The nearly invisible attack left behind a trail of bright hot fire as it moved toward the incoming lightning bolt.

At the same time, all the Sword Qi floating around in the small Sword Domain around Alex concentrated on the exact same point where the lightning fell.

Together, the Sword Domain and the True Immolation Strike met the lightning bolt, resulting in a truly terrifying show of fire and explosion.

Alex was pushed down by the force of the explosion, the aura from it tearing into his body to try and get to the pill in his hand.

But he persevered. Even as his body struggled under the intensity, he remained where he was, taking it all into himself.

He did not let a single bit of that power flow into the pill or into the man who was dying behind him.

Alex looked at the aftermath of the strike and was surprised to see a lack of visible shattering in the fabric of space. Such an attack would destroy space most of the time in the lower realms, and here it couldn’t even touch it.

That was something else.

He quickly opened his hand and looked at the pill inside of it. The aura of the lightning bolt entered the pill, empowering it even more. A new pill vein formed on its surface.

The third pill-vein.

Alex breathed out in deep relief. He was thankful that with everything he could currently do, mixed all into a single attack, he could protect himself from an Immortal Origin 2nd realm cultivator.

Of course, that stopped at just protecting himself, but that alone was more than enough for Alex at the moment.

The storm clouds surged in the sky and Alex quickly willed for the clouds to dissipate. The heavens understood his Intent and the clouds began to disappear.

Alex then turned around and looked at Elder Lan, the man who had stopped breathing altogether at this point. Thankfully, the destruction had not reached him.

Alex checked the man’s veins, and while they were very weak, he was still alive. He was at death’s door, but not dead just yet.

Alex quickly pulled away the reforming Death aura around his body and then finally fed the pill. He had to forcefully feed the pill to him, and use his Qi to send it into his stomach.

Then when that was done, all Alex could do was wait.

He held onto Elder Lan’s wrist, checking his vitals with his senses at every second. Every passing second felt like an eternity where he didn’t know if the pill worked or not.

Every passing second made it less and less likely that the pill would work.

Still, Alex waited.

The vitals were low, the heartbeat slowing more and more. Elder Lan’s body had already begun to take on a weird shade of green, but it was beginning to turn darker now.

Still, Alex waited.

And then, he felt a strong heartbeat.

Alex’s senses perked up. He concentrated even more, and then he sensed another heartbeat, slightly stronger this time.

“Is it working?” he wondered.

And then another and another.

The heartbeat was getting stronger. Then, Alex felt the pill’s energy reach his meridians, finally going through his entire body.

The man’s color changed, from Dark green to light green to slowly becoming yellow and then finally a share of healthy pink.

“COUGH!”

Elder Lan sprayed all of the fizz inside of his mouth into the air and then coughed some more. Then he took a deep gasp and then coughed some more again.

“Elder Lan, can you hear me?” Alex asked.

Elder Lan was still weak, and couldn’t yet respond properly. His body was still in the process of expelling the poison. The energy he consumed just then from the pill was also quite strong.

Alex needed to give him some time. Even without asking him, he could see that the Elder was doing much better.

Alex took the teleportation talisman that was with the man before and pushed it into his hands. “Use it and get out of here. I need to run too.”

He wasn’t sure why the other sect master hadn’t come for him yet, but there surely couldn’t be much more time for him to dawdle around.

“Elder Lan, if you can hear me, use this talisman in your hand. You have to—”

Alex felt 3 strong spiritual senses pass through him at once. He could feel the hair on the back of his neck straighten immediately.

Each one of them was strong.

“Uhh… actually, don’t leave,” Alex said as he slowly turned around. “I might need you now.”

“What?” Elder Lan asked, slowly getting up from the ground. He had a tired look on his face and a bit of confusion. “Where am I? What happened to—”

He looked up at the same time as Alex and saw the arrival of the 3 cultivators.

Alex immediately frowned upon seeing the First Elder in the sky. Not only her, but he also saw the elder that had poisoned Tai Guidao was there too.

He could feel his anger returning. Only, he didn’t know what exactly he could do with it.

Both the elders were much, much stronger than he was.

“Oh!” the woman appeared surprised. “Both of them are here together. It will be easy for us to deal with them then.”

Elder Lan slowly got up, looking around him and then at Alex. “Where am I? Did you bring me here?” he asked.

“You were poisoned,” Alex said quickly. “I had to bring you here to save you.”

Elder Lan was even more confused. “How did you save me? How did we escape the sect masters?”

“They’re dead,” Alex said. “And I teleported us back here.”

“They’re… what?” Elder Lan asked, a look of incredulity and utter disbelief clear on his face. There was no way for him to believe any of this to be real at all.

After all, how could the two sect masters die?

“Wait, did my Elders get here?” the Elder asked.

After all, how could the two sect masters die?

“Wait, did my Elders get here?” the Elder asked.

“We have bigger problems, Elder Lan,” Alex said, his sword appearing ready to fight them, but really he was ready to run away.

Victory was the last thing Alex foresaw against the three in the sky. Even the girl that had come with them, Hei Tingxie, was already in Immortal Origin 3rd Realm. That was too much for Alex to handle.

He was still not sure how strong the elders were, but they were at least in the early or middle stages of the Immortal Transcendent realm. Elder Lan himself had to be in the same stages too.

The Elder that had come with the First Elder moved, having been silently ordered by the First Elder to kill the two. He took out a large staff, made entirely of some sort of pinkish-

red metal.

He swung it downward on the two, releasing a massive attack that was meant to kill the two of them at once.

Elder Lan tried to move, to protect himself and Alex, but he was still quite slow. He managed to bring out a silvery sword in time to fight back, but the attack was already upon them.

Given how slow and weak Elder Lan was, Alex didn’t even think of relying upon him at the moment. And it was fortunate he did that, or else the both of them would’ve died with just that one attack.

Alex moved in, bringing out something from his Soul Space.

The Mirror of Barren Truth flashed out, floating in front of him as it was struck by the massive staff attack.

As soon as it was touched, the magical mirror glowed brightly, and in a flash, the attack that was coming toward Alex and Elder Lan immediately reverted, flying back toward the three attackers.

It was the First Elder’s turn to be on guard, quickly moving to fight back the attack. Even she couldn’t just let the attack fall upon her without doing anything.

The large illusory staff was stopped by both the First Elder and the other Elder, resulting in an explosive clash that sent shockwaves all around them.

Before the resounding clash could die down, something flew out of it, landing directly in front of the male elder.

The elder tried to swat the thing out of the air, but before he could touch it, another massive explosion shook the sky.

The First Elder managed to react in time and protect herself and Hei Tingxie, but the other Elder was much closer to the explosion, and thus not as lucky.

The elder was hurt by the explosion, wounded and disoriented. Then, through the explosion came Elder Lan, and swung his sword at the disoriented elder.

Bright blue light flashed through the sword and the elder was completely cleaved in half. Elder Lan then reached out with his other hand and quickly obliterated the two halves of the Elder before the soul could find its way out of the body.

Then, he flew back to the ground while the other two were getting out of their disorientation.

The First Elder couldn’t believe that in a single moment, she had lost the elder next to her. She hadn’t expected two Alchemists to do this to her at all.

She had been lax. Too lax.

Alex looked at Elder Lan, who breathed heavily. He had seen the pill that exploded just now, the thing that brought on such a massive explosion.

‘What pill was that?’ he wondered, fascinated by the pill in this moment of danger. ‘Is there a chance for me to get my hands on its recipe?’