After Xuan Hao and Qing Yi had made it back to the manor, they quickly went back to their own room to rest for the night, while Gong Bo and Chi Hu decided to wait for the rest of the elders before returning to their room to rest.
"What happened? Did you happen to fight someone on your way back…?"
The moment the other elders returned with the half dead looking elder being supported by one of them, Gong Bo could not help but exclaim in a surprised tone as he asked with a curious look on his face. Wondering just how the elders had managed to get into a fight during the short period of time that they had separated…
"Elder Gong… It's not like that at all! Actually-"
Hearing what Gong Bo said, one of the elders smiled wryly before stepping forward to explain what had happened. Not forgetting to mention the fact that the injured party had refused to talk about what happened to him during the time he had been trying to get into the alchemy competition and watch.
"Hm… I understand… Elder Tian, would you like to explain what happened to you?"
"This… Can we talk privately…?"
Knowing that he would not be able to refuse someone like Gong Bo, who was one of the leading elders of the Alchemy Hall, Elder Tian agreed to talk about what had happened to him. Only, he requested for it to be done privately, so the other elders could not listen in.
"That's fine with me. Follow me and we will talk in my room."
Realizing that it might be something embarrassing, Gong Bo felt his curiosity grow, as he readily agreed to Elder Tian's request before both of them left the other elders and made their way towards Gong Bo's room in the large manor.
"So, what on earth happened to you…?"
Sitting down at a small table inside the room without any of the other elders around, Gong Bo once again asked Elder Tian.
"This is… After I separated from the rest of you and was refused entrance to the-"
Looking around and making sure none of the other elders were listening in from the side, Elder Tian slowly began to retell the events that led up to his current situation.
…
A few hours ago, Elder Tian had made his way to the long line of people waiting to pay a small fee to get in and watch the alchemy competition taking place.
Like this, Elder Tian had spent a good 30 minutes before finally reaching the entrance-
"Sorry, there is no more available seating spots inside…"
Only to be refused at the entrance by one of the guards, who informed him and the other people behind him. About the fact that there were no more seating spots left inside.𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦
If they still wanted to enter, they could wait for someone to leave, but Elder Tian did not really see that happening any time soon and with this in mind, Elder Tian decided to give up on waiting for what would likely be few hours. Already having wasted half an hour in line and instead decided to make his way around the capital now that he had a lot of free time at hand. At the very least he would not feel too regretful if he manged to find some good spiritual herbs being sold cheaply and even if he didn't, he would still be able to explore the capital of the Iron Sky Kingdom and see all the large artifact shops that had made this city so popular in the first place...
This would soon come to be a decision he would come to regret, as Elder Tian made his way over towards what could be considered the centre of the capital where all of the shops were located.
Only to suddenly end up catching the sight of an older madam also moving in the same direction as him.
At first, Elder Tian had not paid much attention to this older woman tailing him from behind. However, in hindsight, he should have remembered to be more cautious. After all, he was in a completely unfamiliar place all alone…
"Ara? Who is this cutie?"
As he had arrived at the centre of the capital, the older woman had suddenly approached him and called out to him in a seductive way as she slowly began moving closer.
"Me?"
Even at this point, Elder Tian had no sense of danger. Only feeling surprised over how the older madam had referred to him, an elder already close to a hundred years of age. Looking like he was close to reaching his sixties, while not having the same sagely old man appearance as Elder Song, he was not too far away. Only lacking the splendid beard…
"Yes you! I wonder if it's your first time to the capital… If you want, this big sister can show you around, I know all the shops around here. Hehe~"
"Really? Sure, if you want to."
Ignoring the creepy laughter at the end, Elder Tian had examined the older woman and falsely determined meant no harm before agreeing to her request.
In the end, the older woman had ended up showing him around the place for some time before they ended up visiting a small teashop owned by her.
"Hm? I-I suddenly feel really tired…"
After having only, a single cup of tea, Elder Tian had only felt both his eyelids grow heavy as he felt himself slowly falling into a deep sleep.
Knowing that something was wrong, Elder Tian was still an experienced Expert Alchemist and quickly managed to deduce what had happened to him, so in one swift and secret motion, a small needle appeared in his hand before he secretly pierced it into his thigh.
A sleep-inducing potion of the Spirt Grade… I hope the antidote will take effect in time and allow me to wake up before she does anything…
Thinking this to himself as he slowly felt himself losing consciousness, Elder Tian barely looked over towards the older woman.
The last thing he remembered seeing before everything went dark, was the older woman suddenly smiling at him sinisterly before he lost consciousness.