Acceptance

The old man thought of fighting Alex once, but seeing Shan Wangjiu deep in concentration made him not want to disturb him. So, he left with his group, soon disappearing toward the lake in the distance. 

Alex sat back, thinking to himself about what he had just heard about.

"So they've formed groups huh?" he spoke slowly to himself. "Was that why all the stronger ones left not long after fighting me?"

He had assumed they left because they'd had enough of his pills, but now that he heard another possibility, it sounded much more probable.

"What was that about 'those groups?'?" he wondered. 'Ruin my time here?'

Thinking a bit, he could imagine what sort of things people could do after coming together to form a large enough group. If one considered the secret realm a game, then playing together gave one a lot more advantages than playing alone.

"Should I look for people to go around with?"