Alex woke up early in the morning to the sound of his alarm. He got up from his bed and put aside his blanket.

He went to the bathroom to freshen up and then made his way to the kitchen.

“Good morning,” he said to the three girls that were already having breakfast. He got himself a plate as well and sat down.

He mindlessly ate the food on the plate as he made small talk with the girls.

“Why do you look so tired?” Hannah asked, watching him yawn all the time while eating.

“I do?” Alex asked. “That’s probably cause I am.”

“What’s wrong?” Hannah asked.

“Well, I’ve been sleeping in my bed this last week, and I’ve learned that my sleep schedule had been horrible. So I can’t go to sleep on time, and end up waking earlier than I should.”

“So, I’ve been feeling a little tired for this past week,” Alex said.

“What happened to sleeping in the capsule?” Hannah asked. “Is your capsule broken?”

“No, it’s not,” Alex said. “But I currently can’t cultivate in the game, so I have no point in staying overnight in the game.”

“What’s wrong?” Sarah asked.

“I broke through to the True Realm,” Alex said.

“Oh, congratulations. That’s a big step,” Hannah said. “So, what’s the problem?”

“Well, I don’t have any cultivation method to continue cultivating at night. Thus, I’ve resorted to not spending the night in the game,” Alex said.

“Oh,” Hannah said. “Have you tried taking one from the internet? You said you learned one a while ago right?”

“I did,” Alex said. “But I could only find Earth grade ones, and for some reason, they were impossible to remember all the way through. So I just gave up.”

“I would rather find a proper one once I leave where I am,” Alex said.

“Okay, you do you,” Hannah said and got back to eating her breakfast.

Alex finished his not long after and returned back to his room. He entered the capsule and returned back to the game.

He opened his eyes and immediately felt the pain coarse through all of his body. “Argh! Pearl, can you stop please?” he asked.

“Meow!” Pearl heard him speak and immediately stopped. “Meow?”

“Yeah, I just got done cultivating,” Alex lied. Ever since he entered the True realm, he had let Pearl cultivate alone while he left the game to sleep on his own bed.

He looked at the time and saw that it was around 7 am. “Let’s go to the garden,” Alex said.

“Meow!” Pearl said. He was excited to go fight once more. By now, his cultivation base had reached Mind Tempering 5th Realm, and soon, he too would enter the True realm just like Alex.

‘Damn, if I don’t improve by then, my body will hurt a lot more, won’t it?’ Alex thought.

The two of them walked out of the room and went to the garden. Alex stayed in the sun for a while and simply felt too bored to even do anything anymore.

Yao Jia came up to him and said, “Let’s go.”

“Can we delay the training a little bit? I’m not really improving a lot, so I would rather have some peace for now,” Alex said.

“MEOW!!” Pearl cried out that he wanted to train right then.

“Uh, no. You can go, buddy. I was only talking about myself,” Alex said.

“Meow!” Pearl said as he smugly nodded to himself and walked away.

“Have fun. I’ll see you later,” Alex said as he watched Pearl leave.

“Is something wrong?” Yao Jia asked.

“Not really. It’s just that I don’t have any cultivation method to cultivate, so training isn’t as efficient as it used to be,” Alex said.

“Ah, I see. Unfortunately, this place doesn’t have any cultivation methods for humans,” she said.

“It’s okay. I will get it somehow,” Alex said.

Yao Jia stopped speaking and laid down by his side, basking the sun in peace. They stayed there for a while before Yao Jia remembered something.

“Ah, I have some bad news for you,” she said.

“Eh, bad news?” Alex got a little scared. “What is it?”

“Almost half of the people who entered the secret realm have died by now,” she said.

“Huh?! Ah, you’re talking about the humans?” Alex said.

“Of course,” Yao Jia said.

“It’s fine. I don’t really feel anything for them,” Alex said.

“Weird. I thought you would show more emotions towards your own species,” Yao Jia said.

“I said it before right? I don’t really feel anything for people I don’t really know about. I mean, it’s not like I don’t think it’s sad that they’re dying, but… it’s not really bad news for me. It’s just news,” Alex said.

“I see, so you don’t care about them because they are from the Luminance empire, huh?” she asked.

“Kind of, yes,” Alex said. He wondered how different those people must’ve been. He said he didn’t feel anything for them, but there was a sour feeling growing in his heart when he heard that news.

He would’ve wanted to help them if he could. They must’ve had families waiting for them to return as well.

“Have you ever been to the Luminance empire?” he asked.

“Ah, no. I haven’t left this place ever in my life,” Yao Jia said.

“I have always wanted to leave the Crimson Empire and go to the other locations in the world to see how they are. The first location on that would be the Luminance Empire for me. I wonder how it is compared to the Crimson Empire,” Alex wondered.

“Ah, you can ask uncle. He’s been to the Luminance empire,” Yao Jia said.

“Oh no, it’s fine. I wanted to know about the more recent stuff. They must only have knowledge about the stuff from years ago,” Alex said.

“No, no. Uncle went to the Luminance empire just a couple of months ago. Multiple times at that too,” Yao Jia said.

“Eh? He did? I should ask him about that when I see him again,” Alex said. “Was there a reason why he went there?”

“Oh, you know, to get a candidate for the throne. When the fountain called out to the bloodline, while my father went to the Crimson Empire, Uncle went to the Luminance empire,” Yao Jia said.

“I see,” Alex said. “It must’ve sucked for him then.”

“Hmm, why would you say that?” Yao Jia asked.

“I mean, how many times did the fountain call for us again? 4?” Alex asked.

“Uh, I believe 5. But they didn’t leave the first time, I think,” Yao Jia said.

“Yeah, 4 times. Imagine getting a reaction 4 times to leave and go find candidates only to return empty-handed each time. It must’ve sucked for him,” Alex said.

Yao Jia chuckled a little. “Who said he returned empty-handed?” she asked.

“Huh? He didn’t?” Alex asked.

“No, he returned with candidates each time he went out there,” she said.

“Oh,” Alex was surprised. He wasn’t expecting there to have been candidates to be the ruler of this continent before Pearl.

“So Pearl isn’t the first one?” he asked.

“No, silly. We’ve had candidates before,” she said.

“I see,” He said. “What happened to them? Did they not have enough bloodline or something?”

“Something like that, I would say,” Yao Jia said. “All of them failed the ritual.”

“So, they weren’t successful, huh? Poor guys, they lost their chance at making it big in the future,” Alex said. “Are they still in the palace? Can I talk to them?”

“What?” Yao Jia’s expression changed when she heard that. “Why would you want to talk to them?”

“Oh, it’s nothing. Pearl is getting stronger and stronger each day and soon enough he will enter the True realm. After that, it shouldn’t be long before he is made to go through the ritual.”

“I don’t know much about the ritual, so I wanted to ask them if their experience with it was good or bad. I really don’t want Pearl to go through pain if he can,” Alex said.

Yao Jia looked at him dumbly without uttering a single word back.

Alex looked at her confusedly and asked, “Are they not here? Can I not talk to the candidates?”

Yao Jia continued looking at him dumbly and finally uttered a sentence.

“You cannot talk to any of them. All of the candidates that went through the ritual are already dead.”