A cold darkness enshrouded the Nine Nether Palace.

Wang Wei was sitting in the main seat of the Nine Nether Palace’s main hall as coldness spread out from his body.

“Eldest Senior Brother, that Huang Xiaolong is too rampant. Ah, he just doesn’t respect you at all! Everybody knows Yang Liming is your Junior Brother. Yet, Huang Xiaolong actually attacked Yang Liming in front of so many disciples and almost completely crippled him !" Seated in a position lower at the side, Tan Lin cautiously continued, "What does he mean by this? Does he think that the entire Fortune Gate belongs to him and he can do as he pleases?!" Wang Wei remained expressionless at Tan Lin’s questions. It made Tan Lin curious about what Wang Wei was thinking. But then Wang Wei suddenly spoke, "How is your progress with Sky Sword Ancestor’s Sky Sword Canon?"

Tan Lin was dazed for a moment, but then grinned proudly, "I haven’t let Eldest Senior Brother down. My Sky Sword Canon has reached the third level, and I have successfully condensed the heart-sword. If it wasn’t for the innate sword spirits that Eldest Senior Brother gave me to refine, I certainly wouldn’t have been able to condense the heart-sword in such a short time."

Wang Wei nodded, "Not bad! Now that you have broken through to Third Order Ancient God Realm, and with the awakening of your Dawn Radiance Physique’s blood for a second time, your strength has greatly increased. The average Fourth Order Ancient God Realm cultivators are no match against you."

Tan Lin smiled, "This is all due to Eldest Senior Brother’s nurturing."

Unnoticeable green light glimmered in the depths of Wang Wei’s eyes as he said sternly, "But you would still be unable to defeat Huang Xiaolong in the Four Mainlands’ New Disciples Battle that will take place in half a year’s time!" Then his tone softened, "Still, no need to worry because I have obtained two more innate sword spirits. A long as you refine these two innate sword spirits, your Sky Sword Canon can reach the fourth level in half a year, thus forming a sword intent!"

Bright lights flashed around Wang Wei’s hands and two green sword spirits appeared.

Each of the two green sword spirits was half a meter long resembling two snakes. Lights rippled across their lengths full of spirituality and contained a large amount of energy and profound sword intent.

Joy rushed to Tan Lin’s face when he saw these two innate sword spirits and thanked Wang Wei, "Many thanks, Eldest Senior Brother! Please rest assured Eldest Senior Brother. As long as I can form sword intent; during the Four Mainlands’ New Disciples Battle, I will beat up Huang Xiaolong until his own mother would fail to recognize him!"

Tan Lin had been following Sky Sword Ancestor to learn the Sky Sword Canon, and undoubtedly understood how powerful the Sky Sword Canon’s fourth level sword intent was.

Sword intent, as the term implies, is a sword of intent which is formed instantly upon one’s intention or determination— invisible and untraceable yet deadly. The most terrifying thing about it is that it disregards the enemies’ physical toughness and attacks their souls. In other words, regardless of their great physical strength, the enemies would be at the complete mercy of Tan Lin.

Wang Wei went on, "After you have successfully formed sword intent, it will be enough to deal with Huang Xiaolong. However, I want the chaos spiritual herbs as well as the low grade chaos spiritual artifact from your third place rewards."

𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

Tan Lin smiled and said, "That would be an honor; if the Eldest Senior Brother wished, he can also have all of my third place rewards."

Wang Wei inwardly nodded with satisfaction; Tan Lin was still as tactful as he had expected.

’Huang Xiaolong, everyone seems to be certain that you will win third place in the Four Mainlands’ New Disciples Battle in half a year! Just wait and enjoy when Tan Lin defeats you!’ Wang Wei thought to himself.

That scene really made him look forward to the Four Mainlands’ New Disciples Battle.

Another three months went by in a blink of an eye.

During these three months, Huang Xiaolong was busy reading various technique manuals and records in the Fortune Gate’s library; while at night, he was diligently cultivating at Cosmos Palace, absorbing the four divine fires’ chaos spiritual energy and purple grandmist aura.

On occasions, Huang Xiaolong would go over to Li Lu’s Brimming Snow Palace or Li Lu would come over to his Cosmos Palace.

Huang Xiaolong felt a little surprised that in these three months, the Heavenly Dan Sect’s Luo Yunjie had became a frequent visitor to his Cosmos Palace; always carrying wine with him.

Since Luo Yunjie was showing ’goodwill,’ there was no reason for Huang Xiaolong to reject him. And not to mention, Luo Yunjie was a genius disciple with emperor rank godhead after who had the backing from the Heavenly Dan Island. Luo Yunjie was also Myriad Flames Ancestor’s disciple. To top it all, there was no grudge between them.

