Monarch Of Time

Chapter 1067 The backing of the Hundred Fragrance Pavilion

Shun Long’s soul sense had already identified the owner of that voice; It belonged to a silver-robed old man in the far-east corner of the second floor, whose entire body was hidden in the shadows.

Shun Long could tell that the old man hadn’t bothered to hide his appearance either. His body just melded perfectly under the shadows of one of the intricately carved pillars of the second floor, almost as if he was a part of the pillar itself. In fact, none of the Dao Kings and Dao Emperors on the second floor even seemed to have noticed his existence by now, even though he was standing right next to some of them.

But once Shun Long’s soul sense locked onto him, his appearance immediately appeared in his mind.

The old man was chubby, with full cheeks and a broad, fat nose, while his pale-blue eyes gleamed with an unsettling sharpness as he stared back at him.

However, what actually surprised Shun Long wasn’t the man’s face, but his cultivation base.

The aura around this person’s body—it wasn’t that of a Dao Emperor!

Shun Long had seen numerous people at the peak of the Dao Emperor realm, including Jiang Chen’s father, Jiang Tianfang, the former patriarch of the Murong family whom Little Black had killed, Murong Tian, the Grand Elder of the Holy sect, and even Xuan Bo, the publicly acclaimed strongest Dao Emperor in the central continent.

But the aura radiating from this person was actually stronger... and not just by a little bit.

His qi was heavier, deeper, purer. It was on a completely different level from any of those people.

A Sovereign!

And judging by the stability of his aura, this person wasn’t a newly advanced Sovereign either. If this man wasn’t already at the early stages of rank 2, then he was certainly at the peak of rank 1.

"I didn’t think one of Iron Dawn’s alchemy shops would actually have a Sovereign holding down the fort."

Shun Long thought to himself while his soul sense examined the silver-robed elder.

At first glance, the old man seemed more like a wealthy merchant or alchemist, rather than a powerful Sovereign overseeing one of Iron Dawn’s largest alchemy shops. He wasn’t even carrying a weapon, and if it weren’t for the faint fluctuations of qi around him, even Shun Long may not have noticed his presence hidden in the shadows.

The silver-robed elder seemed to be doing the same thing to him, too. It was as if his pale blue eyes were trying to see through the azure man’s robes and get a feel for the person behind them.

And just like that, complete silence reigned on the second floor.

For a moment, nobody moved. Not the white-robed attendants of the second floor, not the customers browsing through the herbs behind the glass cases, not even the purple-robed manager, Zhou Wuyi.

When the aura of a Sovereign descended, every cultivator within the Hundred Fragrance pavilion seemed to have sensed it and had suddenly gone still.

But even that silence only lasted for the briefest of moments before Shun Long abruptly broke the stalemate.

It was a small, almost insignificant gesture. All he did was tilt his right foot to the side a bit.

But the expression of the people around him changed in that instant.

The intense pressure that had already enveloped the second floor was suddenly dispersed as the spiritual strength of an even stronger Sovereign burst out of his body, instantly enveloping not just the second floor, but the entirety of the Hundred Fragrance pavilion.

Forget about the Dao Kings on the second floor, even Zhou Wuyi and the remaining Dao Emperors who were already frozen by the emergence of the silver-robed Sovereign now looked completely taken aback, their gazes slowly turning towards the azure-robed elder beside them, and staring at him with looks that ranged from disbelief to downright horror.

They had actually been standing next to a Sovereign this entire time?

In the far-east corner, even the silver-robed elder’s brow twitched ever-so-slightly as he felt the terrifying wave of soul sense sweeping past him.

"This guy is a peak rank 3 Sovereign?"

But Shun Long didn’t pay any attention to the people around him.

He just turned to the far-east corner of the floor and answered slowly, his voice as calm and raspy as before,

"Stirring up trouble? If your pavilion is selling herbs, what’s the issue with me buying them?"

Through his soul sense, Shun Long could see the old man’s expression slowly turning into something more complicated. The elder didn’t step back, but his brows had already furrowed as if he was contemplating how to respond.

Of course, this was only natural, as well.

Now that Shun Long was a peak-stage Dao King, the strength of his soul sense had taken yet another step forward and was now comparable to that of a peak early-stage Sovereign. Regardless of whether this silver-robed elder was a peak rank 1 or even rank 2 Sovereign, he couldn’t possibly contend with someone who was infinitely close to stepping into the middle stages.

But as expected, the silver-robed old man didn’t back down, either.

In fact, he took a single step forward, finally coming out of the shadows and letting the people on the second floor see him clearly, while his pale eyes narrowed as he stared at the azure-robed elder.

"I don’t know who you are, fellow daoist, but don’t think you can bully me here. Surely, you are aware that what you are doing is bad for my Hundred Fragrance. If I let you sweep every rank 7 herb away, how long do you think it’s going to take for my pavilion to replenish our stock? 5 years? 10? You should know how to act in moderation."

The pressure around the silver-robed man thickened as he finished his sentence, while the aura of an early-stage Sovereign threatened to burst out of his body again.

Despite their ’difference in cultivation’, the old man looked like a furious beast ready to throw all caution to the wind as long as Shun Long didn’t back down.

For a moment, even Shun Long wasn’t sure whether the silver-robed man was going to lose all reason and try to attack him.

Still, he wasn’t overly worried about that either.

Putting aside how he still had the ’Earth Slaying Immortal reaping’ talisman inside the ’Stone of Time’ that was capable of dealing even with an Earth Immortal, Shun Long was confident that he could survive without that, even if he was faced with an early-stage Sovereign.

He wasn’t fully certain he could escape unharmed, but his chances weren’t that low either. As for relying on his ’World Zero’, that was truly a last resort he’d rather avoid if possible. Especially with all the ’Immortal Dimension’ cultivators now in the central continent.

In the end, however, it was neither the silver-robed elder behind Hundred Fragrance nor the haughty azure-robed elder that broke the tension.

Before any of them could speak, a powerful aura that was stronger than any of them came from the stairway behind Shun Long, before a loud, hearty laughter rang out, shaking the entire pagoda,

"Hahaha, Bai Yunhai, you don’t need to alert the entire Iron Dawn just because you have a guest in your little shop, do you? Surely you can deal with your problems yourself. Isn’t it shameful for the best alchemist of the city to put on such a display?"

Before that voice even finished echoing, the silver-robed man’s expression had already begun to change, when a black-robed middle-aged man with a longsword strapped on his back suddenly appeared on the stairs of the second floor.

However, the middle-aged man didn’t seem to care about the silver-robed elder’s expression. In fact, he only threw the man he addressed as Bai Yunhai a mere passing glance, before his gaze eventually landed on the azure-robed elder in the depths of the second floor.

"And you, fellow daoist... Surely someone with your cultivation base doesn’t need to buy so many rank 7 herbs. Aren’t you trying to stir up trouble in old Bai’s shop?"