2216 Momo
Alex found himself teleported directly onto a large platform somewhere far away from the city. He hadn't expected to be teleported out here. He thought he was going to be teleported outside of the secret realm, not nearly a hundred kilometers away.
He looked around, seeing the mountainous region he couldn't recognize. 'Where are we exactly?' he wondered. He couldn't find the direction at all. The sun was also close to the zenith, so finding direction was a little difficult. "Let's start walking," Alex said. "We should be able to tell time when the sun moved a bit more in the sky."
"Where do we go, brother?" Pearl asked.
"Since we left the city, let's go in that direction and see where we end up," he said.
"Alright," Pearl said. "Come, young lady. We should get moving."
The young blonde girl nodded and slowly began walking. She looked around the area with a look of awe as she walked down the platform.
Alex released his spiritual sense around but found no one he recognized. 'Aethersage didn't come here,' he thought. 'He must've arrived at some other platform far away.'
He had wanted to go around with him, considering he was the only person he knew at all. But that didn't seem possible now.
'Some other time then,' Alex thought and quickly caught up with Pearl and the young girl.
Similar to him, every single one of the thousands of Alchemists and their disciples had arrived out in the open and were making their separate way in all directions.
"Zhe Moyang, was it?" Alex asked.
"Yes, master," the girl said. "You can call me Momo for short."
"Momo? Is that what your parents called you?" he asked.
"I don't have any parents," the girl said with a straight face. "It's what my friends called me back in the orphanage."
"Oh, I'm sorry," Alex quickly said. "Do you mind if I ask what happened to your parents?"
"Master, you don't have to be that polite to me," the girl quickly said. "I am your disciple. You can ask me anything."
Alex raised an eyebrow. "Alright then, what happened to your parents, Momo?" he asked.
"Don't know," Momo said with a tone of uncare. "I was an orphan since I was born. I don't think anyone knows really why we were all orphans."
Alex gave a proper introduction of himself and Pearl, letting her know who she had received as a master. When Momo heard Pearl was a big, fluffy cat, she immediately asked if she could see him, but they both had to refuse. Pearl's beast form was not something they could easily show to someone else.
They continued walking and had walked far enough in one direction now that they didn't have any humans in their immediate vicinity. They were more or less by themselves.
"Master," Momo called out after a bit. "I'm tired."
Alex paused. "You're tired already?" he asked. "It's only been—"
He paused for a moment and slapped his forehead. "I'm sorry. It's been a long time since I've been around mortals. I didn't think about how quickly you would tire out."
Momo slowly nodded. "Can't you fly, master?" she asked. "Everyone else flew away. They must be by the city already."
"I can fly," Alex said. "But we can't go to the cities just yet."
"Why not?" she asked, confused. "Because going to the city alone won't help. We don't have any money to survive in the city," Alex answered.
"Oh... I see," Momo said. "How do we get money? You aren't allowed to sell anything you have right now, right?"
"No, I can't sell only the artifacts in my storage bag," Alex said. "Not that I have anything else I can sell."
"You could sell your clothes, brother. Those would fetch some nice price," Pearl said from the side.
"And what? Be naked?" Alex asked.
Pearl shrugged. "That's the easiest way to earn money."
Momo looked at Pearl. "Uncle Pearl, if you are a beast, can't you sell your clothes?" she asked. "You can just turn into a beast and you can walk around without clothes."
Alex chuckled upon hearing that and Pearl shook his head. "This isn't my clothes," he said. "This is something made from Qi. The moment I take this off, it disappears."
"It disappears?" Momo asked with a surprised voice.
Pearl nodded.
"Forget about clothes," Alex said. "We are entering the denser part of this forest soon. We will have plenty of things to gather and sell in a bit."