The words the leader had said struck a tone that he did not expect from his kidnappers. It sounded proud, and weirdly patriotic. As if he truly meant what he said.

They were here to free the empire from the shackles that it had at the moment. But then… what were those shackles?

“Let’s get you to a place where you can get settled,” the man said and slowly flew down. 

Alex sighed inwardly and flew down, with the other 2 following behind him. He could sense all of their spiritual senses on him and knew that he had no way to run away at the moment.

Not that he wanted to. With the man holding his ring, he couldn’t leave right now.

There were too many things of value in that ring that he could not just leave it be. Aside from the various pills, artifacts, and spirit stones, the ring held Midnight and Memory, two things he couldn’t let be.

It also held the black sword with the Azure Imperium’s insignia. If that thing got out, it would be terrible for him. If these people were somehow part of the military that the Emperor had sent out to steal his recipes, then that sword would most likely doom him.

For now, he had to remain behind so that he could get the ring.

As Alex and the rest landed, the man spoke up. “Greet the king folks. We got him,” he said to the dozens of people on the floor who had stopped to look at them.

“Great work, brother.”

“Are you guys hurt?”

“Someone check the formations. See that they work properly.”

“We should send out scouts to see if anyone comes.”

Various people spoke at once, all of whom sounded same-minded. They were all working in tandem with each other, for the same goal.

Alex felt the stare of the people surrounding him and looked back at them. This close, he could tell all of their cultivation bases much more clearly.

Each one of them was strong enough that they could easily defeat Pearl as he was right now. He could take on about three-fourths of them if he fought them individually, but there were more than enough fighters that could beat him single-handedly.

He counted the number of people he had to worry about, but then he remembered that others were waiting for him on other sides of the city and knew that there was more to this group than just these people.

‘How big is their operation?’ Alex wondered.

“This way, Your Majesty,” the man said taking Alex in a direction to the side.

Alex followed the man, going away from the group of people. He looked around in the direction of the window to the side. Unfortunately, he couldn’t see anything beyond a white haze. 

The outside was covered in a barrier as well, which blocked all sight and aura. They were using it to hide their location.

The man brought out a talisman and handed it to Alex. Alex looked at the empty talisman and frowned. “What do you want me to do with this?” he asked.

“Write what you need here, and we will try to get it to you,” the man said.

Alex stared at the man for a second and quickly wrote something before handing it over to him.

The man took the talisman and read it before chuckling a little. “I’m not giving you your ring back. Please write seriously. Cauldrons, ingredients, whatever you need.”

“Are you expecting me to make pills?” Alex asked. “You should know better than to expect such things from a hostage of yours.”

“I wasn’t expecting you to,” the man said. “I was simply hoping you would. Alas, if you don’t then it doesn’t hurt us. I just have to spend a few weeks or months and I will have all the pills you have in your ring.”

“I expect you to have a lot of it,” he said. 

Alex said nothing. He was more surprised that this man knew about storage rings. That wasn’t such an easy information to come around.

“What about after you get through my ring?” Alex asked. “What if you don’t find anything?”

“We’ll think about that when we get there,” the man said. “But I don’t think we’ll have to.” He gave Alex a knowing grin.

“And what if you do find something you want? Then what? What will you do with me when you no longer need me?” Alex asked.

“That we will think about when we get there as well. As long as you cooperate, you won’t have anything to worry about,” the man said. “As you said, we aren’t bandits. We aren’t in it to kill people.”

“Well, I would hope you guys are prepared for when the Phoenix comes looking for me,” he said. “You should know that she cares a lot about me.”

“Oh, I’m sure that we don’t have to worry about that,” the man said and completely turned around to face Alex. “After all, she can’t come to the Eastern Continent, can she?”

Alex hid every single emotion from showing up on his face, but it was hard to hide the shock he felt when he realized that the man knew about the oath. The man knew that the other Heavenly Beasts couldn’t come to this continent.

This man knew about the death of the Azure Dragon.

“Who are you people?” he couldn’t help but ask.

“We do not have a name as of yet,” the man said. “I’ll make sure to let you know if we ever do end up with any.”

Alex could only stare at the man, hoping he would say something more. But the man simply turned around and walked into the hallway.

Alex followed him with a million thoughts going around in his mind. A strong man such as him kidnapping him was already a confusing turn of events, and now Alex realized that he knew about the Azure Dragon’s death as well as the Heavenly Pact.

This was no simple situation at all. 

“Here you go,” the man said, opening a room for Alex to get in. “This is a room that our alchemists use infrequently. You can use it as well.”

Alex was made to walk in and look around.

There wasn’t much in the room aside from a simple bed and some alchemy formations. He sighed a little and went to go sit on the bed.

While not as good as the ones he had been in recently, it wasn’t bad at all. It was not a bed made for prisoners.

The room itself wasn’t made for prisoners. These people had just made one of him for his pills.

“What now?” Alex asked.

“Well? Now you stay here. We’ll get you a cauldron and whatnot to help you spend your time. It would be better if you could make pills for us, but I have a feeling you will refuse, so I will just take what I can from your ring for now.”

“Why do you need the pills so much?” Alex asked.

“I told you, it’s for a change—”

“Yes,” Alex said. “What change? What will you do once you gain the strength you want?”

The man gave a nasty grin. 

“Once we are strong, we are going to kill the Dragon Emperor.”

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