Shun Long opened his eyes and looked upwards, where 75 balls of qi were floating above his head inside the 'Monarch's Hourglass'.
The balls of qi that were closer to the entrance of the hourglass, were shining with a golden color that was brighter than the rest, indicating that the qi inside them was evidently purer.
Although Shun Long hadn't reached the peak of rank 9 in Heaven grade, he was still satisfied with the results of his cultivation in the past 2 months.
After thinking for a moment, he then transferred the rank 4 'Golden Jade spirit tree', from the herb garden of the 'Stone of Time' to this place.
By now, Shun Long already had more than 10 fully-matured 'Golden Jade spirit trees' in his herb garden.
Shun Long then turned to look at the tree in front of him that seemed as if it was made from pure gold, before he also took out a dozen more medicinal herbs from the 'Stone of TIme'.
It was finally time for him to refine the 'Spirit nourishing pills'.
Little Black who was also inside the foggy place along with his master now, stared at the golden tree with curiosity in his eyes.
Although he didn't know the use of the tree, the black dragon clearly remembered Shun Long's excitement, when he had seen the 'Golden Jade spirit tree' at the half-fiend village's entrance.
Shun Long however, knew about the use of this tree.
He already knew that in order for a cultivator to breakthrough from the peak of rank 9 in Heaven grade to the Spirit realm, 3 conditions needed to be met.
The first was, that the cultivator's dantian had to accumulate enough qi until it had reached saturation. Shun Long knew that this was similar to him having 81 balls of qi inside the 'Monarch's Hourglass'.
After all, although the 'Monarch's Hourglass' was different from any other cultivation technique that he had currently seen, Shun Long didn't believe that the process of breaking would be different than most other cultivators, at least during the breakthrough to the Spirit realm.
The second condition, was for the cultivator to enhance their spiritual strength. In order to step into the Spirit realm, cultivators needed to enhance the power of their own spirit first. This was usually accomplished, by either spending countless hours in meditation, or by consuming precious pills that could help in this regard.
However, such pills were extremely scarce in the Night star continent, as both the medicinal herbs that were needed were extremely rare, and the alchemists who could refine such pills were almost all at the gold grade.
As for the third condition, it was for the cultivator to increase their comprehension of their Dao.
Without sufficient insights in their Dao, a cultivator wouldn't be able to break through to the Spirit realm, and would have to spend their life stuck at the peak of rank 9 in the Heaven grade.
As for Shun Long's rank 4 'Spirit enhancing pill', it was precisely such a pill that could help enhance his spiritual strength.
Of course, the reason that Shun Long hadn't started to refine the 'Golden Jade spirit tree' earlier and waited until his cultivation had advanced, was because of the difficulty in the refinement of the tree.
As a rare high-level rank 4 medicinal ingredient, the 'Golden Jade spirit tree' was much harder to refine into medicinal essence than the rank 4 'Sunskirt grass'.
Shun Long estimated, that even now that his cultivation had reached the early rank 9 in Heaven grade, he may still not succeed in the pill refinement.
After taking a deep breath, Shun Long's spiritual strength had reached its peak, as a small flame appeared beneath his cauldron.
The look in his eyes was serious as his qi flame was warming up the cauldron.
A few minutes later, he then started to slowly place the medicinal herbs inside, refining them one after the other.
''Rank 3 'Silverwood branch', a handful of rank 3 'purple illusion powder', rank 2 'white-smoke fruit'...''
Shun Long started to mumble as he continued with the refinement of the herbs.
Finally, a quarter of an hour later, Shun Long stared at the golden tree that was on his side, before he raised his left hand, and using his forefinger, he gently poked a hole on the tree's trunk.
A golden-colored liquid that resembled honey, had then started to flow from the 'Golden Jade spirit tree'.
Shun Long used his spiritual strength, to guide the golden-colored liquid inside the cauldron.
However, this liquid was extremely resistant to spiritual strength, making Shun Long struggle to even guide it inside the cauldron.
The moment that the golden liquid entered inside the cauldron, Shun Long could feel a stinging pain in his head, almost as if his spiritual strength was suddenly being attacked.
Although the golden liquid wasn't a sentient being, any rare medicinal herb that involved the spiritual strength in any way, had a certain danger of backlash.
Shun Long's qi flame increased in strength, as it tried to purify the liquid and refine it into medicinal essence even faster than before.
The golden liquid however was greatly resistant to fire, making the refining process extremely slow.
Gritting his teeth, Shun Long then activated his second 'Monarch's Domain', but instead of having it envelop his own body, the blue light completely covered the golden liquid.
Beads of sweat were rolling down from Shun Long's forehead, but with the use of the Dao of Time, the golden liquid had started to rotate clockwise inside the cauldron, under the guidance of his spiritual strength.
Finally, more than an hour later, a strong medicinal scent erupted from the cauldron, while at the same time, Shun Long's qi flame was extinguished and he slumped on the ground.
His spiritual strength was almost completely drained by now, but he still willed himself to sit up and open the cauldron's lid.
Little Black was also staring at his master's cauldron with anticipation in his eyes.
The moment that the lid of the cauldron was opened, 5 pills that were shining with a golden hue could be seen inside, emitting a powerful medicinal scent.
Shun Long wasn't disappointed when he saw that 2 of the pills were high-grade instead of top-grade.
Instead, he placed them in 2 different pill bottles, before he sat down to recover his spiritual strength.
3 hours later, his spiritual strength had recovered to its peak, but Shun Long didn't choose to consume the top-grade rank 4 'Spirit enhancing pills' right away.
He could clearly feel that lately, although his cultivation base was advancing at a rapid rate, his combat strength hadn't reached his peak.
He was certain that if this situation continued and he didn't get fully used to his strength, his cultivation would start to stagnate in the future.
Without any hesitation, Shun Long simulated himself leaving the foggy place, as his body appeared back in the room of the inn.