1078 Branch of the Blue Sea Empire's Intelligence Department

Different from the first time he had visited the city, Xuan Hao clearly sensed that the Earth Immortal Realm Expert that should have been from the Explorer Union inside the city was nowhere. Not only that, but he also noticed that the Earth Immortal that the border guard had told him guarded the city and whom he had seen fighting the giant snake demon beast in the past was also nowhere to be seen.

From the looks of things, the Earth Immortal Realm Expert in charge of protecting the city should still be dealing with the snake demon beast. Making him curious about just how far away the Sky Empire was from the ocean.

After all, the snake demon beast's goal was to escape to the ocean… And given the speed of someone in the Earth Immortal Realm and the fact that over two months had passed since then, it was obvious that the ocean should be farther away from the Sky Empire than he had first thought.

Of course, there was also the possibility that the snake demon beast found it impossible to escape into the ocean and instead escaped somewhere else to hide away from the two Earth Immortal Realm Experts chasing after it.

On the other hand, he had no idea why the Earth Immortal Realm Expert that he guessed to be from the Explorer Union had left the city.

But… No matter what the case was, it at least meant that he didn't have to worry about any Earth Immortal Realm Experts during his time inside the city. Making him feel far more at ease compared to the first time he visited the city.

At least this time around, he felt that he could explore the city without fearing running into an Earth Immortal Realm cultivator or more realistically, offending someone related to one of the Earth Immortal Realm Experts inside the city.

Feeling far more relaxed than before, Xuan Hao wasted no time in asking a few of the locals about where it would be best to get information and to his shock, he found out that the best location for information was not the Explorer Union branch located inside the city. Instead, it was the city hall located at the center of the city.

Apparently, when it came to information inside and surrounding the Blue Sea Empire, the Explorer Union had no way to compare with the Blue Sea Empire.

Even if the Explorer Union had been better when it came to this sort of thing in the past, it was obvious that them being partly blocked from the Blue Sea Empire had weakened their influence in this part of the continent severely.

Not only that, but when trying to ask the locals about the Explorer Union, it was rather obvious that they weren't too keen on talking about them. Making it clear that the hostility towards the Explorer Union didn't just come from the imperial family of the Blue Sea Empire, but also the normal people below them.

I wonder what caused the ordinary citizen to not like the Explorer Union…

As he thought about this to himself while making his way towards the city hall at the center of the city, Xuan Hao could not help glancing towards the branch from the Explorer Union that was located not too far away from the center where he had sensed the Earth Immortal Realm Expert the last time, he had visited the city.

From a glance, it was not even a branch of the Explorer Union like he had been told before, but instead just a large treasure hall for exchanging and buying different artifacts and other useful things for cultivation.

Even if it had been called a branch of the Explorer Union by quite a few people he had talked to since entering the city, it was obvious that this was not the case.

Considering that the Explorer Union should still not be allowed to have any branch inside the Blue Sea Empire due to their past actions, Xuan Hao also felt a sense of relief after confirming that it was just a treasure hall. Not because he had anything against the Explorer Union, but because he was happy that the information Yi Min had given him seemed to match up with the current situation in the Blue Sea Empire.

That was… If one didn't mention the fact that the ordinary citizen also seemed to be hostile towards the Explorer Union.

Shaking his head as he thought about this, Xuan Hao suppressed the curious part of himself that wanted to explore the treasure hall of the Explorer Union and instead made his way towards a large palace complex covering an area the size of a city on its own.

"Place your hand here."

Following the stream of people entering the palace complex that housed the governmental buildings of the city, Xuan Hao didn't think too much as he placed his hand on the all too familiar strange artifact after being asked to do so by one of the guards standing at the entrance to the palace complex.

"Hm?! Explorer Union!?"

"Is something wrong?" Hearing the sudden exclamation from the guard as he rummaged through his information, Xuan Hao could not help feeling like something bad was going to happen as he asked this.

Although he had expected his identity as someone from the Explorer Union would be bad inside the Blue Sea Empire, he had never expected such a reaction from the guard after looking through his information. Especially so after his relatively peaceful encounters with the border guard.

"You-"

Whoosh~!

Just as the guard was about to say something, his colleague grabbed him by the shoulder and pointed towards something on the strange device.

"Ah…"

Not a second later, the guard's face went pale as he began trembling fearfully. Not daring to say a single word as he glanced towards his colleague for help.

"Excuse my friend's behavior just now, you can continue inside."

"No problem…"

Not knowing what had happened, Xuan Hao just nodded his head and made his way inside the palace complex where several different buildings for the different departments in charge of managing the city were located.

"You idiot! Didn't I tell you that we can only turn away those from the Explorer Union at the Domain Lord Realm and below!? What in the world gave you the courage to try and turn away someone in the Soul Ascension. Not only that, but someone at the Peak of the Soul Ascension Realm!?"

"I-I'm sorry senior! I just got used to-"

Smack!

"Hmph! Don't try and make excuses! Even if our Blue Sea Empire is at odds with the Explorer Union, it won't be good for us to directly offend a powerful existence from the Explorer Union. After all, even if we are at peace at the moment, someone like that would be able to easily get rid of two Domain Lords like us without anyone finding out!"

"Sorry…"

Not too long after Xuan Hao left, the slightly more experienced guard wasted no time in scolding his junior.

Even if they were guards of the town hall and belonged to the Blue Sea Empire, it didn't mean that they could just go around offending anyone they liked. Even more so when it came to experts in the Soul Ascension Realm and above.

After all, they might end up unlucky enough to encounter a solitary expert who didn't care about the Blue Sea Empire and decided to kill them before leaving and never return again.

Considering the strength of the border guards, someone who could do this would at least have to be in the Soul Ascension Realm, hence the reason why these guards would try their best to avoid offending anyone in the Soul Ascension Realm…

At the same time that the newer guard was in the process of being scolded by his senior, Xuan Hao arrived in front of a relatively small building located at the far north of the palace complex. 

The reason why he had come to the palace complex was none other than this small and rather inconspicuous building.

"Blue Sea Empire, intelligence department." Reading the words on the sign above the entrance to the small building, Xuan Hao didn't hesitate as he made his way inside. Soon finding himself face to face with a rather exhausted looking woman who looked to be in her early twenties.

"Is there anything I can help with? If you are here from the central department, please inform them that we have already submitted the required-"

"Ehm… I'm not here for that, I'm here to buy information." Interrupting the woman who looked like she was about to turn around and leave after she finished talking, Xuan Hao felt her suddenly narrow her eyes as she scanned him from head to toe.

"You want to buy information? Haaa… And here I thought it was something from the central department coming to complain again… Follow me and we will talk about it in a private room…" Hearing her let out a sigh of relief as she said this before signaling for him to follow, Xuan Hao decided to just remain silent as he followed her into a private room located at the back of the building.

To his shock, he discovered that outside the exhausted looking woman, there were only a few dozen people inside the building. All of them buried in large stacks of paper as they used their divine sense to rapidly scan through all of them and note down anything of importance.