Whisker's words left Alex thinking for a while. What he said had delved into territories that he hadn't even thought about.
Until now, the tournament and finding his family had been 2 separate things in his mind that he needed to choose from. But Whisker's words suddenly placed the two things right next to each other.
Who said that he had to make one choice and ignore the other? He could do both of them at the same time.
Alex knew even as his thoughts went in that vein that he was just making excuses. He wasn't really trying to do the two things at once, but rather using this excuse to go to the tournament.
Even so, he knew the idea was legit. He could search for his family on the way to the Sky God's palace. He would just have to take a bit of detour.