“A… king?” Alex was surprised when he heard that.

“Yes, of the Continent,” Lady Ren said. “Or Queen, whatever your friend can be. But I do remember you saying ‘him’, so he must be a male beast.”

“This continent is lacking because it doesn’t have a ruler, and so it desperately needs one. Please show us the beast so we can see if he’s worthy to become what this continent needs,” Lady Ren said.

Wen Cheng, Ma Rong, and Luo Mei’s eyes were wide with shock since they had realized what the beasts were after. The two sect leaders who knew the origins of the little cat were especially surprised that there was such a big history behind him.

Alex still didn’t trust the beasts fully, but he was more so inclined to do what they said after listening to them and seeing the type of beast Lady Ren was.

“Come out, Pearl,” Alex said. A bright white light appeared as a small White Cat appeared from inside of the beast space.

The three beasts saw Pearl after the shine disappeared. The moment they did, their faces changed.

“That’s…” the jaguar looked at Pearl in surprise.

“Another White Cat?” the puma asked as well. “That shouldn’t be possible.”

Lady Ren was very surprised as well to see another one of her kind after so long. “Child, come here,” Lady Ren said when she saw the White Cat.

“Meow?” Pearl cowered a little in fear around the new people and beasts. He jumped onto Alex’s arms and tried to snuggle in there. He then looked around at the new figures.

He could only recognize Alex’s masters and sister since he had interacted with them and they had been nice to him.

He then turned around towards the other 3 humans with no recollection as to who they were.

Finally, he looked at the beasts. At first, he thought he was fighting them, but once he felt their aura, he cowered even more.

Then, out of nowhere, the aura from a few months ago started calling to him to the distant place, and once again, the same fear from when he was inside the formation started appearing.

“It’s alright, I’m here,” Alex said as he caressed Pearl slowly.

The jaguar and puma seemed to have realized something. “Lady Ren, what’s going on?” they asked.

“What do you mean?” Lady Ren asked.

“Our senses, we can’t lock on anyone anymore. Neither the child nor the human,” The puma said.

“That can’t be. I can perfectly sense—” Lady Ren stopped as her eyes went wide again.

“What’s wrong?” the jaguar asked.

“I can sense the human and the child,” Lady Ren said.

“Hm, I wonder if we lack the lord’s bloodli— wait, did you say you can sense the human too?” the jaguar asked.

“Yes,” Lady Ren said with clear confusion on her face. “I don’t know what’s happening now. The human… he has the bloodline of our King too.”

“That’s impossible,” the puma cried out. “How could a human possibly have our lord’s bloodline.”

“I do not know. None of the knowledge I have told me anything about a human having the bloodline of the 4 great families,” Lady Ren said. “The fountain’s aura should be ending soon. If we want to find out more… then we will have to take them back.”

“No!” Ma Rong shouted. “He’s my disciple. You can’t take him anywhere.”

Ma Rong stepped in front of Alex. Wen Cheng wanted to get there too, but he realized that the atmosphere had changed. The warm air had turned incredibly cold all of a sudden and the grass below them frosted.

The three saint realm humans were surprised too when they sensed the sheer chill around Ma Rong.

“Interesting,” Lady Ren said. “I didn’t know there were still humans with such great body constitution. But little girl, you can’t do anything to us. Especially, to me.”

“I can try,” Ma Rong said stubbornly.

Alex was behind her and he wanted to say something. However, he could not stop his body from trembling in fear at the aura his master was releasing. This one was far more potent than any of the other times.

It seemed that not only had she gotten good at controlling her constitution, she could also make it stronger now.

“MA RONG!” Wen Cheng shouted. “Can’t you see what you’re doing to your disciple?”

Ma Rong lost focus on the beasts and turned around to see Alex nearly on the ground. Her heart skipped a beat when she remembered what her aura did to her disciple.

“I’m sorry,” she said and hurried to catch him before he completely fell. Once her cold aura disappeared, Alex began to retain his senses and could think without feeling fear for his life.

“Are you his Master, little girl?” Lady Ren asked.

