It took Akaza over an hour to get back.

As he walked into the building, Simon used Shadow Sense to ensure that none was following him.

He nodded slightly when he sensed nothing, then Akaza stood in front of him.

He handed a spatial ring to Simon, and Simon looked at it for a second before taking it.

"Any problems?"

Akaza shook his head.

"None."

Simon nodded. "And how much did you spend?"

Akaza glanced at the twelve traitors, and he could not help but feel sorry for them.

"Approximately two thousand five hundred merits."

Simon nodded once again.

"You know what to do. Take it from their pockets after I heal them."

He didn’t bother to say any other thing after this.

The more time he wasted here, the lesser time he’d have to prepare for the life and death duel tomorrow.

He stood and walked into one of the empty rooms that was in the building, leaving behind Akaza and the Iron Fangs.

Akaza then looked at the Iron Fangs with slightly raised brows.

"Why are you guys still standing there? Why haven’t you left since?"

The Iron Fangs looked at themselves with surprise evident in their gazes.

"We could leave?" One asked with a baffled and surprised tone.

Akaza raised a brow in confusion.

"What do you mean? Did he say you could not leave?" He asked, referring to Simon.

The Iron Fangs shook their heads, and the same member that spoke earlier, spoke again.

"He didn’t. But since he didn’t tell us to go, we thought that we could not leave."

Akaza immediately facepalmed and released a sigh of disbelief and disappointment.

’Are they beginning to fear him to this extent?’

He was very certain that Simon was either lost in his thoughts or he didn’t care at all to tell them that they could leave.

Akaza shook his head, then he waved his hand.

"You guys can leave if you want."

The Iron Fangs looked at one another, then some began to leave while some stayed behind for reasons that were only known to them.

Akaza sat on the chair Simon was previously seating on, then he took a glance at the twelve traitors on the floor before shifting his gaze to the room Simon entered.

’It’ll be nice to finally find out what the cure to his poison is.’

What Akaza, the Iron Fangs, the factions, and everybody did not know is that the poison Simon gave them was a poison that was known to only two individuals.

Simon, and the most talented and ingenious poison master he knew.

She was called the Poison Empress, and unfortunately for Earth but fortunately for the demons and the demon realm, she was no more.

She died at the hands of the Demon King of Death.

The poison Simon gave the Iron Fangs was called Skinfire, and it was one of the last poisons the Poison Empress created before her death.

Despite the betrayals that happened to him in his past life and his current life, he still felt a little bit of pain in his heart whenever he recalled the death of the Poison Empress.

He and the Poison Empress were similar because they both hated demons and wanted to wipe out the demon race.

Just like him, her family were killed by a demon and the demon took pleasure in torturing her family members.

It was a memory she never forgot, and she desired revenge, maybe even more than Simon.

However, she only had an elemental blessing. She had an affinity for the wood element, but her affinity was just average at best.

Because she was not talented in combat and the likes, she delved into poisons. But not just poisons that could kill humans and demons alike. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

No.

She delved into poisons that caused as much as pain as possible to both humans and demons, but mainly demons.

Because of a certain horrible experience, she knew that she had to protect herself from humans and demons alike.

If not for Poison Empress, Simon would have died quite a lot of times to certain demons and humans who used poison.

Simon sometimes thought about her and some other dead comrades of his in his past life.

He would sometimes ask himself if they would have betrayed him like the others did.

However, he was not certain.

He would have answered that none of them would betray with immense confidence, but it was the same confidence he had with those who betrayed him.

Poison Empress regarded Skinfire as one of her greatest creations, and there are two reasons.

One is because the ingredients were common and easily found in the demon realm.

If not, Simon would not be able to create Skinfire at all.

The second reason is because once the wrong cure is administered into the victim’s body, Skinfire would act up and cause immense pain to the victim.

Because of Poison Empress, he had some knowledge about plants, medicine, and poison.

He would not call himself a poison expert because of this since some of the knowledge were what Poison Empress told him in her free time or when she made a major breakthrough in the poison path.

And as Simon concocted the cure to the current condition of the traitors, he recalled one of the most important creations of the Poison Empress and maybe even the most important creation.

He had the knowledge, but he lacked the resources because unlike Skinfire which required cheap resources, this one required both common, rare, and extremely rare resources.

He was not even certain that the clan had the things he needed.

However, if he’s successful in concocting her recipe, his strength would take another leap forward, and his enemies would fear him the more.

But this was for the future, not now.

Time waited for no man or demon, and after approximately one hour thirty minutes, Simon finally came out of the room.

He approached Akaza, handed over the same spatial ring to him, then he patted his shoulder.

"I’m off. I’ll be training, so unless it’s an emergency, don’t bother me."