Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Time slowly passed with the group from the Flying Sword Sect flying towards the Iron Sky Kingdom. The journey, much to both Gong Bo and Chi Hu's surprise, continued without even a single attack from a local bandit group or something similar...

Like this, the group soon found themselves on the border to the Iron Sky Kingdom.

Different from the border of the kingdoms before them that had easily let them pass through without too much difficulty. The border of the Iron Sky Kingdom was completely different as several large towers were scattered across the border of the kingdom.

From a single glance, Xuan Hao could clearly feel a terrifying power lying dormant inside the towers and instantly realized they were some sort of artifact that had likely been made by the current king of the Iron Sky Kingdom to protect the borders of his kingdom.

"We should descend from here on out and make the rest of our way towards the capital of the Iron Sky Kingdom by walking!" Before Xuan Hao could even bring up the matter that the artifacts in the shape of large towers scattered across the border might attack them if they just flew into the Iron Sky Kingdom, Gong Bo spoke up and suggested for them to land before making their way across the border on foot.

Whoosh~

Following the words of Gong Bo, everyone in the group descended a few hundred meters away from the border of the Iron Sky Kingdom before making their way over towards a road just besides the place where they landed, as they followed the road into the Iron Sky Kingdom.

"Stop!"

The moment they were about to cross the border, someone called out to them before a person jumped down from a nearby tower and quickly approached the group.

Inspecting the person who had called out to them before rapidly approaching them, Xuan Hao quickly realized that the person in question was someone at the Nascent Soul Realm! While only at the second stage of the realm, Xuan Hao still felt amazed at the strength of the border guard.

How many Nascent Soul Realm Experts would the Iron Sky Kingdom have if each and every tower at the border had someone like that inside of it...?

Just thinking about it made Xuan Hao realize just how strong the Iron Sky Kingdom was. Even if it's size overall was smaller than even the Heavenly Sky Kingdom, its strength far outstripped it! And that was without mentioning the Domain Lord that controlled the kingdom itself!

"What is your purpose for entering Iron Sky?" Arriving just a few meters in front of them, the border guard at the Nascent Soul Realm directly asked with a somewhat hostile look on her face as she closely observed everyone.

Focusing mostly on Xuan Hao and Chi Hu, Chi Hu was at the Nascent Soul Realm, while she could not feel the realm Xuan Hao was at. Only knowing that it was stronger than herself.

This in turn also caused her to tighten her grip around a spear she was carrying with her as she appeared a bit more cautious. looking ready to retreat or attack in case anything happened were to happen.

"We are here to participate in the alchemy competition hosted by an alchemist from the Sky Empire..." Seeing how hostile the border guard looked, Gong Bo didn't dare to delay as he quickly answered her question.

"What sect or kingdom are you from? Can you prove your identities?""

However, this did not seem to calm down the border guard in the slightest as she asked another question. The only difference being that she had taken a few more steps away from the group and towards the tower she had just jumped down from...

"We are from the Flying Sword Sect, located in the Heavenly Sky Kingdom, though... The Heavenly Sky Kingdom came to an end a few months ago... Currently we can be considered a sect living inside the Sky Empire and we are looking get a more legitimate status by joining the Sect Alliance that the Sky Empire is going to set up in the future!" Stepping forward, Xuan Hao quickly explained where they were from and took out his core elder token with the symbol of the Flying Sword Sect etched into it before signalling for Gong Bo to show the invitation to the alchemy competition to the border guard as well.

"Flying Sword Sect? Heavenly Sky Kingdom...?" Listening to what Xuan Hao said, the border guard narrowed both her eyes as she inspected the token in Xuan Hao's hand along with the invitation letter for the alchemy competition.

Swish!

Waving her hand as the invitation letter flew out of Gong Bo's hand before carefully reading through it, Xuan Hao and the rest did not interfere as all of them waited until the border guard was done and sent the invitation letter back to Gong Bo.

"... It looks like the invitation letter is authentic, you can enter... Don't cause any trouble while inside the Iron Sky Kingdom and don't use your demon beasts to fly! Things are currently not so... Never mind..." Nodding her head slowly before allowing them to enter, the border guard didn't stay around, as she quickly disappeared back towards the direction of the tower she had originally come from.

Only leaving them with a few words of caution and reminding them that they should not fly around inside the Iron Sky Kingdom.

"..."

Looking at the disappearing figure of the border guard, Xuan Hao felt like a headache was on the way. From the looks of how cautious the border guard was, it looked like something troublesome was currently taking place or going to happen inside the Iron Sky Kingdom...

Not that he had expected for thing to go completely smoothly, with Qing Yi joining the alchemy competition before they peacefully headed back to the sect again after the competition had finished... But he had still not expected to already see signs of trouble at the border of the Iron Sky Kingdom.

"Hah... That was so nerve wrecking! Looks like we will have to walk the rest of the way to the capital..." Sighing loudly as the border guard disappeared into the tower closest to them, Gong Bo patted the giant bird demon beast next to him before walking over towards Xuan Hao.

"Elder Xuan, should we just send the demon beasts back to the sect? They should be able to find their way back on their own according to the beast tamers. For getting back again, we can just loan a few flying demon beasts from the Iron Sky Kingdom. Kingdoms this big usually loan out flying demon beasts for a modest price..."

"That sounds fine, it's not like we can't afford it..." Nodding his head in agreement with Gong Bo, Xuan Hao and the rest of the group got off their flying demon beasts before sending them back to the sect.

Whoosh!

Soon, with the Great Raven Xuan Hao and Qing Yi had flown on for the last few days flying up in the air, the rest of the flying demon beast soon flew into the air behind it, as the small group of flying demon beast soon headed back towards the Flying Sword Sect together. The Great Raven flying at the front leading the way for the weaker flying demon beasts.

"Well... We should get going as well..." Watching the flying demon beast making their way off into the distance towards the Flying Sword Sect, Xuan Hao slowly began making his way across the border into the Iron Sky kingdom.

The other elders and Qing Yi following closely behind him as the small group from the Flying Sword Sect officially entered the Iron Sky Kingdom!

...

At the same time, at the capital of the Iron Sky Kingdom, a large flying ship had appeared just outside the countless mining shafts that were scattered all around the area around the capital.

Aside from their powerful king, this kingdom often appears in gossip all around the Sky Empire not just for the countless rare metals found there, but for the bottomless mining shafts their capital is built around. Many visitors have fallen in and disappeared forever.

The main source of the Iron Sky Kingdoms fame was not only the rare spiritual metals that they were in possession of, but also the bottomless mining shafts they had dug out over the years to get their hands on the spiritual metals.

Rumours even had it that the population found on the surface of the Iron Sky Kingdom was far below that of the number that existed beneath the surface. Mining away for the precious spiritual metals that were abundant in the ground beneath the capital.

In turn, the Iron Sky Kingdom formed by far one of the most complex underground tunnel networks inside the entire Sky Empire! At the same time, the true size of the capital could not be measured just by seeing the capital itself... One also had to account for what was hidden beneath the surface!