The second stage of the alchemy competition was soon in full swing, as the participants had all begun preparing their spiritual herbs and a few had even begun making the pills with their pill cauldrons.
At this point, Qing Yi was the only person left in the competition that was making a potion, while the rest of the participants all made pills.
This had not only helped her gain attention from the Artisan Alchemist, Fang Shi, but also helped her garner part of the crowd's attention. After all, even if she was not the best alchemist present in the competition, she was still the only person making a potion!
A pill was solid, while a potion was liquid. The process of potion making was different from pill making! For the crowd of spectators, it would be a little boring to just watch everyone seemingly do the same thing with the same few spiritual herbs, so Qing Yi slowly began to garner more and more attention from the crowd with the passing of time.
Half an hour after the second stage of the competition had begun, even Xuan Hao was slightly alerted upon hearing a group of people that were not from the group of Alchemy Hall elders cheer on his disciple…
"Hm?"
Someone is sneaking around again?
Xuan Hao suddenly frowned as he sensed someone sneak into the competition space.
Compared to the last time where he didn't use his divine sense to observe his surroundings properly due to him being careful about not wanting to accidently offend Yi Min, Xuan Hao had long since allowed his divine sense to spread out and cover the entire competition ground. Making sure he paid attention to anything unusual happening.
The main reason for this was because Yi Min had told him that it was likely that her enemies would launch an attack soon… Due to him 'visiting' their underground base a week ago…
"I wonder what they are up to…" Muttering this to himself, Xuan Hao curiously observed the person who had sneaked into the observation ground.
Not only was he observing the person, but an even more powerful divine sense was also carefully keeping an eye on the person who had sneaked inside the competition ground. The owner of this divine sense was of course Yi Min!
At this point, both of them were just keeping an eye on the person who had snuck inside the competition ground. The man in question was not too strong, having only reached the Peak of the Core Formation Realm.
Even if he wanted to create trouble, there was no way he could do too much given his cultivation realm only being at the Core Formation Realm!
"This should be the place!"
Listening in from the side as he slowly made his way over towards one of the areas that the participants had registered earlier on, Xuan Hao suddenly saw the man take out a small metal ball before throwing it into the area where the participants of the competition had first gone to register.
"Who are you!? This is a restricted area-"
Before the elder standing inside the registration area even managed to react, a weird gas was released from the small metal ball, as the elder soon fainted together with two young guards inside.
Neither of the two guards or the elder had been strong in the first place, with the strongest person being the elder who had just barely reached the Core Formation Realm.
After all, there was no way they had actually expected for someone to suddenly come and cause trouble in the registration area for participants!
What did they want to do in such a place? There was nothing of value and the only thing that would be gained from doing something like that, was the anger of the Iron Sky Kingdom…
Thump Thump Thump!
As the three people still left inside the registration room fell to the ground unconscious, Xuan Hao and Yi Min were both watching as the man walked over to where the elder noting down the names of the participants was located before picking up the book used for registration of the participants with a smile on his face before cautiously looking around himself. Only when he was certain no one was watching, did he put the small registration book into a small bag before beginning to leave.
Still sitting down inside his spectator room with the rest of the elders from his sect as he saw this, Xuan Hao decided to inform Yi Min through his divine sense.𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚
"I don't think this guy is related to the people planning to launch an attack…"
"Indeed, I think this has nothing to do with those people. In my opinion, he is likely working for someone who plans to assassinate one of the participants after the alchemy competition and just came here to gather some information on his employers target…"
Hearing Yi Min's response, Xuan Hao felt that it was a likely scenario. After all, there was no way Yi Min's enemies would suddenly send someone random back inside after they had just 'killed' a large number of guards.
Though it did make Xuan Hao a bit curious, who had enough courage to plan an assassination inside the capital of the Iron Sky Kingdom?
After all, it had to be remembered that all the participants had guardians at the Nascent Soul Realm with them! After having spread out his divine sense, Xuan Hao even sensed a few people at the Half-Step Domain Lord Realm among the spectators!
For the assassin to have a chance to succeed, he or she would at least be in the Nascent Soul Realm… But a Nascent Soul Realm Expert fighting inside the capital of the Iron Sky Kingdom would instantly trigger the giant formation covering the capital!
No matter what, Xuan Hao could not see how the assassin would proceed… Perhaps poison? But then again, there was currently an Artisan Alchemist close to becoming a Master Alchemist present!
If anyone was poison, that Fang Shi would likely be able to solve it instantly…
Thinking about Fang Shi, Xuan Hao suddenly felt his mood sour.
"Xuan Hao, it looks like my old friends are finally themselves …"
Just as Xuan Hao was about to start cursing Fang Shi in his mind, Yi Min's solemn voice suddenly echoed out inside his head. From her voice alone, Xuan Hao could easily feel a terrifying killing intent slowly stirring...
From the looks of it, the people she was talking about was not just someone at the Core Formation Realm!
It looks like they are beginning their attack!
Thinking this to himself, Xuan Hao could not help frowning, he never imagined that he would end up getting involved with the Iron Sky Kingdom's enemies! Even worse was the fact that he was the main reason why they had decided to attack before the alchemy competition had ended!
From how Yi Min was interacting with him, Xuan Hao knew very well that she expected for him to help up during the upcoming battle…
There was also the quest he had been given by the system when he entered the underground base…
[Side Quest 1/2: Explore the deeper part of the cave.]
[Reward: Unlock next part of the quest]
If he worked together with Yi Min to get rid of her enemies, he would have chance to explore the deeper part of the cave where one of the two Domain Lords from the other side had been guarding with so much devotion that he had even ignored him while he trashed the entrance of the base…
Only when he had another Domain Lord to support him, did the Domain Lord guarding the deeper part of the underground base dare slowly move out to chase after him…
If the Domain Lord was still around, Xuan Hao felt that there was no way for him to complete the side quest before the end of the alchemy competition.
Therefore, he had already steeled himself for the probability that he had to give up on the side quest… But from the look of things, it looked like he might have a chance at completing it if he and Yi Min managed to deal with her enemies!
Even if he had no idea what the reward for completing the side quest was, Xuan Hao still felt drawn towards it due to his curiosity! This was after all the first ever mission that was split into two parts!
The reward for completing such a mission… Xuan Hao could already imagine how great they would be!
Whoosh~
Expanding the range of his divine sense, Xuan Hao soon managed to find the people Yi Min had referred to and the smile at his face slowly began to fade away.
The scene that appeared in front of him was enough to make him reconsider whether or not he should just take the elders from his sect and his disciple and run away from the Iron Sky Kingdom…
How in the world… Why are there so many Domain Lords!? Yi Min… Just how many enemies do you have!?