Night had already fallen, by the time that Shun Long and Liu Mei returned back to the inn.
Since it was already night, Liu Mei sat down on the white meditative cushion, as she started circulating the Moonlight Sigil.
At the same time, Shun Long once again entered the foggy place inside the 'Stone of Time' as he circulated his 'Monarch's Hourglass'.
More than half a year passed like this for Shun Long, while a little more than half a month had gone by in the outside world.
After consuming countless top-grade 'Blood combustion pills', as well as more than 900.000 spirit stones he had already reached the peak of rank 6 in Heaven grade.
However, although time was flowing 10 times faster inside this place, Shun Long also noticed a glaring issue. Without using spirit stones, there was no other way to obtain qi to cultivate inside this place. This meant, that now that he was almost out of spirit stones, Shun Long couldn't advance his cultivation inside this place any further.
Sitting cross-legged on the ground, countless thoughts flashed through his mind
''Selling Mystic grade cultivation techniques isn't actually a good way to earn spirit stones. After all, I don't have that many of them left to begin with. As for auctioning more 'Blood combustion pills', since the Silver sword clan has already obtained the first batch, the other families wouldn't be willing to spend more spirit stones anymore.''
After thinking about it for a while, Shun Long decided to cultivate in the outside world during the day, and practice the martial skills as well as get a deeper comprehension in his Dao of Time and the Dao of Space during the night.
2 months quickly passed like this, when the time for Xie Rong to execute her plan had finally arrived.
In these 2 months, Shun Long's cultivation had already broken through to the middle of rank 7 in Heaven grade,
Thanks to their dual cultivation during these 2 months as well, Liu Mei was extremely surprised to find out, that her cultivation had also been pushed upwards, reaching the early rank 5 in Heaven grade.
During these 2 months, Shun Long had also refined countless pills, including the rank 4 'Sunskirt grass' into many top-grade rank 4 'Sun-healing pills', along with many other pills, like anti-toxin pills and so on.
He had also reached a certain degree of proficiency, in each of the Mystic high-grade martial skills that he had gotten from Cui Guoliang during this time.
Surprisingly, the 'Gale steps' was the easiest of these 3 techniques to train in.
Shun Long understood that there were 7 different ranks for the 'Gale steps'.
Having spent more than a year in the foggy place inside the 'Stone of TIme', Shun Long had already mastered the 3rd rank of this movement technique.
Although he couldn't become invisible like Cui Guoliang when he used it, Shun Long could move extremely fast inside the 'Monarch's Domain' when he used this martial skill.
However, both the 'Thunderbolt finger', as well as the 'Staff of Obliteration', proved to be much harder to master.
The Thunderbolt finger was only split in 3 different ranks.
Shun Long had already mastered the first rank, which allowed him to gather his qi in his finger, and turn it into lightning, before he fired a powerful lightning bolt towards the enemy.
Additionally, although this martial skill required a lot more of his qi compared to the 'Gale steps', Shun Long could still use it while he had his 'Monarch's Domain' active.
However, from the 3 martial skills, Shun Long had spent the most time training in the 'Staff of Obliteration'.
This martial skill was split into 6 different ranks, and each rank was followed by a single hit of the staff.
After training in this martial skill the most out of all 3 of them, Shun Long had already reached the 2nd of its 6 ranks. He was certain however, that paired with the 'Purple Blossom staff' as well as his middle third stage 'Monarch's Eternal body', the might of the 'Staff of Obliteration' would be even stronger than the 'Thunderbolt finger'.
Standing up from the meditative cushions, Shun Long and Liu Mei knew, that it was time for them to go to the 'Pale Moon guild' today.
The 'Silver-winged panther king' was still lying on the ground, in the courtyard outside of the room.
Shun Long walked up to it and patted the black panther's head, before he and Liu Mei got on its back and left, towards the 'Pale Moon guild'.
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Inside an empty private room in the depths of the guild, Xie Rong was standing in front of 30 men and women dressed in purple and red robes.
These, were the strongest members of the 'Pale Moon guild', as well as Xie Rong's most trusted aides.
Looking at the people in front of her, a sharp glint flashed through Xie Rong's eyes, as she took a deep breath and said in a cold voice
''You all know why you are gathered here today.
Some of you have followed me from the start, while some others joined me on the way, but all of you are equally important to me.
After today however, our 'Pale Moon guild' will officially disband, no matter whether we succeed or fail.''
The people in front of Xie Rong, nodded their heads solemnly, when suddenly, a red-robed Elder came inside the private room.
He bowed hurriedly at Xie Rong before he said
''Guild master! The people whom you have been waiting for, have arrived at the guild's entrance!''
Xie Rong nodded her head as she looked at the red-robed Elder, and said
''Very well, guide them here.''
The red-robed Elder nodded his head, as he personally led the way for Shun Long and Liu Mei to the private room where Xie Rong and the rest were in.
Shun Long was slightly shocked by the solemn atmosphere in the room, when Xie Rong looked at him, before she said in a slightly warmed voice than before
''Young master Shun, young lady Liu, welcome.''
Shun Long's eyes stared at the beautiful blonde woman in front of him, who then continued speaking
''I believe that you also want to know why I needed your help. Since you have come here today, I don't have a reason to keep anything a secret any longer.''