"Hurry to the Alchemist Pavilion and have the Fourth Elder treat your injuries."
"You gathered vital intelligence this time. Your merit is not small."
"I reward you with three hundred Heaven and Earth tier spirit herbs. Return and recuperate properly."
"Thank you, Saint Lord!" Adrian nodded repeatedly, gratitude filling his face.
He was just about to drag his crippled leg away, already calculating in his heart how to make the best use of those three hundred spirit herbs, when Alex suddenly recalled something and called out.
"Wait. There is one more matter."
"I only ordered you to gather intelligence. I did not instruct you to strike."
"If the Heavenly Flame Empress had not appeared in time, you would have disobeyed my order. Is that correct?"
"Ah?" Adrian froze slightly, then answered cautiously, "Saint Lord, I… I only wished to personally help you eliminate that insignificant enemy…"
"If I wanted him dead, I would issue the order myself," Alex said indifferently.
"I would not allow subordinates to guess my intentions."
"Considering you returned with severe injuries, I will not impose a heavy punishment."
"You are fined three hundred Heaven and Earth tier spirit herbs. Your merits and faults offset each other. Take this as a minor punishment and a serious warning."
Adrian: "…"
"Saint Lord, are you pulling my leg?"
First a reward of three hundred. Then a fine of three hundred.
In other words, he ran out there, had his leg crippled, and returned empty handed.
"Nothing further. You may leave."
"…Understood."
With an expression filled with doubt about life itself, Adrian dragged his injured leg out of the Saint Lord Manor.
Shortly after, a young girl stepped inside.
"Saint Lord, it is time for your medicine."
Her hair was tied into twin buns. Her skin was fair and delicate as snow. Her features were gentle and pleasing.
In pure appearance, she even surpassed Isolde slightly.
However, her cultivation was only at the ninth level of the Body Tempering Realm, far below Isolde's former Enlightenment Realm.
Her name was Elara.
An inconspicuous junior of the Hale family.
Though her aptitude was average, her temperament was gentle, meticulous, and attentive.
Because of this, she had long served as Alex's personal maid.
Elara carried a red painted wooden tray. Upon it rested a bowl of pitch black medicinal soup.
A bitter, acrid scent wafted through the air.
Alex frowned faintly.
"What medicine is this?"
"I will not drink it. Take it away."
"Saint Lord, you must not refuse," Elara said earnestly.
"This is Thousand Year Spirit Mushroom powder brought by Miss Isolde."
"She endured great hardship to obtain it from the Valley of Endless Burials specifically to treat your hidden illness."
"Though Miss Isolde has now been expelled, her faithful intent should not be wasted."
Hearing this, Alex's expression became complicated.
Anything bearing Isolde's name immediately triggered vigilance within him.
And the Valley of Endless Burials.
What kind of place was that?
It was where nameless rogue cultivators who died in the wilderness were discarded by passersby.
Calling it a mass grave was generous.
It was a mound of the dead.
Could such a place produce Thousand Year Spirit Mushrooms?
More likely it produced corpse beetles.
Alex narrowed his eyes and searched his memories of the original storyline.
Finally, he recalled the origin of this so called Thousand Year Spirit Mushroom powder.
Isolde and Knox had been pursuing a Corpse when they accidentally stumbled into the Valley of Endless Burials.
Under the blessing of protagonist fortune, they discovered numerous resources.
Among them was half an acre of Corpse Yin Soil.
Upon that soil grew several hundred stalks of Bone Corroding Grass.
Bone Corroding Grass was a rare, slow acting poison.
In the current era, almost no one could recognize it.
Long term consumption would erode Dao bones.
Subsequently, it would corrode the Dantian.
If spiritual energy was overexerted even slightly, flesh would rot and death would follow in a sudden, bloody end.
The most hateful part was that using this poison against him was not even Knox's proposal.
It was suggested by Isolde.
The traitor within his own household.
"Alex is insidious and ruthless. He will not spare us easily. Better to control him with Bone Corroding Grass so he will not dare oppose us in the future."
Those words had sealed his fate in the original decisive battle.
At that time, during the final clash, the poison erupted.
His flesh rotted.
His strength plummeted.
He fell under siege and perished alongside his clan.
Thinking of this, Alex's lips trembled faintly from suppressed fury.
"This ungrateful, unrepayable white eyed wolf…"
"For the sake of an outsider, she plotted to poison her own family head."
"If I had known, I would have sliced you apart piece by piece."
"Stripping your Seven Orifices Divine Heart was far too merciful."
Overcome with rage, Alex struck the tray with his palm.
The bowl flipped and shattered upon the ground.
Black liquid splashed across the stone floor.
Elara flinched, her voice small.
"Saint Lord… are you cursing Miss Isolde?"
"Do not call her Miss." Alex's eyes narrowed coldly.
"Our Hale family has no such Miss."
"Yes…" Elara nodded softly and knelt to clean the broken porcelain shards.
Alex watched her for a moment.
Then he asked casually, "Today I summoned all disciples to the Scripture Pavilion to choose cultivation techniques. Why did you not go?"
"Saint Lord, Elara would not dare," she replied with a gentle smile.
"Elara is merely a servant of the family. A slave who serves the Saint Lord."
"How could I stand shoulder to shoulder with the young masters?"
"To serve the Saint Lord for life is already Elara's greatest blessing. I would die without regret."
Hearing this, a strange light flickered in Alex's eyes.
Elara's aptitude was ordinary.
Her cultivation was low.
Yet in the entire Hale family, she was undoubtedly the most loyal person to him.
Even more unwavering than the Four Great Elders.
Her heart was kind.
Her temperament gentle and sincere.
Comparing purely by character, she surpassed the vast majority of women in Knox's harem.
Unfortunately, such a loyal child did not escape the calamity in the original storyline.
When Knox returned with his gathered allies and harem to massacre the Hale family, the Four Great Elders had already fallen.
The clan's geniuses had died in battle.
Alex stood alone, gravely injured, facing dozens of powerful experts.
Elara, with only Qi Gathering Realm cultivation, disregarded her own life.
She charged at Isolde, who had by then broken through to the Mahayana Realm.