"The first Dragon Emperor was a master of Space?" Alex asked with a somewhat surprised face.
The first Dragon Emperor was the human-dragon hybrid that was born to the first Azure Dragon that had come to become the ruler of this continent. From what Alex had gathered, the first Dragon Emperor had left behind no records of death, which led Alex to assume that he had broken through to the Immortal realm and left this place long ago.
It was that, or the Azure Dragon took him away when he left. That event would've happened so far in the past that there really was no way for any information to remain that long without proper care.
"Yes," the commander answered rather enthusiastically, with a surprising amount of child-like glee in his voice when he spoke about the first Dragon Emperor.
"There were many spatial pockets in the Eastern Continent, which weren't being used at all. So the Dragon Emperor, with some help from the Azure Dragon of that time, created the many challenges that Saints can go through to improve themselves," he said.
"I see," Alex said. "So the Dragon Emperor made those many secret realms, huh?"
"Yes," the commander said.
"I assume you've been to a few," Alex asked.
"I have, to all of them," the commander said. "Do you wish to challenge yourself in these secret realms, Your Majesty?"
"I don't see why not," Alex said. "My cultivation base is still low enough that I can't be considered an expert amongst the Saints, so it might do me well to go through them."
"I assume Your Majesty has a competitive spirit by nature, so I suggest you visit the Endless Shadow Abyss of the Emerald Kingdom, and the Transcendent Martial Ground of the Silver Kingdom," the Commander said.
Alex looked at the man weirdly. "Endless Shadow Abyss?" he asked. "That sounds like a place where one goes to get lost forever. Surely that's not your intention, is it?"
"Huh? No, absolutely not," the commander panicked a little. "Endless Shadow Abyss is actually one of the safest secret realms for everyone. Even Common Realm cultivators can go there and be safe."
"Oh, then why is it called what it is?" Alex asked.
"It's just that there is no light in that realm," the commander said. "So it is called that."
"No light?" Alex asked. "That's it? The name is unnecessarily scary then, isn't it?"
"Well… uhh… you could say that," the commander said. "But it was named that way since it was created, so I don't have any say in what it's called."
"I wasn't asking you to change it," Alex chuckled a bit. "Are those two the only ones I can go to?"
"Well, there is the Harmonious Balance Haven, but I don't know if you would like that or not," the man said. "There is… oh, I nearly forgot. There is one secret realm that was specifically designed for non-fighters such as you. I think you would love it, your Majesty."
"Do you mean for Alchemists?" Alex asked.
"Alchemists, Formation masters, Talisman crafters, musicians, painters, anyone," the man said. "I don't know if you would need to go through that, though. I assume you already are at the peak of what you can do."
"I… can take a look. It's never good to push away opportunities just because you think you know everything. Who knows, maybe you can actually learn something," Alex said.
"That's true, your Majesty," the commander said. "If you're going for all, you might as well go for the Boundless Enlightenment Domain."
"That sounds like a place where I can learn Dao," Alex said with an expectant look.
"Yes," the commander said. "That is indeed its main purpose, or at least it was supposed to be."
"What do you mean by that?" Alex asked with a weird expression on his face.
"Well… people don't use the realm for what it is supposed to be used for," the commander said. "It's become more of a… tourism spot than anything."
"Why is that?" Alex asked.
"That's becau—"
"Commander!" one soldier shouted suddenly, catching his attention. The commander quickly turned around and looked at the soldier only to see that he was pointing somewhere out in the front.
The commander quickly turned around a saw small black dots on the horizon that he couldn't make out just yet.
Alex's attention was caught as well and he looked around to see what they were pointing at. When he turned, he saw a bunch of beasts, all the same, flying in the sky in the distance.
They were too far for his spiritual sense to reach, but his eyes could see them.
"Is there a problem?" he asked seeing the commander's serious face.
"Somewhat," the commander said. "Excuse me, your majesty. I'll have to go handle this. Please go back to your room as things may get a little dangerous for a while."
The commander left before Alex could even ask what exactly was going on. Alex turned around toward the flock of flying beasts and wondered if they were going to attack the ship.
The ship changed its direction ever so slightly so that they were moving away from the massive group of birds. However, at the speed they were going, any simple change in direction required quite a lot of Qi, so the commander had to use as little as he could to get away from those beasts.
Around 5 minutes passed and only then did the commander come back on the deck, looking in the distance.
"Did you not go inside, your Majesty?" he asked. "It really could've gotten dangerous."
"I was thinking of going inside when the danger finally did come," Alex said. "What danger is it anyway?"
"Well… hopefully we won't get to see it as it is just that dangerous," the commander said with a small smile on his face.
The ship went further past the flock of beasts that were far off to the side. However, just as they had passed it, something happened.
Everyone suddenly felt a fluctuation in the air as the Qi shifted. Then, the ocean churned as something flew out of it, massive and hungry.
The giant 6-armed, feathered water beast was nearly 3 times larger than the boat they were on, and the leviathan of a beast flew into the sky and opened its jaw to swallow half the flock of beasts in a single bite.
Everyone from Alex, the Commander, the soldiers, and even the Alchemists and their assistant watched as the giant beast moved its 6 long limbs to catch the many beasts that tried to fly away from it.
Some managed to escape away, but most still ended up in the beast's belly.
The massive beast roared, the snake-like body of its coiling in the sky as it did so. The roar of the beast was so powerful that it shook the ship that was in the air, even dozens of kilometers away.
Then, everyone on the ship felt the beast's spiritual sense move past them. And then it landed on them, locating them.
Its head turned, its snake-like eyes looking for them but not finding them.
"Commander?" Alex asked, a little worried.
"Men!" the Commander suddenly shouted for his soldiers on the ship as he pulled a sword out from his storage. "Get ready! We are going to fight the Wyrm."