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

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Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough #Chapter 417 - Yi Min - Read Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough Chapter 417 - Yi Min Online - All Page - Novel Bin

Chapter 417 - Yi Min

Creak~

Entering through the large extravagant looking doors, Xuan Hao instantly focused his attention onto to the beautiful young woman sitting on top of a comfy looking chair with a small table in front of her lightly sipping on a cup of tea at the centre of the room.

The young woman was by far one of the most beautiful women that Xuan Hao had ever seen before, her dark brown hair was hanging down loosely across her shoulders, as only a single golden flower ornament could be seen in her hair.

Scanning over the rest of the young woman's body, Xuan Hao could not help shivering upon realizing that the beautifully decorated dress mostly taking on the red and gold colour, was not just a beautiful dress… Instead, the clothes that the young woman in front of him was wearing, was very clearly a set of powerful artifacts that would be able to protect the wearer during combat!

"You are finally here! Find a place to sit down." Smiling lightly upon witnessing Xuan Hao enter, the young woman said this before motioning towards a few empty chairs located close to her.

"Sure…" Moving his gaze away from the young woman before sitting down in front of her, Xuan Hao soon focused on a few different documents located at the small table. For some reason, Xuan Hao found the documents spread out on the table eerily familiar…

Is this not the same documents as the ones I stole a week ago!?

Thinking this, Xuan Hao soon realized that the person in front of him might have kept an eye on him during his visit to the underground base… Or at the very least, she had secretly observed him while he had been looking through the documents by himself…

This thought quickly made Xuan Hao realize just how strong the person in front of him was. Given the fact that she had been able to secretly observe him without him noticing anything! Ñøvl-B1n was the first platform to present this chapter.

Even if she had the help of the formation, it was still not easy to secretly observe someone at the Domain Lord Realm without the other party finding out. The main reason for this being that their awareness was far above someone in the Nascent Soul Realm. Even if Xuan Hao had not been using his domain or divine sense to observe his surroundings inside the capital, he should still have noticed if someone had been observing him!

"I have to thank you in advance… Without your help, I would never have managed to realize the fact that those people were so close to launching an attack. From the looks of things, it even seems like they moved ahead with their plans to attack before having finished all their preparations after your little visit to one of their bases-

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Ah, how rude of me, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Yi Min, the current ruler of the Iron Sky Kingdom… Though you should have already figured that out at this point…"

Listening to the ruler of the Iron Sky Kingdom, Yi Min, Xuan Hao could not help smiling a bit wryly to himself upon realizing how relaxed she was in front of him.

Even when talking about the matter of him having caused her enemies to attack ahead of time, she didn't seem the affected in the slightest. Instead, she even seemed a bit excited upon mentioning the fact that her enemies would soon be launching an attack towards her Iron Sky Kingdom…

"My name is Xuan Hao, an elder from the Flying Sword Sect! Might I ask what reason you called me here for…? Surly not just to chat with me, when your enemies are about to launch an attack? Do you perhaps want to make sure I'm not going to side with them during the upcoming battle and called me here to confirm this?"

Not wanting to end up in a long meaningless conversation, Xuan Hao decided just to outright ask Yi Min about her reason for calling him. In his eyes, the most likely reason was that she wanted to confirm whether or not he was part of her enemy's plan.

If she really determined him to be from her enemy's side…

Xuan Hao felt himself grow a bit nervous upon reaching this thought as he looked over at Yi Min with a solemn expression on his face. Prepared to fight if it came down to it!

"Eh…?"

However, instead of the expected outcome, Yi Min tilted her head slightly to the side as she looked over at him with a confused expression on her face.

"Is this perhaps not the reason why you called me over…?" Not knowing what other reason Yi Min had to call him over, Xuan Hao could only ask her. After all, if she just wanted to talk to the unknown Domain Lord who entered her capital, she could have called him over during the week that he had already stayed in the capital… No need to wait for an entire week before calling him…

…

"Eh…?"

W-what do I do…? I can't just tell him that I just wanted to ask about a few mundane things that Fang Shi had asked me to help ask the Domain Lord from the Flying Sword Sect during the alchemy competition now! After that- Ah! It's all that Fang Shi's fault!

At the same time Xuan Hao was prepared for a fight to break out at any moment, Yi Min was stuck on how to proceed with the current conversation. Glancing over towards the solemn expression on Xuan Hao's face, Yi Min had no idea what to do, to move the conversation away from the direction it was currently headed towards…

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"Ahm! You are right! I called you here to confirm whether or not you were in cahoots with those people! But from what I can see, that is not the case.

You see, those people have a very distinctive and unique feature present in their aura. This feature is very hard to spot and without knowing about it beforehand, it is close to impossible to notice. Even someone at the Peak of the Domain Lord Realm like myself would not be able to notice this unique feature in their auras without learning about it beforehand."

Glancing over towards Xuan Hao from time to time as she said this with a serious expression on her face, Yi Min was happily surprised as Xuan Hao nodded his head in understanding upon hearing her explanation.

He believed me!

Letting out a sigh of relief at the fact that Xuan Hao had believed her, Yi Min felt like she had just avoided a dangerous topic. No matter what, she did not want to accidently end up falling out with Xuan Hao for no reason.

After all, the main reason she had not suspected him to start with, was the fact that Fang Shi had informed her about him the moment he entered the capital and had even told her about his background.

If that was not the case, Yi Min would have already paid him a visit the moment he entered the capital. How friendly that 'visit' would have been given her kingdoms current circumstances, did not matter anymore…

Other than that, Fang Shi had also informed her that he was told to investigate this Domain Lord from the Flying Sword Sect… With all of this in mind, Yi Min was certain that the Domain Lord from the Flying Sword Sect was not a part of her enemy's plan!

…

"I understand, that makes sense…" Remembering the distinctive aura of death that the two Domain Lords he had seen, or at least managed to come into contact with during his visit to their base had, Xuan Hao could not help nodding his head in understanding.

From what he had seen, the unique feature that Yi Min was talking about, should be the aura of death around them that he had felt during his short clash. Although… He would not really call that feature hard to spot in any way, but perhaps that was just because the other party had not tried to hide it during their short clash…

"Is there perhaps anything you want to ask?" Feeling way more relaxed after understanding this, Xuan Hao smiled kindly towards Yi Min as he said this.

"Yes! Actually, I wanted to know more about the Flying Sword Sect! First of all, how did you manage to reach the Domain Lord Realm? Did you have a fortunate encounter with an ancient powerhouse while travelling, gained enlightenment during meditation, a special natural treasure, or-"

Having waited for this moment, Yi Min no longer kept herself back upon noticing how relaxed Xuan Hao had become. Quickly unleashing a barrage of questions towards him, both the questions Fang Shi had wanted her to ask him and also the questions she herself wanted to ask.

"…"

Seeing this sudden shift in character from Yi Min, Xuan Hao felt a bit shocked for a moment before calming down and adapting to the situation.

One asking a myriad of useless questions, while the other answered any question he could…

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Chapter 418 - End Of The First Stage...

The current excited and curious persona should be how she normally acts…

Thinking this to himself as he answered yet another question about the size of the mountain he was living on and what his pavilion looked like, Xuan Hao and Yi Min both spent the next few hours talking together. Only stopping when Xuan Hao realized that the first part of the alchemy competition was about to end, as he quickly excused himself before heading back towards the spectator room where the rest of the elders from the Flying Sword Sect were located.

Staying with Yi Min to spectate was not really an option in his eyes, as from what he had learned about her during the last few hours of talking. Knew that he would not get a chance to watch the alchemy competition given the sheer amount of endless number of useless questions she had to distract him…

…

"This should be the last spiritual herb…"

At the same time Xuan Hao left Yi Min and made his way back towards the spectator room with the rest of the elders to watch the rest of the alchemy competition, Qing Yi had just finished adding in the last spiritual herb to her boiling potion mixture.

All she could do at this point was hope she hadn't missed anything along the way, as she carefully controlled the flame beneath the cauldron that the potion mixture was currently inside of…

Fwoosh!

Controlling the flames beneath the cauldron with ease, Qing Yi could not help but feel thankful towards her master. The Burning Heaven Mantra that she had been bestowed and had been practicing for close to a year at this point. Not only allowed her to increase her cultivation realm, but also granted her the ability to easily manipulate fire.

The ability to control fire was by far one of the most essential things for an alchemist. This was also one of the main reasons why it had become the norm for alchemists? to cultivate with a fire-based mantra, though there would always be a few unique people not following the norm…

The difference between Qing Yi's control over her fire and the rest of the alchemist participating in the competition, was with the sheer ease she did this. Not having to expend any attention or energy to manipulate the flames beneath the cauldron to keep the correct temperature, while the rest of the participants had to focus their full attention onto this task.

"How interesting…"? This scene of course did not escape the eyes of Fang Shi, as he narrowed both his eyes before gazing over towards Qing Yi with an intrigued look on his face.

"Master… Don't look at her like that or people will end up misunderstanding you… After all-"

"Dear disciple, please don't slander your master like that!" Hearing what his disciple beside him said, Fang Shi could not help feeling his face twitch before quickly rebuking his disciple.

Even worse, when he looked away from Qing Yi, Fang Shi managed to spot his old friend Yi Min looking over towards him with an amused look on her face from her private spectator room.

"…"

From the look alone, Fang Shi understood that she had heard his disciple's earlier slander towards him and to make things even worse, it also looked like the few guards and elders standing around the platform had heard it as well.

The main difference between them and Yi Min, was the fact that instead of looking over towards him with an amused look on their face, they were instead giving him a rather weird look before quickly looking the other way upon noticing that he was looking at them…

They clearly misunderstood something! I really have to punish that rascal later!

"Hah…"

Taking a deep breath as he calmed himself down, Fang Shi put on a stoic expression as he looked over the rest of the participants currently in the process of finishing up their Dragon Force Potion or Pill. Not intend on giving his disciple another chance to slander him again!

…

"Time will be up in another five minutes!"

Hearing the Artisan Alchemist from the Sky Empire announce this, Qing Yi looked down at her potion mixture that had already begun the process of cooling down at this point. Not the slightest bit worried about the fact that she only had five minutes left and soon enough, she carefully began to pour the potion mixture into three potion bottles upon seeing that it had cooled down. The initial posting of this chapter occurred via noovelllbbin

"Finally done!" Looking down at the three Dragon Force Potions she had managed to produce, Qing Yi could not help smiling to herself as she put the three potion bottles on top of a table located just beside her cauldron.

With all of this, she had successfully managed to make a Dragon Force Potion! At the very least, she hoped this was the case. After all, given the sheer number of similar looking spiritual herbs that they had to go through to identify the correct ones, was no laughing matter and even up to this point, Qing Yi was not a hundred percent certain that she had used the correct spiritual herbs…

Thinking about this, Qing Yi slowly felt her earlier happiness from successfully finishing her Dragon Force Potion disappear, as she nervously began looking at the other participants around herself, to see if any of the ones who had finished their Dragon Force Potion looked similar to hers.

"No potions…"

Sadly, she quickly came to realize that none of the people around her had made a Dragon Force Potion. Instead, all the other participants around her, had made a Dragon Force Pill. Not a Dragon Force Potion!

Even if she wanted to compare herself to the other participants, Qing Yi could not spot a single person who had made a potion like herself when looking around at the participants located a little further away from her.

Instead, she came to the realization that she was the only one among all of the participants, who had successfully managed to finish a Dragon Force Potion!

"Everyone, stop what you are currently doing! The time is up!" Hearing the voice of the Artisan Alchemist echo out behind her just as she had come to the realization that she was the only person who had made a Dragon Force Potion, Qing Yi inevitably felt herself growing even more nervous as she looked down towards the three potion bottles on her table.

At this point, the only way for her to find out if her Dragon Force Potion was a success or not, was to wait until the Artisan Alchemist came to examine her Dragon Force Potion…

No looking over at the other participants finish products and comparing herself with them to find out if she had potentially failed or succeeded. The rest of the participants who had produced pills, however, were not the same…

"Damn! Why does mine have such a weird shape. This is the first ever square pill…! Ha… I might fail just based on looks alone… How would you even swallow a square pill…?"

"You are one to talk! Look at my Dragon Force Pill, it's the only pink one among all of the Dragon Force Pills here! There is no way I will make it through the first part of the competition! I knew that Red Dragon Sage looked a bit wrong…"

"Hmph, I came out with a perfect one! Haha, I will surely move on to the next stage!"

Listening in on both the sad cries of those who realized how wrong their pills looked when compared to the other participants beside them and the ones who realized that they had likely succeeded from comparing with others, Qing Yi felt a bit left out as she could not compare her Dragon Force Potion with anyone…

"Hah… I was so close to succeeding… Just five more minutes and my pill would have been done…"

"I feel you! I had my spiritual herb stolen early on and had to waste another twenty minutes searching for a new one. In the end, I was delayed for way too long and had no way to finish my Dragon Force Pill in time…"

At the same time, the people who had not managed to finish their Dragon Force Pill or Potion in time or had accidently ruined one of their spiritual herbs while preparing them, were conversing with together, with a depressed expression on their faces.

There was no way they would feel happy about having failed the first stage of the alchemy competition without even having finished a single pill or potion. Merely failing due to a small mistake or not picking the correct herb…

"Those who failed to make a Dragon Force Pill or Potion may leave the competition space! The rest will bring up their finished pill… Or potion… over to one of the tables around the platform and stand behind it, as I will judge you finished Dragon Force Pill or Potion!"

As the words of the Artisan Alchemist echoed across the competition space, Qing Yi and the rest of the participants who had successfully made a Dragon Force Pill or Potion made their way up to the now empty tables, while the rest of the participants who hadn't made anything were guided out of the competition space by a few elders.

When and how the massive number spiritual herbs had disappeared from the tables without anyone noticing… No one bothered to think about this, as their main focus was on whether they would move on to the next stage of the competition…

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Chapter 419 - Judging Pills And Potions

Having placed all three of the potion bottles that she had filled up on top of the table, Qing Yi could not help curiously looking over the pills that the participants standing almost shoulder to shoulder with her had made.

On her left, there was a young girl around the same age as herself. Looking over the pills laid out in front of her, Qing Yi felt quite interested upon noticing how identical and perfect the pills in front of her looked.

The person on her right on the other hand… Let alone having his pills look identical, the dozen or so pills in front of the young man to her right were all sorts of different colours blended together. The most dominant colour being pink.

From this alone, Qing Yi had a feeling that the young man would not be making it through the first stage of the competition…

""…""

At the same time Qing Yi was looking over the two people's pills, they were also looking over the three potion bottles that she had brought up with her, both having a curious look on their face as they inspected her potion bottle with a curious look on their faces.

Not alone in this endeavour, a few of the other nearby participants were also looking over towards Qing Yi's potion bottles with a similarly curious expression on their faces.

After all, among all of the remaining participants, Qing Yi was the only person who had managed to make a Dragon Force Potion! Among the little over 10 people who had chosen to make a potion during the alchemy competition, Qing Yi was the only one to succeed!

…

As Qing Yi and the few participants close to here were looking over what each of them had managed to make during the time they had been given, Fang Shi made his way down towards the participants together with his disciple, Cai Yu.

"Hah…"

Arriving in front of the first participant, Fang Shi could not help but sigh to himself as he looked down at the weirdly green pills looking like they were about to melt under the sun.

"It's a failure! You used an incorrect spiritual herb in place of the Red Dragon Sage Spiritual Herb, causing the pill to grow unstable… The herb you used instead, was a poisonous herb called Venom Blood Leaves. If I anyone ate this pill… Let's just say they would not live to tell the tale unless they had a strong enough cultivation…"

Saying this to the participant with a solemn look on his face as he quickly understood what went wrong with the participants pill making, Fang Shi soon moved onto the next participant.

"Well done, this is a Dragon Force Pill! Although it was a bit miss coloured due to the fact that you left it in the cauldron for too long. Other than that, the pill is fine, it only lost a bit of its efficiency!"

Nodding his head upon seeing the next participants Dragon Force Pill, Fang Shi didn't show any sign of happiness while saying this before moving onto the next participant.

Even if the participant number two's Dragon Force Pill was enough to move onto the next step of the competition, Fang Shi knew very well that the participants ability was not what he was looking for.

"I-I made it!"

Not aware of the fact that Fang Shi had just ruled him out as a potential disciple, the participant who heard that he had made it into the next stage of the competition happily smiled before waving towards one of the spectator rooms where the people who had come alongside him were located.

Like this, Fang Shi slowly began making his way around the tables placed around the platform. Inspecting each of the participants Dragon Force Pills within only a few seconds before moving onto the next, as the participants were either sent out of the competition space due to failing or moved onto the next stage by successfully making a Dragon Force Pill!

"W-why is the pills succeeding not the same colour…?"

After Fang Shi began inspecting the Dragon Force Pills, all the participants soon came to realize that the Dragon Force Pills that successfully moved on to the next part of the competition were not always the same colour.

Instead, they were in all sorts of different colours. From red to purple and from blue to yellow.

There was no definite colour to the Dragon Force Pill! Instead, it looked like it could be any sort of colour…

This realization instantly caused a large portion of the participants to panic, as most of them had pills that were the same red colour, while those with weirdly coloured pills losing hope in making it to the next stage of the competition. Regained hope, as they began looking forward to Fang Shi inspecting their Dragon Force Pills.

Among all of the tension that had suddenly appeared among the participants, Qing Yi was the only person who remained unaffected.

At the moment, Qing Yi had turned her attention away from the other participants pills. Instead beginning to search through the spectator rooms all around the competition space. Hoping to spot her master and the rest of the elders that had come together with her to the Iron Sky Kingdom.

Searching through the spectator rooms, Qing Yi soon spotted her master calmly smiling towards her from one of the spectator rooms. The other elders also came into view, as Qing Yi found herself smiling a bit nervously upon noticing that everyone was looking over towards her.

She could even see Elder Gong Bo, one of the Core Elders of the Alchemy Hall nervously looking over her Dragon Force Potions before looking over towards the location of the Artisan Alchemist slowly moving closer and closer to her.

Seeing this, Qing Yi could not help smiling wryly to herself, as she reckoned that Elder Gong Bo was most likely the person who was the most nervous about the outcome of this competition…

"-Sadly, you used the wrong spiritual herbs. Not even a single one of the spiritual herbs used in these pills are among the five needed to make the Dragon Force Potion!"

Waving over towards her master and the other elders for a minute or so, Qing Yi was surprised to suddenly hear an old and solemn voice echo out just beside her.

He's here! How did he make it here so fast! There should at least have been 10 or so participants left before me…

Staring over at the old Artisan Alchemist currently in the process of judging the young man to her right side, Qing Yi could not help realizing that none of the 10 people to her right had managed to make it onto the next stage of the competition!

From the looks of it, the young man currently in the process of being judged was not going to make it either…

"Hah…"

Watching as the old Artisan Alchemist finished his judgement along with giving the young man a few suggestions of what he could improve in. Mainly suggesting for him to read a few more spiritual herb encyclopaedias when he got back home, Qing Yi suddenly felt herself grow nervous the moment she felt the old Artisan Alchemist fixate his gaze onto her and the three potion bottles she had placed on the table.

"Hm…? A potion? I guess this is the only potion that managed to be finished on time…" Hearing the old Artisan Alchemist mutter this to himself, as she felt his eyes go from solemn to curious while looking over her three potions before picking up one of them, Qing Yi felt herself beginning to sweat.

Something she had only ever experienced when she was extremely nervous before she started cultivating. Ever since she had reached the Qi Condensation Realm, she had never experienced something like that!

After all, for a cultivator, having complete control over one's own body was by far one of the most important aspects of cultivating…

"This is great! The Dragon Force Potion you made has no signs of any problem with the spiritual herbs used, and it looks like you got the timing of everything done perfectly! I can't find any mistakes with it!"

Hearing the excited voice of the old Artisan Alchemist as he put down her Dragon Force Potion before looking over towards her with a look of approval, Qing Yi could not help but let out a sigh of relief before smiling happily.

She had made it onto the next stage of the alchemy competition!

Filled with happiness, Qing Yi proudly looked up towards her master and the other elders who happily waved back at her.

…

Smiling as he waved towards his disciple who had just made it onto the next stage of the competition, Xuan Hao soon narrowed his eyes before looking down towards Fang Shi the moment Qing Yi turned to look somewhere different. The initial posting of this chapter occurred via noovelllbbin

"…"

That old fossil is aiming for my disciple!

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Chapter 420 - The True Master...? And A Short Break

Having finished judging Qing Yi's Dragon Force Potion with a happy smile present on his face, Fang Shi nodded his head towards Qing Yi to show his approval towards her before moving onto the young girl standing to her left.

"Hm… Looks like you also made it through to the next stage-"

Not listening in on the Artisan Alchemists judgement, Qing Yi had instead been caught off-guard by a young woman in her early twenties following closely behind the Artisan Alchemist.

Whoosh~

"Hm? Looks like you are quite decent for your age… Especially given the fact that you specialize in potions instead of pills…" Picking up one of her Dragon Force Potion before saying this, the young woman soon put it down again before following after the Artisan Alchemist who had already managed to go through three participants during the duration of the young woman's short inspection of her Dragon Force Potion.

Who was that? A disciple of the Artisan Alchemist?

Thinking this to herself, Qing Yi could not help but look towards the young woman slowly following the footsteps of the Artisan Alchemist as she inspected some of the participants after her master was done.

The only difference being the fact that she only inspected one person for every 10 her master inspected…

Somehow… Qing Yi felt that the young woman looked way more like an exalted master only paying attention to a select few who stood out, while the Artisan Alchemist was the disciple going ahead and doing the hard work of inspecting everyone before his master to make sure only the best was left when she arrived...

"Hehe~"

Not able to stop a small laughter from escaping her mouth upon imagining the old Artisan Alchemist as the disciple and the young woman as the master, Qing Yi stopped herself as she felt the young girl to her left look over towards her with a curious expression on her face.

Wondering why Qing Yi beside her had suddenly begun laughing all of a sudden.

"D-did something happen…?" Building up a bit of courage, the young girl asked Qing Yi. Wanting to find out why she had suddenly started laughing before quickly looking away with an embarrassed look on her face.

"Hm? Not really, I just found it funny how the young woman looked more like the master compared to the actual master…" Answering the young girl beside her who had also managed to move onto the next stage of the competition like herself, Qing Yi did not try to hide the reason for laughing earlier.

Motioning over towards the young woman walking behind the old Artisan Alchemist with an aloof and distant expression etched onto her face most of them time. Only changing into a curious expression whenever she inspected one of the Dragon Force Pills from the participants after the Artisan Alchemist.

"Haha, she does indeed look like the master…" Laughing a bit to herself upon looking over towards the direction that Qing Yi motioned her towards, the young girl barely managed to stop herself from laughing too loudly.

However, the voice of the young girl still managed to reach the ears of Fang Shi as he was about to inspect one of the last few Dragon Force Pills. Worst of all was the fact that he had also managed to hear what Qing Yi had said about him that lead to the young girl laughing at him!

How does that damn brat Cai Yu look more like a master than me!?

Thinking this to himself, Fang Shi glanced back towards Cai Yu walking only a few meters behind him with an aloof expression while staring into the distance while casually glancing over a few of the participants pills from time to time before looking away again.

From an outside view, it looked like she did not put any of the passing participants in her eyes. Only rarely inspecting a few of the most exceptional participants.

"…"

That brat… She is clearly doing this on purpose!

"Failure!" NvεlB¡n: Inspiring Minds, Illuminating Souls.

"Failure!"

"Not even close, you used the wrong spiritual herbs!"

Losing his temper upon realizing how his own disciple was seemingly trying her best to make him lose face in front of the participants, Fang Shi angrily looked over the last three pills before instantly disqualifying them and moving back onto the platform.

"Wha-"

"I'm disqualified!?"

"What just happened…?"

"Now let's move on to the second stage of the alchemy competition!" Ignoring the three bewildered participants who had just been eliminated within a second of each other, Fang Shi caught the attention of the participants who had managed to make it through the first stage of the alchemy competition with his words.

No one paid any attention to the last three participants to be eliminated from the alchemy competition, as they were escorted out of the competition space like the rest of the disqualified participants.

The only thing different compared to them and the rest of the participants, was the fact that none of them got any guidance from Fang Shi in how to improve… They had at least expected that they would get some guidance from the Artisan Alchemist even if they were eliminated!

Even worse, the 'participation reward' they would get from being eliminated in the first stage of the alchemy competition was not really worth traveling all the way to the Iron Sky Kingdom. This was even more so the case if they came from a sect or kingdom with the same power as the past Heavenly Sky Kingdom…

In the end, the three participants all felt incredibly sad and disappointed as they made their way out of the competition space.

"The second stage of the competition will be different from the first stage. This time around, you will have to make the highest-level pill or potion you currently know! Among all of you. Only the top twenty will move on to the third stage!" Completely ignoring the three disappointed stares from the three participants who had been eliminated last, Fang Shi went on to explain the details of the second stage of the alchemy competition.

"You will have half an hour to rest before the second stage will begin. During this break, everyone should make sure what pill or potion you plan on making!" Along with these few words, Fang Shi soon turned to leave the platform together with his disciple.

Leaving behind the remaining 87 participants who had made it through the first stage of the competition to think about what sort of pill or potion they wanted to make for the upcoming second stage.

"Everyone! You can take a rest over here and get something to eat and drink!" Just as everyone had begun planning over what they wanted to make, a loud voice interrupted their thoughts as a small part of the space for the alchemy competition had turned into a buffet filled with all sorts of food, water and snacks.

"I… I do feel quite a bit hungry…" A participant who was only in the Qi Condensation Realm was the first to move, as he soon began to grab a large variety of food before beginning to eat.

Rumble~

" Let's just get something quick…"

Soon enough, over sixty of the participants had made their way over to the buffet to get something to eat.

Among the remaining twenty or so participants, Qing Yi could not help but frown as she looked over towards the buffet with narrowed eyes.

The Artisan Alchemist had clearly told them that they had half an hour break to rest and figure out what potion or pill they wanted to make… He never said anything about the buffet that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere…

Was the buffet perhaps a trap of sorts to waste the time they had been given to think up what potion or pill they wanted to make during the second stage of the competition?

Thinking this, Qing Yi could not help but glance over towards the participants absorbed in eating all sorts of delicacy with a pitying look on her face.

Finding out what sort of pill or potion one wanted to use was not simple and would take time to figure out.

After all, she and the rest of the participants had no idea what spiritual herbs would be available to them during the second stage of the competition!

With that in mind, Qing Yi began thinking about several different potions she had made together with her master during the past week.

The potions she had practiced with her master were all high level and at the same time each of the potion used different spiritual herbs. During her practice with her master, Qing Yi had found herself learning about new spiritual herbs she never knew existed before and learning how to use them every day!

Thinking back to the week leading up to the alchemy competition, Qing Yi could not help but smile happily as she looked up towards her master before quickly focusing back on the task of figuring out a wide variety of potions, she could make no matter what spiritual herbs were available to them during the second stage of the alchemy competition!

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Chapter 421 - Start Of The Second Stage

"Hm… Looks like the second stage of the alchemy competition will be quite difficult compared to the first stage…" Having heard what, the old Artisan Alchemist said about the second stage of the alchemy competition, Xuan Hao could not help but feel a bit worried for his disciple.

