Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Zhao Boqin wondered why Alex even asked the first question. Not only had he known more than him about the event, he had even revealed to him something he hadn't known before.

It was an entirely weird question to have asked.

'Does he perhaps want to know who died there?' he thought. 'About what they did?'

He would have to wait for this second question to see what Alex wanted to learn about, although he was taking a rather long time to come up with the answer.

Alex went through the questions in his mind multiple times, making sure to get as many answers as he could from it in return. Once ready, he asked.

"A short time after the Empress's death, a group of soldiers were ordered by the Emperor to go after a woman named Han Ahlin to retrieve something. What happened during and after their pursuit of her?"

Zhao Boqin frowned very clearly this time around. He made no effort to hide the disapproving look he held about being asked about something that was clearly the empire's secret. If it ever got out that he had been asked this, he could easily lose his rank, and maybe even his life.

Worse would be if anyone found out he had actually answered these questions. If they found out, that would be the case as the oath was already forcing him to start speaking through the knot that tightened inside him.

"Han… this Han Ahlin… it sounds like a woman's name," the man began. "Is it a woman?"

"She is," Alex said, making sure to show no expression on his face that could give away his nervousness about the questions. The Oathbreakers had already answered both of these questions, so he hadn't expected to learn much, but he still held hope that the man in front of him could at least give him something good to munch on.

However, the man's face was a frown as he fell into thought for a moment. Alex waited, and Zhao Boqin finally looked up, although his face was twisted into a grimace at this point from not having answered.

"I do believe I know what you are talking about," he said. "I was too new a leader, so I wasn't involved in this mission, but I do remember hearing vague orders to get battalions to start moving toward the south for something."

"If you are talking about what I think you are, they weren't after a woman at all. They were after a man," the man said. 

Before Alex could ask who it was, Zhao Boqin continued. "I don't remember any names being thrown out. It was secret enough that nobody outside of the mission learned more than a crumb of anything."

He thought for a bit, recollecting some things, and continued answering. "As far as I know, they were after someone, not something, but I wasn't informed directly, so I could be wrong. As for the girl, I never even heard about a girl being involved there."

Alex frowned. What in the hell was going on here? How was the information he received from this man so different from the one he received from the Oathbreakers? This man was bound by the oath to speak the truth, so he couldn't have lied.

The only other reason he found as to why the two accountings of the past were so different was because of the people involved.

Zhao Boqin wasn't involved in the mission, so he couldn't have known much. On top of that, the directly involved Oathbreakers were perhaps much more direly bound by their oaths about that incident.

'So they weren't after sister?' Alex wondered. 'Were they after a man? But then what about the thing they were after? Why was sister involved in this at all?'

More questions ran through his mind when he noticed beads of sweat on Zhao Boqin's forehead and his face going red as if he hadn't breathed for a while. "What's wrong?" he asked curiously. He checked the man closely and found out that he was trying to hide something.

"There's more to the answer, isn't there?" he asked. Alex could feel his heartbeat speeding up. There was more to learn here. "Come on, don't hold back now, or you'll die."

The man did his best to hide the answer, but his oath got the better of him. In the end, he hurriedly let out what he wanted to say.

"The mission went badly and we were called for reinforcement," he spat out.

Alex paused. 

"Reinforcement? For one man?" he asked. As soon as the words left his mouth, he knew the answer. It was no one man. His sister was there too.

"I do not know how many there were fighting us, only that they needed reinforcement," the man said. "It seemed dire enough that they needed many of us."

Alex nodded thoughtfully. "Let me guess, you weren't chosen to go because you were too new to it," he said.

"No," the man said to Alex's surprise. "I was chosen. Many of us were."

Alex frowned. Was this man actually involved in his sister's death? "If you went, then you must know more than you're letting on," he said.

"I never went," the man said. "I was ready to, but the reinforcement was stopped from leaving at the last moment."

Alex looked intently, waiting for the next piece of information.

"As it turned out, His Majesty had left the palace to deal with the issue himself."

Alex's eyes went wide in horror. "The Emperor… was directly involved?" he asked. All this time, he had thought that the Emperor had only been someone pulling strings from the shadows, but if he had directly involved himself then…

All the secrecy, all the oaths, it all started making sense why everything was a mystery. The Emperor had involved himself in finding this person and his sister had to die for it.

Fury built up in him. Anger and rage almost made him miss the next information that Zhao Boqin seemed to have casually thrown out.

"An older man who was involved managed to get away, and after that, I never heard anything anymore about the mission. I don't even know what His Majesty could have gotten."

Alex's face changed at those words. "A man got away?" he asked, but Zhao Boqin said nothing. The man felt calm now that he had answered it all, and was no longer required to say anything. 

'Someone managed to get away. I should find that person,' Alex thought. Where he could find this person, though, he had no idea. 'And what is it that the Emperor gained from this? What item?'

The original intent for the mission had been the retrieval of a person it seemed. If that wasn't fake information to throw off the others not involved in the mission, what happened to that man? Was he still alive? Was that man and this old man the same person?

Either way, Alex needed to find this old man, but he didn't even know where to begin with. Who could he even ask at this point? Aside from the Dragon Emperor, no one else could tell him anything.

Alas, the knowledge he gained about his sister was even less this time around. Although the rest of the information did build a greater picture that could hopefully help him in the future.

'I can't do this on my own anymore,' he thought. 'I truly need someone to come along and tell me the answers.' 

He was feeling tired.

Out of the corners of his eyes, he saw Zhao Boqin muttering something to himself. Something that was not audible, but the expression he held made Alex jump in fear.

He had a deranged look about him and his lips moved incessantly as if he was arguing with himself. It looked very odd.

His eyes suddenly turned toward Alex, and Alex felt trouble coming.

"You know about the legionnaires dying, some more important than others," the man said, glaring directly at Alex. "You are planning something. What are you planning?"

Alex stared back without faltering for a few moments before looking away. "We are done here. You can leave," he said.

"No, you won't be leaving," Zhao Boqin said. His spear was already out on his hands. "You are planning something and I will not let you leave without answering me. You are planning to attack the Empire, aren't you? That's why you want to learn so much about the military's failure over the past few years."

"I have no such plan," Alex said. "Now put away the spear."

"Not until I'm sure you do not plan on attacking us," he said. "I won't let you go without an oath of your own."

"Oath? You want me to promise you that I wasn't really asking about the flaws in your military?" he asked.

"No, make an Oath that you won't hurt the army, the empire, the emperor."

Alex frowned at the last one. There was no way he could ever make an oath to not hurt the emperor. That was the only one who could answer him about both Pearl's Mother and Hannah. If not, he would have to die all the same for them.

He was about to say something when his expression changed once again. His talisman buzzed slightly and a teleportation aura gathered around him. 

'Is it already time to leave?' he thought.

Zhao Boqin nodded slowly. "I understand," he said, power flowing into the spear, Immortal Qi gathering in it. "That look on your face is all I need to tell that you plan on attacking us. You will die for this."