He looked around. What was it?
Was it the dew on the blades of grass? Was it the slightly hung branch of the tree he was meditating under?
Was the air stale somehow despite them being in a forest? Or was his clothes not fitting him the way they used to just yesterday?
Alex couldn't tell what was off, but he could tell something was.
He stood up and looked around, trying to figure out what he was feeling. 'What's this?' he wondered.
Did he awaken new powers now that he had broken through to True Emperor 3rd realm? That didn't seem right. If he was to awaken something, it would have to happen at the beginning of a new realm, not the middle of it.
It was likely not something to do with his cultivation. Then… was it his Dao? But Alex didn't think he had understood anything new to say that it was the Dao.
'Maybe it's because I've gotten a lot of Saint Qi by now,' Alex thought.
Somehow, even at True Emperor 3rd realm, Alex's Qi had mostly converted to Saint Qi. It was easy to guess how it could happen given how thick his Qi was, but it was still a surprise that nearly 70% of it was already Saint Qi.
The jaguar walked up to him. "Are you ready to go?" it asked him.
Alex shook his head. "Something feels off, senior," he said. "I can't put my finger on it."
"What feels off?" the jaguar asked.
"I don't know," Alex said. "But something does. Not in a bad way, mind you. Although it could be, I don't think it is. It… it just feels like I'm noticing something I've not noticed before."
"Hmm, maybe you're noticing the worldly laws," the jaguar said. "Since you are so talented and know Dao, you might be sensing them again."
"No, that's definitely not it," Alex said. It still perplexed him as to what felt off about this place, but he decided not to dwell on it and went along with the jaguar to hopefully find the land on the map as he was getting very close to the edge of the western half as well.
The whole morning, Alex couldn't concentrate at all as he kept thinking about what could be happening to make him feel this way. Was having a lot of Saint Qi allowing him some sort of perception he was missing previously?
As he kept thinking that and concentrating on what felt off, he realized something.
'I have felt this before,' he thought. He couldn't remember if it was exactly the same, but this feeling was indeed very similar.
Alex remembered back to the day in the Wei Royal Palace's garden where he was waiting for the alchemists to finish preparing their pills for the test.
During that time, he had felt something off at that time too which he couldn't pinpoint. Surprisingly, the feeling had come from the direction of the Beast realm back then too.
'Could they be connected somehow?' Alex wondered.
Alex asked the Jaguar if the beast realm had anything that could be giving him this feeling, but the jaguar wasn't sure what he was even feeling. There was nothing Alex could say to describe it either, so their conversation went nowhere.
If the beast realm really was the reason behind him feeling , then it would explain why the feeling was constant.
He would have to wait until he got out of the beast realm to see if he was correct or not.
Alex ignored it for now and focused the rest of the day on searching through the land. When he spent his Qi away and cultivated it back the next day, he would still be assaulted by this feeling, but as time went on, he began to accept it as if it were natural.
A week later, Alex finished roaming the western half of the beast realm as well.
His search was a failure.
Still, he got quite a few ingredients here too, some that would help him a lot in the saint realm, so he was quite happy about it.
Alex stood on the beach, next to the chromatic wall that separated the secret realm from the outside world.
He stood at the edge, where just a few meters ahead, water would splash on his feet. Alas, that would never happen as he wouldn't be able to escape the secret realm this way at all.
Alex stared into the distance and saw the vast ocean of the west. He tried to look into the distance, but the haze in the atmosphere blocked his view from seeing all the way through.
'There are 5 continents in this world,' he thought to himself. 'And I'm on the west side of the western continent.'
'What's west of west?' he couldn't help but wonder.
Back in his home, there was a saying that they were surrounded by the void. If they tried to go outside, they would fall into the void and die.
Of course, it turned out to be an elaborate ruse to stop people from killing themselves in the chaotic Qi that surrounded the land, but… what if there was a truth to that information? What if they were told something that was false for them, but true on a bigger scale.
Alex looked off into the west and wondered, was the void there?
"If I fly off to the west forever, will I fall into a void?" Alex asked. He was halfheartedly asking the question, but he was still curious about the answer.
"Of course not," the jaguar said.
Alex nearly chuckled. 'Why am I asking stupid questions?' he thought.
"Gravity doesn't work that way," the jaguar continued.
"Huh?" Alex looked confused and surprised.
"If you flew straight west, or rather in any direction, and forcefully went through the barrier of the world, you will drift off into space, rather than falling in it," it said.
"Wait, the void is real?" Alex asked in surprise.
"Of course," the jaguar said. "Although, don't call it void. It gets a little confusing as the real void is something else. Call it just empty space."
"Yes, if you keep flying to the edge of the world and forcefully go out of the atmosphere, you will enter empty space with no air, no Qi, nothing."
"Slowly, your body will try to fight against the emptiness by using the Qi you have in you. But, since you will never have enough to fight against nothingness, you will die," the jaguar said. "Peak saints have tried to ascend that way and died."
Alex couldn't believe what he was hearing. There was an edge to the world and beyond it waited death.
"Wait, are there only 5 continents in this world then?" Alex asked.
"Yes," the jaguar answered.
"Then do immortals really come from Heaven?" Alex asked.
"Well," the jaguar looked to the sky, "I guess you can call it that."
"How do they get here? Do they not die while coming to this world? How did the White Tiger and his family make it here to this world?" Alex asked.
"Well, that is something you will learn on your own. Given your talent, I don't doubt it will be very soon too," the jaguar said.
"Can't you tell me?" Alex asked desperately.
"Do you want to prematurely learn about the size of the world you live in and risk giving yourself an Inner demon you can never defeat?" the jaguar asked.
Alex thought about it for a bit and realized he couldn't do that. "I'm sorry," he said.
The jaguar chuckled. "Well, it's not like I had an answer for you. I only know a few things myself having been born and bred in this realm," it said.
Alex stayed at the edge of the beach and watched the sun go down in the west, beyond the edge of his world.
At the same time, the pale silver moon showed its face from the east.
Alex sighed and sat down nearby to refine his ring to waste all of his Qi for the day. Once, it was all gone, he closed his eyes and began cultivating.
The next morning, he got up from his cultivation and began making his way back to the palace.