1618 Punishment

3 of the five thought they could get out of being challenged by quickly getting done with their own battles, but to their surprise, Pearl challenged each one of them after the other battles were done.

They tried escaping from the place, but with beasts all around, they couldn't even find an escape route. With the formations blocking all but the people from coming in, there was nothing that the people could do that could save them.

Even their spiritual sense was being blocked from going out.

The silent girl and the final young man did their best to fight against Whisker and the beasts, but there was nothing they could do that could win the fight. Even the use of a Fire Dao did nothing to stop the beasts from beating them.

By the end of it, they were all scared and huddled up together to find a path to escape, but with nearly a hundred beasts surrounding them, that was nearly impossible.

"Let us leave!" one of them shouted at Whisker.

Whisker said nothing and remained behind the blood snake.

"Vow to not tell anyone what you saw or heard today," Pearl said. "Not even talk about it amongst yourselves."

"What? What do you mean?" one of the girls asked.

"You wanted to leave right? Then vow," Pearl said. "Otherwise you will remain here until my brother is done sending every single one of you out of this secret realm."

They all felt concerned. They were so close to the end of the secret realm, that they couldn't stop now. They needed all the points they could get to get into the competition that was going to take place soon.

Reluctantly, they made the oath. Pearl waited until he felt the oath fulfilled and nodded. He couldn't see any loopholes in the oath he made, so he saw no problem anymore.

The 5 of them felt the oath take hold of them as well and felt bad about it. A few of them looked at the beasts that still surrounded them and couldn't help but be surprised that they all belonged to Alex. 

It was no different from walking around with an army. If only they knew that Whisker had only brought out as many as he did because there wasn't much place to bring out more.

"Put them away," the silent girl spoke while everyone else was gazing around. "Let us go."

"Not yet," Pearl said.

The five of them frowned. "We already made the oath. Do you not trust us?" the leader asked.

"About the oath? I do," Pearl said. "But you will still have to wait."

"You said that you would let us go if we made the oath," the girl with blue ribbons said. "You said we could leave."

"I did," Pearl said. "But not when."

Everyone felt their face drain. "You bastard!" one of them said in a low voice. Pearl couldn't even tell which one of the 5 it was that spoke.

"You should have made sure I could be trusted before you trusted me," Pearl said. He was feeling quite good about everything, especially when he saw the 5 of them grimace at his words. 

He didn't think any of the 5 deserved any sort of freedom after what they had done. If it was a regular clash, Pearl would have had no animosity with any of them. However, they had decided to attack his brother while he was in the middle of a breakthrough.

That was a sort of thing that if it was up to him, he would cripple or even kill them for it. But he didn't want to be making those decisions now.

"You'll wait until my brother is done with his breakthrough," Pearl said. "Then he will give out the punishment you deserve."

The five of them could only hold a sullen look as the blood beast surrounded them with no path of escape.

"Just hold on," the leader said in a soft voice. "Don't do anything rash."

Everyone nodded and waited. No one wanted to do something that could get them killed. 

They didn't have to wait for long. Alex's breakthrough went smoothly and he was done with it by the time morning came around. He had even taken the time to stabilize his cultivation base before opening them to look at what was happening around him.

He smiled.

"Good job, Whisker. You too, Pearl," he said as he stood up from where he sat and pulled Midnight from the ground before walking up front.

All five of the players quickly got up in a panic, watching Alex walk toward them.

Alex rubbed Pearl before taking Whisker to his shoulder and walked to the front. The Blood God's Manual floated to his hand as well and he held it open, bringing all but a select few beasts back into the book. Just enough remained outside that the people could still not leave.

"You came to ruin my cultivation base and I find it hard to forgive someone for that. I saved someone from the same happening to them a few months ago, and to think it would happen to me too," Alex said. "I was hoping no one would come, but you did, and now you deserve punishment for it. What should I do to you?"

"Your Majesty, we're sorry," the girl with the blue ribbons said. "We were wrong>"

"We're sorry."

"Please forgive us."

"Please have mercy on us."

The other 4 practically fell to his feet the moment he gave them a chance to speak. 

Alex looked at them, a disgusted look on his face. He shook his head for a second and spoke. "The mercy you'll see from me is that you won't be crippled. My forgiveness for the fact that you aren't dead. But you will be punished and you will serve it."

"Whatever you say, Your Majesty," the leader said quickly.

Alex thought for a bit. "You will give me 50 wins for my first battle over the course of the next 50 days, each day," he said. "You will make an oath of it."