The Hale family's Four Great Elders were the four most outstanding family members of his generation.
Each possessed their own unique, specialized expertise.
First Elder Cedric, possessed profound knowledge and had read countless tomes. He excelled at carving inscriptions and laying down formations. When it came to setting up or breaking formations, he was second to none in the entire Heavenly Flame Dynasty.
Second Elder Adrian, started his path utilizing divine movement techniques and excelled in various arts of evasion. He could act as an assassin, silently infiltrating heavily guarded fortresses to eliminate the Hale family's enemies. If hunted by superior experts, he could easily escape, playing his enemies in the palm of his hand.
Third Elder Tobias, a master of Daoist magic. He studied under the number one Daoist Immortal in the world, True Person of Dragon Tiger Mountain. He could call the wind and summon the rain, command thunder and lightning, and scatter beans to form an army. His techniques were unfathomable to gods and ghosts alike.
Fourth Elder Lara, Excelled in alchemy and poison crafting. Her mastery of alchemy was lightyears ahead of every other alchemist in the Heavenly Flame Dynasty. As long as she had sufficient materials, she could effortlessly refine even Emperor-tier pills.
All four were formidable experts at the Mahayana Realm.
In their respective fields, they stood proudly at the absolute pinnacle of the current era.
To tell the truth, when Alex had been reading the original novel, he had felt completely baffled more than once.
The Hale family's luxurious lineup was literally a protagonist-tier RPG party composition.
Alex, a mighty figure at the seventh level of the Supreme Realm, was the main DPS and Tank.
Cedric provided intellect and strategy.
Adrian handled intelligence gathering and scouting, Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated.
If they encountered a tough bone that Alex couldn't chew through, Tobias could use his Daoist magic to wear them down.
If they truly couldn't win, at worst, they could run to Dragon Tiger Mountain and beg his master for help.
Top it all off with Lara acting as the ultimate top-tier Healer, providing an endless supply of medicinal pills for both cultivation and recovery.
With such a lineup, Alex genuinely couldn't fathom how they could possibly lose.
And the result? In the original novel, it was as if Alex's brain had been flooded with water.
With such an incredibly balanced, invincible team composition, he insisted on splitting them up to fight solo.
From the Fourth Elder all the way up to the First Elder, he sent them out one by one, basically feeding experience and dropping loot for the protagonist to farm.
Lara was just a weak woman who focused entirely on alchemy, why send the Healer out to fight a solo duel?
It served the Hale family right to get exterminated to the last man.
Of course, that was the Hale family in the original novel.
The current Hale family was led by a wise Saint Lord. Naturally, it couldn't be compared to that brain-damaged version of Alex from the original text.
Alex had already made up his mind. For his next step, he would shift his cultivation focus from the younger generation directly to the Four Great Elders.
Since the Four Great Elders were Mahayana Realm experts, he could invest a maximum of 30,000 Providence Points into each of them.
As long as they broke through a single major realm, that investment would instantly double, yielding a massive 60,000 points per elder.
The Heavenly Flame Empress commanded a hundred thousand experts, but the vast majority were only in the Void Amalgamation or Mahayana Realms.
The Four Great Princesses, however, were all Supreme Realm experts. Relying purely on his own seventh-level Supreme Realm strength, if he put his life on the line, he might be able to fight the Heavenly Flame Empress to a standstill.
But two fists cannot block four hands, and a fierce tiger cannot fend off a pack of wolves.
In the original novel's final battle that annihilated the Hale family, the Four Great Princesses had displayed terrifying might, slaughtering thousands of the family's experts.
If, under his meticulous cultivation, he could help all four Great Elders break through to the Supreme Realm, then when the great war finally arrived, he would have the perfect counters to deal with those four troublesome women.
Alex decided his first investment target would be the Fourth Elder, Lara.
Lara was the only female among the Four Great Elders, and also the youngest.
Reaching the seventh level of the Mahayana Realm in just over eighty years was enough to prove her heaven-defying aptitude.
Furthermore, elevating Lara's cultivation wouldn't just add Supreme Realm combat power to their ranks.
It would also provide immense assistance to her alchemy, she would be able to provide even stronger medicinal pills in return.
A highly profitable venture with zero downsides.
A short while later, Alex arrived at the Alchemist Pavilion.
The moment he stepped through the doors, a wave of scorching heat and the rich, dense fragrance of medicinal herbs hit him full in the face.
Inside the pavilion sat countless bronze and iron cauldrons of various sizes, all filled with different medicinal ingredients, thousands of medicine gourds rested on shelves nailed to the walls.
Weaving through the chaotic, messy room, he reached the deepest part of the pavilion, where a massive Nine Dragons Cosmos Cauldron stood tall.
Over nine meters high, Its surface engraved with the patterns of nine winding, coiling giant dragons.
An Upper-Grade Heaven and Earth-tier treasure.
Beneath the Nine Dragons Cosmos Cauldron, a raging fire burned fiercely. Standing before the roaring flames with her hands clasped behind her back was a woman in white.
She stared fixedly at the glowing red-hot cauldron, her eyes filled with an intensely excited and fanatical light.
"It's about to succeed..."
"It has to succeed!"
This woman was the Hale family's Fourth Elder, Lara.
Alex walked up behind her. The woman remained completely fixated on the cauldron, entirely oblivious to his arrival.
"Just a little bit more! Just a tiny bit more!"
"Please, hold on!"
A look of amusement crossed Alex's face.
He followed her gaze to the Nine Dragons Cosmos Cauldron.
The Hale family's Fourth Elder was just like this, her love for the Dao of Alchemy bordered on absolute fanaticism.
Since childhood, she had sworn an oath to become the most powerful alchemist in the world and refine every single pill known to existence.