The rate at which the sky glowed a dull yellow became more and more frequent as time went on.
Whisker failed to understand what was going on. Neither Pearl nor the Playground spirit understood it either. What they did understand was the changes that came with those frequent glowing skies.
The temperature of the secret realm began to increase at a slow rate. It was a very minor change at first, but Whisker had been able to notice it quite instantly.
His whiskers allowed him to sense aura that would otherwise be impossible for others to sense even with their spiritual sense.
"Heat?" Alex asked, listening to Whisker's story. "The thing you're talking about is the temperature rising?"
"Uhh, partly," Whisker said. "It's much hotter now than it used to be just 15 years ago."
"Hotter? Now?" Alex frowned. If he was reading into Whisker's story correctly, things there aligned very well with when he ate Sunhearts.
During the start, he hadn't consumed more than a few Sunhearts before getting captured in Palm Haven. At that point, he was imprisoned for 50 years, which was the years of peace that Whisker talked about.
Once he had e out, however, he had begun consuming Sunhearts once again. And it seemed the Sunhearts had somehow started to affect his Soul Space.
'I consumed infected beast cores even when I was imprisoned, so it must only be Sunhearts,' Alex thought.
"Not just hotter, brother. It is getting much brighter too. It's starting to get brighter than the sun itself."
Alex narrowed his eyes. "Wait, are you talking about the Yang tree? It is what's getting hotter? Not just my Soul Space?"
Whisker nodded. "The tree is getting hotter and brighter. I think it's growing in size too, but it's hard to look in its direction lately, so I can't be sure how much it has grown."
Alex took a moment to think. He didn't know how it was possible, but it appeared that the Nine Yang Divine Tree had been taking the opportunity of him consuming Sunhearts to grow itself.
'I can see why Sunhearts would be great for it,' Alex thought. 'The Yang in them are just as pure as the tree itself.'
For a brief moment, he wondered what would happen if he delivered Sunhearts directly to the tree. How much more would it grow?
"How's the other one doing?" Alex asked. "Is it causing issues? Is it growing too much too?"
"The World tree? Its growth has accelerated, but it isn't causing any problems as far as I can tell," Whisker said. "At least, I don't think it is the source of the issue."
"Of course not," Alex said. "Heat and light are clearly from the Yang tree."
Having said as much, Alex realized that something was wrong with his assessment of the situation. The way Whisker talked about the situation at the start, it sounded as if everyone's life was in danger.
But hearing his explanation of the situation, it just seemed as if things had gotten a little brighter and hotter. Those were surely annoying, but nothing a simple formation wouldn't solve for everyone.
This had the potential to be dangerous, but it wasn't urgent.
As if listening to Alex's thoughts, Whisker spoke again.
"That's… that's not the main issue," Whisker said with an aggrieved look. "Things began changing then, but lately something worse has been happening. The weaker beasts in the fifth mountain are starting to die one after another."
"Huh? How?"
Whisker shook his head. "I don't know. I can't sense anything when I search for the situation. I asked Brother Pearl, but he couldn't sense anything either."
"How are they dying? Is it a disease? What's the symptom?"
"They just… they just die. They grow weak first, and then they just die, turning into a sort of gray husk at the end."
Alex's eyes narrowed, trying to think of a disease that could do such a thing. But any disease that could kill saints but couldn't affect Immortals should've been easily dealt with by Whisker.
"Are you sure the World tree isn't doing anything?" Alex asked. "It is growing, so it may be feeding off of energy from the beasts in the fifth mountain. It is a perfect place for that."
"I thought so at first, but it's not possible. My spiritual sense would've been eaten if that was the case, and I could still sense everything clearly," Whisker said. "I wanted to heal those dying beasts but I needed different ingredients, so I sent Brother Pearl to find more outside, which was when we found out something more horrifying."
"Found out what?" Alex asked.
"That the thing that is killing these beasts has the Demon realm pletely surrounded on the outside," Whisker said. "And it is much stronger as well."
"What?"
"Brother Pearl said that if he had stayed there for more than a day, it was possible that he would have died," Whisker said. "We don't know what the thing killing those beasts is, but if the thing on the outside somehow enters the Demon realm, we will most likely all die, brother. You have to do something."
Alex took a deep breath, realizing the situation.
How could things have gotten this bad? What exactly was happening there?
"Have the beasts all died?" Alex asked.
"We migrated all the beasts from the fifth mountain over to the fourth when we couldn't find any solutions. In the last 5 years, almost all the vegetation of the fifth mountain has been destroyed, and lately, that region has started touching the fourth mountain as well."
"And it is getting stronger. Seeing how things weren't stopping at all, we decided that the only course of action we had left was to e and seek you."
Alex nodded. "I see," he said, his face growing somber. "I had hoped that I could spend many more decades trying to hone my Intent before I could break this seal that has been placed on me."
"But it appears I don't have that luxury," he said.
However he could, he was going to have to find a way to deal with the issues of his Soul Space as soon as possible.
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