Wondering what to do as he looked over at the old lady on the lotus flower platform in front of him, Xuan Hao began to feel her body slowly begin deteriorating at an increased speed compared to just a few seconds ago.
"How convenient..."
Not having a lot of time left before the old friend of Chi Hu decided to kick the bucket, Xuan Hao stepped up on the lotus flower platform before walking over beside the dying woman, who didn't even notice him when he was standing right next to her. Fully focused on trying to look for a way out of her current situation, while still staying alive in the process.
Sadly, her body did not work with her and just kept getting worse and worse with each passing second. The chaotic qi now having already begun to fill up every corner of her body as it ravaged through her meridians and dantian.
Xuan Hao could clearly see this happening through his divine sense, and he knew that she was about to enter the final state of her last meditation on the Third Star Peak.
At that point, the chaotic qi would end up completely replacing any of the cultivator's normal qi and slowly devour them from the inside in a process that took less than a minute. Leaving behind nothing of the former cultivator outside of the clothes and precious items they might have been carrying before their death.
These items would normally be taken away by some cultivators that came to the Third Star Peak to look for an opportunity to strike it rich looting what some of the old experts might have left behind.
The only thing stopping these people from not just outright robbing them of their precious items when they were still alive, was due to the fact that the other experts in or about to enter their last meditation, would likely kill them...
For this reason, these people would have to be sneaky when doing thing. Only striking when their target had already passed away.
Xuan Hao could already feel a few other people behind him, that had noticed the fact that the old woman in front of him was nearing her end and had begun moving closer towards the lotus flower platform where she was located.
"Hey! What do you think you are doi-"
Seeing one of the people in question walk up to scold him or something along that line because he thought he was there to go after the thing left behind after the old woman passed away, Xuan Hao did not even bother waiting for him to finish.
Bang!
Whoosh~
Directly launching the poor fella flying off the side of the Third Star Peak...
""...""
The other people who were about to come forward and back up their friend in calling out Xuan Hao in an attempt to get some of the old experts to deal with him, stopped as they looked over at Xuan Hao fearfully before wisely backing off. Not daring to say anything.
The few Core Formation Experts paying attention to what was happening also stopped as they decided not to interfere in what Xuan Hao was doing.
Given his strength was at least around their level, they were almost certain that he would not bother about the things that they were carrying with them for their last attempt at breaking through to the next major realm.
After all, before coming to the Third Star Peak, they would have left most of what precious artifacts and spirit stones they had left somewhere safe or given it to their friends or family just in case they didn't make it back again...
What little they had left, was of no use to someone like themselves... Therefore, most of the Core Formation Experts keeping an eye on what was happening thought that Xuan Hao might have been a friend of the old woman or maybe even a relative that had come to say goodbye before she passed on...
What are these old people thinking about...?
Seeing the weirdly sympathetic looks that the surrounding Core Formation Experts gave him, Xuan Hao had no idea whether to laugh or cry.
Hah... No use thinking about what these old people are thinking about, I have to act fast if I want to save this old friend of Chi Hu...
Shaking his head as he ignored the looks of the surrounding people, Xuan Hao spread out his domain and isolated the lotus flower platform that he and the old woman was on.
Having isolated the lotus flower platform from the outside world, Xuan Hao quickly made it impossible for the people outside to see what was happening inside.
"Y-you... You are... T-that elder... C-Chi Hu-..."
The old woman did not seem to be completely unaware of what was going on in the outside world. Opening her eyes as she looked over at Xuan Hao while trying to ask him something.
"Yes, I'm the elder from the Flying Sword Sect that recruited Chi Hu."
Understanding what she wanted to ask without hearing her full sentence, Xuan Hao answered truthfully. Not wanting to hide his origins in the first place.
Barely getting four words out before she could no longer continue, the old woman asked Xuan Hao in a clearly confused voice. Not understanding why, he had come to visit her.
"I was passing by and found out that one of the people who were with Chi Hu back then was still alive. After that I decided to come over and see if there was anything I could help with, Chi Hu is after all a member of the Flying Sword Sect now and its only normal for me to help him look out for his friends!"
Saying this, Xuan Hao could see the old woman growing a bit emotional as a relieved expression clearly appeared on her face after hearing Chi Hu was fine.
"T-that's... Great..."
Not saying anything more, the old woman slowly closed her eyes again. At the same time, Xuan Hao clearly felt the body of the old woman grow even weaker.
"Eat this!"
Knowing that he didn't have any time left before the old woman left this world, Xuan Hao only said these two words before forcing her mouth open with his domain before the Purification pill floated off his hand and into the now open mouth of the old woman.
"...!"
Not able to say anything as she felt her mouth being pried open before a pill of some sort entered it, the old woman could do nothing. Only able to watch as the pill dissolved into a large amount of energy that coursed through her body. Purging any and all the chaotic qi inside of her in an instant before rushing towards her dantian.
"Wha-?"
Having recovered some of her strength after the chaotic qi had left her body, the old woman could only look over at Xuan Hao with a confused expression on her face before the energy from the purification pill finally reached her dantian.
"Argh!"
Like what Elder Song had gone through in the past, Xuan Hao watched from the side as the energy from the purification pill rushed into her core floating at the centre of her dantian.
"AH!"
However, compared to the past when Elder Song had experienced this, Xuan Hao remained completely calm as he listened to the pained screams of the old friend of Chi Hu.
Crack~
Like what had happened with Elder Song, Xuan Hao watched on as he observed several small cracks appearing on the golden core of the old woman.
Boom!
The old woman's aura began changing rapidly as her golden core broke apart and gave birth to her nascent soul in the shape of a small ball of light that remained floating quietly at the centre of her dantian.
Feeling the aura of the old woman, Xuan Hao could not help but feel happy that he had sealed off the lotus flower platform. Preventing the aura from spreading out and alerting every single person on the Third Star Peak.
"It's here..."
Just as the Nascent Soul had been born, a small cloud appeared inside of the old woman's dantian.
The cloud was different from the cloud tribulations Xuan Hao had seen in the past, being completely silver without a single hint of gold in it.
Swoosh~
Flying over, the silver cloud did not wait around for the old woman to recover after her breakthrough to the Nascent Soul Realm, as it began merging together with the newly born Nascent Soul.
Boom!
Like he had done in the past, Xuan Hao stood on the side and carefully observed the process of the silver cloud merging together with the newly born Nascent Soul.
At least the energy brought into her body by the purification pill had helped remove the chaotic qi inside of her and rejuvenated her strength to some degree, but even then, Xuan Hao had no idea whether she would be able to survive.
There was nothing more he could do to help. At this point, he could only hope that she would be able survive her cloud tribulation and successfully reach the Nascent Soul Realm...