After visiting Chu Yang and handing over the Calming Breeze meditation scroll over to him, Xuan Hao made his way back to his own room to make some preparations for the upcoming Alchemy Competition that was happening in half a year.
No matter how early he prepared, it would at least be better than suddenly finding out that he was too late, and his disciple ended up getting stolen by some questionable old man from the Sky Empire!
Truly, if the "questionable old man" heard the way he was being described at the moment, he would race over to beat up Xuan Hao.
A respectable Artisan Alchemist from the Sky Empire being compared to a questionable old man!? No matter who heard it, they would surely think that the person saying it had a death wish!
…
"Achoo! Is someone perhaps thinking about me?" Inside a large room filled with all sorts of spiritual herbs and plants, an elderly man full of energy unbefitting of his age scratched the edge of his nose as he looked around himself with curiosity.
"Now that I think about it, I was going to hold that Alchemy Competition in half years' time or so… Maybe it's those young ones looking forward to meeting me! How exciting, I will surely be able to find a good young lad if they are already looking forward to meeting me now! Haha." Laughing wildly to himself, the elderly man smiled happily as he began mixing together all sorts of herbs in a small bowl before grinding them down and mixing them together with some sort of liquid.
"But it seems like my current pupil is getting a little anxious lately… Whenever I mention getting a new pupil to train, she gets quite moody… Maybe she fears that I won't pay as much attention to her after getting a new pupil, hehe, those young ones are indeed a little difficult to handle from time to time." Muttering the troubles with his current disciple to himself, the elderly man transferred the bowl with the liquid mixed together with all sorts of grinded up spiritual herbs in it over to another bowl made of some sort of stone.
"Well, things should be able to sort themselves out with time…" With a smile on his lips, the elderly man put the stone bowl over an open fire as he waited for the concoction to just barely reach a boiling point for a few seconds before quickly removing it and adding some already prepared spiritual herbs into the still boiling liquid.
Setting the stone bowl on the nearby table, the elderly man quickly turned around and left the room to get something as he waited for the concoction to cool down a bit.
"Teacher, is the potion requested by the second grand ancestor ready yet?" Just as the elderly man returned to his room, a slightly feminine voice sounded out from the entrance of the room.
"It will be done shortly, tell that old crook to wait for it if he doesn't want for an accident to happen with the potion..." Yelling back in the direction of the feminine voice in a slightly annoyed tone, the elderly man picked up the stone bowl and sat down while taking out the thing that he just went out to get.
"But the second grand ancestor said that he will need it before the grand banquet tonight… He plans to look for a new wife and apparently he had his eyes on one of the participants, who is an elderly woman only around 300 years old and at the middle stages of the Nascent Soul Realm…" The feminine voice from the entrance of the room sounded again as the elderly man sitting down with the stone bowl in his hands slowly lowered the spoon into the soup and started eating while completely ignoring the person calling out to him.
"Maybe I should have added a little more Ghostly Yin Chili Flakes to it…" Staring down at the soup filled with all sorts of precious spiritual herbs, the elderly man started going over the taste as the spoon never stopped moving. The soup inside the bowl decreased more and more.
"Teacher…" The feminine voice called out again this time, but instead of being far away, it was directly behind the elderly man, and it was clear to the listener that the feminine voice belonged to a young woman.
"Here, take it and go to that bald headed fossil with it! Tell him not to disturb me any longer with such menial things!" Standing up, the elderly man walked over to a nearby shell before he started looking at the different potion bottles neatly lined up.𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂
"Standard Hair Growth, hm… too slow acting, fast hair growth for middle-aged men… That baldie is too old for that one… Ah! Here it is!" Taking a potion bottle with the words [Fast Hair Growth for Elderly Baldies] on it from the shelf, the elderly man quickly returned and handed it over to the young woman who was suspiciously eyeing the area surrounding his stone bowl.
"Leave quickly or that or that old crook will come and cause trouble again…" Having handed over the potion bottle, the elderly man quickly waved for the young woman to leave.
"Then, I will take my leave now…" Seeing that her teacher did not seem to want to talk about the second grand ancestors request, the young woman did not stay any longer as she held onto the bottle with [Fast Hair Growth for Elderly Baldies] label on it before leaving the room.
"Hmph, she is getting bolder and bolder lately. Not even asking before entering her teachers' room… Now where was I?" Shaking his head slightly with a smile on his lips, the elderly man sat down on his chair once again as he picked up the stone bowl and was about to start eating.
"…YOU DAMNABLE BRAT!? HOW DARE YOU STEAL YOUR TEACHER'S FOOD!? HOW DID I TEACH SUCH AN UNGRATEFUL PUPIL!?" Yelling loudly, the elderly man jumped up from his chair as he turned towards the entrance of his room and ran in the direction that his pupil had left at full speed.
Passing through the large corridors outside his room, quite a few passing servants saw this and were not shocked or surprised when they saw the fabled Artisan Alchemist fuming in anger as he ran in the direction that a certain young woman had just passed through.
This was quite a common occurrence and most of the servants had become used to seeing the elderly man running through the corridors and hallways of the large palace complex at speeds unbefitting his age.