Knock Knock~
"Hm?"
About to start brewing the second potion, Xuan Hao turned and looked over towards the door with a confused look on his face before quickly scanning over the person outside with his divine sense.
What does one of the Alchemy Hall's elders want with me? Is it perhaps related to Qing Yi?
Thinking about what the Alchemy Hall's elders might want with him, Xuan Hao could only think that it might be something related to Qing Yi, she was after all the only real connection he had with the Alchemy Hall… Other than being a part of the same sect.
Creak~
"Is there anything I can help with? Are you perhaps here regarding something about Qing Yi?"
Opening the door without waiting around, Xuan Hao smiled kindly at the middle-aged elder outside the alchemy room.
"I… Y-yeah, that's it!"
Thinking about something for a short moment before she answered him, Wan Qiu suddenly remembered that Elder Xuan's disciple was also a member of their Alchemy Hall!
How stupid! Why could I not just ask Qing Yi about her master's realm in alchemy! He would surely have taught her about alchemy at some point!
"I see… Is it perhaps about the alchemy competition that is coming up in another three months?"
Nodding his head as he confirmed his suspicions, Xuan Hao asked Elder Wan Qiu yet again, seemingly already having an idea as to why Elder Wan Qiu had come.
"Indeed! I just heard from another elder that you were here and decided to come over and ask you about the upcoming alchemy competition! I was mainly curious about whether you would be joining us as well when we leave for the competition in three months."
Deciding to just go with what Xuan Hao had said, Wan Qiu did not hold back in the slightest as she asked him.
On one side, their safety while traveling to the site of the competition would increase even further with someone like Xuan Hao around and on the other side, she would be able to learn more about him along with how far he had gone when it came to alchemy! A win-win situation!
"Hm… I should be joining you if nothing urgent pops up all of a sudden."
Thinking about it for a short moment, Xuan Hao nodded his head in agreement to Wan Qiu's question.𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺
This way, he would also be able to prevent his disciple from being snatched away by someone at the upcoming alchemy competition!
Even if he knew it was unlikely, Xuan Hao still felt a bit cautious towards the organizer of the alchemy competition. The old artisan alchemist did after all set up the competition to find a disciple!
What if he ended up taking an interest in his disciple and tried snatching her away?
"That's great! I really wanted to ask you about this, but as you know, it's been quite hard to contact you lately and seeing as time was running out, I decided to come over and disturb you for a short moment… I hope I didn't cause you any trouble…"
"No worries, all is fine!"
"Great! Then I will take my leave for now. Thanks for your time Elder Xuan!"
Bowing her head as she said this, Wan Qiu soon turned around and disappeared after turning around the corner at the end of the hallway.
"Looks like the Alchemy Hall have been trying to contact me during the past few months… Maybe I didn't get informed because I spent so much time outside the sect lately…?" Muttering this to himself, Xuan Hao soon shook his head and turned around to enter the alchemy room again.
At least he would now be able to join the Alchemy Hall when going to the Alchemy Competition in another three months!
Feeling that he would no longer have to worry too much about Qing Yi being stolen away with him around in the future alchemy competition, Xuan Hao picked up the few spiritual herbs and began brewing the Qi Absorption potion with even more energy than before. Motivated by both the quest and a desire to increase his alchemy skill so his disciple would not end up running away to a more skilled teacher!
…
At the same time that Xuan Hao was practicing different alchemy recipes back at the Flying Sword Sect, what remained of the Heavenly Sky Kingdom after the Azure Sky Kingdom destroyed their main force, began escaping in all directions. Most of them leaving what had been the territory of the Heavenly Sky Kingdom completely, while only a few decided to flee into the territory of the three remaining sects. The Seven Fates Sect, Spring Flower Sect and Flying Sword Sect.
The escapees mostly consisted of people who had worked as administrators over the different towns, cities and different states existing inside the central region of the Heavenly Sky Kingdom.
All of them running due to the fear that the Azure Sky Kingdom might come and finish off what remained of the Heavenly Sky Kingdom soon.
The normal citizen of the Heavenly Sky Kingdom did not react calmly upon seeing their different leaders running away all of a sudden and many had already begun fleeing even before the defeat of the Heavenly Sky Kingdom's main force.
In the end, complete chaos engulfed the central region as what remained of the Heavenly Sky Kingdom rapidly began collapsing, with everyone taking whatever precious resources or materials they could with them before running away.
Even the guards in charge of the treasury back at the Heavenly Sky Kingdom's Royal Capital abandoned their post upon hearing the news of the main forces defeat. Instead becoming one day robbers, as the treasury's precious spirit stones and resources were soon emptied out completely.
Wandering cultivators and bandits alike had joined in on the action as well, quickly throwing the capital into complete chaos as cultivators could be seen fighting at the streets over spirit stones and artifacts that had been stored in the treasury for the past hundreds of years.