Chapter 3149: Routine Alex was done analyzing the many dragons he had gathered. No more of his experiments would reveal to him something it already hadn’t. At this point, he kept the dragons just to get more blood, and even allowed them to go out and fight once in a while before returning to him. He mostly focused on the Bloodline transfer technique and even that was beginning to shift as he got better and better at it, just a bit further away from fully turning it into a technique. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦 He spent more of his time filling up his Blank Canvas Pill Origin, or training his Sword Heart. By now, his Sword Heart had improved to a point where he could form it up to a hundred meters away from him with its maximum strength. That being either in the form of domain, simple aura, or just Qi that empowered certain attacks. He could push it further too, but that meant lowering the strength of his attacks, as distance directly correlated to how much pain he could handle mentally. He had seen Grimsight use his Spear Heart so simply, creating it to kill the sect leader of the Fighting Poison sect. His master had created Sword Heart too, when she was just Death, killing anything that moved. Unlike them, the Sword Heart didn’t come to Alex with just a thought. He had to focus on it, sometimes erasing all other thoughts to make it happen. He still had a long way to go before he could comfortably use it. But that wouldn’t be far away. He had only been inside this island for 5 years now, so another 5 years later he would surely improve a lot. His improvement would plateau in the future, but that wasn’t anytime soon. Aside from that, Alex had also begun looking into the Pill Clouds. Since he had a few pills to improve still, he used the opportunity to try and understand the aura of the Pill Clouds, and see if he could replicate them in any way. It became obvious to Alex that this wouldn’t be something so simple as finding the aura hidden in these clouds and absorbing it. He had to understand the clouds, or else his creation from it would be incredibly weak. The clouds themselves had no aura, so Alex couldn’t even just absorb what they gave off and hope he understood it enough while absorbing it. Of course, he had to try with the Immortal tribulation clouds too, but for that he needed to make the pill that would allow him to constantly redo his tribulation, which he didn’t have many ingredients for. Just the pill clouds would have to do for now. Alex studied the clouds whenever he could, trying to understand how they functioned. As of yet, the only thing he could understand about the clouds was that they functioned as a sort of technique, or even a formation, that caused energy in the surroundings to gather at a single point and strike down at a single target. Alex had to resign himself to the fact that it would take a long time before any of his other Origins were filled. He had to be thankful at least that two of his Origins were completely filled. Or at least he thought they were. The Origin he got from Godslayer had indeed fully filled. But the one covered by the yellow fog was the one he wasn’t sure about. It felt as if it was filled, but that could also be a complete lie. He could barely tell anything about that Origin. At this point, as long as it didn’t stop him from cultivating further, he was okay with the entire Origin going to waste. Most of Alex’s days passed while focused on one of these three things. He spent a few days working on some blood, then a few days working on the Pill Clouds, and then a few days working on his Sword Heart. Cultivation and adding aura to his Origins were something he did when he had nothing else to do. He also kept an eye on Pearl, but at this point, Pearl was beginning to need him less and less. Pearl’s spear had improved to the Spear Domain stage, and that gave him an extra layer of strength that the beasts couldn’t fight against. Most beasts were unaware about swords and spears, so they either underestimated what Pearl had and lost the fight, or overestimated it and ran away, scared that Pearl had formed his Divine Domain while in the Immortal realm. Alex fell into a routine as time passed once again, days passing by him like sand in an hourglass. Before he knew it, another year passed, leaving him 4 more years before it was his time to leave. Alex continued on his routine without changing, only to have to break off from it half a year later when the thing he had been waiting for finally arrived. The Black Tortoise matriarch arrived before him in her human form, ready to take him back to her palace. "I’ve set up everything I needed to," she told Alex. "When can you leave?" Alex was surprised that it had only taken her 3 and a half years to do everything. He was sure Celestials took a lot longer than that. "We can leave right away," Alex said. "I just need to talk to my brother first." Alex arrived before Pearl in a flash, having removed his earring before doing so. He quickly explained the situation and how he had to leave him for a few years. Pearl thought for a moment and conversed through their bond. "Is it safe?" he asked. "Should be," Alex said. "But I have the teleportation medallion ready to send me back here if I suspect danger." Pearl still worried. "What if that doesn’t work?" "Then I’ll tear into the void and come out somewhere else. Don’t worry, I’ll be fine," Alex told Pearl. Pearl nodded. "Then you don’t have to worry about me either. I’ll be fine too." Alex smiled. "Trust me. When I’m back, I’ll have come back with the knowledge to give you your deserved bloodline."