“What?” Alex asked with a stunned face. After spending nearly 2 months in this place, this was the first time he was learning of this information.

“They died? All the candidates did?” he asked.

“Yes, every single one of them,” Yao Jia said softly.

Alex had already thought of the worst possible scenario that could’ve happened to them, so he deluded himself to thinking maybe that was not the case.

“Did they suffer from some sort of injury during the ritual that killed them later on?” he asked.

“No,” Yao Jia said. “There was no injury or anything. They just couldn’t handle the ritual and died before they even finished it.”

Alex suddenly stood up, his face pale with fear. “And you guys want to let Pearl go through that?” he asked.

Yao Jia shrunk a little. “We have to, I think. That is the only way to find a successor now that the fountain won’t form any more drops of blood for a long time,” she said.

“No way. I won’t allow it. Where are your father and uncle? I want to talk to them,” Alex demanded.

“I don’t know if they will—”

“I don’t care for their permission. I won’t be sitting still while they want to play with my Pearl’s life,” Alex said with a furious face. “If you won’t tell me then fine, I will go find them myself.”

Yao Jia tried to say something, but Alex ignored her. Pearl’s safety was the most important thing for him, and so he ignored everything that didn’t concern that point at the moment.

He suddenly turned around and left for the underground palace. That was the only place any of the 3 could even be in at the moment.

It was either the Palace hall, the training room where the Puma trained Pearl, or the library. It was already daytime, so he cut off their living quarters from the list of places they could be at.

There was also the fountain where the ritual would take place, but he doubted they would be there.

Still, there were chances they could be elsewhere as well, so the moment he entered the underground corridor, he immediately spread out his spiritual sense in all 4 directions.

Having gone through the Mind Tempering realm and eating the 3 pills that improved his mind, he now had a spiritual sense that spread nearly 80 meters in all directions.

When stretched to the extreme, Alex could spread it up to 120 meters. With this, he could easily search the underground palace without any worries of missing anything.

He walked around the underground while looking through every corner of it, and for the first time realized that there were so many metal rods hidden amongst the ceiling.

He did not understand what the metal rods were for, nor did he care. He simply walked around searching for any of the 3 saint realm beasts he could find.

“Boy, what insolence is this?” A voice entered his mind that belonged to the Puma. He had noticed Alex using spiritual sense in the hallway before Alex’s spiritual sense had even reached him.

“Where are you, Senior? I want to talk to you,” Alex said.

“I don’t have the time, boy. Go away,” the puma said with a bored voice.

“No, you will have to speak to me. I am not going to let you guys make Pearl go through the ritual,” Alex said.

“What?” A threatening voice entered Alex’s mind. Suddenly, a gust of wind struck him as the Puma stood before him.

“What sort of nonsense are you spouting?” the puma asked with a snarling face.

“As I said, I will not let Pearl go through the ritual. I just learned that there have been many before that died when going through the ritual. Knowing this, you guys still want to make him go through it?” Alex asked in an angry voice.

“We don’t like it either, but we have to do what we have to do. Besides the child has a higher chance of surviving thanks to his bloodline,” the Puma said.

“That still means that there is a chance that he will die, right? I won’t let you make him do it then,” Alex said.

The puma scoffed when he heard that. “Are you forgetting who you are speaking to, boy? I don’t hear any respect in your voice. You won’t let us do what we want? You think you can stop us?”

Suddenly, a massive aura appeared around the puma, as he used his cultivation base to threaten Alex.

“Young human, don’t think that just because we let you do what you want in this place that you are a guest. No, your identity here had always been that of a prisoner.”

“You do what we say here, not the other way around. Without our permission, you won’t even be able to talk so much as a word,” the puma said.

Alex felt the pressure crush on him worse than it ever had. The puma was really using the full force of his cultivation base to threaten him, something he hadn’t even done when facing the 3 human saints.

Still, that wasn’t enough to keep Alex quiet. A warm feeling rushed from inside of Alex that alleviated some of the pressure, allowing him to at the very least speak.

“I won’t let you,” Alex said in a grunting voice.

