Alex hadn’t expected the chief to keep his words. It was weeks before he came to see him again.
The man stood just outside the range of the formation, looking inside with not little surprise in his eyes. He had likely expected Alex to have grown agitated being inside there for so long, but seeing him unchanged had phased him.
“Anything you have to say to me?” the chief asked.
“Yes, actually,” Alex said. “Would you mind telling your people to converse with me from time to time? I get bored a lot here.”
The chief sneered. “What about the elixir?”
Alex shrugged. “Well, if you’re averse to the idea of them talking, then what about some walls? I get shy with them around me at all times.”
“If jokes are all you can think to make, then you must want to stay in there for a long time, don’t you?” the chief asked.
“Since you won’t believe any of my words, why do you care what I say?” Alex asked as he shook his head. “You should return, Chief. If you don’t plan on letting me go, then you don’t need to come here.”
The chief left without saying another word.
Alex sighed, watching the man disappear in the distance, and looked at the few people with their backs turned toward him. Nothing about the situation was engaging for him at all.
So, all he could do was return to training his Intent.
Alex had found out in the past few days that he could cross about 16 of the total 25 meters away from the bed. It had taken him over a fortnight to do so.
He first assumed that he had been improving greatly for having been here for just a few weeks, but he quickly realized the true reason. It was simply that it had taken him a few days to get acquainted with the aura of the formation, to fight it back with extreme efficiency.
He may have improved a little, but it was nowhere near enough to cross a single meter.
Alex trained until evening, and even Intended to train throughout the night with little rest, but his attention was taken away by something else at that time.
A figure appeared in white robes in the evening, walking close to the barrier. A few people tried to speak up, but the figure quickly shut them down.
Alex turned to look at the person that had arrived. The daughter of the chief, Xichen.
“Did your father se—”
“Give me the name!” she demanded the moment she arrived.
Alex narrowed his eyes. “What name?”
“The one who paid you to disrupt my ceremony. I want a name,” the young woman demanded. “Was it Tailun? Or was it Fangmi?”
“I do not know either of those names,” Alex said. “I assure you, I was not there to disrupt your ceremony. It was a mere coincidence that I saw you that day.”
“Lies. You are colluding with one of the other tribes to keep me from becoming an Extolite. I know you are.”
“I promise you, I am not,” Alex said. “I am not involved in whatever this Extolite ceremony thing is.”
The young woman’s eyes narrowed, trying to not let her anger be the first thing that took control of her words.
“They have finally found another beast for me to test with,” she said. “This time, I want there to be no complications. Tell me who it was that got you to ruin my last ceremony.”
Alex was tired of the same thoughtless demand and questions, when they didn’t even bother to accept any of his words as the truth. He was about to show his annoyance through his words when the young woman added a single word at the end.
“Please.”
Alex paused, hearing the desperation in her voice. Her face now carried a look that seemed to beg him for the answer.
“I’m sorry, but I really am telling you the truth,” Alex said. “I was not there to disrupt your ceremony. You have to trust me on that.”
“Why should I?” the young woman asked. “You clearly know something. Otherwise my father wouldn’t have kept you here for so many days. He believes you were sent to sabotage my ceremony.”
Alex narrowed his eyes. “Your father believes I am a saboteur just as much as he believes you could have defeated that crab last time. The only reason he is keeping me imprisoned is because he believes that I have the Elixir that he wants.”
The young woman shook her head, finding it unbelievable.
“You still can’t figure out that it is just to pressure you into giving up the names,” she said. “Just give away the names, and you’ll be fine. My father is a good man. He is a righteous man.”
“Greed has brought out the worst in better men,” Alex said. “Your father is no different. His greed for the elixir should be quite high as well.”
“Don’t you dare talk about my father like that!” the young woman snapped. “You do not know him. You do not know what he is going through. You wouldn’t survive a day in his shoes, with all the burden he carries.”
Alex didn’t say anything, simply looking at the young woman who believed in her father so much that she couldn’t see his flaws at all. He couldn’t even blame her for that.
Surely he had a similar bias toward his own family and friends too.
“I’m sorry. I take back what I said,” he said. “You’re right, I cannot judge your father when I don’t know anything about him.”
The young woman breathed in long deep breaths, nodding along with Alex’s words.
“But YOU can.”
She froze. She looked up, her eyes wide.
“You know your father well, don’t you?” Alex asked. “Then you be the judge. Go and check if greed for the Elixir has changed him somehow. I’m sure if you look for it, you’ll find something there.”
The young woman now had a complicated look on her face, her mind split between wanting to find the truth and wanting to mindlessly believe her father was a good person.
She didn’t say a single word any further, and just turned around instead, walking away.
