Shun Long watched as the 'Poison-tongued Toad's' headless body seemed to have lost its balance, as it slowly floated upwards towards the pond's surface, along with its severed head.

Just like that, a middle rank 5 magic beast that normally needed a whole group of outer court disciples of the Holy sect that were at least at the early rank 6 of the Nascent Soul in order to hunt it down, had actually died.

Not staying inside the pond any longer Shun Long first swam toward the surface. before he collected the body of the 'Poison-tongued Toad' and removed its beast core.

''Sigh, no wonder those faction missions reward so many sect points for those magic beasts. I had to look for an entire week just to locate a single 'Poison-tongued Toad', and I only found one by luck in the end.''

Staring at the beast core in his hands, Shun Long let out a long breath before he placed it in his spatial ring, as he then turned around and headed towards the forest's entrance.

Even though he had spent the past week inside the 'Giant Crane forest' looking for the 'Poison-tongued Toad's' location, he had mostly walked around the forest's outer region and hadn't gone too deep inside.

Otherwise, the risk of meeting with powerful magic beasts would be much higher, and even with the poison from the 'Soul poisoning hell grass', Shun Long wasn't confident in taking care of those magic beasts.

In less than 4 hours, Shun Long had arrived back at the forest's entrance, as he once again looked at the groups of cultivators that had set up camp outside the forest.

However, he wasn't the only one who looked at them, as the cultivators who had set up camp around the forest stared at him with wide eyes!

''Hey, did that person just come out from the forest by himself?''

''What? How is that even possible? This is the 'Giant Crane forest'! Even peak Nascent Soul stage cultivators would be careful to not wander too far by themselves in this place. Don't tell me that this person is actually a Dao King!''

''Wait! Look at his robes. Isn't he a disciple of the Holy sect? But... I can't seem to sense his cultivation at all!''

Although Shun Long could hear the crowd's discussions about him, he didn't pay any attention to them as he headed straight towards the Holy city's direction.

4 days quickly passed in the blink of an eye, as the outline of an enormous mountain finally appeared in Shun Long's eyes, along with the huge, familiar city on the mountain's foot.

Knowing that he still had 2 more weeks until he met up with Liu Mei and the rest in front of the Holy sect's entrance, Shun Long entered the Holy city and rent a courtyard inside an inn, as he decided to enter seclusion and start cultivating.

He wanted to spend the next 2 weeks trying to reach the peak of rank 3 in the Nascent Soul stage, as well as purify his qi balls.

Entering his room, Shun Long sat on the meditative cushion on the ground and closed his eyes, before he entered the foggy space in the 'Stone of Time'....

Taking out the 'Heaven Swallowing vine', Shun Long waved his hand, causing a mountain of middle-grade spirit stones to appear in front of him, before he let the enormous vine munch on hundreds of them all at once.

However, the Heaven Swallowing vine itself seemed to have been growing bigger and bigger as time passed, looking like it was also growing after eating so many spirit stones for so many years.

Of course, just like in the past, it didn't seem to matter if Shun Long fed the vine with low-grade or middle-grade spirit stones, as the vine absorbed them all at a speed much faster than any cultivator possibly could before it turned the qi inside them into an even purer type of qi that filled the foggy space around Shun Long.

...

At the same time that Shun Long had entered the inn and was cultivating inside his room in the Holy city trying to increase his cultivation quickly, inside Elder Zhi's private room in the depths of the Administration Hall in the Holy sect, a yellow-robed young man had entered inside and was standing in front of Elder Zhi with a fearful expression on his face.

Elder Zhi seemed surprised when he saw his disciple's reaction.

Although he knew that his personal disciple, Lian Changming was always respectful in front of him, the fear that he exhibited right now wasn't something that Elder Zhi was used to seeing, making him furrow his brows in confusion.

''Liao Changming, what's wrong? Do you have something to say or are you here to stare at me?''

Elder Zhi's angry voice resounded throughout the silent room, immediately bringing the yellow-robed young man back to his senses.

Naturally, Elder Zhi wasn't used to his disciple staring at him and daydreaming, and neither was he interested in staring at his disciple's face for so long either.

However, Liao Changming simply trembled as he looked at his master who seemed to be getting more and more displeased with him, before he took a deep breath and said in a grave voice

''Master... 2 weeks ago, you told me to investigate an outer disciple named Shun Long, remember?''

Elder Zhi nodded his head with a cold look in his eyes, before he asked in a serious voice

''What about him? Are you really that afraid after investigating a single, outer court disciple who has entered the sect for less than 3 months? Don't tell me that he has actually managed to join one of the top 100 factions in the outer court within just a couple of months of joining the sect. No, you still wouldn't be this afraid if that was the case...''

Elder Zhi seemed to have suddenly fallen into serious thoughts after seeing his disciple's face that had turned completely pale, before he looked at him and asked with a curious look in his eyes a moment later

''Could it be that that kid is actually backed by one of the big families and clans around the sect's territory?''

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