It took Alex a couple of weeks to fully consolidate his new cultivation base. In that time, he also took in the new Daos he had learned, understanding how he could apply them better in his everyday life.
There wasnât much he could do in that aspect, however, until he was done with cultivation.
During that time, he checked on his Spiritual Sea again, standing before his new Origins.
They no longer undulated like before, no longer a floating mass of glowing liquid. They were now pure white solids with a surface so smooth he wouldâve mistaken them for polished marble.
Each one of the Origins was white in color, except for the last one.
The yellow fog hadnât left that Origin, still covering it completely. Alex could feel the Origin, but he feared he couldnât add anything to it.
The yellow fog would likely destroy it all.
Should he test it?
âBetter to deal with the rest first,â he thought. If he somehow moved it and the fog ended up covering more Origins, he wouldnât know what to do.
He couldnât allow such an issue to happen.
Alex tore his eyes away from the final Origin, looking back toward the other seven. Now that they were ready, he could start the process known as Transcendence.
He could start adding aura to these Origins.
âWhich ones do I start with?â Alex thought. âShould I go with the Void, the Pill, or maybe the Tree?â
As he thought, he slowly turned around, looking in a certain direction where he felt a connection deep underwater.
There, Godslayer remained in stasis, keeping Midnight safe from possible death.
Alex didnât know how much longer Godslayer could keep it up.
âI should get to him immediately,â he thought. âBut... am I ready?â
The Origin was ready. But what about the rest? Midnightâs body was still broken. He needed to forge it together with the sword that was Godslayerâs body, but he wanted to wait until he got the Artifact Godâs memories.
But to do that, he first needed Godslayer to move his memories into the Origin.
It was a cycle where both had to come before the other one, and unless Alex broke the cycle somehow, he couldnât move forward with the plan.
"If Godslayer does merge with Midnight successfully, then he could maybe move into Godslayerâs body," Alex thought. "He wonât have to stay there for a long time, just enough for me to forge the new sword."
That was the plan for now.
"I should get to it as soon as I can," Alex thought. "But after I leave this place. I need to be somewhere a lot safer than this."
The Vermilion Bird Palace was technically no different for him than the White Tiger Palace, but he felt much safer in that palace than he did here.
He didnât know if part of the reason had to do with the discourse about the Sun God and Phoenix Mother, or if he just found it better when he could be around Bai Jingshen and Pearl, who both felt at home in that place.
Either way, he needed to wait until he got back before he continued this.
Before leaving his Spiritual Sea, Alex took a glance at the Blood Devil, which needed some more growth before it was fully complete.
âAnother thing to do,â Alex thought with a sigh and left. Finally, he opened his eyes, now completely done with his cultivation base.
Pearl and Bai Jingshen came to congratulate him afterward. Pearl had been cultivating as well during the same time he had and was much closer to breaking through once again.
"You made quite the scene," Bai Jingshen said. "Seven Daos, eh? And Pearl tells me three of them were related to Space?"
"Three Space and four Time," Alex said with a grin.
Bai Jingshenâs eyes widened. "Pearl did say some of those had to be Time Daos, but I didnât expect all four of them to be."
Alex smiled. He looked around the room for a moment. "Is there a barrier up?"
"I had to hide you from the outsiders. Many people have wanted to look in here," Bai Jingshen said.
"Oh, thank you," Alex said. "What now though? You will have to shut it down sometime."
"I know," Bai Jingshen said. "Iâm just gonna teleport us away so they wonât find out we were ever here."
"Teleport us to..."
"Back at my place," Bai Jingshen said.
"Weâre leaving this suddenly?" Alex asked. "I havenât even said goodbye to Scarlet. I promised her mother I would share some Alchemy knowledge with her. We canât just leave."
"What else can we do, brother?" Pearl asked. "Unless youâre okay with every Vermilion Bird in this palace finding out it was you that learned so many Time Daos while in their midst. They might get offended. They couldnât do anything here, but they might try to do something once weâve left."
Alex narrowed his eyes. Pearl wasnât exactly wrong. The Matriarch likely already knew it was him, but the rest didnât, and he would rather keep it that way.
"Maybe we donât have to just leave," Alex said. "Give me a moment."
Alex closed his eyes, found Scarlet through his bond, and communicated with her. After a brief back and forth, he opened his eyes.
"Alright, Iâve set things up. Weâre ready to leave," he said.
"Okay, then Iâll take us away," Bai Jingshen said, his paws reaching for his earrings.
"No," Alex said. "Iâll take us away."
Alex lifted his left hand and used his new Daos. The moment he did, Space around him warped in ways it never had before. It expanded and contracted all around him, distorting in every direction.
Through that distortion, he found a path only he could take.
With a thought, he grabbed onto the Space around him, taking Pearl and Bai Jingshen with him. Then, he disappeared, arriving inside Scarletâs room.
Upon his arrival, the distortion vanished. And any trace that could have led to where he was, vanished along with it.