"That won’t be necessary." Alex smiled and shook his head.

"If the Sol and Blackwood families can figure it out, they will naturally come looking for me. If they cannot figure it out, even if you send gifts, it is just bringing humiliation upon ourselves."

"It simply depends on whether those two old guys have the vision to see where the Heavenly Flame imperial throne will ultimately belong."

...

Immediately, Alex led the disciples of the entire Hale family back to the Holy Land to rest and recuperate.

Meanwhile, deep in the night.

On the desolate Sunblaze Peak, Knox stood at the edge of the cliff, his expression hollow and despairing, his eyes gloomy and lifeless. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Being blown by the chilly night wind, Knox couldn’t help but mutter to himself.

"Knox, oh Knox, look at what kind of state you’ve ended up in now."

"You clearly could have obtained the inheritance of the Buddhist Dao Saint, True One, yet you let it slip through your fingers, instead becoming a rat crossing the street that everyone in the entire Heavenly Flame Dynasty shouts to beat."

"You clearly could have obtained the Vault of Divine Sword Heart, yet you similarly missed by a hair’s breadth but lost by a thousand miles, losing your last chance to turn things around."

"Such excellent fateful encounters, one after another, clearly already within your grasp, yet forcibly snatched away by others."

"In this life, I’m afraid you might not even be able to endure until you finally make a name for yourself, right?"

As he spoke, Knox gave a dry, self-mocking laugh and shook his head. Looking at the bottomless cliff face before him, there was not the slightest bit of greedy attachment to life left in his heart.

Suddenly, a ruthless, fierce glint flowed through Knox’s eyes, his molars grinding together with a creak.

"Alex..."

"For me, Knox, to be reduced to this state today is entirely thanks to you! You ruined my prospects, ruined my reputation, ruined my future, and ruined my everything!"

"Even if I become a vengeful ghost, I will absolutely never let you off!"

Accompanied by a hysterical, furious roar, Knox leapt directly off the edge of the cliff. His body plummeted toward the bottomless abyss below.

He calmly closed his eyes, waiting for the descent of death.

After about three or four seconds, his body hit the ground with a loud thud. However, what he heard was a miserable, shrill scream echoing beside his ears.

Yet he himself, aside from the impact making his flesh and bones ache a bit, was completely unharmed from head to toe.

Knox froze. He lowered his head to glance beneath him, instantly widening his eyes in astonishment.

Right beneath his body, there was shockingly a Demonic Tiger.

The Demonic Tiger had a massive build, covered in soft fur, with two bat-like wings growing on its back, possessing the terrifying cultivation of a full Supreme Realm.

Yet it just so happened to have its head crushed flat by him sitting on it after jumping from above, directly losing its life on the spot.

It was exactly because he had this Demonic Tiger as a meat cushion that he didn’t end up with shattered bones and a crushed body.

Just as Knox was in a daze, he heard a melodious female voice by his ear.

"Heh, I didn’t expect that it would actually be a little human brat who saved my life."

He hurriedly focused his gaze, only to see a woman with a slender, graceful figure, her entire body covered in cuts and bruises.

She was currently kneeling on one knee, a thrilled smile of surviving a disaster on her face.

This woman wore a black short skirt, exposing large expanses of fair, snow-white skin, looking incredibly alluring.

A head of long purple hair was incomparably noble and gorgeous, her two eyes as charming and moving as gemstones, her facial features exquisite and pretty, completely and utterly a great beauty with ice-like skin and jade-like bones.

This beauty was shockingly also a Supreme Realm powerhouse, but she had suffered heavy internal injuries, likely sustained while battling the Demonic Tiger just now.

"This... what is going on here?" Knox asked blankly.

"How am I still alive?"

"Heh, it seems you little brat saving me was also just a lucky coincidence?" The black-clad woman smiled playfully, crooking her index and middle fingers toward Knox.

Knox instantly lost control of his own movements, directly and blankly walking up to the woman and obediently sitting down.

"Mhm, truly an obedient child."

The black-clad woman used her finger to trace Knox’s handsome facial features, a look of greed flowing through her eyes. She then patted Knox’s head and smiled enchantingly.

"Big Sister will tell you exactly what happened."

Immediately, the black-clad woman recounted the events to Knox in full detail.

Her name was Petra, a demonic woman from the Outer Realms.

While attempting to break through to the Saint Realm, she accidentally caused a disruption in the spatial barriers.

Not only did it result in her suffering heavy injuries, but it also caused her to drift into this world.

As soon as Petra arrived here, she encountered a Supreme Realm Demonic Tiger and engaged in a life-or-death struggle with it.

With her abilities, eliminating this Demonic Tiger would normally be as easy as lifting a finger.

But because she sustained severe internal injuries during her crossing, the vast majority of her demonic techniques were unusable.

She exhausted almost all her available techniques just to beat the Demonic Tiger into critical condition, but she herself was injured as a result.

Just as both sides were exhausted, completely out of strength, and about to launch their final desperate strike, Knox suddenly leaped down from the cliff and crushed the Demonic Tiger to death with his butt.

"So you’re saying this Demonic Tiger was crushed to death by me?" Knox said blankly.

"To be accurate, it was a critically injured Demonic Tiger." Petra said faintly.

"With your meager cultivation, if I hadn’t beaten this Demonic Tiger into critical condition and distracted its attention, you absolutely would not have had the opportunity to launch a sneak attack."

"That’s not important." Knox instantly couldn’t help but laugh.

"I truly didn’t expect it. I originally wanted to jump off the cliff and commit suicide, but the result is I accidentally saved your life."

"You... oh, Miss Petra, what kind of fate do you think this is, to allow you and me to meet in such a manner?"