Alex looked at the old man with a start. "You want to kill the Dragon Emperor?" he asked. "Is there a reason?"
The old man looked at Alex seemingly wondering if he wanted to reveal more.
"He murdered my family." The old man's eyes darkened slightly, a look of pain flashing through them as he remembered the past.
"Your family? Why did he do that?" Alex asked. "Did they do something wrong?"
"They did nothing wrong," the man snapped. "They were good people, living a good life. And then, out of nowhere, that bastard accused my father of treason and treachery, using people he planted as proof. He said he was planning a coup."
"They had my father executed, his wives killed, his family slaughtered. None of them were left alive," he said. "And for that, I will kill that bastard, one way or another."
Alex was stunned for a while, partially because of what the old man had to go through, but also because of the words he used. Words like treason, treachery, coup, and execution were no simple words. Together, they told Alex of an event from a long time ago.
"Your father was one of the Kings from the previous 5 kingdoms?" Alex asked.
The old man grumbled a bit before nodding. "My father was Lin Shouzhen, king of the Lin Kingdom," the man said.
"Lin kingdom… that's Ebony kingdom now, isn't it?" Alex asked.
The old man nodded.
Alex took a moment to process all the information. "So that was why you knew about the Voidgate that even the Dragon Emperor didn't know about," he said. "You were a prince of a large kingdom and probably learned it while you were young."
"The Voidgate? It's something secret that has been passed along to our family for a long time. Not many know about it," the man said.
Alex nodded. "Wait, I thought the Emperor had everyone from your family killed. How did you survive?" he asked.
"My mother… she swapped me with one of the servant kids. The poor kid died in my stead," the old man said. "Zhou Linfan was his name that I took up."
"I see… what is your real name?" Alex asked.
"Zhou Linfan is my real name now," the old man said. "Who I was before… I no longer am. So my name does not matter anymore."
Alex did not pry any further, but there was something else that he was curious about. "You seem to have a deep hatred for the Dragon Emperor, and you should hate everyone that was involved with him. Why did you save the 2nd prince?"
"No child should bear the punishment for his father's crime," the old man said. "I won't do what the Emperor did."
"Still, why did you help him?" Alex asked.
"The 2nd Prince… he never liked fighting or cultivation. He was instead interested in simpler things. He would come to the kitchen in the palace quite often to enjoy the food I made. He talked to me and we were close," the old man said. "When I found out he was in trouble, and it had to do with him going against the Emperor's orders, I decided to help him."
"Thanks to your decision, my cousin is alive today," Alex said. "You must really care about the second prince to stay here just in case they get caught."
The old man scoffed a little. "I don't care about the kid so much that I would go so far," he said. "It's not that I want to protect the kid, which I'm not saying I don't. I just don't want the Emperor to get his hands on the thing he wants the most."
"The Ivory sword?" Alex asked.
The old man gave a surprised look. "You know about that?" he asked.
"I learned of it the day I was crippled," Alex said. "The Ivory sword should be safe with the second prince, assuming he safely made their way to the Southern Continent. Their departure had been sudden, so I'm a little worried."
"Don't be worried," the old man said. "There's no point in worrying anyway. Go rest now. Tomorrow will be a long day for you."
Alex nodded and thanked the old man for the food before laying back down to rest.
'He must've made his way up the rank slowly to get close to the Emperor,' Alex thought. 'Did he want to feed the Emperor poison?'
There were many things about the old man's life that Alex didn't think he would be comfortable sharing.
'Still, to think he was a prince,' Alex thought. A prince who took up the name of a servant and now looked no different than a beggar. 'What am I thinking? He's still one of the strongest people I know aside from the Immortal beasts.'
As bad as the old man looked, he was still in the Saint Transformation 7th realm. Or at least, that was what he was nearly 18 years back when Alex saw him for the first time. Although, Alex doubted he could've improved much in the last few years considering he had been alive for many millennia.
'Well, I can't keep thinking about him, can I? I have my own problems to deal with.'
Alex soon dozed off.
He woke up quite early the next day before the sun even rose as nature called. It had been so many years since he had to do something like that, and it felt alien to him.
After another small but delicious breakfast, he and Zhou Linfan went around the island searching for ingredients.
Their method of searching was simple. Alex would look for items in the forest around him while the old man would use his spiritual sense to look around for items far away and describe them back to Alex to see if they were useful.
Alex managed to find a fruit with some spiritual affinity this way and also 3 small herbs that were all but useless. Most herbs that had any sort of effect had unfortunately long since been eaten or taken away by the more intelligent beasts that understood their importance.
Alex finished searching the entire island by the end of the day and didn't find a single thing that he could consider worth the day. Still, what he did find would have to help him for the day.
Every step forward was a step closer to being able to cultivate again.
Once back, Alex ate another short meal. Meanwhile, the old man started meditating and brought out some sort of medallion. It took Alex a moment to realize it was something to control a formation.
"There are still quite a few around," the old man said suddenly. "Around 12 people in 100 kilometers around us. If we are lucky, we won't be seen by them."
"How far do you reckon they can stretch their spiritual sense?" Alex asked.
"The strongest man should be in the Saint Transformation realm. So, I would expect them to cover all the way to us," the old man said. "They won't see anything here, but we'll still have to be careful."
"I'll check again tomorrow, and we can go to an island that is opposite to where most of them are gathered."
Alex nodded. "Let's do that."
