Alex felt the teleportation aura take over him as the space around them was warped away to a new location. This was the first time Alex had ever felt something so strong, so he was quite surprised by the effect of the space.
However, that surprise wasn't nearly as big as learning the fact that he now had a daughter.
Just as he was about to give the information some more thought, he felt the space warm once more and they were then teleported once again.
"What?" he looked around weirdly and found himself standing in an open field along with everyone that had teleported along with him.
"Why did we teleport twice?" he couldn't help but ask.
"Hmm? You noticed that?" Hao Ya asked with a surprised look. "The first teleportation sends you to the Intercontinental formation, but since that's in master's place, he prepared this smaller teleportation field to send you all away from it."
"I see," Alex said. "So... we're finally back."
He looked at the open field with hundreds of thousands of people still gathered. They were all looking around, awkwardly, not knowing what to do right now.
Alex decided to take the lead and flew into the air. "Everyone, please find your own way home. You will have a year to stay around. After a year, if you are not satisfied and would like to return, that will be arranged as well," he said.
Hao Ya nodded and watched everyone leave.
Scarlet looked around. "Wow, this place really does not have any Qi at all," she said. "Actually, it's more than just not having any Qi. It's like the Qi in my body is slowly being driven out of me."
"You have to be careful, your Majesty. Any Qi you let out will leave your body immediately, driven away to the Qi barrier. You need to keep it all stored," Hao Ya said.
"Why is that?" Scarlet asked. "Is this some sort of formation?"
Hao Ya shook her head. "It has something to do with Intent. My master can explain it way better than I could ever hope to imagine," she said.
Scarlet nodded. "Should we go meet him then?" she asked.
"Uh, I'll have to ask him," Hao Ya said and pulled out something from her storage ring. Alex looked at the artifact, no technology, and gave a curious look.
"Is that a smartphone?" he asked. "You use a smartphone?"
"Qi is quite scarce here, so we try not to use it if possible," she said. "Besides, this does the same thing as a talisman, if not better, so why not use it?"
She started calling a number and everyone could hear the phone ring on the other side. Scarlet was the only one who didn't understand what was happening, but she kept quiet.
"Hao Ya? Did you return?" a man's voice could be heard from the other side.
"Master, yes I just came back," Hao Ya answered. "Actually, I came back with the Immortal Phoenix from the Southern Continent along with the human King. They want to meet with you."
"The phoenix wants to meet with me?" the man's voice spoke. "Hmm, sure let the phoenix come. I'm sure our friend here will love to meet it too. As for the human, I don't think there is any reason for me to meet him. Tell him I refuse."
Alex's face darkened when he heard that. He had been looking forward to meeting with this man and suddenly being refused didn't feel so good.
Hao Ya saw his face change as well and quickly gestured for him to calm down before whispering into the phone. "The human is actually Alex Benton, the guy that destroyed everything. You know, Ma--"
"ALEX? The one with the Sun God's body?" the man's voice seemed to have gone up an octave. "Why didn't you say so before? Bring him. Bring them all quickly."
"Okay, I will do so," Hao Ya said with a wide smile on her face. She ended the call and gave them a thumbs up. "Everything is set. Should we leave now?"
Alex gave a sigh of relief and was about to nod when he stopped. He quickly shook his head. "I'm sorry. However much I may want to meet with your master, I have other priorities before that. I will need to go find my brother first and then I can do whatever else I want to," he said.
"Oh, the cat, right?" Hao Ya said. "Sure, go do that. It's not like my master is going anywhere. I will just tell him you'll be late by a day or two. That sounds good, right?"
"Yes, thank you," Alex said as he bowed a little. "Also, you mentioned something about me having a daughter. Did you mean my clone has a daughter?"
"Uh, yeah. I was talking about your clone's daughter. She's your daughter too now," Hao Ya said.
"Is it okay to say she's my daughter? Niece might sound better," Alex said.
"I have a Granddaughter?" Graham couldn't help but ask with a surprised look on his face. He had been keeping quiet all this time, but hearing that his son had a daughter made him speak up immediately.
Hao Ya smiled. "You'll learn everything once you go back, won't you?" she asked.
"Yes," Alex said. "Will you be coming, Scarlet?"
"No, I want to go meet her master," Scarlet said. "I don't think I will have anything to do at your place. You will bring the cat tomorrow anyway, right?"
"Yes," Alex said. "Then, I'll be leaving now."
Alex bowed to both of them and walked away from the field with his father. However, after walking for a few seconds, Graham stopped.
"Um, Where are we exactly?" he asked. "Do you know where we have to go?"
Hao Ya chuckled a bit from far away. "You're in Pineroot city. There's a map posted over there for everyone. Go look at it and see where you have to go," she said.
"Thank you," Alex said once again. He turned toward his father. "You can check the map if you want, but I know where we are supposed to go."
"We seem to be in the central area, so we will have to fly northwest from here," Graham said.
Alex looked in the direction Graham mentioned. "That seems to be the right direction," he said as he felt his bond with Pearl pulse in the distance. "Let's fly home right away."
"Are you sure we should fly? Didn't that girl say we should rather not use our Qi if we can afford to?" Graham asked.
"It's fine, father. I have a lot of pills which I can quickly eat to get back by Qi if I need it," Alex said. "Besides, I don't see how else we are going back. Surely you don't want to run all the way back, right? It's not like we have money to use public transportation."
"I suppose," Graham said. "Fine, let's take the sky then."
Alex nodded and lifted his father in the air with his Qi. However, just a few seconds after lifting him, Alex realized that he couldn't fly that way.
"I see, she did say any Qi that is out," Alex whispered to himself.
"What's wrong?" Graham asked.
"Nothing, it just looks like flying is a bit complicated here, especially if I want to bring someone along with me," Alex said. The Qi he used to carry his father has quickly swept away for some reason, sent out of the area immediately. 'This was what she was talking about, huh?'
"Can you not fly with me then?" Graham asked.
"No, no. I can," Alex said. "I just have to grab you is all."
Alex flew above his father and lifted him by the arm before flying away. He had a mental map of where he was, so he flew in the direction he knew was correct. He used the sky and sun to guess the correct direction and continued flying for a while.
Just an hour or so later, he had already crossed 2 major cities, surprising him quite a lot.
"This place is so small," he said. "Was it always this small?"
From what he could tell, he was already half an hour away from his destination. Were the map he was following of the Southern Continent, he would have still been many hours away from his destination.
"You've never visited these places, so you never knew how big they actually were," Graham said as he too watched the scenery while he hung in the sky.
Alex flew until he saw a vast forest full of maple trees. Just past the forest was Mapleleaf city. It had changed to a point where even his father couldn't really recognize the place, but Graham still managed to figure out where they were based on how the roads were.
"There, that red house. We need to take that road," Graham said.
Alex smiled and simply flew in the direction his father said as that was the right one. The roads were supposed to have turned to gravel at some point, but they never did. They were still paved all the way through, confusing Graham for a moment.
However, when he saw the vast forest in the distance, he knew that they were in the right place. "We're here," he said. "Hopefully, our house hasn't changed much."
"There, I see it," Alex said. It was still far away, but he could already sense the closeness of the bond.
And with his Demon Eyes, he could also see the house.
A minute later, they arrived.