After all, she was still only a Journeyman Alchemist. Even if she had reached the peak of the realm and was about to become an Expert Alchemist, she was still not there yet. Given the fact that only twenty people would pass through to the third stage and Xuan Hao had already observed more than twenty people at the Expert Alchemist Realm among the participants, it was understandable that he worried about whether or not Qing Yi could make it to the next stage of the competition…

No matter what, she would have a hard time making a potion above the Earth Grade without being an Expert Alchemist…

If all the Expert Alchemist participants managed to make a Spirit Grade Pill during the second stage of the alchemy competition, Qing Yi would have no way to make it to the Third Stage of the competition!

The only thing bringing him some sort of solace, was the fact that a majority of the Expert Alchemist among the participants had decided to waste their time eating instead of thinking about what kind of pills they could make for the upcoming second stage of the competition.

Whether it was due to their confidence of being Expert Alchemist or something else, Xuan Hao had no idea. All he knew, was that Qing Yi would be able to have an advantage in the second stage. Especially so if the Expert Alchemist currently eating their fill at the buffet had no time to come up with a suitable pill or potion when the time-

"Ah, Qing Yi is looking over here!"

"Hurry up and-"

Glancing over towards the other elders that had suddenly interrupted his train of thought as they excitedly waved over towards his disciple like a group of dedicated fans, Xuan Hao could not help rolling his eyes at their behaviour.

These Alchemy Hall elders are way too excited…

Thinking this to himself, Xuan Hao soon joined the group as he also waved over in the direction of Qing Yi to encourage her and make sure she knew that he was there to cheer her on.

Even if he didn't approve of the Alchemy Hall elder's behaviour… At the very least it seemed to have made Qing Yi more determined to perform well, as Xuan Hao watched her put on a focused look. Clearly thinking about what potions she could make in the upcoming second stage of the alchemy competition.

Soon the break ended, and the old Artisan Alchemist once again appeared on top of the platform with a smile on his face and his disciple following closely behind him.

"Everyone! The half hour break is over! Now, we will begin the second stage of the alchemy competition! First of all-"

As all the participants gathered, the Artisan Alchemist announced the start of the second stage. Along with a few new rules he hadn't told them about the first time and of course, an extremely limited number of spiritual herbs.

In total, the number of spiritual herbs that they could choose between for their pill or potion, were only a measly 12 spiritual herbs!

Even worse. Not all of them were high grade herbs! In fact, there was only a single Spirit Grade Spiritual Herb along with two Earth Grade Spiritual Herbs!

Making a Spirit Grade Pill or Potion was extremely difficult. Even making a normal Earth Grade Pill or Potion was difficult with such a limited number of spiritual herbs!

Outside of that, the participants were only allowed to chose eight out of the twelve spiritual herbs!

…

"Hurry up! We have to inform the rest of the sect before it's too late!"

At the same time that the second stage of the alchemy competition was beginning in the Iron Sky Kingdom, three figures could be seen moving rapidly across a large open grass field. Anxiously looking back from the direction, they had come with a face full of fear. NvεlB¡n: Inspiring Minds, Illuminating Souls.

The reason for this fear soon appeared as a large group of people gradually appeared in the distance behind them, as they rushed towards the three figures.

A few intangible shouts could barely be heard from the large group of people chasing after them, as the three figures rapidly increased their speed to escape from the large group of people that had appeared behind them.

However, this was to no avail, as the group grew closer and closer with each passing second.

Before long the group would catch up to the three escaping figures!

"There is no way we can reach the Dark Frost Mountain Range before they catch up to us…" Glancing back towards the group of people growing closer and closer to them, one of the figures escaping informed the rest in a depressed tone before once again increasing his speed. Even disregarding any internal damage, he might suffer due to increasing his speed way over what his cultivation realm allowed.

If not for the fact that his face had been covered in a thin black cloth. Completely hiding his identity, one would surely be able to see just how depressed he was upon saying this…

The two others escaping together with him also understood this as they increased their speed as well. No matter what, if they were really caught by their pursuer, they would experience a fate worse than death!

If they could get away by only suffering a few internal injuries, these three people would be more than happy, but they already knew that this was unlikely to happen.

Whoosh!

The main reason for their lack of faith soon appeared, as two figures broke off from the group of people chasing them before rushing over towards them.

The speed of these two people was way above that of the group behind them as they soon managed to close the distance between them and the three.

"I will try and slow them down…" Seeing the two people almost having caught up with them, one of the three figures clad in completely black clothes informed the rest before stopping to confront the two rapidly approaching figures before the other two even had a chance to respond.

Boom!

The violent aura of someone at the Peak of the Core Formation Exploded out into the surroundings before suddenly growing extremely unstable and increasingly violent.

"No! Don't-"

BOOM!

Just as the two still escaping figures clad in black managed to say anything, a large explosion could be heard behind them as the person had chosen to forcefully ignite all the qi inside his dantian for a powerful attack towards the closet of the two people rushing towards them.

The attack was far more powerful than what someone at his realm should be able to muster, but the side effect of forcefully igniting the qi inside one's own dantian, was-

BOOM!

Death…

After the attack had been launched, an even more terrifying explosion followed, as the body of the person who had chosen to stay and hold back the two figures violently swelled up like a giant balloon before violently exploding. Sending what little remained of his body flying out in all directions.

Instantly killing the man clad in black!

Through igniting his qi, he had been able to preform a precise attack comparable to someone at the First Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm towards one of the two people rushing over and a second not so precise attack comparable to someone at the Fourth Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm!

The man who had just launched the two attacks was only at the Peak of the Core Formation Realm, yet he had managed to launch two attacks at the Nascent Soul Realm through sacrificing his own life!

The entire thing simply happened too fast for the other two escaping people to react, as their friend had already sealed his own fate the moment, they managed to call out to him…

"Hmph!"

The two figures that had broken off from the rest of their group to follow after them had to stop for a moment as they blocked the two attacks.

Boom!

At this moment, the strength of the two people was instantly revealed, as the terrifying aura of two Nascent Soul Realm Experts spread out with them at the centre!

The two attacks that the one black clad man had executed at the cost of his life was soon easily dealt with by these two experts, as they only stopped for a short moment before resuming their chase again.

…

"The Dark Frost Mountain Range!"

After another minute passed and the two Nascent Soul Realm Experts were about to catch up with them once again, one of the two remaining black clad people called out happily as a large mountain range covered in snow appeared on the horizon.

The Dark Frost Mountain Range, as long as they could make it to the mountain range, they would be safe!

With this thought in mind, the two remaining people desperately rushed towards the mountain range in the distance. Trying their best to increase their speed no matter what kind of injuries they sustained.

Whoosh!

"We can't allow them to reach the Dark Frost Mountain Range!"

One of the two Nascent Soul Realm Experts called out, as they also seemed to have realized that their targets were about to escape, as a serious expression appeared on both their faces before they increased their speed to catch up with the two black clad men in front of them.

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Chapter 422 - Chase!

"Hah… It looks like both of us won't be able to make it…" One of the two people escaping sighed to himself as he said this while looking back towards the two Nascent Soul Realm Experts that were just about to reach them.

"…" The other person running just beside his friend understood very well what he meant, as he didn't say anything. Instead, he just let out a sigh filled with sadness as he gazed over towards the Dark Frost Mountain Range that was slowly appearing in the distance.

No matter how he looked at it, he could not see how any of them would be able to make it back before the two Nascent Soul Realm Experts caught up with them. Even if one of the two ended up sacrificing themselves to buy a bit more time, it was unlikely to have the same effect now that the two Nascent Soul Realm Experts had already experienced it once…

"Well… Looks like this will be it… If you manage to make it, please take care of my family…"

"Sure…"

With both parties not saying much, one of the two people soon came to a stop as he launched a similar suicidal attack towards the two approaching Nascent Soul Realm Experts.

Boom!

BOOM!

"Ah-!"

The two large scale attacks could be heard for miles around, as the last remaining person running away didn't dare look back to see what had happened to his friend. Instead focusing all his energy on running as fast as he could towards the Frost Mountain Range in the distance.

"Hmph! Another suicidal one! Now there is only one left…"

One of the two Nascent Soul Realm Experts quickly recovered from the attack before he chased after the last remaining person with a sneer on his face.

The earlier attack had been just as powerful as the last time, it was just that he had been far more prepared this time and in turn quickly managed to resume his chase.

In a sense, both the Nascent Soul Realm Experts had been prepared for the suicide attack, it was just that at the last moment before exploding into a gory mess. The black clothed man had managed to use his first attack to approach one of the two Nascent Soul Realm Experts and directly blow up in his face.

The explosion at the end was comparable to an all-out attack from someone at the Fourth Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm!

The danger brought by such an attack was more than enough to force the Nascent Soul Realm Expert that had been targeted to be grievously wounded. Resulting in there now only being one Nascent Soul Realm Expert left to chase after the last remaining black clothed figure.

Whoosh~

Like this, the chase resumed like before. The only difference being that there were now only two people left. One escaping, while the other was chasing.

In the distance, the Dark Frost Mountain Range slowly grew closer and closer, but it could not compare to the speed of the Nascent Soul Realm Expert, who was rapidly closing the distance.

If not for the fact that the person escaping had already used several secret techniques that permanently damaged him to forcefully increase his speed, there was no way he would have ever been able to even have a chance of escaping the Nascent Soul Realm Expert. After all, he was only at the Core Formation Realm. Far from being comparable to someone in the Nascent Soul Realm…

…

"Hah… Looks like I won't make it back, my two senior brothers sacrifice might have been in vain… No, I can't give up! If I fall, the Ascendant Frost Hall will surly fall into the Azure Sky Kingdoms trap!" Muttering this to himself as he slowly felt his strength leaving his body. The last person among the three people slowly felt his speed beginning to decrease, as the secret techniques he had used to increase his speed over the last few minutes slowly began losing their effectiveness!

Gazing over towards the Dark Frost Mountain Range that symbolized the start of what little territory the Ascendant Frost Hall still had inside of the Azure Sky Kingdom, the black clothed figure could not help but be filled with immense regret.

He was so close, if just he could last for another minute, he would be able to reach the perimeter of the Dark Frost Mountain Range! At that point, the Nascent Soul Realm Experts guarding the place would be alerted and come over to rescue him!

"Ah!"

Thinking about this, the black clothed man roared loudly before pushing himself forward. Momentarily stopping his speed from decreasing any further at the cost of the core inside his dantian slowly beginning to collapse under the huge pressure.

Crack~

The black clothed man knew very well that if he continued like this, the core in his dantian would shatter. Erasing his cultivation base in one go.

In such a situation, the luckiest outcome would be that he might be left with at most a year or two to live. In such a scenario, his only way to live on was to try and recultivate back up to the Peak of the Core Formation Realm before breaking through to the Nascent Soul!

However, such a scenario was the best outcome for him. The most likely outcome was that the core in his dantian would begin a process of rapid collapse and take him down with it in the process…

Whoosh!

These thought only momentarily passed through his mind before he focused on his task. Escaping to the Dark Frost Mountain Range!

Even if his core collapsed, he should at the very least have enough time to relay the information he and the other two had managed to gather before he perished…

"Haha! Looks like you can't hold on for much longer. Maybe I don't even need to chase after you any longer?"

Hearing the mocking voice that belonged to the Nascent Soul Realm Expert chasing after him from behind, the man escaping could not help but shiver as he suddenly realized that the Nascent Soul Realm Expert was only a few meters behind him at this point in time!

Let alone have a chance to make it to the perimeter of the Dark Frost Mountain Range and get help from his elders, there was no way he could even enter the large forest covered in snow located in front of the Dark Frost Mountain Range…

After all, the Nascent Soul Realm Expert being so close meant that he was more than capable of launching an attack to finish him off!

At this point, the Nascent Soul Realm Expert was just playing with him!

"…"

Knowing this, a look of despair appeared on the man's face. Not matter what, he no longer had a chance to reach the Dark Frost Mountain Range. All he could do was wait for death when the Nascent Soul Realm Expert grew bored, or he got too close to the Dark Frost Mountain Range…

Whoosh~

It was also at this moment that the cloth that concealed the man's face was swept away by a sudden violent wind current. Instantly revealing his face.

"Wow, you are younger than I expected. Hehe, I guess you are one of the more talented youngsters from the Ascendant Frost Hall? What a pity, hehe~"

The first to react to this sudden development was the Nascent Soul Realm Expert chasing from behind as his mocking voice soon entered the ears of the young disciple from the Ascendant Frost Hall.

"…" The initial posting of this chapter occurred via noovelllbbin

The young man did not say anything to this, as he just continued rushing towards the Dark Frost Mountain Range in the distance.

At this point in time, his entire face had changed to a dark red colour, as blood could be seen flowing out of all his orifices. Instantly dying the snow below him red.

Wait, snow?

Not able to see clearly anymore due to the blood in his eyes. The young man suddenly realized that he had already reached the forest at the outskirts of the Dark Frost Mountain Range.

Maybe if I enter the forbidden zone, I will have a chance to escape, it's not close to the Dark Frost Mountain Range either, so there is a chance the Nascent Soul Realm Expert won't kill me yet…

Rapidly analysing his current situation, the young man from the Ascendant Frost Hall quickly remembered the ancient forbidden zone that his elders had talked about before and warned him not to enter.

If he did not remember wrong. The forbidden zone should be located close to the edge of the frozen forest he had just entered…

Thinking this, the young man from the Ascendant Frost Hall quickly wiped the blood in his eyes away before rushing forward.

No matter what, he had to take a chance and enter the ancient forbidden zone! Maybe he would be able to survive there for a day and two and return to warn his sect. At least it was better than having to deal with the Nascent Soul Realm Expert…

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Chapter 423 - Mystic Realm

"It's here…" having almost exhausted every last bit of his strength, the young man from the Ascendant Frost Hall felt a new wave of energy wash over him as he saw a large frozen lake in front of him.

The lake itself did not look anything like an ancient forbidden zone and just looked like any normal lake that had been frozen over.

The young man already knew this and hoped that the Nascent Soul Realm Expert following him would not find anything odd about the frozen lake and just kill him to prevent him from having a chance to escape.

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

Rushing out onto the frozen lake, the young man immediately used the last bit of his strength to crush the frozen lake water before directly jumping into the frozen water below.

Splash!

Along with entering the frozen water of the lake, the young man saw the Nascent Soul Realm Expert launch an attack over towards him before a weird energy engulfed his entire body and prevented the Nascent Soul Realm Experts attack from approaching.

The last thing the young man from the Ascendant Frost Hall managed to see before he lost consciousness, was the shocked expression on the Nascent Soul Realm Expert's face before a fearful expression soon replaced his shocked expression.

This was also understandable. After all, the weird energy had completely erased his attack with no effort whatsoever…

"What in the world was that…?"

Having been left staring speechlessly as the person he had been playing with for the last few minutes was suddenly engulfed by a strange energy strong enough to easily erase his attack before disappearing into the lake water below, the Nascent Soul Realm Expert soon began to investigate the frozen lake he was currently standing on top of.

Searching around for a few minutes for any traces of where the young man might have disappeared to together with the weird and powerful energy from earlier, the Nascent Soul Realm Expert from the Azure Sky Kingdom suddenly realized something as he quickly left the frozen lake.

Crack~

Bang!

Not a second later, the frozen surface of the lake suddenly cracked a part before a large quantity of the weird energy that had engulfed the young man from the Ascendant Frost Hall began to radiate out from the bottom of the lake.

"A… A mystic realm?!"

Gulping audibly upon realizing just what he had stumbled upon as he fearfully look towards the origin of the weird energy where a dark blue whirlpool of energy could be seen swirling around, the Nascent Soul Realm Expert felt a terrifying pressure suddenly seal his movement.

Whoosh~

Slowly, he felt himself being drawn down towards the dark pool whirlpool lurking at the bottom of the frozen lake…

I have to get out of here!

Realizing just how dangerous his current situation was, the Nascent Soul Realm Expert from the Azure Sky Kingdom didn't dare hold back, as he tried his best to struggle free from the invisible force that had begun dragging him down towards the dark blue whirlpool!

"No!"

Bang!

Executing a secret technique, the Nascent Soul Realm Expert barely managed to break free from the force that had been slowly dragging him down towards the dark blue whirlpool!

Whoosh!

Not looking back, the Nascent Soul Realm Expert directly left the frozen lake.

As for finding out about the young man's situation? In his eyes, the young man was as good as dead!

A mystic realm was different from a secret realm that was created by a powerful cultivator in the past.

On the other hand, a mystic realm was not created by a powerful cultivator and was instead a naturally occurring. This in turn had resulted in there often being a large number of both natural treasures and spiritual herbs, but it also meant that a mystic realm had not been set up with any restrictions that a powerful cultivator might place on a secret realm…

For the mystic realm, this meant that there were no restrictions on the lifeforms developing inside of it that had fallen in over time.

If one was lucky, the strongest demonic beast inside would only be at the Domain Lord Realm, but in most cases, the demonic beasts inside a mystic realm would have reached the Soul Ascension Realm. In some cases, even above that depending on the age of the mystic realm!

Therefore, it had been widely acknowledged that a mystic realm was no different than a death trap in most cases!

Even if the Nascent Soul Realm Expert had no idea about most of this, he very clearly knew how dangerous a mystic realm was for someone like himself. This was also the reason why he had treated the young man from the Ascendant Frost Hall like an already dead person!

Given the injuries he suffered along with the dangers of a mystic realm, there was no way that young man would survive!

Whoosh whoosh!

Shortly after the Nascent Soul Realm Expert had escaped from the frozen lake, several figures appeared around the lake. All of them were covered in pure white robes with a beautiful snowflake symbol on it. From their auras alone, one could tell that every single one of them had reached the Nascent Soul Realm!

"Someone entered the ancient forbidden zone…"

Standing out among the crowd of people who had appeared, an old woman narrowed her eyes as she scanned over the dark blue whirlpool located at the bottom of the frozen lake.

Thump~

Walking over the mostly shattered ice that covered the frozen lake, the old woman soon arrived directly above the dark blue whirlpool. The binding force that had almost managed to drag down the Nascent Soul Realm Expert from the Azure Sky Kingdom seemed to have no effect on her.

Glancing down towards the dark blue whirlpool, the old woman's eyes shone in light blue colour for a short moment before the whirlpool below seemed to have calmed down before it disappeared and merged into the surrounding lake water.

Completely disappearing from sight!

"Hah… It looks like one of our disciples were forced to enter the ancient forbidden zone… Given the fact that the disciple knew about this place in the first place, it should be one of our core disciples…" A solemn expression appeared on the old woman's face upon saying this.

""…""

The other people who had arrived together with her were the same as a clear killing intent could be felt from some of the Nascent Soul Realm Experts.

"Grand Elder! Who is it!? Who dared to force our disciple into such a desperate situation!?" Gritting his teeth, one of the elders could not hold himself back as asked the old woman.

"Hm… I have no idea… But that person should be in the Nascent Soul Realm and from what I can sense, he is still somewhere nearby, I will be back shortly…!" Narrowing her eyes as she said the last part, the old woman soon disappeared from the top of the frozen lake.

Whoosh!

Seeing their grand elder suddenly rush off, the other people who had arrived beside the frozen lake were all shocked for a short moment before they soon left the frozen lake to chase after their grand elder.

From their expressions alone, it was obvious they had not expected for their grand elder to act!

…

At the same time that all of this was happening in the Azure Sky Kingdom, Xuan Hao was watching the second stage of the alchemy competition together with the rest of the elders from his sect.

All of them were currently extremely excited as they had just watched how Qing Yi easily picked out the spiritual herbs that she needed out of the few that were available for them during the second stage of the alchemy competition!

From this alone, they could all tell that Qing Yi already had a potion recipe prepared! She did not have to wait around and think about what she wanted to make like most of the other participants were currently doing!

This was an especially good thing considering that other than limiting the spiritual herbs available to them during the second stage of the alchemy competition, the Artisan Alchemist, Fang Shi, had also limited the time they had to pick out the spiritual herbs they needed for their pill or potion!

At this moment, the participants who had chosen to partake in the buffet just a moment ago, were filled with regret, as they had less than five minutes to figure out what pill they wanted to make out of the spiritual herbs that were available to them!

Not only did they need to make a pill from the few available? spiritual herbs, but they would also need to make a pill strong enough to qualify them to the third stage of the alchemy competition!

This was not something that could be done by just making a random pill using the two Earth Grade Spiritual Herbs! For them to move onto the third stage of the alchemy competition, they would most likely have to use the Spirit Grade Spiritual Herb available to them in some way!

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Chapter 424 - Qing Yi's Gamble~

The only thing that still worried Xuan Hao and the other elders about Qing Yi's performance during the second stage of the alchemy competition, was the fact that she had chosen to use the Spirit Grade Spiritual Herb!

A Spirit Grade Spiritual Herb was not something used in Earth Grade Potions, but something used in Spirit Grade Potions!

The reason why Xuan Hao and the rest of the elders from the Flying Sword Sect were worried was because of this, Qing was after all still a Journeyman Alchemist and had yet to become an Expert Alchemist!

Xuan Hao was even more certain about Qing Yi's current alchemy realm compared to the other elders. After all, he had been spending his time teaching her over the past week leading up to the alchemy competition!

"Is she perhaps trying to make one of the more… Unique potions I showed her…?" Trying to figure out just what his little disciple might be up to, Xuan Hao suddenly had a bad feeling as he recalled how he had showed her a few recipes for Spirit Grade Potions during the past week.

The reason for this was that he wanted for her to see the difference between the Journeyman Realm of alchemy and the Expert Realm…

He had never expected for her to remember those recipes and even be bold enough to display one of them during the alchemy competition!

"This is… Troublesome…" Smiling wryly upon remembering the recipes he had shown her, Xuan Hao suddenly began growing worried for his little disciple. After all, the pill recipes he had showed her and had unknowingly allowed her to memorize… Were all from the system!

If there was one thing, he was certain of in the regard to the system, it was the fact that it did not have a single decent alchemy recipe! Every single one of the recipes he had gained was either useless or simply too embarrassing to make!

Glancing down towards the available spiritual herbs along with the herbs Qing Yi had taken, Xuan Hao could not help growing nervous.

"I… Hope she does not decide to make 'that' potion…" Remembering a certain potion among the potion recipes he had shown Qing Yi back then, Xuan Hao could not help wondering whether or not he should sabotage his own disciple…

I can't do that… And even if she really makes that potion, the person who will end up suffering should be that Artisan Alchemist, Fang Shi! Hehe, now I'm actually looking forward to it…!

"E-elder Xuan, is something wrong…?"

"Ahm, no its nothing, I just thought of something funny!"

Feeling a bit embarrassed that one of the elders caught his small evil chuckle, Xuan Hao quickly pretended that nothing had happened before looking back down towards his disciple.

"If you say so…"

The elder who had spotted had heard his evil chuckle didn't say anything more after that and also began watching the alchemy competition below again.

There was no way he would want to call out Elder Xuan on the evil expression he had just a few seconds ago, nor would he mention just how much he resembled a villain planning some sort of evil scheme…

…

Back down in the competition space, Qing Yi smiled happily to herself as she looked over the eight spiritual herbs, she had chosen among the twelve spiritual herbs.

During the last week that she had practiced together with her master, Qing Yi had already reached the Peak of the Journeyman Realm in alchemy and only needed an opportunity to breakthrough and become an Expert Alchemist!

During the second stage of the alchemy competition, Qing Yi decided that she would take the chance and try to make her first ever Spirit Grade Potion and officially become an Expert Alchemist!

The reason she took this risk, was not only because she wanted to show off in front of her master, but also because she was worried that she might not have a chance to make it through the second stage of the alchemy competition without making a Spirit Grade Potion.

After all, there were more than twenty people among the remaining participants that had already become Expert Alchemists! For her to enter the third stage of the competition, she would either have to hope that not all the Expert Alchemist had a recipe for a Spirit Grade Pill or Potion that used the spiritual herbs available to them… Or she could take the chance at trying to make a Spirit Grade Potion herself!

In the end, Qing Yi had decided to not put her hope in what recipes the other participants had learned!

Luckily the spiritual herbs for one of the Spirit Grade Potions that master showed me were present! With this I should be able to make my first Spirit Grade Potion and become an Expert Alchemist!

Thinking this to herself, Qing Yi felt her confidence soar as she began preparing the spiritual herbs she had picked out.

Among the spiritual herbs she had chosen, there was two Earth Grade Spiritual Herbs, five Mortal Grade Spiritual Herbs and finally, the Spirit Grade Spiritual Herb! The most important spiritual herb among the eight spiritual herbs and the core ingredient for her Spirit Grade Potion, Verdant Jade Bamboo!

Verdant Jade Bamboo of the Spirit Grade was not too rare among Spirit Grade Spiritual Herbs, and Qing Yi had seen the other elders from the Alchemy Hall use it a lot during her past visits to the Alchemy Hall.

Not only that, but Qing Yi had also learned how to prepare the Verdant Jade Bamboo in the past while she had observed the elders of the Alchemy Hall. The method was extremely simple and even if she wasn't an alchemist, she would still be able to easily do it on her first try! This was one of the main reasons why she had decided to take the risk and attempt to make a Spirit Grade Potion!

Not thinking about it any longer, Qing Yi quickly finished preparing her five Mortal Grade Spiritual Herbs and two Earth Grade Herbs before cautiously beginning to prepare the Verdant Jade Bamboo according to how she had seen the elders of the Alchemy Hall do it in the past.

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

"Looks like quite a few of the participants are struggling with what they should make… Hah, looks like the quality of these people are quite low~"

"You even chose the Verdant Jade Bamboo, the Expert Alchemists among the participants should have no trouble finding a recipe given how common it is… But look at the Earth Grade Spiritual Herbs you chose!? How on earth would they be able to make anything with those two spiritual herbs in the mix!? To be honest I'm surprised that so many people even had a recipe for something using those spiritual herbs to begin with!"

Trying his best to calm down as he heard his disciples playful voice while he observed the participants, Fang Shi began regretting the fact that he had handed over the second stage of the alchemy competition to her…

No matter what, from the looks of it, they would be lucky if there was even twenty people who managed to successfully make an Earth Grade Pill or Potion during the time that they had been given!

The Earth Grade Spiritual Herbs that his disciple had chosen was simply way too difficult to handle, other than that, they were quite rare.

Fang Shi had been surprised that there even was anyone among the participants who had a recipe involving those spiritual herbs!

His disciple had really been trying her best to trouble him over the best few days…

Thinking about this, Fang Shi could not help but sigh in his mind, he knew that the reason for his disciple's behaviour was because he would be taking in a new disciple.

The reason for the alchemy competition was for him to find a new disciple and from what he had experienced over the past few days, his only disciple so far, didn't seem so happy about the prospects of getting a junior brother or sister in the future…

"Hah, I spoiled her way too much in the past…" Sighing to himself once again as he reflected on how he had treated his disciple in the past, Fang Shi decided to not scold his disciple and just go along with it.

Even if there were less than twenty people who made it into the third stage of the alchemy competition, it did not really matter to him. After all, the people who could make it to the third stage even with his disciples meddling would be the best and it would not really interfere in his original objective of finding a second disciple to teach.

Not paying any more attention to his own disciple, Fang Shi once again looked around at the participants and soon spotted the Verdant Jade Bamboo on Qing Yi's table.

