The sun had long since risen a few hours ago, and the moon was already hidden in the sky.
In the courtyard outside of the room, Shun Long saw Liu Mei who was once again practicing her sword arts.
Although 2 months had passed for Shun Long inside the foggy place, barely a week had gone by for Liu Mei.
And yet, because of her dual cultivation with Shun Long, the top-grade rank 3 'Blood combustion pills', as well as her Saint grade cultivation technique, her cultivation realm had already reached the early rank 6 in Heaven grade.
Shun Long however knew, that in reality, Liu Mei had the same problem as him.
Since she wasn't honing her cultivation in real life battles, it was very likely for problems to occur in the future as well.
After all, there were no experts being born, just from cultivating in seclusion.
After bringing this matter up, Shun Long then said
''Mei'er, let's go and see if there are any suitable missions in the 'Mercenaries' Association'.''
Liu Mei nodded her head and with a smile on her face, she quickly changed from her training robes before she returned back to the courtyard.
Shun Long already knew that the headquarters of the 'Mercenaries Association' was also at the west of the Heaven's Dome city.
He and Liu Mei were both sitting on the black panther's back, as they soon reached the 'Mercenaries' Association' headquarters.
However, before the black panther entered through the giant gates of the 'Mercenaries' Association', Little Black's voice sounded in Shun Long's head
''Master! You should be careful! I can sense many Dao Kings inside this place and 2 of them seem to be paying attention to us!''
Shun Long was stunned when he heard this, and sensing the change in his emotions, the black panther slowed down his speed.
Sending his spiritual strength inside the foggy place, Shun Long looked at Little Black as he then asked
''Won't they discover your soul sense, since we have already found out about them?''
Little Black shook his head, as he then said in a proud tone
''After I broke through to the peak of rank 5, my soul sense has become a lot stronger. It was as if a mysterious power inside me had suddenly woken up. Unless it's a peak rank 9 Dao King, they won't be able to discover my presence.
And even a peak rank 9 Dao King won't be able to find me easily.''
Shun Long was stunned, but at the same time happy that Little Black had grown so strong already.
After thinking about it for a bit, he still decided to enter the 'Mercenaries' Association'.
Although some Dao Kings may have been paying attention to him, that was probably because of the panther, and not because of his individual ability. After all, Shun Long hadn't revealed anything that would tempt a Dao King, aside from the black panther itself of course.
And even then, relatively strong Dao Kings had the ability to capture even rank 6 magic beasts, let alone a peak rank 5 one.
Liu Mei understood that Shun Long seemed to have been facing some kind of problem, but since he had told the black panther to enter inside the headquarters of the Association, she didn't say anything.
At the same time, 2 old men were sitting in front of a table, inside a hidden room in the 'Mercenaries' Association', drinking and smiling to each other.
One of these old men had a face filled with wrinkles, 2 large earlobes and almost no hair left on his head. The other one was a stout old man with long white hair that reached his back, and a large forehead.
Each of these men had a golden badge pinned on their black robes, which indicated their status in the 'Mercenaries' Association'.
They were both SSS-rank mercenaries.
The moment that the bald man's soul sense noticed the black panther hesitating for a moment, he looked at the man with the white hair and laughed as he said
''Hahaha! It seemed that this pup has noticed your soul sense Hao Ping!''
The long-haired man had a shocked look in his eyes as he mumbled
''Did I make a mistake? How was I discovered?''
The bald man with the big earlobes however, was still scanning his panther covertly with his soul sense, as a greedy look was filling his eyes.
The white-haired man next to him noticed this, as he then asked smilingly
''Old Zhilan, you seem very interested in this black panther! Do you want to take it?''
The old man didn't retract his soul sense, but raising his head he looked at the long-haired man next to him as he said
''We will see...''
At the same time that the 2 old men were chatting with each other, Shun Long went to the registration counter and changed his badge from a D-rank mercenary to a B-rank.
Now that his cultivation had reached the late-stages of the Heaven grade, he could definitely be considered a B-rank mercenary after all.
After receiving his badge, he and Liu Mei both walked towards the gigantic mission board in the back.
There were countless missions, from D-rank all the way to S-rank mercenaries, while Shun Long even noticed a few missions that could only be accepted by SS-rank mercenaries. Of course, there was none for SSS-rank ones.
The missions for the B-rank and C-rank mercenaries included, helping to protect merchants as they come and go to the Heaven's Dome city, exterminating dens of bandits, or look for precious medicinal ingredients.
Of course, there were the even more specialized missions, that included helping people take personal revenge.
After thinking for a while, Shun Long and Liu Mei both chose 2 missions that were neither too close, nor too far from the Heaven's Dome city.
C-rank mission: Kill the 2 middle rank 3 'Fire-toothed hyenas', and obtain the rank 4 'Meridian-heating fruit' that they are guarding inside the Dreamland forest.
Reward: 50.000 low-grade spirit stones.
B-rank mission: Exterminate the den of the infamous killer Hao Jingguo, outside of the Dreamland plains.
Reward: 200.000 low-grade spirit stones.