Shun Long finally sat down cross-legged and started meditating on his bed. As soon as he thought of the triangular-shaped stone, his mind instantly transformed into a stream that appeared inside his head, and he saw the stone floating with a golden book next to it.

Shun Long was startled, he didn't know how that golden book had appeared next to the stone. He then remembered a sound that he had felt inside his brain earlier, and after that, the feeling of his soul getting rid of a pair of shackles that had always weighed him down had come.

Shun Long's consciousness moved towards the golden book, but there was no reaction no matter what he did.

After trying for a while, he turned his sights back towards the triangular-shaped stone.

As soon as his thoughts drifted towards it, the stone sucked in his consciousness and Shun Long felt his body appearing in an empty space.

''How many more secrets do you hold'' Shun Long said as he thought of the triangular-shaped stone magical abilities, the 'Monarch's Hourglass' and the 'golden book'.

Then Shun Long tried to circulate the 'Monarch's Hourglass' art and an indistinct figure of an hourglass formed around his body.

As soon as Shun Long followed the breathing technique of the 'Monarch's Hourglass' art, his meridians started absorbing the qi that came in contact with his body.

This was how people of the Qi circulation level cultivated---> they absorbed the qi in the air that came in direct contact with their body through their meridians, they then circulated their cultivation technique and turned that qi into their own energy.

Shun Long also followed this principle, but he kept directing all the energy he was absorbing into his right hand, slowly forming a ball of qi that kept growing each second.

Only when Shun Long felt that the ball had finally reached saturation and wouldn't absorb any more energy did he finally stop and lifted it in the air as he pushed it in the space above his head.

Imagine that you are inside the bottom part of an hourglass and you create a big ball in your hand and then you shove that ball in the opening hole above your head that exists between the top and the bottom part of the hourglass where the sand usually flows from.

Well in this particular hourglass there was no sand, only that ball that was too big to fit in that tiny hole, but Shun Long kept pushing and pushing until the ball compressed itself and finally went through the hole to enter the top part of the hourglass, 'sitting' there peacefully as if it was floating above Shun Long's head.

As soon as the ball went through the hole, Shun Long felt that all the energy inside the ball was coursing through his body and that it belonged to him now. Shun Long didn't stop and repeated this process 2 more times until a bang came from inside his body.

Shun Long was drenched in sweat but was infinitely happy as he had finally reached the early rank 1 Qi circulation stage.

He didn't stop and kept repeating this process again and again until 5 hours had passed and he had finally reached the rank 2 peak of the qi circulation.

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Just a little more and he could reach the early rank 3, but Shun Long had noticed that every time he repeated the process of pushing the balls inside, he would also face the pressure from the previous balls of qi he had created which made it harder to advance every time.

Finally Shun Long decided to stop for today.

He imagined himself leaving the triangular stone space and he found himself back in his room.

His tired body finally went to rest after an exhausting day.

When he woke up it was already past noon.

Shun Long decided to fill his stomach in the dining hall before going to see his father.

What shocked Shun Long was that Shun Fang hadn't recognized that Shun Long was at the peak of grade 2 qi circulation already, and took him to his personal study so he could choose a cultivation technique for himself.

Shun Long assumed that as long as he didn't intentionally expose his cultivation, others would have a hard time figuring out his realm.

Shun Long didn't need another cultivation technique since he had the 'Monarch's Hourglass' art, but still decided to choose one for himself since he couldn't tell Shun Fang about the 'Monarch's Hourglass' or he would have no way to explain how he got it, and in the end he settled for a technique called 'Pulverizing Gravity art'.

Shun Long then returned to his room and sent his mind to his spiritual space. He finally understood that the space the triangular stone was occupying in his mind was his spiritual space that the stone had forcibly opened when it had merged with him.

Shun Long had also felt his spiritual strength increasing rapidly every time he advanced a realm last night.

He sat down on his bed again and continued cultivating...

5 days passed in the blink of an eye and Shun Long was just a step away from reaching the 5th rank of qi circulation.

If Shun Fang learned about the speed of his advancements he would probably be frightened to death.

Cultivators started to train around the age of 12 to 13 years old and a normal cultivator would need at least 2 months to reach the early rank 4 level of qi circulation while Shun Long was already at rank 4 peak after only 5 days.

7 more days went by and Shun Long had reached the peak of rank 6 in qi circulation.

Other people needed 7-8 months to reach the peak of rank 6 and Shun Long had already reached that level in just 12 days.. that was a truly monstrous speed of advancement.

Finally the pressure he felt from the previous balls of qi when as he tried to push the 55th ball of qi through the opening was too much and in the end he failed to enter the early rank 7.

Shun Long understood that he couldn't yet fully control all of his strength.

He needed to pressure his body more as just cultivating inside his room wasn't enough.

Almost half a month had passed by now since Shun Long's assassination attempt near the Blue Forest, and Shun Long hadn't left his room once since he had picked a cultivation technique with Shun Fang.

Servants would daily leave the food in front of his door and even a rumor had started circulating inside the estate that their young master was mentally traumatized and afraid to leave his room after he came back with tattered clothes about a fortnight ago.

Shun Fang and Shun An didn't try to put an end to the rumors of the servants as that served as a perfect cover for Shun Long, who has been cultivating non-stop to make up for the lost time he had lost as a cripple in the past.

Finally, after 13 days, Shun Long left his room and decided to go and find some guards to spar with so he would understand how to bring out 100% of his current power, which was precisely what he needed to do if he wanted to reach the early 7th rank of qi circulation.

In reality, if Shun Long hadn't reached a bottleneck in his cultivation he would have stayed in his room until he reached the earth rank or perhaps even higher, but now he understood that he first needed to adapt to his new strength after an explosive increase of his cultivation, before he tried to advance even further.

Before Shun Long could find someone to spar, a maidservant of his mother came to inform him that the Lin family has come for a visit and his father has already requested his presence in the main hall.

Shun Long dismissed the maidservant and headed to the main hall as he tried to recall any memories regarding the Lin family.

Then, just before he reached the doors of the main hall he suddenly stopped and mumbled to himself ''Oh.. I have a fiancee? How interesting '' he said as he then opened the doors and entered inside.