Despite his initial surprise Shun Long didn't stop reading the information about Murong Tian.
However, the more he read, the more surprised Shun Long felt in his heart as time went on.
After reaching the peak of the Dao Emperor realm and becoming the patriarch of the Murong family, Murong Tian had only appeared twice in Murong city in the last 3000 years, and he was now presumed to have entered seclusion in preparation for his breakthrough to the Sovereign realm.
According to the information of the 'White tiger chamber of commerce', Murong Tian was considered to be one of the 10 strongest Dao Emperors throughout the entire northern part of the central region.
His greatest strength was his spiritual strength that vastly exceeded other peak rank 9 Dao Emperors, while his soul attacks could threaten anyone who had yet to step into the Sovereign realm.
Shun Long guessed that even experts like commander Quan from the Northern Sovereign's army would have to take someone like Murong Tian seriously.
Murong Tian's only weakness seemed to be fighting in close combat. However, according to the information of the 'White tiger chamber of commerce', Murong Tian also wore a piece of peak 2-star armor that protected him from most physical attacks.
With a peak 2-star armor to protect him, it didn't matter how weak his physical strength was, Murong Tian essentially didn't have any weaknesses whatsoever.
As soon as the information about Murong Tian entered his mind, Shun Long felt the memory jade in his hands finally crumble, before it turned into dust soon after.
Naturally, this was done from the 'White tiger chamber of commerce' to prevent its information from being passed down freely.
Although Shun Long could also try to create a similar memory jade if he wanted to, the information he would be able to record down clearly wouldn't be as detailed as that of the 'White tiger chamber of commerce', since he hadn't met the Dao Emperors of the Murong family personally.
Sometime later, Shun Long finally opened his eyes, and after a brief moment of silence, he mumbled to himself in a calm voice
''It seems that dealing with Murong Tian is nearly impossible right now.''
Little Black immediately opened his bright blue eyes the moment he heard Shun Long's voice, before the black dragon asked curiously
''Master, what's wrong?''
Naturally, Shun Long didn't hide anything from Little Black, as he shared with him all the information that he had obtained from the memory jade.
Without any hesitation, Little Black nodded his head and said calmly
''Master, it's better to forget about this matter for now. If that Murong Tian hasn't showed his face for 3000 years, he is most likely cultivating in seclusion inside the Murong family to prepare and breakthrough to the Sovereign realm. Since there are 2 Sovereign realm experts behind the Murong family as well, it's too dangerous for master to try and do anything to him.''
Little Black knew that the current Shun Long could afford to take this risk if he wanted to, since even Sovereign realm experts would be hard-pressed to take his life after Shun Long broke through to the Dao King realm, but whether he could succeed in killing Murong Tian was a different matter altogether.
Shun Long fell silent for a few moments before he nodded his head and agreed with Little Black.
Indeed, infiltrating the Murong family to deal with Murong Tian wasn't an option.
Putting aside how difficult it would be to even find and kill Murong Tian in the first place, Shun Long knew that there was no way that the 2 Sovereign realm experts of the Murong family would just sit there and allow him to kill a peak rank 9 Dao Emperor realm expert under their noses.
A few moments later, Shun Long mumbled to himself
''I will try to increase my cultivation as much as possible in the next few days. As for Murong Tian's matter, it will have to wait for now.''
Shun Long then took a deep breath, before he summoned the 'Heaven Swallowing vine' from the herb garden and started to feed it with high-grade spirit stones.
The enormous vine started to hungrily absorb the high-grade spirit stones around it, before it filled the air around Shun Long with extremely pure qi.
Shun Long closed his eyes and started to absorb the qi around him, as the outline of a golden ball of qi began to appear in his hands a while later.
..
At the same time, back in the 'Northern Sovereign's city', Liu Mei and the others had gathered at the entrance of the 'Southern dragon's courtyard' and faced the silver-robed Northern Sovereign who was standing in front of them, before Bai Longtian cupped his hands at the Northern Sovereign and said in an apologetic manner
''Apologies senior, but brother Shun has entered seclusion and cannot be contacted right now. We hope that senior understands.''
The Northern Sovereign stared at Bai Longtian silently for a few moments, before she then asked
''Did he say how long he was planning to stay in seclusion?''
Nodding her head, Xingyi answered the Northern Sovereign's question
''Brother Long said it shouldn't take more than 2 months if things go well.''
The Northern Sovereign didn't speak right away, and after a few more moments of silence, she shook her head and said
''I was planning to introduce him to the geniuses of the Tianhuan dynasty that would enter the 'City of Immortals' this time, but it seems that that's impossible for now. So be it then. You can tell Shun Long to come and see me in my courtyard after he is finished with his seclusion.''
Nodding their heads, Bai Longtian and the others all cupped their hands at the Northern Sovereign who disappeared from the entrance of the courtyard shortly after.
A moment later, after Xingyi and the others returned back to the courtyard, Liu Mei turned to look at Xingyi, Jiang Chen, and Bai Longtian, and said in a calm voice
''I'm going to leave the city for a few days.''
.
''Sister Liu, are you going to cultivate?'' Bai Longtian asked a moment later as he looked at Liu Mei.
