"Immortal beings?" Elder Liang looked in surprise. "Plural?"
"I don't know how many just yet. Only that they have come and hidden themselves for some reason," Alex said. "I can't tell much from here. Let us return to the palace and see if the King has received any more information than us."
The two elders nodded and the three of them quickly returned to the palace. Alex went to find the King who was in his hall, surrounded by the other elders.
"Your Majesty, are you alright?" the King asked.
"I am fine," Alex said. "Do you have any idea what is going on out there?"
The King shook his head. "His Majesty has given out orders for everyone out there to send him what has happened. I'm sure we will learn soon enough."
Alex nodded. He was curious where the Immortals had even come down to. He wondered how far to the west this even went on for.
They waited for a bit for anyone to learn anything, but no new news came at all. The elders around the palace hall were in debate as to what exactly was going on, and Alex could see that no one truly knew about the Immortals that had descended. A few of them had thrown it out as a possibility though.
"Quiet!" the King quickly spoke. "I'm receiving communications from his majesty."
Everyone stopped the moment the king spoke and let him listen to the communication. The King placed the talisman on his forehead and listened to what he was told.
He slowly placed the talisman down while processing what he had heard.
"King Tan, what did the Emperor say?" Alex asked.
"I am told to take my guards and go visit the Ivory Kingdom," he said. "No one has managed to contact Queen Song just yet."
"The Ivory Kingdom?" Alex asked for a while in confusion. "Is that where… where you are going to go now?"
"Yes," the King said before quickly standing up.
"I will go too," Alex said.
"I'm sorry, Your Majesty, but I cannot take you along," the King said. "There is a chance that the Ivory Queen might be dead. There could be a danger. I do not wish to take you along with me."
"The King is right, your Majesty," one of the guards said. "We are not sure if we can protect you at all. Please understand our situation and don't force us to protect you."
"I will be fine," Alex said. "I have my own—"
His eyes wavered for a moment as he instinctively wanted to turn his head to the side as he sensed something else. He was not surprised to see that any of these people had sensed it at all.
After all, it was a Spatial manipulation that had just happened.
"You're right," he said. "I should not go. I should not place my people in danger for my own curiosity. It is not right of me."
"My apologies. I will not stop you from doing your duty anymore."
Alex turned around and walked away from the room, along with his two elders who had inquisitive looks of their own.
They quickly followed Alex as he went toward the garden.
"What happened kid?" Godslayer asked.
"I'm not confident, but… I think they left."
* * * * *
Bai Jingshen was standing next to Senior Yang in case he was needed there. "Did I sense that right?" he asked. "Did they just leave?"
"They left," Senior Yang said. "Or… at least someone did."
"But why?" the snake asked. "Were they not here for you?"
"Let's not get too hasty now," the man said. "It is true that someone left, but it is most likely the case that many more have remained behind. After all, we do not know how many came down."
"True," the snake said.
"There is another possibility though," Bai Jingshen said. "Given all the inconsistencies, I fear this might be the actual possibility."
"You feel the same?" Senior Yang asked. "I don't want to have hope, but I can't help but think it in the back of my head."
"What? What possibility?" the snake asked.
"It is possible that whoever came never intended to take Senior away," Bai Jingshen said. "It is possible… that they came here for something else entirely."
Senior Yang nodded. "Or… someone else entirely."
* * * * *
The Dragon Emperor sensed the chance in space as well, but he wasn't aware of what it meant. He did not have the same level of control and authority over Space as Alex did.
He contacted his vassals. "Something just changed. See if you can communicate with the Snowheart City or the area around it," he said. "If not, have Tan Qiu hurry up and see what is happening."
Once his people left, he waited there patiently, trying to learn what had happened. He waited there, not touching the alchemy ingredients in front of him, waiting for the time his talisman vibrated.
About an hour later, it did. He quickly listened to what was told, a bunch of information, and finally felt relieved when he was told that everything was alright
* * * *
Alex waited for a few hours on his own, painting something to get his mind off the worry. Then, the King returned some time after and gave him in general what had happened.
"I arrived way outside the capital to find a barrier covering most of the upper Ivory kingdom. I couldn't communicate inside at all, and couldn't tell what was happening."
"We tried to break through, but it didn't work. After a while, the Ivory Queen sent out a single piece of information."
"She said… Everything is alright, and the barrier would last for a year or so before it goes down. Until then, we will have no communication from inside there."
Alex looked at the man curiously. "No other messages? No inclination of what had happened?" he asked.
"None," he said. "We will have to wait for the barrier to go down before we learn anything else."
"Okay…" Alex thought. "I guess we'll have to wait for a year to find out what exactly happened then."
