"Hah… Looks like I was not injured too much by the snake earlier." Letting out a sigh as he glanced around the inn room, Xuan Hao spotted the still sleeping Bai Ning on one of the two beds in the room.
Looking towards the window, a few rays of light crept in through the cover and lit up the small inn room in the process.
"Mhm~"
A few rays of light shone directly into the face of Bai Ning as he soon opened his tired eyes and looked around with a confused look on his face before fully waking up and getting out of bed.
"We should go down and get something to eat before heading out." Watching Bai Ning getting up from the bed and getting ready to move, Xuan Hao kindly informed him from the side as both of them soon moved down into a small area just beside the entrance of the inn dedicated for the guest to get something to eat.
The time soon passed, and Bai Ning soon finished breakfast while Xuan Hao just ordered some tea as he waited for Bai Ning to finish eating.
Like this, both Xuan Hao and Bai Ning soon left the small city and resumed their journey towards the Flying Sword Sect.
…
"Haha! I finally succeed!" Back in the Flying Sword Sect, Qing Yi who had recently managed to become a Journeyman Alchemist had been trying her best to improve as she had managed to convince a few of the elders from the Alchemy Hall to help provide different materials and herbs for her practice.
The elders were more than happy that Qing Yi had managed to become a Journeyman Alchemist in such a short time and even convinced her to stay in the Alchemy Hall to practice and that was where she currently was as she held a small bottle of yellowish liquid in her hands as she happily held it up high with a smile on her lips.
"Indeed, that is great! You will surely be able to do well in the upcoming alchemy competition half a year from now!" An elderly man beside her with a splendid white bear happily praised her while stroking his beard in the process.
"But we still have to prepare more, after all, most of the people who will be participating are the same age as you and have already reached the Journeyman Alchemist Realm for a few years if not longer… Compared to the bigger kingdoms, we can simply not compare…" Shaking his head, the elderly man could not help but shake his head as he thought about some of the top notch kingdoms with Domain Lord Realm cultivators in them joining the Alchemy Competition.
To be honest, he and the rest of the elders did not think winning would be possible and just hoped that Qing Yi would be able to get a good ranking in the competition and help bring some glory to their Alchemy Hall and maybe bring back a few rare pill or potion recipes in the process!
Pill and potion recipes!
This was the main goal for many joining the competition, as the person holding the competition was a famed alchemist, he had already announced that the people joining would get to compete with some of his own recipes!
The old Artisan Alchemist hosting the competition this time around was rumoured to have already reached the peak of the Artisan Realm and the preciousness of his personal recipes was more than enough to attract all the surrounding kingdoms to send over their most talented young alchemists to join in.
Other than that, the different prizes for the top 100 and above were more than lucrative enough to get people to try their luck and come join. The chance to learn the personal recipes of the old Artisan Alchemist could be considered to be the cherry on top.
After all, even if you did not make it to the top 100, you would still have the chance to learn the recipes of the old Artisan Alchemist!
So even without winning anything, you would still be able to gain something for joining!
The old alchemist looked over at Qing Yi happily inspecting the potion in her hand as she wrote down the process that she had gone through to succeed in a small notebook beside her on the table.
Seeing this, the old alchemist felt that Qing Yi would be able to reach the top 100 in the upcoming alchemy competition. Maybe she would even be able to reach the top 50!
"I will go back to my masters pavilion for now and go over the things I learned during the brewing processes and try to see if I can improve on something… Thanks for your help today elder!" Finished with noting down the process she had gone through and what she thought about improving, Qing Yi turned around to thank the elderly alchemist before quickly making her way back out of the room.
"Haha, no worries young one, I'm more than happy to be able to help the next generation of alchemist for our sect!" Laughing happily to himself as he saw Qing Yi out of the room, the elderly alchemist felt happy that he could help someone from the younger generation.
Normally, something like this was rare due to the small size of the Alchemy Hall and the fact that it was unpopular…
If not for the fact that cultivators lived longer than ordinary people, the old alchemist felt that there would no longer be any Alchemy Hall left in the Flying Sword Sect with how few people joined them!
"But how could we attract the young'uns to join us… Compared to those blacksmiths or formation masters, alchemy takes way longer to learn in the earlier stages and those young'uns simply have no patience to spend a few years to only become a Journeyman Alchemist…" After Qing Yi had left, the old alchemist talked to himself in a depressed voice as he sat down at the table where Qing Yi had brewed the potion earlier.
"Elder Gong, why are you sitting there all depressed by yourself…?"
"Elder Wan!? How come you are here?" As the elderly man heard the voice behind him when he was talking to himself, he immediately jumped up and turned around to face the person who suddenly appeared behind him.
"How could I not come? I could hear your depressed voice all the way from my own room! Quite a few of the other elders heard you as well but were too scared to enter and ask what was wrong…" Reaching the last part, Wan Qiu glanced over towards the entrance of the room where a small handful of elders peeked over from behind the door cautiously.
"Haha… I see, I'm sorry to have disturbed all of you… I just happened to feel a bit saddened after thinking about how few young'uns? join our Alchemy Hall nowadays…" Seeing the familiar faces peeking over from the entrance of the room, Elder Gong felt his cheeks redden from embarrassment as he scratched his left cheek while laughing awkwardly.
"No problem at all Elder Gong!"
"Yeah, we understand how you feel. My few apprentices are already over 50 by now and it looks like I won't be getting a new one any time soon…"
"Elder Gong is right; we indeed need to find a way to attract the young'uns to join our Alchemy Hall."
The elders peeking over from the entrance slowly stepped forward as they agreed with what Elder Gong had said earlier.
"Hm… It seems like everyone is here… Why don't we find a way to try and attract more people to join the Alchemy Hall? For example, we could use the upcoming alchemy competition…" Calling out as the group of elders stepped into the room, Wan Qiu quickly caught the attention of the now small group of five inside the room.
"What do you mean Elder Wan? Do you have any idea how we could attract more of the young'uns to the Alchemy Hall!?" Hearing what Wan Qiu said, Elder Gong could not help but exclaim in an excited tone as the other three elders also turned to look at Wan Qiu full of excitement.
"Yes, I plan to ask the Sect Master if we could bring a group of the disciples with us to watch the alchemy competition hosted by that old Artisan Alchemist! Seeing such a magnificent competition would surely broaden their world view and at the same time get them more interested in alchemy! Especially when they find out what the different prizes are for getting into the top 100 and above!"
Listing to Wan Qiu talking, Elder Gong along with the other three elders could not help but grow excited as they thought about the disciples shocked expressions after witnessing such a grand and dazzling competition.
There would definitely be some disciples willing to join the Alchemy Hall after watching the competition and those who went to see the competition would talk about it to their friends and other disciples!
"This is a brilliant idea! I will go and ask the Sect Master if we can take some of the disciples with us!"
"The Sect Master is still in closed door seclusion for-" Watching Elder Gong suddenly filled with energy as he ran out of the room in a manner unbefitting of an elderly man, Wan Qiu didn't manage to finish her sentence before he had already disappeared out of the room.
By now, he was already heading in the direction of the Sect Master's Pavilion.