"So, the base is located at the entrance of the forest just outside the city! Let's get going and catch that guy before he finds out what happened here!" Throwing down one of the surviving black clothed men that she had interrogated, Xuefeng excitedly told Elder Meng as she prepared to leave the manor.
"Xuefeng, stay behind and explain what happened here to the guards with, I will go and check out the base located outside the city alone." Elder Meng watched as a group of people dressed like guards approached the city lord's manor with her divine sense as she told Xuefeng.
"But why go alone!? Can't I join as well? You clearly just don't want me to join in! If you really wanted someone to stay behind and inform the guards about what happened, you could just ask Grandma Zhang, Liu or Weng to do it!" Seeing Elder Meng about to leave without her, Xuefeng hurriedly caught up as she stubbornly followed after her.
"This person should have reached the third stage of the Nascent Soul Realm and might even have reached the fourth stage like me… I won't be able to protect you after we start fighting… And the most combat experience you have versus other Nascent Soul Realm Experts are a few spars with me and the other elders!" With a worried expression on her face, Elder Meng stated her reason for wanting Xuefeng to stay back at the manor while she went out to deal with the Nascent Soul Realm Expert.
"But I won't gain any experience if I never fight anyone other than you guys! And this is a perfect opportunity for me to gain some real combat experience. Even if I can't help much, I should at least be able to keep myself safe!" Not wanting to back down, Xuefeng followed closely behind Elder Meng as the duo made their way through the now lively city.
"Hah… Fine… But you have to run away the moment you can't hold on any longer or feel that it would be dangerous for you to stay around!" Letting out a sigh as she decided to let Xuefeng follow her to subdue the Nascent Soul Realm Expert, Elder Meng felt that the once young girl she had watched grow up in the past had suddenly grown enough to be able to help her out…
Looks like I have been a bit too protective in the past…
Watching the girl beside her jumping around excitedly as she was allowed to follow, Elder Meng smiled happily as she decided to allow Xuefeng to join in and help the Spring Flower Sect like the rest of the elders, something Xuefeng had always wanted to do after reaching the Nascent Soul Realm.
"Thank you so much Big Sister Meng!" Suddenly giving Elder Meng a hug as she excitedly jumped around, Xuefeng smiled from ear to ear.
"At least keep yourself in check and remember formalities! We are still out on a mission!" Stopping Xuefeng with one hand, Elder Meng quickly calmed her down.
"Sorry, Elder Meng… But there is no one else around…"
"Hah… Fine, but just until we reach the outskirt of the forest…"
Seeing the sad look that Xuefeng gave her while apologising, Elder Meng could not help but give in to the sad look as Xuefeng suddenly sprang back to life again.
"Thank you so much Big Sister Meng! I love you!" Hugging Elder Meng once again as they made their way to the gate, Elder Meng could not help but feel that she had been fooled by Xuefeng's sad look just a moment ago…
…
"What is this place!?"
Entering the underground base, Xuan Hao could not help but exclaim loudly inside his mind as he watched the entrance slowly expand out until a large cave more than big enough to fit the city that he had just come from, appeared in front of him.
Looking around, Xuan Hao manged to spot a few different tools for mining along with several tunnels going in all kinds of different direction.
From the looks of things, the Nascent Soul Realm Expert had been mining for something just outside the city and had even constructed a giant underground base for it…
Xuan Hao felt really curious as to what had caused this Nascent Soul Realm Expert to go against the Spring Flower Sect and even construct such a large underground base inside their territory…
Observing the rest of the base that was in the form of a small city, Xuan Hao easily passed by the few patrols walking around the place as he followed after the Nascent Soul Realm Expert as he entered the small underground city.
The city itself could not really be considered a city, as it only looked like one from outside.
The moment Xuan Hao entered the underground city, he immediately felt the atmosphere around him change as all the people present inside wore a solemn look on their face while transporting different boxes of materials around.
Getting a closer look, Xuan Hao discovered that the people were carrying all sorts of different things, from armour and weapons to food supplies and spirit stones.
Among all of the things that were transported out of the city, Xuan Hao was most interested in a blue crystal that seemed to be handled with extreme care while being transported.
Even the people transporting the blue crystals were at least in the Core Formation Realm as everyone seemed to make way whenever someone came running through with a box of blue crystals in hand.
"What are these crystals?" Picking out one of the crystals from a box carried by a Core Formation Expert that ran by him without being spotted, Xuan Hao focused his divine sense on it as he tried his best to examine the blue crystal in his hand.
"Spirit stones!? No, it's something different…" Feeling the abundant amount of qi inside the blue crystal, Xuan Hao first thought that it was some kind of high-grade spirit stone, but this idea was quickly thrown away when he felt that he was unable to absorb the abundant qi inside the blue crystal.
The reason for this was because the qi inside the blue crystal was incompatible with humans and absorbing it was not something he could do.
No matter what he tried, Xuan Hao could not make any sense of what the blue crystal was or what other use it had.
Even with the large amount of qi inside of it, it could not be used for anything… At least Xuan Hao had no idea what use the blue crystal had.
"I will just ask the Sect Master or the other elders when I get back to the sect and see if they know anything…" Throwing the blue crystal into his interspatial ring, Xuan Hao no longer paid attention to the large number of boxes filled with the blue crystals being transported out of the underground city and instead caught up with the Nascent Soul Realm Expert. Resuming his observation as he entered the core area of the underground city.
…
"How is the transport of the crystals going!?" Entering his meeting room where a group of people were waiting for him around an oval table, the Nascent Soul Realm Expert loudly asked as he watched the surrounding people shrink away upon hearing what he asked about.
"You! How long will it take to move all the crystals out of here through the emergency tunnel?!" Seeing nobody coming forward to answer him, the Nascent Soul Realm Expert had an angry look on his face as he turned to focus on a shivering man sitting at the end of the oval table, as a dense killing intent filled up the entire meeting room.
"S-seventy percent of the crystals have already been moved out and it will take around t-two days before we can move the last thirty percent of them out through the emergency tunnel!" Shivering under the gaze of his superior, the man barely managed to speak as he prayed that the person in front of him would not kill him off like the one who sat in his current position before him…
"Seventy percent…? Hm… That's fine… Everyone, we will leave the remaining thirty percent of the crystals mined so far. Begin cleaning up the place and seal the mines before the people from the Spring Flower Sect arrives! We should have a day or two at most!" Thinking about what he was told, the Nascent Soul Realm Expert seemed lost in thought for a moment before he informed all the people inside the meeting room.
Whoosh~
After informing them about this, the Nascent Soul Realm Expert did not stay behind for any longer as he quickly disappeared from the meeting room.
"Clean up!? Within 1 or 2 days!? How is this possible!?"
"We are giving up so many crystals…"
"Quick, we need to inform the miners and transporters about this!"
"Yes, we need as much help as possible if we need to clean this place up and seal the entrance to the mines…"
As the Nascent Soul Realm Expert disappeared, everyone inside the meeting room began panicking as they quickly ran out to inform their subordinates to get started cleaning the place up and making sure no traces of them could be found.
Xuan Hao did not really pay much attention to this as he instead followed behind the Nascent Soul Realm Expert back into his personal quarters.