Cultivating Disciples To Breakthrough

by Stayrr

Within a quiet pavilion on top of a lonely mountain peak, Xuan Hao slowly opened his eyes with a bewildered look on his face, he had transmigrated into a cultivation world as an elder of the Flying Sword Sect. He was even an expert at the Nascent Soul Realm, who had the power to easily destory an entire city with a wave of his hand. Most importantly, he had a system that allowed h

3. 97

Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough #Chapter 97: Returning to the Pavilion... - Read Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough Chapter 97: Returning to the Pavilion... Online - All Page - Novel Bin

Chapter 97: Returning to the Pavilion...

Looking at Lu Wen's figure quickly disappearing from their vision, both Yu and Zeng Shihan laughed a bit to themselves as the crowd that had gathered around them seemed to have realized that there was not really anything wrong with what Yu and Zeng Shihan was doing, as they quickly dispersed and returned to doing their own thing again.

"You guys set him up?" Looking at the laughing Zeng Shihan and Yu, Qing Yi realized as she looked at both of them with a questioning look plastered on her face.

"Why?" This question was on her mind, no matter what, she could not see any reason as to why these two would work together to set up Lu Wen in the first place.

From what Qing Yi knew about him outside what she had learned about him from the newcomer tournament, Lu Wen seemed like a decent person, although he was a bit more stupid and arrogant compared to the normal disciple.

But she did not really see this as too much of a problem as he mostly spend his time dealing with various troublemakers and often helped other disciples whenever they found themselves in trouble.

Qing Yi still remembered a time when Lu Wen saved a young merchants daughter in a town close to the Flying Sword Sect from a rich second-generation kid's lecherous intentions and wanted to take her in as his seventh concubine or something.

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Apparently, he ended up fighting the lecherous kid's great great grandfather who was at the Core Formation Realm after beating up the great grandfather who was close to the peak of the Foundation Establishment Realm and his master Core Elder Wang Hu who had just arrived at the location had to step in and help him out…

After that incident, Lu Wen's reputation inside the sect had skyrocketed and many saw him as the new leader of the younger generation. After all the current leader of the younger generation, Ling Song was already close to his thirties and had recently reached the Core Formation Realm…

"That kid caused me quite a lot of trouble, a few days ago when I was trying to sell some potions here and claimed they were some defunct products of some kind, and he wanted his money back…" Yu answered with a slightly annoyed look on his face.

"Yeah! Last time I tried to sell some of my artifacts as well, but that Lu Wen claimed that I was charging way too much for them and wanted me to lower the price range and reach the same level as the other disciples sold for! He was clearly trying to make me lose money! If others had the same quality as mine, why not just buy theirs instead?" Zeng Shihan looked in the direction that Lu Wen had disappeared into with a murderous look.

So, it was about him trying to "scam" them out of money…

Upon hearing their reasons Qing Yi did not mind them fooling Lu Wen, but instead felt that it was too merciful… If it were her, Qing Yi would have made sure he regretted trying to fool her about of her profits!

"So, what was it that you bought from senior brother Yu?" Not thinking about Lu Wen any longer, Qing Yi instead turned her attention towards the thing that Zeng Shihan had gotten earlier from Senior Yu.

"Ah that, it's just some ingredients for today's dinner… I wanted to try making it myself for once, so I asked Yu to get me some specific herbs and vegetables for it. Yu is known for growing all kinds of unique herbs and vegetables in the sect, so if you need any in the future, I recommend going to him for them." Taking out the small bag she got handed by Yu earlier, Zeng Shihan showed the different kinds of herbs and vegetables inside it to Qing Yi before she quickly closed it and put it away.

"I see… Should we get going then, I still want to buy some herbs before going back again."

"Sure!" Smiling brightly, Zeng Shihan answered as both of them walked away from Yu's small stall and entered deeper into the marketplace.

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The marketplace was one of the liveliest places in the Flying Sword Sect, as disciples were always present there trying to either buy or sell something. For this reason, a lot of small stalls selling all sorts of street food managed mostly by some members from the servant quarters had popped up around the place.

The servant quarters mostly viewed this as a good experience for the younger members to get a chance to interact with the disciples of the Flying Sword Sect and maybe it was even a chance for them to meet a friend that could become a future elder and get to work for them later.

Though for most of the servants coming to sell street food at the marketplace, it was a way for them to relax and earn a bit more besides the salary paid out by the servant quarters every month.

The time spent in the marketplace in front of the Artifact Hall passed by quickly and soon a few hours had gone by.

"Bye, Yiyi~ I will miss you~"

"I will see you next time Shihan! Bye, bye!" Waving goodbye outside the entrance to the marketplace, Qing Yi smiled happily as both her and Zeng Shihan made their way back their own home after a quick goodbye.

…

"Ah… I forgot about junior brother Chu Yang…" Standing in front of the pavilion, Qing Yi quickly remembered that she had left Chu Yang to learn about herb and plant cultivation deep inside of a greenhouse in the pavilion. The initial posting of this chapter occurred via N0v3l.B11n.

Making her way over to the greenhouse where she had left him earlier, Qing Yi did not feel too worried about him. After all, she had only left him for a few hours!

"S-senior sister? I-is that you…?" Upon entering the greenhouse, Qing Yi immediately found Chu Yang laying half dead in a corner with some of the herbs that she had left for him to plant close by, seemingly with a few bite marks in them.

"…" She forgot that he had not eaten anything yet and even if he were a Foundation Establishment cultivator, Chu Yang's appetite was extremely huge, and he could not go for long without getting something to eat.

This was mostly due to his recent intense training that he had grown used to eating quite often.

In the end, the current sad sight of him surrounded by half eaten plants was due to him not having eaten anything since yesterday.

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The initial posting of this chapter occurred via N0v3l.B11n.

Chapter 98: Danger Approaching

After getting her junior brother Chu Yang outside and sending him over to the dining hall, Qing Yi went back into the greenhouse that he had been using to check out what herbs or spiritual plants he had ended up eating…

Hopefully, he did not eat anything that would end up bringing him some form of negative effect, at the very least, Qing Yi knew that the herbs she handed for him to practice with were only at the mortal grade… So, it should not have too much of a negative effect on someone in the Foundation Establishment Realm…

Entering the greenhouse once again, Qing Yi walked over to the corner where she had found Chu Yang earlier and picked up a few of the half-eaten spiritual herbs and inspected them closely.

"Looks like my junior brother will not be having a good time in the next few days…" Holding up one of the herbs that she had picked up from the ground, Qing Yi smiled awkwardly to herself as she thought about the sad fate of her junior brother over the next few days.

Most of the herbs that he had eaten would be harmless, but there was one of them that was not… The earth calla lily, this herb was relatively ordinary and could be found almost everywhere in Ewaria, but it had some interesting properties due to it having some earth qi inside of it, this in turn had resulted in some quite… unique side effects after consumption…

One of which resulted in the person who consumed it needed to use the toilet quite often…

"I hope nothing bad happens to him at the dining hall…" Thinking this, Qing Yi sent her thoughts towards her junior brother. Hoping that he did not end up doing something that would end up embarrassing himself in front of the other disciples there…

At the dining hall of the Flying Sword Sect, Chu Yang ended up running away all of a sudden at speed faster than what a Foundation Establishment cultivator should be able to muster. Surprising all the surrounding disciple that were sitting at the tables eating by themselves.

A little later, Chu Yang found a restroom and felt the pain of eating some random herbs that he had no idea about…

Like this, the next few days passed by quickly with Chu Yang stuck in an endless loop of suffering while Qing Yi could not help but laugh at him every time, she got a chance to do so. Not feeling sorry for him at all, no matter what, it would not kill him to go through a little suffering… At the very least he would learn a little more about the suffering some herbs could bring.

…

Arriving a bit outside of the Flying Sword City that was just besides the Flying Sword Sect, a skinny elderly man wrapped in a completely black robe advanced to the entrance and quickly entered after showing a small token with a weird symbol on it to one of the guards who nodded and allowed him to enter.

Walking through the city, the elderly man soon came to a stop in front of a relatively secluded area, with a somewhat rundown inn placed close to the nearby road, but still a bit far away from it.

Seeing this, the skinny elderly man smiled slightly to himself as he walked over to the inn and entered through a backdoor.

"Who are you?! What do you want here?!" The moment that he entered through the back entrance, a group of men came over and one of them threateningly asked him as the rest of them pulled out all sorts of weapons. Ready to act the moment that the elderly man showed any sign of doing something threating towards them.

"I'm sent by the elders to check up on how things are going here in the Flying Sword City and see if you have found out anything about the person that we are searching for!" Ignoring the threatening men with their weapons drawn, the skinny elderly man took out the token he had shown to the guard earlier and showed it the man who had asked him.

"Ah! So, it's an envoy! Sorry for the earlier reaction, but recently a lot of people have come to look around, I think that the Flying Sword Sect might be on to us already." Saying, the man at the front who had spoken earlier signalled for the rest of the men to lower their weapons as he explained to the skinny elderly man.

"I understand, we already knew that it would only be a matter of time before the Flying Sword Sect picked up on us in the first place… But did you find the person we were searching for?!" Answering in a slightly angrier tone of voice, the skinny elderly man stressed the importance of the last part as he stared at the man at the front of the group.

"Y-yes envoy, w-we did manage to find out something about the person that the sect asked us to find!" Flinching a bit upon seeing the envoy get angry all of a sudden, the man in the front quickly answered the question instead of forgetting to answer it again and pissing off the envoy even more.

"So? Where is he?" Raising an eyebrow at the mention of this, instead of getting happy. The envoy clearly saw the hesitation in the man's eyes and knew that something was wrong.

"H-he became a disciple of the Flying Sword Sect… F-from what we know he does not leave the sect and he should also have become a disciple of one of the Core Elders…" Trying to avoid eye contact with the envoy, the man looked all over the place as he nervously explained.

"…I will have to inform the elders about this, you lot stay here and do what you were doing beforehand." Feeling his expression darken upon hearing what the now shivering man told him, the envoy took out a communication talisman and walked upstairs to find a room where he could quietly inform his superiors and find out what the next plan of action would be…

A Core Elder in the Flying Sword Sect was at least at the Nascent Soul Realm, this was not something that he, a mere envoy, could deal with…

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Chapter 99: Future Alchemy Competition

Entering the Flying Sword Sect, Xuan Hao immediately made his way over to the Sect Master's pavilion and handed the notebook of Lord Kubera over to him, before making his way back to his own pavilion.

It had not taken as much time as Xuan Hao had expected for it to take, so his disciples should be quite surprised upon seeing him again so quickly…

"Maybe I should just go to the Burning Mountain Range and practice a bit… They won't know that I had returned anyways and will most likely just think that I'm still out handling the task given to me by the sect master…" Coming to a stop on his way back to his pavilion, Xuan Hao looked in the direction of where it was located.

Whoosh~

"Indeed, I have to at least know how strong I am…" After thinking over it for a bit, Xuan Hao decided to enter the Burning Mountain Range once again, this time just to find a demon beast to practice with and find out how strong he currently was compared to the past him.

…

"You have to make sure the Spirit Jade Flowers are nurtured with water qi on a daily basis, or they will simply die out!"

As Xuan Hao left the sect once again, Qing Yi was currently doing her best to train up her recently recovered junior brother up to become the best botanist out there.

"Qing Yi, there is someone out there asking for you." A voice drifted over from the entrance to the greenhouse that Qing Yi and Chu Yang were currently in, as Qing Yi turned around and looked towards the source of the voice.

"Zhi Ruo? Do you perhaps know who it is and what they want? I'm quite busy at the moment as you can see…" Qing Yi signalled towards Chu Yang, as the person in question resumed what he was doing beforehand.

"The person said that he was from the Alchemy Hall… He also said that if you would still not come, I should tell you about a competition with a really lucrative prize happening soon."

"A lucrative prize!?" Hearing what Zhi Ruo said, Qing Yi threw the book she had in her hand away and immediately appeared besides Zhi Ruo with a smile on her lips.

"Come, let's go immediately!"

"Ouch!"

As the book hit Chu Yang directly in the back of his head, causing him to almost pass out due to the force behind the throw, Qing Yi soon left the greenhouse together with Zhi Ruo.

"…" Chu Yang soon turned to look around the greenhouse after he recovered, only to discover that he had been left alone once again… The initial posting of this chapter occurred via N0v3l.B11n.

"Ah, so it's senior brother Yu! What was the competition that Zhi Ruo mentioned?" Outside of the pavilion, Yu was standing there quietly as he saw Qing Yi rush out of the pavilion, it looked like the method that Zeng Shihan had taught him worked quite well!

"Recently the Alchemy Hall of our sect has gotten invited to a youth alchemy competition. The competition is supposedly supported by the Sky Empire and the prizes for even getting into the top 100 is extremely lucrative. From what I Know, at the moment, you are the only one who reaches the right age for participating in the competition in our Alchemy Hall, so I came over to ask if you were interested to join… Even just joining would allow one to get a participation award of quite a few spirit stones~" Explaining with a smile on his face, senior Yu looked expectingly at Qing Yi.

"I-I really want to join, but I will have to ask my master first… H-how long do I have until it starts?" Struggling a lot with not just accepting right away, Qing Yi asked senior Yu.

"Haha, you don't need to worry about it, I know that your master is out at the moment. The competition will only begin in little over half a years' time, so you can just ask your master when he returns." Knowing the reason for her struggle, senior Yu laughed a bit upon seeing this before he reassured her.

"Great! By the way, what is the reason for the competition? Why is the Sky Empire hosting a competition all of a sudden?" Smiling happily upon realizing that there was more than enough time before the competition, Qing Yi suddenly asked about the reason behind it.

No matter what, the Sky Empire would not host a competition for no reason all of a sudden and even give away some valuable stuff to attract people to come and participate…

"Indeed… From what I know, apparently an old Artisan Alchemist from the Sky Empire is looking to take in a disciple and decided to set up the competition to find a disciple. The reason for the age requirement is also because of this, the Artisan Alchemist would not want to take in someone from the older generation and instead wanted someone young and talented..." A slight sadness could be seen in senior Yu's eyes when he mentioned this.

"…" Qing Yi decided to not interrupt him as she just quietly watches senior Yu slowly come to terms with that fact that he was no longer so young anymore.

"The Alchemy Hall decided that if you were going to accept and join the competition, we would make sure to help you improve over the next half year! Of course, that is after we have dealt with the recent plague outbreak first…" Thinking about the plague that was still getting worse and worse in the central region, senior Yu really wanted for a solution to appear soon so things could return to normal again.

Having to constantly dedicate his time to helping with research was extremely exhausting! Especially when it was not something he originally wanted to research in the first place, he even had to cut out the time he normally used to improve himself to study the plague and trying to find a way to cure it…

"For now, follow me back to the Alchemy Hall, we need to get you some new books and a few new pill and potion formulas as well." With this, senior Yu lead the way as both of them made their way towards the Alchemy Hall.

"Ah, Zhi Ruo, please get Chu Yang some food, he is currently in the greenhouse training in how to properly take care of plants and herbs!" Just before she disappeared down the mountain peak, Qing Yi remembered Chu Yang this time around as she instructed Zhi Ruo to take care of him and make sure he got something to eat this time around.

"…" Zhi Ruo just quietly nodded as she looked at where Qing Yi had disappeared before looking back at the pavilion in the direction of the greenhouse that Chu Yang was staying at.

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Chapter 100: Fur Ball Demon Beast Appears!

Whoosh~ Dive into Stories, Embrace Enchantment: NvεlB¡n.

At the edges of the Burning Mountain Range, Xuan Hao landed quietly as he put away his sword and looked up at the giant mountain range stretching on for thousands upon thousands of miles into the distance.

"Hm… From the information given by the Explorers Union, there should be a demon beast at the Nascent Soul Realm a few miles away from here…" Taking out a map, Xuan Hao inspected one of the few marked areas on it and soon closed it and proceeded to take out his sword once again before flying in the direction where the demon beast was supposed to be.

…

At the same time, a little further inside the Burning Mountain Range, a certain demon beast was having the time of its life as it savoured on some meat from a giant mountain lion demon beast that it had hunted down earlier.

"Roar~!"

Ah~ This is life~

Letting out a satisfied roar, the demon beast in question rolled back into the small cave that it lived in.

Looking closer, one would be able to see that the shape of the demon beast was quite unique, it looked like a giant ball, except, this ball had fur on it and a giant mouth filled with sharp teeth. The eyes of the demon beast could not be seen, as the fur covered it up completely. Legs or arms could not be seen either, meaning the demon fur ball most likely moved by rolling around.

"ROAR!"

Y-you! You are the one who killed my father! I know you are hiding in there, come out and face me!

Just as the demon fur ball had rolled back into his cave to enjoy the rest of the mountain lion's meat, an angry roar came from outside disturbing the former peaceful scene.

"…" Stopping just as it was about to bite down on the meat, the fur ball demon beast turned around and looked angrily in the direction of the little lion cub that had dared to disturb it while it was eating.

"ROAR!" Letting out an earth-shattering roar, the fur ball demon beast rolled out from its cave in a majestic manner and came to a stop a few meters away from the lion cub that had dared to disturb it, towering majestically high above it, the sheer size of the fur ball demon beast was at least a few dozen meters!

Even the few trees nearby seemed small in comparison to the giant ball of fur!

"R-roar…" Seeing how big it's opponent truly was, the lion cub was frightened! It had never imagined that there would be such a big demon beast here! It was only a Core Formation Demon Beast! How was it supposed to deal with such a big demon beast in the first place?

Turning around, the small mountain lion ran away before the majestic ball of fur even manged to do anything.

"ROAR!"

You think you can just come here and disturb me when you want and run away whenever you find out who you messed with!?

Seeing that the mountain lion demon beast just run away upon seeing it, the majestic fur ball demon beast let out an even more angry roar as it quickly rolled after it, destroying all the trees that dared to block its path.

"Roar!"

How dare you!

…

"Where is the Nascent Soul Realm demon beast…? Maybe it fought someone recently or chased after someone?" Arriving at the fur ball demon beasts lair, Xuan Hao looked around the area and saw all the broken trees in the surroundings.

Looking a little further away from the lair of the Nascent Soul demon beast, Xuan Hao saw the destroyed trees had formed a path or something leading further into the Burning Mountain Range.

The path was extremely big and the trees that was in the way had all been completely destroyed or flattened, showing just how big the demon beast who had fought here truly was!

"Guess I will just have to go and see if I can catch up with it… If I'm lucky, I might even be able see the opponent that caused it to chase it down… Hopefully it was another demon beast and not a human…" Muttering this to himself, Xuan Hao accelerated his speed and flew in the direction that the Nascent Soul Realm demon beast had run in.

…

"Roar!"

You can't run anymore little lion cub!

Standing at the edge of a giant cliff with a fall of at least a few hundred meters, the mountain lion demon beast was standing with one paw over the edge as it shakingly looked at the giant fur ball in front of it slowly rolling closer and closer with each passing second.

"Ro-roar…" Letting out a weak roar in response to the giant fur ball demon beast, the young mountain lion prepared for its end as it tried to put on a strong front.

It had just wanted to avenge its father who had perished to the fur ball… When he had gone missing after going out to hunt food for the rest of his newly born lion cubs, the young mountain lion was not that worried, it was only after its father did not return that it grew worried and went out to search for him.

Communicating with some of the nearby demon beast that the mountain lion family was on friendly terms with, it had learned that its father had died at the hands of a demon beast living deep in the mountain forest.

Hearing this, the young mountain lion did not think clearly and let rage take control of it as it went to challenge the demon beast who had killed its father, even though its father was stronger than it in the first place…

Now it came to regret its earlier decision… What would happen to its newly born siblings and mother without anyone to help defend them…?

"Well… This is truly a… Unique demon beast…" Arriving at the scene of the giant fur ball advancing towards the young mountain lion demon beast, Xuan Hao smiled wryly as he saw the giant ball of fur having the aura of a Nascent Soul Realm demon beast slowly rolling forward.

