As light filled the skies, the permafrost that had remained for billions of years started to thaw. It turned into frigid qi that filled the skies.
Whoosh!
The ever peaceful frozen lake erupted as a figure charged into the skies.
As Huang Xiaolong released his aura completely, his six, tamed divine beasts, cowered to the ground as their bodies trembled uncontrollably. They stared at Huang Xiaolong with a terrified expression.
Raising his arm, Huang Xiaolong punched towards the void in front of him. Waves of qi burst through the air and shattered the peace of the Devouring Icy Forest. In the next second, an explosion occurred one billion miles away as Huang Xiaolong's fist qi smashed heavily into the land.
The icy mist that shrouded the forest for god knew how many billion years was swept away by Huang Xiaolong's fist qi!
"Nice!" A smile finally appeared on Huang Xiaolong's face.
His recovery process exceeded his expectations after the time he spent in seclusion.
He had thought that he would take six to seven years before he could recover seventy percent of his true strength. However, it took him merely five months to do it. He didn't even take half a year to recover forty percent of his strength!
With forty percent of his power, Huang Xiaolong was sure that he could kill Tenth Order Sovereigns like they were nothing.
Heaving a sigh of relief, a massive ice dragon escaped his nose.
Right now, he could easily control the origin energy in his surroundings.
With a single thought, the Golden Pig Treasure, the four divine fires, and the lightning bead appeared before Huang Xiaolong.
In the past, he couldn't summon his treasures as his injuries were too severe. Right now, there was nothing to stop him from using them!
Of course, ever since his trip through the lightning storm, Huang Xiaolong's treasures were no longer at their peak state. The golden glow around the Golden Pig Treasure was no longer as prominent as before, and it had a listless expression plastered on its face.
As for the four divine fires, they were no longer burning as intensely as they once were. The divine spirits of the fires had gone into hibernation, and it didn't seem that they were going to wake up anytime soon. The lightning bead had suffered the most as not a single trace of lightning remained around it.
Huang Xiaolong wasn't surprised and he quickly retrieved several top-grade chaos spirit stones from the space within the lightning bead. After swallowing ten top-grade chaos spirit stones, the Golden Pig Treasure finally recovered by a tiny bit.
Huang Xiaolong heaved a sigh of relief.
As long as the Golden Pig Treasure could recover by ingesting top-grade chaos spirit stones, it was only a matter of time before it returned to its peak state.
Before Huang Xiaolong had opened the 33 Heavenly Gates, he had stored quite a number of top-grade chaos spirit stones into the space inside the lightning bead. Even though they didn't amount to much, they numbered in the several billion.
Unfortunately, it seemed as though ten top-grade chaos spirit stones was the limit the Golden Pig Treasure could refine in a day. Huang Xiaolong could only feed it more the next day.
After dealing with the Golden Pig Treasure, Huang Xiaolong thought about the four divine fires and the lightning bead. He felt a headache coming when he thought about how he could go about restoring their strength.
The four divine fires were a little easier to deal with than the lightning bead. As long as he had enough fire attributed origin treasures or origin herbs, Huang Xiaolong felt that it wouldn't take long for them to recover. The problem was the lightning bead. It was already damaged to begin with. After suffering the bombardment in the lightning storm, Huang Xiaolong knew that it wouldn't be easy to restore it. Unless it could devour a large amount of lightning origin energy, it was practically impossible for it to recover.
Lightning origin energy was nearly impossible to find, and Huang Xiaolong had to rack his brains if he wanted to fix the lightning bead.
Soon, Huang Xiaolong tried to feel the presence of the Grandmist Lightning Pool, but to no avail.
"It seems like the Grandmist Lightning Pool fell back into the myriad of worlds…" Huang Xiaolong thought to himself.
He had thought about that possibility when he had failed to detect it in the lightning storm.
He felt that the reason one had to gather all the nine great lightning pools was because they needed the Grandmist Lightning Pool to open the 33 Heavenly Gates! When the gates opened, the Grandmist Lightning Pool would probably split itself up into the nine chaos lightning pools to scatter around the myriad of worlds again. When the next person gathered all nine pools, they would also be able to open the 33 Heavenly Gates.
Huang Xiaolong no longer bothered with the question, and he laid down countless restrictions around him. Ensuring that the area around him was secure, he retrieved Wan Zhuoyuan's soul from the lightning bead.
