As soon as Shun Long finished his words, the triangular stone
inside his mind started vibrating intensely as if influenced by Shun Long's
words and a shocking set of images appeared in his mind.
There were no words, only a very ancient set of images that
depicted a person without a distinctive face breathing in a strange pattern. At
one time the person was taking a deep breath, and then he repeatedly exhaled in
5 or 6 smaller breaths. The scene changed, showing the same person again,
inhaling 6 or 7 times in one breath and then letting it all out through 2
smaller breaths. It looked as if that person was trying to follow a set of
breathing pattern. The images then slowly changed and that person stood up and
slowly lifted a huge ball-shaped white mountain that had just appeared out of
thin air on the ground beside him using both of his hands, and then he slowly
lifted it in the air above his head.
Everything shook after that, as the scene grew blurrier until it
completely faded away and a set of words magically imprinted themselves deep
inside Shun Long's soul: ''Monarch's Hourglass''.
These words weren't written in any known language that Shun Long
had ever come in contact with, neither in this one nor in his previous life and
although it all appeared to be a bunch of indistinct ancient symbols and were
even slightly blurry, Shun Long was able to clearly understand that the meaning
these symbols formed was ''Monarch's Hourglass'' as if it was already something
carved in his soul.
Shun Long's consciousness returned to his body as he hurriedly
looked to examine the back of his head. He clearly remembered being hit at the
occipital bone, which is located in the lower back of his head but not only was
there no blood flowing from it now, but there wasn't even a single bump to
prove that he had just been brutally beaten to the ground just a few hours ago.
The blood that had dyed red that patch of grass he was earlier
lying on, had long since vanished from the moment when the triangular shaped
stone had emitted that blue light to obliterate the lightning that was in the
air, along with everything else in a radius of a mile around Shun Long.
Not just the grass, but everything in an area of 1 mile around
him was a barren ground without the slightest vegetation anymore, a stark
contrast to the area beyond that which was full of grass and flowers.
It looked as if something had completely erased every trace of
life in an area around him and even the corpses of Shun Long's 2 dead
bodyguards and their 3 horses weren't an exception to this.
Thankfully for Shun Long his clothes weren't affected by this or
they would have completely disappeared, but even if they weren't affected by
that, they were still in tatters due to the assassination attack from earlier.
The robe he was wearing was practically almost destroyed now as
the part covering his chest had already pretty much disappeared, leaving the
entire left part from his chest exposed, all because of those vicious attacks
he had suffered earlier that looked to take his life. His right sleeve was
completely torn apart while there were multiple sword cuts on the part that was
covering his abdomen.
Shun Long guessed that the reason his injuries were magically
healed was most likely due to the triangular shaped rock and he was endlessly
grateful to it or his life would have been over before it even begun.
Although to outsiders he would seem to be in a terrible
condition due to his clothes, his body didn't even have a single injury on it
and was actually full of energy.
Shun Long finally stood up, and started running at full speed
towards the northeast for half an hour before finally stopping as he was left
panting.
Blue Forest-city was situated at the north of the Blue Forest
and Shun Long had noticed earlier that his assassins were fleeing towards the
northwestern direction when that thunderstorm arrived.
So although running towards the northeast would take a longer
time for him to arrive at Blue Forest-city compared to if he run straight
north, this was much safer since his goal right now was to stay alive.
Shun Long wasn't an idiot, although he knew his assassins would
probably not come to find him as they would most likely assume that he had
already died due to his injuries. And even if he somehow wasn't dead with those
injuries that they had inflicted on him, he would still die in that
thunderstorm. But Shun Long still wouldn't take the risk, as in the off-chance
that those people returned to confirm his death and ended up finding him alive
and well, they would definitely finish the job this time.
…..
It took Shun Long 5 hours to reach Blue Forest-city and although
the previous Shun Long had lived here for his entire life, this was still the
first time for Shun Long who had only seen the Blue Forest-city inside his
memories, to lay his eyes on the city for the first actual time.
The city's outline was huge and groups of people were coming and
going to and from the city gates all the time.
Even though it was already night time, the activity in Blue
Forest-city was just as bustling as it was during the day with people
everywhere on the streets and the taverns.
As the city closest to the Blue Forest, its city walls were at
10m(33ft) high and 3m (10ft) thick, and even if an earth rank magical beast
came to attack them it wouldn't be able to shake them in the slightest due to
their special formations.
Shun Long followed the people entering the city gates where both
pedestrians and carriages could be seen entering, and relying on the memories
in his brain he followed the road leading to his home.
People in the city didn't even spare him a second glance as it
was far too common for people to come in the city with tattered clothes and in
some rare cases without any clothes at all after they had gone to adventure
into the Blue Forest.
After all, these people wouldn't connect this boy who was
wearing cut down rags, to the son of the strongest formation master in the
city.
After a few twists and turns Shun Long was still on the main
road when he arrived in front of an estate that had 4m(13ft) tall walls around
it and 2 strong warriors were standing guard in front of the main entrance.
Both of them were probably around 25 or 26 years old, and if Shun Long had
started cultivating, he would understand the auras they were emitting which was
at the peak of Qi condensation.
When the guards saw the young man in ripped clothes approaching,
one of the two took one step forward and raised his left hand as he was about
to shout ''halt'', with his right hand rested on his sword ready to unsheathe
it if that person kept walking towards the estate.
Shun Long paid no mind to the guard as he kept walking towards
the entrance of the estate, and when the guard noticed the young man's face,
recognising that it belonged to the young master, he hastily knelt down on one
knee saluting.
Just as Shun Long was about to walk through the estate gates, a
rumbling sound could be heard from behind him along with an enraged voice that
was heard a few meters away from the estate, forcing Shun Long's steps to come
to a halt.