Huang Xiaolong stood in the Dragon Shark Flying Ship's control hall, looking out into the dark, vast space. His thoughts drifted towards his family in the lower realm.
Are they doing well in the lower realm?
"Xiaofei," Huang Xiaolong took out a jade carving that was carved into Shi Xiaofei's face.
Huang Xiaolong had carved it himself out of a top-grade jade. He would take it out and look at it when he missed Shi Xiaofei.
During his time in Fortune Emperor Palace, Huang Xiaolong had learned that it was a feat to go to the lower realm from the Divine World, unless one had broken through to the Emperor Realm. Even so, it required a certain ancient space formation to form a passage to the lower realm.
However, the knowledge for this ancient space formation was long lost, not even his Master Zhao Lei or Fang Gan knew how to arrange it. Huang Xiaolong then asked the little cow, but she too had shook her head indicating that she had no knowledge about it.
In short, it seemed impossible for Huang Xiaolong to return to the lower realm.
The other way he could reunite with his family was to wait for them to ascend to the Divine World.
Before ascending, he had promised everyone that if he did not return to the lower realm after thirty thousand years, his family would ascend to the Divine World on their own.
However, the time flow in the Divine World and the lower realm were different. A hundred years in the Divine World could be a thousand years in the lower realm, perhaps several thousand years. Therefore, Huang Xiaolong would not even need to wait for thirty thousand years.
In any case, Huang Xiaolong wouldn't be able to see his family and Shi Xiaofei in the near future.
How did the Highgod Realm Advancement Tournament's messenger descended to the lower realm at that time? Huang Xiaolong wondered to himself.
Could there be an Emperor Realm master versed in that ancient space formation, who might have opened a passage, and sent the messenger to the lower realm?
These questions could only be answered after finding that 'messenger.'
…..
Ten days went by in the blink of an eye.
The Dragon Shark Flying Ship stopped outside the Extraterritorial Devil Battlefield's border.
Looking at the familiar Extraterritorial Devil Battlefield's barrier, Huang Xiaolong was amazed by the Dragon Shark Flying Ship's current speed. After the Dragon Shark Flying Ship was completely restored, its speed was faster than his estimation. It merely took them one month and a few days to reach the Extraterritorial Devil Battlefield from the Fortune Emperor Palace.
His first journey to the Fortune Emperor Palace from Vientiane World surface had taken him fifteen years.
Huang Xiaolong pondered for a moment, then instructed Xiang Xun and the others to sail the Dragon Shark Flying Ship straight into the Extraterritorial Devil Battlefield, breaking past the boundary barrier.
Even though traveling within the Extraterritorial Devil Battlefield on the Dragon Shark Flying Ship would make them an obvious target, the evil spirits, magic beasts, and ghouls in the outer periphery were too weak to be of concern.
As expected, the moment the Dragon Shark Flying Ship passed through the boundary, the evil spirits, magic beasts, and ghouls in the immediate surroundings swarmed towards the flying ship.
Huang Xiaolong leaped out from the flying ship to deal with them, instead of having Xiang Xun or the others to do so.
A brief moment later, these low-level and mid-level Ancient God Realm evil spirits, ghouls, and magic beasts either fell like rain or exploded into a mist of blood.
The Dragon Shark Flying Ship was a low-grade grandmist spiritual artifact. Hence, the ship's body was extremely sturdy, and even an average low-level Heavenly Monarch Realm master would not be able to withstand being rammed in by the Dragon Shark Flying Ship; much less these Ancient God Realm evil spirits, ghouls, and magic beasts.
However, Huang Xiaolong wasn't so reckless as to let the Dragon Shark Flying Ship fly across the Extraterritorial Devil Battlefield at high speed. Other than evil spirits, magic beasts, and ghouls, there were various remnant ancient formations in the Extraterritorial Devil Battlefield.
Triggering these remnant formations would result in a big hassle.
They journeyed onward smoothly.
A month later...
The Dragon Shark Flying Ship had reached the middle region of the Extraterritorial Devil Battlefield.
The middle region had the God King Realm magic beasts, evil spirits, and ghouls, and the scattered remnant formations were also more powerful there.
At one point, as a precaution, Huang Xiaolong could only put away the Dragon Shark Flying Ship. Everyone alighted the flying ship and flew forward.
Before coming to the Extraterritorial Devil Battlefield, Huang Xiaolong had planned to go straight into the deeper region to search for the Tianwu Treasure. As for the grandmist aura, he planned to search for it after getting the Tianwu Treasure.
Therefore, the little cow led the group in the front. The group gradually came closer to the Tianwu Treasure. With the little cow and Xiang Xun, the group did not meet with too much hindrance.
When Huang Xiaolong came upon Second Order or Third Order God King Realm magic beasts, he used the Grandmist Parasitic Medium's grandmist worms to control them.
Half a month later, there were more than a dozen Second Order and Third Order God King Realm magic beasts by his side.
Having these additional magic beasts by his side was a big convenience for Huang Xiaolong. He sent them forward to scout the route which made it easy for them to manoeuvre away from potential dangers.
Huang Xiaolong's group reached the Tianwu Treasure location after two months.
From afar, Huang Xiaolong looked at the enormous palace hovering in the air like a butterfly and was astonished. "That's the Tianwu Treasure?"
"If it's fake, I'll compensate you ten times worth." The little cow joked.
"You have ten Tianwu Treasures?" Huang Xiaolong rolled his eyes as he asked.
Surprisingly, the little cow answered, "I don't have ten Tianwu Treasures, but what this cow has in reserves from my past life is a million times better than ten Tianwu Treasures."
Watching the little cow's smugness, Huang Xiaolong said, "Talk after you get back your reserves from your past life."
The smugness on her face withered somewhat.
Huang Xiaolong flew ahead of the group towards the Tianwu Treasure.
On the way, everyone saw white bones scattered everywhere. These were probably the bones of those forces' Ancestors and experts who had come for the Tianwu Treasures some years back.
In general, these forces' Ancestors and experts' corpses wouldn't have decayed so fast, however, the corrosive devil qi in the Extraterritorial Devil Battlefield was simply too strong. Without constant godforce fending off the corrosive devil qi from invading the body, several months' time was enough for their body to rot away.
As they flew closer, Huang Xiaolong noticed that the Tianwu Treasure was bigger than it had appeared from the distance, about the size of a big mainland.
Huang Xiaolong observed the butterfly-like palace, but could not detect any doorway. His divine sense spread out but was immediately blocked by a mysterious energy.
"The Tianwu Treasure's entry passage is well hidden, it requires a secret method to enter." The little cow explained to Huang Xiaolong, then in front of everyone, she opened her mouth and spat out a purple-colored lightning dragon towards the Tianwu Treasure.
When the purple-colored lightning dragon flew out, a light glimmered over the palace, opening an entry passage that could fit several people crossing it at the same time.
The little cow blinked at Huang Xiaolong, seemingly asking for praise.
Huang Xiaolong slapped her forehead and scoffed, "Yes, yes, I know that you're amazing, take us inside quickly."
The little cow trotted towards the passage with a dejected face and entered the Tianwu Treasure with Xiang Xun and the rest following behind her.
Not long after Huang Xiaolong's group entered, the passageway disappeared, and everything returned to normal.
Huang Xiaolong looked to the front. In front of him were dense and complicated buildings, too many to count, just like a maze.
Tranquil white clouds floated above these buildings with rays of sunlight peeking through them.