'It's that skill that Haze used before...' Alexis thought.

Both were startled by Alexis entering.

Haze turned around happily. "Elder Sister! Congratulations on your breakthrough!"

Haze could feel a new air around Alexis. He could also feel Mystra trying to sneak up on him.

"GOT YOU!!" Mystra roared as she jumped at him.

Lightning Body!

Haze turned into a blue afterimage as he sat on Mystra's back, smashing her chest into the ground. He knocked her out of Lightning Body as he chuckled. "Your footsteps were loud enough, you didn't have to shout."

"…" Alexis was taken aback. Her footsteps were in no way loud. Even she barely heard it! 'How did Mystra get so strong?'

"It's not fair!" Mystra grunted. "Okay, okay. Can you please get the hell off me?"

Haze chuckled as he got up. "Go call Rio."

"Alright." Mystra nodded as she bowed to Alexis and left.

"Rio?" Alexis asked with a confused tone.

"One of my subordinates and friends." Haze smiled.

"Friends? I didn't know you had friends." Alexis smiled with a raised eyebrow.

"I am highly offended!" Haze said with a wronged tone. "I have friends!"

"Oh really? Like who? Name more than ten." Alexis smirked.

"Well…" Haze started grinding his gears. "I have Mystra, Rio, John Ethos and his wife Joy, Elder Brother Asalon, and…uhm…Uncle Connor, Blasius. That's seven…I also have…you and…I guess Gabriel and Jack."

"Wow. I never thought I'd hear you say that you're friends with Gabriel, Jack, and Blasius." Alexis smirked.

"Blasius, maybe. The other two, not really, but I just don't want you to be right." Haze scoffed.

"I'm surprised though. You'd consider Young Master John Ethos your friend?" Alexis smiled.

"Brother John is a friend and comrade." Haze nodded.

"I'll be heartbroken if my dear brother was in a parasocial relationship with a young master from the Ethos clan." Alexis sighed sarcastically.

"You're in quite a good mood for you to openly mock me." Haze scoffed.

"Oh, I am." Alexis laughed. "I've reached the Nascent Soul realm!"

"So…what's your Law?" Haze asked expectantly. If she had an affinity with the Law of Lightning, she could switch to the Lightning Immortal Technique without restarting her cultivation.

"Law of Fire!" Alexis said proudly.

"I see…" Haze sighed. 'Why did I expect it to change…'

"Why the long face?" Alexis smiled bitterly. She expected him to be happier for her.

'I guess I can help her with her rank at least.' Haze smiled. "Congratulations. You can use it to improve the Falon clan's cultivation technique and reach the Enlightenment realm before you're 100 years old."

As someone who was a 114 year old Immortal, Haze was at a level where he could be described as the most talented man in history, but he knew that such a feat wasn't replicable. He doubted that even he himself could do it again.

"Enough about that." Haze smiled. "I'm going to send a message to Brother John so that he can expect us."

"Very well. I'll wait here until Mystra comes back." Alexis nodded.

Haze visited the main building and went to the mail office. He sent a fast message to the Young Master John Ethos from Young Master Haze Falon. It detailed that their arrival should be expected within a month or so.

With that, Haze, Alexis, Rio, and Mystra all hopped on a carriage and started their way towards the Roaring City's Ethos Estate. The journey would take a month and a week, so they had quite the time to get to know each other. Alexis immediately fell in love with Rio's personality. They were like peas in a pod.

"Big Sis Alexis should beat up Big Bro sometime! That way, he'll know how, us, weaklings feel!" Rio protested as he sat with Mystra. Mystra heavily nodded as the two faced Alexis and Haze.

"I shall avenge you some other time." Alexis nodded seriously. She then turned to Haze. "More importantly, what are you doing? You've been staring at that spirit stone for three weeks now."

"Do you love money that much?" Mystra asked in hesitation. She thought she knew Haze pretty well, but him being a greedy man wasn't in her list of descriptions.

"I do." Haze didn't even look away from it as he replied lazily. 'Spirit stones. A naturally occurring mineral commonly found in caves and within creatures that cultivate Qi. They have an incredible affinity to all Laws and contain a decent amount of Qi. Their most valuable trait is easily how easily they conduct Qi, making array masters' lives eight billion times easier...who wouldn't love such a thing?'

Haze sighed as he continued his work. He was slowly crystallizing a small fragment of the Law of Lightning within the spirit stone. It wasn't easy to control the Law of Lightning when he was just a Qi Refining realm cultivator, but he could use his Qi to forcibly move a fragment of the Law of Lightning at the Law Essence realm. That might be impossible for a common user of the Law of Lightning, but Haze was the Lightning Immortal! Even though he didn't know all its applications, he knew every single way the Law of Lightning could be handled. He knew every property the Law had. He even created some new applications with the help of his friends in the future.

Thinking about the future, Haze smirked. 'Thinking about it, it should be in a decade or so...'

