Blood rained down from high air, drenching the last two of the group.

Looking at the blood washing down their bodies, the two disciples screamed in horror as the fear in their hearts sprung out of control. Both turned and started fleeing headlessly, and the direction didn’t matter as long as it was far away from Huang Xiaolong.

Watching the two disciples fleeing desperately in fear, Huang Xiaolong merely waved his palm, and the two disciples were hurled straight into the mountain peak in the distance. The mountain shattered, rocks and boulders crumbled and buried both disciples underneath.

After dealing with the last two disciples, Huang Xiaolong turned around and faced Peng Xiao. “Let’s go. I’ll help you heal your injuries.”

Peng Xiao nodded her head in a docile manner, looking well-mannered and gentle.

The entire time, Huang Xiaolong had stood in front of her, protecting her. At this time, Huang Xiaolong’s muscular back had given her a sense of security like never before.

Huang Xiaolong brought along Peng Xiao with his godforce and their figures disappeared from the cliff.

When Huang Xiaolong and Peng Xiao left the valley, the Brightness Emperor Palace’s Ancestor Chen Wenqian’s face was darker than muddy water in the plaza outside. A second ago, his personal disciple Lu Xiu’s name, had disappeared from the rankings board!

Dead!!

He had three personal disciples, Liu Xiu was not the one with the highest potential, but he was the one personal disciple Chen Wenqian doted on the most.

On top of that, Chen Wenqian had noticed the disappearance of two other Heavenly Monarch Realm Brightness Emperor Palace disciples’ names in the same time-window as his disciple, Liu Xiu.

Every Heavenly Monarch Realm disciple belonged to a younger generation, nurtured explicitly by the Brightness Emperor Palace with time, effort, and numerous resources.

“Find out, find out who it was, who—!” Chen Wenqian was close to running amok, and his spit flew everywhere as he barked out the order to the Brightness Emperor Palace’s Enforcement Hall Master next to him.

It had only been a little over seven days into the preliminary round, and it was not even the eighth day, yet the Brightness Emperor Palace had lost thirty-four disciples! Not to mention, all of these disciples were on the rankings board, who knew how many of those outside the rankings board had died.

There were eight Heavenly Monarch Realm disciples among the fallen Brightness Emperor Palace’s disciples on the rankings board!

Chen Wenqian’s facial nerve twitched uncontrollably for a second.

This has never happened in all previous Battle of the Heavenly Court.

In the past, hardly any Heavenly Monarch Realm disciple had died in the Battle of the Heavenly Court. And even if someone had died, it was merely one or two at most.

This time, in less than eight days into the Battle of the Heavenly Court, their Brightness Emperor Palace had already lost eight Heavenly Monarch Realm disciples! If these things continued to progress at this rate and manner, wouldn’t all of the Brightness Emperor Palace’s Heavenly Monarch Realm disciples be annihilated?!

Who? Who was it?!! Someone must be preying on their Brightness Emperor Palace’s disciples!

Chen Wenqian’s eyes were filled with hatred as his gaze fell onto the Fortune Emperor Palace’s group at zone sixty-one, where Zhao Lei, Li Shan, and others were seated. In the Divine World, only Huang Xiaolong had the guts and strength to kill Sun Fei, Lu Xiu, and the others, and offend the Brightness Emperor Palace!

‘Huang Xiaolong, you son of a b*tch!’ Chen Wenqian bellowed inwardly.

Regardless of the final results of this term’s Battle of the Heavenly Court, he absolutely wouldn’t allow Huang Xiaolong to leave the Heavenly Court alive!

By this time, Huang Xiaolong and Peng Xiao had found a suitable cave and were inside it.

Huang Xiaolong took out a Great Brahma Sarira Pill and told Peng Xiao to swallow it. He circulated radiance light energy godforce and placed his palm against Peng Xiao’s back to help her refine the Great Brahma Sarira Pill faster.

In just a short moment, Peng Xiao’s pallid complexion gradually turned ruddy.

But Peng Xiao’s breathing seemed a little fast and heavy.

“Peng Xiao, how do you feel?” Huang Xiaolong asked worriedly as he removed his palm from her back when he noticed her abnormal breathing.

Peng Xiao glanced at Huang Xiaolong and her face flushed a little. She shook her head and responded with a mosquito-voice, “I’m fine, much better.”

Her breathing was a little chaotic because Huang Xiaolong’s palm was pressing against her back. His palm was big, warm, and it felt hot on her back!

So hot that it made her a little uncomfortable in a strange way.

