A massive verdant forest was filled with a civilization of beasts that had built their houses on the massive trees themselves. It was a forest city, and even at nighttime, Alex could see many of the beasts awake and working.

No one approached him as he arrived at the city and made his way down to one of the massive trees' branches. The branch was about 5 meters wide, making for a decent space for one to walk on. It also crossed over with the branches from other trees, making for a road-like network.

A few beasts walked past him atop the branch, staring at him with curious glances. They didn't stop to talk to him, however, so Alex ignored them as well. He walked down the branch, arriving at the end where the branch met the tree.

The outer bark of the tree had been dug hollow, with rooms built into the tree. Two old owls sat to the side, seemingly lost in conversation. Sensing their upper Immortal realm cultivation bases, Alex approached the two.

"Greetings, seniors. Would you mind helping me with my situation?"

He made sure his aura was hidden from these beasts.

The owls turned, looking at him for a few long seconds, as if judging what he was. "Are you a human?" the one on the left asked.

"I am, senior," Alex said.

"The humans know about it already?" the second owl asked. "News has traveled faster than we thought then."

Alex looked at them with a confused look. "News of what, seniors?"

The owls looked at him, frowning slightly. "What did you come to this realm for?"

"I had some small business," Alex said. "But the teleportation formation had an issue, and I was randomly thrown next to the lava."

"Ooh! That was dangerous. You didn't get attacked, did you?" the left owl asked.

"Of course not. Look at him. He's alive," the right owl said.

"Maybe he has a spiritual attack technique that saved him."

"Could be."

Alex could gather some information from their talk, but not much. "You don't seem surprised that my teleportation formation went awry."

"That's no surprise," the owl on the left said. "It's been doing that ever since the Talon became active."

"Were you not aware of that?" the other owl asked. "We heard that beasts had already flown over to the Twin Scar realm to relay the changes of this land. That was already 3 decades ago."

Alex stared at them blankly, failing to understand most of what they said. However, he did grasp that whatever change had happened had been recent.

"Is teleportation suppressed?" he asked.

"Yes. The Talon suppresses it for some reason," one owl said.

"No one has figured out why yet," the other one added.

"The Talon…" Alex thought for a moment, remembering what Bai Jingshen had told him about this realm. There was a massive wound on the surface of this world that took the shape of a Talon. It was believed that the sun itself had made that wound, which just so happened to be in the shape of a talon.

Hence came the name of this world, the Sun's Talon.

The two owls talked about the Talon activating, which made Alex quite confused. Was the Talon supposed to be some sort of massive suppression formation?

"Could I implore you to explain more? Where am I exactly?" he asked.

"Wait a moment," the left owl said. "I have a map, I think."

The beast rummaged through his Soul Space, and when he didn't find anything, he rummaged through his several storage bags before finally finding the map he had been searching for.

The map was drawn on an old leather parchment, painted black against the parchment's gray.

Alex looked at the map, taking in the drawing.

The Sun's Talon realm had a single continent which was named the very same. At the center of the continent were four large gouges that met at the center, making the shape of the Talon.

"We are here," the owl pointed with its claw on the map, showing a location that was right at the edge of the middle claw of the Talon.

To their north were the mountains, and to the south, going toward the northeast, was the middle finger of the talon. "Is this where the sea of lava is?" Alex asked, pointing at the mountains.

"No," the owl said. "These are the Lapis mountain ranges. Over there."

The owl pointed in the opposite direction from where Alex had come from. Alex paused for a bit, confused.

"The Talon is in that direction then?" he asked.

"Yes," one owl said.

"You said you saw it, didn't you?" the other one asked.

"I saw a sea of lava," Alex said quickly. "There was no lifeless land that I was told is the Talon."

The owls laughed out loud.

"We told you just now, didn't we?"

"The Talon became active a few decades ago."

Alex stared blankly. He looked down at the map and then back at them. "Are you saying… the entire Talon has become a sea of lava?"

"Yes!" the two owls said at the same time.

Alex failed to understand how it was possible. He looked at the map more carefully, seeing the distance written within it. Each of the talon fingers was apparently over a hundred thousand kilometers long and several thousand kilometers wide.

Alex stared blankly for a few seconds, trying to understand his situation. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw the Sun God, still pointing in one single direction.

"What is in that direction?" Alex asked, pointing the same way. "Where is that on the map?"

The two owls looked at where Alex pointed. "That would be… around here."

The two owls gave a general region on the map, and Alex did not fail to see that the line they showed went straight through the center of the Talon.

"If I wanted to go to the center here, how would I have to go about it?" he asked.

"The center?" the left owl asked.

"If you want to go there, then you must go through the Trials of the Talon."

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