As Xuan Hao finished going over the information gathered so far about the plague, he soon left the room and returned back to his mountain peak to inform both his disciples about him leaving for a while.
"Master!" As he returned to the pavilion, Qing Yi came running over with all sorts of herbs, potions and pills in her hands with an excited look on her face.
Over the last month, she had progressed quite far in alchemy, way faster than what someone normally would, and she had already started practicing with some of herbs in hopes of successfully becoming an official Apprentice Alchemist.
Even the waste pills and potions that she made as she improved her alchemy still had some use, as Qing Yi successfully managed to find someone who wanted to buy it when she walked around the Flying Sword City just besides the sect.
Xuan Hao honestly had no clue how she got someone to buy her low-quality test materials, but he decided not to ask about it…
Looking at her, Xuan Hao could not help but feel a little pride at Qing Yi's current progress, yesterday she had even broken through and reached the second stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm. Xuan Hao was sure that if she did not focus so much on alchemy at the moment, she might have even reached the third stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm by now!
Chu Yang on the other hand, focused all his attention at cultivation after getting the new cultivation mantra and just two days after he had gotten the Soul Spear Divine Mantra, he broke through and reached the fourth stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm!
By now he had already reached the fifth stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm!
Both of them had worked hard over the last month and had shown great progress, Xuan Hao did not even have to spend too much of his time on teaching them and they pretty much only came to him to ask for advice a few times a week.
"Do you know where your junior brother Chu Yang is?" As Qing Yi ran over and appeared in front of him, Xuan Hao immediately asked before Qing Yi even managed to ask whatever question she had wanted to ask.
"Ma- Ah… I think he is at the training ground like always, why?" Hearing her masters question Qing Yi stopped herself from asking the question she had prepared regarding the Flash Step Movement Technique that she had been taught a month ago.
She had grown quite skilled in the Movement Technique but would still come and ask Xuan Hao for help every now and then when she ran in to trouble and didn't know how to move forward or improve further on the Movement Technique.
"I see… Follow me over there, I have something to tell both of you…" Saying this, Xuan Hao made his way over towards the training ground with a confused Qing Yi following him closely from behind.
Like this, Xuan Hao explained the current situation about how he was going to leave for a period of time to both Qing Yi and Chu Yang.
Both of them did not really mind it that much and thought that their master was just going out to do something for the sect. After all, from what they heard the other disciples of the Flying Sword Sect talk about, it was quite normal for an elder or core elder to leave for weeks, if not months, to complete a task on behalf of the Flying Sword Sect.
Xuan Hao leaving for a period of time was not really anything unusual in the first place.
"A-are you sure you will be fine…?!" Staring at his completely unaffected disciples, Xuan Hao had expected both of them to at least show some reaction!
Why did both his disciples not seem to care that he was leaving for some time!?
"Well… You normally just spend most of your time cultivating in your room and most of the things in the pavilion is taken care of by Zhi Ruo anyway… At most we would not be able to get answers to some of the questions that we might have about our cultivation while you are gone…" Not seeing the distraught and saddened look on Xuan Hao's face, Chu Yang ruthlessly answered as Xuan Hao truly felt like a useless slacker.
"W-what about you Qing Yi…?" Swallowing a bit of the blood he was about to throw up due to shock, Xuan Hao turned towards his cute and innoce-
"I'm fine as well master, you can just set out immediately! Don't let us stop you!"
Psh*
"Master are you okay!?" Suddenly throwing up a bit of blood, Xuan Hao barely managed to supress it back down again and cover the little bit that leaked out with his hand as his face turned a bit pale all of sudden, causing both Qing Yi and Chu Yang to look towards him with a worried look on their faces. Worried about why their master suddenly turned pale and held his hand up to block his mouth.
"I-I'm fine, I will just go now and accomplish the task that the Sect Master handed down to me and return as fast as possible…" Shaking his head a bit with a slightly awkward smile, Xuan Hao appeased his two disciples as he turned around to take his leave.
"No need to hurry master! Take your time to make sure you complete the task of the Sect Master without making any mistakes!" Calling out as Xuan Hao was just about to leave, Qing Yi smiled happily as she waved him off.
Psh*
Looking down at his hand that was slightly covered in a bit of his own blood, Xuan Hao felt a little helpless.
Better get out of here fast, or I might end up killing myself!
Not daring to stay even for a second longer, Xuan Hao utilized his cultivation base and quickly used the Flash Step Movement Technique to run away before his disciples could say anymore heartfelt words of goodbye.
…
Words truly could kill in a cultivation world… How did he even throw up blood in the first place…? He was supposed to be someone at the Nascent Soul Realm having perfect control over his own body!
Inspecting every part of his body to find the problem, Xuan Hao came upon a shocking truth when he entered his sea of consciousness.
A single line of words explained how he ended up in his current situation…
[You have been emotionally affected by your disciples and feel betrayed! Proceeding with dramatically-throwing-up-blood-in-shock-function]
"…"
Could he remove any of the system features…?
Wanted some more... random system features, that I can use not only to strengthen the mc and the disciples...
______
Next chapter's author note will have some information about a new path of cultivation that will be introduced in more detail later on :)