732 A Path Ahead

"I am a little confused about what you are saying, but yes, it did indeed happen the way you said," Ruoran said.

"I was trying to break through to the Saint realm, so I thought I would go to a secluded location and do it. However, once I tried to, I felt like I was gone for a few hours like I had fallen asleep."

"However, it had only been a few minutes from what I could tell. Next thing I know, there's a storm brewing above me, threatening to destroy me."

"It struck not once, but twice. I defended myself the first time, but the second time, the lightning was stronger than me and I was injured," Ruoran said.

"Why didn't you tell anyone?" Alex asked.

"I tried," Ruoran said. "They thought I was making excuses."

"Do they not know about your Dao?" Alex asked.

"No," Ruoran said. "Even I only learned in the last few decades that what I had was a Dao. I don't even know much about it as information on it is hard to find."

"I understand," Alex said. Then, he looked through Ruoran's body once more. "Your leg is injured. Can it not be healed?"

"I don't know," Ruoran said. "No pills work on me for some reason."

"Weird," Alex thought. 'I will have to ask Shen Jing if getting hit by tribulation lightning results in such injuries.'

"Wait," Alex said. "Your wound shouldn't be stopping you from cultivating though. You didn't completely lose your cultivation base after all."

"I… I don't know what is going on anymore," Ruoran said. "I just can't seem to breakthrough. Every time I try, I just end up in a pool of cold sweat."

Alex thought for a while when he realized what the problem was. "Oh," he said. "Your inner demon must be incredibly hard to get through."

"Inner demon?" Ruoran asked with an inquisitive look.

"Let us settle somewhere. I will explain to you everything I can," Alex said.

Ruoran took him to a spot on the top of the mountain where an area was open with not a single tree.

"This is where I was struck with lightning. This emptiness is a constant reminder of my life now," Ruoran said.

Alex looked around and was surprised to find not a single sign of life in the 10 meter area.

There was a small hut in the center and Ruoran took Alex inside. There was a single bed, but Ruoran brought out a small chair from his storage bag and offered it to Alex.

"My apologies, people don't usually visit me," Ruoran said.

"It's fine," Alex said. "There is no point in having anything more than this as a cultivator."

"So, would you mind explaining what is happening exactly? From the start please," Ruoran said.

"I will, but in exchange, I hope you reconsider my request. I really do want you to teach me about growing plants," Alex said.

"I will," Ruoran said seriously with not a sense of grumpiness in his voice.

Alex nodded and started explaining everything he knew about Dao, Inner Demon, and Lightning Tribulation.

He told Ruoran that heaven itself was judging him every time he was going to progress. It was putting obstacles in his way to stop him from getting better.

Ruoran nodded as it all made sense.

"I was troubled with Inner Demon too and lost a bit of my cultivation base about 5 months ago. It wasn't until a while ago that I went for it after preparing and managed to break through," Alex said.

"How did you prepare against something you don't even know is there?" Ruoran asked.

"It is there, and the way to prepare for it is simple," Alex said. "You prepare for anything and everything it could use against you."

Alex wondered just what could this man's insecurity be when he realized that almost everything that happened in this man's life was probably some sort of insecurity.

A man that was born to the royal family, but was not a royal himself.

A talented cultivator that wasted his talent taking care of flowers.

One of the strongest of the younger generation member has to now watch those that were weaker than him become his senior.

A person that was deemed an idiot by everyone for a thing he didn't even do.

A man that was terrified of breaking through for the fear of losing his other normal leg and half of his cultivation base.

That were a lot of problems that Ruoran himself would have to tackle one at a time.

Alex made him do the same thing Shen Jing made him do: write a list of his problems and deal with them one by one.

Alex helped him deal with a bit of them, but Ruoran would have to tackle most of them on his own.

"I will come back on the day you return to become a True Emperor," Alex said. "After that, I hope you will teach me about growing plants."

"You believe that I can do it?" Ruoran asked.

"Of course, you can," Alex said. "Trust in yourself. That's how you're going to fight your inner demon."

"I'll let you be for now," Alex said and left Ruoran alone to mull over the conversation he just had.

Knowing what was wrong with him and knowing that there was a way to fight it rekindled a fire that was deep inside Ruoran that had been slumbering for a century now.

* * * * *

It had been a few days since Alex talked to Ruoran, but he hadn't met him after that.

Alex took up on the princess' offer to teach him about the poisons in the morning. So, every morning for one hour exactly, he learned about the different types of poisons and how to make them.

She taught him about the various different types of poisons. Some harmed the body, some harmed the mind, and some harmed the spirit itself.

There were poisons that killed someone, poisons that made people unable to use Qi, and poisons that stopped one's spiritual sense.

In a sense, anything that had a negative impact on a body was poison for it.

It didn't take long for Alex to realize how easily he could harm someone if he managed to turn the poisons into pills that were extra effective.

The training only lasted a week or so but Alex got what he had been looking for from this training.

A path ahead.

If he followed the path, even on his own, he would surely do well and get better at it.

A day or two after the training ended, Shen Jing returned for another day of training, and in that moment Alex asked him about Ruoran's injuries.

"An injury from Tribulation lightning? Those can be healed," Shen Jing said.

"But senior Ruoran says that no matter how many pills he ate, his legs never healed," Alex said.

"Well, since he was on the verge of becoming a Saint realm expert and all of his Qi has changed to Saint Qi, it will be impossible for True pills to work."

"If he wants to heal, he would need Saint rank pills. I doubt anyone would want to waste that on someone like him," Shen Jing said.

"Ah, I see," Alex said. "So he needs a pill from a higher rank, huh?"

"That or he needs to go through the tribulation again and beat it," Shen Jing said.

"Why would he need to do that?" Alex asked.

"Because he would get his leg healed that way," Shen Jing said.

"What? You can heal wounds by breaking through in a lightning tribulation?" Alex asked with surprise. If that was true then there was no need for him to try and make his healing pill.

He could just silently train until he reached Saint realm and he would get his arm back.

"No, no, no," Shen Jing quickly corrected him. "You will only get back what you lost to the tribulation. Any other problems that occurred that were not caused by the tribulation are not touched."

"Oh," Alex said as his excitement dwindled to nothing.

"Don't worry, you'll do fine," Shen Jing said.

Alex nodded.

"Listen," he then suddenly said. "I need to talk to you about something."

"What is it?" Alex asked.

"I will be leaving this continent very soon," Shen Jing said. "I just wanted to tell you in case you suddenly don't see me anymore."