Huang Xiaolong was relieved hearing her reply. He smiled and said, “That’s good.”

He didn’t overthink about Peng Xiao’s earlier strangeness.

Peng Xiao got up from the cave floor, inwardly forcing her racing heart to calm down. She demurely looked at Huang Xiaolong and urged, “I’m alright now. Quickly go and continue with the competition.”

Huang Xiaolong was genuinely taken aback but swiftly understood that Peng Xiao was worried about dragging him down on the rankings. After all, bringing Peng Xiao with him would more or less affect his hunting speed.

“Silly girl.” Huang Xiaolong chuckled when he understood it.

Who knew Peng Xiao would actually roll her eyes at him. Her expression and gaze seemed to carry a thousand layers of meaning that made Huang Xiaolong’s heart unknowingly skip a beat.

“You’re the silly one.” Peng Xiao retorted.

Huang Xiaolong was rendered speechless by her action and smiled to cover his awkwardness, “Right, right. I’m silly. I’m the silly one.”

Watching Huang Xiaolong’s silly demeanor, Peng Xiao broke out into laughter.

Huang Xiaolong was mesmerized, looking at Peng Xiao’s merry laughter.

Usually, Peng Xiao’s temperament was more aloof and cold, like Li Lu. Huang Xiaolong rarely saw Peng Xiao laugh so openly like now. Moreover, her laughter was akin to a warm breeze, like a blooming sea of flowers.

“Fool.” Noticing that Huang Xiaolong was foolishly watching her, Peng Xiao mumbled, but her face was already colored with a pinkish hue. She suddenly took a step forward and brushed her soft cherry lips against Huang Xiaolong’s cheek in a quick peck and skipped away.

Huang Xiaolong was left rooted on the spot with wide, shocked eyes.

Peng Xiao’s face turned even redder, just like a ripe apple.

“Peng Xiao.” Huang Xiaolong called out stupidly.

“En...” Her response was barely audible.

“How about one more time?”

......

Time went by quickly, and before they knew it, twenty-nine days had already passed.

Today was the last day of the preliminary round.

All the participating disciples seemed to have depleted all of their energy, desperately striving for a better result on the last day. Their points were crawling up at a slow pace as the number of prey had significantly reduced.

Huang Xiaolong ranked first on the rankings board with a shocking 34,346,000 points!

This number was enough to frighten many people until their minds blanked.

In second place was the Heavenly Prince Di Jing with 25,623,000 points.

That was a gap of over eight million points!

Further down the rankings board, in third place, was the Fiend God Emperor’s Disciple Feng Chan with a little over twelve million points, while in fourth place was the Brightness Emperor Palace’s Lan Tailong. Lan Tailong’s points were slightly above eleven million.

The True Divinity Sect’s Long Shaozhen’s points in fifth place were even lower, and he hadn’t even broken past ten million. He had only nine million plus points.

As the crowd at the plaza waited with different expectations and emotions, the preliminary round finally ended. The surviving participants were sent out from the Heavenly Court Secret Region in batches.

Huang Xiaolong, Peng Xiao, and other Fortune Emperor Palace’s disciples were sent out in different groups.

, Huang Xiaolong’s face sank, seeing only four hundred plus Fortune Emperor Palace’s disciples. It was clear what happened to the remaining Fortune Emperor Palace’s disciples that were not sent out.

Under the Fiend God Emperor Palace’s lucrative bounties, almost all the rest of the Emperor Palaces’ disciples preyed on the Fortune Emperor Palace’s disciples.

Right at this time, the Brightness Emperor’s Disciple Lan Tailong, who was transferred out, was striding towards Huang Xiaolong with the Brightness Emperor Palace’s Ancestor Chen Wenqian and the rest.

A group of people from the Fiend God Emperor Palace also strode over, led by Ancestor Liu Yuan.

The Fiend God Emperor Palace was followed by the Solitude Emperor Palace, Nine Dragons Emperor Palace, Thousand Venoms Emperor Palace, and Flying Blossoms Emperor Palace.

In a short while, the Fortune Emperor Palace’s group was tightly surrounded by people from several Emperor Palaces.

Huang Xiaolong remained indifferent as he looked at the people from the Brightness Emperor Palace, Fiend God Emperor Palace, and the others.

The first to speak was the Brightness Emperor Palace’s Ancestor Chen Wenqian. Chen Wenqian fixed his cold and poisonous gaze on Huang Xiaolong as he demanded, “Huang Xiaolong, speak! Did you kill my disciple?!”