''What did you just say? Someone dared to slap Xiang'er? Explain everything!''

This young man looked to be a bit more than 20 years old, with long black hair and a burly build. In front of him was an outer disciple that was on his knees, describing what he saw inside the arena earlier.

''Senior brother Ren, this is what happened...''

As the outer disciple finished speaking, he suddenly felt as if a hammer had hit his stomach before he was sent flying all the way from the main hall, to the gates of the mansion.

''Se-senior brother Ren?''

''Shut your mouth! How dare you still call me senior brother? My woman was slapped in front of you and you didn't do anything? You still have the face to call me senior brother? SCRAM!''

The outer disciple felt aggrieved at this behavior as he was only a small disciple at the middle of rank 1 earth grade... he couldn't possibly fight with Shun Long over Lei Xiang's face-slap. Swallowing down this injustice, he quickly left the mansion without another word.

After all, he couldn't just express his anger at Ren Gui, who was ranked 7th in the arena rankings.

Ren Gui was looking towards the direction of the arena as he narrowed his eyes

''To think that there are people who dare touch my woman without giving me any face, Shun Long huh?... You must definitely be tired of your good life in the 'floating cloud sect'.''

Fu Peizhi's reaction was similar to Ren Gui's when he received the news of Shun Long's fight with Lei Pong, as he too vowed to make this Shun Long's life miserable when he would meet him. Not even for a moment did Fu Peizhi think, that the person who defeated Lei Pong was the same person that he had met in the arena with Fu Li and Lu Wen back then.

Meanwhile, the culprit who had stirred the entire 'outer city', was still inside his room cultivating using the 'Heaven swallowing vine'.

One day later, a small popping sound was heard from inside Shun Long's body as his body felt brimming with energy.

''Master, congratulations for advancing to the peak of rank 3 in earth grade already!''

Shun Long who was still sitting on his bed replied

''This is mainly thanks to the qi inside the spirit stones, that became even purer after it was refined by the 'Heaven swallowing vine'. And yet, after just one day of cultivation, I'm left with less than 90 spirit stones already.''

Then, Shun Long took a look at the space inside the 'Stone of Time', and as his eyes stared at his 5 'Profound earth fruits' Shun Long pondered over his available options.

''I was originally only planning to use the hearts and beast cores of the rank 2 blood wolves to concoct the 'earth refining pill', but it seems that I have better options in hand.

Although it's somewhat of a waste to use the beast cores of rank 3 magic beasts to create rank 2 pills, the most important thing is to improve my current strength. Even if the 'earth refining pill' can't help me advance my qi cultivation, my strength will still soar after breaking through to the earth grade in body refinement.''

...

Little Black then said in an aggrieved tone

''If only those shameless people from the 'Flying sword sect' and the others didn't cheat during that sect exam, master would have also gotten his hands on the 'Blood Vermilion fruit' as well.''

Shun Long nodded his head after hearing little Black's words but he wasn't really too bothered with that. Although it would be nice for him to have the 'Blood Vermilion fruit', at the end of the day he could still do without it.

On the other hand, the 'Heaven swallowing vine' was something that Shun Long wouldn't give up no matter what, since its value couldn't be measured even with a million 'Blood Vermilion fruits'.

After sitting on the floor of his room, Shun Long took out his alchemy cauldron, as well as 4 of the 'Profound earth fruits'.

He also took out the beast core and heart of the middle rank 3 'red-fanged flame bat', together with the cores and hearts of 3 more rank 3 magic beasts.

Shun Long first placed the rank 3 'Profound earth fruit' along with more than 10 rank 2 medicinal herbs inside, refining them until only their medicinal essence was left.

He then rotated the medicinal essence inside the cauldron using his spiritual strength again and again until it had turned into a small liquid ball, before placing the bat's heart inside.

The heart of the middle rank 3 'red-fanged flame bat' was refined almost instantly as it quickly turned into a small puddle of blood.

Black smoke seemed to come out from the bat's heart as Shun Long was forcing out its impurities, keeping only the purest of its blood inside.

Finally, Shun Long's eyes were completely focused as he put inside the bat's magic core.

The magic core contained the entirety of a magic beast's energy inside, which was why it was the most difficult part of the magic beast that an alchemist had to refine.

After placing inside the beast core, Shun Long split his spiritual strength into 2 parts. One of them was controlling the temperature of the cauldron as it was attempting to melt the rank 3 beast core, while the other aimed to protect the ball of medicinal essence inside.

This was a delicate process and even with Shun Long's vast spiritual strength, he found this pill refinement extremely taxing to his mind.

This process continued for 4 more hours, until the beast core had turned completely into liquid, before Shun Long finally merged it with the medicinal essence.

The essence of the beast core as well as the medicinal essence from before had now combined into one big ball of essence inside the cauldron. Shun Long used his spiritual strength to split this ball into 9 smaller little balls, that were slowly refined inside.

ding

Half an hour later, the lid of the cauldron made a dinging sound indicating that the pill refinement had finally ended.

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