"Hm? That little girl from the Flying Sword Sect is trying to breakthrough to the Expert Realm during a time like this!?"

Feeling a bit shocked upon realizing that someone was trying to reach the next realm during such a time, Fang Shi narrowed both of his eyes as he began observing how Qing Yi was handling the different spiritual herbs in front of her.

I hope that little girl can breakthrough and become an Expert Alchemist, she has quite a lot of talent when it comes to alchemy…

Thinking this to himself as he watched how smoothly she handled the two troublesome Earth Grade Spiritual Herbs, Fang Shi slowly began looking forward to Qing Yi's performance...

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Chapter 425 - Enemies Of Yi Min Arrive...

The second stage of the alchemy competition was soon in full swing, as the participants had all begun preparing their spiritual herbs and a few had even begun making the pills with their pill cauldrons.

At this point, Qing Yi was the only person left in the competition that was making a potion, while the rest of the participants all made pills.

This had not only helped her gain attention from the Artisan Alchemist, Fang Shi, but also helped her garner part of the crowd's attention. After all, even if she was not the best alchemist present in the competition, she was still the only person making a potion!

A pill was solid, while a potion was liquid. The process of potion making was different from pill making! For the crowd of spectators, it would be a little boring to just watch everyone seemingly do the same thing with the same few spiritual herbs, so Qing Yi slowly began to garner more and more attention from the crowd with the passing of time.

Half an hour after the second stage of the competition had begun, even Xuan Hao was slightly alerted upon hearing a group of people that were not from the group of Alchemy Hall elders cheer on his disciple…

"Hm?" The initial posting of this chapter occurred via noovelllbbin

Someone is sneaking around again?

Xuan Hao suddenly frowned as he sensed someone sneak into the competition space.

Compared to the last time where he didn't use his divine sense to observe his surroundings properly due to him being careful about not wanting to accidently offend Yi Min, Xuan Hao had long since allowed his divine sense to spread out and cover the entire competition ground. Making sure he paid attention to anything unusual happening.

The main reason for this was because Yi Min had told him that it was likely that her enemies would launch an attack soon… Due to him 'visiting' their underground base a week ago…

"I wonder what they are up to…" Muttering this to himself, Xuan Hao curiously observed the person who had sneaked into the observation ground.

Not only was he observing the person, but an even more powerful divine sense was also carefully keeping an eye on the person who had sneaked inside the competition ground. The owner of this divine sense was of course Yi Min!

At this point, both of them were just keeping an eye on the person who had snuck inside the competition ground. The man in question was not too strong, having only reached the Peak of the Core Formation Realm.

Even if he wanted to create trouble, there was no way he could do too much given his cultivation realm only being at the Core Formation Realm!

"This should be the place!"

Listening in from the side as he slowly made his way over towards one of the areas that the participants had registered earlier on, Xuan Hao suddenly saw the man take out a small metal ball before throwing it into the area where the participants of the competition had first gone to register.

"Who are you!? This is a restricted area-"

Before the elder standing inside the registration area even managed to react, a weird gas was released from the small metal ball, as the elder soon fainted together with two young guards inside.

Neither of the two guards or the elder had been strong in the first place, with the strongest person being the elder who had just barely reached the Core Formation Realm.

After all, there was no way they had actually expected for someone to suddenly come and cause trouble in the registration area for participants!

What did they want to do in such a place? There was nothing of value and the only thing that would be gained from doing something like that, was the anger of the Iron Sky Kingdom…

Thump Thump Thump!

As the three people still left inside the registration room fell to the ground unconscious, Xuan Hao and Yi Min were both watching as the man walked over to where the elder noting down the names of the participants was located before picking up the book used for registration of the participants with a smile on his face before cautiously looking around himself. Only when he was certain no one was watching, did he put the small registration book into a small bag before beginning to leave.

Still sitting down inside his spectator room with the rest of the elders from his sect as he saw this, Xuan Hao decided to inform Yi Min through his divine sense.

"I don't think this guy is related to the people planning to launch an attack…"

"Indeed, I think this has nothing to do with those people. In my opinion, he is likely working for someone who plans to assassinate one of the participants after the alchemy competition and just came here to gather some information on his employers target…"

Hearing Yi Min's response, Xuan Hao felt that it was a likely scenario. After all, there was no way Yi Min's enemies would suddenly send someone random back inside after they had just 'killed' a large number of guards.

Though it did make Xuan Hao a bit curious, who had enough courage to plan an assassination inside the capital of the Iron Sky Kingdom?

After all, it had to be remembered that all the participants had guardians at the Nascent Soul Realm with them! After having spread out his divine sense, Xuan Hao even sensed a few people at the Half-Step Domain Lord Realm among the spectators!

For the assassin to have a chance to succeed, he or she would at least be in the Nascent Soul Realm… But a Nascent Soul Realm Expert fighting inside the capital of the Iron Sky Kingdom would instantly trigger the giant formation covering the capital!

No matter what, Xuan Hao could not see how the assassin would proceed… Perhaps poison? But then again, there was currently an Artisan Alchemist close to becoming a Master Alchemist present!

If anyone was poison, that Fang Shi would likely be able to solve it instantly…

Thinking about Fang Shi, Xuan Hao suddenly felt his mood sour.

"Xuan Hao, it looks like my old friends are finally themselves …"

Just as Xuan Hao was about to start cursing Fang Shi in his mind, Yi Min's solemn voice suddenly echoed out inside his head. From her voice alone, Xuan Hao could easily feel a terrifying killing intent slowly stirring...

From the looks of it, the people she was talking about was not just someone at the Core Formation Realm!

It looks like they are beginning their attack!

Thinking this to himself, Xuan Hao could not help frowning, he never imagined that he would end up getting involved with the Iron Sky Kingdom's enemies! Even worse was the fact that he was the main reason why they had decided to attack before the alchemy competition had ended!

From how Yi Min was interacting with him, Xuan Hao knew very well that she expected for him to help up during the upcoming battle…

There was also the quest he had been given by the system when he entered the underground base…

[Side Quest 1/2: Explore the deeper part of the cave.]

[Reward: Unlock next part of the quest]

If he worked together with Yi Min to get rid of her enemies, he would have chance to explore the deeper part of the cave where one of the two Domain Lords from the other side had been guarding with so much devotion that he had even ignored him while he trashed the entrance of the base…

Only when he had another Domain Lord to support him, did the Domain Lord guarding the deeper part of the underground base dare slowly move out to chase after him…

If the Domain Lord was still around, Xuan Hao felt that there was no way for him to complete the side quest before the end of the alchemy competition.

Therefore, he had already steeled himself for the probability that he had to give up on the side quest… But from the look of things, it looked like he might have a chance at completing it if he and Yi Min managed to deal with her enemies!

Even if he had no idea what the reward for completing the side quest was, Xuan Hao still felt drawn towards it due to his curiosity! This was after all the first ever mission that was split into two parts!

The reward for completing such a mission… Xuan Hao could already imagine how great they would be!

Whoosh~

Expanding the range of his divine sense, Xuan Hao soon managed to find the people Yi Min had referred to and the smile at his face slowly began to fade away.

The scene that appeared in front of him was enough to make him reconsider whether or not he should just take the elders from his sect and his disciple and run away from the Iron Sky Kingdom…

How in the world… Why are there so many Domain Lords!? Yi Min… Just how many enemies do you have!?

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Chapter 426 - General Guan

L1tLagoon witnessed the first publication of this chapter on Ñøvl--B1n.

The number of Domain Lords that had gathered outside the Iron Sky Kingdom's capital was not the two he had chanced upon during his short exploration of the underground base but was instead three completely unfamiliar Domain Lords that he had never seen before!

Not only that, but the two Domain Lords that he very well knew were part of the conspiracy against Yi Min was nowhere to be seen! If they also showed up, Yi Min and himself would have to deal with five Domain Lords all by themselves!

Maybe I should just escape…?

With such a thought crossing his mind upon seeing the three Domain Lords outside, Xuan Hao honestly had no plan to stay around and fight if it ended up endangering his life…

After all, at the end of the day, he did not really have any form of connection with Yi Min outside of the fact that he had talked with her for a short moment. At most they could be considered acquaintances.

Even if he had to abandon the side quest, it would be better than getting ganged up on by a group of Domain Lords and lose his life!

"Yi Min… Do you have any way to deal with these people...?" Feeling a bit nervous as he was faced with the probability of facing five Domain Lords at once, Xuan Hao could not help contacting Yi Min through his divine sense. Hoping to find out if she had any way to deal with them…

"Hmph! These three are far from enough to pose any threat to me! Even without any help from the formation, I would still be able to deal with these three people!" Hearing the disdainful voice from Yi Min, Xuan Hao could clearly tell that she did not put the three Domain Lords in her eyes at all!

Indeed, worthy of being someone at the Peak of the Domain Lord Realm!

Feeling a bit more reassured upon hearing what Yi Min said, Xuan Hao quickly left the alchemy competition to follow after Yi Min who had already made her way over to face the three Domain Lords.

During this time, Xuan Hao also managed to observe the strength of the three Domain Lords standing just a few hundred meters outside the capital city.

Among them, two were around the middle stages of the Domain Lord Realm where he himself was currently at, while the last person should have reached the later stages of the Domain Lord Realm.

Knowing this, Xuan Hao breathed a sigh of relief.

With his current strength, he should be able to face off against someone in the later stages of the Domain Lord Realm without a problem. The only ones who truly posed a threat to him would be someone at the Peak of the Domain Lord Realm or above!

At the very least, the only person he knew for certain that should have reached this realm among Yi Min's enemies, was the Domain Lord who had come to help the underground base that he visited a week ago.

But at this moment, both the Domain Lords that he had met in the underground base were missing…

Thinking about what those two might be up to, Xuan Hao could not help but start growing a bit nervous. No matter what it was, he was certain that it would not be anything good!

…

"General Guan… For what reason have the general come to my kingdom?"

Arriving at the city wall, Xuan Hao curiously looked over as he heard this. From the looks of it, the person in the lead outside the city walls was a general and given the generals strength, he was likely a general from the Sky Empire!

Thinking about this, Xuan Hao felt a massive headache was about to show up. Even if he was not the smartest person around, Xuan Hao could still easily see that something troublesome was going on in the Sky Empire and even worse, he was about to be dragged into whatever that mess was about!

"Hehe, Yi Min, I just came here because a demonic cultivator escaped and hid inside your Iron Sky Kingdom! We managed to track the person down to this place and from the looks of it, that person has hidden inside of your capita-"

"So, you want to come in and search for this 'demonic cultivator'? How come I never heard anything about this?"

Interrupting the general from the Sky Empire as she heard what he said, Xuan Hao could clearly feel the pressure excluded from Yi Min increase as she said this.

"Of course, you never heard about it, it happened just recently, and that guy is really good at hiding! We have been chasing him for close to a week now and you can ask around if you don't trust what I'm saying…"

Showing a villainous smile as he said this with a confident tone, the leader of the three Domain Lords remained standing mid-air outside the walls of the city.

From the looks of it, he still knew that he should not enter the capital of the Iron Sky Kingdom recklessly. After all, the capital of the Iron Sky Kingdom was the core of Yi Min's territory! No one could say for certain just how many traps and other things were present inside the capital to deal with intruders…

"We will see…" Narrowing her eyes upon seeing how confidant the general was, Yi Min took out a transmission talisman before she began contacting someone. Likely to find out if what General Guan had said was true or just a lie he had made up to enter the capital.

After all, at the end of the day, he was still a general from the Sky Empire!

If he was really chasing after some demonic cultivator who had even managed to escape her sense and dodge her formation to hide away inside the capital, Yi Min would have to let him inside.

"Try and see if you can find the demonic cultivator! I will owe you in the future if you can help me out this time around!"

Just as Xuan Hao was prepared to watch Yi Min and General Guan begin another battle of words, Yi Min's voice entered his head as he looked over towards her in surprise.

There was really a demonic cultivator hidden inside the capital of the Iron Sky Kingdom! If not, there was no way Yi Min would ask him this…

Not leaving to search for the demonic cultivator immediately just because Yi Min had told him to, Xuan Hao began thinking about what he should do.

On one hand, he could help out Yi Min and find the demonic cultivator hiding inside of the capital. However, this would inevitably anger whatever faction in the Sky Empire that General Guan belonged to!

On the other hand, he could also just ignore what Yi Min had said and just escape the Iron Sky Kingdom while there was still time. Not involving himself in whatever power struggle he had suddenly found himself in the middle of. The only downside to this, was that he would end up angering Yi Min and whatever faction she was a part of in the Sky Empire…

"Hah…" Sighing to himself as he thought about this, Xuan Hao could not help looking over towards the direction of the alchemy competition with some regret. If he had just prevented his disciple from joining the alchemy competition…

No, I can't think like that! Qing Yi should be able to do something like that and improve herself! Even now, she should be attempting to breakthrough and become an Expert Alchemist.

Shaking his head, a bit as he thought about this, Xuan Hao felt that it was not anyone's fault that he was in his current situation where he had to chose who he wanted to fight against in the future.

The faction General Guan was a part of that he had no idea about, or the faction Yi Min was a part of. No matter what he chose, he would end up becoming enemies with one of these two factions fighting for power inside the Sky Empire…

"I will try my best…" having come to a decision, Xuan Hao nodded his head towards Yi Min before leaving to search through the capital of the Iron Sky Kingdom for the demonic cultivator.

In the end, he chose to join Yi Min's side!

The reason was simple, Yi Min was by far the strongest person she had seen to date and other than that, Xuan Hao had already had a chance to talk with Yi Min before all of this and already had some idea about her personality.

At the very least, from what he had learned about her so far, Yi Min was a likable person and in his eyes, a far better choice to ally up with compared to General Guan that he had never really even had chance to talk with yet!

Other than that, he had no idea if General Guan would even be friendly in the first place! After all, he had already fought with two Domain Lords who were likely from the same faction as General Guan!

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Chapter 427 - Qing Yi Becomes An Expert Alchemist!

Leaving the city wall where Yi Min had begun pretending to talk with someone through her communication talisman, Xuan Hao began searching through the capital of the Iron Sky Kingdom in search of the demonic cultivator that had somehow managed to sneak inside the capital without being discovered by the formation.

Thinking about how that demonic cultivator had managed to avoid Yi Min's formation, Xuan Hao could not help recalling the weird tentacle egg monster he had encountered as he followed behind the thieve group.

The tentacle egg monster could avoid the formation!

Maybe it had something to do with the demonic cultivator that General Guan had claimed to be hiding inside of the capital?

With this in mind, Xuan Hao made his way towards the eastern part of the capital.

If he could find more of those weird tentacle egg shaped monsters in the eastern part of the capital, he might have a chance of track down the origin of the weird tentacle egg shaped monsters.

Given the fact that they were demonic in nature and the fact that they could avoid the formation, there was a high chance that they were related to the demonic cultivator that General Guan had mentioned!

This time around, he just had to remember to hide himself and not be discovered by the tentacle monster. After all, he did not want the other party to find out that someone might be searching for them…

When he had been standing at the city wall earlier, General Guan did not seem to have realized that he was also someone in the Domain Lord Realm. Having focused all his attention on Yi Min who had come over to confront him at that time.

Thinking a bit about it, it was likely that Yi Min had used the formation to hide the fact that he was a Domain Lord from General Guan…

How smart… This way, he will think that only Yi Min is a threat inside the capital…

Praising Yi Min in his mind, Xuan Hao soon arrived at the eastern part of the capital and before long, he dived down into the nearest abandoned mineshaft.

To start off with, he would search through the underground tunnels of the eastern part of the capital to look for any traces of the weird tentacle egg shaped monster!

The first time he had found one the tentacle monsters, it had after all been when he had been making his way through the underground tunnels below the surface of the capital. All he had to do now was find one of the tunnels that had been affected by the tentacle monster and transformed…

At the same time that Xuan Hao began searching for the demonic cultivator in the eastern part of the capital and Yi Min was confronting General Guan at the city wall in an attempt to buy more time for him to find said demonic cultivator, the rest of the capital seemed to continue like it did before.

In the first place, General Guan didn't cause any ruckus when he first arrived a few hundred meters from the city walls. Instead, he had just silently arrived and waited for Yi Min to rush over after she sensed him.

The only few guards present at the city wall to witness the confrontation between Yi Min and General Guan were shivering in fear as they didn't dare breath too loudly.

At the very least, the place that Yi Min and General Guan was located, was one of the more desolate parts of the city wall away from the gates into the capital.

As for whether or not General Guan had chosen to appear at this location so as to not spread the matter of his appearances too quickly. No one could tell for certain…

…

At the same time, back in the alchemy competition, things proceed smoothly without anyone knowing about the fact that one of the Sky Empire's generals had arrived to confront the ruler of the Iron Sky Kingdom.

"Finished!"

Finishing her potion after a close to two-hour brewing process, Qing Yi felt strength leave her body as she plopped down on a nearby chair with an exhausted look on her face. The initial posting of this chapter occurred via noovelllbbin

"Hah… I really succeed!" Sitting down on the chair, a smile crossed her exhausted face as Qing Yi realized that she had succeeded in making her first ever Spirit Grade Potion!

Following her sitting down, Qing Yi felt a weak wave of energy enter her body before she suddenly felt a cold sensation in her dantian followed by a clear increase in her vision and thought process.

Feeling the cold wave of energy along with her improvements, Qing Yi knew that she could officially be considered to have stepped into the realm of an Expert Alchemist!

Not only that, but Qing Yi also felt her cultivation realm increase. Going from the Seventh Stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm to the Eight Stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm!

Her breakthrough was smooth and there seemed to be no obstacles whatsoever in the process.

Wait… What about the impurities that gets-

Realizing something, Qing Yi slowly looked down towards her hand and saw a weird black substance slowly on its way out of her body.

Whoosh!

Not daring to stay around as she barely managed to stop her impurities from leaving her body and destroying the clothes she was currently wearing, Qing Yi rushed up to the nearest elder.

"E-elder, can I leave for a short moment?!"

"Hm? Oh… Sure, just remember to be back before the time is up in half an hour, or you will be disqualified! There is a bath just to the left over there."

The elder who saw Qing Yi quickly realized what was happening? to her and didn't mind at all as she smiled kindly before showing her towards the nearest exit and at the same time also giving her directions to the nearest bath so Qing Yi would be able to quickly clean herself up.

"Thank you!"

Whoosh!

Giving a quick bow in thanks to the elder, Qing Yi soon rushed out of the competition space. Half an hour would be more than enough time for her to clean up and return before the Artisan Alchemist began to go over the participants pills and her potion!

…

"Looks like that little girl managed to breakthrough to the Expert Realm successfully! Haha, to think even her cultivation managed to breakthrough as well, she can be considered quite lucky!"

Having observed the entire process of Qing Yi finishing her Spirit Grade Potion along with her rushing out of the competition space after an accidental breakthrough in her cultivation realm, Fang Shi could not help laughing to himself with a smile on his face as he was reminded about how he had reacted in the past upon becoming an Expert Alchemist.

Different from other breakthroughs when it came to alchemy, upon reaching the Expert Realm, one's soul would receive a boost in strength after each major breakthrough.

While the boost in strength from reaching the Expert Realm was almost negligible to someone in the Nascent Soul Realm, the same could not be said for someone in the Foundation Establishment Realm.

The boost in strength of the soul would not only increase one's future prospects, but at the same time would also help one have an easier time overcoming bottlenecks.

For example, Qing Yi had already reached the Peak of the Seventh Stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm and only needed an opportunity to breakthrough and reach the eighth stage.

The boost in strength to her soul provided her this small opportunity and she had directly crossed over into the Eighth Stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm!

Fang Shi already knew about this, so he was not really too surprised when he had seen Qing Yi breakthrough her cultivation realm and only smiled with understanding as he watched how she had rushed out of the competition space.

"Hah… When will I reach the Master Realm…?"

Having seen Qing Yi breakthrough to the Expert Realm, Fang Shi was suddenly reminded about the fact that he was also close to a breakthrough himself. The difference was just that the difficulty in breaking through from the Artisan Realm to the Master Realm was not something easy.

At this point in time, Fang Shi had already been stuck at the peak of the Artisan Realm for close to two hundred years!

But at the same time, Fang Shi also knew just how big of an opportunity it would be for him to breakthrough to the Master Realm!

The boost in strength his soul would receive at that point in time would be more than enough to push his cultivation realm even further and might even allow him to directly reach the Domain Lord Realm!

Thinking about this, Fang Shi could not help sighing to himself even more. After all, he had never been too focused on improving his cultivation realm over the years and had single mindedly been focused on improving his alchemy...

If he ever wanted to improve his cultivation realm, he could only do so by breaking through to the Master Realm!

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Chapter 428 - End Of The Second Stage

Shaking his head as he thought about the Master Realm, Fang Shi knew very well just how hard it would be for him to breakthrough.

In the first place, the main reason why he had wanted to take on a disciple this time around, was because he hoped that he would be able to further increase his fundamental understanding of alchemy by teaching someone.

At the very least, that was what he had been told by one of the Sky Empire's Master Alchemists the last time he had gone to ask for help regarding overcoming his bottleneck and breaking through to the Master Realm…

"Hah, why do I still feel like I'm still so far away from the Master Realm? Just what is it that I'm missing?"

Remembering his conversation back then with a certain Master Alchemist from the Sky Empire, Fang Shi could not help but let out a quiet sigh as he soon redirected his attention towards the participants busy finishing up their pills.

Other than Qing Yi, Fang Shi also kept an eye on three other participants who all surpassed the other participants in both skill and alchemy realm...

Looking over those three participants, Fang Shi could not help but smile wryly as he noticed a certain young man smiling confidently as he looked over towards his disciple Cai Yu standing a few feet away from him.

The young man in question, was the crown prince of the Dark Sky Kingdom that had been chasing after his disciple for the last few years!

To be honest, Fang Shi felt truly impressed by this crown prince and even wanted to take him in as a disciple. The main reason for this was the fact that the crown prince of the Dark Sky Kingdom had only started practicing alchemy three years ago after rumours about him accepting in the near future began circulating inside the Sky Empire…

In under three years, the crown prince of the Dark Sky Kingdom had directly gone from someone who had never come into contact with alchemy before, to becoming an Expert Alchemist!

This talent in alchemy alone was more than enough to make Fang Shi want to take him in as a disciple and he had even approached him a few months before the alchemy competition. Expressing his wishes to enter his tutelage… The only thing preventing him from doing so was Cai Yu's clear dislike towards this crown prince.

While he didn't know the real reason why his disciple was so against this crown prince, Fang Shi decided to priories the wishes of his first disciple and didn't accept the crown prince as a disciple at that time.

In the end, the crown prince of the Dark Sky Kingdom had ended up following them all the way to the Iron Sky Kingdom and even joined the alchemy competition…

Glancing over towards the pills that were placed in front of the crown prince, Fang Shi could not help shaking his head with a wry smile on his face.

This crown prince clearly came all the way here to show off how much better than the other participants he was and get accepted as his disciple!

If the crown prince won, Cai Yu would not be able to say anything if he picked the crown prince as his disciple!

He was scheming so much just to get accepted as his disciple and get closer to Cai Yu…

Thinking about this, Fang Shi could not help but marvel over just how shrewd this crown prince! No wonder his disciple was so cautious of him…

Turning around to look over towards Cai Yu, Fang Shi clearly saw how a small frown had appeared on her face as she looked over towards the pills in front of the crown prince.

"Ah, looks like the time is up…"

…

Arriving back in front of her small alchemy station where her potion along with other things were located, Qing Yi could not help but breath out a sigh of relief upon discovering that she had managed to make it back in time before the end of the second stage of the competition.

The time it had taken for her to clean up and not smell like something that had been dragged manure pit was longer than she had expected. The main reason for this was because the smell from the impurities had become way harder to remove, due to the fact that she had forcefully prevented them from leaving her body right after her breakthrough.

"Time is up! Everyone that didn't manage to finish a potion or pill in time, leave. The rest, come up with your pills… Or potion, like last time and I will inspect them. The top twenty will move on to the third stage of the competition."

Hearing the voice of the Artisan Alchemist just as she finished looking over her potion, Qing Yi quickly grabbed her potion before making her way up towards the platform located in the middle of the competition space.

Like last time, she found herself standing shoulder to shoulder with the same young girl that she had stood with during the first stage of the competition.

Looking down towards the pills that the young girl had made, the young girl did the same as she looked down towards her potion.

Seeing that the Artisan Alchemist was not coming over to inspect their products yet as he was waiting for the participants who failed to make a pill or potion in time to leave the competition space, the young girl inched a bit closer to Qing Yi.

"What kind of potion did you make?"

Asking this in a quiet tone so as to not catch too much attention from the other participants, the young girl curiously looked up towards Qing Yi who was a little taler than her.

Trying her best to remember what the use of the potion was, all Qing Yi could remember was the fact that her master said that one should drink it to gain some sort of beneficial effect… Or maybe it was something different?

"I'm not too sure… I just learned about it from my master a few days ago… To be honest, I never got to ask him what it does. The only thing I know is that it's supposed to have some sort of beneficial effect when you drink it…" NvεlB¡n: Unleashing Imagination, One Read at a Time.

Tilting her head, a bit as she thought seriously about the question that the young girl had asked her before answering her, Qing Yi quickly realized that she had no idea what the potion she had just made did.

She actually had no idea what the first ever Spirit Grade Potion she made did!

But it should at the very least be something beneficial. After all, all the Spiritual Herbs she had used were normally only used in potions or pills that brought about some sort of beneficial effect. From a short increase in strength, to increasing the recovery of one's qi during battle…

The Verdant Jade Bamboo was also well known for its positive effects in alchemy, being a core ingredient in several different healing pills and potions!

The first time she had seen the Verdant Jade Bamboo being used by one of the elders of the Alchemy Hall, was also when the elder was in the process of making a Spirit Grade Qi Recovery Potion!

With this in mind, Qing Yi felt certain that the Spirit Grade Potion that she had made, would have some sort of beneficial effect. After all, she had never heard about the Verdant Jade Bamboo being used in any sort of harmful potions or pills before!

"I see… I decided to make a Spirit Grade Qi Recovery Pill!" Nodding her head in understanding at what Qing Yi said, the young girl also decided to show off what she had made to Qing Yi.

"Spirit Grade Qi Recovery Pills!?"

"Yes!"

It was only at this moment that Qing Yi realized that the young girl beside her was already an Expert Alchemist!

Even more surprising, was the fact that the young girl was clearly way younger than her! At least two years her junior!

Thinking about this, Qing Yi could not help but take a deep breath as she suddenly came to realize just how talented the young girl beside her truly was.

Reaching the Expert Alchemist Realm at the age of 14 or 13 was no joking matter! Even Qing Yi felt slightly inferior when she compared herself to the young girl standing beside her.

Forgetting the fact that she had gone from someone who knew nothing about alchemy about alchemy less than a year ago.

In under a year, she had gone from someone who knew nothing about alchemy to someone at the Expert Alchemy Realm! Even if the young girl beside her was talented, she was way more talented than her!

"Ah, the inspection is starting!"

Being brought out of her thoughts by the voice of the young girl, Qing Yi quickly realized that the Artisan Alchemist had begun moving down towards one the participants.

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Chapter 429 - Skin Strengthening Potion...?

