It was troublesome to travel between Empires, the journey would be tiring and one wouldn't know exactly what they will encounter on their journey.

Nick and the rest only had a general direction of where they were going and knew nothing of what they would encounter on the way because no map could predict it, beasts weren't stationary as they moved about as they please, so, something that wasn't on the road last yesterday could be there this today.

"Master, what are we going to do once we reach a larger Empire?!" Silver asked.

"No idea, don't worry, we'll find something to do once we get there." Nick had no idea what he was doing either, all he knew was since he had robbed the Nova Empire, then the next logical step in any robbery was to run afterward, right?

Besides, there was a risk of something in that Empire triggering the Emperor's dormant memories, so it was all in all better if they left this place once and for all.

But just as Silver passed over a large mountain, hundreds of different beast mounts and flying chariots could be seen flying east at lightning speed, and following them, trying their best to keep up were other cultivators that were traveling on foot, every person seemed to be racing towards the same goal.

Nick then had Silver fly towards the same direction together with the other mounts, but although Siver was probably one of the largest mounts there, its speed was practically the slowest! And what did this signify, it meant that every mount here was at least at the peak of the transcendence realm or higher!

Silver felt dejected when it saw how it was left behind by the other beasts, since when did this many powerful mounts exist in this Empire?!

"Hello there fellow cultivator, are you on foot, how about I give you a lift?" Nick then realized that he wouldn't be able to catch up to the ones on the mounts to ask them about what was going on, so he chose one of the people on the ground, who looked terribly exhausted but was gritting his teeth and enduring, to come on board.

"Thank you, fellow cultivator! Thank you so much!" The cultivator was pretty much exhausted and was barely able to hold on when he heard Nick's kind offer, and he wasn't the kind of person who needed to be asked twice if he needed something so he stopped for a moment and jumped onto Silver's saddle violently.

But when he got on the saddle Nick realized that this random cultivator that looked to be the weakest among all the others here was actually a cultivator at the fifth rank of the transcendence realm!

"Damn, exhausting isn't it?" Nick started a conversation.

"You have no idea brother; most people didn't even have time to go home and grab their mounts or chariots!" The cultivator spoke in annoyance.

"Here you go fellow cultivator, have a cup of water." Nick handed the man some water to keep him at ease.

"Thank you, brother, I will accept your kindness." The cultivator replied courteously but was scoffing in his heart, what good would a glass of water do for a cultivator?

But he soon realized how mistaken he was, because with just one sip he felt his energy being replenished and restored! Yet, more amazing than that, he felt like what he drank was not water, but the dew of life itself! Because how could water taste so amazingly delicious?!!

Nick obviously wouldn't keep an ordinary bottle of water on board, but ever since he figured out the cooking skill could practically improve anything consumable, he has been experimenting during his off times and realized that when he simply boiled water he could enhance it with his energy and make it not only more delicious, but also give it the ability to restore a person's energy in a short time.

As for how it was possible to make water more delicious, it just was and Nick had no answer for it either.

"What is this holy water, sir?!" The cultivator asked in shock.

"Oh the water, it's nothing much, just something I concocted during free time." Nick casually waved his hand like a humble senior, while using his right hand to stroke his nonexistent beard.

"Forgive me for my rudeness sir, my name is Loyd, Loyd Stark, and what may I call you?" Loyd was excited, there was no doubt about it, he had actually encountered one of the few remaining professions of this world, an Alchemist!

Alchemists in this world weren't just rare, they were practically nonexistent! And only those extremely high-level Empires and sects kept an alchemist around, no one else was able to afford them or find them!

It was written in the old books that an Alchemist association could be found in the other continents, but because the Ocean was so dangerous and large, not even the people at the Immortal Emperor realm which as the highest realm reachable in this continent, could go over to and confirm this.

Alchemists were people that needed to master not only their control over flames, but also needed the ability to manipulate the energies of different beings, an alchemist could take the heart of a boar beast and turn it into medicine that could increase fertility, they could extract the saps of powerful trees to make pills with various effects and healing properties, and could do even crazier things with herbs, and all these different things that they were capable of is what makes them so rare.

The alchemists could do what Nick could do with food, Nick could not only increase a meal's energy content but also make meals with varying effects. This was why Peter who would have needed a couple of days to heal even with an Origin rank healing Pill helping him, only needed three hours after Nick cooked him some meat that belonged to a Green beast they came across on the way here.

But the only reason Nick's cooking showed such a drastic level of healing power from the Origin pill was all because the pill wasn't made by an alchemist, most of the pills found nowadays were made by high-level cultivators who find precious herbs, and although these herbs lose a lot of their healing properties during refinement they still make it much healthier to consume them.

"Hi there Loyd, nice to meet you, I'm Nick." Nick then gestured for the man to sit on a welded chair and sat directly in front of him.

"Tell me, Loyd, how does this journey make you feel?" Nick asked a stupid psychiatric question, but there was a reason for this, this one question was known for being the easiest way to make a person open up to things that he wouldn't normally open up to.

"It's annoying, to be honest, Mr. Nick, some random Secret realm pops up out of nowhere and has every Empire, Sect, and cultivators in general at their heels, I even had a transcendence realm mount back in my home, but because it was a direct order from the sect, every inner disciple and outer disciple was tasked to race out here to compete for the chance to enter the realm!"

"And we don't even know the restrictions of this realm, brother, I'm sure you know that every realm has a different cultivation level restriction right, some forbid immortals from entering, some forbid transcendence realm experts from entering and some just have no restrictions on cultivation bases at all!" Loyd continued airing out his grievances.

"Of course I know about that, I'm worried about that too, but what else is bothering you?" Nick just absorbed the man's information while nodding and shaking his head at times to show he was in the same predicament as the man and that he was supporting him.

"And that's not even the worst part, some realms have a particular number of participants they will allow into a trial, and if we are late or we lose at the competition then we would have literally made this journey in vain because we can't enter the realm after that!" Loyd was having a great time talking, Nick sure was a good listener.

"I know how you feel my friend, I've always wondered why people are so in a rush to these things?" Nick was skilled in questioning stupid people, and as far as he could see Loyd was a nice stupid person who was easy to read.

"That is what gets to me too, the rewards aren't plenty, in fact, they could be considered few, and although each one is a heavenly relic, how many of us can truly get those?!" Loyd spoke in a depressed manner as he slowly sipped on his water, this was holly water he was holding after all, and he needed to conserve every last drop for later.

And just like that Nick knew all he needed to know about Secret realms, if he had just asked Loyd of the bat, Loyd would have figured out he had no information and wouldn't have shared the information with a potential competitor, but now, without even meaning to, he had actually told Nick all he needed to know.

But Nick didn't dump Loyd yet, because there were still things he needed Loyd's help with, for example, who the true powerhouses around here were, and powers and people he should avoid while he was there.

And so, the temporary addition to the team was made, but Nick only felt like he had added another freeloader to his group. The bastard only ate, drank, and slept on the saddle, never even once offering to clean up.

Nick then had his 'son' 'kindly' ask the bastard to do some work, and seeing the freeloading bastard sweat out all he ate and drank gave Nick a sense of satisfaction, he was carving the youths of today, so they can be the pillars of tomorrow after all.

And for nearly three days the group traveled like this, following the bunch of people that were leading at the front, and although Silver couldn't catch up most of the time, Loyd still had other methods to find out which direction the secret realm was.