Hearing the unexpected answer, the scholar named Ulivop blew some air to fight his ever-growing irritation.
"I see. Then, why not exit my residence, 'just because'?" Veins bulging, the man waited for Alexander to get out, an action he was not ready to make.
"Hum... no. I think I'll just stay here for a bit." Resuming his formerly halted footsteps, Alexander headed straight left, toward a dark door.
"Hey hey hey!! Don't go in there! Just get the hell out!" Shouting, the scholar did not bother running down the stairs, jumping off the balcony without fear.
Turning his head around, Alexander saw Ulivop rush at him, almost tripping over his robes. Wondering why the man even used stairs, he ignored him, opening the closed door without warning.
While making some slight noise, the sound the door made was clearly much quieter than the previous, thick red door.
"I said stooop~!!!" Lengthening a short word, Ulivop ran inside as well, joining Alexander.
"Is this..?" Pondering, Alexander soon heard the scholar answer stoically.
"It's my kitchen."
"Hmm~ A kitchen, I see... Does it have..."
"Kitchen stuff? Yes." Tugging at Alexander's white sleeve, the man hoped for him to leave. Unfortunately, the intruder was not intending on doing so just yet.
"What's behind the other doors?" Not waiting for the scholar's words of wisdom, Alexander exited the kitchen, going for the next mystery door.
"It's the bathroom, don't go into someone else's bathroom! Are you that shameless?!!"
Ignoring the man once again, Alexander made his way toward the bathroom unimpeded.
The sound even less present than the previous door, Alexander already knew this man to be a weirdo.
'He uses the bathroom more than the kitchen... does he order food from a nearby city?' Examining the bathroom, Alexander opened a random container, finding a World Seed hidden inside.
Taking it out, Alexander showed it to the man.
"Why do you have a World Seed inside your bathroom? Why does a Blooming Lotus Realm insignificant being even has this?"
Noticing Alexander's confusion, the man gulped before steeling his nerves.
"So what if I'm an ant?! What does it matter what I do with that, and so what? So what if I hide it there? Who would even bother checking my bathroom?! Maybe you want me to just 'hide' this World Seed inside a room labelled as 'treasury, please don't enter'?!!" Steam escaping his scalp, the scholar did not even understand why he bothered telling so much to a random and highly unwelcomed intruder.
"Nothing, I was just wondering, no need to get so mad." Pocketing the World Seed without a shred of a conscience, Alexander exited the room, his ears deaf to Ulivop's loud annoyance.
"Hey! Hey! Do you hear me?! Give that back! Do you think I'm blind!? Give me back my World Seed! I...said...back...Seed..! ..!"
The man's words drifting as if an illusion, Alexander had quickened his pace, leaving the scholar with nothing but dust to chew on.
Stepping inside the third and last room of this floor, he frowned.
"Empty?" Having his Divine Sense released at all times, he actually did not need to check each room. This was also the reason he immediately found the World Seed.
"It's my storage space!" Having caught up to Alexander, the man, his hands on his hips, showed his teeth in anger.
"Get. Out! Get out!!" Scratching Alexander's back, the man tore his robes without difficulty, before feeling his nails break apart from Alexander's high defenses.
"Ouch! Is your skin leather?! Why is it so tough?!" Blowing at his bleeding fingers, the man had started tearing up.
"You're crying because of a little pain?" Hearing Alexander scoff at him, Ulivop felt embarrassed, but soon realized his mistake.
'Why do I even feel embarrassed when an intruder is inside my home!?'
Alexander's robes already regenerated, he exited the room filled with empty boxes.
This time going up the stairs, Alexander only found a single room.
'Was this castle so small?' His Divine Sense going through each wall, Alexander realized most of the castle's insides to be nothing. Pure stone everywhere except the hall and its adjacent rooms.
The door already opened, Alexander entered without ceremony.
Inside, a desk in front of a wide and tall window giving way to the castle's back garden.
Ignoring it, he looked left and right, seeing full bookshelves on both sides.
Taking a step, then another, he soon made his way to the desk.
Using his finger, Alexander tapped on the desk's corner multiple times.
A small array illuminating the already lit room further, a secret compartment opened from the side.
Fishing out a World Seed with his hand, Alexander smiled.
"I must thank this young man, going as far as gifting me two World Seeds for our first meeting! Truly generous!"
"..." Fuming with anger, Ulivop lashed out without mercy.
"If you're satisfied with this, then why not get the hell out?!!" Tears of pain forming, as he witnessed his two precious World Seeds be stolen without scruple, the scholar had enough of it.
