It wasn't until the two people closed in within a hundred meters that Huang Xiaolong gradually ended his practice. Converging his Asura Demon Claw flow within his body, Huang Xiaolong scrutinized the two people approaching, one from the front and one behind him.
In fact, Huang Xiaolong had already noticed them the moment they appeared on the other peak, however, because these two were only Xiantian Sixth Order, Huang Xiaolong paid no further attention to them.
By this point, the two middle-aged men halted their steps ten meters away from Huang Xiaolong and stood still.
The scar-faced man's eyes inspected Huang Xiaolong up and down while his lips arched in a friendly smile, "This Lil' Bro, may I know which sect you're from, how shall I address you?"
Although the scar-faced man already planned to capture Huang Xiaolong and force the battle skill out from his mouth, he was in no hurry to do so before he has an idea about Huang Xiaolong's background, for instance, which sect Huang Xiaolong belonged to.
The Sky Magi Sect wasn't weak by the Bedlams' standard, but still, before certain hegemony existences they were no different than an insignificant ant. If ,by chance, this young man was one of those existences' disciple, or worse, a core disciple, the scar-faced man would think twice before making a move.
Otherwise, if he mistakenly provoked a tyrannical existence without knowing, he risked being turned into slag.
Huang Xiaolong already knew what two these were thinking by the look on their faces. Sneering secretly he repeated in a taciturn manner, "Which sect's disciple?"
The horse-faced man revealed a kind smile, "Yes, who knows, maybe Lil' Bro's Master is an old friend of our Master…"
"You think too much, I don't belong to any sect in the Bedlam Lands." Huang Xiaolong cut in, "So, you need not worry about loose ends after killing me."
Both the scar-faced and horse-faced middle-aged men were stunned, neither expected Huang Xiaolong's would be so 'direct.' Exchanging a glance between them, there was faint doubt in their eyes as their attention fell on Huang Xiaolong once again.
Did not belong to the Bedlam Lands?!
Then, where does this young man's confidence come from? Both of them could tell Huang Xiaolong was just a mid-Xiantian Sixth Order, whereas the two of them were late-Xiantian Sixth Order experts. With them joining to attack, this young man had no chance to escape.
"Make your move." While both were still stumped, Huang Xiaolong spoke again, "I'm giving you one chance, letting you make the first move."
Hearing this, the two of them frowned as they stared at Huang Xiaolong, confusion and vigilance spiked as they exchanged another glance. Yet, no one moved.
Huang Xiaolong shook his head and smiled sardonically watching these two people's hesitation, "Weren't both of you curious to know if I was practicing a Heaven rank battle skill? I can tell you now, it is indeed a Heaven rank battle skill, and it is not a mere a Heaven rank low-grade battle skill."
Not a mere Heaven rank low-grade! Their eyes shone brightly.
Before they realized what happened, Huang Xiaolong leaped up, his two hands formed into claws and slashed out in opposite directions. From Huang Xiaolong's attack, two huge dark claw shadows tore across space, black fog rolling as a dozen evil wraiths shrieked viciously. The surrounding light was blotted out.
Watching the two huge dark palms targeting them, the scar-faced and horse-faced middle-aged men were alarmed, instantly jumping back to dodge, releasing their battle qi at the same time, aiming a fist to counter Huang Xiaolong's attack.
"Sky Corpse Fist!"
"Feral Undead!"
Both men shouted at the same time.
Their attacks were shrouded in a perceivable death aura, accompanied by a nauseating smell that withered the air, akin to a hundred-year-old rotting corpse laid bare.
In a split second, their fist imprints collided with Huang Xiaolong's palm imprints.
Boom! A loud impact resounded like the crackle of a vengeful thunderbolt. Air currents shook violently, blasting out in all four directions, sand and dust rose as crack lines zigzagged on the peak's surface, deepening into fissures.
What horrified the two men most was that Huang Xiaolong's Asura Demon Claws did not dissipate after the collision, instead they continued towards them.
Just when they wanted to swerve away, the black claw imprints already arrived before them, striking their torso accurately.
