The already present Nascent Soul Experts started growing a bit uneasy when they saw the "Experts" that had been sent over to help them keep up the defence, but this uneasiness quickly disappeared as the Azure Sky Kingdom did not mobilize more people to the border.
The border slowly fell into a state of peace as the usual small skirmishes resumed, with Nascent Soul Realm Experts only showing up from time to time when the other side was about to push too much into the others territory.
The focus of the Heavenly Sky Kingdom was mostly on the part of the army that had ended up betraying them all of a sudden. The anger of the soldiers and generals were understandable, as they hoped for the Heavenly Sky Kingdom could do something about the families of the traitors back home.
After all, who knew if they were in on it as well and were waiting to deal a deadly blow to the Heavenly Sky Kingdom?
Many of the traitors with ordinary backgrounds soon had their family arrested and interrogated, while the higher-ups among the traitors had already managed to sneak their family out of the Heavenly Sky Kingdom and into the Azure Sky Kingdom.𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚
This in turn caused many of the ordinary soldier who had turned traitor in a moment of pressure or due to other circumstances, to once again turn traitor and defect back to the Heavenly Sky Kingdom, most were hopeful that their families would be ensured safety if they did this.
Overall, this did not affect the big picture as the Core Formation and Nascent Soul Realm Traitors still remained on the side of the Azure Sky Kingdom.
But it did manage to recover some of the faith that the soldiers had lost when they saw a large part of the army defect to the other side.
…
"So, you are going to participate in this Alchemy Competition where an old Artisan Alchemist of the Sky Empire is looking for a disciple!?" Upon getting back to the pavilion and leaving Chu Yang to slowly wake up in his own room, Xuan Hao and Qing Yi walked outside as Qing Yi told him about the Alchemy Competition that she had decided to participate in a half a year.
As the master of Qing Yi, Xuan Hao had the final say in whether she could participate in the competition.
Hearing the description of the Alchemy Competition, Xuan Hao immediately felt threatened! That old Artisan Alchemist wouldn't try and steal his disciple away… Right…?
Xuan Hao knew very well that he had no way to resist the Sky Empire at the moment with his current strength, if that old Artisan Alchemist of the Sky Empire truly took an interest in his disciple and wanted to steal her…
The thought alone caused Xuan Hao to be a bit vigilant towards the unknown Artisan Alchemist from the Sky Empire.
"Can I join…? I heard there were quite a few good rewards for the people participating and it would be great learning experience, I might even be able to advance my Alchemy Realm… The Alchemy Hall will also let some of the seniors train me in the time leading up to the competition." Seeing the struggling expression on her master's face, Qing Yi called out in as she noted down how much she could improve by joining the competition.
"You can go…" Seeing the hopeful expression on Qing Yi's face, Xuan Hao decided to agree. No matter what, his disciple should not be the best out of all the geniuses sent over by the other nearby kingdoms put together… Right…?
Feeling a bit nervous at the thought of his disciple acing the competition and trashing the other competitors, Xuan Hao decided to sneak- discreetly follow the Alchemy Hall when they made their way to the Alchemy Competition hosted by the Sky Empires Artisan Alchemist.
Only this way would he be able to set aside his worries towards the unknown Artisan Alchemist of the Sky Empire.
"Thank you master! I will go over and inform the Alchemy Hall immediately!" Not knowing about the inner struggles of her master, Qing Yi happily jumped around the place in an excited manner before quickly running off in the direction of the Alchemy Hall.
"Hah…" Letting out a sigh filled with worry, Xuan Hao looked at the disappearing figure of Qing Yi.
Maybe he made the wrong choice by letting her join the Alchemy Competition?
"Still not up yet…?" Not thinking about it for any longer, Xuan Hao made his way down the mountain after checking in on Chu Yang and seeing if he had woken up yet.
The place he was going was of course the Sect Master's pavilion, as he was going to report what he had found out about the strength of the Black Rose Sect and their current situation.
Sadly, the current Flying Sword Sect was not even able to deal with a sect that was formerly below them… Becoming a demonic sect truly had its benefits in terms of short-term power increase…
How was that former elder of the Black Rose Sect going to fare in the world…? He was after all a demonic cultivator and no matter where he went, demonic cultivators were hunted down even more aggressively than demon beast in many places.
The Black Rose Sect in the Heavenly Sky Kingdom could be considered a unique situation where the Imperial family wanted to borrow their strength to deal with the Flying Sword Sect.
Skinling, the former elder of the Black Rose Sect did not have such a great thing to ensure his safety in the short term and he would be forced to run and hide whenever he was found out.
In the end, Xuan Hao could almost see the struggle that Skinling would have to go through to succeed on the path of cultivation in the future.
Staying in the Flying Sword Sect and training up a few disciples and quietly cultivating was far better than that! At the very least, his chance of survival was way higher staying in the Flying Sword Sect compared to journeying around the world looking for opportunities to advance his cultivation.
In the future, he could let his disciples do that!