1505 Snowthorn Valley



2 more months passed during which period Alex improved his painting skills, and his body cultivation by a lot. His other improvements weren't as obvious, but they were there as well.

As he had expected, he was now at the peak of the Saint Core realm, just moments away from entering the Saint Soul realm. However, he didn't wish to enter just yet. He was going to go through the secret realm and then try his breakthrough.

His physical cultivation had reached halfway through the Saint Core realm as it was this and painting what he had focused most of his time on during the last few months.

He had also taken time to try and deal with the pill recipes that he had been wanting. He was getting close to none of them, but it was still good progress.

The Immortal pills especially would take longer from what he could tell. Just the fact that he had yet to properly check an Immortal ingredient caused problems, but he was dealing with it slowly using the knowledge he held in his mind. One's own experience was the best, but the Alchemy God's Knowledge was a close second as well.

The Wood Spiritual Root Improvement Pill was going to be done within a few years at most from what he had seen. By now, he had gone through every ingredient, and all that was left was for him to go through the many variations from the tens of thousands of ingredients in his head. That was what was going to take a lot of time.

Unfortunately, the Dao of Five Elemental Interaction didn't help him here as much as he would have hoped for it to do.

Beyond that, Alex trained Pearl and Whisker in his free time, not only helping them get better but also making sure his skills weren't rusted.

It had been years since he had properly fought anyone, so he made sure to keep himself active.

On the side of Daos, Alex had given up on learning at the moment. He would learn some when the time was right, but due to the fear of what learning many Daos would do to him, he no longer actively sought out Dao.

During this period, Alex also had the first time when the Heavenly Silkworms in his Beast storage had made silk for him to use. He had crafted some wooden housing for the silkworms to lay down their silk, and after taking it out, he had gotten enough tiny threads that could be woven together to make it just enough for a necklace.

It was still thin, no thicker than a few of his hairs together, but that was enough for it to work in disrupting people's spiritual sense on him. While it wasn't thick enough to completely block off People's perception on him like the beasts did, it was just enough for it to make it fluctuate around him.

They couldn't pin down his aura just as well. When used together with the Immortal Concealment technique of his, he became truly invisible to one's senses.

However, that wasn't what Alex wanted. He wanted to make it thick enough that he didn't have to use his concealment technique or his Yang Qi to hide himself. 

Although at the rate the threads were being made, that was going to take a long time for sure. He was also going to have to find a way to get more Mulberry leaves.

He did have a way of course. He was given a seed of the Mulberry tree by the Golden Lion before he had left the Lion Colony in the Beast Paradise. However, as he was right now, he couldn't grow it anywhere.

If he was too late, he was afraid that his leaves were going to run out, and his silkworms were going to die. If worst came to pass, however, he had planned to plant the tree anywhere he could. That was good enough for the worst-case scenario.

Despite all the things he did, he had, of course, still enjoyed his tour of the Gold Kingdom.

He had visited the various cities of the Gold Kingdom. And while, unlike the Emerald Kingdom, there weren't as many unique places, he still loved his time around. Most of the cities were in desolate land or snow-filled ones, but there were a few ones that were fun to go through.

The desolate lands barely had any trees or plants, and the ones in the snow were always right on top of a magma vein that flowed underneath the city.

He had been through enough cities in the Gold Kingdom and now this was going to be his last one. After this, he was going to leave the Gold Kingdom and likely never return here again. At least not in the near future.

He was currently in Snowthorn Valley, the city where the Realm of Trials was going to be held. The city was in a valley, surrounded by large mountains and the secret realm was right in the center of it all. 

It was surrounded by a large wall around a hexagonal building with multiple gates leading inside. Each of the doors led you to a separate secret realm.

Alex looked down from his hotel's living room window at the large building that was known as the Building of Trials. "Just 3 more days," he thought to himself.

"The alchemists are here," Yao Ning quickly told Alex.

"Oh," Alex replied. "That's quick."

"Sister Liang did not take her time. She brought all the alchemists as soon as she could."

A few minutes later, the alchemists had arrived in the hotel room as well. Alex went to meet them all to prepare them for the upcoming event. There were 21 alchemists there in total, including Wu Shun who had joined as well.

As none of them had come here before, they were all incredibly excited about the realm of trials. As a result, they couldn't wait for the day when it opened up.