The inspection was not much different from the first stage of the alchemy competition, as Fang Shi was similarly making his way around inspecting the participants pills one by one. The only difference from the last time, was that he did not say whether anyone moved on to the next stage or failed, while inspecting the participants pills.

Even then, Fang Shi did not forget to tell each of the participants how they could have improved their pills. Making sure that each of them knew that they could do better and how they could improve when they made the same pill again in the future.

This way, all the participants felt that they had a chance to move on to the next stage of the competition, as everyone had at least a few mistakes pointed out by Fang Shi when he went over the pills that they had made.

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

"Hm?"

Finishing his inspection of a Spirit Grade Qi Recovery Pill from a young girl, Fang Shi could not help but raise his eyebrows upon realizing that Qing Yi was the next person he would go over.

To be honest, Fang Shi had felt a bit curious about just what kind of potion she had ended up making after witnessing her breaking through to the Expert Alchemist Realm earlier.

"This is…" Looking over the potion placed in front of Qing Yi, Fang Shi showed a slightly confused expression before picking up the potion bottle to examine it more closely and find out just what kind of potion she had ended up making.

Narrowing his eyes as he even opened the potion bottle to try and find out what kind of potion it was, Fang Shi soon shook his head as he put down the potion bottle.

The potion clearly used the Verdant Bamboo as the core and the two Earth Grade Spiritual Herbs to further strengthen the effect of the potion… But it's not similar to any potion I have ever read about before, I… I don't know what potion this is…?

Realizing this, Fang Shi could not help but feel shocked inside. After all, as an Artisan Alchemist, he had seen thousands upon thousands of different Spirit Grade Potions and Pills before!

"I-is something wrong with my potion…?"

"Ah… No, nothing is wrong, I was just lost in thought for a moment. Might I ask what this potion is called?"

Hearing Qing Yi suddenly call out to him as he had stood in front of her in deep thought for quite some time, Fang Shi quickly answered her with a kind smile before asking her about the name of her potion.

"Hm… If I'm not wrong, it should be called skin… Ehm… Sorry, I don't remember the full name of the potion…"

"Haha, no need to worry!"

Seeing Qing Yi's face begin to turn a bit red in embarrassment upon realizing that she couldn't remember the name of the potion she had just made, Fang Shi stopped her as he already had some idea as to what the use of the potion should be from what Qing Yi had said.

She had mentioned it was called something related to skin. Given the fact that the Verdant Jade Bamboo was well known for being used in many skin strengthening potions, Fang Shi felt like the potion Qing Yi had made would most likely be a skin strengthening potion.

Fang Shi knew just how many skin strengthening potions were out there, so he no longer felt that it was too weird that he had no idea about the potion Qing Yi had made.

After all, just from the spiritual herbs available together with the Verdant Jade Bamboo alone, Fang Shi knew over a dozen different skin strengthening potions…

These skin strengthening potions all had pretty much the same effect. Not one stronger or weaker than the other. The only difference being the ingredients used in making them.

"Would you mind if I test out your potion?"

Thinking that Qing Yi had made a skin strengthening potion, Fang Shi decided to ask her whether he could try out her potion or not. After all, if her skin strengthening potion was stronger than a normal skin strengthening potion that used the same spiritual herbs, he would have to make sure he got his hands on the recipe after the alchemy competition!

No matter the price, Fang Shi was sure he could pay the spirit stones that Qing Yi's alchemy teacher wanted for such a recipe. After all, at the end of the day, he was an Artisan Alchemist! If there was one thing, he had a lot of, it was spirit stones…

…

Not knowing why Fang Shi suddenly wanted to test out her potion, Qing Yi began feeling a bit nervous as she thought that there might be something wrong with her potion.

Maybe the reason why he looked over my potion for such a long time was because there was something wrong with it?! Or else, why would he want to test out my potion all of a sudden…?

"S-sure…"

"Thanks, I will test it out after going over the rest of the participants."

Feeling her body stiffen up as she barely managed to squeeze out a single word, Qing Yi nervously looked on as Fang Shi smiled at her before taking her potion and began walking over towards the person standing beside her.

"Did you do something to your potion? Why did it get taken away?"

"I-I don't know…"

Hearing the voice of the young girl standing beside her call out filled with curiosity the moment Fang Shi had moved away, Qing Yi could only shake her head as she also had no idea why Fang Shi wanted to take her potion away after inspecting it.

"Hm… Maybe your potion is the best among all of us and he wants to show it off or something? I remember the alchemy elders back in my sect used to do that during our competitions from time to time, to encourage the rest of us to improve!"

"Maybe…"

Not feeling the least bit confident in what the young girl said, Qing Yi could only nervously follow Fang Shi with her eyes as she waited for the inspection of the rest of the participants pills to finish…

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Chapter 430 - Skin Strengthening Potion's... Side Effects...

"That should be the last of them…"

Putting down the pill he had been looking over with a slightly disappointed expression on his face, Fang Shi made his way back onto the platform before coming to a stop in front of the large cauldron he had placed down at the start of the alchemy competition.

"I should test out that girl's potion and see how effective it is." Muttering this quietly to himself as he looked over Qing Yi's potion that he had been carrying around, Fang Shi could not help feeling himself grow excited.

After all, there was nothing more exciting to an alchemist than discovering a brand-new pill or potion!

Smiling a bit to himself as he lifted the potion bottle up to his mouth as he drank it.

Scared of any side effects or other things that might happen if the potion was not made correctly?

Fang Shi didn't fear any of those things! Qing Yi had broken through to the Expert Alchemist Realm, so Fang Shi was certain that she had successfully made the Spirit Grade Potion.

If the Spirit Grade Potion had really failed, Qing Yi would not have been able to breakthrough and become an Expert Alchemist!

"Master!?" Letting out a surprised gasp upon witnessing her master drink the potion from one of the participants all of a sudden, Cai Yu looked over towards her master with a bewildered look on her face.

Why had her master drunk one of the participants potions by himself? If he really wanted to test out its effects, he could have just gotten one of the elders from the Iron Sky Kingdom watching over the competition to try it out! Why would he drink it himself!?

Feeling confused upon witnessing her master's reckless behaviour, Cai Yu soon found herself taking a few steps back.

The potion began to take effect!

"Pft-"

Witnessing first-hand as the potion took effect, Cai Yu tried her best to hold back her laughter as she watched how her master 'changed'.

"Wha-"

"Pft- What is that!?"

"Hehe, what an evil potion… I should ask if I can get the recipe after the competition."

The rest of the participants watching from the side did the same, as all of them tried their best to stop themselves from laughing out loud at Fang Shi.

After all, it had to be remembered that he was the sole judge of the alchemy competition and at the same time an Artisan Alchemist! They could not just laugh at him!

"Haha! Look at that! The Artisan Alchemist, he-"

"Hahahaha, I'm so happy I decided to come to the alchemy competition!"

"Indeed, where else would we be able to see an Artisan Alchemist like that!"

The spectators on the other hand were not limited like the participants still waiting to know if they moved on to the third stage of the alchemy competition, as laughter erupted all across the large crowd of people gathered in the spectator stands.

"Hm? Is something wrong?"

Not having any clue as to why everyone suddenly laughed at him, Fang Shi first felt confused before realizing that there was something wrong with the potion, he had just drunk.

Now the question just became, what in the world did the potion do that caused everyone to start laughing at him?

Thinking about this, Fang Shi quickly checked his current condition through his divine sense.

Hm… My defensive capability has increased by so much! This is far better than an ordinary skin strengthening potion made using the Verdant Jade Bamboo! Now why is it that everyone is laughing at me? Perhaps the large increase in strength comes with some sort of temporary physical deformity or alteration?

Not the least bit bothered by the people laughing at him due to the likely alteration that had occurred to his appearance, Fang Shi calmly went over the effects that the potion had on him. After all, he was an Artisan Alchemist. How could he be bothered by something like a small alteration to his appearance?

"This is!?"

At least that was what Fang Shi believed until he began inspecting his current appearance with his divine sense.

The current Fang Shi no longer looked the same as he did before he drank Qing Yi's 'Skin Strengthening' Potion. Instead, the current Fang Shi was covered in a thin layer of white fur that had grown out all over his body.

This, however, was not what had caused Fang Shi to suddenly freeze up.

"W-why do I have rabbit ears?!"

Not knowing what to say as he saw the large pair of rabbit ears on top of his head, Fang Shi carefully touched them and felt like they were a part of his body, it was almost like he had gained another pair of ears…

The potion strengthens one's defence, but it transformed one into some sort of humanoid rabbit?

Having reached this conclusion as to the effect of the potion he had just drunk without thinking about the consequences, Fang Shi suddenly thought about something…

How long would the potion last? NvεlB¡n: Unleashing Imagination, One Read at a Time.

Even if Fang Shi did not normally care much about his appearance, there was no way he wanted to proceed with the competition in his current condition.

Not to mention his own mental health, there was no way any of the participants would take anything he said seriously given how he looked, they would most likely just be trying their best to stop themselves from laughing…

Thinking this as he looked over the participants who were all trying their best to not burst out laughing upon seeing him look over, Fang Shi felt embarrassed for the first time in a long time.

"You will get some time to rest while I go over everyone's results during the second stage and pick out twenty people to move onto the next stage of the competition!"

Whoosh!

With that quick announcement, Fang Shi quickly left the platform and disappeared from view. Likely to hide away until the potion lost effect…

…

"Do you think this will affect my results…?"

Asking this to the young girl standing beside her, Qing Yi could not help feeling that there was close to no chance that she would be moving onto the third stage of the competition.

"Who knows… At least it was a Spirit Grade Potion."

Not saying anything more, the young girl soon began laughing to herself as she recalled Fang Shi's appearance after drinking Qing Yi's Potion

Other than the white fur covering his body, Fang Shi had also gained a pair of cute whiskers…

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Chapter 431 - Searching For The Demonic Cultivator

At the same time that the second stage of the alchemy competition ended, Xuan Hao was searching through the close to endless tunnels beneath the surface of the Iron Sky Kingdom.

Even though he had limited himself to only search through the eastern part of the capital, it was still a far harder task than he had first expected it to be! The main reason for this being the fact that the tunnels went way deeper into the ground than he had first expected.

…

Sighing to himself as he reached yet another dead end without finding any clues as to the location of the demonic cultivator, Xuan Hao began to think that there might actually not be another tentacle monster around.

If that was really the case, it would be way harder for him to find the demonic cultivator hidden inside the capital.

"Nothing here as well-"

Rumble~

Just as Xuan Hao was about to turn around and leave to resume his search, a loud rumbling sound could be heard. Followed by the sound of a large quantity of rocks being moved around just a few meters beneath him.

Someone is digging a new tunnel?

This was the first thought that passed through his mind, but it was soon dismissed again.

From the time he had searched through the underground tunnels in the eastern part of the capital, Xuan Hao had come to understand that most of the mining activities were stopped. The few mining operations still active, were located close to the surface!

Not to mention the fact that yin qi grew denser and denser the further down one went. Making it? impossible for ordinary people to mine at such depths, Xuan Hao was currently he was a few thousand meters below the ground.

At such a depth, the yin qi was dense enough to even kill Qi Condensation Realm cultivators! Only someone at the Foundation Establishment Realm would be able to prevent the yin qi from invading their body and killing them!

A mining operation at such depth required a lot of cultivators and resources to carry out, there was no way he would have missed something like that with his divine sense. Even if it had been slightly restricted due to the dense yin qi in the air around him.

Demonic cultivator who cultivated yin qi would love such an environment, as it would allow them to progress twice as fast as normal with half the effort.

If someone was moving around at such a depth and it weren't any large-scale mining operation conducted by the Iron Sky Kingdom, it was highly likely demonic cultivators and it just so happened that he was looking for one!

Whoosh~

Thinking about this, Xuan Hao quickly made his way towards the source of the sound without alerting the other party. Even making sure to go back and make his way down through the tunnels instead of directly bursting through to the tunnel being dug out below him.

After all, the demonic cultivator he was chasing after should be quite strong. Given the fact that he had managed to escape from someone at the Domain Lord Realm, or at the very least pretended to do so if he was working together with General Guan…

At the very least, Xuan Hao expected that the demonic cultivator should have already reached the demonic cultivators equivalent of the Domain Lord Realm.

According to the demonic cultivation realms, that would mean he had reached the third and final transformation before fully transforming into a demon!

The thought of encountering someone like that, was more than enough to cause Xuan Hao to be extra careful as the origin of the digging sound from earlier finally came into view.

Rumble!

Crack-

Tentacle cocoons…?

Seeing five large tentacle cocoons similar to the one he had seen a week ago in the middle of a large underground cave all using their countless tentacles to dig deeper into the ground, Xuan Hao immediately hid himself as he decided to observe what the gathering of tentacle cocoons were up to before doing anything.

Thump~

Not a moment later, a young man with pale skin and blood red eyes appeared from a tunnel at the other side of the underground cave.

Roll~

A large tentacle cocoon similar to the other five in the process of digging with their tentacles rolled behind him before settling together with the other five tentacle cocoons where it soon joined in the digging process.

"Hm… That should be all of them, it's just a pity that I lost one of them. At least I was smart enough to hide a self-destruction formation inside of them in case something like that happened. Even if that little girl Yi Min tries to, she will only realize it when it's too late!"

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

Listening to the young man who had just appeared inside the cave together with a tentacle cocoon, Xuan Hao had a feeling that he was the demonic cultivator he was looking for.

Not only that, but the yin qi around him seemed to condense even further as the ground beneath his feet froze over with every step he took. This was not due to a domain or anything like that but was merely an after effect of the yin qi swirling around his body.

Just looking at it from a distance made Xuan Hao feel a shiver run down his spine. Of course, this was not because the ground froze over with every step that the pale looking young man took, but because of the power that was hidden within each step.

At this point, Xuan Hao had already managed to conclude that the pale looking young man currently looking over the tentacle cocoons as they dug deeper into the ground, was at least at the peak of the Third Demonic Transformation. Making him comparable to a Peak Domain Lord!

Even if Xuan Hao had managed to comprehend two domains and had fought against the winged tiger demon beast, Xuan Hao knew very well that there was no way he would be a match for the person in front of him.

Almost instinctively, he knew that he would die if he fought the pale looking young man in front of him!

Where this sudden fear came from, Xuan Hao had no idea, and he didn't want to try and test out his luck by fighting the demonic cultivator. After all, Yi Min had merely asked him to find out where the demonic cultivator was. Not kill or fight him!

Knowing this, Xuan Hao decided to make his way back towards Yi Min and inform her about the location of the demonic cultivator so she could deal with it.

As for what the tentacle cocoons were up to under the demonic cultivator's orders?

He did not plan to stay around and find out. Even without knowing what the demonic cultivator was up to, Xuan Hao was certain that it was nothing good…

Crack~

About to make his way out of the underground cave back towards Yi Min, Xuan Hao looked back towards the entrance of the tunnel he had come in through just behind him with a shocked look on his face.

There, in the tunnel he had entered the underground cave through, a giant oversized rat at the Second Stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm casually made its way over. Stepping on a few pieces of wood that had fallen off the large support beams that kept the long-abandoned tunnel standing.

The oversized rat in question was a rock eating rat, a common demon beast found deep underground in natural or manmade tunnels and caves.

The rock eating rat lived off eating rocks and had developed a special resistance to the dense yin qi found deep underground. Normally, miners or explorers would ignore these demon beasts, as they never attacked others before being attacked.

All in all, there was nothing special about the peaceful oversized rat that liked to eat rocks…

"Hm?"

Other than the fact that it had just managed to alert the demonic cultivator inside of cave…

What have I done to deserve this?

Smiling wryly to himself as he looked over towards the demonic cultivator cautiously looking over towards his direction, Xuan Hao turned around to look towards the still oblivious oversized rat making its way over from the entrance of the tunnel. Unaware at just how dangerous its current situation was.

Given his current precarious situation, Xuan Hao knew that it would not be long before the demonic cultivator came over to take a look. At that point, Xuan Hao would have no way to hide.

Whoosh!

So, before he would be discovered by the other party, Xuan Hao decisively used a movement technique to run away.

…

"Who!?"

The scene of an unfamiliar person suddenly appearing before running away instantly entered the eyes of the pale looking young man, as he realized that his hiding spot had been discovered.

Who is that? The Iron Sky Kingdom has more than one Domain Lord? No! I can't let this person escape and inform that little girl Yi Min!

Narrowing both of his eyes as an overwhelming killing intent leaked out from them, the pale looking young man didn't think too much about Xuan Hao's identity before chasing after Xuan Hao.

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Chapter 432 - Third Transformation Realm Demonic Cultivator

And… He is following me…

Feeling the terrifying demonic aura that suddenly erupted behind him before rushing over towards him, Xuan Hao could not help feeling depressed upon realizing that the other party had no idea to just let him get away.

Even worse, Xuan Hao realized that his speed was way slower compared to the demonic cultivator chasing after him.

The only advantage Xuan Hao had at the moment, was that he had managed to gain some distance between him and the demonic cultivator at the beginning. Other than that, with his current speed, he would not need more than a few seconds to reach the surface again.

Even if the demonic cultivator was faster than him, there was no way for him to catch up with him before he reached the surface. At that point, Yi Min would likely be able to sense what was happening through her formation…

Even if he was forced to fight with the demonic cultivator by himself, Xuan Hao was more than confident in being able to stay alive.

Feeling himself calm down as he got closer and closer to the surface, Xuan Hao sensed the aura of the demonic cultivator get closer and closer with each passing second.

I should really learn a proper movement technique in the future…

Having realized just how bad his current movement technique was compared to the demonic cultivator chasing after him, Xuan Hao planned to search for a suitable movement technique when he returned to the sect after everything was done in the Iron Sky Kingdom.

"Wha-?!"

Suddenly, several small runes etched into the ceiling of the tunnels in front of him appeared out of seemingly thin air. Even when he had gone through the tunnels earlier to reach the deeper parts of the tunnels, he had not sensed any of these small runes that now covered the ceiling of all the tunnels in front of him!

Boom!

Rumble~

"Haha! There is no way you thought it would be that easy to run away?" Ñøvl-B1n was the first platform to present this chapter.

Before Xuan Hao even managed to react, the voice of the demonic cultivator chasing him from behind echoed out as the small symbols all exploded at the same time. Instantly blocking his way up towards the surface.

Not daring to stay around and wait for the demonic cultivator to catch up to him, Xuan Hao scanned the still intact tunnels around him and soon realized that only the tunnels leading back underground were still left intact!

Whoosh!

Knowing he would not have a good outcome from just standing around and waiting for the demonic cultivator to catch up to him, Xuan Hao decisively entered a new tunnel leading back underground.

As for digging his way up to the surface by using his domain?

Xuan Hao had no plan to try it. After all, digging his way up to the surface would severely limit his speed and the demonic cultivator would be able to easily catch up with him… At that point, he would likely not even make it half the way up!

With this in mind, Xuan Hao did not waste any time using his divine sense to search the different tunnels that appeared along the tunnel going back down once again. Searching for any tunnel that might lead to an alternate part of the underground tunnel network, where he might be able to find a way back up to the surface without having to slow down.

"There!"

Descending deeper and deeper, Xuan Hao felt that he was about to reach the deepest part of the underground tunnel network below the capital of the Iron Sky Kingdom, when his divine sense suddenly managed to lock onto a small and narrow tunnel only half a meter wide and two meters tall.

However, this was not the important part of the narrow tunnel. The important part was that the small narrow tunnel continued onwards before ending up in a large underground cave!

Swish~

Not able to explore too much of the underground cave at the end of the narrow tunnel with his divine sense, Xuan Hao barely managed to dodge a thin red blade slash from the demonic cultivator that had already come close enough to attack him.

At this point, Xuan Hao did not bother exploring the underground cave up ahead any further with his divine sense as he directly entered the narrow tunnel and made his way towards the underground cave at the other side.

Rumble~

Not forgetting to destroy the tunnel as he passed through it to buy himself a few precious seconds of time as the demonic cultivator would have to dig his way through.

This method was not too useful earlier, as there were simply way too many other tunnels connected to the one, he was using to escape.

Things, however, was not the same this time around, as the demonic cultivator had no other tunnels that he could use to chase after him…

"Ah! Damnable-"

Bang!

Hearing the angry scream of the demonic cultivator behind him followed by the sound of the tunnel collapsing on top of him, Xuan Hao could not help smiling to himself as he travelled through the narrow tunnel.

Soon enough reaching the large underground cave on the other side.

"I hope this cave leads to the surface, or at the very least is connected to a tunnel leading that does so…" Muttering this to himself as he briefly stopped and surveyed the underground cave which only inhabitants were a few oversized rock eating rats happily eating the loose rocks scattered all across the cave floor, Xuan Hao soon began making his way through the underground cave.

Whoosh~

Flying through the underground cave, Xuan Hao didn't discover anything out of the ordinary. Not that he had any time to spare looking around the underground cave, there was after all still a demonic cultivator chasing after him…

Because of this, Xuan Hao didn't notice that something inside the cave was currently keeping an eye on him from the side, a pair of dark green eyes barely visible in the dark underground cave as they silently followed him as he made his way through the underground cave.

Boom!

"Haha! Do you think you can just run away from me that easily!?"

Just as the owner of the pair of dark green eyes was about to strike towards the unsuspecting Xuan Hao, a large explosion along with an evil laughter echoed throughout the entire underground cave. Instantly causing the owner of the pair of dark green eyes to shrink back into the darkness due to the shock of someone new suddenly appearing.

"He's faster than I expected…"

Frowning as he noticed the demonic cultivator had already managed to make his way to the cave, Xuan Hao felt a wave of worry wash over him.

This worry only further increased when he turned around to momentarily look at the demonic cultivator. Only to discover that the pale looking young man was long gone.

Instead, what could only be described as a demon remained, as the demonic cultivator had been completely covered in a layer of thick scales, razor sharp teeth, a pair of large bat-like wings on his back and pair of terrifying claws for hands.

Looking back at the former pale looking young man and seeing what he had transformed into, Xuan Hao understood why demonic cultivators were so terrifying. Not to mention the demonic cultivator behind him had reached the third and final transformation. One more step and he would reach the True Demon Realm and become a real demon!

The demonic cultivator in his current demonic state, was by far the strongest person that Xuan Hao had ever encountered!

Even Yi Min at the Peak of the Domain Lord Realm seemed to be weaker compared to the monster behind him!

Whoosh!

Increasing his speed by a tiny amount by expending more of his qi, Xuan Hao no longer paid any attention to the demonic cultivator behind him as he rushed through the underground cave that had to his advantage, slowly begun to move up towards the surface.

In his eyes, as long as he made it back up to the surface again, he should be able to get help from Yi Min to deal with the demonic cultivator.

Even in the worst-case scenario where General Guan was together with the demonic cultivator and helped him, Xuan Hao still felt that Yi Min would have some way to deal with it.

After all, the Iron Sky Kingdom's capital was literally her home!

The damage to the formation around the capital had not yet managed to truly damage its foundation and as a Renowned Master Blacksmith, Xuan Hao doubted that Yi Min didn't have some other trump cards laying around…

Not to mention the fact that she would undoubtedly have a large arsenal of powerful weapons and artifacts at her disposal when fighting!

In a fight, a Master Blacksmith like Yi Min would simply be able to slap someone to death with her wallet as her opponent would be overwhelmed with the sheer number of weapons and artifacts at her disposal!

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Chapter 433 - Beginning Of Chaos!

Flying through the underground cave, Xuan Hao soon noticed that the cave was getting smaller and smaller with every meter he travelled. Even worse, he was still far away from the surface and there had been no new tunnels appearing either. In the end, he might just have forced himself into a corner by escaping into the underground cave…

At least he had would have more time and have a higher chance of finding a way back to the surface by entering the underground cave… Far better than waiting for the demonic cultivator to catch up to him in the underground tunnel network located beneath the eastern part of the capital.

"So fast!?"

Feeling the demonic cultivator growing closer and closer with an even greater speed than before, Xuan Hao could not help growing a bit nervous about his future outcome. No matter what, he didn't want to end up in a fight with the demonic cultivator.

Even if he ended up winning, he would surely end up injured in the process and when he got back to the surface, he would still have to deal with whatever scheme that General Guan had planned to deal with Yi Min.

The plan to deal with someone like Yi Min in her own territory would surely be terrifying...

Shaking his head as he thought about this, Xuan Hao stopped himself from letting his thoughts wander towards what plans General Guan might have for dealing with Yi Min. Instead focusing on his current precarious situation.

"A gate?"

Looking up ahead, Xuan Hao felt a bit bewildered as he spotted a giant gate blocking his path forward appear up ahead and for some reason, the gate looked quite familiar. Not that he had any time to think about it as he still had a demonic cultivator chasing after him from behind…

Whoosh!

Directly gathering his power together with his sword domain into a small thin transparent sword, Xuan Hao did not even bother finding out how strong the giant gate blocking his way was before slashing down towards the large gate in the distance.

Along with the transparent sword descending, a terrifying arc of sword light was formed in the air along the travel path of the sword

Swish~

Within a short instant, the arc of sword light was fully formed as it flew towards the large gate, while the transparent sword in Xuan Hao's hand dispersed into the surrounding. Leaving behind no trace of its existence.

BOOM!

The arc of sword light formed by the transparent sword directly crashed into the large gate ahead, as it exploded into before transforming into a terrifying vortex of sword energy that quickly grinded its way through the large gate before dissipating upon having completely destroyed the large gate.

Whoosh~

Just in time for Xuan Hao's arrival as he easily passed through the now destroyed gate and made it to the other side.

The sword attack he had used just a moment ago, was something he had come up with himself after having studied the Untold Swords Mantra's sword moves. Especially the first one, Sword Shadow, regarding the vortex of sword energy…

[Side Quest 1/2: Explore the deeper part of the cave. (complete)]

[Reward: Unlock next part of the quest]

[Proceeding to issue second part of the quest…]

Feeling the sudden activity of the system inside his sea of consciousness after he passed through the destroyed gate, Xuan Hao felt a wave of confusion wash over him before he finally realized why the large gate, he had just destroyed just now looked so familiar to him…

"WHO!?"

Along with an all too familiar voice, a fear inspiring dark domain expanded over towards his direction from the other side of the now gone gate.

"You!? Why are you here again!?"

Realizing that it was Xuan Hao who had shown up again, the killing intent of the Domain Lord with the dark domain clearly increased to another level as he thought Xuan Hao had come to make trouble once again ruining the base that had just recently been repaired…

Whoosh!

Without even bothering to respond to the other party, Xuan Hao directly used his ice domain to counter his domain before rushing forward with renewed energy. NvεlB¡n: Unleashing Imagination, One Read at a Time.

Compared to the unfamiliar cave behind him, Xuan Hao had already been to the underground base before, and he already knew the way back to the surface from there!

All he had to do now was rush towards the exit he already knew about!

"How dare you just run away again! This time-"

Seeing Xuan Hao completely ignore him as he rushed towards the newly constructed main gate into the underground base, the Domain Lord in charge of defending the underground base did not even have time to complain before he suddenly sensed the terrifying demonic cultivator chasing after Xuan Hao from behind.

"…"

What in the world is happening today? Where did that great demonic cultivator suddenly come from…?

