The search for Glaze began in the middle of the night, continuing everywhere. Guards kept trying to find him as they searched everywhere. The entirety of the city was sealed.
No person in the city was told as to why the guards were searching the city. All everyone knew was that it was because of some intruder in the city that the guards were searching for. Other than that, no one knew everything about this place.
....
Unaware of everything that was happening outside, Long Chen was busy inside his hotel room, trying to create a body for Xun.
As he finished doing most of the process, it was the turn of the most impossible part. Letting the Cauldron absorb enough energy to make a body but not letting the energy be too much, or the entire cauldron was going to blow up.
With a steadfast heart, Long Chen lept his entire focus on the Cauldron, which had started absorbing the energy from the atmosphere, greedily sucking everything in the surroundings. The energy needed for this to succeed was just too much, after all.
Even though the items he had collected had immense energy of their own, that wasn't enough.
...
"Hmm? Do you feel it? Why is Qi misbehaving so much suddenly? I feel it decreasing. What's happening?'"
A few guards happened to be near the hotel of Long Chen.
It was already so late that barely any person could be seen on the streets.
"Is someone cultivating? But even then, who would absorb so much Qi to make us feel the depletion despite being on the street?" Another guard wondered, noticing this strange phenomenon.
"Even if our Emperor were cultivating, he would not absorb this much energy so suddenly. It can't be a person cultivating in the darkness of the night."
"From what I can guess, this should only be the case if all four Emperors were cultivating near us. Only then could we see such an effect. But that's not the case. So it should be something else."
"We need to find the origin of this disturbance first. Spread out. I'll check the hotel. You check the houses," one of the guards said as he started walking towards the hotel before him.
Entering the hotel, he met up with the receptionist and started inquiring, " I need to search your hotel for an intruder. Tell me, did you see a strange person enter that you were suspicious of?"
"Ah, it's a hotel, so I see many new faces here. But I don't think I found any of them suspicious. They all looked like genuine people," The receptionist asked apologetically.
"Alright. Close the gates so no one could escape. I'll see for myself," the Royal Guard said, commanding the receptionist to close the gates.
The receptionist hastily ran, ultimately closing the gates.
The Royal Guards started searching through the floors, looking for two things. First, they wanted to find Glaze, and secondly, they wanted to find the origin of this strange phenomenon which was decreasing the quantity of Qi in the surroundings.
As the Royal Guards kept searching floor by floor, they soon reached the higher floor. It was only then that they felt something different.
The Qi was more here than it was on the lower floors. In fact, it was way more than it usually was.
"Something is bringing all this Qi here? Ah, so that must be it! The source of this phenomenon is nearby. All the atmosphere qi is being sucked here." The Royal Guards understood that the source of this disturbance was nearby.
As their search narrowed, they soon ended up near Long Chen's room.
Knock!
The Royal Guards spread out and knocked at all the doors in this region at the same time.
One such door happened to be the door of Long Chen's room, where he was still busy.
Long Chen heard the knock, but he ignored it. He couldn't be bothered with opening the door as he was busy in controlling the quantity of the Qi which was absorbed.
All the other people kept opening their doors. The guards checked their rooms to find them perfectly fine. Soon, only two rooms were left which weren't open.
Long Chen was inside one of these rooms. As for the other, it was also occupied by a person. The doors of these two rooms weren't open yet.
"Just a little more..."
Long Chen was prepared to close the Cauldron at the right time after it had absorbed enough energy, but that wasn't enough.
"That's it!" He exclaimed as he closed the cauldron suddenly. All the Qi, which was being greedily sucked by the Cauldron, stopped.
The cauldron started shaking intensively as if resisting Long Chen and wanting more Qi but Long Chen grabbed it firmly, keeping it in its place.
After a few intense shakes, the cauldron finally calmed down. The shaking of the Cauldron stopped, but the knocking on the door intensified.
"Open the doors, or we will break it! This is your last warning!" The Royal Guards yelled from outside.
...
The Royal Guards were knocking at both the doors as these two were the only ones that weren't opened yet.
Finally, one of the two rooms opened.
A man stepped out of the room, still sleepy. "Come on! Can't a man sleep peacefully in his room? I was having such a nice dream until you all woke me up!"
A few guards stepped inside the room, pushing the man aside. They checked inside, not finding anything strange.
"There's nothing odd inside."
"That leaves only one room."
All the guards looked towards Long Chen's room which still wasn't open.
"Open the door!" The guards yelled again, trying to get Long Chen to open the doors. Unfortunately, it didn't seem like it was working. No one was opening the door.
"No one is opening the door. Let's break it!" One of the guards suggested.
"Yeah. That seems to be a better option than standing here all night, knocking.
All the guards decided to break the doors, but just as they were about to break it, the door opened.
"Yawn, what do you guys want? Let me sleep," a man opened the gates, yawning.
As for the man, he was none other than Long Chen.
"Step aside. We need to search," the guards let out as they entered the room in search of something odd. Only a few of them stayed out to keep an eye on Long Chen.
A guard seemingly recognized Long Chen. He asked, "Wait a minute, aren't you the guy that took part in the competition today? How are you able to afford this room?"