The day for departure slowly approached as the news about the upcoming alchemy competition became more well known among the disciples of the Flying Sword Sect.

This in turn helped spread Qing Yi's name, as she had formerly been a mostly unknown individual due to the fact that she spent most of her time locked away in her own alchemy room in Xuan Hao's pavilion or was staying in the deeper parts of the Alchemy Hall where normal disciples not part of the Alchemy Hall wasn't allowed.

That she was a disciple of Xuan Hao only helped spread her reputation even further, as Qing Yi had essential ended up becoming an overnight celebrity inside the Flying Sword Sect. Even though the person herself still had no clue that she had suddenly become the main talking point among the majority of the disciples inside the Flying Sword Sect

"Hm We should be leaving tomorrow morning, but I still have not managed to fully learn those few potion and pill recipes"

Muttering this to himself as he looked down at a few books laid out in front of him, Xuan Hao could not help but lament over the fact that he had not managed to learn even a fraction of the pill and potion recipes for the Artisan Realm that the Flying Sword Sect had.

The sheer number of potion and pill recipes easily numbered in the hundreds, but Xuan Hao had only managed to learn at most a few dozen over the past few months.

Nowhere near his original target of learning all of them before the alchemy competition

The Artisan Alchemist from the Sky Empire would surely have access to more than recipes than him and at the same time would likely have learned far more than him

The Sky Empire even had someone above the Artisan Realm, so the old Artisan Alchemist might even have learned a few recipes bordering the realm between an Artisan Alchemist and a Master Alchemist

"Hah"

Xuan Hao sighed a bit to himself as he picked up one of the books in front of him, his rate of learning recipes had been way slower than what he had expected, but it was still understandable.

After all, the knowledge and skill he had gained was for the Artisan Realm. If he wanted to speed up his learning speed of Artisan Realm recipes, he would have to breakthrough and become a Master Alchemist, but that was easier said than done.

Without the systems help or any other kinds of external help, Xuan Hao knew that it would take him at least a few years' time at minimum to become a Master Alchemist by himself.

Even if this speed was more than enough to shock every other alchemist at the Ewaria Continent, Xuan Hao knew that it was still too slow. After all, the alchemy competition would have finished at that point in time

"I need to stop worrying so much about someone I haven't even met yet" Shaking his head as he realized how worried he had become about someone he had never even met yet attempting to steal away his disciple, Xuan Hao could not help putting down the book he had just picked up.

I need to calm down

Sitting down in a meditative position, Xuan Hao decided not to worry so much about the upcoming alchemy competition and instead focused on cultivating instead.

At the very least, cultivating was way more calming than studying any more alchemy recipes and continuing with it while being in such a worried state might end up causing more harm to him in the end.

Cultivating was a way easier to do and at the same time also helped him calm down.

Quietly spending the rest of his time like this, quietly cultivating inside his room, Xuan Hao slowly opened his eyes as the first rays of light passed through a small window in his room.

"Cultivating is really useful"

Even if he didn't manage to improve his cultivation realm, his state of mind had improved a lot from the day before.

One of the most important things for cultivating was to keep a calm state of mind. In turn, cultivating had allowed Xuan Hao to fix his state of mind and calm down.

Realizing the fact that even if the Artisan Alchemist ended up trying to take away his disciple, he would not have to fear him.

After all, he was a Domain Lord and at the same time also an Artisan Alchemist!

Given normal circumstances, there was no way the Artisan Alchemist in question would want to offend him for no reason by trying to steal away his disciple and there was even less of a chance that the Sky Empire would support him in case he did something like that

The importance of a Domain Lord to an Empire could not be taken lightly and at the same time, someone who was also an Artisan Alchemist!

With this in mind, Xuan Hao no longer felt as worried as he had before.

Even if he ended up being worse than the old Artisan Alchemist that was hosting the competition, he would not have to worry about him trying to take away his disciple!

At the very least, that was what Xuan Hao had come to believe after a night of meditation

"Haha! Finally, the alchemy competition is about to begin! I have been so excited thinking about getting a new disciple!"

At the same time, in a messy room inside a large palace located far away from the Flying Sword Sect, an elderly man with a potion bottle in one hand laughed happily to himself as he looked over a large list of names in front of him that mentioned the names of every single person who was going to participate in his alchemy competition.

Yes, this was the old Artisan Alchemist from the Sky Empire that Xuan Hao was worried about possibly taking away his disciple!

"Hm? Flying Sword Sect? Isn't that the sect that his highness got interested in lately due to them suddenly having someone in the Domain Lord Realm?" Muttering this to himself while looking through the list in front of him, a hint of interest flashed through the elderly man's eyes.

"Qing Yi?" Looking over the name attached to the Flying Sword Sect, the elderly man smiled even more as he grew curious about the person that had come from the sect that just had someone reach the Domain Lord Realm.

"Master Stop smiling like that, it looks creepy" At the same time, a young woman who just entered the room, witnessed her old master's splendid smile