After a long ti, the old man finally seed to believe Alex. He stepped back and apologized.
"When I saw you alive, I was almost certain you were the one who killed my sect mbers," the old man said. "But, it appears I was wrong. My apologies."
"No, that’s fine," Alex said. "I can understand why you would think that. It must’ve been absurd to see alive when everyone else accompanying was found dead."
The old man nodded. "To think I would ever see a man who could survive her attacks. Outsiders really are strange."
Alex smiled. "May I ask how you knew it was ? What if it was another outsider? Surely you had no way of knowing I was the one that was supposed to be dead."
"I knew it was you," the old man said. "You flaunted yourself as an Alchemist after all, so showing up here with pills for any and all injuries is a simple way to get identified."
"Flaunting myself as an alchemist?" Alex asked. "I’ve never done that."
"Maybe not to others, but you did to , did you not?" the old man asked. "When you first notified us of your presence, you sent a ssage directly to ."
"I did?" Alex asked, thinking back to when he first arrived here. He t up with a branch mber of the Endless Night sect and sent a ssage to...
Alex’s eyes slowly widened. "Wait, you... you wouldn’t happen to be the Grand Elder of the Endless Night sect, would you?"
The old man paused. "I already gave you my na. Did you realize who I was yet?" he asked.
"How would I have? This is the first ti I’m hearing of your na," Alex said with a louder voice. His emotions were still in shambles as he never expected to have t the Grand Elder of the Endless Night sect in a village in the middle of nowhere.
The old man chuckled.
"Wait, wait, wait," Alex quickly said. "I’ve wanted to ask you sothing all this ti. Do you know how I can get out of Hell? Do you know how the Hell Emperor got out of Hell?"
The old man’s face fell almost imdiately. His eyes narrowed, a hint of anger building up in them.
Alex saw that and froze. "My apologies. Did I say sothing wrong?" he asked.
"No, you did not," the old man said. "You said exactly what any outsider would." The anger in his voice was present.
Alex was clear that he had done sothing wrong, but he couldn’t tell what it was. All he had done was ask a question. What was in it that caused him anger?
"If you do not trust with the information, then that’s alright. Keep it with you until you can trust ," Alex said. "I suppose I understand your reluctance to answer , and I won’t force you to if you do not wish to."
The old man’s face softened a little once Alex said that.
"I suppose... I could tell you," the old man said.
Alex’s face brightened imdiately.
The old man continued. "Not that it would matter since you can’t do anything with that information."
Alex’s face fell.
"What do you an?" he asked.
"You can’t leave," the old man said, as simply as he could.
Alex frowned. "But you said you would tell how. You implied that it was possible."
"Yes. I didn’t just imply it; I am telling you. It is possible, but you can’t do it," the old man said.
"Why not?" Alex asked.
"You need strength that you simply do not have," the old man said.
"What sort of strength?" Alex asked. "What do I need the strength for?"
"Strength enough to break a hole in the prison wall," the old man said. "Only then can you leave."
It took Alex a mont to realize what the old man ant. He looked up, staring beyond the ceiling of the room they were in and at the sky.
The Prison Wall. The Shimring Sky.
One needed strength to break a hole in the Prison Wall itself. How the hell was he supposed to gain that strength?
"How... how strong would I need to be to break open that hole?" Alex asked, unable to hide the disbelief from his voice.
"Physically, I don’t think you can ever be strong enough," the old man said. "But with your Qi, you must at least be at a strength beyond what you outsiders call the Divine realms."
"Beyond... the Divine realms?" Alex asked, turning to look at the old man for a sign of a lie. There wasn’t. "You an... I need to enter the Celestial realm before I can do this?"
The old man nodded. "The Hell Emperor broke through to the Celestial realm on the day of his departure and broke a hole in the sky before escaping out. Even then, the hole he created lasted for the briefest of monts."
"When he left, we weren’t certain if he had even made it out or not. For hundreds of thousands of years, we lived with uncertainty. It wasn’t until much later that we realized the truth. He had made it out successfully."
The old man seed to be wanting to continue on and say sothing, but he stopped himself.
Alex didn’t notice that. He was too busy being stunned by the rest of the information he had been provided. It was unfathomable to him that the only way to leave Hell was by becoming a Celestial.
He was only in the Immortal Origin realm. To beco a Celestial, he would have to go through so many realms, spend thousands and thousands of years stuck in this world.
Alex could not accept this.
"No, that can’t be true," he said. "I shouldn’t have to wait until I reach the Celestial realm to leave Hell."
"You must," the old man said. "That is the only way."
"No," Alex said, turning around. "I need to learn the truth myself."
Alex walked out of the hut, into the early morning’s light, and directly flew to the sky to confront the Prison Wall one more ti.
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