2217 Congratulations
Alex picked a few fruits he found in the forest, cleaned them with some water, and handed them over to Momo. "Eat this for now. I will find you something better to eat later."
Momo took the fruit that was handed to her, a curious look present on her. "Is this edible? I've never seen a fruit like this before." It was similar to a peach and seemed to hold a lot of juice in, but it did not look like one. It could've been a mango but then it didn't have a thick skin either.
"Of course it is edible," Alex said. "Eat without worry."
Momo nodded slowly and took a bite with some hesitation. As soon as she took the very first bite, however, her eyes widened in shock at just how juicy and sweet the fruit was.
She covered her mouth to hide her shock but her eyes made her feeling very evident. "What is this? I've never had this before."
"I don't doubt it," Alex said. "Given that you don't have any cultivation base at all, you were never introduced to any food with Qi in it."
Momo didn't question his words and just kept on eating the fruit. She hadn't had the chance to eat anything since this morning, so her hunger had reached quite an amount.
Once she was done, she finally sighed in relief. "Thank you, master," he said. "That was wonderful."
Alex nodded.
Pearl laughed to the side. "I suppose congratulations are in order," he said.
"Congratulations?" Momo asked. "For what?"
"For you becoming a cultivator," Pearl said. "Congratulations."
Momo's eyes were blank of thoughts for a while before they narrowed. "What do you mean, uncle?" she asked. "I... a cultivator now? Is it that easy?"
"To start, yes," Pearl said.
"You ate a fruit with Qi in it. I expected it to take a while, but you managed to do it in one go. Good job," Alex said.
Momo took a while to take in the information. She looked down on herself, stunned. "But... I don't feel any different," she said. "Am I really a cultivator now? Can I fly now?"
Alex couldn't help but laugh a little at her questions. "Did they teach you nothing about cultivation or cultivators in your orphanage?" he asked. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
Momo let Pearl carry her on his shoulders, now sitting half a torso higher than both her master and Pearl. "Will you be fine, uncle?" she asked worriedly. "Let me down if you get tired, okay?"
Alex couldn't help but laugh to the side. "He could carry a hundred of you and not get tired."
They began walking once again.
Momo sat on Pearl, watching the forest they were going through. Occasionally, she could hear beasts close by, or smell some sweet aroma from some flowers. She would also occasionally look up to see people flying past them in the sky.
"Master, why are we not flying? Everyone else is flying," she said.
"Because we're not in a rush just yet," Alex said. "I need to gather as many ingredients as I can from this forest before we leave. Hopefully, find something that I am searching for too."
"What are you searching for?" she asked, curious.
"Let's see if we find it."
They walked through the forest, gathering ingredients, but very soon Alex realized that he had a bit of an issue. The storage bag that he was given did not allow anything else to be placed into it, other than the artifacts that were recorded in it.
Alex tried to put the ingredients he found into one of the cauldrons and put the whole thing inside, but it simply didn't allow it. Forcing any further would destroy the talisman instead, and that would disqualify him immediately.
"Dammit," Alex said softly. He was truly starting from nothing for this competition.
In the end, he put the ingredients into a cauldron and walked around with the cauldron floating next to him. After gathering a bit, he felt disinclined to gather anymore.
He spread his spiritual sense to find any other ingredients he would have to gather, and after not finding anything, he left the forest.
The closest human civilization was around 60 or so kilometers away, so Alex and Pearl began making their way there. Pearl placed Momo down and began making her float so she could fly on her own.
Momo struggled to stay upright at first but slowly got the hang of it as they took her along. They flew above the forest's clearing, into the sky from where they could see everything.
Momo's eyes went wide at the sight of it all. Her face was one of awe and shock. She had lived her entire life in a large city with walls. Then, she had been teleported directly to the other city to be sent into the secret realm.
As such, never in her life had she gotten the chance to see the real world. Now that she had, she finally understood that the real world was nothing like what she had imagined.
The real world expanded further than even what her eyes could see. And it was all so beautiful.