?”So, you were a traitor, huh?” one of them said in a sharp voice, something Alex only just began to recognize and hear.

“How long have you been with us, young Lan? Were you bribed by someone? Who got to you?” the other one asked. He then began looking around.

The second sect master had a mellower voice.

‘The two that were absorbing brother Tai’s body just now,’ Alex thought. Those two had come instead of the one free.

“Who else was it? Tell us,” the first sect master asked. “I know three people just teleported out, somehow ignoring our formation. Those were no simple methods they used to leave.”

“They’re long gone. You won’t find them,” Elder Lan said. “And just to let you know, I was never bribed. I was simply a spy, sent here to make sure nothing wrong was happening with this sect.”

The two masters looked at each other in surprise and then back at Elder Lan.

“Why? Who sent you?” the two men asked.

‘Get ready to run. I will try and distract them.’

Elder Lan’s voice came to Alex’s mind in the midst of the conversation.

Alex looked at Elder Lan sneakily, who appeared focused on the two sect masters who were more than strong enough to kill both of them. 𝓯𝘦𝘦𝑤𝑣.𝒸𝘰

Elder Lan smiled. “I am a disciple of the Blue Silk sect, and your demonic activities here have been recorded and sent to my Elders. Any moment, they would come here and kill every single person compliant with what was happening in this sect. Enjoy the little time you have.”

Elder Lan sought to activate his talisman, but before he could do it, something struck right at him.

Alex didn’t even see what it was at first and only noticed the spear a moment later when it was in contention with a shield that had also appeared in front of Elder Lan somehow.

Elder Lan was only in the Immortal Transcendent realm at most, and the sect masters had certainly entered the final major realm of the Immortal realm, the Immortal Spirit realm. And yet, the battle seemed equal.

“Interesting artifact you’ve got there,” one of the sect masters commented. “You really are from the Blue Silk sect, aren’t you?”

“Hahaha!” Elder Lan could only give back a cold laugh in return.

“Brother, it must be true that the sect is coming after us then,” the other one said. “We should leave quickly.”

“Leaving will be impossible with the Blue Silk sect after us,” the first one said. “They should have methods to track us down. We need to meet with Brother Zhengmian and find ways to conceal ourselves from their tracking methods.”

“Is there even a way,” the other one asked.

“Brother Zhengmian might know something,” the first one said. “He’s the only one who knows any—”

His eyes moved immediately and his hands reached out to the side, a spear of golden energy releasing from his hand that struck the wall, stopping Alex from leaving.

Alex had only tried to escape while the two were talking and had hoped they would be distracted enough with the battle, but it seemed they were paying attention here too.

“You’ve heard enough, disciple Dawnblade. You won’t be getting out of here alive either,” the sect master said. “You must have been the reason they found out. You must die now.”

“No!” Elder Lan shouted, moving in front of Alex, while the spear and shield moved toward him too, contending with each other.

Alex took deep breaths quickly, trying to calm himself in the situation. He looked at the two sect masters and their bloodlust. He began forming an idea of how he could survive here.

“Elder Lan, you need to leave,” he told the man. “Use the talisman while you can and go.”

“What?!” Elder Lan couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “No. I won’t let you die. Not after all you’ve done for us tonight. I will protect you if that is the last thing that I do.”

Alex felt grateful once more, but now was not the time for this man to be so righteous. He needed to leave.

Alex was about to tell him to leave again when the other sect master who had been doing nothing until now finally decided to do something.

As Alex watched, an image of a white flower with 5 elongated petals and 3 purple stamens appeared behind the man.

It was a very illusory picture, as though someone had created an illusion behind the man, but for some reason, it felt very real to Alex.

There was also something weird about the flower that Alex couldn’t put a finger on just yet. The situation was too sudden and dangerous for him to care about those things.

Alex didn’t know what he was looking at, or if it was some sort of technique on the sect master’s part, but the illusory flower that appeared behind the man seemed dangerous.

At least, he could hear Elder Lan gasp in surprise in front of him.

“Die!”

That was all the sect master said as he pointed toward Elder Lan and… did something.

What happened next wasn’t instant at all. It was slow and horrible.

Elder Lan began panting heavily, his breathing hoarse. He slowly lost his ability to keep the shield in front of him, which dropped to the ground in front of him.

The spear went back to the other sect master who had thrown it and he held it.

“Good job, brother.”

“What…” Elder Lan asked while grabbing his chest. “What did you do to me?”

“Come on now,” the other sect master said. “You’ve been in our sect for this long, you have to have picked up a thing or two.”

Elder Lan’s eyes widened as he looked up, green veins encroaching onto his sclera, on its way to the iris. Green veins began popping up in other locations around his body such as arms and neck.

It didn’t take a genius to know what was happening here.

‘Poison!’ Alex thought. ‘He’s been poisoned.’

Only, he didn’t know how he was poisoned. It wasn’t as though Elder Lan had consumed anything. Was it airborne perhaps? But then Alex hadn’t noticed anything.

Even if his body could fight poisons, he would still notice when he was affected by it. This hadn’t been the case.

Elder Lan was somehow targeted singularly, and it seemed to have happened just now.

‘That illusory flower,’ Alex thought. ‘Was it that?’

That was the only guess Alex had at the moment. He still did not understand what the flower was, but it must have something to do with the poison that was inside Elder Lan’s body now.

‘But I didn’t see it go in him,’ Alex thought. Not even his Demon Eyes had caught anything moving through the air. However the man had been poisoned, he just was.

‘That flower…’ Alex thought. ‘It is dangerous.’

Just what was that flower?

“Should we try to get more information from him before he dies?” the man with the spear asked.

“No, let’s just kill him and be done with it,” the other one said.

“Very well,” the man with the spear said and pointed his spear toward Elder Lan, ready to use it.