Leaving the city wall where Yi Min had begun pretending to talk with someone through her communication talisman, Xuan Hao began searching through the capital of the Iron Sky Kingdom in search of the demonic cultivator that had somehow managed to sneak inside the capital without being discovered by the formation.

Thinking about how that demonic cultivator had managed to avoid Yi Min's formation, Xuan Hao could not help recalling the weird tentacle egg monster he had encountered as he followed behind the thieve group.

The tentacle egg monster could avoid the formation!

Maybe it had something to do with the demonic cultivator that General Guan had claimed to be hiding inside of the capital?

With this in mind, Xuan Hao made his way towards the eastern part of the capital.

If he could find more of those weird tentacle egg shaped monsters in the eastern part of the capital, he might have a chance of track down the origin of the weird tentacle egg shaped monsters.

Given the fact that they were demonic in nature and the fact that they could avoid the formation, there was a high chance that they were related to the demonic cultivator that General Guan had mentioned!

This time around, he just had to remember to hide himself and not be discovered by the tentacle monster. After all, he did not want the other party to find out that someone might be searching for them

When he had been standing at the city wall earlier, General Guan did not seem to have realized that he was also someone in the Domain Lord Realm. Having focused all his attention on Yi Min who had come over to confront him at that time.

Thinking a bit about it, it was likely that Yi Min had used the formation to hide the fact that he was a Domain Lord from General Guan

How smart This way, he will think that only Yi Min is a threat inside the capital

Praising Yi Min in his mind, Xuan Hao soon arrived at the eastern part of the capital and before long, he dived down into the nearest abandoned mineshaft.

To start off with, he would search through the underground tunnels of the eastern part of the capital to look for any traces of the weird tentacle egg shaped monster!

The first time he had found one the tentacle monsters, it had after all been when he had been making his way through the underground tunnels below the surface of the capital. All he had to do now was find one of the tunnels that had been affected by the tentacle monster and transformed

At the same time that Xuan Hao began searching for the demonic cultivator in the eastern part of the capital and Yi Min was confronting General Guan at the city wall in an attempt to buy more time for him to find said demonic cultivator, the rest of the capital seemed to continue like it did before.

In the first place, General Guan didn't cause any ruckus when he first arrived a few hundred meters from the city walls. Instead, he had just silently arrived and waited for Yi Min to rush over after she sensed him.

The only few guards present at the city wall to witness the confrontation between Yi Min and General Guan were shivering in fear as they didn't dare breath too loudly.

At the very least, the place that Yi Min and General Guan was located, was one of the more desolate parts of the city wall away from the gates into the capital.

As for whether or not General Guan had chosen to appear at this location so as to not spread the matter of his appearances too quickly. No one could tell for certain

At the same time, back in the alchemy competition, things proceed smoothly without anyone knowing about the fact that one of the Sky Empire's generals had arrived to confront the ruler of the Iron Sky Kingdom.

"Finished!"

Finishing her potion after a close to two-hour brewing process, Qing Yi felt strength leave her body as she plopped down on a nearby chair with an exhausted look on her face.

"Hah I really succeed!" Sitting down on the chair, a smile crossed her exhausted face as Qing Yi realized that she had succeeded in making her first ever Spirit Grade Potion!

Following her sitting down, Qing Yi felt a weak wave of energy enter her body before she suddenly felt a cold sensation in her dantian followed by a clear increase in her vision and thought process.

Feeling the cold wave of energy along with her improvements, Qing Yi knew that she could officially be considered to have stepped into the realm of an Expert Alchemist!

Not only that, but Qing Yi also felt her cultivation realm increase. Going from the Seventh Stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm to the Eight Stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm!

Her breakthrough was smooth and there seemed to be no obstacles whatsoever in the process.

Wait What about the impurities that gets-

Realizing something, Qing Yi slowly looked down towards her hand and saw a weird black substance slowly on its way out of her body.

Whoosh!

Not daring to stay around as she barely managed to stop her impurities from leaving her body and destroying the clothes she was currently wearing, Qing Yi rushed up to the nearest elder.

"E-elder, can I leave for a short moment?!"

"Hm? Oh Sure, just remember to be back before the time is up in half an hour, or you will be disqualified! There is a bath just to the left over there."

The elder who saw Qing Yi quickly realized what was happening to her and didn't mind at all as she smiled kindly before showing her towards the nearest exit and at the same time also giving her directions to the nearest bath so Qing Yi would be able to quickly clean herself up.

"Thank you!"

Whoosh!

Giving a quick bow in thanks to the elder, Qing Yi soon rushed out of the competition space. Half an hour would be more than enough time for her to clean up and return before the Artisan Alchemist began to go over the participants pills and her potion!

"Looks like that little girl managed to breakthrough to the Expert Realm successfully! Haha, to think even her cultivation managed to breakthrough as well, she can be considered quite lucky!"

Having observed the entire process of Qing Yi finishing her Spirit Grade Potion along with her rushing out of the competition space after an accidental breakthrough in her cultivation realm, Fang Shi could not help laughing to himself with a smile on his face as he was reminded about how he had reacted in the past upon becoming an Expert Alchemist.

Different from other breakthroughs when it came to alchemy, upon reaching the Expert Realm, one's soul would receive a boost in strength after each major breakthrough.

While the boost in strength from reaching the Expert Realm was almost negligible to someone in the Nascent Soul Realm, the same could not be said for someone in the Foundation Establishment Realm.

The boost in strength of the soul would not only increase one's future prospects, but at the same time would also help one have an easier time overcoming bottlenecks.

For example, Qing Yi had already reached the Peak of the Seventh Stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm and only needed an opportunity to breakthrough and reach the eighth stage.

The boost in strength to her soul provided her this small opportunity and she had directly crossed over into the Eighth Stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm!

Fang Shi already knew about this, so he was not really too surprised when he had seen Qing Yi breakthrough her cultivation realm and only smiled with understanding as he watched how she had rushed out of the competition space.

"Hah When will I reach the Master Realm?"

Having seen Qing Yi breakthrough to the Expert Realm, Fang Shi was suddenly reminded about the fact that he was also close to a breakthrough himself. The difference was just that the difficulty in breaking through from the Artisan Realm to the Master Realm was not something easy.

At this point in time, Fang Shi had already been stuck at the peak of the Artisan Realm for close to two hundred years!

But at the same time, Fang Shi also knew just how big of an opportunity it would be for him to breakthrough to the Master Realm!

The boost in strength his soul would receive at that point in time would be more than enough to push his cultivation realm even further and might even allow him to directly reach the Domain Lord Realm!

Thinking about this, Fang Shi could not help sighing to himself even more. After all, he had never been too focused on improving his cultivation realm over the years and had single mindedly been focused on improving his alchemy...

If he ever wanted to improve his cultivation realm, he could only do so by breaking through to the Master Realm!