1724 Talk

The group of people surrounding Alex gasped at the mention of his possible death. Most did not even believe it to be true, but the ones that did quickly realized the seriousness of the situation.

"But to meet with the man that nearly killed you…" Helen was starting to tear up.

"You don't have to go alone. We will all go with you to this trade," one of the elders said.

Alex looked toward the elder. "And we should all die?" he asked. "You do know that the Emperor will kill us the moment he sees us, right? He already killed Yao Ning."

"Can we ask the Emperor to meet us in the ocean to trade then?" Ronron asked. "If he wants it so bad, he will come, right?"

"He is a coward," Alex answered while shaking his head. "He knows that if he leaves, he will die. So unless he is certain of victory, he won't come. Also, he is not the one who is forced to trade by this oath, I am."

"The only thing the oath forces him to do is trade something of incredible value as compared to the thing I'm trading him with," Alex said. "If he doesn't have anything, he can decline the trade, and he's fine."

"That's a very one-sided trade," Bai Jingshen said. He had already heard about Alex needing to return but hadn't heard about the intricacies of the oath.

"It may be," Alex said. "But it did help me stay alive. He couldn't kill me because our trade wasn't complete."

"But if you go back, he can decline the trade and then kill you, right?" Graham asked.

Alex shrank back a little and sighed. "That is exactly what I fear he will do," he said. "That man is mad, I tell you. He kept saying something about how everything that was happening was about fate. I swear he's not right in the head."

"He might have been talking about his prophecies," someone spoke almost as soon as Alex finished speaking, making everyone turn to look at him.

The white-haired Zhou Linfan realized that everyone's gaze was now at him. As someone who wasn't used to being around these many people for a long time, he shrank back a little.

"What do you mean, senior?" Alex asked curiously.

"The Dragon Emperor's prophecy," the old man said slowly. "If he said something about fate, then he must have been talking about his prophecy."

"His prophecy?" Alex asked. "Can you elaborate?"

The old man shrugged. "I don't know much about it myself either, but when I was eavesdropping on him, he and the Empress seemed to always talk about the prophecies when they were alone."

"I don't know the specificity of the prophecies, but most of what they did was because of the prophecies from what I could tell," he said. "Attacking my kin and the other kingdoms, attacking the Western Continent, and most likely even trying to kill you was because of this prophecy."

"You don't know the prophecy itself?" Alex asked the old man.

Zhou Linfan shook his head. "I don't remember them talking about the actual prophecies whenever I was serving them food," he said. "Sorry, I can't be of much help."

"You said that attacking the Western Continent was partially because of this prophecy?" Bai Jingshen asked.

Zhou Linfan nodded before quickly realizing who it was he was nodding to. "Yes, senior," he answered then.

Everyone fell into thought once the information was out. Alex thought of his own prophecy and realized he hadn't been paying attention to it for a long time now.

The one about his death bothered him whenever he remembered it. 'Could the Dragon Emperor be worried about something like that too?' he wondered. But that was only conjecture. Knowing the prophecy would likely not help him either.

"Let's ignore the prophecy for now," Alex said. "There is still sometime before the time of the trade, but—"

"There are ways to deal with oaths," Bai Jingshen cut in. "Maybe we can do something to yours, like destroy it."

Alex looked toward the White Tiger in absolute shock. "What?" he asked.

Everyone else turned to look at the White Tiger as well, unbelieving of what they had heard. They didn't believe they even heard him correctly.

"Did you say there is a way to deal with the oaths?" Alex asked.

"Not one way," Bai Jingshen said. "There are many ways to do so."

"What ways?" Alex asked, filled with hope.

Bai Jingshen pointed to his earrings. "I can deal with my oaths through this. I can erase them whenever I want to," he said.

Alex frowned. "Then why haven't you done so already?" he asked.

Bai Jingshen gave a short smile. "I am left near to death after going Qi deviation if I try to erase the oaths," he said.

"That's… not very helpful, is it?" Helen asked.

"If it means you won't die, I count it as very helpful," Bai Jingshen said. "If you are willing to lose your cultivation for survival, would you not do it?"

Alex sighed. "If I have to take that route, then I have other ways to do so," he said. "Besides, would those rings even work for me?"

"No. My master made them work exclusively by me," Bai Jingshen said proudly. "I was only suggesting that we try and see if we can find a way to save you without sending you to your killer's den."

Alex understood where the White Tiger was coming from. "Thank you for your suggestion, brother Shen, but we have an entirely different problem even if I am taken out of the equation."

"We have our best alchemists in the eastern Continent, and we need to go get them before something bad is done to them," Alex said. "I hope nothing has happened to them just yet though."

"What if the Emperor tries to use them during the trade," Liang Shufen asked with a thoughtful look. "We wouldn't even be able to reject."

Alex frowned as well. "There are a lot of problems here, and we won't be able to solve it in a single day. For now, we should all return to what we've been doing. Have senior Linfan here be treated like my own guest. As for me, I will go take my rest. I need to take a few days to cultivate to deal with some problems I came across."

Everyone nodded and started leaving one by one.

Bai Jingshen left with Pearl too, and even his parents and Ronron left him. The only people in the hall remaining were Alex and Liz.

She hugged him once again. "You said you would bring back Hannah and you did. Thank you," she said in a tearful voice.

"Right, where is sister?" Alex asked. "And brother Huan."

"I've put your sister in a special room I devised to keep her from aging at the moment. That young man who calls himself her husband should be in his room resting."

Alex smiled. "You don't approve of him?" he asked.

"I just won't call him my son-in-law until their marriage is official," she said and then smiled before patting Alex's head. "Get some rest. We can deal with everything else."