1758 First Trade

Time passed by the minutes, and the Emperor continued flying in the sky, waiting for any sort of message of Alex's arrival. With the newsboard continuously sending out messages all around the continent, he had to have known by now what was happening.

As the minutes came to an end, the Emperor could wait no more. It was time to stick to his words and kill these alchemists.

"I'm here."

Alex spoke at the very last second, flying slowly up toward where the Emperor and the rest were in the sky.

He floated close enough to them and yet far enough that he couldn't be surprised. His spiritual sense was constantly on the lookout for anyone trying to sneak close to him.

The Emperor was a little surprised to see Alex arrive in front of him. He hadn't expected Alex to be in the capital. Had he sneaked in before they had put a temporary stop on the teleportation buildings?

"Is this really you?" the Emperor asked in a cold voice. "I do not want any more surprises."

Alex pulled out the Ivory sword in his hand. "It's me alright," he said and pulled out something else. A talisman.

"No funny business or I will be gone before you can say anything," he said as he waved the talisman around.

"A teleportation talisman? That will be no problem," the Emperor said. "Nobody does anything without my order."

"Yes, Your Majesty!" A congruous response came from everyone standing behind the Emperor.

"That should do it right?" the Emperor asked.

"That should do it," Alex said. He looked at the Emperor's subordinates. There were about a hundred different of them here. If he did it right now, could he kill the man?

'No, let's save the alchemists first, and then deal with the trade. I can't kill him before that otherwise,' Alex thought.

"Are my alchemists safe?" Alex asked.

"As safe as they can be. They're half-conscious so that they won't act. It should leave their system in a day or two at most."

Alex slowly nodded. That was a good thing. "Then let us trade."

"Alright, give me the sword," the Emperor said.

"No, give me my Alchemists first," Alex said.

The Emperor gave an unhappy look. "I won't do that. I can't trust you." He looked back at the alchemists, thinking about something.

Alex shook his head. "Same here. I can't trust anything from a man like you." He so wanted to tell everyone about what he knew of the man, but he couldn't let it all blow over just yet.

He had to wait.

A long pause settled between the two of them before the Emperor said. "Let's make an oath then. Neither of us will attack each other or run away for 5 minutes after this trade."

Alex thought for a moment. The trade itself was fine, but making him wait was…

"Sure, I'll make the oath."

The two sides spoke the simple oath one by one where Alex had to hand over the Ivory sword and the Emperor had to hand over the alchemists without hurting them. During or after the trade was completed, neither side was allowed to attack each other for the next 5 minutes either.

"Let them go," the Emperor ordered.

One by one, the alchemists were sent forward, who unintentionally flew toward Alex in their thoughtless state.

Alex caught each one with his Qi and checked on them to make sure they were alright. Thankfully, they were just slightly intoxicated and there was no threat to their life.

"Now the sword," the Emperor said.

Alex looked at the Ivory sword for a second and sighed as he passed it along to the Emperor. The sword flew in an arc and landed right in the Emperor's hands.

The Emperor looked at the sword, feeling the spatial aura that vaguely surrounded the sword, and smiled. That was indeed the Ivory sword that he had been looking for for the past 70 years.

Finally, it was in his hand. The thing he had wanted the most would be his in just a couple of minutes.

Long Tiankong couldn't help but hold a wide smile on his face as he stared at the sword. "Thank you for bringing this back to me," he said and looked away from the sword toward Alex.

"I'm not going to lie," he said. "I am surprised you gave this to me. It appears I did a good thing that I did not kill your alchemists when I wanted to. I might have had to work harder to get the sword back."

Alex gave Jia Heiyun an antidote pill and watched her slowly get back her consciousness. It seemed antidote pills worked on whatever it was that they had consumed.

"You seem busy," the Emperor said. "I'll talk to you in a bit then.

The Emperor flew back down toward the Palace, leaving Alex and the rest in the sky.

"Your Majesty?" the man's subordinates called out in a confused voice.

"Just make sure he doesn't do anything stupid. I will be back in a bit," the Emperor said and left.

Alex looked at the Emperor leaving and gave a scornful look.

"Your Majesty?" Jai Heiyun called out to him. "You're here? No! Why are you here? Please tell me you didn't come for us."

"Don't fret about it," Alex said. "I am forced to come here because of an oath I made long ago. Me coming here had nothing to do you guys."

Alex handed over a bunch of antidote pills to Jai Heiyun and had her take care of the other 19 alchemists.

Alex then turned toward the group in the sky consisting of the Crown Prince, members of the Head Legion, and other soldiers.

"Prince Fangyu," Alex called out slowly. "How have you been? Has life been fun since you gave up your brother?"

Fangyu's face showed a look of despair and dark thoughts seemed to cloud his mind. He looked down, unable to answer, and said nothing.

Alex looked at the rest of the subordinates. "Are you people aware of where the Emperor is going right now?" he asked.

"That is of no matter to any of us," one of the men said.

"It is," Alex said. "Are you guys aware that the Azure Dragon is dead? And your Emperor had a hand in that."

A look of shock, surprise, and doubt flashed through each and every face in the sky.

Those who were shocked and in doubt were hearing something this preposterous for the first time in their life.

However, the ones who were surprised were clearly surprised because they hadn't expected Alex to know the secret.

Alex was somewhat shocked himself. "So most of you do know?" he asked. "And you still follow that bastard?"

"Do not talk about our Emperor that way!" one of the men shouted back and was about to attack but stopped himself at the last second, remembering the Oath the Emperor made on their behalf.

"The one you should be following should be the Azure Dragon," Alex said. "And yet you do not care about him at all it seems."

"I bet none of you even care that your Emperor is on his way to desecrate the Azure Dragon's corpse by stealing all of his treasures."