912

Months continued to pass quietly but peacefully for Shun Long and his group inside the protection of the ‘Five-elements protective formation’, and yet everything else seemed to remain mostly the same.

Large groups of Dao Kings would often wander through the scorching sands of the ‘Endless Desert’ as they traversed through it, some of them on the backs of powerful rank 6 magic beasts while others as parts of large groups, but none of them would ever disturb Shun Long and his own group, mainly due the concealing effect of the protective formation that covered them.

Occasionally, gusts of warm wind would often find themselves gently caressing Shun Long’s face, carrying with them a faint scent of blood whenever nearby Dao Kings clashed with each other or with any wandering nearby magic beasts that blocked their way, but even those warm breezes would be quickly refined into streams of pure immortal qi by the ‘Heaven Swallowing vine’ soon afterwards.

It was a monotonous routine where Shun Long would continuously absorb the pure unending streams of immortal qi from the ‘Heaven Swallowing vine’ every day, constantly using them to form new golden balls of qi inside his dantian, as his cultivation slowly inched closer towards the peak of the Dao King realm. And yet Shun Long himself didn’t seem to mind any of this in the slightest, and in fact even relished in this rare moment of peace.

No matter what, it was a fact that ever since entering the ‘City of Immortals’, Shun Long and his group had never really stopped fighting wherever they landed!

Whether it was during the so-called preliminary trials in ‘Demon-fanged city’ where they had to hunt down those five thousand ‘Demon-fanged mice’, or even after passing the trials and entering the second stage of the ‘City of Immortals’ when they met Li Tian and his group, that early rank 7 Dao King from the ‘White tiger chamber of commerce’, a fight always followed wherever Shun Long found himself!

Even back in the ‘Stone mural’ when everyone was merely studying the profound Daos carved on the mural, or even back in the ‘Illusion oasis’ where all the Dao Kings present fought over the drops of ‘Immortal water’, the situation remained largely the same.

Although being constantly dragged into fights quickly turned somewhat annoying, in the end, Shun Long understood that this was all due to the fundamental unspoken rules of the ‘City of Immortals’. Ultimately, everything depended solely on one’s own power!

If a person appeared weak but stood out too much others would usually attack them without much reservation. However, if a person was sufficiently strong, those same people would think twice before making a move!

This was why Shun Long didn’t mind spending some time peacefully like this inside the ‘Five-elements protective formation’ while increasing his own strength!

Of course, absorbing the pure immortal qi wasn’t the only thing that Shun Long did during the day. Whenever he felt that he had already absorbed too much immortal qi and needed time to assimilate it, he would usually take a break and spar with Jiang Chen and the rest before turning his attention towards his body cultivation.

And yet, those sparring sessions that were merely an afterthought, were no different from killing 3 birds with one stone. On one hand, Shun Long needed to stretch his muscles and further practice his ‘Dao of the Heavenly Tribulation’ and become even more familiar with it, while Liu Mei and the others were the perfect sparring partners at this point!

At the same time, Shun Long had already surpassed that so-called ‘realm of Masters’ back in the stone mural and had already reached the level of ‘sword aura’, but he hadn’t really found the time to test out his new sword skills this whole time inside the ‘City of Immortals’. However, these sparring sessions with Bai Longtian and the rest allowed him to gradually solidify his recent advancement!

At the same time, Shun Long could tell that both Jiang Chen’s saber slashes as well as Bai Longtian’s sword strikes, and even Xingyi’s dagger skills had been rapidly improving during their sparring sessions, leaving the two young men and the young woman beside themselves in astonishment, followed by feelings of jubilant glee!

In fact, Jiang Chen and Bai Longtian who were already close to the peak of the ‘Realm of Masters’ could now tell, that even if they left the ‘City of Immortals’ right away, it was only a matter of time before the two of them reached the levels of ‘saber aura’ and ‘sword aura’ respectively.

Even Xingyi who was still a distance away from reaching the peak of the ‘Realm of Masters’ could feel her dagger skills improving rapidly with every sparring session, making her even more determined to give it her all and catch up to Jiang Chen and Bai Longtian before they left this place!

