491 The Palace
The land below them was a massive forest, denser than anything Alex had ever seen before. The trees have mostly turned red as if autumn had arrived.
Alex looked around and he could only see trees as far as he could see. The southern forest was truly endless.
"How long does this forest go on for?" Alex asked.
"This forest takes over nearly a third of the entire continent," the jaguar replied.
"And there are strong beasts in the forest all over here?" Alex asked.
"Of course," the jaguar said. Lady Ren flew down onto the ground and so did the other two. Alex couldn't help but be confused exactly where he was being taken to.
'They said we were returning to the previous king's palace, right?' Alex wondered. 'But I don't see any sort of buildings. Do they just live in the forest, out in the open?'
He didn't think that was possible, but who really knew about the beasts.
When they finally landed, Alex still couldn't see any buildings, but there was something here that wouldn't normally exist in a forest.
In the middle of the forest was a 10 meter wide, circular stone platform that didn't match the scenery at all. It was fully white and Alex could make out some designs in it, but not all of it.
Even when he was starting to, he had another problem he had to take care of. Because of where he was and how untouched this location was from humanity, the alchemy ingredients that grew here were of very high rank, with most being True rank ingredients and some even being Saint rank.
His senses kept on telling him to pick them up, but he wasn't in a situation to do so.
"What is that stone platform?" he asked, trying to suppress the urge to go out and grab every single flower and leaves that were in the vicinity.
He saw the three beasts walk upon and did the same. "Is this—"
Alex was about to ask something when suddenly light started shining from underneath him. All 4 of them were now basking in the artificial-looking blue light that was coming from underneath them.
Just then, Alex felt something coming upon him from the stone platform that started to mess with his body. His vision blurred as a bright white light suddenly engulfed them all.
When the light went away, Alex realized that he was still standing on the stone platform, except it wasn't the same one. He looked around and saw that the area had changed as well.
He was now inside what looked like a cave. There were buckets next to the stone platform on the right, with 2 feline beasts waiting in guard on the opposite side.
The cave itself seemed to mostly be made up of a gigantic white marble that was carved to make a cave, and there were crystal stalactites hanging from above him that seemed to glow on their own and gave light to the entire cave.
The only place the stalactites weren't available was right above the stone platform. He nervously looked back and realized that a massive wall was right behind him.
"Did we… just teleport?" Alex asked.
The two beasts looked at him with a weird expression, while Lady Ren seemed a little worried. "Was that your first experience with teleportation?" she asked.
"Yes," Alex said. "I do have a similar skill, but I've never really teleported with a formation."
"Well, are you alright?" Lady Ren asked.
"Am I alright?" Alex asked back. "I think so. Is something wrong?"
"Well if you are okay, then it's fine. Most beasts and humans that have come through previously tend to have an urge to vomit the first few times. If you feel like it, we have buckets over there for you," Lady Ren said.
"No need, I'm fine," Alex said.
"Very well, come. We are here," she said and walked on. The two feline beasts bowed their head at the presence of Lady Ren and the two beasts.
The jaguar and puma were well respected, but Lady Ren's respect was on a level that would put the emperor to shame.
'And she said she was just a concubine, right?' he thought. Alex walked behind Lady Ren, and the two beasts walked behind him to keep watch.
Alex looked through the cave in amazement as it was something he had never seen before. "I don't know much about and rocks and stuff, but are there rocks that glow like that? It almost looks like its a crystal or something," he asked.
"That's… not an ordinary piece of rock," Lady Ren said.
"Oh, then what is it?" he asked.
"That's a spirit vein," Lady Ren said. "A low grade one, but it helps keep the place running and also helps mask our aura in here so that we don't get found."
Alex stopped for a second and asked, "found by who? People from another continent?"
"Found by… you're too young to understand. Just get stronger and you will find the answer on your own," Lady Ren said.
"Okay," Alex said. He didn't like that she never fully answered anything, but he wasn't in a situation to demand anything so he kept quiet for a bit.
He still looked at the glowing, mystical-looking ceiling. "Do all spirit veins glow like this? I wonder if the one beneath our sect glows the same way," he said, talking to himself. "I never thought I would see spirit veins out in the open. I remembered hearing that this was what made spirit stones after it remained unused for quite a while."
"Not necessarily," the jaguar said. "Spirit veins do turn to spirit stones if unused, but there are times when the Qi in the area is so strong that instead of turning to a spirit stone cave, they instead get upgraded to a higher grade of spirit vein."
"For example, this one used to be a True grade spirit vein a couple of hundred years ago, but we brought another True grade spirit vein from someplace else, and stashed it above here. This one slowly stole away the energy from the other vein and was upgraded to a Saint grade spirit vein," the jaguar said.
"Huh?" Alex stopped in shock. "This is Saint Grade spirit vein? But I thought Lady Ren said it was a low grade one."
"Oh," Lady Ren said when she realized her mistake. "I'm sorry. I forgot that you haven't seen higher grade Spirit vein. Hopefully, you will see them someday."
"Some of them are a sight to behold. Especially the metal one in th— never mind," Lady Ren stopped speaking and got a little sad. She sighed and moved forward.
Alex didn't ask any more questions and the group walked in silence. There were a few guards along the way that bowed their heads towards them and from what Alex could see not a single one even saw him.
'They don't dare to put their head up, huh?' he thought.
Soon, they came upon a massive golden door. The door was an arched door that was nearly 10 meters tall and 6 meters wide.
Lady Ren stopped and waited for the guards to push the door open. In the meantime, Alex noticed a sort of drawing on the wall.
From what Alex could see, it looked like a face that stared deep into his soul. The face looked like a feline beast, but before Alex could even notice what it really was, a crack appeared in the middle of the face and the door opened to show the inside of it.
The door lead to a massive hall with many seats carved directly from the marble that made the cave. So, everything in the cave was white.
There were about 20 seats on each side, and each seat was at least 4 meters in length and height. At the end of the hall was an elevated pedestal with a massive seat and two smaller seats next to them.
The two smaller seats were of the same size as any of the other seats, but one of them had a blue cloth on them with golden embroidery on iy, and the other one had a red cloth on it with golden embroidery as well.
The seat at the center, however, didn't seem to be carved from stone at all. In fact, it seemed to be fully made up of gold from top to bottom with a white cloth hanging from either side of it that too had golden embroidery on it.
The carpets on the ground were yellow in color, almost as if they were meant to be golden. There was some white in the carpets but mostly it was just golden.
There were chandeliers hanging from the glowing stalactites that were all golden as well.
It was as if the maker of this place didn't want any other color to be used aside from white or golden.
There also seemed to be murals along the walls, but Alex couldn't really see them from outside.
Lady Ren walked into the room and stared directly at the golden seat at the center. "Can you bring out the child?" she asked.
"Uh, yes," Alex said and quickly called out Pearl.
"Meow!" Pearl said when he was out. He looked around at the bright lights and showed a stunned expression.
"This shall be your new home from now on child," Lady Ren said to Pearl. She then looked at Alex as well and spoke.
"Welcome to the Palace of the White Tiger."
