It had been a few days since Pearl had left to remain with his uncle to see the rest of the Colony and just be together with him and learn about his mother and grandparents.
As for Alex, he spent his time making pills and cultivating.
After some time, he finally decided to do what he had gotten so close to doing over the last few days. He decided to break through to the Saint Soul realm.
Alex was very excited about the Saint Soul realm. There were so many things new that came with the Saint Soul realm that he was more than happy to experience.
After preparing everything, he closed his eyes and began his breakthrough.
Then, an unknown amount of time later, he opened his eyes again. His body ached uncomfortably while his head pounded with an unnatural thumping rhythm.
His core felt cold, and his dantian hurt a lot.
As for his cultivation base, it reached Saint Core 8th realm.
Alex took a few deep breaths to control himself and looked at his dantian again. The Golden Core inside of it had gotten smaller than it was before.
He sighed when he realized what had happened. His cultivation base had regressed a realm.
He had gone through Qi Deviation.
"Dammit!" he couldn't help but shout angrily. "What went wrong?"
Was it the worries that he already held that had gotten to him? Was it about Pearl's mother? About his sister? What was it?
What had the Inner Demon used against him this time around that it had affected him enough to make him go through Qi Deviation?
Unfortunately for him, there was no way for him to know anything about what went on with his Inner Demon. He didn't know what it said or how he reacted.
In the end, all he could do was accept the fact that his cultivation base had regressed and thus he needed to work on fixing it again.
"I was so close to Saint Soul realm too," he thought to himself before working on his cultivation base.
Fortunately, the damage wasn't as extreme as it could be. A month or two would be enough for him to reach the Saint Core 9th realm again and after that, another year to reach the Saint Soul realm.
Only… could he get there? What was the thing that the Demon used that caused him to fail this time around? Could he fix it without knowing what it was?
"Time to do what I did back then, I guess," Alex said taking a few deep breaths. "I need to accept all my shortcomings, all the possibilities."
"I need to accept that I might not be able to help Pearl get his revenge. I might not be able to help avenge senior Meiyong."
"I need to accept the fact that sister Hannah might already be dead."
Saying them alone was hard enough for him to accept. He could only wonder if he would be able to get over those feelings by the time he had to face his Inner Demon again.
"I got too complacent," Alex thought. "I never faced trouble with it once I reached the True Lord realm, so I thought it couldn't affect me."
He shook his head. "I need to do better," he thought. He would do better.
Alex cultivated for a while, stabilizing his cultivation base as much as he could at the moment, and then proceeded to cultivate his blood aura and make some more Blood Basts.
The lion had provided him with the most number of beast cores out of any other Colony just because of his connection with Pearl and Bai Jingshen. He had also given a lot more Blood than any other Colonies.
In exchange, Alex started exclusively making 6 Veined pills instead of 5 veined pills to give back to the Lion.
And that was how Alex spent a month and a half in the Lion's Colony. It was the longest he had stayed at any colony, coming close to 2 entire months.
At this time, he had reached back to the Saint Core 9th realm and was once again on his journey to reach the Saint Soul realm. As for if he would succeed now or not, he could only hope.
He tried his best to do what he could to prepare for it all, but the actual result wouldn't be apparent until he was done with the breakthrough and then opened his eyes.
There was still a year's worth of time before that happened, so Alex had no reason to worry about any of that at all.
He went over to the Shi family mansion where Pearl spent the majority of his time with his uncle. There, Alex found them in the garden at the back with the Lion talking about Pearl's mother.
"No one could come to the mansion without losing a thing or two before they left. When searching for it, they would usually find the item in your mother's room."
"She was quite the mischievous child my uncle used to say. She would be the one to steal everyone's stuff."
"And of course, no one could do anything to her since… who could do anything to the leader's daughter?"
"I never got to see that side of her. By the time I was born, she had already matured and was an adult who knew how to act well. I wish I had a chance to see that side of her though. I wish you got to see that too."
Pearl was so fully entranced in Lion's words that he didn't even notice Alex walk in. The Lion had to stop and look toward Alex for Pearl to realize.
"What brings you here so early in the morning?" the Lion asked.
"I wanted to come to let you know that I'm nearly done with all of your pills," Alex said. "In 2 days, I should be able to leave."
"Oh," the Lion looked surprised. "Does that mean Pearl will be leaving too?"
Alex looked at Pearl, letting him answer himself.
Pearl hesitated for a brief moment before nodding. "Yes, I will leave," he said. "I would love to stay here and learn more about my mother and my grandparents, but I have other things to do out there."
"I cannot stop the mission I was sent here to complete," he said. "So, I must leave."
"It's understandable," the Lion said. "It's a dangerous task, however, so you must be extremely careful."
Pearl nodded.
"Have the Colony Leaders agreed to your meeting yet?" Alex asked the Lion.
"Not yet," the Lion said. "I can't tell if they're genuine or are making excuses, but they continue saying that the pills you gave have made them all want to go into closed cultivation. Unless something big happens, I don't think they'll be leaving their colonies."
"Hmm," Alex thought for a bit. "We still have a lot of time. Let it happen when it does. You can always send us a message with what you find out."
"I might have to do that," the lion said.
"Anyway, I'll go back to finishing your pills. I'll see you when I'm done."
Alex returned back to the courtyard where he continued making the remaining pills. When it was all done, it was time for them to finally leave the Beast Paradise.
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