Monarch Of Time

Chapter 1075 Death’s door

As Shun Long stepped out of the space tear, the familiar courtyard behind his shop greeted him once more.

The warm scent of medicinal herbs drifted through the air, and even from a distance, Shun Long could hear Fu Li’s voice echoing all the way from the second floor, loud, animated, and full of aggrievement.

”I’m telling you, senior Zhang, you guys are taking advantage of me! I could have raised the prices of our pills, but no, I’m being benevolent. Benevolent! A man of virtue! Do you know any other pill shop in the entire region that sells high-grade and top-grade pills to anyone who walks through its door? And yet you guys complain that there are not enough pills? What should I do then? Huh? Ask brother Han to concoct pills day and night for you?”

The anxious, apologetic voice of a man followed the moment Fu Li said the words ’brother Han’, before their voices eventually blended with the rest of the shop’s noise.

Shun Long smiled and shook his head.

Fu Li had more than just ’adapted’ to his new environment. Bringing him here, all the way from the Desolate East, was really the right choice.

A moment later, Shun Long stepped through the courtyard and let the voices fade behind him, as he made his way toward his room.

Unlike the bustling shop, the rest area was quiet. The moment he crossed the threshold, the sounds of customers, footsteps, and bargaining cultivators dimmed almost instantly.

Spreading out his soul sense, Shun Long quickly realized he was the only one present.

From the looks of it, neither Liu Mei nor Jiang Chen and the others had returned from their missions yet.

Still, it made sense.

Now that all four of them had reached the peak of the Dao King stage, they couldn’t improve their cultivation any further through normal means. They were all pseudo Dao Emperors now. For them to truly break through to the Dao Emperor realm, they needed a flash of insight, which meant they needed to push themselves past their limits.

This is why the missions from Lunar Grave were the perfect whetstones for them.

”Either way, as long as they don’t clash with any middle-stage Dao Emperors, they should be fine. Most early-stage Emperors won’t be able to threaten them anymore.” Shun Long thought to himself as he sat down on the small cushion at the heart of his room.

A few moments later, he closed his eyes and emptied his thoughts as his consciousness sank into the foggy space inside the ’Stone of Time’.

The familiar gray mist welcomed him instantly, followed by the quiet breathing of the massive black dragon, sleeping at the heart of it all, surrounded by mountains of spirit stones and numerous other rare treasures.

Patting Little Black’s head, Shun Long took a seat next to him and sorted out his thoughts.

In truth, just like Jiang Chen and the others, Shun Long was also a pseudo-Dao Emperor, so he knew he had to focus on his own cultivation as well.

In fact, his own situation was even more complicated than any other pseudo-Dao Emperor out there.

Shun Long had realized this after fighting Ma Renwu, the patriarch of the Ma family, back in Iron Dawn; It seemed that even an established rank 3 Dao Emperor couldn’t push him to his limits. No, it wasn’t even close!

The moment the two of them clashed, the truth had already become clear as day. Even though Ma Renwu was an established rank 3 Dao Emperor... the gap between them proved to be too big.

Far too big!

To the point where Shun Long didn’t even need to use his Daos to fight against the Ma patriarch.

...In reality, even Shun Long hadn’t expected the fight to be so one-sided.

His opponent wasn’t just someone in the Dao Emperor realm, but a famous rank 3 Dao Emperor with a bounty on his head. He was someone who could very well be an inner court Elder back in the Holy sect or hold an important position in any major sect in the continent.

And yet, such a person had been completely helpless in front of a mere Dao King.

Upon thinking about it further, though, Shun Long realized it would be weirder if he hadn’t grown this much.

After all, back in the City of Immortals, he had spent almost 8 full years in the Endless Desert, absorbing the immortal qi the ’Heavenly Swallowing vine’ had refined for him to strengthen his foundations. He had even made sure to absorb those drops of ’Immortal Water’ and make his foundations truly flawless.

Compared to Ma Renwu, who was barely stronger than your average early rank 3 Dao Emperor, the two of them were in different planes of existence.

Right now, Shun Long had reached the absolute apex of the Dao King realm.

Still, if his opponent couldn’t force him to release everything during their fight, Shun Long knew he wouldn’t be able to progress further. If he just stayed cooped up inside the ’Stone of Time’ and cultivated peacefully, it would take him more than a few decades to even touch the threshold of the Dao Emperor realm.

It wasn’t feasible to take things slow. Especially when the entire central continent was looking for him right now.

For a brief moment, Shun Long even considered whether he should take on a couple more difficult missions from Lunar Grave. There were always assassinations involving middle and even late-stage Dao Emperors, and at the very least, the late-stage Emperors were bound to push him to the edge. He would have to bring out everything he had to even have a chance in a head-on fight.

The idea was already ludicrous. Fighting a late-stage Dao Emperor as a mere Dao King was an extremely arrogant thought, but Shun Long could feel it wasn’t absolutely impossible.

In the end though, Shun Long temporarily dismissed that thought.

As exciting as the thought was to look for a late-stage Dao Emperor to fight, there was something else he had to try before that.

...Back in the Holy sect, when he first visited the Holy city, Shun Long had found out about the Dao Tower there; a place where everyone, irrespective of their cultivation base could compete with each other and compare insights of their Daos.

Shun Long had heard that towers like that existed, not just in the major cities of the northern region, but everywhere throughout the central continent.

Thus, if the Holy City had a Dao Tower of their own, it was almost certain that Amber Dawn, or at least one of the major cities adjacent to it would have one as well.

Shun Long’s golden eyes flickered when he came to that conclusion.

If he were honest, he was tempted to head for the closest Dao Tower right away. Just the thought that he would now be able to fight some powerful Dao Emperors and go all out using his Dao of Time made his blood boil with anticipation.

But before that... he had to prepare some stuff. After all, there was a reason why he’d decided to set up a shop in Amber Dawn. He needed to prepare some pills for Fu Li so the shop wouldn’t be empty in the upcoming days.

After all, the gold-grade alchemists under Fu Li right now could only concoct up to rank 5 pills. Anything above that level was beyond their reach.

Letting out a breath, Shun Long began to sort out the medicinal herbs he had grown in the past year, as well as the ones he had picked up from Iron Dawn. But just as his hand was about to pick up a cluster of icy blue, crystaline leaves, the door to his room suddenly burst open.

A panting Fu Li stumbled inside, his face red, his chest heaving, as he shouted anxiously,

”Brother! Brother! Where are you?!”

Even though Shun Long was inside the ’Stone of Time’, he could still see his chubby friend looking around in panic.

Did someone cause trouble in the shop, to the point where Fu Li would personally look for him like that?

No, Shun Long highly doubted that.

Putting aside how the city guard of Amber Dawn was looking after his shop, most likely under orders from the Amber Dawn Sovereign, Fu Li was reliable enough to take care of anything that came his way.

He had already networked himself deep enough, that even some city guard captains who had already stepped into the Dao Emperor realm now addressed him as ’brother Fu’.

If Fu Li had rushed into his room like that, then something he couldn’t solve by himself had probably happened.

Without any hesitation, Shun Long closed his eyes and materialized back into the room.

Fu Li let out a relieved breath the moment he saw him, but the urgency in his eyes didn’t fade in the slightest.

At that moment, Shun Long could tell that something big must have happened.

”Fatty, what’s wrong?”

Fu Li looked at him and hesitated for a brief moment, before he responded with a trembling voice,

Brother... Liu Mei’s skeletons... they collapsed.”