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Chapter 101: Little White Rabbit and Deadly Spiritual Flames

Inspecting the Big furry ball slowly rolling closer and closer to the mountain lion demon beast at the edge of the cliff, Xuan Hao realized that the ground beneath them looked way more parched compared to the ground elsewhere on the Burning Mountain Range.

The thing that made Xuan Hao curious was the fact that it was only the edges of the cliff that was parched, while the ground a little further away looked normal.

Thinking a little further about it, Xuan Hao realized that it most likely had something to do with the area below the cliff, with that in mind, Xuan Hao decided to wait and see what would happen to the mountain lion and oversized fur ball… Both of them did not really seem to have noticed the ground below them was different compared to before as they were both standing extremely close to the edge of the cliff at the moment.

"Roar!" Letting out a roar upon getting close enough, the giant fur ball opened its giant mouth and bounced towards the young mountain lion, looking to swallow it whole.

Xuan Hao could almost not hold himself back from laughing as he saw the unique attack technique used by the Nascent Soul Realm demon beast.

Rumble!

Just as the Fur Ball demon beast was about to reach the shivering young mountain lion demon beast, a loud rumbling sound came from below the cliff as a wave of heat suddenly washed over both of them, stopping the fur ball demon beast in its track.

"Roar?" Letting out a slightly confused roar, both the young mountain lion and fur ball demon beast looked in the direction where the sound came from and soon felt yet another wave of heat erupt from below the cliff once again.

This time around a large flame rose from the bottom of the cliff as well, scaring both the fur ball demon beast and the young mountain lion, who was both standing extremely close to the edge of the cliff.

The both of them reacted immediately and tried to move out of the way of the flame as the sheer heat from it made even the fur ball demon beast cautious.

Sadly, only the fur ball managed to react in time as the young mountain lion was soon swallowed up by the flame that by now covered the edges of the cliff to the ravine below.

"Roar!" A pitiful roar came from the young mountain lion as it was soon swallowed by the flames and burned alive.

Xuan Hao narrowed his eyes slightly as he saw the young mountain lion get swallowed by the flames and die within only a few seconds, it had to be known that the young mountain lion was a demon beast at the Core Formation Realm!

Demon beasts normally had better defence compared to their human counterpart, so they could better take damage and survive stronger attacks.

The mountain lion was an especially strong demon beast, but in this case, the young mountain lion at the Core Formation Realm had suddenly been burned to death by the giant flame that had suddenly erupted from the ravine below the cliff!

As the flame continued to spread outwards from the edge of the cliff, it soon reached the location that the fur ball demon beast had retreated to and swallowed it up as well before it could react or do anything to prevent itself from burning up like the young mountain lion demon beast.

But compared to the young mountain lion demon beast that had died after letting out a single pitiful roar, the fur ball demon beast was way stronger than it and did not die due to the flames as it struggled for a bit before managing to get itself away from the flames that had stopped spreading a few dozen meters away from the edge of the cliff leading into the ravine below.

Upon closer inspection, Xuan Hao discovered that the seemingly big mouth and body of the fur ball was merely an illusion of sorts used by it.

Observing the current state of the fur ball demon beast, Xuan Hao saw that most of its fur had disappeared, leaving behind a small white ball only the size of his fist behind.

Seeing the large pair of ears and small paws, Xuan Hao realized something. The small white demon beast was clearly a rabbit.

How did a small, seemingly cute and innocent little rabbit reach the Nascent Soul Realm in the first place…?

Contemplating about how he himself was on the same level as a rabbit the size of his fist, Xuan Hao did not notice that the small white rabbit had run away after its disguise as a big bad ball of fur had been dispelled by the flames.

And when he did, he did not really care as much with the mystery of the flame in the ravine directly in front of him. NvεlB¡n: Unleashing Imagination, One Read at a Time.

Sending out his divine sense, Xuan Hao carefully inspected the flames, but was immediately taken aback upon realizing that his divine sense had started burning the moment that it came into contact with the flames!

"How curious… The flame has spiritual properties and is able to directly burn my divine sense!" Retreating his divine sense to prevent himself from damaging his own divine sense, Xuan Hao had a slightly shocked look on his face.

For the flames to be able to burn someone's divine sense meant that they would also have the ability to damage the soul of the person that they burned!

Remembering what happened to the young mountain lion demon beast, Xuan Hao felt a little bad for it all of a sudden… From the looks of things, the young mountain lion demon beast most likely had its soul burned up and would not be able to reincarnate and had simply ceased to exist.

Deciding to wait for some time to see if the flames would disappear, Xuan Hao sat down in a mediative position and quietly cultivated as he waited.

Whoosh

Time passed and exactly 30 minutes after the flames had appeared there was a big whooshing sound of wind from the ravine below, followed by the flames that were currently burning the edge of the cliff disappearing back into the ravine below.

Xuan Hao watched this unfold and waited for another 30 minutes.

Rumble!

The flames appeared again!

Observing this, Xuan Hao deducted that the flames would appear for 30 minutes and then disappear for another 30 minutes before repeating the same pattern.

With this in mind, Xuan Hao waited for the flames to disappear again prior to entering the ravine himself and seeing if he could find out the reason for the flame's appearance.

Fighting could wait, there were more than enough demon beasts in the Burning Mountain Range. For now, he just wanted to find the reason for the flames in the ravine!

Maybe it was even caused by the appearance of a rare herb of some magical artifact!

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Chapter 102: Dark Red Whirlpool

Not waiting for a second longer, Xuan Hao directly entered the ravine below where the terrifying spiritual flame from earlier had come from. The time that he had to explore the place beneath was only 30 minutes, so he dared not waste too much time and wait for the flames to disappear again.

The farther down he travelled, the more space appeared to have been twisted as it began to look more and more distorted the deeper into the ravine he went.

At the bottom of the ravine, a giant dark red whirlpool was slowly spinning as it seemed to bend the space around itself causing several cracks in space itself to appear nearby.

The dark red whirlpool was surrounded in a terrifying flame that was way stronger compared to the spiritual flame from earlier that had appeared at the edge of the cliff leading down into the ravine.

Rumble~

A faint rumbling sound could be heard from the dark red whirlpool as it slowly grew stronger and stronger.

Observing closer, Xuan Hao also saw that the flames around the dark red whirlpool were slowly shrinking a bit with every passing moment. After the 30-minute mark was up, they would most likely erupt to some extend and cause the spiritual flame from earlier to appear once again.

In the end, the spiritual flame was most likely just a byproduct of whatever was happening inside of the whirlpool…

But for now, Xuan Hao knew that he was nowhere near strong enough to get any closer to the dark red whirlpool, let alone enter and see what was hiding inside of it… Maybe even someone at the Domain Lord Realm would be too weak, as space itself was shattered inside of the whirlpool…

The power behind the dark red whirlpool was simply unimaginable and as the rumbling sound coming from the dark red whirlpool slowly grew louder and louder, Xuan Hao gazed one last time at the mysterious yet dangerous dark red whirlpool before turning around and making his way back out of the ravine.

…

"Finally found one!" having reached another marked spot on the map he had gotten from the Explorer Union, Xuan Hao let out a sigh of relief as he saw the Nascent Soul Realm demon beast lazily laying in the sun relaxing.

After he had made it back out of the ravine, Xuan Hao went back to check if the little white rabbit demon beast returned to its lair, but it had long left when he arrived there, so Xuan Hao decided to check some of the other places on the map with Nascent Soul Realm demon beast that had been marked out by the Explorer Union.

Sadly, his luck seemed to have completely disappeared as he went from one location to the next without finding a single Nascent Soul Realm demon beast!

It was only at the ninth location that he managed to finally find a demon beast at the Nascent Soul Realm…

The demon beast in question was a flaming mountain ape, it was well known for having the ability to manipulate fire and used several flame-based attacks when in combat.

There was even a rumor that the Raging Flame Sect had taken a lot of inspiration from the flaming mountain ape in their own qi techniques and fist-based combat arts.

"Well… Time to see how strong I have gotten!" Muttering a bit to himself, Xuan Hao stood straight on top of his flying sword as he withdrew a sword from a scabbard on his left side and preformed a simple slash down towards the flaming mountain ape.

Swish~

The sword slash was filled with his sword intent and even though it was just a simple slash, it carried with it enough strength to shatter the earth and split clouds.

The flaming mountain ape discovered the attack immediately, as Xuan Hao did not make any attempt to hide his attack and the fact that preforming a sneak attack on someone in the Nascent Soul Realm was close to impossible due to the constant presence of the other party's divine sense.

"ROAR!"

Letting out a roar in response to the sudden attack, the flaming mountain ape lifted both its hands in a defensive posture as a large flame suddenly engulfed it completely.

Cling~

A metallic sound soon sounded as the sword slash from Xuan Hao reached the flaming mountain ape and landed directly at it without doing any damage at all, only a white mark could be seen at the place where the sword slash had landed after the flaming mountain ape dispelled the raging flame that had earlier engulfed it.

"Hm… It should have reached the sixth stage of the Nascent Soul Realm like me, but its body is comparable to someone at the seventh stage or maybe even above it… Truly, what a great practice target I found myself!" Smiling widely upon seeing how easily the flaming mountain ape had dealt with his attack, Xuan Hao quickly descended and landed a few hundred meters away from it.

"I have never tired using any of the sword moves that were recorded in the Untold Swords Mantra yet due to my cultivation being too weak before, but I can finally try the first move!" Saying this Xuan Hao raised his sword and preformed the first move recorded in the Untold Swords Mantra.

"Sword Shadow!"

Before the flaming mountain ape could even comprehend why the human that had attacked it suddenly decided to land a few hundred meters away from it and start talking, a faint shadow of a sword suddenly appeared directly in front of it.

"Roar?"

The confused roar of the flaming mountain ape could be heard for a split moment before it managed to react and quickly set up a quick defense to try and block the attack that had arrived directly in front of it!

The attack from the human was way too fast! It had only barely seen the attack when it was already about to land!

Swish~

The sound of something cutting through the air could barely be heard as the attack from Xuan Hao finally landed on the flaming mountain ape.

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Chapter 103: Sword Shadow!

Sword Shadow!

When the strike was launched, the flaming mountain ape had barely managed to react and set up a defense!

The wind blew gently as the flaming mountain ape tried its best to defend against the sword attack, now, it was already surrounded by sword energy and had no path of retreat and could only try its best to block the attack. NvεlB¡n: Unleashing Imagination, One Read at a Time.

In the very next moment, the sword shadow Xuan Hao had launched hit the flaming mountain apes defense.

Boom!

The massive sword energy covered the skies as furious winds swept across the nearby forest, causing a few nearby trees to be pulled up from the ground and scattered in all nearby direction.

Soon a small vortex made of sword energy had formed with the flaming mountain ape stuck in the middle of the chaotic yet deadly sword energy vortex.

ROAR!

The flaming mountain ape did not want to just let itself die so easily, as it let out a heaven shaking roar and caused the flames that engulfed it to expand rapidly outwards. Following which the sword energy vortex by forcefully got pushed back by the rapidly expanding flame of the flaming mountain ape.

Swish~

The sword energy vortex rapidly started expanding alongside the flame of the flaming mountain ape before finally bursting, as furious winds swept across the surroundings, destroying an even larger part of the mountain forest that they were currently fighting in and sending off a shockwave that could be felt from several dozen kilometers away.

Everyone in the surrounding area of several dozen kilometers witnessed the sudden shockwave washing over them and, in some cases, even sent them flying into a nearby tree or off the edge of a cliff if they were unlucky.

The people were mostly adventures seeking treasures in the Burning Mountain Range or members of the Explorer Union… Exploring the place. All of them had felt the shockwave and became flustered, completely unaware of what had just happened.

Who were fighting?

They were confused and only knew that both parties were immensely powerful compared to themselves.

"Hm… Seems like the strength of the Sword Shadow is enough for me to injure someone at the seventh stage of the Nascent Soul Realm…" Looking over at the exhausted flaming mountain ape, Xuan Hao went over the earlier attack he had used.

The Sword Shadow could be considered the first move recorded in the Untold Swords Mantra and according to the Untold Swords Mantra, only someone who had established a sword domain would be able to unleash its true power.

Even just barely using it once, Xuan Hao had felt the clear exhaustion that it had brought to him.

The reason for this was because the Sword Shadow attack, upon reaching the flaming mountain ape had formed a giant sword energy vortex and suppressed it. The amount of energy wasted just on making the sword energy vortex and stopping it from dispersing was unimaginable.

It could be said to have formed a pseudo sword domain of sorts to suppress the flaming mountain ape inside!

But because Xuan Hao had still not reached a realm strong enough for him to truly use the Sword Shadow attack, he had ended up using a lot more of his qi than required to execute the sword move.

In the end, although the attack was strong and had a great visual impact, it could not be compared to the originally intended use of the sword shadow… After all, it was named sword shadow because the attack would be silent, stealthy and deadly, like a shadow suddenly appearing quietly in front of the enemy and killing them instantly without a sound…

Xuan Hao had succeeded in the first part of it silently appearing in front of the flaming mountain ape before it managed to react, but the killing without a sound would take some work to archive…

Thinking about this, Xuan Hao smiled awkwardly at the giant crater that had formed with the flaming mountain ape at the center, uprooted trees and other foliage scattered all over the place as it looked like a bomb had just recently gone off at the place where the flaming mountain ape was standing.

The flaming mountain ape had even helped with making that impression as the ground had been scorched completely in the area a few dozen meters around the flaming mountain ape due to its protective flame's sudden expansion earlier.

"R-roar…!" Letting out a weak roar, the flaming mountain ape looked fearfully at Xuan Hao for a moment before turning around and running away in the opposite direction with all its might.

No way it was going to stay and fight with him after feeling how strong the sword wielding human was!

Fighting to the death? Who would be dumb enough to do something like that! At most it would lose its territory, it could still rebuild in another location! That was a small price to pay for keeping itself alive!

Xuan Hao watched this and was just about to give chase to the flaming mountain ape, but he suddenly felt several different auras at the Nascent Soul Realm approaching from all directions.

"Hah…" Letting out a sigh, Xuan Hao jumped on his sword and quickly left the area. Not chasing after the flaming mountain ape.

Roar!

Soon after Xuan Hao had left the area, several roars could be heard as several demon beasts in all shapes and sizes appeared at the location of the battle and started a chaotic brawl, before dispersing again after a few minutes.

This was one of the main reasons why nobody really wanted to try and hunt down the Nascent Soul Realm demon beast in the Burning Mountain Range… When one first started fighting a demon beast at the Nascent Soul Realm, all the surrounding demon beasts at the Nascent Soul Realm would notice after a while and come flocking to the area, either to kill and devour the injured Nascent Soul realm demon beast or the human cultivator…

No matter how strong you were, faced with the dozens of demon beasts at the Nascent Soul Realm, even someone at the peak of the Nascent Soul Realm would have a hard time keeping his life!

If one wanted to hunt the demon beasts in the Burning Mountain Range, one should be able to kill them fast enough and run away before the reinforcements arrived!

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Chapter 104: The Notebook of Lord Kubera

"Phew… That was close!" Looking back at the area that he had fought the flaming mountain ape earlier, Xuan Hao felt himself shivering a bit at the thought of being surrounded and attacked by those demon beasts.

Even if they individually were weaker than the flaming mountain ape, all of them put together would be more than enough to injure him or at the very least force him to run away.

The only demon beast one could hunt down without worrying too much, was those in the Core Formation Realm… Hunting the Nascent Soul Realm demon beast in a place with other Nascent Soul Realm demon beasts nearby, was close to suicide…

"Maybe I should choose somewhere at the edges of the Burning Mountain Range to test out my strength the next time around… Whatever, at least I have an idea how strong I am now…" Sighing a bit to himself, Xuan Hao left the Burning Mountain Range and made his way back towards the Flying Sword Sect.

Him testing his strength had only taken a little over day with travel time considered as well.

Now he could return back to the Flying Sword Sect and teach his disciples something new! But what he wanted to teach both of them would not be something like a qi or combat technique, but instead something more practical that might help them in the future.

…

Back at the Flying Sword Sect just after Xuan Hao had handed over the notebook, he had found at the city of Kubera to the Sect Master Feng Chen, who was currently reading through it trying to find out if there was anything useful in it.

"Interesting… Looks like I will have to hand it over to the Alchemy Hall and see if they can find out anything about the formulas and experiments noted down here… This!?" Stopping towards the end of the notebook, Feng Chen quickly put the notebook away and had a slightly worried look on his face.

"A religion with a Plague God… Looks like it is not simply a plague by the newly established demonic sect or the Azure Sky Kingdom… This would also explain how they could suddenly have people appear at all corners of the Heavenly Sky Kingdom and intercept the Nascent Soul Realm experts sent out to inspect the first infected villages…" Muttering this to himself, Feng Chen worriedly made his way out of his pavilion and entered the Alchemy Hall to hand of the notebook and hopefully get something useful out from it.

No matter what, dealing with a religion was not something that the current Flying Sword Sect could do, as it was simply way too strong… At most they could passively wait for the already established religions of the Sky Empire to deal with them… After all, splitting up the territory they used and allow others to take from the resources that they had would not go well with them.

The only thing that mattered at the moment was how fast the religions already established in the Sky Empire would take to react to the threat of a new religion trying to snake its way in…

The chances of the Church of the Plague God doing the same thing in other kingdoms under the Sky Empire would most likely also be the case and the chances of the already established religions being able to stop the faith of the Plague God in all of them was next to impossible…

"Hah… Looks like we are in for a difficult time in the coming years…" Sighing a bit to himself, Feng Chen finally made it to the entrance of the Alchemy Hall.

"Move those test vials over there! And you! Get the sect to send more Violet Sparkgrass over here immediately!" A loud voice could be heard coming from a strong looking middle-aged woman at the centre of the Alchemy Hall, as she kept calling out orders to the various alchemists and servants running back and forth in a chaotic, yet orderly manner. Unravel the Unknown, Unleash the Unimaginable: NvεlB¡n.

"Wan Qiu, what is happening around here?" Walking his way over to the strong looking middle-aged woman, Feng Chen asked in a somewhat confused tone as he watched the people running all over the place moving things from one place to another.

"Ah, Sect Master! We recently got a new idea on a way to solve the plague and we are going to try and make it!" Bowing her head slightly upon seeing the Sect Master, Elder Wan Qiu reported the reason for the current chaotic situation at the Alchemy Hall.

"I understand… This is also the reason why I'm here today! Elder Xuan just came back with something that will most likely be useful in dealing with the plague!" Putting on a slightly more serious face, Feng Chen took out the notebook of Lord Kubera and handed it over to the strong looking middle-aged woman Wang Qiu.

"Hm? T-this is…" Opening up the notebook that Feng Chen handed over to her, Wan Qiu immediately got extremely interested the moment she saw the first few notes written down.

"W-where did you say Elder Xuan got this…? The city of Kubera? D-do you perhaps know if the city lord is still there?!" Putting down the notebook with a slightly unwilling expression, Wan Qiu turned towards Feng Chen as she forcefully started to question him with a slightly threatening tone of voice.

"… He is already gone from what Elder Xuan had told me, why are you so interested all of a sudden?" Trying his best to supress the annoyance he felt from Wan Qiu's forceful interrogation.

Feng Chen knew that no matter what he did, this woman was quite… Crazy when it came to anything Alchemy… Getting on her bad side was not a good thing, he still remembered the poor fate of Core Elder Wang Hu…

In the past he had interrupted one of her experiments and as a result, mysterious things started happening to him… From sudden embarrassing "accidents" at major events in the sect, to a shortage of certain pills of potions that he happened to need…

"I-if I'm not wrong, this Lord Kubera is at least an Artisan level Alchemist! Maybe even a Master level Alchemist!" Saying this, Wan Qiu's voice shivered slightly upon mentioning a Master Alchemist.

It had to be known that Master level Alchemist were the highest level of Alchemists present on the Ewaria Continent!

