''If you and mother want to... I can bring you with me in the 'cultivation world'!''

Shun Fang was stumped when he heard this.

Then, with a big grin on his face, he replied

''No need! Me and your mother are happy here in the 'Blue Forest city'. The struggles inside the 'cultivation world' would mean that there is little to no peace for us there. Living in the 'Blue Forest city' where everything is peaceful is much better.''

Then, with a proud look on his face, Shun Fang continued

''You can just come here whenever you miss home. After all, thanks to you, your father is now a Duke in the 'Sky Fortune Kingdom'.''

Shun Long looked at Shun Fang in shock before he realized what had happened. To forge a better relationship with him, the king had probably given his father the title of Duke.

Shun Fang grinned as he looked at Shun Long before he said

''I will find your mother and enter seclusion along with her as well. You shouldn't worry about us and focus on your own cultivation''

Shun Long then watched as Shun Fang left the main hall to return back to his room.

Smiling, Shun Long also returned back to his own room as well.

Since he had handed the pills and the wine to his parents, it was time to increase his own strength. There were at most, 2 months left until he had to return back to the sect.

After entering his room, Shun Long looked at the more than 60.000 spirit stones inside the 'Stone of Time', before he turned his attention to the 'Heaven swallowing vine'.

After feeding the spirit stones to the vine, Shun Long once again felt the pure qi that the vine was emitting, and without hesitation, he started to absorb all of it.

Time passed like this while Shun Long was in seclusion.

3 days later, Shun An had successfully broken through to the earth grade.

At this point, Shun Long's cultivation had also reached the peak of rank 4 of the earth grade as well.

Half a month later, a swirling vortex had appeared above Shun Fang's and Shun An's room as it sucked the qi of Heaven and earth around the Shun estate.

Shun An looked at her husband as tears of joy continuously flowed down her face.

Shun Fang had been stuck at the peak of the earth grade for almost 10 years now. Even in the 'floating cloud sect', he could probably be considered a genius of the same caliber as Xiao Juyan.

The reason that he hadn't broken through to the Heaven grade for so many years, was because the qi in the 'mortal world' was just too thin.

And yet, with Shun Long's wine and the bottle of top-grade rank 2 'minor advancement pills', Shun Fang had finally broken through to the early rank 1 in Heaven grade.

Shun Fang's body was now covered with a layer of a silver-colored liquid. This silver liquid seemed as if it was actually a part of Shun Fang's body. This was the Dao of metal that Shun Fang had comprehended as he entered the Heaven grade.

Shun Long however, was still in seclusion as his strength continued to soar. The more his cultivation was advancing, the more spirit stones the 'Heaven swallowing vine' needed to absorb, to keep up with Shun Long's cultivation demands.

Early rank 5 earth grade...

...middle rank 5...

peak of rank 5...

Early rank 6...

Time quickly passed and soon, the 2 months period was almost over, while Shun Long had already reached the peak of rank 6 in earth grade.

There were still a little more than 4 days until he returned back to the 'floating cloud sect'.

As Shun Long had expected, during these 2 months of cultivation, he hadn't received any arena challenges.

His guess was, that just like him, everyone else in the top 50 in the arena rankings would also enter seclusion to advance their cultivation, in preparation for the opening of the 'Vermilion realm'.

Since he had reached the peak of rank 6, Shun Long understood that he had now also reached the bottleneck that divided the middle stages of the earth grade with the late stages.

Shun Long then took out the top-grade rank 2 'minor advancement pills'.

These pills were like an improved version of the 'Qi barrier-breaking pills' that Shun Long had refined in the past.

They could only be consumed once by each person, and allow them to break through a bottleneck and advance to the next stage.

After consuming the 'minor advancement pills', Shun Long gathered all of his qi as he tried to create his 55th Qi ball.

Even with the help from the top-grade pills, Shun Long still found it hard to succeed in the creation of the 55th Qi ball.

2 days later, beads of sweat could be seen on his forehead as a loud popping sound that resounded inside the room, came from his body.

As the 55th ball of qi entered the 'Monarch's Hourglass', Shun Long finally reached the early rank 7 in earth grade.

There were now less than 2 days left, before the time period of 75 days came to its end.

Leaving his room, Shun Long saw little Black lying on the ground, as he devoured the flesh of a rank 2 magic beast.

Since the 'Blue Forest' was so close to the city, little Black would go and hunt rank 2 magic beasts every few days.

Seeing Shun Long coming out from his room, little Black was about to greet him excitedly were his words were stuck in his throat.

Since Shun Long wasn't hiding his cultivation from him, the moment that little Black noticed his aura of an early rank 7 earth grade cultivator, he was left tongue-tied.

''Ma-Master!''

Although the black dragon had been with Shun Long for a long time, he still couldn't fathom how he could have advanced so much in these 2 months of secluded cultivation.

Little Black had originally believed, that even if Shun Long advanced quickly during the late stages of the Qi condensation, and even the early stages of the earth grade, his speed would definitely fall down dramatically as he entered the middle and late stages of the earth grade.

Shun Long smiled when he saw the speechless black dragon and said

''Let's go and see my parents before we return back to the sect.''

----------