Alex arrived outside the secret realm and cut a hole in it to walk in. The hole fixed itself behind him and he was free to continue.
"You returned," Scarlet said when she saw him.
"How are you doing? Are yo— Woah!" he was surprised when he got close to her. In the month he had been away, Scarlet was already a realm higher than the last time.
"Did you break through already? That's seriously fast," he said.
"Yes, I wanted to say thank you," she said. "These pills are seriously amazing. I'm already on my way to breaking through to the next realm. If my calculations are correct, I should be able to break through to the Saint Foundation realm in under 5 months.
"That's…" Alex couldn't believe it at all. "That's seriously amazing."
"Isn't it?" She asked. "Anyway, you got any more of the pills? I'm already down 6."
"Down 6? Didn't I give those pills to you just a month ago? You were supposed to take one a week," he said.
"I'm a Vermilion Bird. My body has natural healing properties. The exhaustion in my body wears off far faster than yours does," she said proudly.
Alex frowned slightly. His body was supposed to heal that way as well, but for some reason, the swelling on his meridian from his pill didn't count as injury for some reason.
It was also true that meridians didn't heal as well as the rest of one's body since they were so used to all the different Qi. They needed to be resilient to any type of Qi, and as a result, usually responded slowly to healing Qi as well.
But of course, that also meant they responded quite well against poisons too. This was why there were poisons and toxins that were crafted especially for the meridian.
"Alright, here you go." Alex pulled out a pill bottle and handed it to her. "There are 20 pills in there. Use them sparingly this time around."
"Thank you!" Scarlet said excitedly as he took the pill bottle. The pills suddenly vanished from her wings, giving Alex a surprise.
"Hmm?" he looked at her from top to bottom. "Do you have a storage bag on you? Where did you get it?"
"Huh? Oh… uhh," Scarlet looked around frantically. "Y-yes, yes," she said.
Alex looked at her and it was clear she was lying. "Where did the pill bottle go? Are you wearing some sort of storage artifact? Do you have a ring on you too?" he asked, showing off his own.
Scarlet looked at his fingers confusedly before noticing the ring on them. She had seen it before, but like everyone else, she hadn't given it much thought at all.
"Aah! A storage ring. How do you have one? Where did you get it from?" she asked.
"I found it in a desert," Alex said. "Do you have one as well?"
"I…" Scarlet hesitated to answer.
Alex wanted to urge her to answer when suddenly something very bad that he hadn't anticipated happened.
"THAT'S A GODDAMN PHOENIX!" Godslayer shouted in his head as loudly as he could. "KILL THAT GODDAMN PHOENIX."
"Ugh!" Alex groaned a little as the sound came out of nowhere. "I know that's a Phoenix. Please stop talking."
"Huh? Me? Okay," Scarlet said.
"No not you, I'm—"
"That's a phoenix. Kill it. Kill it now. Give me your body, and I will kill it," Godslayer shouted in his head. "Come on. Give me your body so I can kill it. It's weak right now so we should be able to kill it at once."
Alex tried to ignore Godslayer, but his incessant screams were starting to annoy him a lot. "I need to leave," he said. "I will see you sometime later. Goodbye."
He ran away immediately, letting Scarlet look around in confusion as to what had just happened. She waited for a while, but Alex didn't return at all.
So, she instead decided to continue cultivating. She brought out a pill bottle with only 4 pills in it and ate one. She put back the pill bottle and continued cultivating.
Alex arrived outside the secret realm, away from the Phoenix that was making Godslayer go mad.
"What are we out? Go back so we can kill the Phoenix," he said.
"Stop!" Alex shouted. "We're not killing the phoenix. She's a friend."
"What?" Godslayer asked in shock. He couldn't believe it. "Why would you be friends with a phoenix?" The exasperation in his voice was proof enough.
"Why not?" Alex asked. "What's wrong with being friends with a Phoenix? Or for that matter, what's wrong with being friends with a White Tiger, or a Black Tortoise, or an Azure Dragon?"
"They are all the ones that are blessed by the gods. We need to kill them all," Godslayer said.
