"Ehm... Excuse me..."
"Hm?"
Hearing someone nervously asking him from the side, Xuan Hao turned around before coming face to face with the nervous server who had been standing beside him for the last five minutes wondering whether or not he was going to order something new or leave.
"Ah! I forgot to pay... Here you go!"
Thinking that the server was just there for payment, Xuan Hao had no idea what the cake and other delicacies he ate cost, so he ended up casually taking out a dozen or so spirit stones before handing them over to the server who froze on the spot after seeing the spirit stones, she had been given.
"Well then, I will get going."
Swish-!
As Xuan Hao left the small cafe after paying, the server could only speechlessly stare down at the dozen or so spirit stones Xuan Hao had given her.
Even if low grade spirit stones were not rare in the capital city of the Sky Empire, the one's Xuan Hao had handed over were far above the level of low grade spirit stones!
T-this... This is far too much!
Not knowing what to do with the sudden windfall, the server looked around herself and saw that no one were looking as she quickly hid half the spirit stones she had been given before making her way back towards the kitchen.
Even if she did not have anything against the owner of the caf??, there was no way she was going to just let that person enjoy all of these spirit stones by himself. Especially considering that the other party was the one who had forced her to work without break for the past few hours!
Hmph! This is what you get for taking away my break!
Thinking this to herself, the server was filled with smiles as she handed over the remaining spirit stones to the owner who happily took away the spirit stones before dashing away to put them in a more secure location.
...
Leaving the small caf??, Xuan Hao didn't immediately leave the square. Instead, he began walking toward the supreme elder of the Sky Mist Kingdom who was making his way back into the Black Mist auction house with a crowd of people following after him.
From a glance, it was obvious that the old man's method of holding a public lecture to attract more attention towards his recently opened auction house had worked... And he didn't even have to find some sort of precious artifact or spiritual herb to do this. All it cost him was an hour time!
Even if it was a less useful method, it was obvious that he was more than pleased with the result or it could be that he just enjoyed being praised by the people who were eagerly following behind him with smiles on their faces...
Entering the Black Mist auction house, Xuan Hao ignored the different artifacts and spiritual herbs that were put in display all around the auction house and gently pushed aside the crowd of people that had gathered around the supreme elder from the Sky Mist Kingdom as he made his way towards the old man.
"Hm? You are..."
Noticing Xuan Hao the moment he used his domain, the happy smile on the supreme elder's face froze as both his eyes narrowed before looking towards Xuan Hao who had approached him.
"You can just call me Bright Sword; I just have a few things I want to ask you about regarding the lecture you held just a few moments ago... If you don't mind it of course."
"Bright Sword, I don't think I heard about you before... Are you perhaps new to the Sky Empire?"
"Yes, I'm from the Explorer Union and just came here recently."
Not intending to reveal his identity, Xuan Hao just used the name he had used back when he had first registered with the Explorer Union to get the location of the spiritual herb needed to awaken Qing Yi's special physique. Although the name didn't really provide much in terms of identity due to Bright Sword not really having much of a reputation, it could at least help him with the fact that he was a completely unknown Domain Lord.
After all, the Explorer Union was spread out across the entire continent and had thousands of different Domain Lord Realm Experts under it that roamed across the continent in search of different ruins and other special locations that could help improve their strength and serve as a way to increase their status inside the Explorer Union.
"I see, you can just call me Elder Meng, should we move somewhere more private to talk?"
"Sure."
Nodding his head in understanding after hearing that Xuan Hao was someone from the Explorer Union, the supreme elder of the Sky Mist Kingdom who introduced himself as Elder Meng waved the group of people around him away before signalling for a few people ensuring the safety of the auction house to help make sure no more people ran over to praise him.
The main reason why he was not suspicious of Xuan Hao was the fact that he could clearly feel that the other party was far stronger than him.
Although it was normal for some weaker Domain Lords to be unknown, it was close to impossible for the more powerful Domain Lords to remain unknown for a long period of time. After all, it took hundreds if not thousands of years to reach their current realm and for them to improve took even longer.
For them to remain unknown for such a long period of time, they would have to isolate themselves from the world!
In any case, getting to know another Domain Lord and possible making a new friend that was stronger than himself, was something Elder Meng was more than happy to do. Even if it ended up delaying the opening ceremony he had planned to further increase the reputation of his auction house, it could always wait until later. At most he would have to do another public lecture...
"..."
Not expecting for Elder Meng to just accept his identity so easily, Xuan Hao was a bit taken aback as he followed him inside a large luxurious room that was isolated from the rest of the auction house.
"So... What is it you wanted to ask me about? Hm... Let me guess, you are new to the Sky Empire and want to ask a local like me about the current power structure of the place and which forces would be best to avoid? Right?"
Feeling a bit taken aback by what Elder Meng said, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a bit taken aback for a moment as he realized that there would not really be any other reason for a Domain Lord from the Explorer Union who had just recently entered the Sky Empire to seek out an unknown Domain Lord from the Sky Empire...
"Yes... That and something different..."
Given that he was currently using this identity, he could only give a wry smile to Elder Meng, who quickly showed a triumphant smile after hearing Xuan Hao saying this.
All things considered, Xuan Hao did indeed feel a bit curious about the current power structure of the Sky Empire. After all, the only thing he knew about it so far, was the imperial family at the top. Followed by the three religious organisations and the different noble families from the noble district.
Outside of these three major powers, he didn't really know anything about the other powers that existed inside the Sky Empire.
To be honest, even though there were tens of thousands of different kingdoms in the Sky Empire, with hundreds of them having a Domain Lord leading them, he still had no real idea about the different kingdoms of the Sky Empire nor did he have an idea what the strongest kingdom under the Sky Empire was...
The only thing he knew something about, was the different experts recorded in the book Yi Min had given him... But considering that none of the Soul Ascension Realm Experts were recorded inside of it, he would not find it surprising if some of the more powerful experts with more influence in the Sky Empire had erased their name from the book entirely. Even then, there were still a few powerful kingdoms that had been mentioned in the description of a few of the more powerful Domain Lords...
Shaking his head as he thought about this, Xuan Hao turned his attention back towards Elder Meng who was similarly thinking about something-
"Ah! Sorry for that my friend, I was a little lost in thought there for a second, I guess you would also want to know about the different ancient ruins and other interesting locations in the Sky Empire for exploration later... Well then, should we start with the more powerful forces that would mean certain death for Domain Lords like us to offend?"
"Sure... That would be a good place to start..."