A long, long time later, Fang Qunzheng was finally able to pull his eyes away from the sparkling ‘waterfall’. Repressing the astonishment he felt, he proceeded to handle the paperwork for the three properties around the Divine Fort Residence.
When the contract and other procedures were done, Huang Xiaolong gave another billion for the furniture.
Very soon, Fang Qunzheng’s subordinates sent another batch of three hundred Warm Winter Jade beds and other miscellaneous furniture.
Even as the Azure Sea Firm’s supervisor, Fang Qunzheng felt gooseb.u.mps crawling on his skin using 1 billion of Huang Xiaolong’s money to purchase furniture.
1 billion ah! This sum could buy the entire residence he was living in now.
On the other hand, this made him even more curious about Huang Xiaolong’s ident.i.ty. Adding the Divine Fort Residence into the calculation, Huang Xiaolong had more or less spent close to 10 billion in his branch. Being able to take out 10 billion without batting an eye proved that Huang Xialong’s ident.i.ty wasn’t so simple.
After buying the three properties around the Divine Fort Residence, Huang Xiaolong did not make any major renovations, he merely ordered people to open three archways linking the three properties to the Divine Fort Residence. With that, the Divine Fort Residence had expanded almost threefold in size.
The expanded Divine Fort Residence was more than enough to accommodate over two hundred people comfortably. Indirectly, it also became Changzhi City’s largest residence.
Even so, Huang Xiaolong did not plan to recruit any guards. Although Zhao Shu, Zhang Fu, and the others’ strengths were on the lower side on the Cloudsea Mainland, more than anything else, they were loyal. Each and every one that followed Huang Xiaolong all the way here was absolutely loyal.
Then again, in the Cloudsea Mainland’s Changzhi City, there wasn’t any danger, whether Zhao Shu, Zhang Fu, and the rest were slightly weaker or slightly stronger wasn"t a crucial point.
After the Divine Fort Residence expanded, Huang Xiaolong once again gave his parents a billion each, and a hundred million Xuanwu coins each to his sister, brother, and s.h.i.+ Xiaofei.
After all, what Huang Xiaolong did not lack most was money. Anything that could be bought with money was not an issue.
Only when all of this was done could Huang Xiaolong consider the Huang Family fully settled, and such, for the next three months, he stayed inside Yard No.1 in the Misty Rain Mountain Range, cultivating with every effort to enhance his strength.
With Huang Xiaolong’s current strength, within the ranks of the Black Warrior Inst.i.tute’s inner disciples, he could definitely be considered within the top three. But to Huang Xiaolong, this level was far from enough.
Just like the incident with the Ying Family. If it weren’t for his Eldest Senior-Apprentice brother Liu Yun and Third Senior-Apprentice Sister Qi Wen lending a hand, at his current strength level there was no way he’d be able to save his family.
Simply point to any one of the Ying Family’s Elders and Huang Xiaolong still wouldn’t be an opponent. Forget about personally annihilating the entire Ying Family!
At the moment, high-levels G.o.d Realm was still too far-fetched for Huang Xiaolong, his target was to break through to Fourth Order G.o.d Realm at the earliest possible. If he possessed a Fourth Order G.o.d Realm strength, he had the confidence to kill those two Ying Family Elders even without both senior-apprentices’ help.
In these three months, other than the Asura Tactics and the G.o.dly Xumi Art, Huang Xiaolong mainly focused on improving the Ancient Puppetry Art, Soul Mandate, and the Treasure Dragon Protective s.h.i.+eld Art. Moreover, the Treasure Dragon Protective s.h.i.+eld Art diagram formation inside his body was growing increasingly clearer with each pa.s.sing day.
Huang Xiaolong ended his closed-door practice at the end of three months.
In this time’s closed-door practice, although Huang Xiaolong did not advance to late-Second Order G.o.d Realm, he did reach peak mid-Second Order G.o.d Realm. If he continued to progress at this speed, he believed that within a month’s time, he could advance to late-Second Order G.o.d Realm.
Coming out from his own yard, Huang Xiaolong made a trip to Eldest Senior-Apprentice brother Liu Yun’s immortal cave, the Peerless Palace.
Every Black Warrior Inst.i.tute’s inner disciple was given a cultivation yard, whereas the elite disciples and above were allowed to select a peak and arrange it to their individual preference, building their own immortal cave.
In short, an entire mountain peak belonged to one person!
Eldest Senior-Apprentice brother Liu Yun’s immortal cave was located in the Peerless Peak, quite a distance away from the Misty Rain Mountain Range. Huang Xiaolong flew at breakneck speed, arriving at the Peerless Peak two days later.
