"You gonna be alright" In a thick forest far away from the Phoenix island, a girl was resting under a large tree while a young man was tending to the girl.

This girl and boy was none other than Gaya and Michael.

After Victor intervened between Michael and Julius, Michael killed Maria by breaking her neck and used the teleportation scroll and disappeared from everyone's sight in a flash. The teleportation wasn't anything fancy but the moment the system activated the scroll, he and Gaya vanished into thin air.

He got a crazy amount of Badass points and he wished he could see the looks on their faces. Also before their disappearance,Michael paid the system a 100 Badass points to leave a note inside Victor's coat.

"No...I'm...not(cough)...(cough)" Gaya's face was full of green veins as she coughed out more blood. The blood emitted a pungent smell and had a tinge of green shade to it.

"Keep drinking the healing potion" He poured another bottle of healing potion while scanning his surroundings.

"Fuck, I never thought I would be poisoned by my own poison" After drinking the healing potion, she was able to speak more clearly without vomiting blood.

"You coated the arrows with your own poison huh? This poison, where did you get it?" Michael was very interested in getting more of this poison because, from the first day he brewed Fear toxin, he was trying to make an antidote as he didn't want to be accidentally affected by the Fear toxin.

To successfully finish the fear toxin antidote, he missed one vital ingredient. The ingredient needed to be extremely potent poison, high acidity level, thicker than the blood. With his knowledge in Alchemy, he could find a few poisons matching these requirements except one, the ingredient had to be nonflammable even at an extremely high temperature. And now, he finally found it.

"I always keep a bottle of my poison in my space ring, here take it" She removed the space ring and handed it over to Michael as tears started to roll out of her eyes.

"Human, I can't believe that I'm going to say this but the past thirty days were the happiest days of my life " Michael gently smiled as she continued,

"I only wish you bastard had cured me but it doesn't matter now, human" she reached her hand out and grabbed Michael's hand.

"Tell me the truth, Do you really consider me as your friend?" She squeezed his hand and weakly smiled

"I wouldn't have offended Julius and his entire Phoenix manor if you weren't my friend" Her loyalty had already passed the 70% and reached the 76%, therefore, he really did consider her his friend now. However, he still had one more trick up his sleeve to massively increase her loyalty.

"Bury me(cough) in Nagaland(cough)...(cough) beside my(cough) mother, human" The healing potion lost its effect and the poison in her body started to get worse.

"You're not going to die" Michael wiped her tears and opened the system

"System, how long does it take me to heal her?"

[Host, the subordinate has been poisoned by a very potent poison. Simply healing her meridians will not save her, you have to restore her cultivation level for her body to take control over the poison]

"I hope this is the last thing I do to manipulate her" Michael heaved a long sigh and took the blood-red pill he concocted before leaving the sect.

[Host, are you really going to take this pill?]

"System, what is too easy to get is also too easy to forget," He said and put the pill into his mouth.

"System, Heal her meridians and restore her cultivation level," he said before swallowing the pill and exiting the system's interface.

"Gaya, I'm going to cure you using an ancient technique, hold my hand tight and never let go" She was bewildered by his words and before she could ask any question, he gritted his teeth like he was in extreme pain.

"Hhhhgrrr" The pill he took started to show its effects. It was a pain inducer that would activate all his pain receptors and make him feel an extreme amount of pain for a short amount of time.

He knew what he had done maybe dumb or stupid but he wanted to make sure Gaya's loyalty get as high as it could. In the future, he has to trust her completely, and to get to that certain trust level, he decided to go through this trail of pain in front of her. According to his plan, by seeing how much pain he's in, she would feel grateful and become more loyal to him. Just like he said to the system, if he had healed her easily, she may or may not have forgotten it quickly and felt less grateful towards him.

He could have faked the pain but he knew she can tell the difference as he was not an oscar-winning actor.

"Human" Gaya suddenly sensed a hot wave passing through her body and felt her meridians being healed quickly.

