As the sun slowly rose in this world of 1000 cities, sunlight seeped through the gaps of the cave's entrance, slowly illuminating the dim environment inside it.
More than 5000 spirit stones were piled up on the ground around Shun Long in an orderly manner, and all of them seemed to have lost their luster by now, looking like they were nothing more than average stones without any value.
In the last 24 days Shun Long hadn't moved from this cave at all, and he was either absorbing the energy inside the middle-grade spirit stones in front of him, or he spent his time trying to breakthrough to the next stage of body refinement.
Since he wasn't certain yet if there would be another test of the Holy sect after this one, breaking through to the early fifth stage of the 'Monarch's Eternal body' and increasing his strength as much as possible was the most important thing to do right now.
After all, in this third test alone, someone like the golden-robed 'senior brother Qiong' had already forced him to nearly go all-out after using the 'Thundergod's slash'.
If there was a fourth test and it was even harder than the third test, Shun Long guessed that even in the best-case scenario, not more than 200 out of the original 1000 disciples that passed through the third test would manage to successfully pass the fourth one.
It was too bad that during these last 24 days, Shun Long hadn't managed to break through to the early fifth stage in the 'Monarch's Eternal body'.
Although he could feel that his 'Monarch's Eternal body' had already reached the absolute peak of the fourth stage and his 'Dao of Space' was also at a high enough level for him to breakthrough by now, Shun Long could feel that he was still half a step away from succeeding.
At the same time, since he was still inside the Holy sect's test, Shun Long didn't dare to enter inside the 'Stone of Time' or summon the 'Heaven Swallowing vine' to swallow the middle-grade spirit stones and provide him with pure qi during this time.
Instead, he was absorbing the spirit stones in front of him by himself, and although it was a slow process with a much lower efficiency compared to the Heaven Swallowing vine's, this was still the only thing he could do right now to advance his strength.
After all, Shun Long knew that if the Holy sect learned of the existence of the Heaven Swallowing vine, then, even if they were a sect that would never rob its disciples, it was still very likely that there would be at least a few Elders who would be unable to reign in their greed and would choose to make their move.
After all, even in his previous life, Shun Long knew that the 'Heaven Swallowing vine' was a peerless treasure that could increase anyone's speed of cultivation, as well as provide them with endless pure qi.
This was something that had been buried in the annals of history, a treasure that hadn't been found for countless years.
Who could expect that something like it would appear in a place so small like the Desolate East?
Even Dao Emperors would have their eyes turn red with envy if they learned of the existence of this treasure, and would trade everything in their possession if it meant that they could get a hold of this treasure vine.
Of course, during these past 24 days, since he was unable to use the 'Heaven Swallowing vine' to turn the middle-grade spirit stones into pure qi, Shun Long knew that his 'Monarch's Hourglass' would end up expelling even more qi from the middle-grade spirit stones, causing him to waste even more spirit stones in the process.
After all, Shun Long knew, that the 'Monarch's Hourglass' wouldn't allow him to absorb the entirety of the qi contained inside a single middle-grade spirit stone, and would only absorb the tiniest amount inside it that contained the purest qi, rejecting anything that contained even the slightest bit of impurities.
Of course, the 'Heaven Swallowing vine' was still a treasure that could cleanse the qi regardless of its source, including the qi coming from the bodies of magic beasts let alone that inside the spirit stones, and turn it into pure qi that Shun Long would then absorb.
In reality, even the qi coming from the 'Heaven Swallowing vine' was still 'screened' by the 'Monarch's Hourglass' in the end, allowing Shun Long to only absorb 80% of it while rejecting the rest, but compared to the qi that was coming directly from the spirit stones, the difference in quality was simply incomparable.
At the same time, this was the only point that Shun Long couldn't help but lament on regarding his own cultivation.
After all, not only did the 'Monarch's Hourglass' require enormous amounts of qi compared to other cultivators at the same level as him, but Shun Long also knew that it would only allow him to absorb the purest qi possible inside his qi balls.
Thus, even with the 'Heaven Swallowing vine' and the foggy space inside the Stone of Time, Shun Long still had to spend more time cultivating compared to other cultivators at the same level as him.
Of course, after obtaining the golden-robed 'senior brother Qiong's' spatial ring, Shun Long definitely didn't feel the pinch of wasting 5.000 middle-grade spirit stones.
After all, 'senior brother Qiong's' spatial ring had more than 200.000 middle-grade spirit stones inside it.
Such wealth easily rivaled that of an average Dao King's in the Night star continent.
Of course, as a person who most likely came from a major power in his own continent, it wasn't too surprising for 'senior brother Qiong' to be this rich.
As for the old man's and the short-haired woman's spatial rings, Shun Long had been initially surprised to find out that they were practically empty.
However, after thinking about it for a while, he understood that this was only natural in the end.
After all, the Holy sect would definitely sweep their spatial rings clean before exiling them in this place, and would only allow them to keep their weapons to defend themselves and fight.
Letting them keep their spirit stones or any rare pills and medicinal herbs in their possession was simply impossible.
As the spirit stones on the ground completely turned to dust, Shun Long finally condensed the 7th ball of qi above his head, reaching the peak of rank 1 in the Nascent Soul stage.
At the same time, as the final day came to an end, Shun Long saw the Holy sect's token that he had placed beside him suddenly lit up with a bright golden light.
In the beginning, the light was dim and had barely covered the surface of the Holy sect's token, but as time went on it started to expand as it turned even brighter, slowly turning into a golden, incorporeal door.
The door started to ripple, and in just a few moments, it looked no different than a real door. The only difference was that this door that was created from qi had no handle on it.
However, with just a glance, Shun Long could see that this was definitely the exit from the third test.
This door didn't only appear in front of Shun Long.
Everyone else who had a Holy sect's token on their possession saw a similar scene appearing in front of their eyes.
In a forest far away from Shun Long, in a small, isolated cave, 2 peerlessly beautiful young women were staring at the 2 doors golden doors that were taking shape in front of them, with dazzling smiles on both of their faces.
It was like spring had come inside the small cave, painting a scene of indescribable beauty as the 2 kingdom-toppling beautiful women stood next to each other.
A moment later, the green-robed blonde beauty on the left looked at the young woman on her right who had just finished putting a white veil on her face and asked with that same smile
''Mei, are you ready?''
Liu Mei nodded her head a moment later, while Shun Long's image suddenly appeared in her mind, almost as if he was waiting behind this golden door, and without hesitating for a moment, she placed her left hand on the golden door's surface.
Xie Xingyi smiled and did the same, before the figures of the 2 beautiful women instantly disappeared from the cave, leaving nothing left inside.
At the same time, inside the small mountain he was in, Shun Long took a step forward and placed his right hand on the golden door's surface.
Golden light suddenly appeared from the door, completely covering his body from head to toe, before a moment later, Shun Long's body disappeared from the small cave.