Chapter 500: A soothing melody

The sound of Shun Long playing the guqin quickly permeated the entire courtyard but it didn't just stop there.

Barely a moment later, the disciples that were walking around Shun Long's courtyard and even in the surrounding courtyards were all dazed and they were stopped in place, as the indescribable, transcendent-like notes sounded in their ears as well.

Even though Shun Long's courtyard had protective formations that didn't allow sound to come in or go out and disturb the rest of the disciples so that they could cultivate in peace, the protective formations around the courtyard that could even block the full-powered attacks of early-stage Dao Kings, were actually unable to stop the sound of the guqin from spreading in the surroundings.

In just a few moments, every single one of the disciples in the surrounding courtyards, including those who had already reached the peak of rank 6 in the Nascent Soul stage, had all fallen in a daze as they involuntarily drifted into slumber from Shun Long's performance.

Even middle-stage Nascent Soul cultivators were actually unable to stop their minds from relaxing before falling asleep.

In less than a minute, in this area of the sect where this cluster of courtyards was located, the only sound that could be heard was the melodious sound of the guqin that had already transcended this world.

At the same time, Shun Long wasn't aware of anything that was going on in his surroundings, as his mind was completely absorbed into playing the guqin.

It was only after nearly an hour had passed that the sound of the guqin finally stopped, and yet every single courtyard around Shun Long's had fallen silent as the disciples inside them and those who were previously walking on the streets had fallen asleep and had yet to wake up.

Opening his eyes, Shun Long saw Liu Mei lying on the bed with a smile on her face and her eyes closed, while 2 streaks of tears had fallen from her eyes as they rolled down her cheeks.

The notes that Shun Long had played just now didn't correspond to a specific song from his memories. Instead, it was a song that he poured his own feelings into... a soothing beautiful melody that was aimed to calm Liu Mei's heart.

Shun Long already knew that Liu Mei was having a hard time resisting the influence of the qi that she was absorbed with the Blood Absorption art. During her breakthrough to the Nascent Soul stage, even with the pill that he had created by mixing the rank 5 'Dream ash flower' and the 'Icicle soul grass' that he had obtained from the lair of the of rank 5 'Snow apes' in the 'Ten thousand beasts' mountain range', he knew that Liu Mei would still have a hard time completing her breakthrough. 

So, after breaking through to the Nascent Soul stage as well and unsealing some of his memories inside him, Shun Long had already decided to let Liu Mei hear him play the guqin and allow her to calm both her mind and her heart at the same time.

Shun Long already knew from his memories, that a cultivator who has enough insights to play a musical instrument well enough could even affect the psyche of other cultivators. With his own skills in music that had already reached the peak of the 'Immortal Dimension' in the past, Shun Long was certain that as long as he was next to her, Liu Mei wouldn't fall into qi deviation in the future unless something completely out of his expectations happened.

Closing his eyes, Shun Long let Liu Mei sleep as he held the guqin in his hands and entered the foggy space in the 'Stone of Time'. 

However, as soon as he returned in this place, Shun Long noticed that even Little Silver had fallen asleep in the process, as the black panther slept next to Little Black.

At that moment, with his connection with Little Silver, Shun Long realized that the panther was on the verge of breaking through to the middle of rank 6!

For so long, Little Silver had stayed in the early rank 6 and was unable to breakthrough, even after consuming more than a thousand stalks of 'Dragonblood grass'. But as soon as he heard Shun Long playing the guqin, the black panther was quickly swept asleep, while the condensed energy inside his body started to churn.

Unlike Little Black, Little Silver hadn't restarted its cultivation from the start and was only a normal 'Silver-winged panther king'. Although such magic beasts were still considered rare, normally, an adult 'Silver-winged panther king' would only reach the peak of rank 5 and would very rarely become an early rank 6 magic beast.  Being on the verge of a breakthrough to become a middle rank 6 magic beast was already something that other 'Silver-winged panther kings' couldn't even dream of. And yet Shun Long knew that unless he found some rare medicinal herbs, the beast cores of peak rank 6 magic beasts or the souls of late-stage Dao Kings, it would be extremely tough for Little Silver to breakthrough again in the future and ever become a peak rank 6 magic beast.

With a smile on his face, Shun Long sat cross-legged on his usual seating spot, and after throwing one more look at the sleeping Little Black and Little Silver, he placed his 'Silverbark guqin' by his side before he took out some middle-grade spirit stones and started to feed them to the Heaven Swallowing vine one after another.

He had decided to stay in seclusion for the next 2 days and try to breakthrough to the early rank 3 of the Nascent Soul, as well as purify the remaining balls of qi to bring them at the same level as well. After all, in 10 days, both he and Liu Mei as well as Jiang Chen and the rest would all leave the sect to go and complete 2 personal D-rank missions each, so bringing his strength to the peak before that to be able to deal with any unexpected circumstances was vital.

At the same time that Shun Long closed his eyes and started to absorb the energy of the pure qi from the Heaven Swallowing vine, the entire 'Enforcement Hall' had already been riled up, as the enforcement disciples of the sect were already heard of the disciples that had fallen asleep on the streets of the sect and were furiously investigating the situation.

In the huge building of the 'Enforcement Hall' located barely a mile away from the Assignment Hall's location, the Elder responsible for the 'Enforcement Hall', Elder Kang, stared at the 'Enforcement Hall disciples' that were kneeling in front of him with a furious look on his face, as he roared angrily in a voice that shook the entire building while the aura of a peak Dao King exploded from his body at the same time

''WHAT DID YOU SAY?!''

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Author's note: I am thankful for every single one of you guys who are here in this journey with all of us. Happy 500 chapters! <3