Alex logged back into the game and found that Pearl was still with him. It seemed that he wasn’t required anywhere else for today.

Seeing that he didn’t seem to have anything else to do, Alex started getting a little bored. “Should I just make some formations?” he thought.

He took out the few spare metal plates and the inscription pen from his storage bag and started making strokes on the metal plate.

Unfortunately, he had no way of knowing the efficiency of the formations he was making without the tool that was available in the Tiger sect. So, all he could do was make the formations, try to run it, and see how it worked.

‘Urgh, I wish I had more formation rods. I could practice those too,’ he thought. After a few hours, he was done making the formations. Once he was done, he started feeling incredibly bored.

“Wanna go out and train?” Alex asked.

“Meow!” Pearl cried out and happily jumped onto his shoulders before pointing at the door. It seemed that Pearl too was incredibly bored with nothing to do.

It was still a few hours till noon, but the sun was shining brightly and the garden meadow already had a lot of beasts in it.

The ones that hadn’t seen him looked at him with a weird gaze since a human’s presence wasn’t common at all.

Some growled and roared at him, while others just kept watch of what he was doing. Some even threatened to come to attack him from the way they were staring at him.

Alex felt incredibly uncomfortable amongst these stranger beasts. “I wish I had gotten Yao Jia to come with me. She would’ve helped me not feel so afraid at least,” he said to Pearl.

“You called me?” a beast jumped towards him from the side.

Alex reflexively jumped backward and got in an attacking stance. When he finally saw who it was, he let down his guard.

“Geez, you scared me,” Alex said. “What are you doing here?”

“Basking in the sun. Also, I told you I am in charge of this garden right? I look after this place,” she said. “Did you come to stay in the sun too?”

“Sun? No. I came here to train. I need to become stronger,” Alex said.

“Ooh, can I watch? I’m really interested in how humans train,” Yao Jia said with a curious face.

“Uh, sure. I doubt it’s different from beasts though,” Alex said.

“Oh, you guys get the memory of your parents where you learn how to fight and use techniques too?” Yao Jia asked.

“Uh… no. I see, I guess we are different,” Alex said. “My training style is different. I learn the techniques on my own, then practice them while fighting with someone else.”

“Ooh, we do the second part too. Practice sure is important,” Yao Jia said. “However, you don’t have any partner to fight against right? Do you want me to find someone?”

“No, I’m good. I’ll train with Pearl,” Alex said.

Yao Jia’s curious face slowly turned into a confused face as she asked, ” you’re going to fight the little child?”

“Uh, yes. It’s just practice after all,” Alex said.

“But, he’s more than a realm weaker than you,” Yao Jia said, still sort of confused.

“Oh it’s fine, I will lower my cultivation base to become equal to him in strength,” Alex said.

“Still, isn’t he only 6 months old? You’re going to fight an infant?” Yao Jia asked.

“Uhh… when you put it like that, I don’t know what to say,” Alex said.

“Also, will lowering your ability to that of someone weaker than you, will it help you become stronger at all? Isn’t that just wasting your time mostly?” Yao Jia asked. “If you want to become strong, then you need to push yourself to the limit. Fight someone on equal footing as you. Only then will you become stronger.”

Alex stopped to contemplate. “What you said is true… but who will I even fight against here? I only have Pearl.”

“Oh don’t worry about that. If you really are interested in fighting, I can find many beasts who will be more than happy to beat a human, hehe,” Yao Jia said while giggling.

“It sounds like you want me to suffer more than anything,” Alex said.

“What? Of course not. I will let them know not to be too heavy-handed when they fight you. Don’t worry, I will stay watch too. As I said, I am interested in watching a human train,” Yao Jia said.

Alex thought for a moment and nodded. “Thank you. I will be happy to take this offer then. Also, if you can, can you find someone for Pearl to train with? I don’t want him to be idle too.”

“No Problem,” Yao Jia said and made a loud growling noise. Suddenly, 2 beasts ran up to her. One of them was a jackal, and the other one was a hyena. They bowed in front of her, and he spoke to them in some sort of beast language.

Alex couldn’t understand what she said, but he could tell that she was ordering them to go find fighters for him.

“Oh right, make sure the beasts I fight are 8th Mind Tempering realm or above. Otherwise, it won’t be a fight at all,” Alex said.

“Huh? Aren’t you 3rd Mind Tempering realm?” Yao Jia asked as she checked through his cultivation base.

“Yes, but I can fight people stronger than me. Also, the same thing for Pearl. Find someone 2 to 3 realms higher than him,” Alex said.

“Are you sure?” Yao Jia asked as she looked concernedly at Pearl.

“MEOW!” Pearl meowed, letting her know that it was okay.

‘I will need to ask her to teach him how to speak as well,’ Alex thought when he heard Pearl meow. Pearl already knew a few words and could speak to him through his mind. But his mouth wasn’t able to articulate the words at all, and he always ended up meowing his sentences.

“Okay, I will find a strong one for you, but the child is too important to throw into a strong match-up. He will have to start with someone in his own realm,” Yao Jia said.

“That’s fair, I guess. Please do what you think is right,” Alex said.

Yao Jia nodded and let the 2 beasts know, who ran away to find fighters for him and Pearl.

When they returned, they came back with 3 beasts, all of whom looked quite excited to fight.

From what Alex could see, only 1 of these beasts was for Alex to fight. The other two were for Pearl. One of those beasts, a snake, was at the same cultivation realm as Pearl, and the other one a deer was 2 realms higher than him.

As for Alex’s opponent, a Rhino, was in the 8th Mind Tempering realm, just as he requested. Given that it was a beast, the rhino’s strength would be similar to that of a normal 9th Mind Tempering realm human, which for Alex would be quite an ordeal.

However, that was just what he needed to become stronger and he was all the happier for it.

“Will they work?” Yao Jia asked as she turned towards Alex.

“Yes, very much,” Alex said.

“Alright,” Yao Jia said as she turned around to speak to the 3 beasts. The 3 beasts kept glancing at Alex sneakily while nodding to whatever Yao Jia was telling them.

“Alright, come. Let’s not disturb the peace here with your training. I also don’t want to deal with the destruction of my garden,” Yao Jia said.

“Where will we go?” Alex asked.

“Hmm, I can’t take you outside since you are not allowed to. And the underground is off limit for training, so I guess there is only one place remaining. We’ll go to the palace,” Yao Jia said.

“The palace?” Alex asked as he turned to look at the castle that had remained unused for a lot of years. “What about the backyard? Is there no space there?”

“There is a giant hole in the backyard and inside is where the cemetery lies, so it’s considered rude to go there for anything other than praying for the dead. Don’t worry, there are giant empty rooms in there that will be perfect for you guys,” Yao Jia said.

“I see, let’s go then,” Alex said.

The palace was a giant white mansion with at least 3 stories to it. From the outside, Alex couldn’t tell how big it was, but it was more than 100 meters in width alone.

If the palace was really built on top of the entire spirit vine, then it would be the largest building Alex had seen to date. Even larger than buildings he had seen in his city in real life.

The way to the underground was on the right side of the palace while the gate outside was in front of it. So, Alex and the others had to go towards the front of the palace before climbing up the stairs to enter the palace.

As soon as he entered, Alex could feel the emptiness. He could hear the sounds of beasts working inside, could see the palace being well-kept through the years, but he could still sense that the warmth that was once in this building was lost.

With the queen and the other wives and concubines, as well as the descendants, leaving the place to go back to the family ground, the palace no longer had any residents in it, and it showed in the emptiness Alex felt.

“This way, the rooms are right here,” Yao Jia said as she walked through the corridor in the palace.