The recovery speed of the lighting bead was terrifying, but it failed to surpass the shocking rate at which the Golden Pig Treasure recovered.
In the past month, Huang Xiaolong had fed the Golden Pig Treasure ten top-grade chaos spirit stones every day. The light around the Golden Pig Treasure's body was glowing with a resplendent golden hue, and its expression was extremely adorable.
"Young Master, this golden piggy is really cute!" Zhang Wenyue started at the Golden Pig Treasure and giggled. Her eyes turned into two beautiful crescents when she laughed, and her face flushed pink. The look of beauty was hard to hide indeed.
Seemingly trying to get on her good side, the Golden Pig Treasure shook its head as it wagged its little pigtail. Tumbling around on the ground, it entertained Zhang Wenyue to the best of its abilities.
Zhang Wenyue wasn't the only one who was amused. Zhang Haochen and Prince Qian couldn't help but laugh when they noticed the little pig's antics.
When Huang Xiaolong looked at Zhang Wenyue whose face was illuminated by a soft glow, the image of Shi Xiaofei, Li Lu, and the others appeared in his mind.
Zhang Wenyue noticed that Huang Xiaolong failed to respond and felt a weird sense of suspicion in her heart as she turned to look at him. When she met his gaze, the blood rushed to her face and painted it a pretty red color. Her heart started to pound in her chest.
Zhang Haochen and Prince Qian were naturally able to notice the change in atmosphere, but they were smart enough to turn away to avoid disrupting the mood.
"Young Master…" Zhang Wenyue whispered in a mesmerizing voice.
Snapping back to attention, Huang Xiaolong stared at her and asked, "Oh? What's wrong?"
He had failed to hear anything Zhang Wenyue had said previously.
A smile quickly formed on Zhang Wenyue's lips. "The little golden piggy is really cute! Where did you get it from? Is it a spiritual puppet?"
There were several sects in the Holy World that specialized in making spiritual puppets. The items they made were extremely life-like and were comparable to divine beasts. There were even some that had their own spiritual consciousness!
These puppets would appear from time to time in several large-scale auctions.
Huang Xiaolong laughed, and he shook his head. "It's not a spiritual puppet."
Hearing that Zhang Wenyue was confused about its identity, the Golden Pig Treasure waved its leg about in the air, seemingly trying to vent its anger at being called a spiritual puppet.
Staring at the cute little pig that was messing about, Zhang Wenyue couldn't help but chuckle.
"It's a divine artifact…" Huang Xiaolong explained.
Hearing his explanation, the three of them stared at him in shock.
How could a living creature be a divine artifact? Moreover, how could it be a cute little golden pig like that? Staring at the little critter before them, they realized that if it didn't move, it would look a lot more like an amazingly detailed sculpture.
"Young Master, I've heard that there are many experts from the Big Dipper Sword Sect who came to the lightning grounds. Their goal is to obtain the Lightning Dragon Divine Fruits." Zhang Wenyue said to Huang Xiaolong. When she mentioned the Big Dipper Sword Sect, there was a look of melancholy on her face.
In the preliminary selections in the Soaring Lightning Kingdom, she was brutally disqualified.
She felt as though she had gained a lot when she had observed Huang Xiaolong practicing his sword art back in the Prince Qian Manor. However, she failed to grasp anything in the short time frame she had and thus failed to pass the Big Dipper Sword Sect's disciple selections.
"Young Master, she's right. The experts of the Nine Heavens Gate and the Incineration Valley have arrived in the lightning grounds." Prince Qian followed up.
Huang Xiaolong nodded his head.
He had long since learned of it when he had searched through the soul of the Beast Emperor Sect's high elder. Whatever the case, Huang Xiaolong didn't care about any of the factions present. The three supreme sects might have sent several teams to the lightning grounds, but not a single Venerable Realm expert was present.
As long as there wasn't a Venerable, there was nothing for Huang Xiaolong to be afraid of.
No matter how precious a high-grade, rank-four origin treasure was, it held little to no attraction to Venerables. The chances of a Venerable rushing all the way to the lightning grounds to fight over the Lightning Dragon Divine Fruit was basically zero.
After a good night's rest, Huang Xiaolong and the rest decided to explore the depths of the lightning grounds.
Several days passed…
Huang Xiaolong and his team caught sight of an endless sea that was seething with flames.
In the skies above the sea, lightning storms raged as divine flames burned bright.
"It's the Lightning Flame Sea!" Prince Qian expression changed.
