With Du Xin and Deng Guangliang following behind him, no one dared to look for trouble with Huang Xiaolong, otherwise, there would have been a dozen instances of people coming to welcome Huang Xiaolong with 'kind' intentions in the new city.
The whole time, from Huang Xiaolong's observation, the majority of these Black Demon City residents emanated a strong killing aura and a heavy blood scent. Of course, most of them possessed quite a high battle qi cultivation. Even the little kids running around in the streets exuded a feral temperament.
No doubt, those who managed to survive in the Bedlam Lands were no easy characters. In the Bedlam Lands, you couldn't afford to be kind!
"BeーBeg, I beg you, don't kill me!" Just as Huang Xiaolong continued to walk calmly, up ahead on the same street, a disturbance took place. Looking over, Huang Xiaolong met with the scene of a brawny man kneeling on his knees, crying for mercy before a woman.
This woman had her back towards Huang Xiaolong, hence he wasn't able to make out her features. Still, this woman's back was a scenery in its own right; tall and slender, with scandalous curves.
While the brawny man was on his knees begging for mercy, the woman slowly unsheathed her longsword from the scabbard hanging around her waist. The blade reflected the sunlight, glinting a chilling azure-emerald light.
Watching the woman's action, fear took over the brawny man, knocking his head against the street intensively as he continued to beg, "Don't kill me, I know my wrongs, I won't dare anymore!"
At the precise moment that man's voice fell, the woman's wrist turned, the longsword in her hand made a dazzling curve and the brawny man's pleading cries halted forever. A finger raised halfway to point at the woman, but the man's body swayed to the side, tumbling to the street. Only then did blood spurt out from the man's throat, painting a canvas of red on the pavement.
Pedestrians gathered some distance away, watching like a spectating crowd at a performance, there were sounds of talking and laughter as if this kind of event were the norm for them.
After killing the brawny man, the woman didn't even spare a glance at his corpse, she turned away and left without a word. When she turned around, Huang Xiaolong caught a glimpse of the woman's faceㅡbeautiful, but icy.
As the woman was leaving, her eyes swept past Huang Xiaolong's face. There was a momentary shock when she caught sight of Du Xin and Deng Guangliang right behind him, but it was only for a moment and was gone when she brushed past Huang Xiaolong.
Huang Xiaolong's heart tightened: this woman was not so simple, her strength was on par with him, at least, a Seventh Order.
"That woman is probably someone from the Ghost Shadow Sect." After the woman was out of sight, Du Xin stepped closer to Huang Xiaolong and explained.
"Ghost Shadow Sect?" Huang Xiaolong puzzled.
"Yes, Young Lord. The Ghost Shadow Sect's power in the Bedlam Lands is not weaker than our Sky Magi Sect. To be honest, they are slightly stronger than us." Deng Guangliang added, "The Ghost Shadow Sect's Sovereign is a Xiantian Eight Order expert, and that woman earlier should be Ghost Shadow Sect Sovereign Gui Ying's disciple. Their headquarters is located in Blood River City, not far from our Black Demon City."
Huang Xiaolong nodded his head.
Blood River City is it? Mn, after he took control of Black Demon City, the cities surrounding Black Demon City would be next
Soon, Du Xin and Deng Guangliang brought Huang Xiaolong to their mansion.
Having a personal mansion in a main city such as Black Demon City was a symbol of strength and power. In general, only mid-Xiantian experts with status, such as Du Xin and Deng Guangliang, could own personal land in Black Demon City. Xiantian experts with lower cultivation and status, at most, could own a small courtyard.
Entering the mansion, the servants and guards greeted Du Xin and Deng Guangliang respectfully as they moved towards the main hall.
In the main hall.
Huang Xiaolong sat in the center main seat. He had ordered both Du Xin and Deng Guangliang to assemble all the mansion's servants and guards to the main hall. Understanding Huang Xiaolong's intentions, both of them executed Huang Xiaolong's order without question.