Realizing that the demon was chasing after Xuan Hao, the Domain Lord who was just about to rush after Xuan Hao decided to remain silent and not interfere. No matter what, he did not plan to involve himself in any more troublesome matter.

And… The demonic cultivator chasing after Xuan Hao was far stronger than him. Maybe even his senior brother was inferior…

Thinking along this line, the Domain Lord quickly retracted his domain so as to not offend the great demon passing through his little base by accident.

Whoosh!

Watching as both Xuan Hao and the demonic cultivator quickly disappeared from sight, the Domain Lord let out a sigh of relief before smiling wryly upon noticing the destruction that the two had brought upon the underground base.

Not only were both the gates destroyed, but all the buildings inside were destroyed by the shockwaves created by Xuan Hao's attack when he destroyed the second gate…

Can things even get worse…? Wait… Both gates are destroyed, then what about the seal-

"ROAR!"

Just as this thought crossed through his mind, a terrifying roar could be heard coming from the underground cave that Xuan Hao and the demonic cultivator had come out from…

…

[…Second part of the side quest has been issued!]

[Side Quest 2/2: Kill the demonic creature that has just broken free from its seal in the underground cave]

[Hint: The demonic creature is currently in a weakened state due to being sealed for a long period of time and is currently only comparable to a Half-Step Soul Ascension Realm Expert, it's recommended you deal with it before it recovers!]

[Reward: Drifting Cloud Steps]

"This is-!?"

At the same time that he was escaping, Xuan Hao quickly looked over the second part of the of side quest with a shocked expression on his face.

He had to kill a demonic creature that had the strength of a Half-Step Soul Ascension Realm Expert! Not only that, but that was the weakened strength of the demonic creature!

At this point in time, Xuan Hao no longer felt that the demonic cultivator chasing after him from behind was that scary. After all, the demonic creature was very likely to reach the Soul Ascension Realm when it recovered!

The only thing that confused him a bit was that he had not seen any terrifying demonic creature when he escaped through the underground cave just a moment ago…

"ROAR!"

Hearing the loud roar that suddenly came from behind, Xuan Hao and the demonic cultivator both turned to look back towards the direction of the underground base.

Only to see an elderly man escaping like his life depended on it with a giant demonic rat almost the size of the entire underground cave chasing him from behind with a fierce look on its face.

Rumble~

Each step of the giant demonic rat caused the underground cave to begin collapsing. The elderly man running away from the giant demonic rat was even more pitiful as he was constantly bombarded with wave after wave of giant rocks from the collapsing underground cave.

Even if he used his domain to stop the rocks from hitting him, it still ended up slowing down his speed as the giant demonic rat closed in on him.

"…"

Xuan Hao did not really have anything to say to this as the elderly man currently being chased by the giant demonic rat was the Domain Lord that had protected the underground base just a moment ago.

Making it to the tunnel he had first used to reach the underground cave where the secret base was located, Xuan Hao didn't wait for even a moment as he rushed into it and made his way up towards the surface. The demonic cultivator following closely behind him. Followed by the elderly Domain Lord escaping from the giant demonic rat.

Bang!

"Roar!"

Seeing the elderly man escape into the small tunnel only designed for a few humans to walk side by side through.. The giant demonic rat roared angrily as it crashed headfirst into the cave walls before angrily digging into the ground where the tunnel was located to chase after the elderly Domain Lord.

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Chapter 434 - Reaching The Surface!

"Finally, I'm at the surface again!"

Rushing out from the tunnel through the trapdoor leading up to the small house on the surface, Xuan Hao only let out a short exclamation of happiness before he rushed over towards the capital located just a few seconds from his current location.

"Hmph!"

The demonic cultivator following after him from behind frowned angrily upon realizing that they had reached the surface before he turned to leave in the opposite direction of the capital. No longer chasing after Xuan Hao. At this point, he already knew that his chance of dealing with Xuan Hao had been lost the moment he reached the surface and was able to get the help of Yi Min.

Other than that, there was also the giant demonic rat that was currently in the process of digging its way back up to the surface….

No matter what, the demonic cultivator had no plan to end up sandwiched between the angry giant demonic rat and Yi Min before being beaten to death to death! He was not that stupid…

"Maybe the demonic rat will be able to buy me enough time…"

Narrowing his eyes as he muttered this to himself, the demonic cultivator flashed an evil smile before he disappeared into one of the nearby mines. Leaving behind only the elderly Domain Lord that had been guarding the underground base at the small house.

"Elder? What are you doing here? Who was that coming out before you just now?"

Standing beside the trapdoor leading down towards the underground base with a surprised expression on his face, the Nascent Soul Realm Expert who was just about to sit down on the trapdoor to guard the entrance after getting a snack to enjoy asked the elderly Domain Lord with a surprised expression on his face.

The only thing that passed through his mind as he asked this, was the thought of that someone had infiltrated their base once again…

"We don't have time, get everyone to leave the area and relocate at-"

Rumble~

Just as the elderly Domain Lord was about to order the Nascent Soul Realm Expert to leave, a loud rumbling sound came from beneath as the elderly Domain Lord instantly grabbed the Nascent Soul Realm Expert before running away.

As for the Core Formation Guards standing around the small house? He simply had no time to help them…

Boom!

"Roar!"

Barely making it far enough to not be in the way of the giant demonic rat, the elderly Domain Lord did not dare stop as he continued escaping with the Nascent Soul Realm Expert in hand.

"Elder! W-what is-"

"Quiet! Or I will throw you to the giant rat!"

Not wanting to be the slightest bit distracted during the escape, the elderly Domain Lord directly threatened the scared Nascent Soul Expert.

"…"

Understanding that it was best he didn't say anything, the Nascent Soul Realm Expert directly shut his mouth as he could only stare back towards the giant demonic rat burst out from the ground behind them. Instantly killing all the Core Formation guards located around the small house before they even had a chance to react to what was happening.

"W-what is that…?"

"A giant rat?"

"It killed all those guards!"

At the same time that the giant demonic rat violently burst out from the ground beneath the small house and killed all the guards, the surrounding miners and guards patrolling around the area also noticed the giant demonic rat that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere and killed close to a dozen people in only a few seconds.

"Everyone! Get out of here before-"

A young man standing in the way of the giant demonic rat tried to wake up the other miners from their current dazed state and get them to escape before it was too late, but his warning did not manage to get across before he was directly stomped to death by the giant demonic rat.

"Eek! Run!"

The death of the young man instantly woke up the miners who had been staring at the giant demonic rat with a dazed expression, as everyone at the surface began running in all directions. Trying their best to get away from the giant demonic rat.

Soon enough, panic spread throughout the enormous mining sector located around the capital and before long, what was happening outside began to spread into the capital itself as fear of the unknown giant demonic rat gripped the citizen of the Iron Sky Kingdom.

…

At the same time that the miners were running all over the place and panicking due to the sudden appearance of the giant demonic rat, Xuan Hao soon arrived at the location where Yi Min and General Guan were still busy facing off with each other.

"Yi Min!"

"Hm? Did you find the demonic cultivator?"

Seeing Xuan Hao suddenly appear outside the capital as he came rushing over, Yi Min asked with a slightly excited expression on her face. After all, if the demonic cultivator was found, she would be able to deal with him herself and General Guan would have no reason to enter the capital!

"Who is-" General Guan had not expected for a new Domain Lord to suddenly show up on the side of Yi Min, as he called out in surprise.

"Guan!"

However, General Guan had barely managed to say one word before the elderly Domain Lord came flying with a Nascent Soul Realm Expert in hand and a fearful expression on his face.

Looks like they are indeed in the same boat…

Seeing how the elderly Domain Lord ran over to General Guan, Xuan Hao slightly narrowed his eyes.

"Xuan Hao, come over here quickly!"

"Hm?"

Just as Xuan Hao was thinking about what General Guan and the elderly Domain Lord were planning, Yi Min suddenly called out to him through her divine sense in a hurried tone.

Rumble~

Along with the loud sound of something large moving over in their direction, Xuan Hao instantly understood why Yi Min had called out to him, as he quickly flew over to her side.

Whoosh!

Not even a second after he had made it to her side, Xuan Hao watched as countless small runes lit up along the wall that surrounded the capital. Followed by which an enormous golden barrier manifested around the capital itself. Blocking it from the outside world.

RUMBLE!

Hearing the loud sounds coming from the distance getting closer and closer, General Guan soon saw the appearance of the giant demonic rat approaching from afar as it charged over towards them filled with killing intent.

"Wait… Why is that thing here!? Wasn't it sealed? And where on earth is your damnable senior brother?!" Looking towards the elderly Domain Lord as a panicked expression made its way onto his face, General Guan asked him with an increasingly fearful voice.

"I-I don't know, I already contacted my senior brother, but he seems to be in a dangerous situation at the moment and can't come… As for the seal…"

Shaking his head dispiritedly upon mentioning his senior brother, the elderly Domain Lord soon turned to angrily look towards Xuan Hao standing beside Yi Min on the other side of the barrier that had covered the entire capital city.

Seeing this, General Guan instantly understood that the Domain Lord on Yi Min's side seemed to have something to do with the fact that the giant demonic rat had broken free from its seal.

At the same time, General Guan also realized that Yi Min had already used the full strength of her formation to guard the entire capital.

"…"

It was also at this point in time that General Guan realized his current position.

On one side, a giant demonic rat was running over filled with killing intent, while at the other side had been blocked off by Yi Min's barrier…

He couldn't escape…?

Realizing that Yi Min was trying to force him and his two subordinates to fight against the giant demonic rat, General Guan felt depressed.

From the cold look she was currently giving him, General Guan also knew that there was no way he would be able to convince her to help out. After all, the elderly Domain Lord was one of her enemies and her enemy had just called out to him for help…

There was no way Yi Min would lend her assistance under such circumstances. Even if he was a general of the Sky Empire!

On the other hand, he would have to watch his back in case Yi Min would attempt to create an 'accident' for him during his fight… Ñøvl-B1n was the first platform to present this chapter.

"Ahhh!"

Feeling incredibly depressed over his current state of being forced to fight, General Guan angrily roared as he took the initiative to attack the giant demonic rat rushing over towards him.

The aura around him instantly changed and became stronger, as a giant halberd appeared in General Guan's hand before he swung it down towards the approaching giant demonic rat.

Bang!

Whoosh!

Followed by the halberd hitting the giant demonic rat that had charged over, a terrifying shockwave instantly swept through the surroundings as the few people that had yet to flee into the underground tunnels below the surface were blown to piece.

Even the barrier around the capital began gently shaking upon being hit by the terrifying shockwave!

Looks like General Guan is stronger than I first thought…

Looking at the scene of General Guan wielding his halberd to face the giant demonic rat from behind the barrier, Xuan Hao could not help but sigh to himself in wonder at the awesome display of strength.

Sadly for General Guan…

Roar!!

The giant demonic rat had the strength of a Half-Step Soul Ascension Realm cultivator…

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Chapter 435 - Start Of The Third Stage And General Guan's Fight...

The moment that the formation around the capital of the Iron Sky kingdom activated, everyone inside the capital instantly realized something was wrong. Even the ones who had yet to hear about the giant demonic rat from the miners close to the capital that managed to run inside before the formation began closing off the capital from the rest of the world realized that something big was happening close to the capital.

After all, there was no way the formation would have been activated and used to seal off the capital if there wasn't something dangerous happening nearby that might affect the capital. The initial posting of this chapter occurred via noovelllbbin

"What is that? Did someone perhaps attack the capital?"

At the same time that the giant barrier appeared to surround the capital, both the spectators and participants at the alchemy competition all looked up towards the barrier that had suddenly appeared all of a sudden with both nervous and curious expressions showing.

"Hm? Did those people perhaps decide to attack now?"

Having just come back after the effect of Qing Yi's potion disappeared, Fang Shi looked up towards the barrier. Not the least bit of worry showing on his face as he saw the large barrier above. Clearly showing how confident he was in Yi Min and her ability to resolve the trouble that she found herself in.

"For them to attack now… It looks like Yi Min will have quite an easy time dealing with those people. Especially if she has the help of the Domain Lord from the Flying Sword Sect…" Smiling to himself as he muttered this, Fang Shi decided to proceed with the alchemy competition without worrying about what was happening outside.

If Yi Min truly encountered some sort of dangerous situation that she couldn't deal with, Fang Shi was sure that she would contact him. After all, he still had a few things he could help out with as an Artisan Alchemist. Even keeping himself safe in the face of a normal Domain Lord was not too hard for him…

"Ahm! There is nothing to worry about. Don't forget who is in charge of this place! We will now proceed with the third stage of the alchemy competition. The people moving on to the third stage, is-"

Turning to look over the fearful participants, Fang Shi quickly got their attention before calming them down and beginning to name the participants who had moved onto the third stage of the alchemy competition.

Hearing Fang Shi's reassuring words, the participants quickly calmed down and listened to him announce the names of the participants who managed to move on to the third stage of the alchemy competition.

The main reason why they managed to calm down so quickly with just a few words from Fang Shi, was the fact that the Iron Sky Kingdom was quite well known for the strength of their ruler, Yi Min, who was widely known to be among the 10 strongest people below the Soul Ascension Realm in the entire Sky Empire!

With someone like that around, who would be able to attack the Iron Sky Kingdom? Even if there was someone like that, they would at the very least have to be in the Soul Ascension Realm and if a person at that realm attack, they would likely not even have enough time to react before the entire kingdom disappeared…

"-And lastly, Qing Yi, from the Flying Sword Sect!"

Listening to the names of the people moving onto the third stage of the alchemy competition, Qing Yi had felt that her chances were close to none after she had… 'transformed' Fang Shi, but in the end, she had still somehow managed to move onto the third stage of the alchemy competition!

Not only that, but the young girl next to her had also managed to move onto the next stage of the alchemy competition.

Even though she still had not gotten to ask the young girl's name yet, Qing Yi still managed to get along with her during the short period of time that they had interacted with each other.

Through their short interaction, Qing Yi also finally learned about the rewards for the alchemy competition!

Yes… Even at this point in time, Qing Yi did still not have any clue what the rewards for the alchemy competition was! All she knew about the rewards was told through the Alchemy Hall elders, who only told her how good the rewards for the alchemy competition were.

Finding out about the rewards of the alchemy competition was more than enough to make Qing Yi do her best as the sheer number of spiritual herbs that she could win from getting the first place would be more than enough for her to use over the next few years.

Even better, most of the spiritual herbs that she could win through the competition were suitable for someone in the Expert Alchemist Realm!

The rewards in the alchemy competition were tailored to help the participant have all the resources they needed available for them to improve. Not to mention quite a few recipes were included in the rewards that all used the spiritual herbs that were rewarded to the participants!

For example, just her making it to the top twenty would give her more than five unique recipes, twenty Spirit Grade Spiritual Herbs and fifty Earth Grade Spiritual Herbs!

Thinking about it, everyone except the people eliminated in the first stage of the alchemy competition would be rewarded with a lot of good things.

Because of this, the participants who failed to move on to the third stage of the alchemy competition were not as sad as the ones who failed during the first stage of the alchemy competition.

"Now let's get started! Among all of you, only one person will remain at the end of the third stage!"

Standing on top of the platform at the centre of the competition space, Fang Shi suddenly called out once again as everyone except the twenty who made it on to the third stage had left the competition area.

Not only that, but he also directly announced that the third stage would be the last part of the alchemy competition!

…

"Should we just continue watching…?"

At the same time that the third stage of the alchemy competition was beginning, Xuan Hao smiled wryly as he looked over towards Yi Min and asked this.

"Haha, of course! General Guan is so kind as to take care of the demonic rat outside for us! How could we interfere with his work?"

Chuckling a bit at Xuan Hao's question, a barely visible evil smile could be seen on Yi Min's face as she looked over towards the fight taking place just on the other side of the barrier.

Whoosh!

Just at this time, General Guan was hit by the tail of the giant demonic rat and was sent flying over towards them with a terrifying momentum-

Bang!

"Ah~"

Directly crashing into the barrier in front of them, General Guan let out a low groan filled with pain before glaring over towards Yi Min filled with anger. Rushing away from the barrier as he once again clashed with the giant demonic rat.

Xuan Hao might not have noticed anything happening when he crashed into the barrier, but General Guan knew very well that Yi Min had just barely changed the area of the barrier he hit to be filled with countless small spikes barely visible to the naked eye.

Earlier when he crashed into the barrier, General Guan had very clearly felt his body being pierced by these small spikes, as they rapidly drained away both his qi and vitality!

In just a short instant, he felt like he had lost close to five percent of his strength!

Yi Min's formation was simply way too powerful!

At this moment, General Guan first-hand experienced just how terrifying the formation surrounding the capital of the Iron Sky Kingdom was! He also understood why no one had dared to attack Yi Min over the years…

Attacking her when she had the formation backing her up, was simply impossible unless it was someone above the Domain Lord Realm!

Just a little more and we will have a chance…!

Thinking about something, General Guan narrowed his eyes as he looked over in the direction of Yi Min before launching yet another wave of attacks with his halberd down towards the giant demonic rat.

Roar!

Roaring angrily upon seeing yet another wave of attacks heading towards it, the demonic rat directly ignored the attacks as it charged over towards General Guan.

Ching~

Ching~

Bang!

Blocking all the attacks directly with its body as it soon appeared directly in front of General Guan before it opened its large mouth and bit down, wanting to swallow him whole!

"Ha?"

Not expecting for this to happen, General Guan looked shocked for a short moment before trying to dodge the large gaping maw of the demonic rat.

Chomp~

Sadly, he reacted way too late and, in the end, could not dodge in time…

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Chapter 436 - Help Arrives!

Chomp~

""…""

"G-general!"

Watching the giant demonic rat chomp down before directly swallowing General Guan whole, both Xuan Hao and Yi Min showed a surprised expression on their faces. Neither of them having expected for the giant demonic rat to do something like that!

"Is he gone like that…?" Not knowing how to feel about the current situation, Xuan Hao turned over towards Yi Min and asked her.

"No… That should not be enough to kill someone like him…" Thinking about Xuan Hao's question for a short moment, Yi Min soon answered him as she focused her attention onto the giant demonic rat that had just swallowed General Guan.

At the same time, the elderly Domain Lord who had run to General Guan for help froze in place.

His help had just been eaten whole! What was going to happen to him now?

Roar!

As if to answer the elderly Domain Lord's inner thoughts, the giant demonic rat directly dashed towards him. Intending to swallow up the elderly Domain Lord just like it had swallowed General Guan only a few seconds ago!

Whoosh!

"S-senior brother!"

However, just in the last moment before the demonic rat managed to reach the elderly Domain Lord, a handsome looking middle-aged man appeared in front of him and blocked the demonic rat.

Bang!

"Hmph!"

Frowning upon feeling the strength behind the demonic rat's attack, the middle-aged man was covered in a pitch-black miasma as his strength seemed to have reached a new level before he directly sent the demonic rat flying backwards.

Flying through the air for a few hundred meters before stopping itself. The demonic rat looked over towards the handsome middle-aged man that had just appeared before it began appraising him with a serious look on its face.

At least as serious, as a rat's face could be…

"What happened here? Where did General Guan go?" Glancing around, the handsome middle-aged man narrowed his eyes upon recognizing the two Domain Lords that were just standing at the side without doing anything.

Even when General Guan had been swallowed by the demonic rat, they had not done anything. Only looking on from the side, likely expecting for General Guan to deal with the demonic rat with a little time.

"T-the General… H-he…"

"Hm? Did something happen to General Guan?" Hearing one of the two Domain Lords following General Guan say this with a nervous expression on his face, the senior brother of the elderly Domain Lord frowned as he felt something was wrong.

"H-he was swallowed by the d-demonic rat…"

"…"

Hearing this, the middle-aged man turned to look at the demonic rat slowly preparing for another attack filled killing intent.

It had to be known that General Guan was a general of the Sky Empire! His position was extremely important for him, and his sect future plans! Not only that, but without him around, they would have no way to deal with Yi Min. Even if they ended up killing her, they would still end up being pursued by the Sky Empire afterwards!

After all, Yi Min's position in the Sky Empire was not something that could be ignored by them without having someone help cover up for them.

"Hm?"

Just as the senior brother of the elderly Domain Lord was about to escape, the demonic rat suddenly froze in its step as something began moving around violently inside of it.

ROAR!

Roaring in both pain and anger, the demonic rat's stomach suddenly burst open as General Guan made his way out of the demonic rat covered in blood and other internal organs of the demonic rat.

Roar!

Having its stomach suddenly split open as the person it had just eaten walked out, the demonic rat was beyond pissed as it swiped down towards General Guan who had just managed to make his way outside. Intending to directly kill him on the spot.

"Hah… Damnable rat!" Having exhausted a large portion of his strength to get out of the demonic rat's stomach, General Guan had no way to resist the attack of the demonic rat. Only able to curse at the demonic rat as its large claws got closer and closer.

"General Guan!"

Ching~

Barely arriving beside him in the neck of time, the senior brother of the elderly Domain Lord drew summoned forth a giant greatsword from his interspatial ring and blocked the claw swipe of the demonic rat before it could reach General Guan.

"Zi Hui…?

"Get him to safety, I will deal with this oversized rodent!" Ignoring the words of General Guan, Zi Hui screamed at the two completely useless Domain Lord's that had come along with General Guan to get him to safety, as he soon engaged in combat with the demonic rat.

""Y-yes!""

The two Domain Lords who had just stood at the side this entire time reacted quickly upon hearing what Zi Hui said, as both of them flew over and picked up General Guan before retreating to a safe distance.

Even though they were also Domain Lords themselves, they had quite a cowardly disposition, as neither of them joined in to help dealing with the demonic rat. Only the elderly Domain Lord ended up joining the fight by supporting Zi Hui from the side to alleviate some of the pressure that the demonic rat brought upon him.

Like this, a fight once again broke out. The only difference was that instead of General Guan fighting alone against the demonic rat, it was Zi Hui and his… Junior brother… Fighting against the demonic rat.

…

"Did you manage to find the demonic cultivator hiding inside the city?"

Observing how the people scheming against her were busy fighting outside, Yi Min turned her attention away from the bunch for a moment as she asked Xuan Hao.

"Ha? Ah! Yes, I found the demonic cultivator hiding at the deepest part of the tunnels below the eastern part of the capital! Although… I don't know if he is still there anymore. After he found me, he chased me all the way to the surface just outside the walls…"

Showing a slightly surprised expression the moment Yi Min asked him this, Xuan Hao quickly calmed down before he responded.

"I see… Was the demonic doing anything when you found him? Like a ritual or something along that line?"

"Hm… From what I remember, he seemed to have gather a bunch of weird cocoons with countless tentacles and was having them dig deeper into the ground for some reason-" Remembering what the demonic cultivator had been doing, Xuan directly explained it to Yi Min.

"Really!? He was trying to dig deeper!?" Only for Yi Min suddenly interrupt him as she asked with an incredibly serious expression on her face before appearing directly in front of him. NvεlB¡n: Unleashing Imagination, One Read at a Time.

"Y-yes? Is there a problem?"

Not knowing what was wrong with what the demonic cultivator was doing, Xuan Hao asked before unintentionally taking a few steps back due to Yi Min suddenly appearing so close to him.

"Do you know why the tunnel below don't go any deeper and all stop at a certain depth?"

"No?"

Shaking his head in response to what Yi Min said, Xuan Hao did indeed feel that it was a bit weird that all the tunnels seemed to have come to a stop without going any deeper. In his eyes, there should be better resources available the deeper one went, so even if it required someone a bit stronger to mine them out due to the increasingly dense yin qi, there should be no reason not to dig any deeper…

After all, the Iron Sky Kingdom did not really lack Core Formation Realm Experts and would have more than enough strong people capable of mining of precious spiritual metals in the more dangerous depths.

"The depth that the tunnels end at is at the limit before the yin qi underground undergoes a transformation and grows terrifyingly strong! Strong to the point that even I myself wouldn't dare to venture that deep underground with my current strength. At that depth, only demonic cultivators at the True Demon Realm would be able to travel around freely without worrying about the yin qi killing them!

For the demonic cultivator to be digging that deep… I fear that he might be trying to use the dense yin qi underground to breakthrough! If he fails, the dense yin qi will kill him… But… If he succeeds, he will reach the True Demon Realm!"

Explaining this to Xuan Hao, Yi Min's frown deepened even further as she said the last part.

The True Demon Realm! At that realm, a demonic cultivator would be able to fight equally with someone in the Soul Ascension Realm!

Just thinking about having to possibly deal with such a terrifying existence, Xuan Hao could not help but feel a shiver run down his spine.

No matter how much stronger he was compared to a normal Domain Lord also at the fourth stage of the Domain Lord Realm, Xuan Hao did not expect he would be able to fight someone at the Soul Ascension Realm.

Heck! He didn't even know if he could fight General Guan, who was still at the Domain Lord Realm!

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Chapter 437 - Third Stage Of The Alchemy Competition!

"We can't delay this; we have to deal with the demonic cultivator before he manages to breakthrough!"

Frowning even further after she had told Xuan Hao why she was worried about what the demonic cultivator was doing, Yi Min would definitely already have left in search of the demonic cultivator if there wasn't currently a fight happening just outside the barrier…

Glancing over in the direction of the fight currently taking place between the demonic rat, Zi Hui and the elderly Domain Lord, Yi Min knew very well that she couldn't just leave to find the demonic cultivator, as the people outside would likely take advantage of the fact that she was gone if she didn't manage to deal with the demonic cultivator before they had finished off the demonic rat.

"That's it! Can I ask for your help once again…? " Having thought about something, Yi Min turned around and looked over towards Xuan Hao who was still lost in thought thinking about what she had told him just a moment ago.

"Hm? Sure… What is it?" Seeing that Yi Min was once again asking for his help, Xuan Hao had a bad feeling. Not really sure what she wanted his help with…

Could it be that she wants me to deal with the demonic cultivator alone!?

"No need to look at me like that, I just wanted to ask you to keep an eye on these people while I go deal with the demonic cultivator and inform me whenever they finish up their little fight… Did you think I would ask you to take care of the demonic cultivator by yourself after just barely running away?"

Rolling her eyes upon seeing the expression on Xuan Hao's face, Yi Min already knew what he was thinking before Xuan Hao could even say anything.

"Ah… I'm more than willing to keep an eye on these people…" Smiling wryly as he realized his thoughts had been seen through, Xuan Hao happily agreed to the simple job of looking after the people outside the barrier for her.

No matter what, Xuan Hao had already joined sides with Yi Min by helping her out, so there wasn't anything wrong with just keeping an eye on the fight happening outside while she dealt with the threat of the demonic cultivator.

Even if she did not manage to deal with the demonic cultivator in time, Xuan Hao was confident that the giant formation covering the capital would be able to resist against the people outside for some time in case they decided to try and destroy the formation while Yi Min was absent.

"Great, you can contact me through this in case anything happens!"

Whoosh!

Throwing a high-grade communication talisman over towards him, Yi Min quickly disappeared in the direction of the eastern part of the capital to deal with the demonic cultivator.

"…"

Left alone, Xuan Hao soon descended and found himself a good spot to stay, as he began watching the fight happening outside the formation.

At the very least, it was quite insightful for him to see someone at the Peak of the Domain Lord Realm give their all while fighting. After all, he had not really had too much experience when it came to fighting between Domain Lords.

