Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

[Limited Time Sect Quest: Gather the rest of the natural treasures needed for the construction of the Qi Gathering Formation and set up the Qi Gathering Formation inside the Shattered Star Peaks within two years' time!]

[Time: 2 years]

[Reward: Cultivation Increase of 1 Minor Realm, ???]

Looking over the quest that he had just managed to trigger, Xuan Hao could not help smiling happily. The limited time sect quest not only hid a reward like it usually tended to do, but it would also allow him to increase his cultivation realm by one minor realm!

Even without being given a quest by the system, he would still have tried to gather the things he needed for the Qi Gathering Formation and set it up before the two years' time period was over and the construction for a new and bigger sect to house both the disciple of the Flying Sword Sect and the Spring Flower Sect started.

"Hm? Looks like Qing Yi is back already…" Pushing the new quest from the system aside as he felt his disciple coming over after having taken a quick break, Xuan Hao returned his focus back to what he would be teaching Qing Yi next.

The time limit for the sect quest was two years… He had more than enough time to look for the last three natural treasures that he needed for the Qi Gathering Formation at another time.

For now, he had to help Qing Yi prepare for the upcoming alchemy competition that was only a single week away!

Other than that, he also had to think up some different measures to deal with the alchemist from the Sky Empire in case he took an interest in his disciple and tried to take her away. No mater what, he could not let that happen!

"Master! I'm back!"

Following the voice of Qing Yi who had just returned to the alchemy room, Xuan Hao soon began teaching her again. Making sure that he covered the important areas of alchemy that she didn't learn about yet, like the preparation of poisonous spiritual herbs that he went over at the start.

Not forgetting to include some more standard alchemy to make sure she would be improving across the board during his teaching sessions.

Like this, the week leading up to the alchemy competition peacefully passed with Xuan Hao diligently teaching Qing Yi for several hours every single day.

During this time, the people scheming against the Iron Sky Kingdom seemed to have disappeared into thin air. Even the thieves coming to steal spiritual metals never returned after Xuan Hao's visit to their underground base.

The capital of the Iron Sky Kingdom was truly peaceful during this week up to the alchemy competition.

…

"We have to hurry! The alchemy competition hosted by one of the Sky Empire's Artisan Alchemist in our capital is going to start in just a few hours! All the seating spots will be gone if we arrive too late!"

"Yes, I heard that even the lord will show up personally! The Artisan Alchemist sure is powerful… Even our lord has to show up!"

"Calm down! Isn't it just an Artisan Alchemist? The Sky Empire has a lot of them… Don't forget who our lord is! How can an Artisan Alchemist compare to our lord?"

Walking along the incredibly busy streets of the Iron Sky Kingdom's capital, Xuan Hao had gone out to get some air before the start of the alchemy competition.

Listening to the conversation of a group made up of three friends, Xuan Hao could not help but notice how excited they were about the alchemy competition.

Not only them, everywhere he looked, people were excitedly talking about the upcoming alchemy competition hosted by the Artisan Alchemy from the Sky Empire!

This made Xuan Hao a bit curious, as this was the first time, he had ever really seen anyone outside of alchemist so excited when it came to alchemy.

Perhaps it was just because he had never really moved too far away from the territory of the Flying Sword Sect before? Alchemy was after all. Not really that developed back in the Flying Sword Sect. Let alone the surrounding sects and kingdoms…

Thinking this, Xuan Hao could not help shaking his head in pity.

Alchemy was incredibly valuable to cultivators, but the disciples back in the Flying Sword Sect had never really shown any profound interest in learning alchemy. This could be seen from the fact that the youngest member of the Alchemy Hall outside of Qing Yi was thirty years old!

How the Alchemy Hall even remained operating with such low numbers was an odd occurrence. The only real reason why it had remained likely had to do with the fact that cultivators could live longer than normal people…

Hopefully they would be able to spark some interest in alchemy with Qing Yi's performance during the alchemy competition.

Thinking this to himself, Xuan Hao had unknowingly ended up with the exact same idea as the elders back at the Alchemy Hall who wanted to use the alchemy competition as a way to possible recruit more disciples into the Alchemy Halls and ensure the future alchemist of the Flying Sword Sect.

"Yeah, I heard about that as well! I never expected for the Artisan Alchemist of the Sky Empire to be-"

"Hm?" Hearing something unexpected as he walked along the streets of the capital, Xuan Hao came to a stop as he carefully began listening. Unwilling to miss anything, as the thing he heard next caused him to frown.

"The Artisan Alchemist of the Sky Empire is actually at the peak of the Artisan Realm and half a step into the Master Realm…?"

This news was nothing short of terrible, as it looked like the Artisan Alchemist from the Sky Empire was way stronger than he had first expected.

The difference between an Artisan Alchemist and a Master Alchemist was like the difference between heaven and earth!

Becoming a Master Alchemist would symbolize that one had reached the peak in alchemy on the Ewaria Continent! The alchemist from the Sky Empire was only half a step away from reaching this legendary realm!

"Hah… I should be fine…" Remembering the fact that he himself could also be considered to have reached the peak of the Artisan Realm, as well as the fact that he was a Domain Lord, Xuan Hao calmed down again.

No matter what, he would never allow anyone to steal away his disciples!

If things came down to it, he could always return the favour! if the person from the Sky Empire really tried to steal his disciple, he would steal away his disciple as well!

Thinking about this, Xuan Hao could not help smiling wryly to himself.

The scene of him and that unknown Artisan Alchemist trying to steal each other's disciples away, was really an interesting thing to imagine…

"Looks like I should get going before the competition starts…" Throwing the thought of him and the unknown Artisan Alchemist stealing each other's disciples to the back of his mind, Xuan Hao left the street and returned to the manor that he, Qing Yi and the rest of the elders from the Alchemy Hall had stayed at during the past week.

…

"Hm? Why did it get cold all of a sudden? Did someone perhaps leave an open window somewhere?"

At the same time inside the palace located at the centre of the Iron Sky Kingdom's capital, Fang Shi, the Artisan Alchemist who would surely try to 'steal' Xuan Hao's disciple, shivered as he looked around himself with a confused look on his face.

"There are no windows inside an underground storage room… Master…" From the side, his disciple Cai Yu, almost facepalmed upon hearing her master's stupid question.

They were a few dozen meters underground getting the last batch of spiritual herbs for the alchemy competition… Why in the world was her master talking about someone having left a window open?

"Ah… I see… Hehe, my bad- By the way, did you find any of the Yellow Heart Spirit Leaves?" Laughing a bit awkwardly when he realized that they were indeed underground, the old man soon changed the topic towards the thing they had come down to search for.

"No, I didn't find any Yellow Heart Spirit Leaves…" Rolling her eyes at how obviously her master switched the topic away, Cai Yu did not bother dealing with him and just went along with it, she knew very well what kind of person her master was…

"Not found… Hm… This is really bad; we haven't found any of the Purple Jewel Flower Roots either! At the very least, these things are for the final. Hopefully I will be able to come up with something different before then. Now that it looks like a few of the spiritual herbs for the pill I planned to make the semi-finalists create is not going to show up…" Frowning sadly when he said this, Fang Shi didn't notice how his disciple rolled her eyes upon hearing what he said.

Those are all Peak Spirit Grade Herbs… If you really make them create a pill using so many different Spirit Grade Herbs, I fear that not a single person in the semi-finals will make it through to the final…

Not saying her thoughts out loud, Cai Yu just silently searched through the underground storage room together with her master.