Shun Fang looked at his son and smiled as he said

''Don't worry, according to the previous years you have 100% chance of passing''

Shun Long looked at his father with an intrigued expression but Shun Fang said

''Okay, don't worry I'll tell you what I know tomorrow no need to look at me like that. Actually, I had hoped that we would have already left for the imperial capital a few days ago, but since you didn't come out from your room for so long, I could only wait until you were done with your cultivation before setting off.''

Shun Long was once again taken aback and couldn't help but ask his father this time

''Don't we still have a few days until the test in the imperial palace ? The imperial capital isn't even one day away from our Blue Forest-city, so we don't really need to rush, do we?''

Shun Fang looked at his son who was sitting beside him and didn't know anything about the 'floating cloud sect' and said

''You are right son, we don't really need to rush, go and prepare whatever you need to take with you on this trip. You can also ask me for anything that you want, your father will definitely help you, don't worry.''

Shun Long looked at his father and his eyes moistened.

Since Shun Long had arrived in this world, he was certain that he would have to do everything by himself, just like he did in his previous life, without ever counting on anyone for anything. He was already used to this mindset of his and wouldn't easily change it, but, his 'newfound' parents constantly showered him with care and attention, showing him the true meaning of the word family.

Shun Long's father was enraged for his sake when the Lin family had come to ask them to annul his engagement. His mother had him constantly on her mind, sending maidservants to send him food, and having them report back to her, her son's condition and if he had asked or needed anything else. Even a few moments ago when the maidservant responsible of watching Shun Long's room came and informed them that the young master was now all bones, Shun Long's parents instantly rushed to the dining hall in the middle of the night, worried about their son.. and when they finally confirmed that he was now recovering through eating massive amounts of meat and drinking more than a gallon of water in one go, they didn't even ask him any questions about what had happened to him. They were just glad that he was fine.

To most people, this may seem how parents should act for their children, but to Shun Long who had never felt familial love before, these actions were invaluable to him.

A feeling of warmth spread inside him, as Shun Long watched his parents moving to their courtyard, while he decided to return and cultivate in his room instead.

Breaking through a cultivation barrier wasn't easy, and Shun Long finally noticed the problem that was holding him back all this time and he couldn't break through the 7th rank of qi circulation.

...

Every rank of qi circulation, needed Shun Long to condense 3 balls of qi for each level respectively of early, middle and peak, for a total of 9 levels in each rank according to the requirements of the 'Monarch's Hourglass'.

Shun Long right now was at the peak of the 6th rank which meant that he had already created and condensed 54 balls of qi above his head. Although it was harder to push in every single ball of qi that came after the previous one it still shouldn't have been THIS hard, yet everytime he created one ball just like he had done in the previous levels, he would fail to push it inside, and it's qi would eventually dissipate into thin air.

But this time Shun Long decided that if the balls of qi didn't have enough power, then he would imbue even more qi inside them while creating them.. and this random guess of his had left him speechless when he tested it.

Shun Long noticed that the balls of qi that would previously be easily filled until they were saturated and couldn't hold any more qi inside them, were now turned into starved animals that needed more and more qi to fill themselves.

Finally after 3 hours, Shun Long had managed to condense a new full powered qi condensation ball, and he slowly pushed it in the space above his head.... finally after 2 more hours of bitterly trying, a 55th ball of qi had appeared in the space were the rest of his qi balls were.

More than 5 hours had already passed and morning would soon arrive, but Shun Long wanted to try one more crazy thing, something that no one in the qi condensation had ever tried.

''I wonder if I can put even more energy in the balls of qi I had previously created and have them all reach the quality of this one'' he said as he looked at the brightest qi ball he had created up until now, the 55th ball.

When Shun Long had fought with the guards of the estate, he had already found out that even if the balls of qi exhausted all their energy they wouldn't disappear.

They would still remain in the place above his head and when he entered a meditative state and circulated the 'Monarch's Hourglass' he would just need to refill them with the qi that he absorbed from the air.

Shun Long decided to try out his hypothesis in the very first ball of qi he had condensed and he was glad to find out that his energy did actually enter the ball as it slowly made it stronger.

-

After 3 more hours, Shun Long exhausted went to sleep, yet he only slept for 2 hours before his father came to wake him up.

It was finally time to leave the Blue Forest-city.

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