Goyin did come back as Xichen had said in her letter, but only once every week or two. She came frequently enough that Alex couldn’t ask for more from the young girl, but infrequently enough that no one would complain about her coming here.
Alex got to know the young girl better, understood what it was she wanted to do. Just like her father, she too wanted to become an Extolite. She had the same drive that Alex had seen in her mother.
Alex got her to talk about things he had grown curious about in the past 25 years, trying to get to understand more about this part of the world.
Xichen had been older and more skeptical about everything, so she rarely spoke about things she did not want to, but this younger girl had a looser tongue and answered just about every question Alex asked.
And his questions weren’t even so serious that the guards had to stop her from answering.
From the girl, Alex knew something he hadn’t yet heard about from anyone else.
There was a giant mountain of sand that stretched all around the edges of the inner region, which separated the inner region from the outer region. These mountains had darker sand and were known as the Sand Wall.
No one had yet been able to go beyond this place, for the beasts that lay there were far too strong for anyone else.
Just below the mountain the beasts could be easily handled, and yet above the Sand Wall, they were impossible.
No one truly understood the reason for this disparity, except that there was one.
Alex couldn’t imagine why the beasts would be that different just side by side, but it turned out he had wrongly imagined the Sand Wall.
It wasn’t a tall mountain that stood like a wall. Instead, it was a sand dune that went on a slope for seemingly forever. The distance between the top and the bottom, despite not being so incredibly high, was around 10 kilometers.
Alex couldn’t wait to see that place.
Goyin returned a few more times, and they talked about different things each time around.
Alex could see her growing. In a few years, she went from a girl of only 13 to a young woman around 17 years old. She was older than Momo when Alex had first met her.
If Alex had been outside of the prison, he might have taught her about pastes and cultivation, but separated as he was, he couldn’t do much except talk.
Alex had at some point started telling her his own stories as well. Stories of when he had nearly died in a world of ice. Stories of when he had fought in an alchemy competition. Stories of when he had led tens of thousands of people to war.
Goyin couldn’t even fathom that many people fighting each other. There weren’t so many people in her tribe to even make such a war happen.
“You’ve been to the Prison Wall?” she asked. “That’s not possible. How can one even go there?”
“I already told you, I can fly.”
“I can fly too, but I can barely lift myself half my height off the ground. Can you really go that far up?”
“As your cultivation improves, you’ll find your ability to fly higher improving as well. It won’t be long before you can comfortably fly around.”
Goyin shook her head. “I’ve barely seen anyone fly. Most prefer to walk, actually.”
“That is only because you are in danger of being caught off guard by some flying beast. At least you can feel the vibrations on the ground. You can’t even tell if it’s the wind or the wings of a flying beast.”
Goyin nodded. She was about to say something when suddenly she heard something.
Alex heard it too, like distant screams. The ground rumbled slowly.
“What’s happening?”
“I don’t know,” Goyin said, her face paling as a result. “Are we under attack?”
Alex frowned. Based on what he had been told, this was too early. No one should have been confident enough to attack anyone at all. Had things changed that much in just a few years?
Three people sprinted down the slope, coming next to Goyin, protecting her. These were the guards assigned to her, and with the two guards that were around Alex, there were five there in total.
“We need to go,” Goyin said. “My parents might be in trouble.”
“Our job is to protect you, young lady. It will be better if we stay here, far from the trouble.”
The sound of battle continued for a few minutes and continued to grow distant. It appeared the battle was starting to conclude as soon as it started.
‘So not a real attack?’ Alex thought.
He wondered if the other group was just trying to catch them off guard, or maybe test out their current strength. Whatever it was, it wasn’t a real clash.
“We should return now,” Goyin said. “It’s over.”
The guards hesitated. “Just to be safe, let’s stay here for a while longer.”
“Please do stay here,” a voice said. “We would love nothing more than that.”
Everyone, including Alex, turned toward the voice that came from the back of the prison.
The back should have nothing at all, except for a large slope that went to nowhere. This was a truly deserted place, and now people were walking in from that side.
Three in total.
The men walked in, with spears and swords in hand.
“Take the young lady back to—”
“That is too late, I’m afraid,” someone said. From either side of the sunken land, six more people flowed in.
The five guards stood around Goyin, protecting her.
“You should have left when you could,” one of the men said. “But it seems our distractions worked.”
“We would ask you to hand over the girl if you don’t want to die,” the strongest-looking man from the group said, “but truth is, we will kill all five of you anyway.”
“So, who wants to die first?”