710 Take It Back

Alex stayed stunned for a moment. He looked around, trying to think of what to do. The panic he was feeling didn't help much in thinking either.

'Should I run? Should I hide? Or should I stay?' Alex thought.

He was perhaps in the best location he could be in if he didn't want people to get hurt in the process.

It wasn't just the saint beasts that were going to be a problem, but the other beasts that would come attack too.

Especially in the direction where he was in.

'I can't go back to mother. I will only implicate her in all of this,' Alex thought.

Finally, he decided to stay. Neither running, nor hiding would ever get him out of trouble if a Saint beast was dead set on finding you.

He could've escaped if the beast didn't know his face, but they clearly knew who to look for this time around.

'No running,' he thought to himself and put on a resolute face to wait for whoever came to him.

Was it going to be the jaguar? Or the puma? Or was Lady Ren really going to come out herself and put herself in danger?

Alex stood on the empty meadow and waited.

5 minutes passed. Then 10. Then 30. Soon, an hour passed.

Then 2 hours passed, and then 3 hours.

Alex simply stood where he was and waited for the beacon to lead someone toward him. However, even as 4 hours came to pass, no one came.

Finally, the beacon ended and the feeling disappeared. Alex could feel the panic in the air disappear as the beasts went from being restless to tame in a matter of seconds.

Alex on the other hand was only confused. 'Why did they not come?' he thought to himself.

He waited an hour longer just in case, but no one came for him.

'Did they not realize that I've come to the Luminance Empire and went back to check the Crimson Empire?' Alex thought. 'No, they should get a strong feeling from this side.'

Another thought came to Alex all of a sudden that was more horrifying than he would care to admit.

'Is Pearl's potential as the White Tiger's descendant destroyed?' he thought. 'Did I destroy his chance at becoming strong already? Is that why they didn't bother coming here?'

Alex's breathing got harder and harder until he had to force himself to calm down.

'No, it's not your fault. Those beasts probably made a mistake,' Alex told himself.

With a thought, he let Pearl come out, who immediately looked around to see if he was safe.

"They're gone?" Pearl asked.

"They never came," Alex said. Then he gave Pearl a curious look. "Do you not want to go back at all?"

Pearl shook his head.

"Why? Your grandmother is there, you know?" Alex said.

"But they will send you away," Pearl said. "I don't want to be away from you, brother."

Alex smiled, his troubling feelings disappearing like snow on a hot day. He got down to his knees and rubbed Pearl's tiny head.

"Come, let's go back. Mother is waiting for us," he said and the two of them went back to DawnSpring city.

* * * * * * *

Alex didn't tell his mom anything about what had happened out there. He didn't want her to worry about him more than she was already.

Besides, this was a consequence of his choice, so it was his burden to bear.

Alex went to the guild to find news of the amount of destruction the beasts had caused this time. Along the way, he couldn't help but hope his master, senior sister, and others were fine amidst all of this.

Even though seven years had already passed since the last beast horde attack, he wished they were prepared for it.

Once Alex reached the Formation guild, he asked for information about the beast horde attack to the north.

However, the receptionist told him no such thing took place at all.

"Are you sure?" Alex asked. "No such thing took place?"

"No, sir," the man said.

Alex looked confused. 'Did the beasts not attack? But they clearly were restless in the mountains.'

"Is there no big piece of news out there then?" Alex asked.

"Well, the only big news right now is the competition taking place next week," the receptionist said. "Ah, right. Are you going to take part in the competition, sir? I will have to register you if you are."

"Competition?" Alex gave a confused look for a moment before remembering about the Guild competitions that took place every 10 years.

2 years ago was the Talisman Competition where he found his mother. Now, it was the turn for the Formation competition.

Alex thought for a moment and shook his head. "No," he said. "I don't want to join it."

There was just too much trouble that he would face with joining the competition right now.

It would put him in the spotlight which he didn't want to do. It wasn't the competition itself that bothered him, but rather the information that would be out when he did take part in it.

A 23-year-old True King 1st realm was enough to make the whole world go mad.

It would also make people look into him, causing them to find out that he was a True Heaven Talisman expert and a True Heaven Alchemist.

Then they would go into his background and find out about his mother, and maybe even find out through Fu Tao and the others that he wasn't from this Empire, to begin with.

All of it would be way too troubling for a competition that wasn't even his primary profession.

The receptionist made no remark when he said no. Instead, he said, "Alright, I won't register your name, sir. Since you are a True Heaven formation master, you have the right to go watch the competition."

"If you require, we can pay for your travels, or you can go on your own," the receptionist said.

"Thank you," Alex said and left the guild.

The thoughts of the competition soon left his mind and only the news about the beasts not attacking took over it.

'Wait, so it is all fine now?' he thought. 'Why did they not attack?'

Questions he knew wouldn't get answered kept popping up in his head. So, he decided to stop thinking about it. It wasn't like thinking about something that was going to change the outcome.

Alex went to the Alchemy guild and checked if his one ingredient was on the market yet.

It was not. So, he took some missions and spent the rest of the day finishing those up.

By the end, Alex realized that he needed to go look for another Yin treasure again.

'It is getting harder and harder to find them here. Maybe I should go to the capital,' he thought to himself.

Late at night, he return back to his mother, and an hour later was back in his house.

Now, it was time for him to break through.

Alex sat on the floor of his house and started to slowly circulate. He felt that he wasn't as prepared as he would have hoped, so he needed to take a little longer when he broke through.

As he did, the Five Yang Divine Path circulated Yang Qi throughout his system. The slight pain, or rather discomfort he felt when he used the Heaven grade technique of his technique had slowly started fading over time.

Now, it was perfect for him. This couldn't help but make him wonder if soon he would be able to change the cultivation technique and go a grade higher once more.

For now, he stuck to what he had.

As Alex cultivated and prepared for the breakthrough, something weird happened. He thought he heard someone speaking.

Alex stopped and looked around. "Pearl?" he shouted as he sent his spiritual sense. No one was in the room.

He looked around once more before going back to his cultivation. As he prepared to break through once again he started hearing sounds that sounded like voices.

Alex stopped to look around once more and even stood up to go check. No one was there at all again.

Finally, after making sure no one was there at all, he started cultivating again.

As the time for him to breakthrough got closer and closer, the voices returned. This time, he didn't bother stopping to check who it was and decided to do so after he broke through.

"It's your fault," A voice spoke directly into his mind.

Alex finally stopped once more and shouted, "Who?"

He immediately stood up to look around, yet once again, no one was there. After 5 minutes of being on edge, he started cultivating once more.

"You are useless," the voice returned.

Alex almost stopped cultivating, but he continued it.

"You are the reason Pearl is so weak right now," the voice said. "Had you left Pearl alone, he would have evolved by now and would have become the ruler of the continent. You are the reason he is so weak."

Alex shook his head, trying to get rid of the thoughts. However, they just kept on coming to him.

"You think you will find your father in the southern continent? Lies. You know surely that he's already dead, and there is nothing you can do about it."

"You think you are strong, but that is not your power. Your techniques, your cultivation, your alchemy. You got it all because of me," the voice said.

"And now, I'm here to take it all back and send you to the darkness where you belong."