"Uh… no, I don't get it," Alex said. "What's a secret realm?" He had never heard of something like that during the last 5 or so months he had been in the game.
"Huh? You don't know? Wow, the humans really don't know much, huh?" Yao Jia asked. "And here father said that humans were superior in most cases because they are closer to the gods."
"Hmm… what was that?" Alex asked. Yao Jia said something that piqued his interest.
"I'm saying you guys are stupid. How do you not know about secret realms?" Yao Jia said.
"So… are you going to keep insulting me and not explain?" Alex asked.
"It's just a hidden space inside normal space. You know how storage bags work right?" she asked.
"Yes," Alex said. "If I remember correctly, they use some sort of formation to squeeze space into those bags."
"Exactly," Yao Jia said. "Secret realms are similar. It's just a massive space, except it's hidden in normal space by squeezing it to the point where it no longer visibly exists on the outside."
"So just imagine staying inside a storage bag, only it's massive and life can flourish inside," Yao Jia said.
"Oh," Alex said. "I didn't think one could squeeze space this much. The person who made this place must've been really powerful."
"Eh? No! This one was made naturally. This sort of stuff just happen on their own from time to time. Although finding one is very hard since you can't exactly enter these places from the outside under normal circumstances," Yao Jia said.
"How do you enter these places then?" Alex asked.
"The same way you came in. Teleportation formation," Yao Jia said. "That, or under the right conditions, the secret realms open on their own for a brief period of time."
"This one opens that way too?" Alex asked.
"Yes, but you can't enter that way," Yao Jia said. "This one can only be entered through the teleportation formation. Any other method of entry has been dealt with."
"Sorry… dealt with? As in…" Alex asked.
"We have formations that stop this place from acting up. In addition to that, there are formations outside of this place that puts anyone who comes close into an illusion and sends them back the way they came from," Yao Jia said.
"What if it's a saint realm human or beast that approaches?" Alex asked.
"Why would the illusory formation care if one is saint realm? Of course, it will send them back too," Yao Jia said.
"You have such powerful formations?" Alex asked in surprise.
"You are in the palace of the White Tiger. Having such measly formations around is a given," Yao Jia said.
"I see," Alex said. "Sent back the way they came from… huh? Is that why no humans have crossed the Southern forest before?"
"Well, given that the secret realm goes from one edge of the continent to the other, I would say it's safe to assume that no humans have crossed the forest before. They would all likely have been sent back," Yao Jia said.
"No wonder," Alex thought. "So that's the reason why we are isolated. Not only is the continent itself isolated, but we are also isolated from the rest of the continent too. That would obviously lead to us growing weaker as time went on. Especially since the people from other continents took away all of our resources."
"So, how many points of entry are there? Is the teleportation platform I came through the only one?" Alex asked.
"For your side? Yes. There is another one for the Luminance empire's side. Although, the places you can enter from there are many throughout the secret realm," Yao Jia said.
"I remember seeing no one around the stone platform when we were coming in. Does no one guard those spots? Can someone come in uninvited?" Alex asked.
"Yes," Yao Jia said. "If they know how to activate the formation, they can easily enter. Although they won't be able to enter the palace directly and will only enter some other place."
"Wait, you allow people to come in? I thought you were trying to keep people away given how you placed illusory formations around the outside," Alex asked.
"Oh, that's just to protect the secret realm from the outside, not what's in it. We just don't want someone to come in and mess up with the secret realms. There are way too many lives inside to allow someone to hamper it," Yao Jia said.
"Other than that, everyone is free to come," Yao Jia said. "As long as they can behave accordingly that is."
"You humans love killing beasts. So I wouldn't be surprised if people came in with the intention to kill us. In those cases, most of them are dealt with," Yao Jia said.
"What if someone strong comes in with the wrong intentions?" Alex asked.
"Oh, yeah I forgot to say. Only those under the Saint realm can enter this place. Otherwise, they will need to wait for us to go pick them up," Yao Jia said. "Or at least I think that's what they do. I don't really know. After all, I was only born a few hundred years ago. There are still many things around this place that I don't know about."
Alex nodded when he heard that, but then got confused. "Wait, you are a few hundred years old?" he asked with a surprised expression.
"Yes," she said nonchalantly. "How old are you?"
"I will be 19 in a few months," Alex said, still holding his surprise.
This time it was Yao Jia's turn to be surprised. "Oh wow, then I am at least 400 years older than you. Haha," she said.
"Don't most peak True realm beasts live up to around 1000 years old? For someone in your cultivation base which seems to be not that far into the True realm, you should have a life expectancy of around 700 years."
"How are you still so young after nearly half of your life has gone by?" Alex asked. He wondered if she was using some techniques to make her voice sound younger or if she was changing the way she looked.
"Oh that, it's because while I am 400 years old, I've only lived for about 60 years. So I am very young physically," she said.
This just confused Alex even more. "You are 400 years old, but you've only lived for 60 years? What happened to the other 340 years? Did you hibernate or what?" he asked.
"Us cats don't hibernate silly," Yao Jia said. "It's just because of the time difference in the place I usually stay at."
"Since most of the important parts of the palace are under a time dilation, while I was born 400 years ago, I've only lived for 60 years," she said.
Alex's eyes went wide with surprise. "You can change the speed of time here? How do you do that? Formations?" he asked.
"Of course. It's quite easy actually," she said. "Well… it's easy if you have the resources, but I don't know if you can find them in this continent."
"I see," Alex said. "Do you know what the resources are?"
"Nope," Yao Jia said. "You will have to ask my father to ask the senior Zebra that made those formations."
"Sigh, alright. We'll talk about those later," Alex said. He turned towards the wall and followed it to the side with his eyes until he saw an open gate in the front.
"Can we go out there?" he asked.
"I'm afraid not," Yao Jia said. "You are both a guest and a prisoner here, so you will have to stay inside until the seniors can decide what to do with you."
"Tsk, alright," Alex said and went back to the meadows to sit on the ground. He didn't know what else to do, so he just sat around, waiting for Pearl to come out.
"You guys don't have any alchemy room right?" Alex asked.
"What's an alchemy room? We have some free rooms if you want to turn it to that," she said.
"Alchemy room is a room with the formation in it that perpetually keeps a furnace active in it. It's also quite sturdy so that if a cauldron full of ingredients ever explodes, it can handle the explosion," Alex explained.
"Hmm… we should be able to make one," Yao Jia said. "Although, you will have to ask my father later on."
"Okay," Alex said. "At least I can distract myself that way."
He planned on practicing Alchemy and formation for the little time he was stuck around here. He wondered what other things he could do in the meantime and cultivating was the only answer he got from himself.
'Although that will require many high-level monster core, and I don't have that many,' he thought. 'How will I get them?'
"Can I ask you a question? I don't know how rude this question is though," Alex said.
"Uhh… you can ask it. I will try not to get offended if it is in fact very rude," she said.
"There must be quite a lot of deaths happening around here, right?" he asked. "What do you do with the monster core of the beasts that die?"
"Well, if it's a spoil of victory, we let the winner take it. If it's not, then the one who finds it keeps it," Yao Jia said. "Why do you ask?"
"Umm… you see, I am in need of a few monster cores myself, and was wondering if there was a way to get them around here," Alex said.