Naturally, Bai Longtian, Jiang Chen, and Xingyi weren't surprised to hear that Liu Mei was planning to leave the city, since they had actually expected this long ago.
After all, the 3 of them knew that Liu Mei's Dao and cultivation technique were both different from theirs.
If Liu Mei wanted to advance and comprehend her Dao of Death even further, she had to kill other cultivators and absorb the essence of death around them.
Clearly, she couldn't just stay inside the city to do that.
Nodding her head, Liu Mei looked at Bai Longtian and the others and answered seriously
''Staying inside the courtyard to cultivate is meaningless to me. Even if I could absorb the qi in here, I would still have to leave the city to comprehend my Dao of Death further.''
Jiang Chen, Xingyi, and Bai Longtian all nodded, before Jiang Chen said in a calm voice
''Since that's the case, it's better to ask commander Quan for a few experts to protect you while you leave the city.''
Xingyi and Bai Longtian both agreed with Jiang Chen's suggestion, and a few moments later, the 4 of them made their way towards commander Quan's quarters.
In reality, Xingyi and the others weren't too worried about Liu Mei's survival since they knew that she still had the pendant that she had received from Elder Xuan as a gift when Elder Xuan accepted her as her disciple.
According to Elder Xuan, that pendant could save her life twice if she was in a life-threatening situation, blocking the attacks of even some late-stage Dao Emperors.
But of course, Jiang Chen and the others weren't going to take any risks, since they all understood, that right now, they were in the heart of the northern part of the central region.
The 'Northern Sovereign's city' was the biggest city in the northern part of the central region, and there were bound to be plenty of high-level experts in this place.
For an early-stage Dao King to wander alone was simply too dangerous.
This was even more so when one considered that Liu Mei was a heavenly beauty who would attract the attention of everyone around her.
A few moments later, inside commander Quan's private quarters, commander Quan agreed right away to send a squad of experts to protect Liu Mei when he heard that she was planning to leave the city.
Barely 10 minutes passed before a group of experts appeared outside commander Quan's quarters, all of them staring reverently at commander Quan in front of them.
Surprisingly, there were even 2 early-stage Dao Emperors who were leading this squad, one tall, burly man, and a beautiful middle-aged woman.
Behind the 2 Dao Emperors were 10 peak rank 9 Dao Kings who were all trying hard to conceal the looks of excitement in their eyes as they stood in front of commander Quan and received his orders.
Although these people were all soldiers who belonged to the Northern Sovereign's army, they rarely had chances to leave the city since they would spend most of their time cultivating inside the 'Northern Sovereign's estate'.
Of course, if someone within the city dared to create trouble, the Northern Sovereign's army would immediately be dispatched, but instances like these were extremely rare. After all, who would dare to make trouble within the 'Northern Sovereign's city'?
Thus, the soldiers in the Northern Sovereign's army would end up spending most of their time inside the Sovereign's estate, training for hundreds, and sometimes even thousands of years without a chance to go out.
Of course, this didn't mean that they were prisoners, but their only chance to freely move around would be to either reach the middle-stages of the Dao Emperor realm and be inferior only to the 12 commanders in status, or leave the Northern Sovereign's army and become independent.
But of course, the first option was simply too hard while the second one was extremely foolish.
Experts throughout the 'Northern Sovereign's city' were dying to enter the Northern Sovereign's army, since they would have the chance to obtain better resources and cultivation techniques the more their strength advanced.
Who would choose to leave willingly and become a rogue cultivator for no reason?
This was why the soldiers in front of commander Quan were so excited even though it was such a simple mission of protecting a small early-stage Dao King.
In the eyes of the 2 Dao Emperors who were leading the squad, this was no different from vacation for them.
A while later, the squad led by the 2 Dao Emperors followed behind Liu Mei and left the 'Northern Sovereign's estate', as they headed straight towards the city gates.
At the same time, Xingyi, Bai Longtian, and Jiang Chen all returned to the 'Southern dragon's courtyard', looking like they were in a hurry to continue cultivating.
Of course, the 3 of them all knew, that now that Liu Mei was going to leave the city, they couldn't slack for even a moment or they would be left behind by her, even if they cultivated inside this 'Southern dragon's courtyard' in the Northern Sovereign's estate.
After all, Liu Mei's 'Blood Absorption art' was perfectly suited for her Dao of Death, since it allowed her to increase her cultivation at the same time that she increased her Dao comprehension.
Additionally, the cultivation speed of Liu Mei's 'Blood Absorption art' outstripped even Xingyi's and the others' speed.
Even after they obtained immortal-grade cultivation techniques from Shun Long, Jiang Chen and the others knew that their cultivation speed was still inferior to Liu Mei's.
It was almost as if her 'Blood Absorption art' was tailor-made for Liu Mei.
...
At the same time, back in Murong city, Shun Long continued to cultivate with his eyes closed, as he continued to absorb the pure qi around him that had completely filled the foggy space inside the 'Stone of Time'.
A second... a third... and a fourth golden ball of qi appeared inside the 'Monarch's Hourglass' as the days went by, and in the blink of an eye, a month passed before the day of the auction of the 'White tiger chamber of commerce' finally arrived.