"Why?" Alex asked. "What did the beasts do so wrong that they need to be killed?"
"They are bles—"
"Blessed by the gods? That's it?" Alex asked.
Godslayer didn't understand. "What more reason do you need?" he asked.
"Alright, let me ask you then. Why is it bad for them to be blessed by god? Or rather, I should ask why are the gods themselves bad?" he asked.
"They are bad people, obviously," Godslayer said.
"And why is that?" Alex asked.
For some reason, he didn't feel like letting Godslayer get away with his usual answer 'because they are gods.'
Before, he had Pearl who was bonded to him. However, Pearl had no physical features of a White Tiger, so he could get away with not being one.
However, having bonded with Scarlet, it would be hard to not hide the fact that she was a Phoenix. And every time Godslayer did see her, he would have a fit.
That would be incredibly annoying, so he decided to come to some sort of conclusion today.
"Th-they are blessed by the gods. Haven't I told you before how bad the gods are?" Godslayer asked.
"Yes, you have," Alex said. "You have told me how terrible they are that they call themselves god for being some of the strongest humans in the world. You have told me how terrible they are for capturing you when you went around killing them."
"Have you ever stopped to think that maybe, just maybe, it's not the gods that are bad, but rather you who is bad? Maybe that's why they are so against you?" Alex asked.
"No, but… they are gods. They are bad. They are horrible," he said.
"What were you doing when you were captured?" Alex asked.
"What?" Godslayer asked. "Oh, uh… I was on my way to kill the new Formation god."
"Sigh, and what did the Formation god do that was so bad that you had to go kill him?" Alex asked.
"He… he called himself a god," Godslayer said.
Alex sighed. "I really thought you were improving the last 20 years with me, but it seems you have really gone nowhere. You have lost the anger you initially held, but not your irrational hate for the gods," he said.
"But they are bad. They had done terrible things," Godslayer said.
"What terrible things have gods done other than be a god?" Alex asked.
"They kill people," Godslayer said.
"Okay, that is bad under general context," Alex said.
"See?" Godslayer said.
"But so do you," he said.
"N-no, I don't kill anyone that is not a god or didn't deserve it," Godslayer said.
"Oh? And who was it that was ready to kill a young man they just possessed? Care to remind me?" Alex asked.
"Uh…" Godslayer had no answer.
"It is true that some Gods are bad. Maybe most of them are even, I don't know," Alex said. "But you can't just go hating on them just because they call themselves one. You need to find a reason. You need to put away this irrational hate of yours."
"No, but… this is who I am," Godslayer said. "If I don't slay gods, then who am I?"
"You can be anyone," Alex said. "What do you want to be?"
"The Godkiller!" Godslayer said.
Alex sighed. "Alright, this is not working. I might have made a really big jump. Okay, baby steps."
He thought for a bit and asked, "Circling back on topic, why do you want to kill a phoenix?"
"Because they are blessed by the gods," Godslayer said.
"And you want to kill gods because?" Alex asked.
"Because they are bad and they are fake," Godslayer said.
"Oh, but wasn't the god that blessed the phoenix a true god? Was that not what you said to be more? You did say that there are only 2 gods out there that are the true ones. The one who blessed the 4 beasts and the one who blessed the 3 plants. Are you saying you want to kill these gods too?" Alex asked.
"No," Godslayer said. "They are already dead."
"Oh," Alex was surprised. He had expected those gods to be alive still. "Doesn't matter. If they were alive, would you kill them?"
"Of course, they are gods," he said.
"But they are not bad gods, are they? And they are definitely not fake," he said.
"Well… they are still gods, so I must kill them… right?" Godslayer asked.
Alex smiled at the question. Finally, he had gotten through, even if just a tiny bit.
"Just dwell on it for a day or two and answer me. Do the true gods deserve to be killed just as well as the fake ones do?" Alex asked. "After you come to a conclusion, think about whether some beasts and plants deserve to be killed just because they were blessed by some god, even when they were most likely forced."
"I hope you have some good revelations."
