Chapter 2233: Can’t Afford it!

“Father, you can rest at ease. The moment I enter the Holy Gate, I’ll cultivate non-stop to enter the Venerable Realm!” Song Shaokang swore solemnly.

Song Fu finally revealed a smile when he heard his son’s conviction. “With your saint bloodline, your talent has long surpassed your peers. If you use the resources of the Holy Gate, it’s only a matter of time before you enter the Venerable Realm!”

“You will need to be cautious of everyone when you enter the Holy Gate. Even Eminent Elders in the Holy Gate would clash with each other, and you will need to pick the correct side to stand on.”

Song Shaokang nodded his head.

...

Time flowed on, and soon, two months passed.

𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Even though the Beast Emperor Sect had sealed off the lightning grounds, they failed to locate Huang Xiaolong no matter how hard they tried. Finally, unable to withstand the pressure from the Big Dipper Sword Sect and several other superpowers, they had no choice but to lift the lockdown.

Huang Xiaolong was in no rush to leave the lightning grounds. In these two months, he hid himself in a secluded mountain range to refine the Lightning Dragon Divine Fruit.

During the refinement process, the lightning bead didn’t stop as it continued to devour the lightning spiritual qi in the air at an astonishing speed.

As two more months passed, Huang Xiaolong completed the refinement of the Lightning Dragon Divine Fruit.

His three great saint bloodlines recovered to sixty percent of their original strength and his physique was semi-healed to his surprise.

The effects of the Lightning Dragon Divine Fruit were much better than he had imagined!

Of course, the lightning bead that hadn’t remained idle during his refinement process had restored around fifty percent of its power!

Soon after, Huang Xiaolong roamed around for another month before bringing Zhang Wenyue and the others out. His destination this time was none other than the capital city of the Falling Jade Dynasty.

In no rush to get there, Huang Xiaolong swallowed divine pill after divine pill along the way. When he passed through several larger cities, he purchased any origin treasure he could find to feed it to the lightning bead and his four divine fires.

It went without saying that speed of their recovery accelerated with Huang Xiaolong’s generous spending.

There was nothing much to speak of for the Golden Pig Treasure. With the continuous supply of top-grade chaos spirit pills, it healed the fastest!

After one year and two months of traveling, Huang Xiaolong and the others finally arrived at the capital city of the Falling Jade Dynasty.

Standing before the gates of the city, Zhang Wenyue, Zhang Haochen, and Prince Qian felt their hearts trembling.

The Falling Jade Capital City was a sacred place everyone in the kingdoms wished to visit once in their lifetime, but few managed to do so. It was a place the three of them could only visit in their imaginations!

Along the way, the three of them visited the capital cities of various kingdoms but compared to the capital of the Falling Jade Dynasty, they looked like backward villages.

Staring at the crowd before them, they saw a snaking queue of disciples streaming into the city.

In order to ease the traffic flow, the gates were already built to be several hundreds of feet wide. However, it failed to do anything to the ever-increasing crowd.

It was rare for them to even meet a single Sovereign Realm expert when they were visiting the capitals of various kingdoms, previously. When Huang Xiaolong swept his gaze across the snaking line, he noticed several Sovereign Realm experts. Of course, Sovereigns weren’t cabbages growing at the side of the road. All the Sovereigns were in the early stages, and none of them were mid-level Sovereigns.

According to the rules set by the dynasty, even Sovereigns had to stand in the line in order to enter the city.

“Let’s go.” After a short wait, Huang Xiaolong spoke to Zhang Wenyue, and the others.

Snapping back to attention, they followed behind Huang Xiaolong as they entered the city.

Before walking through the gates, Huang Xiaolong, and the rest paid a fee of one holy bill.

As per the regulations, everyone who wasn’t a resident of the capital had to pay a fee, and even Sovereigns weren’t exempted. The only ones who could enjoy the privileges were Venerable Realm experts.

In the various dynasties located on the Forceful Heavenly Bull Continent, only Venerables were given special treatment!

In the Holy Grounds, the Venerable Realm was the watershed!

Half-step Venerables and Venerables were two completely separate entities! As long as one was a First Order Venerable, they would be well respected, much more than a half-step Venerable.

In the two years, he had been in the Holy World, Huang Xiaolong had long since experienced the difference in treatment.

“It seems like I have to enter the Venerable Realm soon...” Huang Xiaolong thought to himself as he walked through the streets of the capital city.

In the time he had spent traveling to the capital city, Huang Xiaolong had long since returned to his peak state. In fact, his strength had increased a little. He was a mere step away from arriving at the peak of the early-Ninth Order Sovereign Realm.

“Young Master, shall we look for an inn?” Zhang Wenyue turned to Huang Xiaolong and asked.

After spending a year on the road with each other, their relationship had progressed to the point where they were ‘friends’ who could speak freely with each other!

Looking at the excited expression on Zhang Wenyue’s face, Huang Xiaolong laughed, “Sure!”

Since they were already in the capital city, Huang Xiaolong was in no rush to look for the Holy Gate’s branch.

It also went without saying that Huang Xiaolong kept the matter of him entering the Holy Gate a secret from Zhang Wenyue, and the others.

Very quickly, they arrived at a giant inn called the Lingering Fragrance Inn. It was one of the biggest establishments in the capital city, and they had branches in most of the capital cities in the various kingdoms under the dynasty. When Huang Xiaolong’s party had visited the various kingdoms, they had chosen to stay in the Lingering Fragrance Inn’s branch.

Huang Xiaolong was extremely fond of the way the inn was decorated. The spiritual wood and jade the inn used were the best of the best, and it was extremely beneficial for cultivation!

Of course, the price he had to pay to stay in the inn wasn’t low. An ordinary room would cost him a hundred holy bills. The best courtyard would cost him ten thousand holy bills per night!

Even Emperor Realm elders in the Big Dipper Sword Sect would be reluctant to take out ten thousand holy bills for a single night of residence!

When they entered the main hall of the inn, Zhang Wenyue walked towards the counter with practiced ease and said to the attendant, “We’ll take a top-grade courtyard!”

The attendant stared at Zhang Wenyue with a face full of doubt.

He could tell that she was a Heavenly Monarch, and it was clear to him that she was a newly ascended Heavenly Monarch.

Those who could stay in the top-grade courtyards were experts who were in the high-level Sovereign Realm.

Before the attendant could reply, a young disciple at the side scoffed, “Little lady, which small family from the countryside are you from? Are you new to the capital city? Do you even know that a night in the best courtyard costs ten thousand holy bills? Even if a First Order Heavenly Monarch like yourself sold yourself off, you wouldn’t be able to stay for a single night!”

The young disciple wore a jet black robe and there was a massive bird embroidered on his chest. It was a nine-headed divine beast, and one could tell that the kid was from the Nine Heavens Gate with a single glance at him.

As a disciple of the Nine Heavens Gate, he would be respected even if he entered the Falling Jade Capital City.