In the end, only Liu Mei appeared slightly dejected when she felt her own sword skills growing stagnant, unable to catch up to the others regardless of how hard she practiced! However, after being chided by Little Black who told her that cultivators of the ‘Dao of Death’ didn’t have much of a need to focus on weapons in the first place, the young woman nodded in agreement and concentrated on what she was best suited at… improving her control of her undead army!

Of course, not everyone could be a sword or saber genius! Talented people like Jiang Chen and Bai Longtian were complete outliers, and they only appeared ‘above average’ because they compared themselves with a monster like Shun Long!

The truth of the matter however, was that the two young men were complete geniuses of their own. Even among other Dao Kings, there were very few of them within the ‘City of Immortals’ right now, who could compete with them using purely sword or saber skills!

Even Xingyi herself was extraordinarily talented with a dagger, which was why her own skills were advancing so rapidly with every sparring session!

As for Liu Mei, when compared to the vast majority of Dao Kings out there, her sword skills could only be considered average at best.

But of course, this was the harsh reality of the world.

Everyone had their own areas where they excelled, and the same went for Liu Mei. Although the beautiful young woman’s sword skills could merely be considered average at best, Shun Long understood that Liu Mei’s talents lay in soul cultivation instead!

…

Months continued to pass, and finally, half a year later, Xingyi was the second person in the group to become a peak rank 9 Dao King right after Liu Mei!

The aura of a second peak rank 9 Dao King quickly suffused the enclosed space of the ‘Five-elements protective formation’, causing everyone to snap out of their reverie and stop whatever they were doing, as they all turned their attention towards the golden-haired young woman standing at the center of it all!

The moment she sensed Xingyi’s breakthrough, Liu Mei’s bright red lips suddenly pressed together, forming a brilliant, soul-stirring smile, before the 2 young women almost simultaneously turned their gazes towards the east, as if on cue.

It was finally time to take back what had been stolen from them!

Months continued to pass quietly but peacefully for Shun Long and his group inside the protection of the ‘Five-elements protective formation’, and yet everything else seemed to remain mostly the same.

Large groups of Dao Kings would often wander through the scorching sands of the ‘Endless Desert’ as they traversed through it, some of them on the backs of powerful rank 6 magic beasts while others as parts of large groups, but none of them would ever disturb Shun Long and his own group, mainly due the concealing effect of the protective formation that covered them.

Occasionally, gusts of warm wind would often find themselves gently caressing Shun Long’s face, carrying with them a faint scent of blood whenever nearby Dao Kings clashed with each other or with any wandering nearby magic beasts that blocked their way, but even those warm breezes would be quickly refined into streams of pure immortal qi by the ‘Heaven Swallowing vine’ soon afterwards.

It was a monotonous routine where Shun Long would continuously absorb the pure unending streams of immortal qi from the ‘Heaven Swallowing vine’ every day, constantly using them to form new golden balls of qi inside his dantian, as his cultivation slowly inched closer towards the peak of the Dao King realm. And yet Shun Long himself didn’t seem to mind any of this in the slightest, and in fact even relished in this rare moment of peace.

No matter what, it was a fact that ever since entering the ‘City of Immortals’, Shun Long and his group had never really stopped fighting wherever they landed!

Whether it was during the so-called preliminary trials in ‘Demon-fanged city’ where they had to hunt down those five thousand ‘Demon-fanged mice’, or even after passing the trials and entering the second stage of the ‘City of Immortals’ when they met Li Tian and his group, that early rank 7 Dao King from the ‘White tiger chamber of commerce’, a fight always followed wherever Shun Long found himself!

Even back in the ‘Stone mural’ when everyone was merely studying the profound Daos carved on the mural, or even back in the ‘Illusion oasis’ where all the Dao Kings present fought over the drops of ‘Immortal water’, the situation remained largely the same.

