1668 Story

From what Alex realized, the poison's main purpose was one of two things.

It either entered one's Dantian to destroy the Nascent Soul, or it simply sought out the Nascent Soul around the body to destroy it. However it did it, it went after the Nascent soul and destroyed it.

Alex could feel his Soul dying to the presence of the poison and instinctively forced his body to protect itself. The Yang in his body surged the moment they were allowed again and the poison was immediately burned up.

Alex was left breathless. He took in deep breaths, calming the feeling of momentary dread he had felt.

That was a very dangerous poison. To him it was fine, but to anyone else, their death would be instant.

"Level 10… It might just be," he thought.

Hannah had gotten herself in rather dangerous trouble.

Morning came just a few hours later, and Alex relayed what happened the last night to his two elders.

He had expected the two to get angry, but instead, they just sighed. "We can't stop you from doing something reckless, can we?" Yao Ning asked with a resigned look.

Liang Shufen simply gave a rueful smile. "Congratulations on finding your cousin, Your Majesty. Lady Liz will be happy to learn of this."

Alex nodded. She would.

He went to meet with the family head of the Zhan family for a bit in the gardens where the Crown Prince and Zhan Luoyang came to meet with him. They talked briefly and Alex managed to slip in the fact that he needed to make some pill.

Zhan Luoyang took the opportunity to ask him to visit her mansion. And so, around 10 in the morning, Alex was back with his sister.

He spoke with her for a moment before turning toward Zhan Luoyang. "Where should I make the pill? Right here?" he asked.

"Oh," the woman was taken aback. "You weren't making an excuse to come here?"

"I was, but I also need to make 3 pills," Alex said.

"I have an alchemy room with everything you could need. Please come with me," the lady said.

"Actually, if it's alright, I will do it right here. I need Sister to be close by anyway," Alex said.

"But this room has no formations to aid you," the woman said. "It will take time to make some for this room."

"Thank you, but that's alright," Alex said. "I don't really use formations anyway."

Memory floated out of his Soul Space and hovered on top of the floor as Alex began to take out the ingredients he had prepared already.

A fire appeared on its own below the cauldron, heating up Memory as Alex got ready to start making the pill.

Zhan Luoyang looked surprised and sat down to the side, not wanting to leave Alex at all. She wanted to see him make a pill.

The 2nd prince sat to the side as well.

"Would you prefer if I call you something other than brother-in-law? It's a bit of a mouthful," Alex said as the cauldron reached the proper temperature.

"Sorry?" Long Huan was so focused on the cauldron that he nearly missed the question. "Oh, uhh… you can just call me Huan if you want, Your Majesty."

"Brother Huan it is then," Alex said. "Please call me Alex. I'm junior to you in both age and relation."

"Alright," the young man said. "I'll call you Alex while we're alone then. I will still have to call you Your Majesty if we're in the presence of others."

Alex nodded slowly and put the first ingredient in. 

"So, please tell me how you and my sister met," Alex asked. "I want to hear all about it. Honestly, had I been told that she was married, or even remembered about it somehow, I wouldn't have had to go around on dates."

"You went on dates to find your sister?" Long Huan asked.

"It sounds stupid, but it was the best I could think of at the time," Alex said. "Please don't mind that. Continue."

"I… I met her by chance," Long Huan said. "I remember I had gone to a shop to buy something, a pill I think? That was when I met her first. She thought I was cutting in line without realizing who I was and spoke some harsh words to me. It was so bad that I could have never forgotten about it."

He smiled to himself. 

"Sure I was hiding my identity, but anyone with an eye would know not to mess with me," Long Huan said with a chuckle. "I had so many guards with me there after all. Anyway, she won and left the shop before me."

"I had assumed that would be the last time I met her, but then I met her again a few days later in another shop. She recognized me first actually this time around, and said something about how I had learned and wasn't cutting through lines. If I remember correctly, she said something about 'them' fixing me. I never realized who she was referring to."

'Probably the game developers,' Alex thought. That made sense.

"Your sister truly baffled me. I had met many women by now on formal dates or occasions, most belonging to high-level clans and families. But none were as different as your sister. She truly left an impression on you whenever she met you."

"Once again I thought that would have been the last time, but then I met her again about a week later. It was a coincidence certainly, but I noticed her back then because it was her. I even went to talk to her, get to know her a little."

"I still remember the shock I felt when I reached her back then," Long Huan said. 

Alex put another ingredient into the cauldron and stirred it around, half his attention on the story Long Huan was telling.

"She had only been a Common realm cultivator not even 2 weeks ago, and somehow she had managed to enter the True realm."

"The shock was quite hard to handle, so I had some men tail her. When they reported to me that she was breaking through day after day, sometimes even twice a day, I had to meet with her and see what was happening."

"I hadn't realized that there were more such as her at the time, but by the time I learned that she was different, we had already been together. In fact, I was surprised when she asked that I marry her just 2 weeks after we properly met each other."

"I didn't want to refuse, so I accepted. She was beautiful enough, and her speed with cultivation was beyond frightening. But most of all, I liked spending time with her. She wasn't so stiff like so many other girls I met who only saw a prince in me. I liked that about her."

Long Huan smiled a little remembering it all. "I remember her constantly taunting me to continue cultivating or she would leave me behind in the dust. I was so thankful when she finally saw that she needed to slow down."

"Still, despite her slowing down, I knew at that moment that she would always be ahead of me, and I would have no chance of ever reaching her at all."