Alex and Tai Guidao arrived at the valley together, and quickly made their way to a shade next to a large restaurant, while more disciples came and stood in the open. It had taken some time for both of the two to realize that coming here in the morning gave one quite the great seats for the rest of the day.

With how scorching the sun got in the day, most people sought the shade.

Tai Guidao and Alex watched as more and more disciples gathered around the valley, and soon the Elders began arriving around the place as well.

Alex looked around, searching for Elders he knew.

There were a few elders he recognized, but personally, he knew none of them. He saw the female Elder had once talked with Elder Lan on the day when Bai Wanzhao had died. She had come there to gossip with him about something he didn’t know, which in hindsight was most likely the news of the death.

Another Elder Alex recognized was the one who gave him the poison during the last Assembly. The one that was most likely working with the First Elder to kill him.

‘No wonder he gave me no time with the poison last time. He wanted me to drink it immediately,’ Alex thought. He remembered how this elder hurried him when it was his turn last time.

Seemingly, he was going to be one of the ones handing the poison in the sky once again.

The Elder turned to look at him for a moment before averting his gaze in other directions.

‘Yeah, I’m getting poisoned this time too,’ Alex thought.

Could he perhaps put on a show this time around? Reveal to everyone what poison it was that he was being fed.

He had made sure to learn about most poisons in the last year, so he was quite well-versed in what any poison did to one’s body. He could also, to an extent, tell the poison by its color, texture, smell, and viscosity.

Hopefully, that would help him recognize what poison he was going to be fed.

At the very least, he would be able to tell what poison it was that he wasn’t being given, since he knew for certain what poison he was going to get.

The three sect masters arrived not long after, and to Alex’s surprise, the first Elder was right at their heel.

‘She’s back?’ Alex thought.

The woman stared right at him with a murderous look on her face. Things were going to get much more dangerous it seemed.

Soon, disciples were called to the sky as the Assembly officially began. One by one, the disciples began flying to the sky and taking their poison.

“Are you certain you are going to do this, brother Dawnblade?” Tai Guidao asked from the side. “Become an Inner Sect disciple, I mean.”

Alex nodded. “I’ve made up my mind. And you’ve seen me handle every poison easily before this.”

“That I have, but I still can’t believe you can do it, you know. The poison you eat will be nothing like mine. I will die without a chance to pull out my pill if I eat your poison.”

“That’s why you’ll stick to Brute Blood poison,” Alex said. “Stick to what is familiar.”

“I know, I know,” Tai Guidao said. “I’m just… jealous.”

Alex turned around with a curious look. “Jealous?” he asked. “Do you want to be an Inner Sect disciple too? Get 50 Spirit stones a year?”

“No, not that,” Tai Guidao said. “I couldn’t care less about earning that money as an Inner Sect disciple. It’s the freedom I seek, freedom to leave the sect, albeit for a short period of time.”

“You wish to go out too?” Alex asked. “I thought you were a rogue cultivator who couldn’t do anything outside. Wasn’t that why you joined the sect?”

“I’m not saying I want to leave the sect. I just… I need to visit a place, far to the east,” Tai Guidao said. For the first time in a long time, Alex saw a strong emotion on his face. He recognized it very quickly too.

Melancholy.

“Where do you want to go?” Alex asked.

“My parents died protecting me long ago when I was just starting my cultivation journey. They are buried in a town to the east. I wish to visit their graves and tell them that I have made it. I’ve become an Immortal, just as they had hoped, and I will continue to become stronger. I want them to know that.”

Alex smiled. 𝔣𝔯𝖜𝔟𝖓𝖔𝔳𝖑.𝔠𝖔𝔪

“I visited my master the day I became an Immortal too. She died protecting me as well, so visiting her all those years later was… something. If your wish is to visit their graves, then I will help you, Brother Guidao. Starting this year, I’ll force you to become stronger and consume a lot of poison.”

Tai Guidao laughed. “You sound scary as a teacher.”

Since they were ranked much higher, Tai Guidao and Alex needed to wait a lot before it was their turn to eat poison. Tai Guidao’s turn came much earlier of course, as he was only in the late 4000s, while Alex was in the 3000s.

“I’ll definitely enter early 4000s with this,” Tai Guidao said, mostly to motivate himself. “See you soon, brother Dawnblade.”

“Good luck, brother Tai.”

Tai Guidao left Alex and flew to the sky where he told the Elder what poison he wanted.

The Brute Bloom poison.

Tai Guidao was handed a dark vial with poison inside of it.

“Drink!” the Elder ordered.

Tai Guidao nodded and downed the poison in one go. As soon as he did, he realized that something was wrong. Dark veins popped around his throat and blood dripped from his nose.

His mouth began fizzing.

Alex watched with some confusion as Tai Guidao suddenly grabbed his own throat, clawing at it.

‘What’s…’

Alex worried that something was wrong. He was too panicked to think what, but he knew something was wrong.

Tai Guidao fidgeted in the sky, seemingly unable to handle the poison. He reached into his Soul Space in a hurry and pulled out a pill to fight against the Brute Bloom poison. He ate it without a word.

Alex sighed in relief after Tai Guidao ate the pill. He wasn’t sure what was wrong, but the pill would fix anything that was.

Only, Tai Guidao still struggled in the sky, the signs of poison not dissipating at all. In fact, it was only getting stronger.

‘Why did the antidote not work?’ Alex thought. ‘Did he eat the wrong pill?’

That couldn’t have been the case. Alex had seen the pill that Tai Guidao had pulled out. It was the correct pill. It should have worked.

The only reason the pill couldn’t have worked was that…

‘That’s not the Brute Bloom poison,’ Alex thought. His face drained of all colors as he realized what was happening with Tai Guidao.

Just like what had happened with him the previous year, Tai Guidao was given the wrong poison as well.

Why? Alex didn’t know. All he knew was that Tai Guidao was dying, and he needed to act fast to save him.