Even a single note casually written by a Master Alchemist was worth a fortune! Let alone a notebook filled with detailed experiments and formulas for different potions and pills!

To alchemists, this was a priceless treasure that could help them progress further and learn about the Realm of a Master Alchemist!

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Chapter 105: Future Plans!

"Master level Alchemist!?" No matter how little Feng Chen knew about alchemy, he still knew what a Master level Alchemist meant!

Someone at that level had reached the peak of Alchemy on the Ewaria continent. No matter where they went, every empire, royal clan or sect would welcome them with open arms and even try their best to attract them with all sorts of lucrative resources and spirit stones.

The fact that they had gotten their hands on the notebook of a possible master level alchemist was something that would most definitely help the Alchemy Hall of the Flying Sword Sect increase in strength. Maybe they would even get an Artisan level Alchemist in the future!

"Are you sure about this…?" Calming down after thinking about what such a thing could mean for the future development of the sect, Feng Chen asked Wan Qiu in a both excited and at the same time serious voice.

"Yes! I have already the peak of the expert alchemist realm and I can say for sure that whoever wrote down this is way above me when it comes to alchemy!" Not flinching for even a second Wang Qiu explained in an incredibly excited tone, focusing her attention on the notebook in her hands the entire time.

"That's great! Do you think you will be able to find something that can help deal with the plague in here?" Smiling happily upon hearing the confirmation, Feng Chen asked in a still excited voice filled with anticipation.

Wan Qiu called down a bit the moment that she heard Feng Chen's question, as she started to inspect the Notebook of Kubera once again to try and see if she could find something that could be used.

"Hm… I think we should be able to do it with some time, but I will have to ask some of the other elders from the Alchemy Hall for help first… At the very least, it should be better than the cure we were just about to try and make."

"That's great! Go on then, don't mind me and just go find some of the other elders of the Alchemy Hall for help!" Hearing that there was a better chance at finding a cure for the plague, Feng Chen happily encouraged Wan Qiu as she soon disappeared deeper into the Alchemy Hall to find the other elders of the Alchemy Hall.

Seeing her leave, Feng Chen turned around and left the Alchemy Hall, for now he had to contact the other Core Elders and find out about how they should deal with the fact that a giant power like the Church of the Plague God was eyeing the Heavenly Sky Kingdom…

…

At the same time that the Sect Master Feng Chen was showing the Notebook of Kubera to the elder of the alchemy hall Wan Qiu, Qing Yi had made her way over to the alchemy hall together with senior Yu.

"W-what is happening here!?" Looking at the current chaos happening inside of the alchemy hall, Qing Yi felt slightly baffled, as she had not seen the place like this before, last time she came here to pick up books, the entire place had looked almost completely deserted! Nothing like the current state, filled with all kinds of people.

"Ah, you have not been here recently due to the apprentice training being suspended and not having a reason to come here… Well, it is due to the plague. The Alchemy Hall has poured most of its resources towards trying to develop a cure and as a result, things have gotten quite busy around here…" Letting out a slightly exhausted smile as he explained this, senior Yu and Qing Yu soon made their way to the library located farther into the alchemy hall.

Compared to the rest of the alchemy hall, the library was quiet, and nobody was running around. The only difference here was that there were others reading through the books fully concentrated at a few spots for reading located throughout the library. Unravel the Unknown, Unleash the Unimaginable: NvεlB¡n.

"There should be some books over here that will be useful for you if you are going to participate in an alchemy competition… Most of the time, the alchemy competition tests things like knowledge about herbs and how good the contestant is at making a certain pill or potion." Walking deeper into the library than before, senior Yu explained to Qing Yi as she quietly followed along with him.

"So, for the books that we will be getting this time will mostly be some books that focuses on different basic pill and potion formulas and The Basic herb encyclopedia. Ah, here it is!" Coming to a stop in front of a bookshelf, senior Yu went forward and pulled out a few different books and handed them over to Qing Yi.

"So… I should just read these and practice some of the potion and pill formulas…?" Looking at the books that senior Yu handed over to her, she looked up questioningly at him.

"Ah, of course not! You should try to make some time once a week and come to the alchemy hall so that one of the elders at the expert alchemy realm can help and teach you. This way you should be able to improve more!" Talking excitedly about the elders of the alchemy hall, senior Yu explained the plan that the alchemy hall had for her training up to the competition.

"Great! I will explain it to master when he gets back again, I do not think he will say anything to it… After all, it is only once a week and I do have quite a bit of freedom in the first place." Smiling happily upon hearing that she would be able to train her alchemy skills for free once a week at the alchemy hall, Qing Yi decided to find a way to convince her master to let her do it.

No matter what, Qing Yi was extremely excited at the fact that she would get to train her alchemy skills for free!

No more she would have to waste her own herbs!

Thinking this, Qing Yi soon excited the alchemy hall happily with the stack of books handed over to her by senior Yu in hand.

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Chapter 106: War Begins

"Hm… With things getting more and more unstable inside of the imperial capital, the supplies that are sent to the border have significantly reduced…"

Inside a tent located at the centre of the Heavenly Sky Kingdoms army stationed at the border, a robust looking middle-aged man let out a large sigh as he inspected the documents in front of him detailing the amount of supply sent over this month.

As things in the Heavenly Sky Kingdom was getting more and more unstable with the plague outbreak, the border between the Heavenly Sky Kingdom and the Azure Sky Kingdom was seeing its fair share of unrest as well, as resources were needed back home to help deal with the plague as well.

On the morale front, most of the soldiers stationed had started growing worried for their families back home with the increasing severity of the plague. Other than that, the skirmishes with the Azure Sky Kingdom had started increasing and the scale of the skirmishes had become bigger as well.

At this point in time, there would always be a Nascent Soul Realm expert present whenever the two forces clashed with each other.

"General! The Azure Sky Kingdoms has started moving forward most of their troops and it looks like they are preparing for an all-out assault on our defensive positions at the front!" Just as the middle-aged man was about to go over the rest of the documents, a young man dressed like a common soldier stormed in through the opening in the tent and yelled anxiously.

"Are you sure!?" Standing up immediately upon hearing what the young soldier told him, the middle-aged man who was the current general in charge of the army stationed at the border of the Heavenly Sky Kingdom, walked over and grabbed the young soldier's collar with a serious look on his face.

"Y-yes." Shivering upon suddenly being grabbed by the general himself, the young soldier almost felt the last bit of life left in him leave his body due to fear as he answered. NvεlB¡n: Unleashing Imagination, One Read at a Time.

"… Leave and make sure that our men are ready, get someone to inform those people from the four sects as well, we will need them to keep some of the Azure Sky Kingdoms Nascent Soul experts…" After a short pause, the general let go of the young soldier and he ran out of the room without a wasting even a single second, to carry out the order of the general as quickly as possible.

The general looked at the young soldier quickly disappearing out of the tent before he made his way back to the documents on the table and with a worried expression on his face, he picked up a communication talisman buried beneath a few of the documents.

"Hah… Looks like we can't escape with only fighting a few skirmishes with the Azure Sky Kingdom this time around, we can only hope the other nearby kingdoms won't try to take advantage of this obvious weakens… What is the Azure Sky Kingdom even planning in the first place? If they attack us, won't they be worried another nearby kingdom will swoop in and attack them when they are weak after fighting with us?" Muttering this to himself, the middle-aged general looked deeply at the communication talisman for a few seconds before finally using it.

No matter what, he had to inform the higher-ups of the current situation and hope that they could spare a few more Nascent Soul experts for the border-

BOOM!

A few minutes after he had informed the higher-ups a large explosion suddenly happened, causing the general to rush outside and look towards the south-eastern part of the border army camp with a shocked expression on his face.

…

"The Azure Sky Kingdom is preparing for an attack?!" Wang Lan looked at the soldier that had entered his tent and informed him with a slightly shocked expression on his face.

He had mostly expected for the Azure Sky Kingdom to try and slowly whittle down the forces of the Heavenly Sky Kingdom over time, they were after all stronger over all compared to the Heavenly Sky Kingdom and a full-on frontal attack would end up harming both kingdoms in the process. Leaving them open to attacks from other kingdoms.

"Yes, the general is requesting for the experts of the four sects to be present at the frontline and help deal with the Nascent Soul Realm experts from the Azure Sky Kingdom's sects." Saying what he was told to beforehand, the soldier quickly left before Wang Lan stopped him to question him for the next half hour… Last time such a thing happened he got punished by his superior for being late…

"…" Staring a bit at the place that the soldier was standing before, Wang Lan sighed a bit to himself as he went to pick up a communication talisman so that he could inform the sect master about what was happening at the border.

This only took a few minutes as the sect master Feng Chen could not really do much other than encourage him to try and keep himself alive as a top priority and try to be as passive as possible while trying to avoid fighting at all cost.

Truly the best way to stay alive was not fighting at all, but would the Heavenly Sky Kingdom really just let him slack around…?

Wang Lan really doubted that and decided to at least talk with the members of the other four sects first, as all of them were in the same situation as him.

BOOM!

Coming to this decision, Wang Lan was just about to walk out of the tent when a large explosion suddenly sounded from the south-eastern part of the border army camp.

"What the-" Wang Lan quickly rushed out from his tent and jumped up on a nearby rock a few meters in height and looked in the direction that the explosion came from.

Black smoke billowed high into the sky where the explosion earlier had happened, a few soldiers ran over to where the explosion happened in confusion trying to figure out what caused it in the first place, only to be met with a sharp sword that and get cut down on the spot.

Soon a large amount of people dressed in the uniform of Heavenly Sky Kingdom soldiers came out through the black smoke followed by an even larger army dressed in the uniforms of the Azure Sky Kingdom.

What happened? Sudden betrayal by a part of the army…?

Wang Lan felt like the situation was getting even more precarious, after all, for them to be able to get so close meant that at least a few of the Nascent Soul Realm experts from the Heavenly Sky Kingdom had betrayed them…

It seemed like there was something more to the Azure Sky Kingdoms full on attack and he had no clue what was happening…

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Chapter 107: Framing the Demonic Sect...

Feng Chen had gotten word of what happened at the border only a few hours after it had actually happened, this was mostly due to the fact that Wang Lan had ended up fighting with another Nascent Soul Realm expert soon after the incident and only after getting away from where most of the fighting was happening, did he managed to contact Feng Chen once again and inform him.

It was not long before Feng Chen managed to gather Core Elder Wang Hu, Vice Sect Master Zu Fei and Xuan Hao together in a somewhat secluded pavilion to discuss what their next plan of action would be.

"So, what are we going to do? My brother will surely end up doing something stupid at this rate… Not to mention that the Azure Sky Kingdom has more Nascent Soul Realm experts compared to us!" Wearing an extremely distraught expression, Wang Hu asked after hearing what was happening at the border and how precarious his brother's situation was.

Xuan Hao remained silent as he had no idea what to do in such a situation, even if he made his way over to the border, he would most likely not be able to do much other than get Wang Lan out. Maybe his presence as a relatively high-level Nascent Soul Realm expert would even cause the Azure Sky Kingdom to send forth some of their strongest experts…

"Calm down, there is not much we can do, as we will still have to be careful with the threat of the Raging Flame Sect close by, at least the Heavenly sky Kingdom won't take this lying down! They are most likely already preparing to send some more Nascent Soul experts over to help defend the border as we speak." Looking at everyone present, the sect master Feng Chen answered Wang Hu's question.

"But I can't just leave my brother to fight alone like this! Feng Chen, at the very least, allow me to go to the border to help my brother!" Understanding very well that the current situation was not that favourable for them, Wang Hu still chose to ask.

"Hah… Fine you can go, the Raging Flame Sect should not attack us anyway with the threat of the Azure Sky Kingdom." Seeing the hopeful look in Wang Hu's eyes, Feng Chen could not bring himself to refuse him.

No matter what, it was his brother who was in a precarious position. Not being able to retreat back to the sect due to the pressure from Heavenly Sky Kingdom, even if he ran away from the battle at the border, he would most likely end up getting hunted down by the Heavenly Sky Kingdom if they survived the attack from the Azure Sky Kingdom.

Worse, it would implicate the Flying Sword Sect and give the Heavenly sky Kingdom a reason to get rid of it, in its place, it could appoint a more obedient sect that they already had control of to look after the territory of the Flying Sword Sect.

Xuan Hao and Zu Fei both knew that the current situation would not allow for them to leave as they needed to stay and defend the sect together with Feng Chen, Wang Hu leaving would still be fine, after all, he was the weakest person currently left in the Flying Sword Sect.

The only reason why Feng Chen had let him go in the first place was because he had learnt about Xuan Hao reaching the sixth stage of the Nascent Soul Realm, without knowing that there was someone almost as strong as himself to defend the sect, Feng Chen would never have allowed for Wang Hu to leave for the border to help his brother.

"Thank you, Sect Master!" Bowing deeply with a happy smile on his face, Wang Hu quickly turned around and made his way out of the pavilion after getting Feng Chen's approval. NvεlB¡n: Unleashing Imagination, One Read at a Time.

Making his way to the border where his brother was, was the most important to him at the moment!

"So, what should we do now? There is still that demonic sect… They have gone awfully quiet after the plague appeared…" Seeing that Wang Hu had left, Zu Fei posed another problem that they would have to deal with at some point.

Hearing this, Xuan Hao fell into deep thought as he remembered the small jade that his new disciple had with him when he had found him.

From the conversation that he had managed to pick up, it was apparently something important to the demonic sect that he had taken away.

Xuan Hao had not really paid that much attention to this, as he did not really want to investigate everything about his new disciple, he could have his own secrets without him as his master trying to find out everything about him and the opportunities he got.

The current state of the demonic sect might be due to the fact that his second disciple had taken away that… Devil-Immortal Jade thing from them.

If it was really that important, they might even be trying their best to get it bac-

"Zu Fei, you are in charge of most of our internal security, right?"

"Yes, why?" Hearing the somewhat random question from Xuan Hao, Zu Fei answered truthfully as she curiously turned towards Xuan Hao and waited for him to explain.

"Have there been any spies or people from underground organisations found recently in Flying Sword City?"

"Now that you say it, we recently found a quite large information gathering organisation that was gathering information on the newer disciples of the sect, but when we arrived there, everyone had already been killed or had mysteriously disappear- Ah!

Perhaps you mean that the Demonic sect might be behind this!? But why gather information on our new disciples? Maybe it was just a distraction, and they were really gathering information on something else entirely!" Seemingly having realized the "truth" Zu Fei looked admiringly at Xuan Hao.

"So, the reason they are so quiet is because they are planning to attack us? Well, we are the closest to them and pose the biggest threat at the moment… They might try and use the chaos to get rid of us and grow stronger before the Heavenly Sky Kingdom or the other sects can respond! Damn those sly demonic cultivators, trying to attack us while two of our people have left for the border!" Glaring coldly towards the outside, Feng Chen felt his killing intent towards the demonic sect grow.

"…"

I just wanted to find out if someone were planning to go after my disciple! I swear I'm not trying to frame the demonic sect!

Smiling awkwardly as he saw the killing intent of both Feng Chen and Zu Fei, Xuan Hao did not know what to do and decided to just ignore it.

At the end of the day, the demonic sect was still their enemy, so what if they ended up hating them a little more?

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Chapter 108: The Plot Against Chu Yang

"It's in the possession of a Core Elder!? How are we supposed to get the Devil-Immortal Jade back in time before the Sect Master's deadline runs out!? How did that Chu Yang even manage to take a Core Elder as his master in the first place!?"

As the Sect Master and Vice Sect Master of the Flying Sword Sect felt their killing intent towards the demonic sect grow after learning about their "plot" against them, a certain skinny elder from the demonic sect in question was currently panicking at the fact that he might not get to see their Devil-Immortal Jade ever again.

Recently he had just found out about where Chu Yang was and had even prepared to go personally to try and catch him, but that was only under the circumstance that he had become an ordinary disciple of the Flying Sword Sect!

At most he would be able to wait outside the sect in the Flying Sword City for him to exit and grab him at that point before running away.

Having a Core Elder as a master was a completely different situation! Most of the time, the sect would likely always have an inner elder shadow them when they went outside to ensure their safety!

No matter what, an inner elder of the Flying Sword Sect was still considered someone strong at the late stages or even the peak of the Core Formation Realm! That was the same as himself! How was he going to snatch Chu Yang and get away with such a person guarding him from the shadows!?

That was also not considering that the Core Elder in question would most likely know about it almost immediately and rushing from the Flying Sword Sect to the Flying Sword City would not take more than a few seconds for someone like that, so even if he succeeded, he would still have to deal with a Nascent Soul expert hunting him down…

"Elder Skinling… how are we going to get the Devil-Immortal Jade back from that traitor's hands…? We have already made sure that the Flying Sword Sect would not be able to track us anymore, but we have also lost quite a bit of the intelligence network that we set up inside of the Flying Sword City in the process…

But I think it will not take long for them to catch on, at that point we definitely won't be able to make a move any longer!" Another elder walked over and told the skinny elder with an extremely anxious look on his face.

He was in the same boat as Elder Skinling and would most likely end up getting punished by the Sect Master if they did not manage to get the Devil-Immortal Jade back as well!

"I know! Let me just think for a moment! There has to be a way… Maybe we could have one hold up the person that shadows Chu Yang and the other person can take him and run away, while one of us holds off the guard. After that both of should be able to retreat before the Nascent Soul Realm expert notices!" A bright light shone in Elder Skinling's eyes as he thought about this, even if the plan was flawed, at the very least they had a chance!

"But who would stay behind and hold back the person in the shadows…? That person will most definitely be at greater risk compared to the one that will be going for Chu Yang…" The other elder asked with a slightly raised eyebrow, clearly not wanting to be the one who had to stay behind and risk having to deal with an angry Nascent Soul Realm expert.

"I will do it! If this does not work, I will end up getting killed off by the Sect Master anyway! All I need for you to do is grab that kid and run, while I hold back the person who should be shadowing him." Understanding the elder's concerns, Elder Skinling answered his worries with malicious look on his face. Unravel the Unknown, Unleash the Unimaginable: NvεlB¡n.

No matter what, he did not really want to do it, but he had to… If he did not, the other elder would most likely not want to help him and just take the punishment of the Sect Master.

The other elder was after all, not the one who was tasked with getting it back, the Sect Master should at most injure him or demote him in his anger… Not kill him!

Elder Skinling on the other hand did not have such a bright outcome waiting for him if he ended up failing to get back the Devil-Immortal Jade.

"Great! Then we should leave for the Flying Sword City immediately and prepare!" Smiling a bit to himself upon hearing elder Skinling agree to take on the most dangerous part of the job, the other elder agreed immediately.

Both of them were at the peak of the Core Formation Realm and ever since becoming demonic cultivators, they had both increased to a point that they could be considered to be half-step Nascent Soul Realm in strength.

Even someone in the Nascent Soul Realm would find it quite difficult to catch up to them if they managed to get a head start.

Demonic cultivators were also physically stronger compared to normal cultivators and this in turn allowed them to be faster and have a better endurance than most on a similar level.

Elder Skinling and the other elder from the demonic sect, the Black Rose Sect, could be considered to have the same speed as a stage one Nascent Soul Realm expert, so they did not really think that their lives would be in too much danger after getting out of the Flying Sword City.

No matter what, they still had to consider that the Sect Master and Vice Sect Master was both stronger and faster than them, if one of them acted they would not even know how they died!

The only thing that ensured them at the moment was that the Sect Master and Vice Sect Master would not dare to go too far away from the Flying Sword Sect in case someone from the Raging Flame Sect or others lurked nearby to ambush them while one of the two were gone.

This was especially true with the recent information they got that showed two of the Core Elders had already left to help out in the war with the Azure Sky Kingdom at the border.

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Chapter 109: Now, what direction was it...?

" Finally! I managed to get away from senior sister Qing Yi!" Looking back at the pavilion with a slightly scared look in his eyes, Chu Yang quickly made his way down the mountain.

