Lost in thought, Xuan Hao motioned for Fang Yu to move closer as he began examining her body with his divine sense. Trying his best to see if he could find anything wrong with her cultivation that might have caused the formation to collapse and explode.
Sadly, this examination came up with nothing, she was normal in all possible senses of the word when it came to her cultivation. Even the foundational pillar inside of her dantian was a normal foundation pillar filled made out of water qi. Nothing out of the ordinary that might have disrupted her fire burning formation earlier…𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶
"E-elder Xuan… Did you find anything wrong?" Sounding a bit nervous and hopeful, Fang Yu looked up at the thoughtful Xuan Hao.
"No… But I think I might find something by observing your dantian during the process, so I will have to ask you to set up the fire burning formation once again."
Answering her and moving on to what they would be doing next before she could get disappointed, Xuan Hao's divine sense fully focused on every small thing happening inside Fang Yu's dantian as she slowly nodded her head before setting up the fire burning formation once again.
Fwoosh~
Slower than last time, the small fire slowly appeared at the centre of the fire burning formation made by Fang Yu.
Fwish~
Just as the formation was about to explode once again and Fang Yu was beginning to retreat back a few steps in order to avoid the explosion, Xuan Hao managed to pick up a small abnormality appearing inside of her dantian!
Whoosh~
Acting at a speed way faster than Fang Yu could perceive with her current cultivation realm, Xuan Hao's qi forcefully entered her body before she even had any time to react to what was happening.
At this point in time, the small abnormality was about to disappear again, but Xuan Hao's qi suddenly appeared and forcefully restrained it before it managed to hide away inside of Fang Yu's body again.
"What is this…?"
Seeing what the small abnormality was, Xuan Hao could not help but feel a wave of confusion wash over him.
The abnormality in question was some kind of lifeform made up of some kind of energy closely resembling qi in the shape of a small worm wriggling fearfully under the restraint of Xuan Hao's qi.
"E-elder X-Xuan… W-what is happening?!"
Being called back to reality as he was absorbed inspecting the small worm like creature inside of Fang Yu's dantian, Xuan Hao was suddenly reminded about the fact that he had forcefully used his qi was currently inside of Fang Yu's dantian…
This was not something that someone only at the earlier stages of the Foundation Establishment Realm would be able to handle, as the sheer pressure of even a tiny fraction of a Domain Lord's qi could easily destroy the dantian of a Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator…
The only reason Fang Yu was still alive and well, was due to the fact that most of his qi inside her dantian was occupied with restraining the weird worm like creature, thus allowing her dantian to survive for a longer than normal period of time.
After all, forcefully entering the dantian with his qi was not the same as when he used his qi to guide Bai Ning onto the path of cultivation by helping him reach the Qi Condensation Realm. The latter being far gentler and more controlled compared to forcefully entering without any prior preparations or warnings to the other party.
Ssssh~
A weird sound could be heard coming from inside Fang Yu's body, as Xuan Hao pulled out the small snake like creature in one go. No matter what, Xuan Hao could not see any good thing behind leaving a weird hostile energy lifeform inside of Fang Yu's dantian…
"Hah… Hah… W-what is that…?" Breathing in and out due to exhaustion, Fang Yu looked fearfully at the small snake like creature held in Xuan Hao's hand around a few centimeters long.
"No idea, I found it inside you dantian, so I thought you might have an idea as to what it is…"
Saying this, Xuan Hao looked away from the small worm like creature. Only to be met with the completely bewildered and fearful face of Fang Yu, who had still not managed to comprehend the fact that the small snake like creature in Xuan Hao's hand had been inside of her dantian just a moment ago.
"Okay, you clearly have no idea what it is either… You should rest here for a bit; I will go out and ask around and see if anyone knows anything about this little one!"
Shaking his head upon realizing the obvious fact that Fang Yu had no idea what the snake creature inside her dantian was all about, Xuan Hao could only seal the small creature up with his qi before leaving the training ground and head towards someone who might know about the little snake.
Leaving behind Fang Yu to recover on his mountain. Not that he thought she would be that much against it given the fact that the environment of the training ground was currently highly beneficial to her cultivation…
"Now… Where is Elder Song…?"
Muttering this to himself as he floated up into the air and covered the Flying Sword Sect with his divine sense, Xuan Hao soon smiled to himself before flying over towards a certain location inside the Flying Sword Sect. The small snake like creature he had forcefully ripped out from Fang Yu's dantian in hand.
…
"Elder Xuan… To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?"
Standing inside of the Flying Sword Sect's administrative buildings, Elder Song had just been going over a new batch of spiritual herbs that had come in recently. Having the help of an elder from the Alchemy Hall, who helped check if the spiritual herbs quality was fine, when Xuan Hao had suddenly appeared and asked him if he had time to talk about something.
"I wanted to ask if you know anything about this!"
Having already entered a small private room in the building, Xuan Hao did not bother hiding anything as he showed the small snake like creature in his hand to Elder Song.
"This is! W-where did you find a Qi Sapping Worm!?"
"I found it inside the dantian of an inner disciple… What is a Qi Sapping Worm…?"
Seeing the shocked expression on Elder Song's face, Xuan Hao did not have any idea what the so-called Qi sapping worm was, but he could at least tell that it was something important or dangerous given Elder Song's current expression.
"Hm… Inside the dantian of an inner disciple you say? That does not make sense… A Qi Sapping Worm is extremely rare even in the Sky Empire! Who would waste something so precious to harm an inner disciple of our sect!? Unless she was unlucky enough to stumble upon a wild one that had yet to grow up and accidently ended up getting infected by it…
By the way, how did you find it? A Qi Sapping Worm should be close to impossible to discover. Even someone above the Domain Lord Realm would have a hard time finding it according to some rumours I heard… This is also one of the reasons that it's considered to be so precious…" Completely ignoring his question, Elder Song went on talking to himself as his expression constantly shifted all over the place as he came up with different reasons to explain the appearance of the Qi Sapping Worm.
"I found it when I was looking for a reason as to why the disciple in question failed in keeping a fire burning formation running. Now will you explain what a Qi Sapping Worm is?"
Not wanting to be ignored again, Xuan Hao answered quickly as he asked a bit more forcefully, he really wanted to find out what the Qi Sapping Worm was.
After all, Elder Song had just mentioned it being rare for a power like the Sky Empire and someone above the Domain Lord Realm possibly not being able to find it after it infected someone!
"A formation? I see, it might affect something as delicate, complicated and precise like a formation. Revealing itself for a short moment…" Nodding his head, satisfied with the explanation, Elder Song was just about to ask a new question when he was met with a pair of clearly impatient eyes at him not having even explained what a Qi Sapping worm is yet…
"Hehe, excuse me… I was just a bit curious; A Qi Sapping Worm is a rare and exotic worm that is widely known for being capable of discreetly sapping away the qi of a cultivator to enhance itself before reaching an adult stage where it will fully consume the host. The worm will then evolve into its next stage of life where it becomes a demonic beast. Taking on the same cultivation realm as the host it grew up inside of.
It is mostly considered to be so precious due to its ability of being used to secretly assassinate high level experts. There are even a few rumours that someone ones managed to infect a Soul Ascension Realm Expert with a Qi Sapping Worm without the other party knowing about it. In the end, a Soul Ascension Realm Expert died, and a Soul Ascension Realm demon beast was born…"
Finishing his explanation, Elder Song looked fearfully at the Qi Sapping Worm in Xuan Hao's hand.
"…"
Xuan Hao did not say anything and just looked down at the seemingly harmless worm in his hand. Not knowing what to say after learning how deadly the small worm was.