Other than Feng Tianyu, Zhang Wenyue, and Xue Qi, Huang Xiaolong brought several subordinates who had considerable talent. After all, the journey was long, and there would be times he would take rest along the holy grounds he passed. They would be extremely convenient to have around when that happened.
Of course, Huang Xiaolong didn't bring too big an entourage with him. As a result, there were only ten people leaving the Holy Gate.
As the thirteen Eminent Elders and Chief of Hall Masters Yang Jingzhi sent them off, Huang Xiaolong and the others got on the semi saint-ranked flying ship and left the Zhuoyuan Holy Ground.
Despite them riding in a semi saint artifact, the Holy World was too vast. They needed six to seven years before they would be able to arrive at the headquarters of the Holy Heavens.
According to Di Huai, several years of travel was nothing but normal. Several holy grounds located in weird locations would require several tens of years of traveling before they could arrive at the headquarters of the Holy Heavens!
"Semi saint flying ship?! Thirty to forty years of traveling time?!" Zhang Wenyue felt her mind spinning. The Zhang Wenyue of the past wouldn't be able to imagine something like that.
How far would they have traveled if they sat on a semi saint artifact for several tens of years?!
"Little girl, this isn't anything strange. In order to travel around holy grounds, one might need to travel for several hundreds of years! If they didn't have a semi saint flying ship, they would need thousands and thousands of years to get around!"
"Several thousand years?!" Zhang Wenyue sucked in a cold breath.
Who in the world traveled for thousands of years at a time?!
"The scope of the Holy World surpasses our imagination." Di Huai shook his head and continued, "Even peak True Saints have no idea where the end of the Holy World is, much less someone like me. The only ones who might have an idea are those seniors who have already surpassed the True Saint Realm! Perhaps Senior Heavenly Master is aware of the enormity of the Holy World."
Senior Heavenly Master?
Huang Xiaolong couldn't help but think about the Heavenly Master he had met in the lower worlds. He knew that one of them was a lot stronger than the other. The Senior Heavenly Master Di Huai spoke of stood at the peak of the Holy World! He was a founder of the Holy Heavens, and one of the strongest experts in the Holy World!
"Senior Di Huai, I've heard Brother Huang say that the Holy Heavens is one of the largest organizations in our Holy World. They are extremely strict when accepting disciples! Will Brother Huang really be accepted when we arrive?" Feng Tianyu couldn't help but ask.
Di Huai turned to look at him as a snort left his lips. "That's right. Even I was rejected at the door when I tried to join the organization in the past."
"What?!" Zhang Wenyue and Xue Qi yelled in shock.
Huang Xiaolong was taken aback at the news. He had no idea that Holy Heavens had rejected Di Huai in the past.
"Are you surprised?" Di Huai broke out into laughter all of a sudden. "My saint attributes rank in the top hundred, and I'm a Holy Beast. Even someone like me was rejected! You can only imagine the difficulty in entering the Holy Heavens!"
"Wouldn't that mean…?" Feng Tianyu frowned. Even someone with Di Huai's talent was rejected at the door!
Even though he didn't know the truth behind Huang Xiaolong's terrifying talent, he knew that Huang Xiaolong's saint attributes were a far cry from the top one hundred ranks.
"Nothing in this world is set in stone. The ranking of one's saint attributes isn't good enough to determine their true talent. The ranking of one's saint attributes isn't the only way of entering the Holy Heavens!"
Feng Tianyu, Zhang Wenyue, and Xue Qi stared at Di Huai with question marks finning around in their mind.
"This brat will definitely be accepted into the Holy Heavens!" Di Huai didn't want to go into detail, and he casually brushed them off.
Of course, Di Huai had left something very important out. With Huang Xiaolong's current talent, it wouldn't be a stretch if the Heavenly Master accepted him as a personal disciple!
Time passed quickly and half a year shot by in a flash.
Huang Xiaolong took the time to consolidate his foundations, and he quickly arrived at the peak of the early-First Order Venerable Realm!
In one of the secret rooms in the flying ship, the imprint on Huang Xiaolong's brows glowed with golden light and turned into some sort of ancient rune.
That was the true appearance of the Holy Mandate Imprint after it was activated!
Streams of golden qi poured down from the void and entered his body the moment he activated the imprint. Without a doubt, the golden qi was the origin energy of the Holy World!
With the assistance and constant nourishment of the origin energy, the three saint godheads in Huang Xiaolong started to emit rays of brilliant light.
The three saint bloodlines in him glowed a similar golden hue as they revolved around his body.
He only stopped after half a day. The imprint on his forehead slowly started to fade, and it turned into a thin red dot once again.
"If this keeps up, I'll be able to enter the late-Second Order Venerable Realm when I arrive at the Holy Heavens! No… I might be able to charge straight into the third order!" Huang Xiaolong thought to himself.
He had a feeling that it would take him ten odd days to enter the mid-First Order Venerable Realm, and his estimation wasn't exaggerated at all!
The speed of his advancement was completely different from before!
After obtaining the Holy Mandate Imprint, Huang Xiaolong supplemented his cultivation with the immense amount of level-six origin spiritual pills. His cultivation speed reached a terrifying level, and it was even faster than top geniuses like Jiang Tian!
Moreover, he hadn't evolved his saint attributes to the maximum! That was only him with a godhead, bloodline, and physique ranked in thousands! If they were ranked in the top hundred, he would have already touched on the gates of the Second Order Venerable Realm!
Whatever the case, Huang Xiaolong knew that he could only continue his evolution after he had entered the Holy Heavens.
One fine day…
The flying ship stopped above a certain holy ground.
Di Huai and Huang Xiaolong stepped out, and they noticed the massive continent floating in the void before them. A melancholic look appeared on Di Huai's face as he sighed, "In the blink of an eye, it has already been 1.6 billion years."
He had come to the Emperor Yu Holy Grounds 1.6 billion years ago. To him, it was like yesterday.
He didn't know how his old friend was doing.
Several seconds later, Di Huai seemed to have reached a decision, and he laughed, "Let's go. Little one, since we're here, I'll bring you in to meet my friend."
Retrieving the flying ship, the two of them flew towards the Emperor Yu Holy Grounds.
Di Huai had spoken about the Emperor Yu Holy Grounds on the flying ship. He casually spoke about the times he had spent in the Emperor Yu Holy Grounds to Huang Xiaolong.
It didn't take long for Huang Xiaolong to learn that the old friend Di Huai referred to was the patriarch of the Emperor Yu Holy Grounds.
As they approached, they were unceremoniously stopped by the experts of the holy ground. The guards quickly requested to verify Huang Xiaolong's identity before allowing them to enter.
Even Di Huai was shocked when he discovered the strict security.
"Friend of the Holy Master?" The guards stared at Di Huai with a suspicious look when they heard what he said.