After spending a month at Xiao Gate, Yao Lao and Heavenly Fire Venerable left one after the other. Yao Lao returned to the Central Plains first, while Heavenly Fire Venerable went to handle the task Xiao Yan had asked him to help with. After they left, Xiao Yan felt a rare pang of loneliness, but he soon adjusted his mood and returned to the matters at hand.
With Xiao Gate's current strength, dominating the Black-Corner Region would pose no problem whatsoever. Even setting aside Yuan Li, a Five-Star Dou Zun, Xiao Yan's apparent cultivation alone was enough to make the region's so-called first-rate factions tremble. After all, a Nine-Star Dou Zong could do quite well even in the Central Plains, let alone the Black-Corner Region.
With the help of the Mittel elites Hai Bodong had brought back, Xiao Gate's financial operations flourished as well. Auction houses bearing Xiao Gate's emblem sprang up like bamboo shoots after rain in cities throughout the Black-Corner Region, gathering wealth in each one. Although Xiao Gate had yet to truly unite the region, it was already the uncrowned king in everyone's eyes.
During this period, Qing Lin successfully broke through to Dou Wang after absorbing the Dou Qi of several snake-type Magic Beasts. Not long after her breakthrough, another piece of good news arrived: the Bodhi Body-Transforming Saliva Xiao Yan had been searching for had finally been found.
It had happened like this: the expansion of the Mittel Auction House had stirred resentment among some of the Black-Corner Region's long-established factions. At the time, Xiao Yan had yet to reveal his Nine-Star Dou Zong cultivation, so while factions with Dou Zong experts were somewhat wary of him, they were far from afraid.
During one such clash over business, a faction called the Black Emperor Sect