Inside the foggy space in the 'Stone of Time', Shun Long inhaled deeply one last time, absorbing even the last bit of pure qi around him, before he finally opened his eyes.
Above his head, the figure of an invisible hourglass was floating, with 33 bright balls of qi that were emitting a bright silver light.
Although 10 days had passed in the outside world, more than 3 full months had passed for Shun Long inside the foggy space.
In these 3 months, Shun Long had successfully broken through the barrier of the middle stages of the Nascent Soul, becoming an early and then a middle rank 4 Nascent Soul cultivator.
Breaking through to the middle stages of the Nascent Soul wasn't easy, as Shun Long had spent more than 200.000 middle-grade spirit stones in the last 3 months.
The qi consumption of his 'Monarch's Hourglass' was truly immense, especially when it was compared to other cultivators at the same level.
Shun Long knew that a normal person would normally need around 200.000 middle-grade spirit stones to reach the late stages of the Nascent Soul from the peak of rank 3, but 200.000 middle-grade spirit stones were only enough for Shun Long to reach the middle of rank 4 in the Nascent Soul instead.
Naturally, this was the effect of an extremely high-grade cultivation technique like the 'Monarch's Hourglass'.
How could the qi required to train in a technique like his 'Monarch's Hourglass' be compared to other cultivation techniques?
After all, Shun Long clearly knew that the purity of his qi inside his qi balls couldn't be compared to the qi inside the dantian of any other outer disciple within the Holy sect, at the same level as him.
Seeing the 635.000 middle-grade spirit stones that he had now left inside his herb garden, that had been depleted by one-fourth in a single cultivation session, Shun Long felt somewhat dejected in his heart.
''At this rate, even if I robbed a Dao Emperor clean, his wealth probably wouldn't be enough to allow me to reach even the peak of the Dao King realm, let alone become the Dao Emperor realm...
Unless I start selling some pills in the Holy city, I will have trouble even reaching the late stages of the Nascent Soul as well...
Maybe I should go to Murong city earlier than I was planning to.''
Remembering the treasures that Huo Wuyi, the Dao Emperor who had created the 'Dragon Lord's villa' in the Night star continent had hidden in a mountain outside Murong city, Shun Long started to consider whether he should go there sooner than he had been planning to.
The only reason why he was still hesitating, was because Shun Long now had a rough understanding of the approximate level of strength of the Murong family.
According to Huo Wuyi's memories, the Murong family wasn't any weaker than the Holy sect itself.
Since the sect master of the Holy sect was a Sovereign realm expert according to Jiang Tianfang, and there was even a powerful peak-level Dao Emperor hidden in the depths of the sect as well, Shun Long could roughly guess how strong the Murong family was.
Even with Little Black who had now reached the middle of rank 7 and was probably strong enough to fight off against late-stage Dao Emperors, Shun Long couldn't deny that the Murong family was still a behemoth that he couldn't shake just yet.
Besides, even Huo Wuyi's treasures weren't worth it for Shun Long to risk Little Black's safety just to obtain them.
Closing his eyes, Shun Long imagined himself leaving the foggy space as he appeared back in his room barely a moment later.
Seeing that the room was empty, Shun Long's lips curved up ever-so-slightly, as he opened the door and walked to the courtyard outside, where Liu Mei, Xie Xingyi, Jiang Chen, and Bai Longtian, were all there, along with a huge black panther who was lying on the ground with his eyes closed.
Shun Long had already decided to let Bai Longtian and the rest enter his courtyard when they arrived, so they could see Little Silver.
Since Shun Long was going to spend many years alongside them in the future, it was going to be a matter of time until they learned of Little Silver's existence.
After completing the C-rank mission and infiltrating the royal palace, Shun Long didn't plan to hide too many things from them any longer.
Indeed, although Xingyi, Jiang Chen, and Bai Longtian, had been surprised when they arrived in the courtyard earlier and saw a huge black panther lying on the ground, once Liu Mei explained that Little Silver was Shun Long's magic beast, everyone accepted it without too much difficulty.
In their eyes, Shun Long's secrets had already far exceeded his ability to 'smuggle' a magic beast inside the Holy sect unnoticed.
Since they had all chosen to follow Shun Long, they were only feeling more comfortable seeing that Shun Long was sharing his secret with them.
''Long-ge!''
''Brother Long!''
The moment that the door of the room opened, everyone turned their attention towards Shun Long, before Liu Mei and Xingyi excitedly spoke.
Shun Long smiled as he looked at Liu Mei and the rest, before he walked to Little Silver and patted its head, letting it return in the foggy space in the 'Stone of Time'.
Since Shun Long wasn't hiding his cultivation, Liu Mei and the rest noticed that he had broken through to the middle of rank 4 in the Nascent Soul during his seclusion this time, shocking everyone in their hearts!
At the same time, Shun Long noticed that, although neither Xingyi, Bai Longtian, or Jiang Chen, had broken through during their cultivation session, it was obvious that they were just a step away from breaking through once again.
Seeing the excited looks that they all had on their faces, Shun Long smiled and said
''Since we are all ready, let's go to the arena.''
Today was the first day that their faction would be fighting as 5, facing off against another faction of the Holy sect!
Liu Mei, Jiang Chen, Xingyi, and Bai Longtian, all nodded their heads, as they walked out of the courtyard and headed towards the north of the sect.
The arena was located in the north of the court as well, less than 200 meters away from the entrance of the inner court.
...
It only took half an hour for Shun Long's faction to arrive in front of the entrance of the gigantic arena of the outer court.
Although Shun Long and the rest had yet to enter it, judging from how big the arena was, they could easily guess that the arena itself could fit more than 200.000 outer disciples inside it without any issue.
The arena didn't seem to have too many people around it, but Shun Long knew that this was only natural.
He already knew that most outer disciples wouldn't usually waste their time idling around this place, unless there was a battle between 2 powerful factions near the top 100 rankings, or a battle between 2 geniuses ranked in the Martial Roll of Honor!
After all, nobody really cared about watching the lower-ranked factions fight against each other!
However, just as Shun Long and the rest were about to step past the arena's entrance and enter inside it, 2 people dressed in yellow robes and a young man who wasn't wearing the robes of the Holy sect suddenly blocked their path, causing Shun Long to furrow his brows upon seeing this, while Jiang Chen was the first one to step forward with an annoyed look on his face.