Scarlet was relieved when Alex's message came back almost immediately.

"Are you okay? Where are you?" Alex asked from the other side.

"I'm fine. Pearl is a little hurt, but he should be fine too," she said quickly, looking around to judge her situation. "I don't know where I am, but it's somewhere toward the east. We were teleported out into space, and I just flew back down to the realm."

"Pearl is with you? That's good. Brother Shen is with me. Find out where you guys are once you enter inland, and we can decide where to meet."

Scarlet put away the talisman once she acknowledged the message and flew as fast as she could to get out of the ocean. Staying here was far too dangerous, considering the number of beasts willing to kill her for just looking at them the wrong way within the ocean.

Thankfully, the Sun's Talon realm didn't have that large an ocean surrounding the actual continent, allowing Scarlet to reach land in just two hours. From there, though, it would take a lot longer to reach where Alex and Bai Jingshen were.

Scarlet landed next to a field of grass, where she finally tended to Pearl, checking on him. She wasn't a healer or an alchemist, but her mother had taught her enough to check for wounds and such.

Pearl had no issues she could see, so he had to be nothing more than unconscious. She tried waking him up, and after a few nudges, he finally opened his eyes.

Pearl stirred awake, staring around.

"Where… where am I?" he asked, slowly getting up.

"How do you feel?" Scarlet asked. "You were unconscious out in the sun."

Pearl hurriedly checked himself and his surroundings, relaxing only when he noticed that he was out of space.

"I'm fine. Did you save me?" Pearl asked.

"By luck more than anything," Scarlet said. "What were you doing out there?"

Pearl shook his head. "I don't know," he said, hesitating a little. "I was trying to come here when I was knocked unconscious by something. I don't even know what."

Scarlet didn't know what to say. "We should go. Alex and your grandfather are together somewhere. We'll need to find out where that is and then go there."

Pearl nodded and then stopped. "What about Whisker? Is he with them too?"

Scarlet shook her head. "They didn't say."

Pearl brought out a talisman and contacted Whisker. The moment he sent the message, the talisman burned into flames, leaving ash before him.

Pearl stared at the ash, unable to process what had just happened.

"What was that?" he asked.

Scarlet was slack-jawed as well, unable to make sense of it. "Why did it suddenly burn?"

"Do you have a talisman too?" Pearl asked.

"I do," she said, bringing it out. However, she hesitated. "What if it burns too?"

Pearl blinked. "Right. Maybe it's better if we put it away for now."

The incident still left them confused, but now was not the time to dwell on it. Pearl flew away with Scarlet, heading toward any beast societies nearby. They found one not long after and learned where they were.

"We're close to what they call the Third Claw," Scarlet sent in a message. "Where are you guys? Where should we meet?"

On the other side, Alex recalled the map from his memory, quickly remembering where they had to go. "How long will it take you guys to reach the Middle Claw?"

"I don't know. An hour, maybe two," Scarlet said. "Depends on how often we can use their teleportation formations."

"There are no teleportation formations. You cannot teleport at all in this world for some reason. Tell Pearl not to teleport around either. There is a suppression aura that you can't sense."

A short while afterward, Scarlet's message returned again. "Got it. Then it'll take us around a day and a half to reach the Middle Claw. It might be better to meet at the Third Claw. That will take half a day."

Alex frowned. The amount sounded ridiculously high. "Are you sure you're half a day away? We're at the First Claw, and it should take us half a day to get there too."

After a while, Scarlet's message returned. "You guys have Divine-grade ships. I'm working with a regular Immortal-grade one. It'll take half a day."

Alex felt silly. "Alright. We'll meet you at the Third Claw."

Once that was decided, Alex got onto Bai Jingshen's ship, and they flew toward the Third Claw. By the time they saw the glowing ocean of lava in the distance that belonged to the Third Claw, night had already fallen on the land.

As they got close, Alex could sense both Pearl and Scarlet, so finding them took no effort at all.

Finally, the four of them were reunited an entire day after they were separated.

"Where did you guys teleport to?" Scarlet asked as they met up at a forest outside the city located close to the tip of the Third Claw.

"I was teleported high up above the Middle Claw. Brother Shen here was teleported into the depths of the ocean," Alex explained. "Were you both teleported out into space?"

Scarlet nodded.

"I think I was knocked out when I was trying to teleport down to this world," Pearl explained. "Do you have any idea what is happening? Why can't we teleport?"

Alex shook his head. "I don't have the faintest clue."

"Is this suppression the reason for our teleportation mishap, then?" Scarlet asked.

Alex nodded. "I'm not entirely sure, but it sounds like it."

"What exactly is going on, brother?" Pearl asked. "What is happening in this world? Why is there a sea of lava out there? No one told me that was a thing."

Alex sighed. "I don't know either. I don't think anyone knows anything, actually," he explained. "A trial apparently sprung up in this world some 30 years ago, which is likely the cause of all of this."

"Before we get there though, does anyone know where Whisker is?"

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