"Julian, oh Julian, whenever you can sever your worldly attachments, that will be the day you finally amount to something."

Julian fleeing in tears made the crowd laugh even harder. Isolde was left standing in the middle, completely dumbfounded and at a loss.

She didn’t know exactly what she had done either. But she had the general feeling as if she had accidentally hurt some fragile little heart.

Alex stepped forward with his hands behind his back, saying faintly. "What is all this clamor?"

"Saint Lord!" Seeing Alex arrive, Lucas and the others froze slightly, hurriedly kneeling down one by one to pay their respects.

"Saint Lord..." Isolde also wanted to kneel, but Alex waved his hand to support her knees.

"You have not yet returned to the clan. There is no need for such formal salutations." Alex said faintly.

"Furthermore, you should call me Saint Lord Alex."

"Yes, Saint Lord Alex." Isolde’s eyes dimmed slightly, a clear trace of desolation flashing through her gaze.

The rules of a Saint Lineage family were just that strict and ruthless. As someone expelled from the family, she didn’t even have the qualification to kneel and pay respects.

Alex nodded. "Come with me."

He led Isolde into the Saint Lord’s Hall. Seeing this, Lucas and the others couldn’t help but secretly whisper among themselves.

"Back then, the Saint Lord personally gave the order to expel Isolde. Why is he being so amiable to her this time?"

"Could it be he wants to readmit her back into the family?"

"Sigh, if she comes back, let her come back. Our Saint Lord right now is fair, just, and brilliantly martial. It’s impossible for him to exclusively dote on her like before. Even if Isolde comes back, she’ll just be an ordinary member."

...

Inside the Saint Lord’s Hall, Elara brought over two cups of tea.

Although Elara was Alex’s personal maid, she had a gentle temper and was approachable. Normally, she essentially always took the initiative to greet other younger generation members.

But even with her universally known good temper, she didn’t give Isolde a good look.

The main reason was that back then, Isolde colluded with Knox to poison the Saint Lord’s tea. How heavily the Saint Lord had valued her, practically showering her with thousands of favors. Isolde’s ungrateful and traitorous behavior made Elara feel deeply disgusted.

Alex, however, was clearly calm as an unfettered cloud and a gentle breeze, as if he had already forgotten the past grievances. "Elara, you may step down first."

"Yes." Elara left, leaving only the two of them inside the hall.

Alex picked up his teacup and took a shallow sip. "Speak, what matter brings you to find me?"

"Saint Lord, you haven’t returned to the Divine Blade Sect recently, and a major incident has occurred in the sect," Isolde said anxiously. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

"Ever since Broken Sword Peak was rebuilt, several elders have been running over there very frequently. In name, they are visiting Master Sylra, but in reality, they are all going to see Aya Cale."

Alex nodded. "Mhm, not surprising. To be accurate, they should be going to see the Vault of Divine Sword Heart."

"But yesterday, when the major elders went to Aya Cale’s cave dwelling, they couldn’t find her anywhere. Originally, the elders thought Aya was tired and avoiding them, so they waited outside the entire time."

"To their surprise, after waiting a day and a night until this evening, she still hadn’t returned. The elders only then realized that Aya had gone missing. They all returned to their respective peak gates, leading their disciples in an overwhelming search across the entire Hundred Thousand Mountains."

Alex frowned. "How could a perfectly fine, living person suddenly go missing?"

Isolde said with a bitter face. "Saint Lord, Miss Aya is not missing. She was kidnapped!"

"Kidnapped?" Alex revealed a look of surprise.

"By whom?"

A trace of cold anger flashed through Isolde’s eyes. "Knox!"

"Back then, before the assessment, I planted a tracking insect Gu on Knox’s body, thinking of finding an opportunity to ambush him within the Azure Dragon Valley. I didn’t expect his speed to be so fast, so the tracking insect Gu was never removed."

"Today, after confirming Aya’s disappearance, I immediately thought this might be Knox’s doing. I ran to his cave dwelling, and sure enough, he was gone. Looking through the tracking insect Gu, I discovered he had already left the Southwestern region and was heading toward the South. I then immediately rushed back to report this to you."

A solemn, suspicious look flashed through Alex’s eyes. "Aya possesses the Vault of Divine Sword Heart, as well as the Innate Sword God Saint Body. Anyone below the Mahayana Realm fundamentally cannot do anything to her. Relying on Knox’s mere Nascent Soul Realm cultivation, how did he manage to kidnap her?"

"There is definitely something fishy going on here..."

Alex put on a serious expression. "Isolde, you did a good job this time, keeping an eye on Knox’s tracks. Quickly use your tracking insect Gu to see where he is right now."

"Yes!" Isolde’s expression was solemn.

A flying insect the size of a mung bean flew out from her sleeve and landed on her fingertip. Suddenly, her expression fell slightly into a trance, and a trace of melancholy appeared on her face.

"Saint Lord, speaking of which, this tracking insect Gu was personally taught to me by you back then, hand in hand."

"Indeed." Alex nodded, smiling faintly.

"Back when I taught you, I never thought that one day it would actually be of such great use. This is precisely the work of fate. No one can predict what will happen at the next crossroads."

"Alright, let’s attend to proper business first."

Immediately, Isolde poured her spiritual energy into the tracking insect.

The tracking insect instantly transformed into a light pink mist, drifting in mid-air and condensing into a screen of light. Displayed upon the light screen was a map of the entire Heavenly Flame Dynasty. The Northern Frontier, the Eastern Sea, the Western Regions, the various provincial capitals and cities were all impressively marked upon it.