1020 Going East
Alex realized that Scarlet was not returning at all. She had gone south, and most likely to her family.
In some ways, Alex understood why she did what she did.
'Sigh, I suppose that makes sense,' he thought. He walked down the giant set of stairs and left the mountain range.
The grand bazaar stood before him, but he had no plans of visiting it. He turned towards the east and started walking in that direction, hugging the mountain range as he went along.
There were people coming in and out of the Oasis, and along the way, Alex asked a few that were going east.
Most weren't or said no, but there was a tribe that was going way east, so he started traveling with them.
He sat inside the carriage and in his free time brought out the map of the Southern Continent that he had been so excited to see.
He unfurled the scroll and saw the map he had seen before. After just a glance, it was enough for Alex to be shocked.
"Wait… the entire Wasteland is just a fourth of the continent? There is so much more land beyond this mountain range," he thought.
The wasteland and the south seemed to be naturally separated because of how the land mass was formed. The wastelands seemed to be nearly cut off from the main continent that was chocked by the ocean on two sides.
There was no notations regarding the northern side of the continent besides simply naming the place 'Wastelands'. However, the south was teeming with cities and names.
Alex saw hundreds of cities, both named and unnamed. As he read the names to remember them, his eyes fell onto the center fo the continent.
In the middle, there was a massive mountain range with barely any humans living in it. From what he could tell, the mountains were too high, so people didn't live in it.
They either lived outside of the mountain range or in the center of it. The mountain range formed a natural valley that seemed to be filled with humans, and Alex understood why that was after reading the name of that place.
"So that's where she went, didn't she?" he thought. The location at the center of the continent was the Sunborn Sanctuary.
Alex saw a lot of islands around the continent, a lot of mountain ranges, a place towards the east called the Sunless lands that lay outside of the main continent, and many other places.
The man was unfortunately not as well labeled as the map he had gotten for the Northern Continent, so he had no way of telling what clan, family, sect, or what not occupied which place.
He couldn't tell if there were any important places that weren't cities or mountain ranges.
Still, Alex looked at the map closely and looked for a place where he could go inside from.
'If I'm here,' he thought, judging by an oasis that was noted on the map, I should reach here very soon. Once I'm here, I can either go by land or go by sea.
Alex wondered what he should be doing exactly in this scenario.
"I will think about it when I get there," he thought and closed the map.
He spent the next few days talking with the people from the tribe or killing beasts that made their way here from the north. The tribal folks were more than happy to have let him come with them.
As he thought, his journey came to an end in less than a week. The carriage stopped at the tribe's doorsteps and Alex walked out.
As Alex walked out, he could already smell the ocean.
'It's close,' he thought. The tribe members had indeed said that the ocean was about half a day's walk away from their place, so it wasn't surprising that Alex could already smell it.
He thanked the tribe members and despite their insistence, he walked away.
Half a day later, He arrived at the edge of a cliff. Beyond the cliff lay the murky blue ocean water, and in the air were many different colors.
'Qi,' Alex thought when he could finally see it. It had been so long since he had seen Qi out in the open, so he was surprised to see that his Demon eyes still worked.
Alex looked towards the left side of him and saw the cliff continue for hundreds of kilometers further than here.
He looked to the right and saw the mountain ranges that went on along further. He carefully looked at the mountain and sighed.
'Those people were right,' he thought, remembering back to something the people he had just journeyed with said.
He had asked if there was a pathway through the mountain in the east and they had told him that there indeed was.
Many different tribal folks were already living in those mountains after taking some phoenix flames with them. Some of these migrations had been as recent as just a century or two ago.
Alex could indeed see the lack of colors on those mountains, letting him know that he most likely would not be finding any Qi in there.
'I guess I have no choice but to go through the ocean then,' he thought.
Ocean was a scary place for a cultivator. He had heard it multiple times, from different people. It was a place without humans to keep the beasts in check, and as such, the beasts had grown to a frightening level.
Even Shen Jing had told him that even as a Saint realm, one wouldn't be safe in the ocean.
Alex took a deep breath as he got ready. However strong the ocean may be, he had no choice but to go into it.
So, without any hesitation, Alex jumped from the cliff and dove into the ocean. He sank deep into the ocean and even reached the sea floor of how shallow the ocean by the cliff was.
Alex quickly swam back up and floated in the ocean.
The water was cold and dark, and with it being close to evening, it was in shadow too. However, despite all of that, Alex's face still turned into a smile as he sensed Saint Qi in the water.
It was faint, but it was there.
Immediately, he started cultivating. His body turned into a vortex that sucked in all the Qi from the surrounding water.
'There's not enough,' Alex thought to himself and started swimming.
He continued collecting Qi even as he swamp away from the cliff. The further away he got from the land, the denser the Qi became.
At some point, the Qi was dense enough that Alex had collected enough Qi to no longer remain in the water.
He used his Intent and the world responded. In the next instant, he was a little less than a kilometer away from where he was just before. Only this time, he was flying in the air.
"Hahaha! Finally!" he shouted when he sensed the Qi. He looked to the left and saw that the nearest land to him was many kilometers away. The ones to the right were the same.
Alex then looked to the front where he could see many mountains coming out of the ocean as solitary islands that remained there.
Just as he was looking, he sensed some movement from below him as a snake came flying out of the water.
Alex looked down and saw the snake. When he sensed his cultivation base, he could only chuckle.
The snake was high in the True realms. If it were still in the wastelands, Alex would've had to move and attack physically.
However, now that he had some of his Qi back. He needed to do no such thing.
He simply moved his hand as if it were a blade, and an invisible slash appeared from it.
The Dao of Space and the Dao of Cutting worked together to form a blade out of space itself, which tore through the space in anything and cut it in two.
The snake didn't last a single second as it was cut in half by his attack.
Alex didn't even bother gathering the beast core of a True realm beast as that would have no use to him.
Instead, he started flying towards the mountain to the east. He decided to not get bothered by any beast in the ocean and used his concealment technique to hide.
A saint beast would still easily notice him, but he was fine with fighting them. If they were too strong, he could just teleport away.
Alex flew close to the mountain and landed on top of it. The mountain was surrounded by the ocean so it could be considered to be more island than a mountain.
He swept the entire land with his spiritual sense and saw what was it in. After a few seconds, he took back his spiritual sense as there was nothing here for him to worry about.
Alex found a secular spot at the top of the mountain and sat under a giant tree. Finally, he could cultivate peace.
His cultivation method went to work immediately and Qi from all around the mountain started flowing into him. Little by little, he was regaining his ability to use his cultivation base once again.
As he cultivated, a few of the Qi in his body also disappeared, going into his right shoulder plate.
Alex couldn't help but smile when he sensed that. "It is about time you healed, little fellow."
