1563 The Three Mountain Ranges
Not very different from the other continents, the Eastern continent did not have many mountain ranges either.
Not counting the scattered mountains that were as many as islands in the ocean, there were exactly 3 mountain ranges here.
The most important of these mountain ranges was the Golden Mountain range which was home to over 98% of the gold in the entire continent. As such, they were perhaps the most popular of the mountain range of the continent.
The Golden Mountain range went through most of the Gold Kingdom, its edges touching on the Beast Paradise to the east and part of the northern segments of the Ivory Kingdom to the west.
After that was the Ebony mountain range which was said to be full of natural resources, be it in the form of plants or metal ores. These mountains in general were also some of the tallest mountains out there. The most impressive mountain of the entire continent, the Celestial Peak also lies in this exact mountain range.
The Ebony Mountain range started at the border of the Emerald Kingdom and the Ebony Kingdom around the Middle-Eastern section and wrapped around the eastern shores of the Ebony Kingdom.
Finally, the third and longest mountain range of all was the Silver Mountain Range. It started in the westernmost section of the Ebony Kingdom and made its way through the Silver Kingdom, near the border of the Azure Kingdom, and all the way up to the eastern shores of the Ivory Kingdom.
The mountain ranges were named as such for a long time, so the countries they were located in were named as such as well.
Covering the entire North to South length of the Eastern continent, the Silver Mountain range was the longest of all 3 mountain ranges. And yet, it was the one that people least cared about due to its lack of proper natural resources.
Instead, people had built homes on it, building cities on and around the mountains. One such city was the Skylorn City at one of the highest peaks of the Silver mountain range, surrounded by a deep forest on the eastern side and a desert on the west.
This city, along with a handful of others was considered part of the Azure Kingdom due to the desert to the west being not a good place for human
And this city was the one where Alex had been contacted by the Oathbreakers.
He had been passed along a message by a tour guide while out on the ride, and they wanted to meet him down in the forest to the east. Alex couldn't just sneak out, lest he arouse suspicion from the many strong folks that were here as his guard.
He never trusted them to be anything more than his prison guards.
They had returned from the tour, so Alex was supposed to be cultivating overnight. He had told the group as much and so he had to set up himself as someone that was still here, while he left.
Alex closed his eyes and focused. He used a technique to the best of his ability, separating a layer of Yang from him, transforming it into an ethereal version of him that held the same aura and Intent.
He had made a Yang clone using the doppelganger technique that he rarely got to use nowadays. He placed Whisker in charge of handling the aura while he placed it on top of the Immortal puppet that still wore the damage-measuring artifact on its chest.
Once it was all done, Alex took a deep breath and teleported.
He arrived a couple hundred meters away from the guest house that they were staying at. If he had to, Alex could force himself to teleport over a kilometer or two at this point while having his Qi and his Intent increase so much in such little time.
However, that required him to try his best. This one, he was trying to lay low. The moment he arrived in the night city, surrounded by no one, he started walking away as quickly as he could, without giving away who or what he was.
With his face mostly hidden with not just a pulled-down bamboo hat, but also the white Hell mask, he made his way down the city toward the forest.
20 minutes later, he was deep in the thick forest, away from most cultivators who might have wanted to train on the outskirts. He walked unnoticed into the forest and searched for who he was looking for from the start.
To his surprise, they had made no attempt to hide themselves. Alex could see a small group of people, hanging around on the tree, waiting for him. He placed down a small concealment formation that covered not just him but also the men and women that were up on the tree.
A few of them were surprised at the quickly deployed formation, but the others seemed to have guessed it was coming. Or maybe they just weren't surprised.
A man slowly landed on the floor, his face out in the light for anyone who could use to see. "Good evening, Your Majesty,' Yan Yating spoke with a wide smile. "We're happy to have met you again."
"We?" Alex asked, looking around. He noticed the other folks nod toward him in greeting as well, two of whom had been there the last time they had tried to kidnap him. "Well, it's good to see my kidnappers again." He chuckled at his own words before others misunderstood the joke.
"Have you finished what we asked, Your Majesty?" Yan Yating asked.
Alex shrugged. "Have you finished what I asked?" he asked the man.
Yan Yating showed no hesitation in bringing up a talisman and tossing it to Alex. Alex was about to read it when he noticed the runes of the talisman that was given to him and immediately stopped.
Yan Yating spoke a moment afterward. "It is a one-time use talisman as you might've guessed," he said. "You can read through it right now to make sure the talisman has everything you wanted. Or, you can give us the pill and leave with the talisman."
"I will read it right now," he said, but he didn't let his guard down at all. "If you try and do something to me, I will destroy the pills so you can never get them."
"Sure," Yan Yating said. "I wasn't trying to dupe you or anything. We have brought you the information you asked for. Although I should warn you, there wasn't much we could find for you."
Alex looked at the man and then at the others behind him. Not a single one of them seemed to try and do anything.
"Very well, let me see what you got me then," he said and used his senses to look into the talisman. As he started reading the contents of the talisman, a string of information flowed into his mind, starting with the first thing Alex had demanded for his cooperation.
Information on the Azure Dragon.
There wasn't much to go by here, and most of what was written here were repeated information that he had learned already. What he wanted was new information, especially regarding the beast's death, but that seemed impossible to get.
What he did learn was something he hadn't even thought of at all.
The Azure Dragon's corpse had not been destroyed at all. It had remained unmoved in the secret realm where it had died all those years ago, as per the orders of the Emperor.