Stroking his chin as if pondering, Alexander offered a truly marvelous trade.
"You know what? Not only will I spare your life but I will also leave, and so if you give me all the information you know about the Celestial Realm!" Since the man was a secluded scholar, it would not be too strange for him to know much more than Alexander.
"..." Speechless at such thick skin, Ulivop, a smart man, could only concede in the end.
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'This man is probably stronger than me... A wise man bows to circumstances, I don't want to die so young!' Sweating profusely, Ulivop sighed, taking out books after books from his space ring.
"Here, these books are my lifelong seek of knowledge about the world. Take them, and get out!" Handing over the books with swift but elegant movements, the man clearly did not speak in tandem with his actions, clearly afraid.
Rudely snatching the books from the scholar's trembling hands, Alexander's Divine Sense swept them.
"Indeed, there is so much I did not know, as for what's useful in this... I'll see for myself." About to talk, Alexander was interrupted by the scholar.
"I will swear an Heavenly Oath to be your slave!" Clenching his teeth, Ulivop had no choice, already aware of Alexander's intentions.
'I've seen this cold look more times than I would like to, this bastard actually lied and wanted to kill me!' His Martial Heart taking the brunt of his words, the scholar was backed into a corner.
"..."
Sweating even more at Alexander's lack of response, Ulivop hoped for the best.
"Alright... no problem! You can swear it then."
*Phew~*
His stress relieved greatly at Alexander's mercy, Ulivop began his oath.
"I, Ulivop, swear to the Heavens that I am..."
"Alexander!"
"...Alexander's slave for life and eternity! If I ever break this oath, may the Heavenly Lightning char my soul until nothing remains!"
"Are you satisfied with this mas-"
"Kill yourself."
...
Silence reigning, Ulivop's hollow eyes were confused beyond common reason.
"W....What?"
"I said, since you're my slave now, kill yourself. Truly grateful that you would swear such an oath for this Alexander to not have the need of using direct actions. A blessing. Now, kill yourself. There is no way for me to spare someone unless I am so strong that even the Heavens dare not refute my words."
Shivering from the clutches of death, Ulivop simply could not proceed.
"I...I..." Trying his best to gain time, he suddenly had an idea.
"I'll do-"
"Extinguish your soul as well. Don't even try to play dirty with this Alexander." Already aware of the scholar's idea of only killing his fleshly vessel, Alexander added a much needed constraint.
"Fine then, since you don't want to..." Turning around, Alexander left the room and soon the castle itself, now slowly flying away from the floating island.
Not even looking behind, he only heard a loud thunderous roar.
Unable to execute his master's order, Ulivop had been slain by the Heavenly Lightning as per requested.
-----
Flying at a somewhat slow speed for his cultivation base, Alexander was currently drawing on a large piece of paper.
The noise it emanated drowned without mercy under the howling wind, it was a map he was updating.
The paper flopping around by the wind, Alexander had to protect it with his Celestial Qi.
'Back in the Universe, using Celestial Qi to kill a Primordial Deity was overkill, but now I use it just to avoid a piece of paper from moving too much...'
The difference staggering, Alexander did not mind it however.
After a few hours of back and forth between the map and Ulivop's books, Alexander was done.
'Thanks to this slave I got some somewhat useful information. Unfortunately, even he didn't have a complete breakdown of the Celestial Realm.'
On his map, Alexander had drawn the usual Southern Demonic Continent south of the Central Heart Continent, but also added the Western Desert Continent to the left, Eastern Giant Forest Continent to the right and the remaining Northern Iceland Continent above.
'I've got some very interesting information I must say, while the Western Desert Continent is a true mystery right now with just a little more information about the Northern Iceland Continent, I now have some peculiar names for the Eastern Giant Forest Continent.'
Dodging a wandering Lotus Beast flying at him, Alexander punched it casually, obliterating its innards before continuing his inner monologue, his eyes never leaving the paper he held tightly.
'We have the Poison Forest Region, Mixed Land Region and Crystal Forest Region that are normal, but north is the Jilg's Swamp Region and at its center, Lartus' Mountain Range, which is also a region. The center region is, because of this Lartus thing, a forbidden zone.'
Happy to receive some fun spots to visit if he ever ended up stuck at the peak, Alexander took notes inside his mind to visit these two places first when bored.
-----
Scrutinizing the books a bit more, Alexander only got some sparse bits of importance.