Now, Zi Hui and the other Domain Lords outside the formation, provided a great opportunity for Xuan Hao to learn more about how Domain Lord's fought…

…

Having calmed down after Fang Shi's short speech to the participants, the alchemy competition proceeded without being interrupted by the fact that the formation protecting the capital had been activated.

"Looks like we were a bit too hasty earlier…"

"Yeah…. From the looks of it, the formation has not even been attacked once, it does indeed look like someone is just fighting nearby."

"The formation was likely activated to protect us in case some of the aftershocks from the battle reached the capital!"

The fact that the formation had not been attacked even once since it activated just caused the spectators and participants to grow more confident in what Fang Shi had said about someone powerful fighting nearby.

After all, if someone was really attacking the Iron Sky Kingdom, would they not first try to destroy the formation protecting the capital city?

Given that the formation had yet to be attacked after it had already been activated for such a long time. Many people in the Iron Sky Kingdom's capital concluded that it was just some powerful cultivators fighting nearby. L1tLagoon witnessed the first publication of this chapter on Ñøvl--B1n.

For the formation to be activated meant that the people fighting would at least have reached the Domain Lord Realm!

Even if their target was not the capital itself, the aftershocks from two experts at that level clashing with each other was more than enough to directly destroy anything within a few thousand meters… And that is not mentioning when both parties began using their domains to their full extend, as the area affected would increase exponentially!

At that point, it would not be weird if the entire Iron Sky Kingdom would be affected!

The fight between Domain Lords was simply terrifying for anyone not at that realm watching from the side.

In a sense, it could be considered quite lucky for Yi Min that the battle happened just outside the capital instead of somewhere else in the Iron Sky Kingdom.

The reason for this was that there were not many towns or smaller cities located close to the capital itself, as the land had mostly been covered in countless big and small mines over the years, that were easy to inside of in case someone started fighting on the surface…

"Now that everyone has calmed down a bit… Let's move on to the third stage!"

Narrowing his eyes as his gaze passed over the twenty people who had made it into the third stage of the alchemy competition, Fang Shi was way more serious than he had been before, as he already knew that one of the twenty people remaining would likely end up as his second disciple!

With this in mind, Fang Shi did not intend to take it easy and planned to make sure he chose the best among them to be his second disciple.

Even the crown prince that Cai Yu was not so happy about entered his eyes. However, the crown prince had not yet shown enough talent for Fang Shi to take him in and have to deal with the guaranteed anger of his first disciple…

"As many of you already know, as the finale of the alchemy competition, the third stage will of course be the hardest! Other than that, all of you have already reached the Expert Realm! Because of this, I have decided to allow all of you to take on the Alchemy Trial of the Sky Empire!"

Following what he said, all the participants except the crown prince from the Dark Sky Kingdom, had a confused expression on their faces.

From this alone, one could tell that none of them except the crown prince had any idea what the Alchemy Trial that Fang Shi mentioned was…

"The Alchemy Trial is a special trial that the Sky Empire requires one to go through to become an official alchemist of the Sky Empire. The minimum requirement for taking on the Alchemy Trial is for one to have become an Expert Alchemist!"

Finishing his explanation, all the participants, including Qing Yi, felt their curiosity towards this mysterious alchemy trial increase. The only person not showing a single change in his expression was the crown prince from the Dark Sky Kingdom, who remained completely focused on Cai Yu standing beside Fang Shi the entire time.

"Now all of you should be quite curious what the Alchemy Trial is..."

Before any of the participants could react, Fang Shi suddenly appeared beside the large cauldron located in the middle of the platform as he waved around both his hands, causing dozens of different symbols to manifest before sinking into the cauldron.

Whoosh~

As the dozen or so different symbol appeared to line up around the cauldron before sinking into it, Qing Yi and the other participants suddenly felt themselves lose control over their body, as they were directly sucked into the large cauldron before any of them could react.

Soon finding themselves inside a weird empty hall filled with a thin mist, the participants all looked around with both curiosity and fear at their new environment.

"Haha, all of you don't have to worry, you are currently inside the trial cauldron where the alchemy trial will take place. The trial is mostly automated and controlled by the artifact you are currently inside of and will begin shortly.

During the trial, you will be able to gain points depending on how well you do and of course, the person with the most points will be the winner of the alchemy competition!"

As the participants were all looking around their new environment, the voice of Fang Shi suddenly echoed out from somewhere above them.

However, before any of the participants could react to what Fang Shi had said, they suddenly felt themselves being pulled away from the empty hall before appearing somewhere new.

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Chapter 438 - Alchemy Trial

"What is this place!?"

Having suddenly found herself in a large empty hall before being transported somewhere different the next second, Qing Yi began inspecting her surroundings once again. Hoping that she would not suddenly end up being dragged somewhere different over the next few seconds…

A large mountain stretching far into the sky had appeared in front of her, a narrow path was visible in front of her leading up the tall mountain.

Looking away from the large mountain in front of her, Qing Yi realized that there was nothing else around her other than a thick mist that prevented her from seeing more than a few meters away from where she stood.

"Ah!?"

Touching the mist with her hand, Qing Yi let out a suppressed voice upon realizing that her hand had been forcefully stopped by the thick mist. Preventing her from moving her hand further inside the mist.

"…"

Looking away from the mist and back towards the large mountain, Qing Yi would be dumb if she didn't realize that she was supposed to climb her way up the mountain.

The only thing on her mind, was… How was climbing a mountain related to alchemy…?

Shaking her head as she thought about this, Qing Yi made her way to the base of the mountain where the narrow path started. Not too worried about the fact that the other participants had disappeared, as she had already expected something along that to happen.

They should also be faced with the same situation as me, I wonder if anyone has begun climbing up the mountain yet…

Smiling a bit as she thought about the other participants being faced with the same bewildering situation as herself, Qing Yi soon arrived at the base of the mountain before coming to a stop once again with a confused expression appearing on her face.

"What is that?"

In front of her, at the start of the narrow path of the mountain, was a small ancient looking stone tablet. Even weirder, it had her name engraved into it at the top along with some other information below it.

"Qing Yi… Flying Sword Sect… Expert Alchemist Trial… Specializes in potions… 0 Points…"

Muttering this to herself as she looked over the information on the small stone tablet, Qing Yi quickly understood that it was some basic information about herself, the trial, and the points she had obtained.

There was no real useful information to her about what the trial was about or why she had to climb a mountain for an alchemy trial.

Hah…"

Sighing to herself as she gazed up towards the peak of the mountain that was hidden by a layer of clouds, Qing Yi remember her master's mountain peak…

The road leading up towards her master's pavilion was just as narrow and hard to traverse as the one in front of her! Only when she had reached the Foundation Establishment Realm could she easily travel up and down before that, she had suffered quite a bit going up and down the mountain back then…

Even worse, when she stepped onto the path leading up the mountain, Qing Yi realized that her body became heavier, and it was harder for her to walk.

At this point, she had become even weaker than she was before entering the Flying Sword Sect! How on earth was she supposed to climb such a tall mountain like this?!

Is this really an alchemy trial? Why does it feel more like one of those pressure trials for cultivators!?

Cursing silently inside her head, Qing Yi began making her way up the mountain. No matter how weird the alchemy trial was, Qing Yi was determined to continue onwards and get a high ranking in the alchemy competition!

"W-what is this? Why is the pressure while climbing the mountain so much!?"

"M-my strength!? Is this not supposed to be an alchemy trial…?"

"I thought this trial was about alchemy… Perhaps the Artisan Alchemist made a mistake and sent us to a wrong trial…?

No better than her, the other participants were also filled with disbelief the moment they stepped onto the narrow mountain path.

However, one thing that stood out from this, was the fact that everyone seemed to experience a different degree of pressure. The stronger they were, the bigger the pressure and inversely the weaker they were, the less pressure they experienced while climbing up the mountain.

In the end, all of them had their strength reduced to the same level.

…

At the same time, outside the alchemy trial, the spectators were all watching what was happening inside the alchemy trial on a few large light projections that floated mid-air.

""…""

To say they were speechless upon seeing all the alchemist geniuses struggling to climb up the narrow mountain path was an understatement.

After all, they were all expecting for there to be some kind of alchemy related test inside…. Not climbing a mountain!

"Is this really an alchemy trial…?"

The doubts that the participants had when they first stepped onto the narrow mountain path soon appeared among the spectators as they really had no idea how climbing a mountain under some sort of pressure was related to alchemy…

"Look! There is a cave appearing in front of that young man!"

However, this doubt did not last for long as a loud yell soon woke up the crowd of spectators, as everyone focused their attention onto the handsome looking young man who had been the first to step onto the narrow mountain path.

Not only that, but the spectators clearly saw the several spiritual herbs and cauldron inside the cave in front of the young man! L1tLagoon witnessed the first publication of this chapter on Ñøvl--B1n.

"Looks like it's still an alchemy trial…"

Several elders among the spectators whose disciple was still in the alchemy competition breathed out a sigh of relief upon spotting the spiritual herbs and the cauldron inside the cave.

After all, the disciples they had chosen to participate in the alchemy competition were mostly skilled young geniuses in alchemy. Not cultivation!

…

"A cauldron? And spiritual herbs?"

A few minutes after the first person had arrived at the cave, Qing Yi also reached the cave tugged away beside the narrow path leading up the mountain.

Not only that, the small stone tablet she had seen at the bottom of the mountain was also there. Of The information on it was also the same with no changes and of course, her points were still a beautiful round zero…

Looking away from her point score on the stone tablet, Qing Yi discovered that the path further up the mountain had been blocked off by the same mist that prevented her from going in any other direction than the narrow mountain path back at the base of the mountain.

"I will have to do something to continue forward?"

Muttering this to herself before looking over towards the cauldron inside the cave, Qing Yi entered the cave before going over the things inside.

Around a dozen or so spiritual herbs with the strongest having reached the Earth Grade, a recipe for an Earth Grade Potion and a cauldron already filled with water infused with a tiny amount of spiritual qi. Barely allowing it to be qualified as the lowest level of spiritual water.

At this point, if she still had no idea what the trial wanted her to do, Qing Yi should probably just quit the alchemy trial before she ended up embarrassing herself…

"Five Windbloom Flowers, five Waterbloom Flowers and five Thunder Thistles…"

Going over the spiritual herbs, Qing Yi soon picked up the recipe.

"This…"

Looking over the recipe, a frown slowly appeared on her face.

The spiritual herbs available to her and the spiritual herbs required for the potion were completely different!

"I have to find out which of these spiritual herbs can be used a substitute for the ones in the recipe…?"

Picking up one of the Windbloom flowers, the frown on Qing Yi's face only deepened further as she realized just how difficult the first test of the alchemy trial was.

The difficulty in finding out what spiritual herb could be used as a replacement for one of the spiritual herbs used in the recipe was extremely difficult. Not to mention that the recipe only used three spiritual herbs and Qing Yi had never heard about any of them before.

Even worse, the names of the spiritual herbs did not give any hint towards what type of spiritual qi they belonged to…

"Hah… Looks like I will have to go figure it out through trial and error…" Sighing to herself with a depressed expression slowly making its way onto her face, as she realized that she would have to ruin some of the spiritual herbs in front of her, Qing Yi felt a small pang of pain in her chest while looking over the spiritual herbs in front of her.

Is there really no other way…?

Even if it was not her own spiritual herbs and they were only around the Mortal and Earth Grade, Qing Yi still felt that figuring out the correct order of the spiritual herbs this way, was way too wasteful…

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Chapter 439 - First Test Of The Alchemy Trial

Having gone over the spiritual herbs, Qing Yi picked up the recipe and began thoroughly reading through it. Not willing to miss even a single word, as she tried to find out if there was any hint inside it that could help point her towards which of the spiritual herbs could be used as replacements for the ones used in the recipe.

Sadly, her attempt to find out which order to use the different spiritual herbs did not work out. Instead, she just ended up confirming the fact that she would have to try her hand at making the potion first before she could figure out the correct order in which to add the different spiritual herbs.

In the end, it looked like she could not escape from having to waste some of the spiritual herbs inside the cave…

"Hah…" Picking up one of the three different spiritual herbs before beginning to prepare them, Qing Yi could not help but sigh to herself as she realized the fact that she would not be able to take away as many of the spiritual herbs with her as she had first expected.

Yes, Qing Yi wanted to take the spiritual herbs she didn't use out with her! After all, there was no rules about her taking away the remaining spiritual herbs…

For this reason, Qing Yi was way more focused than normal when she began preparing to brew the potion required for the first test of the alchemy trial.

Soon enough, Qing Yi began her first attempt on the potion in the recipe and…

Boom!

"Failure…"

The potion failed and the spiritual herbs used in the brewing process were all rendered completely useless! Two Mortal Grade Spiritual Herbs and one Earth Grade Spiritual Herb was gone just like that!

The sight alone caused Qing Yi to feel sad for the three spiritual herbs that had been completely wasted by her…

At the very least, she managed to understand the potion she was making and grew confident brewing the potion, but…

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

Three times in a row!

She failed all three times of her next attempts without successfully making the potion!

If the pain of wasting one batch of potion materials was not large enough, the pain of directly wasting four was enough to cause Qing Yi to feel like she was burning up spirit stones!

Other than that, Qing Yi also realized how difficult the first test of the alchemy trial was. Even after four attempts, Qing Yi was still not confident that she would be able to successfully make the potion required for her to move on to the next test!

If things continued like this, would she not be eliminated from the alchemy trial having received a score of zero points…?

Feeling herself grow slightly nervous upon thinking about this, Qing Yi picked up the last batch of spiritual herbs available to her inside the cave before carefully preparing them. Not daring to be the slightest bit careless in case she messed.

Zap~

Even when the Thunder Thistle accidently let out a small spark of electricity while being cut into, that hit her hand and left a small burn mark behind…

At this point, Qing Yi had already understood why the pressure was present on the mountain, as the reduced strength had made it harder for her and likely also the other alchemist, to prepare the spiritual herbs. This in turn resulted in them possibly making a mistake that could get them injured along the way!

Even if the small spark of electricity was not enough to truly hurt her, Qing Yi knew that the Thunder Thistle was only an Earth Grade Spiritual Herb… How painful would it be if she ended up making a mistake while preparing a Spirit Grade Spiritual Herb in one of the latter tests…?

Just thinking about this made Qing Yi shiver as she placed down the small knife, she had used to prepare the Thunder Thistle.

At the very least the knife she had been provided was sharp enough to cut into an Earth Grade Spiritual Herb without any problems… Something that a normal knife would struggle with…

Blop~

Having already finished preparation of the other spiritual herbs, Qing Yi once again began the brewing process as she added in the first spiritual herbs with a nervous look on her face.

Blop~

Blop~

Soon enough, Qing Yi had added in all the required spiritual herbs, as she nervously stirred the mixture. Looking out for anything that might signify that she had made a mistake in the order of the spiritual herbs…

"Success!"

However, much to her happiness, Qing Yi watched as the mixture suddenly turned into a bright red colour before settling down.

From what she had read in the recipe, Qing Yi knew that she had succeed in making the potion!

But at what cost…?

Looking over towards the empty place where the spiritual herbs had been located just a moment ago, Qing Yi could not help but feel sad at the fact that she had missed the opportunity to get some free spiritual herbs.

Fwoosh~

All of a sudden, Qing Yi heard something and looked back towards the cauldron filled with the potion mixture. Only to see it disappear in front of her. Not leaving behind even a single drop as everything had disappeared…

In the end, she got nothing out of the first test… Other than a few points… 10 points to be exact.

How much was 10 points worth? Qing Yi had no idea, all she knew, was that the mist that had been blocking her way forward had cleared up and she could continue further up the mountain.

"I wonder what the next test will be about…"

Muttering this to herself as she looked up the narrow mountain path snaking its way up the mountain that pierced far into the sky, Qing Yi felt herself growing more curious about the other tests that awaited her on the mountain!

Given how difficult the first test had been, Qing Yi could easily imagine how hard the other test on the mountain would be!

Thump~

Taking a step forward, Qing Yi once again began making her way up the mountain following the narrow mountain road…

…

BOOM!

"This damn rat is growing stronger!"

At the same time that Qing Yi was undergoing the alchemy trial and was climbing up the mysterious mountain, her master was leisurely observing the battle taking place outside the barrier of the capital city.

"Looks like that Zi Hui guy and General Guan have both joined forces…"

Gazing over towards General Guan who had just been sent flying once again, Xuan Hao could not help but feel a bit of pity for him. Even if he was an enemy, his current situation was quite a depressing sight...

After all, so far, he had not really done much other than show up in front of the capital city of the Iron Sky Kingdom to talk with Yi Min. In the end, he was now being thrown around by the demonic rat.

Even worse for General Guan…

Bang!

The demonic rat seemed to have discovered that General Guan's strength would weaken every time he hit the barrier protecting the capital city…

"But that demonic rat truly is strong… Will it really reach the Soul Ascension Realm if things continue like this…?"

A total of five Domain Lords were currently fighting the demonic rat, but it was still holding on and even started to grow stronger with the passing of time.

The only good thing, was that Zi Hui managed to get a few good attacks in every time the demonic rat launched the poor General Guan flying into the barrier…

"Ahhh-!"

Bang!

"…"

Maybe he should help them out…? After all, if the demonic rat managed to recover its strength to the Soul Ascension Realm like the system had suggested, he would most likely not be able to leave the Iron Sky Kingdom alive!

And more importantly, it did not look like the five people currently fighting with the demonic rat would be able to deal with it before it managed to recover what he assumed to be its strength before it had been sealed underground.

"I will wait for a bit more… Hopefully Yi Min will be able to finish the demonic cultivator and get back soon…" Muttering this to himself, Xuan Hao decided to observe the one-sided beating for now without interfering. L1tLagoon witnessed the first publication of this chapter on Ñøvl--B1n.

Anyway, he should still have some time left before the demonic rat's strength recovered.

Other than that, Xuan Hao didn't plan to kill the demonic rat, just for the five Domain Lords outside to attack him when he had left the barrier!

Woosh!

Just as Xuan Hao had decided to wait for a while longer, a large shockwave spread through the surroundings as one of the two Domain Lords that had come together with General Guan was caught off-guard by a claw swipe from the demonic rat. Directly splitting his body into several smaller chunks that fell onto the ground below.

"M-my body-"

Before the soul of the Domain Lord even had the time to retreat, the giant maw of the demonic rat descended from above and swallowed the soul that had barely emerged from the now destroyed body!

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Chapter 440 - Zi Hui's Plan...

""…""

An eerie silence soon spread across the battlefield outside the barrier, as the four remaining Domain Lords all froze upon seeing the soul being devoured by the demonic rat without any chance of escape. Ñøvl-B1n was the first platform to present this chapter.

It had to be known that the Domain Lord who had just died, was someone at the Fourth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm!

No matter where in the Sky Empire such a person went, he could be considered a Peak Expert that few people could even hope to contend against, yet such a person had died!

Even worse, he had died in an extremely pitiful manner, being devoured by the demonic rat without even having the chance to put up the slightest resistance…

Roar!

Having devoured the Domain Lord, the demonic rat let out a triumphant roar as its aura grew even stronger.

Roar!

Glancing over towards the four Domain Lords who had frozen upon witnessing the death of one of General Guan subordinates, the demonic rat let out another roar as it arrogantly looked down towards them.

Clearly, the demonic rat no longer viewed the four remaining Domain Lords as a threat!

Not only that, but the two strongest Domain Lords, General Guan and Zi Hui, both had a cautious expression on their faces as they faced off against the demonic rat.

At this point neither of them dared to take a chance to escape from the demonic rat, as it would leave an opening for the demonic rat to attack them. Especially given that their main escape path had been blocked by the giant barrier covering the capital city of the Iron Sky Kingdom…

"…"

Staring at the demonic rat roaring arrogantly towards them, General Guan could not help but look over towards the remains of what could be considered his second strongest subordinate with a depressed expression on his face.

Thinking about how many resources he had spent and just how hard it had been for him to nurture that subordinate, General Guan felt another wave of depression hit him. Among the four Domain Lords left, General Guan was by far the most depressed of all of them, as he honestly had no idea how he had ended up in his current situation…

Nothing had gone as planned! And he had even lost one of his only two Domain Lord subordinates! Even if they managed to deal with Yi Min, General Guan already felt that it was no longer worth it for him… At this point, General Guan just wanted to leave the Iron Sky Kingdom!

Roar!

Sadly, he already knew that was not possible before dealing with the demonic rat in front of them.

"Are we not just taking care of this demonic rat for Yi Min…?" Muttering this to himself as he watched the strengthened demonic rat charge over, General Guan felt even more depressed.

Not only did he have to fight with some terrifying demonic rat, but given the fact that the demonic rat was located in the Iron Sky Kingdom, it would likely have attacked Yi Min if he and the other three were not there…

Just why did this demonic rat show up now…?

Having still not fully grasped why the demonic rat had even showed up in the first place, General Guan utilized his domain and unwillingly began to fight with the demonic rat once again. Even bringing out some of the trump cards he had saved up for dealing with Yi Min, to deal with the demonic rat before it devoured someone else and grew even stronger…

Boom!

BOOM!

Soon enough, both General Guan and Zi Hui began working together seamlessly, as both of them launched attack after attack towards the demonic rat. Immediately creating several enormous craters several dozen meters deep in the ground.

"What is this-"

"Argh-!"

"No-"

Even hitting several of the underground tunnels where the miners and workers had been hiding. Instantly killing them in the process, as those realizing what was happening quickly made their way deeper into the ground to hopefully find somewhere safe before the fight on the surface reached them.

"…"

Looking at the fight outside the barrier suddenly increase in ferocity, Xuan Hao felt a bit surprised as both General Guan and Zi Hui seemed to work perfectly together. Driving back the strengthened demonic rat without letting it gain the slightest advantage.

All of a sudden, General Guan and Zi Hui were the ones controlling the battle as the demonic rat looked like the helpless one, that was constantly being driven back.

Roar!

Feeling more and more wounds accumulate, the demonic rat roared full of anger as it broke free from the darkness domain of Zi Hui that had momentarily restrained it before swinging its tail over towards General Guan who was coming in for an attack.

"Why me again?"

Whoosh~

Barely able to finish what he wanted to say as the giant rat tail hit him with a terrifying force, General Guan was sent flying through the air once again.

Bang!

Crashing face first in the barrier around the capital of the Iron Sky Kingdom.

Looking in through the barrier, General Guan spotted Xuan Hao sitting on top of the wall silently watching as he slid down the side of the barrier.

"…"

"…"

Thump~

Landing on the ground, General Guan remained quietly on the ground without rushing back to join Zi Hui in fighting back against the demonic rat.

To be honest… After seeing Xuan Hao sitting on top of the wall on the other side of the barrier watching as he and Zi Hui were fighting, General Guan realized that he had not thought about what might happen after they finished of the demonic rat.

Would Yi Min really let them go after they had exhausted most of their strength fighting against the demonic rat?

As he thought about this, General Guan suddenly realized that he might not be able to leave the Iron Sky Kingdom…

No! I have to find a way out!

"Zi Hui!"

"Hm?"

Contacting Zi Hui who was currently fighting against the demonic through his divine sense, General Guan directly informed him about their current situation and brought up his worries regarding what would happen to them after they had finished off the demonic rat.

"This is indeed troublesome… Hm… I have a plan, but I don't know if you would be fine with it…"

"You have a plan!? What is it?!"

"It's like this…"

Showing an excited expression, the moment he heard that Zi Hui had a plan, General Guan was not the least bit worried about anything. Instead, being more excited over the fact that he would be able to get out of his current precarious situation alive.

However, his excited expression soon disappeared, and a frown replaced it. The plan Zi Hui had come up with would definitely be able to get them out safely, but… The cost was way too great!

"Are you really sure that this is the only way…?"

"Yes, I'm certain we will be able to get out like this and we might even be able to deal with Yi Min at the same time as this!"

"Alright… I will inform my subordinate about the plan…"

Responding back to Zi Hui in a slightly reluctant tone, General Guan soon informed his subordinate, while Zi Huo informed the elderly Domain Lord about the plan.

The two of them both showed a surprised expression on their faces before solemnly nodding their heads and getting into position.

During the short conversation that Zi Hui and General Guan had through their divine sense, less than a second passed, as they began implementing the plan that Zi Hui had come up with.

…

"Hm? Looks like they are up to something…"

Observing the fight from behind the barrier on top of the city wall, Xuan Hao instantly realized that the people outside were up to something as he prepared himself just in case.

No matter how strong the barrier around the capital was, Xuan Hao did not dare to let his guard down, as he began to closely observe the movements of the four Domain Lords.

"They want to force the demonic rat to attack the barrier!?"

Seeing the two weaker Domain Lords move just beside the barrier, Xuan Hao could not help but frown as he watched how Zi Hui, and General Guan slowly began to lure it closer and closer to the barrier.

If he was not wrong, they would lure the demonic rat close to the barrier, where the two weaker Domain Lords would get its attention and… Get attacked together with the barrier…?

Tilting his head to the side, as a confused expression appeared on his face, Xuan hao suddenly felt that there was something wrong with what was happening outside the barrier.

Watching as the two weaker Domain Lords suddenly began violently attacking the demonic rat, Xuan Hao felt even more confused as he watched how the two weaker Domain Lords just continued attacking without a care in the world.

Almost like they did not see large claws of the demonic rat currently swiping down towards them…

Just how do they plan to escape that attack!? If they could truly dodge the attack and get the demonic rat to destroy the barrier for them…

Xuan Hao felt even more nervous as he thought about this. Focusing his full attention onto the two weaker Domain Lords. Wanting to see just how they planned to escape from the claw swipe of the demonic rat and have it attack the barrier for them...

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Chapter 441 - Running Away...

"General!" "Senior Brother!"

Watching closely as the claw swipe of the demonic rat descended down towards the two weaker Domain Lords, Xuan Hao suddenly heard both of them screaming loudly followed by their expressions of confidence being replaced with one of fear, as they scrambled to get out of the way before the attack of the demonic rat reached them.

However, this was too late, as the attack of the demonic rat soon arrived!

Swish~

Bang!

As the claws of the demonic rat descended down towards the two weaker Domain Lords, Xuan Hao watched as both of them barely managed to put up a last-minute defence before both of them were send flying into the barrier located just behind them.

In the end, both of them had been grievously injured by the demonic rat and didn't really cause any damage to the barrier like Xuan Hao had first expected.

Watching all of this take place from behind the barrier, Xuan Hao could not help but feel confused over the scene taking place only a few hundred meters away from him.

No matter what, it did not look like the two weaker Domain Lords had planned to get hit by the claw attack of the demonic rat and looking at how they had begun throwing all kinds of desperate attacks towards the demonic rat while trying to escape, Xuan Hao became even more certain that things did not go like they had planned.

But just what had they expected to happen from standing in front of the barrier without doing anything when the demonic rat came charging over to attack them?

Thinking about this, Xuan Hao suddenly glanced over towards the place where General Guan and Zi Hui had made their way towards after the two weaker Domain Lords had become the target of the demonic rat.

At first, he had thought that they hid away for a short moment to prepare for the next step of some elaborate plan, but from the looks of it, that was not the case…

Instead, what Xuan Hao saw was the figure of both Zi Hui and General Guan disappearing in the distance. Soon disappearing completely after passing over a nearby mountain range…

They had run away and abandoned the two weaker Domain Lords!

