Chapter 2332: Half A Year Later . . .
The moment the words left his lips, the disciple who ran into the hall made his report. "Respective lords, Huang Xiaolong just killed Zhou Yang in the holy arena!"
"What?!"
Xie Yao's smile froze.
Even Li Chen couldn't hide the shock on his face.
"Are you sure?!" Xie Yao's face was unsightly. "Are you sure that Zhou Yang didn't defeat him instead?!"
After his master, Wu Ge, had slapped him in public, the hatred in his heart for Huang Xiaolong had grown to a terrifying level.
"This subordinate has verified that Huang Xiaolong was indeed the victor of the battle. Zhou Yang is dead."
"Alright, you can leave for now. Keep investigating Huang Xiaolong, and report all his movements in the Devil Cave back to us." Li Chen waved his hand and signalled for that disciple to step down.
"How is this possible?!" Xie Yao roared, "How can someone with his trashy talent kill Zhou Yang?! Don't tell me that both the Soulslayer Saint Godhead and Demon Mist Saint Physique are fake?! Preposterous!"
Li Chen muttered under his breath, "Every single disciple locked up in the Devil Cave has gone through a test. There can be no mistakes. The only reason he killed Zhou Yang was because of his terrifying combat abilities. It seems like we have underestimated Huang Xiaolong."
Lin Yijia frowned, "Senior Brother Li Chen, do you think that there's some sort of secret on Huang Xiaolong's body we aren't aware of?"
Li Chen nodded, "That's right. If he's able to kill Zhou Yang with his weak talent, then there are definitely secrets hidden on his body we aren't aware of!"
Chen Kaiping frowned, "There have been rumors going around that Huang Xiaolong's saint attributes can evolve. Since that is basically true, what other secrets can he possibly have?"
.....
In the depths of the Holy Heavens, Tyrant Chu and the three others stared into the Heavenly Lens as a bitter smile formed on their faces.
"He didn't even use the Holy Mandate Imprint!" Lord Long shook his head, "It seems that he was able to kill Zhou Yang without it...."
The three others stared at the screen with solemn expressions on their faces.
"He's definitely hiding some secret from us...." Tyrant Chu muttered, "What can it be? How can he raise his combat strength without relying on his saint attributes?"
Even with their knowledge, none of them could figure out the reason behind Huang Xiaolong's terrifying combat strength.
As they questioned each other, Zhou Yang's corpse had already withered.
Huang Xiaolong descended from the arena and said to Zhang Sijin, who was standing there foolishly, "Elder Zhang Sijin, I will leave the rest to you."
Right now, Huang Xiaolong needed to properly digest the gains he had obtained from devouring Zhou Yang.
Zhang Sijin snapped back to reality and nodded respectfully.
Huang Xiaolong left the scene under the stunned gazes of the surrounding disciples.
There were tons of secret rooms prepared in the Devil Cave for disciples of the Holy Heavens to cultivate. After all, it was normal for a cultivator to enter seclusion after a tough battle with the disciples of the Devil Palace.
Injuries were also commonplace and the secret rooms were prepared for their disciples to recover.
...
Two days later, Huang Xiaolong emerged and continued to pick out some opponents for himself.
This time, Huang Xiaolong had chosen to battle a disciple called Fei Rong.
Similarly, Fei Rong was also in the peak mid-Third Order Venerable Realm, and his saint attributes ranked in the higher two hundreds.
Even though Fei Rong was in the same realm as Zhou Yang, he was slightly stronger.
Too bad they were no match for Huang Xiaolong and the battle ended without any suspense. Like before, Huang Xiaolong only took five minutes to kill Fei Rong.
After killing Fei Rong, Huang Xiaolong returned to his secret room and refined his saint godhead and saint bloodline.
After two days, Huang Xiaolong challenged another disciple.
A month past in a blink of an eye.
Every two days, Huang Xiaolong would kill a disciple from the Devil Palace, and after the battle, he would return to his secret room immediately to refine their saint attributes.
Every single disciple who died at his hands was in the Third Order Venerable Realm.
Moreover, all of them had a complete dao saint godhead ranked in the two hundred and fifties to the two hundred and seventies.
Every battle took less than five minutes.
When one month passed, Huang Xiaolong finally broke through into the mid-Third Order Venerable Realm.
He immediately challenged those in the late-Third Order Venerable Realm.
Everyone he challenged had godheads ranking in the two hundred and fifties.
Similar to the first month, every two days, he would kill a late Third Order Venerable Realm disciple.
The more he refined their saint attributes, the stronger he became. Those he could challenge gradually became stronger, and their saint attributes were swept clean by Huang Xiaolong.
In the third month after he entered the Devil Cave, Huang Xiaolong was fighting peak late-Third Order Venerables, and the godheads they had, ranked in the two hundreds.
...
In one of the secret cultivation rooms where holy spiritual qi was abundant, Huang Xiaolong sat on top of a jade bed as the Holy Mandate Imprint on his forehead shone brightly.
One by one, dragons formed from purple grandmist qi circled him.
Half a day later...
Huang Xiaolong emerged from the room.
As the warm light dissipated behind him, Huang Xiaolong approached the arena.
Since the time he had entered the Devil Cave, half a year had passed.
Just a few days before, he had successfully broken through to the late-Third Order Venerable Realm.
He was no longer the same person who had entered the Devil Cave. After devouring so many disciples of the Devil Palace, Huang Xiaolong's saint attributes had improved by quite a bit.
"Right now, my saint attributes should rank in the five hundreds...." Huang Xiaolong wondered to himself.
Even if they weren't at the five hundred rank, it should be enough. If he wanted to find out their exact rank, he would have to undergo a thorough test.
As such, he decided to speed things up a little.
Since he knew that it was impossible to push his saint attributes to rank in the top hundred in six months, he planned to push them as close as he could. According to his estimations, he would be able to bring it to the three hundredth rank.
"Young Master Huang Xiaolong has arrived!"
His appearance caused an uproar among the disciples in the Devil Cave.
For the past half a year, he had challenged the disciples of the Devil Palace without rest and there were tons of disciples from the Holy Heavens who had entered the Devil Cave in order to spectate his matches.
Not only were the disciples of the Holy Heavens talking about Huang Xiaolong, but the entire city was filled with discussion about his legendary challenges.
Of course, the Holy Heavens wasn't the only organization paying attention to Huang Xiaolong. The Devil Palace, the Holy Lands Alliance, and the Clear Snow Palace were paying close attention to him.
In the Clear Snow Palace, snow fell from the skies, and it was situated in an area with perpetual winter.
Compared to the snow in ordinary lands, the snow in the air around the Clear Snow Palace carried holy spiritual qi. One would feel extremely refreshed if a snowflake landed on them.
Situated on the highest peak of the northern lands, the Clear Snow Palace ruled over a massive area.
In the Clear Snow Palace, every structure was carved out from a type of ice rarely seen in the Holy World.
There were three women gathered in the main hall of the Clear Snow Palace as gossips on Huang Xiaolong filled the air. The women were as beautiful as ice elves, and their beauty was eternal, like the snowfall outside the palace.