Both men plummeted to the ground with a tragic scream, raising another screen of dust and sand.
Poof! Crashing into the ground, blood spurted from their mouth, dyeing the dry yellow soil dark red.
"You, you cannot be!" Two men looked fearfully at Huang Xiaolong, there was shock, disbelief, and discernible fear in their eyes. Both of them were late-Xiantian Sixth Order, yet in a joint attack, they were the ones being gravely injured by the young man!
Huang Xiaolong approached slowly, ignoring the shock on their faces, his cold voice sounded, "Like I've said earlier, I gave you a chance to attack first."
Struggling to get up, they hastily moved back in panic.
"You, what do you want to do?!" Scar-face repressed the fear in his heart, asking Huang Xiaolong aloud.
"What do I want to do?" Huang Xiaolong sneered, "Didn't you want to capture me, and 'ask' me about the Asura Demon Claw skill?"
Having their intentions exposed so plainly, uncertainty flitted past their eyes. It finally dawned on them that Huang Xiaolong already saw through their plan from the very beginning.
The horse-faced man forced an awkward smile, "This Lil' Bro, we, we…"
Before he could finish, Huang Xiaolong's silhouette blurred in a flicker, disappearing in mid-air. In the next instant, he appeared right in front of them, hands poised for another attack, but both men raised their hands in defense half a beat too late, as Huang Xiaolong's palms once again struck their chests, sending them flying.
Two figures slammed into the cliff wall not far away, sliding down with gravel and stones. Huang Xiaolong approached once again, standing in front of two sprawled bodies.
"Lil' Bro, we were wrong, we have eyes but failed to see, I beg, beg you, spare us." The horse-faced middle-aged man cried pitifully with a trembling voice. Regardless if they believed it or not, Huang Xiaolong's strength far surpassed their expectation and their strength. Before Huang Xiaolong, their resistance was futile.
"Spare you?" Huang Xiaolong dawdled, "Not killing you, is a negotiable option."
The two men looked dumbly at Huang Xiaolong, unable to react appropriately. At first, both of them thought they were dead for sure, for it was impossible for Huang Xiaolong to spare them. But Huang Xiaolong really wasn't going to kill them?
"You… won't kill us?" Scar-face ventured cautiously.
"That's right." Huang Xiaolong answered, ever indifferent.
The scar-faced man hesitated before saying, "You, want us to submit to you?" There was no other possibility other than this that could make Huang Xiaolong spare them.
Huang Xiaolong nodded nonchalantly, causing the two to contemplate in silence. Huang Xiaolong waited patiently, in no hurry for a decision.
His plan to conquer the Bedlam Lands had to proceed one step at a time, and frankly, he had thought of reigning these two people when they appeared, as the stepping stones to taking over their sect, and with their sect as his base and foundation, spreading out to the entire Bedlam Lands. If these two had no value, they would have died long ago.
"I agree." A short while later, the horse-faced middle-aged man was the first to speak, "I'm willing to submit to you."
Following that, the scar-faced man echoed the same words, willing to submit to Huang Xiaolong.
"Good. Now, release your soul sea, I'm going to brand your soul sea with a soul mark." Huang Xiaolong said while nodding his head.
"Brand a soul mark!" Both men blurted out in shock as their faces turned a shade whiter.
Watching their drastic reaction, Huang Xiaolong sneered inwardly, how could he not guessed what these two were thinking earlier. First, they would agree to submit and the second they stepped into the Sky Magi Sect, they would sound the alarm, gathering the sect's forces to siege him.
"What? Not willing?" The look in Huang Xiaolong's eyes sharpened.
Both the scar-faced man and horse-faced man looked warped with shock and fear. They never imagined that Huang Xiaolong would know such a method.
Soul marking techniques were arcane and had been a lost heritage for many years. Around six hundred years ago, there was a Saint realm warrior that used such arcane, soul marking to take control over several big families' Patriarchs and Sect Sovereigns, setting off a maelstrom of carnage in the Martial Spirit World. Cultivators and commoners alike lived in trepidation. During that time, the Xiantian warriors that died under that person's hand numbered in the hundreds of thousands.
