Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Entering the town located above the giant mining shaft with Qing Yi following closely behind him, Xuan Hao began walking around towards the centre of the town on what could only be described as loose wooden boards a few meters long that had been clumsily put together to make up the main road of the small town.

Just looking down at the wooden boards, Xuan Hao could easily see down into the bottomless mining shaft located beneath the town. At the very least, it looked like the thing holding up the buildings of the town was safer compared to the loose wooden boards that made up the main road going through the city…

"M-master… Is this really safe…?" At the same time, Qing Yi kept looking down through the holes in the main road of the town with a scared look on her face. Trying her best to keep as close to her master as possible.

"Yes, it should be safe. After all, there is an entire town living here! If it was really that unsafe then-"

"Ah! Old Hong fell through one of the holes in the road recently!"

"Yeah, I heard about it! What a tragedy…"

"Even worse, I heard the only reason he could fall through the hole was because he had lost weigh recently… Slimming down was the end of old man Hong…"

Just as Xuan Hao was about to reassure his disciple that everything was fine, a group of young people happened to pass by and interrupt him.

"Master…"

Looking even more like she wanted to leave the town after hearing what the young people had just said, Qing Yi looked up her master with a pleading look in her eyes.

She was not big at all; she was young and would likely also have the ability to slip through one of the holes in the main road! She did not want to end up like the old man Hong mentioned by the young people!

"You don't have to worry… Even if you end up falling through, I can still catch you!" Not knowing what to say, Xuan Hao half gave up as he said this. The town really was not a safe place to live…

"…"

Not feeling the slightest bit safer upon hearing her master say this, Qing Yi cautiously moved towards the centre of the town together with him. Observing each and every single place she stepped on beforehand to make sure she would not end up falling through.

Chi Hu and Gong Bo's group was no better as they also entered the town hanging above the giant mining shaft. The only difference between them and Qing Yi, was the fact that none of them had Xuan Hao to rely on in case they fell down.

At the very least, they did not even think about the fact that Xuan Hao would be able to easily catch them with his domain if they happened to fall...

In turn, this had caused the group to look even more nervous than Qing Yi while walking through the small town. Even causing a few of the townspeople to stop and look over at them with a curious look on their faces.

"Mom, what are they doing?"

"I think they are just scared of falling down, son."

"Hm… scared?"

"Yes!"

"…"

Listening to the conversation of a mother and child as they cautiously made their way forward, Chi Hu felt himself blush red in embarrassment. Feeling the disdainful look of a close to 5-year-old boy was not something Chi Hu was used to…

But what could he do? He truly was afraid of stepping down on a wrong spot and end up falling into the bottomless mining shaft below…

…

After what felt like hours for everyone not Xuan Hao, the group from the Flying Sword Sect had finally managed to reach the centre of the town. Having gathered quite a bit of attention from the locals along the way…

"What a big lift!"

Not able to stop herself from letting out an exclamation of surprise upon finally lifting her head and looking towards the centre of the town, Qing Yi was met with the sight of a giant lift.

The lift was suspended by four giant tough looking metal chains made out of spiritual metal and was easily a dozen meters long and wide. Fitting a house on top of the lift should be no problem at all!

"Indeed, quite a big lift…" Xuan Hao had already seen it through his divine sense long before he had reached the centre of the town, but he still felt amazed upon witnessing it first-hand.

The reason for this was that the core of the formation that kept the town suspended safely above the mining shaft was none other than the lift, or to be more accurate, the chains that held the lift up.

Looking more closely, even without any cultivation so to speak of one would still be able to glimpse a few runes etched into the surface of the four large chains.

Currently, a few dozen people were busy unloading several large rocks from the lift as they carelessly rolled them down onto the weak looking wooden boards that covered the town centre. The scared looks of Qing Yi and the rest of the people from the Flying Sword Sect as they watched this happen, was quite entertaining in its own way.

"Master… What are we here for?" Having seen the giant lift along with the rocks that were being rolled onto the fragile looking wooden boards, Qing Yi could no longer hold herself back from asking this question.

Since the start, she did not understand why her master had decided to visit the town. Especially when it was so dangerous!

Were they not supposed to be moving towards the capital for the alchemy competition…?

"Haha, of course, it's to help you get a little used to this kind of environment before we reach the capital! Gong Bo, how did that friend of yours describe the capital of the Iron Sky Kingdom to you?"

"He didn't mention much… Only saying that it was by far one of the most unique places he had ever visited… D-don't tell me-"

"Indeed, from what I read, the capital of the Iron Sky Kingdom should be suspend just like this town!"

Saying this before Gong Bo could voice out his doubts, Xuan Hao watched the expression on everyone around him change for the worse as they realized that they would be spending over a week living inside a place similar to the town they were currently inside of!

How big was the mining shaft that the capital of the Iron Sky Kingdom was located above…? More importantly… How deep was it?

"From what I read, there have even been a Nascent Soul Realm Expert that was unlucky enough to fall down into the mining shaft that the capital is suspended above… He never returned alive!"

At the same time that these thoughts were coursing through everyone's mind, Xuan Hao decided to add this with a smiling expression on his face.

In fact, the capital was not suspended above a single giant mining shaft, but Xuan Hao decided not to say this and instead just allowed his disciple and the rest of the elder's thoughts to run wild.

As for the story of a Nascent Soul Realm Expert falling down a mining shaft and dying? That was merely a story he had made up to scare Chi Hu a bit, as it looked like he was realizing the fact that there was close to no way he would die from falling from a high place.

After all, he could just abandon his physical body and fly away with his Nascent Soul if things really came down to it…

At the very least, Xuan Hao had quite a bit of fun at the expense of his disciple and the few elders from the sect.

"Now, should we get going? We still need to reach the capital before the alchemy competition starts!" Smiling happily as he had succeeded in scaring everyone, Xuan Hao no longer saw any use in staying around and decided to give everyone a way out of the current situation.

"Yes!"

"Let's get going!"

"We can't waste too much time!"

Without wasting even, a single second, everyone happily agreed with what Xuan Hao said before the group soon left the small town.

The locals who had been busy removing the precious spiritual metals from the lift didn't pay too much attention to these weird outsiders.

From their point of view, their reaction was quite normal and most of them had long since become used to how outsiders reacted upon first entering their city. Mainly due to the town being located so close to the border and the fact that they saw way more outsiders passing through compared to some of the towns closer to the capital.

Like this, Xuan Hao and the rest set off towards the capital of the Iron Sky Kingdom.