Just as Su Que and Su Jing boarded the carriage heading towards the Capital City, the generals across the Qi Kingdom received Li Xuanji’s royal decree.

A portion of the army was to go to various mines with exotic metals to extract ores, and to the medicinal gardens where Treasures of Heaven and Earth were planted, to harvest the newly grown herbs.

Another portion of the army was to search the local households, and confiscate all the exotic soldiers, exotic metals, and Treasures of Heaven and Earth owned by every major family and every sect.

Li Xuanji did this not only to fulfill Su Que’s request but also for his own personal ambitions.

He decided to strictly control "Martial Arts."

To the greatest extent possible, reduce the number of martial artists among the populace.

Ideally, he wanted to completely eliminate the Martial Arts from his Qi Kingdom.

As long as he could confiscate all the cultivation resources from the populace, without these resources, the number of people who could step into the Martial Arts would become fewer and fewer.

Or rather, those who could step into the Martial Arts without cultivation resources were all geniuses.

He planned to have local officials keep an eye on such individuals and then recruit these geniuses into the Imperial Family.

In the future, all martial artists could only be owned by the Li Family Imperial Family.

He also planned to establish a "Special Envoy" mechanism.

That is, to rotate the imperial martial artists to different regions to maintain local security.

Additionally, he planned to send people to various places to search for martial artists.

This was to prevent martial artists with exceptional talent, possibly unknown to him, from rising somewhere and suddenly cultivating to an extremely powerful level.

The soldiers of the Qi Kingdom were executing Li Xuanji’s royal decree in an orderly manner.

Several days later, exotic soldiers, exotic metals, and herbs were being transported to the Capital City carriage by carriage.

...

Elder Qingxuan, dressed in a clean Daoist robe, had his originally disheveled white beard and hair tidied up a bit.

Now that he was a person by the Emperor’s side, he could no longer be as unkempt as before.

Behind him were dozens of alchemists.

Among these alchemists were monks from the Great Buddha Temple skilled in alchemy, as well as Daoists from the True Profound Sect proficient in alchemy.

Because Su Que killed most of the top martial artists in the Great Buddha Temple and the True Profound Sect.

Li Xuanji quickly destroyed these two forces by gathering the martial artists under his command.

Only a few of the devout followers of the Great Buddha Temple and the True Profound Sect remained, and they were entirely killed by Li Xuanji.

All that were left, those who joined the Great Buddha Temple and the True Profound Sect only to practice martial arts or to seek immortality, belonged to the Qi Kingdom’s Imperial Family.

The alchemists from the Great Buddha Temple and the True Profound Sect were also put to use by the Imperial Family, managed by Elder Qingxuan under Li Xuanji’s arrangement.

Elder Qingxuan’s alchemy skills were no less than those of the alchemists from both the Buddhist and Daoist sects.

The person who taught Elder Qingxuan alchemy was also Li Xuanji’s teacher, who was killed by Su Que, Fan Gushan.

Since Fan Gushan could not practice martial arts for hundreds of years, he spent most of his time studying other skills.

His alchemy skills were quite advanced.

Elder Qingxuan was originally an alchemy prodigy and received Fan Gushan’s true teachings.

However, Elder Qingxuan had always been in Jiannan Prefecture City, where Li Xuanji and others’ Martial Arts Realm was not high, nor could they acquire good herbs, so he had always been crafting relatively low-level elixirs.

Later, after being found by Su Que, the level of elixirs he could create gradually increased.

Under Fan Gushan’s guidance, his theoretical knowledge was already extremely abundant.

As he crafted more and more elixirs, his alchemy skills improved rapidly.

Now, even leading the highest-skilled group of alchemists in this small world, he felt no fear.

Elder Qingxuan, with the wind blowing his Daoist robe, walked to the Great Celestial Fire Mountain outside the Capital City.

This volcanic cluster has always been the best place for alchemy.

He heard from Li Xuanji that previously, the ancestors of the Li Family also practiced alchemy here.

And the Xiao Family of Liang Kingdom also had people practice alchemy here.

From now on, this area would be under his management.

"Alright then, instruct the warriors to bring up the alchemy furnaces!"

Elder Qingxuan glanced at the volcano and then spoke to a guard beside him.

The guard responded with an acknowledgment and quickly ran off using a lightweight skill.

Shortly after, warriors arrived carrying the alchemy furnaces.

Each alchemy furnace was quite large, requiring four muscled warriors to move it.

Over a hundred warriors, carrying the alchemy furnaces under the heat of the Great Celestial Fire Mountain cluster, were sweating profusely, their bare upper bodies glistening with moisture.

Gasping for air, they placed the alchemy furnaces beside the volcanic craters under Elder Qingxuan’s command.

The place for alchemy took a full three days to set up.

And during these three days, the first batch of exotic soldiers, exotic metals, and Treasures of Heaven and Earth was also transported from various places to the Capital City.

Elder Qingxuan looked at the alchemy furnaces spread around a volcanic crater, along with the carts of alchemy materials, and thought it was time to start crafting elixirs for the "mister."

He took a deep breath and spoke loudly to the group of alchemists: "Begin alchemy!"

...

About half a month later, Su Que and Su Jing finally arrived at the Capital City.

After all, they traveled by carriage, which was not fast, and stopped frequently along the way, hence the delay in reaching the Capital City.

Su Que and Su Jing sat in the carriage, savoring snacks and pastries purchased from a county town.

When the martial artist driving the carriage reminded them that they had reached the Capital City, the siblings pulled back the carriage curtain and looked outside.

Outside was a bustling crowd, whose lively atmosphere was unmatched by that of Jiannan Prefecture City.

Because the Capital City is where the Emperor resides, it is more peaceful relative to other cities.