Toward this youngest-apprentice brother’s arrival, Liu Yun was very happy and welcomed him warmly. In fact, this was the first time Huang Xiaolong paid him, the Eldest Senior-Apprentice brother, a visit since Inst.i.tute Princ.i.p.al Feng Yang received him as a personal disciple.
Liu Yun even opened a good jug of wine that he brewed himself.
The two of them drank the day and night away, talking about cultivation, the galaxy’s many families, relations.h.i.+ps, and the Black Warrior Inst.i.tute.
Among the Inst.i.tute Princ.i.p.al’s several personal disciples, Huang Xiaolong was closest to Liu Yun, especially after the incident with the Ying Family, he felt indebted to Liu Yun.
“Fourth Junior-Apprentice brother, that Jiang Bi is close to returning from his outside task, in the next two days at most.” Liu Yun added, “You must be careful, Jiang Bi is the leader of the inner disciples, his strength is definitely not weak, having broken through to Fourth Order G.o.d Realm. Moreover, he has a unique physique, the Arhat Golden Buddha Physique. A late-Fourth Order G.o.d Realm is not necessarily his opponent. You wounded Li Dufeng, so he will definitely come and make trouble for you.”
Huang Xiaolong nodded, and smiled rea.s.suringly, “Yes, Eldest Senior-Apprentice brother, but don’t worry, it’s not that easy if that Jiang Bi wants to harm me.”
Arhat Golden Buddha Physique? If it was half a year ago, Huang Xiaolong might be a little less confident facing Jiang Bi, but now, he had a little confidence.
Liu Yun fixed his stare on Huang Xiaolong for a second before shaking his head in laughter, “I really don’t know how you kid cultivate. Admittedly my talent is astounding, however, when compared to a freak like you, I’m just mud on the ground. Oh yeah, there’s one more thing Master wanted me to tell you. The upcoming inner disciple a.s.sessment is in five years’ time, and there’s something different this time compared to the last a.s.sessment.”
The outer disciples" a.s.sessment was conducted once every three years, while the inner disciples’ a.s.sessment was held every thirty years. There were still five years left to the coming inner disciples" a.s.sessment.
Huang Xiaolong smiled, asking, “What is different? Don’t tell me the rewards have been doubled again?”
Liu Yun laughed, “That I don’t know, however, the possibility is high. According to what Master said, in this time’s inner disciples’ a.s.sessment, the Azure Dragon Inst.i.tute will send over their inner disciples as well. On the surface, it’s called building friendly relations, but I’m afraid things are not as simple as that. They might be targeting you.”
The Black Tortoise Galaxy had the Black Warrior Inst.i.tute, whereas the Azure Dragon Galaxy had the Azure Dragon Inst.i.tute, and the Azure Dragon Inst.i.tute held the same status in the Azure Dragon Galaxy as the Black Warrior Inst.i.tute did in the Black Tortoise Galaxy.
That took Huang Xiaolong by surprise. First of all, he didn’t expect the Azure Dragon Inst.i.tute"s inner disciples to be spectating their inst.i.tute’s inner disciple a.s.sessment.
“Targeting me?” A slight frown creased Huang Xiaolong’s forehead.
Liu Yun nodded, “Correct. Due to the amazing talent Junior-Apprentice brother has revealed, not only Azure Dragon Galaxy, even the White Tiger Galaxy, and Vermillion Bird Galaxy’s multiple super forces have begun to take notice of you. This time, the Azure Dragon Inst.i.tute members are coming over under the pretext of spectating our inner disciple a.s.sessment. At that time, they will surely find a way to suggest a friendly compet.i.tion with you. If they find an opportunity, they might even gravely wound you!” A cold glint flickered as he said the last part.
“How is the Azure Dragon Inst.i.tute’s strength?” Huang Xiaolong asked. He was somewhat informed about the forces within the Black Tortoise Galaxy, but toward the Azure Dragon Galaxy, White Tiger Galaxy, and Vermillion Bird Galaxy, what he knew was very limited.
Liu Yun’s smiling face grew solemn, “Very, very strong!” He literally used two ‘very’ before continuing, “Among the four great inst.i.tutes, the Azure Dragon is the strongest. Regardless of their inner disciples or elite disciples, Elders or even Grand Elders for that matter, at every level, their strength is above our inst.i.tute by several notches. Within the Azure Dragon Inst.i.tute, they have several monsters, and each of their talents does not lose to Gudu Leng’s, not even to yours!”
“The strongest among them is the one called Xiang Mingzhi, hailed as the strongest genius talent since the establishment of the Azure Dragon Inst.i.tute. He is also the Azure Dragon Inst.i.tute Princ.i.p.al’s personal disciple. With less than a hundred years of cultivation, he’s already a Fourth Order G.o.d Realm master!”