1653 Before Departing
"Rest for tonight, Your Majesty," the Crown Prince said. "I'll have Luoyang let her father know that we're coming tomorrow. Family head Zhan would most certainly want to meet you."
Alex was alone after the Crown Prince left him. There were still a few hours remaining before sunset, but he decided to not bother with anything else for the night. He focused on his cultivation.
The Yin bead in his dantian had stopped working as well for the first 2 weeks after his descent from the Celestial Peak, but after 2 months it was back to doing what it did before.
Yin still formed in his body, but he wanted that. That was part of what helped his cultivation scale up so fast. In fact, with his Dao of Yang, he could now force the Yang in his body to slow down the formation of Yin or control it so that Yin formed at a faster pace.
By making the balance between the two work in his body, he could now cultivate even faster. Although controlling Yang and Yin did use up a lot of Intent, leaving him slightly dizzy if he did that throughout the day.
It was a small strain, but throughout the day it added up.
About 5 days of regular Yin buildup had happened in just half a day thanks to the Dao and Alex worked hard overnight to overcome the Yin. The speed of his cultivation couldn't be directly compared to the days he saved, but the speed was proportional and thus his cultivation speed was slightly faster.
The Yang source in his body had stumped him quite a bit after the first few days of descent. He was very much sure that after what he had experienced in the Celestial Peak, it would become better, stronger.
It even had for a day or two, until it released all the energy and returned to becoming what it was before.
Alex had felt what it released aiding him in some ways, but it had not been enough for anything. Sometimes he wondered if it could even be made better somehow.
The Yin bead was an object in his body, but the Yang source was just… a collection of Yang. It was no object at all, so that made it all the more curious for him. He started wondering more about it.
After thinking about it for a while, he had some questions to ask the next time he met Ronron's master.
The night passed rather quickly and the day came not long after. Alex left his room and went to meet his elders. Yao Ning and Liang Shufen were already up and together, sipping on some tea while discussing with each other.
"Maybe one won't hurt?" Liang Shufen asked.
"No, they would be worried," Yao Ning replied. "We can't send messages either."
"That's true," Liang Shufen said. "But he would probably want to—"
Her words cut off when she saw Alex walking toward them. "Your Majesty," said and quickly bowed.
Alex arrived where the two were seated and sat down himself. "What are you two talking about?" he asked.
"We were debating on whether or not to let you stay here for a year or two more should you wish to," Yao Ning said.
Alex was taken aback. "Now why would I do that?" he asked amusingly.
"So that you can enter the secret realm of this land," Yao Ning said. "You want to, don't you?"
"I…" Alex thought for a bit. He did want to go to the secret realm. But…
"No," he decided. "From what I have come to learn about it, it has nothing of importance to me there. I have no reason to search for treasures and even less to compare my strength against others when it's all made the same anyway. Besides, we won't have the time."
The two elders looked at him with a rather surprised expression. "Well, that does settle it," Liang Shufen sad and shrugged toward Yao Ning.
Yao Ning sighed and turned toward Alex. "You're not going to decide that you want to go there at the last minute, are you?" she asked.
"No," Alex said with a bit of a chuckle in his voice. "If I want to, I will go there in the future. Once I'm strong enough, I will have time to visit all the locations in the entire world before I leave for the Immortal realms."
The two elders gave a surprised look again. This time, however, it had nothing to do with Alex, but his mention of the Immortal realms.
"I'm reaching close to breaking through to the Saint Transformation 8th realm," Yao Ning said. "Once I break through, it will be one more realm, and then I'll be on my way to the Immortal realm too."
"For me, it's 4 more realms," Liang Shufen said. She had reached Saint Transformation's 6th realm by now. Unlike Yao Ning, she wasn't physically old and looked rather pretty too.
Yao Ning sighed. "I had given up on trying to become an Immortal a long time ago when I realized that despite my talents, I would have died of old age before I became reached the Peak of the Saint realm. I had lost all hope."
"But thanks to your arrival, I can now once again hope for that," she said. "You have my most sincere thanks for that, Your Majesty," Yao Ning said, bowing deeper than ever.
"You have my thanks as well, Your Majesty," Liang Shufen said as she bowed as well.
Alex felt somewhat taken aback by the reaction the two of them showed. He was only explaining why he didn't need to go to a secret realm. He didn't mean for them to do this.
"You are both welcome," Alex said, and the two straightened back up.
A servant brought Alex some of the tea the two women were drinking and he enjoyed it too while waiting for the Crown Prince to arrive.
The Ebony King arrived before the Crown Prince and explained how he needed to leave.
"I must have made you spend a rather long time with me," Alex told the King. "I apologize for having to make you put me over your duties."
"It is of no matter, Your Majesty. I enjoyed our travels," the Ebony King said. "But now I must speed up my visits again and return to the Capital as soon as I can. With people coming in preparation for the secret realm, I cannot spend too long outside the capital."
"I wish you good luck on your travels, King Wan," Alex said. "I'll see you again in a few months."
The King nodded goodbye and left the room.
An hour later, the Crown Prince arrived in the courtyard along with his fiancee.
"Your Majesty," Zhan Luogang gave a meek little smile and bowed in greeting. "I'm happy to see that you decided to come."
Alex stood up and gave a small bow. "I couldn't not come after you invited me so sincerely," he said. "But why are you in the city? I thought we would be meeting you in the manor."
"She had some talismans to get from the guild in the city," the Crown Prince answered in her stead. "Now then, should we depart?"
