Pearl was done breaking through the hard shell on his beast core.

Similar to how a human had a dantian, beasts stored their Qi in their core, which was attached to their spiritual roots. Alex could feel the significant improvement in Pearl’s aura, so he knew he was just two steps away from actually breaking through.

However, it was exactly these 2 steps that were the hardest and that was what made Alex so worried.

This was Pearl’s first time trying to fight against an Inner demon. If he failed, he would face a backlash that could severely harm his progress and even drop it a considerable amount.

That alone wouldn’t have been much of a problem, but Pearl had also learned the Dao, which meant that he had to fight against the lightning that was ready to come for him as a weaker version of himself.

Alex wasn’t sure if he could do that.

“What’s… going on?” Ma Tianxin asked when he noticed a change in the aura. The bright white clouds that dropped snow were slowly turning darker and darker by the second while releasing a rather ominous aura.

“Make sure not to get close,” Alex said as he looked at the sky. “The heavens will smite you for it.”

“What? Why? What’s going on?” the young man asked, but Alex didn’t answer. Explaining Lightning Tribulation would take too much of his time and he was too focused on Pearl at the moment to do so.

Pearl’s expression said that he was struggling against the demon. Alex wished he could tell him it was alright, but he couldn’t. Pearl could hear no one at the moment.

Just as he was thinking that Alex suddenly saw someone enter his spiritual sense from the north to his right. The man that entered was wearing a purple robe and seemed to be coming exactly toward them.

The man’s spiritual sense passed through him and Ma Tianxin not long after as he flew towards them quite fast. He would arrive near them at any minute now.

Alex frowned. He didn’t care who the man was or why he was coming towards them. He was going to disturb Pearl if he came any further and Alex didn’t want that.

He flew off without any notice and went over to the man, meeting him about 2 kilometers away from where Pearl was breaking through.

The man stopped when he noticed Alex arrive in front of him and smiled. He was a middle-aged man that looked to be in his early 50s with his streaks of white hair and beard.

“Would you mind stepping as–“

“Leave!” Alex said without waiting for the man to finish his words.

The man’s smile vanished a little, but he still kept it up the best he could. “Junior, You are quite rude–“

“Leave,” Alex said. “You are disturbing my beast’s breakthrough. If you want something, you can come after he’s done breaking through.”

“Oh!” the man said and turned his head to look towards the mountain range to his right. “The white cat, huh? I’ve heard a few things about it too. It should be going through a lightning tribulation soon huh?”

“Yes,” Alex said. “So, leave.”

The man finally lost his smile. “I’ve been trying to be friendly, but you continue being rude. Do you really think you’re strong enough to be this rude?” the man asked as he let out his cultivation base aura.

Alex stood there without a single reaction to the man’s Saint Foundation 2nd realm aura.

“Senior Bu? What are you doing here?” Ma Tianxin arrived next to Alex and asked.

“Ah! Junior Ma, there you are. I came to escort you back,” he said. “I heard you had a rather rough time on the battlefield.”

“Oh, yes I did,” Ma Tianxin said with a confused look on his face. “But how do you know that?”

“They told me, of course,” the man named Bu said.

“They?” Ma Tianxin’s face became gloomy when he understood what was happening. “You too, senior Bu?”

“Haha, they just paid me a lot, that’s all. I don’t really want the sect master’s position anyway,” the man said. “So, let’s make it simple, shall we? All you have to do is swear an oath to not reveal whatever took place in the Ancient Battlefield and I will return right now. Hell, I will even escort you back just like I said.”

Ma Tianxin frowned. The senior in front of him was a strong one that he couldn’t fight against. He glanced at Alex and had a suspicion that he wouldn’t be able to fight against him as well.

“I–“

“What if he doesn’t?” Alex asked. “Are you going to cause trouble?”

The man sneered when he heard Alex. “Young man, don’t get overly cocky just because you learned a few Dao here and there. Dao alone won’t make you powerful,” he said.

“I’m not in a mood for your sect’s petty quarrel. Even if he will never reveal what happened, due to my acquaintance with senior Xinyi, I will still tell him everything when I reach your sect. What will you do then?” Alex asked.

The man in front of them frowned. “You know our sect master?” he asked.

“I’ve met him twice now during the Dao mountain’s opening,” Alex said. “He’s been quite friendly with me, and I wouldn’t want to see vultures eying his spot once he stops being a sect master.”

The man frowned. He thought for a moment about how information about Alex was spread, and most of the information about his Dao had come from the sect master. “You’re not lying, are you?” he asked. “Shit! That makes things complicated.”

“Why would it?” Alex asked. “You say you don’t want anything with the sect master’s position, so all you have to do and return and give back the money you took from the betrayers and wash your hands of any rules of the sect you might’ve broken.

The man frowned when he heard that. His not wanting to be a sect master was obviously a lie. Even if he didn’t care about the position itself, being the husband of the woman who contracted the sacred beast of the sect was something no man would want to miss.

Besides, if he did nothing here and the news got back to the sect master, it wouldn’t take long before they figured out that he was the mastermind behind this whole operation.

“Fine then,” the man said as his cultivation base flared and he shot out some green wolves made up of air.

“Step back,” Alex said as he took out a sword and cut the wolves before they arrived.

Ma Tianxin started getting worried, but he was useless here anyway so he turned around and left as far as he could.

Alex checked Pearl’s situation one last time and noticed that he was still fighting his inner demon. It would take a while to be done with.

“I will need to get done with this quickly.”

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