977 Heal or Kill

Alex covered his pill with the Qi that could only come from a Saint Condensation 2nd realm cultivator that was trying his hardest.

He had yet to realize which of the two pills that were inside the cauldron at the moment was the actual pill that was going through the lightning trial, so he had to cover them both.

"Good," the old man said with a maniacal look on his face. "Keep it steady, and—"

Before he could finish his sentence, the lightning fell from the heavens and struck the cauldron. Once more, the cauldron Alex was using broke into a hundred different pieces, cutting him in various different places at the same time.

As for the pills, since he was covering both at once, when the lightning fell, both of the pills were destroyed at once.

Alex halted his healing and made grunting noises as if he was in pain. Then he brought out a pill which he quickly ate. He let the pill turn into Qi, and resumed his Undying physique which healed him immediately.

He had done it all to hide his physique from the old man, but the old man wasn't even looking at him.

Instead, the old man stared at the vanishing cloud and the black smudge on the ground where the lightning broke the cauldron to pieces. On the floor there lay the powder that would otherwise have been a pill that survived the lightning bolt and become one that would help heal his wound.

Alas.

"Weak," the old man muttered. "Extremely weak!"

His head snapped in Alex's direction as he quickly walked towards him. Alex was immediately scared and tried to move away, but the old man was too quick and grabbed him by his robes.

Alex couldn't do anything as he was pulled close to the old man's face.

As the old man looked at Alex, Alex looked at him. He saw the wounds from up close. The burned skin with a lightning scar on it of which only the tip could be seen outside of his robes.

The wound crept up from his right shoulder, and Alex could feel the old man's hands trembling slightly as he hold onto him.

He could see some whiteness in the eyes that stared back at him.

"Saint Condensation 2nd realm. You're too weak," the old man said. "You need a stronger cultivation base to survive the lightning strike."

"I'm sorry, senior, but this is my cultivation base. I cannot improve it very quickly," Alex said.

The old man grunted in response and threw Alex back on the ground. His madness was slowly creeping up to him.

"Grrr… I've waited so long, I can wait a few more years," the old man said. "But not many."

The old man thought for a bit and spoke. "You have 10 years of time in which you have to reach a cultivation base where your pills can at least survive a single strike from the pill clouds. If you can't, you will be of no use to me, in which case I will kill you."

Alex took a deep breath and nodded. "I will do it," he said.

"You better," the old man said and turned to leave. "I will come back when you call the pill clouds again."

"Senior," Alex stopped him.

"What?" the old man asked.

"You said you would give me anything I want if I made a 98% harmony pill, right?" he asked. "I made one with 100% Harmony today. Do I get something?"

The old man turned around with an obviously annoyed face, but he didn't voice his annoyance. "What do you want?" he asked.

Alex had a thought in mind. "30 tons of Ice Iron," he said. "Can you find it for me?"

The old man thought for a bit and said, "fine, I will get it for you."

"Thank you," Alex said. "I will do my best to make a pill to heal you."

"Hmm," the old man walked back towards Alex and said, "just in case… I need to make sure." He stared down at Alex who was starting to feel worried.

"What is it, senior?" Alex asked.

"Make an oath that you will either heal me in 10 years or you will kill yourself," the old man said.

"What? I—" Alex didn't know what to say. This was an obviously bad oath for him to say, but then there was an obviously bad man sitting standing right in front of him.

"Make the oath," the man's eyes sharpened as he stared at Alex.

Alex took a deep breath and said, "Senior, as long as you're alive, I will continue making pills to heal you."

The old man suddenly snickered and kicked Alex in the chest before sending him back into the wall.

"Don't try to be a smart ass in front of me," the old man said. " Do you think I will let you speak such blatant oaths with loopholes where my death releases you?"

Alex coughed up blood from the attack and wheezed a little as he tried to catch his breath.

"Say the Oath I make you say, or I will kill you," the man continued.

"Senior, please—"

"Speak the oath," the old man continued. "Say that you will either heal me in the next 10 years or you will kill yourself. If you try and change a single word in that oath, I will will you right now."

Alex frowned and thought of a way to get out of this, but not a single idea came to his mind. In the end, he could only try and survive.

"I make an Oath to the heavens," Alex spoke out loud. "Within the next 10 years, I will heal you, senior. If I am unable to do that, I will… kill myself."

The heavens accepted his Oath, and Alex felt something settle onto his mental space as if something had imprinted itself onto him.

He could feel the oath bind him in a heavenly intent that if tried to break willingly would kill him.

Alex couldn't help but frown as the oath was accepted. Such a terrible oath was forced upon him and he now had no way of getting out of it.

The only way would be to help the man and help him heal within the next 10 years. But then… there was a high chance of the prophecy coming true, which said that he would die.

Alex felt himself fall into a dilemma, one which he saw no way out of.

'What do I do now?' he thought.

The old man was laughing in the meanwhile. "Good, good. You've now put yourself on the path where either you die or I don't get healed. I will get you all the resources you need to improve as well as whatever you want. You just focus on improving and making the pills."

The old man left happy leaving a troubled Alex behind to think of what to do.

Alex stayed there, thinking for a while, but it all led to the same conclusion.

'I have to heal him,' he thought. It wasn't even him wanting to do it. It was more so that he couldn't do anything else.

Simply thinking of not helping the old man heal made him feel suffocated. The oath prevented him from even having thoughts of going against it.

"I have to heal him, or I have to kill myself," he thought. "So… if I want to ignore the first section, I will have to look deeply into the second one."

He wondered if there was a way for him to kill himself without actually killing himself.

Alex could only think of the situation when he reaches the third stage of Undying Physique where he could be reborn with just a soul remaining.

Unfortunately, he was barely at the peak of the first stage, and the 2nd stage is supposed to last a very long time as well. Reaching the 3rd stage was pretty much impossible.

"Goddammit!" Alex felt like pulling out his own hair. "What the hell am I supposed to do?"

He thought for a while with no answer. He thought of what his aunt much be thinking about right now. Was she looking for a way to help him? He hoped she wasn't.

He hoped the old woman and the sect master were smart enough to not let her do anything impulsive. He felt sad at the thought of his aunt being alone again, but then it was more likely that she was worried about him more than herself being alone.

'I miss mother,' he thought as he realized that the was feeling empty at the moment with no one to help him and no one to talk to.

Godslayer barely talked, and Alex couldn't bring either of the beasts out of safety concerns. But then, he had spoken an oath, so maybe he could do so now.

One thing that annoyed Alex more than anything was the fact that he had been captured and was being kept imprisoned for the next 10 years. The annoying part here was the fact that there were less than 5 years for the Demon realm's teleportation script to be active.

If he missed that, he was going to have to give up on returning back to the Western Continent using any conventional means available to him.

"I'm going to miss it, aren't I?" he thought. That made him feel sadder than he already was, but then he picked himself up.

"Screw this," he thought. "I will think of the future in the future. Right now, I can only use the opportunity provided to me to grow."