Chapter 2740: Shrinking Land

Pearl was rather shocked to hear what had happened after he had been placed into the Soul Space.

The gods had changed their verdicts from wanting to kill Alex to wanting nothing to do with him, and stopping him from doing anything to affect the rest of the world as well.

When Pearl heard about how terrible a place Hell was, he couldn’t help but be surprised.

“What sort of place had Divine beasts whose cultivation can’t even reach Saint realm?” Pearl asked. It simply didn’t make sense to him.

“That’s just how Hell is,” Alex said. “They have this thing called Elixir. I’ve purchased a few jars for myself. If I work hard, I should be able to purchase a few more. I can share some with you. Although… I feel as though you might not need it.”

Alex sensed Pearl’s cultivation base, and to his surprise, he had grown. After half a century of non-stop cultivation, mostly within the Timeless Palace, Pearl had reached the Immortal Origin realm and gone a bit beyond.

He was in the Immortal Origin 3rd realm now, just a step behind Alex. And from what he could see, it wouldn’t be long before Pearl caught up to him.

Pearl smiled. “I’ve been training very hard,” he said. “Although, I haven’t had much time to focus on training because of that thing. But since you took care of it, I can go back to training again.”

“I’m afraid you won’t be able to focus as much again,” Alex said. “Whisker will have to wait outside until I’m done breaking through this seal. Until then, you’ll have to take care of the Demon realm.”

Pearl paused for a long time. “Really?”

“Really.”

“Even the plants and the silkworms?”

“Everything, I fear,” Alex said.

“But… I don’t really know much about them,” Pearl said. “Can’t we just not grow any until Whisker returns?”

“There are still plenty that are growing. You’ll have to take care of them,” Alex said. “Don’t worry, Memory knows a lot about plants. She will help you too.”

Pearl sighed in the end. “I suppose I can do that. Please try to send Whisker back as soon as you can though,” he said.

“I will,” Alex said. “But it will take a while.”

Alex wasn’t sure how much work it would need to break through the entire seal since that was the main thing he needed in order to send Whisker back.

He had done the most important part though, so the rest should be relatively easy.

Alex checked the damage of the fourth mountain and shook his head. It really had been destroyed quite badly. The fifth mountain had been similarly destroyed previously from what Whisker had told him.

Alex sent his Spiritual sense into the Timeless Palace where the other Alex and Emily were staying, but he failed to see inside. The Timeless Palace not only had a barrier keeping away Spiritual senses, the difference in flow of time itself presented as a barrier that wasn’t easy to go through.

Alex would have to work a lot harder to pierce through it to look inside, and for now it just wasn’t worth it.

“Are Ronron’s parents doing good?” Alex asked.

“The thing didn’t reach them,” Pearl said. “It came nowhere close to here.”

Alex nodded silently on the outside. “It must have found a weak spot in the spatial edge around the 5th mountain,” he said. “The World Tree might have weakened that spot, which is how it found its way in. Speaking of which, can you tell me how it’s doing? I can’t see anything about that plant with my Spiritual sense.”

“The tree is growing larger,” Pearl said without even moving from his place. “After the previous beasts began dying on the 5th mountain and we had to move them, the tree seemed to have realized that it was a place it could occupy. Since then, its roots have extended through the fifth mountain, some even surfacing above it.”

Alex was taken aback to hear that. “What about the fourth mountain?” he asked.

“Not yet,” he said. “But it’s only a matter of time and energy. Maybe now that the fog is gone, it may extend even further.”

Alex nodded outside. “Speaking of which, where are the beasts? I see not a single one. They didn’t all die, did they?”

“No, the beasts are safe,” Pearl said. “I called them all over here from the third mountain, but most of them found this place too hot to be comfortable. So after some thought, we’ve had all the beasts go stay in the Playground for now. The Playground spirit is keeping them safe.”

“That I am, Master,” the Playground’s voice came.

It had been present and listening to their conversation right from the start.

“Thank you, Playground. You’ve been a lot of help,” Alex said.

“That is my purpose, Master.”

Alex took a moment to look at everything within the Demon realm from the burning 1st mountain where the Nine Yang Divine Tree was beginning to grow larger and hotter, to the 5th and 6th mountain that he couldn’t even see anymore.

Compared to the first time when he brought the secret realm inside of his Soul Space, it appeared so much smaller now. There was so little space for things to happen.

There were 6 mountains to begin with, and now 3 of them had been lost to the two plants. And if things continued, they would lose two more, leaving the 3rd mountain as the last mountain.

It just felt wrong for that to be a thing. There was so much heritage in this place, left over by the demons that lived in the 3rd Major Spirit realm, led by none other than the 8th Undying God.

Alex wanted to continue his legacy and preserve everything he could about this place. He had lost a few things already, he didn’t want to lose any more.

‘I know what I need to do,’ Alex thought as he saw no other solutions to this problem. ‘I’ll need to add another spatial pocket to my Soul Space.’