors.
However, the Fortune Divine Kingdom's library was only accessible to the Fortune Gate's Ancestors and the Gate Chief, or genius disciples who had greatly contributed to the Fortune Gate and were permitted either by the Ancestors or the Gate Chief himself.
At present, those that could enter the Fortune Divine Kingdom's library were Gate Chief Zhu Yi, the seven Ancestors, and also Wang Wei! Even Zhu Feng and Li Lu weren't permitted to enter.
Golden Brow Ancestor and the others were surprised at Huang Xiaolong's request to be permitted to enter the Fortune Divine Kingdom's library, and exchanged a silent glance.
"We will talk about this with the Gate Chief when we returned to the Fortune Gate, and we will inform you about our unanimous decision thereafter." Golden Brow Ancestor answered seriously.
Although Huang Xiaolong had brought glory to the Fortune Gate by winning first place in this term's Four Mainlands' New Disciples Battle, this merit still fell a little short for him to enter the Fortune Divine Kingdom's library.
"Also, disciple wants to bring his mount into the Fortune Divine Kingdom." Huang Xiaolong added.
Even though Zhou Xu and other emperor rank godhead disciples could stay inside the Fortune Divine Kingdom to cultivate, the Fortune Gate rules prohibit disciples from bringing their mounts inside.
"That little azure cow?" Blood Knife Ancestor asked in amazement. He was aware that Huang Xiaolong had an azure-colored cow mount.
"This is a small matter, we just need to mention it to the Gate Chief." Golden Brow Ancestor thought for a moment and said to Huang Xiaolong.
There was a reason why Huang Xiaolong wanted to bring the little cow into the Fortune Divine Kingdom—maybe she knew about the origin of the Sans Devil Stele.
Subsequently, Golden Brow Ancestor, Blood Knife Ancestor, and others talked about Huang Xiaolong and Wangu Ziyi's battle from earlier that day.
While the several Ancestors were full of praises for Huang Xiaolong, they were also feeling dubious of Huang Xiaolong's strength. When Golden Brow Ancestor asked Huang Xiaolong the question that was on everyone's mind, he contemplated for some time and then answered, "Some years back, disciple found a source of grandmist aura by luck in the Extraterritorial Devil Battlefield."
"What? Grandmist aura!" Golden Brow Ancestor and other Ancestors, all jumped out from their seats in excitement and astonishment. Even Black Ice Ancestor could not maintain her cold deadpan face anymore as she too jumped out from her seat in shock.
Several pairs of eyes, filled with disbelief, were staring at Huang Xiaolong.
What was the grandmist aura? As Fortune Gate Ancestors, they all knew very well about it.
"Yes, after years of refining the grandmist aura, this disciple managed to completely refine and integrate it with his own godforce right before the day of the competition." Huang Xiaolong nodded as he explained.
Golden Brow Ancestor and the others' reaction was exactly as he had expected. He believed anyone that knows about the grandmist aura would react similarly after hearing what he had said.
In truth, Huang Xiaolong had foreseen that his Ancestors would ask him questions after the competition, thus he had prepared to use the grandmist aura as an excuse in advance.
With this explanation, his future heaven-defying performances could be attributed to the grandmist aura once and for all.
"Heaven-defying luck, heaven-defying luck ah!" Blood Knife Ancestor was the first to laugh ecstatically as he walked to hug Huang Xiaolong. "Excellent, excellent, my Blood Knife's darling disciple indeed!"
"Good disciple!"
"Darling good disciple!"
Blood Knife Ancestor's words were beginning to sound incoherent.
Huang Xiaolong had actually found the grandmist aura and had completely refined it, what does this mean? What potential does this represent?
None of the Ancestors knew, as none of them had ever refined the grandmist aura.
But Blood Knife Ancestor was certain that Huang Xiaolong's future achievements were going to be unimaginable!
Golden Brow Ancestor and the others were extremely excited as well.
Watching Blood Knife Ancestor, Golden Brow Ancestor, and the other Ancestor's excited faces, there was a wry smile on Huang Xiaolong's face. Luckily he had said that he had found the grandmist aura, instead of the purple grandmist aura. Had he said that he had refined purple grandmist aura, these Ancestors would have probably danced around due to their excitement?
However, Huang Xiaolong also knew very well that Black Ice Ancestor's excitement was purely due to the grandmist aura, and it had nothing to do with him personally.
A few hours later, Huang Xiaolong finally left his Masters' courtyard under their reluctant gazes.
The Fortune Gate's group stayed at the Golden Wheel City for another five days before heading back to the Fortune Gate.
During these five days, Huang Xiaolong was summoned by his two Masters daily for no other reason than they wanted to see their darling disciple everyday!
Huang Xiaolong didn't know whether he should have laughed or cried about this. Since he wasn't a legendary beauty, what was there to see about him every single day?
Huang Xiaolong took this opportunity to ask Golden Brow Ancestor and Blood Knife Ancestor many questions about cultivation, and learned quite a lot within these five days.
When the Fortune Gate's group left the Golden Wheel City, Luo Yunjie had healed considerably, well, at least the burns on his face had healed and he could fly on his own. However, his internal injuries needed more time to heal.
The group was back in the Ten Thousand Elephant Royal City a few days later, and they rested there for the night. From there, they went through several transmission arrays until they were finally back to the Fortune City.
Fortune Gate Chief Zhu Yi had led the Fortune Gate Grand Elders, Elders, and more than twenty thousand disciples to welcome them back.
Amongst these tens of thousands of Fortune Gate disciples, there was a particular female disciple who was craning her neck excitedly. There was also uncertainty and disbelief on her face when she saw Huang Xiaolong who was walking behind Golden Brow Ancestor and Blood Knife Ancestor.
This female disciple was none other than Cheng Susu, whom Huang Xiaolong had once rescued from the Soul Tribe.