One being an elderly man who had already exhausted most of his strength after having to defend against the claw swipe of the demonic rat, while the other was a heroic looking middle-aged man covered in noble looking plate armour that had been ruined by the demonic rat's earlier claw swipe. The initial posting of this chapter occurred via noovelllbbin

"Not good!"

Seeing that the General Guan and Zi Hui had actually been ruthless enough to abandon their companions, Xuan Hao instantly realized how dangerous his current situation was.

After all, without General Guan and Zi Hui to hold back the demonic rat, the two weaker Domain Lords would soon be devoured and be used by the demonic rat to recover its strength faster and at that point, he would be forced to deal with the demonic rat that might have recovered back to the Soul Ascension Realm by himself!

Whoosh!

Not daring to allow such a thing to happen, Xuan Hao knew he could no longer stand around watching as he jumped down from the wall and passed through the barrier before charging over towards the demonic rat about to devour the two.

Boom!

Using his ice domain together with his sword domain to manifest a giant ice sword, Xuan Hao barely managed to throw it out to block the demonic rat before it devoured them.

Even if they were his enemies currently, Xuan hao did not intend to allow the demonic rat to devour them in an attempt to recover the strength it had lost over the period that it had been sealed underground.

"Wha-!?"

"Who…?!"

The subordinate of General Guan and the elderly junior brother of Zi Hui both had a shocked expression as they suddenly realized that the demonic rat bearing down on them had been blocked by a giant ice sword that had suddenly smashed into the head of the demonic rat. Preventing it from devouring both of them for the moment.

"You-!"

Turning their heads to look in the direction that the giant ice sword had come from, the elderly Domain Lord was the first to react, as he had already fought against Xuan Hao once in the past and knew that he was on the side of Yi Min.

Other than that, the elderly Domain Lord also remembered that Xuan Hao had been the one to destroy the gate leading into the place where the demonic rat had been sealed! From this alone, the elderly Domain Lord had already blamed Xuan Hao for the demonic rat escaping its seal!

However, at this point, he did not intend bringing this matter up. After all, the other party had just saved him and angering him did not seem like the wisest decision given his current circumstances.

I just have to get out of here when I get a chance, with senior brother's help we will-

"I can't believe the general and that Zi Hui ran away…"

As the elderly Domain Lord was thinking about how to best get away from the demonic rat, he suddenly heard the words of the domain lord finding himself in a similar situation as him.

Wait… Senior brother ran away? Is that why he didn't act like planned…?

It was only at this point that the elderly man seemed to realize the fact that his senior brother had already escaped. Leaving him behind to fend off against the demonic rat by himself.

If senior brother ran away, then…

Feeling a wave of depression role over him, the elderly Domain Lord suddenly looked extremely dispirited as he realized what had happened.

His senior brother had abandoned him!

…

Roar!

At the same time that the two of them lost control of their emotions and stared blankly into space while muttering some incomprehensible words, Xuan Hao had already begun fighting against the demonic rat to make sure it didn't devour the two of them while they had frozen in place.

Damnit! I thought that I would at least be able to get those two to help out, but from the looks of it, I can only rely on myself!

Losing control over one's emotions to the degree that the two of them had, was not something that normally happened and when it happened, it might cause a mental demon that could permanently affect their cultivation!

Xuan Hao had only heard about mental demons before and had never seen anyone with a mental demon before.

The reason for this was very simple, as only people at the Domain Lord Realm would be able to form a mental demon.

The reason why only Domain Lords could form a mental demon, was because a mental demon was a unique lifeform that would directly be born through a cultivator's domain.

After its birth, the mental demon would begin to slowly devour the cultivator and his domain until the Domain Lord died! After the birth of a mental demon, the cultivator would have to deal with it immediately or end up having his entire cultivation base devoured before dying!

Boom!

Blocking another attack from the demonic rat as he was flung backwards, Xuan Hao frowned upon realizing that he was not able to fully block the terrifying energy contained inside the simple attack of the demonic rat. Resulting in a few injuries appearing on his body.

"Damn oversized rat!"

Not paying any more attention to the two Domain Lords currently looking like they were about to develop a mental demon, Xuan Hao focused his full attention on the demonic rat charging over towards him once again.

It was only at this point that Xuan Hao had truly realized how scary someone at the Half- Step Soul Ascension Realm was, that was not mentioning the fact that the demonic rat had yet to use its domain…

But given that it had not even used it fighting against Zi Hui and General Guan, Xuan Hao thought that it might not be that it did not want to use its domain, but because it couldn't use it.

Even with such a large disadvantage, Xuan Hao could only barely keep himself alive against the demonic rat only using its physical body!

"I hope Yi Min finishes up that demonic cultivator and returns soon…"

Muttering this to himself as he prepared to clash with the demonic rat knowing very well that he would be send flying once again, Xuan Hao clenched his teeth as a determined expression appeared on his face.

At the very least, through getting beaten up by the demonic rat, he managed to get a better understanding of his current strength.

The demonic rat could be considered to be at the peak of the Domain Lord Realm currently and even without a domain, it could still beat him up…

Thinking about how he would end up if the demonic rat could use its domain, Xuan Hao realized that his current strength was still far away from reaching the Peak of the Domain Lord Realm…

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Chapter 442 - The Terror Of A Master Blacksmith!

Whoosh!

Dodging to the side as the demonic rat's giant maw came bearing down on him, Xuan Hao barely managed to get out of the way before suddenly being caught off-guard by the demonic rat's giant tail that came flying towards him the next moment.

Bang!

Not able to react in time to the demonic rat's tail, Xuan Hao finally understood how General Guan had felt while fighting against the demonic rat. The only difference being that he had Zi Hui to help out holding the demonic rat back after being hit, while Xuan Hao did not have this luxury…

As the demonic rat quickly followed up its tail strike with another simple claw strike imbued with more than enough power to directly destroy his physical body and soul alike!

Understanding very well that he could not afford to get hit by the claws of the demonic rat, Xuan Hao did his best to conjure forth a defence, as he used the Rain Sword in tantum with his ice domain.

This was just in the nick of time as the demonic rat's claw strike was beautifully blocked before Xuan Hao managed to make some distance between both of them. Soon finding himself directly beside the barrier of the capital city.

Just a single step back and he would be able to get back into safety again, but…

"…"

Looking over towards the two people still not showing any sign of moving, as an increasingly demonic aura began to spread out from the elderly Domain Lord, Xuan Hao knew that he would have to hold on if he didn't want the demonic rat to turn its attention towards the two of them. Ñøvl-B1n was the first platform to present this chapter.

After all, if it managed to devour both of them, Xuan Hao didn't think that Yi Min would be able to deal with the demonic rat. Even if she had the support of the formation behind him…

"Hah…"

Letting out an exhausted sigh as he examined the injuries he had sustained from the short clash with the demonic rat, Xuan Hao gazed over towards the demonic rat about to charge over towards him once again.

Whoosh~

Having made up his mind, Xuan Hao acted a step faster than the demonic rat, as he launched himself forward. Not retreating back behind the safety of the barrier!

…

A little before General Guan and Zi Hui had escaped leaving behind their two companions, Yi Min arrived at the underground cave that Xuan Hao had first found the demonic cultivator inside of.

"This should be it…"

Looking around and spotting the large tentacle cocoons in the process of building? something instead of digging, Yi Min's face turned serious as she searched for the demonic cultivator. Soon spotting a pale looking young man drawing something on the ground while muttering several incomprehensible words in the process.

"A Demon Gate Formation!"

Not as unaware of what the demonic cultivator was up to like Xuan Hao had been, Yi Min instantly recognized the formation that the pale looking young man was currently in the process of making.

It was also at this point in time that Yi Min realized that he was not trying to breakthrough to the Ture Demon Realm like she had first expected upon hearing how Xuan Hao had described that he was digging a large pit in the ground…

After all, a demonic cultivator digging a large pit in the ground could mean many things at the current depth.

The most likely was that the demonic cultivator was trying to breakthrough to the True Demon Realm, which was why Yi Min had guessed that the demonic cultivator below her city was doing just that.

"However, I never expected for it to be a Demon Gate Formation…" Narrowing her eyes as she did not act immediately, Yi Min began observing the pale looking young man in the process of drawing several different runes onto the ground while muttering to himself in some incomprehensible language.

A Demon Gate Formation was a demonic formation that drew upon the rich yin qi underground to create a demon gate, a spatial passageway, to another location with a similar demon gate.

The reason Yi Min did not act in the first place, was because she tried to figure out just where the demonic cultivator in front of her came from. After all, a demonic formation like the one currently being constructed in front of her, was not something that was easily accessible.

For this reason, Yi Min was also certain that the demonic cultivator was not just some lone demonic cultivator, but was instead a demonic cultivator that had some sort of backing from a likely stronger demonic cultivator… Someone in the True Demon Realm…

Trying her best to go over every single demonic cultivator she knew about, Yi Min could not help but frown as the pale looking young man in front of her did not resemble any of the demonic cultivators from the large demonic sects located close to the Sky Empire.

"Looks like I'm out of time…"

Seeing that the Demon Gate Formation was about to be completed and the yin qi from below slowly began being sucked into the runes drawn up by the demonic cultivator, Yi Min knew that she couldn't delay any longer.

If she really continued to delay, she would risk the demonic cultivator completing the formation and possibly escaping, or worse, have someone cross over from the other side…

Whoosh~

Having decided to attack, Yi Min was swift and decisive. Directly charging over towards the pale looking young man, while completely ignoring the large tentacle cocoons along the way.

"Wha-"

Fwoosh!

Realizing someone? was attacking him the moment Yi Min was a hundred meters away from him, the pale looking barely managed to transform into his demonic form before a giant vortex of black energy engulfed his entire body along with the demon gate formation that was close to finishing.

"…"

Not relaxing in the slightest upon seeing the black vortex swallow up the demonic cultivator, Yi Min clenched her hand as the black vortex with the demonic cultivator inside of it quickly began shrinking in size before a terrifying force tearing force began ripping apart everything around the black vortex.

Before the tentacle cocoons even had the time to react to their master being swallowed up by the black vortex, they were instantly ripped to shreds as large chunks of flesh covered the cave floor.

If not for the fact that the self-destructive measure had been removed by the demonic cultivator after he had them begin constructing the Demon Gate Formation, it could easily be imagined how this careless action on Yi Min's side might have played out for both her and the demonic cultivator…

But in the end, this did not matter, as the demonic cultivator in question, was currently being ripped apart inside the rapidly shrinking black vortex.

"AH-! HOW DARE YOU! WHEN I GET OUT OF HERE-"

Hearing the angry screams from inside the black vortex, Yi Min did not show any sign of care as she just waved her other hand, causing a dozen small daggers in the Mystic Grade along with a single Transcendental Grade dagger to fly out towards the demonic cultivator still struggling inside the black vortex.

Sensing the appearance of so many high-level weapons, the demonic cultivator suddenly felt like crying. Even he only had a single Mystic Grade sword!

"…"

How come he suddenly encountered someone with so many high-level weapons? Can I take back my earlier words…?

Thinking about this with a regretful look on his face as he felt the daggers grow closer and closer to him. The demonic cultivator for the first time in his life understood why nobody wanted to offend a Master Blacksmith… They simply had way too many weapons to go around!

"Ah-!"

Knowing that he was in bad situation, the demonic cultivator quickly unleashed all of his strength and used a secret technique to momentarily increase it even further.

Breaking apart the black vortex that restrained him and blocking the initial attack of the daggers before rushing towards the closest tunnel out of the cave.

Even if he was a demonic cultivator, it did not mean he was stupid! There was no way he would continue the fight when his opponent had so many terrifying weapons!

Whoosh~

Seeing that the demonic cultivator was escaping, Yi Min did not give chase and instead just put away the daggers before pulling out a beautifully decorated longbow. Gently pulling back the bowstring as an arrow made out of pure lighting qi was formed out of thin air.

W-what now…?

Feeling that something was wrong while escaping from Yi Min, the demonic cultivator turned back to look at what Yi Min was up to. Only to see an arrow made up of the most destructive qi… Lighting Qi!

"What have I done to deserve this…?"

Feeling a bit bewildered as he felt the lighting arrow lock onto him and at the same time cause the space around him to grow chaotic. Prevent him from dodging. The demonic cultivator felt helpless as he looked at the approaching lighting arrow instantly cross the short distance between him and Yi Min…

BOOM!

Followed by the lighting arrow hitting the demonic cultivator, a terrifying explosion soon engulfed the entire cave. Destroying everything it came into contact with.

Even Yi Min was forced to take out a few defensive artifacts when the explosion reached her, to avoid getting hurt by it.

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Chapter 443 - Yi Min's Arrival, End Of The Demonic Rat!

"That should be it for the demonic cultivator!"

Following a short one-sided battle after the demonic cultivator was hit by the lightning arrow, Yi Min found herself standing in front of what remained of the demonic cultivator. The surrounding cave around her just barely being held up by her domain. Preventing it from collapsing on top of her.

"I Wonder how things are going back on the surface…"

Muttering this to herself as she remembered how she had asked a relatively unfamiliar Domain Lord she had only met today behind to inform her in case anything happened, Yi Min could not bother staying around any longer, as she quickly rushed out of the underground cave towards the surface.

Rumble~

After Yi Min left, the underground cave that had increased in size following the battle between Yi Min and the demonic cultivator, could no longer remain as it quickly collapsed. Burying whatever remained inside the underground cave beneath large amounts of earth that came crashing down from above.

As for Xuan Hao informing Yi Min about his current struggle with the demonic rat? He simply did not have the time to do so, as the demonic rat might have used the time, he contacted Yi Min to devour the two currently useless Domain Lords…

…

Back on the surface just outside the barrier protecting the capital from any of the damage brought along by the fight taking place just a few dozen meters away from the walls, Xuan Hao was barely holding up against the demonic rat's relentless attacks.

Even if the demonic rat had gotten injurie during the fight with General Guan and Zi Hui, it was constantly healing whatever wounds was inflicted on it in a short period of time. Given that not even General Guan and Zi Hui could inflict any serious injuries on the demonic rat, Xuan Hao had even less success on truly injuring the demonic rat.

All he could do was take the beating by the oversized rodent while making sure not to approach the two useless Domain Lords at the side…

Bang!

Blocking another simple yet powerful claw attack from the demonic rat, Xuan Hao was once again sent flying backwards, as he quickly stabilized himself mid-air before a frown appeared on his face.

From the clash just now, Xuan Hao clearly felt that the strength of the demonic rat had once again increased by a small margin! Even worse, he knew that he would not be able to clash with the demonic rat with his current injuries, or he might risk losing his life like the subordinate of General Guan!

"Hah…"

Letting out a short sigh as he realized this, Xuan Hao knew that he would not be able to hold the demonic rat back for any longer.

Whoosh~

So, before the demonic rat charged at him again, Xuan Hao quickly retreated back behind the barrier surrounding the capital for safety, while glancing over in the direction of the two useless Domain Lords.

Or… One Domain Lord…

Sometime during his fighting, it seemed like the subordinate of General Guan had managed to recover. Escaping from the scene while he still had the chance to do so.

The only person currently remaining was the elderly Domain Lord, who was currently completely engulfed in a demonic aura as his darkness domain was on full display for everyone to see.

The main thing standing out was that the domain itself began changing while the demonic aura grew stronger and stronger with each passing second. Slowly overpowering the elderly Domain Lord's original aura, as the demonic aura merged together with the elderly Domain Lord's own…

Not only that, but the domain of the elderly Domain Lord also began to show large changes, as the area around the elderly Domain Lord was devastated by the darkness domain seemingly going out of control. Destroying the everything around the elderly Domain Lord.

Roar? Ñøvl-B1n was the first platform to present this chapter.

The demonic rat who was just about to jump towards Xuan Hao no hidden behind the barrier for another attack, was also alarmed by the change in the elderly Domain Lord, as its attention shifted away from Xuan Hao and towards the elderly Domain Lord in the process of developing his very own mental demon…

Roar!

Though different from Xuan Hao who was just observing the entire thing from the side, the demonic rat did not think this way, as it directly attacked the elderly Domain Lord.

"Hm… It seems to have grown stronger since last… By the way, where did General Guan go?"

Just as the demonic rat was about to charge over and attack the elderly Domain Lord, a curious voice drifted out from behind him, as Xuan Hao quickly turned around already knowing the identity of the other party.

"Yi Min, you are back! Ah, General Guan already ran away earlier when-"

Explaining what had happened while she was gone. Not forgetting to explain how the demonic rat had grown stronger after devouring one of General Guan's two subordinates, Xuan Hao watched on from the side as an expression of disgust slowly appeared on her face upon hearing how General Guan had abandoned his subordinate to the demonic rat while running away.

"Hah… There is no use thinking about General Guan now that he has already run away… For now, the most important thing should be to deal with the giant rodent before it grows any stronger!"

Letting out a sigh as she shook her head slightly, Yi Min focused her attention onto the demonic rat who had similarly come to a stop upon sensing her arrival.

Even if the current demonic rat was not the smartest demonic beast out there, it could still sense how dangerous Yi Min was! Compared to General Guan and Zi Hui who it had fought earlier, the demonic rat could very clearly feel that Yi Min was stronger than the two of them…

In the end, this had caused the demonic rat to freeze up, as it began to cautiously observe Yi Min. Not daring to be the slightest bit careless!

At this point, it had already completely forgotten about the elderly Domain Lord located only a few hundred meters away.

"Haha, it seems like our big friend also noticed my arrival."

Not the least bit taken aback by the fact that the demonic rat had discovered her this time around, Yi Min smiled brightly towards the demonic rat before stepping out of the barrier. Ready to face off against the demonic rat.

"…"

Seeing how things were playing out, Xuan Hao knew that he would not have to find his disciple and the elders who came along with him to escape before the demonic rat recovered its strength to the Soul Ascension Realm…

For now, it looked like he could sit back and watch the fight between Yi Min and the demonic rat play out, while recovering from the injuries he had suffered from his short fight with the demonic rat.

At least he managed to get a better grasp over his current strength and also ca me to understand where he could improve. From his lack of a good movement technique to the fact that he still fought without a weapon. Instead fighting with the sword manifested through the power of his two domains, Xuan Hao fully understood how to improve his strength after returning to the sect.

Hopefully the quest given to him by the system would be considered to have been completed. Even if he didn't kill the demonic rat himself...

Thinking about this, Xuan Hao felt even more anticipation towards the battle between Yi Min and the demonic rat. Not only would he be able to witness Yi Min's strength, but he would also be able to solve his immediate lack of a good movement technique!

However, things did not play out like Xuan Hao had first expected them to, with both Yi Min and the demonic rat clashing in an epic manner before Yi Min would finally emerge victories.

Instead…

Whoosh!

The fight ended before it even got started, with Yi Min summoning a giant black vortex that stopped the demonic rat from moving before a dozen or so terrifying daggers appeared out of thin air and easily pierced into the demonic rat. Directly rendering it close to death in one easy motion.

Roar!

Even the demonic rat had not expected for things to go like this, as it roared angrily before Yi Min ended the short battle by using a way too large axe to cut the demonic rat along with its soul in half. Instantly killing the demonic rat before it could even muster up a counterattack!

The demonic rat that both General Guan and Zi Hui had struggled with, was easily taken care of by Yi Min…

Remembering that both General Guan and Zi Hui should at least have reached the later stages of the Domain Lord Realm, if not the peak of the Domain Lord Realm, Xuan Hao had a feeling that Yi Min might already have surpassed the Domain Lord Realm!

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Chapter 444 - Birth Of A Mental Demon

"Thanks for the help, it must have been quite hard to hold back the demonic rat given your current cultivation realm…"

Before Xuan Hao could think any further about Yi Min's current cultivation realm, the person in question suddenly appeared in front of him with a thankful expression on her face. The giant body of the demonic rat already gone, as Yi Min had stored it away in her interspatial ring shortly after its death.

"It was not a problem at all…" Seeing Yi Min thanking him, Xuan Hao could not help himself from smiling a bit wryly. After all, she had in some way forced him to offend whatever faction was behind General Guan…

Refusing Yi Min and just letting her deal with the problem by herself?

Xuan Hao didn't even think about this from the start. After all, if he did something like that, it was highly likely that he would end up offended Yi Min in the process… In the end, it didn't matter if he chose to help or not, as he would make enemies with one of the two sides no matter what.

All he could do now, was hope that he had chosen the correct side. Maybe, if he was lucky, General Guan would not even know that he had sided with Yi Min and in turn help him avoid having to join in on whatever power struggle General Guan and Yi Min were a part of…

At the very least. From the fact that General Guan had run away, Xuan hao felt like he had chosen the correct side. Other than that, he never personally acted against General Guan and just spectated from the side. Only leaving the safety of the barrier to make sure the demonic rat didn't devour the two weaker Domain Lords and powerup.

Wait… Weaker Domain Lords-

Having suddenly remembered something, Xuan Hao quickly turned to look over towards the elder Domain Lord still standing completely motionless a short distance away from the barrier.

At this point, the demonic aura around him seemed to have reached its peak as it had completely fused together with the elderly Domain Lord.

"Hm? A mental demon?"

Seeing Xuan Hao suddenly turn around to look somewhere outside the barrier, Yi Min soon did the same. Instantly spotting the elderly Domain Lord currently in the process of developing a mental demon.

"What happened to him that caused him to start developing a mental demon?"

Feeling a bit confused upon witnessing someone developing a mental demon all of a sudden, Yi Min turned back towards Xuan Hao as she asked this with a curious expression on her face. Not showing the slightest care for the elderly Domain Lord outside.

After all, she still remembered that he was together with General Guan and Zi Hui before she had left to deal with the demonic cultivator.

No matter how merciful she was, there was no way she would willingly help out an enemy.

Not to mention, there was no way to help someone deal with a mental demon. All one could do at that point was hope the other party successfully managed to wake up from their dazed state and destroy the growing mental demon before it was too late…

And… Looking at how the elderly Domain Lord showed no signs of struggle, Yi Min did not expect for him to successfully wake up…

"From what I managed to pick up, it seems like one of the two people who escaped while leaving him behind was his senior brother…"

Hearing her question, Xuan Hao remained focused on observing the changes taking place with the elderly Domain Lord, while answering.

Observing someone develop a mental demon could still be considered important to the current Xuan Hao. After all, if he ever encountered a mental demon himself in the future, he would need to understand how to deal with it and observing was a far better learning experience compared to reading about!

After the whole mental demon thing, Xuan Hao planned to return to the alchemy competition and check out the quest from the system!

Yes, even if he was not the one who killed the demonic rat, it still seemed like the system considered it to be enough for the quest to be completed!

"I see."

Yi Min seemed to have understood his intention of observing the process of someone devolving a mental demon and did not directly kill the elderly Domain Lord like she had first intended upon realizing the fact that one of her enemies were still around.

In the end, it did not really matter much to her, as the other party was way weaker than her. Even if managed to recover and tried to run away, Yi Min was confident that she could catch him!

"Ah-!"

Following the fact that both Xuan Hao and Yi Min watched from the side without doing anything, the elderly Domain Lord suddenly let out a loud scream before a change took place.

The domain around him seemed to completely disappear as his cultivation began rapidly decreasing. Going from the lower end of the Domain Lord Realm to the Nascent Soul Realm and all the way down to the Qi Condensation Realm before his entire cultivation base had completely disappeared!

In just a few seconds, a Domain Lord capable of destroying an entire kingdom single-handily had lost all of his strength and turned into an ordinary mortal within only a few second!

Knowing that the mental demon would directly devour one's cultivation base was one thing, seeing it happen first-hand was another!

Even Xuan Hao who had already known what would happen was shocked upon witnessing the elderly man's cultivation completely disappear!

Hundreds of years, if not thousands of years of cultivation. Gone, just like that!

Whoosh!

Before Xuan Hao managed to recover from the shock he had felt after witnessing what had happened to the now elderly man without any cultivation, the weak soul of the elderly man flew out before hovering mid-air, while the now elderly body collapsed dead on the ground beneath it.

At this point, the soul itself was already on the brink of collapse, but Xuan Hao could clearly feel that something deep inside of it was forcefully keeping the soul from dispersing.

Looking closer with his divine sense, Xuan Hao quickly discovered that a new life was taking shape inside the fragile soul. Not only that, but the life form taking shape inside the fragile soul was currently merging together with the elderly man's former cultivation base and darkness domain!

Because of this, the cultivation base of the new life form hidden away inside the fragile soul quickly increased at a speed visible to the naked eye.

First Stage of the Qi Condensation Realm…

Third Stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm…

Core Formation Realm…

This continued for a few minutes before finally coming to a stop at the First Stage of the Domain Lord Realm, while not the same realm as what the elderly man had been in the past, it was still extremely terrifying to consider that the life form had just been born a few minutes ago and had already reached the Domain Lord Realm!

After all, the Domain Lord Realm was a realm that many people pursed for their entire lives, yet failed to take a final step and ended up perishing in the endless river of time…

But for such growth to happen, the mental demon also had to pay a certain price…

The price in this case, was that a mental demon could only grow stronger by devouring others cultivation and domain…

At least, that was what Xuan Hao had read about mental demons in the Domain Lord Realm.

As for mental demons above the Domain Lord Realm? Xuan Hao had never heard about them before and had no idea if they were the same.

The main reason for this, was also that most would band together to destroy a mental demon whenever one appeared. Even demonic cultivators who were considered demons by most, would put their differences aside and deal with a mental demon if one appeared inside their territories!

In a sense, a mental demon could be considered the enemy of all living things, as it solely existed to devour others and turn them into its own strength… The initial posting of this chapter occurred via noovelllbbin

Knowing all of this, Xuan Hao turned towards the fragile soul slowly breaking apart mid-air, as the mental demon of the elderly man was born!

Whoosh~

However, before Xuan Hao managed to get a full grasp of its appearance, Yi Min decided to act. Instantly killing the newly born mental demon before it managed to take its first step in the outside world…

"…"

Could you at least let me see what it looked like before killing it!?

Not daring to say these words out loud as he begrudgingly looked over towards Yi Min, who seemingly did not feel his gaze.

"Now that we have finished dealing with the troublemakers, let's get back to the alchemy competition again. You should be quite eager to find out how your disciple is doing, no?"

"Sure…"

Not knowing what to say, Xuan Hao just rolled his eyes at her before making his way back towards the alchemy competition. To be honest, he was quite curious how Qing Yi was doing…

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Chapter 445 - Second Test Of The Alchemy Trial

Around the same time that things were finishing up outside the city wall with Yi Min's arrival, Qing Yi was making her way up the mountain towards the second test of the alchemy competition. Not knowing what awaited her this time around, while hoping that it would not be something similar to the first test.

Even if she was indeed an Expert Alchemist, her knowledge regarding different spiritual herbs did severely lack behind the other participants who had studied alchemy for years before she even made her first potion!

The first test would have been way easier for her, if she recognized at least one of the spiritual herbs that she needed to find a substitute for…

It really looked like she would have to read through some more spiritual herb encyclopaedias when she returned back to the sect again. At least that way, she would not encounter a situation like she had during the first test. Not knowing anything about the spiritual herbs she needed to find a substitute for.

