“But, Big boss, shouldn’t we try to investigate this brat?” The shop worker hesitated before suggesting. He Liuhua waved his hand brusquely, not minding one bit, “A mere Black Warrior Institute inner disciple, how strong can he be? Given the highest probability, he’d be a peak late-Third Order God Realm at most. If he was an elite disciple of the institute, I might act with caution. There’s nothing wrong with being scrupulous, however, being overly scrupulous will cause you to lose out on many opportunities, leaving you with regrets when you think back about it later.” “This one thanks Big boss’ guidance.” The shop worker smiled respectfully while managing to bootlick his superior. “But that kid bought the White Flame Divine Armor, it will be slightly troublesome dealing with him later.” He Liuhua wasn’t worried at all, “You’d think I miss this point? I’ve placed a ban on the White Flame Divine Armor early on, as long as I activate the ban later, this kid will be subjected to a backlash from the White Flame Divine Armor. No matter what, he won’t be able to escape from my hands even if he grows a pair of wings!” “Haha, Big boss is the wisest! This trick is really superb, superb!” The shop worker laughed with glee. “This kid could take out three hundred fifty million without blinking an eye, there should at least be one billion on him!” Both men’s raucous laughter echoes in the air. Huang Xiaolong flew at high speed across the field of ice and snow. Roughly an hour later, he entered the Hailstone Forest. Vigilant against any unforeseen danger that could jump out at any time, Huang Xiaolong took out the Mulberry Sword, flying forward as he stood on the wooden sword. White snowflakes drifted endlessly from the sky above, leaving a heart-penetrating coldness when they touched his skin, whereas the cold wind that was blowing against his face as he flew brought a different sensation; a little numb, and a little itchy. “Little Huang brat, be careful of that armor shop owner.” Dragon Emperor Ao Taiyi cautioned Huang Xiaolong. Huang Xiaolong laughed nonchalantly, “Don’t I have you?” Dragon Emperor Ao Taiyi could clearly see through the hidden intentions of that armor shop owner, but then again, how could Huang Xiaolong not see it as well? One should not display their wealth in public, but it was deliberate on Huang Xiaolong’s part. Dragon Emperor Ao Taiyi issued a laugh at Huang Xiaolong’s remark, “You think I’m a miracle worker? Then again, you kid probably still don’t know that the other party had already placed a hidden ban inside your White Flame Divine Armor, right?” Huang Xiaolong was astounded, “There’s a ban inside the White Flame Divine Armor? I just checked it with the Eye of Hell and couldn’t see anything wrong with it.” “The other side had skillfully concealed it, a pretty smart method. So it is very normal that you didn’t detect anything.” Dragon Emperor Ao Taiyi added, “The point is, the ban is a strong one, only high-level God Realm masters are able to break it. Take out the White Flame Divine Armor first, I’ll erase the ban on it.” Huang Xiaolong nodded as his hands moved quickly, taking out the White Flame Divine Armor. The minuscule golden symbol of the Dragon Pearl on his forehead glimmered brightly as it sucked the white armor into the space within the Dragon Pearl so that Dragon Emperor Ao Taiyi could erase the ban placed on it. Although that armor shop owner He Liuhua was a Seventh Order God Realm master and the ban he placed on the White Flame Divine Armor was well hidden, as well as powerful, it was child’s play in Dragon Emperor Ao Taiyi’s eyes. Moments later, the ban was erased. Putting it on now, Huang Xiaolong need not worry about the sinister tricks left behind by that He Liuhua. Huang Xiaolong flew forward on the Mulberry Sword, he dared not fly too high nor too low close to the ground. In the boundless fuzzy Hailstone Forest, flying too high would turn oneself into an obvious target, having a high risk of attracting attacks from the numerous demonic beasts in the forest, while flying too close to the snow-laden forest floor was also dangerous, with the various demonic beasts on the prowl. Thus, Huang Xiaolong maintained a flying height of twenty meters from the forest floor. The Hailstone Forest was made up of a very large land area, in fact, it took up eight-tenths of the Hailstone Mainland’s surface and was thirty to forty times bigger than Martial Spirit World itself. Other than the undulating white, snow-covered mountain range, everywhere one looked, thick trees of an olden era could be seen. The olden trees on the outer part of Hailstone Forest weren’t tall, most of them growing to a height of thirty to forty meters. These olden trees were also covered with white snow