When all the servants and guards arrived, each was shocked noticing the person sitting in the center main seat was a stranger to them, while Du Xin and Deng Guangliang stood on each side.
With all of them gathered, Du Xin briefly introduced Huang Xiaolong to the servants and guards. Of course, it was done with obscuring details of Huang Xiaolong's background. Mainly stating that Huang Xiaolong was to be referred to as Young Noble Huang, seeing him was no different than seeing him or Deng Guangliang in person, and to be shown the same respect.
Although many were curious and doubtful at the same time about Huang Xiaolong, no one dared to ask, only obediently following orders.
Huang Xiaolong scanned the many faces of these servants and guards and spoke slowly, addressing their curiosity "I know all of you are curious about my identity, but I hope you understand clearly what should be said and what shouldn't be said! Whoever dares to leak a word of this outside this main hall, discussing my identity, if it reaches my knowledge, they will be killed on the spot! Do you understand?" Huang Xiaolong released a sharp, murderous aura from his body, enveloping the entire main hall in a whelming pressure.
Enveloped by the chilling murderous aura, all the servants and guards felt as if they fell into a thousand year ice abyss, fear filled their eyes as all of them swiftly got down on their knees, each claiming they dare not whisper a word. At that moment, they realized, this Young Noble Huang was stronger than their masters.
Watching the group of servants and guards on their knees, Huang Xiaolong nodded, satisfied with their response. Allowing them the stand, Huang Xiaolong waved them away, "You can leave, return to whatever you should be doing."
Everyone answered in unison and hurried to withdraw from the main hall.
Huang Xiaolong retrieved his gaze from the leaving servants. He wasn't done controlling the Sky Magi Sect, therefore he didn't wish to expose his existence in Black Demon City so early, attracting Chen Xiaotian and Geng Ken's suspicion. It would be too much work. He believed that with his warning earlier, there wouldn't be any loose lips amongst these servants and guards, unless someone tortured them.
Of course Huang Xiaolong could use soul marking to control them, however, every time he used this method, it greatly consumed his spiritual force. And overusing the method had side effects, which would be detrimental to his future cultivation. Hence, unless it was necessary, Huang Xiaolong wouldn't exhaust his spiritual force this way.
"Young Lord, what should we do next?" After everyone had left the main hall, Deng Guangliang inquired of Huang Xiaolong.
Huang Xiaolong looked at the two of them, saying: "No hurry, I will tell you what to do when the time comes."
Both replied yes with respect.
A tiny glow shone from Huang Xiaolong's hand as he took out two spirit pellets from the Asura Ring, "These two are grade six spirit pellets." With that, he flicked the two pellets towards Du Xin and Deng Guangliang's palm.
Instantly, an enticing fragrance wafted into Du Xin and Deng Guangliang's noses.
"Grade six spirit pellets!" Both exclaimed in surprise looking at the pellet in their hands. Even in the Bedlam Lands, grade six spirit pellets were hard to come by.
"Young Lord, this, is rewarding us?" Du Xin wasn't sure and ventured with caution.
Huang Xiaolong nodded, "Perform well in the future, you'll have many more of these grade six spirit pellets." Although Huang Xiaolong branded their soul seas with his soul marks, forcing them to have no other choice but to listen to his orders, Huang Xiaolong was someone who had clear distinctions between reward and punishment. With those deserving to be rewarded, he would not be stingy.
Moreover, to others, refining grade six pellets was a difficult task, but it didn't apply to Huang Xiaolong, who had the Thousand Beasts Cauldron inside the Linglong Treasure Pagoda.
"Many thanks, Young Lord! We will definitely carry out all of Young Lord's orders, doing our best effort for Young Lord unto our dying day!" Du Xin and Deng Guangliang knelt down and kowtowed as they vowed.
The words spoken were honest and heartfelt.
Huang Xiaolong nodded and allowed them to take their leave for now. He would be giving them instructions later. Huang Xiaolong already had a plan on how to take over the Sky Magi Sect.
