1432: Shi Mansion

Shi Mansion

Alex continued making pills for the next 3 days, letting the lightning strikes fall in his courtyard all day long, while at night he cultivated and rested.1

This had become a form of routine for him at this point, which he followed a lot. Or so the beasts of this Colony were led to believe.

Just to be extra safe, Alex decided to wait for another day so that the Lion really did eat the pill and went into cultivation.

He made pills for all day, while also conserving his Qi as much as possible while doing so. So, when the night fell and the lightning stopped, he would still have a lot of Qi to work with.

The beasts all over the Colony believed that he had gone to sleep, but the truth was Alex was finally starting the second part of the plan he had made.

Now that the beasts were used to his routine, he was going to use the opportunity to do something they would never imagine he would ever do.

He was going to sneak into the abandoned Shi mansion.

Alex walked out into the dead of night, his body completely invisible and out of aura. People could still sense his aura if they focused a lot, but to stop even that from happening, he tied a lot of Heavenly Silk around his clothes.

Once everything was prepared, he left his courtyard.

The night seemed to be on his side as well since the cloud blocked the moon from shining its light in the night. Since the most the moon ever went dark was half of it, there was never a night that wasn't dark without the clouds in the sky.

There were nocturnal beasts that roamed the streets of the colony at night, so Alex had to walk around carefully. Fortunately, they didn't go around using their spiritual sense at all.

Alex slowly made it through the streets of the town-like Colony and made his way to the Shi mansion.

The Shi mansion was a place that was completely empty at this point. Its last residents were Shi Guyong and Bai Meirong, who had long since been dead.

Shi Guyong apparently had a sister too, whose son was the current leader. However, she died a long time ago as she wasn't very good at cultivation and had run out of longevity.

As such, the current Shi Mansion was without owner and was more of a historical monument of the colony, than an actual mansion.

Alex pulled out Whisker from his robes and dropped him into the ground. "See if there is anything I can't see," he said.

As a Seeking mouse, Whisker was far more adept at sneaking around and giving information back to Alex that he himself would not be able to gain on his own.

Even with his eyes glowing purple with Demon Eyes technique running, he could not see what Whisker's whiskers could. 

His eyes saw a normal atmosphere with relatively dense Qi, but Whisker managed to sense a hidden formation that would activate the moment they got too close.

"Find out if it's a plate, pole, or a carving," Alex quickly told Whisker.

Whisker got to work and searched around without using his spiritual sense before answering back through their Beast bond.

"It's a pole. Should I disrupt it?" he asked.

"Do it," Alex said.

A few moments later, Alex saw a certain fluctuation in the energy where Whisker was and was surprised to realize that the running formation was actually already visible. It was just so mixed into the rest of the energy that he hadn't even realized it.

"Good work," Alex said. "Let go in."

He walked past where the formation previously was and quickly checked what sort of formation it was. Realizing that it was a formation to warn others of intruders, Alex sighed in relief. 

He hadn't been caught.

"It seems we'll have to be extra careful," he said and let Whisker search for more.

It took the dismantling of 2 more formation poles, and going around another carved formation before Alex entered the house. 

The mansion was bright yellow in color, a shade away from golden. The large hallways were made with the size of many saint beasts in consideration and had golden decorations all throughout the hall.

Whisker walked in first, with Alex behind him. 

As they walked, Alex looked around at whatever he could see to get an idea of the house.

The hallways were with nothing but decorations, but the main hall had more than just that. Still with a golden decoration, the main hall also had massive paintings of various members of the Shi family as well as a massive painting of an Azure Dragon in the center.

It was impossible to say which Azure Dragon it was amongst the 6 that had come to this realm already. 

The other paintings were mostly of Golden Lions, possibly the leaders of the family, and other various beasts that were married or born into the family.

Two of those paintings Alex noticed were of White Cats.

Both paintings were of young female White cats, but the first one was considerably older looking. The second one was young, with almost a kitten-like face, but with a body that seemed a little wrong for a cat.

It was almost like he was looking at a cat with a body that was more like a tiger.

'That's Pearl's mom,' Alex realized. 'That one must be her mother then, Bai Jingshen's daughter.'

"Any formations around here I should be worried about?" he asked Whisker.

Whisker shook his head. "We haven't been caught, so probably not," he said.

"I guess so," Alex said. "Try and see if you can find some sort of library or room with more pictures. We'll need what we can find."

"Okay," Whisker said and ran away.

Alex then called Pearl out. 

Pearl landed right next to him and immediately pulled in as much of his aura as he could. He knew the concealment technique but not the invisibility technique. 

He was with black fur at the moment, courtesy of Alex's pill with brown eyes, which was the result of a bit of medicinal paste that he had to put over his eyes.

He stood there for a moment in confusion before looking around at the many paintings in the room. He saw the painting with the massive Azure Dragon, the many Golden lions and various other beasts, and finally his gaze landed on the two White cats.

Immediately, he recognized his mother.

He had no recollections of his mother for the longest time. He knew she had died when he was just a kitten and that Alex had found him when she had died, but other than that, he hadn't thought much of her. 

He learned to miss her a little when he was taken to the beast realm, and as he grew and learned more about his own past, he had grown angry for himself and for her.

Even then, he had little recollection of her.

However, during his evolution, he had heard his father's thunderous shout and his mother's gentle face.

The White Cat in the painting in front of him was the exact face he remembered from that memory. There was no doubt in his mind anymore. It truly was her.

Pearl's eyes teared up.

"Mother!" 

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