Seeing the confused expression on Liu Mei's face, Shun Long then continued
''It looks like the things happening in the Heaven's Dome city right now, are much more complex than they originally seemed to be.
First, the geniuses from all over the Night star continent started gathering in the city in droves. This was certainly connected to the Holy sect's test that Zhao Lan and Jin Wenling mentioned in the 'Alchemists' Guild'.
In addition, considering the scale of this recruitment, there is no way that the 'Alchemists' Guild' could pull this off without help. The other powers of the Heaven's Dome city are definitely involved in this as well.
There must have been a very important reason that would make the peak powers of the Heaven's Dome city gather the geniuses from all over the continent to the city, and have them compete with each other.
However, this hall master from the Demon Emperor palace, now came from the central region and is practically ruining their plans.
After all, if the peak powers from the Heaven's Dome city have agreed to send their disciples to participate in the Holy sect's test 3 years from now, and considering the aggressive behavior which this Duan Zhu person came with, there is practically no chance that they have suddenly agreed to send everyone to the Demon Emperor palace instead.
The most plausible chance is, that the Demon Emperor palace isn't on good terms with the powers from the Night star continent, and by offering to take the strong people of the younger generation in their sect, they are both weakening the Night star continent, as well as strengthening their own sect at the same time.''
After hearing Shun Long's deduction, both Liu Mei, as well as Little Black inside the 'Stone of Time', nodded their heads simultaneously.
Indeed, as long as one knew about the Holy sect's test that was taking place 3 years from now, then Shun Long's deduction could very well be true.
A few minutes later, Shun Long and Liu Mei had arrived in their courtyard.
Looking at the black panther, Shun Long smiled as he took out more than 10 stalks of rank 5 'Dragonblood grass' from the 'Stone of Time'.
After smelling the 'Dragonblood grass', the 'Silver-winged panther king' started to salivate, like a kid that had seen its favorite food.
Without any hesitation, Shun Long gave the 10 stalks of grass to the panther, who started munching them in excitement, before he and Liu Mei entered their room.
After entering inside the room, Shun Long and Liu Mei both took a shower together, before they spent the next 3 hours in arduous dual cultivation.
On the bed, Liu Mei's exhausted, naked body was lying on top of Shun Long's, and with a gentle smile on her face, she said
''Long-ge, I think that I am too weak to participate in the survival challenge just yet.''
With a curious expression on his face, Shun Long then asked
''What happened? Did you get eliminated early in the survival challenge?''
Liu Mei pouted as she narrated to Shun Long, how she had been unlucky enough to meet with a peak rank 3 Spirit realm cultivator, as soon as she had arrived in the trial grounds.
Seeing that Shun Long started laughing when she finished recounting her experience, Liu Mei pouted even further.
Shun Long smiled instead, when he saw Liu Mei's reaction. This was an expression on her face that he hadn't seen before.
However, he also knew that Liu Mei's words made sense. Although she probably had a chance if she were to fight against an early rank 2 Spirit realm cultivator, against a peak rank 3 Spirit realm expert, it was only natural for her to lose.
After handing a few bottles of pills that were filled with top-grade rank 4 'Spirit enhancing pills' to Liu Mei, Shun Long closed his eyes, as he once again returned to the foggy place in the 'Stone of Time'.
Now that he had entered the Spirit realm, Shun Long already knew that he could no longer blindly advance his cultivation, by simply absorbing the pure qi from the 'Heaven swallowing vine'.
His spirit sense had to advance along with his cultivation as well, all in preparation for the Nascent Soul stage.
Little Black had already explained to Shun Long, that the stronger one's spirit sense was before their breakthrough to the Nascent Soul stage, the bigger the benefits they would obtain after breaking through.
There were countless things that Nascent Soul experts could do, that Spirit realm cultivators were unable to.
This included taking over someone's body after they were killed, using their powerful soul to search the soul of other cultivators and many more.
Entering the Nascent Soul stage was practically the same thing as having a second life.
However, the most pressing matter to Shun Long right now, was to first refine the rank 4 'internal reconstruction pill', and enter the fourth stage of the 'Monarch's Eternal body'.
After sitting down cross-legged, Shun Long took out the 3 main medicinal ingredients from the herb garden, along with more than a dozen rank 3 herbs, and his rank 2 silver grade cauldron.
After warming up the cauldron, he added in the rank 4 'Spirit cleansing fruit', the 'White spirit lotus' and the 'Purple wind ice fruit' inside, all at the same time.
Even with his powerful spirit sense that had reached the same level as a weak soul sense, Shun Long still found it hard to refine these 3 rank 4 medicinal herbs together.
Seeing the 3 rare rank 4 medicinal herbs being slowly refined inside the cauldron, Shun Long mumbled to himself
''Although this is harder than normal, it is the only way to merge perfectly the 'Spirit cleansing fruit' and the 'Purple wind ice fruit' with the 'White spirit lotus'!
Half an hour later, the 'White spirit lotus' had turned into a pure white liquid, before Shun Long started adding in the rank 3 medicinal herbs inside the cauldron.
More than an hour passed like this, when the 'Spirit cleansing fruit' had finally started to turn into a pure liquid of orange essence as well.
Seeing that the orange essence of the 'Spirit cleansing fruit' was about to merge with the pure white liquid of the 'White spirit lotus', Shun Long mumbled to himself
''Monarch's Domain!''
The moment that the indistinct figure of an hourglass expanded from his body, time inside the cauldron was immediately halted.
Seeing the swirling liquids inside the cauldron that were stopped in place, Shun Long didn't hesitate, as he started to increase the temperature of his qi flame, in order to refine the 'Purple wind ice fruit', as well as the rank 3 medicinal herbs at the same time.
An incense stick of time later, the rank 4 'Purple wind ice fruit' had turned into a sparkling purple liquid, that merged together with the green-colored essence of the rank 3 herbs.
Retracting the 'Monarch's Domain', Shun Long allowed the time inside the cauldron to flow normally once again.
The moment that the invisible hourglass figure had returned inside Shun Long's body, the 3 liquids reacted together as they tried to merge with each other at the same time.
Beads of sweat had appeared on Shun Long's forehead, as he used his spirit sense to control the situation inside the cauldron.
The 3 medicinal essences were being grinded against the cauldron itself, while they were being slowly merged into one at the same time.
Finally, a full hour passed like this, as Shun Long's qi flames were extinguished while a strong medicinal scent erupted from the cauldron.
Little Black's eyes lit up when he smelled the medicinal fragrance in the air.
Even for the early rank 6 black dragon, the medicinal fragrance had a calming effect on his mind.
After taking a deep breath, Shun Long opened the lid of the cauldron, where a single purple-colored pill could be seen inside.