Chapter 4: Monarch's Hourglass

As soon as Shun Long finished his words, the triangular stone inside his mind started vibrating intensely as if influenced by Shun Long's words and a shocking set of images appeared in his mind.

There were no words, only a very ancient set of images that depicted a person without a distinctive face breathing in a strange pattern. At one time the person was taking a deep breath, and then he repeatedly exhaled in 5 or 6 smaller breaths. The scene changed, showing the same person again, inhaling 6 or 7 times in one breath and then letting it all out through 2 smaller breaths. It looked as if that person was trying to follow a set of breathing pattern. The images then slowly changed and that person stood up and slowly lifted a huge ball-shaped white mountain that had just appeared out of thin air on the ground beside him using both of his hands, and then he slowly lifted it in the air above his head.

Everything shook after that, as the scene grew blurrier until it completely faded away and a set of words magically imprinted themselves deep inside Shun Long's soul: ''Monarch's Hourglass''.

These words weren't written in any known language that Shun Long had ever come in contact with, neither in this one nor in his previous life and although it all appeared to be a bunch of indistinct ancient symbols and were even slightly blurry, Shun Long was able to clearly understand that the meaning these symbols formed was ''Monarch's Hourglass'' as if it was already something carved in his soul.

Shun Long's consciousness returned to his body as he hurriedly looked to examine the back of his head. He clearly remembered being hit at the occipital bone, which is located in the lower back of his head but not only was there no blood flowing from it now, but there wasn't even a single bump to prove that he had just been brutally beaten to the ground just a few hours ago.

The blood that had dyed red that patch of grass he was earlier lying on, had long since vanished from the moment when the triangular shaped stone had emitted that blue light to obliterate the lightning that was in the air, along with everything else in a radius of a mile around Shun Long.

Not just the grass, but everything in an area of 1 mile around him was a barren ground without the slightest vegetation anymore, a stark contrast to the area beyond that which was full of grass and flowers.

It looked as if something had completely erased every trace of life in an area around him and even the corpses of Shun Long's 2 dead bodyguards and their 3 horses weren't an exception to this.

Thankfully for Shun Long his clothes weren't affected by this or they would have completely disappeared, but even if they weren't affected by that, they were still in tatters due to the assassination attack from earlier.

The robe he was wearing was practically almost destroyed now as the part covering his chest had already pretty much disappeared, leaving the entire left part from his chest exposed, all because of those vicious attacks he had suffered earlier that looked to take his life. His right sleeve was completely torn apart while there were multiple sword cuts on the part that was covering his abdomen.

Shun Long guessed that the reason his injuries were magically healed was most likely due to the triangular shaped rock and he was endlessly grateful to it or his life would have been over before it even begun.

Although to outsiders he would seem to be in a terrible condition due to his clothes, his body didn't even have a single injury on it and was actually full of energy.

Shun Long finally stood up, and started running at full speed towards the northeast for half an hour before finally stopping as he was left panting.

Blue Forest-city was situated at the north of the Blue Forest and Shun Long had noticed earlier that his assassins were fleeing towards the northwestern direction when that thunderstorm arrived.

So although running towards the northeast would take a longer time for him to arrive at Blue Forest-city compared to if he run straight north, this was much safer since his goal right now was to stay alive.

Shun Long wasn't an idiot, although he knew his assassins would probably not come to find him as they would most likely assume that he had already died due to his injuries. And even if he somehow wasn't dead with those injuries that they had inflicted on him, he would still die in that thunderstorm. But Shun Long still wouldn't take the risk, as in the off-chance that those people returned to confirm his death and ended up finding him alive and well, they would definitely finish the job this time.

.....

It took Shun Long 5 hours to reach Blue Forest-city and although the previous Shun Long had lived here for his entire life, this was still the first time for Shun Long who had only seen the Blue Forest-city inside his memories, to lay his eyes on the city for the first actual time.

The city's outline was huge and groups of people were coming and going to and from the city gates all the time.

Even though it was already night time, the activity in Blue Forest-city was just as bustling as it was during the day with people everywhere on the streets and the taverns.

As the city closest to the Blue Forest, its city walls were at 10m(33ft) high and 3m (10ft) thick, and even if an earth rank magical beast came to attack them it wouldn't be able to shake them in the slightest due to their special formations.

Shun Long followed the people entering the city gates where both pedestrians and carriages could be seen entering, and relying on the memories in his brain he followed the road leading to his home.

People in the city didn't even spare him a second glance as it was far too common for people to come in the city with tattered clothes and in some rare cases without any clothes at all after they had gone to adventure into the Blue Forest.

After all, these people wouldn't connect this boy who was wearing cut down rags, to the son of the strongest formation master in the city.

After a few twists and turns Shun Long was still on the main road when he arrived in front of an estate that had 4m(13ft) tall walls around it and 2 strong warriors were standing guard in front of the main entrance. Both of them were probably around 25 or 26 years old, and if Shun Long had started cultivating, he would understand the auras they were emitting which was at the peak of Qi condensation.

When the guards saw the young man in ripped clothes approaching, one of the two took one step forward and raised his left hand as he was about to shout ''halt'', with his right hand rested on his sword ready to unsheathe it if that person kept walking towards the estate.

Shun Long paid no mind to the guard as he kept walking towards the entrance of the estate, and when the guard noticed the young man's face, recognising that it belonged to the young master, he hastily knelt down on one knee saluting.

Just as Shun Long was about to walk through the estate gates, a rumbling sound could be heard from behind him along with an enraged voice that was heard a few meters away from the estate, forcing Shun Long's steps to come to a halt.