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"Join you?" Alex couldn't help but grow curious when he heard that. "Surely you don't mean your little assassins group, do you? You should know your little act is up."

"Haha!" Zhu Shaofan chuckled. "I knew you had told them the moment I heard you were alive. I don't know how you do it, but it's certainly a neat trick I must say. I mean, to regrow a head? That surely can't be done with just some pills right? Anyway, what's your answer?"

"Didn't you hear me? Your assassins group has been found out. The elders know about you," Alex said.

"And what will they do? Kill me?" Zhu Shaofan chuckled. "I thought I told you that they can't kill anyone on the continent. Every single one of them is stuck following a stupid oath they forced upon themselves. So long as the oath remains, they cannot kill me. So, what will your answer be?"

Alex frowned. His father and the others were vulnerable at the moment. Heck, even he was vulnerable. If he refused to accept the deal, he would just kill him again.

'What should I do?' he thought.

"Come on, hurry up," the man said. "I don't have the time. Those old bastards will come at any time."

Alex couldn't think of what else he could do right now. He had to accept the deal if only to save his father and himself right now. He had to delay as much as he could.

"Fine," he said. "I accept your deal."

Alex knew what was going to happen next. He was going to have to swear an oath and he was going to refuse it, and then the old man was going to get angry.

It was all plainly laid out in front of him.

But, things didn't go in the way Alex anticipated.

"Great!" the man said. "Now you are the first member of the Dark Phoenix. Do you know any other 5 I can employ as well?"

Alex frowned once more. Something weird was going on. He guessed it was a ploy to get him to lower his guard so that he could attack him at just the right moment.

But Alex couldn't understand why that would be necessary. Each moment he was given to breathe was a moment closer to him recovering. A moment closer to the elders deciding to come to save him.

"I don't have any such names," Alex said, playing along with his games for now.

"Hmm, no worries. I remember the Azure Imperium searching for someone not long ago. I should get them," the man said. "As for the rest, I have quite a few years on me to decide."

Alex said nothing and everyone around him was silent as well.

"I suppose I shouldn't be wasting any more time. We should leave," the man said.

Alex half-nodded.

"Oh right," the man stopped moving and looked at Alex. "You should know that the Dark Phoenix group is very secretive and our information can't be that easily distributed. Please kill everyone that knows that you are a part of it now."

Alex gave a disgusted look. "That was your play?" he asked. "Were you just wasting time?"

"Are you not going to kill them?" the man asked.

"What do you think?" Alex asked.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. And here I thought I found another member," the man said. "Well, if you're not going to be it, then I guess you should just die."

Alex sense something move in the ground suddenly. He could sense it approaching fast.

A massive root grew out of the ground and stuck both Alex and Graham that were standing next to each other.

Suddenly, the puppet moved and appeared in front of Alex, blocking the roots from hitting him.

Zhu Shaofan gave a surprised look. "A puppet that can stop my attacks? Now that is interesting," he said. "You really are very interesting, aren't you?"

Alex said nothing as he fully focused on controlling the puppet in front of him. The opponent in front of him was faster than the speed puppet could produce with Alex at the control.

The puppet's reflexes also depended on Alex, so that was another problem.

"Seriously, how you do have it all? Such good Alchemy knowledge, a puppet of such strength, the blood of such high strength, and a body that doesn't seem to die," the man said. "Come on, tell me."

"You can kill me, but you won't get the answer," Alex said as he prepared for another fight. He pulled out a few pills and ate them to recover the best he could, but these were never going to be enough.

"Kill you? I'm not going to kill you until I have the answer to what makes you so great," the man said. "These people, however. I don't mind killing them."

Alex's eyes widened. "Fight me you coward!" he shouted.

"Oh, I don't think I will," the man said. "Let's start with your father, shall we?"

Alex noticed a wind blade flying towards them out of nowhere. His demon eyes were working overtime to notice every single movement of energy to see what his next attack was going to be.

He saw the blade and put the puppet on task to stop it. The puppet punched the blade and the blade disappeared into a bunch of green energy.

The man looked at the puppet with a slightly deeper frown. "Strong," he said. "I bet it can kill me if it can get to me too."

Alex didn't say anything, but he was feeling afraid that Zhu Shaofan had realized that his puppet was capable of killing him.

"I should watch myself, then," he said.

Alex noticed a green aura trailing beneath his feet, falling onto the ground. The man activated a technique and suddenly something grew out from the ground.

Alex was surprised that it wasn't attacking him, but rather Zhu Shaofan. It was a massive carnivorous planet that swallowed him.

Alex remembered the wood energy girl from the sanctum and knew what was most likely going to happen next.

He immediately turned around and hit his father with his palm. Waves of energy burst into his father and suddenly he teleported away.

From behind him, Zhu Shaofan appeared with a sword in hand, ready to stab his father.

Zhu Shaofan was surprised that Alex had noticed him at all. The next moment, the puppet came next to him to punch him.

The man realized he had screwed up quite badly. So, he quickly used something.

Wind burst out from him, moving in all directions around him. Alex felt the air around him grow thick and viscous as he found it hard to move through.

The puppet was also slowed down quite a lot and that gave the man ample opportunity to escape back into the sky

"That puppet is truly terrifying," he said as he took a deep breath. He had been forced to use his dao, and was thus feeling quite bad about himself.

"I suppose I shouldn't come attack in person then," he said. "You still have the chance to give me what I want, young Alex. You have enough time until every single one of these people dies."

A bunch of wind blades appeared in front of him, sending the wind blades in all directions.

Alex's eyes went wide in horror and he suddenly brought out the Blood God's Manual. Without hesitation, he pulled out as many of the beasts inside as he could and sent them all in the direction of the wind blades.

The blades struck the beasts and were destroyed. The shockwaves still hit the people below, and while some were hurt, most were just fine.

Alex felt his heart bleed watching the many blood beasts he had cultivated die just like that, but there wasn't anything he could do. Saving these men was a task he simply couldn't skimp out on.

The rest of the beasts flew out to crash onto the rest of the flying blades as well.

"Whisker!" Alex said, and Whisker jumped onto the puppet's back. At the next moment, Alex sent both the puppet and Whisker into the sky.

The moment they appeared in the sky, above Zhu Shaofan, Alex noticed where he was through Whisker's vision.

Zhu Shaofan noticed that as well and stopped to save himself. He created a massive field of wind that resisted the puppet's approach.

He noticed the rat on top of the puppet and realized that the rat had some important role to play here as well.

Without hesitation, he sent a strong attack flying toward the puppet and Whisker. The puppet was struck on the chest, and it hit Whisker as well.

Whisker died immediately and the puppet could no longer target the man as it fell freely through the air now that Alex couldn't see where Zhu Shaofan was.

"That was close," Zhu Shaofan's voice appeared from beyond the bloody mist that had filled the sky by now. "That is a very good technique you use there, that teleportation. You nearly got me."

The mist cleared and Zhu Shaofan could be seen once again. "But, what now?" he asked as he started at Alex's frowning face. "Your beasts are dead and I don't think you have any more of them. So, your only choice is to watch them die or give me the answers I want."

Alex looked at him with his frowning face and suddenly, the frown turned to a smile. "I do have one last option," he said. "I have a friend."

A massive fire blasted out of nowhere, hitting Zhu Shaofan square in the back.

From beyond the fire appeared Scarlet who flapped her massive burning wings in the black sky.

"Hope I'm not too late."