Hearing that Elder Meng was actually only a little over three thousand years old, Xuan Hao understood that it would only be a matter of time before he managed to recover back to his former peak and broke through to the Soul Ascension Realm.
Other than this, Xuan Hao also caught on to the fact that Elder Meng was not originally someone from the Sky Empire but had only come to the Sky Empire after his strength had regressed to the Fifth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm.
Given how little he knew about the surrounding Empires and the situation outside the Sky Empire, he could only guess that it was due to the place he was from being in a rather chaotic state where even Domain Lords were at the risk of dying if they did not have enough strength.
Not to mention this, it could also be because he feared some of his enemies would take advantage of his weakness to kill him now that his strength had fallen by so much. After all, there was no way someone in the Peak of the Domain Lord Realm had no enemies to worry about. Even if there was, there would definitely always be someone who would be interested in the precious artifacts and other resources possessed by a Peak Domain Lord...
"Now... Do you have any other questions to ask? I will be more than happy to answer them, as having another friend in this place is always welcome. Especially considering that most of the Domain Lords present here are not really that happy about my presence here..."
Hearing what Elder Meng said, Xuan Hao understood that the old man was trying to befriend him, something he was more than happy about considering how talented the old man was. Even if he did not know much about Elder Meng at the moment, he did not look like someone troublesome or bad from what he had seen so far.
"I don't have any other questions to ask other than this, the main thing I was interested in was the state of your domain. Now that I know how it ended up in such a condition, I already got an answer to the main thing I was curious about... And I will be more than happy to be your friend."
Taking out his communication talisman as he said this, Xuan Hao saw Elder Meng happily taking out his own as they soon established a connection between the two talismans so they could contact each other in the future through them.
"Haha, thanks, if there is anything you need help with or want to understand about the Sky Empire in the future, you can always contact me. Even if I haven't been in this empire for more than a thousand years at this point in time, my understanding of this place should far exceed most people below the Soul Ascension Realm!" Smiling happily after seeing that Xuan Hao had agreed to become his friend, Elder Meng quickly put away his communication talisman again before saying this.
In Elder Meng's eyes, he already considered Xuan Hao to be a Domain Lord from the Explorer Union that was unfamiliar to the Sky Empire and was also not part of any of the different powers inside the Sky Empire that was against him.
Because of this, Elder Meng only saw it as something positive to befriend a Domain Lord like Xuan Hao who should at the very least have reached the Late Stage of the Domain Lord Realm according to what he had seen so far.
"No problem at all. Having a friend who knows this empire will also be helpful to me. Well then, I will see you later."
"Farewell, I hope we can meet up again like this in the future."
Finishing his conversation with Elder Meng, Xuan Hao left the room before making his way out of the Black Mist auction house.
Although Elder Meng was not someone he knew before now, the information he had given him about the Sky Empire was far more useful and in-depth compared to what Yi Min had given to him.
From this alone, it was obvious to see just how good Elder Meng's information network was compared to other Domain Lords... Well... Comparing the information a Domain Lord staying in the capital city of the Sky Empire had of the empire to a Domain Lord that was well known for never moving out of her kingdom, was not really fair...
Shaking his head as he thought about this, Xuan Hao decided to continue looking around the capital city and see if there were any more public lectures done by other Domain Lords.
Even if they would not be someone like Elder Meng who had once been at the Peak of the Domain Lord Realm and had allowed him to see how he could potentially increase the strength of his domain in the future, Xuan Hao at the very least hoped that seeing the domain of other Domain Lords together with them explaining their progress in the Domain Lord Realm might be able to help him gaining a better understanding of the realm and how to further improve the strength of his domain in preparation to overcome the Immortal Soul tribulation in the future.
...
Wandering around the city and trying to find out if there were any other Domain Lords holding a public lecture like Elder Meng had done, Xuan Hao was currently walking past a large restaurant when a large group of guards suddenly marched in his direction before coming to a stop only a dozen or so meters away from him.
Are they here for me? Did an expert for one of those noble family perhaps see me before I escaped and informed the imperial family about me? No... They shouldn't have done something like that as it could give away the fact that they had not done anything to deal with the demonic cultivator... But what is it then? Did the cardinal I saved see me or-
"Look over there! The city guards are here again... Do you think it's related to what happened in the noble district?"
"How would I know? The guards have all been coming here once every three or so hours ever since that happened! To be honest, it's quite a bother as they keep scaring the customers away..."
As Xuan Hao was preparing for the worst case scenario while looking towards the large group of guards that had come to a stop in front of him, the voice of two people sitting by a small table in front of the large restaurant chatting together allowed him to let out a sigh of relief as he understood that the guards were not after him due to someone discovering his involvement in dealing with the demonic cultivator that had caused the destruction of close to everything inside the noble district.
But if they are not here for me, why did so many guards gather here in first place? And from what those two just said, it seems like they have already come here several time ever since what happened in the noble district...
Deciding to slowly move to the side as he thought about this, Xuan Hao quickly blended in with the small crowd of people that had started gathering together to see what the large group of guards were up to.
"Captain... Are you really sure this is the place? This is already the tenth time we have come here, isn't it about time to give up and look somewhere else...?"
"No! I'm certain that thing is here! His imperial majesty also said that the crack in the formation that the demonic cultivator used to enter the capital without alerting the formation is around here!"
"But... We have already combed through this place several times without finding anything. Looking again will not help-"
Swish-!
"And you are not listening to me again..."
Listening to the conversation between the captain of the guards that had showed up and the Vice Captain, Xuan Hao felt surprised that they were actually looking for a crack in the formation that the powerful True Demon Realm demonic cultivator had used to enter the capital and avoid the guardian formations detection.
Considering that the guardian formation would react to anyone above the Domain Lord Realm entering it, it was obvious that the demonic cultivator had to find a way to enter the capital city without alerting it... But he just never expected for this method of entering the capital city to be through a crack in the guardian formation!
Not to mention how difficult it would be to hide a crack in the formation, Xuan Hao had already seen the spatial tunnel that the demonic cultivator had created and used to escape from the capital city.
Although he didn't know much about the creation of spatial tunnels like the one the demonic cultivator had used to avoid getting blocked by the guardian formation, Xuan Hao had expected for the demonic cultivator to have used a similar method when entering the capital city by bypassing the guardian formation through some sort spatial tunnel.
Never did he expect for him to use a method similar to the one that the demonic cultivators targeting Yi Min had used when entering her kingdom's capital city...