"Arrggghhhh!" Michael growled and fought against the pain. Each and every pain receptor in his body got activated by the pill. He was experiencing a pain hundred times more than being shot by a revolver.

"Im..healed" a few seconds after, she sensed her fully healed meridians and almost shouted in delight.

[Congratulations to the host! Subordinate Gaya has reached 85% loyalty]

"Human, what is happening to you?!" She couldn't feel happy seeing the blood coming out of his nostrils and ears. She leaned forward and clenched his hands. Soon after a few moments, his hands started to twitch as Gaya reached the Body Strengthening stage. Yet, she was not in the mood to celebrate or wonder how. She was extremely worried looking at the amount of blood coming out of his nostrils and ears and wanted to stop his suffering.

[Congratulations to the host! Subordinate Gaya has reached 90% loyalty]

"Human, tell me what is happening to you?! Please stop this, I'm healed!" she screamed and couldn't stop her tears from rolling out of her eyes.

"Ghost!" There was something in that shout of hers, a pain behind it. She watched Michael's eyes. She felt desperate, angry, and helpless seeing him go through this agony just to save her.

[Congratulations to the host! Subordinate Gaya has reached 95% loyalty]

[Congratulations to the host! Subordinate Gaya has been completely healed and reached the Core Formation Stage level 7]

Ten minutes after, the pain he was feeling disappeared but he was exhausted. His body betrayed him as he fell backward but instead of hitting the ground, Gaya's ample bosom cushioned his downfall.

His face twitched when her tears landed on his face as he let out a gentle but weak smile."I told...you not..going to die"

"You bastard! Don't you dare die on me" Gaya cried and laughed at the same time. Right after that, the healing potion appeared in Michael's hand and she immediately grabbed the potion and poured it into his mouth.

While the healing potion was tending to his aching organs and muscles, he opened up the system and checked his status.

System version 2.0

Host: Michael

Cultivation Level: Body Refining stage, level 10

Experience Points: 180000/200000

Badass Points: 78000

Skills & Spells:

Wind Blast - LVL 2

Responsive Shield - LVL 3

Environment Scanning - LVL 2

Ignitia - LVL 1

Lightning Dash - LVL 1

Energy Devouver - LVL 1

Death Range - LVL 1

Techniques: Swords of Destiny - 78% Mastery

Occupation: Core Disciple of Sunrise Sect

The Guardian of Sunrise Sect

Status: Healthy

Goals: Control the world

Utility Function: Banker - LVL 2 (Ratio - 1000 gold coins: 5 badass point(s))

Wealth: 685,000 Gold

Special Trait: 5-Star Alchemist

Subordinates: Gaya (loyalty level 95%)

Base of Operation: Sunrise Sect

The number of Experience points and the Badass points eased his pain.

"The trip to the Phoenix island is absolutely worth it"

He exited the system with an elevated mood disregarding the fact that he just made an enemy out of Julius and probably the pink-robed disciples' families or sect.

After exiting the system, Gaya's smiling face welcomed him. She removed the mask and stood before him with her real face. She was extremely beautiful even when she was just a mortal but now, she reached another level in terms of beauty and elegance.

"How are you feeling?"

"How are you feeling?"

Both of them asked the same question at the same time.

"Let me"

"Let me"

It happened again as the both of them chuckled a bit and waited a few seconds to let the other speak. However, instead of speaking, Gaya walked forward and hugged him tightly.

"Oh never expected this" Michael smiled and embraced her back. Unlike before, now she was stronger and powerful than him and he could feel it by the strength of her hug.

He knew that if she desired, she could easily crush him just with her physical strength.

"What the fuck did you expect? This is what best friends do" Michael had never been hugged before like this. There was something so warm, something that felt right, smelt right. On the other hand, Gaya felt her body press in, soft and warm. This was something she'd waited for, prayed for. She inwardly thanked her mother and hugged all the tighter.

A friendship like this was to be cherished for life. Finally, both of them felt like they were home.