Chapter 403 - Back To The Manor

"That was close…" Looking back towards the place where the entrance to the underground tunnel was located, Xuan Hao could not help but mutter to himself, he only wanted to find out who had been planning to deal with the Iron Sky Kingdom as it might end up affecting him now that he, his disciple and a few of the elders from his sect were staying during the competition.

To be honest, Xuan Hao didn't really expect to encounter someone in the Domain Lord Realm. Not to mention encounter two people in the Domain Lord Realm! One of them being around the same realm as himself, while the other should be above the Fourth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm…

By how much, Xuan Hao would not know without fighting the person first. At the very least, he did not want to end up fighting against both Domain Lords at the same time.

Whoosh~

Thinking about this as he made his way back through the crack in the capital wall without being seen, Xuan Hao soon decided to make his way back to the manor before the sun came back up again and his dear first disciple, Qing Yi, came to ask him for help with her alchemy.

However, before all of that, he wanted to go through the documents he had gotten his hands on and see if he could find out who the underground base belonged to and maybe even find out who the two Domain Lords were…

…

"Elder Xuan? Did you check out the eastern part of the capital?" Arriving back at the manor that had been allocated for them to stay at during the alchemy competition, Xuan Hao happened to bump into Chi Hu sitting down on a stone bench at the small garden located in front of the manor.

"Yes… How come you are out here?" Not asking how Chi Hu had managed to guess where he went, Xuan Hao was instead more curious about why Chi Hu was sitting outside in the middle of the night just staring up at the dark sky above.

"No reason, I was just thinking about a few things… You know, this isn't really my first time inside the core territory of the Sky Empire. The Iron Sky Kingdom is just so different from the kingdom I visited back then…" Sighing a bit to himself before standing up from the stone bench, Chi Hu looked over towards Xuan Hao who had just appeared at the entrance of the small garden in front of the manor.

"Not your first time? I guess you were a wandering cultivator before I got you to join the sect… Did you perhaps manage to visit the capital city of the Sky Empire in the past?" Hearing Chi Hu talk about having visited the core territory of the Sky Empire, Xuan Hao could not help growing excited.

After all, he really wanted to find out about the Sky Empire and more importantly than that, the capital of the Sky Empire where at the very least one of the two Soul Ascension Realm Experts of the Sky Empire would be staying.

Even in the records kept by the Flying Sword Sect, Xuan Hao had not managed to find anything written about the capital of the Sky Empire.

He could find records of the different Domain Lords that lived in the Sky Empire and their domain, but he couldn't find anything about the capital?

This alone had been more than enough to cause Xuan Hao's curiosity about the capital of the Sky Empire to grow the more he managed to see of the Sky Empire outside of just the kingdoms located around the Flying Sword Sect that were no stronger than the past Heavenly Sky Kingdom.

"The capital of the Sky Empire?"

"Yes, have you visited in the past or perhaps know anything about it?" Ignoring the clearly confused look that had appeared on Chi Hu's face after hearing Xuan Hao's random question, Xuan Hao continued to ask him.

"Hm… I have never really managed to visit the capital of the Sky Empire. After all, it's simply located way too far away from here and given that my cultivation realm was only at the Core Formation Realm at the time, it might have ended up taking me my entire lifespan to reach the capital… Not to mention how dangerous it would be to travel through strong kingdoms with Domain Lords ruling them and plenty of people in the Nascent Soul Realm!" Shaking his head as he said this, Chi Hu soon put on a thoughtful look.

"I see… I forgot just how far away the capital of the Sky Empire truly is. Even with my cultivation realm, it would take weeks if not months to reach…" A little disappointed after hearing that Chi Hu had not visited the capital of the Sky Empire, Xuan Hao shook his head. Not intending to blame Chi Hu for not being able to satiate his curiosity.

"But… I have heard a bit about it from a fellow wandering cultivator that I once travelled together with for a few months, I really do wonder how that guy is doing now… From what he last told me; he should be somewhere in the core territory of the Sky Empire currently. Given how young he was compared to me, he should not be anywhere near passing away from old age like I was…"

Turning a little reminiscent towards the end, Chi Hu soon let out a sigh before continuing.

"From what he told me; the capital of the Sky Empire is not like any city he had seen before. Easily being large enough to cover the same space as an entire kingdom! Not only that, but several different independent spaces or secret realms have been set up over the years by both the Imperial Family and the different that exist inside the capital city.

The only other thing he told me, was that the capital is split up into two sides. One being the ruling family and the other being the different religious orders… Outside of that, I know nothing more about the capital of the Sky Empire."

"No problem at all, I still have something to do, so I will get going first. Thanks for helping me understand a bit more about the capital of the Sky Empire!"

Having listened attentively to what Chi Hu said, Xuan Hao talked with Chi Hu for a few more minutes before heading back into the manor, he still had to go through the documents he had stolen earlier before the sun rose and he would have to teach Qing Yi…

…

"No name or any location of other bases…" Having made his way into the manor and found himself an isolated room to look through the documents he had stolen from the underground base, Xuan Hao was a bit disappointed upon realizing that there was nothing about the name of the organisation that the underground base belonged to nor was there anything about any other bases.

Even finding out who the two Domain Lords he had encountered down there, was not possible through the documents he had stolen…

But at least there is some information about their plans regarding the Iron Sky Kingdom!

Thinking this to himself as he looked through the documents, Xuan Hao soon sorted the large quantity of documents into the two piles, the one for documents with useful information and the one for documents without any useful information.

The majority of which ended up being useless documents filled with information about small missions like the one the group of thieves he had followed were on to gather spiritual metal through stealing it from the Iron Sky Kingdom.

The useful information he managed to gather on the other hand, was more than enough to help him understand that an attack on the Iron Sky Kingdom would not be happening any time soon!

The documents themselves were mostly made up of different request for materials made between the underground base and what he assumed to be the headquarters of the power that the underground base belonged to.

In those requests, Xuan Hao was clearly able to make out the fact that the people planning to attack the Iron Sky Kingdom were still not finished preparing and would not be attacking the Iron Sky Kingdom any time soon.

By the point that the attack happened, Xuan Hao and the rest of the people who came together with him would have long since left the Iron Sky Kingdom!

Thinking a bit more about it, Xuan Hao also felt that it would not be a good idea for the enemy of the Iron Sky Kingdom to attack when an Artisan Alchemist from the Sky Empire was present…

After all, there was no way an Artisan Alchemist would just visit the Iron Sky Kingdom without any form of protection!

The most obvious of which would be a set of powerful talismans imbued with the power of a powerful cultivator from the capital of the Sky Empire!

There was even a chance that the Alchemist had managed to get his hands on a talisman created by one of the two Soul Ascension Realm Experts… No matter what, attacking the capital of the Iron Sky Kingdom now was not a good idea for the enemies of the Iron Sky Kingdom.

For this reason, Xuan Hao began relaxing as he used his sword domain to get rid of the documents, he had stolen from the underground base.

At the very least, if the Iron Sky Kingdom was attacked, it would be after the alchemy competition had finished. Not something he personally needed to worry about!