Zhang Dingxiang's body started to tremble when he heard this voice, but he didn't dare to raise his head from the ground.

In front of him was a beautiful woman in her early 30s, dressed in a light green dress. She had long blonde hair and light green eyes, but the expression on her face was anything but amiable as she stared at the Elder of the 'Pale Moon guild' in front of her.

Zhang Dingxiang felt aggrieved in his heart, since he was the one who had 'discovered' Shun Long in the first place, but in front of the tyrannical blonde woman in front of him, he didn't dare to give any excuses.

Seeing that Zhang Dingxiang wasn't trying to defend himself, Madam Xie's rage started to slowly die down.

She then proceeded to seat herself on a large white couch, before she took a deep breath to calm herself.

The rage in her eyes however hadn't disappeared just yet, as she looked at the still kneeling Elder in front of her, and with a cold but hopeful tone she asked

''Do you think that there is any hope for us to mend our relationship with this kid?''

Zhang Dingxiang shook his head as he replied with certainty

''Guild master, that kid is just too greedy. He made it absolutely clear, that he wasn't willing to help our guild unless we gave him 50 percent of the earnings. How can we give him this much? We should just proceed with our original plan anyway.''

Xie Rong didn't speak when she heard Zhang Dingxiang's answer.

Instead, she gritted her teeth, seemingly as if she was trying to come to an agreement with herself.

She knew that right now she had 2 options. The first was to proceed with their plan without Shun Long, while the second was to pay Shun Long an exorbitant price in exchange for his help.

Deep in her heart, she wasn't willing to follow any of these 2 plans, since both of them would cause her tremendous losses, which caused her to fall into a state of deep thought.

10 minutes later, she finally opened her eyes as she looked at Zhang Dingxiang with a determined look.

At the same time, back inside Shun Long's courtyard, heavy panting filled the room, as Shun Long and Liu Mei had just finished another round of dual cultivation together.

Liu Mei looked at Shun Long with gleaming eyes, before she planted a deep kiss on his lips as she said

''Long-ge... every time we.. sleep together, I can feel a powerful energy filling my body.''

Shun Long nodded his head at Liu Mei, who was now just a few steps away from entering the early rank 3 in Heaven grade as he said

''This is a secret technique that I got from the Dao King inside the 'Vermilion realm' that connects my Yang with your Yin essence, and slowly strengthens them both at the same time.

You can think of this secret technique as a rope that ties the 2 of us. The higher one of us advances in cultivation, the higher the benefits will be. The only drawback of this technique is that, it can only be used once a day at most.''

Liu Mei nodded her head, as she too had felt this in the past days. Now that Shun Long's cultivation had advanced to the peak of rank 3 in Heaven grade, he was filling her own body with even more Yang essence. At the same time, this was dragging Liu Mei's cultivation even higher, and the higher she advanced, the more Yin essence she held inside her as well.

A day soon passed in the outside world, while Shun Long had spent 10 more days inside the foggy place in the 'Stone of Time'. Although he hadn't managed to breakthrough to the early rank 4 in Heaven grade just yet, he wasn't that far away from successfully condensing his 28th ball of qi. He estimated, that it would take around 15 days, to a month at most, until he managed to enter the middle stages of the Heaven grade.

He then visualized himself leaving the 'Stone of Time', as he returned back to the room and saw Liu Mei looking at him with a strange gaze.

Shun Long looked at Liu Mei curiously, who opened her small mouth as she said

''Long-ge, there are 2 guests outside.''

''Guests?'' Shun Long asked questioningly

''Isn't it just Zhang Dingxiang?''

He had already expected Zhang Dingxiang to visit them within the next 3 days, since Shun Long had already told him where they lived, but he didn't expect him to bring company as well.

Liu Mei nodded her head as she continued

''They arrived early this morning, but since Long-ge wasn't inside the room, I had them wait in the courtyard.''

Shun Long smiled at Liu Mei and grabbed her hand, before he opened the door of the room.

In the courtyard, the peak rank 5 'Silver-winged panther king', was staring at the 2 'guests', who were standing a few dozen meters away from it.

When Shun Long opened the door, aside from Zhang Dingxiang, he also saw a stunning blonde woman dressed in green.

The blonde woman had a sweet smile on her face when she saw Shun Long and Liu Mei, an expression completely different than when she was facing Zhang Dingxiang in the 'Pale Moon guild'.

In comparison, Zhang Dingxiang had his head lowered all this time, evident that he hadn't been having the best of times.

The beautiful blonde woman curtsied at Shun Long and Liu Mei as she held her green dress, before she introduced herself

''Greetings, young master Shun, young lady.

I am Xie Rong, and I am the Guild master of the 'Pale Moon guild'. I have heard everything from Zhang Dingxiang, and I am here to personally offer you an apology on behalf of our guild. I can assure you that Elder Zhang has been personally punished by me for his behavior.''

At the same time, Zhang Dingxiang also stepped forward with a lowered head, as he said

''Please forgive me young master Shun, young lady Liu.''

Shun Long hadn't expected the Guild master to personally visit them in the inn, let alone to also have Zhang Dingxiang apologize.

However, this couldn't possibly mean that everything was now fine, just because of an apology.

Xie Rong looked at Shun Long with her beautiful green eyes, and with a charming smile on her face she said

''Young master Shun, I hope that you can forgive Zhang Dingxiang's behavior and assist our guild this time. Of course, this is a very important matter for me so I can't reveal too many things unless you agree, but everything can be negotiated.''

Shun Long looked at Xie Rong who seemed willing to step back and negotiate their terms with a smile on his face, as he then asked her

''In that case miss Xie, tell me what you are willing to offer!''