Earlier, he had once again been forced to train in botany, how to take care of certain herbs and how to grow them, but as his luck would have it, Qing Yi was called over by someone to the Alchemy Hall, thus leaving Chu Yang alone in the greenhouse to train by himself.

Normally he would just end up stuck in the greenhouse due to his sense of direction… not being the best… But this time around, Chu Yang had devised a plan and left some small rocks along as he walked over there as a path.

Following the rocks after Qing Yi had left, Chu Yang managed to make his way out of the pavilion and down the mountain peak towards the sect.

He honestly did not really had anything against the herb growing thing , but Qing Yi was a little too brutal in her training as his senior sister and even if he had earned quite a bit of spirit stones from the herbs that he gave to her after he had finished nurturing them, he did not really enjoy the fact that he used so much of his time on it.

The reason why he had run away this time was mostly because he had heard about a new weapon shop opening up in the Flying Sword City today and he wanted to spend some of the spirit stones that he had earned from botany on a new spear.

As long as he manged to make it back before Qing Yi returned, he should not get found out by her…

"Is she my parent or something…" Shaking his head a bit at the thought, Chu Yang felt like he had to stand up more to Qing Yi instead of just becoming so meek and docile, doing whatever she told him.

The reason for his meek and docile behaviour towards Qing Yi was mostly due to the fact that he still feared getting thrown out of the Flying Sword Sect and get found by his former sect.

"No! From now on I will not let her do whatever she wants, she is not Master anyway, so she has no power over me other than her status as my senior sister! I'm even stronger than her when it comes to cultivation!" Feeling encouraged by his own speech, Chu Yang felt reinvigorated as he finally made it to the bottom of the mountain peak.

"Now… Where is the entrance to the sect located…?"

…

"Are you sure we will be able to get in without being found?" A few days had already passed since their conversation together, by now, both Elder Skinling and the other elder had arrived at the entrance to the Flying Sword City.

Currently they were about to enter the city dressed just like any normal merchant or traveller.

"No need to worry so much, their security measures are not really that impressive in the Flying Sword City. Only when it comes to the sect itself is there any substantial defensive measures in place, I already contacted some of our people inside the city to make it easier for us to enter!" Elder Skinling answered the other elder, who had turned extremely worried upon seeing the gate leading into the city with people dressed in standard guard uniforms with a logo of the Flying Sword Sect on their chest stationed on both sides.

Listing to Elder Skinling, the other elder calmed down and both of them soon managed to make their way inside of the Flying Sword City without anything out of the ordinary happening.

The person who came forward to escort both of them the moment they entered also gave them some new information, stating that their target had just been seen leaving the Flying Sword Sect a few minutes ago.

"Is my luck finally turning for the better!?" Upon hearing the news, Elder Skinling felt himself being overcome with happiness. Originally, he had thought that he would have to wait for at least a few months before getting a chance.

After all, as a disciple of the Flying Sword Sect, Chu Yang would spend most of his time inside of the sect training and leaving the sect would only happen if he had taken up a mission by the sect or went into the Flying Sword City for some personal reasons.

"Where is he currently and how many people are together with him? How strong are they?" Grabbing the person who was leading both of them towards a hideout, elder Skinling's eyes shone brightly as he shook the person back and forth.

No matter what the reason was, Elder Skinling would not let such a great opportunity go!

"H-he is alone and is currently walking around in a circle around the central square of the city with no set destination." Answering the question with a scared look on his face, the person who was in charge of leading both of them was soon let go by Elder Skinling after he heard his answer.

"Hm… Walking in a circle around the central square with no direction…"

"Elder Skinling, I think that this might be a trap! No matter how you look at it, Chu Yang would not suddenly leave the sect the moment we come and then proceed to randomly walk in circles around the central square of the city! There is clearly something wrong with the situation!" As Elder Skinling started thinking, the other elder chimed in from the side and gave his analysis of the situation.

"Indeed, this might be a trap, but this might also be the only chance we will ever have at getting the Devil-Immortal Jade back! For now, let's observe him closely and look for an opportunity." Elder Skinling stood still thinking about what to do for a short moment before finally coming to a decision. This essence is securely nested within the heart of Nøvlß¡n

With that, both elders of the demonic sect parted ways with the person send to lead them to a hideout and instead sneaked towards the central square of the Flying Sword City.

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Chapter 110: Heavy Spear

" Finally found it! Thank you for showing me the way." Standing in front of the weapon shop that he set out to find, Chu Yang smiled happily as he thanked the person beside him who had shown him the way.

"No problem, it is quite hard to find a new shop like this. Helping you young'uns is the duty of us old ones." The man standing beside Chu Yang was a kind looking elderly man, who looked more than happy to help, as he slowly made his way back to whatever he was doing beforehand upon seeing that Chu Yang had indeed found the place he was looking for.

Chu Yang waved goodbye to the kind elderly man before finally turning around and facing the weapon shop.

The weapon shop looked like any random weapon shop you would find, with the only difference being the fact that it looked way cleaner and more orderly, most likely due to the fact that it was the first day that it was open.

"I hope that I can at least find a good spear at the earth rank…" Muttering so to himself, Chu Yang entered the weapon shop.

… This essence is securely nested within the heart of Nøvlß¡n

"That traitor just entered a weapon shop, it looks like he finally deviated from the original route he was taking… Maybe the ambush was called off? Should we wait for a while longer, or should we go for it?" The elder following Elder Ling asked him as he watched Chu Yang enter a weapon shop from the roof of a nearby building.

"Hm… For now, let's watch for a few more minutes, if nothing out of the ordinary happens by then we will take action." Thinking about it for a while, Elder Ling answered as he narrowed his eyes at Chu Yang who was currently looking at the various spears inside of the weapon shop.

No matter what, they were still inside what could be considered enemy territory. Acting would most definitely cause a lot of commotion and alert the experts inside of the Flying Sword Sect.

They had to be perfect when they acted, or they could both end up in a bad situation. Waiting for a few more minutes was nothing to them, as they had just mindlessly watched Chu Yang walk around in a circle around the central square for two hours straight.

Remembering it, Elder Ling almost felt like exploding in anger! No matter how dumb they are, there was no way that they were going to fall for such an obvious trap!

…

When Chu Yang had entered the shop, he had immediately spotted the ordinary looking spear among the other earth rank spears in a corner of the shop.

At first, he had thought that it was a mistake that it was there among the powerful looking earth rank spears, but after grabbing hold of it, Chu Yang felt how heavy it was compared to the rest of the spears, while he also discovered how dull the spear tip was.

The spear was almost like a giant heavy hammer used by some of the more unique cultivators to smash their opponents to death, just in the form of a spear.

Maybe he would be able to smash people to death with his spear in the future? There were even some spear techniques in the soul spear divine mantra that required a heavy spear to smash one's opponent to death.

Thinking a bit about it, Chu Yang decided that he would get the heavy spear. Not thinking twice about why the so-called soul spear divine mantra had spear techniques that required the user to use his spear like a giant sledgehammer to smash his enemies to death with.

"Are you sure you want this spear? Even though it is indeed at the earth rank, it's only because it is sturdier compared to other spears… When it comes to the sharpness of the tip, it's even worse than most mortal rank weapons… But I guess you would already know that…" The shop owner glanced down at the spear in Chu Yang's hand as he said this.

"Yes!" Having a confident smile on his face, Chu Yang took out the spirit stones required and paid the shop owner.

"Haha… I have nothing to say, it is after all still an earth rank weapon so the price should of course match… Anything else?" Smiling widely upon getting the right amount of spirit stones from Chu Yang, the store owner quickly put them away before asking.

"No thank you." Shaking his head, a bit, Chu Yang picked up the heavy spear with some difficulty and carried it with him as he walked out of the weapon shop.

At the very least, he was allowed to carry weapons openly inside of the Flying Sword City as a disciple of the Flying Sword Sect.

…

At the same time that the two elders from the demonic sect were quietly getting ready to make their move on Chu Yang, Xuan Hao had just gotten back to his pavilion. Only to find out that it was completely empty at the moment, outside of Zhi Ruo who was quietly taking some time to relax inside the small garden besides the greenhouse that Chu Yang spent most of his time practicing botany.

Xuan Hao decided to not disturb her, as it was quite rare to see her taking time to relax and instead spread out his divine sense to try and find out where both of his disciples were currently at.

Spreading out his divine sense was widely different from the passive version where the divine sense just covered a few hundred meters around him, this did not require any effort on his part compared to actively spreading out his divine sense.

This was also one of the reasons why most Nascent Soul Realm cultivators could easily be bypassed as long as you did not enter the area covered by their passive divine sense.

"Hm…? This is?" As he spread out his divine sense to cover the Flying Sword Sect, Xuan Hao quickly found Qing Yi on her way back from the Alchemy Hall with a few books in hand, but Chu Yang was still nowhere in sight.

Guess he should be somewhere in the Flying Sword City…

With this in mind, Xuan Hao quickly had his divine sense that covered the Flying Sword Sect retreat back, before he refocused it on the Flying Sword City.

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Chapter 111: Demonic Cultivator Skinling's Great Escape!

" Let's go now! It looks like he is about to return to the sect again!" The elder standing beside Elder Skinling said with an anxious look on his face. Nobody knew how long they would have to wait for another chance to capture him, they might even get found out by the Flying Sword Sect before that happens!

"Fine, I will take care of the person protecting him from the shadows when he appears, and you will take that traitor and get as far away as possible! After this is over, we will meet up at the agreed location and return to the sect." Nodding his head in agreement, Elder Skinling knew that they would most likely not get a chance like this again any time soon and the Sect Master would not wait forever…

Without waiting any longer Elder Skinling signalled for the other elder to act the moment Chu Yang made his way back towards the main street leading to the Flying Sword Sect.

…

"…" Just as Xuan Hao had his divine sense cover the Flying Sword City, he sensed a rather familiar aura from two individuals.

The individuals in question had the same aura as the black robed man from the now demonic Black Rose Sect, although weaker.

Focusing on both of them, Xuan Hao saw that they were currently in the process of stalking his disciple, Chu Yang, as he was browsing through a weapon shop looking for something to buy.

To make sure nothing would happen to his disciple, Xuan Hao immediately moved over to the location and decided to watch from the side and see what the members of the Demonic Sect were planning to do, although he felt like he had an idea…

Most likely something to do with the Devil-Immortal Jade that his disciple had stolen from them before running away in the past…

"Oh… Looks like they are going to take action…" watching the show unfolding below, Xuan Hao smile slightly when he saw one of the demonic cultivators grab his disciple and run away, while the other intercepted an inner elder tasked with keeping his disciple safe when he left the sect.

Honestly, Xuan Hao was a bit surprised when he saw the strength of the inner elder, he was at the peak of the Core Formation Realm. Only one step away from reaching the Nascent Soul Realm!

Someone like that would normally not guard the disciples of a Core Elder like Xuan Hao but would instead dedicate all their time to cultivating and trying to reach the Nascent Soul Realm. Maybe he had grown bored and wanted to go out for a bit?

Not thinking too much about it, Xuan Hao instead focused on the strength of the demonic cultivator who was currently fighting with the inner elder.

He did not look like much and was so skinny that he almost looked malnourished, but his strength spoke for itself as the skinny demonic cultivator exploded with strength and easily supressed the inner elder from the Flying Sword Sect without much difficulty.

BOOM!

Knocking the inner elder tasked with protecting Chu Yang away, the skinny demonic cultivator was about to escape when someone appeared in front of him to block his escape path.

"Stop! Do you think you can come and go as you please inside of the Flying Sword Sects territory!?" The person blocking him was another inner elder at the peak of the Core Formation Realm that had arrived shortly after the first exchange between the inner elder protecting Chu Yang and the demonic cultivator.

"Hm… He should be done for…" Feeling the divine sense of both the Sect Master and the Vice Sect Master rush over and seeing over a dozen inner elders come out from a nearby teashop, Xuan Hao decided to leave the skinny demonic cultivator to them as he quickly followed the demonic cultivator who had taken off with his disciple.

No matter what, the Flying Sword City was extremely close to the Flying Sword Sect and there would almost always be a few dozen inner elders staying there relaxing in a nearby teashop or inn.

The demonic cultivators had really chosen the worst possible time to act, as only a few meters away from the newly opened weapon shop, there was a rather popular teashop, and the inner elders of the Flying Swords Sects elderly generation were currently hosting a casual meeting to reminisce about the old days.

…

"Where did all of these people suddenly pop up from!? Why are there so many Peak Core Formation experts so close by!?" Elder Skinling felt a sudden fear building up inside of him when he saw the Peak Core Formation Experts from the Flying Sword Sect surrounding him from all side, preventing him from running away.

Even worse, he clearly knew that the Nascent Soul Realm experts of the Flying Sword Sect would be making their way over and could appear at any moment.

"Looks like I don't have a choice…"

BOOM!

A loud explosion erupted from the skinny demonic as a bright red mist enveloped his entire body, instantly causing his aura to skyrocket from the peak of the Core Formation Realm into the Nascent Soul Realm.

With his newfound strength, Elder Skinling easily made his way through the encirclement of Flying Sword Sect elders and soon made it outside the Flying Sword Sect.

Swoosh!

But just as he was about to relax, a terrifying sword light came from the distance and soon appeared directly behind Elder Skinling within a few seconds.

"BLOOD SACRIFICE!" Screaming on the top of his lungs, Elder Skinling's arms both exploded into a bloody mist that flew forward and blocked the sword light. NvεlB¡n: Unleashing Imagination, One Read at a Time.

Clang~

An almost mesmerising sound of a sword hitting a metal surface sounded as the sword light was stopped for a moment before finally cutting through the bloody mist and slashing down at the place that Elder Skinling had been just a moment ago.

Elder Skinling felt himself shiver a bit when he saw how easily the sword light had cut through his trump card. He had lost both his arms! Yet the bloody mist had barely lasted a second against the sword light!

Whoosh!

Not thinking any longer about it, Elder Skinling used all his energy at trying to run away, his speed easily surpassed a stage one Nascent Soul expert in the moment of life and death, his speed had broken through to a new realm!

But even that was not enough, as the person chasing him was someone in the seventh stage of the Nascent Soul Realm, the late stage of the Nascent Soul Realm.

At this time, a new aura suddenly appeared in the opposite direction that the Elder Skinling had run to and was heading straight for the Flying Sword Sect.

This did not last for long as another aura erupted from the Flying Sword Sect, causing the approaching aura to stop for a moment before resuming its path towards the Flying Sword Sect, this was followed by another three different auras appearing and making their way towards the Flying Sword Sect.

…

"Hmph!" Feng Chen frowned slightly when he saw the situation and glanced at the escaping demonic cultivator before finally turning back and abandoning the chase. Instead, he quickly made his way back to the Sect, causing the four auras to quickly retreat and disappear once again.

"I hope Elder Xuan knows what he is doing…" Staring in the direction that the demonic cultivator disappeared in, Feng Chen muttered to himself.

If it were not for Xuan Hao stopping him earlier and telling him to let the demonic cultivator escape in a believable manner, he would not have missed his attack on the demonic cultivator and would have already killed him.

Now all he could do was wait for Xuan Hao to return and explain why he would allow a demonic cultivator to kidnap his disciple… At the very least, Xuan Hao should have planned something…

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Chapter 112: Xuan Hao's Scheme?

" Hah… I didn't expect for there to be so many Core Formation experts present in the Flying Sword City! Looks like it really was a trap!" Glancing fearfully behind him as he continued moving at a fast speed, Elder Skinling felt like he had just barely escaped from the grasp of death.

"I might have lost quite a bit, but in the end, we managed to catch that traitor! Now all I have to do is return to the sect and slowly recover and then I should be fine again in a few years' time…" Looking down at the place that his arms were supposed to be, Elder Skinling could still feel the pain from utilizing the blood sacrifice technique earlier.

For him to be able to erupt with such strength and block the attack of Feng Chen for a moment while only being at the Core Formation Realm, a certain price had to be paid.

Elder Skinling had ended up shattering part of his core located at the centre of his dantian and lost both his arms to get away, but in the end, Elder Skinling had managed to get away with his life!

"Now I will just have to relocate and meet up with that cowardly guy…" Thinking about the other elder who had run away just as planned without incurring any injuries in the process, Elder Skinling felt a bit of resentment whenever he looked at the injuries that he had sustained. NvεlB¡n: Unleashing Imagination, One Read at a Time.

With that, Elder Skinling made his way towards a mountain located on the edges of the Flying Sword Sects territory, this was the place that both of them had agreed to meet up after getting away from the Flying Sword Sect and heading back to the sect again together.

…

Further away from where Elder Skinling was, Chu Yang was currently feeling extremely scared as he felt himself being carried away by an elderly man, that he could only guess was a member of his former sect.

Things had happened way too fast for him to even react and before he knew it, he could see the Flying Sword City slowly disappearing into the distance as he got farther and farther away.

At first, he had tried to struggle free, but after having no success, he decided to just give up and wait for an opportunity.

This went on for another few hours before his kidnapper finally came to a stop and threw him down on the ground.

"Hah, this should be far enough!" Looking around cautiously, the kidnapper in question let out a sigh of relief before turning to look at Chu Yang with a malicious smile slowly appearing.

"Now that we are alone little traitor, where did you keep that Devil-Immortal Jade? Hand it over now and I might be able to help you have a less painful death when we return to the sect… But I can't promise that the Sect Master will keep it, hehe!" Laughing at Chu Yang's fate, the elder stretched out his hand, expecting Chu Yang to hand over the Devil-Immortal Jade.

"…" Chu Yang suddenly felt himself starting to sweat a lot as he grew even more nervous compared to before.

He did not have the Devil-Immortal Jade on him! Why would he bring something like that with him in the first place? It was way safer to just let it stay in his room inside of the Flying Sword Sect!

"Hm? Something wrong? Ah, perhaps you want to hand it over to the Sect Master personally in hopes that he would spare you? Hehe, I will allow you to hold this little hope, who knows? Maybe he will let you the sect again!" Not noticing how nervous Chu Yang was at the moment, the elder thought that he had hit the mark with his conclusion and just laughed it off before taking out a communication talisman and contacting Elder Skinling.

…

A few hundred meters in the air above Chu Yang and the elder from the demonic sect, Xuan Hao was closely keeping an eye on the situation happening down below.

Earlier when he had discovered the two demonic sect elders, he had first thought about getting rid of them, but upon further contemplation, Xuan Hao realized that they would most likely just come again in the future and if he were not present, his disciple might be kidnapped for real…

So, with that in mind, Xuan Hao decided on a plan to deal with the now Demonic Black Rose Sect once and for all or at the very least prevent them from coming to kidnap his disciple again.

This plan required Chu Yang to hand over the Devil-Immortal Jade to the Demonic Black Rose Sect, it was also for this reason that Xuan Hao had secretly taken away the Devil-Immortal Jade from his room.

With a wave of his hand, Xuan Hao carefully threw out the Devil-Immortal Jade as it gently landed in front of the surprised Chu Yang, who quickly picked it up and looked around himself in confusion.

"Now for the next part… I will have to look like a demonic cultivator, but how would I disguise myself as one and enter the Black Rose Sect…?" Thinking for a bit, Xuan Hao suddenly smiled slyly as he sensed a certain demonic cultivator approaching from the distance, the demonic cultivator guarding Chu Yang had yet to discover him as he was still quite far away, but Xuan Hao easily locked onto him.

Xuan Hao had told Feng Chen to let him get away because he had originally wanted for him to keep the other demonic cultivator in check and prevent him from killing the person, they were supposed to capture and bring back along the way… They were after all demonic cultivators and their reputation was not really that great…

Xuan Hao had felt that the two of them would be able to keep each other in check and ensure that nothing bad would happen to Chu Yang along the way, but it had seemed that his worries were for nothing, as the elder in question did not seem to care about killing the traitor of the sect, Chu Yang.

With that in mind Xuan Hao quickly came up with a new idea and soon appeared directly in front of Elder Skinling, shocking the living daylight out of him in the process.

