If the elders knew that Taryn, whom they had always viewed as a disciple, was actually the guardian deity of the Heavenly Flame Dynasty, the Saint Lord of the number one Saint family of the current era, Alex, they would definitely be so shocked they would doubt life itself.
If anyone dared to overestimate their own capabilities and make a move against him, then probably the entire Divine Blade Sect would be razed to the ground by his power alone.
As the powerhouse who exterminated the three evil Buddhas of Greed, Anger, and Ignorance, and beheaded the three patriarchs of the Tiger, Crane, and Wolf clans, Alex absolutely possessed this capability.
Nerin desperately concealing Alex’s identity was not to protect him.
On the contrary, it was precisely to protect the Divine Blade Sect that he had to keep his mouth strictly shut.
Gazing at the silhouette of Alex leaving, Nerin silently prayed in his heart.
"Saint Lord Alex, I beg you, since you are leaving this time, please just do not ever come back."
"What virtue or ability does our Divine Blade Sect have to accommodate a giant Buddha like you? Whatever you want, we will just give it to you. I beg you, absolutely do not come back again."
After grasping the wind chime, Alex extracted the message inside.
"Knox is missing, Saint Lord return quickly!"
Seeing these short seven words, a strong ominous premonition arose in Alex’s heart.
He did not delay for a single moment, directly heading straight back to the Hale family Holy Land at his fastest speed.
At this moment, it was the dead of night, and the Holy Land was peaceful and serene.
Because the matter of imprisoning Knox in the dungeon was known only to Adrian, even though he had gone missing, it had not caused any commotion.
Alex shuttled past one cave dwelling after another, heading straight for the dungeon. Arriving inside, he saw that the iron chair was indeed completely empty.
There was no trace of Knox.
Adrian stood beside the iron chair, his head lowered and his face full of self-blame. "Saint Lord, I..."
"Adrian, no need to panic." Alex walked forward, patted Adrian’s shoulder, and asked with a faint smile.
"Speak slowly, what exactly happened?"
"Saint Lord, it is all because I was too negligent and a poor judge of character, which led to making a huge mistake!" Adrian said bitterly.
"Previously, you instructed me to keep the matter of imprisoning Knox as secret as possible."
"The fewer people who knew, the better."
"To ensure secrecy, I only told two of my female disciples about this, having them come twice a day to deliver meals to Knox. Although those two were fairly clever, their cultivation was low and their skills inadequate."
"When they came to deliver food last night, Knox launched an attack, killed the two of them, opened his shackles, and fled."
"And it was not until I came to slap him today that I discovered their corpses, while Knox was already nowhere to be seen. I could only notify the Saint Lord."
Seeing Adrian’s painful and remorseful appearance, Alex consoled him. "Adrian, you do not need to blame yourself too much. If my prediction is correct, it is impossible that Knox escaped on his own."
"He was rescued by someone."
"The Forbidden Magic Stones on his body were specifically requested by me from the Heavenly Flame Empress."
"They can even imprison the Giant Demon race for tens of thousands of years, that Knox is merely in the Nascent Soul Realm."
"How could he possibly break free relying on his own strength?"
Adrian nodded blankly and hurriedly asked. "Saint Lord, then in your view, who could have rescued him?"
"This, I can roughly guess." Alex narrowed his eyes and said in a deep voice.
"After all, enemies who have had grievances with me and are still alive and well, there are not many left in this world."
"Those who managed to escape from my hands are all old foxes cunning to the extreme, regardless of which one saw the value in Knox and took the risk to rescue him, it would not be surprising."
Although Alex was verbally consoling Adrian, a strong sense of unease arose in his heart.
This feeling was unprecedented, it seemed he could already see that the Hale family was about to face a devastating disaster.
Prosperity declines when it reaches its peak, things turn into their opposites when they reach the extreme.
This is an eternal and unchanging truth.
Over the past year, under his leadership, the Hale family’s development had been flourishing day by day.
The recent Heaven Sacrifice Ceremony had allowed the Hale family to show off massively, becoming the focus of the world’s attention.
But usually, the more one rides the crest of success, the more often it is the exact moment when a crisis descends.
Alex had a premonition that the crisis the Hale family was about to face would be unprecedentedly severe and terrifying, and Knox being rescued would be the fuse for this crisis.
After all, there was still ten percent of Providence existing on Knox’s body.
Even if it was only ten percent, if utilized by a shrewd and cunning person, it would be enough to pose a massive threat, because, even though Knox only had ten percent of his Providence left, the remaining ninety percent was not on Alex’s own body either.
Alex rubbed his temples, instantly feeling a bout of headache, and could not help but suck air through his teeth repeatedly.
Adrian hurriedly asked with concern. "Saint Lord, what is wrong?"
Alex smiled bitterly. "I just remembered, I still have a pact with a demoness from the Outer Realm’s Origin Sect."
"Oh?" Adrian looked curious.
"The Saint Lord has dealt with the outer realm demon race and even made a pact?"
"Correct, I promised to help her keep a close eye on Knox. Once we were done utilizing him, he was to be handed over to her to deal with." Alex smiled bitterly in resignation.
"But now, Knox has actually escaped from right inside our Hale family Holy Land. If we do not capture him back quickly, when Petra comes asking me for the person, how am I supposed to explain it?"