"Mother-in-law?" Long Huan seemed confused and concerned all of a sudden. He had spent so many years never even considering he had a family on his wife's side, and now that he heard about his mother-in-law, he was feeling nervous.
"Yes, your Mother-in-law, my aunt," Alex said, standing up. Memory was no longer needed as he didn't have any pills to make, so it floated toward him, disappearing into his Soul Space.
Zhan Luoyang noticed that it hadn't disappeared into any storage bag, but wasn't sure where else it had gone. She could only assume a necklace artifact since the thing seemingly floated into his chest.
"I see," Long Huan said. "I will look forward to the day I will get to meet her and the rest of your family."
"Look forward to?" Alex asked. "No, we're leaving right now."
Long Huan was taken aback. "What? Right now?" he asked.
"Yes," Alex said. "Or do you have anything else to do in this empire?"
The man hesitated a bit before shaking his head. "No, I have nothing else to do," he said. "But still, leaving right now is a bit…"
"I'll think of a way," Alex said. "You came through the secret realm. How did you enter it when it wasn't time?"
"Anyone can enter it whenever they want," Long Huan said. "Not to mention I have the Ivory Sword to cut through the walls of any secret realm to hide myself if needed."
"Right," Alex said. "Anyway, get ready to leave. Tell my sister we're leaving."
The young man nodded and quickly wrote into Hannah's hands what they were going to do next.
"Maybe you shouldn't hurry," Zhan Luoyang said. "There are many people in the house that can see you leave. If they start questioning and the rumor somehow reaches the Emperor, it will be bad."
"I don't want to wait an entire day just to…" Alex sighed. "Can you dress them in some servant clothes? I will tell the others that I need some ingredients from the city, so I will want to quickly visit it."
"That can work," Zhan Luoyang said. "But I can't get them out without many people seeing it. I should get a talisman to hide them. Our treasury might have a few. Let me go fetch some."
"No need," Alex said and flipped his hands open. Whisker appeared on his hand in a flash of white light, looking around confused. He saw Zhan Luoyang and finally turned around to see Alex and the rest.
"Brother… what is going on?" Whisker asked.
"Ah!" Alex realized in a start. "I'm sorry. I was so taken aback by the whole thing that I forgot to tell you guys."
Pearl came out a moment later as well, the large white tiger looking around confused. His white fur was pristine and without any other color. Alex grimaced a bit, but quickly hid it. These people had already become part of something worse than Pearl's existence, so he had no reason to hide them from him.
Still, Zhan Luoyang gasped. "The White Tiger!" she said loudly, but quickly realized she might have been wrong. There were no stripes on Pearl's body after all.
Pearl looked around and then at himself. A look of panic showed in him as well, but it was quickly squashed when a feeling of calmness flowed to him through the bond. He looked around at Alex and saw a look that said everything was okay.
Then he looked at the situation and was as confused as Whisker was.
"Pearl, Whisker, look at who I found," Alex said, pointing to Hannah. "I found my sister."
Both of the beasts had their eyes go wide. "Brother, you found your sister? This is great news!" Pearl exclaimed.
"Brother, congratulations!" Whisker shouted out loud as well.
They were saddened to learn of their situation, but the overall atmosphere was still one of happiness. They had no doubt that Alex would fix this problem as soon as he could.
"Whisker, go with Lady Luoyang," Alex said, pointing to the woman in front of her.
"Take him and go as far as you can with him from this place, and then find a safe place where we can put them the two of them," Alex said.
"Okay," the woman said. "But then how will we take the two of them?"
"Leave that to me," Alex said. "Just go for now, and tell me when you're there through Whisker. He will relay it back to me."
The woman nodded. "I'll do that," she said. She wasn't sure what she was to do precisely, but she was going to do it.
Before leaving, however, she took out some talisman and handed it over to the young prince.
"Here, I forgot to give them to you yesterday," she said.
"Oh, they were made already?" the young man said with a surprised look. Alex stepped close to see what they were.
"Teleportation talisman?" he asked. He could easily locate the rune for teleportation. It looked somewhat different, but still quite similar to the teleportation talisman he had used to teleport out of the Northern Continent so long ago.
"That is a strong one. You're planning to use this to leave the Empire?" Alex asked.
"These are just failsafe," Long Huan said. "To take us elsewhere if we ever come upon a situation where we need protection."
Alex nodded. "But I see something wrong with the talisman. It only takes you west," he said.
"No, that is how it was made," the prince said. "I'm surprised you can read a talisman this well. Are you knowledgeable about talisman as well?"
"His Majesty completed all the Talisman trial in the Realm of Trials. He is the first one to do so in many decades now," she explained.
Alex ignored his shock. "Why only west?" he asked.
"Because the other direction is dangerous," the young man said. "There is no fixed range on this and randomly teleports you away. North and South would put me either still in the Empire, or in the ocean to fend for myself. East is the same with all of it being ocean or worse, the Edge."
"The West is the longest direction, so it is the safest to run away to," he explained. "A bunch of these and we should be able to make it to the Southern Continent or even the Western Continent."
"Be careful not to fall into the border of the Central Continent though," he said. "That would not be a fun situation."
Long Huan gave him a confused look. He wondered why Alex talked like he knew what would happen there.
"Anyway, I'll leave," Zhan Luoyang said and walked away.
Once she was gone, Alex waited for a moment and brought out Memory again. It would be good to make everyone think he was making another pill. A pill cloud would be quite the distraction, just in case.
He quickly sat down and started making a new pill. It would be a simple healing pill, nothing more. He was quick about it too, seeing Zhan Luoyang calmly, but quickly walking through the garden to make her way to another house separate far in the distance.
Ingredients flowed out from inside him one after another and within minutes another pill cloud formed. Zhan Luoyang reached a small house, seemingly dedicated to just servants, and entered a room in there.
It was time.
