1748 The Choice

"See… my mother?" Pearl asked. "What do you mean?"

Alex explained the situation around what happened when he ate a beast core. He had been surprised to find nothing of the sort happened when a beast ate a core, and it was only him.

Even Bai Jingshen had been surprised to learn that the core could return the spirit of the beast that had long since died if Alex ate it.

"What do you say?" Bai Jingshen asked Pearl. "If he does eat it, you can meet your mother. However, at the same time, the only thing that remains of your mother will be gone as well as he will absorb the core."

"I cannot leave my Spiritual sea without the beast inside dying," Alex said. "So if we do this, it can only be done once."

"Will… will she recognize me?" Pearl asked.

"Of course," Alex said confidently. "Pearl, it's your mother. Have some faith in her."

Pearl nodded and thought for a bit.

"Child, you don't have to be pressured to do it," the Lynx answered. "You can say no if you feel you're not ready."

"Pearl, we can wait if you need time," Ren Xiao spoke as well.

"No," Pearl said quickly. "I already thought of my mother as long dead. If I get the chance to meet her once again, I'll do it. But… wouldn't it be better to do it once we're back from the war? We can tell her that we got revenge for her."

"Pearl, do you really think your mother will care if you did something like that or not?" Bai Jingshen asked. "If you want to meet with her, meet with her now. There is no reason to wait."

Pearl gave the words some more thought and nodded. "I'll meet with her right away."

"Let us go to some other place then, someplace where we can be sure we won't be bothered."

Alex took the group of 9 beasts into the dome and started preparing for their arrival into their spiritual sea.

He hid Godslayer as well as he could behind the massive mountain and told the group to not move around at all and to stay in one place.

As 8 of the 9 beasts that were going to enter his mind were Immortals, he couldn't take the least bit of chance on them using their Spiritual energy inside his mind.

Alex sat down to get ready and brought out the Beast Core that belonged to Pearl's mother. He smiled as he remembered the first time he had brought out this core.

Pearl had followed the scent out and had started nibbling on the core that was a little too big for him back then.

Pearl seemed to smell it there too and gave a surprised look. While he didn't remember, it seemed his subconscious did.

He got closer to the beast's core and looked at it with wide eyes.

"This is my mother's core?" he asked. He remembered seeing it a long time ago, but it had been so long since he had last seen it.

To be fair, it had been a long time since Alex had seen it as well.

It had remained in Alex's storage bag for the longest time until Alex had fought the madman back in the Northern Continent.

At that time, his storage bag had been ripped away from him and the contents had been scattered around.

Some had dropped where they had fought, some had been destroyed by the violent Qi that surrounded the Central Continent, and finally, the remaining ones had disappeared into his Soul Space.

The core had ended up in his soul space as well.

It was only when Alex had gained access to the Soul Space that he found this beast's core floating in the vastness inside of him.

He had kept it safe since then, and today he was going to be putting it to use.

Alex had initially thought of making a blood beast out of the core but thought it would be horrible for Pearl to see a version of his mother who had intelligence and no memory of who he was or why he was important to her.

Instead, even if it was just once, he decided to let him meet the real her, so the memory of his mother would forever live with him.

"Are you all ready?" Alex asked.

The Immortal Beasts nodded, followed by Pearl just a little later. Pearl had been the most nervous about what was going to happen next, so he appeared quite hesitant.

"Then, please enter," Alex said and opened his spiritual sea for everyone.

All 9 of the beasts sat down and closed their eyes. One by one, their Spiritual sense touched onto Alex's spiritual sea and they entered inside.

Pearl came in last.

Alex felt the heaviness in his mind as if extra weight had been put on his head for no reason. Even when each one of these Immortals was trying their best to not put a burden on Alex, their presence itself was quite the burden for him.

Still, it was no different from just something being a little too heavy. There was no pain attached to the discomfort.

Once they were all inside, Alex looked at the core of the White Cat and gave a respectful bow toward it before eating it.

He swallowed the core, and instantly, his presence was ripped away from his body and dragged into his Spiritual sea where all 9 of the beasts were gathered in their beast form.

Bai Jingshen stood at the front, admiring Alex's Spiritual sea. Behind him, his 7 wives were doing the same as well.

Bai Jingshen's eyes were already fixed on the silver mountain that hung safely in the sky, a thing he knew as to exactly what it was.

"Your body is very special," he said, noticing Alex's arrival. "I can't imagine how you absorbed the Space Stone. I can't imagine how you even began to sense the aura."

"It's not even half the size it used to be," Alex said regarding the mountain while desperately wishing that Bai Jingshen didn't prod about it much more. He didn't want Godslayer's presence to be known.

Pearl stood alone on the left, looking at the front where he knew his mother would appear.

Slowly, a white mist coalesced in the distance, drawing everyone's attention toward it.

"Is it really happening?" the female tiger asked.

"It really is," the snow leopard said. "If I knew such a thing was possible, I wouldn't have eaten my mother's core after she passed away."

The form of the mist grew more and more solid and in the end, it took the form of a giant White Cat, that looked not much different from Ren Xiao or Pearl.

The women gasped in surprise.

"She looks so much like Meirong," Ren Xiao said as she started tearing up.

The White Cat looked around, surprised, and then her eyes fell on the gathered group.

She looked at them all and looked rather confused. Her eyes then fell on the only human in the group, but she didn't recognize him at all.

Finally, she looked at the young White Cat and felt some familiarity. When she looked closer, she couldn't believe her eyes at all.

"S-Shouchuang? Is that you?"