Xiantian realm warriors, hundreds of thousands!
As for Houtian warriors, countless!
The real manifestation of 'blood flows like a river'!
At the end, that person's actions finally enraged some high-level recluse Saint realm experts that lived in a mysterious independent space, coming out to siege and hunt that person. Still, it only ended when a half-step God Realm high-expert joined the ranks of the pursuers, successfully killing the culprit. He was referred to as Gorefiend by later generations.
Watching the many thoughts flashing clearly on the two people's faces, Huang Xiaolong's mouth curved up at the corners into a cold sneer, sharp cold lights flickered close to Huang Xiaolong's hands as he summoned the Blades of Asura.
The Blades of Asura appeared, issuing a strange buzzing sound as they vibrated. On the surface of their bodies, a mysterious dark light flowed like a black liquid, causing the two injured men to tense up immediately.
"I, I'm willing to release my soul sea barrier!" The words flew out from the horse-faced man without further delay.
"Me too, I'm willing!" The scar-faced man also did the same.
Compared to dying, both of them were more willing to let Huang Xiaolong brand a soul mark in their soul seas, although doing so would give Huang Xiaolong full control over their life and death. Still, it was more favorable than dying immediately.
Seeing the two men's swift response, Huang Xiaolong snorted, ordering them to release their soul seas as he initiated the Soul Mandate. Deep inside Huang Xiaolong's pupils, two dark purple soul characters glowed and flew out from Huang Xiaolong eyes, instantly entering into the scar-faced man and horse-faced man's soul seas through the center of their eyebrows before their horrified expressions, firmly imprinting a soul mark in the core of their minds.
In the three months journey here, Huang Xiaolong had entered the first level of the Ancient Puppetry Art, allowing him to brand soul marks into others' soul sea. Not only that, he managed to fuse the Ancient Puppetry soul marking method with the Soul Mandate so that he could use the Soul Mandate to perform the soul mark. It brought a better effect. The person being controlled looked normal from outside, being no different before and after the branding, not even someone close would notice anything wrong.
Sensing Huang Xiaolong's soul mark within their soul seas, both men gave up on the idea of betrayal.
"This two pellets, swallow them." A tiny bright spark flashed as Huang Xiaolong withdrew two thumb-sized medicinal pellets from the Asura Ring.
Staring at the round pellets in Huang Xiaolong's palm, their faces tightened once more. "This is..?!" Once again they couldn't help but ask with apprehension.
Huang Xiaolong's face turned icy, "If I tell you to swallow, then swallow it down!" With a wave, the two pellets floated into their palms.
Staring at the round pellets and at Huang Xiaolong, the scar-faced and horse-faced man paled slightly, however, they obediently swallow it down.
The instant the medicinal pellet entered their mouths, a warm energy spread throughout their bodies, they clearly felt the injuries on their bodies heal at rapid speed. Knowing that they had mistaken Huang Xiaolong's kind intentions, thinking those two pellets were poison pills instead of healing pellets, they looked gratefully at Huang Xiaolong.
"Now, lead me to your Sky Magi Sect, tell me about the sect's situation on the way." Huang Xiaolong instructed.
"Yes, Master!" Both bowed respectfully.
Huang Xiaolong flew up and left the wide plains, led by his newly recruited subordinates. As for the Asura Demon Claw, Huang Xiaolong would come again another time.
On the way, the two middle-aged men reported the Sky Magi Sect's situation to Huang Xiaolong.
The horse-faced man was called Du Xin and the sword scar-faced man was called Deng Guangliang, both were Sky Magi Sect Elders. Furthermore, the Sky Magi Sect's Patriarch, Chen Xiaotian, was their Master.
Chen Xiaotian had five disciples in total, and amongst them, Du Xin and Deng Guangliang's strength was considered the highest. The other three disciples were Xiantian Third Order, Fourth Order, and one at Xiantian Fifth Order.
