Chapter 715 - 715
Shun Long didn't pay any attention to the Elders or the disciples of the Holy sect around him, as he led Liu Mei and the others towards an empty spot not far away from the 'Darkness Eagle'.
Waving his hand, 5 small meditative cushions appeared in front of him, along with 5 small wooden jugs of wine.
Liu Mei, Xingyi, Jiang Chen, and Bai Longtian, all sat down on the meditative cushions around Shun Long and took a jar of wine each, without any hesitation.
After spending nearly 2 years within the Holy sect's territory, Jiang Chen and the rest all knew by now, that Shun Long's wine was indeed the best wine in the entire Holy sect.
Thus, every time they had a chance to drink together, they would always be looking forward to drink Shun Long's wine.
In reality, nobody knew that to create a single barrel of wine, Shun Long needed to use dozens of rank 6, as well as more than a hundred rank 5 and rank 4 medicinal herbs and blend them together, before he left the wine inside his herb garden for more than 500 years.
Every single medicinal herb had been blended together seamlessly, drawing out their most fragrant and potent qualities.
Of course, neither of those conditions were hard for Shun Long, but it would be impossible for anyone else to replicate this.
Even if someone knew the medicinal herbs required to make this wine, it would still be impossible to create it unless their level of understanding in alchemy had exceeded Shun Long's own.
Indeed, as soon as the lids from the 5 wooden jars were removed, an intoxicating fragrance spread out from the jars, assaulting Liu Mei's and the others' senses.
At the same time that Shun Long and the rest started to drink, the 'Darkness Eagle' that was sitting on the ground with its eyes closed seemed to have sensed something, as it turned its attention towards Shun Long's group.
Normal eagles had an almost non-existent sense of smell, but how could the senses of an early rank 7 'Darkness Eagle' be compared to that of normal animals?
The eagle stood up and started to walk towards Shun Long's group a moment later, attracting the attention of the inner court Elders and the disciples who were sitting a few meters away from it.
''Eh? What is the 'Darkness Eagle' doing?''
''It looks like... it's heading towards Shun Long's group!? Could it be that the Grand Elder sent an order to it?''
The eagle arrived in front of Shun Long and the others in the blink of an eye, and stared at the wine jars in their hands as if it was looking at a treasure that it had never seen before.
Its eyes glimmered for a few seconds before it turned its gaze towards Shun Long, and surprisingly, the early rank 7 magic beast suddenly let out a pleading whimper.
Liu Mei, Xingyi, Bai Longtian, and Jiang Chen were all surprised when they saw this scene.
An early rank 7 magic beast... was pleading right in front of them?
Magic beasts were famed for their cruel and bloodthirsty natures, so how could the 'Darkness eagle' act like a puppy in front of them?
However, although Liu Mei and the others were all surprised, the inner court Elders felt as if an explosion was taking place inside their minds at that moment.
They knew that the Grand Elder's 'Darkness Eagle' was an extremely arrogant magic beast that didn't even look at early stage Dao Emperors as its equals.
It didn't even respect middle stage Dao Emperors wince it could escape from them at any time using its innate technique.
If it wasn't because of the Grand Elder, a peak rank 9 Dao Emperor taming it, the 'Darkness Eagle' wouldn't have even allowed the Elders of the Holy sect to sit on its back while they traveled.
And yet, this very same 'Darkness Eagle' was pleading an outer court disciple for the wine in his hands?
At the same time, inside the 'Stone of Time', Little Black opened his bright blue eyes and stared at the eagle with a cold look of displeasure.
If the eagle could see the look inside the eyes of the black dragon, it would be unknown if it would have collapsed on the ground trembling in fear, or if it would have directly lost consciousness.
Nodding his head, Shun Long patted the eagle's beak and said with a calm look
''Alright. Consider it as thanks for letting us travel on your back then.''
Another jar of wine appeared in Shun Long's hands in the next moment, before Shun Long placed it in front of the gigantic eagle.
