It was a few months before Alex even stepped out of his room at all, and it was only so he could see his family and friends before returning.

In the brief time he had been away, Ronron, Helen, and Liz had all regressed their cultivation bases and were now desperately trying to reach the Immortal Origin Realm as soon as they could.

Hannah had left for the other realms, so she would be back sometime in the future.

Pearl and Scarlet cultivated, doing their best to reach the next cultivation realms as soon as they could while also fully learning their Origins. At some point, Scarlet would have to start cultivating together with Pearl so he could help her with one of her Creations, which would be the same as Pearl’s.

Hao Ya had been taken away by the Sky God, and from what he heard, she had been placed under someone else to be tested and trained. It was unclear if she was gaining a new master, but she was definitely no longer staying in Ronron’s courtyard.

Whisker and Battlesage had also cultivated for some time, but more than that, the two of them played around with the Battle Mimicry Artifact. It was enough to say that Battlesage was absolutely obsessed with this thing, and Whisker didn’t help with his obsession by indulging him every time. Alex was beginning to have a sinking suspicion that even Whisker was getting addicted to the battles they fought in the artifact.

As soon as Alex alerted them to his arrival, they were happy to return to the Soul Realm to continue their work. The dragon scales were all carved and ready to be installed in the correct locations, so they were at the final phase of their plans anyway.

Alex didn’t even see the older Alex and Emily, who were apparently busy cultivating, doing their best to reach the Immortal Realm as quickly as they could.

Alex had been somewhat hesitant about them cultivating quickly, as that would have put a hamper on his idea about giving them new spirit roots, but after learning about the Root Giving Pills, he no longer had to worry about transplanting roots unless it was absolutely necessary.

It would, of course, take him many years to even reach the Divine Realm before he could try making the pill. Then there was the matter of finding the necessary ingredients for said pill. He would have to work at it for a while, so it was fortunate that they at least had one root each to help them reach the Immortal Realm for now.

Lastly, there were his father and brother-in-law, neither of whom he could find around the courtyard at all. He had to wait a while before he even saw them. They had just returned to the courtyard from somewhere.

"Where were you two gone?" Alex asked, watching them walk in together. "Were you out training?"

"Something like that," Graham said. "Did you come out already? We thought it would take you a lot longer, so we left for some time."

"I saw that. Where did you go?" Alex asked. "You weren’t somewhere on this mountain, were you?"

He couldn’t see why they would be gone for days if that were the case.

"Oh, we went to take part in a tournament," Long Huan answered. "Both of us."

Alex narrowed his eyes. "What tournament?"

"There is a tournament that is held every once in a while. It’s more of a battle attraction than a tournament, and people of similar cultivation bases get to fight each other. It’s quite fun," Long Huan said.

Alex raised his eyebrows. "Did you guys win?"

"I came third in my group," Long Huan said. "But your father barely made it halfway through."

Alex turned to his father with a confused stare. "You lost in a fighting tournament with similar cultivation bases?" he asked.

"Yes," Graham nodded a single time.

"How did you lose to Saints?"

"Because I didn’t fight Saints," Graham answered. "I didn’t fight in the Qi section, but rather the very limited Body Cultivation section."

Alex raised his eyebrows. "Are there other people with body cultivation as strong as yours?"

"Very few, but since this is the Sky God’s Realm, they are all gathered here. And a small group has learned to go to the tournament each time it takes place. I’ve made a few friends from doing that alone," Graham said.

"The Body Cultivation group is small, so there’s not as much fairness in the groupings. There’s a wider lower and upper threshold for each group, so your father ends up losing most of the time," Long Huan said.

"Well, I can’t help it," Graham said with a sigh. "Even though I am physically adept at fighting, my enemies are around the same stage as me. However, because they are also all Divine cultivators, I have no chance of winning."

Long Huan laughed a little. "You say that, but you lost to a little girl this time."

"She wasn’t little. She is clearly thousands of years old," Graham argued.

Long Huan laughed a little more. "I clearly doubt that. She was barely a Saint at all. You have a higher cultivation base than hers, and somehow you still lost."

"She could have become an Immortal like me long ago. We can’t tell," Graham said in a somewhat annoyed tone. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

Alex didn’t know what exactly to say during their conversation.

"Well, I think the most important thing is whether you had fun or not."

"We did," Long Huan said. "There’s no doubt about it."

"We’re sorry we didn’t let you know before, but we thought you would want to be cultivating for some time," Graham said. "You can come with us the next time."

Alex agreed. "When does the next one open?"

"Well, they change their locations around the realm, so we won’t know for sure. On average though, it takes them about 20 to 40 years to set up the new tournament."

"That’s great!" Alex said. "I will go to the next one."