In the blink of an eye, 3 months had passed before Shun Long finally opened his eyes.

Staring at the mountain of high-grade spirit stones around him that seemed to have been depleted by nearly a tenth, Shun Long merely shook his head before he turned his attention towards the 27 golden-colored balls of qi that were hovering above his head.

In the last 3 months that he had spent in seclusion, Shun Long had let the 'Heaven Swallowing vine' consume more than 100.000 high-grade spirit stones, turning them all into extremely pure qi, before he finally managed to reach the peak of rank 3 in the Dao King realm.

Forget about Dao Kings and Dao Emperors, even Sovereign realm experts would have been terrified if they heard about this matter.

After all, 100.000 high-grade spirit stones were more than enough to let an ordinary Dao King reach the peak of rank 9 as a Dao King and perhaps even step foot into the Dao Emperor realm, and yet they had only been enough to bring Shun Long to the peak of rank 3 in the Dao King realm instead.

A moment later, Shun Long turned his attention towards the figure of the golden skeleton that was sitting on the ground a few meters away from him, before he mumbled to himself

''There should still be a month left until the opening of the City of Immortals. It looks like the golden skeleton will have to wait until I enter the city before I refine it.''

Waving his hand, Shun Long then had the 'Heaven Swallowing vine' return back to the herb garden, before a purple-colored earth flame appeared in front of him a few moments later.

''Master, are you planning to absorb the earth flame right now?'' Little Black asked with a serious look in his eyes as he stared at the purple-colored earth flame in front of Shun Long.

It wasn't surprising that even Little Black would turn serious upon seeing this scene, since the black dragon already understood, that absorbing an earth flame wasn't only a long and tiresome process, but it also had a certain degree of danger for the person absorbing it.

After all, absorbing the earth flame would require for that cultivator to allow that earth flame enter inside their spiritual sea. Naturally, if something went wrong, not only could that cultivator injure their spiritual sea, but there was even a chance that they would also end up dying.

Even with Shun Long's current spiritual strength that was equivalent to that of a peak rank 6 Dao Emperor's, there was no degree of assurance that he would succeed.

In fact, Shun Long's current level was barely at the threshold that allowed him to try and absorb an earth flame.

If someone who wasn't a star-rank alchemist tried to absorb an earth flame, it was practically certain that their spiritual sea would be unable to contain the earth flame, and that they would end up dying instead.

Shun Long knew what Little Black was worried about, and after a moment of silence, he nodded his head and patted the black dragon's head before he said seriously

''Little Black, don't worry. If I see that I can't endure it, I will just stop.''

As he finished speaking, Shun Long threw one last glance at the figure of the golden skeleton that he had placed in the corner, before he turned his gaze towards the earth flame in front of him.

Little Black also knew that there were 2 reasons why Shun Long wanted to absorb the earth flame right away instead of waiting until he grew stronger.

The first reason was because he needed it to refine high-grade and top-grade rank 6, as well as rank 7 pills.

Naturally, it wasn't impossible for star-rank alchemists who hadn't absorbed an earth flame to refine high-grade and top-grade rank 6 pills, as well as rank 7 ones, but it was exceedingly hard to do so, and it was only possible for those alchemists who were exceedingly proficient in the Dao of Fire!

Of course, the reason behind that had to do with the toughness of the rank 6 and rank 7 medicinal herbs that were needed to refine those pills.

After all, it was exceedingly hard for most alchemists to extract the essence of those rare rank 6 and rank 7 medicinal herbs due to their special attributes, and it was only possible to do so under extremely high temperatures.

This was why many alchemists longed to absorb an earth flame, since that would give them a huge advantage compared to other alchemists who had yet to absorb one.

Naturally, Shun Long knew that it was also possible to refine those rank 6 and rank 7 medicinal herbs without the assistance of an earth flame, but that was only possible for those star-rank alchemists who had an extremely high understanding of the Dao of Fire.

However, an earth flame was still the better option for every alchemist who managed to get their hands on one.

After all, not everyone could spend hundreds, if not thousands of years trying to comprehend the Dao of Fire to an extremely high level, and this was even more so for those star-rank alchemists who didn't have much affinity with the Dao of Fire in the first place, and they could end up spending thousands of years for naught.

Besides, it wasn't as if those alchemists who had comprehended the Dao of Fire didn't long to absorb an earth flame either.

Since an earth flame could increase their own strength as well, and it could also make their pill refinement process even faster, those star-rank alchemists who had comprehended the Dao of Fire valued earth flames just as much as the other star-rank alchemists.

As for the second reason why Shun Long needed to absorb the earth flame, Little Black knew that it was because of the golden skeleton that he had obtained from the depths of the King's Palace.