1061 Ancestor's Request

"Senior, someone left this for you." A woman passed along a piece of talisman to the leader of the Alchemy Association. The leader took the talisman and read it quickly.

"Sigh, failure again," he said softly.

"Is everything alright, senior?" the woman asked.

"Oh, no. Everything is alright. You can leave, thank you," the leader said and sent her away. After the woman left, the leader sat back on his chair and read the talisman again.

The talisman had come from a group of investigators he had employed to find Alex's father. Every month they sent him all their findings up to now and every time it had been a failure. This time was no different.

'He has to be dead, right? What other explanation could there be?' he wondered. If as Alex had mentioned, the man had not been returned back to the wasteland, then he had to have been found already.

It did not make sense why someone would not be found otherwise. As per Alex, the chances of the person being a cultivator were down to almost nothing anyway.

However, the old man did not find the heart to tell Alex that. After all, he was working here just so he could find him.

"Sigh, I'll let them keep working and hope that they end up finding him somehow." Once the old man thought of that, he went on with his day, not giving any other thought to the matter.

* * * * *

A middle-aged man with a rough beard pushed open a metal door and walked into a room full of similar furniture. He had bought one of Alex's pills and had thus been in deep cultivation for the last month.

He would have been in much longer cultivation had it not been for whatever the somewhat urgent situation was that called him out there.

His spiritual sense reached all around the mansion and found the person he was looking for. The other person realized that she was being called and quickly went into his room.

"Brother, you are finally out," the middle-aged woman said as soon as she walked into his room.

"I thought I left you to handle everything. Why would you need to call me out?" the man asked with angry grunts hidden all over his sentence.

"The situation called for it," the woman said, not bothering with her brother's tone of voice as he had always been like that since they were a child.

"What sort of situation was it that you couldn't just handle it?" the man asked.

"The ancestor sent us a message."

The man's eyes went from disinterest to absolute glee in just a matter of seconds. "The ancestor? Really?" he asked, excited like a child who was promised that they were going to get the toy they had asked for so long.

"Don't get too excited," the woman said as she knew what sort of message it was. "It's not good news."

The old man didn't care, however. Their ancestor had acted like they weren't related for the longest time, so getting a message now meant that there was something they wanted. As long as he could fulfill that, he could get on the good side of his ancestors and hopefully get the opportunity to speak a few words to influence their decisions about the world.

As it stood, there was nothing they could do to influence their ancestor, and only had to act as they could so they could keep up the facade of having a rich background and important figures hiding in the shadows.

That was how they had managed to continue holding the conglomerate that had been created since ancient times after all.

"Such auspicious news, you should have called me sooner," the man said with his personality entirely changed to that of a happy man.

The woman frowned but said nothing. Her brother would understand when he read the information. So, she simply handed him the talisman with the information on it.

The man took the talisman and started reading it. "There's nothing bad here at all," he said. "The ancestor just wants us to help find someone, right? We can do that."

"Keep reading," the woman said.

"Okay," the man said and continued reading.

The talisman included their ancestor's urge to help him find a person on someone else's behalf. That, someone, was Alex, which was information available in the talisman, but it was mentioned to not use his name outside.

The information went on to ask for their help in finding a man that was important to Alex.

The old man saw no problem until here. After all, what problem was there really? He could help not just his ancestor with this, but also an incredible Alchemist. Having an alchemist like that owe you one was ever cultivating man's dream.

However, the problem came after that.

After that point was what held the information on the person they were supposed to be finding.

A middle-aged man named Graham Benton, with black hair, a muscular body, most likely tanned, little or no cultivation base, most likely a body cultivator, and came from the wasteland using unconventional means.

Below that info was an image of what Graham was supposed to look like.

The old man knew the face all too well.

"No… the ancestor wants us to find him?" the old man shouted. "Why him?"

"He's someone close to the alchemist, it seems," the old woman said. "Judging by a bit of information I have acquired,  the alchemist goes by the name Alex Benton. At best, they are friends that happen to share the same last name, but at worst…"

"They are family," the old man realized, and with that, a deep sense of dread pricked his spine. "No… no, this can't be happening."

"Do we tell them what we know?" the old woman asked.

"The hell we will. Do you think when the alchemist and our ancestor find out what we've done, they will only say thank you and return?" he shouted. "NO! We will be dead the very next day."

"Then what do we do?" the old woman asked.

The old man wracked his brain trying to think of something to do, but there was no situation where they came out on top here.

It wasn't just the alchemist or their ancestor either, if the world found out what they had done, they would be in much deeper trouble.

The old man had to make a decision, and he made the one that made the most sense right now. "We will have to hide the information," the man said. "Hide it forever."

He nodded as he spoke to himself before suddenly jerking his head toward his sister. "Who else knows of this?" he asked.

"Uhh… the searches? A few of the family members, but—"

"No, not the searches. Why would I care about the search? I'm talking about that body cultivator. Who else knows in this house?" he asked.

"Uhh… I believe there are about 10 or 12. We always use the same people after all," the old woman said.

"Good, bring them all here," he said. "We need to make sure this information never gets out."

The old woman nodded. It was the best choice they had right now. "And what about the others that are searching for him?"

"The others?" he asked.

"Yes, I've been contacted by a few other families and sects who were also notified by their own ancestors to commence this search. It's a search of a way larger scale than we can ever imagine," the old woman said.

"Goddammit, woman! Tell me that earlier," the old man cried out in anger. "Everyone is accepting the search?"

"Yes, they are just about as happy as you were 2 minutes ago," the girl said.

"Fuck!" the old man couldn't help but curse. "What can we do now?"

"I… I have a plan," the old woman said. "It's a horrible plan, but… I don't see what other choices we have."

"What plan?" the old man asked.

"We… uhh… we kill the alchemist," she said.

"Kill the alchemist?" the old man was stunned. "But… but he makes such good pills. Do you know how comfortable my cultivation was for the pas—"

"Do you care about our family's survival or not?" the woman shouted at her brother this time.

The old man got a little more alert and nodded. "Yes… yes, we must kill him," the man said. "Or… force him to stop the searches?" The old man truly couldn't think of killing the Alchemist that made the best pills in the world.

"Fine, we can make him speak an oath or something. If that fails, then he dies," the old woman said. "How do we do that though? How do you kill the most sought-after person in the entire continent?"

The old man thought too. "Assassins are the way to go, but we can't do it out in the open. Even the ancestors are on his side. If they work together, I'm certain they will figure it out in no time," he said. "We will have to do it in a place where the signs can be easily erased."

The old woman's eyes narrowed as she understood the meaning behind those words. "Somewhere secretive, like a secret realm," she said.

"Yes," the old man said. "But not just any one. It has to be one where we can not only kill him but get rid of the body too if the need arises."

"Then we have the perfect secret realm opening for that in 2 years, don't we?" she asked.

"Yes," the old man nodded. "Once the Sundering Sanctum opens, our troubles will have  ended."