Chapter 382: Departure

Preparing for the alchemy competition, Xuan Hao was not the only person who was worried. Instead, the elders from the Alchemy Hall were the most worried about the alchemy competition.

The reason for this, was that the outcome of the alchemy competition would end up affecting the disciples outlook on the Alchemy Hall and could either help them gain a lot of interested new disciples to join the Alchemy Hall or in turn cause the few who were already interested in joining to stay away...

Qing Yi's improvement over the last few months. Even if she had improved a lot, still did not manage to calm down the elders of the Alchemy Hall completely.

After all, it was highly likely that she would end up competing against an alchemist from the Sky Empire! Someone like that would likely have practiced alchemy for a way longer time than Qing Yi and at the same time might also have access to way better alchemist that could help them out.

In the worst-case scenario, someone who had been guided by one of the few Master Alchemist in the Sky Empire might even end up showing up!

This could result in the unfortunate thing of Qing Yi being knocked out of the competition in the early stages. Not something the elders from the Alchemy Hall wanted to see... But all they could do was to be worried by themselves, as the day of departure finally arrived.

"Is everyone here?" Standing at the stable of the beast tamers, Gong Bo asked with an anxious look on his face.

"No! Elder Xuan and his disciple are still missing, we should get ready to leave so we can leave the moment they show up."

Answering the short elder from the Alchemy Hall, another elder from the Alchemy Hall told him before getting up on a nearby flying demon beast.

For the journey, the Alchemy Hall had decided to use flying demon beasts. Using land-based demon beasts was simply way too slow and they would also have to deal with way more ambushes along the way.

"Elder Xuan and Qing Yi is not here yet...?" Hearing the answer from the elder, Gong Bo began growing worried as he nervously looked over in the direction of Xuan Hao's pavilion.

Even though he knew that he had arrived way earlier than the time that they had planned, Gong Bo was still nervous when he saw everyone already here expect Xuan Hao and Qing Yi.

I really should not have asked everyone to come before the planned time...

Thinking this to himself as he smiled wryly while looking up towards the still dark sky with the sun not going to appear any time soon...

...

A few hours later, Xuan Hao had just gotten up from his night of cultivating before looking for Qing Yi to leave for the alchemy competition.

"Master! Are we leaving now!"

Opening the door to her room with an excited expression on her face and a few dark circles under her eyes from a clear lack of sleep, Qing Yi asked in an excited tone.

"Yes... But we will first have to say goodbye to your two junior brothers before leaving..." Not wanting to ask her about the dark circles under her eyes, Xuan Hao and Qing Yi both went to find a tired Bai Ning to say goodbye before going out to find Chu Yang already up training at the training ground to say goodbye.

Followed by another quick visit to the winged lion that would protect the Flying Sword Sect while he was gone, Xuan Hao and Qing Yi both made their way towards the stable of the beast tamers where they had agreed to meet the elders from the Alchemy Hall.

"Gong Bo... Is something wrong...?" Looking at one of the core elders of the Alchemy Hall that would be going with them nervously walking back and forth with an anxious look on his face, Xuan Hao could not help but think that something bad had happened.

Maybe the flying demon beasts they were going to use had suddenly gotten sick or something?

"Elder Xuan! Qing Yi! Both of you are finally here! Nothing is wrong, nothing is wrong! I was just a bit nervous when thinking about the alchemy competition, that's all!" Hearing Xuan Hao's voice, Gong Bo excitedly ran over and almost tripped over his long beard as he hurriedly explained.

Seeing that Xuan Hao didn't say anything after hearing his explanation, Gong Bo heaved a sigh of relief before quickly running into the stable of the beast tamers before coming out with a large black bird demon beast that could barely make its way out of the stable without accidently hitting the top of the entrance to the stable.

"This is the Great Raven demon beast, I personally got the beast tamers to prepare it for you and your disciple to use during the journey, Elder Xuan! It's by far one of the best flying demon beasts that we currently have in the sect, being at the Peak of the Core Formation Realm! I even heard that the sect master personally caught it in the past!"

Introducing the Great Raven demon beast to the best of his abilities, Gong Bo quickly came over with the Great Raven demon beast.

"I see... Thanks..." Not knowing what to say to Gong Bo as he watched how disdainfully the Great Raven demon beast was looking at him while he introduced it to him, Xuan Hao discreetly let out a small bit of his aura to intimidate the Great Raven demon beast a bit.

After all, he did not want a repeat of what happened the last time he flew with a demon beast from the sect...

"!"

Not saying a word as it felt his terrifying aura coming from Xuan Hao, the Great Raven demon beast completely froze up as it looked over at Xuan Hao with a fearful expression on its face.

W-who is that human?! He is even more terrifying than the person who caught me!

With these few thoughts passing through its mind, the Great Raven demon beast was way smarter than the shadow hawk and decided to not offend Xuan Hao.

Did that human perhaps have anything to do with what happened to that youngling Shadow Hawk...? And now I'm going to fly with that terrifying human on my back...!

Thinking about this, the Great Raven suddenly felt Xuan Hao had become even more scary than before, as it started shivering violently. Not even daring to take a single step back in fear that it would end up like the Shadow Hawk...

"Haha, looks like the Great Raven is all excited knowing that it will get to fly Elder Xuan!" From the side, Gong Bo could not help but smile happily as he exclaimed upon seeing the Great Ravens behaviour.

Stupid human! Who is exited to fly that terrifying monster! I want to go back!

"Should we get going now that everyone has arrived?" Ignoring the angry glares he got from the Great Raven demon beast, Gong Bo asked Xuan Hao as he had already gotten on top of his own flying demon beast along with the rest of the elders that were going to join them for the alchemy competition.

Looking at the few elders that were present, Xuan Hao could not help but feel a bit surprised when he discovered Chi Hu among the elders that were joining them.

"Yeah, let's get going."

But this did not really surprise him too much as he had already expected that someone other than him among the core elders would be joining, he had just not expected for the recently added core elder Chi Hu to be the one.

Whoosh!

After Xuan Hao's words, the small group made up of a few members from the Alchemy Hall, Chi Hu, Xuan Hao and Qing Yi set off towards the alchemy competition.

In a sense, this was after all his first encounter with someone from the Sky Empire... Outside of the ones he had unknowingly seen in the secret realm from a distance...

The first real encounter with the Sky Empire, Xuan Hao, both feared it and looked forward to it at the same time. This was after all an empire that had someone who surpassed the Domain Lord Realm in it...

...

BOOM!

"Haha! I finally managed to breakthrough to the Domain Lord Realm! I have to thank Elder Xuan in the future when I have a chance!"

At the same time, over in the Spring Flower Sect, Shu Yao was laughing happily as she had finally managed to consolidate a domain of her own. Reaching the Domain Lord Realm!

Along with her joyful voice, a field of flowers appeared all around her as her domain manifested itself, Shu Yao was ecstatic at her breakthrough to the Domain Lord Realm.

The flower field seemed to go on forever with Shu Yao at the centre of this field of flowers. Happily laughing to herself, as the countless flower around her began blooming in all kinds of colours in response to her happy emotions.