The eagle immediately lowered its head and stretched out its tongue, allowing it to bathe inside the jar and taste the bright red wine inside, before letting out a cry of pleasure.
This time, it wasn't just the Elders and the disciples of the Holy sect who were startled by this, but even some of the surrounding powers not far away from the Holy sect once they heard the excited cry of an early rank 7 magic beast.
At the same time, the old man who was second in seniority from the inner court Elders present opened his eyes and looked at the 'Darkness Eagle', before he asked in a low voice
''Is that kid's wine really that good? Even the Holy city's best wine, the 'hundred-herbs wine' isn't that alluring to magic beasts of the 5th rank, let alone rank 7 magic beasts!''
While the inner court Elders and the outer court disciples who had yet to smell this fragrance had started to question what was going on with the 'Darkness Eagle', Xingyi's master, Elder Mao Jing let out a regretful sigh in her heart as she looked at Shun Long.
Indeed, he had more of that wine, and not only was he drinking it along with Xingyi and the others, but he even gave a jar to the Grand Elder's magic beast.
Elder Mao Jing had smelled the fragrance of this wine before, from that wooden barrel that Shun Long had given to the Grand Elder as a gift when they were all back in her room inside the Refinement Hall, and just the fragrance of the wine alone had even made a peak rank 6 Dao Emperor like her swallow her saliva.
Mao Jing wanted to desperately taste that wine, but after taking a single sip from the barrel, the Grand Elder had refused to give her even a single drop.
Of course, Mao Jing knew that she could ask for a jar of wine from Shun Long, but she didn't have the face to do that.
She knew that Shun Long most likely hated her after how she had treated him that day in her room, and it wouldn't be surprising if he refused to give her even a single jar.
A few hours had passed, and Shun Long and the rest had emptied more than a couple jars of wine as they waited for the King's Palace to open.
During these past few hours, a few of the inner court Elders wanted to approach Shun Long and ask for a jar of wine, but the murderous look they received from the 'Darkness Eagle' gave those Elders second thoughts.
The truth was, that the Holy sect had more than 20 inner court Elders, which meant at least 20 Dao Emperors!
However, from the Elders who had tagged along this time, aside from the Grand Elder, the strongest one of them was Mao Jing, while the other powerful Elders like the head Elder, Sun Wen, or Liu Mei's master Xuan Jiao, as well as Jiang Chen's and Bai Longtian's masters, they had all stayed back in the Holy sect.
Since the Grand Elder was going to leave the Holy sect to visit the King's Palace, the rest of the powerful Elders needed to be present in case anything important happened back in the sect.
Thus, from the Elders who had come to the King's Palace with the Grand Elder this time, most of them were just early-stage Dao Emperors, and they were actually afraid of an early rank 7 magic beast like the Grand Elder's 'Darkness Eagle'.
Although the eagle wouldn't really really kill any of them since it was the Grand Elder's magic beast, none of them wanted to risk losing face by irritating it and getting beat up in front of everyone else present.
At the same time, in these past few hours, a few lightning bolts had also landed in this 'safe area', causing the inner court Elders of the Holy sect to take action quite a few times, saving the outer court and the inner court disciples by dragging them away from the area where the lightning was about to strike.
Only the inner court Elders were fast enough to react and protect anyone from those purple lightning bolts.
Even those blue-robed, inner court disciples of the Holy sect who had reached the peak of the Dao King realm, would have probably died if it wasn't for the inner court Elders saving them just in time.
Thankfully, none of the lightning bolts landed near Shun Long's group, allowing them to keep enjoying the wine in the midst of the never-stopping flashes of purple lightning around them.
Of course, if a bolt of lightning really threatened Shun Long's group, the 'Darkness Eagle' would be more than enough to protect them.
Finally, just as night was about to fall, the Grand Elder's figure could be seen flying from the distance, as he headed towards Shun Long's group with a proud smile plastered on his face.
Surprisingly, next to the Grand Elder, the figure of an extremely beautiful woman in silver robes could also be seen, as she calmly flew towards Shun Long's direction as well.