Alex could see many beasts roaming the jungle that was the land of this kingless kingdom.
Very few beasts bothered making any sort of shelter at all, and almost all of them lived out in the open.
Alex tried not to take ingredients from places where the beasts considered their home. The beasts however didn't seem to care about it as much as he did.
Some of those beasts bowed when they saw him. They recognized the healer that had started living in the palace a month ago.
After nearly 2 hours of picking up ingredients, Alex felt that he had enough of the ingredients for now. Most of the ingredients he had found couldn't even be used right now since they could only make Saint rank pills.
Once he felt he was done, he turned to look at Yao Jia and asked, "is there any way we can go to a spirit stone cave?"
"Spirit stone cave? Hmm, let's see. There should be one close by as far as I know. I can take you there," she said.
"Thank you," Alex said and followed her. Along the way, Alex saw more beasts that were all in the True Realm. The only beasts not in the True realm were either young beasts or beasts that were incredibly close to being in the True Realm.
Since beasts started cultivating from a very young age, it was a hard task to find a beast that was both an adult and not in the True realms.
Finally, after a few minutes of walk, Yao Jia stopped in front of a cave at the foot of a mountain. Alex was even surprised to see a mountain in this place. His image of this place had been nothing but forests.
"How many mountains are there in this kingdom?" he asked.
"I don't know, hundreds maybe," Yao Jia asked.
"And are there anything else here? Like a desert, a sea, and what not?" he asked.
"No," Yao Jia said. "Although there are a few large lakes, but not sea. As for a desert, you won't find that in the Western Continent. You will have to go to the southern continent."
"Huh?" Alex stopped and put on a confused face. "What do you mean there aren't any deserts in the Western Continent?" he asked with a chuckle. "There's one right behind where I stay."
"Eh?" Yao Jia stopped too. "There is a desert in this continent? Can't be. I've read every record, and there is nothing about a desert in this continent."
"No, there is one to the north," Alex said. "It's a rather large desert too. Furthermore, you can't use cultivation base there at all."
"Huh?" Yao Jia was fully confused now. "No way. Wait for a second," she said and thought about something. She started drawing a map on the ground right in front of the cave opening.
The map depicted a land that was wide at the top and thin at the bottom. It was also pretty long vertically as well.
"What is this?" Alex asked as he had never seen such a land structure before.
"This is the Western Continent," she said.
"Oh," Alex's eyes widened as he looked at the drawing of the continent. "Which way is north?" he asked.
"This wider section," she said.
Alex tried to think about the map of the empire and superimposed the image in his mind with the image in front of him.
"So, this is the Crimson empire," he said as he drew on top of the map. "And this is where I live. The desert is right above me, here."
"No way. The books say that it's just a bunch of mountains," Yao Jia said.
"No, your books are wrong. It's nothing but desert up there," Alex said.
"Really?" Yao Jia asked in a troubled manner. "Oh god, I wonder what other information is wrong in that book then."
"How old is that book anyway?" Alex asked. "You must not have updated the information in that book for hundreds of years right?"
"Thousands," Yao Jia said. "Wow, I shouldn't accept all information there as facts."
"Can we go in now?" he asked.
"Ah yes, let's go," Yao Jia took him through the opening.
As soon as Alex entered, he could feel a different level of Qi in the air. The amount of Qi in the surrounding had doubled, if not tripled in just the first five meters of the cave.
Light started to disappear the further they went in. Darkness was taking over. But, at some point, light returned once again, but it had a slightly blue hue to it.
Alex started seeing crystals along the sides of the wall deep in the cave. The further in he went, the more such crystals he could see.
The crystals were naturally formed into perfect cuboid shapes that with just a little effort could be broken into many pieces.
"Woah, so this is how people get spirit stones huh?" he asked. He walked up to a clump of it and hit it slightly with his fist.
The clump of spirit stones broke down into about 20-30 different spirit stones, which Alex pocketed. He stood up and looked at the cave. Just in his vicinity, he could see hundreds of such clumps.
"So many," he thought. He felt like he had hit a jackpot.
Without any other thought, he started picking the spirit stones up. He would take clumps and easily crush them to turn them into spirit stones.
"Such a shame that these are just common Spirit stones. It would be amazing if these were True spirit stones," Alex said.
"If they weren't common spirit stones, they likely wouldn't be spirit stones, would they?" Yao Jia said.
"Sorry? What do you mean?" Alex asked.
Yao Jia stopped from breaking apart the clumps and looked at him. "Do you know how this cave is formed?" she asked.
"Sort of, yes," he said. "When a common spirit vein remains stagnant for long, it turns to a spirit stone cave."
"You are a little wrong there," Yao Jia said.
"Which part?" Alex asked.
"Hmm, alright let me ask this. How do you think True spirit veins are formed?" she asked.
Alex fell into thought. "Uhh… they don't form naturally?" he asked.
"They do, but they are also a matured form of Common Spirit veins. Without a common spirit vein, you wouldn't have a True spirit vein," Yao Jia said.
"Wait, so both spirit stone cave and a higher rank spirit vein are formed from the same spirit vein? How does that work?" he asked.
"When you have a spirit vein, it tried to absorb the energy from the surrounding. If left alone and it successfully gathers as much energy as it wants from the surrounding, it evolves to a higher rank Spirit vein."
"But, if it is left alone, but cannot gather the required energy, the spirit vein slowly dies, and the crystal breaks apart to become the spirit stones. So, you can either have a lower rank spirit stone cave, or a higher rank spirit vein."
"If you want a higher rank spirit stone cave, that will take a very, very long time since it will have to fail as ascending to a higher grade," Yao Jia explained.
"Ah, I see," Alex said. "Are there any True rank spirit stone caves in here?" he asked.
"Um, I think there are a few. But they're quite far away from here. Even father would take an hour or so," she said.
"Can we go there someday?" Alex asked. "I have a boat artifact that can help us travel fast. If it takes your father an hour, we can do it in about 3 to 4 hours with my boat."
"Hmm, I will ask him if he allows it," she said.
"Thanks."
They went on with the rest of the time doing the same thing over and over again, collecting as many spirit stones as possible for Alex.
Finally, once they were done, they left the cave, with it almost barren now. "What will you do with so many spirit stones," she asked.
"Uhh… cultivate," Alex said.
They walked back towards the palace and in just a short few minutes returned. They walked past the gate and entered the garden.
The amount of sunlight that struck them in just that moment was more than their entire journey through the forest.
Yao Jia sent the other beasts on their way and turned around towards Alex. "That should have satisfied you for a few days right?" she asked.
"Ah yes, thank you," Alex said.
"Good. Now please make some more pills so that I can breakthrough faster as well," She said.
"Haha, I will try. I have a recipe for a p—"
Suddenly, a bright light followed by a loud 'hmm' appeared from far away. Alex shielded his eyes and looked in the direction the sound had come from.
But to his surprise, it felt like it was everywhere in front of him. "What's going on?" he asked.
When the light finally went away, he turned around to ask Yao Jia, but her face was in the most utter shock he had seen yet.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"Intruders," she said. "Someone opened the formation and entered the secret realm. From the sound of it, there were many that entered."
"What? Someone got into the secret realm?" Alex asked in surprise.
"I'm sorry. I will talk to you later. I need to inform the elder," She said and immediately left the garden.
Alex stood where he did and looked towards the direction the light had appeared from and thought, "Who came to the secret realm?"
