The Crown Prince seemed quite proud of his fiancee's progress. His grin was very wide when he talked about her.
"What about you?" Alex asked. "Do you not wish to reach Level 10 as well? Follow in your father's footsteps and all."
"I do. Of course, I do," the prince said. "But sadly I do not have the time for it right now. With all the military stuff that I'm forced to look after, I don't really have much time in the day."
"Haha, you're more busy as a crown prince than I have ever been as a King," Alex said.
The Crown Prince chuckled awkwardly. "With father going into closed cultivation, the rest of the continent's well being falls under my shoulder. I was supposed to come here to get what I wanted nearly an year ago, but because of everything I had to keep pushing it all back. You saw how long you had to wait."
"I did," Alex said. "You made me wait for so long I nearly broke through again."
The Crown Prince chuckled at what he believed was just a joke. "But you don't have to worry about me, your Majesty," he said. "Sooner or later, I will reach Level 10 too. And for that, I will have you to thank."
"Hmm?" Alex was taken back a little. "Thank me? Why?"
"Because of your deal with my father," the prince said. "Thanks to that, I will be able to acquire the same knowledge my father does."
"You'll have to wait 100 years, you know?" Alex asked.
"Just a century, your majesty. I spent longer between Level 5 and 6. If 100 years is all it takes for me to go from Level 9 to 10, then I will be more than happy to."
Alex didn't know what to say, not that there was anything to say. He had agreed to this since in that amount of time, his own alchemists would grow and learn so much more than these two father son would.
"I'll look forward to your ascension to Level 10 in a century's time then," Alex said. "Have you made a new pill yet?"
"Yes, I've made one," the Crown prince said. "A simple pill to dampen your own emotions. Not that useful though."
"Oh, then it truly is just the other half remaining then," Alex said. "Then you are already a step beyond your own fiancee."
"Haha, I didn't want to sound ostentatious," the Crown prince said. They talked for a while about various mundane things that they wanted to.
Somewhere around noon, Alex decided that he had seen everything he had wanted from the wild and asked the Swan to speed up.
They flew for a while longer. Even at the fastest, they were told it would take them half a day to reach the colonies and they weren't being lied to.
Midnight had passed by the time they arrived at the colony that they were flying towards for nearly 18 hours.
Coming closer, they saw the colony for afar. Not only was the moon hung high in the sky, the colony itself was bright with lanterns and what not that made it look like a normal city.
There was no walls or anything surrounding the colony. Instead what separated the colony from the forest was a large area of farmland that they seemed to be using to grow some food.
Beyond the farmland were a large bunch of houses, all of which were made up of wood and didn't look very aesthetically appealing. They were of different shapes and sizes, all meant to accommodate the beasts those houses belonged to.
At the center of the colony was a patch of land with green grass growing on it with a pond at the very middle.
There were a few beasts that rested outside in the grass and many looked up to see who had come.
The swam landed outside the colony and looked toward the two. "This is the Lizard Colony. We're here," he said.
Alex looked in awe while the Crown Prince didn't show much amazement at the place as he had been there before.
The swan quickly notified someone, and before Alex could take it all in, a few beasts walked out from inside the village.
They seemed to have been waiting for them and quickly arrived to accept them.
Alex saw nearly a dozen or so beasts that came, but only 7 of them stood at the front.
"Welcome to my Colony," a Lizard slowly crawled out front from even the seven. It sounded masculine from what the two heard of it and saw that it was a sleek Lizard with smooth, scaled skin.
The scales on its body went from different shades of blue to different shades of green.
"I am Hua Xiyi," the Lizard spoke up. "The leader of the colony."
Alex bowed a little in greeting.
"Senior Xiyi, greetings," the Crown prince bowed. "Do you remember me?"
"Of course, a young prince," the Lizard said, bringing its tongue out to speak to him. "How could I ever forget about our future Emperor?"
The Crown Prince gave a chuckle.
"Let me introduce you all to him," the Crown Prince spoke. "This is Alex, King of the Southern Continent."
The beasts made a collective sound that was either them being surprised or them being confused. It was hard to tell.
"Welcome, King Alex. We've heard about you a lot," the beasts said.
"Oh, news of my arrival has reached here as well?" he asked. "I must say I'm flattered to know that you know of me."
"We heard it in passing a year ago from the traders that came to us. They said you have incredible Alchemy talent and are also very young. That made us curious about you and we learned as much as we can."
"I'm happy to hear you seniors have been curious about me," Alex said.
"We have," the Lizard said. "But there is a confusion that I must ask you to clear."
"Please, go ahead," Alex said.
"How did you become the King of the Southern Continent? Did something happen to her majesty the Vermilion Bird that you had to take over?" the Lizard asked.
"No," Alex said. "I didn't take over anything. I was crowned a king by Her Majesty to help her take care of the continent in her absence. I am very much her subordinate."
"Huh?"
"Oh!"
And another sound exclaiming surprise could be heard from the group, especially the 7.
"Her majesty crowned you to be a king?" the Lizard asked.
"She did," Alex answered.
The Lizard seemed perplexed for some reason. "Does that mean her Majesty is healed from her battle 5 thousand years ago?"
Alex was surprised they knew about it, but then every important figure in the Eastern Continent probably knew about it, and these beasts were no exception.
"Oh, you guys must not have heard about it," the Crown Prince spoke up. "The phoenix ruler in Southern Continent healed and came out to rule again over a decade ago. That was when his Majesty was crowned a King as well."
"Oh, so her Majesty is back, huh," the Lizard said. "I see. That's good news to hear."
Finally, the Lizard looked at the two and spoke up.
"Please come into the colony."
