“Pill vein…” Alex repeated the old man in awe.

“Yes, pill vein. That is what you call this lightning scar on the pill. If I remember correctly, the lightning is supposed to have improved the pill at some level. Each lightning strikes contains worldly energy that improves the pill until it reaches the next level,” the old man said.

“What about after all 9 lightning strikes fall and the pill strill survives?” Alex asked.

The old man simply shrugged. “I don’t know. Founder never told me anything,” he said.

The pill in Alex’s hand flew over to the old man who looked at it for a while and took a deep breath.

Without waiting, he put the pill in his mouth and swallowed.

Both he and Alex waited for the pill to take effect. However, even after waiting for an entire minute, nothing happened.

“It’s useless!” the old man’s face suddenly turned dark as the hopes and expectations he had gathered regarding the pill shattered into a million different pieces.

“It didn’t work?” Alex asked. “But it had a pill vein.”

“I need pills with more pill veins,” he said begrudingly. He had truly wanted this to work, but the single pill was enough to tell him that a single veined pill was simply too weak to heal him..

“But that will…” he really didn’t want to know how long it would take him if he was to keep faking his strength.

“What was that strength that you showed just now? 5th Saint Condensation realm?” the old man asked.

Alex frowned internally. ‘I shouldn’t have made the strength so obvious,’ he thought. But then he couldn’t save the pill, which was what he wanted.

“I ate a pill before this that improved my Qi strength by 2 realms,” Alex said. “That was how I produced such a result.”

“Yeah, I guessed so,” the old man said. “It had to be some forbidden skill or pill with delayed consequences. Will you be alright?”

“I can handle whatever comes my way,” Alex said.

“Good,” the old man said. “You will no longer be making any healing pill for the next 8 years.”

“Huh?” Alex looked at the old man.

“You mean… I have to sit around, doing nothing but cultivating for the next 8 years?” Alex asked with dumbfounded shock on his face.

“Yes,” the old man said. “I’m going into closed cultivation. Be on your best behavior for the next 8 years.”

The old man left the room, leaving Alex all alone.

8 years. He was supposed to spend 8 years, trapped in a room. What the hell was he supposed to do for the next 8 years?

‘And he’s going into closed cultivation. I can’t even ask him to bring me some things,’ he thought. ‘God dammit!’

He wanted to voice his thoughts out loud, but he couldn’t trust the sanity of a madman to save him from his insane side.

All he could do was sit there until his shock faded and the reality of the situation hit him like a giant rock.

“What in the actual hell am I really supposed to do?” Alex shouted out in anger. He didn’t even care if the old man heard him, but from the looks of it, he hadn’t.

“I can’t even leave this god forsaken place without healing the old man because of our oath,” he thought with the rage still building up in his voice.

Alex raged around a bit, but in the end, he was forced to accept the reality. He was stuck in this place for the next 8 years and there was no way out.

He was now a prisoner of the old man.

“Dammit!” he said softly and started cultivating to calm himself.

A day later, he finished cultivating. After he stopped, he almost went back to making the pills, but he stopped.

‘I can’t make healing pills for the next 8 years,’ he thought. He put away the cauldron as there was nothing else to do.

Despair filled Alex for the first few days, but after a while, he got used to the despair. With how strong the formation walls were, it was certain he wouldn’t be leaving without making a commotion.

With how strong the old man was, it was certain he wouldn’t be leaving at all.

Alex sighed and decided to try on things he had been ignoring for a while now. Since he was going to be staying here for a while and since the old man had gone to closed cultivation, he no longer saw a need to keep Pearl and Whisker from coming out.

Even without keeping them hostage, he was already forced to make a healing pill for them anyway.

He simply hoped that the old man did not see the peculiarities of his two beasts and decide to take them for himself.

Pearl hadn’t cultivated in a long time and still was in the Saint Condensation 1st realm. However, for the past year and more, Alex had been cultivating his Undying Physique, which had helped Whisker reach a cultivation base of True Disciple 7th realm.

With how slow his cultivation base was, it was certain he would need awhile to show any sort of improvement.

Pearl looked around in confusion, wondering where he was.

“I haven’t come out in a long while,” Pearl said.

“Sorry, we’ve been in a rather unfortunate situation. I’ve been kidnapped, so I couldn’t bring you out earlier,” Alex said.

“Kidnapped? By who?” Pearl asked.

“A very strong man who wants me to make pills for him,” Alex replied. He explained the situation briefly before stopping the coversation altogether. He didn’t want the madman to hear him speak about him.

Pearl had nothing to do once he was out, so he quickly started cultivating. Alex was quite thankful for that as Pearl cultivating was the only way for him to body cultivate at this point.

He did what he could to hide the cuts in his body, but they would show no matter what as his body and Pearl’s cultivation base were practically the same.

While Pearl cultivated on his own, Alex decided to give Whisker the Winter Moon cultivation technique which he could learn during the times when he wasn’t practicing the Undying physique.

While the Winter Moon cultivation technique wasn’t the best Yin cultivation technique out there, it was all Alex had and could only give that to him.

After that, all they could do was sit around and cultivate.

After a few days, Alex remembered that he needed to sharpen Midnight, so he asked Pearl to help him in doing so.

With his dao of Sharpness, Pearl was able to make it quite sharp. Still, to make it even sharper, he would need to have a far stronger cultivation base than the one he had at the moment.

Alex put back the sword and went on to cultivate again. He didn’t know how he was going to spend the next 8 years exactly, but he was certain that as long as the three of them were together, time would go by in a flash.

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