"Welcome, King Alex," Zhu Xiongwei, the Golden Lion, Leader of the Lion Colony warmly welcomed Alex into his colony.
For the past 8 months, he had heard from one leader after another about how well Alex's pills had helped them and was very excited to finally get Alex in his own colony.
Alex smiled and greeted back the lion. "It's great to see you, Leader Zhu," he said. "It's been a while."
"It has, hasn't it," the Lion said warmly. "Come, come. You must be tired from the journey. Let me take you to your place."
Alex nodded and walked into the lion's colony.
The Lion Colony was located in a thin forest surrounded by trees with golden leaves on them that made it look like it was forever autumn.
The sparse forest had many houses built in it, most of which to Alex's surprise were as good as human houses. The houses were not only made with wood, but stones and other materials as well. They were also painted in various colors, each brightly standing out amongst the others.
It was also quite large, larger than all the other Colonies, which was another thing that surprised Alex.
"It almost looks like a human town," he said. "I surprised how much of a human touch this place has."
"Of course it does," the Lion said. "We had humans build this after all."
"Humans came here to build stuff?" Alex asked.
"Yes," the Lion said. "But it was a senior of ours that did so, over thousands of year ago. We've only maintained what was done back then."
The lion sighed. "But of course, it won't happen again until we open the borders," he said.
Alex thought of something that he hadn't asked anyone else yet. "When will it open?" he asked. He had been so concerned about it being closed that he hadn't even thought of it opening up.
"I don't really know," the lion said. "The other leaders are my seniors, so even when we are equal in standings, they don't tell me much about their plans on opening the place."
"Oh," Alex said. "Do they not treat you as well because you are young?"
"No, that's not it," the Lion said. "I just don't think anyone has planned anything. We closed it because we had to, but no one really wants to talk about opening it again, I believe. And as the youngest one, I don't really want to bring up this topic."
"I see," Alex said. "Do you know why it was closed in the first place?"
The Lion chuckled. "Do I get 50 pills for answering that?" he asked. "They said you would ask me that."
Alex's eyes widened a bit in surprise. "I see," he said, giving a foolish smile. "My curiosity has made my name go around the place."
"Curiosity huh?" the Lion said. "One might just think you want something out of that information."
"Of course not," Alex quickly said. "I was truly curious."
He looked around the Colony and the various beasts that lived there. There were an assortment of beasts in the Colony, from reptiles to birds to mammals and all sorts of other creatures in between those classifications.
The only type of beasts that there were barely of was aquatic, which was absent due to the lack of a nearby water source.
Alex was brought to a nice looking house with walls that were colored in white and green. He walked in along with the Lion, arriving at a courtyard after a couple of walks.
"This is a nice place," Alex said.
"It is, isn't it?" the Lion said proudly. "This is where our guests live. You can stay here for however long you like."
"Thank you," Alex said.
The lion nodded. "By the way, how long do you intend to stay here?" he asked.
"Hmm… I have about half a year before I need to be somewhere important. Before that, I have another few places to visit. So, I will most likely staying here for a month," Alex said. "2 at the most."
"Oh! Good," the Lion said. "Then I most likely won't have to worry about not managing to make a lot of pills then."
Alex smiled. "I will make you all the pills you will want, Leader Zhu," he said.
"When do we start then?" the Lion asked.
Alex brought out a pill from his storage ring and handed it over to the Lion. "Why don't you test out how the pill is first?" he suggested. "I will rest in the meantime. Once you are done cultivating, you can come to me with the ingredients and treasures you have, and we can start."
Alex handed over the talisman as well that recorded all the different ingredients for the various types of pills, as well as the list of things he wanted in return, and how much he was willing to pay for them.
"Are they really handing over Heavenly Silkworms to you?" the Lion asked, seeing the list.
"Yes," Alex said, opening his Beast pouch which held nearly 2 dozen Silkworms at this point.
"Wow! They really are doing that, huh?" the lion said. "I suppose I will have to prepare that too, then."
The lion left after that, gone to cultivate on his own while asking the other beasts to prepare various things for him so that he could make Alex create some more pills for him.
Alex turned around and looked at the gigantic courtyard with a golden tree in the center. He walked into the courtyard, going up to the golden tree to see it.
He checked the leaves and realized it was sharp as a blade and yet flimsy as a thin sheet of silk. He remembered seeing a tree like this in the Demon realm once. He wondered if it was still there.
He left the tree and went inside a room that was prepared for him and quickly set up a safe space for himself using various different formations plates.
Pearl flew out of his beast space after everything was prepared. He looked around the room for a moment and back at Alex. "Are we… here?" he asked.
"Yes, we're finally here," Alex said.
"Can I go out and see?" Pearl asked.
"I'm not sure that's a good idea," Alex said. "Just look at the recording for now."
Whisker walked out of Alex's robes, wrapped in a few strands of Heavenely Silk, carrying a talisman in his hand.
"Here," he said. "I recorded everything I saw and sensed with my whiskers."
"Thank you," Pearl said and took the recording. He started looking through it and quickly finished everything.
He put it down and had a solemn look on his face. "So… this is where my grandma married and came to," he said. "This… is where my mother was born."
"Yes," Alex said.
Pearl stood expressionless for a few minutes before looking toward Alex. "Do you know what happened yet?" he asked. "Why my mother was attacked? Why grandpa died?"
"I don't know," Alex said. "I just got here. Don't worry, I will research what I can in the next coming days."
"Please, brother," Pearl said. "Try to find something, anything. I'm sure you can."
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