1302 A Surprise in the Making



Alex met up with his family and friends after returning to Scarlet City.

His mother had returned a week ago, so she was spending time with his father and the rest.

Liz had stayed in the Scarlet City for a bit before leaving to see the rest of the Crimson Empire, along with Hao Ya, who wanted to make sure the news was traveling as quickly as possible.

Ronron had fun being in the sect and was slowly working her way up the sect's ranking even though she was only a new disciple there.

She had tried her hands at Alchemy while in the sect, only to quickly realized that her Wood Qi was very bad for performing alchemy as it empowered Fire Qi in the cauldron, destabilizing most of the energy in it.

Whisker had suggested letting him make the pills instead of her, but Ronron didn't want to cheat, so she was stuck with being unable to make any pills.

As such, she had focused on just the rest of the sect, which focused on combat and cultivation.

The old Alex had been to the Rubyroad city and had returned after meeting and letting Luo Mei and Du Yuhan say their goodbyes to them. 

As such, they were ready to leave.

Wen Cheng and Cai Ping were ready to leave as well. Cai Ping had sold almost everything she owned that she didn't need, including the auction house.

As for Wen Cheng, he had already mostly retired from the sect, so all he had to do was tell the other elders what he was planning to do.

Those elders were more than happy to see Wen Cheng go on to better lands with his disciple.

Unfortunately, Liu Xun did not wish to leave at all. Despite the Southern Continent providing much better opportunities, he was happy in the Crimson Empire.

He had no big dreams of becoming one of the best or needing the power for revenge. He was just a simple man on a simple cultivation journey, and he was happy staying behind with his family and his fiancee who he was planning on marrying soon.

On the side of the Hong Wu sect, no one but his Martial Uncle was ready to leave. Everyone else was still hesitant about leaving their family and going overseas on a whim.

After all, despite being friends with Alex, he was nothing more than a person they spent some time with over 40 years ago.

"Martial Nephew, everyone is already leaving for the capital. Should we not leave as well?" Lang Shun asked Alex. He was worried that he was going to miss the timing to go to the other continent. 

"Don't worry, Martial uncle," Alex said. "We're not in any hurry. I still need to wait for everyone to make their decisions."

"You should ask them to make a decision as soon as they can then. Have you even talked to them after returning?" Lang Shun asked. "As far as I know, you've been holed up in your room for the past 3 days since you came back."

"That's because I'm working on something," Alex said. "I need it to persuade the others after all."

"What are you working on?" Lang Shun asked curiously.

"Hehe, do you want to know?" Alex asked. "Then why don't you help me with it?"

The man could only get more curious. "Alright, I will help. What do you need me to do?" he asked.

"Let's go to the desert."

Alex took Lang Shun and flew to the north. A journey that took him over 2 days on foot when he couldn't use Qi all those years ago, took him no more than 2 hours to arrive now.

After arriving, Alex quickly searched for a good place to start working.

"What are we doing exactly?" Lang Shun asked.

"Well, first of all, we're giving this place its own Qi," Alex said. "You should fly high, Martial Uncle," Alex said as he flew too.

Lang Shun was only wondering what was going to happen when an explosion sent a massive amount of sand flying into the sky. 

Lang Shun had to use his spiritual sense to see through the cloud of sand and saw Alex bringing out a storage bag.

When he was only wondering what was in the storage bag, a massive spirit vein flew out from within it, that very clearly was the same rank as the one he had placed beyond the river back in the sect.

"Saint spirit vein?" Lang Shun asked with a surprised look. "What are you doing with this spirit vein? Don't place it so far north. No one visits here."

"I know," Alex said. "That's exactly why I'm placing it here. Because no one will come here."

He quickly started placing the spirit vein in the hole he had just created. Without anything to worry about when placing the spirit vein, he was able to quickly complete the task in a matter of minutes.

He covered up the sand that was no longer flying in the air, disrupting his vision.

"Are you going to tell me what you are planning?" Lang Shun asked. 

"Martial uncle, don't you know it's much more fun to not know what's going to happen than be aware of it the entire time?" Alex asked.

"I suppose, but that depends on whether what's going to happen is good or not. I don't want to spend the entire time being curious for you to just plant some trees or something in the sand," Lang Shun said.

'Plant some trees on top of the Spirit vein, huh?' Alex thought and thought about the 2 spirit vein he still had with him. He had been planning to give them back, but… maybe he should take them away with him. 

After all, he had helped the continent quite a lot already.

"Don't worry," Alex said. "It will be worth the wait."

Lang Shun watched as Alex brought out a bunch of formation rods and started planting them around a large area. The formations activated a few minutes later.

"What sort of formation is this?" Lang Shun asked.

"Concealing and Barrier formations," Alex said. "No one without the authority should be able to get inside."

After saying that, Alex went inside. 

Lang Shun wanted to go in too, but the formation blocked him. Apparently, he wasn't authorized to go in.

He called for Alex, but Alex simply told him to wait.

So, he waited. He waited for hours.

Night fell and the moon shined its bright silver light onto the bright sand. Still, Alex showed no signs of showing up.

Only when the sun rose did Alex fly out of the formation barrier.

"Phew, that was so much tougher than I thought it would be," he said. "Oh, you're still here. Good. I thought I would have to go back and get you."

"Of course, I'm still here," Lang Shun said. "You told me to wait."

"Still," Alex gave a sheepish smile. "Anyway, take this." He tossed a small metal token to Lang Shun. "It will allow you to walk in through the barrier. Come, see what I've been doing."

Lang Shun nodded and walked in through the barrier.