Apart from them, the Sky Magi Sect had roughly one hundred and thirty Xiantian realm experts, however, within those numbers, only twenty of them were mid-level Xiantian, and as for high-level Xiantian, there were only two people.
High-level Xiantian realm experts, one of them was none other than their Master, Chen Xiaotian, a late-Xiantian Seventh Order, whereas the other person was the Sky Magi Sect's Grand Elder, Geng Ken, a peak mid-Xiantian Seventh Order. When the subject steered towards Chen Xiaotian's martial spirit, Huang Xiaolong was quite surprised to find out that Chen Xiaotian's martial spirit was actually the Windfire Tree!
Windfire Tree, a nature type martial spirit of the tree family, a first rank grade eleven martial spirit! In the Martial Spirit World, the emergence of a nature type tree martial spirit was rare, moreover, it was a superb talent martial spirit.
Geng Ken's martial spirit was slightly lackluster compared to Chen Xiaotian, a top grade ten martial spirit belonging to the weapon type, the Heaven Splitting Hammer. Although Geng Ken was only a Grand Elder, his influence in the sect was comparable to Chen Xiaotian's, as the Sovereign. There were over twenty Elders in the Sky Magi Sect and nearly half of them belonged to Geng Ken's faction, listening to his orders.
In conclusion, Chen Xiaotian didn't have full control over the Sky Magi Sect.
"Geng Ken…" Huang Xiaolong repeated the name to no one in particular.
This Geng Ken's strength was weaker than Chen Xiaotian's, yet he succeeded in reigning in half of the support to stand toe to toe with Chen Xiaotian. There had to be a different charm to him.
Du Xin and Deng Guangliang led Huang Xiaolong, flying northward. Three hours later, Huang Xiaolong saw a granite city, built upon vast stretch of golden sand dunes.
The city was undoubtedly huge. Perhaps because of the years of succumbing to the grinding of desert sand, the city walls looked mottled and weather worn. Nearing the city, Huang Xiaolong noticed that the top of the city walls reflected countless obscured dark lights, decorating the granite city walls. Huang Xiaolong guessed these dark lights should be splatters of blood left behind for many years, then again, only a massive number of slaughters could leave such a mark. One could imagine how many people's blood stained these city walls.
It could be a million, it could be ten million!
"This is Black Demon City?" Huang Xiaolong asked.
"Yes, Young Lord, this is Black Demon City." Du Xin and Deng Guangliang both replied.
'Master' sounded awkward to Huang Xiaolong's ears, thus he made Du Xin and Deng Guangliang change how they refer to him to Young Lord.
The Sky Magi Sect was located in Black Demon City.
Huang Xiaolong nodded as he followed the two towards Black Demon City's city gates.
"Oh, it's Elder Du Xin and Elder Deng Guangliang." When they neared the city gates, someone that seemed to be the city guards' captain approached Du Xin and Deng Guangliang, greeting them with a cupped fist and a smile. He ordered his subordinates to open the city gates, allowing the group of three to enter the city smoothly.
Du Xin and Deng Guangliang nodded their heads slightly towards that captain, entering the city with Huang Xiaolong.
Entering the city, Huang Xiaolong surveyed the city as he walked down the streets. The streets in Black Demon City were about twenty meters wide ,with shop fronts lining both sides of the streets, yet it lacked the bustling, prosperous atmosphere found in the Duanren Imperial City or any other big cities for that matter. Most of the doors and walls of these shop fronts bore fighting scars from blades, swords, and other weapons. Some of these shop fronts' signboards were actually cleaved in half, and along the way, they would come across an occasional puddle of blood.
Evidence that a fresh battle just happened.
As Huang Xiaolong strolled along the streets, looking around, the people in the streets were also observing him with curious stares. But, these curiosities were nipped in the bud when they caught sight of Du Xin and Deng Guangliang behind him. Noticing Du Xin and Deng Guangliang, the pedestrians quickly scrambled away in fear.
Du Xin and Deng Guangliang donned on the Sky Magi Sect Elders' robes, and here in Black Demon City, the Sky Magi Sect was one of the three hegemony powers.
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