"Hello, I might have great opportunity for you and the future of your sect…" Smiling brightly, Xuan Hao started talking to Elder Skinling, who at first was still fearful of Xuan Hao, but slowly started growing more and more excited upon listing to what Xuan Hao said.

"So, do we have a deal…?" Finished presenting his plan, Xuan Hao looked over and saw Elder Skinling eagerly nodding his head in agreement.

"Great! Just do as I told you and the Black Rose Sect will surely have a bright future…" Saying this, Xuan Hao quickly ascended into the sky and disappeared before Elder Skinling managed to react.

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Chapter 113: The Entrance to The Black Rose Sect

" Elder Skinling!? What happened to you?!" The elder who had taken on the job of kidnapping Chu Yang and running away with him look at Elder Skinling with a shocked expression on his face when he saw him.

This was not totally without reason, as the current Elder Skinling had lost both his arms earlier and his current self was nowhere close to being the same state as before, the other elder even started feeling a bit bad about the fact that he had just run away with Chu Yang while Elder Skinling blocked the path of the Flying Sword Sects people for him!

"I got injured trying to escape, I barely manged to get away after using the blood sacrifice technique imparted by the Sect Master onto us… For now, it looks like I will have to rely on you to get back safely to the Sect…" Putting on a pitiful expression, Elder Skinling let out a deep sigh of despair while melancholically glancing at where his arms were supposed to be from time to time.

"N-no worries Elder Skinling, we are mostly safe already and we even manged to get the traitor and the Devil-Immortal Jade! The Sect Master might even be happy with our task when we return and help you recover your arms!" Smiling awkwardly, the other elder reassured Elder Skinling as he quickly made his way over and helped him up.

No matter what, they were still members of the same sect and Elder Skinling and he had been quite close for some time and worked together on several occasions in the past.

"Indeed… For now, let's hurry back to the sect! I'm sure that the Sect Master is anxious to get the Devil-Immortal Jade back, so we can resume the ritual…" Shaking his head a bit, Elder Skinling and the other elder soon made their way back towards the Black Rose Sect.

It was only for a moment, but Elder Skinling narrowed his eyes slightly with killing intent when the other elder turned around to pick up Chu Yang.

The killing intent only lasted for a short moment and Elder Skinling quickly controlled himself again upon remembering what he had talked about with the mysterious person earlier.

No matter what, he had to complete the task that he was given! For the future of the Black Rose Sect and for his own future!

…

"Looks like there won't be any problem with that guy…" Observing the situation from above, Xuan Hao smiled a bit to himself as he saw that Elder Skinling did not talk about his meeting or anything, it looked like his plan so far had worked and Elder Skinling would most likely do the thing that he had tasked him with!

"Now back to square one… How do I enter the Black Rose Sect?" Thinking a bit about, Xuan Hao decided to fly ahead of the Elder Skinling and the other elder from the Black Rose Sect.

Elder Skinling would most likely not dare to do anything to Chu Yang, as he was "critical" to the plan Xuan Hao had told him about earlier and most importantly, there was a high chance that Elder Skinling had mistaken him for a Domain Lord because of his ability to fly…

Xuan Hao would not be so kind as to correct his mistake if something like that had really happened. Flying with the help of a sword due to having True Sword Intent, was after all something completely unheard of in the Heavenly Sky kingdom and few people knew about such a thing in the first place.

Time passed by and after travelling back over the Red Dust Desert, Xuan Hao soon made it to the Bright Sun City where Qing Yi and he had their first formal encounter with members of the Black Rose Sect.

Xuan Hao only observed the city below for a few seconds before moving on upon discovering that everything was normal without a sudden demonic cultivator having suddenly appeared and destroyed the city in the name of the Black Rose Sect or something.

The journey to the Black Rose Sect was peaceful and Xuan Hao did not encounter any demonic cultivator or anything along the way and by the time he arrived in front of the path leading up to the Black Rose Mountain that the Black Rose Sect was located at, Xuan Hao was a bit sceptical as to whether he was truly inside the territory of a demonic sect… Dive into Stories, Embrace Enchantment: NvεlB¡n.

Maybe he had taken a wrong turn along the way?

From what he had learnt, most demonic sects would not be placed high into the sky where the qi between heaven and earth was the densest, instead, they would be located in an underground valley or cave system of some sort, so as to be closer to the netherworld or something.

All Xuan Hao knew about them being underground was that they did it because, like cultivators, they would have an easier time cultivating and improving.

As for why they could improve the further underground they were, Xuan Hao had no clue, but he guessed that it had something to do with the energy that they cultivated being denser the further underground one went, similar to how qi grew denser the higher up one went.

Throwing his doubts to the back of his mind, Xuan Hao tried his best to supress his own aura as he cautiously made his way up the Black Rose Mountain.

Along the way, Xuan Hao discovered a lot of empty pavilions and other sort of living quarters and slowly started growing more and more confused.

Where had they gone? Did they perhaps relocate after becoming a demonic sect?

All these thoughts swirled around Xuan Hao's mind as he soon made it to the peak of the Black Rose Mountain, it was only at this point that he finally realized where the Black Rose Sect was truly located!

At the place that the Sect Masters pavilion was supposed to be located at the very peak of the Black Rose Mountain, there was instead a giant gaping hole leading straight down into what looked like a bottomless abyss.

Xuan Hao could faintly hear faint roaring sounds coming from the bottom of the abyss as he peered down into it.

Glancing towards a few platforms located a few meters below the normal ground level, Xuan Hao spotted a few black robed individuals holding weapons, if he were not in the Nascent Soul Realm, they would have surely spotted him by now!

Every single one of them had reached the Peak of the Core Formation Realm and were cautiously looking towards the top of the hole located a few kilometers above them at the top of the Black Rose Mountain, seemingly ready to act the moment they spotted something out of place.

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Chapter 114: Only one Nascent Soul Realm Expert...?

Closely observing the path down into the abyss below where the Black Rose Sect was most likely located, Xuan Hao managed to spot a few blind spots that he could approach from and maybe sneak past the guard stationed directly below him.

The only positive was that there was no Nascent Soul Realm expert present to guard the entrance at this point, though there was most likely one located further down…

"I will just deal with it when I get to that point…" Muttering so to himself, Xuan Hao sneakily made his way down into the abyss below.

The path down was an almost invisible staircase etched into the sides of the hole and Xuan Hao didn't even notice it when he first looked down into the gaping hole that was the entrance of the Black Rose Sect.

Thinking about it, Xuan Hao realized that there was most likely another entrance into the Black Rose Sect other than the giant hole that he was entering through.

After all, they had to transport spirit stones and other essential item such as spirit herbs inside and the giant hole on top of the Black Rose Mountain did not really seem like a great place to transport a massive amount of resources through…

As Xuan Hao thought about this, he soon managed to make his way past the guards standing on the platforms.

The guards did not seem to have noticed anything, as Xuan Hao quickly made it deeper into the abyss below.

…

"We are here! Follow me to meet the Sect Master, he will decide your fate!" Arriving in front of an enormous cave entrance located only a few miles away from the Black Rose Mountain, with members of the Black Rose Sect stationed on both sides to guard the enormous cave entrance, Chu Yang was pushed forward as the elder known as Skinling lead him towards the cave entrance.

"Elder Skinling, you manged to catch the traitor!? Colour me surprised! I thought the Sect Master would end up killing you in a few days, but it looks like you already started with your arms, haha!" As Elder Skinling and Chu Yang made their way over to the cave entrance, one of the Core Formation Experts guarding the entrance walked over with a taunting smile on his lips.

"Elder Shadow Moon…" Elder Skinling narrowed his eyes when he saw the approaching person and if he still had his arms, he would surely clench his fists in anger.

"Elder Shadow Moon, we are in a hurry to meet the Sect Master, if you could please allow us to pass…" As Elder Skinling and Elder Shadow Moon stared at each other, the other elder that had helped Elder Skinling capture Chu Yang stepped forward and meditated.

"Fine… We are after all both from the same sect, hehe, hope you can recover your arms quickly Skinling… After all, as a demonic sect, we should not keep any useless people around!" Smiling tauntingly, Elder Shadow Moon soon made his way back to his position among the Core Formation Experts guarding the entrance.

With that out of the way, Chu Yang was soon escorted in through the cave entrance towards the location of the Black Rose Sect, or at the very least the new location of the Black Rose Sect.

Chu Yang himself had not seen the part of the sect that was located underground, at most he had heard a few rumours about the place before he managed to make his escape.

But from looking around at the younger members of the sect passing by along the way, Chu Yang could see that the entire Black Rose Sect had most likely already moved the entire sect underground.

"T-this is…!" Coming to a stop in front of a giant palace, Chu Yang felt a primordial fear inside of him as he felt the strong menacing aura radiating from the giant palace.

If he entered the palace in front of him, he would never be able to return again!

That was the feeling Chu Yang had when he looked at the palace. This essence is securely nested within the heart of Nøvlß¡n

Elder Skinling did not seem to mind the menacing aura that much and walked up to one of the people guarding the entrance.

Soon, the giant gate leading into the pavilion swung open as the stench of human blood wafted out into the air, causing Chu Yang to feel even more afraid as Elder Skinling almost had to push him forward into the palace.

Ah… is this the end…?

As he was pushed into the pavilion, Chu Yang glanced backwards, only to see the giant doors of the palace closing.

All he could do was walk forward with the assistance of Elder Skinling, who had taken on an extremely serious look from the moment he stepped foot inside the palace.

…

"Hm…? They are here?" Hiding behind a rock formation close to the palace, Xuan Hao watched with a slight smile as he saw his disciple enter the palace with a scared look on his face. At this point, his disciple most likely thought he was about to meet his end…

Xuan Hao also felt quite lucky as he had managed to enter the Black Rose Sect without encountering any Nascent Soul Realm Expert, but at the same time he had started to become worried… After all, the only Nascent Soul Realm Expert he could feel in the entire Black Rose Sect was the Sect Master located in the palace that his disciple had just entered…

Where were the other Nascent Soul Realm Experts from the Black Rose Sect…?

"Time to move I guess…" narrowing his eyes, Xuan Hao shook his head slightly and cast the thought to the back of his mind as he made his way over towards the palace.

The moment, Elder Skinling did what he had told him to do, he would act! If he was lucky, he might even be able to kill the Sect Master of the Black Rose Sect now that there were no other Nascent Soul Realm Experts present in the Black Rose Sect, instead of just injuring him like he had originally planned!

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Chapter 115: Sect Master of the Black Rose Sect

Inside the underground palace, Elder Skinling was carefully escorting Chu Yang forward towards the throne room located at the centre of the underground palace, this was the place that the Sect Master of the Black Rose Sect resided!

As he got closer and closer to the throne room that the Sect Master was located in, Elder Skinling started growing more and more nervous with each passing second.

No matter how confident he was in the person that he had met earlier, he still could not stop himself from feeling extremely nervous.

"Come!" As Chu Yang and Elder Skinling arrived in front of a large double door, a demonic voice echoed out from the other side as the double door slowly started opening on its own. Not giving Chu Yang or Elder Skinling any time to respond to the voice.

Looking into the pitch-black darkness beyond the double door, Elder Skinling gulped in fear as he slowly walked inside, making sure that Chu Yang was walking in front of him.

The last time he visited the Sect Master, it was nowhere near as scary as it was currently! Before there were several light sources in the room making it bright and majestic, but now it was completely dark and gave off a creepy and scary vibe.

Elder Skinling felt like his life was no longer in his own hands, as the aura in front of him grew stronger and stronger the closer he got.

"S-sect Master, I have brought back the traitor who stole away the Devil-Immortal Jade!" Coming to a stop a few meters away from the place that the aura came from, Elder Skinling did not dare to move any closer as he quickly pushed Chu Yang towards the Sect Master.

"Hm…" Not saying anything more, the Sect Master who was completely hidden by the darkness thoroughly inspected Chu Yang before his gaze finally landed on a token firmly held in Chu Yang's left hand.

The Sect Master could clearly feel the demonic will inside the token and knew that it was the right one and not just some imitation that Elder Skinling had made in an attempt to safe himself from punishment, should he fail to get the Devil-Immortal Jade back again.

"Great!" Not being able to fully control himself upon finding out that it was the real Devil-Immortal Jade, the Sect Master smiled happily as he waved his hand, causing the Devil-Immortal Jade to fly out of Chu Yang's hand and into his own.

"Hm?" Upon grabbing hold of the Devil-Immortal Jade, the Sect Master immediately felt that something was wrong, it felt lighter than it had in the past… quickly bringing the jade closer to have a closer look. NvεlB¡n: Unleashing Imagination, One Read at a Time.

The Sect Master of the Black Rose Sect immediately discovered that a large part of the Devil-Immortal Jade had been chipped off, even worse, it was the main part of the jade containing the Devil-Immortal engraving.

Without it, the Devil-Immortal Jade was useless…

"Who!?" The aura of the Black Rose Sect Master went out of control as an overwhelming killing intent suddenly washed over both Chu Yang and Elder Skinling, causing both of them to weakly collapse down on the ground, unable to move a single muscle.

Chu Yang laid flat on the ground, while Elder Skinling barely managed to keep himself up as he looked in the direction of the Sect Master filled with fear of what was about to happen.

"Y-you…!" Barely manging to get any words out, Elder Skinling looked extremely shocked the moment he actually saw the Sect master, this was not due to him suddenly becoming extraordinarily handsome or anything like that.

No, instead it was because of the two bat like wings behind him, making him look extremely demonic.

"You completed the second demonic transformation!?" Barely managing to get a sentence out after calming himself down for a few seconds, Elder Skinling knew very well what the pair of bat-like wings on the Sect Master's back meant.

The Second Demonic Transformation was a cultivation realm under demonic cultivation that was said to be as strong as peak Nascent Soul Realm cultivators! But this was not the only thing that made demonic cultivators on the second transformation scary, what truly set them apart was the pair of demonic wings that they would grow, allowing them to fly through the air without reaching the Domain Lord Realm!

While Elder Skinling did not know if the Sect Master truly attained the strength of someone at the peak of the Nascent Soul Realm had, he still knew that the current Sect Master was not one that would be easily caught.

Maybe I made the wrong choice…?

Thinking back to this, Elder Skinling remembered when he had secretly cut off the engraved part of the Devil-Immortal Jade with a special qi technique when Chu Yang had been sleeping and the other elder was not paying attention on the way back to the Black.

The expert that could fly had instructed him to do this and then allow Chu Yang to hand over the damaged Devil-Immortal Jade to the Sect Master… But why?

Elder Skinling saw the Sect Masters aura growing more and more unstable as he felt an enormous killing intent locking on to him and Chu Yang, ensuring that neither of them could escape their impending doom.

…

Outside of the palace where Chu Yang and Elder Skinling were currently, Xuan Hao felt the demonic aura inside of the palace suddenly come alive as it violently spread out causing an enormous pressure to descend upon the disciples and elders of the Black Rose Sect.

The ones standing too close to the palace, like the guards, directly collapsed to the ground as they could not stand up straight under the pressure and was forced to either kneel down or just collapse directly in the form of a human pancake, trying their best to not suddenly die under the pressure.

"Looks like that Elder Skinling is indeed useful!" smiling to himself, Xuan Hao could clearly see that the Sect Master of the Black Rose Sect was currently undergoing an emotional upheaval, this had caused his aura to grow extremely unstable as he had a hard time controlling his anger.

Normally, such a thing would only take a few seconds, if not less to calm down for a Nascent Soul Realm Expert and would normally not be a problem… But during the period of emotional instability the Nascent Soul Realm Expert would be vulnerable, and his divine sense would momentarily be unstable enough that someone could sneak close without being noticed…

Meaning there was an opportunity for a surprise attack!

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Chapter 116: Xuan Hao Attacks!

Xuan Hao did not hesitate for even a moment as he quickly made his way into the underground palace where the Sect Master of the Black Rose Sect was located together with his disciple Chu Yang and Elder Skinling.

At the current moment, the Sect Master of the Black Rose Sect was currently overcome with rage as he angrily stared at Elder Skinling, waiting for him to come up with some sort of explanation before he killed him.

"I, I- "Elder Skinling did not know what to do at the current moment, as he could only muster all of his remaining strength to look fearfully up at the Sect Master.

He had done everything that he was told to do… Where was that person…? Did he perhaps find out about the Sect Master having reached the Second Demonic Transformation and decided not to act…?

This thought alone caused Elder Skinling to shake all over as he could only wait for his end to come at the hands of the Sect Master…

"Hmph, I see that you don't want to cooperate." Seeing that Elder Skinling did not explain or try to beg for his life, the Sect Master completely ignored Chu Yang standing beside him, as he mercilessly launched an attack towards Elder Skinling.

Is this the end…?

Having such a cliché thought as his life was about to end, Elder Skinling closed his eyes and waited for the attack to hit him without putting in any effort to resist at all.

Xuan Hao arrived just at this moment and saw the damsel in distress…? All though the damsel in question was not the kind of damsel that he was hoping for, even his disciple would have been better as he could at the very least leave a deeper impression on him…

Swoosh! Unravel the Unknown, Unleash the Unimaginable: NvεlB¡n.

Before the Sect Master of the Black Rose Sect could even react to Xuan Hao's sudden appearance, he launched a deadly sword strike towards him and soon it arrived directly in front of him. Not giving him any time to react before he was hit head on with no defences in place.

Boom!

"Wha-!" The sword strike launched by Xuan Hao landed directly on the chest of the Black Rose Sect's Sect Master and exploded into a massive sea of sword qi that directly refocused and under Xuan Hao's control continued to attack the Sect Master, throwing him backwards while destroying a large part of the underground palace they were currently inside in the process.

The surrounding disciples and elders of the Black Rose Sect only felt that the pressure that was previously bearing down on them had disappeared as they all turned to look in the direction of the palace.

The sight that met them was half the side of the palace being completely destroyed as their Sect Master flew out of it and slammed directly into the cave wall, causing part of the cave to collapse, as rocks and other debris showered down, burying him completely.

"How dare you!" A loud and enraged scream erupted from beneath the rocks and other debris as the Sect Master soon jumped out and a blood red aura completely engulfed him, sending a chill down the spine of every disciple or elder that was watching.

Swoosh~

The only answer that the Sect Master got was another sword attack, but this time he was ready for it, as a blood red shield formed in front of him and blocked the attack.

Following this, Xuan Hao appeared from the now ruined part of the underground palace as he quickly rushed at the Sect master, preparing to launch another attack before he managed to recover.

The plan Xuan Hao had was relatively simple, first rush in when he is distracted, secondly hit the Sect Master with his sword until he either dies or is seriously injured.

Xuan Hao could not let him regain his footing and make sense of what was happening, so he kept launching attack after attack at the Sect Master of the Black Rose Sect, as the person in question continued to be pushed further and further back under the unrelenting wave of attacks by Xuan Hao.

The only thing Xuan Hao was worried about currently was the other Nascent Soul Realm Elders of the Black Rose Sect showing up and joining the fight to support the Sect master.

As for the Sect Master having reached the Second Demonic Transformation and being comparable with Peak Nascent Soul Realm cultivators and having the ability to fly with his bat-like wings? Xuan Hao did not worry at all.

From what he could feel after fighting a bit with him, Xuan Hao had discovered that the Sect Master of the Black Rose Sect had only just managed to complete the Second Demonic Transformation and was at most comparable to someone at the seventh stage of the Nascent Soul Realm… Far from reaching the true potential of the Second Demonic Transformation…

Swish!

"Argh!" Once again, a sword attack of Xuan Hao managed to make its way past the defence of the Sect Master and make direct contact, but even being wounded like this, the Sect Master did not seem to be seriously injured as he merely shrugged off the attack and continued to defend against the unrelenting barrage of attacks Xuan Hao threw at him.

"Hah…" Seeing this, Xuan Hao stopped attacking as he clearly felt that the physical defence of the Sect Master was way stronger than he had first expected.

An attack that could seriously injure a seventh stage Nascent Soul Realm cultivator only left a small flesh wound on the Sect Master of the Black Rose Sect…

"Hm?"

