After Fei Hou left, Huang Xiaolong and Marshal Haotian waited for him in the Nine Tripod Commerce's main hall.
Near daybreak, Fei Hou returned. With Mei Pengliang's decapitated head in his hand.
Fei Hou reported: "Sovereign, Mei Pengliang and all Clear Cloud Pavilion disciples have been dealt with."
Huang Xiaolong nodded lightly; this result was within his expectation.
"We'll go back to the Royal City sometime later." Huang Xiaolong's said solemnly. Though the issue with Clear Cloud Pavilion's Mei Sen and his son had been resolved, there were still some loose ends to tie up, which made Huang Xiaolong decide not to head back so quickly.
"Yes, Sovereign!" Both Fei Hou and Marshal Haotian acknowledged his decision respectfully.
Before the morning light spread through the land, the news about Mei Sen struck the Big Dawn County City like thunder, giving rise to a shocked uproar throughout the city.
The commoners were also made aware that Clear Cloud Pavilion's President Mei Sen was killed during the night. Mei Sen and all the Clear Cloud Pavilion's disciples met with annihilation!
Within the Big Dawn County Castellan's Mansion, Castellan Wu Dong had an ugly expression on his face as he looked at Mei Sen's corpse. His friendship with Mei Sen was good.
"Castellan, should we send guards to surround Nine Tripod Commerce?" One of the Castellan Manor guards came beside Wu Dong and asked, "President Mei Sen and these people were surely killed by the people from the Nine Tripod Commerce!"
"Yes, Castellan; even if that Nine Tripod Commerce have Marshal Haotian supporting them, so what? A Prince that breaks the law is as guilty as a subject. I don't believe that Nine Tripod Commerce dares to retaliate!" Another Castellan Manor guard spoke up.
Wu Dong's expression was extremely sullen the entire time, "Report the matter up to Lord Prime Minister first. Lord Prime Minister will have to make his decision!" After he said that, Wu Dong sent one of his confidantes to inform Prime Minister Wu Feng of the matter.
A few hours later, Wu Dong received Prime Minister Wu Feng's reply and further instructions.
Reading the reply from Prime Minister Wu Feng, Wu Dong breathed out in relief.
Five days later.
Five days had passed since the Clear Cloud Pavilion's President Mei Sen and over two hundred disciples were killed, and the gossip gradually died down. What baffled the big and small forces of the Big Dawn County was the lack of response from the Castellan Manor while the Nine Tripod Commerce remained safe and sound. Not only that, the Nine Tripod Commerce's business actually fired up during the last few days.
It was ten days later when Huang Xiaolong, Fei Hou, and Marshal Haotian finally left the Big Dawn County and returned back to Luo Tong Royal City.
Arriving in Luo Tong Royal City, Huang Xiaolong headed straight for Tianxuan Mansion.
However, not long after he stepped in Tianxuan Mansion, the Cosmic Star Academy's Sun Zhang and Xiong Chu came. The purpose of their visit was related to the inner courtyard admission.
Sitting in Tianxuan Mansion's main hall, Sun Zhang hesitated before saying to Huang Xiaolong, "Xiaolong, the day before yesterday we had an inner courtyard round table discussion and Xiong Chu and I proposed your admittance into the inner courtyard. Most of the inner courtyard Elders agreed to it, it's just that…" Sun Zhang's sentence paused here.
Xiong Chu continued, "It's just that there were three Elders that objected your admittance into the inner courtyard."
There were Ten Elders in the inner courtyard. Three of them disagreeing meant Huang Xiaolong wasn't eligible to enter the inner courtyard because the rules required a vote of nine.
"Oh, three Elders?" Huang Xiaolong was nonchalant to this fact. To him, the inner courtyard didn't matter at all. The only benefit was that there were slightly more cultivation resources allocated compared to the normal Third Years, such as Spirit Dan allocation, rewards, and other benefits. However, these Grade Three and Grade Four Spirit Dan cannot compare to the Fire Dragon Pearl from the Linglong Treasure Pagoda.
Sun Zhang and Xiong Chu exchanged a vexed look seeing Huang Xiaolong's expression. It seemed this little guy really isn't interested in the inner courtyard. One must know that entering the inner courtyard was every student's dream! The goal they strived for when entering the Academy!
