Shun Long knew that the 'five-elements grass' needed to be added inside the cauldron as soon as the 'white petal flower' was mixed with the other 3 rank 6 medicinal herbs.
As he placed the stalk of the rank 6 'five-elements grass' inside the bronze cauldron Shun Long retracted his 'Monarch's Domain', before a sizzling sound resounded throughout the private room.
Shun Long's soul sense burst out for the second time as it entered the small hole below the bronze cauldron, drawing as much power as he could from the orange earth flame below the Refinement Hall.
The temperature inside the room instantly went up by another level.
This was the current limit of what Shun Long's soul sense could handle.
And yet, even though the earth flame's temperature had reached an extremely terrifying level, Shun Long could see that the 'five-elements grass' was being refined at an extremely slow rate, while beads of sweat were already rolling from his forehead.
He was already nearing his limits in this pill refinement!
At the same time, Jiang Chen and the others all turned to look at each other with eyes filled with disbelief, before they turned their shocked gazes towards Shun Long barely a moment later.
Normally, it would be almost impossible for them to notice that they had been affected by Shun Long's 'Monarch's Domain', but since the 4 of them had their eyes focused on Shun Long this entire time as he refined the essence of the medicinal herbs, how could they not notice that the stalk of the rank 6 'five-element grass' that was right next to him had actually disappeared?
They all understood that this could only have happened if Shun Long had used his 'Monarch's Domain' during the pill refinement.
''Just how strong is brother Shun right now if he goes all-out?''
The same question appeared on Jiang Chen's, Bai Longtian's, and even Xingyi's minds, as they all stared at Shun Long with disbelieving looks in their eyes.
Although they all knew that Shun Long was actually the strongest one among their group, the 3 of them hadn't expected that they would actually be affected by his 'Monarch's Domain' without even realizing it.
After all, this situation was completely different from the time that Shun Long had fought with Jiang Chen back in his courtyard and had used his 'Monarch's Domain'.
From the look on Shun Long's face that was entirely focused on the bronze cauldron in front of him and the beads of sweat that were rolling down from his forehead, it was obvious that Shun Long had placed his full attention on the pill refinement.
Of course, Jiang Chen and the rest didn't know, that as long as Shun Long activated his 'Monarch's Domain', it didn't matter if Shun Long's target was the bronze cauldron in front of him or a bird in the sky, unless he had specifically chosen to avoid someone, everyone would be affected by his 'Monarch's Domain'.
But how could Shun Long who had already reached his limit during the pill refinement possibly split his attention to control his 'Monarch's Domain'?
The only one who was unperturbed about this situation was Liu Mei, as she looked at Shun Long with her beautiful black eyes, while a gentle smile was formed on her lips.
Unlike Jiang Chen, Bai Longtian, and Xingyi, this wasn't the first time that Liu Mei had witnessed the power of Shun Long's 'Monarch's Domain'.
She knew that this was why Shun Long had been hiding his Dao of Time ever since he had entered the Holy sect.
It was truly his strongest trump card.
Paired with his extremely pure qi, Shun Long was most likely invincible at the same level of cultivation.
Unless Jiang Chen and the others had activated their unique physique, even they wouldn't possibly be able to resist Shun Long's 'Monarch's Domain'.
With his attention fully focused on refining the stalk of 'five-elements grass', Shun Long completely ignored everything else around him, including his entire body that was drenched in sweat, and activated his second 'Monarch's Domain', hastening the refinement process of the 'five-elements grass' even further.
Half an hour later, the spiritual strength inside his spiritual sea was almost fully depleted, but Shun Long didn't pay any attention to it as he stared at the five-colored essence that had now appeared inside the bronze cauldron.
This was the essence of the 'five-elements grass'.
This wasn't just a small part of its essence, but the whole essence contained within a 5000-year-old stalk of 'five-elements grass'.
Closing the lid of the cauldron, Shun Long used his soul sense to guide the medicinal essence inside the cauldron to swirl before allowing the pills to slowly take shape.
A little more than an hour later, the lid of the bronze cauldron finally started to buzz, before Jiang Chen and the others could smell a weak fragrant scent that had started to waft from the cauldron as it slowly filled the room.
At the same time, Shun Long's furrowed eyebrows finally relaxed before his body, drenched in sweat, collapsed on the floor behind him as Shun Long closed his eyes.
He could feel that he was utterly exhausted, while a head-throbbing headache had made his face go pale.
This time, Shun Long knew that he had truly spent himself.
Refining the 'five-elements awakening pill' was much harder than he had originally expected.
''No wonder even star-rank alchemists only have a 40 percent chance of success when refining this pill. This pill truly depletes your spiritual strength. As for normal peak rank 3 gold-grade alchemists, it should be impossible for them to refine a stalk of a 5000-year-old 'five-elements grass' unless they have actually fused with an earth flame!''
Shun Long knew that even his own spiritual strength was only at the level of a peak rank 3 gold grade alchemist.
If it wasn't for his Dao of Time, Shun Long knew that he would have most likely failed during the pill refinement as well. Even now, his spiritual strength was almost completely depleted.
Of course, if any ordinary Dao King heard that a late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator's spiritual strength was actually comparable to that of a peak Dao King's, they would most likely spit at that person in disdain.
After spending an hour, sitting cross-legged on the ground to recover a small part of his spiritual strength, Shun Long could finally feel the pain in his head slowly easing, before he finally opened his eyes and turned his attention towards the bronze cauldron in front of him.