Alex returned to the Alchemy association and went to talk to the leader. He told him what had happened and asked a few questions as to who else knew about his father.
It didn’t take long for the leader to come to the same conclusion as Alex that one of the 10 sects and families were trying to have him killed, maybe even multiple ones.
“Go and rest for now. I will let you know when the slots are all filled in. Also, I will increase the security around here,” he said.
Alex nodded. He wondered if it was time to let ‘Alex’ die and live as ‘Yu Ming’.
‘No, I have way too much going on as Alex to disappear right now,’ he thought. ‘Father won’t find me if I’m gone.’
Alex went to his room with the thoughts still in his head. He couldn’t get it out of his head that there was someone out there that wanted him dead.
Once he reached the room, he remembered something and brought out a storage bag from his clothes. He wiped the little blood that was on it and pulled out a talisman from inside of it.
This was the talisman from the Insight Pavilion he was supposed to get monthly. He hadn’t checked the one for the previous month, so this was it.
He started reading them one by one and overnight, he was done with it all. He didn’t find anything important once again, but reading this gave him another sense of security.
“You people from the big sects and families love asking about me,” he thought. “Sooner or later, you will slip up and ask something you weren’t supposed to. I will just have to wait for that moment.”
He put the talismans back into the bag and went out to get the list of pills.
Within a week, he was once again done making all the pills and got his portion of the sales income as well.
The leader handed him his money and asked, “Do you plan on leaving again? You will have to do it in secret.”
“No, I don’t think I’ll leave now,” Alex said. “Not only is it dangerous, but the Orchard is also going to open up soon. I will need to stick around for that.”
“I do believe that’s a good idea,” the leader said. “But are you sure you still want to make pills for the council members? Even while knowing that they might…”
p、A,nd A-n、o、ve,1 “What else can I do?” Alex asked. “I can’t ignore the biggest players in this continent just because one of them might be against me. I can’t antagonize them any further, can I?”
“No, you’re right. You will have to do this,” the leader said. “But you’ll have to be very careful. This is much more than just jealousy at play here in my eyes.”
“Yes, someone is angry at me for some reason, and I will have to figure out why.”
The leader heard that and hesitated a little. “There’s another thing you might want to learn about,” he said.
“Hmm? What’s that?” Alex asked.
“It’s been over a month since I’ve received messages from the investigators I’ve put on the task of finding your father. None of them had tried to contact me since,” he said. “In all likelihood… they may have died as well.”
* * * * * *
In a dull room devoid of the most light, a woman walked in with a fearsome gait. She looked around the room and at the table in front of her and slammed on fist on the table lightly.
Even so, the table cracked and the room shook with the sound of the slam.
“What did the table do to you?” a voice spoke from the other side of the room as a figure walked in.
“Nothing,” the girl said. “I was just slightly annoyed. I thought I was holding back, but apparently, I was not.”
“Hehe, is this the last one?” the man asked.
“I have another from 2 thousand years ago, but it will take some time to reach a level where it can be of use to me,” the girl said. “I should try and get more though. The other ones are not working as well anymore. It took a while to kill those people.”
“You really are a sly, old bastard,” the man said jokingly. “Anyway, what is making you so annoyed?”
The man’s hands moved and the table slowly fixed itself, the cracks in the wood slowly disappearing.
“Damn Jade isn’t communicating at all,” the girl said. “It’s been a while since he left to gather information on the target, so he should have returned by now. Instead, he’s nowhere to be found.”
“Hm? Jade went to gather information?” the man asked with a surprised look. “I wasn’t aware of this.”
“Well, you were busy cultivating, so the 6 of us decided on our own,” the girl said. “You were outnumbered anyway.”
“And you sent Jade?” the man asked.
“Of course,” the girl replied. “His concealment technique is the best amongst all of us. He’s the best at the task.”
“That he is, but… he’s also unhinged. Do you think he will wait after he sees a target? One that is supposed to be this weak too,” the man said.
“It’s not like he was attacked,” the girl said. “I just read about how the pills were made for the event of this month. The alchemist is fine. Besides, he knows that it is better to have the alchemist say the oath rather than kill him. We just have to force him to stop this search, right?”
“Hmm… call Jade back. We still have enough time before the day when we actually attack him,” he said. “If Jade attacks now and the council is alerted, we are doomed.”
“Goddammit, I just told you I’m annoyed because he’s not contacting us at all,” the girl said as she slammed the table, breaking it again. “What the hell do you want us to do?”
The man gave a soft smile and walked forward, dragging his hand along the table whose wood slowly regrew to fix itself.
“If you can’t contact Jade, then go and find him. That’s a better idea than staying here, don’t you think?” the man asked with his gentle voice, but the sound brought terror to the girl’s face.
“Fine, fine, stop it,” she said and stood up. “I’ll go find him, you don’t have to get angry.”
“Good,” the man said. “At the same time, call back the other 4 as well. We can’t waste our time going around for random targets. We have a high-profile target with connections to the council. We will have to do this very carefully.”
“Got it,” the girl nodded and turned around to leave.
“And old man, I need your all on this job,” the man said.
“All?” the girl asked with a bit of surprise on her face.
“Yes, all,” the man said. “It’s the Sundering Sanctum we will be facing. Who knows what sort of obstacle we will be facing there? The more there are of us, the better.”
“Fine,” the girl said and continued walking.
The man nodded to himself and turned around to go to the room where he had come from.