"The three Elders' excuse for objecting to your admittance was that all inner courtyard disciples had to reach Tenth Order, whereas you are still a Ninth Order." Sun Zhang explained.
"Oh right, the three of them have quite a deep connection with Prime Minister Wu Feng." Xiong Chu added. Prime Minister Wu Feng and Marshal Haotian had some conflict between them; thus, in Xiong Chu's opinion, the main reason these three Elders disagreed with Huang Xiaolong entering the inner courtyard was likely due to Prime Minister Wu Feng's handiwork in the dark. As for claiming Huang Xiaolong was not a Tenth Order warrior… that being the basis for the rejection was just an excuse.
"Prime Minister Wu Feng!" A sharp glint shone in Huang Xiaolong's eyes as he repeated the name. Again, it is Prime Minister Wu Feng.
In recent days, this Prime Minister Wu Feng seemed to be looking for trouble with him at every corner!
All of these incidents were just because of Marshal Haotian?
Or perhaps, things weren't as simple as he thought.
A short while later, Sun Zhang and Xiong Chu left Tianxuan Mansion, but before they went off, Huang Xiaolong asked the names of the three Elders.
Xie Wei! Jiang Hengyu! Cheng Fengli!
These were the names of the three inner courtyard Elders.
Committing these names to memory, Huang Xiaolong activated the God Binding Ring and entered the ancient battlefield to practice. Some months had passed since he had a breakthrough to peak mid-Tenth Order, so he felt the breakthrough to late-Tenth Order was near.
And there were four more months until the Academy's end of the year annual competition, and Huang Xiaolong had decided to advance into late-Tenth Order as fast as he could in order to grasp the Academy overall championship in his hands! After acquiring the championship, the next step would be participating in the Duanren Empire's Battle of Imperial City!
Initially, Huang Xiaolong's plan was to break into Xiantian realm next year before taking the overall championship. This way, participating in the Duanren Empire's Battle of Imperial City would leave him with a better foothold in the competition. Now, however, he changed his mind.
He must enter Duanren Institute as soon as possible, and then get a hold of and refine the number four Heavenly Treasure: Absolute Soul Pearl!
Huang Xiaolong sat cross-legged in the ancient battlefield, running Asura Tactics as he devoured the netherworld spiritual energy that fell like tidal waves from the void.
The twin black and blue dragons hovered behind Huang Xiaolong, and the dozen plus meter length of their bodies sparkled as each of the dragon's scales grew thicker and denser.
As Huang Xiaolong's strength approached infinitely closer to the Xiantian realm, the body of the twin dragons grew more real and solid. From afar, they looked like real life Primordial Divine Dragons.
Half a month passed.
During this half a month, Huang Xiaolong spent a large portion of his time practicing inside the ancient battlefield. Other than concentrating on Asura Tactics, there was also the Body Metamorphose Scripture.
What made Huang Xiaolong ecstatic was that there were signs of entering Stage Ten.
Entering Stage Ten represented the strength of a Xiantian realm expert!
At that time, even if Huang Xiaolong's battle qi hadn't broken through to the Xiantian realm, just having his internal force breakthrough the Stage Ten would help him greatly in the Imperial City.
Bright light continued to shimmer from Huang Xiaolong's body as a vague layer of a fire-red glow appeared on the surface of his skin. Half a month of crazed practice caused the netherworld battle qi in his meridians and Qi Sea to surge, coursing through his veins.
Suddenly, Huang Xiaolong trembled from within, his meridians and Qi Sea enlarged again.
Late-Tenth Order– he finally broke through!
Huang Xiaolong continued to run Asura Tactics technique for several hours before stopping and opening his eyes. A sharp cold light shone in his eyes like the tip of a deadly blade.
Huang Xiaolong exited the ancient battlefield.
Walking out of his room, he ran into his little sister, Huang Min. Seeing Huang Xiaolong's silhouette, Huang Min leaped up in joy and dashed towards Huang Xiaolong, "Big brother, you're finally out from practice."
Seeing the expression on his sister's face, Huang Xiaolong could already guess there must be something on her mind, and a headache started to emerge.
Sure enough, Huang Min's next sentence was, "Big brother, accompany me to the Million Treasures Auction."
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