Chapter 652: Stepping on the stage

The outer court Elder sighed as he looked at the result of the fight that was exactly as he had expected, before he returned Liu Mei's token back to her, as Liu Mei then flew back towards Shun Long under the stunned gazes of the crowd.

Standing in the sky above the arena, Elder Xuan had a bright smile on her face as she watched Liu Mei's figure that was flying towards Shun Long's direction excitedly.

At the same time, the white-robed Sun Wen seemed to have recognized Liu Mei as well, as he turned to look at Elder Xuan and asked curiously

''Elder Xuan, I heard that you took a new personal disciple. Is it that little girl?''

Elder Sun already knew that Elder Xuan's master was a peak Dao Emperor who had also comprehended the Dao of Death in the past, so it was only natural for Elder Xuan to want to take Liu Mei as her disciple.

The white-robed Cao Ling also turned his head to look at Elder Xuan, who nodded her head smilingly as she answered

''Of course! Since little Mei has comprehended the same Dao as my master, who else in the Holy sect is more qualified to guide her than me?''

The white-robed Cao Ling chuckled when he heard this while Sun Wen nodded his head calmly. 

They all knew how deeply Elder Xuan loved her master who had treated her like her own daughter in the past, which was why no other inner court Elder had dared to fight with her for Liu Mei.

Of course, another part was due to Liu Mei's terrifying fate.

Naturally, the inner court Elders would remember every single disciple with an immortal fate, while Liu Mei didn't just have an immortal fate, but she had even cracked the ball of fate in the end.

It was only natural that Sun Wen would have a deep impression of her.

Even Cao Ling who was overseeing the fourth test of the Holy sect remembered Liu Mei due to the uniqueness of her Dao of Death.

Returning back to her seat, Liu Mei then continued to observe the rest of the fights.

She knew that this was only the beginning of the Martial Roll of Honor tournament.

Fortunately, Jiang Chen and the rest didn't have to wait too long for their own turn to come.

Just like Liu Mei, they had only joined the sect 10 months ago as well, making their ranking be at the very bottom among the outer court disciples.

None of their fights were any different from Liu Mei's, as their opponents were only rank 5 Nascent Soul outer court disciples.

Brandishing his white sword that he hadn't used for a long time since he had entered the Holy sect, Bai Longtian defeated his opponent with a single move, while Jiang Chen only needed an ordinary punch to send his opponent flying.

Both Jiang Chen and Bai Longtian used their body cultivation during their fights, which had already reached the middle of the fifth stage in body refinement in these last 5 months.

This was extremely shocking considering that Jiang Chen and Bai Longtian had both broken through to the early fifth stage barely a year before they entered the Holy sect's test, but no one from the spectating outer disciples knew about this.

The truth was that very few people knew about Bai Longtian's progress since he almost never fought within the sect and kept his abilities hidden, while Jiang Chen didn't have the opportunity to fight using the strength of his body for a good while.

After all, the strength of his qi cultivation was much higher than his body's strength, and in fights against experts like Peng Chao who had reached the peak of rank 8 in the Nascent Soul, using his body cultivation that was only at the middle of the fifth stage was actually useless.

Of course, the reason why Jiang Chen and Bai Longtian could both breakthrough in their body refinement cultivation so quickly after their previous breakthrough, was because they had both consumed more than 30 top-grade 'dragonblood tempering pills'!

In the past 5 months, Shun Long had obtained the cores of plenty of rank 5 magic beasts, allowing him to refine enough top-grade rank 5 'dragonblood tempering pills' for Jiang Chen and Bai Longtian.

As for Xingyi who fought right after Jiang Chen and Bai Longtian, she didn't even have to activate her unique physique during her fight, as she defeated her opponent with a single chop on the neck after she appeared behind her.

Shun Long didn't have to wait too long for his turn either, and half an hour later, as his sect identifying token lit up, he flew towards one of the platforms in the arena.

His opponent was a young man at the peak rank 5 of the Nascent Soul who cursed his bad luck the moment that Shun Long circulated his 'Monarch's Hourglass' and revealed his aura at the middle of rank 7 in the Nascent Soul!

In this last month that Shun Long had spent in seclusion, although he had only broken through from to the middle of rank 7 from the early rank 7 of the Nascent Soul, Shun Long's biggest gains weren't actually in the increase of his cultivation, but the enormous increase in the strength of his soul.

Shun Long could finally feel that the quality of his soul had reached the late stages of the Nascent Soul as well, making him feel much more confident during the fights.

Of course, Shun Long wasn't going to simply ignore the strength of the soul, since he was aware that there were some powerful outer court disciples who were actually specializing in soul-attacking techniques as well.

Although his spiritual sea was enormous and could be used to attack and defend as well, if the quality of his soul was low, Shun Long knew that he could really end up being in trouble against a peak Nascent Soul stage cultivator.

If Shun Long's soul was only at the middle stages of the Nascent Soul in terms of its strength, then if he met a powerful opponent who specialized in soul attacks, he may not even have enough time to reach before he got caught off-guard and lost

At the same time, it was one thing to simply lose in the Martial Roll of Honor tournament, but Shun Long knew that outside of the Holy sect, there were plenty of experts who trained in the power of their soul, and Shun Long wouldn't possibly risk his life.

He was lucky that he hadn't met any such powerful expert just yet. 

Of course, even if Shun Long didn't want to, he would still have to train his soul to a the peak of the Nascent Soul stage or he wouldn't be able to breakthrough ever again in the future.

After all, the main point of the Nascent Soul stage was to train one's soul and increase their soul sense, not just increase one's cultivation base alone.

This was the real difficulty of the Nascent Soul stage.

Only when one's soul reached the peak would one be qualified to try and breakthrough to become a Dao King in the future.

As soon as the white-robed Elder in front of the platform said the word begin, Shun Long blinked as his body vanished, appearing right in front of the young man who was standing in front of him. The young man didn't seem to have a chance to react, before Shun Long's punch sent him flying.

Of course, how could a peak rank 5 Nascent Soul cultivator resist Shun Long's punch?

After all, in the last 5 months, after consuming more than 100 top-grade 'dragonblood tempering pills', Shun Long's 'Monarch's Eternal body' had reached the middle of the fifth stage already!

After his breakthrough, Shun Long was confident that even most peak rank 5 magic beasts and peak rank 9 Nascent Soul cultivators wouldn't be his match if they dared to fight him head-on!

-

Author's note: 5/5 

We are still getting more mass releases in the incoming days so look forward to it. Additionally if we get to top 10 in the Golden Ticket rankings we are getting more mass releases in the next month as well.