The Lightning Flame Sea was a forbidden land in the lightning grounds,
After all, the flames and lightning that covered the skies above the lightning sea was exceptionally terrifying.
The chances of ordinary Sovereigns dying in the lightning sea was fairly high. There wasn't even a need to speak about Emperor Realm experts.
Of course, there was a reason Huang Xiaolong set his sights on the Lightning Flame Sea. Even though he didn't know where the Lightning Dragon Divine Fruits were, he could basically confirm that it would be located in one of the forbidden regions in the lightning grounds.
Of the four forbidden regions, one of them was the Lightning Flame Sea!
The reason Huang Xiaolong had decided to head to the Lightning Flame Sea first was because it had the densest concentration of lightning spiritual qi! His divine fires would also be able to devour the fire spiritual qi in the air to hasten their recovery even if he failed to locate the fruits.
Heading to the Lightning Flame Sea first was basically killing three birds with one stone! Not only could he speed up the recovery of the lightning bead and divine flames, there was even the possibility of locating the divine fruit!
"Let's go!"
Huang Xiaolong charged towards the Lightning Flame Sea as he rode on the back of the Six Eyed Ice Lion with the three of them in tow.
Even though the lightning bolts and divine flames surrounding the sea were terrifying, Huang Xiaolong and the beasts he had were more than enough to protect Zhang Wenyue and the others.
As soon as he entered the Lightning Flame Sea, the lightning spiritual qi and fire spiritual qi around him started to disappear in an instant as the lightning bead and the four divine flames inside him started to devour them at an astounding speed.
The brilliant glow around the lightning bead became a little brighter and the slumbering divine flames in his body started to awaken.
As they reignited, the four divine fires started to burn with a blinding light.
Zhang Wenyue and the others soon realized that not only were the lightning and flames avoiding them, but everything within a hundred feet radius was being sucked into Huang Xiaolong's body.
"Young Master… are you alright?" Zhang Wenyue couldn't help but ask in a concerned voice.
Huang Xiaolong laughed, and he explained, "There's no need to worry. I'm just cultivating my secret technique."
Cultivating… It was definitely something he came up with on the spot.
Since the lightning bead and four divine fires were his final trump cards, the lesser people who knew about it the better it was. It also went without saying that Huang Xiaolong would never expose the lightning bead that was containing Wan Zhuoyuan's holy soul.
When she heard that he was only practicing his secret technique, she heaved a sigh of relief.
As they ventured deeper and deeper into the Lightning Flame Sea, the strength of the lightning and flames around them became stronger. Of course, it was nothing but beneficial for the lightning bead and Huang Xiaolong's four divine flames.
Several hours later, Huang Xiaolong's eyes snapped wide open when he felt a trace of energy fluctuations coming from in front of him. The burst of energy didn't come from the Lightning Flame Sea and it could only mean one other thing.
As his heart trembled in excitement, Huang Xiaolong charged straight towards the strange fluctuations, and the three of them followed behind him.
Very quickly, he arrived.
Staring at the scene before him, Huang Xiaolong's eyes lit up. A magnificent smile appeared on his face when he saw a majestic tree standing tall in the middle of the Lightning Flame Sea. The tree had a branch that coiled around, like a majestic dragon, and there was a shining golden fruit hanging from one of its branches.
Lightning Dragon Divine Fruit!
When he arrived, he saw several experts surrounding the tree as they whittled away at the restrictions around it.
Those experts were none other than Song Shaokang and his various subordinates.
The moment Song Shaokang felt an unfamiliar presence, he turned around to stare at the group of strangers. When his gaze landed on Huang Xiaolong, a sinister smile blossomed on his face. "Brat, you really know how to barge through the gates of hell! I was planning to kill you after obtaining the Lightning Dragon Divine Fruit, but who would have thought that you would bring yourself over to me?"
His gaze soon turned to Zhang Wenyue as a weird light lit up in his eyes. "So you're the person they call Zhang Wenyue… It looks like lady luck is shining on me today. First I get to kill this brat, then I get a free Treasure Tome delivery!"
Zhang Wenyue's expression sank as she hid behind Huang Xiaolong.
Staring at Song Shaokang's face, Huang Xiaolong couldn't help but chuckle in amusement. "Treasure Tome delivery? Indeed, Young Lady Zhang has the Venerable Treasure Tome, but that's all that matters. Guess you won't be so lucky after all. Not only will you fail to retrieve the Lightning Dragon Divine Fruit, but you will also leave your life behind!"