1941 Some Answers

"What is it?" Alex asked. "What do you know? Please tell me."

Elder Lan silently conferred with Elder Ming for a moment before turning back toward Alex.

"We shouldn't be telling you this, but since you asked, here it is. We fear that you may not have been targeted by the First Elder alone."

Alex narrowed his eyes, confusion filling his thoughts. "Do you mean someone else was involved? Other than the Elder that worked with the First Elder to try and poison me?"

"That Elder used to be the First Elder's disciple in the past, so he will follow everything she says. But of course, that is not what we are talking about," Elder Ming said. "The First Elder has a lot of influence in the sect, but even she cannot Poison a disciple just because she wishes to. She needs permission to do so."

"But…" Alex said. "The only one who can give permission to the First Elder is…"

Elder Lan nodded. "The sect masters were involved in the attempt of your poisoning as well."

"But why? Because I'm a nobody whose death won't matter to them?" Alex asked.

"Most likely," Elder Lan said. "Otherwise, you would've lived for a few centuries or two before being killed."

Alex's eyes widened even more. "What… what do you mean I would've been killed in a few centuries?"

"Because that's what they do," Elder Ming said. "They kill disciples every year in the assembly by feeding them the wrong poison and making it look like they died of their own failures."

"They tried it with you too, but it seems you were lucky enough to survive stronger poisons," Elder Lan finished.

Alex tried to wrap his head around the new information, trying to make sense of it. "Are you sure of this?" he asked. "Are you absolutely sure?"

"We've been investigating this very thing for the past 8 decades. We are more than sure that this is true," Elder Ming said.

"How can that be true though? How come they can kill disciples as they wish? How has this not been reported to other sects and authorities?"

"Because we do not have any proof," Elder Lan said. "The moment anyone remotely foreign to the sect comes, this doesn't happen. There have been years when no one has died too. They are very careful so as to not let anyone get suspicious of what is happening here."

"That is also why they only target people like you."

Alex was surprised. "Me? What do you mean like me?"

"People without a family. People whose deaths won't raise questions. People who others won't miss. Newly ascended immortals, Orphans, and rogue cultivators, these are the type of disciples that are killed, which is how we led us to figure out that the deaths were happening on purpose."

Alex's eyes widened. "So… I was going to get killed because no one would look for me? Was Tai Guidao killed for the same reason?"

"You said yourself that he had no family," Elder Ming said.

Elder Lan sighed. "I thought I could help you live. I saw your talent in Alchemy and took you in to become a staff, but you got into much bigger trouble than I could have anticipated. I'm sorry."

"You tried to protect me?" Alex asked. He hadn't thought that the opportunity to earn he had received from the Elder had instead secretly been a way for him to protect his life.

While the intention hadn't panned out, Alex still felt very grateful for it all. "Thank you, Elder Lan."

"Don't thank me. What I did had no effect on your future in the end," the man sighed.

Alex didn't feel that way.

"Do you know why they kill disciples?" he asked. "I have a feeling they experiment on the corpses. Or could they be making clones somehow?"

"Clones is unlikely. Making clones of such weak immortals doesn't make sense to me. As for experiments, we have thought about the possibility, but the truth is we don't know. We have tried to find out but we couldn't."

"Today was the closest I was to finding out anything new," Elder Ming said. "I was so close to entering the house, but that damn… ugh."

Alex looked toward the female Elder. No wonder she had tried to go in.

"You wanted to talk to me because of this then?" Alex asked. "You want to know what's going on inside?"

"From what we understand, the corpses of the dead disciples are secretly taken into the sect master's house. We haven't seen it happening, so we wanted to make sure if that was true or not. As long as we can prove that they are using the dead bodies of the sect for some immoral reason, we can finally report what they are doing to our superiors."

'Superiors?' Alex wondered.

"What did you see while you were inside?" Elder Ming asked.

"Nothing of importance at all," he said. "The house is ordinary on the inside as it is on the outside, and the room that I was taken into was perhaps even simpler."

"Damn it!"

Elder Ming was frustrated.

"Don't worry, we'll get what we want someday," Elder Lan said.

"But…" Alex said. "There is something very eerie about the place. I do believe the dead are being taken there for sure because the place has a lingering Death aura."

"Death aura?" the two turned to look at Alex at once.

"I am familiar with Death aura and am more attuned to sensing it. And there is a lot of Death aura in that place. I believe they are doing something with the dead people in that house."

The two Elder's eyes rose in sync. "Are you sure about the Death aura?" Elder Lan asked. "If that is true, we are finally making progress on this thing."

"It is true," Alex said. "As soon as the barrier is lifted, you could sense it."

"We should try to confirm it," Elder Ming said. "I'll try to become the one in charge of the corpses next year."

Elder Lan nodded.

"Actually…" Alex continued. "If you need to know more, I can give you more information."

"Yes, tell us more. Tell us everything you know."

Alex shook his head. "It is not about what I know, but what I will know," he said.

The two Elders frowned. "What do you mean?" one of them asked.

"I realized something was wrong back when I was in the house. I asked the sect masters to allow me to take care of Tai Guidao's funeral, but they refused. They even refused me to be present in one, which led me to believe that they were doing something with the dead."

"So, to figure out what is happening, I left a Seeking Mouse behind."

Both Elder's eyes widened at once. "What?"

A Seeking Mouse inside the room house meant that Alex could see and feel almost everything that the Seeking Mouse could see and feel.

"Is it still inside the house?" Elder Lan asked.

"Yes, he is," Alex said. "The First Elder just left the building, and the three sect masters have entered a different room."

"Let me see and tell you what they are up to."