Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Alex teleported to the center of the Beast Paradise, arriving somewhere west of where Pearl was. Pearl was close enough that he could sense him now.

Following the bond, Alex went in the direction of Pearl, arriving outside the Lion Colony. Alex quickly met up with Pearl and the Golden Lion, getting their share of news about what had happened here in the past week that he had been gone.

Once Alex had left, Pearl had become the true ruler of the Eastern Continent, now making decisions for everything. However, after just 2 days of doing that, he had come to understand that ruling was not for him

Instead, he decided to leave that task to whoever was better at it. On the human side of things, he let the humans deal with it. On the beast's side, it had already been working on its own, so he let the 7 beasts do what they were always doing.

Only a small thing had changed now. The Beast Paradise was no longer closed to the humans. They could come freely if they wished to, and the beasts were free to leave and mingle with the humans if they so wished to.

With the Dragon Emperor dead, the beasts had no reason to keep their borders locked and allowed the humans to come and meet them.

After Alex's arrival, the colony leaders quickly come together, wishing to see what he had brought. Most of them still looked weak and wounded. The Elephant and the Ox colonies had new representatives, that was another Elephant and Ox.

"My apologies, leaders. I know you have been expecting some very good pills, but I haven't found the time to work on the pills, so this is all you will be receiving for now."

The beasts took the pills and looked at them. There were healing pills, antidotes, and a whole host of other pills, but none of them had pill veins.

They did not doubt that the pills were good but without the pill veins…

"I… suppose we don't have any grounds to demand for pills with pill veins," the lizard said. "We thank you for these pills."

Alex gave a small nod. "I will be making some pills soon, so within a year or so, I should be able to come back with a whole host of pills. I only hope you guys can give me what I want at the time."

The beasts gave a curious look. "What… is it that you want?" the eagle asked.

"A sapling or a seed of the Heavenly Mulberry tree," Alex explained. "As you guys are aware, I have the Heavenly Silkworms, and I have been feeding them Mulberry leaves all the while I can, but I do not have an infinite stock of the Mulberry leaves, and honestly, I fear they will die if I don't restock soon enough."

"That's… we will have to talk about it," the Lizard said. "The Heavenly Mulberry trees are not—"

"I'll give you one," the Lion said. "I believe there are a few saplings with me right now. There's no guarantee that they will all mature to become trees, but I can give you 3 of them and see how you fare with them."

Alex gave a wide grin. "Thank you, senior Zhu," he said.

"Please do not call me a senior, King Alex," the Lion said. "Truth is, with what you've been able to accomplish, you are our senior now."

"Nonsense," Alex said. "You are Pearl's uncle. Just that relation alone makes you my senior."

The lion was about to say something, but instead, he simply smiled.

The meeting was over not long after, and the beasts returned to their colonies after taking their share of the pills. Once everyone was gone, Alex looked toward Pearl.

"Have you gone to the place where you were born?" he asked.

"To my father's realm? Yes. There are a few beasts in there right now, taking care of that place as it hasn't been in some time now," Pearl said.

"Then, are you ready to see your father now?" Alex asked.

Pearl froze, unable to answer. Alex had proposed the same question to Pearl briefly before he left the Eastern Continent. At that time, Pearl simply didn't know if he wanted to see his father's corpse.

However, now that he had time to think over it and mull a little, he was certain that he wanted to see him.

"I'll see him," Pearl said and got ready.

Alex made a small thought and Pearl disappeared into his Soul Space.

Pearl's presence gave Alex no feeling of something else coming into his mind. As Pearl was bonded to him, the amount of spiritual burden he took from Pearl being there was already something he took from his bond with him.

As such, there was nothing more that Alex felt when Pearl entered his Soul Space, which he would've sensed if someone else entered it instead.

Pearl arrived in the darkness, feeling the lack of air. Surprisingly, there was some vague sense of gravity. Or at least, there was a sense of where down was.

Pearl felt a small force from inside his body that wanted him to let go of the breath he was holding, but he kept holding on to it.

That was a simple force he could ignore. Pearl also ignored the somewhat cold nature of Alex's Soul Space and looked around the search of what he had come here for.

Being Alex's beast did not free him from being totally unburdensome when using spiritual sense and a lot of Intent, so Pearl chose to not use those at the moment.

There was a glowing tree far in the distance, like a glowing star at night, giving off dim light to everything. That light gave an outline to a massive object that was merely a hundred meters away from him.

Pearl looked and saw the body of the beautifully scaled behemoth coiled in front of him. His blue scales shined somewhat in the dim light, the charred parts barely visible.

His head was giant, nearly the size of Pearl's entire body, with two thick horns growing out of it. Two long whiskers floated from the snout too as Qing Tianchui's dead body peacefully stayed there with his eyes closed.

Pearl looked at the face of the Azure Dragon for the first time. For the first time, he saw his father.

'Father…' Pearl thought and got closer to his father's corpse. Seeing the perfectly still corpse of the Azure Dragon, feeling the absolute lack of aura from his body, made Pearl feel sorrowful all of a sudden.

Tears filled Pearl's eyes and he nuzzled the side of his father's snout, rubbing his head alongside his father's head.

He wondered what it would've been like had he had the chance to be raised by his father and mother. What sort of a beast he would have become.

Because of the Dragon Emperor, he lost the chance to know his father and mother as he grew, to be close to them.

At the very least, he wouldn't miss that chance right now.

Pearl nestled close to his father's curled-up body, moving within the fur, and stayed there for as long as he could.