Chapter 2990: An Unwanted Guest
Chapter 2990: An Unwanted Guest
Alex wasn’t allowed more than a few minutes around the artifact crafters, mostly not to disturb them, but he fully got to witness how the scales were turned into functioning metals.
The technique turned out to be rather complex, more than just melting the scales into metals. As it turned out, the metals needed to be melted at a certain range of temperature if one wanted them to still carry their properties—the most important of which was their compatibility with spatial auras.
If the temperature was too low, the dragon scales wouldn’t melt. If it was too high, it would damage them. So, only someone who had worked with it enough could tell what the perfect temperature was.
If Alex wanted to get straight to working with it, he most likely couldn’t. So, Pearl’s spear would need to wait a little longer before he could get to it.
To begin with, the temperature required was supposedly quite high from the start, which Alex wasn’t sure he could reach. Even with his True Flame Dao, there was only so much heat he could make the fire produce.
Compared to some specific fire that was meant to burn at a high temperature, he would have to push a lot to make it happen.
But that was something for him to worry about later.
He continued with the tour and arrived at the apothecary where most of the alchemists in the family gathered. According to the young dragon, the alchemists there were good, but they sadly couldn’t match the Phoenixes, whose understanding of healing far surpassed theirs.
After going to some other places, Alex was done with the tour, so he returned to the room he had been provided.
Bai Jingshen wasn’t back yet, likely still searching around for anyone willing to sell a bit of their blood. They had decided that they would only sell the really good techniques or some of the fruit if they accepted that they would give their Blood Essence.
If not, they would only trade some less valuable treasures.
Someone arrived at their doors a few minutes later, and the guards announced it to be Bai Weiwen, the other White Tiger that had come together with the Patriarch.
Alex opened the door, letting the beast into their room.
The White Tiger walked in slowly, forcing grace with each step. His eyes flashed toward Alex for a moment before turning toward Pearl. “Are you free, junior?” he asked. “We haven’t talked, and I thought I would come and have a chat with you.”
“Senior,” Pearl said in a slight greet. “If you wait a few minutes, my grandpa should be back.”
“Why should I need your grandpa here? I came to talk with you,” the White Tiger said. He walked past Alex, completely ignoring him, and sat on one of the prepared beds. “So, they say your father was an Azure Dragon. Is that true?”
Pearl’s eyes narrowed slightly, but he kept emotions out of his face. “Yes, that is true.”
“Fascinating,” the White Tiger said. “I can tell you do not hold the Azure Dragon’s bloodline. It must have skipped you. At least, you do have a strong White Tiger bloodline, don’t you?”
Pearl stiffened internally, fear gripping his insides. The knowledge of his bloodline’s purity had been spread through most of the White Tigers by now, so he could imagine what this one was getting at.
“He is lucky,” Alex said from the side, not letting the silence linger any longer than necessary.
The tiger growled a little, not switching his gaze. “Then your mother was a White Tiger, right? She should have been strong, considering your own strength. How did she die? Was she actually weak?”
Pearl’s brows furrowed as he sucked in a deep breath.
Alex couldn’t help but step in again. “Senior, please be more thoughtful of how you—”
“Silence!”
A pressure slammed onto Alex, pushing him down onto the ground, flat. The sudden force came with a wave of black-and-white sparks in his vision, and it tried to break his body.
Alex quickly understood that the White Tiger was stronger than him, by quite a lot at that. But that did not mean he had to take this assault lying down.
Aura from within his body slowly rose out, pushing against the downward force.
Pearl came to himself a split second later, realizing what was happening. “Stop it!” he shouted. “Let go of my brother.”
“Your brother?” the White Tiger turned around with a hateful look on his face. “You dare claim a human to be your kin? Fool. You are a disgrace to the White Tigers.”
Pearl growled, his claws slowly revealing out of his paws.
At the same time, Alex pushed on the aura that was on him, slowly forcing it away from him.
Bai Weiwen’s eyes narrowed slightly as he realized Alex was doing something to his aura. For someone so weak to be fighting back against him, he was surprised.
His eyes turned back to Pearl, however, as he saw Pearl fully ready to fight. His face split into a grin. “Are you going to try and attack me?” he asked. “Come, let me see if you dare.”
Pearl’s breathing grew more and more ragged as he got ready to strike. Despite the clear disparity in power, he was going to fight back.
However, at the last moment, his claws retracted into his paws and his anger began fading away.
The White Tiger was even more enraged by this. “What are you doing, you pathetic little shit? Don’t you even have the courage to fight ba—”
Before the beast could finish its sentence, its entire body was tossed to the side, slamming onto the emerald wall before dropping to the floor like a ragdoll.
The White Tiger lay frozen for a few seconds before he gained his conscience again. Slowly, he looked up in search of answers and saw the massive figure of Bai Jingshen standing before him.
“You didn’t faint,” Bai Jingshen said in a perfectly emotionless tone. “Good. I wouldn’t want you to miss your own beating.”
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