“Ah, I knew you would come,” one of the elderly men said.

“Greetings, young man. It’s good to see you again,” another old man said.

They all started speaking at the same time, and Alex had to make sure not to miss what they were saying.

“Have you improved at all since the last year, young man?” one of the elder folk with a green robe asked. “Did you sword Qi progress? Did your physique grow stronger? What about your spiritual sense?”

“Oi old man, why are you asking so many questions all of a sudden?” some of the other elders said.

“What?” the old man looked back at them. “I know you were all wondering the same thing.”

If nothing, Alex felt a little thankful for this man’s directness so that he could get the topic out of way from the start.

“The only thing I’ve managed to improve over the last year is my cultivation base,” Alex said.

“I see,” the old man said.

“You have improved a lot then,” the song family matriarch said. “Just look at my grandson, he will have to be stuck at the peak of the True Emperor realm until he finds a way to enter the Saint realm.”

Alex looked towards Song Shing and nodded when he sensed the True Emperor 9th realm cultivation base. He hadn’t improved at all in the last year, but he doubted it could be so easy to do so.

Alex himself wondered how long it would take before he could reach the Saint realm. Certainly opening up his naval area would be quite hard as not many had done so before.

“Say, are you still not allowed to tell us anything about how you got so strong?” one of the women with a green and pink robe asked.

“I’m afraid not, senior,” Alex said. “The senior I told you about hasn’t allowed me to speak on this matter at all.”

Alex was still using the excuse of Shen Jing to get away from the things, but he hadn’t expected nor knew that these elderly folks were mistaking the jaguar for the senior he was talking about.

Since most of them had felt the jaguar’s cultivation base and power, they knew that there was no way the ‘senior’ had anything to do with Alex’s improvement and was likely a ruse he was using to get away from telling them.

“Stop asking him if he doesn’t want to tell you,” the Fu family’s head said and the group changed topics.

Time went by as they asked Alex various questions.

“Oh right, are you prepared to go in?” one of the elders asked.

“I… am?” Alex said, not sure what they meant by ready.

“Right, you have to have armors and escape talismans. The beasts in there can be scary from time to time and need a Saint realm to go in and take care of,” the Song matriarch said.

She reached into her storage and fished out a talisman. “Take this if you don’t have escape talismans. It will help you teleport out if you’re in any danger,” she said.

“Thank you, senior, but I already have one,” Alex said.

“Oh, of course, you would. I forgot you stayed in a talisman sect,” the old woman said with a smile.

Alex felt awkward talking with the elders, but fortunately, they let him be after a while.

Unfortunately, Fu Tao called him to their group and Alex was forced to mix in with the juniors this time.

At least these people didn’t ask him about his powers and secrets, so Alex was a little happy.

“Do you want to stay with us inside the demon realm? We can search for riches together,” Fu Tao said. His cultivation was still in the True Emperor realm, so Alex could only imagine just how desperate he was to break through.

“It’s fine, brother Fu,” Alex said. “I like being alone.”

Alex couldn’t have company as he was going to go through the many rooms and find information that was there.

“I see,” Fu Tao said. A few others tried to persuade him to stay with them in the demon realm, but Alex refused.

He had no plans of staying with them at all.

After a while, Alex left them too and went to sit alone by some rock. He felt at peace as no one talked to him for a while.

He was surprised when the people continued talking on and on without stopping. At least, now he didn’t have to listen to them and could focus on himself.

Finally, he peacefully looked everywhere, taking in all the sights, and the numbers into his head.

‘So many,’ he thought. The number was drastically higher than last time around. People had arrived early this time around.

He saw Qin Shan and some elders in the distance looking after the disciples of the Flowing Brush sect. Just to stop others from following him, Qin Shan didn’t come to visit Alex at the moment.

Alex was a little thankful for that. He didn’t want to fight the horde of people again.

The jaguar came to his side and sat down next to him without saying anything. At the same time, the sun slowly began to rise.

Just a few more hours remained before the demon realm would open.

Alex went through his storage ring again. He checked through the map, and the medallion. He even reread the diary left behind by one of the inhabitants of the demon realm too.

The information in there was cryptic, but Alex still read it in hope of being some kind of help.

A few more hours went by and the sun came up a bit higher.

Suddenly, the monument in the distance lit up brightly with light shining from it. The sound of the monument activating caught Alex’s attention and he looked toward it.

It wasn’t just him. Everyone turned towards the monument.

Slowly, one by one, the True realm cultivators stood up as it was time for them to enter. After all, the Demon realm had opened.

People hurried as time had already begun ticking down. There were 10 days remaining after each time the demon realm opened, so they needed to hurry.

Also, the faster they could get in, the faster they could get to the riches. Who knew how many more doors would have opened in the time since last year.

Alex stood up as well. “I’m leaving,” he told the jaguar, who nodded and continued crouching there. He would stay that way for 10 days until Alex returned.

Alex walked up to the thin pyramid with runes carved all throughout it. He wondered for a second if he should wear the medallion before activating the runes. However, he didn’t know just what sort of response it would give to the person with the highest authority in the secret realm, so Alex didn’t wear it just yet.

He took a deep breath and poured his Qi into runes on the monolith. The runes shined, and Alex felt an extremely familiar sense of teleportation cover him fully.

A second later, he vanished.

Many others vanished into the secret realm as well, but a group of the elite saints only focused on Alex entering the realm.

It wouldn’t be very much longer before their disciples would put the plan into motion.

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