"Hm, I think you need to get a name before we reach the Flying Sword Sect. After all, it would not do if everyone just referred to you as boy…" Flying through the air along with the boy as they were making their way back towards the Flying Sword Sect, Xuan Hao could not help but say this as it felt a bit weird to continue calling him boy instead of using a name.
"A name!?" Jumping up in surprise, Xuan Hao had to grab hold of the boy before he ended up falling off the flying sword that he was standing on together with Xuan Hao.
"Yes, a name… Do you have any idea as to what it could be?" Not really the best at things like giving out names, Xuan Hao tried to ask the boy if he had some idea as to what his name could be.
"Hm… I never really thought about it before, what about Bai… Bai… I don't know, but I want the same family name as my teacher had!" Not able to find a name that he wanted; the boy just repeated the family name of his late teacher a few times before giving up.
"What about Bai Ning…?" Coming up with a name after thinking over it for a little bit, Xuan Hao looked down at the boy to see what he thought about it.
"Bai Ning… I like it!" Muttering the name to himself a few times with a thoughtful look on his face, the young boy… Or now Bai Ning, happily agreed to his new name.
A few hours after he had gotten a name and Bai Ning had gotten used to flying together with Xuan Hao by now as he looked down at the trees and small villages passing by below them.
"By the way, Elder Xuan… How long would it take for us to get to the Flying Sword Sect?" Turning back to look up at Xuan Hao with a slightly sleepy look on his face, Bai Ning asked clearly exhausted from flying for so long without any rest.
It did not help that the sky was slowly begging to turn dark as the night slowly approached.
"I think we should be able to make it back to the sect in another day or two if we continue at our current speed… But I think we should find a place to rest for the night before you end up falling off." Smiling when he said this, Xuan Hao looked for a place to land and a place where they could stay for the night.
"Mhm" Bai Ning did not say anything and just nodded his head in acknowledgement of what Xuan Hao said as a small sound escaped his lips.
"Let's go down to the city over there, they should have an inn or some place for us to stay." As he was scanning the surroundings for a place that they could stay over the night, Xuan Hao spotted a small city a few thousand meters away from their current position and quickly descended before approaching the city together with the half-asleep Bai Ning.
…
"What do you mean the Spring Flower Sect knows about this!?" As Xuan Hao and Bai Ning were making their way inside of the city to find a place to stay for the night, a group of people had gathered together inside the city lord's manor and was discussing something as one of them exclaimed loudly.
"What I mean to say is that the people from the Spring Flower Sect will soon find this place and destroy it… We won't be able to continue operating inside of the Heavenly Sky Kingdom for much longer now…
From what I know, the Seven Fates Sect already destroyed all the bases we had inside of their territory…" Shaking his head regretfully, one of the people said this with a pained expression on his face.
"Looks like we really have to retreat from the Heavenly Sky Kingdom for the time being… If only we had a little more support, we would surely be able to deal with the Spring Flower Sect and the Seven Fates Sect!" A burly man let out an unwilling sigh as he agreed with what the two others had said.
"Indeed, we should not waste more time and resources here, we should just leave before we end up losing any more! In the future when we have more people to spare, we can always return and complete the mission! I will go and recover what I can from the Seven Fate Sect's territory…" The last among the group of people said as he stood up and took his leave from the dark room.
"With this, the meeting ends!" Standing up, the person who was surprised over the fact that the Spring Flower Sect already knew about their location said this before everyone except for him began dispersing.
Moving back to their own places to begin preparations to leave the Heavenly Sky Kingdom behind.
"Hah… I never imagined things would go like this…" After everyone else had left, the man slowly sat down again and let out a sigh of disbelief.
Originally, everything had gone as planned and they managed to do what the higher ups required of them…
But everything changed when they tried to infiltrate the Seven Fates Sect!
"I never expected that the Sect Master of the Seven Fates Sect would have reached the Half-Step Domain Lord Realm…" Their intel had been wrong and the person guarding the Seven Fates Sect was not just someone at the Peak of the Nascent Soul Realm, but was instead a Half-Step Domain Lord that already had a pseudo domain…
The original plan had been for a group of their Nascent Soul Realm Experts to hold back the Sect Master while the rest completed their task before they would all leave faster than the Seven Fates Sect would be able to gather their people to surround and attack them.
Sadly, when they met the Sect Master of the Seven Fates Sect, the group tasked with holding him back had ended up dying within a few seconds as the other group could do nothing but run away before they ended up in a similar situation…
The situation with the Spring Flower Sect was even worse as they already found their bases even before they acted against them…
The trip to the Heavenly Sky Kingdom could be considered to have ended in a disaster… And they had originally thought they could borrow the chaos shown by the Church of the Plague God and the war with the Azure Sky Kingdom to act…
"All we can do now is wait for the rest to finish their missions in the Sky Empire before asking for help… Hah… Hopefully we can get a Domain Lord to come and help with the Sect Master from the Seven Fates Sect…" Shaking his head as he thought about this, the man no longer worried about completing the mission given to him and the three others as he knew it was already considered to have failed.
Retreating and waiting for others to come and help them was the best plan of action… After all, their intel had been wrong in the first place, so they could avoid some of the blame for the two failed missions in the Heavenly Sky Kingdoms…
"Looks like the Seven Fates and Spring Flower Sect will be safe for another few years…" Narrowing his eyes as he said this, the man picked up a glass of wine before quickly drowning it in one go as he looked out a nearby window.
"Master, all the preparation to leave are ready!" A voice echoed out beside the man as a dark shadow suddenly appeared to his left side and handed over a document before quietly waiting for instructions.
"I see… Begin leaving the Heavenly Sky Kingdom, make sure that no traces are left behind!" A thick killing intent spread through the room as he said this, the shadow beside him only nodded before disappearing from the room.
The man did not stay for long either as he soon turned to leave the room, making his way out into the hallway of the city lord's manor.
"Hmph, looks like the shadows are quite good at cleaning up!" Looking around the hallway, the man saw at least a dozen corpse scattered all over the hallway as a creepy smile crept up his lips.
Turning to look out of a nearby window, he watched a few people guarding the manor outside suddenly fall to the ground without even knowing how they died.
…
"Hm?"
"Elder Xuan, is something wrong?" Bai Ning asked in a confused voice as he suddenly saw Xuan Hao narrow his eyes and look towards the centre of the city.
Xuan Hao had already felt a group of four Nascent Soul Realm Experts when he scanned the city earlier on but did not really care much about it as they might just be someone looking for a place to meet up and chat together as they seemed to be gathered in the same place.
This idea was only reinforced when he felt three of them leave the city and move in three completely different directions. Most likely returning to their sect or something along that line.
But things suddenly changed when the aura of several Core Formation Experts suddenly began to be filled with killing intent as they began killing everyone around the place where the group of four Nascent Soul Realm Experts had been gathered together earlier.
"It's nothing, let's get a room for you to sleep in for now." Entering the inn and getting a room for Bai Ning to sleep in, Xuan Hao did not say anything about the massacre that had happened at what he supposed was the city lord's manor.
"I will be going out for a few minutes to check up on something…" Making sure Bai Ning was preparing to sleep for the night, Xuan Hao left the room before he could say anything and made his way over in the direction of the city lord's manor.
Ready to find out what had suddenly caused a massacre to take place…