The puma looked surprised. He hadn’t expected Alex to be able to talk at all. “How can you talk?” the puma asked.

“Not even the White Tiger’s blood essence could make me shut up. Do you believe yourself to be stronger than that?” Alex asked.

The puma’s eyes widened even more. “It seems you are not an ordinary human after all. I should have known. After all, you are the very first human to have acquired and integrated the White Tiger’s bloodline into you,” the puma said.

Alex felt the intense aura around him leave. Just then, he saw a paw moving towards him.

Alex was hit square in the face and sent flying at the wall. “However, that does not mean that you get to be insolent in front of me. You are still under our rule. You will do what we tell you to do.”

“If I tell you to die, you will die,” the puma said.

Alex felt a stream of warm blood flow from the side of his face. He still stood up and glared at the Puma through his blurry vision.

“You may as well kill me then because that is the only way I will ever let you make Pearl go through the ritual,” Alex said.

“Hmph, You talk big for a tiny human,” the puma scoffed. It was very angry right now. “If only you didn’t have the White Tiger’s bloodline, I would’ve killed you right now. However, that doesn’t mean I don’t have other ways to take you out of the picture.”

The puma suddenly picked up Alex with his aura and sent him hurling inside an empty room. Alex struck the wall and fell to the ground.

By the time he stood up, the door was locked. Alex went up to the door and tried to open it, but he couldn’t open it. He punched at the door and walls as hard as he could, but he couldn’t damage it at all.

Anyone in his place right now would’ve started to despair, but Alex didn’t. He kept calm and immediately sent out his spiritual sense to see the outside.

“Keep that thing to yourself,” A voice came from outside, and he felt his spiritual sense being pushed back into his head. It hurt quite a bit, but Alex had the information he needed.

He suddenly disappeared from inside the room and appeared outside, right in front of the puma. He then suddenly turned around and started running away.

“I see. You won’t be so easy to confine huh? Teleportation skill… that is not something so easily found in this realm,” the puma said.

He then stopped Alex mid-sprint and pulled him back. “You were trying to get to the little child huh? You must’ve thought that if you put him back into the bonded space, we wouldn’t be able to get to him.”

“And you would be right. Without your permission, we would never be able to get to him. However, you should’ve thought of this before you came to confront us.”

“The child is currently training in the upper palace, and you won’t get to him at all now,” The puma said.

Alex cursed himself for thinking that these beasts would ever give a thought about his concerns. ‘Fuck! I spent so much time here and forgot the most integral part about them. They are beasts, and that is how they will always act,’ Alex thought.

“I can’t kill you, I can’t confine. I can’t even force you to stay quiet, huh? If you won’t follow our orders and let the child go through the ritual, then there is really only one thing left that I can do,” the Puma said.

Alex tried to understand what he was going to do and anxiously waited.

“You see, we brought you here because you had the White Tiger’s bloodline. A human with that bloodline was unique, and we thought you would turn out to be something amazing.”

“However, after days of research, we didn’t find anything about humans with the bloodline blessed by the gods. Furthermore, we can’t even extract the bloodline from you given how well it had integrated.”

“Also, since you are a human, you can’t even go through the ritual to awaken it. So, considering all of this information, we came to the conclusion that… there was absolutely no reason to keep you here anymore,’ the puma said.

“However, lady Ren let you stay here since you would be an emotional support for the child while he grew up.”

“We’ve been monitoring you, and we know that the child doesn’t rely on you as much anymore.”

“So, the only reason you had of staying in this place is also gone,” the puma said.

“What?” Alex asked with a shocked face. He understood where this conversation was going.

Suddenly, he felt himself being moved at an incredible speed. When the blurry surrounding disappeared, he found himself in the same place he had been in when he had first arrived in this place.

The Teleportation formation platform.

The puma brought out a medallion of sort from someplace and started using it. “Goodbye, little human. I hope I never see you again,” he said.

The formation platform lit up with no prior warning. “NO!” Alex shouted, but his cry was cut off midway through as the light enveloped him completely.

When the light died down, Alex was gone.