Little Black's eyes shone as he heard Shun Long's words, while Shun Long sent a mental order to the 'Heaven swallowing vine' to start absorbing the qi in the air around him.
Shun Long knew that the 'Heaven swallowing vine' had a lot of qi inside it that it had absorbed over the years, and every 30 years it would usually discharge it in the Demonic Mountain region. Now however that Shun Long had taken the vine from the central mountain and had formed a mental connection with it, he could choose when the vine would discharge this pure qi.
However, Shun Long didn't want to have the vine discharge its qi recklessly like that. If the 'silver-winged roc' could control the 'Heaven swallowing vine' and slowly absorb the qi for itself instead of having it discharge it all in the environment of the Demonic Mountain region, the roc would have long since broken through to the 5th rank.
Shun Long didn't touch the qi reserves that the vine had inside it. He decided that it was better to use that qi when he was about to break through the earth grade.
The 'Heaven swallowing vine' then started absorbing the qi around Shun Long.
During this time, Shun Long could feel that the vine was practically filtering the qi, condensing it more and more before it released it inside the 'Stone of Time'.
Shun Long activated the 'Monarch's Domain' as he started absorbing the pure qi that the vine was releasing.
As time went by, Shun Long absorbed more and more qi as he tried to create his 73rd ball of qi and enter the early rank 9 in qi condensation.
The more that Shun Long advanced in his cultivation, the harder it became to advance into the next level. However, with the 'Heaven swallowing vine', the qi he was absorbing was simply incomparable to before.
Soon, 12 hours had passed since Shun Long had started refining the qi that the 'Heaven swallowing vine' was incessantly producing when a small popping sound could be heard from his body as he was still circulating the 'Monarch's Hourglass'.
In just 6 hours he had entered the early rank 9 in qi condensation.
However, Shun Long didn't stop refining the qi even after his breakthrough. Instead, he started absorbing even more of it.
After 12 hours had passed since he had started cultivating, Shun Long had entered the middle rank 9 and yet his cultivation still didn't show any signs of stopping.
Almost a full day later Shun Long had finally created his 81st ball of qi, reaching the peak of qi condensation.
Only then did Shun Long stop absorbing any more qi from the 'Heaven swallowing vine'.
There was no way to create another ball of qi as the 'Monarch's Hourglass' above his head was already full.
However, after creating the 81st ball of qi, Shun Long noticed that there were inconsistencies in his previous balls of qi. The balls of qi he had created towards the latter parts of the qi condensation, were much purer and brighter than the earlier ones.
To reach the earth grade, Shun Long had to condense all his previous balls of qi into one.
However, the strength of his first ball of qi when he reached the earth grade would be dependent on the strength of his previous balls of qi before they were merged together.
Taking a deep breath, Shun Long started absorbing qi from the 'Heaven swallowing vine' once more.
He was ready to purify all of his previous balls of qi, bringing them at the same quality as the last one he had condensed.
As Shun Long had started purifying his qi balls one by one, the entire 'floating cloud sect's' upper echelons had another meeting inside the main hall of the inner city.
These meetings, where every high-ranked Elder of the sect was summoned, were supposed to be extremely rare and unless the sect was facing an extremely serious situation they would never happen. And yet, around 2 months ago, they had started their first meeting thanks to the 'mysterious expert' who had appeared in the 'Treasure Pavilion' and now, they started the second one.
The sect master Liu Jian was sitting on the main seat, while everyone's eyes had turned towards Grand Elder Lan Hong, the bald Elder Zhu and Elder Lu Cheng.
''Grand Elder, what happened for you to summon another sect meeting?''
''Grand Elder, weren't you supposed to be in the Demonic Mountain region? Did something happen there?''
''I heard that Grand Elder brought back more than 40.000 disciples this time from the 'outer sect examination'.''
Discussions and questions were being thrown around the hall when Liu Jian raised his hand and said
''Silence''
The discussions immediately stopped as Liu Jian continued
''The Grand Elder must definitely have a good reason to summon everyone for a sect meeting.''
Everyone looked at Lan Hong who then started explaining the situation at the Demonic Mountain region.
At the same time, the exact same situation was taking place in the other 3 sects as well. The representatives of the 4 sects that had been in the Demonic Mountain region this time, had been startled by the 'silver winged roc's' cry. If something had happened to the roc, then perhaps the sects would have a chance to head to the central mountain and get a hold of the treasure there.
After Lan Hong had explained everything, there was absolute silence in the main hall as everyone's eyes had turned to Liu Jian on the main seat.
Liu Jian wore a serious expression on his face as he said
''I will have to discuss this with Da Chao and the rest. This is a serious matter that requires a lot of thought. Even if something had happened to that 'silver winged roc' and caused it to be injured, there are still other middle rank 4 magic beasts inside the central region. And in case that the roc is actually alright, then stepping foot in that hell hole will mean death for us.''
The Elders wore serious expressions as well, when they heard Liu Jian's words, who was ready to meet up with the other sect masters and discuss about what course of action they should take.
After all, a single 'floating cloud sect' couldn't swallow the entire Demonic Mountain region, no matter how big their appetite was.
Almost a month quickly went by while Shun Long was in seclusion and serious changes had occurred in the sect, when he finally opened his eyes.