Chapter 1164: Storage Woes

Continuing to walk along the path going through the spiritual herb fields on the summit of the Ninth Star Peak, Xuan Hao soon made his way down to the base of the Ninth Star Peak inside the chaotic qi formation.

At the same time, it was also here that the storage buildings used for storing the spiritual herb seeds that had yet to be planted on the Ninth Star Peak and the already harvested spiritual herbs.

For this reason alone, the number of people present at the base of the Ninth Star Peak had significantly increased compared to last time he walked through the place, as a large number of alchemist could be seen trying to get their hands on some of the more recently harvested spiritual herbs that had a fresher and higher quality compared to those that had been in storage for a longer period of time.

"Hm? Qing Yi?"

Among the large number of alchemist present surrounding a particular storage building that seemed to have just recently been filled, Xuan Hao managed to spot his first disciple eagerly rummaging through a large number of spiritual herbs that had been laid out for the alchemist to buy with the contribution points they had managed to earn from the Grand Mission Pavilion.

Of course, considering that Qing Yi shouldn't have been one to leave the sect to hunt down demon beasts or bandits causing trouble in the territory of the sect, he guessed that most of her contribution points had been earned through her alchemy. Concocting different pills and potions for the disciples and elders of the sect.

After all, even if she was his personal disciple, there wasn't any monthly stipend of contribution points that she would receive from the sect. Although... She could always sell off the cultivation resources she got from the sect for contribution points, but that was unlikely as it would hamper her own cultivation.

Thinking about this as he watched how Qing Yi essentially bought up close to a quarter of the spiritual herbs laid out, Xuan Hao decided to walk over after seeing that she was done finding the spiritual herbs she was looking for and was about to leave.

"M-master!?"

Seeing her master suddenly appearing in front of her, Qing Yi could not help letting out a slightly surprised voice as she quickly stopped herself before she ended up attracting the attention of the nearby disciples. Understanding that they would both get surrounded the moment these disciples realized that he was there.

"Don't worry about it, I already used my domain to isolate the area around us. Not to mention, none of them can see me at the moment." Noticing the worried expression on Qing Yi's face as she looked around at the surrounding disciples to see if any of them had noticed her calling out to him just now, Xuan Hao could not help chuckling to himself as he said this.

"I-I see... " Hearing that he had already isolated the area around them with his domain, Qing Yi let out a sigh of relief as she calmed down. No longer worried that they might end up being swarmed by the surrounding disciples who would want nothing more than an opportunity to receive the guidance of someone like her master.

After all, Xuan Hao was the strongest expert in the Star Shattering Sect and his guidance when it came to cultivation could be considered unparalleled in the eyes of the disciples. Even with Pei Yang in the Earth Immortal Realm starting to teach these younger disciples, they still felt that Xuan Hao was superior, as he had been the one to invite Pei Yang and convince him to join the sect.

This soon became a fact in the eyes of the disciples when the chances to listen to Xuan Hao's lectures became far more difficult to come by. The normal once every three months he had done in the past disappearing over the past few years as he was busy in the Blue Sea Empire and the Blue Shore Kingdom...

"Master, I haven't seen you for the past few months after you returned from the Blue Sea Empire. Did something urgent perhaps happen?" Taking a few seconds to compose herself, Qing Yi could not help asking this as she curiously looked over at her master. Wondering what had happened over the past few months, as he had seemingly disappeared into thin air just a few days after he had returned to the sect.

"This..." Hearing what Qing Yi said and seeing her confused expression while asking this, Xuan Hao could not help smiling wryly. Not knowing what to say in this situation. After all, it was not like he could tell her that he suddenly got an emergency quest from the system that forced him to focus all of his attention on finding a way to reach the Pseudo Saint Realm in blacksmithing...

Ah! There is that...

"Indeed, something did come up at our border with the Frozen Wasteland, requiring me to take immediate action to create a barrier to prevent any demonic cultivators from entering the sect's territory in the near future.

Outside of that, there was also a crisis at the Iron Sky Kingdom that they couldn't deal with, so I also ended up paying them a visit. At the same finalizing talks about the Iron Sky Kingdom becoming part of the Star Shattering Sect." Suddenly remembering the barrier he had created at the border of the Frozen Wasteland and the recent happenings in the Iron Sky Kingdom, Xuan Hao nodded seriously as he said this with a slight frown on his face to make it a bit more believable that this was the reason he had been gone for the past few months without informing any of them.

"Huh? S-something like that happened!? And the Iron Sky Kingdom decided to officially join the sect...? I heard Elder Song had been having quite a bit of trouble with that lately, as expected of master!"

Luckily for Xuan Hao, Qing Yi didn't suspect that there was anything wrong with what her master said, as she already had some idea about the current situation with the Iron Sky Kingdom and understood how difficult it had been for Elder Song to convince Yi Min to join the Star Shattering Sect.

The matter about the Frozen Wasteland wasn't something that was hard to believe either, as news of the surge in demonic cultivators surging into every kingdom and empire unlucky enough to border the Frozen Wasteland was already quite well known across the sect. Even causing some of the disciples and elders to worry about potentially having to deal with a potential large influx of demonic cultivators.

In a sense, it was also because of this fear of demonic cultivators starting to cause chaos in the territory of the Star Shattering Sect, that a lot of these elders and disciples had taken on missions to kill demonic cultivators from the Grand Mission Pavilion whenever they appeared.

"Hehe, no need to praise me like that. For now, you should store away those spiritual herbs. After all, even though you can keep them like this for the short term, the quality of the spiritual herbs will decrease if not stored properly for an extended period of time."

"Yes! I understand master!" Nodding her head, Qing Yi took out the few containers for spiritual herbs that she had in her interspatial ring before filling them to the brim with the different spiritual herbs she had bought before they had a chance to stay out long enough to start losing some of their efficiency and freshness.

"Ah! I don't have enough..." It was only after stuffing half of the spiritual herbs she had bought away in containers that was then stored in her interspatial ring, that she realized that she had bought far more spiritual herbs than she had space for.

"..."

Seeing this, Xuan Hao could not help looking up at the clouds above with a hint of disbelief flashing through his eyes.

Who decided to go buy spiritual herbs without making sure they had enough space to carry the spiritual herbs that they bought?

Thinking this as he watched a rabbit shaped cloud floating above him, Xuan Hao didn't bother making a bit deal about it as he just took out some of the spiritual herb containers that he had been generously gifted by the demonic cultivators that he had dealt with during his and Yi Min's journey to the Blue Shore Kingdom.

Whoosh~!

"Ah! Thank you master!"

Grabbing the spiritual herb containers that her master handed her, Qing Yi smiled brightly as she began stuffing the last remaining spiritual herbs into them before placing them into her interspatial ring. During the entire ordeal, Xuan Hao just watched silently as his disciple borderline abused the spiritual herbs by stuffing them into containers that would under normal circumstances only contain a single spiritual herb. Not twenty like Qing Yi had been stuffing into them...