And so, Huang Xiaolong stayed in Du Xin and Deng Guangliang's mansion and started cultivating.
For the time being, Huang Xiaolong was in no rush to take over and control the Sky Magi Sect. At times like these, it was never a good idea to rush, even if he wanted to. Otherwise, it would only make matters worse, causing him to fall flat on his face instead.
Huang Xiaolong needed to first restore his spiritual force after branding the soul marks on Du Xin and Deng Guangliang, it had consumed most of his spiritual force.
Seven days passed quickly.
Over the last seven days, everything went on as usual within the mansion.
Due to the stern warning from Huang Xiaolong on the first day, none of the servants dared to speak of him to outsiders or have hushed discussions amongst themselves. Thus, Huang Xiaolong's arrival escaped the attention of Chen Xiaotian and Geng Ken of the Sky Magi Sect.
This gave Huang Xiaolong time to cultivate the Ancient Puppetry Technique and Soul Mandate in peace.
Seven daysㅡit was enough for Huang Xiaolong to fully recover from his overdrawn spiritual force, and it even became stronger, which made Huang Xiaolong notice a crucial point. Cultivating to restore spiritual force after exhaustion actually helped his spiritual force to grow faster.
This discovery made Huang Xiaolong elated.
With his spiritual force abundant again, Huang Xiaolong entered the third layer of the Linglong Treasure Pagoda and approached the sacrificial altar. On the altar, the nineteen supreme looking giant puppets still remained seated in the same meditative pose.
Although Huang Xiaolong had reached the first level of the Ancient Puppetry Technique, giving him the ability to brand other living beings with a soul mark, he had yet to try manipulating any one of these nineteen giant puppets.
Now that Huang Xiaolong aimed to take over the Sky Magi Sect, it highly increased his chances if he succeeded in controlling these giant puppets as his aides.
Walking up to the sacrificial altar, Huang Xiaolong looked at the puppet in the front row that was the furthest away from him, on the left corner.
According to the ancient Linglong Tribe's writings on the sacrificial altar, one must follow a specific order if they wished to activate and control these puppets. That puppet on the edge of the front row was the first one.
Coming to a stop in front of the first puppet, Huang Xiaolong ran the Ancient Puppetry Art. His sea of consciousness shook as he gathered spiritual force, sending out invisible waves of energy in the form of an imprint that aimed at the giant puppet from the center of its brows, penetrating straight into its 'mind.'
When Huang Xiaolong's soul mark entered the puppet's mind, he was horrified at the absorption force that emerged from inside the puppet. Huang Xiaolong felt his spiritual force being drained, devoured at rapid speed and out of his control.
"This is…?!" Huang Xiaolong paled considerably.
At this rate, his spiritual force was going to be emptied out in less than two minutes. If that happened, Huang Xiaolong would be reduced to an idiot!
Huang Xiaolong ran the Ancient Puppetry Art again, planning to terminate the connection between him and the puppet forcefully, but subsequently, Huang Xiaolong found out he actually couldn't withdraw or cut the connection using violent force!
"This… why is it like this!"
Just as Huang Xiaolong contemplated if he should strike the giant puppet away, the strong suction whirlpool vanished all of a sudden. For Huang Xiaolong, it felt like he had just gone through an arduous battle for his life. His body swayed, falling to his butt on the altar, heavily gasping for air.
Huang Xiaolong wiped his forehead and cold sweat trickled down his fingers.
Damn, that was close! Huang Xiaolong thought to himself.
While Huang Xiaolong was trying to calm down, the first puppet's eyes snapped open, two brilliant green lights shone from their depths. Next, the giant puppet slowly got up. Even so, its every action shook the large sacrificial altar.
When these giant puppets were in a sitting posture, Huang Xiaolong had roughly estimated their height to be more than three meters, but when the first giant puppet rose to full height in front of him, it far exceeded Huang Xiaolong's imagination!
The giant puppet's height was close to four meters, with a body twice as big as an average human warrior, akin to a small hill.
