Huang Xiaolong shut out all the noise outside after entering room with number fourteen by activating the room’s barrier. He then sat cross-legged on the cold jade bed, spreading out the prizes he received for obtaining the first place in the assessment.

As one of the top three prominent sects of the Green Cloud Island, the Barbarian God Sect was quite generous.

One of the items he received was a spatial ring called Submerging Dragon, with an extremely life-like dragon carved on top of it. The space inside was quite big, about one thousand square meters.

Other than the ring, there were ten pieces of ten-million-years-old Flaming Dragon Fruit, ten Dragon Cloud Pills refined by a high-level Heavenly God, and a technique called The Boundless Art. Also part of the reward were ten thousand shenbi!

A force like the Tie Family Fort wouldn’t be able to gather these items even if Tie Qianyuan sold his last pair of underwear.

Huang Xiaolong no longer hesitated. He started with the ten Flaming Dragon Fruits, swallowing them and starting to cultivate.

While Huang Xiaolong was refining the ten Flaming Dragon Fruits, Huang Xiaoming, Jiang Yan, and several other Elders were respectfully standing before Grand Elder Lin Shen in the Nine Palace Hall, reporting the results of the new disciple recruitment assessment and the situation in detail.

“What did you all say? A disciple with a top rank eighth godhead took the first place?” Grand Elder Lin Shen couldn’t help frowning as he listened to the Elders’ account.

“Yes, his name is Huang Xiaolong, current cultivation at peak late-Tenth Order Highgod Realm, with a kill count of 63,216. Just one more than Zhu Wanchen!”

Lin Shen sank into a temporary silence, then proceeded with an order, “Announce to the outside world that Zhu Wanchen took the first place in the assessment.”

If the news that someone with a top rank eight godhead got the first place in their Barbarian God Sect disciple recruitment leaked out, it would affect their sect’s reputation to a certain degree.

“Zhu Wanchen got the first place?” Huang Xiaoming and the other Elders stiffened. A second later, they understood Grand Elder Lin Shen’s thoughts, complying without objections.

“Then, what about that Huang Xiaolong?” Jiang Yan respectfully inquired.

“Give him the second place.” Lin Shen answered nonchalantly.

“But, Grand Elder, this is slightly unfair to that Huang Xiaolong.” One of the Elders attempted.

Lin Shen’s voice hardened by a fraction, “In this world, there is no such thing as fair or unfair, everything is decided by one’s talent. Since he only has a top rank eight godhead, his only choice is to accept this outcome. Moreover, didn’t he receive the reward for the first place? A lowly outer disciple like him, would he dare harbor dissatisfaction toward the sect?”

That Elder dared not speak further.

“Enough, it’s decided.” Lin Shen said with finality in his voice.

Huang Xiaoming and the group of Elders excused themselves and withdrew out from the hall.

About two weeks later, Huang Xiaolong finished refining the ten Flaming Dragon Fruits, as well as the ten Dragon Cloud Pills, significantly improving his strength.

As for that so-called Boundless Art, it was cast aside by Huang Xiaolong. He focused on the Heaven Opening Tenet that he had obtained from the Hellion Tower instead.

Killing Tie Chengdong’s group shortly after he arrived in the Divine World brought Huang Xiaolong a small harvest of divine armors and weapons from their spatial rings. After absorbing the energy from those divine weapons and armors, his cultivation rose higher. At this point, Huang Xiaolong’s Heaven Opening Tenet had reached the late stage of the first level.

The Heaven Opening Tenet was a technique that cultivated the body, soul, and godhead at the same time. As his progress in the Heaven Opening Tenet technique advanced, his True Divine Dragon Physique, soul, and godhead were all strengthened.

Now, even a Second Order Heavenly God ’s body wasn’t as powerful as Huang Xiaolong’s True Divine Dragon Physique.

After the Flaming Dragon Fruits and Dragon Cloud Pills were completely refined, Huang Xiaolong stepped out from his room for the first time.

There were around nine months left until the Submerging Dragon Ranking battle and he planned to use this window of time to train on the Volcano Isle.

Half a month ago, when Elder Huang Xiaoming led them to collect their disciple robes and identity token, each disciple also received a copy of the ‘Barbarian God Sect’ booklet.

This booklet detailed the Barbarian God Sect’s rules and introduced the main peaks. It also had some general information about the core disciples, inner disciples, and outer disciples.

This Volcano Isle that was mentioned in the booklet was located not far from the Green Cloud Island and was co-governed by the three great sects. The isle was mainly used as a training ground for the three sects’ disciples to gain experience.

There was a great number of demonic beasts on this Volcano Isle, surpassing the Blood Phoenix Forest. However, the most powerful demonic beasts were only at peak late-Third Order Heavenly God Realm, making the island less dangerous than the Blood Phoenix Forest. To the current Huang Xiaolong, the Volcano Isle was a treasure land for enhancing his strength.

The Volcanic Isle was actually formed from magma spurted out during a volcano eruption, rich in iron and ore resources, an ideal place for him to cultivate the Heaven Opening Tenet.

After stepping out from his room, Huang Xiaolong left the Submerging Dragon Peak, heading toward one of the nearest city, called Winged Tiger.

Although the Volcano Isle wasn’t far from the Barbarian God Sect, with Huang Xiaolong’s current strength, forget reaching the that place, he couldn’t even step off the Green Cloud Island on his own.

The metropolises at the foothills all had a flying ship port with vessels that ferried the outer and inner disciples to the Volcano Isle.

Of course, the ferrying fee was quite expensive.

For an outer disciple like Huang Xiaolong, a one-way trip would set him back five hundred shenbi!

A few hours later, he arrived at the Winged Tiger City.

“The result of the Barbarian God Sect’s disciple recruitment is out. Zhu Wanchen truly lives up to his talent, taking the number one spot!”

𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

“But who would have thought the second place would be taken by someone named Huang Xiaolong. I heard he only has a top rank eighth godhead.”

“I heard that too, but there are whispers saying this Huang Xiaolong only got the second place because he cheated!”

“That cannot be, right? If he really cheated, the Barbarian God Sect would have kicked him out on the spot. It’s probably just a rumor.”

“Who knows, the majority of the new outer disciples said the same thing.”

Huang Xiaolong had just walked through the gates of the Winged Tiger City when this conversation caught his attention.

‘Zhu Wanchen took first place?’ Huang Xiaolong’s eyes narrowed, a cold sneer raised the corner of his lips.

He could naturally guess the Barbarian God Sect’s purpose in releasing such news to the public. They were afraid of being the butt of others’ jokes if someone like him with a mere top rank eight godhead took the first place.

He cheated? No doubt this was the handiwork of those jealous disciples.

However, Huang Xiaolong didn’t mind, for the truth would soon be proven in the Submerging Dragon Ranking battle.

An hour later, he reached the flying ship port, showed his Barbarian God Sect disciple jade token to the person running the booth, then paid five hundred shenbi before leaping onto the flying ship.

There were a hundred seats on the flying ship. When Huang Xiaolong boarded, half of the seats were empty, so he picked a seat at a corner and sat down.

There were a lot of outer and inner disciples heading to the Volcano Isle, so the remaining seats were quickly filled up.

With all the hundred seats fully occupied, the ship departed.

Not long after the flying ship Huang Xiaolong was on left the port, Lin Chaoqun’s cousin, Chen Jinzhi, received news that Huang Xiaolong was headed to the Volcano Isle.