and ice, one could hardly make out their true appearance anymore. “Watch out!” While Huang Xiaolong was flying forward on his Mulberry Sword, right in front of him some distance away, a flock of demonic beasts that resembled nightingales flew over. Each one of them was more than ten meters in length, pure black from head to tail, and had eyes of ice-blue. Iron-like sharp glints were reflected from their deadly claws. “These are the most commonly seen aerial demonic beasts in the Hailstone Forest, they are called Darksprite Poison Owls.” Dragon Emperor Ao Taiyi went on to explain, “Their claws contain extremely toxic poison, it would be best if you don’t let them scratch you!” Just as Dragon Emperor Ao Taiyi finished his sentence, that flock of several hundred Darksprite Poison Owls had narrowed the distance between them to several hundred meters. Their beaks issued a series of euphoric squawking noises, and their lethal claws were poised to capture Huang Xiaolong. The most troublesome thing in this Hailstone Forest was none other than running into these Darksprite Poison Owls, for they were a flock of aerial creatures with amazing speed. On top of that, they had highly toxic poison. Watching several hundred Darksprite Poison Owls locked onto him, Huang Xiaolong did not dally. The Mulberry Sword under his feet flew up, and with a wave of his hands, the Mulberry Sword created a curtain of sword lights, resulting in these Darksprite Poison Owls plummeting from the air like dead locusts. Even the blood of these Darksprite Poison Owls was black, unusually glaring to the eyes as it splattered across the white snow. It didn’t take long for Huang Xiaolong to deal with this flock of blackbirds. The Mulberry Sword flew back to Huang Xiaolong’s side as he descended, once again riding on the wooden sword. However, when Huang Xiaolong wanted to go down for a closer inspection, his eyes widened and goosebumps ran down his neck. The several hundred Darksprite Poison Owl corpses were almost instantly covered by thumb-sized bugs barely seconds after hitting the ground. These bugs were white, countless in number, gnawing and wriggling all over the corpses at a horrifying speed. A short while later, nothing was left, not even a feather! “These are ice maggots!” Dragon Emperor Ao Taiyi exclaimed. “This kind of ice maggots lives underground and is extremely terrifying. Their numbers too are too large, and once bitten by these ice maggots, frigid ice poison will spread rapidly throughout the entire body, robbing the body’s ability to move, a little similar to the Poison Corpse Scarabs that you tamed. It’s just that your Poison Corpse Scarabs can evolve, and these cannot.” Huang Xiaolong’s eyes lit up. If he sent out his Poison Corpse Scarabs to ‘eat’ these ice maggots, would his Poison Corpse Scarabs obtain these ice maggots’ attribute? As if knowing what Huang Xiaolong was thinking, Dragon Emperor Ao Taiyi spoke, “It is not so easy to handle these ice maggots, although your Poison Corpse Scarabs could suppress them, and even swallow them, the number of ice maggots is too much, tens of billions of them. Moreover, once you start attacking, it might attract the nearby ice maggots!” Hearing this, Huang Xiaolong suppressed thought of calling out the Poison Corpse Scarabs. As Huang Xiaolong continued to move deeper into the Hailstone Forest, he had lost count of the number of demonic beasts he had killed along the way. The sky gradually darkened. Though there was no sunlight, night and day were still obvious. Once night descended, the numerous hidden demonic beasts that were hidden during the day wandered out in search of food. Even for someone daring like Huang Xiaolong, he inevitably reduced his speed and acted with more caution. Due to the snow’s attribute of reflecting light, the entire forest seemed colder at night compared to daytime. It was deathly white, with a ghostly green glow. Huang Xiaolong was flying over the forest carefully when he suddenly stopped, “Gentlemen, you have been following me for so long but still haven’t decided to show yourselves?” Just as Huang Xiaolong’s voice fell, several dark shadows appeared in front of Huang Xiaolong. Two of them were the armor shop owner and the shop worker. He Liuhua chuckled as he stood in front of Huang Xiaolong, “Little brother, we meet again. But I’m very curious, when did you notice us?” He was very curious about this. In their group of people, the weakest person was a Fourth Order God Realm, how did a mere Second Order God Realm actually detect their presence? “Is that really important?” Huang Xiaolong asked without any changes to his expression. He Liuhua was stunned for a second before laughing loudly, “Right, for a dead man, this point is indeed unimportant.”