A group of a dozen or so people walked in a straight line through a rocky pathway, led by a buff man at the front. They were all carrying various tools on their shoulders as they walked along.
They were unusually chattery this day, partly because they had just finished working, and partly because while they were working, the sun had decided to show its face.
"Ahh, what a wonderful day, isn't it?" one of them asked. "Look at the sun, look at the ocean, the gentle sea breeze. Ah~ it is to die for."
"Hey now, don't go dying just yet," one of the other men said. "We will only have to carry your body back."
"We could just dig right here and bury him, no need to take his body back," another one said.
"Oi! You all are looking forward to my death, are you?" the man shouted in an apparently angry tone, but everyone there was joking anyway, so he quickly end up laughing.
They all did.
All except the leader.
"Leader, you should laugh a bit too," one of the men said.
"If I find something absolutely hilarious, I will make sure to let you guys know," the leader said and continued walking.
The group gave an awkward smile to each other, shrugged, and continued on.
The road was muddy for a small patch in front of them, so they would have to be careful walking through this patch. Falling wouldn't hurt them, but it was better to keep their clothes clean anyway.
Washing them was a hassle that none wanted to waste their time on.
It wasn't that fresh water was hard to find or that the ocean was too dangerous to go to, it really was just that time was something of a luxury, and none of them wanted to waste it washing clothes.
If possible, they would rather use it to grow stronger.
One of the men slipped and fell onto the mud despite his careful consideration of every step. The other men laughed and pulled him up.
"Goddammit," The man cried out. "Now I'll have to wash it." He grumbled a bit.
"It's just dunking your clothes in water and rinsing them. It shouldn't take you very long," the leader said from the front. Although, he too knew that these men would rather use that time training.
"If only we could fly too," the grumbling man said and continued walking.
If only they could fly.
About 15 minutes later, the group reached their place of residence, but before they could go wash up, a pair of men and women arrived in front of them.
"Damn cultivators," one of them said under his breath.
"Sshh! They can hear you," another one said.
The cultivators did hear them but gave no heed to those words. Instead, they looked toward the leader.
"You, come with us," one of them said.
"Me?" the leader was surprised that he was chosen. "What do you want?"
"Stop asking questions and just follow," the two cultivators said and turned around to leave.
The leader said nothing and walked, following the two cultivators towards a rather fabulous camp that was made at the edge, towards the shore.
He walked past another tent from where he could feel the slight heat of the sacred flames that burned within it.
The three of them finally reached the tent that was… the leader couldn't immediately think of a word for it.
From the outside, it was gorgeous, a work of art. However, on the inside, it was bleak and dreary, as if he was attending a funeral all of a sudden.
"Sit!" the male cultivator said and the leader sat on the chair that was in the middle of the tent.
The two cultivators also took their seats while the female brought out something and said, "Let us begin."
* * * * * * *
It had been close to 500 days since Alex had left the Sunborn Sanctuary. He had broken through to the Saint Foundation 2nd realm while in there, and now, he was going to break through once again.
He felt the energy in his body get denser and denser until the Qi started crystallizing around the pillars that were already there.
He kept at it for a few more minutes and once as much of the Qi as he could contain in his dantian crystallized, he understood that he had successfully broken through to the Saint Foundation 3rd realm.
"Wow, a third of my dantian is filled with these crystals," he thought to himself. He wondered if his entire dantian would be one giant crystal by the end, that would only melt to give him Qi when he desired.
Fortunately, the crystals didn't hamper the spinning yin and yang energy at the bottom of his dantian, but for some reason, he got the feeling that they never would be hampered at all.
He sat there cultivating for a few more hours, trying to stabilize himself as well as he could. In the meantime, Whisker returned from his hunt where Ning had sent all of his blood beasts to go train, grow, and bring him some cores and blood.
Another giant container of blood appeared in front of Alex, one that didn't sicken him at just its smell.
One of the fish blood beasts lowered its long fins and Whisker jumped out of it, holding a storage bag.
Alex looked inside and found about 9 different beast cores in there. Not a bad harvest at all.
"You did well," he said as he recalled all the blood beasts into the Blood god's manual. "I don't think you will have to work anymore. I plan on returning now that I've broken through."
Whisker had died twice already in the time he was here. Each time he died, Alex had to leave and control the blood beasts and maybe even aid them in battle.
However, it had been over 200 days since he had last died, so Alex decided to not take his chances with Whisker.
Alex quickly checked Whisker's cultivation base. Due to his lack of time to practice the Undying Physique, he had shown no improvement at all.
While that only meant that the out-of-reach 3rd stage of his Undying body was still out of reach for him, in Whisker's case, it meant that he wasn't cultivating much.
He was reaching closer and closer to the True King realm, but between focusing on the pills and cultivation, and sending Whisker to go hunt with his Blood beasts, Whisker's cultivation base hadn't improved as quickly as it should have.
'I have time,' he made an excuse for himself for his lack of effort. But then again, his effort was focused on himself, the non-immortal that would die if killed, unlike Whisker.
Being free to train as he wanted to and make pills as he wanted to was fun, but now he had to return.
Right after absorbing all of the blood in front of him.
Alex quickly returned to the main continent from the islands he was on, but instead of making his way to the Sunborn Sanctuary directly, he first made his way to the secret realm that was actually a 'secret' realm.
He tore a hole in space and walked in to find the phoenix sleeping peacefully in the sun.
She opened his eyes at his arrival and like a pet who was happy to see its owner after a long day, jumped at him, obviously looking for treats.
"Did you already finish the pills I made you?" Alex asked with a very surprised look on his face.
"No, but I'm down to my last two," Scarlet said.
Alex sighed but said nothing. He bought out two pill bottles and handed them to her. "Cultivating and breaking through very quickly didn't work out as intended for a lot of us, resulting in a very bad cultivation base and a high chance of going through Qi deviation. I hope you've thought about that," he said.
"Yes, yes," Scarlet said as she took the pills. "No need to worry about that."
She opened the bottle and looked at the pills inside with a bright smile on her face. However, just then it stopped for a second as she focused on something.
Then, she gasped.
"There are 6 veins on these pills," she said.
"Of course," Alex said. "I reached that level months ago."
"How many months?" she asked.
Alex thought for a bit and replied. "It was about a month after I visited you to give you the pill last time," he said.
"What?! You could've waited and I would've received these amazing pills then?" she asked.
Alex simply shrugged. "I would've been late if I had waited that long you know," he said. "After I was capable of that, I made my spiritual root-improving pills and ate them. Then, I went on a training spree for an entire month. I don't think you could've waited that long."
"N-no," she said with a slightly sad face. "Well, whatever. It's here now, so I can use it."
Alex chuckled at her cheerful expression. However, while he could laugh at that, what he could not laugh at was her cultivation base.
'Dear god, she's already so much stronger than me,' he thought. If Alex hadn't missed a shipment of pills while he was holed up in the Sunborn Sanctuary, she would've most likely been stronger even.
Either way, Saint Core's 6th realm made her way too strong. He would have trouble fighting her normally at that level. His Dao would barely give him an edge in a fight against her, and if he wanted to defeat her easily, he would have to rely on his blood aura.
'It's a good thing I'm an ally,' he thought as he sat down beside her to talk before leaving back to the Sunborn Sanctuary.
