Chapter 41 - Trouble Brewing

After the newcomer tournament had finished, Xuan Hao and Qing Yi both did not have much to do in the coming days and most of the time was spent with Xuan Hao training Qing Yi in anything from her cultivation mantra and martial techniques that she clearly lacked in.

But one of the things that Qing Yi managed to make the most progress in was the Autumn Wind Sword that her father had taught her.

"Hah!"

Swish!

A sword attack flew through the air and soon made contact to a training dummy.

Ka-cha!

The training dummy let out a metal clanging as the sword managed to penetrate deep into its body, leaving behind another scar on its already scar filled body.

The strength behind the sword strike was clear as day and Qing Yi could feel that her strength had increased a lot over the past few months and at the moment, she was only a single step away from breaking through and reaching the foundation establishment realm!

"Good! Your strength with the sword has already reached the foundation establishment realm. Now all you need is an opportunity to breakthrough!"

Xuan Hao looked happily at Qing Yi, soon he would be able to complete the main quest of the system.

While he still had no clue what the reward for completing the main quest was, at least he hoped that it would be something good. After all, a main quest normally had better rewards than a side quest…

Other than training hard under Xuan Hao's guidance over the last few months, Qing Yi also managed to get along with Zhi Ruo and the two of them ended up spending a lot of time together whenever she was not training.

Zeng Shihan also joined the two of them whenever she had the time for it, but that in itself was not often as she recently managed to get a job within the sect. This had allowed her more resources, but also gave her less free time than before.

Over the past few months, Qing Yi had spent her time well and managed to make friends with a number of disciples from the Flying Sword Sect.

But she knew that this would not last forever. The Bright Sun City's annual youth competition was about to start in little under a months' time and she had still not asked her master about it yet!

"Well, let's end it here for today!"

"Ah, m-master I have something to ask you!" As Xuan Hao was making his way back to the pavilion and looked at the fidgeting Qing Yi. Clearly nervous about something.

"Hm? What is it Qing Yi? You can just ask me, there is no need to be so nervous about it."

"Ah! I-it's just that… My family will be participating in the youth competition back in my city and I was wondering if I could participate in it together with master…?"

"Sure, we can go if you want to, I see no problem with this." Understanding why she was nervous, Xuan Hao smiled slightly.

As a core elder of the Flying Sword Sect, he really did not have much to do recently other than cultivating. The only thing that the Flying Sword Sect really wanted from him was to help out in case something happened to the sect itself.

As for the rest of the time? He was free to do whatever he wanted, be it touring the Heavenly Sky Kingdom or quietly cultivating in his pavilion, the Flying Sword Sect did not care as long as he helped in case of an emergency.

Upholding the territories and borders of the Flying Sword Sect was mostly done by Core Formation cultivators. Nascent Soul cultivators would only be located at important places of interest for the sect.

"Hah… Thank you master! The competition will be held in 25 days' time."

Qing Yi was relieved upon hearing her master's approval and let out a sigh of relief, as she gave him the date of the youth competition of Bright Sun City.

"No worries, I will tell the Sect Master that I will be leaving the sect for some time to go to Bright Sun City."

As Qing Yi and Xuan Hao each made their way back to their quarters, Xuan Hao quickly took out a talisman used for communication from his bag and contacted the sect master Feng Chen to discuss his leave from the sect.

"Hm? Xuan Hao, why are you contacting me?"

The talisman slowly started lighting up and soon the voice from Feng Chen spread out from the talisman.

"I want to join my disciple in a youth competition back in her hometown of Bright Sun City and was wondering if there was anything I should be worried about when I go out. After all, even I can feel the tension at the moment…" Explaining his situation to Feng Chen, Xuan Hao waited patiently for a response.

"Hm… I see, but I would be careful around that area. The Black Rose Sect is located close by and have begun acting increasingly suspiciously lately, even if we are the rulers of the northern region, the Black Rose Sect does not seem to be happy about it and might want to take the position from us…

The situation with the Azure Kingdom is not looking so great either and Wang Lan recently reported that they sent several Nascent Soul experts over, they might be up to something soon." Feng Chen said in a worried tone through the talisman as Xuan Hao looked a little lost in thought.

It had soon been five months since Wang Lan left for the border of the Azure Kingdom and he had still not returned yet. The only reason for this was that the conflict with the Azure Kingdom had not been resolved yet and might even have escalated even further.

"I will keep that in mind and try to be as careful as possible, but should anything happen, I will try my best to get out of whatever situation I land myself in…" Xuan Hao chuckled slightly towards the end.

"Haha, indeed, I don't doubt you will! Good luck on your journey to Bright Sun City." Feng Chen knew how much Xuan Hao hated dealing with anything troublesome and laughed loudly at Xuan Hao's proclamation of running away the moment trouble showed up.

"…"

Turning off the talisman, Xuan Hao saw the formerly brightly lit talisman slowly turn dark as he threw it back into his bag.

Who knew how it would turn out, hopefully nothing would happen…