Alex read the recipe for the poison pill that was made to shut down one's Dantian. If a person fed on this pill either forcefully or accidentally, then all openings to the Dantian would close immediately, effectively turning the person into a Mortal.
Alex closed his eyes and went through his mind to see whether the pill recipe was correct or not. After a bit of consideration, he nodded to himself. He would have to improve the recipe though.
He didn't want to feed his sister some 70% harmony pill. Considering how good her body was at rejecting poison, that sort of pill wouldn't even affect her.
"I'll make this pill later when I have the chance," Alex said. "For now, I want to hear what happened all this time. How did you two meet? How were you poisoned, everything."
He stared directly at the 2nd prince with a look that said that he would find his answers one way or another.
The 2nd prince gulped and looked toward his brother. Before he could say something, the Crown Prince spoke up. "I'm not leaving. I want to hear what is going on as well. I want to hear what secrets you're keeping from me."
"I can't tell you, brother," Long Huan said. "You're ignorant of what has happened, and it's clear to me. Remain that way and your life may be easier."
"Ignorant?" the Crown Prince glared at his younger brother. "You will tell me what is happening or I will get those answers out one way or another.":
Long Huan looked at his brother, and then at Alex, and frowned deeply. It seemed he had no way of getting out of this.
"Fine, I'll tell you," the young man said. "But you two must swear an oath to not betray me when you hear my story."
"Betray you? What are you—"
"I swear to do not betray you for what you will tell me next," Alex swore. He had no reason to not swear. He already had a good idea of what was coming.
An answer to a question that he had for such a long time now.
The Crown Prince looked at Alex in surprise. He couldn't believe how quickly Alex had sworn the oath. He looked back and saw his brother waiting for him.
"I…" the Crown Prince wasn't sure what he should do here. From the conversation before and the bits and pieces of information he had picked up today, he had come to understand that his brother had done something and had thus gone into hiding.
What he had done was still unknown to him, but whatever it was, was most certainly something bad to have him be hiding in this way.
The side of him that was the brother and the side of him that was the ruler conflicted and he didn't know what to do. Neither of the sides felt right, and neither felt wrong.
What was he to do here? What was his choice?
What was he more? A brother, or a Crown Prince?
A hand lay on his back. "You should hear what he has to say," Zhan Luoyang said. "No, you have to hear what he has to say. It's… important."
The Crown Prince looked at his fiancee in surprise. "You know what he's about to say?" he asked.
"I was in the same situation as you and wanted to tell you that he had come to meet me, but hearing his story made me change my mind. Maybe you'll do so too," Zhan Luoyang said.
The Crown Prince nodded and turned to look at his brother. "I've already promised her not to act on anything I learn in here. She already made me promise all you wanted before I came here," he said. "If you want it in oath, I'll give it to you."
The 2nd prince looked at his brother for a few seconds before shaking his head. "It's alright," he said. "I won't ask for any oaths or promises. I will trust you, brother, to do what is right here."
The Crown Prince's face grew stern and he got ready to hear it.
The 2nd prince took a deep breath and spoke.
"For the past 50 years, I have been hunted by the soldiers of our Empire, sent in secret by none other than our father."
Alex nodded slowly. He could see the pieces fall together.
"What?" the Crown Prince had been expecting something big, but not this. Hunted by their father? He believes it. "You're lying."
"I have been running for more than 50 years, brother. You will not call my struggle a lie," the 2nd prince spoke with hatred in his voice.
The Crown Prince's face grew tense. He lowered his head slightly, shrinking in front of his brother's anger. "I'm sorry," he said quickly. "But it is hard to believe. Why would a father want to hunt you?"
"Because I have what he wants," Long Huan said. "I have what he needs."
The Crown Prince gulped. "What… what do you have?" he asked.
"The Ivory sword," the 2nd prince said.
The Crown Prince's eyes narrowed for a moment confusion filling his face. "I thought you gave that sword to father. So you took it back from him?" he asked.
"Back? What do you mean?" the 2nd prince asked.
"I mean, father had it, didn't he? So you took it back?" the Crown Prince asked.
"Why would father have the Ivory sword? We were given the two swords to keep and protect," the 2nd Prince said.
The Crown Prince was very much confused now. "I'm pretty sure father had implied that he has the sword," he said. "No, he told me he had it right before he told me that you…" His voice trailed off slowly.
"Before what?" Alex asked, leaning forward to hear the answer.
"Before… before he told me that Huan had left for a journey to travel the continent," he said.
The 2nd prince chuckled. "Is that what he told you? It seems he wanted to keep you away from the conflict then," he said.
The Crown Prince felt like he was being played with. What sort of nonsense was this? The Emperor hunting down his brother, all because of a family heirloom?
This made no sense to him. Why would anyone do that?
Alex saw that the conversation was going nowhere so he decided to step in.
"Are you saying the reason you haven't come went back to the Dragon Palace for the past half a century was because your father has been hunting you?" Alex asked.
"Yes," Long Huan answered straightforwardly.
"Why?" Alex asked and stopped the 2nd prince from giving the obvious answer. "Yes, the sword, you said it already. But why? Why would he hunt you for that sword?"
Alex remembered the Crown Prince speaking about his mother on the bank of the Azure Lake, and in that talk, he had told him about the two swords.
A black sword to teleport and a white sword to cut through space.
The 2nd Prince sighed and shook his head. "I do not know why," he said. "What I can tell you is that the sword is exactly what he thinks he needs to become a very powerful Immortal."
