Pearl remained weeping next to Ren Xiao, who also wept. The other 6 female beasts sobbed in the back as well, and even Bai Jingshen wiped his eyes as they were filled with tears.
Alex found it difficult to not tear up as well.
They remained that way for nearly 5 minutes before Bai Jingshen turned toward Alex. "Thank you," he said softly. "If not for you, we would not have gotten to talk to her at all."
"That's alright," Alex said. "Anything for Pearl."
Pearl turned around too. "Thank you, brother," he said. Everyone else gave him words of gratitude as well.
One by one, the beasts started leaving Alex's Spiritual Sea, and Alex felt the weight lift from his mind. It was a sensation of freedom that he would have never felt unless something had bogged down his spiritual sea.
Pearl looked at the mist of white energy that floated in the air and dropped one final tear before putting on a brave, smiling face. "I love you too, mother."
He too then disappeared from the spiritual sea, leaving Alex alone.
Alex could tell now that Shi Meiyoung had been gone from his Spiritual sea, he was free to leave. In fact, he needed to leave quickly, or else there would be trouble for him.
However, seeing the vast cloud of spiritual energy, he knew that he couldn't let it go to waste. Even if it was the energy that formed Pearl's mother, he needed to take it in. Letting it go would just be a waste.
So, he raised his hand, and the yellow fog released from his palm, moving toward the foreign element in his Spiritual sea and attacking it. Whatever it attacked and destroyed, it consumed, turning it into Alex's own power.
Alex felt his spiritual energy grow once again, becoming stronger and vast. It was a noticeable improvement and that made him feel quite happy.
He didn't linger on the thought of happiness and quickly came back outside. The moment he was out, he instantly employed his cultivation technique and started absorbing the absurd amount of energy that came from Pearl's Mother's core.
The White Cat had been in the Saint Transformation 4th realm, and that was a massive enough jump in the amount of energy Alex was used to getting from the cores.
Without hesitation, he pulled out a pill to help him with cultivation and ate it. Soon enough, he was deep in cultivation, giving no thought to the happenings of the events around him.
Pearl was still sobbing and so was everyone else. But Bai Jingshen had long since stopped feeling sad. Instead, a look of worry, confusion, awe, and incredulity filled his face as he looked at Pearl.
'A child of impossibility,' he thought as he remembered his granddaughter's words. 'Without a doubt.'
"Pearl," he called for him.
Pearl turned around. "Yes, Grandpa?" he asked.
"Come with me, I need to have a talk with you," Bai Jingshen said.
Pearl wiped his tears and looked at his grandpa. "What do you want to talk to me about?" he asked.
Bai Jingshen's wives were staring back at them now, curious what they were talking about.
Bai Jingshen looked at them and shook his head. "This has to be only you and me," he said. "I can't say it out loud before I know for certain about something."
"Okay," Pearl said and followed Bai Jingshen, who took him away. The remaining beasts looked around confused, but quickly they too left.
Now, the dome was all empty, except for Alex who cultivated for nearly 4 days in total. By the time his cultivation had come to an end, he could feel that the speed of his cultivation had brought back some feeling of instability, and it was quite the strong one this time.
"Wow!" he couldn't help but say. "There was just so much energy there."
He had cultivated too much and too quickly. Even then, he had progressed quite far into his Saint Soul 9th realm. At the rate he had progressed, he was certain, that if he really went for it, he could reach the Saint Transformation 1st realm within the deadline without a doubt.
That was if he could pass the Inner Demon easily. If not, he would regress in his cultivation base at the most important time of his life.
It was a big risk to take, and Alex wasn't sure if he wanted to take that risk.
"I… I should take my time with the decision," he said to himself. "For now, let me deal with this feeling of instability."
Alex went by his time for the next few months either improving his body, Qi, and blood, or going around making sure the preparation for war was going well.
With Scarlet not involved in any of it, the elders had been looking after it all, so now Alex dealt with what he could there.
Pearl came to talk to Alex during one of those times and expressed his wish for the war. "I want to keep my promise to my mother," he said. "I want to kill that man, but the promise is more important to me. What should I do?"
He seemed to be very conflicted with his thoughts.
Alex petted Pearl's neck. "Don't worry, I'll think of something. I will have you involved as much as I can while still helping you keep your promise to your mother."
Pearl gave a small smile. "Thank you, brother," Pearl said.
Alex pat him on the back. "Come on. We have somewhere to go now. This might help us a lot during the war."
4 months passed easily, and the time of battle was drawing close. As time closed, Alex's chest felt heavy as well as the oath inside of him slowly tightened.
With not much time remaining, he decided it was time.
Alex gathered the nearly 20 thousand soldiers that were ready to go to the war. The remaining soldiers wanted to go as well, but they were simply too weak to be of any use in the war.
As such, only the stronger ones were being taken to the war.
A giant ship hung in the air, with modifications inside to hold all the soldiers inside of it. It hung in the air, glittering with all sorts of runes and formations that were ready to be used.
Alex looked down at the gathered soldiers, at the gathered beasts, his father, his aunt, his sister, his brother-in-law, Zhou Linfan, the elders, and everyone else who wanted to fight in the war.
The war was not just one of revenge, but also one of rescue. So, Alex spoke.
"Today is the day we have been waiting for," he shouted at the top of his lungs. "Our brothers and sisters were killed, even I was nearly killed, and many more of us are being kept hostage."
"The Dragon Emperor thinks he is the strongest and thus can do anything. Will we let him?"
"NO!" a resounding shout returned.
"Will we let him trample on us?" Alex asked.
"NO!"
"What will we do?" Alex asked.
"We will kill him!" "We will kill them all!" They all shouted.
"I wish you all luck and pray that you all make it out of this war alive," Alex said. "But fear not if you won't. Even if you die, your death will mean something."
"We will kill the Dragon Emperor."
