824 Arrival on the Island

Alex flew in the night sky. The pale silver moon hung in the sky, highlighting the black jaguar that flew next to him, which would otherwise be impossible to see at night with a mortal eye.

Today was the day the Demon realm opened. From what the Saints had calculated, the Demon realm would open in 12 or so hours.

Alex wanted to get there just a tad bit earlier.

The small ship flew with incredible speed, but the jaguar kept up with it showing no expression of unease at all.

Flying at this speed was barely an inconvenience for this beast. Alex couldn't help but look forward to the days when he too would be able to fly this fast without the help of any flying artifact.

They continued flying for about 5 more hours before they finally reached the edge of the continent. A few minutes of flight later, they arrived at an island that was already filled to the brim with people.

Alex stored away his boat and slowly drifted down to the ground. As he did, a lot of people stared at him.

For one, he had come with a Saint beast by his side, which was extremely unusual to these people.

But more importantly, they stared at him because they recognized him. They recognized the 28-year-old prodigy that was not only a miracle Alchemist but had also managed to become one of the top 4 strongest youth in the whole empire.

Many people smiled at him at his arrival, including the ones from the big sects and families. Alex smiled back.

He wanted to stay alone until the demon realm opened, but that was impossible as people surrounded themselves around him the moment he landed.

They introduced themselves, told him how much they had wanted to meet him, and asked how he was so strong.

Some wanted pointers on the Alchemy techniques and wanted his help to improve a family recipe of theirs.

Others simply wanted to establish a friendship so that they could later use it to their advantage.

The people swarmed him, but he was too kind to tell that he was bothered. He stayed polite, telling people that he would think about their things.

However, no matter how much he tried to speak his way out, another person would find his way to speak to him.

Alex had met with barely anyone for this precise reason. However, who could have thought that refusing to meet them would have such consequences at the moment?

'Should I scare them away?' the jaguar's voice rang in his mind.

Alex contemplated for a second and ended up with the answer that, that was the only choice he had. However, before he could give his approval to the jaguar, someone else spoke.

"Move away!" a voice came from behind the group, instantly shutting their mouths.

The people slowly parted to show an old woman with blood red robe walking toward him.

"Come, young man. You don't need to waste your time with them," the woman said.

Alex hesitated for a split second. Going with the old woman, who was clearly the matriarch of the Song family was like jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire.

He couldn't think of anything worse. However, refusing someone of such stature didn't feel right to him. Also, at least with someone like the Matriarch or patriarchs and sect leaders of the elite sects and family, he could trust them not to continue asking the same thing over and over as these people did.

"Thank you, senior," Alex said and walked with her.

"It would be our pleasure if you came with us, senior," the woman then bowed towards the Jaguar as well.

"Hmph!" the jaguar's human-like harrumph surprised a lot of people in the area, but the Song family matriarch wasn't phased at all. As if, she had been expecting this, she bowed respectfully to the jaguar that was moving away to a more solitary location and walked back.

Alex reluctantly followed her to a place where the other elite family and sects were gathered.

He was surprised to see quite a few people there, and at the same time, he was surprised to see quite a few people absent.

Alex looked around and even used his spiritual sense, but he couldn't find a few people

Liang Qiu, Han Daiyu, Guo Chiang, Zhou Ren, and Lu Yan were missing from the group. A few others were missing too, but Alex didn't know them enough to keep track of it. Instead of them, the people here were their juniors, who surprisingly were still older than Alex.

Alex could see Zhou Ren's little brother Zhou Guyang in the mix, who bowed the moment he saw Alex. To Alex's surprise, in the last 4 or so years, he hadn't seen the man, his cultivation base had increased to True Lord 5th realm.

'Not bad,' Alex thought to himself. He didn't realize any of the other juniors, but he did recognize a few of the seniors.

Fu Tao, Song Shing, Jin Tengfei, He Liwei, and Xue Meirong were here.

Perhaps, most surprising of all, however, Alex saw another person there who was crazily waving his hands in his direction.

Alex didn't know whether to laugh or not as he waved back at the man as well.

Somehow, Fatty Tian Ye was here as well.

Alex hadn't seen the man since the day he was reunited with his mother.

"Nephew Yu, I can't believe you're here," the fatty said, somehow fatter now than he was 7 years ago when Alex last saw him.

"Uncle Tian Ye, it has been a while," Alex respectfully bowed toward the man.

If Alex's guess was right, the man was about 45 years old as of now. Back in his home world, no one would bat an eye if he called someone 15 years older than him an uncle.

Surprisingly enough, they cared even less here.

"Oh, you two know each other? Come, we can sit and talk," the Song family matriarch said as she arrived at the group of elites that were gathered around.

Alex recognized nearly everybody.

The Lu family, the Song Family, the Fu family, the Jin family, the Han family, the Zhou family, the Shen family, the Heaven's Peak school, the Glory's Edge sect, the Falling Lotus sect, the Broken Ravine sect, and many more that he didn't recognize at all.

Everyone was here.

Alex looked at the crowd of Saint realm cultivators and was surprised at just how many there were.

He was also curious why the head of some of these families was here when they could just send their elders to look after the juniors.

But when Alex remembered the cultivation bases of some of these juniors, he understood why the case was.

There were tables laid around in clusters where the big figures were staying and Alex was brought directly to them.

He knew what they were going to ask of him, nay demand of him. And Alex was ready to refuse.

As long as the jaguar was close by, he had nothing to worry about.

He looked at all of the elite heads and bowed his head a little.

"Greetings, seniors."