586 Damaged

When Alex reappeared outside of the formation, he stumbled a little thanks to the many aching parts all over his body.

'I need to get away from here,' he thought. He needed to leave this area before the saint beasts came looking for him.

He looked around, in the direction that was supposed to lead him back to the Cardinal City, however, that was when he realized the location was different.

"What?" he looked confused for a moment before realizing what had likely happened.

He didn't know what to think after coming to the conclusion that…

"I have come to the Luminance Empire, haven't I?" he thought. He wasn't sure where he was when he had found himself in the middle of the forest with Lady Ren in front of him.

The things that the black goop witnessed weren't in his memories, like how the real Alex's soul had left behind.

'No,' he thought. 'I am the Real Alex.'

He didn't know how to feel regarding that knowledge. Should he be happy that he was the real one? Or should he be angry that the real him had been suppressed for so many months?

He felt both emotions and he quickly tossed those emotions aside. Now was not the time to get emotional.

He slowly stood up, the momentary rest making his pain flare higher than he had been feeling until now.

His muscles, if there were even any, felt sore and hard to walk with. His meridians refused to move his Qi.

Only his spiritual sense was fine.

He stepped away from the platform, not knowing where to go to. This deep into the forest, he was sure there would be many beasts here.

Most of them would likely be in the True Realm. Although, he was sure he would have a hard time fighting a Mind Tempering realm beasts too.

He took out a sword. The sword that had been lodged in the stone. Without the black goop, it looked like a normal sword, albeit it was likely anything less than normal.

He slightly regretted not taking the other sword when he had the chance, but mistakes happened.

Alex then slowly breathed in and out, trying to muster as much of his cultivation base as possible to conceal his aura and go invisible.

Once he was sure he couldn't be seen by anything around him unless they had Spiritual sense, he started walking.

He dragged his body through the forest, not sure where he was supposed to go to, hoping that he could find a city up ahead soon.

* * * * * *

Alex walked for 3 days, but he still couldn't leave the forest. 'Am I walking in the wrong direction?' he thought.

He remembered learning about the disorientation formations set up around the secret realm to stop outsiders from getting close to the source of the secret realm. However, that was only when he tried to get closer to it, not further away.

Then, there could only be one of 2 reasons, if not both. The forest was big… and he was slow.

Alex didn't know how large the southern end of the southern forest, which he now believed would be known as the northern forest, was. This was something he didn't even think of discussing with Fu Tao as the size of the forest didn't really make a difference for a cultivator.

However, now that he had the slow pace of a mortal, it was certainly important.

Alex's body ached a lot, and it was a pain that a pill couldn't take away. At least, it was a pain that his pills couldn't take away.

This was the pain of your entire body being sucked dry to fight against saint beasts and an Immortal beast.

Alex was even surprised he had such powers.

For the last 3 days, he had continuously been running since he was sure the beasts would come after him to take back Pearl. But it had been 3 days. Where were they?

Were they really not coming?

Alex soon felt that he couldn't care about them. He needed to cultivate, one way or other.

'Should I really bring out Pearl?' he thought. He hadn't brought out Pearl despite his condition due to the fact that Pearl couldn't conceal himself.

However, he didn't need concealment now that he was in an area where he rarely saw any True beasts.

Pearl was only at the last realm of Mind Tempering, but he was sure he would be sufficient to protect him.

So, he called out Pearl.

Pearl came out in white light and landed in front of him. "Meow!" it meowed towards Alex with a wide smile, but it immediately disappeared when he saw Alex's current situation.

"MEOW!" it shouted with a worried look.

"I'm… I'm alright for now," he said. "I just need to cultivate, and I will be fine."

"Meow?" Pearl asked.

"Yes, I'm telling the truth," Alex said.

Pearl finally stopped worrying a little. He then looked around and started wondering where he was.

"Meow?" he asked.

"Yes, I came out 3 days ago," Alex said. "Do you… miss them?" He asked.

"Meow," Pearl said in a somber tone. He missed them a bit, but he missed his mother the most.

"Don't worry. We will come back here someday and you can meet your mother," Alex said.

Pearl nodded.

Alex then looked around for a tree that fit what he had in his mind. A tall tree, with dense leaves that had a large enough crown where he could hide while cultivating.

In such a dense forest, it didn't take him even a second to see multiple of such trees.

"Help me get up there," Alex said and walked towards the tree. With the help of what little cultivation base he could produce at the moment and Pearl, he climbed up the tree to the crown and sat cross-legged there.

"I will start cultivating now, so stand around to guard me okay?" Alex said.

"Meow," Pearl accepted.

"Also, don't cultivate if you get bored. I… I don't know how weak my body is at the moment, so I should better not take risks.

"Meow!" Pearl agreed to that as well.

Once Alex was assured he would be fine, he closed his eyes and sent out his spiritual sense to check up on the damage.

His skin, muscle, tendons, veins, blood. Almost everything aside from bone had been dried to the worst condition they could be in.

Alex could barely differentiate where his skin ended and where his muscles increased. His tendons were very weak, and there was barely any pulse on his weak-looking veins.

Not only that, but Alex also noticed a significant loss in blood as well.

He then checks on his meridians. As expected… they were in a bad condition too. They had shrunken up to a third of their original size.

'No wonder I was having such a hard time using Qi,' he thought. He needed to heal them.

He slowly started moving his Qi around according to the Five Yang Divine Path method, which he struggled a lot to do so.

After a revolution or two, Alex finally got into the hang of cultivating and soon lost himself in it.