1085 Back to the Association

"Y-you… how did you?" one of the elders asked with a trembling finger pointed towards the closing gate behind Alex.

Alex looked back at the gate and turned back around to say, "I have my ways."

The sect master was dumbfounded as well, but she quickly got a hold of her emotions. "What happened inside? We sensed someone dying," she said.

"Someone did," Alex said. "I would like to speak in a little more private scenario if possible."

The sect leader frowned and looked at the elders beside her. He gestured for them to leave and everyone flew away.

"So, tell me what happened," the sect leader asked. "Did you kill the other person? That's not a crime I can help you get away with."

"I did kill the other person, but you don't have to worry. It was no crime," Alex said. "The other person was an assassin that had gone in to observe me for some reason. He seemed to be part of the same group as the Jade-Faced assassin."

The sect leader looked around hurriedly before speaking in a lower voice. "Another assassin? Who was it this time?" she asked.

"I am not sure," Alex said. "He was wearing Harry's face when I met him, so he really could be anyone."

"Dammit! I will have to consult with Granduncle about this. He told me to just look over you after the first assassination. He won't be happy after hearing you were the target of another one," she said.

"I technically wasn't a target of an assassination today," Alex said. "He said he was there to just observe. I think they want something from me, so they are waiting for some reason."

"Alright, we will talk about this later. You seem to have gone through a rough day for now. Go take some rest, I will let the council elders know about what happened here," the sect leader said.

Alex thought for a bit if that could go bad in any way, but he ignored that thought. He was already a target of an assassination, how much worse could it even get?

"Oh right, I forgot to mention one thing," Alex said right before he left. "This man I fought, mentioned that he was part of something known as the Dark Phoenix. Do you have any idea what that is?"

"The dark phoenix?" the sect leader's eyes went wide in surprise. "No way! You are being targeted by the Dark Phoenix? I must let granduncle know about it immediately."

Alex saw the urgency in the sect leader's eyes and frowned. "Are they what I think they are?" he asked.

"They are an assassin group, one that has lasted for a very long time. Unlike other assassins, this group is known to have very few members, but each one of them is deadly in their own way," the sect leader said. "I see, the Jade-Faced Assassin must have been from this group as well."

Alex nodded. "So the best assassin group in the entire continent is after me?" he asked.

"The best assassins are after you... dear lord," the sect leader realized how much more severe the situation was, much more than what she had thought. "Go back, I will contact the council elders. They will make a decision for you."

Alex didn't show any other emotion and simply nodded before flying away. Whatever it was he was going to have to do next really didn't matter to him at the moment.

As long as they didn't stop him from being able to make pills, train, or find his father, he was up for anything.

Alex arrived back on the shore of the lake in the Flowerhall sect and found a few people waiting for him.

"Alex! You're back," Harry said with a worried look. "Are you alright? We heard some explosions."

"I'm fine," Alex said. "I wasn't hurt."

"I see," Harry said.

Alex sneakily used his eyes to see Harry's aura colors and finally relaxed a little. It really was him.

"What do we do now?" Alex asked.

"Well, you came back. Is the other alchemist not coming?" Harry asked. He was trying to learn if he was the one that had exploded for some reason.

"He's not," Alex said. "We should return."

Harry hesitated for a bit and nodded. There was nothing else for them to do anyway. Everyone else had already returned, so he should be returning as well.

They walked out of the sect and made their way through the streets to return back to the association.

Harry tried to ask what happened inside, but Alex dodged the questions as best as he could. He didn't want to talk about it with anyone except the leader for now.

Instead, to occupy Harry's mind from getting overly curious, Alex asked, "oh right, what about our competition? How many ingredients did you prepare?"

"Hah! You actually have the guts to bring that up huh? You must have acquired enough to be the one to bring it up," Harry said.

"I found a few," Alex said, not giving away anything else.

"Fine, bring yours out and I'll bring mine. We will check each other's," Harry said.

Alex nodded and handed over a talisman and a storage bag, and took the same things handed over to him by Harry.

He started checking through the talisman list and was quite surprised. 'He managed to find so many,' he thought.

There was a number on the top that tallied up everything noted in the talisman, and that number came out to be 9,563. It was quite a lot of ingredients to have gathered in just 7 days, but only about 5 percent of that number was Saint rank ingredients.

About 30 percent were True rank ingredients, and the rest were common ingredients.

"This is quite good," Alex said as he looked through the names on the list. He was really just interested in the Saint rank ingredients, so he looked at them only. "You did amazing."

Harry smiled with a proud face. "You did not bad yourself either," he said, handing back the storage bag and talisman. "8 thousand is not a bad number at all, especially for someone that is new to all of this."

Alex smiled. "I tried my best," he said.

"Although, I didn't see that Willow tree being listed here," Harry said. "Does that mean you failed to get it? That was the one thing you wanted to get in there, right?"

Alex gave a surprised look. "Oh, silly me. I was so excited about finding the willow that I forgot to note it down," he said. "Although, I wouldn't win against your list with just 1 more ingredient."

"Of course not," Harry said as he patted Alex's shoulders. "But I'm happy that you found what you went in looking for. You don't have to win every competition you face anyway."

Alex smiled and nodded. He didn't feel that bad about losing the competition at all. Rather, he didn't feel bad at all. He was instead very happy.

'Hear that Whisker? You nearly collected as many ingredients as an actual human alchemist. That should tell you how good you are,' Alex said to the little guy hiding in his robes.

Whisker made some small sound of happiness and Alex placed the storage bag back into his robes, handing it over to him.

After all, these were just the ingredients Whisker had found after all.

Alex himself hadn't bothered making a list at all. After all, he was there to only get Saint-ranked ingredients and maybe a few True rank ingredients if they were usable in a recipe.

Even then, he had collected about 2300 ingredients alone. If he had gone all out, 20 thousand wouldn't have been a hard number to reach.

The two of them finally arrived at the association and Alex went over to the leader who was expecting him.

"Are you okay? I heard there was an explosion inside. Did you have a fight with Han Nixie?" the leader asked.

"Who?" Alex gave a confused look.

"Han Nixie. You know, the guy who exploded himself inside the secret realm," the leader said. "They told me it was a Core explosion, and he was the only one in there with a core amongst you two."

"Oh, that's who he went in as," Alex said, finally understanding a little.

"Went in as? What are you talking about?" the leader asked.

"How old would you say this Han fellow is? How long has he been in this association?" Alex asked.

"Um, he was a later generation than me in the Flowerhall sect, and he joined here right after graduation, so about 600 years? Give or take," the leader said.

"I see," Alex said. "I don't know who this Han Nixie person is exactly, but the man that died inside wasn't him. It was an assassin that came to observe me after the Jade Faced assassin died."

"What?" the leader stood up from his chair. "An assassin?"

"Yes," Alex said.

"A Saint core one at that," he said.

Alex continued nodding.

The leader was flabbergasted. "There are more after you then," he said. "Wait, how did you escape him? Rather, how did you force him to a point where he had to destroy his own core? He must've been desperate to do so," he said.

"I've told you this before, but I'm stronger than I look," Alex said. "I'll tell you more later. For now, check on this Han Nixie fellow. He was either killed and replaced, or he is being detained someplace. You will need to find out."

The leader nodded. "What about you?" he asked.

"I… I will get some rest," Alex said. "Then, I will have to spend a lot of time making the pills now that I have the ingredients I need."