495 Time, Preparation, and Languages
He looked at the screen once more so that he was sure he didn't misread what he saw.
"No… that can't be right," he said to himself and went into the settings to fix what seem to have been broken. However, no matter how much he searched, he couldn't find anything that was wrong with his phone.
He closed the phone and checked his laptop instead, but then his laptop said the same thing.
Now he was starting to get really confused. "No, what about online?" he wondered and checked. He found the same answer online as well.
"What the hell is going on?" He couldn't help but scratch his head in confusion. All the emotions he had about earning a lot of money seemed to have vanished and left him with just confusion.
"No way it's the same in the game right?" he wondered and went back into the capsule. He logged into the game and opened his eyes in the room he was staying in.
Finally, he looked up and to the right of his vision to check the time. Just as he had hopelessly expected, the time said 4 AM as well.
"How the hell is it 4 AM already?" he couldn't help but ask himself. "It was barely a few hours ago when I was taken away during twilight. There is no way it has been 8 hours already."
"No, it wasn't even midnight when we entered the palace, I remember," he thought. "Then why is the time already 4 AM?"
He wondered if he had lost some memory from the past few hours, but that wasn't possible. He then wondered if took hours on end to go from the game to logging out of it. That was possible but still unlikely.
The possibility of that happening just on the day so many things happened didn't feel correct to him. "Maybe it has to do with this place then?" he wondered. "I wonder if time is moving fast here."
He decided to wait and see. However, the time on his vision didn't seem to move at any different speed than normal. "Alright, I give up. I will just ask Lady Ren tomorrow," he thought.
He wanted to cultivate for the remaining 2 or so hours before sunrise, but he wasn't sure if he could wake up after falling asleep during cultivation. If the beasts took that as an offense, that would be bad for him.
So, he decided to do something else in the meanwhile.
"Oh right, the money," he thought and quickly took out the storage bag he had with him to check.
He counted the spirit stones he had and counted about 4500 True spirit stones in there. "The emperor really cares for his family, huh? I will have to make sure he doesn't ever find out that his brother died while fighting me," Alex thought.
He transferred as much money as he assumed wasn't needed for him here. Which turned out to be a little over 4 Million dollars. With that, he wouldn't have to worry about money, ever.
Once he was done, he just lied there on the bed with Pearl next to him. Pearl didn't seem to want to sleep either, so they just waited for the time to pass.
Alex checked his time once again and it was indeed working normally this time. "I hope I'm not going mad from all of this gaming," he thought.
Soon, it was 6 AM and the sun would rise anytime now. However, since he was inside a room underground, he likely wouldn't see the sun for a while now.
"They said they were going to keep me here for a decade? I wonder why that is for. Since Pearl will have to go through the ritual soon, do they intend to keep me until the ritual is all over?" Alex wondered.
"Sigh, they were pretty clear about their intentions with Pearl, but they never let me know about what they wanted to do with me at all. Depending on whether they treat me as a guest or as a prisoner, I might have to leave this place just a little bit sooner," Alex thought.
He started wondering how he could possibly even do that, considering he was underground and the only way out seemed to be through the teleportation formation.
"Hmm.. What about the open hole in the middle? Although I didn't see any stars or moon last night. So… maybe it's quite different," Alex thought.
He would have to learn more about this place before he decided to do anything stupid.
Someone knocked on his door and said, "come out Boy."
Alex opened the door and saw the puma standing in the hallway. "Senior, what are you doing here?" he asked.
"You don't expect to sleep all the time, do you?" he asked.
'I didn't have time to sleep even if I wanted to,' Alex internally grumbled.
"Let's go, Lady Ren wishes for me to see if the child is ready for the ritual. It's really the jaguar's job, but he's a little busy right now," the puma said.
"Oh, okay," Alex said and walked outside, along with the puma. They walked through the pathway and arrived in a room.
The doors were closed, so he couldn't see anything inside, and didn't dare use his spiritual sense in the presence of genuine saint realm cultivators.
"Yao Jia," the puma shouted.
Alex heard a roar from someplace close and suddenly, a black jaguar appeared in front of him. Except, this one wasn't the jaguar he had seen before.
The hairs on this jaguar looked slicker and the body was way smaller and lean in general.
"Look after this human while I test the child," the puma said.
ROAR
"Speak in the human tongue," the puma said. "You will be taking care of a human after all."
"Oh, right," the jaguar named Yao Jia said. "What's your name human?" Yao Jia asked.
"Uh… it's Yu Ming," Alex said.
"Yu Ming huh? Is that a good name for a human? I heard you came here yesterday. Is it true that you—"
"Yao Jia!" the puma said sternly.
"Ah, sorry. I spoke out of place," she said. "Come on, let's go. I will show you the entire place."
"Huh? Wait I won't get to stay with Pearl?" Alex asked.
"No, only the candidate gets to enter, no one else," the puma said. "Just go away. I will call you when we are done."
The puma entered the room and closed the door behind him, leaving Alex without even a chance to respond. "What the hell? I feel like I have no say in any of this," Alex said.
"Hehe, no you don't. If you want to be heard around here, you either need to be strong or know someone who is strong. Come, let me show you around," Yao Jia said.
Alex wanted to say something, but he stopped. She was right. He was in the world of beasts right now and would have to work by their laws if he wanted anything for himself.
He sighed at his weakness and promised himself that he would grow strong very soon.
The jaguar named Yao Jia took him around the palace, telling him what was what. She took him to the King's hall, then to a training room, and then to the dining hall.
"What about the library? I heard there was one," Alex said.
"Yeah, that's where lady Ren and father are right now. They are probably looking for something there, so we cannot disturb them. Besides, I don't think you're allowed there. There is information in that room that your small brain cannot comprehend yet. Even I am not allowed in there," Yao Jia said.
"Tsk, and here I was looking forward to it," Alex said. "By the way, I can understand how saint beasts can talk, but how can you?"
"Why would I not be able to talk? It's just a language that one has to learn. I now just need to learn how to speak the other one," Yao Jia said.
"The other one? The mortal ones and the cultivator ones speak the same language you know?" Alex asked.
"Haha, no silly. Mortal language changes too quickly. There is no point in learning them. I'm talking about the two different cultivator languages. Have you not read any books or what?" Yao Jia asked.
Alex's eyes went wide as a thought entered his mind. "You mean the language of normal cultivators and the so-called immortals?" Alex asked.
"Uhh… no?" Yao Jia said, unsure of her own answer, as she cocked her head in slight confusion as to what Alex was asking. "Everyone speaks in one of the two languages, be it normal beasts or immortal ones," she said. "It's just different based on the place."
"So that writing that is on the gravestones, that's one of it, right?" Alex asked.
"Yes," Yao Jia said.
Alex then took out some random books from his storage bags and showed them to her. "And this one is the other one?" he asked.
"Yes! Yes! So you do know," she said. "Why did you act so stupid?"
"I was just unsure," Alex said. "So, it's possible that the other continents speak in another language?"
Even as Alex asked that he knew the answer was no. If the language was different, the information would be up on the internet by now.
"You don't have to answer that," he said.
"You sure? okay then," Yao Jia said. "Come, let me show you the garden."