Glancing in the direction where Chu Yang and Skinling had entered the Black Rose Sect from, Xuan Hao clearly felt a few auras in the Nascent Soul Realm coming over.

The Nascent Soul Realm experts from the Black Rose Sect that were missing earlier had returned!

"Looks like I will have to go all out if I want to injure him…" Muttering this to himself, Xuan Hao ignored the fact that the Sect Master had already gotten up and was looking at him filled with killing intent!

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Chapter 117: Rain Sword Art

Drawing back his sword, Xuan Hao decided to use a sword attack that he was more familiar with compared to the one in the Untold Sword Mantra that he could only barely execute.

The Sword art in question was part of one of the few Heaven Rank sword arts of the Flying Sword Sect, called the Rain Sword.

In the past, the sword art had been found by one of the ancestors of the Flying Sword Sect and had later been given over to the Pagoda of Enlightenment. This essence is securely nested within the heart of Nøvlß¡n

The sword art was split into three different attacks, Misty Rain, Spring Rain and finally Cloudburst.

Xuan Hao did not dare to wait for any longer as he immediately appeared only a few meters away from where the Sect Master of the Black Rose Sect was standing as he slashed down.

"Cloudburst!"

Xuan Hao mustered all his qi as he used the final move of the Rain Sword, Cloudburst. Even though the sword attack was normally not something that he would be able to use with his current strength, Xuan Hao knew that if he did not injure the Sect master of the Black Rose Sect now, there would not be a chance to do so in future.

Especially now that he had already been ambushed once, it was unlikely for him to give another chance for something like that to happen within a short amount of time.

Sword qi formed around the sword together with Xuan Hao's sword intent as a streak of sword light exploded forwards towards the Sect Master.

Together with the sword light the sound of rain could be faintly heard, as the Sect Master of the Black Rose Sect briefly felt like he was engulfed in the middle of a terrifying rainstorm that could wipe him out at any moment.

This illusion only lasted for a brief moment, but it was more than enough time as Xuan Hao's sword attack reached the Sect Master.

BOOM!

A violent explosion ensued, as the sword qi gathered inside of the sword light exploded outwards just as it was about to hit the Sect Master, raining down on the area surrounding the Sect Master and the Sect Master himself.

"Argh!" Letting out a pitiful scream, the Sect Master quickly retreated from the area of the sword rain, but it was already too late as the sword qi had managed to penetrate deep into his body, if he were too slow, the sword qi would have penetrated his soul and directly killed him on the spot!

"Sect Master!" A loud yell could be heard as the first of the Nascent Soul Realm Experts of the Black Rose Sect had made his way back to the sect. The first thing that he saw upon coming to the underground palace was the Sect Master getting hit by countless small sword lights raining down on him from above, followed by his scream and him retreating.

The Nascent Soul Expert completely ignored Xuan Hao, as he quickly made his way over to the Sect Master to make sure that he was fine.

Xuan Hao did not wait along for the rest of the Black Rose Sects Nascent Soul Realm Experts to appear as he quickly turned around and made his way into the underground palace where Chu Yang and Elder Skinling were currently located.

"Hm? He fainted…?" Looking at the unconscious Chu Yang, Xuan Hao grabbed him and turned over to see Elder Skinling looking at him with eyes full of fear.

Back then, Xuan Hao had promised to help him get out of the Demonic Black Rose Sect without them sending people to hunt him down in the future.

After he had experienced how ruthless the current Sect Master was and how little his life mattered to the higher-ups, Elder Skinling wanted to quit and just return to being a normal cultivator, even being a wandering cultivator without any backing would be better than staying in the Demonic Black Rose Sect in his eyes!

"A-are you still g-going to help me…?" Feeling extremely nervous when he was standing in front of Xuan Hao, Elder Skinling barely manged to ask what he wanted to. The last few minutes of his life had been the most chaotic and terrifying it had ever been, even the chase a few days ago where he lost both his arms wasn't as scary!

"Of course, they will most likely not try and search for you over the next few weeks, so you should have more than enough time to escape to another kingdom…" Seeing Elder Skinling's hopeful eyes, Xuan Hao decided to do as he promised and quickly grabbed onto Elder Skinling before jumping on his sword, quickly making his escape out of the Black Rose Sect through the hole that he entered through.

The guards stationed on the few platforms at the side had already grown terrified as they carefully tried to see what was happening in the Black Rose Sect below them.

Xuan Hao's sudden appearance from below flying caused them to quickly scatter, as they tried their best to hide away in the small cracks of the wall, it was only half an hour after they were sure Xuan Hao was gone that they made their way back out.

What happened in the Sect?

All of the guards were confused and scared as they quickly abandoned their posts and made their way down into the sect to find out what happened.

…

"Who was it!?" A few minutes after Xuan Hao had escaped, the Sect Master of the Black Rose Sect's voice echoed through the enormous underground cave, the few Nascent Soul Elders took a bit distance from the Sect Master, scared he might take out his anger at them.

"We don't know, but it looks like Elder Skinling helped him set up a trap of some sort…" A wise looking elder bravely stepped forward as he explained.

"Skinling…! How did the preparations for the grand ritual go…?" Narrowing his eyes filled with killing intent, the Sect Master still managed to calm down as he asked about the thing that the other Nascent Soul Elders of the Black Rose Sect had been working on.

"We managed to finish the preparations… But without the Devil-Immortal Jade-"

"Enough! I already reached the Second Demonic Transformation! When I recover, I should be able to complete the ritual without the Devil-Immortal Jade! Before then, we will close off the Sect and not bother with the outside world…" Interrupting the answer by one of the elders, the Sect Master turned around and made his way back to the half-destroyed palace.

"Just you wait damnable sword cultivator! I will get my revenge after I recover! And find out where you are! And… who you are…" Realizing that he had no idea who had attacked him in the first place, the Sect Master fell into a sudden state of confusion as he could only sigh to himself before returning to his now destroyed throne room.

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Chapter 118: Return to the Flying Sword Sect

Flying away from the Black Rose Sect, Xuan Hao came to a stop and landed on the ground after traveling in the direction of the Flying Sword Sect for 30 minutes straight. During the travel, Elder Skinling did not say a single word as he just quietly let Xuan Hao carry him away from the Black Rose Sect.

"You are free to go now, I would recommend leaving the Heavenly Sky Kingdom as quickly as possible if you don't want the Black Rose Sect to come after you in the future! With this my promise can be considered to have been fulfilled!"

Upon reaching the ground, Xuan Hao let go of Elder Skinling as he warned him before quickly ascending into the sky with Chu Yang still unconscious, making his way back towards the Flying Sword Sect.

"Thank you!" Bowing deeply in the direction of Xuan Hao's disappearing figure among the clouds above, Elder Skinling felt a genuine sense of gratitude as he would not have to worry about his past sect coming after him and hunting him down.

He had managed to leave! Even if he had ended up both of his arms, he could still recover them either with the help of a healer or through cultivating. Reaching the Nascent Soul Realm, one would go through a complete rebirth of sorts and recovering his two arms at that point should be more than doable.

"Now where should I go first? The Azure Sky Kingdom is still at war with the Heavenly Sky Kingdom, so going there would not be such a great idea… I might even end up getting dragged into the conflict if I go there!" Going over his current situation, Elder Skinling smiled a bit to himself before shaking his head.

"I will just try and head to the Cloud Sky Kingdom for now, they have always remained neutral and peaceful whenever something happened, and they will most likely not join the current conflict between the Heavenly Sky and Azure Sky Kingdom." Coming to a decision, Elder Skinling did not stand around and wait for any longer as he made his way in the direction of the Cloud Sky Kingdom.

"Hopefully, I will be able to recover my strength and reach the Nascent Soul Realm there…"

…

As the former elder of the Black Rose Sect Skinling was making his way towards the Cloud Sky Kingdom, Xuan Hao had made his way back to the Flying Sword Sect.

"Xuan Hao! How did things go, and did you manage to get your disciple back safely!? Did you kill off those damnable demonic cultivators!" Just as Xuan Hao made his way in through the gates of the sect, the Vice Sect Master Zu Fei came over with a slightly worried, but even so more angry expression on her face when she mentioned the demonic cultivators.

"I'm fine and the Black Rose Sect should not be able to bother us in the short term… At the very least their Sect Master is currently seriously injured." Xuan sighed slightly upon saying this, but quickly recovered.

Earlier he had used up most of his qi in the attack against the Sect Master of the Black Rose Sect, but even then, he had still managed to survive the attack.

"Injured?! How strong was he?!" Upon hearing that the Sect Master of the Black Rose Sect had only ended up seriously injured, Zu Fei wore a shocked expression on her face.

Xuan Hao was a Nascent Soul Expert in the sixth stage and a sword cultivator famous for having combat strength above their own cultivation realm! No matter how strong the Black Rose Sect had become due to becoming a demonic sect, Zu Fei had never expected for their Sect Master to be that strong.

"A-are you okay…?" Glancing over at Xuan Hao more carefully, Zu Fei tried to see if he had managed to get injured as well.

"I'm fine, I managed to get away before the other Nascent Soul Realm Experts of the Black Rose Sect made their way over to help the Sect Master of the Black Rose Sect. For now, I will go back and make sure nothing happened to my disciple, I will personally go to the Sect Master and report what happened in detail later." Saying this, Xuan Hao made his way back towards his pavilion, while Zu Fei quickly went back to what she was doing beforehand.

It was only a coincidence that she had managed to meet Xuan Hao just as he entered the Sect, and she made her way out to deal with a task given by the Sect Master Feng Chen.

The journey back to the pavilion went without any incidents as Xuan Hao made his way up the mountain that the pavilion was located at.

"Master and Chu Yang…? W-what happened to Chu Yang, do you know where he disappeared to in the last few days?" A person suddenly appeared a few meters behind Xuan Hao as she quickly ran over and asked with a slightly confused voice.

"Qing Yi? Ah, Chu Yang is just unconscious. Nothing to worry about." Seeing that it was just his disciple, Xuan Hao quickly assured her that nothing was wrong with him and began to explain what had happened over the last few days of him going missing.

"I see… So Junior Chu Yang was kidnapped by people from the Black Rose Sect and master went to save him!" Upon hearing Xuan Hao's nonbiased explanation about how he had saved Chu Yang from a den of demonic cultivators and heroically injured their leader in the process, Qing Yi's eyes started shinning as she looked at her master with respect.

To think he went into a lair of demonic cultivators to savejunior Chu Yang! NvεlB¡n: Unleashing Imagination, One Read at a Time.

Qing Yi felt that her master was really awesome at that moment and even started imagining the scene for herself.

"Let's return to the pavilion for now so I can put down your junior brother." Carrying around his disciple was not really something he wanted to continue doing, so with Xuan Hao leading the way, both he and Qing Yi made their way up the mountain.

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Chapter 119: Messenger of the Azure Sky Kingdom

" Y-your Majesty! The plague that spread through the Heavenly Sky Kingdom over the last few months, have appeared in the border regions of the country!" Kneeling down, the messenger fearful conveyed what he was ordered to by his superiors. No matter what happened, he did not dare to look up at the person sitting on the throne in front of him.

"And? This is most likely just someone trying to fish in the muddy waters. No need to pay any attention to it for now, just continue to focus on the Heavenly Sky Kingdom...

Convey this to my generals; I would like for you to stop playing around at the borders and just get it over with. The Heavenly Sky Kingdom won't send any of their strong experts and will at most send a few people in the early stages of the Nascent Soul Realm… If you still struggle, just use those Nascent Soul Experts from the sects as the frontline to launch an attack… Now go." The man on the throne said with an emotionless voice completely ignoring the person kneeling down in front of him after quickly waving him away.

"Y-yes your majesty…" Not daring to say anything to the person on the throne, even if it meant that the message, he carried would cause friction between the Imperial family of the Azure Sky Kingdom and the Sect's of the Azure Sky Kingdom!

"Ah, wait…" Just as the messenger was about to leave the throne room, the emotionless voice from earlier sounded out once again.

The messenger to froze in place the moment he heard the emotionless voice and felt like his poor life might end at any moment, constantly thinking back to his earlier short conversation, wondering where he had messed up.

"Deliver this to the current person in command at the border when you arrive." Throwing out a small jade with a few engravings on it, the emotionless person on the throne finally seemed to have run out of things to say as the messenger almost ran out of the throne room like a Domain Lord demon best was chasing after him.

Upon leaving the throne room, the messenger came to a stop in a small room inside the palace that he was currently located at, there, his subordinates were patiently waiting for him with an anxious look plastered all over their faces.

"Leader, how did it go? Any solution to the plague problem from his majesty?" One of the subordinates stepped forward and asked nervously in a slightly hopeful tone.

The messenger who was the leader of the group could not help but sigh a bit to himself as he looked at the subordinate that asked this, his entire family was located at the border region where the plague outbreak happened! This essence is securely nested within the heart of Nøvlß¡n

Even though he could move them to the capital now, it would most likely be too late as the village where his family lived most likely already got infected.

Let alone getting to the capital, they would be barred entry from the central region of the Azure Sky Kingdom, so as to ensure that the plague would not start to suddenly spread there.

"His majesty is still undecided on how to deal with the current plague outbreak and is contemplating about how to deal with it properly, for now our job will be to deliver a message to the commander and generals at the border…" Not wanting to destroy his subordinates hopes, the messenger bit down on his lips as he lied in an attempt to make sure his subordinate did not do anything stupid upon learning the fact that his majesty simply didn't care about the people located at the border region and chose to ignore them as the war with the Heavenly Sky Kingdom was clearly more important in his eyes.

"I see… Dealing with the recent plague outbreak is definitely not something that can be decided on so lightly, I'm sure his majesty has some idea on how to deal with it…" Letting out the breath that he had unknowingly been holding, the subordinate looked a little more relived upon hearing what his leader said.

The other subordinates were the same, as their family were mostly still located outside the central region of the Azure Sky Kingdom, with only a few having moved their families to the central region.

Following what their leader said, all of them started chatting with each other about their family situation, causing the leaders face to turn a bit ugly, as guilt started to slowly seep its way into his eyes.

"Enough chatting, let's get going immediately, we have to deliver the message given by his majesty to the commander at the border as quickly as possible!" The messenger felt a little bad when he saw his subordinates relived expressions, but quickly remembered his mission.

"" Yes, Leader!"" The subordinates quickly answered as each of them saluted the messenger before making their way out of the palace together and heading in the direction of the border.

…

As the messenger and his group of subordinates made their way towards the Azure Sky Kingdom's border with the Heavenly Sky Kingdom. The Heavenly Sky Kingdoms defences at the border were finally seeing a turn for the better, as Wang Hu had arrived to assist his brother and the Seven Fates Sect had sent over an additional 5 Nascent Soul Realm Experts to help defend the border region.

Other than that, the Heavenly Sky Kingdom's Imperial family also sent over a 5 Nascent Soul Realm Experts to match the Seven Fates Sect.

Even with that said, the Nascent Soul Realm Experts sent over by both the Seven Fates Sect and the Imperial family were only first stage Nascent Soul Realm Experts, some of them even had extremely unstable auras as it could clearly be seen that they had somehow forced their way into the Nascent Soul Realm by second-hand means…

Wang Hu and the rest of the Nascent Soul Realm Experts at the border were a little speechless when they saw this line-up of "experts" from both Seven Fates and the Imperial family.

They were clearly a group of elderly people who had just broken through to the Nascent Soul Realm for the increase in lifespan and would forever be stuck at the first stage of the Nascent Soul Realm. Just a single normal second or maybe even first stage Nascent Soul Realm Expert alone would be more than enough to deal with this group of elderly "experts"!

Was this the Seven Fates Sect and the Imperial family competing in who could waste the most resources to help take care of the elderly generation when they retired…?

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NvεlB¡n: Unleashing Imagination, One Read at a Time.

Chapter 120: Growing Threat of the Unkown Alchemist!

The already present Nascent Soul Experts started growing a bit uneasy when they saw the "Experts" that had been sent over to help them keep up the defence, but this uneasiness quickly disappeared as the Azure Sky Kingdom did not mobilize more people to the border.

The border slowly fell into a state of peace as the usual small skirmishes resumed, with Nascent Soul Realm Experts only showing up from time to time when the other side was about to push too much into the others territory.

The focus of the Heavenly Sky Kingdom was mostly on the part of the army that had ended up betraying them all of a sudden. The anger of the soldiers and generals were understandable, as they hoped for the Heavenly Sky Kingdom could do something about the families of the traitors back home.

After all, who knew if they were in on it as well and were waiting to deal a deadly blow to the Heavenly Sky Kingdom?

Many of the traitors with ordinary backgrounds soon had their family arrested and interrogated, while the higher-ups among the traitors had already managed to sneak their family out of the Heavenly Sky Kingdom and into the Azure Sky Kingdom.

This in turn caused many of the ordinary soldier who had turned traitor in a moment of pressure or due to other circumstances, to once again turn traitor and defect back to the Heavenly Sky Kingdom, most were hopeful that their families would be ensured safety if they did this.

Overall, this did not affect the big picture as the Core Formation and Nascent Soul Realm Traitors still remained on the side of the Azure Sky Kingdom.

But it did manage to recover some of the faith that the soldiers had lost when they saw a large part of the army defect to the other side.

…

"So, you are going to participate in this Alchemy Competition where an old Artisan Alchemist of the Sky Empire is looking for a disciple!?" Upon getting back to the pavilion and leaving Chu Yang to slowly wake up in his own room, Xuan Hao and Qing Yi walked outside as Qing Yi told him about the Alchemy Competition that she had decided to participate in a half a year.

As the master of Qing Yi, Xuan Hao had the final say in whether she could participate in the competition.

Hearing the description of the Alchemy Competition, Xuan Hao immediately felt threatened! That old Artisan Alchemist wouldn't try and steal his disciple away… Right…?

Xuan Hao knew very well that he had no way to resist the Sky Empire at the moment with his current strength, if that old Artisan Alchemist of the Sky Empire truly took an interest in his disciple and wanted to steal her…

The thought alone caused Xuan Hao to be a bit vigilant towards the unknown Artisan Alchemist from the Sky Empire.

"Can I join…? I heard there were quite a few good rewards for the people participating and it would be great learning experience, I might even be able to advance my Alchemy Realm… The Alchemy Hall will also let some of the seniors train me in the time leading up to the competition." Seeing the struggling expression on her master's face, Qing Yi called out in as she noted down how much she could improve by joining the competition.

"You can go…" Seeing the hopeful expression on Qing Yi's face, Xuan Hao decided to agree. No matter what, his disciple should not be the best out of all the geniuses sent over by the other nearby kingdoms put together… Right…?

Feeling a bit nervous at the thought of his disciple acing the competition and trashing the other competitors, Xuan Hao decided to sneak- discreetly follow the Alchemy Hall when they made their way to the Alchemy Competition hosted by the Sky Empires Artisan Alchemist.

Only this way would he be able to set aside his worries towards the unknown Artisan Alchemist of the Sky Empire.

"Thank you master! I will go over and inform the Alchemy Hall immediately!" Not knowing about the inner struggles of her master, Qing Yi happily jumped around the place in an excited manner before quickly running off in the direction of the Alchemy Hall.

"Hah…" Letting out a sigh filled with worry, Xuan Hao looked at the disappearing figure of Qing Yi.

Maybe he made the wrong choice by letting her join the Alchemy Competition?

"Still not up yet…?" Not thinking about it for any longer, Xuan Hao made his way down the mountain after checking in on Chu Yang and seeing if he had woken up yet.

The place he was going was of course the Sect Master's pavilion, as he was going to report what he had found out about the strength of the Black Rose Sect and their current situation.

Sadly, the current Flying Sword Sect was not even able to deal with a sect that was formerly below them… Becoming a demonic sect truly had its benefits in terms of short-term power increase…

How was that former elder of the Black Rose Sect going to fare in the world…? He was after all a demonic cultivator and no matter where he went, demonic cultivators were hunted down even more aggressively than demon beast in many places.

