After coming back, Alex had done a few testing on himself.
After merging with the yin orb, he needed to know if his body was still capable of doing what it used to do before.
The first thing he tested was if he could create Yin and Yang separately now that they were coming out in a fused form.
Alex realized that he could easily pull out yang and quickly fill his whole body with it if required.
As for Yin, it wouldn't come out unless he started circulating the Winter Moon technique.
He found his yin to be much better than before, and his only Yin technique, the Flickering Shadows technique had a much wider range and accuracy.
As such, Alex was sure that his Yin root had improved much more than he could have hoped for. However, like his Metal Qi and Yang Qi, he couldn't freely control Yin Qi outside of his body.
This meant, unfortunately for him, his Yin Spiritual root hadn't reached the Supreme rank and was only stuck around what others called 'Superior.'
If anyone found out that he thought having a 'Superior Yin root' was an unfortunate event, they would call him ungrateful and try to rip it away from him.
Other tests Alex did involve trying to see if he was capable of surviving poison or not. Thankfully, that aspect of his body hadn't disappeared at all.
In fact, it might have gotten stronger as well.
Aside from that, he found his body cultivation to have improved, he found his ability to overcome many realms to have improved, and various other small bits here and there to have gotten better.
Now, Alex only wished his sword skills would get better as well.
* * * * * *
The way to open a formation that wasn't carved on metal was to spread one's Qi into an equal amount per stroke at every node.
Each formation usually had a medallion or similar object accompany the owner that did the task of splitting their Qi for them.
Alex however didn't do that. He simply pumped his yang Qi into the formation, and somehow it started on its own.
That was a test Alex had been meaning to do for a while now but didn't have any chance to.
The first time Alex had been here, he had noticed something similar happening, but he hadn't given it much thought.
However, after the demon realm, Alex was starting to know just what his Qi was capable of.
He had done a few more tests since then, which had been successful. However, nothing was as substantial as what he had done right now.
Blue light shined from the platform that soon grew white and before anyone knew it, they were all teleported away.
When the light disappeared, Alex found himself inside the cave with white walls all around the massive room with glowing crystal stalactite hanging from the ceiling.
This looked similar to the room he remembered, but something was different. The shape of the room wasn't the same as the one he had been in previously.
"Where are we? This is not the room I had been to before, is it?" Alex asked.
"This is the platform that connects to the Luminance empire," the jaguar said with an incredulous look in his eyes. "Young man, how did you bring us into the palace exactly?"
"I…" Alex didn't know what to answer. He realized he hadn't just done one thing but two.
He had not only activated the formation, but also bypassed a security aspect of the formation that always sent everyone to one of the outer formations, and instead brought them directly into the palace.
'How indeed?' Alex thought. 'I had done it last time too.'
"Isn't it obvious?" the leopard asked. "He has the blood essence right?"
"Ah, right," the Jaguar said. "That would make perfect sense."
"Senior? Can you explain to me?" he asked.
"Anyone with our lord's blood can directly enter the palace," the jaguar said.
'Ah!' Alex thought as he finally realized why it happened. 'So I came here because I had the White Tiger's blood in me,' he thought.
If not for that, he would have likely been teleported to the forest inside the realm. That didn't explain how his Qi could easily activate formations, but at least he got one answer.
"Alright, let's go," the jaguar said.
The jaguar took the path forward and showed them the way. Alex felt nostalgic as he walked through the glowing hallway.
Helen looked around curiously, wondering what crystals in the ceiling were.
Qin Shan however was way too shocked out of his mind to think of anything clearly.
He was here. The heart of the continent that over 10 years ago had taken the lives of the most gifted youths of the empire.
Due to that incident, the empire had canceled the competition last decade that was supposed to take place every 10 years.
Which was why this year's competition held so much weight and was going to be just that extravagant.
They were going to have 2 decades' worth of competition in a single year.
"It's fine," Alex calmed Qin Shan down. "Seniors might be beasts, but they aren't like the beasts you will see outside. Most of the beasts that grew up in this realm are intelligent and aren't much different from the humans."
"But… but… they killed so many talents from the last generation," Qin Shan said.
"That was a mistake on those youth's part. I was here when they came. Had they been discreet and not caused problems to the beasts, started fights, tried to steal children, and overall not been a menace, they would have still been alive," Alex said.
"We aren't savages," the jaguar said. "Our lord is the lord of this continent. Believe it or not, we are all subjects of our lord. Be it human or beast or even plant."
"Your… lord? Where is he?" Qin Shan asked.
Alex cringed a bit when he heard that. That was a touchy subject as their lord, the White Tiger that ruled this continent had died over 5 thousand years ago.
"Our Lord, he… he is not in this world anymore," the jaguar said, refusing to elaborate any further.
Alex softly explained that their lord wasn't there anymore and that Pearl was to be their new lord if he had the potential in him.
Qin Shan's mind couldn't comprehend the fact that Alex's beast had the opportunity to be the lord of the beasts that were stronger than most Saint realm cultivators of the empire.
After they walked for a while, Alex noticed that they had reached the hallway that had many guest rooms available.
"Rest here tonight, you can leave after the sun comes out," the jaguar said.
Alex and the rest nodded and went to the room to rest. The 3 humans got 3 separate rooms, but they all converged into one for most of the night to talk about various things.
In the end, the gathering became Alex mostly just answering Qin Shan's inquiries. Helen was curious about a few things too, but Alex had already told her nearly everything when they first reunited, so there wasn't much for them to talk about.
Late night, they returned to their own room and rested for a while.
Early morning, the jaguar came to take them. He took the three and Pearl through a serious of the hallway before arriving at the cave with the formation platform from where they would go to the Crimson Empire.
"Eh? Are we leaving just like that? Without meeting Lady Ren?" Alex asked.
"Lady Ren can't speak to you right now. Otherwise, she would come here to see the young lord without question," the jaguar said.
"Is… is she still injured? I thought she was okay now," Alex asked.
"No, she's fine. but she can't come to you right now," the jaguar said.
"And your daughter? Where is sister Jia?" Alex asked.
"She's currently in closed cultivation and can't come to see you either. I will make sure to have her out while you return back, so don't worry," Jaguar said.
"I see… and senior Puma?" Alex asked.
"He's too embarrassed to come to see you," the jaguar said. "Alright, stop wasting time, and let's leave."
The 5 of them walked over to the formation platform. Alex realized the leopard wasn't there, but then he also understood that he wasn't necessary as they were all going to be in one place.
The jaguar brought out the medallion with which he activated the formation. Then, the 5 of them teleported away.
