Alex appeared inside the secret realm, in a field that was entirely forest.
As soon as he entered, a spiritual sense landed on him and he smiled. "So you really are here," he spoke out loud.
"How? How did you get here?" Scarlet's voice came from far away before she herself flew and arrived next to him.
"I have my ways," Ning said as he looked at the giant Phoenix that was towering over him. "Damn, do all Heavenly beasts cultivate that fast? I wonder if Pearl can reach your speed once he too evolves into a proper White Tiger."
Scarlet had grown massive now. She had not only managed to grow but also had reached the Saint Condensation realm in the time they had been separated.
Alex couldn't make sense of how someone could cultivate that fast, except for assigning it to the fact that she was a heavenly beast that had a bloodline that was blessed by a true god.
"How did you find me?" she asked him again.
"I just followed our bond," Alex said. "I had some free time, so I came to see what exactly you were doing. Seems like you were just cultivating."
"And how did you enter this place? No one but us is supposed to know this place exists," she said.
"Is that so?" Alex said as he looked around. Now that he looked at it, the space in here was quite stable. So stable that unless he was looking for it, he would've most likely missed its existence entirely.
"I suppose I'm lucky that I have learned the Dao of Space then. I would have not been able to enter without it," he said. "Anyway, how are you doing? You seemed pretty excited when you ran away from me."
"No, I wasn't," Scarlet quickly said. "I just… I needed to cultivate back then. Since it didn't look like you could enter at all, I had to make a choice."
"Well, you could've just asked. You left without even telling me," Alex said.
"That's… sorry. I was way too focused on trying to enter. I needed to cultivate," she said.
"Well, I don't really blame you," Alex said. "It's my fault for thinking all of my bonded beasts would be loyal to me since both Pearl and Whisker are quite loyal."
"Hey! I'm not… never mind," Scarlet didn't speak anymore.
Alex chuckled a bit and looked around. "So, what really is this place? Does no one else really know about it? I can't even sense any other beasts in here."
"No, no one else knows this. The first Vermillion bird that came to… um, was the ruler of this continent found this place on a random tour," she said. "He gave the information to each subsequent ruler and their family and we've all known about this forever."
"You don't have to hide about the immortal worlds, I know about them," Alex said. "I would like to learn more though. Where do the Phoenix and the rest of the other beasts come from?"
"Um, I don't know if I should be talking about those things to you," Scarlet said. "I'm still suspicious of who exactly you are."
"Huh? Why would you be suspicious of me? You bonded with me, remember?" Alex asked.
"Yes, which is suspicious to me. I wasn't as intelligent back then, but to bond with you, it was definitely because I was attracted to you for some reason," she said.
"Oh?" Alex was surprised. "You're not going to say it's because I'm handsome, right? That doesn't feel right."
"No, of course not," she said. "It's the feeling I get from you, like… like there is something familiar about you."
"You feel that way? Is that why you bonded with me?" Alex asked.
"Yes," she said. "Bonding was just a side effect of the familiarity. It's not what I feel though, it's what all Phoenixes should feel around you."
"Um, is it because of the White Tiger's bloodline? I told you I have that, right?" Alex asked.
"Yes, you did. But it's not that," she said. "It's something else that I can't make sense of."
"Well, let me know when it makes sense," Alex said. "Anyway, why are you here? Why haven't you gone home yet?"
"I… I can't," Scarlet said, almost afraid.
"Why not?" Alex asked.
"I… I'm afraid they won't let me enter," she said.
"Why would they not?" Alex asked with a surprised look. "Their daughter is coming home. It would be stupid of them to stop you from even going back home."
Scarlet hesitated and kept her mouth shut.
"Are you scared?" Alex asked.
"The last time I was going to go home, they instead pushed me away to the Wasteland. I'm afraid this time will be the same if I were to enter as I am," Scarlet said.
"How long ago was this?" Alex asked.
"Hmm… I don't know," Scarlet said. "10 years ago maybe? You have to remember I wasn't of the right mind to remember time passing."
"10 years? They let their daughters roam the outside world for 10 years? What sort of parents are they?" Alex asked. "Also, what are you exactly? An outcast? The worst of the pack?"
"I'm not an outcast. I just… I… " Scarlet's head drooped a bit. "I may have hurt some people while I still wasn't right of mind. It was definitely not intentional, but I guess they were afraid I would do it even more."
"Well, normal parents take in their child and teach them, but I don't know what sort of fucked up parents a Phoenix has," Alex said as he shook his head. "So, what do you want to do this time? You want to go home right?" he asked.
"Of course," she said. "This time, I'm going to cultivate every single waking moment and get strong enough to fight off anyone that tries to stop me from going home."
Alex laughed when he heard that. "That's the spirit," he said. "Fight them all. Want my help?"
Scarlet got curious. "How can you help?" she said as she looked at his cultivation base. "You're strong, but not enough to fight them."
"No, no, not that sort of help," Alex said, nearly sweating in fear. He would never think of fighting the phoenixes even if it was for someone like Scarlet.
They wouldn't kill their daughter even if she came fighting, but they would definitely kill a random person that was not only coming to fight them but had also bonded with their daughter.
"I can give you these," Alex said as he brought out a small bottle.
"What's that?" Scarlet asked curiously.
"Look inside," Alex said and opened the bottle.
Scarlet looked in and her eyes went wide. "No way! Are those—"
"Pills."
"—Pill veins," Scarlet said.
Alex was a little surprised. "You know about pill veins?" he asked. That wasn't knowledge that was so easily available.
"Of course," Scarlet said excitedly. "My mother used to make me these all the time back at home."
"Really?" Alex looked surprised.
"Yes, where did you get these?" Scarlet asked.
"I made them," Alex said proudly.
"No way," Scarlet said with a distrustful look on her face.
"Did I not tell you before?" Alex asked. "I'm a master alchemist. Had you stuck with me back then, not only could you have started cultivating just days later, you could've also gotten to enjoy these for the next two years that you were gone."
"But you decided to leave me so you got nothing. Call that the heavens repaying you back for leaving me," Alex said.
Scarlet looked worried when she heard that. "I'm sorry, okay? I didn't mean to leave you. I just needed to find a place with Qi quickly. I thought you would go back to searching for your father or something. How was I supposed to know you would go out to cultivate too."
"I don't mind it, you don't have to worry," Alex said. "Here, there are 10 pills that can help you cultivate quickly for the next 2 and a half months, you should eat one each week."
Scarlet looked inside the bottle again. "All of these have 5 pill veins. Are you really that good?" she asked. "How does one even learn to be that good in this world? That too without reaching the Immortal realm?"
"I… don't know what to say to you but that I am just that good when it comes to alchemy," Alex said. "It's a mixture of hard work and luck so I can understand why there aren't others in this world that can reach the same level."
"Alright, I'll believe you," Scarlet said. "I will pay you back for these once I'm back home."
"You don't have to pay me anything," Alex said. "Although… if you can put a good word in for me, I want some Phoenix blood if possible. The White Tiger's blood essence helped improve my Metal spiritual root, so I'm hoping the Vermilion Bird's blood can do the same for my Fire spiritual root."
Scarlet looked confused but still nodded. "I've never heard of something like that, but if that's what you want then I will consider it," she said.
"Thank you," Alex said.
Scarlet nodded and moved away to cultivate. With the new pills she had received, her cultivation would go much smoother than before.
Alex sat down next to a random tree to and brought out a bunch of talismans from his storage ring.
Now that he finally had some free time to himself, he was going to look through the list that was given to him by the Insight Pavilion. If he was lucky, he would find some clue to his father there.
