The two of them flew through the snow-filled land for an hour more before they arrived at a small monument that stood tall and was full of scripts that were used by the demons.
"Here we are," Alex said and got off the ship.
Ronron jumped off as well, and slowly floated down onto the snow. She stepped on the snow, not sinking even the slightest amount at all.
"Grab my hand," Alex put forth his hand and Ronron grabbed it. Then, the two of them suddenly disappeared from where they stood, arriving on top of a giant, circular script that worked at the gate of this place.
"Woah!" Ronron said in surprise when she saw the place. The sky was overcast with thick clouds in here making the land much darker than it should be.
Snow filled the bottom half of most of the peaks. However, the top half of the peaks remained dark rocks with some orange glow that came from the magma within them.
"This is… so beautiful," Ronron said.
"This is one of the Demon's hiding realms," Alex said. "Back during the war many thousand years ago, they used to remain here and go out to fight outside."
"The fights took place all over this continent from what I know, but the only remnant of those fights that still remains here is the Ancient Battlefield we flew past outside of the Silvermoon city," Alex explained it all to his daughter.
"Woah, this place has such a history huh?" she said as she looked around.
"After the war ended, the representative of the Black Tortoise that was meant to rule this continent made this place his home and they have been remaining here ever since," Alex explained.
His eyes faltered for a moment before he smiled. "Let's go, Scarlet is waiting for us with senior Luhei," he said.
The two of them flew up, with Ronron struggling a bit to control herself at such a high altitude. They flew slowly until they went past 4 more mountains, and arrived on the small snowy mound, on top of which was Scarlet.
"Why the hell are you so late?" she shouted. "You were supposed to come here as soon as you told everyone what was happening."
"Sorry, sorry, I had to take a few detours since Ronron had never seen this side of life yet," Alex said.
"Oh," Scarlet said as she realized. "How do you like it, little girl?"
"It's quite different, to say the least," she said.
Suddenly, the snow mound they were on moved as a giant head popped out from one side of it, making Ronron shout in fear reactively.
"You've come again, young man," the Black Tortoise spoke.
"I should have come earlier, senior, forgive me," Alex said.
"I don't mind," the Black Tortoise said. "In fact, I like the peace and quiet."
"Ronron, this is senior Luhei," Alex introduced.
"O-oh!" she only then realized that it wasn't a random beast but rather the main reason they were here for. "Forgive me for my disrespectful attitude, senior. I am Maron. I have been acquainted with your other self for the past decade and more."
"Is that so?" the Tortoise looked at her a bit.
"She's the senior's disciple, so it is true," Scarlet said.
"Oh? Oh!" The tortoise was quite surprised when he heard that. Suddenly, the mound Alex and the rest were standing on vanishes all of a sudden as they all fell to the ground along with the snow that was on the mound.
Alex quickly grabbed his daughter and hovered while Scarlet flapped her wings a little.
"Let us know before you transform," Scarlet said.
"Sorry, sorry," the tortoise that had just become human spoke. He had short black hair and looked surprisingly similar to the Snake after he had become human as well.
"Woah, you look just like your brother," Ronron said.
"Of course, we are brothers," the tortoise said.
"I hear you are healed, senior. Congratulations," Alex said.
"Ah, yes, I am," he said.
"How did you heal if I may ask?" Alex got curious.
"You may not," the tortoise said.
"Oh," Alex was a little taken aback at the refusal. "I'm sorry if I was being rude."
"No, no, it's not a matter of whether you were rude or not. It's just that I don't know if I should talk about him or not," the tortoise said. He looked towards Scarlet and asked, "should I?"
"I don't know," Scarlet said. "This thing is very confusing. I still refuse to believe it's true at all."
"What are you guys talking about?" Alex asked.
"Forget about it, I'm sure you will find out soon on your own," Scarlet said.
"Yeah, forget about it, young man. Now, you managed to make a Phoenix bond with you. I don't know if I should congratulate you, or pray that you don't die when her seniors find out," the tortoise said.
"Sorry… what?" Alex asked.
"Father's going to die?" Ronron panicked a little.
"Don't tease him," Scarlet said quickly. "Don't worry, I won't let them kill you. They will definitely be more curious about you than angry."
"So there is a chance?" Alex asked with a worried look.
"Yes, but not a lot," Scarlet said. "As I said, don't worry."
Alex couldn't help but worry.
"Anyway, I'm glad to see you're doing fine, young man. Actually, you're doing more than fine. You have a daughter that's a disciple to a disciple of the Sky God. Even if you did nothing, you will make it far in life with just that," the tortoise said.
"Thank you, senior," Alex said awkwardly.
The Tortoise started asking about a few more things about the outer world and what had changed there. Now that Alex had been to 4 of the 5 continents, he had a lot more authority to speak on this matter than he did back then when he had just come from the Western Continent.
He told the Tortoise what he could, and the Tortoise realized that the world that was slowly falling into mediocrity had been reborn thanks to the actions of the senior that let fresh human blood flow through the world once again.
With many new talents coming out of nowhere, the world was much more competitive than it was back then.
The group talked for a while before Alex asked for a leave and flew away from them. He then arrived on the final mountain of the secret realm, standing in front of a giant patch of ice that seemed to have somehow reformed after so many years.
Unlike last time, however, the ice wasn't strong at all. So, with a simple thought, Alex changed the temperature of the ice, melting it within seconds, and walked inside of the cave.
He arrived by the massive circular script on the ground that was the teleportation script that could lead back to the Western Continent.
"Does it still work?" he wondered and used it. He felt the teleportation aura move around him, but there was no target, so it didn't work.
'Is the teleportation script on the other side truly destroyed? Or do I just have the wrong timing once again?' he wondered. Whatever it was, he would find out soon.
After looking around for a few minutes later, he left the cave and flew back to his group.
It was time to leave this place, and then prepare to leave the Northern Continent.
Updated from fr𝒆ewebnov𝒆l.(c)om