Little Black nodded his head, as he watched Shun Long walking towards his usual seat, before he sat down cross-legged and closed his eyes.
After clearing his head, Shun Long summoned the 'Heaven swallowing vine', before he took out more than 10.000 middle-grade spirit stones.
The vine then started to rapidly swallow the middle-grade spirit stones that Shun Long fed to it, before it turned them into pure qi that filled the air around him.
Shun Long circulated the 'Monarch's Hourglass', as 81 bright balls of qi appeared above his head.
Shun Long then started absorbing the pure qi that the 'Heaven swallowing vine' extracted from the middle-grade spirit stones, replenishing the enormous amounts of qi that he had expended on top of the golden stairs earlier.
Once the 81 balls of qi were once again brought back to peak condition, Shun Long focused his mind as he tried to compress the 81 balls of qi down to one, in order to successfully breakthrough to the Spirit realm.
Shun Long already knew that this breakthrough would be different than the last.
Unlike the breakthrough to the Heaven grade, to breakthrough to the Spirit realm, this time, aside from compressing the balls of qi into one, he also had to condense all of his spiritual strength together, creating his spirit sense.
Only then could Shun Long truly enter the early rank 1 in the Spirit realm.
Having his own spirit sense would also drastically help Shun Long in his alchemy as well, along with many other things in the future.
After all, the difference between touching something with spiritual strength and touching it with spirit sense was simply incomparable.
Touching a medicinal herb with spiritual strength gave you a feeling as if you were touching it with your own 2 hands, but touching it with spirit sense was more than that.
It gave you a feeling of examining the medicinal herb at the same time that you were touching it.
In a cauldron that had its lid closed during the final steps of alchemy, or when a formation master engraved runes on the inside of a weapon, spirit sense would allow the 2 of them to see what was happening inside, instead of just getting a rough feeling of the situation through their spiritual strength.
Endless amounts of qi were extracted from the middle-grade spirit stones, as they were converted into pure qi from the 'Heaven swallowing vine', before they filled the air around Shun Long and Little Black.
Absorbing the pure qi in the air around him, Shun Long then started to compress the 81 balls of qi in the 'Monarch's Hourglass', while at the same time, a stinging pain had filled his head as he compressed his spiritual strength, before it transformed into spirit sense.
3 hours soon passed, and 27 balls of qi, much brighter than before, were now left inside the 'Monarch's Hourglass'.
Droplets of sweat had formed on Shun Long's forehead, but gritting his teeth he continued compressing the qi balls.
6 hours later, a pair of blindingly bright balls of qi had appeared above Shun Long's head, inside the 'Monarch's Hourglass'.
The 2 balls of qi were so bright, that they actually resembled 2 miniature suns.
Shun Long's 81 balls of qi had been now compressed in these 2 balls.
At the same time, inside his spiritual space, his spiritual strength had also been compressed into small wisps of green light.
Although compressing his spiritual strength was extremely painful to Shun Long, who had much more spiritual strength than almost any other Heaven grade cultivator so the process was even lengthier to him, Shun Long could only grit his teeth and continue with the process.
He knew that this was the only way that he could successfully complete his breakthrough and step into the Spirit realm.
FInally, 4 hours later, a blindingly bright ball of qi hovered above Shun Long's head inside the 'Monarch's Hourglass'.
Shun Long's forehead was drenched in sweat, while a stinging pain was still torturing his head, but a light smile still crept its way on his face.
Not only was there a single ball of qi inside the 'Monarch's Hourglass', his spiritual strength had also been compressed into a single green ball inside his spiritual space.
This green ball was Shun Long's spirit sense.
It contained part of his own spirit, and was something that every cultivator who stepped into the Spirit realm needed to have.
Little Black who had coiled his 10m(33ft) long body around Shun Long's seat, had a look of joy in his bright blue eyes, as he said in a delighted voice
''Congratulations master!''
Shun Long smiled as he heard the black dragon's joyful words, and after patting Little Black's head an invisible green ball had appeared in his hand.
Little Black's eyes however were wide open seeing Shun Long experiment with his spirit sense.
Soon, Shun Long found out that he could only extend his spirit sense up to 1m(3.2ft) away from his body at most.
It was simply impossible to extend it anymore than that.
An invisible green field had completely covered Shun Long in a radius of 1m(3.2ft) around him.
Sensing the scene around his master with his soul sense, the black dragon could no longer hide his astonishment, as he said in a shocked voice
''Master! Your spirit sense... shouldn't be able to leave your body and scan the air around you directly.''
Shun Long looked at Little Black with a shocked look, not understanding what he meant.
Nodding his head, the black dragon understood his master's confusion as he then continued
''Your spirit sense should only be able to enter an object that you have direct contact with. However, this is completely different.
Although it seems that master can only use his spirit sense in a radius of 1m(3.2ft) around your body, it is actually no different from an extremely weak soul sense!
Only soul senses can leave a cultivator's body and scan the area around them... but master's spirit sense seems to be able to do the same!
Shun Long nodded his head, but a shocked look also filled his eyes after hearing Little Black's explanation.
Did that mean that he had a soul sense?
No! Only Nascent Soul stage cultivators could unlock their soul sense.
Besides, even if Shun Long's spirit sense could be categorized partially as a soul sense, it was probably the weakest among any other soul sense out there.
Additionally, Shun Long was very clear that he was still in the Spirit realm.
The Spirit realm was the realm where a cultivator enhanced their soul sense, in preparation to enter the Nascent Soul stage after all.
But then, what was this situation?