"Ah Feng greets Master!" After the puppet stood up, it moved closer to Huang Xiaolong and knelt before him in greeting.
Seeing that his first attempt in branding a soul mark into the puppet's mind was successful, Huang Xiaolong was greatly relieved.
"Ah Feng?" At this point, some memories entered Huang Xiaolong's consciousness, related to this particular puppet.
The first puppet's strength had reached early-Xiantian Sixth Order. However, because it was refined from an ancient giant tribe, its body defense and brute strength were entirely on another level. Therefore, even though it was only an early-Xiantian Sixth Order, this puppet was stronger than two late-Xiantian Sixth Orders like Du Xin and Deng Guangliang put together.
Huang Xiaolong's eyes lit up.
Nineteen supreme giant puppets. As the order moved towards the back, each puppet's strength was higher than the one before!
If the first supreme giant puppet was an early-Xiantian Sixth Order, then what about the second and the third one? What extent would their strength reach?
Huang Xiaolong's heart surged with anticipation.
"Get up." Huang Xiaolong ordered Ah Feng. Instead of rushing to control the second puppet, Huang Xiaolong sat down and started to restore his nearly depleted spiritual force.
Three days and three nights later, Huang Xiaolong returned to peak form. Once again, he noticed that his spiritual force had grown much stronger after recovering.
The entire time he was recuperating, the first giant puppet, Ah Feng, stood close to Huang Xiaolong, safeguarding him.
After his spiritual force had recovered, Huang Xiaolong came to stand before the second supreme giant puppet. The second puppet seemed to be a female but its appearance was just as intimidating as the first one… and just as huge.
Standing in front of the second giant puppet, Huang Xiaolong once again ran the Ancient Puppetry Art. His spiritual force gathered, transforming into a soul mark as the energy swirled, entering the female puppet's mind between the brows, just like with the first puppet.
The same strong suction force came from within the female puppet, but this time, having experienced it once, Huang Xiaolong did not panic.
Sometime later, the suction force disappeared just like it did before. However, the amount of spiritual force purloined by the second puppet exceeded the first.
Inferring the situation from this discovery, Huang Xiaolong surmised that, at most, he could control four giant puppets with his current level of spiritual force. Any more than that, his spiritual force would not be able to support if he tried controlling the fifth giant puppet as well.
Gaining the second puppet, Huang Xiaolong spent the next few days restoring his spiritual force, preparing to brand a soul mark into the third giant puppet. The process repeated with the fourth giant puppet and Huang Xiaolong stopped after that.
The first giant puppet was an early-Xiantian Sixth Order, the second puppet was mid-Xiantian Sixth Order, the third puppet a late-Xiantian Sixth Order, whereas the fourth giant puppet was peak late-Xiantian Sixth Order!
Though for the time being, Huang Xiaolong could only manage to control four giant puppets, it was sufficient for his goal.
Bringing these four giant puppets into play, Huang Xiaolong's plan of taking over the Sky Magi Sect had just become much smoother. Initially, going up against Chen Xiaotian and Geng Ken, he did not have a full grasp of defeating them. However, with these four giant puppets, those two were no longer an issue down the road.
With that, Huang Xiaolong exited the Linglong Treasure Pagoda.
As for the four giant puppets, Huang Xiaolong left them inside the pagoda, where he could easily summon them out from if the need arose.
Appearing out from the Linglong Treasure Pagoda, Huang Xiaolong called for Du Xin and Deng Guangliang, telling them to hold a banquet tomorrow evening and invite their three Junior Brothers.
"Yes, Young Lord!" Du Xin and Deng Guangliang answered respectfully, aware that Huang Xiaolong was prepared to make his move.
Huang Xiaolong's plan was to control Sky Magi Sect's Elders firsthand before dealing with Chen Xiaotian and Geng Ken at the end.
When both of them and the Sky Magi Sect Elders were under his control, the Sky Magi Sect would belong to Huang Xiaolong.
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