The first 3 months after speaking the oath, Alex spent his days thinking about what he should and shouldn't do. He kept wanting to think of ways to get out of this place, but his oath forced him to stay.
The moment he even thought of leaving without healing the old man, a feeling of suffocation would fall onto him, trying to choke him out of breath and kill him.
Fortunately, his oath had nothing about him having to try his best to heal the old man, or he would be forced to use his real cultivation base when fighting the pill clouds.
Just for his own survival, 2 times in the 3 months, he had already brought forth another 2 pill clouds. However, the weak cultivation base he was portraying could not stop the lightning, resulting in both the pill and cauldron being destroyed each time.
The old man always got mad when he saw Alex fail, but there was nothing he could really do about it as Alex was still weak, so he let it be.
Alex, however, never let it be and asked the old man for something both times.
After asking for the 30 tons of Ice Iron, the next 2 times, he asked for 10 tons of Pale Onyx, and 20 tons of Violet Obsidian.
The old man didn't understand what exactly he was asking the various things for, but it was barely any inconvenience for him to provide the things.
The only thing he needed to do was go and steal it from places he knew it existed, or just go ask the ancestors of the various sects that he knew existed.
It didn't take him more than a couple of days to get the items. He was curious about what Alex wanted to do with them, but when he did spy on him, Alex didn't use them at all.
'Is he hoarding them?' the old man thought. But then, he really didn't care, so he stopped checking on him and went back.
Alex continued his days normally with nothing much happening. He continued making pills, but he was starting to slow down significantly these days.
The cauldrons he owned just weren't as good. There were other cauldrons there, all of which belonged to the alchemists that were here before him, and they would serve him well once he refined them.
But for a few reasons, he simply didn't want to. One of the reasons was that the cauldrons didn't seem to be made with the lightning strike in mind, so making pill clouds while using these cauldrons wouldn't help him much.
However, the main reason was really the fact that there simply wasn't enough room in those cauldrons if he ever decided to make multiple pills at once.
Anything above 4 would be too crowded, so he needed a rather massive cauldron. Unfortunately, he had no choice at the moment.
Which meant… he had to create an opportunity for just that. So, Alex created another pill cloud.
The old man arrived just in time to see the start of the lightning bolt that struck the cauldron and destroyed it. The pills inside them were destroyed as well.
'Still weak,' he muttered to himself. "Get stronger faster," he shouted at Alex in annoyance. Usually, at this point, he would leave. However, he had already learned how Alex was, so he just waited.
"What do you want this time around?" he asked. He crossed his arms and tapped his feet in impatience.
Alex had called the Pill Cloud for exactly this moment, so he knew what he wanted out of this conversation. There was really only one thing.
"A forge," he said.
The old man's eyes narrowed in confusion. "A forge?" he asked, just to make sure.
Alex nodded. "Yes," he said. "But not just any forge. A forge that is strong enough to handle molten Starforged Tungsten."
"What the hell is a Starforged Tungsten?" the old man grunted.
Alex was taken aback a bit, but then he remembered that the massive vein of Starforged Tungsten that had later become the Endless Tunnel was actually found just 2500 years ago.
The old man would have been in hiding at the time and was most likely unaware of the stuff.
"It's a metal that takes a very high amount of heat to melt. It's a good metal for making items that can work with a lot of heat," Alex said.
"Grrr… fine, you'll get it in a few days," the old man said and left.
Alex smiled wide knowing that in just a few days, he would have gathered enough material to make the cauldron of his dreams.
* * * * *
The old man wasn't sure where exactly he could find the said forge, so he decided to ask the people that would know.
So, he went to the place he had been visiting a few times in the past few months. The Blazing Earth sect.
Without any invitation, he barged into the depths of the sect and arrived in the sect master's office.
The sect master was surprised when he saw someone in the room, but calmed down when he saw that it was the mad immortal.
"Senior," he greeted the old man out of fear and kept quiet afterward to let the old man speak first.
"He keeps asking for different stuff. It's annoying," he said. "How did you deal with him?"
"He asked for something again, senior?" the sect master asked with hopeful eyes. If Alex had asked something, then that meant that he was still alive.
As long as he was alive, they were hopeful.
"He wants some sort of forge this time around. Uhh… something that can be used to melt… uhh, something tungsten," he said.
"Ah! it shall be done, senior," the sect master said.
"Good. Go do it," the old man said and stayed in the room as if he owned the place. Which in his eyes was the truth.
Given that the 5 ancient sects were nothing but branches of the Snow Immortal sect during his time of leadership, he still believed that he owned everything.
The sect master wasn't about to tell the strong mad immortal that he was wrong. He simply bowed and walked away from the place.
He himself flew over to the State of Xue near the Heaven's Frost sect and brought back a forge that was used there.
Once back, he found a few of the ancestors in the room, looking at the mad immortal with fear in their eyes.
The sect master didn't understand what was going on, but he could do so later. He walked up front and handed over the forge he had just brought back.
The mad immortal took the storage bag and started walking back out. However, he stopped by the door once just to say something. "Just wait for my return. I will be back within the decade," he said and left.
The room became gloomy after the mad immortal left. The sect master asked what had happened when he had left. When he found out, his face too turned gloomy.
The old woman left the room and went over to her disciple's room
Liz had become depressed after losing a family member after finally finding one in the last 18 years. She was barely cultivating and spent most of her time asking her master to find a way to help her nephew.
The old woman walked into the room to see the same Liz she had seen for the last 5 months.
"How are you doing?" she asked.
Liz barely managed to put out an 'I'm fine' as she didn't care much for how she felt at the moment.
The old woman understood and sighed. "I have news about your nephew," she said.
Liz's eyes suddenly shot up towards the old woman, looking at her in hope and fear. She was expecting both good and bad news, and she did not know which one she was going to receive first.
"To start with, your nephew is alive and alright. Well, he's physically alright at least," the old woman said.
"He's okay?" Liz asked.
"For now," the old woman said. "Apparently, he was forced to speak an oath to the madman. Bastard loves making people say oaths to him."
"What… what sort of oaths?" Liz asked nervously.
"He has to make a healing pill for the madman in the next 9 and half years, or he will have to kill himself," the old woman said.
"What?" Liz's eyes darkened in anger.
"Yes," the old woman continued. "However, he did say that not only would he let the young man go free after he's done making the pill, he will also make him his heir."
"So… he has a chance at survival?" Liz asked.
The old woman nodded.
Liz calmed down. "Then it's fine," she said. "I believe in him. If anyone can do it, he can."
"I…" the old woman paused. "I fear the same thing as well."
Liz looked at the old woman with a confused look. "Fear?" she asked.
"When the mad immortal regains his strength, the first thing he will do is reform the broken Snow Immortal sect. At that point, he will seek to bring back the 5 sects under his control," The old woman said. "Even if we go under his wings willingly, he will seek to make an example out of us and kill all the ancestors from the 5 sects that have defied him before."
"It will be a genocide," the old woman said. "And I fear… that your nephew will make that future come true."