In the past, Wan Zhuoyuan had managed to attain enlightenment and become a True Saint Realm expert. His divine soul was no longer shackled by the cycle of reincarnation, and he was basically immortal. Of course, it was because Huang Xiaolong was still not strong enough to wipe his soul out.
Instead of calling Wan Zhuoyuan's soul a divine soul, it was more appropriate to call it a holy soul.
As soon as Huang Xiaolong brought him out, a shrunken version of Wan Zhuoyuan glared at him. Killing intent filled the surroundings in an instant.
"Huang Xiaolong, how dare you do this to me?! I'm a True Saint! You will be punished by divine retribution for disrespecting a True Saint! Your soul will be incinerated by the strongest of flames and you'll suffer from a fate worse than death!" As soon as Wan Zhuoyuan's holy soul appeared, he started to run his mouth.
"True Saint? So what if you're a True Saint?" Huang Xiaolong stared at him with a placid expression. "So what if I have to withstand heaven's judgment? I'm going to surpass the True Saint Realm one day and devour your holy soul!"
Wan Zhuoyuan stared at Huang Xiaolong, speechless. However, he burst into laughter in the next second. "Huang Xiaolong, you have to be dreaming! Don't even think about transcending the True Saint Realm!" Sweeping his gaze around, Wan Zhuoyuan's holy soul suddenly felt that something was off. How could there be holy spiritual qi in the surroundings?! "This… you… you… You managed to enter the Holy World?!" There was a trace of shock and joy in his voice.
"That's right. This is the Holy World. Moreover, we're currently located in the Zhuoyuan Holy Lands… Your Zhuoyuan Holy Lands…"
"Zhuoyuan Holy Lands!" Wan Zhuoyuan nearly cried out in joy as traces of light flashed through his eyes.
A sneer soon formed on Huang Xiaolong's lips. "So what if we're in the Zhuoyuan Holy Lands. Do you really think that you can escape?"
Ignoring Huang Xiaolong, Wan Zhuoyuan's holy soul emitted a mythical burst of energy that managed to pierce through all of Huang Xiaolong's restrictions.
In the instant he did that, the central continent of the Zhuoyuan Holy Lands started to shake. The Holy Statue located deep in the forbidden region of the Zhuoyuan Holy Gate started to emit rays upon rays of resplendent light.
"Holy Light from the Holy Statue!"
"It's the Holy Lord, Zhuoyuan!"
Several figures appeared in the depths of the Zhuoyuan Holy Gate, and they shook in excitement. Their auras filled their surroundings and even Venerable Realm masters like Wang Chunming would feel like a speck of dust before those experts.
"Forceful Heavenly Bull Continent!"
The experts around the statue quickly located the source of the energy and they immediately locked on to the Forceful Heavenly Bull Continent.
In an instant, orders started to spill out from the headquarters of the Zhuoyuan Holy Gate. Their orders quickly reached the ears of the Continent Lord of the Forceful Heavenly Bull Continent as well as the leaders of the various dynasties under him.
Huang Xiaolong, who was staring at Zhuoyuan's holy soul was shocked, and his pupils shrank. He quickly threw Wan Zhuoyuan's soul into the lightning bead.
Did Wan Zhuoyuan just use some sort of secret technique to contact the Zhuoyuan Holy Gate?!
Sh*t!
He had already been extremely careful by deploying layers of restrictions around Wan Zhuoyuan's holy soul. However, it was clear that he had no idea what True Saint Realm experts were capable of! It seemed as though Wan Zhuoyuan had already unlocked a certain part of his sealed memories… The part that Huang Xiaolong was unable to access.
Wan Zhuoyuan laughed sinisterly when he was thrown back into the lightning bead. "Huang Xiaolong, I've already contacted all the Eminent Elders of the Holy Gate. Right now, they know that I'm located in the Devouring Icy Forest and they should seal it off soon. There is nowhere for you to hide. You better hand me over to them now before you suffer from their wrath. I'll even forget about the grudges we had between us, and I can pull you into the Holy Gate!"
Even though Wan Zhuoyuan was unable to expand his holy soul out of the lightning bead, he was still able to speak to Huang Xiaolong.
"Is that so?" Huang Xiaolong remained completely indifferent. A soft sneer escaped his lips. "Of course I'll enter your Holy Gate. In fact, I'll use all the resources you left behind to enter the Venerable Realm. As for the recommendation, I'm sorry. There is no need for me to rely on your help!"