'Why are there so many cookbooks? The dude didn't even use his kitchen!' Still keeping each book within his internal world, Alexander could not help but frown.
Without a speck of hesitation he flew as high as he possibly could, forming hand seals while doing so.
Chanting some weird words, some strange, purple characters of light flew out of his mouth.
'[Seeker's Madness]!' His figure turning ethereal, Alexander's body disappeared from sight.
Not saying a word, not breathing a bit, only thinking, he waited as such patiently, his flesh as if a statue.
Cursing his bad luck, Alexander felt a powerful Celestial Sense pass through him.
Being swiped by it multiple times, he could only click his tongue in frustration, cancelling his secret technique the next moment.
Not intending on clashing with an expert, Alexander used his best speed related martial art to escape, flying at extreme velocity.
"Come back!" A young woman's enchanting voice spreading, Alexander's forehead was covered in sweat.
'Greater Existence Realm! We're still in the damn Southern Demonic Continent! And it's right in the middle of the Valgrand Region at that! Finding a single Blooming Lotus Realm cultivator would already be a true mystery, just that beast earlier was probably the strongest being in the entire region! What is a fucking Greater Existence Realm cultivator even doing here?!' Cursing again and again, Alexander's diagonal momentum ended when he dug straight through the earth.
The woman's aura flattening the already flat plains below even more, she spread her Celestial Sense even more, chasing after Alexander.
'I should've realized something was amiss when that stupid Lotus Beast flew at me!' Only now understanding the underlying meaning of this now not so simple occurrence, Alexander dug deeper and deeper, but was soon baffled.
'How can her Celestial Sense be so huge! I'm almost five kilometers underground!' While Alexander could fight newly promoted Greater Existence Realm powerhouses without fear, it was another story to know if that expert was truly new to this realm.
Feeling his battle instinct scream, Alexander changed direction on the spot, going back to the surface.
Hearing the woman digging with loud explosions further and further away, Alexander hoped to escape soon.
Unfortunately, he soon caught onto different possibilities.
'Wait, if she is just throwing attacks from above...' Trusting his instincts, Alexander was certain that these chains of explosions were dangerous even to him now.
But this did not mean the woman was actually chasing after him.
A small earthquake shaking the new terrain, Alexander had exited the earth, now back to the surface, much to his instincts' nightmare.
'I have a bad feeling...'
"Here you are!"
Somehow dodging a blast of energy, Alexander was just about to flee once more when he felt himself stuck.
'If I move... I won't make it!' Alexander had many means to escape death, but if avoidable, he would choose not to use any of them.
'If things don't go well, I could still use the [Earth Stagnation Soul Technique].' Preparing himself to waste his fleshly vessel just for his soul to leave unimpeded, he was startled by the woman's words.
"Why did you flee? I won't bite you! Why do people always run away from me..." The young woman tearing up, Alexander felt his luck turn around.
'That scenario... I have already experienced it a few times! It's that stupid Powerful yet spoiled daughter runs away from home scenario!!' Thanking his lucky star, Alexander had not only a higher chance to escape unscathed but also a chance to locate precious cultivation resources!
"Young lady, don't be like this, I just saw a precious beast in the sky and chased after it, but how could I expect it to be an underground beast in the end! I hope the young lady won't take offence at my discourtesy!" Feeling his instincts relax somewhat, indicating his returned freedom, Alexander took this chance to hurriedly cup his fists, also turning around toward the lady. Seeing her long pink twintails fluttering in the wind, her blue eyes shining, he was unfazed despite her natural beauty.
"Oh! I'm sorry, I didn't think things through! I hope I wasn't a bother! I just thought you found me ugly." Tearing up, the naïve woman felt aggrieved at her lack of respect.
"Haha! Young lady, don't feel down, this Alexander could simply not catch it in time, I only have my own skills to blame!"
Smiling outwardly, Alexander was already forming plans.
"If this young lady doesn't mind... why not travel with this Alexander for a bit? I felt lonely in here, and since I'm going to the Central Heart Continent, if it also is your destination, why not keep company to one another?" His eyes two slits in a crescent moon shape, it would appear dangerous to anyone but a naïve person unware of the world.
"But..." Playing with her fingers, the woman struggled to finish her sentence, feeling embarrassed.
"But... but father told me... not to go with strangers..."
"Young lady! Don't you already know this Alexander's name? We are no longer strangers then!" His stifled laughter awkward, he expected it to barely work, and it did.
"I see! You're right, by the way, my name is Natasha, Natasha Ghylar!"