1170 An Evening Walk
To a cultivator, a month was supposed to be a very short period of time that would usually just pass before one could even realize it had passed.
However, to Alex, the month following his ascendence to royalty felt like the longest month in recent memory.
His days were no longer monotonous where he could spend them doing the same thing over and over, simply losing himself to time.
Instead, he was forced to look at different problems every day, not letting each day blend into the other to not feel the passage of time.
“That will be all, your Majesty,” the elder finished reporting everything to Alex.
“Thank you,” Alex said while on his throne and sent the elder away. He slumped a bit after the elder was gone.
‘So the tests for the production institutes are tomorrow, huh?’ he thought. It had been a month since it was advertised that the royal palace was looking to hire many Alchemists, Talisman makers, and Formation designers. And finally, they were here to take the test that would help them join.
He needed to be ready for that tomorrow.
‘Damn Scarlet, she’s making me do everything,’ he thought as he got off the throne and stretched. It had been a long day and finally, it all came to an end. He couldn’t wait to go back and cultivate.
He left the throne room and made his way to his father’s room. After knocking twice, his father’s spiritual sense noticed him and he opened the door.
Alex walked through and went in to find his father learning how to read and write the demon language along with Whisker. It had been an entire month, so he was good enough that if given the time, he could read and write anything.
Still, it didn’t come to him naturally, so he practiced a bit.
“Are you done?” Graham asked.
“Yeah, I just got done,” Alex said. “What about you? Did you cultivate today?”
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Alex felt his father’s cultivation base and nodded. He was merely in the Skin Tempering 3rd realm despite cultivating for an entire month.
It was impossible to tell if he was just bad at cultivating or if there was something wrong with his body.
He had asked Scarlet to check, but even she couldn’t tell what was wrong with his father.
‘It’s not like he is practicing with bad technique or even rushing,’ Alex thought. ‘And I’ve also given him the best pills he can use right now, so why is his cultivation base so slow?’
It was impossible to tell exactly what the reason was, but at least his father could continue with his body cultivation.
According to Scarlet, one didn’t necessarily have to have Qi cultivation to be immortal. You could also take the physical cultivation route to immortality. Although, that was significantly worse for the cultivator since advancing their body cultivation was extremely difficult in the Immortal realm without any sort of natural treasures.
‘She said it was rare, but not impossible to do, so I can relax for now,’ he thought.
“Did you go meet your friends?” Alex asked.
“Yes, I did,” Graham said. “But most of them have already returned to the desert to live their life without any more twists and turns. They just want to live a simple life now.”
Alex nodded. He wouldn’t mind a simple life right now either.
He talked with his father for a few more minutes before walking out. Whisker remained with his father to keep him company, so Alex was all alone.
He thought of returning to his room, but instead, he decided to leave the palace. If he were to tell someone he was going out, the elders would have 3 people follow him immediately.
So instead, he simply sneaked out of the palace without letting anyone know.
With the skills and treasures he had on him, no one could even realize that he had left the palace right now.
He pulled out a small straw hat from his storage ring and wore it on his head. The hat drooped just enough to hide his face if he looked slightly downward. Without anyone specifically trying to see his face, they wouldn’t be able to.
He walked through the evening crowd of the city that all rushed around buying and selling stuff, or returning from work. There were restaurants that were busy serving food to the mortal early in the evening.
Alex smiled softly and decided to try out some mortal food.
He kept his hat and sat alone at a table as the food came. There weren’t many tables in the restaurant, so some people came and sat at the same table as him, without a single clue as to who he was.
Alex quite liked that.
He silently ate his food while listening to the conversation of the many around him. It sounded like quite a few of them were excited about the tests tomorrow that was going to be broadcast.
‘I did promise monthly tutelage to the alchemists that will join,’ he thought. He could understand why it was so popular.
He left the restaurant after he was finished and continued with his walk. The number of people walking around reduced significantly as time went on.
The air chilled a bit as well, and Alex found the lonely walk quite entrancing. He had needed this change of pace to refresh himself.
As he walked, he finally felt that he was free enough to think of what he needed to do next. Not just as a King, but also as himself.
“Scarlet is taking her time fixing her rushed cultivation,” he thought. “So, it will be a while before she can reach the immortal realm to unlock whatever storage it is that needs Immortal Qi. Without her reaching the Immortal realm or reaching anywhere close to it, I can forget about her taking me away too.”
Even if she did take just him back to the Western Continent somehow, he would still have trouble coming back from there. With the responsibility he was handed, he couldn’t just leave the Southern Continent for years before he was strong enough either.
“So, I have to do what I need to before I have a chance of leaving this place,” he thought. This meant, the following years of his were going to be filled with a lot of cultivation, a lot of training, a lot of pill making, and most definitely a lot of meditation to learn some more dao.
He knew exactly what dao he wanted to learn next, and even had some rough idea of how he was going to achieve it.
“I probably don’t have to hide my alchemy skills, so it will definitely be easier,” he thought.
He continued walking through the city and walked past the Insight Pavilion that was still working.
The pavilion was under new management now, becoming the Royal Insight Pavilion. With Zhu Shaofan dead, there was no one else to take over it, so Alex decided to use it for himself.
He went around the city for an hour or two more and finally returned to the palace, retreating into his royal chambers to wait for the next day to begin.