Like that, the group continued until they arrived at the enormous Roaring City. It was easily twice the size of Talon City. Talon City enjoyed quality of resources while Roaring City enjoyed a quantity of resources. As such, Roaring City's leading clan, the Ethos clan, was allied with over six different clans. The Falon clan, on the other hand, had only an alliance with the Ethos and Royse clans.

'It's already been 10 months since I've returned, yet I haven't caught a glimpse of Maddie yet. I need to finish this quickly and go find her after I breakthrough.' Haze sighed.

Alexis ordered the carriage driver to wait within the city and threw him 4 spirit stones. She winked at him playfully. "You're in Roaring City, go spoil yourself a little."

"Thank you, Elder Alexis!!" the carriage driver bowed happily.

"When I received news that a carriage was approaching the city with the Falon clan's symbol, I didn't think I would be welcoming the great genius, Alexis Falon!" John laughed as he walked up to the group. He smiled as he bowed deeply. "It has been a while, Elder Sister Alexis."

"Not for long, Brother John." Haze looked exhausted, yet confident.

"Hopefully." John laughed. He awkwardly stopped his laughter and looked at Alexis. "I-I didn't mean any insult to you by that!"

"Don't worry about it, she'll understand later." Haze waved his hand. "For now, I wish to meet with Patriarch Luke."

"Father must be busy now. He's preparing for the Roaring City Competition with the Elders of the clan." John chuckled apologetically. "He should be free tomorrow night."

"Brother John...I ask this of you with your position in mind, go tell your father that important guests from the Falon clan have come." Haze looked at him with confident eyes.

"Haze...the Roaring City Competition is no joke. Father is busy." John shook his head.

"I'm obviously not going to interrupt such an important thing empty handed. I have something that your father might even cancel the entire competition to get his hands on." Haze said with absolute confidence.

"..." John made a difficult expression. He then sighed. "Fine. We can always say that it was because Elder Sister Alexis was here. She's the heir to the Falon clan and an Elder within it."

Haze nodded with a smile. "Thank you."

John then started introducing places left and right as the group made their way to the Ethos Estate. Unlike the Falon Estate, the Ethos Estate was open to everyone. Even non-clan members could casually enter and visit the Estate's facilities. They could even use them!

"Isn't that a little wasteful? Giving resources to people you're not sure would even help you in the future?" Alexis sighed.

From her perspective as an Elder, this was just incredibly wasteful.

John laughed. "That might be so if you're the Falon clan, but this is our Ethos! You guys have to focus on getting higher quality due to your low amount of resources. We, on the other hand, can throw resources at low level grunts and if one of them turns out to be a hidden dragon, we offer that person a position as a disciple in the clan!"

"I still see it as a waste." Alexis sighed.

"Big Brother!!" a little child came running towards John. This little girl with short shoulder length blonde hair jumped into his arms. She immediately cried loudly. "Big Brother! Mark is bullying me!!"

Behind her was a menacing 10 year old boy with slicked back blonde hair. He smiled dangerously.

"Li~la~! Come here!!" Mark jumped at his little sister and tried to grab her hair.

John quickly palmed his little head as whispered in an angry tone. "Calm down. We have important guests."

"O-Okay!!" Mark said as he grunted from the pain.

"Now move along. I need to go speak to Father." John sighed as he frowned at the two.

Lila bowed at her waist towards Haze's group then immediately ran off.

"H-Hey! Wait for me!" Mark bowed then ran after her.

"Where do they get all that energy from?" John whispered with a sigh.

"They're kids. Let them have their fun." Haze chuckled. He always loved the idea of having kids, yet a certain encounter in the future would render him infertile. 'Wait...in this timeline, I could just avoid the World of Death!!'

"I thought that you were the youngest of the Ethos main line." Mystra tilted her head at John.

"Well...after the elders saw Elder Brother Matthew's talent, they decided that all children born after me were to have the status of a core disciple. Unfortunately for Matthew, I was more talented, so the seat of patriarch will be given to me." John chuckled.

John motioned towards some seats in the garden of the Estate's main building. The Ethos Estate was particularly large, each building had its own garden.

"Please, have a seat while I go speak to Father." John went into the building.

Haze took out a small booklet and started writing in it. Almost half an hour later, John had came back. "Father says he'll give you 10 minutes."

"That's all I need." Haze closed the booklet and stood up.

The group walked in and entered a particularly luxurious room, inside sat a very thin man. One would immediately determine that this man was a sick old grandpa, but he was a very powerful cultivator. He was a Peak Nascent Soul realm cultivator, the Patriarch of the Ethos clan, Luke Ethos.

The group immediately greeted with a bow. "Patriarch Ethos!"

"All of you may be seated." Luke said in a calm and gentle voice. He pointed towards the two couches in front of his desk. John and Haze sat next to each other, Alexis sat opposite them. Mystra and Rio stood behind Haze.

"Alexis." Luke smiled at her. "I heard that you broke through to the Nascent Soul realm. Congratulations. Please, forgive me for not preparing a gift."

