No matter how heated the outside world became, Huang Xiaolong retained his speed of killing off twenty experts every day. He devoured their saint attributes the moment the battle ended, and not a single part was left wasted.
Several more months passed.
Finally, Huang Xiaolong emerged from the Devil Cave.
Behind him were the disciples of the Holy Heavens along with Elder Zhang Sijin in charge of protecting the Devil Cave.
The bet Huang Xiaolong had made with Li Chen and the others had already spread through the lands thanks to Xie Yao and the others fanning the flames. However, his reputation didn’t drop in the few months he spent in the Devil Cave. In fact, his prestige started to grow after they witnessed how quickly he improved.
The disciples following behind him stared at him with expressions of reverence along with a trace of fear.
“Elder, you all should return.” Huang Xiaolong waved his arm and spoke to those behind him.
“Yes, Your Highness.” Zhang Sijin didn’t dare to ignore anything Huang Xiaolong said. He bowed respectfully, but he spoke up all of a sudden, “Your Highness, will you be visiting the Devil Cave anytime soon?”
Huang Xiaolong nodded when he saw that Zhang Sijin was reluctant to see him go. “I’ll come back soon for a drink.”
The look on Zhang Sijin’s face turned into one of pure joy, and he quickly replied, “I’ll prepare all the best wine in my collection when you drop by again!”
Huang Xiaolong chuckled and patted Zhang Sijin’s shoulders before leaving.
How could someone like Zhang Sijin endure a pat from Huang Xiaolong? He felt his bones going soft and even after Hung Xiaolong disappeared, he remained kneeling on the ground.
Only after a long time did a disciple approach him. “Elder Zhang, His Highness has left….”
Snapping awake from his beautiful daydream, Zhang Sijin reluctantly returned to the Devil Cave.
Huang Xiaolong didn’t waste time as he returned to his residence immediately.
This time, he had used up all his contribution points. Even though he found it a pity, he knew that his points were well spent. After devouring the saint attributes of the prisoners in the Devil Cave, he had managed to achieve his goal. His three saint godheads, saint bloodlines, and saint physiques had already reached the fortieth rank.
If he counted all the disciples in the Holy Heavens, there were less than twenty percent of them with saint attributes ranking in the top forties.
However, Huang Xiaolong wasn’t satisfied with the jump in rank.
“I have to push them into the top thirty ranks as soon as possible…,” He thought to himself.
His combat abilities would skyrocket every time he increased his saint attributes’ rank by ten. The higher his saint godheads ranked, the faster he would cultivate!
If he managed to evolve them to the point they reached the top ten ranks, Huang Xiaolong was confident that he would be able to seize the Saint Fate when it appeared even if he failed to obtain the Cangqiong Holy Pill.
Any godhead ranked in the top ten would possess terrifying power. If all three complete dao saint godheads reached the top ten ranks, Huang Xiaolong would be a terrifying presence!
Of course, pushing them into the top ten ranks was easier said than done.
Even if he managed to obtain unlimited contribution points, the number of prisoners in the Devil Cave wouldn’t be enough for him to increase his godheads’ ranks!
A frosty light soon flashed in his eyes. “It seems like I should take a stroll around the branches of the Devil Palace….”
As an organization rivaling the Holy Heavens, the Devil Palace had tons of branches scattered around the Holy World. As long as he infiltrated their branch organization, there would be tons of talents for him to devour!
However, the risk of heading towards one of the Devil Palace’s branches was too high.
There would be a high-level True Saint holding the fort in each branch. Even with the Darkness Holy Ring and the Winged Dragon Flying Ship, Huang Xiaolong knew that it was almost impossible to escape.
Returning to the Blue Dragon Manor, Huang Xiaolong no longer thought about infiltrating the Devil Palace’s branch organization. Instead, he locked himself in seclusion.
This time, he planned to refine the four Star Transferring Holy Pills and the Clear Jade Grand Rebirth Holy Pill before leaving seclusion.
After his hellish training in the Devil Cave, he had already arrived at the peak of the early-First Tribulation half-True Saint Realm. According to his estimations, he would be able to enter the late-First Tribulation half-True Saint Realm after he refined all five holy pills.
Leaving Di Huai, Feng Tianyu, Zhang Wenyue, and the others a note, he entered a secret room. A Star Transferring Holy Pill appeared in his hand.
Without the slightest bit of hesitation, Huang Xiaolong threw the pill in his mouth.
In an instant, the pill transformed into a river of holy energy. Huang Xiaolong seemed to have turned into a newborn star as boundless amounts of energy emerged from his body.
With the experience of refining so many holy herbs, Huang Xiaolong had long since prepared himself for something like this. However, it seemed as though he had underestimated the Star Transferring Holy Pill, and he nearly lost consciousness when the energy erupted in his body. The energy contained in a single Star Transferring Pill was several thousands of times more than those rank-ten origin spiritual pills he had consumed in the past.
Even holy pills he had consumed in the past couldn’t compare to the Star Transferring Holy Pill!
In that instant, Huang Xiaolong seemed to have realized the reason behind his masters’ anger after hearing how he had refined the raw herbs.
Knowing that distraction would only put his life in danger, Huang Xiaolong hastily started to circulate the Grandmist Parasitic Medium. In an instant, the energy contained in the pill surged towards the three saint godheads.
Huang Xiaolong seemed to turn into a brilliant star as starlight emerged from the pores of his body.
Even with his new and improved saint attributes, he took four months to refine the Star Transferring Holy Pill.
Without stopping to rest, Huang Xiaolong started to refine the second pill.
Four months later, he tossed the third pill into his mouth.
After a year and a half in seclusion, Huang Xiaolong finally emerged.
The gains he had this time were better than he had expected. Initially, he had thought that he would only be able to reach the late-First Tribulation half-True Saint Realm after leaving seclusion. However, he had only swallowed four Star Transferring Holy Pills when he had entered the peak of the late-First Tribulation half-True Saint Realm.
He only needed to make a slight improvement to call upon the second tribulation.
However, he decided against it as crossing the second tribulation in the city wasn’t a smart thing to do. He couldn’t allow the others to learn of his true cultivation level.
As such, he decided to cross the second tribulation in the Purple Clouds Sea. He was headed there anyway.
After leaving his secret room, Huang Xiaolong remained in the Blue Dragon Manor for three months. He spent his time with Di Huai, Feng Tianyu, Zhang Wenyue, and the others shopping around and he also entered the Primal Ancestors’ space to cultivate the holy martial arts and divine techniques they taught him.
Three months later, Huang Xiaolong left the Holy Heavens for the Purple Clouds Sea.
The moment he left the Holy Heavens, he summoned the Winged Dragon Flying Ship. As soon as he boarded, he released Chen Zhi and the others.