When the light disappeared, Alex found himself on top of the stone platform out in the middle of the forest.

“No! NO!” he shouted. He had realized what had happened. The puma, in his attempt to keep Alex away from Pearl, had decided to send Alex out of the secret realm, with no way back.

“NO!! Let me in,” he shouted. He looked around, trying to look for a way to go back into the secret realm. But no matter where he looked, all he could see was just a bunch of withered trees.

“What do I do?” Alex put his hands on his head as he started suffering from an anxiety attack. He crouched on the floor, trying to control his fear.

However, no matter how he looked at it, he had no way of going back. And if he didn’t go back, they would kill Pearl.

A few minutes passed, but Alex couldn’t calm down at all. The worry he felt for Pearl was making it too hard for him to think of anything other than his upcoming death.

Alex decided to wait around, hoping, foolishly for someone to come get him. He hoped that maybe the puma had a change of heart. He hoped that Yao Jia spoke some sense into him. He hoped that Lady Ren would see how important Alex was to Pearl’s life and make them come get him.

He foolishly waited for almost the entire day. In the end, nobody arrived. That was when Alex truly understood just how worthless he was to the beasts.

Maybe the ones that benefited from his pills cared somewhat for him, but the saint beasts didn’t.

“I understand,” he said calmly. “They think they can step all over me just because I’m weak, huh? Just wait, I will come to get my revenge.”

Alex’s face twisted with anger and determination. Separating him from Pearl was the worst thing the beasts could have done to themselves.

He placed his palm on the formation and softly spoke. “Wait around, Pearl. I will come to get you for sure,” he said.

He then took out the boat from his storage bag and flew away.

He had been flying for just a minute or two when he suddenly saw the formation light up again from far away.

Alex’s hopes grew high. “Did they really come to get me?” he thought and flew back.

However, when he reached there, there was nobody. Alex couldn’t see or feel a single soul around.

“What the hell?” he thought and waited around for a bit longer. However, at some point, he assumed that he must’ve been mistaken and flew away once more.

* * * * * * *

A man and woman were running away from the platform they had just arrived in. They were afraid of the beasts coming after them, so they concealed themselves and hid on a tree while they waited to see if any beasts would come.

“Phew, it seems we are finally out, brother Tao. We are safe,” the green-robed girl said after a few minutes of noticing no light from the direction of the platform they had just left from.

“Yes, but… are we really out? Why are we still in the middle of the forest?” the red-robed man asked.

“Who knows? Maybe there was another formation platform in the northern forest that we never knew about” the girl said. She then brought out a curious-looking artifact and looked at it.

“Which way?” the man asked.

“It says… that way,” the girl pointed.

“Alright, let’s go. I hope we get out of this forest soon,” the man said and brought out a flying boat. He and the girl got on it and started flying south, deeper into the forest.

* * * * * * *

A man was sitting in front of a group of similarly dressed people, listening to one of them speak.

“Compared to last month, our earnings have increased by a total of 12%. If this goes on, we should be earning a similar amount as before the beast invasion by next month. This is a really good improvement, sect master,” The elder in charge of finances excitedly said.

However, the news brought no excitement to the sect master’s face, just more sorrow.

The elder quickly hid his excitement and bowed to go away. Another elder came up and gave another statistic that the sect leader needed to care about, but just couldn’t.

He would get especially depressed when they talked about how much better it had gotten compared to the past few months when the beasts attacked every month.

“Since more and more merchants and travelers are going around the empire, the demand for guards has helped the disciples get a way to earn money once more,” the elder said. “Our missions boards are also starting to get filled the way they used to before…” the elder trailed off.

“Anyway, if we go on like this for just the next month, we will be back on track,” the elder said. He too bowed and walked away.

The sect leader waited for someone else to come up and say something to remind him all over again of the day he lost his disciple, but no one else came up.

“Sect Leader,” a thin man called him.

“Hmm,” the sect leader looked at him.

“The meeting is over. Please dismiss it,’ the man said.

“Oh, uhh, the meeting is over. You may leave now,” the sect leader said unenthusiastically.

The elder sighed and started to leave one by one. All of them left except for the thin elder that had spoken up earlier.

“You need to get a hold of yourself. Is this what a sect leader should be like?” the elder scolded.

“Okay,” the sect leader said.

“Hey! Are you even listening to me? You are just ignoring me again, aren’t you?” the elder asked.

“What the hell do you want me to do? My disciple is gone, and I as his master couldn’t do a damn thing to save him. All I could do was stand around and watch the beasts take my disciple.”

“Do you how it feels to have your disciple taken away from you? What would you do if it was your little Yuhan, or little Su that was taken away, huh?” the sect leader shouted his words at the thin man.

The thin man kept quiet and just shook his head.

“I… I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be shouting at you when all you are doing is trying to help me. I promise I will get a hold of myself. Just… let me be a mess for a little longer,” the sect leader said.

The thin man sighed. “Wasn’t little Mei there too? Have you talked with her? Is she okay?” the man asked.

“I… I have talked with her, but all I can do is lie to her that everything will be okay. I’m sure that even she knows that I’m lying,” the sect leader said.

“It doesn’t matter. Lie to her even more. She lost her younger brother too. The both of you need each other more than anything right now,” the thin elder said.

He then sighed again and said, “at least you have each other to pick you up when you fall down. I wonder how much of a mess sect leader Ma has been these last months.”

“She is surely the worst of us. I hope she finds someone to rely on too. She definitely needs it,” the sect leader said.

“Alright, go to your disciple and help her. Fortunately, your other disciple is doing better and doesn’t need your help,” he said.

“He wasn’t there. He doesn’t understand the despair and helplessness we felt,” the sect leader said. “Alright, I will leave now. Thanks for the talk.”

“Anytime,” the thin elder said and left.

The sect leader also walked out of the room to the evening lights in the crater of the sect. He made his way to his disciple’s house and knocked on it.

The door opened and a girl walked out. However, this wasn’t his disciple. “Little Xing, how is your sister holding up?” he asked.

“She’s fine, uncle. Come on in. She’s doing much better than before once she started focusing on training. I think the bad thoughts have gone away now,” she said.

The sect leader walked in and knocked on a door on the inside. “Little Mei, can I talk to you?” he asked.

He waited for a moment and the door opened up. “Master, what are you doing here?” she asked.

“I was just here to check up on you. How are you doing, lately? Do you need something?” he asked.

“No, I’m fine, master. How are you though? You don’t talk about yourself,” she said.

“Don’t worry about an adult. That’s not your job. Just worry about yourself. How is the training coming? Do you feel like you’re getting stronger now?” he asked.

“It’s okay, master. Du Yuhan is a good training partner. Although… I feel like he’s hiding his strength from me,” she said.

“Oh, why would you say that?” the sect leader asked.

“Well, you see, Every time I push myself to the extreme and bring out something stronger than before, he always has the strength to handle it. I think he’s toying with me,” she said.

“No way. It’s probably just a coincidence. Are you going to go train now?” he asked.

“In a few minutes, yes,” she said.

“Good. Take c—”

Suddenly, he felt a vibration from his storage bag and he brought out the talisman. However, when he saw which talisman he brought out, his eyes went wide with shock.

His hands trembled as he brought the talisman close to his head and read the content inside.

It said “Master! I’m back.”