Zhen Lingxi turned around when she heard her name.

A gray-robed elderly man was standing at the door.

​​

Alex finally understood what the colors of the robe indicated.

'White robes are for disciples, gray robes are for Elders, and black robes are for the man they call Martial Grandfather,' He had deduced this.

Accordingly, Guanyu and Xuefeng greeted the man with a deep bow.

"Martial Uncle!"

The man looked at Guanyu, and remarked, "I think you should come, Guanyu, your older brother came back."

"Hong gege is back!?" Guanyu cheerfully exclaimed.

"Yes, we need to move fast, get a move on."

The elder then cast a questioning look at the other two, and asked, "Who are you two?"

"I'm Ma Xuefeng."

"Ma Xuefeng? You brought the ghost mother, then you should definitely come with us."

The elder halted his words and then resumed, "You should be Sir Alex, then? Could you come too to provide information on your encounter with the ghost general?"

"That's alright."

Following that, the five of them left the apothecary center and flew towards the pagoda uphill.

The two elders and Guanyu flew on flying swords, whereas Alex flew with his wings and held on to Ma Xuefeng.

"Wings?" The two elders had an intrigued look.

They soon reached the pagoda and immediately entered.

There was a large circular staircase similar to the one in Athena's tower, which they climbed until they reached the top floor.

This floor had a hexagonal table in the center, and a relatively large group of people gathered here.

Most of them had gray robes, except the black-robed elderly man and a handsome young man who wore colorful yellow-and-red robes.

"You should still be tir-

"Hong gege!" Guanyu uncharacteristically exclaimed and ran towards the colorfully dressed young man.

"Guanyu didi!" The man named Zhen Hong chuckled and exclaimed.

"When did you come back?!" Guanyu asked with bright eyes.

"I departed from the Kingdom of Pure Felicity a month ago and I just reached the sect today..."

An elder laughed loudly from the sidelines, and exclaimed, "That's the pride of our sect, Zhen Hong! Already at the sacred kingdom, what stage of cultivation have you reached?"

Zhen Hong pondered for a bit, and then calmly replied, "I'm at the peak of Soul Formation, I'm confident in reaching Copper Immortality by the end of the year."

"Oooooooh!" The crowd unanimously gloated.

The black-robed elderly man chuckled and remarked, "Today's youths are so talented...It took me a century to reach your stage, you only reached it in a meager 3 decades..."

"Martial Grandfather, don't underestimate yourself, most people wouldn't reach your level in ten millennia, and they'd be dead by then anyway..."

The elders all burst into laughter.

"Hehehehe..." The black-robed man was satisfied with the praise.

"Anyways, you had some bad news, you said?"

Zhen Hong gulped, and replied, "As I was crossing the eastern mountain ranges into the plateau, I found an extremely strong source of yin qi, not as strong as that of the legendary ghost emperor, but far stronger than any ghost general."

The black-robed man rubbed his beard and commented, "This is concerning when we add onto it yesterday's happenings..."

"Huh?" Zhen Hong asked confusingly.

"Two junior disciples and a foreign guest have brought in a ghost mother, that according to Liuxian, has been created artificially."

"Junior Disciple Xiao Yaling informed us of folklore stories from her lands that were quite interesting." The black-robed man stated.

An elder then left the pagoda and came back with a young, white-robed woman.

It was Xiao Yaling.

"Junior disciple, can you tell your Martial Brother here of your hypothesis?"

Yaling bowed slightly and replied, "I come from the eastern reaches of Western Qin, and there, the Xiao clan has several information agencies."

"Ever since olden times, rumors about a certain 'ghost king' have spread there..."

Zhen Hong thanked her and fell into contemplation.

"That lines up with the location I sensed the yin qi at, and the power seems about right."

The elderly man in black robes nodded and added, "I believe that rumor to be right, and since so, we need to vanquish this creature."

Zhen Hong exclaimed with resolve, "I'll be going!"

"I'll flex my young muscles a little bit too!" The elderly man revealed his unusually muscular arms and flaunted them.

'He knows how to lighten the atmosphere," Alex remarked that this man served as a good leader for the sect.

"I'll go to seal the ghost mother and set up talismans!" Zhen Liuxian, the sealing master, also volunteered.

"Two Soul Formation experts and a Copper Immortal, you three should be enough!" Zhen Lingxi stated.

"Can I go?" Unexpectedly to the others, Alex, the foreign man, also volunteered.

"Young man, I'm not sure you have any Reverence Q-

"Martial Grandfather! Sir Alex does have Reverence Qi! In fact, his talisman glowed brighter than any I'd ever seen...even....brighter...than M-Martial U-uncle Liuxian." Ma Xuefeng intervened and refuted.

Liuxian frowned and pouted, "Junior Disciple Xuefeng, you can forget asking me to form any more arrays for you, you can ask your 'Sir Alex'."

The crowd once again laughed.

"Well, with that, we're four, let's move out tomorrow morning."

Since they made their verdict, the crowd dissipated.

Zhen Guanyu went with his brother while Ma Xuefeng met up with Ma Guanting.

Alex went back to their guest pagoda and found Hermes...swimming in the lake.

He laid down on his back and floated.

"Alexei-boy! Come swim! The salt content in this lake allows you to float without any effort!"

"Enjoy yourself, Hermes, I don't want to get wet."

Alex entered the pagoda and found a small room.

There wasn't much to do, but he suddenly recalled something.

He took out a paper from his pockets, and started writing on it.

"Man, this piece of paper survived through everything we've been through..." Alex laughed out loud.

'Well, Crista, you told me you were back at Olympus, right?

We're officially on the opposite sides of the world, I'm in some place called 'Western Qin'.

Soon, a delegate from the heavenly envoy will be coming by, and we'll go back with them to meet the Jade Emperor, and then, swiftly make our way back to Olympus.

I'm really missing you right now.'

Since the paper was blessed with Link, the message should reach her instantaneously.

"I wonder how the church is doing...Theoserfos hasn't sent any transmissions, so there should be no problems," Alex also felt his supply of Faith Energy constantly increase, so that was a good sign.

Tomorrow, he would fight the 'ghost king' alongside these 'immortals'.