Although being constantly dragged into fights quickly turned somewhat annoying, in the end, Shun Long understood that this was all due to the fundamental unspoken rules of the ‘City of Immortals’. Ultimately, everything depended solely on one’s own power!

If a person appeared weak but stood out too much others would usually attack them without much reservation. However, if a person was sufficiently strong, those same people would think twice before making a move!

This was why Shun Long didn’t mind spending some time peacefully like this inside the ‘Five-elements protective formation’ while increasing his own strength!

Of course, absorbing the pure immortal qi wasn’t the only thing that Shun Long did during the day. Whenever he felt that he had already absorbed too much immortal qi and needed time to assimilate it, he would usually take a break and spar with Jiang Chen and the rest before turning his attention towards his body cultivation.

And yet, those sparring sessions that were merely an afterthought, were no different from killing 3 birds with one stone. On one hand, Shun Long needed to stretch his muscles and further practice his ‘Dao of the Heavenly Tribulation’ and become even more familiar with it, while Liu Mei and the others were the perfect sparring partners at this point!

At the same time, Shun Long had already surpassed that so-called ‘realm of Masters’ back in the stone mural and had already reached the level of ‘sword aura’, but he hadn’t really found the time to test out his new sword skills this whole time inside the ‘City of Immortals’. However, these sparring sessions with Bai Longtian and the rest allowed him to gradually solidify his recent advancement!

At the same time, Shun Long could tell that both Jiang Chen’s saber slashes as well as Bai Longtian’s sword strikes, and even Xingyi’s dagger skills had been rapidly improving during their sparring sessions, leaving the two young men and the young woman beside themselves in astonishment, followed by feelings of jubilant glee!

In fact, Jiang Chen and Bai Longtian who were already close to the peak of the ‘Realm of Masters’ could now tell, that even if they left the ‘City of Immortals’ right away, it was only a matter of time before the two of them reached the levels of ‘saber aura’ and ‘sword aura’ respectively.

Even Xingyi who was still a distance away from reaching the peak of the ‘Realm of Masters’ could feel her dagger skills improving rapidly with every sparring session, making her even more determined to give it her all and catch up to Jiang Chen and Bai Longtian before they left this place!

In the end, only Liu Mei appeared slightly dejected when she felt her own sword skills growing stagnant, unable to catch up to the others regardless of how hard she practiced! However, after being chided by Little Black who told her that cultivators of the ‘Dao of Death’ didn’t have much of a need to focus on weapons in the first place, the young woman nodded in agreement and concentrated on what she was best suited at… improving her control of her undead army!

Of course, not everyone could be a sword or saber genius! Talented people like Jiang Chen and Bai Longtian were complete outliers, and they only appeared ‘above average’ because they compared themselves with a monster like Shun Long!

The truth of the matter however, was that the two young men were complete geniuses of their own. Even among other Dao Kings, there were very few of them within the ‘City of Immortals’ right now, who could compete with them using purely sword or saber skills!

Even Xingyi herself was extraordinarily talented with a dagger, which was why her own skills were advancing so rapidly with every sparring session!

As for Liu Mei, when compared to the vast majority of Dao Kings out there, her sword skills could only be considered average at best.

But of course, this was the harsh reality of the world.

Everyone had their own areas where they excelled, and the same went for Liu Mei. Although the beautiful young woman’s sword skills could merely be considered average at best, Shun Long understood that Liu Mei’s talents lay in soul cultivation instead!

…

Months continued to pass, and finally, half a year later, Xingyi was the second person in the group to become a peak rank 9 Dao King right after Liu Mei!

The aura of a second peak rank 9 Dao King quickly suffused the enclosed space of the ‘Five-elements protective formation’, causing everyone to snap out of their reverie and stop whatever they were doing, as they all turned their attention towards the golden-haired young woman standing at the center of it all!

The moment she sensed Xingyi’s breakthrough, Liu Mei’s bright red lips suddenly pressed together, forming a brilliant, soul-stirring smile, before the 2 young women almost simultaneously turned their gazes towards the east, as if on cue.

It was finally time to take back what had been stolen from them!