Ning teleported away from when he was in the forest and instead appeared back in the house he had got for himself.
"Aah!" the old woman yelped in shock and nearly dropped the giant beaker of clear liquid she had in her hands.
"Oh, hello Mrs. Gaana," Ning said and immediately started looking around the room.
"What? How did you get in here?" the old woman shrieked.
Alexis appeared after him, giving the old woman another scare. However, instead of being completely fascinated by Alexis as everyone else did, she looked at her with curiosity in her eyes.
"Have I seen you somewhere before, young lady?" she asked.
Before Alexis could answer "In your dreams," Ning grabbed the old woman by her shoulders and started pulling her aside.
"Where's Helena?" he asked.
"She's downstairs making her room," the old woman said.
"Uh, why don't you go help her for a bit? I have some things to do here," Ning said.
The old woman stopped and didn't budge an inch. Then she turned around and looked at both Ning and Alexis.
Then, she harrumphed and started walking away. "Young men and women these days, so disrespectful. Won't even stay until night falls to follow their carnal desires."
Ning blushed a little when he heard that, but now was not the time to get red in the face.
He immediately brought out a small beaker and dropped the Scarlet Blood lily to start boiling it. He didn't have an accurate idea of what ratio the blood lily's solution had to be in the potion, so he went with the traditional way of making the potion.
He brought out the rest of the ingredients he had prepared for years and dropped them in that beaker.
Now, all he had to do was wait.
As the ingredients boiled in the beaker, Ning started asking Alexis more questions. Since she was more all-knowing about the world, and unlike the system, she didn't seem to cost anything, Ning asked as much as he wanted to.
"What happened to Merasi?" he asked.
"She's been taken away," Alexis said. "She defied what is happening, so she's being kept prisoner for now."
Ning's eyes narrowed. "Can they even keep her imprisoned? How?" he asked.
"For now, she's unconscious," Alexis said. "But, they have her sister hostage to keep her from acting against them."
"Dammit," Ning thought. He wondered if he should go help them right now.
"He's really doing it," Alexis suddenly said with a blank expression on her face.
"He's doing what?" Ning asked.
"He's started the domination of the continent," Alexis said as tears flowed down her eyes. "This… this is all my fault. I should have… I should have done something the moment he strayed from the path of good, but… I… I thought he would change."
Ning looked at her with nothing but pity. "Don't worry, I will fix it," Ning said. He still hated what she did to him, but that didn't stop him from feeling bad for her.
"What exactly is he doing though," Ning asked.
"He's… he's sent members of the tower from all around the world to bring down any monarchs or government in their country," she said.
"What?" Ning shouted. "He's attacking them?"
She quickly shook her head. "He won't attack them. Not yet. It's still in the discussion phase, but I'm sure the monarchs and nobles won't stand for this."
"They will surely refuse, and then the tower will have full authority to attack back," she said.
"Is there no one in the tower that is fighting back against this?" Ning asked. He couldn't believe that everyone was going through with this.
"Some are," Alexis said. "But they are weak folks. The president and vice presidents of all the different towers are following through with this, and with the majority of the Saints and Supremes following the orders as well, most weaker people are forced to do this."
"Also, there seems to be some punishment for not following orders, so most of them are scared," Alexis said.
Ning looked back at the boiling ingredients. He wanted it to boil faster, but it didn't.
At the same time, his thoughts raced within his mind.
'What do I do?' he thought. Should he just kill the lord? Would that bring peace? Certainly not.
If the tower found out their lord had been assassinated, he could only imagine the chaos it would bring to the world. What if that added to the war that was already about to start?
No, Ning couldn't kill the old man. He needed to win against him in a duel between the two. Only then could he take over the tower, and order it all to stop.
However, could he win against the old man in a duel? Not as he currently was. He needed to reach Underlord for that to happen.
However, the amount of Aether he had to consume for him to reach Underlord was way too massive. It would take him at least half a day to consume all that for sure.
He needed help. Merasi would certainly help him. He was sure of that. Other than that… he needed someone who could stop the lord while he was away to cultivate to the Underlord rank.
An idea came to him at that time.
An hour later, the clear pink liquid in the beaker simmered until it was thick and viscous.
Ning poured it down into a small glass jug and prepared himself. With a thought, his real body popped out of his storage space.
His body squirmed as flesh was devoured by the toxin, creating more toxins to eat his body. At the same time, everywhere the toxin ate his body, the body reformed, only to be eaten by the toxin again.
Ning opened his real body's mouth and poured the potion into it. However, that body wouldn't drink the potion on its own.
So, Ning switched his body to deconstructing one and drank the whole potion in a single gulp.
Now, he had to wait and see how this potion would work.