In these three months, Huang Xiaolong discovered that Luo Yunjie’s personality was affable, someone worthy to be friends with. It didn’t take long for the two of them to become good buddies.

Luo Yunjie had just arrived at Huang Xiaolong’s cultivation palace carrying his Heavenly Dan Island’s Heavenly Dan Wine as usual. "Brother Huang, you need to be wary of Zhou Xu and Tan Lin." Luo Yunjie said as he raised his cup, "I have heard that Zhou Xu and Tan Lin vow to defeat you in the Four Mainlands’ New Disciples Battle!"

Huang Xiaolong raised his own cup and clinked against Luo Yunjie’s and asked with a smile, "Is that so?"

Zhou Xu and Tan Lin? Truthfully, he couldn’t even remember who they were.

Luo Yunjie reminded Huang Xiaolong after seeing his nonchalant reaction, "It seems like Sky Sword Ancestor has been favoring Zhou Xu quite a lot in recent years. Sky Sword Ancestor has used all possible methods to nurture him. To increase Zhou Xu’s strength, he is even willing to take out the chaos spiritual pill that he has been saving for a long time. He even allowed Zhou Xu to enter into the Sky Sword Boundary to train. Zhou Xu’s cultivation has not only risen to mid-Third Order Ancient God Realm, but he has also succeeded in merging his Sky Sword Canon with his azure dragon qi and created the azure dragon sword qi unique to him!"

Huang Xiaolong was astonished at all this new information.

Zhou Xu’s cultivation has already reached mid-Third Order Ancient God Realm?

’Azure dragon sword qi unique to Zhou Xu?’ Huang Xiaolong looked eager to see how unique it would be.

"And Tan Lin’s progress is equally impressive as Zhou Xu’s." Luo Yunjie rambled on, "From the news I have gathered, he has advanced to peak early Third Order Ancient God Realm and has succeeded in forming heart-sword. Currently, he is focusing on forming ‘sword intent.’ It is said that there’s a good chance he would succeed!".

"Sword intent?" Huang Xiaolong was not familiar with Sky Sword Ancestor’s Sky Sword Canon.

Luo Yunjie explained, "Sword intent is extremely powerful. With the power of a single thought, it could invisibly kill the enemy without a trace, as it directly attacks the soul. Strong as your physical body might be, it is useless. Long ago when Sky Sword Ancestor’s cultivation was still at Third Order Ancient God Realm, he had managed to kill a late-Fourth Order Ancient God Realm cultivator with his sword intent!"

Huang Xiaolong’s eyes gradually narrowed as he continued listening.

This sword intent sounds quite powerful since a Third Order Ancient God Realm could kill a late-Fourth Order Ancient God Realm cultivator. This was almost heaven-defying.

However, Tan Lin’s little plot was erroneous in regards to his plan of using sword intent for the purpose of defeating Huang Xiaolong. Of course, only Huang Xiaolong and the little cow knew that his soul was very close to being as monstrous as his super strong physique.

Not to mention Huang Xiaolong had also refined the Moon Jade Heavenly Spiral Shell.

The Moon Jade Heavenly Spiral Shell not only could enhance his soul’s defenses but also execute soul force attack.

As the sky darkened, Luo Yunjie returned to his own cultivation palace.

Huang Xiaolong stood on the roof of Cosmos Palace, deep in thought.

When he was refining the Moon Jade Heavenly Spiral Shell, he had ’seen’ some broken memories, and in these past few months, he had organized them in his mind. These broken memories actually belonged to the Ancient Heavenly Emperor!

The Ancient Heavenly Emperor was killed by the current Heavenly Emperor!

In short, the current Heavenly Emperor usurped the throne!

Huang Xiaolong also had learned that the Ancient Heavenly Emperor had a great treasure forged from numerous precious chaos and grandmist spiritual materials named Ancient Heavenly Court.

This Ancient Heavenly Court had taken the Ancient Heavenly Emperor a hundred million years of painstaking efforts to make it the number one divine artifact of the Divine World!

And this Ancient Heavenly Court divine artifact had fallen somewhere in the Devil Abyss along with the Ancient Heavenly Emperor.

"Devil Abyss." Huang Xiaolong muttered to himself.

"Xiaoniū, do you know the Divine World’s Devil Abyss?" Huang Xiaolong asked the little cow who was lazily crunching on a godhead.

"Devil Abyss!" The little cow suddenly jumped up with its cow hair standing on end of its tail.