Whisker flew out of Alex’s Soul Space and landed on his shoulder. He looked around for a while, confused by the difference in what he saw.
They were walking through a wide road, with unique buildings surrounding them on each side. This looked nothing like the Azure Dragon Palace that he believed the group to still be in.
He looked up front and saw the massive red and purple barrier that lay before them like a wall.
"Where are we, brother?" he finally asked as his confusion peaked and his curiosity piqued.
"We’re about to enter the Vermilion Bird Palace," Alex answered. "We’re going to Scarlet."
Whisker’s eyes widened. "We’re finally going to Sister Scarlet? It’s been so many years."
Scarlet’s mother turned around upon hearing the chirpy voice. "Who is this?" she asked.
"His na is Whisker. He’s soone else I’m bonded to," Alex said.
"Do you bond with everything that moves or what?" she asked.
Alex laughed a little. "If it’s anything, Whisker here is the only one I bonded out of my own volition. Both Pearl and your daughter did so when I was unconscious."
"I see," she said, her head lowering a little. "I believe I haven’t apologized yet for how I acted earlier. I’m sorry."
"No, it’s alright, Senior," Alex quickly said. "You thought your daughter had bonded to soone when she was small and knew nothing. I can understand your frustration and anger."
"Thank you," she said. "She’s my only daughter, so I got frustrated when I learned what she had done. The fact that she had to go through her rebirth all on her own was bad enough, when I found she had bonded to a random human, I got angry.
"And then, when you showed up, I took out all my frustrations on you. I shouldn’t have done that, but I couldn’t stop myself."
Feng Ningzhu rubbed her back with his wings while he looked toward Alex. "My daughter is really protective of her child, even for a Phoenix. Even though little Huo has a decent talent, her mother forced her to go down to the lower realm where she would be safer than participating in her century-long trial in the Fighting Island."
"Is it really as dangerous as it sounds?" Alex asked. "Pearl and I will be headed there in a few months to a year."
Feng Ningzhu turned around with a concerned look. "What? Why would you go there?"
Alex pointed to Pearl. "He only just got done with his bloodline test back in the White Tiger Palace, so he is going to have to take on the test as per the family rules."
"Only now?" the two beasts turned to look at Pearl. "But he looks to be quite high in cultivation base. Most usually do it when they’ve just reached the Immortal Realm."
"That may be so, but he’s been with this whole ti, and we only just arrived in this world a few months ago, so he has to do it," Alex said.
"And your na was Pearl, was it?" Scarlet’s mother asked.
"Yes, Senior," Pearl said quickly.
"Hmm, I do rember the na from the letter."
"So you did get my letter," Bai Jingshen said. "Did you just decide to not reply?"
"Of course I wouldn’t reply," Scarlet’s mother said. "Why would I have? I was still angry over what my daughter had done and had been done to her."
Bai Jingshen sighed. "Did you even give her the letter?" he asked.
"I told her the human was here, nothing more than that."
Bai Jingshen couldn’t help but let out a few quick snorts of laughter.
They finally arrived before the massive red barrier, feeling the heat from it. Alex hadn’t expected there to be actual heat from the barrier, but it was bearable, so there was nothing to that.
The barrier opened a slit, sothing bright shining from the inside. Feng Ningzhu walked in first, followed by Feng Xianhei. Then, Alex and the rest walked in.
Two giant bronze pillars stood right next to Alex, the top of them shaped like a goblet with phoenix fire burning mightily atop it. More such pillars lay in a circular formation, right inside the barrier that was now invisible.
They surrounded the Vermilion Bird Palace, a majestic set of buildings made up of so sort of translucent stone that seed to glow brightly for so reason. Compared to that glow, the surrounding areas seed much darker.
It took Alex a mont to realize why it was glowing so much.
Sun Stone.
He had seen a piece of it back in the lower realm, inside Scarlet’s do where it lay at the center. The Sun Stone absorbed light from the sun and kept it within itself to scatter out when there was no more light.
Phoenixes had a body that healed with sunlight, so a Sun Stone was an incredible object to make their palace out of.
Alex narrowed his eyes for a mont, thinking back to the ti when he was first inside the do and saw the sunlight concentrated directly on the Sun Stone. The do was created in a way to make it do that.
He looked up at the sky and realized the sa was happening here. The barrier had a property to refract the incoming light so most of it ended up falling on the clear-white Sun Stone itself that now glowed brightly.
Alex and the rest, including Bai Jingshen, stared at everything in awe. It was also Bai Jingshen’s first ti entering the Vermilion Bird Palace, so he hadn’t known what to expect.
Feng Ningzhu watched in amusent at their reaction for a while before pulling them out of their reverie.
"Now, now. Don’t keep my granddaughter waiting," he said. "Don’t you want to et her?"
Alex broke out of his stupor and turned toward the Phoenix. He quickly nodded his head and started walking along. "Please show the way, Senior," he said, despite already knowing where Scarlet was by now.
The Phoenix walked and the rest followed, heading toward where Scarlet was.
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