“Yes,” Ma Rong said.

“I see,” Lady Ren said. “I can see why you are defensive then. But I can promise you that we mean no harm for your disciple. We will just be taking him back to the palace and we will learn why he has the bloodline that he does.”

“Give us the child, human boy,” the puma said.

“No need,” Lady Ren said. “He seems scared around us unfamiliar faces. Let him stay with the human until he’s back in the palace.”

“Lady Ren,” the jaguar whispered. “What do we do about the bond? Can someone who submitted himself to a human truly be our king?”

“Hah,” Lady Ren said. “You guys need to grow up quickly and learn more. You can easily tell that the child hasn’t submitted to anyone. They have the Bond of equals and thus none is below is the other.”

“Oh,” the jaguar and puma said as they turned back to look at Alex and Pearl.

“I see,” the jaguar said. “Thank you for enlightening me, Lady Ren.”

“Alright, enough time has been wasted already. We need to return back and not miss the optimal timing for the baptism,” Lady Ren said.

“Yes, Lady Ren,” the two beasts bowed their head.

Alex suddenly felt his body move on its own as he was lifted into the air and put on top of the black Jaguar.

“Carry him,” Lady Ren said.

“Wait, you can’t take him,” Wen Cheng cried out.

“Don’t take my little brother,” Luo Mei shouted as well.

Ma Rong was starting to pour out her yin qi again, but she was a little apprehensive about how much she did it.

“Worry not, this human will be back very quickly,” Lady Ren said, not allowing any of their words to reach her. “You will be able to see him again in less than a decade.”

“A… decade?” Ma Rong questioned with surprise.

“Let’s move,” Lady Ren said.

“No, let me go. I don’t want to be away for a decade,” Alex shouted, but he couldn’t struggle against the constraints of a saint realm’s aura.

“Yes, Lady Ren,” the two beasts said and started moving.

“Let me go,” Alex shouted but could do nothing aside from that.

“No!” his masters and sister started shouting.

Seeing that he was not going to be able to get away from them, he resorted to the only thing he could do. He shouted.

“Don’t worry about me. I will be back one way or another. Just wait for me.”

* * * * *

The sun had set and the battle was over. The Scarlet city remained victorious against the beasts with very few casualties. The people celebrated in happiness and the ones hiding finally came out to celebrate as well.

Outside the walls, the people who were dealing with the aftermath remained.

“Are the beasts always this low in number?” the Royal Alchemist asked after seeing the pile of beast corpses.

“No,” the City lord said. “Maybe continuously attacking for months led to them being low in number?”

“I don’t feel like that’s true,” the Royal Alchemist said. “If anything, there should be more beasts out there than there are humans. I don’t think you realize just how massive the southern forest is.”

“Then only God knows why their numbers are low,” the city lord said.

The Royal Alchemist looked at the corpses once more and looked around immediately searching for someone.

“What’s little Ma?” he asked.

The city lord looked around and shook his head. “I don’t know. I haven’t seen her for a while,” the city lord said.

“What is that girl doing? She should be getting her sect members to butcher these beasts and take out the alchemy ingredients before they turn bad,” he said.

“I will go look for her,” the city lord said.

“No need, she’s here,” a voice said. The city lord and the Royal Alchemist book looked up to see 4 people on a boat.

“Your majesty. What are you doing here?” the Royal alchemist asked.

“Stuff happened, Lai Qing,” the Emperor said. “How are you doing, nephew?”

“Uncle, it’s good to see you,” the City lord said with a bow.

“We would like to be dismissed, your majesty,” the miserable-looking Wen Cheng said to the Emperor.

“Sure, go. I have some questions for you, especially your sect leader Ma, but those can wait for later. I will stay in the city for a week,” the Emperor said.

“Surely, your Majesty,” Wen Cheng said and shook Luo Mei and Ma Rong who were even more miserable than him.

“Go and rest, Ma Rong. It’s been a long day today,” Wen Cheng said. “We will do the same.”

Ma Rong nodded and flew away, speaking to not a single person along the way, knowing completely that she had lost her disciple for good.