Everyone began giving some words about the late Yao Ning, whatever they could offer.
The 9 remaining elders came forward and spoke, and so did Alex. Graham said some words as well, and so did a lot of other individuals who had known Yao Ning throughout her life.
The rest said nothing and stood there, listening to everything the others had to say.
After they were all done speaking, the head of the Yao clan burned the funeral pyre, leaving behind a silence in which only the crackling sounds of the burning fire were anything that could be heard.
The somber atmosphere was occasionally broken with a few sniffs, but other than that, there was nothing anyone else said.
Alex closed his eyes, praying for a better future for the old woman who had died to protect him. 'If reincarnation truly is real, may you have a happy life in the next one and all your dreams come true.'
He could feel his eyes moistening up and his nose starting to heat up. Something seemed to clog up his throat as if it laid heavy in there.
After a while, Alex looked up with a blazing resolution in his eyes. 'I will find you justice, Yao Ning.'
Once the fire died down, the Yao clan's head gathered the ashes and put them on a small urn before taking it up to Alex.
"Your Majesty!" he bowed slightly in Alex's presence. "Do you wish to take it with you?"
Alex thought for a short moment and shook his head. "She is of your family. Keep her."
The family head nodded. "To be honest, I believe she thinks of you and the other elders as family more than us. It has been a long time since anyone she knew lived in our family, and she herself had no offspring."
Alex shook his head. "Even so, you are of her blood, and she deserves to lay with her family," he said as he turned to look at the many gravestones that jotted out from the land.
"Let her stay here," Alex said.
"As you say, Your Majesty," the clan head said.
Alex looked at the urn and bowed slightly before walking away from the Yao family's ancestral ground. The rest of his family followed him, with Helen and Liz still wiping their tears even as they walked out.
They had only gotten to know the woman for a short period of time, but they had still remembered her enough that her death affected them.
The other elders also followed Alex out of the ancestral grounds to the front of the Yao family's home where carriages were already prepared to take them all to the teleportation formations.
Everyone boarded the carriage one by one and made their way out of the Yao Family's grounds.
Halfway through their travel, Alex got a direct message from Ren Guanting who was ahead of him in another carriage.
"Your Majesty, we have a problem." An urgent tone of her's told Alex that it was no normal trouble.
"What is it?" Alex asked her.
"A ship has arrived on the eastern shores, and they carry a group of soldiers from the Eastern Continent. They are demanding that you and their prince show up."
"What?" Alex shouted out loud, surprising his family.
"What? What is going on?" Helen asked in a somewhat worried tone.
Alex shook his head. "Don't worry," he said. "It's for me."
He teleported out of the carriage and quickly called out the elders to talk to them.
"I just got the message, Your Majesty," Ren Guanting said as she arrived, along with the other elders.
"When did they arrive?" Alex asked her.
"It should be sometime around the end of the funeral. Our soldiers sent us the message within moments of their arrival and their demands just as soon as well."
"What do we do?" another elder, Hou Xinya asked.
"They want me, so I'll go," Alex said. "But brother Huan…"
Alex was perplexed wondering if it was a good idea to take Long Huan with him.
"Could we ask Brother Zhou to come and help us?" Qiu Jianhong asked. "I'm embarrassed to say, but he is the strongest person we have at the moment with His Majesty Bai Jingshen back in his continent."
"Let them know," Alex said. "See what both of them decide to do."
By the time the carriages arrived at the teleportation ground, they were all informed of the situation and had come to a decision as well.
Alex had decided to go along with Liang Shufen, Qiu Jianhong, Ren Guanting, and Kang Xuefeng.
Aside from the 4 elders, Long Huan, Zhou Linfan, and surprisingly, Hannah had also decided to follow them to the east.
While others would consider Hannah weak with Saint Transformation's 3rd realm cultivation base, Alex knew that his sister was capable of much more. With a Celestial rank body, she was capable of fighting individuals multiple ranks higher than her, and even as she was, she was one of the strongest humans they had.
Perhaps, she was the strongest human in the Southern Continent at the current moment, even stronger than Zhou Linfan.
The rest of Alex's family were sent back to the palace where they would remain safely.
Alex and the rest teleported to Watchhill City where the Eastern Continent's soldiers had arrived at.
"Have our people immediately do a thorough search of the area. Capture anyone whose cultivation base is Saint realm or higher, and have them be investigated before letting go."
"If they refuse to answer, have someone order the Royal Alchemy hall to make as many Saint Truth pills as it needs to find out where they are from. I fear that some spies from the Eastern Continent will start coming through in secret now."
"As you say, Your Majesty," the 4 elders quickly replied as one and started making arrangements on their own.
Alex arrived on the sandy beach where the soldiers of the eastern continent were gathered in an orderly group with everyone wearing the bright azure blue uniform.
At the front was a slightly older woman in a similarly blue, but somewhat darker uniform with gold and silver intricacies in her uniform, defining her higher status.
Alex stood before that woman and looked at her. He didn't recognize her at all. He waited for her to talk.
The woman's face flashed a look of surprise and awe. "It really is true," she said softly before giving a grin. "I was told you had healed after being crippled, but you did not just that. You got your cultivation back as well."
Her casual tone got a few of the elders to get angry.
"How dare you speak with His Majesty that way. Get on your kn—"
Alex motioned for the elder to stop, before looking at the woman and at the nearly 200 different soldiers that were behind her.
"Is this all?" Alex asked his elders.
Instantly, spiritual senses blasted out from the elders as they searched through the sky for any more ships that were hiding in plain sight, or ever in the distance. They even checked within the ocean, but these were all there were.
Alex nodded when he received the answer and looked toward the woman. "Is this all of you?" he asked.
"Yes," the woman said. "This is all we need." She sounded confident, and it likely came from her Saint Transformation 6th realm cultivation base.
"Who are you?" Alex asked her.
"My name is Ying Weishu, and I am the Commander of the 3rd Batallion of the Talon Legion," the woman said proudly.
"Did your Emperor send a single Talon legion battalion to hunt me?" Alex asked. He took a step forward. "Does he look down on me?"
"We are enough for the task he has sent us for," the woman said, her face not changing.
"Is that so?" Alex asked as he took another step closer. "So he sent you here to just die? That sounds wasteful of him."
"Die?" the woman scoffed. "We won't die. We are strong."
Instantly, auras buffeted Alex from behind the woman as the 200 soldiers released their cultivation bases at once and created an array to empower the woman in front of them.
Instantly, the woman's battle prowess rose by nearly 3 entire levels, putting her comfortably in the Saint Transformation 9th realm zone.
The 4 elders instantly flew next to Alex to protect him and the other soldiers followed suit as well. However, Alex put up his hand to stop them.
Then, he took another step forward. "And do you think this is enough to kill me?" he asked. "Are you unaware of what happened in the sea?"
He stared right into her eyes.
The woman finally felt a hint of fear. She had heard of what Alex had done in the ocean, killing nearly 300 soldiers in total.
They had all said that Alex had used some sort of forbidden technique to empower himself, but no one was exactly sure.
"I… I'm sure I can beat you," she said quickly. "I'm sure I can beat every one of you."
Alex smiled. "Are you willing to bet your life on it?" he asked. "Then come attack me."
The woman's eyes narrowed and she felt something was wrong.
"No," she quickly answered. "We're not here to fight." She couldn't drag this out any longer. "We are just messengers for His Majesty the Dragon Emperor. We are here to deliver a message from him to you, King Alex."
Alex took a step back, finally curious.
"What message?"