The Black Rose Sect in the Heavenly Sky Kingdom could be considered a unique situation where the Imperial family wanted to borrow their strength to deal with the Flying Sword Sect.

Skinling, the former elder of the Black Rose Sect did not have such a great thing to ensure his safety in the short term and he would be forced to run and hide whenever he was found out.

In the end, Xuan Hao could almost see the struggle that Skinling would have to go through to succeed on the path of cultivation in the future.

Staying in the Flying Sword Sect and training up a few disciples and quietly cultivating was far better than that! At the very least, his chance of survival was way higher staying in the Flying Sword Sect compared to journeying around the world looking for opportunities to advance his cultivation.

In the future, he could let his disciples do that!

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Chapter 121: Feng Chen Enters Secluded Cultivation

Travelling to the Sect Master's pavilion did not take long and Xuan Hao soon made his way inside under the guidance of one of the few servants in charge of cleaning the pavilion. The servant in question was of course a man… The last time that the Sect Master had hired a female servant in his pavilion, the Vice Sect Master apparently held a meeting with the two other Core Elder's that ended with the Sect Master transferring the female servant over to another elder a few days later.

What they had talked about in that specific meeting, Xuan Hao had no clue, as it had happened before he had joined the Flying Sword Sect.

Even Wang Hu and Wang Lan did not dare to talk about what had happened during that meeting and Xuan Hao knew that it would most likely be best if he did not continue asking about it.

"We are here." Coming to a spot in front of the Sect Masters room once again, the servant quickly backed off and returned to his duties. Leaving Xuan Hao to stare blankly at the door for a few moments before finally knocking gently on it.

"Come in." The voice of the Sect Master echoed out from the inside, as the door slowly opened. This essence is securely nested within the heart of Nøvlß¡n

Xuan Hao did not stand around as he walked directly into the Sect Master's room.

"Xuan Hao, how did it go? I was quite confused when you asked me to let that demonic cultivator run away with your disciple, but it seems like you managed to deal some damage to the demonic sect? How strong were they? How many Nascent Soul Realm Experts do they have? Did you find out what they were up to?" The moment Xuan Hao made his way inside the room, Feng Chen came over as a barrage of questions flew forward, catching Xuan Hao off guard as he did not expect for him to be so enthusiastic.

"Feng Chen calm down a bit… Your enthusiasm is quite overwhelming!" Taking a few steps backwards trying to make a bit distance between him and Feng Chen, Xuan Hao tried to get him to calm down a bit.

"Ahem… Sorry for that, I was just a bit worried when I heard that you failed to kill off the Black Rose Sect's Sect Master even with your strength! They were way stronger than I had expected for them to be and the trouble they will bring in the future will be endless…" Looking a bit embarrassed at his earlier enthusiastic behaviour, Feng Chen quickly calmed down and once again had the appearance befitting of a Sect Master.

"Well… I did manage to injure their Sect Master quite heavily and the rest of the Nascent Soul Realm Experts were mostly just at the first stage of the Realm, so they should not be planning to do anything before their Sect Master recovers." Saying this, Xuan Hao inspected Feng Chen's face to see if his expression had improved, but this did not happen, as the serious look on his face only deepened even more after hearing what he said.

"But he will still recover at some point and then we will have to find a way to deal with him and the rest of the Black Rose Sect when that time comes… It's a disaster waiting to happen, at the very least we have some idea about how strong they are, so we can prepare for it." Hearing what Feng Chen said, Xuan Hao also felt the seriousness of the matter.

The Black Rose Sect might be dealt with for the time being, but what about in the future when their Sect Master recovers?

"I will go into closed door seclusion and try to reach the eighth stage, inform the Zu Fei and the Wang Brothers for me when they return from the border. Only if the Flying Sword Sect grows stronger will we have a better chance at surviving the incoming danger and any future problems… So, what if we manage to deal with the Black Rose Sect, who knows what danger tomorrow will bring?

The Sect needs to be stronger… Xuan Hao, I'm planning to contact an old friend of mine from the Spring Flower Sect to come over before I go into seclusion. Remember, DON'T let Zu Fei discover that I was the one who called her over…" Having a serious face throughout the entire explanation for him going into seclusion, Feng Chen could not help but wear a slightly more cautious and scared look when he talked about his "old friend" from the Spring Flower Sect.

Xuan Hao knew that there might be something between this old friend and the Vice Sect Master Zu Fei, but he decided not to ask, as it had nothing to do with him.

"If that is all, I will be taking my leave." Seeing that there was most likely not anything more to do, Xuan Hao turned around to leave, he still had to check in on his disciple and return the Devil-Immortal Jade to him, even if it had been partly destroyed.

Xuan Hao did not really care that much about the Devil-Immortal Jade and did not want to waste time investigating it. Having his disciple do that for him was a much better choice, as the chances of investigating it and its origin would most likely lead to him going on a journey outside the territory of the Flying Sword Sect.

As for whatever benefits that his disciple would get from the Devil-Immortal Jade in the future, Xuan Hao would not care. After all, as long as his disciple grew stronger, so would he! All he had to do was remain quietly in the sect and wait for his disciples to grow stronger.

Exiting the pavilion of the Sect Master, Xuan Hao looked back and saw that the array formation surrounding the room where Feng Chen was located had activated, completely isolating his room from the rest of the world.

The Sect Master of the Flying Sword Sect had officially entered secluded cultivation and would most likely not come out unless something major happened.

The war between the Azure Sky Kingdom and the Heavenly Sky Kingdom was nowhere near being threatening enough to be considered something major, after all, the truly strong experts on both sides still remained quiet for now.

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Chapter 122: Chu Yang Wakes Up

" Argh!?" Waking up with a massive headache, Chu Yang cautiously looking around himself. The last time he was awake he was still inside of the palace of the Black Rose Sect's Sect Master, it seemed like he had ended up passing out under the pressure of the Black Rose Sect's Sect Master earlier. Unravel the Unknown, Unleash the Unimaginable: NvεlB¡n.

But the question was, why did the room he was currently in look so familiar…?

Looking even closer at his surroundings, Chu Yang quickly discovered that he was back in his own room inside the Flying Sword Sect, but how did he end up here in the first place? Did his master perhaps safe him?

Thinking about it, Chu Yang felt both amazed and shocked, after all, Xuan Hao did not really have much public information out about him in the sect and Chu Yang speculated that he was most likely in the first or second stage of the Nascent Soul Realm… But if he had managed to safe him from the Sect Master of the Black Rose Sect, he was most likely stronger than a newly promoted Nascent Soul Realm cultivator!

"I see that you are finally awake." Chu Yang heard the voice of his master and quickly moved his head in the direction of the voice as he came face to face with Xuan Hao standing at the entrance to his room with a slightly worried expression on his face.

Xuan Hao was a bit worried when Chu Yang had not woken up even after they returned to the sect, but this worry was mostly directed at the fact that his disciple might have had some hidden injuries that he had not found.

Other than that, Xuan Hao had felt a great amount of pity towards the fact that his disciple did not manage to see how strong he was when he fought with the Sect Master of the Black Rose Sect… On the other hand, he did not manage to defeat him and ended up having to run away in the end, so maybe it was better that his disciple had fainted…

"Thank you for saving me from the Black Rose Sect master! I'm sure it must've been difficult…" Chu Yang did not think about these things at all and just felt guilty that he had caused his master to walk into a dangerous situation and even risk his life to safe him.

Thinking about it, Chu Yang realized that he had not really done much for his master other than cause him and the rest of the Flying Sword Sect trouble with the Black Rose Sect.

In the future, I will repay the safety and opportunity that master, and the sect have given to me!

Remembering these words, Chu Yang steeled himself to work even harder at training in the future, his senior sister's botanist training would also be a good place to improve. After all, if he could become a great botanist in the future, he could provide a wide variety of rare spiritual plants and herbs to the sect.

At this moment, Chu Yang remember how his senior sister had stressed how important it was for him to become a botanist and learn how to properly take care of and grow spiritual plants and herbs.

Looks like senior sister was really looking after me all this time!

"No need to be so emotional, it was not that difficult for me. Take a few days to recover, after that I will teach both you and your senior sister." Seeing his disciple's face changing between a myriad of different complicated emotions before finally starting to shed a few tears, Xuan Hao immediately tried to calm him down.

"I-its nothing master, I-I was just a bit emotional all of a sudden… By the way, where did senior sister Qing Yi go?" Stopping his tears, Chu Yang blushed embarrassedly as he quickly tried to divert the topic.

How embarrassing! He had actually started crying in front of his master!

"Your senior sister went to the Alchemy Hall for the upcoming Alchemy Competition in half a year that she is going to participate in. Hm… I have something to do, try and use this meditation technique when recovering, it is quite useful for recovering your spirit and calming your mind." Upon talking about the upcoming Alchemy Competition that Qing Yi was going to join, Xuan Hao narrowed his eyes ever so slightly.

Taking out a small scroll with the words [Calming Breeze] written on it, Xuan Hao handed it over to Chu Yang before turning around and leaving his room.

The Calming Breeze meditation scroll was something he had gotten from one of the elders in charge of the pagoda of enlightenment. Earlier, Xuan Hao had met him on the way back to his pavilion and asked if he knew about something that could help his disciple deal with any mental trauma, that his earlier encounter with the Black Rose Sect's Sect Master might have caused him.

Chu Yang did not know why his master suddenly became so weird upon mentioning the upcoming Alchemy Competition that his senior sister Qing Yi was going to participate in.

Picking up the [Calming Breeze] Meditation technique that Xuan Hao had thrown onto his bed before leaving, Chu Yang decided not to think so deeply about his master's earlier behaviour, he was most likely just worried now that his first disciple was going to leave the sect for the first time without him present.

Unfolding the scroll, Chu Yang quickly read through the meditation technique.

The Calming Breeze was a normal mortal meditation technique that could not be used for cultivation and only had the single purpose of calming the mind and spirit of the user.

The effect was not heaven shaking or unprecedented and could be considered relatively average, but even then, it was quite a rare technique. Not because of its usefulness, but due to the fact that meditation techniques purely used for calming the mind and spirit were seen as useless in the cultivation world.

A normal cultivation mantra would normally be able to improve the cultivation of the user while also calming both the mind and spirit at the same time, though less effective than a meditation technique purely focused on calming the spirit and mind.

Chu Yang also wanted to just use the cultivation mantra given by his master to recover his state of mind back to what it was previously but seeing that his master had given him a specific cultivation technique and asked him to use it, Chu Yang as the disciple would follow what his master said.

Sitting down in a mediative position on his bed, Chu Yang closed his eyes as he began to adjust his breathing with the Calming Breeze Meditation technique.

Slowly, Chu Yang felt himself calming down and his previous worry slowly faded away.

Like this, Chu Yang stayed quietly in his room as he meditated according to what was written on the Calming Breeze scroll.

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Chapter 123: Elderly Artisan Alchemist of the Sky Empire

After visiting Chu Yang and handing over the Calming Breeze meditation scroll over to him, Xuan Hao made his way back to his own room to make some preparations for the upcoming Alchemy Competition that was happening in half a year.

No matter how early he prepared, it would at least be better than suddenly finding out that he was too late, and his disciple ended up getting stolen by some questionable old man from the Sky Empire!

Truly, if the "questionable old man" heard the way he was being described at the moment, he would race over to beat up Xuan Hao.

A respectable Artisan Alchemist from the Sky Empire being compared to a questionable old man!? No matter who heard it, they would surely think that the person saying it had a death wish!

… Dive into Stories, Embrace Enchantment: NvεlB¡n.

"Achoo! Is someone perhaps thinking about me?" Inside a large room filled with all sorts of spiritual herbs and plants, an elderly man full of energy unbefitting of his age scratched the edge of his nose as he looked around himself with curiosity.

"Now that I think about it, I was going to hold that Alchemy Competition in half years' time or so… Maybe it's those young ones looking forward to meeting me! How exciting, I will surely be able to find a good young lad if they are already looking forward to meeting me now! Haha." Laughing wildly to himself, the elderly man smiled happily as he began mixing together all sorts of herbs in a small bowl before grinding them down and mixing them together with some sort of liquid.

"But it seems like my current pupil is getting a little anxious lately… Whenever I mention getting a new pupil to train, she gets quite moody… Maybe she fears that I won't pay as much attention to her after getting a new pupil, hehe, those young ones are indeed a little difficult to handle from time to time." Muttering the troubles with his current disciple to himself, the elderly man transferred the bowl with the liquid mixed together with all sorts of grinded up spiritual herbs in it over to another bowl made of some sort of stone.

"Well, things should be able to sort themselves out with time…" With a smile on his lips, the elderly man put the stone bowl over an open fire as he waited for the concoction to just barely reach a boiling point for a few seconds before quickly removing it and adding some already prepared spiritual herbs into the still boiling liquid.

Setting the stone bowl on the nearby table, the elderly man quickly turned around and left the room to get something as he waited for the concoction to cool down a bit.

"Teacher, is the potion requested by the second grand ancestor ready yet?" Just as the elderly man returned to his room, a slightly feminine voice sounded out from the entrance of the room.

"It will be done shortly, tell that old crook to wait for it if he doesn't want for an accident to happen with the potion..." Yelling back in the direction of the feminine voice in a slightly annoyed tone, the elderly man picked up the stone bowl and sat down while taking out the thing that he just went out to get.

"But the second grand ancestor said that he will need it before the grand banquet tonight… He plans to look for a new wife and apparently he had his eyes on one of the participants, who is an elderly woman only around 300 years old and at the middle stages of the Nascent Soul Realm…" The feminine voice from the entrance of the room sounded again as the elderly man sitting down with the stone bowl in his hands slowly lowered the spoon into the soup and started eating while completely ignoring the person calling out to him.

"Maybe I should have added a little more Ghostly Yin Chili Flakes to it…" Staring down at the soup filled with all sorts of precious spiritual herbs, the elderly man started going over the taste as the spoon never stopped moving. The soup inside the bowl decreased more and more.

"Teacher…" The feminine voice called out again this time, but instead of being far away, it was directly behind the elderly man, and it was clear to the listener that the feminine voice belonged to a young woman.

"Here, take it and go to that bald headed fossil with it! Tell him not to disturb me any longer with such menial things!" Standing up, the elderly man walked over to a nearby shell before he started looking at the different potion bottles neatly lined up.

"Standard Hair Growth, hm… too slow acting, fast hair growth for middle-aged men… That baldie is too old for that one… Ah! Here it is!" Taking a potion bottle with the words [Fast Hair Growth for Elderly Baldies] on it from the shelf, the elderly man quickly returned and handed it over to the young woman who was suspiciously eyeing the area surrounding his stone bowl.

"Leave quickly or that or that old crook will come and cause trouble again…" Having handed over the potion bottle, the elderly man quickly waved for the young woman to leave.

"Then, I will take my leave now…" Seeing that her teacher did not seem to want to talk about the second grand ancestors request, the young woman did not stay any longer as she held onto the bottle with [Fast Hair Growth for Elderly Baldies] label on it before leaving the room.

"Hmph, she is getting bolder and bolder lately. Not even asking before entering her teachers' room… Now where was I?" Shaking his head slightly with a smile on his lips, the elderly man sat down on his chair once again as he picked up the stone bowl and was about to start eating.

"…YOU DAMNABLE BRAT!? HOW DARE YOU STEAL YOUR TEACHER'S FOOD!? HOW DID I TEACH SUCH AN UNGRATEFUL PUPIL!?" Yelling loudly, the elderly man jumped up from his chair as he turned towards the entrance of his room and ran in the direction that his pupil had left at full speed.

Passing through the large corridors outside his room, quite a few passing servants saw this and were not shocked or surprised when they saw the fabled Artisan Alchemist fuming in anger as he ran in the direction that a certain young woman had just passed through.

This was quite a common occurrence and most of the servants had become used to seeing the elderly man running through the corridors and hallways of the large palace complex at speeds unbefitting his age.

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Chapter 124: Wan Qiu's Improvement and Chu Yang's Recovery

The next few days after Xuan Hao returned to the sect with Chu Yang passed by peacefully without anything important happening. The only thing worth mentioning over the past few days was the progress that the Alchemy Hall had made towards creating a cure for the plague ravaging through the Heavenly Sky Kingdom.

The notebook of lord Kubera was especially helpful in this regard, as Elder Wan Qiu especially managed to learn a lot from the notebook.

Since getting her hands on the notebook of lord Kubera, she had managed to take a step further and reach was in a realm above the Expert Alchemist Realm in knowledge, but she still remained below the Artisan Alchemist Realm overall.

There was no such thing as half-step realm in Alchemy, as you could either make a pill or potion at the required realm or you could not. To explain Elder Wan Qiu's current Realm would be that she had the knowledge of a newly promoted Artisan Alchemist, but she had not yet managed to breakthrough yet, still just barely unable to refine pills or potions at the Soul Rank.

Xuan Hao felt quite happy when he heard about this, as the strength of the sect would increase by a lot if Wan Qiu managed to become an Artisan Alchemist.

The main importance of Artisan Alchemist for a big sect was the potions and pills that they made for helping Nascent Soul Realm cultivators of the sect more easily recover from battle. Most importantly they could help increase the cultivation speed of Nascent Soul Realm cultivators by amplifying the effect of certain useful spiritual herbs by refining them into either pills or potions.

For example, if the Infernal Heart Grass got refined into a pill by an Alchemist at the Artisan Realm, its effectiveness for fire type cultivators would increase more than 5 times over!

This easily showed how useful Artisan Alchemist were in sects and how valued they were.

Qing Yi had also started learning under some of the elders of the Alchemy Hall once a week so as to not take away too much time from her normal cultivation, Xuan Hao did not really care much about this, as the elders from the Alchemy Hall did not plan to steal away his disciple and even if they wanted to, they would not be able to. This chapter made its debut appearance via N0v3lB1n.

Today, Chu Yang had finally finished completely recovering back to his former state of mind and had already begun training in training ground besides the pavilion together with his senior sister Qing Yi.

Xuan Hao had just arrived at the training ground and saw the scene of both his disciple locked in a practice fight with each other at the centre.

Chu Yang had a heavy spear in hand that he had purchased just before getting kidnapped by the Black Rose Sect a few days ago, the spear had originally been dropped by him when he got kidnapped and the elder in charge of protecting him had handed over the heavy spear to Xuan Hao a day after he had returned to the sect again with Chu Yang.

Qing Yi on the other hand wielded a short sword as she nimbly dodged the attacks of Chu Yang.

Seeing how both of them were completely concentrated and focused on their practice fight, Xuan Hao decided not to interrupt them and instead found a quiet place from where he could observe their fight and see what parts he could help them improve in.

"Hah!" Swinging down with his spear, Chu Yang looked more like he was using a hammer of some sort instead of a spear as the heavy spear hit the place Qing Yi was standing just a moment ago.

Chu Yang did not dare to stay in place for long as he quickly used the heavy spear to defend from a swift sword stab by Qing Yi coming in his direction.

Following this, Chu Yang knocked her sword to the side before closing the distance in an instant, knocking the air out of her lungs with a quick elbow strike as Qing Yi collapsed onto the ground breathing heavily trying to regain her breathing again.

"I win again!" Smiling triumphantly as he looked at Qing Yi slowly standing up again with a slightly annoyed look, Chu Yang felt that it was a great feeling whenever he won.

Even though he had a higher cultivation and more experience when it came to combat compared to his senior sister, Chu Yang still felt great whenever he ended up winning against her.

Qing Yi on the other hand felt quite annoyed and frustrated whenever she lost to Chu Yang, she was supposed to be the senior sister! How come she can't win against him whenever they fight!? Maybe she was using too much time on alchemy lately and needed to focus more on her cultivation in the future.

Thinking about this, Qing Yi decided that she would spend less time on alchemy after the Alchemy Competition was over and focus on improving her cultivation! She could not continue losing to her junior brother!

