A decade or so passed, during which time Alex came close to forming the technique for Pearl. However, he struggled to make full use of the body cultivation aspect of the White Tiger's technique, so he needed to continue making changes to it.
As for his Origins, they were close to being done. His Void Gate Origin was the one that had lagged behind, mostly because opening a Void Gate inside the Sky God's palace turned out to be much more difficult than anywhere else.
The space within the palace was stronger, partially due to the formations that were active, and partially due to the Celestial Qi that was present everywhere. Space wasn't as easily affected thanks to that.
Because of that, Void Gates could only remain open for so long inside of the palace.
There was still progress, and that was enough for him.
