After that, they would be on their own to find their parents. Alex wouldn’t be responsible for them afterward, but he still hoped they made it there safe and sound. After all, they had a very young child with them.

Alex trained for a while that day and returned back to his room. ‘Not yet,’ he thought. It would still be a few weeks until he was ready for a breakthrough.

Still, Alex diligently cultivated, along with Pearl by his side. Alex was particularly hopeful that Pearl’s breakthrough would come at any moment too.

When he did, Pearl too would enter the True Emperor realm.

As they were cultivating, someone knocked on the door.

Alex sent out his spiritual sense outside without opening his eyes and saw someone standing there. A smile rose on his face as he tapped on Pearl.

”Get up, we have a visitor.”

Pearl opened his weary eyes and looked around. “Who’s here?” he asked.

”Why don’t you open the door?” Alex gestured him forward.

Pearl went up to the door without question and pulled on the handle.

”Sister!” Pearl’s eyes went wide and his smile large when he saw the one that stood on the other side of the door.

”Pearl! I missed you.” A female black jaguar said with a happy smile on her face.

”Sister Yao, I’m glad to meet you again,” Alex said.

”Oh human child, you really are back? You are not still angry are you?” Yao Jia asked.

”Oh no, of course not,” Alex said. “Well, maybe a little with the other senior, but not with the rest.”

”With uncle Cheng? Well, you don’t have to worry about him. He’s gone into closed cultivation after learning you are here. He was scolded quite badly after his— what am I saying?” Yao Jia stopped abruptly. “Nevermind. Anyway, how have you been? You wanna go visit the garden?”

”Sure,” Alex said and walked out with her.

Alex went out to the garden and sat around for a while. Immediately, a few of the beasts recognized him and walked over as they started roaring.

”Wha-what’s going on?” Alex asked.

”Oh, they want pills. They remember you making pills and they’re asking if you have some,” Yao Jia said.

”Yeah, he says his father’s knees are injured and would love for some pills,” Pearl said. “That one says he had headaches all the time. That one said he can’t breakthrough properly.”

”Do they?” Alex sighed. “Fine, I will work on their pill as long as they can get me something precious.”

”Should I tell them that?” Yao Jia asked, to which Alex gave a weird face. “Right, I should tell them that.”

After the beasts went away, Alex and Yao Jia talked for a while. As they did, Alex brought up the question he had been meaning to ask for a while now.

”Hey, you once mentioned that you learned the human language right?” Alex asked.

”Yes,” Yao Jia said.

”But it was the Demon’s language, was it not?”

Yao Jia shook her head. “Demon, human, same thing. You can’t even tell the difference most of the time,” she said.

”Yes, what I was meaning to ask you is you said you had a way to learn the Human language too right?” Alex asked.

”Oh yeah, I was planning to do that, wasn’t I?” Yao Jia thought to herself. “Hmm… There should be some books in the library. Why, do you want to read it?”

”Yes,” Alex said.

”Alright, I will ask my father and get it to you if he agrees. What do you want to do in the meantime?” she asked.

Alex thought for a bit. “Do you think your father will agree to fight with me for training?”

And so began Alex’s 2 month-long training session. Every morning, he would wake up from his cultivation session with Pearl.

Then he would go to train with the Jaguar in the morning. He would fight against the Saint-ranked beast with nothing held back and truly get the most out of his training.

Then, he would spend 3 or so hours in the afternoon focused on his Alchemy session to make pills for the beast.

Then, he would spend another 3 or so hours in self-training, where he practiced his techniques and helped Pearl practice with him.

After that, he would once more have a short training with the jaguar and then go back to cultivating.

He was a little sad to hear that he couldn’t read the Human language just yet, but there was a good reason for it.

Apparently, all the books in the library were written in the beast language, another language Alex just came to learn about.

It wasn’t a well-known language, so Alex didn’t have to bother reading it at all. Besides, only the beasts could speak it anyway.

However, because it was another language that Alex didn’t understand, Yao Jia had to now work day and night and create a new book from scratch that translated the Demon language to the Human language.

Since she didn’t know the human language, she also had to learn it in the process to do so.

Because of that, Alex wasn’t going to get the book for a long while.

Time passed soon and it approached the end of the 2nd month. Alex passed along the pills in return for alchemy materials or spirit stones that the beasts brought.

He was working at a loss certainly, but most of the common pills would be useless to him, so he was using the opportunity to clear them away from his storage.

Late that night, he trained with the Jaguar for a while until it came to an end.

Alex huffed as he sat down to the side while clearing his sweat from his forehead.

”You’re getting better, much better,” the Jaguar said.

”Thank you,” Alex replied.

”If we were to fight on skill alone, you would have me beat a long time ago. Now, you just need to gain the cultivation,” the jaguar said.

”I’m working towards it.” Alex took a deep breath. “I’m already at True King 8th realm and will soon enter True King 9th realm. So, I will get there eventually.”

”Still, I didn’t expect you to fall behind the young lord considering you were ahead of him in cultivation by a long while,” the Jaguar said.

”Well, Alchemy took most of my time, and that nearly year-long outing on the ice.” Alex shook his head. “Pearl got ahead of me, and to be honest I’m quite happy for him.”

”I’m happy too,” the jaguar said. “I didn’t think the young lord would become a True Emperor this early.”

”Wouldn’t he have been faster if he had gone through the ritual?” Alex asked.

”Not necessarily. Well, at least I didn’t think so. But now that I know the young lord’s potential, I can’t say I will be surprised anymore.”

”His potential?” Alex asked. “It’s not the same as before?”

”It is, but I just didn’t know it at the time,” the jaguar said.

”What’s different? Doesn’t he still have the potential to become a White Tiger?” Alex asked.

”No, it’s no longer just a potential. It’s a given he will become a White Tiger someday. The Ritual will help accelerate it, but he will do it even without the ritual. Only that would take a lot of time,” the jaguar said.

”I’m fine with it taking time,” Alex said from the side. “Right, is Lady Ren ever gonna come out from her closed cultivation?”

The jaguar hesitated for a bit. “I’m afraid you won’t see her for a while,” the jaguar said.

’Shit, just how wounded was she from the Heavenly Judgment?’ Alex wondered.

Yao Jia arrived next to them. “You guys are still training? Isn’t it time to stop it?”

”We’ve already stopped, honey,” the jaguar said. “anyway, you should go back to your room.” The jaguar turned around and left.

”Right, I should,” Alex said and stood up from the fighting area as well.

He looked back at the two jaguars that walked away and wondered why they were so human-like, so intelligent.

”Well, that’s a question for another time, I suppose.”