Alex left to roam the colony a day after he was done resting. He was with Whisker who recorded everything for Pearl and went around meeting the various beasts that could talk to him.
He asked about the history of the colony, how they came to live here, and how they were treated when they came.
On the basis of learning about historical knowledge, Alex gathered a bit of information that, when combined with what he had been given by Ren Xiao, revealed a larger picture of this place.
The Shi family had always been the true rulers of the Lion Colony ever since the first Azure Dragon had come to this realm. For ages, their descendants had looked after the people of this land while the ones that got old ones either broke through to the Immortal realm and left this land, or died trying.
Even the previous leader, Shi Guyong had tried to break through and had ended up dying to the tribulation lightning. There were many that still remembered that moment.
It was only after that that Guyong became the leader of the Colony. He had been a leader of the colony for the past 4 thousand or so years, before dying himself due to a Qi deviation.
As for who would take over his place as the leader, everyone unanimously chose the Golden Lion that lived, Zhu Xiongwei.
After learning what he could, Alex returned to his home and brought out Pearl.
"What did you find?" Pearl asked the moment he came out. He had been anxious the entire time and truly wanted to know whatever he could from this location.
"I… learned your mother's name," Alex said. "Shi Meiyong, daughter of Shi Guyong and Bai Meirong."
"Shi… Meiyong," Pearl worded out the name himself. "That… was my mother's name?"
Alex nodded with a smile and went up next to Pearl to pet him a little. He rubbed his back while remembering the giant white cat that had appeared in the Southern Forest of the Crimson Empire so many years ago.
She had been on death's door and yet she had protected her child. Pearl had been way too young to remember any of that.
"What else?" Pearl asked. "What else did you find?"
"That's the weird part," Alex said. "Nothing. I found nothing else at all."
"Nothing?" Pearl turned to look at him in confusion.
"Yeah," Alex said. "The beasts here talked a lot about your grandfather and even a bit about your grandmother, and yet… they know nothing about your mother."
"How can that be?" Pearl asked.
"I don't know," Alex said. "All they mentioned was that their Leader's daughter had disappeared a few thousand years ago, and since then they had never seen her at all."
"They would ask the leader, but they would never get a straight answer. As far as they were aware, she had died."
Pearl frowned. "But that can't be," he said. "I wouldn't have been born if she was dead."
"I know," Alex said. "That's the weird part I mentioned. Also, there's another weird thing that these beasts either don't realize or don't want to think about. It's… a bad news so prepare yourself."
"What's the news?" Pearl asked, solemn in his tone.
"Your grandmother is not alive as well," Alex said. "At some point around the time when your grandfather died… she died as well."
"Huh?" Pearl looked at Alex. "That can't be a coincidence."
"No," Alex said. "And then, the Leadership that was supposed to go to your mother moved to the current Leader, Zhu Xiongwei."
"Are you suggesting that it was him that killed my grandparents?" Pearl asked.
"There is a chance, which is why I mentioned it," Alex said. "But it is a small chance. Something else must've happened for sure."
"Is there no way to find out exactly what happened?" Pearl asked. "What if you use your technique to search the beast's brain?"
"That's not easy," Alex said. "In the first place, I do not know who knows what. One could know nothing and another could be hiding the truth, and I wouldn't be able to tell which one."
"Not only that, even if I did find someone who I know for sure knows the information, I would be leaving myself vulnerable in that scenario as well since my body would be alone."
"I can protect you," Pearl said quickly.
"I don't doubt you would try your hardest," Alex said. "But if I do manage to search their souls, that means I will either have to kill an innocent beast for no reason or get chased by all the beasts of this land as a single man. It's not a very good idea."
"Then?" Pearl asked. "What can we do?"
Alex thought for a bit. "There… is a way," he said. "It's not a very good way, but I might be able to get something done if it all goes right."
"What way?" Pearl asked.
"Let me check if it is viable first or not," Alex said. "I will need to make pills for a while first of all though."
Pearl wasn't sure what Alex was planning, but he trusted him.
The very next day, Alex started making the pills that were requested of him. He had received so many blood and beast cores that he easily could make many of them.
By now, his total number had increased by over 200, closing in on 250 blood beasts from the Beast paradise alone.
Adding in the number from before, he had enough blood beasts to reach 400.
Aside from that, Alex also improved his Blood aura, breaking past the barrier that kept him in Saint Transformation 2nd realm and finally reached the 3rd realm.
His cultivation base was also reaching close to a breakthrough, but once again he couldn't speed up this one. He needed to be very careful, so Alex did his best to ignore his instinct to break through and focused on stabilizing his core as much as he could.
He wasn't sure if that helped at all or not, but it wouldn't hurt to just try. It would instead most likely hurt if he didn't.
He made the pills as many as he can and the lion was more than happy to see Alex's products. He was more than happy to receive the 5 Veined pills, which improved his cultivation speed by such a drastic amount that he still worried that there was some sort of side effects waiting to show themselves.
Then, one night, Alex made a pill that surprised the Lion. The thing that surprised him was that the number of lightning for that very pill had struck 6 times instead of 5.
Alex walked out of his residence, haggard, and walked up to the Lion who had just arrived.
"Senior," he said. "I made this pill with 6 veins. Would you mind testing this and seeing how useful it is compared to the 5-veined pill? I think someone of high cultivation realm like you can see the differences better."
"A cultivation pill?" the Lion asked in surprise. "Sure. I just cultivated 2 days ago, so you'll have to wait for 3 days before I do it again, I think."
"That's alright, take your time," Alex said, sending away the Lion. Once he was gone, his face turned to a smile.
His initial plan had worked. Now, he needed to wait 3 days before his second plan.