Just thinking about the spiritual herbs, she had ended up wasting due to her own weakness, Qing Yi felt even more motivated to increase her knowledge over spiritual herbs after the alchemy competition came to an end.

Maybe she could even get her master to help her out when it came to testing her spiritual herb knowledge in the future…

Lost in thought thinking about the future as she made her way up the narrow path slowly leading her higher up into the mountain, Qing Yi soon arrived at the second test!

Different from the first test, the second test was not inside a cave with everything needed for potion brewing. Instead, there were three stone pedestals in front of the path leading further up the narrow mountain path.

Each of the herbs had a different spiritual herb placed on top of each pedestal, as a small sign could be seen in front of the three pedestals followed by the small stone slab with her information on it.

"Pick one of the three spiritual herbs and move on to the next test. You will have to use the chosen spiritual herb for the next test! How interesting, looks like this is not the second test…" Reading out loud what was written on the small sign, Qing Yi ignored the small stone slab with her information on it and walked up to the three pedestals.

"Smoldering Earth Flower… Dew Touched Arteria Leaf and… Cave Moss?"

Inspecting the three spiritual herbs, Qing Yi could not help but feel a bit confused upon reaching the last spiritual herb. Cave Moss.

How what looked like simple moss had ended up being placed on the same level as two spiritual herbs very clearly at the Spirit Grade, Qing Yi had no idea. Even the name of the moss, was just cave moss. No special name that gave away anything about the clump of moss on the third pedestal…

Looking a bit closer at the Cave Moss, Qing Yi could feel a strong spiritual qi circulating inside of it. Not the least bit inferior to the Smoldering Earth Flower and the Dew Touched Arteria Leaf!

Having looked over all three of the spiritual herbs available to her, Qing Yi had no idea which one to pick among them.

No matter if it was the Smoldering Earth Flower, the Dew Touched Arteria Leaf or the ordinary looking Cave Moss, Qing Yi had no knowledge about any of them.

The only thing she managed to learn through her short inspection of the three spiritual herbs, was that the Smoldering Earth Flower was a fire related herb with a large amount of fire qi inside of it, while the Dew Touched Arteria Leaf seemed to contain both water qi and some sort of blood qi.

Needless to say, that Qing Yi immediately decided not to pick the Dew Touched Arteria Lead… After all, she had only ever witnessed blood qi during her encounter with the cultivator from the Black Rose Sect, who had directly devoured over a dozen people in front of her…

Lastly was the ordinary looking Cave Moss, while it did not look like some kind of high-quality spiritual herb, Qing Yi knew that its appearance was misleading, and a large amount of qi was hidden away inside it. The main element of the qi inside the Cave Moss was Earth Qi and Water Qi, both of which Qing Yi would not have a problem working with.

"So… The Smoldering Earth Flower, or the ordinary looking Cave Moss…"

With the Dew Touched Arteria Leaf already eliminated from her choices, Qing Yi was left with only two spiritual herbs to chose from, both of which would present their own unique challenges when it came to turning them into a potion during the second test…

"Smoldering Earth Flower it is…"

After thinking about it for a short moment, Qing Yi decided to pick the Smoldering Earth Flower. The main reason for this, was because she had a much easier time and was far more comfortable when working with fire related spiritual herbs compared to water and earth.

The cause of this, was of course her special physique along with the fact that she was someone who practiced a fire-based cultivation mantra.

Even if she was interested in the ordinary Cave Moss, Qing Yi did not want to take a risk just because she was curious about the Cave Moss. After all, she was still in a competition! Making things more difficult for herself would just be stupid…

Creak~ The initial posting of this chapter occurred via noovelllbbin

As she picked up the Smoldering Earth Flower, Qing Yi once again watched how the two other spiritual herbs began descending below the ground like the potion mixture, she had made during the first test of the Alchemy Trial.

Whoosh~

Different from before, Qing Yi did not wait for the spiritual herbs to disappear, as she directly tried to grab one of them before they disappeared-

Bang!

Only to hit some sort of invisible barrier that stopped her from taking away any of the two remaining spiritual herbs.

Other than that-

"5 points… I lost 5 points?!"

She had five points deducted after trying to steal away the spiritual herbs…

To say she was depressed over the sudden development would be an understatement, but what could she do about it?

"…"

Feeling a bit resentful after losing five points, Qing Yi slowly began making her way towards the second test that had become visible after the three pedestals disappeared and the mist behind them lifted.

Given that she already knew that she would be making a potion for the second test, Qing Yi was not the slightest bit surprised that there was a small alchemy station already prepared for her along with a dozen or so different spiritual herbs that she could use together with the Smoldering Earth Flower.

A few different potion recipes using the Smoldering Earth Flower as the main ingredient could also be seen on a small table located next to the cauldron.

The only thing that caused Qing Yi to worry a bit, was the fact that there were no extra Smoldering Earth Flowers… All she had was the one she had gotten from the pedestal!

This meant that she would only have one chance to make a brand-new potion she had never tried making before! Not only that, but the potion in question was also a Spirit Grade potion...

Feeling herself grow nervous upon thinking about this, Qing Yi made her way over towards the small table with the different potion recipes on it before beginning to thoroughly read through them. Not wanting to make a mistake when choosing what potion to make using the Smoldering Earth Flower and end up with a potion that was way too hard for her to make.

She had only just become an Expert Alchemist less than an hour ago, the Spirit Grade Potions she was capable of making was limited to one…

Just thinking about this caused Qing Yi to feel even more stressful.

The Alchemy Trial truly was difficult for a newbie Expert Alchemist like her…

…

At the same time Qing Yi was about to begin with the second test of the Alchemy Trial, her master had finally made his way back to the alchemy competition.

"Looks like something quite interesting happened while I was away…"

Having made his way back into the spectator room where the elders from his sect were located, Xuan Hao instantly caught sight of the large light projections displaying what was happening inside the Alchemy Trial.

Asking one of the elders watching Qing Yi as she read through a dozen or so different alchemy recipes, Xuan Hao quickly came to understand what was happening and at the same time also felt curious about the large cauldron located at the middle of the platform below.

Just what kind of artifact was the large cauldron that contained what could be considered a small world inside of it?

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Chapter 446 - Drifting Cloud Steps

Focusing back onto the large screen of light that showed what Qing Yi was currently doing inside, Xuan Hao soon lost interest and turned his attention towards the quest he had completed just a little while ago. After all, watching his disciple read through a dozen or so pill recipes was not really that interesting to him…

[Side Quest 2/2: Kill the demonic creature sealed in the underground cave(Complete)]

[Reward: Drifting Cloud Steps]

[Redeem: [Y/N]

Seeing that everything was in order and the quest had indeed been completed after Yi Min killed the demonic rat, Xuan Hao decided to redeem the reward without any hesitation.

Whoosh!

Following the fact that he redeemed the reward, Xuan Hao felt the similar feeling as he had when he first absorbed the knowledge from the system after Qing Yi was first promoted to a Journeyman Alchemist.

The only difference this time around, was that the information he received was way less compared to that time. After all, one was the alchemy knowledge worthy of someone at the peak of the Artisan Alchemist Realm with countless different recipes, while the other was just a single movement technique.

Different from the alchemy knowledge, he would have to learn the Drifting Cloud Steps from the start without any help…

With this in mind, Xuan Hao began reading through the Drifting Cloud Steps Movement Technique that he had just been given.

The Drifting Cloud Steps was different from any of the movement techniques he had seen before back in the Flying Sword Sect, as it required a certain degree of spatial manipulation. Meaning that for one to start practicing the Drifting Cloud Steps, one would at least need to be in the Domain Lord Realm…

Maybe someone talented enough might be able to grasp the Drifting Cloud Steps in the Half-Step Domain Lord Realm, but Xuan Hao did not really think too much about this. Mainly because his three disciples were still far away from reaching that level.

At the very least, he would have a strong movement technique to teach his disciples when they became strong enough in the future!

Having thought about this, Xuan Hao could not help but sigh as he looked up towards the light projection showing Qing Yi still busy looking through the potion recipes.

His two oldest disciples were both close to reaching the Core Formation Realm and could already be considered the strongest among their peers in the Flying Sword Sect, but… Xuan Hao could not help feeling that they were a bit weak when he looked around at the other youths who had showed up from around the Sky Empire to join the Alchemy Competition.

Even if they specialised in alchemy, the ones not from sects outside the core region of the Sky Empire, were all at the later stages of the Foundation Establishment Realm! There was even one who had already reached the Core Formation Realm!

It was worth mentioning that these youths spent most of their time practicing alchemy instead of cultivating! The ones who focused on increasing their cultivation realm… Xuan Hao felt that most of them would likely already have reached the Core Formation Realm at this point!

How could his disciples lack behind others by so much!?

"Hah… Looks like I will have to help Qing Yi and Chu Yang breakthrough to the Core Formation Realm when I get back… That way I will also be able to complete the main quest!"

Having made up his mind, Xuan Hao decided to make sure to spend some more time with his two oldest disciples and help them breakthrough to the Core Formation Realm after returning to the sect.

As for Bai Ning, he would not stress him too much given that he had only recently joined the Flying Sword Sect. Letting him enjoy his blacksmithing was a good plan for now… In the future, he would make sure Bai Ning learned a few techniques to protect himself.

After all, even if he wanted to become a great blacksmith, he would still have to learn a few things to protect himself… Just look at Yi Min, she was a splendid example of a great blacksmith with powerful techniques to protect herself from danger!

"Looks like she's finally going to start making a potion."

Seeing that Qing Yi stepped away from the small table filled with all sorts of potion recipes, Xuan Hao focused back onto the large light projection in the sky showing his disciple.

Helping his disciples increase their strength and learning the Drifting Cloud Steps could wait. For now, the most important thing was Qing Yi's performance during the Alchemy Trial and preventing the Artisan Alchemist Fang Shi from having any plans to steal away his disciple…

"Hm?"

Secretly glancing down towards Fang Shi standing on the platform as he was busy managing the situation inside the cauldron, Xuan Hao could not help but let out a slightly surprised voice upon spotting something.

"A rabbit tail…?"

Why does he have a rabbit tail!?

Not knowing about what had happened in the alchemy competition during his absence, Xuan Hao thought that Fang Shi might have some kind of weird hobby and felt even more adamant in preventing him from snatching away his disciple!

…

"Haha, looks like everything is going well inside the alchemy trial!"

Unaware of the fact that part of Qing Yi's Skin Strengthening Potion had not completely worn off yet, Fang Shi smiled happily as he observed the condition of everyone inside the cauldron.

"Though, I did not expect for them to do so well! The only one who did worse than expected on the first test, was that girl from the Flying Sword Sect… I hope she can do better during the second test…"

Feeling happy that almost everyone exceeded his expectations, Fang Shi could not help but feel that it was a little weird that Qing Yi was the only person who did worse than he had expected… Perhaps he had overestimated her?

"Master… Please stop talking to yourself… It's weird…"

"Cai Yu! Just wait for the competition to end-" L1tLagoon witnessed the first publication of this chapter on Ñøvl--B1n.

Hearing his disciple suddenly call out to him from the side and even daring to call him weird in front of the elders from the Iron Sky Kingdom standing nearby, Fang Shi felt a wave of embarrassment wash over him as he turned around to begin scolding her.

Whoosh~

Unfortunately for Fang Shi, the quick turn caused him to discover something weird close to his-

"W-what is this!? I thought it had already disappeared… Don't tell me, is there perhaps a permanent side effect to that potion!?"

Discovering the cute fluffy rabbit tail hidden behind the large outer robe he was wearing; Fang Shi began shivering as he remembered that some potions and pills caused permanent side effects that would not disappear over time and would be hard to recover from.

Given that he still had a small cute and fluffy rabbit tail, Fang Shi feared that Qing Yi's Skin Strengthening Potion might be one of those potions with permanent side effects…

If that was really the case, would he not have to live with a rabbit tail until he got back to his alchemy lab and figured out a way to remove it…?

Thinking about all of this, Fang Shi had completely forgotten to continue scolding Cai Yu, as the person in question curiously looked over towards him. Wondering why her master had suddenly frozen up and looked all embarrassed.

…

"Ah!"

Having realized something, Cai Yu barely managed to stop herself from laughing out loud, as she watched the embarrassed expression on her master's face.

Did he not check if the side effects had disappeared before coming back out and starting the Final Stage of the alchemy competition? There was no way he could just stop it now that it had already started…

"Master~ Did something happen~?"

With a cheeky grin on her face, Cai Yu looked over at her master, as he instantly understood that she knew what had happened.

"Ahm-! Nothing to worry about!"

"Hm? Are you sure~? I was almost certain that you were going to scold me just now…"

Not planning to let her master go, Cai Yu decided to use the opportunity to escape from whatever punishment her master had planned for her when they got back home.

Even if she enjoyed poking fun at her master from time to time, she still understood that her master's punishments were nothing to scoff at!

It had to be known, the last time she had stepped over the line, she was forced to take care of her master's collection of poisonous herbs…

With her strength back then, taking care of those poisonous spiritual herbs, while not deadly, was still a quite painful experience for her. Even when she tried to use her father to escape, he had directly refused her and allowed her master to punish her!

"You were just imagining things… How could I ever be angry with my dear disciple…?"

Hearing her master say this, Cai Yu smiled happily, she knew that she had escaped punishment.

"Indeed! It was just this disciple's imagination!"

Fang Shi did not take this to mind, as he was far more worried about how to get rid of his new permanent rabbit tail…

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Chapter 447 - A Dark Horse Appears!

Back inside the alchemy trial, Qing Yi had found a potion she wanted to make using the Smoldering Earth Flower and began picking out the rest of the spiritual herbs that she needed for the potion, among the spiritual herbs that were available to her during the second test.

The entire thing took no more than a few seconds, as Qing Yi soon began carefully preparing the different spiritual herbs she had just picked out. Leaving the Smoldering Earth Flower to the side for now.

Quickly, a few minutes passed…

"That should be it!"

Qing Yi finished preparing the spiritual herbs needed, with only the Smoldering Earth Flower left.

Taking a step back, Qing Yi soon began to inspect the spiritual herbs that she had just finished preparing. Wanting to make sure that she had not made any mistake along the way.

"Now, all that is left, is the Smoldering Earth Flower…"

Glancing over towards the Smoldering Earth Flower, Qing Yi could not help growing a bit nervous.

Not only was the Smoldering Earth Flower a Spirit Grade Spiritual Herb, but it was also an extremely dangerous spiritual herb to prepare from what she had managed to understand through the potion recipes.

The main danger brought about by the Smoldering Earth Flower, was even more odd, as it could explode if not handled correctly. The explosion itself was more than enough to kill someone at the Qi Condensation Realm according to what she had read through the different recipes…

Learning about this, Qing Yi had slowly started to regret the fact that she did not chose the ordinary looking Cave Moss. After all, it should be far less dangerous that the Smoldering Earth Flower that she had ended up picking…

"Hah… No use regretting my choice now…"

Muttering this to herself as she cautiously looked over the Smoldering Earth Flower currently placed on the table in front of her, Qing Yi slowly began to cut it according to the pill recipe. Making sure not to make any mistake in case it blew up in her face like the different potion recipes had described…

As Qing Yi was slowly starting to prepare the Smoldering Earth Flower, the rest of the participants were also currently at the second test of the alchemy trial. All having their own unique Spirit Grade Spiritual Herb for the test…

Among the participants, Qing Yi was the last person to have reached the second test and because of this, some of the other participants had already begun finishing up by the time Qing Yi was still preparing the spiritual herbs.

"Ah-! No-!"

Like this, the first person among the last twenty participants was eliminated during the second test, as he was directly transferred out of the alchemy trial the moment he failed.

…

"Yang Kai, 15 points. You can go over there and wait until the rest gets out!"

Seeing the first person being eliminated, Fang Shi could not help but sigh silently to himself while he directed the confused looking young man towards a small resting place that had just been set up for the participants to wait for the alchemy trial to finish up.

To be honest, Fang Shi already knew that the second test would end up eliminating quite a few of the participants due to its difficulty being quite a challenge for someone in the Expert Realm compared to the first test that was mostly used to test the alchemist's spiritual herb knowledge.

The second test of the alchemy trial could be considered the test that weeded out most of the people, while the third test would signify the true start of the alchemy trial… As for the fourth test and above? Fang Shi honestly did not expect any of the participants to pass more than the third test… L1tLagoon witnessed the first publication of this chapter on Ñøvl--B1n.

The main reason for this, was that for one to pass the third test, one would be considered to have the qualifications to be called an Expert Alchemist of the Sky Empire, while passing the fourth test would signify that one was already at the Peak of the Expert Alchemist Realm, close to becoming an Artisan Alchemist!

Passing the fifth test was not something someone in the Expert Alchemist Realm could do…

"Looks like that kid might have a chance to pass the fourth test…"

Glancing over towards the crown prince from the Dark Sky Kingdom, Fang Shi could not help but feel a bit surprised as he watched him easily pass the second test before moving onto the third test.

If things progressed like this, it looked like he would be taking in the young crown prince as his second disciple…

Given the talent he displayed, Fang Shi felt that even if he ended up offending his first disciple, Cai Yu, he would have to accept him!

The crowd also noticed that someone had managed to pass the second test and had moved through to the third test, as all of them focused their attention onto the crown prince of the Dark Sky Kingdom while cheering.

All of them were curious what the third test of the alchemy trial was all about…

"Hm? Who is that…?"

Having been focused on the crown prince of the Dark Sky Kingdom who just entered the third test area, Fang Shi suddenly blinked both his eyes as he realized someone else had just entered a few minutes after.

From this alone, Fang Shi could already tell that the person should be extremely talented like the crown prince. The only problem was the person in question was a little girl that did stand out during the last two competitions…

But this did not matter to Fang Shi, the thing he cared the most about was talent and the little girl very clearly displayed her talent by passing through the second test just a few minutes after the Dark Sky Kingdom's crown prince!

If Qing Yi was there, she would have realized that the little girl that had just made it to the third test was none other than the little girl she had been talking with during the second and first stage of the alchemy competition!

The little girl really did not stand out at all during the two past stages and only started to show off her talent during the alchemy trial!

All of a sudden, the spectators also began to notice the little girl also passing through to the third test of the alchemy trial, as they all felt like the two were likely to be the ones competing for the first place in the Alchemy Competition and the right to become the second person disciple of the Artisan Alchemist from the Sky Empire!

Even if the ordinary spectators were just normal citizen of the Iron Sky Kingdom, they still knew about the Sky Empire and just how powerful it was! It had to be remembered that the Iron Sky Kingdom was only considered one of the many kingdoms under the Sky Empire!

…

Blob~

At the same time that both the crowd of spectators and Fang Shi were eagerly watching the little girl and the crown prince begin the third test of the alchemy trial, Qing Yi had successfully finished preparing the Smoldering Earth Flower, as she had begun the brewing process.

The brewing process itself was not simple at all, as she would have to add in each of the spiritual herbs she had prepared beforehand, while carefully controlling the temperature of the flame. Making sure the unfinished potion mixture did not get too hot or cold.

At the very least, this process was far easier for her than any other alchemist, as she both practiced a fire-based cultivation mantra and had a fire related divine body…

For Qing Yi, controlling the temperature of the fire was the least of her concerns and soon enough, she had finished adding in all the spiritual herbs except the Smoldering Earth Flower without any problems…

"Hah!"

Taking a deep breath as she knew that the most difficult part of the brewing process was about to start, Qing Yi gently placed the Smoldering Earth Flower into the potion mixture.

If she was not careful during this process, Qing Yi knew that the fire qi inside the spiritual herb might end up going out of control. Ruining the potion mixture and directly eliminating her from the alchemy trial!

Fwoosh!

As the Smoldering Earth Flower entered the potion mixture, Qing Yi instantly felt the temperature of the mixture increase rapidly, as the colour changed into a crimson red.

FWOOSH!

This was already something she had expected, and Qing Yi did not only not try to lower the temperature of the unfinished potion mixture, but instead did her best to increase it even further.

This was the final step of the brewing process for the potion she had chosen to make, and it was also the most dangerous part of the brewing process.

During this process, Qing Yi would have to increase the temperature constantly until reaching a certain point, or the unfinished potion mixture would explode.

The reason for this, was that after adding in the Smoldering Earth Flower, the potion mixture changed from a mostly harmless mixture, into what could in essence be called an active bomb that would explode if it got too cold…

Why this happened? Qing Yi had no idea and the potion recipe did not explain why the Smoldering Earth Flower turned the relatively harmless potion mixture into some sort of weird bomb that would explode if it got too cold and the temperature didn't increase fast enough…

FWOOOSH!

For now, all Qing Yi had to do, was make sure she kept steadily increasing the temperature of the potion mixture!

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Chapter 448 - End Of Second Test

Following the constant increase in temperature of the flame, Qing Yi suddenly began to feel herself losing control over the flame under the cauldron.

The reason for this, was not that she couldn't control the flame herself. After all, she had controlled way hotter and more dangerous flames when she had fought people in the past. Instead, it was the pressure covering the mountain that had begun to interfere with her flame after it reached had reached a certain level!

At first, Qing Yi had only thought it would affect her physical strength. However, now the pressure had begun to influence her control of the fire!

If not for the fact that she was naturally gifted when it came to fire manipulation, Qing Yi was certain that she would have lost control of the flame below the cauldron and in turn ended up causing the potion mixture to explode!

Not to mention it exploding because it got too cold, the potion mixture could also explode if the temperature increased too quickly!

Fwoosh!

Having first-hand experienced how the pressure from the mountain had begun to influence her control over the flame, Qing Yi grew even more cautious as she did her utmost to make sure that the flame steadily continued to increase in temperature along with the potion mixture.

This time around, Qing Yi also paid way more attention to the pressure that covered the mountain in case it caused even more problems than it already had. The last thing she wanted, was for it to suddenly mess up her control once again and catch her off-guard at a crucial moment…

With this in mind, Qing Yi carefully observed as the potion mixture got closer and closer to completion.

"Only a little bit more…"

Muttering this to herself as she watched the crimson red potion mixture begin to settle down, Qing Yi narrowed her eyes dangerously. Not daring to relax in the slightest.

Failing on the second test was one thing and failing just before passing the second test was another. The latter was way more painful than the first…

Blob~

Along with the mixture bubbling wildly for a few seconds, Qing Yi smiled happily as she watched the potion mixture suddenly calm down before turning from a crimson red colour into a more orange colour.

Looking at the potion mixture, Qing Yi knew that she had succeeded and quickly retracted the flames below the cauldron, while waiting for the alchemy trial to take away her potion mixture and give her the points for completing the second test.

This time around, Qing Yi did not dare to have any thoughts about the remaining spiritual herbs. After all, she had just lost five points recently due to her trying to take away some of the spiritual herbs from the alchemy trial…

Whoosh~

Just as Qing Yi had expected a few seconds after she had completed the potion using the Smoldering Earth Flower, she watched the cauldron filled with the potion mixture sink into the ground before disappearing from sight.

Not paying too much attention to where the potion mixture had disappeared to, Qing Yi instead focused on the small stone slab with her information written on it, as she focused on the area where her points were noted down slowly begin to change.

"35 points…"

Seeing the number change from five to thirty-five, Qing Yi soon looked away and focused on the path leading further up the mountain that had become visible after she completed the second test.

"I wonder how many managed to pass the second test…"

Thinking out loud as she gazed back towards the place where the cauldron had been just a second ago, Qing Yi had a feeling that the second test should have eliminated quite a few people among the twenty remaining participants…

"Hah… No use thinking about that…" Shaking her head as she thought about this, Qing Yi focused back onto the path leading towards the next test with a determined look.

From the second test, Qing Yi had already realized that the tests increased by quite a lot in difficulty compared to the last and the dangers involved were not small either.

Just looking at the fact that every single one of the recipes available to her that used the Smoldering Earth Flower could explode at some point during both the preparation and brewing process, Qing Yi felt that the danger during the third test might even directly threaten her life!

Not that she thought the Artisan Alchemist would just allow them to die inside the alchemy trial, but it would never be wrong to be on the safe side in case something unexpected happened… The initial posting of this chapter occurred via noovelllbbin

Thinking about the upcoming third test and the dangers that might be involved in the test, Qing Yi began making her way up the narrow mountain path that had appeared just after she cleared the second test.

No matter how hard the third test was, Qing Yi was determined to pass it! If she could pass it, she was certain that she would be among the top of the participants and at that time would be guaranteed an extremely good reward!

Just thinking about the spiritual herbs, she would be rewarded with for getting into the top five caused Qing Yi's determination to reach an entirely new level…

…

Outside the alchemy trial, Xuan Hao was happily smiling to himself as he watched Qing Yi successfully pass through the second test before moving on to the third test of the alchemy trial.

From looking at how the other participants were preforming in the third test; Xuan Hao could tell that the third test was likely to be the last and at the same time most difficult…

Other than that, Xuan Hao spent most of his time going over the Drifting Cloud Steps without paying too much attention to anything else happening around him.

Given that the enemies of Yi Min had already been dealt with together with the demonic rat and the demonic cultivator, Xuan Hao did not feel like anything more could happen.

After all, Yi Min had in a sense experienced three different enemy groups that could destroy her kingdom if she was not careful… There was no way she would be unlucky enough to encounter a fourth enemy on the same day…

…

At the same time Xuan Hao was relaxing while eating some of the snacks inside the spectator room, Fang Shi was looking over towards the area where the participants who had been eliminated during the alchemy trial was located with a depressed expression on his face.

Fifteen people! Fifteen out of the twenty who had moved on to the final stage and entered the alchemy trial had been eliminated during the second test!

Even if he had expected for a large number of the participants to be eliminated during the second test, he had never expected for so many of them to be eliminated!

Not to mention the reason why they had all been eliminated was that they had all chosen the same Spirit Grade Spiritual Herb!

The Smoldering Earth Flower!

Somehow, the spiritual herb had ended up among most of the participants choices and in the end most of the participants had ended up choosing this spiritual herb!

It was not that he didn't understand their reason, as the Smoldering Earth Flower looked like a simple fire based spiritual herb from the outside… But Fang Shi knew very well that this was not the case!

Not only was the Smoldering Earth Flower among one of the most difficult spiritual herbs to prepare and use for its grade, but it also tended to explode with the smallest mistake during the preparation and concocting /brewing process!

During the last half hour, Fang Shi had already exhausted himself quite a bit in an attempt to safe the unfortunate participants who messed up and caused an explosion…

To make a pill or potion using the Smoldering Earth Flower, was a task that took the utmost precision when it came to both control of fire and preparing the spiritual herb itself!

"Someone actually succeeded…"

For this reason, Fang Shi was extremely surprised when he witnessed Qing Yi successfully make a potion using the Smoldering Earth Flower!

Among more than half the participants who had ended up trying to make a pill using the Smoldering Earth Flower, Qing Yi was the only person who had succeeded and moved on to the third test!

"Looks like I was not wrong about her!"

Smiling to himself as he thought his earlier judgment of her was indeed correct, Fang Shi could not help but look over towards the crown prince of the Dark Sky Kingdom and the little girl who had already started the third test of the alchemy trial.

Looking at these three young people, Fang Shi had a feeling that his future disciple would likely end up being among one of them. Deep down, he hoped that it would be one of the two girls, as his first disciple, Cai Yu, would not complain to him if she ended up getting a cute junior sister instead of a smelly junior brother who chased after her…

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