1878 Fully Refined

Alex returned to the Southern Continent once the teleportation formation began letting people travel across the world once again.

He needed to prepare the continent for both the arrival and departure of many of their figures.

Ronron and the rest had not yet returned, choosing to remain behind for a while longer for young Emily to live her life in peace.

Once coming back, Alex was swarmed with work once again, work which he had been neglecting for quite a while now.

It was nearly 2 weeks before Alex could focus on his own personal tasks such as cultivation and making pills. He also had to go visit the Sundering Sanctum to take away the playground. Any day now, it would be done.

In preparation for the playground being removed, Alex began giving tasks to the formation masters from the Royal guilds to begin coming up with formations that could be used to form another testing ground for the ones that would miss out on the Playground once Alex took it away.

The Playground was mostly in tatters anyway, so it was a good idea to create a new one.

Alex gathered knowledge from the Spirit of the Playground himself to hear what sort of tests there were and what sort of rewards there were to formulate this new trial ground he was preparing.

With all the formation masters working in tandem with Alex looking after their every task, within 3 months, they managed to create everything necessary for the trial ground.

Then, it was time to set it up.

Alex took the formation masters along with many other cultivators to the secret realm. Once inside, Alex let them stay out of the playground while he began refining it one last time.

This was what he had been waiting for. This was what everything he had been doing had led to.

Alex took a deep breath and immediately poured all of his Immortal Qi into the large spire.

The ground shuddered immediately, causing many of the onlookers to step back in fear. Alex felt the pulsating energy rebounding from the playground back into him, a constant vibration that told him it was working.

Then, the entire spire starts glowing with a faint blue aura about it, causing everyone to look at it in awe.

Alex looked at the playground and smiled before stepping back. A deep resonating sound rang out from the large building, like a gong just seconds before it stopped ringing.

Then the light faded and the sound disappeared. The ground stopped shuddering.

Alex moved back toward the Playground and reached out with his hand. The ground shuddered again. Only this time, people could see why that was.

The massive behemoth of a playground, the spire that broke past the spatial pocket itself to reveal its body to the outside world, the sundering sanctum that became the source for the title of the city it was in —The First Shadow— began shrinking.

Rocks crumbled around the playground, dropping out from where the Void and spatial fractures had destroyed its outer body. The rest of it continued shrinking.

It shrank and shrank until it was no more than the size of just a single-storied building, a size nearly a hundred times smaller than its original size.

The air of awe and mystique was clear among the many formation masters and workers that had come to work on the trial ground.

Alex touched the nearly shrunken playground and heard the spirit's words in his head. "You've finally done it, master. Congratulations."

"Thank you, spirit," Alex said with a proud smile.

The playground flashed and it disappeared into Alex's Soul Space.

Alex turned around to face the dozens of stunned cultivators.

"Well, don't just stand there. Go do your job."

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

Alex remained in the secret realm for another day, looking over those people's work before returning to the palace where he spent some time talking with the Playground spirit to try and learn what he could from it.

"I know a few things, but nothing I can say exactly I fear," the Playground spirit spoke to Alex.

"Did you know you were made by the Sage of Ten Thousand Treasures?" Alex asked. "Or Godkiller, as he might be better known."

"I did not know that," the spirit said. "I was aware that whoever created me had to be someone incredible because my first master mentioned something about how lucky he was to have me made."

"Your first master, do you have any information on him?" Alex asked.

"I do know a bit, even though I as a spirit hadn't formed back then. He was the family head of a minor family in the Divine Thunderforge Realm. He wasn't anyone important and from what I can recall, he died after failing to overcome his Immortal Tribulation."

"After that, I was passed from one person to another, before the final person who got me came to this realm and set me up in the secret realm."

Alex found the name of the realm a little interesting.

"Divine Thunderforge Realm, was it? What other realm have you been to?"

"Not counting this one? 3 in total. Divine Thunderforge realm, Sprint Water World, and Divine Sanctuary."

Alex continued chatting with Playground for a while longer before moving on with his day.

The next few months were all spent away between him trying to cultivate and watching over the creation of the new trial ground.

Nearly 8 months after the inception of the idea, the new secret realm was finally ready. And so, Alex announced the news that within the next 6 months, the secret realm would open and accept people for the first time.

And it wouldn't just be open to humans, but beasts as well. Pearl and Whisker were both ready to take part in it.

The 6-month period was given so people could prepare themselves. Not only that, it was given so people who had left the continent could return in time.

So, when the 6 months passed, the secret realm opened.

On the opening day, nearly 20 thousand people gathered at the large ground where the Sundering Sanctum used to stand, casting its giant shadow throughout the land.

Its absence was noticed, but not despised.

Alex gave a small speech before opening the secret realm and letting everyone in.

This secret realm was certainly more tedious than just the Playground. Because every test needed an examiner, there had to be nearly a few hundred different individuals who made an oath to be impartial in their judgment before testing the participants.

The entire secret realm worked exactly like the Playground did, with people going up and down each time, failing only when they couldn't pass the same level 3 times in a row.

The entire trial ran for 4 months in total, in which Pearl and Whisker failed on levels 33 and 37 respectively.

Pearl couldn't go past the level that asked him to craft something, and Whisker couldn't go past the level that asked him to fight something.

The winner of the trial was a young woman who was the daughter of a player. She gained the reward that was prepared for the winner, and everyone was sent out afterward.

Then, the secret realm was closed off for another 10 years before it would be opened once again.

VACATION NOTICE!!!