After a night of cultivation, Alex prepared early to leave for the Beast Paradise.
He was more than surprised that his request had been accepted. Even more so, he was surprised that he would get to leave this early into his time on the continent.
Just a little over 2 years had passed and he was on his way to the Beast Paradise.
"What do I do?" Pearl asked, confused a lot by the situation. "Should I hide myself? Or should I show myself?"
Alex thought for a bit. "Hide yourself for now," he said. "I will call you out if I need you to reveal yourself. I don't want to give away the fact that a White Tiger is alive in this land. Who knows what lies they have been fed by the Emperor."
Pearl nodded. "There is a chance that they blame my grandpa for the Azure Dragon's death, don't they?" he asked.
"Yes," Alex said. "So, we will have to tread carefully. We'll try to get as much information out of them as we can while giving as little as possible."
Pearl nodded. He turned into a flash of light as he disappeared into the Beast space, but even there, Alex could sense that he was very anxious and scared, and even a little excited to meet his actual grandfather and grandmother.
Alex walked out of his room, going to meet the others as it was close to dawn.
People were gathered outside, not to go along with them, but to give them a farewell.
As unfortunate as it was, no one aside from the Crown Prince and Alex was allowed to go into the land of the beasts. Truth be told, Alex liked it this way.
The fewer people there were, the more he had the chance of doing things unnoticed.
"You will need to take care of yourself, your majesty," Elder Liang said. "We won't be there to protect you, so it is all up to you."
"Don't worry," Alex said. "I won't be rash"
"Try to come out as early as you can," Yao Ning said. "Don't make us wait for too long or we will get anxious."
"I'm not going in there to fight the beasts. I'm just going on a friendly visit. I will come when I'm done exploring all that I'm allowed to," Alex said. "Don't worry and just cultivate. The next time I see you lot, I want to see you have broken through to the next realm."
"What? That's impossible," Elder Liang complained. "It's not like us old folks can break through whenever we want to.
"We'll try our best," Yao Ning said and simply bowed. "Have a great journey."
Alex said his farewell and walked away with the Crown Prince. They arrived outside of the hotel they were staying at and flew over the Brightfalls waterfall to arrive on top of the massive river that flowed out of the Beast Paradise.
The sun started to come out from the east, so they continued along and flew on their own for a few kilometers before they arrived near an area that had strong beasts waiting for anyone that came by.
They sat at a fort created on a giant tree that was over 30 meters tall and just as wide with branches twisting in every direction.
There were multiple such small forts created along the side of the entire region with beasts staying as a guard.
There were human soldiers way ahead of this that already stopped everyone from coming, except for a few merchants that were specifically allowed.
Today, however, they were sent to pick just two humans.
One was the son of the Emperor on the Dragon throne, and another was a King that was directly under the Vermilion bird. Even if they disliked humans in general, they would be respectful here.
"Welcome, guests," a Swan with pure white feathers and a brilliant orange beak spoke to the two of them with a male voice. The Swan's feather was almost translucent to the point that when the first ray of sun hit his feathers, it spread around him as if the bird was glowing on his own.
"Greetings," the Crown Prince spoke. "I am Long Fangyu, the Crown Prince of the Dragon Imperium. His Majesty here is the King of the Southern Continent, Alex Benton."
"Greetings," Alex said as he cupped his hands.
The Swan unfurled his wings and bowed a little to both of them. "I am called Jian Kugong. I was sent here to take you all to our leader," he said. "Please, follow me."
He flapped his wings and started flying. Alex and the Crown Prince started flying behind it, going into the large forest that covered most of the Beast Paradise.
Alex was a little surprised to see the beast's cultivation base. A Saint Soul realm beast was always a rare sight, and he couldn't believe that one had been sent just to be their guide.
He could also tell how much intelligence this beast had, which likely meant that its bloodline was a very strong one.
He remembered the Swan courtyard back in the Dragon Palace, which had been formed in honor of the Swan which was one of the 7 beasts that had come along with the first Azure Dragon.
'Could it be one of its descendants?' he wondered. There was a major possibility.
Alex's attention was immediately pulled away after just flying a few hundred meters into the forest. He could sense the many alchemy ingredients around him, which both confused and surprised him.
There were so many of them here that he nearly believed it was an alchemy garden that he was passing through.
He looked around at the thick forest and realized that due to the lack of human interference, it had grown to a point where it was full of resources and the resources were not being used efficiently.
He didn't say anything about it and simply flew along with the Swan silently as the only sound he heard was the wind moving through the forest and the swan flapping his wings.
He looked below at the river that flowed through the forest. It was a big one and multiple such streams flowed from the Beast Paradise that gathered at the end of it and fell as the waterfall there.
"Where does this water come from?" Alex asked. "Is there a source in the north?"
"There are snow mountains in the north. During the winter, it snows there, filling them to the peak. During the summer, they melt and make the river that you see below you," the Swan said.
"I see," Alex said. Not every place had such a system for getting water. Both Southern Continent and Western Continent survived mostly on rainwater as well as spring water.
They saw multiple beasts as they flew and flew close to a large pond that formed from one of the streams. He could see many beasts relaxing next to the pond, bathing in the warm sunlight that had just started creeping through the forest.
"How long will it take us to reach the leader?" Alex asked.
"If you do not wish to sightsee, we can speed up and reach there in half a day," the Swan answered. "What should we do?"