"Hm… It seems both of them improved quite a bit while I was gone…" Muttering this to himself, Xuan Hao thoroughly inspected both of his disciples. Neither of them had made any improvements when it came to their cultivation realm, but both of them had on the other hand grown when it came to combat experience.

Chu Yang had not grown so much, the one with the biggest growth among the two of them would be Qing Yi, as she did not have anyone who would truly practice with her back in the Bright Sun City.

Now on the other hand, Chu Yang was more than willing to fight her with all his strength without holding back! The elbow attack from earlier was more than enough for Xuan Hao to see that his second disciple did not seem to have the idea of going easier on the fairer sex.

Now he would not have to worry about his second disciple ending up falling for a certain type of trap when he went outside to explore the world in the future.

Smiling a bit upon thinking this, Xuan Hao made his way out of his hiding spot towards the place his disciples were standing.

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Chapter 125: Black Rose

" Master!" Seeing Xuan Hao making his way over, both Qing Yi and Chu Yang walked over to greet him.

"I see that both of you are quite lively today, and it looks like Chu Yang here is back to training again." Smiling a bit at the thought of spending a bit more time with his disciples in the future, Xuan Hao went over the schedule of things he had prepared to do with both of them today one last time before he arrived in front of Chu Yang and Qing Yi.

"Master, what are we going to do today?" Qing Yi asked in a shaky voice, still a bit out of breath from the earlier practice fight with Chu Yang.

"First of all, we will be going over your earlier practice fight! Firstly, Qing Yi, earlier you were way too aggressive when fighting against Chu Yang, you left a lot of openings that Chu Yang could and did take advantage of. Just look at how he managed to get a hit in on you in the end and win! This essence is securely nested within the heart of Nøvlß¡n

To improve this, you should try to be a bit more patient when fighting and try to wait for an opportunity instead of going in whenever you can. Constant pressure can be good in some situations, but you have to consider that such an aggressive attack method reveals a lot of mistakes for your opponent to take advantage of!" Saying this, Xuan Hao watched Qing Yi as she went over what he said with a thoughtful look in her eyes before moving his gaze over to Chu Yang.

At this moment, Chu Yang stood with a smile appearing on his face. Ready to tease his senior sister for the mistakes that their master had pointed out when they were finished practicing today. Chu Yang felt that he did not make any mistakes in the earlier practice fight and even if he did, at most it was a few minor mistakes that could easily be avoided.

"Now secondly, Chu Yang…" Upon hearing his master call out his name, Chu Yang put away the teasing expression that had appeared on his face, as he waited for what his master was going to say.

"From the earlier fight, you were inactive when it came to attacking and several times you missed out on some of the obvious mistakes made by your senior sister due to your indecisiveness to attack. Instead of being proactive in attacking, you let your senior sister control the flow of battle. Even with a lower cultivation realm than you! She would have been able to win with a little more combat experience." Shaking his head at the thought of Chu Yang being proud of winning over his senior sister 3 minor cultivation realms below him, Xuan Hao felt a bit helpless.

Chu Yang did not know what to say when he heard how his master described his earlier performance and felt like digging a hole to hide in upon seeing the smiling look that his senior sister was giving him.

How embarrassing! How could he forget that he was 3 minor realms above his senior sister, yet he still wanted to brag about winning to her later! What if he ended up losing to his senior sister? Would that not just be a testament to the fact that he could not even win against someone below his own cultivation realm…?

"Okay, both of you can think about what I said later and try to implement it in the next practice fight you have with each other. Today I will be going over your cultivation progress since entering the sect." Seeing the teasing look Qing Yi was sending Chu Yang and Chu Yang's increasingly awkward appearance, Xuan Hao took it upon himself and changed the topic in another direction.

Qing Yi and Chu Yang both refocused their attention on Xuan Hao as they patiently waited for him to continue.

Seeing that both of them started paying attention to him again, Xuan Hao went over to Qing Yi who was standing closest to him and put his hand on top of her head as he sent in a wisp of his divine sense to check out the condition of her dantian.

Compared to when she first reached the Foundation Establishment Realm a month ago, another bright red pillar had appeared besides the first one at the centre of her dantian, a bright red flame made out of fire qi was engulfing both the pillars as the nearby fire qi had already started taking on the shape of a pillar. Seeing this, Xuan Hao knew that Qing Yi would be able to reach the third stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm soon.

The cultivation of the Burning Heaven Mantra went well for Qing Yi and there were not any mistakes present in her dantian that needed him to fix.

"It looks like you have not slacked off when it comes to the Burning Heaven Mantra!" Nodding approvingly at Qing Yi as he removed the hand from the top of her head, Xuan Hao did not see the shy expression on her face as he moved over to where Chu Yang was standing with a nervous expression on his face.

Putting his hand on top of Chu Yang's head, Xuan Hao sent his divine sense inside of his dantian like he had done with Qing Yi and observed the situation inside of his dantian.

Like Qing Yi, Xuan Hao instantly managed to locate the pillars floating in the middle of Chu Yang's dantian. Four pillars were silently floating around the biggest pillar in the middle of the dantian, each of them was engulfed in a large amount of spear qi that had taken the shape of a spear, but the large pillar in the middle of the dantian did not have the qi in the shape of a spear but was instead engulfed by a large amount of black qi in the shape of a rose.

"This is…" Xuan Hao was quite surprised when he saw the large amount of black qi shaped like a rose dancing around the central pillar inside of Chu Yang's dantian.

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Chapter 126: Master and Disciple Trip Outside

Moving his divine sense, a bit close to the black rose made out of dark qi, Xuan Hao felt that it gave off a similar aura as the black robed person he first met back in Bright Sun City.

So, it was the Black Rose Sect's cultivation mantra…?

Thinking about this, Xuan Hao felt that it made sense. After all, it was not like Chu Yang had broken through and created his first pillar with the Soul Spear Divine Mantra…

But then again, he had been at the second stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm when he first took him as his second disciple, should one of the small pillars flying around the central pillar not also have the black qi in a rose shape engulfing it…?

Turning his attention back to the pillars floating around in Chu Yang's dantian, Xuan Hao saw the dark qi in the form of a rose surrounding the central pillar slowly being eroded and changed into a sharp spear qi by the other four pillars.

The four pillars were slowly changing the black qi of central pillar into spear qi, while at the same time blocking any incoming qi from reaching it and in turn strengthen the black qi inside of the dantian.

Normally, such a thing would have caused the black qi to go berserk and try its best to break free from the other pillar's slow erosion, but instead it had given up on resisting the four smaller pillar and let them slowly grind away the black qi.

Was this due to the fact that the Soul Spear Divine Mantra was a higher ranked cultivation mantra? Or maybe it was something else…

Xuan Hao had no idea what the reason for the black qi's obedience was, but as it did not harm his disciple in any way and instead it would bring massive benefits to him when the black qi in the form of a rose was gone and replaced with the superior spear qi, Xuan Hao decided not to interfere in the process. Unravel the Unknown, Unleash the Unimaginable: NvεlB¡n.

"Hm… I can see that both of you have not been slacking in your training over the last month, so instead of me correcting mistakes that I thought you would have made, we will instead do something else…" Feeling a bit helpless upon saying this, Xuan Hao had expected to be spending the day helping correct his disciple's cultivation and any mistakes they made along the way.

How come neither of them had any mistakes in their cultivation… Maybe it's because it is still in the earlier cultivation realms… Yes, that must be it!

Xuan Hao nodded to himself at this thought as both Chu Yang and Qing Yi looked at him questioningly.

Was their master perhaps looking forward to them having made mistakes in their cultivation and now became disappointed that they had cultivated without making any mistakes…?

"So instead, we will be going on a little trip outside of the sect. Both of you have yet to explore the surrounding area around the Flying Sword Sect yet, so this should be a great opportunity to explore the area and get to know it!" Not really paying attention to the questioning look that his disciples gave him, Xuan Hao announced their trip outside the sect with a smile appearing on his face.

Chu Yang and Qing Yi did not say anything to stop their master as both of them were quite curious about the different places surrounding the Flying Sword Sect… To this day, both of them only knew about Demon Beast Forest, Flying Sword City and the spirit stone mine stolen away by the Raging Flame Sect.

They both wanted to know more about the different territories under the Flying Sword Sect.

With that, Xuan Hao and both of his disciples made their way down the mountain and out of the Flying Sword Sect.

The first stop on the trip was the Star Peak Mountain, the highest mountain in not only the Flying Sword Sect's territory, but the whole Heavenly Sky Kingdom.

Originally the founder of the Flying Sword Sect wanted to establish the sect on the Star Peak Mountain due to its high altitude resulting in the qi between heaven and earth being denser than normal, but he soon found out why no other sect placed their sect on Star Peak Mountain.

The qi between heaven and earth on Star Peak Mountain was too violent! Calming down the qi between heaven and earth enough for it to be usable in cultivation required a grand formation laid out by a Domain Lord that focused in calming down the violent qi!

But why would someone like that ever bother coming to a place like the Heavenly Sky Kingdom…?

Xuan Hao personally felt that it was a great pity that the qi on the Star Peak Mountain was so violent. The Flying Sword Sect would be able to improve their strength by a lot, if they managed to calm the violent qi and move their sect to the Star Peak Mountain!

This would also cause a lot of greedy people to appear… The only reason why the Flying Sword Sect was even allowed to place themselves so close to the Star Peak Mountain in the first place was because most people viewed it as being useless due to the violent qi, but if the Flying Sword Sect somehow managed to calm down the qi at Star Peak Mountain…

"Maybe I should get a disciple that specializes in formations in the future…" As they made their way towards the Star Peak Mountain, Xuan Hao thought about what his third disciple should be…

He already had one that specialized in alchemy and botany… Maybe getting a few more disciples that focused on different professions would not be a bad idea…

…

As Xuan Hao and his two disciples were making their way towards the Star Peak Mountain, a beautiful young woman wearing a pure white robe in her late twenties appeared at the entrance of the Flying Sword Sect holding onto what looked to be a small green jade with her left hand.

"It's been over 200 years, I wonder how Fengfeng has been doing with that witch Zu Fei around him… But for him to ask me to come over…" Talking to herself, the woman walked straight past the Core Formation Realm elder at the entrance to the sect and entered the Flying Sword Sect without him noticing.

"I wonder where that Elder Xuan is…? Fengfeng asked me to find him first upon arriving, but it seems like he might not be here at the moment… Guess I will just go find that witch Zu Fei…" Narrowing her eyes a bit upon mentioning Zu Fei, the young woman made her way in the direction of the Vice Sect Master's pavilion without losing her way, extremely familiar with the interior of the Flying Sword Sect.

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Chapter 127: Star Peak Town

The journey towards the Shattered Star Peaks was relatively easy as Xuan Hao had opted for them to use a demon beast similar to horses to travel there instead of flying. Flying might be faster, but it would not allow him and his disciples to take in the surrounding environment and experience the world fully.

The demon beasts that they used for traveling were known as horned lion horses, but Xuan Hao felt that they looked more like the mythological unicorns that he had read and seen before he was transmigrated. The only real difference between them and the unicorns were their giant frame, in size alone they were more than two times that of an ordinary horse.

Like this, Xuan Hao and his disciples made it to a large town located at the bottom of the Shattered Star Peaks. The Explorer Union had a branch here and explorers came here frequently to enter the Shattered Star Peaks in search of some special herbs that only grew there.

The herbs in question were worth quite a bit to cultivators below the Core Formation Realm but was mostly useless to cultivators in the Core Formation Realm and above.? Even then, it was useful for the weaker disciples, so the Flying Sword Sect also had a branch set up in the town.

Originally the Flying Sword Sect wanted to monopolize the special herbs growing on Shattered Star Peaks, but since the Explorer Union showed interest in the herbs growing there, they had no choice but to let them set up a branch and allow other people to enter the Shattered Star Peaks and pick herbs.

The Raging Flame Sect was in the same situation in regard to the entrance of the Burning Mountain Range located in the Heavenly Sky Kingdom. The only difference was that they decided to build an outpost a little further away and try to stop any passer-by coming from the Burning Mountain Range and demand them to pay a tax of sorts to them for entering their territory…

The Flying Sword Sect on the other hand decided to just ignore the Explorer Union and set up a branch in the town to send in their own disciples and elders to gather the special herbs growing on Shattered Star Peaks. Dive into Stories, Embrace Enchantment: NvεlB¡n.

The herbs were aplenty and more than enough for the Flying Sect and the Explorer Union to harvest.

The entrance to the town was busy as always even with a plague ravaging through the Heavenly Sky Kingdom, people here did not seem to care about it as they just went on with their normal day life.

Xuan Hao, Chu Yang and Qing Yi came to a stop a few dozen meters away from the entrance to the town as they walked the rest of the way there.

"Master, what are we going to do here? Perhaps we are going up those giant mountains?!" Talking faster than usual, Qing Yi excitedly asked while sneakily glancing in the direction of the giant mountains towering over the town in front of them. Making it look way smaller than it actually was.

"Indeed, we will first go to the sect's branch here and then we will be making our way up the Shattered Star Peaks to gather some of the local herbs growing there." This was the idea Xuan Hao had for going to the SShattered Star Peaks? today, since both his disciples were dabbling in things related to plants, they should be quite interested in the special herbs growing on Shattered Star Peaks.

"Really!? I can't wait! I read that the Star Flower growing on the Shattered Star Peaks can be used in all sorts of special potions. The most famous one being the Star Shine Potion invented by our Alchemy Hall's Elder Wan Qiu!" Almost jumping up and down happily at the prospect of getting her hands on the special herbs of the Shattered Star Peaks, Qing YI was filled to the brim with excitement.

"We have a lot of these special herbs back in the sect, you can just buy some of them for cheap in the market outside the Artifact Hall…" Chu Yang who had been quiet until now spoke up while rolling his eyes a bit upon seeing his senior sister's excitement, she was clearly happy that she could get the herbs for free without paying anything!

Qing Yi turned around and gave Chu Yang a death stare upon hearing his comment, causing him to chuckle a bit in return.

"Star Shine Potion…? I have not heard about it before, what does it do?" Xuan Hao ignored the small clash between his disciple as he asked Qing Yi with a curious look flashing through his eyes.

"Ah, the Star Shine Potion made by Elder Wan Qiu is quite famous in the Heavenly Sky Kingdom, but I guess that it is not really used by someone like master… So, it's understandable not to know about it." Hearing her master, Qing Yi ignored Chu Yang as she turned towards Xuan Hao to answer his question.

"I see… So, what does it do?"

"It attracts lightning!"

"… What? Why? Why is it called a Star Shine potion when it attracts lightning!?" Xuan Hao felt extremely confused as he questioningly looked at Qing Yi waiting for her to explain.

"You see, Elder Wan Qiu called it Star Shine because you will shine like a star when the lightning hits you! It's mostly used by people in the Foundation Establishment Realm to help refine their body as the lightning that is attracted is relatively weak compared to normal natural lightning." Explaining the effect of the Star Shine potion, Qing Yi's eyes shone brightly as Xuan Hao felt that the world of alchemy was a weird one.

How did Elder Wan Qiu even come up with the idea of making a potion that attracts lightning to strike you in the first place…?

Maybe he should keep a bit distance from the elders of the Alchemy Hall in the future…

Thinking this, Xuan Hao led his disciples inside of the town. Entering was easy as he just showed off his Core Elder Identification and soon the group of three made their way in the direction of the Flying Sword Sect's Shattered Star Peak Branch.

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Chapter 128: Map of the Shattered Star Peaks

The town was extremely busy at this point of the day, as large group of explorers had made their way back from the Shattered Star Peaks to sell the herbs or other things, they managed to get their hands on.

The merchants having travelled all the way to the town were trying to outbid each other on the different materials brought back by the explorers willing to sell, trying to get the best possible price.

Xuan Hao ignored the noise coming from the explorers and merchants chatting with one another, while Qing Yi kept her eyes locked on what the different merchants were doing in an attempt to get the explorers to lower the cost of their material. Taking out a small notebook from her robe and writing down some of the methods that worked.

Chu Yang mostly just observed the people passing by as the group of three soon made it to the centre of the town. Directly in front of them, was a giant pavilion with the words Flying Sword written on the entrance. This was the branch of the Flying Sword Sect.

Beside it was an even larger building with the Explorer Union's symbol hanging above the entrance, an endless stream of people going in and out of the building was a stark contrast to the empty and quiet space in front of the Flying Sword Sect's Branch, with only two people standing at the entrance acting as guards.

Xuan Hao made his way over to the Flying Sword Sect's branch together with his disciples, as the two guards standing at the entrance manged to spot them coming over immediately.

"Hello, what can I help with? Do you have any specific business with the Flying Sword Sect?" Stepping forward the moment they were a few meters away from the entrance of the branch, one of the guards asked in a polite tone.

"We are members of the sect as well; we are here to see if you have a detailed map of the Shattered Star Peaks." Saying this, Xuan Hao once again took out his identification token and showed it to the guard.

"Ah! Core Elder Xuan! I-I'm sorry for the earlier rude- "

"No need to worry about it, if you have a map of the Shattered Star Peaks that would be great." Seeing that the guard had started panicking upon realizing that it was the identification token of a Core Elder, Xuan Hao stopped him before he ended up causing an embarrassing scene in front of his disciples.

"No worries Elder Xuan! We have the most detailed map of Shattered Star Peaks here in Star Peak Town! Even those people from the Explorer Union does not have a map as detailed as ours!" Seeing that Xuan Hao did not care about his earlier lack of respect, the guard heaved a sigh of relief as he started bragging about the map that the branch had of the Shattered Star Peaks. This chapter made its debut appearance via N0v3lB1n.

Compared to the elder in charge of the branch, this Core Elder was more easy going.

Thinking this, the guard walked back to the other guard and informed him about the situation before one of them opened the entrance to the branch and led Xuan Hao and his two disciples inside.

The inside of the branch was decorated in all sorts of exotic materials and looked luxurious, almost like the house of a newly rich merchant.

Xuan Hao and Chu Yang both felt a bit uncomfortable in this environment, while Qing Yi looked at all the exotic materials and precious decorations with a certain shine in her eyes.

"We are here, the map is right here." Coming to a stop in front of a large door, the guard opened it for them and led the group inside as Xuan Hao and the rest saw a giant map hanging at the end of the room.

Making their way to the map at the end of the room, Xuan Hao started thoroughly inspecting the map of the Shattered Star Peaks.

Qing Yi did the same and started noting down specific areas of interest in her notebook, while Chu Yang just casually looked over the map before curiously looking over at what Qing Yi was writing down in her notebook.

"Hm? Why are you writing down all these locations? Are we not just going up the mountains to have a quick look…? Are you perhaps planning to come back again after reaching the Core Formation Realm?" Seeing all the different locations noted down by his senior sister, Chu Yang grew a bit curious as he asked.

"Of course! It will be easy to gather a lot of herbs here and because I'm a disciple of the Flying Sword Sect, I will be able to enter the Shattered Star Peaks for free!" Proudly stating her intentions, Qing Yi refocused back on the map.

"Hm? Free? Did the Flying Sword Sect does not open up the Shattered Star Peaks for anyone to enter?" Feeling a bit confused about this, Chu Yang thought that he might have heard something wrong.

"Ah, the Flying Sword Sect did indeed open up for everyone to be able to enter the Shattered Star Peaks, but anyone not a member of the Flying Sword Sect will have to pay an entrance fee to enter. Compared to the Raging Flame Sect's control of the entrance to the Burning Mountain Range, the Shattered Star Peaks only has a single place that you can enter through. The other places are too steep for someone below the Core Formation Realm to climb up.

This is also why most elders would want to end up as the elder managing the Shattered Star Peaks Branch… The amount of spirit stones you would be able to earn is enormous!" The guard that guided them over to the map of the Shattered Star Peaks stepped forward as he explained this to Chu Yang.

"I see… The amount of spirit stones that the Shattered Star Peak Branch earns is astronomical!" Remembering the number of Explorers from the Explorer Union, Chu Yang swallowed a bit when he thought about the amount of spirt stones that the branch here earned.

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