Shun Long was stunned when he heard Xie Rong's words.
Although he had already expected for Dao King realm experts to exist within the Heaven's Dome city, it was one thing to speculate about it, and another one to have it confirmed.
Cupping his hands at Xie Rong, Shun Long then said
''Thank you for your warning 'Guild master Xie'.''
Xie Rong shook her head, understanding that she couldn't change Shun Long's mind. She then waved her left hand and took a small white token from her spatial ring, before handing it to Shun Long.
Shun Long received the white token and noticed a silver-colored 'Xie' character engraved on it, when Xie Rong spoke with a dazzling smile on her face
''Young master Shun, if you want to...you can just call me Xie Rong.
Also, if someone has to say thank you, then that would be me. Not only did you save my life, but you also helped me obtain the 'Dragon Lord's medallion'.
Although I cannot help you with the Heaven's Dome city, if you ever require assistance, you can bring this token to the Xie family of the Silver Mountain.''
Shun Long accepted Xie Rong's token, and saw a bright smile blossoming on her face.
Xie Rong then turned to look at the 30 Elders of the 'Pale Moon guild' as she said
''It is time for me to return back to the Silver Mountain! Thank you for being with me for all these years. Those of you who want to follow me, you are welcome to come along.
If you want to follow your own path however, I will not stop you.''
Surprisingly, less than 10 Elders from the guild chose to follow Xie Rong to the SIlver Mountain. The rest bowed before they went on their own ways.
Since Shun Long had gotten the Tan Duyi's and the big-nosed man's spatial ring, there was nothing left for them to do here.
These Elders had followed Xie Rong for many years, which was why they had chosen to put their lives on the line in this battle against the 'Dark Blade guild'. But since the battle was over, they wouldn't owe anything to each other anymore, and each of them would follow their own paths.
Xie Rong wasn't angry when she saw the Elders leaving.
She understood that each of them had their own ambitions, and after bowing to Shun Long one last time, she also left towards the south.
Shun Long patted the black panther's head, while Liu Mei watched Xie Rong and the Elders of the 'Pale Moon guild' leave.
Since Liu Mei knew that the 'Heaven's Dome city' had something to do with the Dao King from the 'Vermilion realm', she didn't ask Shun Long why he wanted to go to this city.
Shun Long and Liu Mei both sat on the black panther's back, as Shun Long unfurled the map that Xie Rong had given to him.
On the map, he noticed that the Silver sword city was at the east of the Night star continent, while the 'Heaven's Dome city' was closer to the center.
Since there was nothing left for them to do in the Silver sword city, the black panther flew towards the center of the Night star continent.
The panther was like a bolt of black lightning in the air, as it crossed through many mountains and forests.
3 days soon passed like this, when Shun Long and Liu Mei arrived outside a big town.
Although the panther wasn't tired, after flying for 3 days straight, Shun Long decided to stop for today.
After all, they had already covered almost half of the distance between the Silver sword city and the Heaven's Dome city in just these 3 days.
After finding a small inn to stay for the night, Shun Long and Liu Mei started to cultivate.
Meanwhile, during the last 3 days of travel, Shun Long had already taken a look at the big-nosed man's spatial ring.
However, for a peak rank 4 Nascent soul expert, only 2 words could describe the big-nosed man; dirt poor!
Inside his spatial ring, Shun Long found just a few bottles of pills, a Mystic middle-grade cultivation technique, as well as 8000 middle-grade spirit stones.
If they were converted into low-grade spirit stones, they would just amount to 800.000 of them.
Shun Long also estimated, that Liu Mei must be running out of spirit stones by now.
After all, she only had 20.000 low-grade ones with her, when she had left the 'Floating Cloud sect'.
After making sure that Liu Mei had enough spirit stones as well, Shun Long then entered the foggy place inside the 'Stone of Time'.
It was finally time to test the effects of the middle-grade spirit stones.
After feeding the spirit stones to the 'Heaven swallowing vine', Shun Long felt an unprecedented amount of pure qi filling the air around him.
This qi was more than 10 times purer than that coming from the normal low-grade spirit stones.
Shun Long could feel his 61st ball of qi being condensed much faster than before.
By the time that the sun had started to rise in the outside world, less than 4 days had passed in the foggy place inside the 'Stone of TIme'.
In just these 3-4 days, Shun Long had advanced from the middle of rank 7 in Heaven grade, to the peak of rank 7.
He estimated that he would just need 6-7 more days of cultivating inside the foggy space, until he advanced to the early rank 8 in Heaven grade.
Leaving the inn, Shun Long and Liu Mei left this town, as they headed deeper towards the center of the Night star continent.
It was unknown whether it was because of luck, or thanks to the powerful aura of the peak rank 5 black panther, but on the way, they didn't meet with any magic beasts or any other cultivators even once.
Finally, on the seventh day, Shun Long and Liu Mei could see a gigantic city in the distance ahead of them.