Entering the Flying Sword Sect, Xuan Hao immediately made his way over to the Sect Master's pavilion and handed the notebook of Lord Kubera over to him, before making his way back to his own pavilion.
It had not taken as much time as Xuan Hao had expected for it to take, so his disciples should be quite surprised upon seeing him again so quickly…
"Maybe I should just go to the Burning Mountain Range and practice a bit… They won't know that I had returned anyways and will most likely just think that I'm still out handling the task given to me by the sect master…" Coming to a stop on his way back to his pavilion, Xuan Hao looked in the direction of where it was located.
"Indeed, I have to at least know how strong I am…" After thinking over it for a bit, Xuan Hao decided to enter the Burning Mountain Range once again, this time just to find a demon beast to practice with and find out how strong he currently was compared to the past him.
"You have to make sure the Spirit Jade Flowers are nurtured with water qi on a daily basis, or they will simply die out!"
As Xuan Hao left the sect once again, Qing Yi was currently doing her best to train up her recently recovered junior brother up to become the best botanist out there.
"Qing Yi, there is someone out there asking for you." A voice drifted over from the entrance to the greenhouse that Qing Yi and Chu Yang were currently in, as Qing Yi turned around and looked towards the source of the voice.
"Zhi Ruo? Do you perhaps know who it is and what they want? I'm quite busy at the moment as you can see…" Qing Yi signalled towards Chu Yang, as the person in question resumed what he was doing beforehand.
"The person said that he was from the Alchemy Hall… He also said that if you would still not come, I should tell you about a competition with a really lucrative prize happening soon."
"A lucrative prize!?" Hearing what Zhi Ruo said, Qing Yi threw the book she had in her hand away and immediately appeared besides Zhi Ruo with a smile on her lips.
"Come, let's go immediately!"
As the book hit Chu Yang directly in the back of his head, causing him to almost pass out due to the force behind the throw, Qing Yi soon left the greenhouse together with Zhi Ruo.
"…" Chu Yang soon turned to look around the greenhouse after he recovered, only to discover that he had been left alone once again…
"Ah, so it's senior brother Yu! What was the competition that Zhi Ruo mentioned?" Outside of the pavilion, Yu was standing there quietly as he saw Qing Yi rush out of the pavilion, it looked like the method that Zeng Shihan had taught him worked quite well!
"Recently the Alchemy Hall of our sect has gotten invited to a youth alchemy competition. The competition is supposedly supported by the Sky Empire and the prizes for even getting into the top 100 is extremely lucrative. From what I Know, at the moment, you are the only one who reaches the right age for participating in the competition in our Alchemy Hall, so I came over to ask if you were interested to join… Even just joining would allow one to get a participation award of quite a few spirit stones~" Explaining with a smile on his face, senior Yu looked expectingly at Qing Yi.
"I-I really want to join, but I will have to ask my master first… H-how long do I have until it starts?" Struggling a lot with not just accepting right away, Qing Yi asked senior Yu.
"Haha, you don't need to worry about it, I know that your master is out at the moment. The competition will only begin in little over half a years' time, so you can just ask your master when he returns." Knowing the reason for her struggle, senior Yu laughed a bit upon seeing this before he reassured her.
"Great! By the way, what is the reason for the competition? Why is the Sky Empire hosting a competition all of a sudden?" Smiling happily upon realizing that there was more than enough time before the competition, Qing Yi suddenly asked about the reason behind it.
No matter what, the Sky Empire would not host a competition for no reason all of a sudden and even give away some valuable stuff to attract people to come and participate…
"Indeed… From what I know, apparently an old Artisan Alchemist from the Sky Empire is looking to take in a disciple and decided to set up the competition to find a disciple. The reason for the age requirement is also because of this, the Artisan Alchemist would not want to take in someone from the older generation and instead wanted someone young and talented..." A slight sadness could be seen in senior Yu's eyes when he mentioned this.
"…" Qing Yi decided to not interrupt him as she just quietly watches senior Yu slowly come to terms with that fact that he was no longer so young anymore.
"The Alchemy Hall decided that if you were going to accept and join the competition, we would make sure to help you improve over the next half year! Of course, that is after we have dealt with the recent plague outbreak first…" Thinking about the plague that was still getting worse and worse in the central region, senior Yu really wanted for a solution to appear soon so things could return to normal again.
Having to constantly dedicate his time to helping with research was extremely exhausting! Especially when it was not something he originally wanted to research in the first place, he even had to cut out the time he normally used to improve himself to study the plague and trying to find a way to cure it…
"For now, follow me back to the Alchemy Hall, we need to get you some new books and a few new pill and potion formulas as well." With this, senior Yu lead the way as both of them made their way towards the Alchemy Hall.
"Ah, Zhi Ruo, please get Chu Yang some food, he is currently in the greenhouse training in how to properly take care of plants and herbs!" Just before she disappeared down the mountain peak, Qing Yi remembered Chu Yang this time around as she instructed Zhi Ruo to take care of him and make sure he got something to eat this time around.
"…" Zhi Ruo just quietly nodded as she looked at where Qing Yi had disappeared before looking back at the pavilion in the direction of the greenhouse that Chu Yang was staying at.