Alexis quickly waved her hands. "Father-in-law, I cannot accept a gift from you!"

"Nonsense! You're my daughter-in-law. I'll be called shameless if I don't gift you something! So...what do you want?" Luke smiled.

"Then...I wish for you to give us a chance." Alexis said confidently.

"A chance for what?" Luke raised his eyebrows.

"Patriarch Ethos." Haze looked at the man.

"You are?" Luke narrowed his eyes.

"This is my adopted brother, Haze Falon." Alexis introduced nervously.

"So...you're the famous Haze I've been hearing so much about lately?" Luke smirked in John's direction. John grit his teeth with an embarrassed expression.

"Firstly, I would like to apologize to you and your Ethos clan. I have humiliated your Young Master Matthew. Although he had broken our clan's rules, I should've taken into account his position and reputation as a young master of the Ethos clan." Haze bowed his head.

"All is forgiven. He deserved it." Luke scoffed.

"As for the second part...Alexis can you please excuse us." Haze said to Alexis. He then turned to Rio and Mystra. "You two as well."

"Why?" Alexis became incredibly nervous.

"Just trust me on this." Haze nodded.

"..." Alexis hesitated. She then gave John a quick glance and left with Rio and Mystra.

"As for the second part?" Luke was quite puzzled as well.

"As for the second part, I wish for you to cancel the engagement between my sister, Alexis, and your son, Matthew." Haze bowed his head.

"..." Luke glared coldly. "I don't think that this is the Falon clan's decision, is it?"

"It's a personal one. This marriage is the medium for the alliance between the Ethos clan and the Falon clan. If it is the medium that you wish for, I can give you one of equal value." Haze bowed his head and gave out a booklet. "My master is a high level cultivator, even more powerful than you. I asked him for help in this and he said that your Ethos clan specializes in Wind techniques. I wish to give you this."

Haze respectfully put the booklet on the table and sat back down.

"..." Luke glared at him and opened the booklet. He skimmed through it. He then made a surprised expression. "This would indeed be of equal value, but with all due respect. What makes you think that I, the patriarch of clan Ethos, would entertain you?"

"Very well then." Haze sighed. "I am willing to give you something 10 times more valuable than that skill I gave you."

"Alright, let's see it." Luke sighed. This skill was called 'Rushing Wind'. It was a speed skill that the younger generation of the Ethos clan could make great use of. Something 10 times more valuable wouldn't be used in exchange for a simple alliance.

"But first...I wish to set a condition." Haze said with a deep breath.

"Oh?" Luke narrowed his eyes.

"In the Escoile Tournament in a year, I wish for you to bet 10,000,000 spirit stones on me winning." Luke's face immediately turned dark. He looked like he was going to eat him alive. "In exchange, I will give you this."

Haze handed over the spirit stone he was working on for a month.

Luke's jaw dropped. His eyes were shaking with shock.

"DEAL!!" Luke roared as he grabbed the Law Fragment. "John! Go tell the Elders that I am leaving for the Imperial Capital Escon! It's very urgent!"

"O-Okay?" John felt puzzled. 'What is that spirit stone?'

BOOM!!

Luke opened his window. He summoned something huge from his spatial ring. It was a giant black dragon! It was the Ethos clan's fastest transportation construction! The Black Dragon!!

Luke jumped on the Black Dragon.

"Wait!" Haze called out. "What about the marriage contract?!"

"Here!" Luke threw a paper his way. Haze caught it and opened it. It was the marriage contract! If Haze destroyed this paper and the Falon clan's paper, the engagement would officially be nulled.

"Thank you." Haze bowed at the waist.

Luke didn't respond as he sent his Qi into the Black Dragon. It quickly took to the sky.

"I guess we're done here." Haze smiled. "Well, Brother John. I really wished to stay longer, but I really have to go back and prepare for the Escoile Tournament. I also have to prepare Rio and Mystra for the Talon City brackets."

"S-See you at the tournament in a year, I guess." John nodded awkwardly. He thought it would be a struggle to convince his father. He was ready to jump in at any moment, but it seemed like Haze truly had the ability to back up his talk.

"You should really go tell the Elders, they must be waiting." Haze said as he walked out of the office.

"Right!" John immediately ran off.

Haze then regrouped with the others in the garden.

"What happened?" Alexis stood up nervously.

"Don't mind it, let's go home. We need to use the Falon Zone to breakthrough." Haze yawned as he handed the marriage contract to Alexis.

"What?!" Alexis was shocked when she opened the paper.

"I've solved the issue. The alliance between the two clans is already stabilized, our relationship is good. If you ask Father, he'd surely give you the other contract. Once you destroy both copies, you can go have fun with your secret lover." Haze jumped on Rio's back. He said to him. "Carry me to the carriage. I'm way too tired."

"A-Alright, Big Bro." Rio nodded.

The group started walking back to where they came from. Alexis walked in a daze. She looked at Haze with shock. 'How did he do it?'