This was the very first time Pearl had seen his mother so clearly. Even if it was only a painting from a long time ago, he was more than happy to see it
"She looks so young," Pearl said.
"Yes, that's because this was probably taken over 3 thousand years ago, back before she disappeared from this place."
"How old was she here then?" Pearl asked. "I… don't know. Given that she was born around the time Bai Jingshen left this place to go to earth, this must have been about a thousand years after that."
"It's hard to judge her age since it seems she was a talented beast from a young age and reached a high cultivation base very early on," Alex said.
Pearl nodded and looked at the picture for a few moments before moving his head to see the other White Cat. "Grandma," he said softly.
Alex nodded. "And that should be your grandfather," he said, pointing to the picture of the Lion next to the White Cat.
Pearl looked at both of the pictures at once and stared at them for a while. Alex let him be. Instead, he focused on Whisker, seeing what he was doing.
Whisker was scurrying down a different hallway, teleporting in between the walls to go into rooms and look for stuff.
There was a guest area, a living room, some sort of training room, and a lot of bedrooms for members of the family.
As he continued going through, he ended up in a room that was dimly lit on the inside. But, Whisker could see the many scrolls that were on a shelf.
Alex got excited to see that. "Check what they are about," he gave the command. "See if anything stands out."
Whisker nodded and started looking through the scrolls. He checked out the contents on a few different scrolls, and Alex turned back toward Pearl who seemed to be done looking at the picture.
"Are you done?" Alex asked.
Pearl nodded. "I find it weird that I'm in the home where my mother was born," he said. "Even more so the fact that I have to sneak in here."
"We don't have a choice," Alex said. "Everyone here is our enemy, we have to remain careful."
Pearl nodded. "Where's Whisker?" he asked.
"Looking through some scrolls," Alex said. "But it seems it's written in a language he can't understand."
"It's most likely the Beast language," Pearl said. "All the books in great grandfather's library are in that language if I'm not mistaken."
"I don't think you are mistaken," Alex said. "Yao Jia taught me the human language by translating it from the Beast language. Maybe the ones that come from the Land of the Blessed Sun all know Beast Language."
Beast language referred to the alphabet used by the Beasts, which was way less widely spread than the Human alphabet or Demon alphabet.
Even though everyone spoke the same language, the writing language was completely different. There were many other languages as well, like the ones mortals developed in seclusion, or the ones that humans in the Central Continent used.
However, they weren't spread beyond their own small group. Even then they spoke the same language.
The reason they spoke the same language was apparently due to Heaven's Will. The same will that taught beasts the spoken language when they reached the Saint realm.
Even if one wanted to divert their words, sooner or later, the Intent of the heavens would bring it back to where it started from.
"There's nothing there of use for us," Whisker said. "Leave and go check other rooms."
Whisker nodded and left the room to go for another one.
"What do we do now?" Pearl asked. "Do we just stand by and wait for Whisker?"
"That's all we can do," Alex said. "He is the only one of us with the strongest senses without even having to use any spiritual sense. He is biologically gifted as a Seeking mouse and thus—"
Alex's words stuck in his throat as his eyes went wide in shock. "No…" he said in disbelief.
"What happened?" Pearl asked, seeing Alex panic.
"We need to leave," Alex said and turned around. "Whisker is dead."
Immediately, he ran out of the house with Pearl behind him. But before he could even get far away, a massive barrier rose around the house while at the same time, a strong spiritual sense flew out from deep inside the house.
Even with his concealment technique, invisibility technique, and the Heavenly silk on his body, the Spiritual sense still caught sight of him and its user walked out less than a second later.
Pearl turned around and growled while Alex brought out Midnight in preparation. Then, they saw the Leader of the Lion Colony, Zhu Xiongwei appear in front of them.
He looked at Alex and Pearl with eyes filled with rage, but he kept a deep calm as he spoke. "May I ask why you are intruding into my Uncle's mansion," he asked.
Alex took a deep breath. "I just wanted to look around how it was inside," he said. 'Dammit! Why the hell is he here and not at his own home?'
"I don't think sneaking in after disabling so many of our formations counts as just wanting to visit," the Lion said. "Please give me a valid reason so that I do not kill you right here."
"When Her Majesty the Phoenix finds out you killed me, you will have to face her wrath," Alex said.
"I suppose that is true," the Lion said, still seething in anger. "But that is no valid reason for why I shouldn't beat you up."
The Lion growled loudly, his golden mane turning golden bright as a gigantic lion face fell down from the sky.
Pearl was about to attack back, but Alex stopped him. "He's too strong," Alex said. "You'll need to hide."
Pearl vanished into Alex's body while he prepared an attack. Filling his sword with Blood Aura, he sent a strong attack flying into the sky.
The attack collided with the lion's face and the collision shook the ground where Alex stood.
'Strong,' he couldn't help but think to himself.
The Lion was a new leader, but he wasn't chosen for no reason it seemed. He was strong, at least in the Saint Transformation 5th realm, judging from how his Saint Transformation 3rd realm blood aura with his Qi and Sword Aura failed to gain the upper hand in the collision.
Same as Alex, the Lion was surprised to see Alex completely fine as well. There was not a single scratch on him despite his attempt to break a few bones at the very least.
"You've been hiding your powers until now," he said. "Forcing people to think you're a weak little human. All that for what? To sneak into our Colony and steal things from us? How many other things have you stolen from the other colonies?"
Alex gave a serious look. "I have stolen nothing," he said. "I wasn't going to steal anything from here either."
"If not stealing then what were you doing here?" the Lion asked.
"I'm trying to find out something," Alex said.
"Find out what?" the Lion asked.
"I wanted to find out how the previous Leader of the Colony, Shi Guyong, died," Alex said.
