The shock from Fu Li's face didn't disappear after Shun Long's greeting.
Hearing the familiar voice, the young master of the Fu family felt himself getting dizzy.
At the same time, the inner disciples around him looked at Shun Long with apprehension in their eyes.
Appearing in front of them without a warning or any of them realizing until it's too late... his strength must be at least at the late-stages of the Heaven grade! Isn't that as powerful as the strongest Elders of the sect?
Despite having heard Fu Li calling the young man in front of him 'brother Shun', one of the inner disciples next to Fu Li still took a step forward, and pointing at Shun Long's blue robes, he shouted loudly with an angry expression on his face, in an attempt to attract everyone's attention
''Who are you? Don't you know that this is the inner part of our 'Floating Cloud city'? No matter what's your connection with the Fu family, you must abide by the sect rules!''
Since Fu Li's group wasn't far from the 'main hall', the young man's voice instantly attracted the nearby Elder's attention, including the Grand Elder's. Looking at the Elders around him, the look in Lan Hong's eyes turned serious, as he ordered them to check what was going on.
Without any hesitation, a group of 6 Elders hurriedly flew towards the scene.
It seemed that one bad thing after the other were happening in their sect.
First, their young miss had beaten down their sect master, and now an outsider had even infiltrated the sect?
Liu Mei's matter could still be ignored since she was the sect master's daughter... and she was also strong enough to the point that every one of the Elders were terrified to even speak to her, let alone admonish her... but an outsider entering their 'inner city' was a completely different matter!
Of course, no one of the Elders even thought to associate Shun Long's entry to the sect with Liu Mei's.
After all, Liu Mei was a cold person by nature who didn't speak a lot, let alone have allies who would infiltrate the sect.
Besides, with her current strength, she could probably beat every high-ranking Elder of the sect just by using her 2 black-armored knights, so why would she need any helpers?
With this train of thought, the Elders quickly flew towards the green-robed young man's location.
Fatty Fu instantly snapped out from his daydreaming once he heard these words, and looking at the green-robed young man next to him, his hand flew at a quick speed, heading towards the young man's face.
The young man however seemed to have been prepared for fatty Fu's attack, and he quickly stepped to the side, avoiding Fu Li's slap.
Of course, fatty Fu already knew, that this inner disciple was part of the Meng family. The Fu and the Meng families had a very bad relationship between themselves so a friend of Fu Li's was an enemy of the Meng family.
Shun Long however didn't respond to the green-robed inner disciple of the Meng family as his eyes continued to stare at Fu Li.
Seeing that the Elders had almost arrived at the scene, Fu Li looked at Shun Long and said seriously
''Brother, run! Come and meet me at the Fu family's mansion later! If you get caught here, you will be in huge trouble!''
Even though Fu Li was the young master of the Fu family, in reality, even he didn't have the authority to bring an outsider inside the 'inner city'.
Although he hadn't brought Shun Long here by himself, Fu Li knew, that both he and Shun Long would be put in a bad spot if Shun Long was caught by the Elders.
After all, despite being an outer disciple of the sect, Shun Long had disappeared for the past year, ever since they had entered the 'Vermilion realm'.
No matter what his excuse was, he would be unable to escape the sect's punishment for disappearing.
Shun Long however didn't seem to have put the Elders of the 'Floating Cloud sect' that were approaching them in his eyes, and looking at his friend, his expression turned serious as he said in a solemn tone
''Fatty, let's talk for a bit.''
''Eh?''
This was the last exclamation that left Fu Li's mouth, before the huge, invisible figure of an hourglass expanded from Shun Long's body, covering the area around him, forcefully halting the flow of time.
The middle-stage Heaven grade Elders who were just a few tens of meters away from Shun Long seemed to have suddenly frozen in mid-air.
It wasn't just the 6 Elders... even the group of inner disciples around him, including Fu Li, and the green-robed young man from the Meng family were all frozen under the effects of the 'Monarch's Domain'!
Soon, Shun Long turned his eyes on the green-robed inner disciple of the Meng family, and with a cold expression on his face, he punched the man's chest without any hesitation.
Under Shun Long's cold gaze, the early-stage Heaven grade inner disciple of the Meng family still had that venomous smile on his face as he waited for the Elders to arrive, before his body suddenly exploded, turning into droplets of blood that dyed the ground of the 'Floating Cloud sect' a bright crimson color.
It didn't matter if this person was an enemy of Fu Li's or not, since he had intentionally tried to find trouble with him by calling the Elders, Shun Long had no reason to spare him.
Although Shun Long didn't feel that he was a person who killed indiscriminately and would usually not choose to slaughter people without a reason, he was still unwilling to allow this person to go.
Grabbing Fu Li's frozen-like body that was still under the effects of his 'Monarch's Domain', Shun Long raised his right hand and opened a space tear before he stepped inside it.
Standing in the air high above the 'Floating Cloud city', Shun Long stopped circulating the 'Monarch's Domain', allowing Fu Li to get back to his senses.
Fatty Fu's eyes instantly widened as he suddenly found himself having disappeared from the 'inner city', and standing high above the clouds!
Lowering his head, Fu Li then saw the outline of a familiar big city, bringing even more shock to his heart.
Shun Long however was still holding his body, not allowing him to fall until he got back to his senses.
Seeing that Fu Li was circulating his qi in order to stay afloat, afraid that he would fall on the ground otherwise, Shun Long didn't continue to support him, and looking at his friend with a serious expression on his face he said in a solemn tone
''Fu Li, there is something I need to know.''
..
Fatty Fu was stunned for a second.
He knew Shun Long for more than a year, but this was the first time that he had called him Fu Li, as far as he could remember.
He would always call him brother or fatty.
Calling him by his full name meant that there was a serious issue at hand.
Suppressing himself from asking any questions, such as where Shun Long was for the past year, what he had experienced, how did he appear in front of him in the city today, or how they had disappeared from the 'inner city' in an instant and had arrived above the clouds, Fu Li looked at Shun Long and his look turned serious as he nodded his head without saying a word.
Taking a deep breath, Shun Long looked at Fu Li's eyes before he asked the question that he had wanted to ask him for the past year
''Fu Li, 2 years ago, when you told me to become an inner disciple, did you know that every inner disciple was forced to join one of the 5 families regardless of whether they agreed or not?''